The Mercy of Pods

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Welcome to the Mercy of Pods, a podcast about The Captive's War by James S.A. Corey, hosted by Brigid & Clint. Episode 7 covers the first half of The Captive's War's first novella, LIVESUIT.  

In this episode:

• We meet Kirin and Piotr, our Very Special Supersoldiers who are definitely certainly of course going to be just fine at the end of this cosmic sci-fi horror novella.
• Despite the warning of every character in this story that timelines are meaningless, we put together The OFFICIAL Livesuit Timeline by The Mercy of Pods. 
• Brigid gives her fancast for Kirin, and Clint gives his for Piotr. 
• We travel far and wide among several different human-colonized planets who are being forced to fight in The Great War.
• Sergeant Huang convinces a ragtag group of recruits to put on a very special suit of armor that will turn them into gods and kill them at the same time.
• Your hosts give their stance as to whether or not you can ever take the Livesuit off (SPOILER: you 100% cannot) and their stance on getting eaten alive while drowning (SPOILER: not big fans). 
• Mina deserved better. 
• We engage in a wide ranging discussion of Livesuit's influences, including but not necessarily limited to: Philip K. Dick, Hamlet, World War I, George Saunders, Timecop, Somewhere In Time, and Metallica.
• Kirin reaches the midpoint of his convoluted timeline, and crosses the bridge between this life, the next life, and the one after that. 

Join us next time when we finish off LIVESUIT by talking about Silent Horses and silent friends! Follow the Mercy of Pods on social media at themercyofpods, or email us at [email protected]. Logo by Matt Howse. Music is Push The Button by Sid Luscious and the Pants. 

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Welcome to the Mercy of Pods, a podcast about The Captive's War by James S.A. Corey, hosted by Brigid & Clint. Episode 6 covers the sixth and FINAL part of The Mercy of Gods, SMALL BATTLES IN THE GREAT WAR.  

In this episode:

• Dafyd sells out the resistance in exchange for that sweet swarm lovin'.
• We say goodbye to Synnia, Jon Bernthal, and the rest of the resistance crew with one rather notable exception.
• your hosts lay out the podcast's plans for the next several episodes.
• we speculate wildly on the nature of the half mind, the swarm, livesuits, and the other quasi-living semi-intelligent things.
• Ekur-Tklal gets a promotion/demotion and gets hornt up by the Sovran.
• Dafyd loses his girlfriend (kinda) and gives the Independence Day speech that he was born to give.
• The Swarm is one billiondy heart eyes emoji over Mr. Alkhor.
• Brigid has a very correct theory about why ET picked Dafyd as liason.
• Clint muses about the singular nature of The Captive's War, and guesses who the titular captive is. 
• we finish our part-by-part series of tMoG with a bang. 

Join us next time when we do an overview wrap of The Mercy of Gods, discussing themes, unanswered questions, and more! Follow the Mercy of Pods on social media at themercyofpods, or email us at [email protected]. Logo by Matt Howse. Music is Push The Button by Sid Luscious and the Pants. 

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Welcome to the Mercy of Pods, a podcast about The Captive's War by James S.A. Corey, hosted by Brigid & Clint. Episode 5 covers the fifth part of The Mercy of Gods, FISSURES.  

In this episode:

• we meet all the new people that our group has discovered, including Jellit, Merrol, Dennia, and good old Llaren Morse. 
• Dafyd and Else interview the weird and diverse alien menagerie, and discover that none of them want to talk to them at all.
• The Night Drinkers are lightly genocided.
• Brigid wants to stage an intervention for Synnia.
• Clint highlights all the ways in which the Swarm's confessions support his  (maybe) extremely correct TWA theory.
• Rickar gets laid! Good for Rickar. 
• Jon Bernthal talks survivorship bias, and references this meme.
• Tonner figures out how to feed the turtles.
• Your hosts debate which camp they would find themselves in, the fighters or the livers.

Join us next time when we cover tMoG Pt. 6, SMALL BATTLES IN THE GREAT WAR, where stuff really starts going down. Follow the Mercy of Pods on social media at themercyofpods, or email us at [email protected]. Logo by Matt Howse. Music is Push The Button by Sid Luscious and the Pants. 

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Welcome to the Mercy of Pods, a podcast about The Captive's War by James S.A. Corey, hosted by Brigid & Clint. Episode 4 covers the fourth part of The Mercy of Gods, TURNABOUT.  

In this episode:

• we take note of the various turnabouts that happen between our heroes, the Night Drinkers, the Carryx and other various sundry folks
• Dafyd and the Swarm finally make whoopee, and Tonner is sad about it
• the Night Drinkers attack, the humans counter-attack, and earn a surrender
• we guess as to whether "humans are endurance hunters" is foreshadowing for the larger narrative (SPOILER: yes).
• Brigid details empathy as a competitive advantage
• Clint cannot help but bring up political philosophy
• your hosts dissect Ekur-Tklal's torture of the Five Fold Enemy, and the Swarm's connection to the starfish troopers
• we speculate about Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, Book 11, part VII, which goes like this: 

"A branch cut off from the continuity of that which was next unto it, must needs be cut off from the whole tree: so a man that is divided from another man, is divided from the whole society. A branch is cut off by another, but he that hates and is averse, cuts himself off from his neighbour, and knows not that at the same time he divides himself from the whole body, or corporation. But herein is the gift and mercy of God, the Author of this society, in that, once cut off we may grow together and become part of the whole again. But if this happen often the misery is that the further a man is run in this division, the harder he is to be reunited and restored again: and however the branch which, once cut of afterwards was graffed in, gardeners can tell you is not like that which sprouted together at first, and still continued in the unity of the body."

Join us next time when we cover tMoG Pt. 5, FISSURES, where the team engages in some fair play. Follow the Mercy of Pods on social media at themercyofpods, or email us at [email protected]. Logo by Matt Howse. Music is Push The Button by Sid Luscious and the Pants. 

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Welcome to the Mercy of Pods, a podcast about The Captive's War by James S.A. Corey, hosted by Brigid & Clint. Episode 1 covers the first part of The Mercy of Gods, BEFORE. 

In this episode:

• we analyze the central conflict of the series, the fact that the funding colloquy is going to split up the research group!
• Brigid hearts Ekur-Tkalal
• Clint goes googly eyed over Campar
• Everyone dumps on Tonner Freis
• Brigid looks up what "superluminal" means
• we gush over The Swarm and detail exactly when the Swarm takes control of [CHARACTER REDACTED].
• we demand justice for Rickar
• no one is all that worried about the seventeen (17) city-sized alien spaceships that are on their way to Anjiin, they're probably just here to hang out

Join us next time when we cover tMoG Pt. 2, CATASTROPHE, where some real bad stuff happens. Follow the Mercy of Pods on social media at themercyofpods, or email us at [email protected]. Logo by Matt Howse. Music is Push The Button by Sid Luscious and the Pants. 

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Welcome to the Mercy of Pods, a podcast about The Captive's War by James S.A. Corey, hosted by Brigid & Clint. Episode 2 covers the second part of The Mercy of Gods, CATASTROPHE. 

In this episode:

• we cover the conquest of Anjiin by the Carryx and their menagerie of horrible animals of violence, it is not pretty
• lots of people die, but thankfully not Campar (<3)
• speaking of not pretty, there are poop mats (let us never speak of this again)
• Brigid theorizes about hella swarms on Anjiin
• Clint hints several times at our Extremely (Probably) Correct Theory but does not reveal it quite yet
• we speculate on what it would be like to do sex on The Swarm
• no one wants to talk about the transport ship and everyone is relieved when we finally get to wherever the hell we end up

Join us next time when we cover tMoG Pt. 3, PUZZLES, where we finally describe our Extremely (Probably) Correct Theory of What Is Happening. Follow the Mercy of Pods on social media at themercyofpods, or email us at [email protected]. Logo by Matt Howse. Music is Push The Button by Sid Luscious and the Pants. 

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Welcome to the Mercy of Pods, a podcast about The Captive's War by James S.A. Corey, hosted by Brigid & Clint. Episode 3 covers the third part of The Mercy of Gods, PUZZLES.  

In this episode:

• your hosts take credit for manifesting the upcoming TV show
• we break down some of the social and biological darwinism philosophies of the Carryx
• the team gets a new task - be useful or else
• the Carryx stumble into a trap on Ayayeh and Clint goes into great detail about how this plays into the podcast's (probably) correct theory about What Is Going On
• Jessyn is still strugs to func
• everyone has just about had it with Tonner Fries
• Brigid elaborates on her favorite fungus
• the Night Drinkers attack, and we have to say goodbye to one of our main cast

Join us next time when we cover tMoG Pt. 4, TURNABOUT, where the team engages in some fair play. Follow the Mercy of Pods on social media at themercyofpods, or email us at [email protected]. Logo by Matt Howse. Music is Push The Button by Sid Luscious and the Pants. 

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