AWTY 179 - Some...Zoid (Zoids: Guardian Force)

Man, does this place bring back memories. Hello, and welcome to our Reef video. There yet a zoid's dedicated podcast. I'm your idiot birthday boy, Patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, but not a zoids expert. D hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime hostage held against my will. Don't want to do this again.

It is incredible to me the amounts of anger and frustration brendan already has to do this once a year. And you push through this regularly.

Wait, hold on. A lot of the time, I pick stuff I don't know will be bad. I got a good feeling it'll be bad, but I don't know. It'll be bad, but still, this is.

Just my only I get an annual chance to just hold you down and punch you in the face, so I just got to luxuriate in it.

I only did this.

Punches are coming to me every other week.

It seems that's not my fault. I blame the anime.

You picked AquiCon on purpose. You sought that out.

You got me there on that one. I did look a bad animal. Too shady.

Well, as is tradition here, celebrating my 27th birthday, it's it's time for zoids. But this year, we're dipping. We're dipping back into into some old plot lines, catching up with some old friends. We're watching zoid's Guardian Force. Which is, I now realize, season two of Chaotic Century. So we get a time jump, we get some advancement, but just our tried and true friends back again.

Yeah. I do have to say, once we realize that, I did feel a little more optimistic, because I don't even remember the other two we watched. There was a city, and also there was, like, one where they fought with the zoids, and that's what it was for, and I did not like either of those, and they made me miss Zoid and Chaotic Century, so I'm a little excited to come back to our old pals.

This was my plan all along. I just needed to wear you down. And then this seems like a gem at this point.

That's my plan for the whole podcast. So that way, when I bring digimon damers, you're like, you know what? It's pretty okay. It's not AquiCon again, when we realized this was just season two, I was like, oh, that's where he gets his, like, cool, hip new outfit. Because I saw pictures of the main guy and different clothes, and I was like, I don't remember that from my childhood. Yeah, I remember the second Zoid series just because of the robot judge that gets canon from space and is in his little dome. I don't know why that stuck out more to me than anything else in that series. And infusers genuinely remember nothing from that. I know. We watched it. I don't remember anything from it.

Yeah, I was about to do a joke of like, you forgot such iconic characters as Hook. And I also could.

React. There's. Anime Philip J fry. That's all I remember because he had that orange hair.

That's all you need.

He got upgrades. I remember they got upgrades. We paid somebody for upgrades.

It was like a dad was like the professor, and then they had two kids and then the sun just fucks off after the first episode and no one cares. Like, part of the family is gone. And everyone's like, yeah, good, get rid of that nerd. I was going to say lame nerd. I said lurd.

For people who claim to not remember anything about this series, you are remembering a lot more details than I, the zoe remember.

So I've been through a lot of trauma. My brain collects stuff that I have no control over.

Fair. Well, shall we end the suffering? Shall we just jump on in and watch these episodes?

Yeah, let's do it.

Don't have a choice.

So, yeah, this is zoid's guardian force, but technically Chaotic Century episodes 35 through 37. I remember watching this first episode, I was like, wow, is this the best Zoid series we watched? And then two more episodes happened and it was a Zoid series.

The modifier best really doesn't apply to zoe. It stands out on its own.

Honestly, I was doing fine with the first couple episodes we watched, and then the third one, which I took notes on, threw me into a rage.

Well, let's jump on in, shall we? If you the viewer, you missed season one. Or if you the podcasters last talked about this, like, three years ago. We get a little recap at the top. We're. We're on planet Z. Yeah, Z for zoid's, baby.

Keep that branding alive, even for your planet.

So we see just the events of the previous season. They eventually build up. The big boss. The big bad was death sore. A big trex.

I know, it's just like a big trex with, like, weird, like, robot arms and like a gun or something. I really just imagine, like, a trex in a Grim reaper cloaking.

Like a scythe if that thing didn't have some sort of scythe weapon. Just absolutely missed opportunities, disappointment, yes. But Van defeated the Big Bad in his renowned hero. The war between nations has ended, and it's a time of peace. So two years have passed. He joined the military. He's doing training. And we see a military base that has armored walls rise up around it. We got our old friend. At this point, is it too formal to say family now?

Yes, it is.

Okay. My good cousin legger zero.

Okay it. When we found out what this show was, I was like, oh, yeah, zeke and all of them. And demessing me being like zeke's the dinosaur. I'm like, it's the only one I cared about.

All that matters. So we see Van and liger Zero going out, about to attack a bunch of zoids. Oh, hell yeah. Fight in time. So, yeah, we get a fight sequence. Got to establish it real early. And then we hear Commander say, all right, end simulation. Because liger zero one, of course this guy killed the Zoid devil. So our little training exercise so he goes back into the base and goes and talks to Commander kruger, the father figure type. I forget this dude. Did we even meet him the first time?

Who cares?

Generally couldn't tell you.

But yeah, he's the commander. And he's like, oh, yes, my boy, you made me so proud. I'm retiring. The war is over. There's no need for an old man like me anymore. And fans like, but the army? Dad, can you, like, keep training me to be the best Zoid pilot in the world? He's like, well, you're better than me, so I don't know what to tell you, kid. Again, you be the devil.

What else is there to do?

He's like, Nothing more to teach you. It's all up to you now. So then we jump over to an excavation site, and we see another friend, Dr. D. We see Fiona. So we see old man Dr. D coming out of a cave, just coughing up alone. And he's like, oh, our search in these ruins for the elusive Zoid Eve zoid Jesus to go against Zoid devil. Not here. So I guess we'll just keep moving on.

I love so much that they put her whole thing on the back burner for 35 episodes.

Yeah, we really, truly miss nothing with this character. There has been no progress.

Yes, absolutely.

I'm also going to be so mad if there turns out to be a Zoid Adam. And that's why it's called Zoid Eve.

And then it turns into neon genesis Eve.

Yeah, I'm going to be real mad.

See, I was just going to say it was a Zoid that's very good at skateboarding, but I guess but they're moving on. So then we see the space White House. It's just the White House, but it looks a little extra sci-fi. And the middle of the night, the president gets a call from the Emperor of gallios and the neighboring country. And the emperor is like, hey, so we just got attacked by some sort of underground Zoid that hit a military base and then just left. We don't know what is up, but it seems to be heading in your direction, so watch out. Cool. So we see Van no longer under the tutelage of I almost said kroger, mr. kroger. He goes on to open some supermarkets.

Good hit.

He returns to his hometown of Wind Colony. He and zeke are there, and he goes to see his sister and his dad's grave. And it was like, yes, this is delicious. Nostalgia the only things I remember from the first episode of the series. And as he's walking from the gravestone, a red headed stranger sees them. And he's like, hey, your Van right? You killed that big trex. Yeah, cool. And they disappeared later.

Deathosaurus rex.

So we see the military base from the beginning. Oh, no. Who could have guessed it's attacked by an underground Zoid?

I'm just very shocked.

The lung capacity.

The President goes into briefing about it, and they're like, this base was destroyed. Where could this thing be headed now? What other locations have we established on going to Wind Colony?

Hit city A, then it hit city B. What's left?

Van and zeke, they go back to the ruins where Van found Fiona and zeke. And it's like the hospital you were born at. Good times. Well, time to get back to town. And just by pure cowinky dink, fiona and Dr. D, they're traveling. They're right next to these ruins. Also heading to Wind Colony because that's where the closest doctor is. Not Dr. D. He's sick. He needs a different doctor.

I wonder what his doctorate is in. I think he's a medical doctor.

Brandon I was also going to say Zoidiology.

Listen, zoey doesn't put in the effort. We're not going to put in the effort.

That's good enough for me.

Cool.

Ancient zoid runes.

And Fiona and Dr. d's carrier is attacked by some sort of underground Zoid. Weird. And so naturally, 5 seconds later, van and zeke stumble upon the wreckage, and they find Fiona and Dr. D, and we're reunited. Cool. So he takes them back to the doctor in Wind Colony, and they're all resting up. Fiona wakes up and is back in van's house. And we're like, deja vu. I woke up here the beginning of last season, too. And Van comes in and is like, oh, you're awake, blah, blah, blah, and going over like us, your whole deal, you still can't tap into the ancient Zoid knowledge of your brain. Because I also forgot you were like an ancient race of Zoid people.

Cool.

All right, cool. Thank you for reminding me.

Ancient being trapped in the body of a child check. Don't get that one too often.

Yeah, especially in a well, kind of in a sexual way, but in a less sexual way than typically. So they're still looking for Zoides Eve, but Van sister screams from outside an organoid attacks again. That's the type of thing that zeke is, where it's like kind of a void, but it is a living thing. Just a quick reminder. Again, I also forgot.

She sees it and just passes out. Like it doesn't do anything to her. She just faints immediately.

Yeah, I love that. When we are introduced to her in this episode, she walks in, and zeke just steps out of the doorway of her house. So this type of thing is just like, boo. And she's like, oh, hi, zeke. But just seeing another one that's slightly bigger, just out in the wild in the world inhabited by zoids, she's like, what is this thing? faint?

They come in red as well.

Van goes over and fights off this organoid and we see the underground Zoid attacking Wind Colony. Now, it's a big stealth viper, a big underground snake. So vans like, all right, time to suit up, and jumps in like Zero. And they start fighting. The snake kicks up a smoke screen and is like, you can't see me, but I can see you. And Van immediately is like, yeah, heat vision. I killed God.

I know everything about anything.

We're a new game plus territory. I'm already fully upgraded. What are you doing?

Exactly. So he starts, like, venting out heat to make exact replicas of liger Zero.

Not a heat vision work vent.

He's also an airbender.

Exactly. But then he sneaks it behind the snake and attacks it again. It's a zoid fight. It's like, all right, we got established all these tactical things happening, and you immediately evaded them. Okay. Back to zoids, baby.

Stealth viper is one of the few Zoid models I actually had. You wound it up, and it just wiggled because it was a snake.

Yeah. So lager. Zero cuts it up with its cool side swords, and we see that redheaded hiltz was behind the attack all along. So we jump back, and the President is making plans saying, we don't know who this enemy is, but we got to protect our land. And kruger is like, all right, I know I said I'm out of the military, but oh, yeah, I am out of the military. Let's van for this thing. And calls up van is like, hey, can you start up the Guardian Force and just be zoid's police, basically? And he's like, yeah, sure. So cis gives him his dad's knife as he's always looking out for you. And Van, Fiona, and zeke all head out in lager zero, and the gangs back together, baby.

That's episode one. I'd be very remiss if we didn't address van's sassy new outfit with a specifically designed ABS window. It's not like a crop top. It's not the whole thing. It's just the apps. I respect it. We get a lot of cleavage window. We get a lot of boob windows. Equal opportunity. Yes.

Finally, equality. We got it.

So we start off with episode 36 and starts with a vo explaining what the Guardian Force is. And we just saw it established, but I guess we need to be reminded. I did. It certainly helped me.

Also, the implication that it is just Fiona, Van, and zeke is hilarious to me. How are they going to get anything done?

The term A Force is like, okay, you're getting a team together, right? It's like, no, it's just this one guy. It's these two kids. Sorry, excuse me. We have two kids in a trex.

And only one of them can actually pilot Azoid.

It's pebbles and bam. bam and dana. We've seen the flintstones. We'll see how much. Yeah. When the Voiceover was happening, I was expecting a montage of them assembling the Guardian for, like, establishing it but no, the voiceover just really hits home. Yeah. It's just these three people, or these two people in a dino. It's just like, okay, no help, no support. Cool. So it's just those three joint effort between the republic and the empire for just patrolling between their lands. And then we cut to some soldiers heading into a town, and they talked to a local being like, hey, is it okay if we camp out here, like, on your grounds or we're not taking up too much space? Like, yeah, what are you doing here? We're looking for ammunitions, explosives, truck. It was lost during the war, and we're trying to reclaim it. That way no one stumbles upon it and gets hurt or steals it and stuff. And the old man's like, oh, okay, well, what about your one buddy? He's already booked a room at the hotel. And it's like, my buddy got to the hotel, and it's Van and Fiona. I wrote down boy and girl. I refuse to learn anyone's names except for zeke. So we see them in town, and soldiers like, ah, I know Van. Everyone does. He is our messiah. And yet he's surprised every time someone.

Recognizes maybe Van isoid Eve all along.

I guess I'm gasping. And the soldier goes into town, and we learned the soldier's name, but, like, in the last 5 seconds of this episode, and I don't know why, the.

Weakest eyebrows I've ever seen.

Your eyebrow game is weak. So he goes into town and invites the gang out to dinner, and they talk about what we already know. He's looking for an explosive truck to get back for the military. And it's not important. It's very minute while they're talking, but you see Fiona in the background shaking the salt shaker and pours the entire thing into her food. And it's like two frames of animation of, like, salt shaker upside down, full salt shaker upside down and empty, and there was no real animation for it. I was like, what a weird thing to include. But put no effort into that's. How interesting I was in this show. And they talk, and they say, like, oh, yeah, thanks for dinner. All right, bye. And they head back to the hotel. On their way back, Van is like, hey, zeke, why don't you go on up ahead of us? Me and Fiona want some alone time. I was like, gross.

Maybe they'll have a nice conversation about their feelings for each other. nah, nah, no dialogue.

Zeke just runs on head. And then they stop and they go, all right, we know you're following us. Come on out. I don't know why they got rid of the robot bodyguard when they wanted to confront a stalker. I would have kept the dinosaur, but that's just me. And it turns out the guy that was following him is a police investigator in town. And when he shows him his badge, we cut to the soldiers back at their camp, planning about recovering the goods. They go, yeah, we weren't expecting Van to show up, but in case anything goes down, he'll be a good scapegoat to pin it all on. It's like, that seems shady.

Corrupt police. whoa.

Corrupt military. whoa.

And then we cut back to Van investigator, and he says that the soldiers are trying to recover some Empire gold that was lost during the war, and the explosive truck is just a cover story for them to get rich. And he says he wants the famous death sore killer on his side. He'll hop him out and give some credibility to his case. Fans like, oh, you're out here on your own? He's like, no, I'm not alone. I got a partner. And goes off and shows him his sniper raptor and large turtle, which they never address. But there's a lot of these turtles always in the show. I guess they're just trucks. I guess cars don't exist here.

Yeah, I love that. They're just so commonplace. It's like, yeah, it's a big turtle that we ride in on. But check out this cool raptor. An even bigger robot is right next to it, but who cares?

It's a turtle.

There is just a minivan in episode three.

Is there?

Yes. They're like, in the Zoid riding next to it, and it's just oh, yeah. It was absolutely shocking. What the fuck is that?

I just imagine them looking at it, being like, what are you? What animal could that be? I don't gopher.

It's a gopher, right? No, it's a Honda.

What?

I imagine it's like seeing a regular animal in the avatar Universe. What do you mean, a bear? Like a platypus bear? No, just a bear says bear.

Weird.

Sorry, I got distracted by a better show. So he also reveals, yeah, his sniper raptor, who was covered up in an invisibility cloak. And he said, it's a pain in the ass to use, but it comes in really helpful. And then he never uses it again, so I don't know why they set that up. And he says he'll help catch Van, says he'll help catch the soldiers who were trying to get off with the gold. And then we cut to him fixing up the Zoid. Fiona is in the Zoid saying like, oh, yeah, fix up the leg. tighten up a lug nut over there. And van does it? He's like, all right, make sure you lock them up for me. And it goes back to the end without Fiona. I don't know what this part I don't know what the segment was. This is just weird. Cut to the soldiers getting ready to move out. They're getting all their gear set up, and they're riding out, and they're command Wolf zoids. And we see the gangs show up, and they're like, hey, guys, we're going to tag along and come with you to find the explosives. I mean gold. I mean explosives. wink the soldiers agree to let them join in. Tell the Command Wolf units to stand by. And we see the investigators watching them from afar with some binoculars. We see the soldiers start looking. They got this big scorpion who's got like metal detectors, like disk in its claws and just walk around the desert combing it with that. And we see Van is like, oh, you're looking for the explosive with those things? Maybe you'll find some treasure out here. God, the subtlety of this 13 year old, I don't know his age. And then no time passes at all and they find they explode the truck, thank God. And we see. Once found, the investigator moves out with this raptor. So he gets in that and starts running out after him. And they pull up the gold in just a big old shipping container. And as they're pulling up the gold, you see Command wolfs approaching Van from behind. They're ready to jump them. And then investigator jumps in with his raptors and you're all under arrest. Or no, he doesn't jump in. He's talking through a loudspeaker somewhere. They don't know where they can't find him. Where could he be? And yet it's always interesting how everyone seems to be on the same calm wavelength and all.

There's always like nobody can hear anybody, no matter what volume they're speaking at.

I feel like you just have separate channels. It makes stuff a lot easier. You could plan stuff without everyone hearing it.

People can also see for miles.

Yeah, there's a shot later where Van holds up his little guardian for some medallion on his neck. And he could be like three and a half miles away, but people can see it clears a day. It's like, okay, sure. So he says they're all under arrest and nobody move. And of course they don't believe him and they start moving. So he snipes them from far away with this sniper raptor and picks off some of the Command wolfs. And then Van makes his move from the inside of the group and starts tearing them apart. And the soldier tells him to attack, and they all start fighting a rab rabble. And he gets the power of zeke. I still really don't know what zeke does.

He gets in the liger, and then Van can operate the liger, but he.

Uses the Ligger without it. Does it just boost them?

Yeah, I believe it's like Van can run Ligger Zero without zeke, but when zeke is plugged in, it's like an extra battery or whatever, so the full potential is reached.

Excuse me. zoe's, expert. This is Shield Ligger. liger Zero is the white one from a different series. I'm good.

On my birthday.

That's my gift to me, actually.

I've been saying liger Zero this whole time, and this is the first time you corrected me. So selective corrections much?

Oh, I I tune out while I'm talking, let alone when anyone else is talking.

My eyes roll back in my head and I just view zoids.

So we see main soldier guy runs off with the gold. He's twirling his mustache, just being objectively evil in his big turtle Zoid. He thinks he can get away in his giant turtle Zoid as his turtles are notoriously fast. And we see an investigator goes after him. Van, make sure to cut off all the guns on all those odds. Just disabling them, but not harming the pilots because you can't kill. It's still a kid's show. And then once again, because everyone's just on the same wave length all the time. Van hears the soldier investigator fighting, yelling over the system. And then there's an explosion off in the distance. Oh no. And Van runs over to Sea and it just looks like the remains of his oil. Just a lot of shrapnel and a crater in the remains of the explosion. So I guess they're both dead.

Oh, well, rip to those guys.

Cut to soldier and investigator laughing maniacally bragging about their plan. What a dumb kid. We staged the whole thing and thanks to him, he took out all of our own guys. So we don't have to cut them in on share of the goal. Now we can split it between us just explaining everything. And sure enough, Van is right there. I don't know if there was a trail, if he just heard them over the perpetually open system or what, but Van is right there when they're saying this. So they're just like, oh no, how did you find this is where he shows up, the coin around his neck and they're like the Guardian Force? What do you mean? It was just established life. What everyone knows about this force already.

What does him being part of the Guardian Force have anything to do with him figuring out their plan? It's not like that made him smarter.

It's just a lot of questions.

Only an elite detective soldier could have this position. Not a kid where someone was like, yeah you do it.

Not a kid that stopped the zoe devil, who we can all agree is the best zoe violet in the entire planet. We tried pulling one, this is like a pickpocket or trying to get one over on Batman. It's like why? Why do you think this would work? So they start fighting with the sniper Raptor and yeah, it's a zoe's fight. They go back and forth, but it turns out the sniper Raptor is able to pivot real quick and go to good angle. And the shield ligger who puts up his shield, turns out the reason it's called a sniper Raptor, it's a big sniper, so it's tail extends. This I specifically remember from the show. I don't know why this specific Zoid stuck in my head, but the tail stretches out, the guy in the Zoid sits stiff like a board and rotates around to lie on his belly to be on a sniper that's shooting through the tail. And I feel like that's just a really vulnerable position to be in a Zoid. You're both backwards, stationary, and on your belly in the middle of Azoids fight. But God help me, it works.

I got to shit out these bullets.

That's the real test of my skill, basically. So he sets up the sniper rifle and shoots a Shield. Ligger. He's got the shield up, but he shoots three bullets in a straight line, and they all pile in on top of each other and break through the shield. And he breaks something on Shield flagger. And then he's laughing. He's like, we got you now. And he shoots again, and Van just sidesteps away from the bullet, dodging it entirely.

It was ridiculous. It seems like a bad shot anyway. And they're so far away, and it's like, for him to be like, how did he dodge that?

And he's just like, you just shot me three times. What do you mean? How did I know you were going to do it again? Like, what?

Also, you missed. It looked like he just missed.

Yeah, I like that Fiona girl points out. She's like, wait, if you could dodge before, why didn't you do it the first time? He was like, oh, I thought the shield had handle it okay, Grove, you can still dodge and not lose your shield and whatever was a part of it.

I am a tactical genius. Starting now.

Starting now.

So, yeah, he he dodges out of the way of the bullet. The guy is so shocked, he can't do anything else. So Van is able to run him down and cut him the Zoid in half and beat him. And he ends up chasing after a soldier and catching him because he's an internal Zoid. It was very easy to catch. He's like, don't worry. We got the bad guys. And tell mission control we'll need some repairs. And also mission accomplish. Yeah, it's episode 36. Good stuff. Glad it took 30 episodes to get to this development.

We're back in the zoids, baby.

Oh, also, real quick, I truly miss the theme song. Just some real synthy industrial music with grown men just screaming zoids at me for a minute and a half.

It is delicious.

I think it's even, like, two minutes. It's very long.

I skipped it every time. I didn't bother.

I listened the first time for reminiscing, for nostalgia purposes.

For old time's sake.

Yeah, we have to listen to it at least once.

Yeah. Brendan, you didn't fulfill your obligation to watch Olive Zoid, so we'll have another series next week.

If it's just season two infusers, I'm done.

So episode 37, we get the exact same explanation of the Guardian Force as the second episode we watched. So thanks. narrator man, I think this is, like.

Peak, like, Saturday morning cartoons where it's like you're coming in at random parts. You're not watching every episode in. Order. Like, we got to recap the entire show in every episode.

Yeah, I know.

It's really heady stuff. It's a kid who fights with but he's, like, on a team with a name.

Okay, try and keep up.

You know? gundam. They're animals. Now continue.

So we see a nice looking village in a really green country area. It looks pleasant. And then we see some kids watching some zoids work their military zoids going into a cave to recover some old stone tablets, some ancient zoidian tablets that hopefully have some information about Zoid. Wouldn't that be exciting if we got any progression on the Zoidiv storyline? No. Wouldn't it be nice? So Fiona and Van are on their way to check it out, and in order to catch us up, fiona is writing a letter to Dr. D explaining that they've been quote on the road for a month. She's like, Van is so mature now. He's, like, a real hero. I'd like to think I'm more mature now, too.

Cool, the writing.

She has a great relationship with this Dr. D man, I guess. And she's like, well, finding Zoid eve change things. Will it actually make me happy? And then we see a bunch of people walking through the village, and they're very, like, zombie like, eyes glazed over. They're making a lot of noise.

Like, classic zombie episode in my anime mech show.

Yes, of course. Some zoids are walking through the village as well, and they're being piloted by some military personnel, and they're trying to get a hold of someone, but they can't. And then something takes them. I wrote in my notes. I wrote in my notes. Then something takes them. Or something. My brain melted. Okay.

Or some zoe. zoe as a noun for everything.

And then we see an evil lady in a church plotting something. And then Van and Fiona are, like, on the outskirts of town. Van can't get in touch with anybody in town. And Fiona, she's using binoculars, but she is way too far away to say that she doesn't see anybody there. We've established people can see for miles. I guess.

No one's holding up a necklace, so I don't see anything.

She's an ancient zoidian, so she doesn't have the bionic eyes that all modern day Zoidians have.

And then one of the military zoids shows up, no pilot, and grabs Fiona.

Whoa.

Van tries to shoot it but can't. And then there's a voice in his head. It's the lady from the church with spoiler. She's, like, goading him on, being like, just shoot already. But he can't do it for some reason.

Do it. Do it. You won the church. You won't.

You won't. And then zeke rescues Fiona, and Van does end up shooting the Zoid down. Then they go into town, and indeed, no one is there, but the church bell rings. So they're like, better go to the big, scary church. So they go in, and there's a bunch of spooky little Zoid bugs. And then Van is literally like, better go see what's at the top of these stairs. And then the evil plotting lady attacks. We know that it's the evil plotting lady. We saw her doing her evil plotting. But at this point in the episode, Van and Fiona don't know that, so she feigns being afraid.

She attacks Van, and Van flips her and is about to punch her in the throat on the ground and stops her. And she's like, no. Can't you see? She's clearly shot in a state of shock in the speechless. I'm like, and apparently very violent. Yeah, it's a very violent state of shock.

So after this, they go find a bunch of all of the military zoids have been paralyzed. And then Van says, okay, the transmission that came from the military last came from the forest, so I should go in and look. And then Fiona says something that it sent me into my rage, as I mentioned previously. She says, So you're going to fight again? That's it. And they have, like, a fight about it. As if he didn't fight in the last two episodes and she didn't have a fucking problem with it. Also, this has nothing to do with what's going on right now. He's going to look for the missing Village People.

As if he didn't make a career out of Zoid fighting.

Yeah, as if they're not actively in, like, a defensive unit.

Literally, right up until this moment, I was like, what the I was like, this is fine. And then this happened, and I was like, what the fuck is happening? Shut up. What? And then she's like, Is it because of the Ancient memories I might have? And I was like, this isn't about you. Van is currently trying to rescue an entire population of a village, and you're concerned about yourself?

Come on. You weren't for the last 36 episodes. Why now?

Yeah, now she's like, this is my turn. I thought these episodes were about me and my turn.

I'm holding the plot stick. That means I have to be relevant.

But so he he goes into the forest, and Fiona says something about she's like, there's something about this that's making me worried, though. Whatever. And then evil plotting lady, she reaches over and puts a hand on Fiona to let her know she's on her side. And then van leaves. And then the lady does an evil smirk who, just in case you forgot, super evil. So then Van goes into the cave and sees that the Ancient and zoidian tablets are gone. Cool. And then the voice in his head comes back and says, but don't you want Zoid Eve to stay hidden forever?

Objectively, no.

I missed what you said. I'm so sorry.

Objectively, no, because we keep looking for this thing, we're never going to talk.

We need the plot for me to keep doing this. Yeah. And then there are a bunch of those little bugs in there. zeke, he has left the camp fire that Fiona and Evil Lady were at, and he is, like, chasing one of those little bugs, and he runs into another dinosaur. They just kind of stand there looking at each other for a while.

They kiss.

They kiss, dude. So Fiona is alone with the lady, and the lady tells her to come with her, and she'll fulfill fiona's wish. So Van goes deeper into the cave and finds all the people from the village, thank goodness. And they're just, like, sitting there looking really upset.

They're draped in cobweb, which, after having to watch the rest of the episode, doesn't mean anything. Like, where did the cowboys go?

They were lead there, and they sat down.

This really spooky spider no one wanted to squish, just swept us all up and said, please stop.

But it wouldn't we kept talking to it.

So Fiona is following the lady, and the lady is saying, because Fiona is from an ancient race, she'll always cause trouble, and Van doesn't want her around, so she's just trying to put some thoughts into fiona's head. Van shakes the colonel free, and he warns Van of the Blue devil, which is something that gets into your head and tells you mean things and disguises itself as a young woman.

Thought it was a DC superhero slash antihero character.

It is also the name of a drum corps, the Blue Devils. So the zeke and this other dinosaur just they were staring at each other. The other one runs away. The interaction is over.

Yeah. The organoids are supposed to be super rare. Like, zeke is the only one, and we've seen three so far.

Yeah. So the Blue devil Lady tries to convince Van that he sees Fiona as a burden which has not been shown whatsoever. And she's like, if Fiona wasn't around, you could battle more. And I was like, you haven't. What?

Thank you very much.

But anyway, he finds the Blue devil lady. She attacks with her zoid. It's a big spooky bug thing. She's like mine, Oregonoid. Yeah, mine is special and upgrades any Zoid it goes into. So Van hops into his liger zoid to fight her. It's pretty big. It's a big bug.

It's grande.

Yeah. And then little bugs swarm him, but he, like, burns them off with his shield. I don't know.

Sure.

She uses the bell in town to call the military zoids to come fight for her. And then he shoots them down, and they don't fall. In response, the Blue devil Lady says, you're way too easy to figure out. As if that means anything about gun power.

I knew you would shoot because you're big robots full of gun.

I'm just confused because the confusion comes from they don't fall when he shoots them. So is she implying that she put a shield around them? Stronger? Who fucking knows? So then he goes to destroy the church bell. But Fiona is tied to the roof of the church, and she yells to save himself, but he won't leave her. And then after much deliberation, he realizes he can shoot a different part of the church.

She's also, like, 3 miles away and clears day. Can hear her. No problem.

Yeah.

Real quick, this is the problem. You can't shoot at the church because you might hit Fiona. It's like, cool. She's in the center of the roof. There is a church belt, like 40ft to the side of her on either side. If you still hit her while aiming at one of those boats, you're a shitty shot. It's so easy to not hit her at this situation.

It's true. But so, yeah, he destroys the church. He beats the big bug hooray. And then they're leaving the village, and Fiona is writing to Dr. D again, and she's just like, so the tablets were destroyed, but that's okay because we're just going to get back on the road. And I was like, what the fuck? Oh, well, literally, the fact that that's her reaction being like, oh, shucks. It's. Like what? But yeah. So getting back on the road and then hilts, the red man from the first episode is in cahoots with the blue evil lady. And they say that Van is just moving toward his annihilation. Okay. And that's the end of episode 37, or episode three of zoe's Guardian Force.

If that's how dedicated they are to finding soy to Eve, I kind of understand why they haven't found it yet. I'm just going like, oh, well, I guess the tablets are gone forever. Moving on.

Literally dozens of ancient tablets have been destroyed. But that's okay because we're so determined.

The road map to Zoid Eve, but it broke. There's got to be another map, right?

Yeah, we'll just keep going.

There's time. It does.

Another year, another Zoid in the bag.

Another yes from all three of us. So we don't even need to deliver anyway.

No. It's a no for me.

Yeah. The first episode, truly, I was like, holy shit, they're setting up. Like, we're all back. Maybe. And I was like, yes, we're all back. I'm on board. And then the next two episodes were just very generic zoids episodes. And I was like, okay, that wore off real quick.

Nothing about the guardian force applies. This could have easily been like the first season for all, as we know, because there's been no progress.

It's so frustrating because now I long for the days of that one episode from the beginning where they were in, like, those ruins and that one Zoid.

Was waiting for the stegosaurus.

Like a good episode.

Jurassic bark. I mean, that episode. And this one, because yeah, they say, like, the one raptor dinosaur attacked them, but they had no pilot. It once again sparked my inquisitive nature of what the fuck is a zoe's? Because it is a scenting creature that can function on its own, but that also has a pilot sometimes, and, like, they can move on their own. And like what?

I know we go to this well a lot, so I'm hesitant to say it, but it is genuinely a ratatouille situation. The Zoid can just function on its own, but it really picks up once it got that rat in its brain.

The precision.

I can't shoot my guns, but you can.

I got a rat my brain, and it craves for blood. It's a man's combat.

I just got a little rat breaking down.

Oh, hell yeah.

It's the only thing that keeps me going.

I also point out the evil blue lady, she watched the dub because I couldn't bother to read any of this. Her voice, it sounded like she was reading from, like, a technical document for, like, a training video. It was very monotone, but it was also like they were trying to cram in as much dialogue as they could. For her, it was a little faster than everyone else's, and it really was just throwing me off anytime she spoke.

She said so much, and yet nothing at all.

It really was nothing.

Thank you, Canada, for another.

Listen.

Oh, boy.

It's painful, but it's for dugan's birthday, and that's what's most important. If it brings dugan joy, it brings me joy.

Wait a minute. How come that's never said about my choices?

Shut up.

Go to hell.

Hey, you know what fair? I kind of walked into that one.

If there's a Zoid series you want us to watch, and there's so many.

Out there, there can't be that many more.

Please suggest every single one so we can't skip any of them. You can send those recommendations to us. Our email is areweebetheryet@gmail.com, or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at arweep there yet on both.

You can find me on Instagram and Twitter. No, hold on. You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at honey. Period d and on Twitter at honey. V eight and honey the art. And honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. You can.

Find me continually perplexed by the sheer number of zoids, because I don't know how you can keep writing. I mean, there's no real plot anyway. abt is burned on Twitter. Sands are almost burned in Silence, the video game podcast that is nearly as pointless as always itself.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for our theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Goodbye.

Why was the bug bigger than any dinosaur?

That's a good question. Key points.