Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

Discussion of The Witcher, Season 1, Episode 2: "Four Marks" This episode is a strange cocktail - 3 parts Yennefer, 2 parts Ciri, and maybe just a salted rim of Geralt. We celebrate the great introductions of Yen and Dandelion before diving into the decidedly rocky writing of Ciri's plotline and the extreme abbreviation of Geralt's adventure with the Sylvan. We also discuss the obligations and pre...

Maggie is off-the-walls excited about these two books! Join her as she drags Cam along through the magical worlds that Erin Morgenstern and Susanna Clarke expertly created. Romanticism, atmosphere, beauty, and surrealism unite these two stories, while narrative style and story structure create vastly different reading experiences. Both books feature male protagonists written by female authors, and...

Discussion of The Witcher, Season 1, Episode 1: "The End's Beginning" Cam is sick this week, yet Maggie manages to be the whiny one (don't worry, Maggie's writing this description and she's allowed to hate herself). Our first impressions of Netflix's Witcher adaptation were mixed (structural problems galore!), but Henry Cavill's performance more than made up for it. Renfri was fun, Stregobor was c...

We're manifesting Halloween with a dive into this  fantastic  horror comic miniseries from Skottie Young and Jorge Corona. There's a painter, a haunted house, and a voice in the darkness - what more could you want? Discussion topics include: stylized art, narrative pacing / balance, the weaponization of shadows, the fantasy of creative freedom,  The Shining,  the muse / artist dynamic, surrealism,...

"Destiny alone is insufficient, it's too little. Something more is needed." We spent this episode theorizing what this "something more" could be, and what destiny really means in Sapkowski's world. How much control does Geralt have of his own destiny? Does "destiny" even exist? Does Geralt not believe in fate / destiny or does he fear the implications of those concepts? Yennefer, Ciri, Dandilion,...

Developed by Andrew Shouldice and published by Finji,  Tunic  is a plucky, silent, Pixar-style little fantasy adventure that absolutely kicked Cam's ass. In our first ever discussion of fantasy games, we break down the magic of Tunic  and all it has to say about the genre. How is worldbuilding achieved? How are tangential side quests and lore handled? How is atmosphere developed? There's a lot to...

By a country mile, this is the most philosophically / theologically nuanced and provocative piece of fantasy we've ever discussed. Sapkowski's grand introduction to Ciri and the dryads is genuinely stunning, providing us with the  examination  of xenophobia that Tolkien only ever hinted at. Through action and conversation, we come to understand Lady Eithne's tragic and desperate position as a bitt...

Recalibration is the name of the game in this third entry of the  Fantastic Beasts  series. From the very first scene, the film mercilessly redirects and refocuses the franchise, cutting and demoting multiple main characters and launching into a frenetic, complex new story that Maggie compares to a heist movie. The nuanced exploration of fascism continues as well, with an all-new Grindelwald who e...

Mermaids and troubadours are on the menu this week, but the special ingredient is still Yennefer. Sapkowski continues to analyze our favorite mysterious and magical witch from afar, this time through the fractal prism of just about every other character in the story! Echoes and pivots - it all swirls around Geralt's head until he realizes he's now on the other side of free will and his infamous "L...

It's been four years since this film came out, and rewatching it now - it's great? Our discussion runs through a dozen improvements and recalibrations that make this matured, focused sequel so much more effective than its predecessor. We debate the believability / convenience of "fantastic beasts" being tied to each new development of the plot. Cam analyzes Grindelwald's politics and the vague, ve...

Fascinating and frustrating - this first  Fantastic Beasts  movie is probably more fun to talk about than to actually watch. We discuss the tonal and stylistic discordance between the Newt half of the movie and the Grindelwald half, and then try to re-cut the story to make it more satisfying and consistent. Would a  Mandalorian- style mini cinematic universe have made more sense here? We also exam...

A magical creature means a new philosophical thought experiment! This week we're introduced to "mimics" and a fascinating exploration of personal identity and the concept of the soul - but it's Sapkowski at the helm so all of this is done through a breezy, wildly entertaining adventure story that's half Wolf of Wall Street  and half  The Thing.  Discussion topics include: power, corruption, Tolkie...

Part two of our two-part exploration of Tolkien's appendices, this episode covers the rest of Appendix A as well as the entirety of Appendix B, C, D, E, and F. There are some fascinating revelations in these pages, as well as a whole lotta nothin' on many of the other pages.  Hit and miss,  as it were, but Cam has sifted through all of it and found the bright spots! Topics include the horrific, wa...

This story continues Sapkowski's discussion about free will, but he swaps out the mechanics of the story. Tolkien is out, replaced by relationships and humanity and messy, complicated emotions. Let's just say that we're  incredibly invested in these characters now. Love triangles and duels and the limits of magic - tragedy comes to the world of the Witcher and we hope it never leaves! Cam introduc...

Holy great initial hook and compelling subsequent plot ramifications, Batman! Cam's taking a retrospective look at all the Batman stories that have really changed and interrogated an element of the character's mythology, "what if" stories that explore the butterfly effect of one clever change and reveal something new and profound about the Caped Crusader. After some examples, he zeroes in on Knigh...

More curveballs, more fascinating evolutions of existing ideas, more genre pivots, more philosophy, more Tolkien remixes - Sapkowski's winning streak continues as we begin his second book of Witcher  stories. The theological preoccupation of  The Last Wish  is reframed into a discussion of chaos and order, and that new framework is refracted through a kaleidoscope of characters and perspectives. T...

Bat-month continues with Darwyn Cooke's masterpiece,  Batman: Ego,  which launches us into a discussion about expressive character models and Hades from Disney's Hercules , color work as character commentary, the power of repeated panels, Batman's place in American folklore, Joseph Conrad's  Heart of Darkness, the blurred line between creating art and commenting on art, and the influence that this...

"The Voice of Reason 6 & 7" & "The Last Wish" The first  Witcher  book goes out with a bang! Sapkowski's dark, thoughtful fantasy world expands hugely with a short story about magic and love and a magical love that leaves us full of questions. Cam's got a theory about Yennifer that suggests she's more powerful than anyone we ever met in Middle-earth. (There are some worrying comparisons to Sauron,...

Holy source material for  The Batman,  Batman! Today we're looking at Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's four-issue masterpiece.  Batman: Year One exploits all of the advantages of the comic book medium to tell a tense, efficient, ambiguous, and unfailingly human  story about the origins of Batman and Jim Gordon - without using any of the classic villains. Instead, the action is propelled by in...

"The Voice of Reason 5" & "The Edge of the World" Sapkowski hits another home run this week with a story that is one half theological critique about the problem of evil and the Protestant Reformation and one half Tolkien commentary about Gollum being a Miltonian Satan and the rampant isolationism throughout Middle-earth. Oh and it's also a fantastic, wholly original work of fantasy - and kind of a...

Holy shit, Batman! This movie is thunderingly cool and grimy as hell. Strap in, because we're spoiling all of it during this discussion. Topics include: Robert Pattison's evolution of the character, the unique challenge of detective stories, the legacies of Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, and Frank Miller, the balancing of humor and reality when dealing with costumed heroes, and the profound, dy...

"The Voice of Reason 4" & "A Question of Price" Destiny  is the centerpiece of this story - what is it, when is it decided, and who can influence it - and so our discussion leans heavily on the characters' various invocations of ethics and religion. Sapkowski is challenging Geralt's "code" in this story from all directions with another brilliant riff on the monster hunter trope. Pivots and curveba...

Part one of our two-part exploration of Tolkien's appendices, this episode covers the most interesting nuggets and lore extracts found in Appendix A. Topics include the history of Sauron and Numenor in the Second Age, the Witch King's brutal connection to the stewards of Gondor, and a tragic, beautiful series of vignettes from Aragorn and Arwen's love story. Feedback & Theories:  secondbreakfastpo...

"The Voice of Reason 3" & "The Lesser Evil" Another  Witcher  story, another perfect volley of curveballs and provocations. Sapkowski is an absolute wizard, flipping his monster hunting formula on its head and hammering us with fascinating, complex character drama. Class commentaries abound, "destiny" is weaponized and debated, and everyone's role is reversed at least a few times. These stories ha...

Now this is a damn good horror movie! Join us for a wildly enthusiastic breakdown of lean and mean new Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a fun little field trip to the house from the original movie! Discussion topics include: what makes violence "shocking" in a modern horror film, the importance of runtime and pacing in a slasher, Cam almost crying because he was overwhelmed with sympathy for Leatherfac...