The Pack Podcast - Valentines Edition
The graphic audiobooks are getting delayed, they're waiting for the rights for Fire Touched to be released. So maybe later in the year. If they do really well, they will continue with A&O so go buy those mercy books!
Favorite hosts couples: Obviously Mercy/Adam, Warren/Kyle, Helena and Jack (whomst????), Honey and Gary because they're going to be endgame, they are interesting because they kind of are the counterparts of M/A so is an interesting dynamic
On Mercy/Stefan: the hosts have never seen them as a romantic pairing, he has feelings for her, but Mercy has never had romantic feelings for Stefan. The way they see it, S loves the idea of what is love, S has a courtly idealized idea of it, mercy is his touchstone to keep his humanity, and he has learnt a lot of things from her, and he wants to retain that, because the rest of the seethe are a bunch of psychos. Mercy is rooted in practicality and is very loyal, and when you see Adam romanticize and put Mercy on a pedestal she's like "no, we don't do that, I'm very real, that's not how our relationship works." They're still working through stuff. They know each other for a decade, and the mating bond, it's kind of uneven sometimes, and they will get to an equilibrium where they'll connect properly, but they are working through internal and external politics. From the guy host standpoint, he does see it (M/S), there is a repressed love, whether is a romantic love or "i love you because of what you've done", it's there, but he doesn't see Mercy picking up on it. The other host thinks M and A know, but M chooses to be oblivious because it makes her uncomfortable. Love is messy, but M knows she'll never do it, embark on a relationship with S because 1. he's a vampire and she doesn't see him in that way. The bond with S has taken away her autonomy, M craves her independence, but she uses it as a weapon. She has PTSD, she feels she is not in control and S realizes that and gives her space. (that was the longer segment)
There are a lot of past loves in the series, Mercy/Samuel, Bran/BJW, Asil/wives
On Bran: has issues, he instantly mates with dying women, no impulse control.
On Bran and Leah: they are curious to see how That turns out because it's so messy, they love it. It's not an equal footing, it's not healthy, and that's one of things with the books, where the relationships that are healthy are the ones who are on more of equal, respectful footing…like Anna/Charles (ok) where they kind of fit like puzzle pieces together, same with Mercy/Adam where they are working through external and internal issues, but they work as a team, they fully back each other up. But with B/L you're not getting that. And now there's a fracture that's happened and Bran realizes this, and they're really interested to see the growth between them
On Asil: some people were really sad Sage turned out to be a villain and was killed because they shipped them. One of the hosts didn't really like Sage, and he's better with Ruby.
On Jessy: with Aiden, is brother/sister vibe. They like her with Tad, they don't get the sibling vibe from them and they don't like Izzy.
On Anna/Charles: it's funny that Charles just knew. The A&O is one of the most romantic stories ever, there's something magical about it as a romance, pb captures that feeling of instant love, and it felt realistic, the growth between them is emotional, [love] was instant but at the same time it was slow moving throughout the course of the seven A&O books, they're finding their feet and is one of the best relationships. M/A are more like adversaries to lovers. More Christy bashing.
On Mercy/Adam: Christy is necessary, you need that to shake things up, otherwise it'll get complacent and boring. Mercy balances him out, Adam can be himself and relax with her, she grounds him, let go of the tension, M relies on that by antagonizing him, the nudges, and Adam could not do that with Christy because she was like a needle, putting him down and affecting his self-esteem. M doesn't care about A being a werewolf or his curse.
On Mercy/Samuel: the forbidden part where she knew it wasn't quite right and she pursued it anyway. S never accepted her for who she is. if M went away with S she would be a different person, but not like Christy. It would suppress elements of her personality, like how she puts herself in danger, he would have her wrapped her in cotton balls.
They would like more of Warren and Kyle, like a novella, and finally see them married.
Finished the ep with questions for the audience like who do you want to see break up? One of the hosts says Tony and Sylvia (whomst??) , he deserves better, she's stupid.
They would like to see Margi finding out about Coyote.
i don't have much to say tbh, i don't disagree with most of the comments other than they're so superficial. Like yeah, in a surface level comparison to other couples in the mercyverse and in the genre (this is observational i don't read romantasy) , the main couples are "healthier", but just as a fun exercise i would like to hear the hosts go deeper into the circumstances and contexts of those relationships, specially in Anna's case, since mercy and anna and their relationships with the male characters are the yardstick by which other female characters in this series are judged. i don't really care about mercyadam and annacharles anyway
the branleah section was uneventful, and nagl i was expecting Leah slander and was ready to throw hands. Although some of the comments are factually incorrect, like the "bran mates dying women" (he didn't mate bjw in that "first encounter" just Changed her) and i would argue that outside the wallace funeral fluke and the Spokane crisis (granted they're big plot points specially the latter lol) B/L do work as a team and have had each other backs up until those last years (they have been the alpha couple for 200+ years, for practical purposes they have to work well together and have a degree of trust). Also the "bran has no self-control" has me thinking we may be reading different books.
Overall it was a disappointing episode and the takes were mild, i really think they should consider expanding the duration to 1 hour half an hour dedicated to glazing mercy and adam and the rest could be used to really expand on the mercyverse lore
also excuse the typos and weird sentences, i try to transcript as faithfully as i can but sometimes they can be very rambly.
