came for the trope discussion, stayed for the history lesson and the philosophical discussion on free will. Also, I hope it's not bad to say that Austin always reminds me of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure characters... I can't explain it!

29:00 I don't know if you guys like metal music, but there's a Swedish band called Sabaton who did songs about both of these things! The song for Austin's example is called Christmas Truce, and Richard's example about Castle Itter is called The Last Battle. Both great songs!

We gotta start going with… the chosen two

Totally agree with Richard's take on Isekai. Lot of junk to sift through. Also looking forward to see you talk about Berserk.

Sevro was the chosen one!

I think what actually makes a good chosen one trope for me is the reason why they were chosen in the first place, like why it must be them and only them. Convince me they were chosen for a good enough reason and I'm in

Griffith in Berserk is an example of a villain being the chosen one

Brian lee durfees trilogy does this super well. He has a bunch of differing prophecies that you are constantly called to both believe in and doubt by all the different characters about who the chosen ones are and what they will do

It was a very fun episode. Keep up the great work 👍🏻

I will say to Richard’s point about free will being a primarily Christian concept, it certainly does exist in Eastern culture. The Vedanta concept of the Mind and the Intellect where your mind holds your impulses and raw desires and the Intellect is the one that provides rational thought and reflection upon those impulses is a perfect example of that. As humans, we certainly have predetermined instincts/impulses but we can also uniquely reject them and make different decisions

video idea: look at the ratings you gave to all the reviews on this channel and rank the books in that order. One ranking for austin and one for richard

There’s this line from a Ted Chiang short story, that sums up determinism VS free will, and I love it: “It is essential that you behave as if your decisions matter, even though they don’t.”

This was a rollercoaster

Wild that Austin mentions he'll be reading Mistborn next and no, even brief, talk about how 'Chosen One' and Prophecy are somewhat twisted around in that original trilogy. In any case, great content, can't wait for the next one.

I am seated for this deep dive on the different tropes, boys. 😊

Oh, It would be great if you guys talk about historical books too ! ❤

Not only did The Faithful & The Fallen subvert the Chosen One trope once but Gywnne subverted it twice!!! 😘

I think you guys mistitled this episode, something like: "Questionable History Deep Dive and Wild Philosophy Musings with two obviously not-Chosen Ones" would have been better... just saying 👀🤣 Thanks for the entertainment 🤘

Austin I am so glad to hear that you are starting Mistborn. I pray that you enjoy the entire trilogy as much as I hope you will. P.S. I also cannot eat pizza due to something in red sauce

Love y’all. Hopefully in the future you can put your discord on free. Id love to join the book discussions!

You're referring to the battle of castle Itter in Austria. Also there is a really nice sabaton song related to this brief American/German coalition to protect some political emissaries from France (I think) and is called the Last battle. Also the fact about Germans reacting to japanese atrocities reminded me kind of this James bond movie, I think it was goldeneye where one of the main adversaries is an ex KGB military officer and he says what his sidekick Zenya onatop does he is kinda wtf is wrong with you which I found pretty relatable to the WWII situation. And also pretty funny.

The Chosen 2 To Ramble

I want to provide some pushback to the argument that determinism is the logical choice or makes the most "logical" sense. I think determinism is the rational choice but not the logical one. I think determinism and free will is a false dichotomy. When most people discuss it, they often omit the concept of randomness in part or fully. At first glance, lumping randomness in with free will might make sense. Except that random outcomes are not devoid of predictability. If I give you a box with a hundred (not weighted) dice in it, we can come up with all possible outcomes, making all of them predictable or pre-determined. However, we cannot know what result you will get if you shake the box, take off the lid, and look inside. We can calculate the probability of getting all 1s. But I can't tell you when that outcome will happen. The best I can do is give you an average. If a hundred people each had a box with one hundred dice, we can calculate on average how many times each person would have to shake the box to get all one. The outcome is deterministic because it is a known possibility before the first box is shaken. Yet at the same time, it is impossible to know when exactly that outcome will occur; it is random. But I fully acknowledge that that is a lot harder to grasp and accept on a cosmic scale. And that it isn't the best view to take into consideration when it comes to structuring a society or developing policies. Leaving everything up to random chance would likely result in a lot of wasted time and resources. And quite frankly, we don't live that long. This is why I believe that determinism is the rational choice while randomness is the logical choice. But free will is the most productive. And therefore a reasonable choice to build society and laws around. However, in one last plot twist. I actually think randomness is the best argument for "Let the philosophers philosophize, I will just live my life." If most things are both out of your control and not predictable, then the one thing you can do is live your life. Pursue the things you want to pursue while finding ways to enjoy the journey. And because random chance does not negate causality; try to consider what impact you would like your actions to have, both during and after your lifetime.

Let the philosophers philosophize, the governments govern, the corporations strategize, the angry riot…but I will live my life and read my books and thank my God.

Ohh yesss

I'm in book 2, An Echoe of Things to Come. And although it is definitely better than the first. I still feel like I'm mostly lost on to what's fully going on. So I'm hoping that Richard is right on Book 3. Then after that it's The Will of the Many so I'm glad apparently there's a video of that coming soon.

Rand my goat

You guys definitely need to at least give Berserk a chance on this channel. Definitely something i would be excited to see yalls opinions and reading experience on!

How did this turn out to be the most unhinged episode??? Lmao yeah if you got the time (and the stomach) look up the ‘grape’ of nanking. I think alot of Japanese schools (unlike Germany who greatly educates its citizens about WW2 and their part in its atrocities) largely gloss over their involvement prior to our entrance onto the pacific theater.

Richard is Dultatis... confirmed.

LISAN AL GIAB

First! Just in time for my commute

Is the red rising book in the back not level w the other ones? It's like wedged a little higher than the others

On the topic of isekais.. Richard, i’m curious if you’ve seen re:zero? I enjoyed the way it played with and inverted a lot of isekai cliches update: never mind I should’ve watched more before commenting LOL

If y’all are still interested in religion I highly recommend mere Christianity and The ScrewTape Letters both by C S Lewis

I'm here for the isekai slander.

Has Richard read Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky? Because his whole part of that discussion sounded a lot like the portion of this book I actually made it through.

Wojtek the bear was a chosen one in ww2

changed the book shelf a bit?

Anyone know what battle Richard is referencing?

Last 20% & finale of Licanius was excellent, just a shame the (very long) rest of it was a bit meh! 😒

Aes Sedai believe in determanism too much. Most literally take the prophesies at face value and think they can control Rand and he'll just do the thing for them

I am reading Will of the Many right now and damn it, it is sooo good. Harry Potter, but better… 😤

What about Poland. My city went from 1.3 million to under a 1000 in less than a month thanks to both the Soviets and Nazis … also also WW2 started with Nazis attacking Westerplatte 1.09.1939 and then 17 days later the Soviets attacked from the other side as per the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. … they screwed us over by abducting our intelligentsia to the Katyn forest and shot them so that Poland wouldn’t be able to fight them off. Like… sure the USSR suffered a lot but the most? Idk abt that esp since they decimated countries before joining the Allies.

Please shave your hair, its uncomfortable to look at