Mongo is Appalled
A podcast covering all novels of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Discussing outlandish ideas and ridiculous notions that no one should have to endure. For those of you that have read all the current books and are just waiting for the next one, this is your respite until the next book for Dungeon Crawler Carl comes along. WARNING: This podcast contains definite spoilers and preposterous ideas that may make your brain melt. Listen responsibly.
Mongo is Appalled
Corporate Evil?
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Are corporations in Dungeon Crawler Carl evil? Most likely, but Mike and Corbett stick their fingers in the icky green goo and soak for a little bit to see how evil.
Welcome to Mongo is appalled. I am Corbett, and this is an outrage. No wait. Or it's an appalling outrage.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm appalled by your outrage.
SPEAKER_01So, Mike, let's talk about the helpful, handy people that want to make your lives better. Or one of your lives, I don't know. The corporations of the universe. Here to help you. The source of evil in the modern world. Or at least in the dungeon crawler carl world. In Dungeon Crawler Carl, we have the Borant Corporation, which is right up front, and is very much considered the bad guys, air quotes in that one. And I'm not saying they're not the bad guys, because they are. The Valte.
SPEAKER_03I don't know that the uh the Valte are more evil than Borent, but they're certainly more competent.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's that.
SPEAKER_03So I guess their evil's more efficient.
SPEAKER_01My question to you, Mike, is is the corp are the corporations in Dungeon Crawler Carl as evil as you think they are presented like in the book? Because they're still a corporation, they want to make money. Now, granted, there's the point where you start making money and stop caring about people, which is kind of the point of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Borint is probably the first one we should at least generally discuss, because they have control over the crawl through most of the series uh until it's handed over to the um the Vault, yeah. Or is it the Syndicate or the Vault?
SPEAKER_03I think it's the Vault first, and then I think the Syndicate just takes over when it seems the AI is getting out of hand.
SPEAKER_01I mean, we could also point out the long haul, was it long haul biological waste management solutions, the the guys who Yeah, the crawlers, yeah, pacifist network. Are they bad? Is everybody bad?
SPEAKER_03Well, the syndicate certainly thinks they're evil, they're terrorists. And as we know, as Americans, terrorists are always bad.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. The other waste station, dictum waste station control. Those are some evil pieces of crap. I'm sorry. Sending the that one crawler up to the top as a commercial to die, like you'll never get lost with yeah. Yeah, that was the um one I I mean granted, I get the joke in the book, and it's horrible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, well, I think part of the problem, and not to get political here on the show much, except that these books are semi-political, so I think it just shows the dangers of monopolies and oligarchs. I mean, it just these guys literally think they're above everyone else. So what they do must be good, and what everyone else does must be bad, and it's bizarre that that sort of thing can even happen in a ostensibly civilized universe, and yet history is replete with that sort of thing where people just always try to get more and more and more and more. So yeah, I mean, I think the syndicate is evil. I think anytime. I mean, remember at the end of Parade of Horribles, where that historian has uh is thinking she's gonna have to move out of her little apartment because air is no longer provided. It's a separate fee.
SPEAKER_01Oh, no, I'm I'm right there with you. Everything's a monthly fee to add on, and in current life in the world, uh it won't be long before air is one of those extra fees.
SPEAKER_03It's a subscription service for air. Or um that story of the thousand points of light about that lost uh lost habitat, which used you know a certain thing to you know, those exploding gas balls to attract the syndicate rescue vessel, and they were saved, except they were charged so much for the rescue that they all became indentured servants.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yeah. The way heroes get.
SPEAKER_03So, yeah. A little terrible, a little bit terrible, a little bit of terrible, and it's funny because the series starts, you think Borent is the most evil, and they're pretty evil. But as she goes on, whether it's the dream elves uh or oh the robot people wanting to basically create a singularity and get rid of all organic life and and all this is kind of like wow, compared to them, the borents are kind of like Mussolini in World War II. I mean, yeah, was he a fascist? Yeah, but he was kind of incompetent, so you know, kind of the Charlie Chaplin of dictators there.
SPEAKER_01Incompetent fascists are popular.
SPEAKER_03Well, they're less scary than competent fascists.
SPEAKER_01That's very true. Well, you could also no okay, okay. Let me let me flip the tables on you a little bit. What about, and this is very important, another corporation that was created in Dungeon Crawler Curl, the Society for the Eradication of Cocker Spaniels.
SPEAKER_03Well, if you like Cocker Spaniels, it is pretty horrific. Hashtag justice for cocker spaniels.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they they've helped make a lot of things happen, I think, behind the scenes as far as uh well carrying out Princess Donuts' whims.
SPEAKER_03And we're uncertain as to plans, yeah. We're uncertain as to how much they were involved in the revolution on the Kuitine homeworld.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's still kind of a question mark.
SPEAKER_01Viva La Revolution, Carl. Don't get me wrong. I totally love donut. She is, I don't think she's honestly horrible. More like a cat in the way that she'll knock a glass of water off a table. Yep. Like you weren't paying attention to me, so now you are. I win.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. A friend of mine had a story she told about one of her cats that she was eating a lunch on her table uh in front of the TV, a coffee table, and the cat just started getting closer and closer to her plate, and she kept saying no, no, no. And then finally, you know, don't you dare. And she said, and the cat looking right at her, put her his paw directly on her food, then turned to dash away, and he would have gotten away, except he has a tail. And but yeah, I mean that's yeah, is that evil or is that just cat?
SPEAKER_01And there's some there's some definite question marks on that one.
SPEAKER_03But I would say it's the biggest difference is it's all volunteer. Whereas it seems most megacorps in the syndicate are not volunteer. Unless you're the well the indentured servitude is unless you're the family running it, in which case you're fine, but okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01Let's let's go with something harmless. Let's say a toy manufacturer, like Verilux real pet companions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, sure. We're a lot of babies in that room, Carl.
SPEAKER_01I mean, they're essentially making toys that advertise to the children, which are then passing that along to the parents. That that really is a bit of a flashback to the old 80s uh kids' commercial stuff. Yeah, G.I. Joe Transformers and Well, yeah, because they weren't allowed to advertise like a cartoon for the toy, but they could show the cartoon which would resemble the toy, which would then advertise to them. So like, oh, let's just get around this. I'm tired of advertising the slow way, let's speed that process up.
SPEAKER_03And I don't know that I agree, but I remember hearing a lot of concerns that shows like G.I. Joe were actually encouraging militarism in the Cold War, and they were fighting all those terrorists in Cobra.
SPEAKER_01That's true.
SPEAKER_03But again, much like a lot of stuff Deniman does in the series, he takes it to extremes for comedic effect. Hey kids, are your parents back owe back taxes? Contact us with us if details on how you could get a complete toy set for free and preferential orphanage placement. So, yeah, I think for the most part, yeah, these guys are evil. Does that mean every single person in the syndicate is evil? Obviously not. For instance, for all her faults, I think Baroness Victory is trying to do the best she can, but it's one of those the rotten system, how much good can you really do?
SPEAKER_01Well, Carl, I mean, Carl's mention of the fact that if I had the chance, I would kill her.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Like when he was putting his hand consolingly on her shoulder, and it's also, is she actually here? Because if she is, I'm taking her out. But she wasn't. And her smile basically said, I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm not here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I don't think anybody's gonna be in person with Carl ever again.
SPEAKER_03W which again, you know, the prior episodes talk about monsters, you know. Yeah, Carl's a monster.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And yet the corporations are the biggest monsters of all, but except for their ruling families, they're kind of faceless.
SPEAKER_01That's very true. Well, and they can always just hand off to the next it's like the um okay, the serpents. I can't think of the name. Nagas. Nagas. Do they have a corporation or are they just a Naga conglomerate?
SPEAKER_03Because their whole thing keeps handing around uh they were building they had shipyards that they kept running.
SPEAKER_01I don't remember.
SPEAKER_03Though the impression was they were less money makers and more just uh a legacy corporation. Their real money was through tourism.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the imagery.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But they kept handing around like because they keep trying to get Carl to sign off on him being the supreme leader of Earth so they can whoever can claim their leadership role. Yeah. I mean, like with his quote unquote wife.
SPEAKER_03Although to be fair, she I don't think she's interested in getting him to rule the Naga. She just wants all their money. Because I am certainly not offering an additional five million credits to anyone who can use this snake's head and make a hat for me to wear out of it. That was my favorite part of Parade of Horribles was that first chapter. It was that was awesome.
SPEAKER_01I kind of wish they had shown the second meeting because it sounds even way more crazy.
SPEAKER_03Especially if Donuts continuing to belligerently intimidate her. That would have been fun.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03I like to see her and Carl beat Fridely.
SPEAKER_01Hasn't happened yet, and I don't think she can because she's Donuts representative, and um And yet they're married.
SPEAKER_03So surely she could arrange a temper some sort of temporary hollow meeting with him, but she doesn't. And one wonders why. Is she for all her talk kind of intimidated by Carl too? Possibly. Because Donut said everybody's worried about what would what you would do if I were killed, but nobody thinks about what I would do if you were killed. And as you pointed out, she could be pretty ruthless.
SPEAKER_01Tiny bit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So yeah. But yeah, I think I think not only do obviously do the people of Earth think that these corporations are evil, I think if you polled most citizens of the syndicate, they would say they're evil.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I mean, Zev's been working for all of them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I don't feel like she's evil. At least not intentionally.
SPEAKER_02No, I mean, and then and we don't know how to do it. Whereas Loida, on the other hand, she needed to die twice.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Whereas how many people are there because they have to be, you know, and how many because they want to be.
SPEAKER_01Well, and like Quasar obviously works outside of it all, but he I don't feel like he's even but he might he might take over one of those corporations before it's all over.
SPEAKER_03And one wonders if with him, part of the reason is it would he have been higher up in the in any kind of corporate structures if he hadn't been a nullian.
SPEAKER_01No, that's a good point. Because the bias they have, the nullian is a is considered a lesser species. Huh. I hadn't considered that one. Ooh, we've got to talk about racism sometime.
SPEAKER_03The AI knows that the universe as portrayed there is pretty racist. A little bit. Yep. Well, I guess we all have our limitations. Except evil corporations, apparently. But they will not break us. We will break them all. Then you're not a monster. No. Except to the boards of directors.
SPEAKER_02That channel sounded way more racist than I intended.