Welcome to our Battlestar Galactica episode!!  After two years, Liz finally got Heather to watch the whole series. Was it worth it? Listen to see! Oh, and SPOILERS!

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. – Dwight Schrute, The Office

In this episode, we are talking all about Battlestar Galactica. About two years ago, Heather challenged Liz to watch all of the new episodes of Doctor Who, and Liz challenged Heather to watch the new Battlestar Galactica series.

Enter to win a gorgeous print by Sarita Ackerman by contacting us with the keyword!!

**GIVEAWAY!!!** We are still looking for entries to win this amazing print by local Houston artist, Sarita Ackerman! Listen for the keyword, contact us by email, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc by JULY 31, 2015. We will announce the winner of this drawing on August 1, 2015 on social media and will give a shout-out to the winner on our next podcast.

You can check out the rest of Sarita’s work at www.saritaackerman.com

So, back to Battlestar –

Starbuck! We freaking love her. Apparently, in the original series, Starbuck was a dude. We love her now.

This series was seriously a little tough to get through. Especially if you start with the two-hour mini-series that started the whole thing. If you can push through that (which is kind a slow piece of crap), it gets better.

The first two seasons are more geared toward war, so it was a little less interesting to us. The second half of the series was a little more interesting, because you get into the nuances in the story. It’s also a little more sci-fi than just action.

Leadership Roles

• Laura Roslyn – The President – She was made president by default, as she was the Secretary of Education, but the rest of the chain of command were killed.
• William Adama – The commander of the Battlestar – which was being retired/decommissioned before the Cylon attack.
• Tom Zarik – Rose up as a leader within the prison and became the leader of the resistance and was considered a terrorist.
• Lee Adama – The head of the pilots and the son of the Commander.
• Number One – Brother Cavil – He was a cylon in hiding.
• Gaius Balthar – We hate him. He is terrible and criminally insane. How he fell into leadership is beyond us, but that seems to be the way it goes.

Other characters with key roles – Starbuck, Chief, the Sharons, Heilo, etc.

Character discussions

• Starbuck (Kara Thrace) – We LOVE her. She is an incredibly flawed character, but she is kick ass and awesome.
• The Sharons – Boomer vs. Athena – Boomer had the relationship with the Chief, and Athena found Heilo and fell in love with him. It’s interesting since she is the sleeper cylon, but she is eventually completely incorporated into life with the humans.
• Sal and Ellen Tye – <gag>
• Gaius Balthar – Yuck.
• Six – the blonde Cylon with the red dress (Caprica 6)

Story Arcs talked about at length. The Civil War between the Cylons. Angel of Doom, etc.

Celebrities We Think Could Be Cylons

• Bob Dylan
• Ozzy Osbourne
• Keith Richards
• Joan Jett

CALL TO ACTION – We want to know what topics YOU want us to talk about. Also, if you know someone, or want to be a guest on our show, who is into things we don’t understand, please contact us! You can e-mail us at ContactUs@nerdybitches.com, Twitter, etc.

KEYWORD MENTIONED – Let us know!! We WANT to give you this print!!

Recommendations:

• Heather – Egg Dash (kitchen appliance) – Cooks your eggs perfectly any time!
• Liz – Turbo Jam (workout video) – Beachbody video – I never get tired of this workout!

In this episode, Liz and Heather discuss their favorite bits of information about the Harry Potter world after-the-fact (Potter After Dark).

On the tail of Heather attending Houston's Comicpalooza, we discuss all of our favorite things we have learned about the Harry Potter universe after the series ended. A lot of this came from the Jason Isaacs' (Lucius Malfoy) panel at the convention.

ANNOUNCEMENT:  We have a giveaway! At Comicpalooza, met an awesome artist who gave us a Wonder Woman print ($60 retail value) to give away on our podcast!! Sweet!!! The photo of our giveaway is posted on our Instagram page, so make sure to check it out!  In order to qualify to be in the drawing for this print, we will announce the keyword sometime throughout this podcast - you need to tweet us, Facebook, Instagram, or e-mail us the keyword. You have until July 31, 2015 to enter! You need to make sure it is addressed to us, and you can post the keyword. On August 1st, we will randomly draw the winner and will contact you if you win! We will also announce the winner on our podcast following the drawing. So sign up! The print is amazing!!

Topic 1 – Jason Isaacs' appearance at Houston’s Comicpalooza 2015 and how he impacted the outcome of the Lucius Malfoy character. The video is on YouTube, so make sure to check that out.

Topic 2 – Harry Potter facts we learned after the series/movies ended

• Dumbledore is gay. - We never thought anything about this.
• Rowling is the first person to become a billionaire by writing books.
• Fred & George Weasley were born on April Fool’s Day.
• Draco Malfoy attended Fred’s funeral. He stood in the far back, careful not to be seen. He’d never let on that he secretly thought the twins were quite funny, and he was truly sorry he’d been part of the reason Fred died. He felt that way about all who died, but he would have never attended the funeral. Draco would never tell anyone he was there, and George would never tell anyone he saw Draco cry, apologizing to the headstone.
• Vladimir Putin was pissed about the portrayal of Dobbie because he felt it was based on him.
• Dumbledore & Harry saw the same thing when they looked into the Mirror of Erised – Themselves reunited with their families.
• Voldemort was incapable of loving someone because he was conceived under the effect of a love potion.
• A Patronus often mutates to take the image of the love of one’s life because they so often become the happy thought that generates a Patronus. This is why Snape’s Patronus was Lily’s doe.
• Severus Snape is the only Deatheater who can produce a Patronus.
• Harry, Ron, and Herminoe were all put on Chocolate Frog cards. Both Ron and Albus Dumbledore consider this their greatest achievements

Topic 4 – Horcrux in Harry vs. the Dursleys (from the article) – Is this why they were so cruel? Horcruxes make people that much worse, even if they are already terrible people. We don't know if this is intentional by Rowling, but it makes sense to us and becomes Head Canon.

Topic 3 – From the article “37 things the Harry Potter movies need to answer (to the books)”, here are a few that we agree definitely needed to be mentioned in the movies.

• Aunt Petunia’s howler from Dumbledore and why they were unable to just kick Harry out when they clearly hated him. They don't explain to the audience why Petunia was so jealous and hateful.
• The Elder wand - in the book, he uses the wand to mend his own wand and then places it back with Dumbledore. In the movie, without fixing his own wand - he breaks it in half and chucks it over the side of the bridge.
• Where the heck did the Weasley twins get the money to open a shop when their family is really poor? They got it from Harry.
• Dumbledore’s backstory. Seriously? “This was his sister” is about all that comes out of it, when it was truly complex.
• The Marauders were never explained – Who were they and how were they connected to Harry? And what did Harry do with the map after Hogwarts?
• All memories connected with horcruxes are removed, so how can people really understand what they are?
• Weasley house fire. That never happened. How could they afford to rebuild?

 **Keyword mentioned**

Internet comment of the week – “I didn’t get in, but it was still neat to have a small owl deliver my rejection letter.” – Commentary from The Onion

Bitch of the Week – (Heather) – Stores not having enough people to run the store. Especially during the busiest times of the day! The stores are trying to save money by cutting their employees, but they are doing it at the expense of their customers.

Mr. Massingill Award - The dude with the shoe ad. (check out Pinterest page for the full report)

Recommendations –

• Liz – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix series)
• Heather – Criminal Activities (movie - coming out Sept/Oct 2015)
• AND Bossypants by Tina Fey (book)

Don't forget to enter into the drawing!! This print is really cool! Send us the keyword through social media or through e-mail!!

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You can e-mail us at ContactUs@nerdybitches.com, or you can e-mail each of us directly at liz@nerdybitches.com or heather@nerdybitches.com

Welcome to the second Nerdy Bitches Book Club: The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth! We decided not to cover just one at a time, but all three books at once, so we are talking super spoilers here!! We are covering the BOOKS, not the movies.

So, here we go!! We would love your feedback on our opinions, as well as your own, so you can always e-mail us.

Book 1: Divergent: We learn about the different factions that exist in this society, and how they came to be. Each of the factions has their good point, but of course will all have a downfall. The main character, Beatrice/Tris, begins in Abnegation and chooses to move into Dauntless during her choosing ceremony. Once the kids choose their new faction, they have to prove themselves worthy, or risk becoming "factionless." Liz: Dauntless or Candor; Heather: Candor. We pretty much think that most people would really be Divergent. We were completely blown away about the Factions Before Family theme. Every faction had both good and bad leaders. Also, each faction has their own serum for controlling their people, overcoming fear, and the super evil shit serum. Lots of good action in this book. We love Four/Tobias in this book and his training of Tris throughout the story. It was a little stupid that people had no idea that Four was Marcus's son and the only other one to leave Abnegation. The plot holes are pretty deep. Anyways, the Erudite uses the serum on Dauntless and has them take out a bunch of people. Tris kills Will and then becomes completely fucking worthless.

Book 2: Insurgent: This is the aftermath of the Erudite takeover. We start to find out that they are hiding a lot from everyone else. We also learn more and more about the Factionless and how many there really are, including Four's mother, who was supposed to be dead. Four kicks some major ass throughout this book, but he does become obnoxiously protective of Tris and keeps telling her that she is being reckless. Tris is Abnegation AND Dauntless... of COURSE she is going to be both selfless and brave. And Tris's piece of shit brother, Caleb! OMG!! He totally strapped her to the table to be murdered! Douchenozzle. Not only did he betray his sister, he also betrayed his parents and is basically the reason they are dead! We would have shot him in the head ourselves. The ending of this book was pretty good. They killed off Jeanine and that would have been the end... except then we had to show that damn Edith Prior video. This is the curse of the trilogy. We blame you, Stephanie Meyer, George R.R. Martin, and the like.

**THIS IS WHERE THE SERIES SHOULD HAVE ENDED. BUT, IT DID NOT.**

Book 3: Allegiant: This is where the real bullshit begins. From the second chapter, I knew what was going to happen because the story starts changing points of view. This didn't happen in the first two, but once that happens, you know that one of those points of view most likely will not be around for the end of the story. The story was not well written, and the author keeps drilling things into our heads that don't need to be there. This poor girl is 16 years old and basically becomes the face of this revolution. Hello, Katniss Everdeen much?? We really feel like the concept was stolen from much better writers. Now, they are outside the gate only to find out that they are part of a giant genetic purification experiment. FYI - None of this was science. It was purist bullshit. And in this book - anything you enjoyed or cared about in the first two books is totally fucking gone. Might as well never have been written. We found out that Tobias is actually NOT Divergent, which completely changes his entire personality. Boo. Now let's blame it on his "genetic deficiency" to remove any and all responsibility for his actions.

At this point - Heather goes on a rant about Tris and her terrible Kate Goslin/soccer mom haircut. That's not badass!!

And FYI - Tris and Four DID have sex in the third book. It's in Chapter 41. They don't come out and say it because it is a Young Adult book. Read it again. That is the YA version of sex. I was so freaking happy that they finally did it. Of course, that means one of you is going to die.

And now we come to it - We've had POV shifts, no consistency - and then comes the worst ending of any book that I was actually enjoyed reading. Right at the end, she kills off Tris. Fuck you, Veronica Roth. Fuck you very much. We didn't need Tobias and his mother having a fairy tale ending. We needed Tris and Tobias to actually live happily ever after. Veronica Roth apparently thinks she is well above her writing. You cannot kill off your main character in a YA novel! The Bernstein Bears never fucking die at the end! Come on!!!

We will never read anything else of hers, for sure. Ms. Roth tried to blog about why she killed her off - and it was just lame. Her logic is illogical. She also said that she would kill off Harry Potter if she had written that. Yeah, that's why you didn't write that!

Liz's sister keeps clinging to the hope that they will change the ending of the third movie, but I'm pretty sure that would be like saying "The end of Titanic is just too depressing... let's let them all get to New York together!" Lame. Heather is completely offended that Ms. Roth thinks she is that good of an author.

The morale of this story is - Sometimes, two books is just enough. And, when you write everything to the point of absolute stupidity - you lose us.

Bitch of the Week - Killing characters off for sport/shock/awe value. We are talking to you, George R. R. Martin. Never fall in love with a character because they will be gone. The drinking game for Game of Thrones is to drink until the pain stops. Douchebags always rise to the top.

Internet comments (in-context):

Don't waste your time on this corny love story stretched into three lame books. Not even the same ballpark as Hunger Games. BTW - she dies at the end. - Amazon 1-star review

Recommendations:

• Heather - John Wick (movie) - Action movie for action's sake
• Liz - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (book) - Audio book is narrated by Wil Wheaton. Super awesome geek references from 1980s pop culture.

Ready Player One will be our next book club episode in a few weeks time!!

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