The Mothership has Landed, feat. Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah

On Episode 29 of Rascal Radio Hour, the crew are joined by Maddy Myers and Zoë Hannah of the recently launched Mothership Dot Blog (and you definitely pronounce the "dot"). The former Polygon editors discuss their website's goal of publishing smart and inclusive writing about games from an inclusive, feminist perspective and covering media in ways that corporate journalism just cannot, or will not, support.

Later, everyone discusses Wizards of the Coast as a Serious Video Game Publisher, Games Workshop's proud ignorance towards generative AI, whether the Decemberists' front man designed Illimat, and why romancing Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3 is not a basic take. 

Go subscribe to Mothership, where they're offering a lifetime 15% discount until January 26th when the website officially launches. Follow Mothership on Bluesky, TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. But like, after the podcast. Our guests brought some really smart and hilarious discussion to Rascal's usual bullshit that you won't want to miss.

You can find Rascal Radio Hour on Apple, Spotify, and all the other various podcatchers. Leaving a five-star review helps new listeners find our show and website. Since we eschew traditional advertising, these reviews and any word-of-mouth are genuinely a massive help — thank you!

Here's an excerpt:

Caelyn: And then Baldur's Gate 3 is actually related to this podcast because last time we were here, Lin was saying that I should really try installing some femGale mods and romancing femGale. And that's what I've been doing.

Chase: Did you give Gale some titties?

Zoë: That's what I need.

Maddy: FemGale is fascinating.

Caelyn: My whole thing is I was accused of being a bit of a basic bitch for being a Shadowheart fan.

Maddy: Oh, you know, that happened to me too. And I feel like that's so unfair. I romanced her without knowing that and then went online and started like seeing the discourse. And I was like, oh my God, I did it. I just got the big titty goth GF. What is happening? Like I can't, I didn't know.

Zoë: I can fix her, okay? I can help her see the right way.

Caelyn: Did you play the game much in early access when she was a lot meaner?

Maddy: I actually didn't. That's interesting that she was meaner.

Caelyn: Well, that was one of the things that people did criticize is that the earlier parts of Baldur's Gate 3, as good as they are, were almost overtuned based on all the feedback from early access. And there's definitely a lot of cases where I think they may have smoothed off the rough edges a little too much.

Maddy: So you're saying you want mean Shadowheart. We're learning a lot.

Caelyn: I would say that comparatively, comparatively, she's not really that mean at all in what actually came out.

Maddy: To a degree that I'm kind of surprised she ever was. I have mixed feelings about the archetype of the mean lady as the lesbian love interest, but we're not here to talk about Hades 2. It's fine, but the fact that the only two queer love interests in that game are both mean. I was like, okay, you know, I can get on board, but like.

Zoë: Who's the other one that you think is mean? Lae'zel?

Maddy: No, no, no, I mean in Hades 2. Lae'zell is also mean, though. She is actually mean. I get it. I just think we need different kinds of mean, you know? It's a thing.

Zoë: I love her. She's my lover. So, don't talk shit, okay?

Caelyn: It's very relevant because this was my defense in the first place. Shadowheart was my lesbian love interest by default because all of the others were ruled out as too toppy. They're too toppy. And I'm sorry, like, I want the cute goth girlfriend to look after thank you very much.

Chase: Is this a story that we can look forward to reading on Mothership Dot Blog, Maddie?

Maddy: I mean, maybe! This is definitely the kind of thing that I'm hoping we can run. God, I've thought about it a lot, especially since playing Hades 2. And you're reminding me that I thought about it a lot when I was playing Baldur's Gate 3. Like, the kind of queer, female archetypes that have emerged in the specific time period during which we have even had that as an option at all. Already, we have seen the archetypes emerge, and it's been fascinating. And 'mean mommy' is like definitely one of them. I feel like I'm being stereotyped.

Not all of us want this, okay? Just because everybody responds step on me every time Capcom posts a still from any Resident Evil game doesn't mean we all want that, okay? We don't all want Lady Dimitrescu to step on us, okay? That's not what all of us are gonna do.