Transcript
Speaker: I can banter about being a fucking wizard. Yes? In what way are you a wizard? Is this something that I already knew about? i feel like we discussed this. So I just got back from a lovely little vacation in which I got to go climb a couple of mountains and also go visit my friends in Canada, our friends in Canada.
Speaker: But so I was climbing a pair of mountains in the high peaks region of the Adirondacks. And it was the day after there'd been some like torrential rains the night before. So it was super, super muddy.
Speaker: oh yeah yeah. Little fucking slippery. Like I'm having a good time. my ah bug spray is doing wonders because normally I get eaten alive when I am outdoors in any capacity where there is mosquitoes.
Speaker: So I got some of the like non-Deet bug spray, which is great because it doesn't irritate me in the way that Deet does. It's fine on my skin. And I got one bug bite that entire trip.
Speaker: Maybe I need to get some of that stuff because Deet doesn't bother me at all, but it also doesn't seem to deter the bugs very much. So interesting I'll try anything. And Deet's not great for fabrics.
Speaker: Yeah. Particularly synthetics. But I'm i'm about halfway up the halfway up this mountain and I'm like, I need more support. i am like scrambling. it's ah It's a very scrambly ascent.
Speaker: And it is muddy. It is wet. I am slipping on rocks. I'm like, I need more support. And I i don't use trekking poles usually. So I turn around, like looking back down the rise I just did, and leaning against a birch tree just beyond my arm's reach is probably about a six foot long, i can only call it a wizard staff.
Speaker: I think that would be accurate based on the pictures. Yeah, and it's got a curve towards the top and like a big knob at the end. And I put my hand on it as I picked it up. Some of the bark just kind of like sloughed off in one section to create a perfect handhold.
Speaker: o I was like, I think this is a wizard staff. And I knocked it down a little bit. I couldn't. um kicked off a little bit at the end to make it a better height. So I had a fucking wizard staff that came to me in my moment of need.
Speaker: And then i get up to the top of this mountain and I go down and I do another, another peak and then come back along the ridge and come back up to this last peak.
Speaker: And you come out of the trees And there's still probably not quite a quarter mile of distance over land to the peak itself.
Speaker: And probably about 20 meters of rise. And it's all just bare rock. There's like alpine um alpine meadow biome, which is super a super rare biome in New York State.
Speaker: Just all around you with lots of like signs and cairns marked so you don't disturb the biome because it's very, very endangered. It exists in like small patches on a couple of mountain peaks and throughout the state.
Speaker: And there's like, there's two guys leaving like as I'm coming out of the tree line. And then I'm the only one up there. And it's me and three ravens that are swooping around my head.
Speaker: I probably could have lifted up my e wizard staff and touched one of them if I'd wanted to. Like they were close by me. Yeah. And a 360 degree, totally clear view of the entire region.
Speaker: It was gorgeous. I felt like a fucking wizard. I mean, that's pretty fucking magical. I don't think that it gets more wizardly than that. No, like I did my, you know, my fight up the slope of this mountain with a blessing by nature and the ravens marking my coming to contemplate my spells on the peak of this mountain and search the land for my next conquest. Yeah, that rules.
Speaker: No, it was fantastic. So I went to college just south the Adirondacks, and there was a, you know, a large group that frequently would go up and do hikes. They'd do high peaks climbs.
Speaker: And I just never had time in college. Mm-hmm. And now I'm like, do I want to devote the time and energy to doing the 46, which are the 46 highest peaks in the Adirondacks region? Almost all of them are over 4,000 feet.
Speaker: oh There are a couple now that have been shown to be above 4,000 and a couple of the 46ers that have been shown to be below 4,000 feet. But for like tradition's sake, it's kept the same.
Speaker: And so there is like a group of people. They are 46ers. There's a whole like organization. most And it's it's people who've climbed all 46, usually like donating time and money and effort to preserve the Adirondacks.
Speaker: It's like the Appalachian Mountain Club, but for like nerdier motherfuckers. I think the sparkle in your eye is the answer to your question of whether or not you should do it.
Speaker: I think you know in your heart that you're going to do it eventually. Well, and then there's winter 46ers who are just, I think, insane. I was going to say who I think are dead, but you know, you do you.
Speaker: No, I mean, it's little along the lines on along the lines of your spouse's sort of one day dream to through hike the AT. Yeah. Which is, i don't think this is really going to happen.
Speaker: But what if it did? You never know. business Miles is actually off hiking this weekend. Yes. And I am home. You know who absolutely does not hike?
Speaker: Who? Is not a hiking girl. Padme fucking Amidala. Oh,
Speaker: and Welcome back to another episode of The Fandom Apprentice. I'm one of your hosts. My name is Rin. That's the opposite order that I usually do that. I grew up with Star Wars and with The Lord of the Rings and with bunches of other nerdy media that as an adult I have returned to in a fit of nostalgia and also in a fit of nostalgia have foisted upon my friends that did not have the joy and pleasure of viewing this media as children.
Speaker: Hello, I'm Sam. I'm the other one. i have the joy and pleasure of viewing this media now. And this is a really good bunch of episodes. I was very pleased with it. No Bombad Jedi in sight. Nary a binks to be seen.
Speaker: no But one of the episodes is still ah almost as lowly rated as Bombad Jedi. But it didn't have Jar Jar in it, so I didn't.
Speaker: It honestly, was fine. It was fine. It wasn't good. But it wasn't terrible. But we'll get there. I'm sort of patting myself on the back for this one because I construct the watch order. But also, i kind of pushed all of these together in a sort of pseudo chronological order.
Speaker: And this is just like a block of politics. We just have a solid block of political episodes. which is kind of fun. I think I had said last time that I wanted the West Wing, but in the Galactic Senate. And that's kind of what we got. I mean, in this first one in Spear of Influence, they do a walk and talk and I'm like, oh my God, it's the West Wing.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I mean, I was I was watching for like specific West Wing bits and pieces and I couldn't pull any out. I have, listener for context, I have watched the West Wing all the way through like three different times, which I do, but I did it. I watched it like three different times in the same 12 month period, which I never do.
Speaker: Like I need a solid six to eight months period. between viewing or reading specific pieces of media at a minimum. So I have watched a lot of the West Wing.
Speaker: I have seen a handful of episodes and I was about to say something along the lines of, yeah, you watch a lot more TV than I do. its This is the whole show. You've seen a lot more things than I've seen.
Speaker: which is Which is kind of funny because I just like put shit on in the background and then it becomes part of my personality somehow as I'm doing other things. Your personality is pretty great, so it seems to be working out well for you.
Speaker: Cheers. Anything we want to discuss before we get into these? want to tell the people what show we're watching? and Yeah, so we are watching Star Wars The Clone Wars.
Speaker: the 2008 animated series that follows the 2008 animated movie. This is the 3D animated series, not the 2D animated one by Genndy Tartagosky, which was aired before Revenge of the Sith released.
Speaker: We have been watching in a custom watch order that mostly more or less follows along with the chronological order of the episode through the Clone Wars. We have a sort of special headcanon that this, in fact, takes twice as long as they tell us it does.
Speaker: Everything takes twice as long as they tell us it does. Because that's the only way any of this shit makes fucking sense. Like later when Ahsoka's just suddenly significantly older for no reason.
Speaker: Yeah, she hit her Pokemon evolution. Yeah, clearly. Don't you know that Togruta evolved like Pokemon? Give them a kyber crystal. Me-ne-ne-ne-ne-ne-ne-ne-ne.
Speaker: Maybe that's what happened when she got her second lightsaber, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Yeah. So this batch of episodes in particular is way the fuck out of order because of how these were aired.
Speaker: So I'm so sorry, dear listener. Today we are covering Season 3, Episode 4, Sphere of Influence, Season 3, Episode 8, Evil Plans, Season 1, Episode 22, Hostage Crisis, Season 3, Episode 9, Hunt for Zero, Season 3, Episode 10, Heroes on Both Sides, Season 3, Episode 11, Pursuit of Peace, and to round it all out, Season 2, Episode 15, Senate Murders.
Speaker: Why was it released like this? Why did they do things so bafflingly out of order? It seems like they were just making their own lives harder. You know, i wish I'd looked up that information.
Speaker: And I genuinely have no fucking clue. We'll research it for the future. Because I don't get it. It's very weird. That said, this is the last time we really do this. I think there is one more episode that I have placed out of order in our watch order, which is season five, episode one. I've placed in between season five, episodes 13 and 14, just for thematic things.
Speaker: And I think other than that, we will just be going in order through the rest of the series, which is actually really fucking nice. I'm sure after a couple seasons of doing whatever it is they'd been doing, someone begged them to stop and then it worked out the kinks at a certain point. My other, my more generous interpretation is maybe they didn't know how many seasons they'd be renewed for and just kind of came up with random stories and then went, oh shit, we need to fill out more episodes. Let's return to this other plot line or let's expand on this other thing. So the stories may have been conceived out of order, but...
Speaker: It's still, I appreciate you putting things in the correct order for order for me No, I mean, when I did my first, like, because growing up, I had seen little pieces of Star Wars, The Clone Wars. I never watched it, like, all the way through as a kid.
Speaker: So when I did my first full watch through, was so fucking confused, particularly when you have, like, hostage crisis at the close of season one. And then all of a sudden you're in season three and you get evil plans and then hunt for zero. i'm Like, didn't...
Speaker: We do this already? What the fuck is happening? And in particular, Senate murders in the middle of season two, where Anaconda Farr and Medici die. Yeah.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden, they're just back. But listeners, you don't have to suffer through this because we are going to go through them in order. They're listed on Wikipedia as prequel episodes, but like that's never explained anywhere that like this is, you know, even in the newsreel at the beginning, this is never like, we returned to this time. Nope.
Speaker: Nope. Because why would they why would they do that? No, of course not. This is for children they may or may not notice. Yeah. They may only notice when this is on a streaming platform that was not invented at this time. Yeah, because if you're doing broadcast TV, you know, you might catch episodes out of order. you're not always going to be watching at the time they come out. Maybe you have soccer practice. Maybe you missed it, you know. So I'm sure it was much less noticeable at the time. But now, now it's infuriating.
Speaker: But season three, episode four, Sphere of Influence. Ahsoka helps Padme and Senator Chuchi play politics. Yes. So we have Baron Chairman Notlewiski Papanoida.
Speaker: And couple of important notes for this one. This episode was written by Katie Lucas, daughter of George Lucas. Yeah, I noticed that in the credits.
Speaker: Who, in Revenge of the Sith, will play Chi-I-Kwe on screen. Very nice. Very cool. And Notlewiski Papanoida is played by George Lucas.
Speaker: Aw, that's fun. He refused to have a cameo in any Star War until Katie made him do it it in Revenge of the Sith, in like the last one they were making.
Speaker: i know that, you know, being Nepo Baby, whatever, if it's to the detriment of the art, I can see that being bad. But I feel like my stance through all of the Star Wars stuff, whenever I see that parents and children are involved is just to go, oh that's nice. I think that's really fun. If I was in charge of Star Wars and my kid wanted to write a Star Wars episode, I would say, fuck yeah, you can do it and I'll be in it.
Speaker: i just think that that's delightful. Right. Well, and you know, one, she was a full ass adult at this point. So like she is a full adult writer. And I'm looking at her writing credits currently.
Speaker: We have previously watched Jedi Crash, The Academy and Assassin, which she all wrote, as well as Sphere of Influence. And then she's going to go on to write the next arc that we'll be watching, the Nightsisters trilogy, who which is potentially one of the best arcs in Clone Wars.
Speaker: And yeah two of these other just absolutely incredible four episode arcs, which I cannot reveal for plot reasons.
Speaker: We'll get there. We'll get there. But yeah, no, this is not a she's not like a Nepo baby situation. This is she is actually doing a good fucking job. And apparently George Lucas was amused by this episode. He was like, oh, you know, basically my character gets to do heroic things and I don't have to act at all.
Speaker: Because Corey Burton is voicing Chairman, not the Whiskey Papanoida. Yeah. So. Yes. Chairman Papanoida is there on Coruscant because there is yet another Trade Federation blockade.
Speaker: The Trade Federation loves to do this. And ah Padme is sad because this whole situation reminds her of Naboo, you know, this very stressful, traumatic time in her life. And Anakin, ever the sensitive husband, is like, oh the blockade wasn't that bad. It's the reason I met you after all.
Speaker: Read the roof. Oh, my God. yeah No, the her biggest fucking trauma. And he will continue. There will be other things that he does in this batch of episodes where I just want to kill him with hammers. i i hate him. He's terrible. so He's terrible. I fucking hate him.
Speaker: yeah He's just the worst. The chairman's daughters get kidnapped and Ahsoka wants to get involved and obviously figure out what the fuck is going on. And Anakin continuing to be obnoxious is going, the Jedi can't get involved. This is a job for the local police, which is him doing his classic thing where he pretends to be the voice of reason for a minute before he offers a loophole and does a little wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Speaker: So then Padme and Ahsoka figure out ways that they can go and investigate this or whatever. and There's a little back and forth where Padme is saying, Should you really proceed without the council's approval?
Speaker: We do it all the time, don't we Snips? Yep. well be careful Ahsoka. I still can't believe they let you teach. Which this is honestly what we can say what we will about Anakin's teaching. And we can say a lot of things about Anakin's teaching.
Speaker: This is kind of the one thing he's good at teaching. Like this is his one moment where, again, he pretends to be the voice of reason. he goes, here's the rules as we have them laid out.
Speaker: Okay, did you notice this place, this place, this place, and this place that we can poke a fucking hole in this and fly goddamn Star Destroyer through it? Yeah, no, that is the only thing he's like good at teaching besides on the job survival training. Yeah.
Speaker: Is how to poke holes in existing rules. Because this whole kidnapping is a pretty transparent play on the part of the Separatists that they want to pressure the Pantorans to do something. What did they even want them to do?
Speaker: They're using their proxies, the Trade Federation, to get the Pantorans to join the Separatists. The Separatists are able to get the Trade Federation to back off because the Trade Federation are not Separatists, obviously.
Speaker: Of course not. Newt Gunray is ah is a one-off. We obviously have no further connections to them. So if the separatists can get the Trade Federation then to back off, then the Pantorans, being so grateful, will join the separatists and forsake the republic.
Speaker: Yeah. And that is what Chuchi very smartly figures out. And, you know, they go on a whole journey and figure out what's happening and find the prisoners.
Speaker: And Chuchi blackmails one of the Trade Federation guys saying, hey, this happened on your ship. You very obviously are acting for the separatists. I can blow your shit wide open.
Speaker: But you just release the hostages and end the blockade, nobody has to know. And I thought that was a pretty good move. And it worked. And it's nice to see her being smart and competent. It's also cute that she and Ahsoka are just BFFs and hanging out and having fun together.
Speaker: yeah I get the sense that Senator Chuchi is very, very young. Yeah. you know Like, you know how old do you have to be to be a senator? Is this some cultural bit in the way that having 14 year old queens on Naboo because they're innocent?
Speaker: Guys, you should see the face that Sam just made. You can imagine it. ah Yeah, is that it? Because Chuchi is clearly an adult, but I feel like she's a college student.
Speaker: Yeah. You know, which is why she got talked down to so much by the previous chairman. And I think like shh Chuchi treats Padme as a mentor in the way that we'll later see Padme treating Mina Bontari.
Speaker: And so I think Chuchi is almost the connection between Ahsoka and Padme. Yeah, that makes sense. Like sort of the middle the middle ground point, I guess. I like that they're friends. That's really fun.
Speaker: I'm glad Ahsoka has friends. I'm sorry, all of her friends are politicians. Yeah. But I guess it's either that or Barris Offey, who she's clearly staring deeply into her eyes because Jedi don't have makeout sessions. No.
Speaker: the The fucking repression that must be happening there, i cannot ah even imagine. But I like to believe that because of Anakin's tutelage, she has learned...
Speaker: To that, you know, maybe maybe a little bit of smooching on the job is OK.
Speaker: Varys is probably like, no, we can't. And Ahsoka's like, we can't. Yeah. So I have a couple of thoughts for this episode. So obviously we've mentioned Chi Ikwe is Katie Lucas. And Che Amanwe and Aion are based on George Lucas's other children, Amanda and Jet.
Speaker: Jet has also been in both Phantom Menace and in Attack the Clones so far that we've seen. At one point when they're hiding from the Neimoidians on the ship, Ahsoka is up in the rafters holding herself up and floats up Senator Chuchi above the head of the searching Neimoidians.
Speaker: And for just one shot, she has both arms up using the force to lift up Chuchi. Mm-hmm. And then in the next shot, she has just one hand up and the other hand is on the wall.
Speaker: But that means in that one shot, she is holding herself up with just her legs and her core at an angle. Goddamn. Like, holy shit, this 14 year old is strong as hell.
Speaker: Yeah. And some of that is the force. And some of that is the fact that she's a child soldier. yeah
Speaker: As someone who spends a lot of time around children, a lot of them do just have bonkers core strength. and it's really impressive. If you see like a seven-year-old doing monkey bars or something, you know, if you are an athletically inclined child, which I never was, so I just kind of have to imagine it, a lot of them are just very strong.
Speaker: I mean, thinking back to like my martial arts days, Yeah, i my martial arts days and my surfing days. Again, ah periods where I was a teen doing risky shit because I had undiagnosed anxiety and that was how I dealt with it.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I think I did have some bonkers fucking core strength and that all went the fuck out the window. as opposed to what now when you're super incredibly strong?
Speaker: I am not that strong. I don't know. Maybe I'm just gay. Listeners, it may never be. I am also actually noticeably... Testosterone is a fucking cheat code.
Speaker: But in terms of just like ability to lift heavy things, that was absolutely fucking ridiculous when I was like in high school and college before I went on hormones.
Speaker: And now that testosterone is not the primary hormone coursing through my veins, wow. I don't know if I've mentioned this on the podcast or just in passing, but one of my brothers is He's a big guy. He's very strong. And I had this table that I was getting from my aunt and I was having him help me move it. And it has these really big, solid, like, cast iron legs. But it's a weird kind of artsy table. So these things are huge and they're incredibly heavy. And I was struggling to pick one up with two hands. And I'm pretty strong. I'm a pole dancer. I work out.
Speaker: And my brother's asking me if I need help carrying them. And I go, oh, yeah, give me hand with this one. He just walks up, takes one in each hand and carries them to my car. Fuck you. OK.
Speaker: i think of myself as being pretty strong because I am. But then I see someone who's much stronger than me and I go, oh, we just live on different planets. OK. Yeah, no i mean my brother is is very, very strong.
Speaker: But he also lifts. So other thoughts for this episode. Greedo. Because Greedo is one of the bounty hunters who kidnaps the chairman's daughters.
Speaker: Greedo speaks basic in this episode, but only Huttese in A New Hope. Yeah. Yeah. And the Twi'lek dancer that he is clearly dating, sleeping with, whatever.
Speaker: We have established, right, that Twi'leks are just colorful humans with leku instead of hair. Yeah. I have questions about how Greedo's mouth works. It's a very interesting little round shape.
Speaker: Yeah. Like suction? I was about to say, does it create suction? It must! Yeah. It must. Also, it looks like he's got like suction cuppy fingers.
Speaker: I'm sure that's a happy Twi'lek.
Speaker: I'm fascinated. I've read monster fucker books. I have seen use of suction. There's fucking things where the monster guy can like individually control the suckers on each of his little tentacles. Yeah, I am sure that's goal.
Speaker: Also, when do the Jedi get involved in these scenarios? Where does the Jedi's jurisdiction end? Because this is a visiting head of state.
Speaker: Yeah. So what is the jurisdiction of the normal police and what is the jurisdiction of the fucking space wizards? Are they now like more limited as the war goes on to more specifically military matters?
Speaker: Because I would think in the matter of a senator or a head of state, it would be a Jedi matter. Yeah, that would make sense to me. You are important enough as an individual to merit the attention of the Jedi.
Speaker: Yeah. But really, it it just seems kind of what is Senate business and what is Jedi business is really up to just the whims of the plot. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker: And also Chancellor Palpatine and when he wants to get Anakin involved or put Padme in danger which to get Anakin involved. Oh, all the time. That's all I've got for this episode. The next one, Season 3, Episode 8, Evil Plans.
Speaker: I'm going to include, because I think it's on the soundboard, the mana toast bit, so that you, the listeners, can hear the tone of my summary for this.
Speaker: Fruit episode. R2 and 3PO get fruit. That's it. Fuck you. Mana toast. This is toast. It refills your mana.
Speaker: That's it. Nothing more. Fuck you. They get fruit. um It's another one where Anakin is instructed to get supplies from point A to point B and refuses to do it because he hates supplies.
Speaker: I have said this on the podcast before. I will say it again every single time it comes up. Fruit is a supply. And the Padme asks him to his face to handle it. And he says, yes, dear, I will handle it. And then makes the droids do it because he doesn't want to.
Speaker: who So really the only noteworthy thing I had besides that is Cad Bane and his funky little buddies are here. We love them. And Toto does this thing where he's trying to distract our droids with the promise of this rejuvenating droid spa where you can get back to your...
Speaker: fresh off the factory line self. And I love that this spa is real and not just a made up bullshit distraction. R2 spends most of the episode just getting pampered in this place that actually exists.
Speaker: But otherwise I got nothing. This episode implies that droids can feel both pain and pleasure. Yeah, I guess so. I didn't really think about that. Because we get the droids being tortured too.
Speaker: Yeah. also So i have I have a number of little thoughts for this episode. One, this is the lowest rated episode in the season, and it's the lowest rated episode since Bombad Jedi.
Speaker: It has 6.1 stars in IMDb. Bombad Jedi and one other episode in season five have six stars. And there will be one other episode in season five with another 6.1 stars. And those are the lowest rated episodes in the entire series, which is not really surprising.
Speaker: When Anakin goes to send Threepio out, there's a pause and then he looks at R2 and R2 like shakes his head. Like, please, please don't make me go. And and then Anakin goes, and r two This, I think, is before their boyfriends. Their co-workers who kind of hate each other and also have some simmering sexual tension that they haven't gotten out yet.
Speaker: This is a fascinating take. I like it. Okay. This kind of reminds me of when I was talking to, and I promise this circles back around to be relevant, but I was talking to my other brother, not the one who's Damn.
Speaker: damnm Sorry to this brother that your introduction is not the tall one. yeah but he's tall and strong and the other one no no no no no so i was talking to everything i've heard the other brother is the cool one yeah no he's the cool one anyway and we were talking about seabirds because he's about to go work with seabirds for six months and some of my relatives were asking him about their behavior and if they mate for life and he was saying you know Animals mate for life in the same way that people mate for life, which is, yeah, if it's a good relationship, sure. but if they fail to be a successful mate, if they're not.
Speaker: bringing back fish from the ocean or building good nests or whatever, they will break up and find someone else. And I was saying, I know some girls whose boyfriends can't even get them fish from the grocery store. So it does seem like the Arctic turn has pretty decent standards. And this is an example of can Anakin get fruit from the store?
Speaker: No. Can R2 and 3PO get each other fruit from the store? Barely. Can you execute a simple task necessary for daily living? Are you a successful mate?
Speaker: Dump him. Dump him, Padme. This is also the least competent I think we've ever seen R2-D2. Yeah. Because R2 is usually the one who saves the day.
Speaker: isn Because he just gets it. Yeah. And shows more initiative than anybody. I think this is my only explanation for this is R2 has been driven to such levels of exasperation by 3PO and how particular 3PO is about this whole fucking party that he's just done.
Speaker: he's yeah He's just done and he's going to go have a spa day because fuck you. You can get the fruit back. I didn't want to come on this thing. Fuck off. Yeah. Also, the fruit stand owner hands over Jogan fruit in a little container, like a tennis ball container.
Speaker: Yeah. Four of them stacked on top of each other. It seems to be like small versions of stuff in the bins that are visible in front. And supposedly they're the only ones left on the planet. So are they different fruit? Is this like an orange and grapefruit situation?
Speaker: Or is he just blatantly fucking lying to them? And 3PO cannot notice. And this is another thing that drives our to up the fucking wall.
Speaker: I mean, I think it's pretty clear that he's lying because he keeps changing the price and being full of shit. But one that's what I have to say about this episode is, oh, whatever. what Yeah.
Speaker: I also get the sense that Bane would like to be doing anything else. Yeah. Anything else. He's like, this is the dumbest job I have been on in probably ever.
Speaker: Yeah. The music over the party scene is very weird and intense for the party scene. I didn't clock that. I wasn't really paying attention to it. So I'll take your word for it.
Speaker: Yeah, for the scene that it is, it just doesn't make sense. It's a little out of balance, too, with the dialogue. So it's a little loud and it's a little intense and it's a little like, I feel like this should be over a very tense moment, not we're waiting to see if we can get fruit.
Speaker: We learn that 3PO has a praise kink. he He does. does. He gets told he has he does a magnificent job and just keeps repeating it to everybody. A magnificent job. A magnificent job. A magnificent job. And R2 is like, oh my god.
Speaker: Keep that to yourself, buddy. ah R2 is like, I will make use of that another time. We do have reference to the five families of the Hutt clan, which is a reference to the five families of the American mafia in New York.
Speaker: Did not know that. Yeah, in the American mafia following a war, a mafia war, there was a reorganization into five distinct families, initially founded as the Maranzano, Profacci, Mangano, Luciano, and Gagliano families. And they are now apparently the Banano, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese families.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's ah it's a mafia reference. They're they're meant to be mobsters. And we get almost a little, like, New York accent to some of them.
Speaker: Some of them are smoking, the you know, cigars. The way Gardula, who seems to be, like, the head of the five families, speaks is fairy godfather. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: It's very breathy, kind of slow, kind of, kind of up. You come to me on the day of my daughter's wedding. You're asking me to do murder for money.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's it's a mafia reference. Speaking of organized crime and anecdotes from my family, this was actually the same day that we were talking about the birds. I was telling my granddad about, I don't remember how we got on this topic, but I was telling him about that bakery you like that's definitely owned by the mob, but how it has really good food, so you still go. And granddad was like, yeah, when I worked for the FDA in like the 70s, I never had any problems with any of the crime-owned businesses. They were all literally
Speaker: squeaky clean because he's like they didn't want the feds involved in and their business so they passed all their inspections with flying colors they were perfectly up to health code standards because they did not want any trouble i'm like yeah they want to focus on their other operations the money laundering piece but all of the fronts are perfectly you're not going to have any cross-contamination issues no no problems at all We do have a fun continuity moment.
Speaker: Bane's starfighter is the souped up starfighter that he asked for in payment in the last job that we saw. ah very nice. So it is the same type of starfighter that he mentioned, um which you'd really only notice if you were a massive fucking Star Wars nerd like me. yes Listeners, Wren has just raised their hand very politely.
Speaker: I don't know if I would have categorized myself as a massive fucking Star Wars nerd before all of this, but now we have decided to make this a podcast and now it is a professional skill.
Speaker: So yeah, I also think maybe because we are so deeply in the Star Wars space. our perception of how much the average person knows about Star Wars may be slightly skewed. That's how I feel about birds, because I know so many fucking biologists and people who are just really into like animal medicine, or they study birds, or perhaps, you know, wrote an undergrad thesis about birds. And so compared to all of you people, I feel like I know very little. And then I go out into the world, and I hear someone look at a grackle and go is that a raven and that's kind of where a lot of people are operating at so I actually know quite a lot about birds but it doesn't really compared to the people I hang out with it doesn't feel like that much so I feel like this may be happening to you with Star Wars I think you may have always been a massive Star Wars nerd
Speaker: Maybe also side bird note. We've mentioned that we have bird tattoos. Mine, of course, is of crows because I wrote an undergrad thesis on crows. And I was sitting with our dear friend Tori, whom I love deeply with every inch of my heart. Did they refer to them as ravens?
Speaker: They referred to them as ravens. No! As ravens! It's all right. This is a sin. You've committed a sin. i I looked at them and they just went oh no did I get it wrong i had it in my head i was like I cannot get this wrong I cannot get this wrong Redwood give me so much shit for getting this wrong and then I got it wrong that's the one thing that's the one thing how long have you known me I did also, i don't remember who the fuck, no, I was talking to our Canadian friends. I was talking about the differences between crows and ravens and like physical things that you could see.
Speaker: And I literally, we were sitting on the couch and I literally just like pulled up my shorts and just went, okay, so. Whereas like here is, because it's on my, it's on my thigh, the tattoo. um Yeah. You know, here are noticeable pieces that you can distinguish on a crow versus on a, this is what would look like on a raven.
Speaker: Anyway, that's all I've got for this episode. You can tell we're like trying to avoid talking about it because it's just so fucking ridiculous. Yeah. Let's move on. Let's move on. Season one, episode 22, Hostage Crisis.
Speaker: Anakin gives Padme his lightsaber, which is inconvenient since he could really use it to fight Cad Bane. And my first line from my notes to this one is, Bounty Hunter storm the Capitol. I mean, Senate.
Speaker: Yeah. This one, at it agedo it' your aged. it sure aged. And then, of course, immediately after we get people totally not storming the Capitol...
Speaker: Anakin is trying to guilt Padme into going on a two-week vacation, which two weeks is a long time. if you are longass time If you are listening from outside of the U.S., which I know some of our listeners are, in the U.S., two weeks of hopefully paid vacation is about the standard. If you have a good job that pays you well, you will probably get two weeks of paid vacation. which may also be combined with your sick time. then you have to choose which days you're going to be sick and which days you're going to go on to vacation. it's so fun.
Speaker: So here in the U.S., two weeks is a long time to be away from your job. I have to imagine if you are a senator... You are needed pretty much constantly.
Speaker: I see no way that it could be logistically feasible to actually take a two-week vacation, especially during a war where there's all kinds of shit unfolding. This is impossible. And she's trying to tell him, hey...
Speaker: there's a war. i am trying to represent a planet here. I am not going to go on a two week vacation with you. And then he's telling her a bunch of bullshit, whatever, who cares? And tries to get her. oh it's something about like, oh, I can't step away. Like, oh, I can't step away from my duties and whatever. I'll step away from my duties. I'll give you my lightsaber.
Speaker: But I just really get hung up on this imagery of him falling forcing her to take his lightsaber, which... And then she goes, as if that parallel wasn't obvious enough, she goes, if all you want to do is make fun of me, I think you should just go.
Speaker: Which, instead of listening to that and going, or apologizing, he makes her kiss him. So yeah, after forcing his lightsaber upon her...
Speaker: And then forcing her to kiss. Oh, I'm going to kill him with hammers. I hate him so much. hate him much. And so then they're like making out, whatever.
Speaker: And people are coming into Padme's office. And so they break apart. And then he hides behind her desk for some reason, which I don't understand because it's not a secret that they know each other. And I feel like it's not weird for them to spend time together. And they had already stopped making out.
Speaker: he He says in the beginning when he's trying to convince her to go away with him, he's currently supposed to be on a meditative retreat. Oh, I thought he was saying that he was going to be on a meditative retreat. I miss that he's currently.
Speaker: I think he's currently supposed to be at a meditative retreat. Oh, okay. And he's using his meditative retreat to come up with a bunch of abuser-type bullshit to his wife.
Speaker: Yeah. She's like, the work that we do is important. And he's like, more important than the way you feel about me. It's uncomfortable. Yeah, it's really quite challenging to watch, actually.
Speaker: Yes. Yeah, and the the the imagery of like, a hand yes, this weapon is your life. It's a chief tool that identifies a Jedi. But also like, handing your wife a weapon and being like, hi this is my weapon.
Speaker: Now you own my soul. i Like, I don't In a different context, it could be really romantic. But this is Anakin and Padway that we're talking about, so it's just uncomfortable.
Speaker: There isn't really a parallel to this. It's it's a little like, you know, the knight, you know, the the valiant knight lays down his sword at the feet of the fair maiden.
Speaker: h But it doesn't really work. No, it doesn't. just creepy. Speaking of just creepy, Bail Organa comes in and there is a meeting in the lobby, because no conference rooms were available, on the Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill, which at least they call it what it is instead of the Patriot Act.
Speaker: he Yeah! So, again, for our non-American listeners... These episodes are very, very strongly influenced by Bush era politics.
Speaker: So the Patriot Act, it is officially the USA Patriot Act or Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. Just rolls off the tongue.
Speaker: it It really does, but so which is why it's the USA Patriot Act. It expands surveillance abilities and allows things like wiretapping phones without warrants, increases communication between federal agencies, and also increases penalties for crimes that have terrorism attached to them.
Speaker: So i don't know how much of it is still in effect. I know some of it is, but it was put into effect in October of 2001. So right after the September 11th attacks and the 2001 Anthrax attacks, which occurred the week after the two towers, the two towers, as if they're Lord of the Rings things. I didn't even talk that.
Speaker: The two towers, not the twin towers. Fuck. Although when we were recording those episodes, I feel like I may have edited out me saying the Twin Towers, but I definitely said it. We have a lot of euphemisms in the US for September 11th, for the Twin Towers, for the World Trade Center falling. Yeah.
Speaker: We refer to it a lot of different ways. Because it is kind of a defining cultural event. Yeah. For the current rise of U.S. hyper-conservatism and ultra-nationalism.
Speaker: Like, it was on the rise before then, but without September 11th, we would not be where we are today. Yeah. So, yes, there's the enhanced privacy invasion bill. that the senators are trying to defeat. So they're having their meeting in the lobby because no conference rooms are available.
Speaker: One of the things I noticed on this episode is that the hallways and rooms look super, super empty. They look unfinished. Yeah. As if they didn't finish animating all the little textures, which makes sense if they were planning this for a season three arc and then shoved it at the end of season one because they had to put something there.
Speaker: Oh yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. Bane is so polite. Oh, he's polite and he has style. So he's holding a bunch of senators hostage and Padme still has Anakin's lightsaber. And so there's a whole like, oh, should we use this lightsaber or try to give it back to Anakin, which I'll put a pin in because I have thought about it.
Speaker: But Bane is so fun. At the end, when he's leaving, he's going, senators, Jedi, I bid you a most respectful farewell. I love it. I love him.
Speaker: He's so smooth. He's a professional. Uh-huh. He's just a professional. ah ah To quote Ferris Bueller's Day Off, a professional what?
Speaker: But yes, this whole point is to secure the release of Zero the Hutt. Which is why the Hutts, initially in the last episode, they commissioned Bane to kidnap the droids, to steal the plans for the Senate building, to break into the Senate building, to secure the release of Zero the Hutt, to now release Zero the Hutt from prison.
Speaker: Yes. So it's a little convoluted, but we get there eventually. Yes. And my last little thing to pull the pin back out from earlier about Padme's whispering to Belle going, I have this fucking lightsaber. What should I do with it?
Speaker: I am shocked that she does not know how to use it because we have said before that the Jedi are space cops. And I feel like it is a cop media trope that the cop will make sure his wife knows how to use a gun because he wants her to be able to defend herself in the event that there's not a big strong man to take care of her. So why would Anakin not have taken Padme? I mean, granted, she knows how to use a blaster, so whatever. But I feel like he would have probably let her use his lightsaber before.
Speaker: At least shown her how it works, if if for no other reason than to make himself seem like a badass and be able to explain it. I can see that. I mean, she does know how to shoot.
Speaker: Yes. Well, that's what I said. She does know how to use a blaster, so she can yeah defend herself that way. But yeah, no, I think I think he probably would have showed it to her.
Speaker: But he's also he's just ego in a little force sensitive form. So, yeah, i'm I'm not sure that she's ever held it Yeah.
Speaker: I think he's like showed her which buttons you would press and nothing else. Fair. He sucks. So that. yeah Yes. Or doesn't.
Speaker: Not like. great Not like Credo. Does this character eat pussy? Credo. Yes. ah so But anyway, you were trying to smoothly transition into season three, episode nine, Hunt for Zero. was going to say, yeah, speaking of characters that have interesting mouths.
Speaker: Ultimate girl boss, Psy Snoodles, double crosses her shitty boyfriend and also Quinlan boss is there. The Jedi fortune cookie for this one really...
Speaker: spoke to me in an irritating voice and it said love comes in all shapes and sizes and my response was probably not gay though and sure that does sum up the theme of the episode but i will forever be jaded and annoyed if anyone's like oh different kinds of love shapes and sizes but we're not gay Okay.
Speaker: So baby's first activism was getting involved with the fight for marriage equality, which should just pinpoint my age there. So yeah, I used to get so fucking annoyed, particularly at like all my like high school classmates who were getting super into like The Bachelor and all of these game shows.
Speaker: Because that's what they are. They're game shows around finding your true love and getting married for the bit. But gay people can't get married because that's that's a perversion of marriage.
Speaker: But The Bachelor, The Bachelor's fine. Love is Blind is totally fine. I don't know. i would assume that most of our listeners are probably around our age or older. But if we have any self-identified Gen Zers in the crowd, did you all have to debate gay marriage in class? Was this a common classroom exercise for you like it was for us? Even when I was in college and gay marriage was legal everywhere, it was still something that in one of my
Speaker: like speaking and arguing classes we still brought up and of course now that we're backsliding further and further into fascism who fucking knows don't say gay whatever you probably can't even talk about it but this used to be a common classroom exercise if we needed a yeah debate topic in fucking english class or history class would be let's debate gay marriage Oh, yeah, absolutely. we We had gay marriage and abortion rights. And I distinctly remember one topic in my APGov class was, is the civil rights movement over?
Speaker: And I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, it was, yeah, in my deeply, deeply, like 96% white town.
Speaker: is racism over guys I think we did it. I think it's done. Yeah. Thankfully, these were clearly topics thought up by the department.
Speaker: And my AP Gov teacher was not having it. You could tell. She was like, I have to present these to you so you guys can come up with your own conclusions. And then very obviously when somebody would take a dumbass stance, she would just question their point into smithereens.
Speaker: Yeah. She was a Harvard-educated historian. So sound off, listeners. i genuinely would be very curious to know if this is something that's still done. Yeah, fascinating.
Speaker: Yeah, no, we were just, this is just a normal. Yeah, or is it or has it moved on to ah trans people in sports? Because that's the current um fear-mongering bullshit. Yeah, far more likely that would be it. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: But yes, our gay icon, Zero the Hut, is totally not gay. no And he did, if we recall, betray Jabba with the whole kidnapping thing back in the movie with Stinky and he was behind that. He apparently also has blackmail in this diary with dirt on the entire Hutt Council. So they can't kill him because if they do, then he has plans for that diary to be released to the Senate. So he has some amount of leverage over them.
Speaker: And then we pivot back. To the arrival of Quinlan Vos, who Obi-Wan doesn't like. And the first thing we see of him, first shot, is he's in a moving troop carrier. He flips his hair and then he jumps out of the moving carrier onto the ground.
Speaker: So he's a lot. I know that you've mentioned him before, just kind of in passing. I feel like I didn't get to know him super well in this episode, but I was going, oh, that's Quinlan Vos. Okay.
Speaker: He is why I made the list of Jedi that give Obi-Wan Kenobi an ulcer. He tops that fucking list. Have you seen the Chris Fleming bit about meeting boyfriends and going, that's Gregory.
Speaker: That's Gregory. is that's and then I'll send that to you later. like That's Quinlan Vos. Okay. Yeah, he is a loose fucking cannon with just the best.
Speaker: That's your opinion, man. Yeah. Yeah. I read the briefing about that mess. Obi-Wan is so done from the instant he shows up. If you could tell time half as well as you could stick a landing, we wouldn't be behind schedule, now would we?
Speaker: i fucking love Quinlan Vos. And yeah, you're right, we don't get a ton of him this episode, and we will get more of him, not in Clone Wars, but more of him later.
Speaker: He's a goddamn delight. He's very fun. He's he's he's a loose cannon. He is. We know is so from cannon material, not from anything that I've read or seen. But we are we are aware that he was Isla Secura's master.
Speaker: Oh, OK. So he trained Isla Secura. So this is who Isla Secura was like. I was definitely developing a crush on this man. That's understandable. yeah I mean, he's not exactly my type, but yeah, I can see it.
Speaker: Yeah, he's he's just kind of, he's a hippie. Yeah. But also, i'd love watching him and Obi-Wan work. Yeah. Because watching watching these two supremely competent Jedi Masters just be hot and do things...
Speaker: Is really great. There's a move later when they're dueling. The two of them together are fighting Bane and Toto. Where Toto steals Quinlan's light sliver and he's flying up behind Obi-Wan. I had to like go back and watch this several times to see how the fuck it happened. But Obi-Wan, one smooth quick movement, disarms Toto and force shoves him off into the mist.
Speaker: That was hot. I feel like... Voss and Satine both kind of fill similar roles in terms of people who Obi-Wan knows well, who know how to work with him, but are also just extremely different from him. Because usually we see Obi-Wan being the pinnacle, ultimate voice of reason, always right, always has the plan, his way is the correct way. And Anakin's going off and doing some bullshit. But really, he should be following Obi-Wan's plan. It's nice to see him interact with other people. And those other people are also competent. And they do things differently from him. And he has to listen to them. And he has to work with them.
Speaker: Because he's not the number one right guy all the time. Why are you making that face? What's that things about? I'm thinking about how Anakin, sorry, not Anakin, how Obi-Wan knows both Quinlan and Satine.
Speaker: And we don't know when he first met Quinlan. Quinlan obviously is, he's clearly older if he's had a Padawan who is now a Jedi Master.
Speaker: And like, we get the sense that Isla Secura is a younger Jedi Master, but she's still a Jedi Master. which is, you know, not something that Anakin, Anakin is just a knight. But I get the sense that like Quinlan and Obi-Wan have interacted in the same sort of timeframe that Obi-Wan and Satine interacted, which was the waning years of his apprenticeship when he was still a Padawan, when he was still kind of a loose cannon.
Speaker: Yeah. Because he was Qui-Gon's Padawan. So before he had to suddenly go on the straight and narrow when he became parentified and had to train the random kid that Qui-Gon picked up.
Speaker: isn Whereas both Satine and Vos have kind of just gone on the same path that they were on. They haven't had to deviate. Yeah. Whereas Obi-Wan was, again, I think we're getting we're getting a sense of like who we could have been, right? We have Isla Secura later on sort of being like who Ahsoka could be.
Speaker: isn' This is who Obi-Wan could have been had it not been for Anakin. Damn, I feel for him. He's such a cool guy, but also I keep going, damn, you've suffered. You've suffered so greatly.
Speaker: One of the things that we kind of just get very, very lightly, but we don't dig into, Quinlan has the ability to see the past. It's called psychometry. It is the ability to see the past of certain objects.
Speaker: So when he picks up the cup he sees zero holding it which is how he knows that despite the fact that the hut clan is like yeah zero was never here he knows that zero was in fact there yeah it's a rare force power but he has the ability to touch certain objects and get glimpses through the force of the past like the the force leaves imprints on certain objects and he can make sense of that And we've seen other characters doing this before, too, touching the dirt and touching trees and stuff. Ever so slightly differently, but yes.
Speaker: Yeah, the this if what he has is much more vivid, but this is sort of similar. We have big band music, but spun by a DJ, and the song of the fucking in summer. ha, Muna, I have been singing this fucking song to myself all day.
Speaker: Okay. so muna I love it. I love it so much. So what is this location that they're in? This hut headquarters place?
Speaker: Yeah, on the planet Nalhata, which is the native planet of the huts. Yeah, so they're just in this club, I guess. And there's these showgirls who are all wearing hut hats, which I think is really funny. and Because, you know, you have like the big showgirl feather headdress thing, but there's just a big hut head shape on it, which is so funny and stupid.
Speaker: And they're all the skinniest little Twi'leks. Yes, and they're all doing their sexy Twi'lek dancing and they're parting to reveal who is this sexy singer going to be. And it's size noodles, baby.
Speaker: She is kind of like if a frog was more of like a booger with real, she has a very short torso and a very small head, long spindly legs, long spindly arms, tits out, not wearing a shirt.
Speaker: And this long snoodle or little a little snoodler, a fucking um what's it? Yeah, elephant true type thing. And she is, we are to believe, the hottest piece of ass on Talhudda. And she's going around and she's singing this song that I'll put a clip of in it. Oh,
Speaker: This song was obviously so lovingly made. It has lyrics, which seem to be in Huttese. And she's singing a whole song. And the thing that really indicated to me that, okay, these are words that have meaning was that they were in the subtitles.
Speaker: So, okay, these are clearly specific words that she's saying that mean something. So I found a forum post. From 2016 on some fucking random forum. And somebody did their best to try to translate the song. They said they didn't get it exact, but roughly it translates to that hut love, which I will just give you listeners a taste of the lyrics.
Speaker: Bring your greetings when you visit there, never to see them to like giving that hut love, that hut love. But the hut offer to help. pay with good smugglers and slave girls. That hut love, that hut love, that hut love.
Speaker: So that's the lyrics. And it's just such a silly and stupid and really funny song. And it delighted me so greatly.
Speaker: And apparently Snoodles is Zero's girlfriend, which is just why? Why? It's hilarious because that's that's a gay booger, but sure, whatever. And so she's going over to see him in his jail cell and being like, baby, what did they do to you? Why are you in here? And then he is going, oh fuck, I thought I shook her. I'm first of all, she's annoying. Second of all, I'm gay. I don't want her to still be in love with me. This is a big problem, but wait, I can manipulate her to get me out. And so it's, oh my God, girl, he's using you.
Speaker: But they eventually break him out. um Vos gets his force vision from Zero's cup. And we see Zero and Snoodles go to visit his mom.
Speaker: And this is where I have a question for Rin about hut biology. I also have questions about hut biology. This is also the first time that we have established that huts have gender.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. And that huts reproduce sexually. Because in some of the Legends content, they either reproduced asexually or they were did not have discrete sexes. And so if they reproduce sexually, any hut could be...
Speaker: any parent isn but yeah this is sort of our establishment of yes yes huts are heterosexual obviously what do you think and i mean gardula has little like titties if you look closely yeah just in case you were unsure just in case you were unsure the slug does in fact have tits Yeah.
Speaker: But Zero's mom, is this how big a fully mature hut gets? Because, you know, Zero's roughly average humanoid height.
Speaker: His mother is like 25 feet tall. She is enormous. And so she's the only one so far we've seen who's this size. Because later, when we go to Zero's dad's grave to retrieve this blackmail book,
Speaker: His dad's body is the same size as Zero's body. So is this a sexual dimorphism thing? Why isn't Gardula this big? How old is Zero's mom? I don't know. It's, and I mean, the whole depiction of her is very classist and misogynist and shitty.
Speaker: And I am focusing on the funny parts because I don't want to be sad, but I really hate the way that she is portrayed as this sort of, i don't know, slovenly kind of trailer park,
Speaker: woman slash crazy cat lady a little bit because she has all of these starfish type things that are stacked on her head in a way that looks like hair, but they're also crawling all over her body and all over the walls. So they're kind of pets and they're also kind of this trashy hairdo. And they are also kind of giving cockroaches, like she's living in this kind of squalor.
Speaker: I really don't like her characterization, but I am fascinated by what it means for hut biology. They're called toops. Toops. Like a toupee. Yes.
Speaker: They mimic the hair of other species. yeah I don't know what species has hair that looks like that, but sure. Apparently. So my only fucking thought is that like huts just don't stop growing like alligators. Yeah.
Speaker: And huts can live over a thousand years. So I have to think that Mama the Hutt. just Very good. Very good. that is That is all we have to refer to her as, is mama the hut.
Speaker: I can only think that she's got to be like a 1500-year-old hut, and she's just ginormous, and that's the only reason.
Speaker: i guess like a crocodile, if they are given adequate food, they can just keep growing. You can restrict a crocodilian's growth.
Speaker: There was a lab at my undergrad. We had alligators. Oh, I didn't know this. Yeah, the alligator lab. um And the alligators were maybe five feet long.
Speaker: Like, they're not big. Nose to tail. Which means their their their torsos are pretty, pretty small. And you do this by basically restricting their food intake to a level where they are perfectly healthy, but basically they just don't have, like, excess energy to devote to growth.
Speaker: yeah And actually, I mean, the lab that had ah had alligators, this was essentially the alligator retirement lab because they'd been used for experiments, but they can live for decades. And so these alligators were older than I was at the time. And they were just kind of like living out their sunset years in a perfectly happy alligator pile.
Speaker: In a big tank in middle of nowhere upstate New York. Yeah, so no idea about how large huts get. I have to think that's gotta be it.
Speaker: And speaking of our good friend Quinlan Vos, would you like to tell the people how he very politely asks for entrance to this nice woman's home? By slashing her door into four pieces with his lightsaber, yes.
Speaker: And then Obi-Wan goes, Vos, somebody lives here! It's like, this is this isn't some ancient ruins. This is somebody's house. What are you doing? Yeah. And and Mama the Hutt is not thrilled with their entrance. No, I wouldn't be either. And I think when they leave, she goes, Hey, who gonna pay for my dough?
Speaker: Because, yeah, that's a reasonable question. But going back to Zero and Snoodles, she double crosses him and shoots him and he's dead. and oh, it was so good.
Speaker: It was so, so good. Then she skips town to go back to the hut council to collect her payment. No one would suspect that a lovely creature such as myself could do a bounty hunter's work.
Speaker: Love her. ah Women's wrongs. But then the Jedi show up and Bane shows up and I was kind of thinking they might have to work together. And that ends up not happening. But I was really hopeful for a second there that we'd get some kind of uneasy truce.
Speaker: Yeah, me too. I thought that was going to be kind of fun. But she doesn't actually go to the Hutt Council. she goes No, she goes she goes to Jabba. Okay, she goes to Jabba. Okay. Yeah, so Jabba now has dirt on the entire Hutt Council.
Speaker: Which I feel like it tracks that he would be the one who would really want Zero dispatched because he took his little stinky. And we do get a glimpse of stinky in actually, oh, in one of the previous episodes that I...
Speaker: had deleted it from my notes because I thought I put it in the wrong place but it's during the whole kidnapping thing they talk to Java because they think he's involved and they go you know as a father yourself we are sure you understand and then we see little stinky so he's there and he's just as ugly as ever so that's great we have to be reminded that he is in fact a a dad yeah a dad and he seems to be a pretty involved father so yeah that's that's good Zero's last words are what a world as he dies, which is a goddamn Wizard of Oz reference.
Speaker: Oh, I did not realize that. Because he's a friend of Dorothy. oh oh yeah. Which I don't necessarily think was the intention, but that's how it reads.
Speaker: Listen, we call him like we see him. ah Come on Did you have anything else for this episode? Oh, just the line about from the bottom of my fluid sack.
Speaker: And besides, Cy Snoodle's fucking fantastic voice done by Nika Futterman. Also, Angelique Perrin. Angelique Perrin plays Mama the Hutt, and she does phenomenally.
Speaker: I hope she was having fun because I feel like that would be a fun character to do. I feel like it could be, it can be a fun character to do if you can get over the like, yeah, the classism and racism inherent in her characterization.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like, listen, this character sucks, but I have a paycheck to take home, so let's pay those bills. Yeah, I hope she had fun with this because she, for the, like, three minutes that she has on screen, she does a phenomenal job.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay, that's the end of that one. We can move on to heroes on both sides. Okay, I have a lot to say about this one, so let's get into it. Oh, good. Take your stepdaughter to work day. Padme takes Ahsoka on a secret mission to broker a peace treaty with the separatists, and it almost works until a bomb goes off to ensure the war machine keeps going.
Speaker: So the premise, the conflict of this episode is whether the Republic needs more soldiers or not, because they are out of money. They're almost bankrupt, but they are considering deregulating the banks to finance the war, which, you know, has never happened in real life.
Speaker: No, no, never. No issues have come about because of that. And some of the, so I forget who said this specifically. I think it was some of the separatist guys are talking about killing Padme and someone saying that task is more difficult than you presume.
Speaker: To which I say, is it? Because she gets captured at least once a month. I think if you killed her right away, that problem could be solved pretty easily. I don't think she would be that hard to kill.
Speaker: No, i see, that's the thing is she gets captured once a month because people are trying to kill her constantly and she just doesn't fucking die. But they just need to kill her right away. They hold her captive. They try to use her for leverage. They try to get information. They can't do that. If you want her dead, you just have to kill her.
Speaker: Just be efficient. And they are simply not. But another thing from this episode That I got so excited about for a split second was that Ahsoka gets a shirt.
Speaker: And I was thinking, okay, yes, clothes for my baby. Also, is she taller? Yes. And then i look at the shirt and I see that it has a boob window. And I go, okay, a boob window, not great, but at least more.
Speaker: and then she turns around and the shirt has no fucking back. It's like they had to ration a single square yard of fabric for every top that she wears and just arrange it differently. and I got excited too soon. But yeah, apparently she's just suddenly older now because she's taller. Her voice is a little different. Her mannerisms are a little bit more mature. This doesn't jive with the timeline at all but in our special timeline sure she got older and she had a growth spurt hang on a moment yeah while i am finding we're discussing so i'm going back in our chat i have a i have a chat from our our good friend goongas and i'm going i do hate that there's absolutely no explanation when she levels up crossed out gets a whole new outfit excellent and lightsaber also excellent
Speaker: um But there's no explanation whatsoever. She just hit a Pokemon evolution and now she's different and new and shiny and nothing. Nope.
Speaker: Just a change. Yeah, somehow she got a new lightsaber, which like we're going to see in a couple of episodes is actually a big fucking deal. Because doesn't isn't it the fucking like dark saber that she has or she has No. Or am I thinking of something else that one of her lightsabers was like a different color? Yeah, her Shoto lightsaber, which is the shorter lightsaber, is yellow. So she has a green and yellow saber, which that threw the fanboys into a fucking tizzy.
Speaker: Okay, so I was just, I hallucinated something in a migraine haze that she had a different lightsaber. But I was saying yesterday when I saw you that the only other times we've seen characters with multiple lightsabers, it's been either explicitly because or implied because they have killed Jedi to get them.
Speaker: So my first thought upon seeing a second lightsaber was, oh my god, who did she kill? Apparently she just got one. So that's fine, I guess. Yeah, it's apparently she's been training with Yoda in Jarkai, which is a specific style of two lightsaber fighting.
Speaker: And there's another specific term for this the specific sub style of Jarkai that she uses. where she has her longer lightsaber and her Shoto.
Speaker: So, but yes, she has apparently been training with Yoda. And now when she levels up, she gets a second lightsaber and a new outfit. um I was thrilled about the new outfit. Yes, it doesn't have a back, but at least it's not a fucking crop top and mini skirt.
Speaker: It's better for sure. It's an improved. Yeah, this is like now like dress. This all appears to be one piece of clothing. It just is a backless dress because fuck you, I guess.
Speaker: apparently But yeah, we're sort of left to assume that there's been like a little time skip here. And I know like we can't really show her sort of incrementally growing up.
Speaker: But yeah, this is our this is our nod to the fact that like she is a teen. Which means even if we're looking at this just over a three year period between like where she's like 14 when she starts out with Anakin and 17 at the end. Like teens still change a shit ton in that time period.
Speaker: Yeah. So yeah, this is this is our nod to the fact that she is she is a teen and therefore she's growing up. I do like the diamond pattern on her leggings. She has armbands and there's little diamonds cut into the armbands. And then you go it down to her leggings and there's diamonds cut into the leggings.
Speaker: Oh, I didn't even notice that. Too. there's There's a lot of really cool little designs. And she's got like um the patterns on her face. There's little rhombuses too, little diamonds.
Speaker: So that's now just sort of her like aesthetic. Yeah, that's her motif. It's really cool. This is the very first time we get to see like separatists as people.
Speaker: Because up to this point, they've just been the the enemy. Because the premise of what we're trying to accomplish here is that Padme has friends who are now separatists who are people that she's worked with and known for a long time and so she's gonna use Ahsoka's status as a Jedi to smuggle her behind enemy lines and it's really cool to see there's I don't know if it's just specifically in the separatist parliament or of just in general they have a different aesthetic but it is interesting to see them humanized you know with an asterisk a lot of them aren't humans But we get to what planet are they on literally Raxus. And we've been to Raxus before.
Speaker: Remind me. That was the planet that Master Khatri was murdered on and Mace Windu and Dooku were sent to figure that one out. And there was at that point some stirrings of dissatisfaction with the Republic and the Jedi amongst the Raxxas population.
Speaker: Oh, there you go. So we have the payoff. And I know, granted, that was made years later. So it's sort of a retcon into things. But like this is it's a fun little payoff now to have this order done. The Separatist Parliament is very much modeled after the British Parliament in its design. And to sort of contrast how the Senate is modeled off of somewhere between the Roman Senate and the U.S. Senate.
Speaker: Yeah. i do love Padme kidnapping her husband's baby sister. I do love the little like, okay. Okay.
Speaker: Your older brother is a dumbass. Come here, we're going to have a girls' day. Yeah, it's great. Once again, we have senators from the major corporations, the major like corporate groups.
Speaker: We have Lot Dodd, who represents the Trade Federation. We have the Banking Clan senator, whose name I did not record and I don't think gets said. And the Techno Union senator, whose name is Gumisam, which I also don't know if it gets said.
Speaker: And we'll get into this in like the next episode more. But I was looking desperately for whether or not Gume Sam had a like was named for anything specific, because a lot of politicians in these next couple of episodes have joke names.
Speaker: or reference names. And I was looking all of this up and it, uh, it was pointed out to me by the internet that I missed earlier. Newt Gunray is a dig at Newt Gingrich and Ronald Reagan.
Speaker: That makes sense. Yeah. Newt Gingrich for the newt bit and then Gunray, Ray Gun, Reagan. Yeah. And then we'll get, uh, Senator Medici, the Medici family.
Speaker: hmm. we'll get senator hallie bertoni for halliburton and even lot dod which again this had be pointed out to me by the internet is named after senators trent lot and chris dodd who again we were very young at the time of the iraq war I have memories of it being in the news and think these things being discussed, but it wasn't like, I wasn't politically aware. Yeah.
Speaker: So, you know, I'm learning about a lot of this after the fact. Some of these political names don't stick out to me. So characters like Gume-sam and Sib Kanae in the first one, who is the Neimoidian who organized the kidnapping of Chairman Papinone and his daughters, I was looking desperately if there was like a hidden meaning to those names too, and I could not find anything. So listeners, if you were, if you are older than us and or are more politically informed about US or international politics around the time of the Iraq war and are familiar with why these characters are named in this way, please let us know. I'm really interested.
Speaker: Is ah Padme's friend Mina Bonteri named after anybody or is that just... Oh, she's too important to I didn't think about one to know. i don't know if she's too important to have a joke name, but... Yeah, I know i don't know.
Speaker: So listeners, if you know, tell us. So this is Padme's friend who they're going to meet. She is very beautiful. She has sick tattoos. She has amazing tats. She has a son who's about Ahsoka's age, seemingly. And Ahsoka hates him on sight.
Speaker: And I don't know. It's, I genuinely have no idea. She is kind of having a little bisexual moment with this boy. he's just being normal. He's not even trying to be particularly chivalrous. He's just asking to help carry her bags or something.
Speaker: And he makes some remark at her at some point. And she's like, ugh. you know, Republic or separatist, all boys are the same, which sure, but he's just acting pretty normal.
Speaker: But, but, but I read this a little differently as one. Did we age her up so we could have a coming of age teen romance m before she makes that boys are the same everywhere line. We have a camera shot of Lux's eye line going all the way up her body.
Speaker: Oh, ew I take it back. I take it back. He wasn't being normal. Right. is yeah She makes she makes a comment because they're they're arguing about like, are the Jedi evil or the separatists evil? You know, maybe we're not all so bad. And she goes, I'm not so bad, am i And his eyes, we do have the camera of his eyeline and it just starts at her feet and goes all the way up. And he goes, not so bad at all.
Speaker: And she huffs and does the, you know, boys are the same everywhere. And I was getting this as she's a little baby lesbian. Like I wasn't reading any sort of little bisexual moment here. I was reading thought you had joked about her being bi before.
Speaker: i have. And it's because this is not the last time we'll see Lux Bonteri. And this is not the last time that we'll have flirtation between these two. But in this episode where we have their introduction, I don't read any flirting coming from her.
Speaker: That's fair. It does seem pretty one-sided. she is there for business and he's like, Ooh, hot wizard. And she's like, motherfucker.
Speaker: i also think It's implied that she may have been involved in the battle that killed his dad because Mina is saying that her husband, Lux's father, had been killed by clones in some attack. And the way that Ahsoka reacts, she doesn't say anything, but she kind of makes a face that's, oh, shit. I think she was there. I don't think that she killed him, but I think she participated. and this is very awkward for her after that. Right.
Speaker: Ooh, yeah, that might, that's possible. That, I thought that that was being communicated pretty clearly, but it's not explicitly said, so this is just a theory.
Speaker: Yeah, I do like Ahsoka's little growth over this episode where she goes, the politics of this war are not as black and white as I once thought they were. listen And she has a line at the beginning. She goes, I know the separatists are evil, but all anyone argued about was banking deregulation, interest rates, and almost nothing about why we're fighting in the first place.
Speaker: And that's a, that's a fun little piece in this kids show to present the idea to kids that as Anakin says, war's complicated.
Speaker: Like this is not about who's the good guys and the bad guys. Right. Right? This is about... Who's making money off of this?
Speaker: There's a line that's... We need fighting to feed the machine and our profits. Which is a bit heavy-handed, but for a kids' show? Yeah, they are not interested in peace. They need more fighting because they're making a lot of money.
Speaker: Yeah. This is about war profiteering. And there's a whole... simmering plot throughout this thing with these infiltration droids that are pretending to be cleaner droids and they end up setting off this huge bomb at a power generator to stir unrest and force the senate to vote to deregulate the banks which is really sad because for a second it seemed like there was potential for peace but the evil corporations are winning out
Speaker: And the separatists, it's really interesting to get a look into the separatist parliament, because at one point, like one of the separatists is like, we're not the republic. Corporations do not rule us. We're a democracy.
Speaker: And it's, it is really interesting for us, the viewer to get a look at because like, we've understood that the corporations have a heavy hand.
Speaker: in the separatist alliance but we're now sort of seeing that like we know obviously as viewers that both the separatists and the republic are being tricked by the sith this is the same shit happening in different places to drive them into the arms of the dark side but it's interesting to hear from these separatist politicians that like They believe that the Republic is too far gone into the hands of these corporations. And the Republic believes the same thing about the separatists.
Speaker: Yeah. Which again, another really interesting look for the kids viewing this show at you know, again, the so-called bad guys.
Speaker: You know, what's their motivations? What do they think about us? listen Anyway, yeah we have a terrorist attack An inside job terrorist attack that is leads to the banks being deregulated.
Speaker: I wonder what that could possibly be referring to. the Star Wars is not subtle at all. no We had our whole period in our Lord of the Rings coverage where we talked about allegory versus applicability. Star Wars uses explicit allegory.
Speaker: Tolkien would be ah incensed. Continuing our political theme, season three, episode 11, Pursuit of Peace. Padme gives an inspiring speech that attempts to remind the Senate about the people, TM.
Speaker: Our friend Bonteri from the last episode is killed and it's set up to look like it was an attack from the Republic. And there's a whole message from Dooku about the murder and bail. Senator Organa knows that this whole situation is a pretty obvious misdirect. So he's getting our friends to try to investigate what's really going on.
Speaker: and I think said Padme was talking to the banking clan guy about the trying to get more information... About the loans. Yes. And they say it's going to be at 25% interest. That's wild. I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know anything about loans and governments and stuff, but 25% interest is bonkers. And the banking clan guy is so insufferable. And yeah, I think it is Padme is going, uh, hey, what the fuck?
Speaker: And he goes, listen, you just deregulated the banks. I can charge whatever I want. He was like, we previously were at 10%, but the separatists are perfectly happy with a rate hike.
Speaker: Yeah, we're we're going to make as much fucking money off of you people as we can. And also, we're going to threaten politicians into keeping fucking quiet about it, ah which is only marginally different than our world in which they pay politicians into being fucking quiet about everything.
Speaker: So Padme and Bale are working together to try to get more information because what's happening right now is there's going to be we voted to deregulate the banks. Now we're voting on if we are going to order more troops and we don't have the votes to stop that going through. So Padme and Bale and some of their other friends are trying to figure out what they can do.
Speaker: And they work together so well. Padme and Belle, they share priorities. They jive well professionally. And, you know, she had Mina in the last episode.
Speaker: Padme has friends. It seems like she has a good collection of colleagues and people in her social circle. So why the fuck is she with Anakin? Because she clearly is surrounded by people who share her values and who she knows how to work with and have positive interactions with. She's never been bickering with other people the way that she bickers with anakin like she has lots of people who like her why is she not with someone who likes her because he's forced jesus you hate it yeah it's it's a fucking nightmare i'm sure that bail organa can set her up with somebody very sweet and very nice yeah bail organa has a lovely wife at home so
Speaker: But now I'm seeing their relationship. I do get why she would leave her secret baby with him. I don't know the situation of how he ends up getting Leia. I'm sure I will find out. But yeah, if I was going to pick someone to let raise my child in my stead, he seems like a pretty good choice.
Speaker: Yeah, I like that we get a little bit more of Bale because, yeah, he is sort of just this random character who pops up in Revenge of the Sith. But apparently he is very respected in the Senate because... Their whole plan is that he's going to give a big speech and everyone's going to listen to him. And Padme is trying to talk to some other senators and they're going, ah i don't care about what you have to say, but I'll maybe listen to bail. If he gives a speech, I'll listen to him.
Speaker: hmm. And then, spoilers, Bale gets in a car crash after bounty hunters try to get him. And now Padme is going to have to give the big speech in his place. And she has this revelation about, you know, we talked in the last episode about how Ahsoka was saying, we weren't talking about what the war is actually about. We're talking about interest loans and shit. And so Padme is trying to bring the focus back to the people of the Republic and who they're doing this all for. And she's talking... to one of her aides about her family and how the war is affecting them. So she has this good angle for the speech. And the assembly is, chomping at the bit to do this vote. They're like, where's Senator Organo? We don't know where he is. Let's just do the vote anyway. And it seems like she has maybe minutes to get into the Senate chambers and deliver the speech before they vote.
Speaker: And I'm writing in my notes, I swear, if she somehow finds time to change into a different outfit and hairstyle. And then Tecla holds up her helmet wig with her senate hairstyle and i just barely can tolerate that i think that if it was really that urgent she would just go right into the senate chambers wearing what she was wearing but apparently they took a couple minutes to get her changed and looking good first and then the speech is a great success it's awesome
Speaker: And she manages to sway the vote so they don't vote for more troops right now. But then we change the shot to Palpatine in his office. And the shot is set up so dramatically. And he starts to monologue. And I know it's about to be something really bad.
Speaker: And he has his other guy there with him. How much does he know about Palpatine's deal? I could not find that information.
Speaker: Amedda does continue to serve Palpatine into the Imperial period. He is Grand Vizier of the Empire. So like, here he and Mas Amedda also was um in like the trio of people that stands up on the on the center platform when Chancellor Valorum was there.
Speaker: He's a political creature. He doesn't give a shit about who's in power so long as he holds on to power. And i couldn't I couldn't find any information about like whether or not he's like a Sith cultist or something.
Speaker: But from this, we do get the impression that like he knows. yeah And he is 100% okay with it. He has no morals so long as he has power.
Speaker: Yeah. A couple other things from this episode. the Whatever the animation equivalent of overacting is, it's this episode. There's clearly been some like technology changes to allow for more motion and more expressions, but it's not quite micro, so everything is very, very macro.
Speaker: mean Padme giving one of her speeches is very like shoulders are up and heads over here and then heads over here and then the face and then like she presses her shoulders together and then they're back and then she's very small and then she's very big I get that we're doing we're matching physicality to speech and that is a massive like technological leap forward that they now can play around with this but they haven't quite dialed it in and so it just feels very intense Yeah.
Speaker: it's It's very Shatner. The other thing, we go into a bar at some point and there's a jazz song playing in the bar. And if you go over into our thread for this one, you will see the Retep Nug theme.
Speaker: Let's listen to Retep Nug.
Speaker: And then if you listen to one of the other two audio files in there, you listen to the Peter Gunn theme. You'll notice.
Speaker: you'll notice That it's the same thing? It's the same fucking thing. It's like not quite, it's like they like reversed the order of a couple of notes. But this is clearly, clearly inspired by the Peter Gunn theme.
Speaker: Peter Gunn, it's a detective TV show from the late 50s through the early 60s. And I couldn't find like specific references in here,
Speaker: but Peter Gunn is a very like smooth talking private eye detective and he he holds all of his meetings in a jazz bar. Yeah. So that's kind of what's happening here. But I listened to this and I was like, oh my God, I've heard this before. I've heard this before. This is not just a Star Wars thing. Where the fuck is this? And I texted my father at like 10 p.m. our time last night, which my parents live in Europe. So I was like, also, please don't answer this until you wake up because they do just keep their fucking phones on and answer questions I send them at the middle of the night. I'm like, guys, stop.
Speaker: But thankfully, i was like, what song goes like? And I sang it to him like, know, voice note. It was like, I need to know. And then I kept searching and I found it like an hour Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Miles was crashing with me last night and I was like, Miles was like out sleeping on my couch and I'm just sitting in my room like going through Spotify, listening to every fucking little detective show theme trying to find this fucking thing.
Speaker: And I found it at like 11 and I was like, I can't scream. so wake up my friend. But I got it Anyway.
Speaker: Well done, bestie. Thank you. I was so thrilled about that one. So, Senate murders. A mystery. Who's doing murders? pretty straightforward premise.
Speaker: Padme is giving another speech. She meets some guy, Senator Dietschy, who tries to threaten her about being unpatriotic, to which she says, the only thing I find unpatriotic is your warmongering. And then I'm sure you notice this, but I also noticed that right after that line, the background music changes to the like du dun dun dun from the Imperial March.
Speaker: You shouldn't make speeches like that. it's unpatriotic. The only thing i find unpatriotic is your warmongering.
Speaker: No, actually, I didn't. And I'm gonna need to go back and watch it. It's just so brief and just those couple of big booming notes. I fucking love Star Wars music.
Speaker: And ah Senator Dietschy's first name is me. Senator Me Dietschy. But um... Medici. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Uh-huh. For the uninitiated, the Medici family were an Italian noble house that ruled Florence for over a century by virtue of being a bunch of bankers and basically the richest people in Europe for ah good long time.
Speaker: i think there were three? Three popes? Four popes? that count't Three popes. that came out of the Medici family. Yeah, they were an Italian political dynasty.
Speaker: And depending on what bits of historical media you read, they very frequently become the villains or the heroes.
Speaker: There's no in between. And they were patrons of the arts. They financed the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Duomo in Florence,
Speaker: They also were patrons of Donatello, Brunicelli, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Machiavelli, Galileo, and Francesco Redi, among others. So, like, the me the Medici family, it's not overstating it to say that they were mostly behind the Italian Renaissance. Yeah. Without their backing, all of the people that we know as the great artists and thinkers of the Renaissance would likely not have been able to produce their works.
Speaker: Now, should any one group of people have all of that money and power? No, absolutely the fuck not. I think we've stated that one before. But anyway, this is a fun little just one of a couple of names in this episode.
Speaker: I don't know if the next one, Senator Bertone, if she's named after anybody, the Kim and Owen. Yes, Senator Hallie Bertone, a.k.a.
Speaker: Halliburton. This one is a little closer to home. This one's amusing because, like, she represents Camino as both a planet and a corporation, providing the Republic with its military.
Speaker: Halliburton is an oil company. Hmm. Halliburton was deeply, deeply involved with former Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney.
Speaker: He was involved with them as Secretary of Defense. Then he became CEO of Halliburton. And then he was Vice President. And Halliburton received several no-bid contracts during the Iraq War. Hmm.
Speaker: For the DoD. Dick Cheney also received... hundreds of thousands of dollars from them while vice president and continued to retain stock options from them as they were receiving billions of dollars in government contracts.
Speaker: Yeah. They were also behind the Deepwater Horizon explosion. which for, again, folks that were not politically savvy in 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling station blew up in April of 2010 and resulted in, i want to say it's the largest oil spill anywhere in the world ever.
Speaker: Jesus. Yes. Looking at the, uh, the wiki, it is the largest accidental marine oil spill of all time and the largest environmental disaster in U S history.
Speaker: I remember following the Deepwater Horizon explosion for probably two to three years afterwards. We'd be reading stuff about like oil in the Gulf of Mexico and Fund Dawn Dish Soap. They send things down to environmental groups down in the Gulf area so they can help clean animals.
Speaker: This is just ridiculous that this is what's stuck in my head. But it was a commercial for Dawn for a solid like three years afterwards was about Dawn being used to wash oil off of seabirds.
Speaker: Yeah, I remember this as well. So when we are referencing Halliburton and the Medicis, we are referencing obscene amounts of wealth and corruption.
Speaker: And particularly with Halliburton, a total lack of care for anyone around them and fully fully willing to break the world if it makes them a fucking buck.
Speaker: That's how we should be reading, particularly Senator Bertone, as fully willing to break the entirety of the Senate if it makes her a buck. Anywho, enter Senator Bertone.
Speaker: Yes. So she barges in on a meeting that Padme and her allies are having. She's just kind of being very weird and eerie. And shortly after that, Uncle Ono is poisoned.
Speaker: And does he die immediately or do they get him? I don't recall. Well, I think he dies pretty quickly. And there's a great little just writing moment where Padme is comforting the other Rhodian senator and she's telling him, you know, no one could ever take his place. And then as she's saying those words, a soldier interrupts them to say that Palpatine is ordering her to his chambers. So, you know, while she's saying, oh, no one could ever take my uncle's place. He's my mentor. Then the swooping in of Palpatine trying to
Speaker: get his grimy little tentacles in her brain. I just thought that was very nice timing. And then we have a cop from the local police force trying to investigate.
Speaker: He is exhausting. I really, really don't like him. I don't know if he's a clever reference to some other character or what. I could not stand this guy.
Speaker: Everyone is rolling their eyes at everything that he says. And so then there's Some investigation of wanting to hold off on another vote until they figure out what happened with this fucking murder that just happened. And her subtle investigative strategy is just to directly accuse people of murdering him. so She goes around burning bridges and she gets in the cop's way and telling her he's telling her about the rules and procedures.
Speaker: And she goes, my friend was murdered. I don't care about rules. And that was very Anakin of her, I have to say. hmm. When they're down in the shipyard, the other moment that's very Anakin of her, there's suspect escaping and Bale is like hanging on for his life. He's been knocked off the platform and you could see her...
Speaker: consider for a minute leaving him to go after this. I missed that. There's like two beats too long before she runs back to him. We can give her shit for being with Anakin because girl, run.
Speaker: But like, she's not a perfect representation of the light side. She is... Well, this reinforces my stance that she's a bad person. She's a politician. i I have always said this and I will always say it. I don't think Padme Amidala is a good person. Spicy take. But the investigation continues. Senator Dietschy is also killed. Very spicy.
Speaker: Turns out it was Lolo, the other Rodian senator, because she didn't like how Uncle Ono was doing stuff. And there is a moment... towards the end where lolo's breaking down she's confessing and saying oh he was weak and he made the wrong choices for our people and she has padme at gunpoint and at that point i was thinking that she had managed to make it a whole episode without getting taken hostage and it only lasts for a second because padme does just fucking deck her and get out of the hold fairly easily but
Speaker: her success rate at not getting taken hostage is pretty abysmal. Particularly for this batch of episodes. It's just, I mean, we've mentioned before that she's a professional damsel in distress, but this, this bunch of episodes, it's just crazy.
Speaker: all over the place. Lolo, I think, was referencing in particular, not just the fact that like he was ineffective in the Senate, Uncle Lono was ineffective in the Senate, but Also the fact that he was ready to capitulate to the separatists early in the war.
Speaker: That whole Bombad Jedi episode. She was upset about that. And sort of, I think that that seems to be the point where she fully lost faith in him. And then everything else that led up to this just made it worse.
Speaker: To your question about Lieutenant Devo, he is apparently sort of a combo of Joe Friday from Dragnet, which I have never seen and cannot speak to.
Speaker: And Columbo, who is, again, another, from Columbo, who is another, i want to say it's 70s, 70s. seventies But I could be wrong.
Speaker: Yeah, another 70s police procedural. And Columbo in particular gets people kind of off their guard. Acts a little bit kind of bumbling, a little bit easy to overlook. And people kind of just spill their fucking beans to him.
Speaker: I also was reading that Lieutenant Devo is one of the only characters designed to not have a symmetrical face. So he stands out against everybody else.
Speaker: Yeah. That's quite literally all I've got for this one. Same. so All right. we Well, thank you for listening, everybody.
Speaker: If you like what you're listening to, you can subscribe to our podcast. You will get notified as soon as new episodes drop. We release every other Tuesday unless we don't, which is rare.
Speaker: i will. I will say. You can also follow us on our social media at fan app pod on any social media site we're on. We're most active on Tumblr these days, but you can also catch us on Instagram, TikTok, Blue Sky, X, probably, probably elsewhere. I've definitely created others and then never really done anything with them.
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Speaker: If you really like what you're hearing, please leave us five-star review. Please leave us a written review. Please leave us a comment. Any interaction with our episodes and with our podcast gooses the algorithm a little bit and gets us in front of more people's ears. But if you really want to make sure you're getting us in front of more people's ears, tell your friends about us. Word of mouth is the best way for a small podcast like ours to spread.
Speaker: We have a very significant backlog. We can accommodate a wide variety of nerds. So send us to your Lord the Rings friend. Send us to your Star Wars friend. Send us to your friend who's into Beowulf.
Speaker: Whoever you think might be interested to hear what we have to say and or if you want to just subject them to whatever this is. Anyway, that's it. We'll see you back in two weeks with... I'm very, very, very excited about our next block of episodes because we're covering the Nightsisters arc and the Mortis arc, which just so many questions get raised.
Speaker: If you want some fucked up women, this is going to be the episode for you. And we know we love fucked up women. We do. do. Anyway, thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next time.
Speaker: See you next time. Bye. The Phantom Apprentice is produced and edited by Rin and Sam. Our music is composed and performed by James. You can find more of his work on Spotify and Bandcamp under Beiruz, B-A-E-R-U-Z.
Speaker: Our art is by Casey Turgeon. You can find more of her work at KCT Designs on Instagram. The content discussed is the property of the original copyright holders and is used here under fair use.
