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S02E07: Rapidly Getting Ready for More Andor!
29 Plays1 month ago
Join us today as Peter Gerard shares his strategy for Andor Season 2 prep, and we dive into the new book "Mask of Fear" (without spoilers, of course!)
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Transcript
Introduction with Star Wars Theme
00:00:00
Speaker
We're doing our homework for Andor season two and we're doing it quick. Stand by. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome back to short for a storm trooper.
Preparing for Andor Season Two
00:00:16
Speaker
You know, I was texting with my nephew, Peter Gerard, the other day, and I'm just going to let him tell you the story. Okay, this all started when you sent me ah photograph, you texted me a photograph that said, and or season two prep starting or something like that.
00:00:33
Speaker
but And I said, let's talk about this on the podcast. So share with us, what what was it that you sent? I lined up a couple of recent books, plus my 4K steel book of Andor, which remains the only ah physical media I've bought of any of the Disney Plus shows so far, but it's the one I most wanted to be able to revisit.
00:00:54
Speaker
So as far as prepping, you know, I'm i'm into my season one rewatch now. yeah But then I also included um my copy of The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, which I haven't gotten to start yet.
00:01:07
Speaker
And also the new novel, um which has a long title.
Introducing 'Reign of the Empire, The Mask of Fear'
00:01:12
Speaker
It's Reign of the Empire, The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed. And then this is the first novel in a set of three by three different authors that are going to span um different points in that kind of pre-formal rebellion era between the prequel and original trilogies.
00:01:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So how far into it are you? How far into the book are you? Because I also have all of what we just finished our and or rewatch. I don't own the steel book, but i may buy that at some point because I do have a new TV and I do have Dolby Atmos and I do have the whole nine yards.
00:01:48
Speaker
I may get that, but we did just finish the rewatch. I do own Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, which I just pulled off the shelf. And i think I talked about this on one of my very first episodes of this podcast.
00:02:00
Speaker
I'm on page 15.
00:02:03
Speaker
which is now there I think, I think that it starts with one. Yeah. There's there's a pretty substantial 19 page introduction before it gets to that point.
00:02:15
Speaker
So I'm 34 pages into it. Right. Anyway, that's much better. that Not, yeah, I know. not Not the easiest book to read. It is a long sucker too. It is a tome, right? 370 pages before you get into the index.
00:02:31
Speaker
So it's kind of like reads like a history because it's written by a guy who is a war historian. And so it reads like a history. It's fascinating. I just haven't gotten through it yet.
Character Spotlight: Sojen and Saw Gerrera
00:02:42
Speaker
ah But This is all introduction to me asking you the question, which is how far are you into the the hand of fear? Hand of Fear? raise mas Rise of the Empire?
00:02:55
Speaker
Mask of Fear. Rain of the Empire. Mask of Fear. rate of fear Yeah, I think Hand of Fear is a B movie from somewhere. But yeah, how far into this book are you? um I am most of the way through. I've got a little less than 100 pages left. I think it's about 460 pages. So it's some yeah a little bit on the longer side for a Star Wars novel, but not crazy long.
00:03:19
Speaker
yeah So I, I've, what, I'm about a third of the way through it. I was hoping to finish it off this weekend and just didn't get to it. So I'm about a third of the way through it. But Pete, why don't you share the spoiler free kind of log line on this? What's, what's the setup for the story? When's it start in the timeline and all that good stuff?
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah, sure. um So I don't have the exact year on, you know, A, B, Y or anything like that. This is starting very soon after episode three.
00:03:52
Speaker
um There are kind of three storylines that are tangled here following Mon Mothma. bail organa and then kind of saw but really a new character called sojen if i'm pronouncing that right yeah think so who yeah that's what the audiobook does at least yeah oh perfect soja um yeah and that character is he's um awoken out of uh hype not hyperslimp what's the term Suspended animation. He's awoken.
00:04:23
Speaker
He's woken out of suspended animation. Yeah. and he is like a separatist war creature. You know, he's been built out a little bit with some, um,
00:04:36
Speaker
some new technology, some built in computers to basically become a killing machine. So yeah, reading it, I was put in mind of general Grievous step one, if general Grievous is like step 10 in the movies, like he was just starting that set of modifications for a specific purpose.
Resistance Strategies Against the Empire
00:04:55
Speaker
yeah And then that character really gives us a perspective on Saw Gerrera as he's kind of in the early stages transferring or transforming from the freedom fighter character that you see in the Clone Wars animated series to what he becomes in Rogue One.
00:05:14
Speaker
Right, right. I was kind of picturing Sojin as Lobot or KB, little little more of that angle of cyborg, but I never even thought about him being kind of a general grievous. I think that's a little more accurate because he does seem to be a little more cyborg-y than those other two.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah, at at least I don't think KB has any built-in weaponry. That we know of. Let's go for season two. Let's go. Yeah, let's go.
00:05:45
Speaker
Let's go. We'll see. Well, what I found so far in this book that is so interesting is, yeah, you've got these three parallel storylines and you're seeing kind of three different approaches to resisting the Empire, which we also saw a little bit in Andor as well of...
00:06:07
Speaker
ah Mon Mothma kind of still doing it within the system. She's, you know, she is still very much a senator.
00:06:19
Speaker
ah She's very much kind of playing that angle. You see Bale starting to be a little bit more active with the resistance. And then, of course, you've got Saw Gerrera, who is is, you know, almost on the terrorist angle of it. So does that still hold up through the rest of the book?
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, it does. And it's interesting to see how these characters play off each other and how their storylines interact, because Mon's story is a much more straightforward at first.
00:06:50
Speaker
She's trying to write a bill that is going to put some formal reins on Palpatine's powers. And she's trying to whip the vote, basically. So she's meeting up with people trying to get support for what she's trying to do totally within the system.
00:07:05
Speaker
um And one key point that's arriving is the reintegration of the separatist systems who are now being brought back into the Senate. So that's kind of a key constituency that she's going to want to go after.
00:07:19
Speaker
um On the other hand, Bail Organa, he is trying to find evidence that the Jedi did not betray the Emperor in the way that has been publicized.
00:07:31
Speaker
So he's going on a little bit more of a, you might say, swashbuckling. He's doing some planet hopping, trying to track down leads, doing some detective work, trying to figure out, okay, I don't believe the evidence that we have is real. So how can I prove that it's not real?
00:07:49
Speaker
And so ah one of my favorite parts about the book is just getting a little bit more characterization there. I don't feel like Bale is a character I knew very well from other Star Wars media. So it's really funny to jump into the book and You know, right away, one of the first chapters, it opens with Bale is giving a big speech.
00:08:08
Speaker
And he's saying that we need to find out what really happened to the Jedi. And I'm thinking, wow, this this is really starting off with a bang. This is going to be a big moment. And then it turns out, no, Bale is just out there all the time making these speeches.
00:08:24
Speaker
He's grandstanding. He's trying to get things done. But he's just not important enough to or not capable enough of doing damage. yeah to have been reined in yet.
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, interesting. Because this is all happening. this ah yeah ah You said you don't know the exact BBY. I agree, but it's got to be at least 17 18 years.
00:08:46
Speaker
bb Before the Battle of Yavin, before episode four, because ah they do talk quite a bit about Leia being the newborn and them having just adopted Leia. So if she's 19 when episode four takes place, I think that's 18, 19-ish.
00:09:01
Speaker
That's probably about the time. for So he's still a fairly junior senator and definitely not sophisticated in his tactics. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking at the um timeline at the front of the book with the novels. And this is this is the first novel listed after Revenge of the Sith. So occurring before any of the Rogue One tie ins or solo or any of the Thrawn stuff that leads up to ah New Hope.
Senate Intrigue and Character Development
00:09:28
Speaker
Yeah, so it is it is very early.
00:09:32
Speaker
This is all so interesting to me as a fan, because I know, I'm curious your thoughts on this. I know for me, i didn't really dig the machinations of the Senate that we saw in the prequel series.
00:09:48
Speaker
i yeah I just thought it was a little bit too much. I wanted to see more Jedis and swords and spaceships. But I have, especially since Rogue One came out and Andor and seeing, well, really Andor, and seeing Mon Mothma develop as such a really compelling character, I'm all for it for the Senate intrigue.
00:10:09
Speaker
And so far, you know, a third of the way through the book, a quarter of the way through the book, I'm, I think that's my favorite storyline is what Mon is going through with all of this. What what do you think about that?
00:10:22
Speaker
um Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm in the same boat, I guess. i Well, I was a 12 year old when Phantom Menace came out and I remember the conversation is what are little kids going to care about a trade dispute? But I loved Phantom Menace. I saw that nine times, you know, I went back yeahward over and over um these days. If i rewatch the prequels,
00:10:42
Speaker
There are execution problems. There are things that I don't enjoy about them. There are things that I do enjoy about them. But yeah I think the story that George Lucas was trying to tell was really well thought out.
00:10:59
Speaker
He really laid an interesting foundation for future storytelling. I don't think he was in it only to lay down a foundation. He wanted to tell the story himself. um But because of some of, you know, I'm not going to dig into it, but there's issues we can point to with the writing and the the production of the movies that made them not the best Star Wars movies ever from my perspective.
00:11:19
Speaker
um yeah But yeah, There has just been so much interesting work coming out coming out of that era. At a time that i you know, when Andor was announced, I was one of the people saying, who is this for?
00:11:33
Speaker
Do we really need a prequel about this guy from Rogue One who dies? Right. Spoilers for Rogue One. um But then it blew me away. It's definitely my favorite of the the Disney Plus productions. i'd I'd put it up there personally. My favorite of the movies to come out in the Disney era is Last Jedi.
00:11:54
Speaker
I'd say Andor and Last Jedi. They do very different things, but I really i care about them both a lot. They're they're my favorites. um So the the fact that they were able to take that character and then take this approach of really...
00:12:08
Speaker
um diving into the political situation of how are these different types of people like Cassian and or like Mon Mothma, like Luthen, how are we all acting at the start of the rise of the empire?
00:12:24
Speaker
And this is a really similar approach where we're taking a few characters with different perspectives and different goals and then banging them off of each other a little bit to see how that goes.
00:12:35
Speaker
And one of my favorite parts of the book is just how Mon and Bale don't like each other very much. You know, Mon thinks he's kind of annoying. He's a showboat. He's talking too much. He doesn't really get stuff done. And Bale thinks Mon's not getting enough done.
00:12:50
Speaker
Right. Right. And that does make me wonder because I do in Rogue One sense some affection between them, especially when she's like, you know, your Jedi friend and and he hints at Leia.
00:13:04
Speaker
there There does seem to be some affection between them in Rogue One. So I'm just curious to see, will we start to see that develop over time as this book series continues? Yeah. Or, you know, or or maybe there really isn't that much warmth between them in Rogue One. And maybe it's just, you you know, them being politicians and and working towards a common end.
00:13:25
Speaker
Interesting. Well, we're going to find out pretty soon with season two. You and I are going to be together in Tokyo. Hopefully we will both have tickets for the Andor panel. And hopefully they will show us at least the first episode.
00:13:38
Speaker
But even if they don't, I think it will premiere while we're there. so Yeah, it premieres just a couple days after the end of the convention. After the convention.
00:13:49
Speaker
So, yeah, we'll be watching it when we come home from Tokyo Disneyland, probably.
Anticipation for Andor Season Two
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, i can't wait. The first season started when I happened to be in Japan and I was really sick because I just caught a bug while traveling.
00:14:04
Speaker
So I'm like out of my mind trying to watch this show on a laptop in an onsen hotel with my in-laws. Yeah. Everyone's having a nice time and I'm just like, I kind of wish I was dead, but I really have to watch movie.
00:14:21
Speaker
The hype for season two is real, y'all, and we are all here for it. We'll see you next time on Short for a Stormtrooper. Meanwhile, like, subscribe, tell all your friends. May the force be with you. We'll see you real soon. Bye-bye.
00:14:32
Speaker
Who's got mindless toys to do? Podcasts, hope you see them through. Star Wars is your favorite unit. Let's chat for 15 minutes. Aren't you a little short?
00:14:42
Speaker
Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a smorre trooper?