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Episode 025 - Andy's Back, Alright
49 Plays4 months ago
Andy is back from his adventures so we decide to catch up one everything we've missed.
Connect with us via our website https://justshillin.com or send us an email/voicemail at [email protected]
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Thank you to our good friend Chris Hall for the amazing cover artwork!
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Transcript
Introduction and Opening Banter
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode number 25 of Just Shillin. I am one of your hosts, Sean. I had it prepared. I had it prepared my head. How does it go? H-O-S-F-M-A-N. You can call me Sean Hoffman. Sorry, I had to do that because it was
00:00:25
Speaker
I can't get that stupid hot to go song off my feeds. But yeah, I'm Sean Hoffman, one of your hosts.
Weather and Personal Updates
00:00:32
Speaker
And the cross for me is The Lovely. And I'm a rather speechless Andy Bell at the moment. Good tune, mate. I love it. We should use a bit of AI and tidy that up a little bit and make something from that. Mate, how are you? I missed you.
00:00:53
Speaker
Oh my god, dude, I miss you too. It's uh, I'm all right. I'm better now. You know, you're back here. You're uh, I'm interested to see how your your how your vacations been. I've been I've been trying to survive the the ridiculous hate that we have had.
00:01:10
Speaker
He over over here. I so like normally, you know, I live up in the mountains. So it's normally not super hot. But this last week, it's been about 90 Fahrenheit, which is about 32 C.
Festival and Travel Experiences
00:01:28
Speaker
We don't have air conditioning or anything like that, like, no, pretty, pretty consistently through the week. And so I think it's like been frying my brain a little bit.
00:01:40
Speaker
And then Thursday I went to an outdoor festival in Sacramento, which is down from the mountains towards the coast more. It's in the Central Valley, also known as the armpit of California. Sorry for anybody who lives there. And it was 113 at this festival, which is 45C. Screw that. It was absolutely insane. It's the hottest
00:02:06
Speaker
the hottest weather I think I've ever, I mean, I've been to Death Valley and stuff and been on backpacking trips there. But this was an unreal heat, like the venue and stuff was super good. They had water and towels and fans and shade and all this stuff. But it was like a hairdryer blowing in your face the whole time. But it was insane. That's like Dubai heat. I mean, you don't
00:02:33
Speaker
I've been to, I've been very fortunate enough. I've, I've, I've been asked to buy a few times with work, but because with work, everywhere I went was air conditioned. Um, and so it was, it was possible, but the minute you sat outside, you know, you stand outside and it's kind of like, holy shit, I'm sweating all the way through.
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah. All the way through my clothes. And there's no way of, you know, there's no way back from this. Doing that at a social event that you're meant to enjoy. No, I'm OK. Thank you. I mean, sorry. The best part was that. I think half the people who were going to go to the show didn't show up. So it was like this big festival kind of thing. But only like half the people were there. And so you had room.
00:03:23
Speaker
So he had tons of room and there was shade, but it's one of those heats where it's like you don't want the wind to blow because then it's just blowing more heat at you. It's like, no, I don't want any wind because it brings no relief. But it was fun. I enjoyed it. I don't want to do it again anytime soon, but yeah, it was crazy.
Family Vacation in Portugal
00:03:44
Speaker
But other than that, man, I've just been...
00:03:47
Speaker
Uh, do it. I think I've taken on every outdoor project that I can think of all at once. Um, I've, I've got my during, during, during warm weather. Good idea. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, you know what I should do? I should be like be outside because that's the other thing about being in the mountains is that, uh, the UV index is like.
00:04:07
Speaker
astronomical most of the time. So like all these times I'm out there working, it's like you must have you've index 11. And for people who don't know that's that's that's very high. That's I think it's called extreme on most levels. But so yeah, I think I've just been like frying my brain with a heat and just really kind of leaning into it. But other than that, man, not a whole lot just anxiously awaiting your return and excited to hear about your your little adventures.
00:04:36
Speaker
How have you been? Oh, been great. We got back at...
00:04:43
Speaker
three this morning so forgive me if i'm sounding a little bit delirious at the moment but we we completely milked the the vacation we were on and got a very late flight last night to make sure that we could stay as long as we could until we were forced to leave kicking and screaming that's great it was it was it was superb yeah two weeks it's our annual pilgrimage to we try and
00:05:15
Speaker
We try and be a diverse and inquisitive family visiting many, many different places. But we always find our way to Portugal. We know the country. We know the people. We have access to a sailing boat down there. And as a family, it's our opportunity to switch off. So while we do try to
00:05:44
Speaker
experiment in many, many different countries. We always find our way back to Portugal, in particular, the Algarve, which is the furthest south coast of Portugal, which is still on the Atlantic side, so it's not part of the Mediterranean.
00:06:00
Speaker
So it's balls hot during the day and then really cool in the evening because you're on the Atlantic coast. So you get the Atlantic breeze coming in. Phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. How can I explain what we do when we're down there? We've been doing it now for crikey between 20, 25 years now. So we'll
00:06:28
Speaker
We have friends that are down there and that have a place down there, so we stay at their place, one of their places, sorry, which is very fortunate that we're in a position to be able to, being quite affordable. And we'll just bum about on the beach, eat really great food, drink really great drinks.
00:06:56
Speaker
and just chill, and just really, really chill. And on top of that, you know that I was born and brought up in a place where sailing was a big thing as a kid. And we have the opportunity to sail as well as a family. And we just, with a mate of mine that lives down there, has his own boat. And we use that boat and we take it out and do our own thing and just bum around the algarve for a few
00:07:26
Speaker
a few moments or so and enjoy ourselves. It's not hard. It's kind of rinse and repeat pretty much every single day that we're there for two weeks. We try and get up late. We try and recuperate. We try and read. We try and enjoy ourselves. We try and enjoy the nightlife. We
00:07:49
Speaker
Enjoy what I certainly enjoy the sailing side of things and it's an awful lot of fun. There's not an awful lot to tell you about because it's, like I said, it's pretty much the same thing every single day. But that's why we do it. We know the place really, really well.
00:08:07
Speaker
while in my career, I've been very, very lucky to visit many, many countries and many, many different places and many, many different cultures. We like it because it's so predictable. It's so predictable over there. And, you know, if if if
00:08:28
Speaker
if the stars align one day and you guys are over here and it aligns itself when we're on vacation as well. I'd love to take you down there because you'd love the atmosphere. It's so manana. Do you know what I mean? It's so manana. Wake up in the morning. What do you want for breakfast? Should we go out for breakfast? Yeah, let's go out for breakfast.
00:08:53
Speaker
Is it wrong to have a Bloody Mary at 8.30 in
Sailing and Leisure in the Algarve
00:08:58
Speaker
the morning? No, I don't think so. Let's have a Bloody Mary at 8.30 in the morning.
00:09:07
Speaker
Funny to say that the place that we found a new place this year for breakfast and yeah, they were they were basically doing pints of Bloody Mary pints of Bloody Mary. Like, yeah, I'm coming back and we went back four times. So, yeah, it was it was it was a good break and really, really good.
00:09:28
Speaker
had no access to the internet. My phone coverage was next to zero, especially when we were out on the water. I mean, you got to get over that kind of initial shock of not being in contact with the world, which lasts for me about at least two or three days. It's like, in my job and in our lives, we have access to everything all at once.
00:09:57
Speaker
having to realize that you only have access to the rest of the world at two or three times a day is a little bit weird. But we've kind of got used to it now. And hopefully, we're pretty good at managing expectations from folk that want to hear from us. But yeah, no, it was good, man. It was really, really good. And
00:10:19
Speaker
There's not it was hot, you know, it was hot. I mean, so most days for us, it's about thirty one, thirty two. But unlike you, it was. It was. We weren't working. We were just enjoying ourselves. So it wasn't that big a deal. It wasn't that big a deal at all. So, you know, you get sweaty for two weeks. Who cares? Do you sail? Are you sailing in the Atlantic or is it like a?
00:10:48
Speaker
like a bay or something like that. No, it's in the Atlantic. So if you consider the Portugal is, if you like, the furthest, the furthest Western country of Europe, not including, obviously, not Africa, but
00:11:12
Speaker
I mean, Sagresh is very close to where the boat is moored, permanently. So we are in the Atlantic, and sometimes we may well go around the Cape towards the west coast of Portugal, but mostly we stay on the Algarve, which is the south coast, which despite being, if you look at a map,
00:11:41
Speaker
the same area as the Mediterranean. We're still in the Atlantic part of it. We haven't, you know, we haven't got to mainland, if you like, the main part of Europe at that moment in time. So, yeah, I'm looking at a map and it's deceased. That's out there. You're like, you're it makes my hands sweaty. You're looking at it. It's like, well, they see that's the way they see it. It's warm. It's delightful.
00:12:05
Speaker
It's windy, which makes the sun a lot easier to put up with. But I tell you what, the sea is bastard cold. It's really, really cold. If you get too hot, you jump in, you very soon get out because it is really, really cold. It is the Atlantic Ocean. So you are very much subject to the temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean as opposed to more of a mill pond, which is the Mediterranean.
00:12:36
Speaker
That's what's so interesting, because over here, the Atlantic is the Gulf, the Gulf of Mexico is a very, very warm one. The Atlantic is warm, and the Pacific is the one that is just dumb asshole. It's the biggest, right? Yeah, it's the biggest, right? And you don't have, unless you have a huge, I'd say unless you went
00:12:55
Speaker
I don't know, I'm trying to think of where I've been in the Pacific where it's actually been warm. I can't think of anywhere. Right, Southern California. Probably Southern California. I can't think of anywhere. Mexico. No, the actual sea, the actual sea itself. Yeah, I mean, I haven't done Mexico yet, so yeah, you could be right. But even then, the whole title thing and the way it all works,
00:13:19
Speaker
I don't know, man.
Work-Life Balance During Vacation
00:13:20
Speaker
I have no idea at all. If you ever make your way out here, we'll have to have you come swimming in an alpine lake. And we'll show you what some cold water feels like. Fuck yeah. It's good for your joints. Yeah, you showed me a sailing as well, though. Your sailing out there looks really cool. So I'd love to do that stuff.
00:13:47
Speaker
the lakes, I mean, the Great Lakes themselves.
00:13:53
Speaker
The whole idea of that is very, very new to me. Not new to me, but very alien to me. My experience of of of lake sailing is very, very different to ocean sailing until you get to the until you reference the US and the Great Lakes. And I mean, it's pretty, pretty much no different to the sea. They're huge. They're absolutely absolutely massive. Yeah.
00:14:22
Speaker
But yeah, I had a really good time. Missed you an awful lot. Found it really weird that I wasn't connected to you guys until the evening.
00:14:34
Speaker
And then in the evening we were pretty much moored up and we pretty much, it's ironic actually, there's pretty good 5G coverage in most of main line, sorry, mainland Europe. And so therefore was pretty easy to get hold of you. But yeah, it was really weird that I couldn't kind of interact
00:14:55
Speaker
uh, on the cusp or on the fly. Um, and I normally would do, which I found a little bit weird, but in the meantime, I was busy in my cells myself for doing nothing. So, uh, it was pretty good. So I know when we go backpacking, which we do quite a bit, uh, we'll go out and no cell service, no, no anything. Um,
00:15:18
Speaker
We typically like to do it around election time specifically and because we just like we don't want to we don't deal with it. So we just want to come back and know what get the results. Do you find it overwhelming when you do come back to service and all of a sudden you just see like the the role unfolding of like like I'm a big person who's like I just don't want the red circles with the numbers in them. I don't want the badges.
00:15:43
Speaker
I don't want the notifications like like you find it overwhelming to like catch up or do you just like mark all is red and and be like if it's more important that'll come back up again or do you try to like catch up on everything I used to I used I used to care an awful lot but I think I told you maybe not on this part but privately this is the first year I haven't taken a laptop with me and that was conscious effort on my part just to
00:16:17
Speaker
I feel like we work hard at work and we give, you know, they get a pound of flesh from us. And maybe it's my age, maybe it's my experience, maybe it's my belligerence. I got no idea what it is. But this is the first year that I didn't take my laptop with me. And so therefore, when I did connect with the world, when I was back on dry land, I wasn't bothered.
00:16:47
Speaker
I wasn't bothered at all. I even used to find myself segmenting the mails that I've missed, especially when it was work related to whether it was urgent.
00:17:01
Speaker
non-urgent or I could, I could delete it. I used to do that for myself so that when I got the day that I get back from work, which is for me now is tomorrow. I used to, I used to kind of have everything already organized for me, but in doing that in itself was, was work in itself while I was away and I shouldn't be doing that. And so I'll worry about that tomorrow. So, so, so in my mind for tomorrow,
00:17:27
Speaker
I'll let everyone know I'm back, but I'm, I'm sifting, I'm doing the work that I normally would have done when I'm away tomorrow. And then I'll, I'll, I'll kind of work it out from there. I'm, I'm in a very different place these days than I was. Well, you know, as, as, as, as short as last year, but certainly in the last
00:17:49
Speaker
four or five years, I'm in a very, very different place in my life. And, uh, you know, what will be, will be. And if Crikey, if, if, if, if the world can't carry on or sorry, my world can't carry on while I'm away for a couple of weeks, then, um, I'm not doing a very good job in the first place. No, it makes sense.
00:18:08
Speaker
Well, but yeah, no, it's cool, man. It was really, really cool. And I mean, I've shared with you guys a bunch of photographs and I'll work out, you know, our website so I can share a few photos as well. It was it was blissful. It was blissful. It was it was just the four of us. It was Lucy and I, you know, Lisa, my wife and I and the two kids. So not kids anymore. That to my two girl. No, not girls anymore. My two daughters came with us as well. What was marvelous is that
00:18:38
Speaker
because we've been doing so long, they know the area as well as well as well as we do. And so that, you know, it wasn't a case of a family on tour together or on holiday together for two weeks. And you have to do your own, you know, you have to come together, do everything as a as a as a as a force. You know, these guys know the area really well, they drive, they're independent, they've got their own money and the rest of it.
00:19:05
Speaker
they go off and do their own thing. And it made the whole, for me this year, it really meant a lot more this year, they kind of did go and do their own thing, which meant the time they spent with us was a lot more meaningful and wholesome, if you like. Because, I mean, like I said, they, you know, they take us out a few nights and it's like, yeah, can we buy dinner tonight? It's like, wow, wow, that's, that's
00:19:30
Speaker
You don't have to be a host the whole time.
Cultural Appreciation and Hosting
00:19:33
Speaker
No, it wasn't like that. It was almost like a bunch of friends getting together and having a chill time. And if one person didn't like the agenda for today, which was, like I said, it was relatively binary, it was okay for them to
00:19:50
Speaker
Do their own thing because i know the area of the area of a twenty years so it was it's really cool. I do implore anyone know that you know my my friends.
00:20:02
Speaker
Josh in particular loves Portugal. They're such good people. They're such good people. A, they know how to cook. I mean, good God, I've eaten the most amazing food the last two weeks to my detriment. I'll work it off the next couple of weeks, I promise. But they know how to live life. Yeah, no, it's, you know, when I'm,
00:20:31
Speaker
old, warty, and can't move anymore. Can't be off over there in a box. And I'd love to spend the rest of my days over there. Great place. That's awesome. Well, I'm sure I'm sure Madison will listen to this and be like, well, so when are we going to when we go to Portugal? Oh, if you do, I'm I'm I'm coming with you. I'm coming with you.
00:20:54
Speaker
So one of the things that we have been doing, I totally forgot about is, so last year, Madison Hike, the PCT, the Pacific Crest Trail, which is a continuous trail from Mexico to Canada for those who don't know. But it also, it crosses through Tahoe, but Tahoe's kind of one of the stops on it. So every year, right around, there's like a bubble of people who do this, and the bubble is currently kind of here,
00:21:21
Speaker
um and so people need a lot of hitches off trail into town and uh we'll host we'll host you know people people who need somewhere to stay or if they just need you know they need to get to the doctor go to the wherever so like we'll we'll go and pick them up off off the off the road and bring them into town and take them wherever um but there are a lot of like international
00:21:41
Speaker
people doing it. And so, so like, it's a part of, it's kind of selfishly, it's like, Oh, we're making more friends over from Germany or from Sweden or Albania or whatever. So, you know, getting those connections of like, Oh, where can we, somebody else we can keep in contact with. Uh, so it's like, Oh, we, I need to start looking out for, you know, Portugal people too. You know, like, Hey, well, how cool is that? Yeah, but how cool is that? That is so cool. I mean, I mean, it's such a,
00:22:09
Speaker
You know, with all the shit that's going on at the moment, I don't want to get into politics. And while I've been away, we had an election in the UK that turned out right, rurally brilliant for me from my perspective and my outlook on life. But quite frankly, there's so much hate and intolerance going on at the moment.
00:22:37
Speaker
in other places in the world and it's just like meeting other people from different cultures that kind of
00:22:46
Speaker
can understand because you know what it's like. We are Caucasian English speaking people. People will accommodate for us and it's embarrassing that they do. It's really embarrassing that they do and we make absolutely fuck all effort. But the point being is that they still make that effort and that they have amazing cultures of their own.
00:23:12
Speaker
I just think that he's a sweat. I mean, you know, well, that's it. That's the best part is like you'll meet some of these people and like and they I mean, they're always they always want to pay for gas or whatever. And like we never let them. But one thing that seems to be really prevalent anymore is like, oh, can we at least like cookie dinner from our culture? And it's like 100 percent, 100 percent. You have to deal with our you have to deal with our shitty kitchen. But like, go for it. Hell, yeah. And so we've had some pretty
00:23:42
Speaker
some pretty amazing, I mean, meals just made on a budget, but it's still like, wow, that's fricking awesome, and then leftovers for days and stuff, and just really, really, I mean, the gratitude goes all around. It's like, only all we're doing is driving three miles or five miles. Yeah, but it's the right thing to say. I'm bringing them down, but it's... But dude, it's the... Somebody's culture is amazing.
00:24:03
Speaker
It's the attitude you guys have got. It's completely the right way of doing it. I'm not being, you know, I'm not being a lefty, I'm not being liberal. I'm not being, just being decent. It's just like, we've only got one chance at this shit. There's no rerun. You know, it's, we've only got one chance in life and it's kind of like making the most of it. I love it. I absolutely love it. Anyway, sorry about that.
00:24:30
Speaker
as we go on an existential journey. So, right, dude, I have, let me, I'm trying to remember the way that we normally do this, because it's been two weeks now, so I'm trying to work it all out. But I don't have any notes for this evening, because, just because. However, I want to tell you what I have been
00:24:56
Speaker
on a pulp culture front because I still am readily involved.
00:25:04
Speaker
as best I can.
Media and Entertainment Updates
00:25:06
Speaker
Um, I have been doing a few things. So I had no internet. The only internet I had was in the evening and it was on my cell phone. And so I use my, my, my, my phone plan on my data plan to download the latest episode of a soak of good God, what year are we living in? Uh, in, uh, for, um, the acolyte, which I've sent you a couple of voicemails for to be continued on my conversation. All right. Um,
00:25:33
Speaker
However, so what I did was I used the airport's Wi-Fi, downloaded a couple of things that I could use as media to come back and report to you as to what I've done. So in terms of news, what I found out in my relatively restricted environment that I found myself in a couple of weeks, Blade Runner 2099 is the name of the new series that's being developed
00:26:03
Speaker
and it started filming. So this is the new TV series that leap frogs over Denis Villeneuve's latest film by 50 years and it's being filmed and
00:26:24
Speaker
It has become, so it's an actual thing, which I think is great. And it links to something else in a second. But that's the news that I've heard.
00:26:34
Speaker
Um, second thing I've heard about is there's a, uh, an animated series of for Terminator, the Terminator franchise, Terminator zero, uh, animated series coming out on Netflix during August. I had no idea this thing was even was a thing. Um, but that's coming out in August. I look forward to getting invested in that than having it get canceled after one season.
00:27:01
Speaker
That's why Netflix is the Netflix way. Yeah, yeah, I hope not. I hope not. After what I'm going to talk about later on. But yeah, I'm glad it's a two trailer. So that came out.
00:27:17
Speaker
last week. Seen a few meds and a few, well, it's a film that we didn't need, but I got quite excited by the trailer. And being that it's my youngest daughter's favorite film of all time, the original Gladiator, we're quite fired up for it in the Bell household and quite enjoyed the trailer. It seems to be a
00:27:47
Speaker
It's either, it seems to be a spin-off, oh sorry, it seems to be about legacy. So it seems to be a, it's either about Marcus's son or the son of the Emperor. I'm not quite sure what it is yet, but the point being is that that looks quite good. And the last thing I saw in terms of
00:28:17
Speaker
news was the Time Bandits trailer. So our buddy Wakiki is doing a take on Time Bandits, but I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure how I feel about it because the original, which is obviously Terry Gilliam, part of the very British Monty Python kind of sense of humor, is so close to my heart.
00:28:47
Speaker
that I'm not sure what a Taika film would, or series, sorry, would, how it could improve it. It looks very, very different. And it looks like very much like Taika's, um, sense of humor, but I'm up for it. I'm really, really up for it because new takes on properties that I love.
00:29:11
Speaker
I'm not a naysayer. Um, I'm up for it, but I don't know how I feel. And in terms of news, that's, that's pretty much all I've been able to pick up on in two weeks. What about yourself? Um, the big, I think the big one for me was when I saw yesterday or whenever, um, I saw the new captain America trailer. Um, Ooh. And I am, there's, I mean, you know how it is these days. There's just,
00:29:40
Speaker
The the shit comments and the and that stuff just filtered yeah top. So I know there's a lot of like Perceived negativity around it, but i'm excited for I think um i've always been a captain the captain america films were always one of those ones were like At surface level. I was never like I never saw him in the theaters like I I got on the marvel train with way too late but like they are the ones that i've always been like those are
00:30:07
Speaker
top tier for me because I think it's it's less about the technology or like the superpower and more about the story and it forced it into that and so those have always been like my favorites like yeah winter winter soldier and civil war are just like those are probably my favorite marvel movies yeah they're they're they're world-class along with um
00:30:33
Speaker
the original Captain America as well. They're really grounded. They're quite gritty. They're really quite grounded. Yeah, I'm with you there, mate. We share the same taste. Other than that, like, yeah, so I'm excited for that. Harrison Ford's in it. He was cool. Yeah, I'm excited to see that. Other news, I know that they're ramping up promotion for the Star Wars open world, the Outlaws game. So that's exciting.
00:31:02
Speaker
Nothing. I don't think there's anything too concrete with it yet. They said I can share that you won't find on other more newsworthy pods. What else? What else was there news wise? It's not really news, but I got to watch a
00:31:21
Speaker
a live like helicopter rescue demonstration on the lake on 4th of July. So that's kind of like kind of news. And so that was cool. That was fucking sick. I don't think I mean, yeah, I don't think I have any other news. I'm just like looking around at things like is there anything that was news that should jog my memory? But on the start, I'm a star on the Star Wars front. I heard from. So I. Sorry, full disclosure to everyone.
00:31:51
Speaker
I say everyone that's sorry, our two listeners that are listening at this moment in time, full disclosure, I recorded a response last week, sorry, this week, to the latest episodes of the acolyte and then
00:32:04
Speaker
subsequently we're going to use that tonight a little bit and we'll explain later on as to how we're going to use that. But obviously there's been an awful lot of podcasts that have happened since I recorded my response. And one of those podcasts is obviously the Sith List. And one of the things I wasn't aware of that I did pick up in terms of news from Eric was that apparently there's
00:32:35
Speaker
pretty much confirmation through a role that's being advertised over at Lucasfilm for an animator for a new Star Wars animation series. Now, it's not an awful lot of news. And Eric very clearly explains that there's not an awful lot of context to it or indeed proof as to what the animated series will be. But the fact that we're getting more of it, I think is
00:33:04
Speaker
Pretty awesome. We can speculate another day as to what we think it might be. We can speculate as to what we can create a wish list as what we hope it might be.
Collectibles and Market Dynamics
00:33:21
Speaker
But that's the only other thing that I picked up as noteworthy, if you like, in terms of news. Nice. That's awesome.
00:33:35
Speaker
I love it that we. Like there's a there's a lot about the world and like art and our connectedness that is not always the best, but the fact there there is kind of like that glimmer a little bit of like the fact that people monitor like patents and trademarks or they monitor the job post. I love that job listings. And it's just like it's so funny that there's just there's like so niche, but like you just get
00:34:02
Speaker
nuggets of things. And like, yeah, there's a lot of people who spin it for like negative stuff of like, oh, we're getting an animated show in six months. It's like, well, I mean, that's not.
00:34:11
Speaker
It's a little bit how the sausage is made, but it's kind of fun though. Yeah. It's a bit like how, I mean, you know, I don't collect anything like I used to collect, but it's a little bit like how Yakface could identify a product code on a target website as to what that will be in terms of a new Black Series figure that may or may not come out.
00:34:35
Speaker
Pretty much is being spot on in terms of is that that kind of that kind of forensics I think is phenomenal and it's kind of it's like a kind of lost I feel a bit disappointed that we've lost that kind of enthusiasm and that kind of investigation and seem to be defending ourselves against
00:34:58
Speaker
unnecessary bullshit hate again. But but yeah, it's it's I love that kind of stuff. I love it. I absolutely love it. Speaking of yak face, there was a piece of news that has lab cantina set got funded. Yes, the eighth, I saw the 1000 that it needed it got almost 15,000 backers, which
00:35:25
Speaker
Did it get all the tears? All the other tears? I don't think it got all of them. I mean, I'll be honest with you. When you think about it, when you think about something as iconic as the sale barge, I'm thinking about the stuff that I would have if I
00:35:47
Speaker
I don't know, if I went through an emotional divorce or something and I had disposable income. You know, the sale barge, you know, the razor crest and soon to be the ghost as well. These are iconic. A playset? Perhaps I wouldn't have thought it would have been
00:36:13
Speaker
as much of a there wouldn't be as much demand for it but see how shocked it
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah. And great and brilliant. And that is them reading their market properly for the first time. Not for the first time, sorry. That's unfair. But reading their market and understanding what their fans want and getting it right is phenomenal. I still feel gutted to this day about the whole
00:36:47
Speaker
the whole shame around around what they did with the rank or when there was property or there was entertainment only a couple of weeks away that could have really leverage that to make it work it's like oh god you need to you know make sure your left hand your right hand is is is um
00:37:06
Speaker
is communicating. Sorry. You were saying it got all the tiers except for one. It did not get the 17000 tier. But all that was was like the the wolf man looking dude. But it did get the the four armed four armed robot looking thing. I come out of the gas mask. Yeah. And it got it got the Greedo.
00:37:32
Speaker
If they've already done the Wolfman as a mold, I'm sure it'll come out as a single card. Just like they do with all the others, like the Ghost. It's just an exclusive card back and stuff, but the figures will still come out anyway at some point. That's really cool. Maybe their research team are doing the right thing and listening. I would still like to see more stuff on Black Series though.
00:38:00
Speaker
as an original 3.75 inch collector. I'd love to see them really work out something quite smart for Black Series in Pulse.
00:38:18
Speaker
I'd love to see somebody do maybe a crowdfunding or whatever it takes. I would love for somebody to kind of step into that niche that I currently fill with model. Like I love building models, you know that. But like,
00:38:33
Speaker
The even a three like the vintage collection scale is too big for ships like the ships are massive. Like I would love to see somebody step into that like crowdfunded highly detailed ship space but at a very small scale kind of like the micro galaxy squadron stuff that I always harp on but do it at a at a
00:38:54
Speaker
an adult collector kind of level, whether it's crowdfunding or whatever, I think that would be super interesting to see how it goes. Like at the 172 scale or 144, maybe whether it's like metal or the highly detailed plastic or whatever it is, I think they'd be kind of sick. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. So so you're saying over index on it and make it a little bit more expensive for something that's going to actually be
00:39:24
Speaker
worth people jumping into. And I kind of get that. I know there's guys like Jelly Collecting and Fly Guy in particular that I follow. Well, Fly Guy in particular is somewhat, or seems to be somewhat demotivated by Black Series in recent years. And I understand it and I really don't understand it because it seems to be
00:39:52
Speaker
What should be the premium end of collecting? They don't seem to have as much ingenuity because
00:40:11
Speaker
at the premium end, tooling costs so much. It costs so much. Tooling and painting costs so much. And I would love to see them jump in and try again, like they did with the Rank Core, and try again with something that is designed for Black Series.
00:40:32
Speaker
But not necessarily think about it sitting on the shelf as being more sculptural, more something that you would have as a sculpture or to your point have as a work of art because the scale is just way too big to be on the shelf along with the rest of our crap that we have on our shelves.
00:40:54
Speaker
more like a has lab or a direct like an order direct kind of Hasbro pulse kind of thing instead of putting them on the shelves at every store and then you have all the peg warmers. It's like because I will say I think the best things that come out of the black series are the holiday repaints. I love those things. I think they're hilarious. I think they're they're awesome. Yeah, especially the new Halloween one. I think I think they're funny. But if they did more like because everybody wants to niche characters, even the vintage collection stuff, it's I.
00:41:23
Speaker
I think there's an opportunity for both sides, for consumers and for businesses to move to that model. Because I go to my local Walmart or Target, it's not local, I have to drive away to Carson City, DC. But I'm always like, oh, I wonder what's going to be in there. And it's just, there's nothing. And I think that kind of kicks you out of the
00:41:43
Speaker
Like I got out of the black series already anyways, because I had too many of them and it's like, I'm just getting a bunch of junk. But if they had cool stuff that they invested in, and maybe I could get it directly and get the things that I want, it's kind of kind of like buying a car. It's like, I want a certain car with these features and this color. Like I wish I didn't have to go to a dealer to talk to them and get hassled and get a car I don't really want. If I could just
00:42:10
Speaker
get it made to order or whatever, and then have it arrive when it's done, that would be very nice. We're just not there yet. That's why I find the custom... I would say the more commercial side of what you add and
00:42:35
Speaker
and Chris do and I need to share actually I'm really sorry I we haven't even got to what I've been listening to yet I did listen to your episode last week with the boys and I appreciate you holding the fort while I was away and B I thought was it's a fascinating area that you guys are involved in and I wish I had the
00:42:56
Speaker
the inclination, the patience, and also the ability to be able to do what you guys do. But to that point, and we'll talk a little bit about that later on, but to that point, the idea of using Black Series to create something rather special,
00:43:19
Speaker
I think will be a really sound strategy for Hasbro. And I think about when
00:43:28
Speaker
the sequels were launched. Sorry, the Disney era was launched. And I think about the vehicles, for example, that came with Ray, that with Enthusnest were big, but they were relevant, and they were affordable, and they were the appropriate size.
00:43:53
Speaker
they tried to be quite venturous with the TIE fighter, the first-order TIE fighter, and it was a big, big piece of work. So you're naturally going to exclude an awful lot of people because the size of it. And so to your point, the idea of build to order,
00:44:15
Speaker
and just keep it going. And unfortunately it will be more expensive, but it will be based on demand. I think it's really quite smart. I would love on the floor of my room, not on the shelf because it's too big. I would love a 12 inch scale, sorry, 12 inch scale, a six inch scale ATSD with Chewie in it. I mean, that for me would be fundamentally
00:44:42
Speaker
mind-blowing to have in my house. The size of it would mean it would need to sit on the floor. And so therefore, I think that Hasbro need to kind of re-address, A, their market, B, the accessibility and the affordability of their demographic or demographics in plural, sorry, but also
00:45:07
Speaker
kind of rather than to your, to your point, rather make it has lab, make it built to order, which if that means potentially adding a hundred bucks on top of the price, then so be it, but at least you're not, you know, you're not, you're not, you're not shouting your own business model and you can.
Content Consumption and Media Preferences
00:45:27
Speaker
you know, you can accommodate it. But yes, sorry, to my point was that in the meantime, you've also got an awful lot of people that are building this stuff themselves, and making files available for anyone that's got a laser printer, or you know,
00:45:42
Speaker
And I'm seeing some amazing stuff out there at the moment with folk that are building some pretty good screen accurate stuff to accommodate six inch black series figures. We show in practical in most people's houses, but it's accessible to folk that are able to either print their own or buy the parts and build it themselves.
00:46:13
Speaker
God, that was a long one. Didn't expect to go down that way. We've got to fill the content somehow, yeah. Yeah, I know. So listen, very quickly. So I have been relatively, when it goes down to what we've watched, listened to, or read, my
00:46:42
Speaker
My itinerary has been quite restrictive for obvious reasons. What I did was I downloaded Blue Eye Samurai from the airport Wi-Fi and I have to say that I've listened to folks like Randy and
00:46:59
Speaker
Les and Iraj, Sithless talking about it being great, the best animated series they've seen for quite a while. And I have to agree, it's pretty damn amazing. And I implore anyone that hasn't seen it yet to watch it.
00:47:16
Speaker
Um, especially if you like us, like Shogun, uh, you like the whole Japanese cultural style of things, uh, a little bit of mysticism on top of it, but with some very, very cute or some, sorry, not cute, but cute. Um, um, uh, nudges or, um, how can I put this?
00:47:39
Speaker
some very cute pokes at imperialism during that time. I thought it was amazing. It's not my
00:47:50
Speaker
I'm hoping one day we'll get pause on the pod and we'll talk about our favourite animated series. It's not my number one, but it certainly is very close to my number two at the moment. It's a really, really great series and I'm so glad I had it on my phone while I was away. Luckily, I've got that Gigantis phone that you keep ridiculing me for, so it was quite good.
00:48:18
Speaker
to have that available to me. What I've been listening to is as many pods I can get my hands on. I listened to you guys last week. I'm so stoked for you guys to get together and talk about your art stuff. I don't think you covered half of what you guys need to talk about. But I'm really chuffed that we've started that conversation with the boys. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Ed.
00:48:48
Speaker
your, your insight, but your insight as well. Um, Sean is just phenomenal. And you know, you guys talk about techniques like that just blow my head off. And so I listened to that and really, really enjoyed it. Listening, of course, to the, um, uh, the guys over at Star Wars spell out, um, covering the, um, with their coverage.
00:49:16
Speaker
as quickly as I can on the Acolyte series. Gutted I can't join. I haven't been able to join them in the last couple of weeks. But listening to that as well and really, really enjoying that. Our buddy Rick was on a pod recently with Katherine's own podcast which was brilliant. That was a really good podcast.
00:49:42
Speaker
No, it was really good because they got into some really deep stuff without kind of the normal bro jokery that we normally do with amongst ourselves. And I thought it was really, really, really deep. And I love his take on, on Andor as well. And then reading, you know that I, I hammered a few
00:50:00
Speaker
or I bought a few graphic novels to go out because I don't know what it is. I'm on the beach and it's like, do I want to read a book or do I want to read a graphic novel? I read a bunch of graphic novels and it aligns itself quite nicely with the latest news on Blade Runner 2099 being in production. There is a series of books or a series of graphic novels published by, one second, sorry, published by
00:50:30
Speaker
by Titan and they've they've kind of done
00:50:39
Speaker
an ancillary set of graphic novels alongside the original Blade Runner series from Blade Runner Origins which is based in 2009. They got a Blade Runner 2019, 2029 and 2049. They've got a whole bunch of graphic novel series that I've started getting into and they're really really good. On top of that
00:51:09
Speaker
despite the fact that I may not like the director or the creator I've got back into reading a few more of the Firefly the original Firefly or Serenity graphic novel that came out I love that series and I feel grieved I like that series despite the fact that I don't necessarily appreciate or respect the creator I love that series and
00:51:37
Speaker
I've been getting up or I'm bringing myself up to date on some of the graphic novels that were being launched over the last couple of years by Boom Comics, which have been good. And there's another couple as well. But but they're the main things I've been watching, listening to and reading over the last two weeks while I've been away. What about yourself?
00:52:06
Speaker
So it's been a it's been a weird. It's been a weird like week or so. Like just kind of what they I think I seriously think I've had like brain fog from the heat or something. I don't know what it is. So since the latest episode of The Acolyte, I haven't I have not listened to any of our friends podcasts.
00:52:26
Speaker
I don't know if out of solidarity of wanting to talk to you about it before getting influenced by other people or just something, I don't know. But I did, since I've been doing all that outside work and stuff, I have been catching up on a lot of past episodes of the Sack Off show. Oh, whoa. I listened to a couple of them for a while, but then when I went on that trip and stuff, a lot of them piled up. But I've been catching up on them.
00:52:56
Speaker
I've been I've been really enjoying some episodes more than others, but I've been really enjoying that show. They're just the the openness that I think some people come on with is is very, very interesting, very
00:53:14
Speaker
a fresh take, especially when it kind of relates to some of the stuff that we're doing, some of our interests and things like that. So I do recommend that. Can I ask a question? Can I ask a question? I mean, you know, I've been listening to it for quite a while and I find that and I hope I'm not out of order saying this, but I find that my enjoyment of the show is dependent on the guest.
00:53:44
Speaker
which sounds ridiculously, it sounds ridiculously obvious. But I do find when Katie is leading the discussion herself, it can be somewhat self absorbent, or it can be somewhat
00:54:01
Speaker
Does that even make sense? It can be somewhat focused on her, which is not the point in my mind of the interview. And when she has a really engaged guest that leads her through the interview as opposed to the other way around, it's a heck of an episode. It really is.
00:54:26
Speaker
Yeah, and I think I think a big piece of that is it's not that there's anything wrong with Katie or her or her stories, but it's like, but when she's leading, it gets repetitive on what's going on with her and her life and her stories and her beliefs, which I think that's not just a Katie Sackhoff thing. I think it's in any podcast thing. I think when she has a more engaging guest, I think she does a fantastic job at kind of
00:54:54
Speaker
amplifying like their story, their narrative and what makes them interesting. Like the guy who's the stunt person for the Mandalorian
00:55:06
Speaker
and he was talking about CTE and all the traumatic brain injuries. I mean, he was all over the place, but I thought that that interview was very interesting to listen to and all the stuff that came out of it. And while others maybe take more of a backseat and it's not as interesting, because that's what you're there for. The guests are the reason that you're listening.
00:55:31
Speaker
and trying to get something out of them. So if they're not as, I think it's less of a Katie issue and more of a guest issue of like, if they're not coming in and willing to share or for most cases, I think overshare in a lot of ways, then I think the episode suffers. But yeah, I agree. I agree with what you're saying. 100%. Yeah, no, I enjoy it. I enjoy it. And there are episodes that will stand out for me.
00:56:02
Speaker
You know, in particular, I really enjoyed her episodes. I get these names right, if it kills me. With Trisha Helfer, who played Seven in the original Battlestar Galactia, and
00:56:22
Speaker
Oh, on that point, Rick and Rick and Catherine, you are not going to talk about Battlestar Galactica without me. I'm coming for you whether you like it or not. I'm going to talk about Battlestar Galactica together because I really love that show. Anyway, but but but not only her but with I mean the kit the Kevin Smith episode.
00:56:47
Speaker
Kevin Smith turned the entire, the entire episode round to be interviewing her, which I thought was phenomenal and really clever. He's the only one that's been able to do that. Um, and she was quite okay to, to, to let it ride that way. But honestly, the guy absolutely ran that, ran that one. Ming now when I love that episode, that was the first one I jumped on for and then went backwards.
00:57:14
Speaker
from that particular episode because I love Mignal so well, so much, sorry. I love the complete audacity of that woman and her courage and her... I just love her. She's got more conviction than
00:57:44
Speaker
many, many, many, many different people, many, many actors that I admire. And as a result, you know, is one of my faves. But anyway, no, it's a great show. But when when she when she finds more of a mate than a colleague to interview, I find it a little bit self
00:58:07
Speaker
self-serving and a little bit, a little bit, just occasionally a little bit, I wouldn't say dull, but monotonous, monotonous, monotonous, repetitive, monotonous. There you go. Words. Who needs words?
00:58:27
Speaker
But yeah, all good. Anything else, mate? I started reading the Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, which recently came out, and the premise intrigued me, kind of written from a historical narrative.
00:58:49
Speaker
I just I mean, I'm like 10 pages in. But the idea, since it's not connected, it's not like higher public or anything like that, where I feel like I have such a mountain to to catch up on just kind of stepping into this book, I feel is a lot easier. Is it heavy? I mean, I'm only 10 pages in, but it doesn't feel like it. No, what I'm saying is, is it is it kind of like
00:59:16
Speaker
I mean, what I'm used to is kind of like a picture book with. No, no, it's not. It's got a lot of words. It is most mostly sentences, you know, paragraphs, chapters, black ink on white paper kind of kind of thing. It's it seems pretty light. It's almost like I don't want to call it a parody because that's not what it is, but it's
00:59:40
Speaker
It's written in the style of like a historical retrospective. I mean, I'm only 10 pages, but there are times where it seems very...
00:59:52
Speaker
very self-aware of like the happenings of the Skywalker saga, things like that. But I know it's kind of like the initial introduction to the book, but it does seem interesting to kind of like see it written in that way. So I will report back as I read more. Cool.
Summer Activities and Tahoe Tourism
01:00:10
Speaker
I have not watched anything.
01:00:15
Speaker
Besides an absolute ton of YouTube, I've been listening to a lot of music. I think these recent concerts and stuff have kind of got me going on like a music kick and just spending a lot of my time with my headphones on doing... Maybe that's why I'm outside doing all that stuff, just doing mundane tasks that I've needed to do for a while. So not a lot of content getting watched right now. That's cool.
01:00:38
Speaker
And plus, I think it's been hard with the hikers and stuff coming in and out. He's like, hey, you want to watch some random show that you've, because these people have been out on trail for months. A lot of them have been out since March or April. And so they're not connected to anything. So I don't want to be like, hey, have you watched The Acolyte? I don't know. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. So I think that's also been having an effect on my content consumption.
01:01:08
Speaker
But, you know, it's changed. It's summer and things like that. I did. I did get to go to the beach and watch that helicopter thing, which is still freaking cool. I'm watching like a C-130 flyover like super low and dropping flares and like a just a Fourth of July demonstration thing. So there's been. Did you did you have all of the. I'm assuming. Sorry, here I am making assumptions and I don't know. I'm assuming in Tahoe that there's a lot.
01:01:37
Speaker
It's a little bit more low key for July the 4th. Or is it? Do you have all the fireworks? Do you have the guys blowing themselves up and all that shit? So fireworks are banned in California because our our entire state is like a giant tinderbox. And so yeah, we tend to get set on fire a lot. But considering we're like three miles away from the state line of Nevada,
01:02:03
Speaker
Uh, which is a fun historical thing of like, Oh, like Tahoe was supposed to be California, but a, a surveying air ended up drawing the state line, like right through kind of through the middle of it state. Nevada doesn't care. They have fireworks. So we all just sit on the California side and look across the lake and watch the fireworks that are just seriously. Uh, yeah, it's as close as that. Yeah. So like half a taco, half a taco is Nevada. Half of it is California.
01:02:30
Speaker
Holy shit, I never does that. Wow. So that's why my town I live in South Lake Tahoe. So I can drive east. And you can tell where Nevada starts because the road immediately on the side of that casinos are legal in Nevada, too. So the state line is literally just swarmed with casinos.
01:02:48
Speaker
And so the casinos are the ones we put on the fireworks show on the water and so we can set on the beach. And that's for people that are living in Tahoe on the south side wanting to do a bit of gambling so they go north to
01:03:03
Speaker
We're a big tourist town, skiing, water stuff and stuff. It's a bit like that. But what's kind of cool is you can sit on the beach and watch across the lake and see the different fireworks shows going on from like... So Tahoe is 20 miles by 12 miles, like kind of rough dimensions. And so you could see like 20 miles north.
01:03:21
Speaker
You can see fireworks shows going on over there just like real little like shooting off and it's pretty neat. But I wouldn't say it's like crazy like back home in Indiana where I grew up. Yeah, people are blowing their hands off buying illegal fireworks across state lines and doing all this stuff. So yeah, we don't have that as much. But we definitely have the
01:03:42
Speaker
We definitely have the tourism coming in, like, so everybody descends upon. So normally during 4th of July, I will not leave the house, usually, because everybody and their brother descends upon this area, and it's just absolute insanity. But we did leave this year because they were doing that air show, like two helicopters and people jumping at it, like right on the water, like it was blowing people's tents off the beach, and they're flying up over the bushes,
01:04:12
Speaker
getting to see us there. My dad was in the Air Force, so I have like a tendency to like be fascinated with airplanes. So we got to go see him at the airport and then the next day they did that thing. So we ventured out for that. But anyways, all that say, I haven't been watching any. I haven't really been watching anything. I'm excited. I did watch the acolyte. I watched it on my phone while we had hikers at the house. I watched on my phone in my bedroom with the door closed. So it would be rude. So I was like, watch it on my phone.
01:04:41
Speaker
I have to watch it right now. That's what I've been doing for two weeks. I felt obliged. I felt so
Podcast Reactions and Content Creation
01:04:48
Speaker
obliged. I can't not do my duty to Sean. I can't not do my duty. So for the last two weeks, and I promised you before I left that I'd send you a voicemail, which is leading up to what we're going to talk to you guys about. But the point being is that I felt so obliged.
01:05:05
Speaker
I feel as if he's doing all the work. So I've got it. I've got to do some work. Of course, I'm either on a boat, or I'm in the middle of nowhere, or either way, I've got I've got to record something. And the first time wasn't so bad. But the second time was like, so friggin noisy at the marine. And I said, I've got to I've got to send Sean something. But I've been kind of reacting to a moment that I saw on a okay,
01:05:34
Speaker
on a phone screen. It's like, oh shit, am I really qualified to do this? I'll do it anyway. I'll do it here. Which, which, which leads on to a point. So guys, I can't remember what I said. So the last two weeks, as you know, I've been on holiday for two weeks. And every Wednesday I have downloaded the, the episode.
01:06:03
Speaker
I've burnt through my data plan. I've I've I've downloaded the episode on my phone. I've watched the episode and then immediately sent Sean a reaction. I can't remember what I said to Sean last week. I felt it was quite
01:06:19
Speaker
cool and quite zen and quite a diligent in places but as usual i'm typically wrong however the most important point being i can't remember what i said so therefore what we've agreed to do if it's okay with you we've agreed to play what i sent shawn last wednesday on my initial thoughts because of course i'm now back in the uk albeit only by
01:06:49
Speaker
12 hours or so and so I've heard an awful lot of subsequent updates on my initial thoughts and people clarifying stuff so what we thought we'd do was for your audio pleasure for your audio pleasure play with you play you the voicemail I left Sean
01:07:10
Speaker
Um, and then leave it to Sean to kind of respond, uh, in real time on his thoughts of the episode, because
Analysis of 'Acolyte' Episode
01:07:19
Speaker
quite frankly, I can't remember what I said four days ago. And that's, and that's going to be fun about this is because I haven't, I haven't listened to any pods and I really haven't been engaged in any discourse. So I've been kind of.
01:07:31
Speaker
I think personally, just because I haven't wanted to engage in any of it, but also because like, oh, I've been kind of in this holding pattern. So I'm still pretty fresh on it. So this will be interesting to see how this. I love our podcast, mate. We're absolute fucking chaos. I love it. I absolutely love it. It's like it feels like we're doing all the wrong things, but it turns out right. You know, just like it's like, hey, we don't do immediate reactions. We do delayed reactions.
01:08:00
Speaker
It's like, have you, have you been thinking about the show? It's like, not really, not really, but I'm going to come in a couple of days later and play a voicemail and react to that. Andy's voicemail immediate reactions. All right. But anyways, without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and play. I apologize for saying it was a 45 minute voicemail last episode. It was not 45. It's pretty short and I enjoyed it. So let's get that out of the way first. All right. Here we go. And here comes Andy's voicemail. One, two, three, go.
01:08:30
Speaker
morning buddy it's your roving reporter from Portugal reporting in hopefully you can hear me okay we're about to take the boat out so unfortunately the the marina is quite busy and noisy so I hope I'm coming through okay yeah what an episode
01:08:48
Speaker
What an episode. I really, really enjoyed it. We got the flashback that we expected, albeit I somewhat didn't expect the entire episode to be the flashback. I mean, there are so many loose ends that need to be tied up still before next week's finale. I kind of didn't think we had enough time to dedicate an entire episode to another flashback, but I'm glad we did. And I'm glad we got to see
01:09:17
Speaker
Not all, but a lot of the gaps filled from the original iteration. Interesting to see the Jedi originally were there for benevolent means. They weren't expecting the witches to be there. They were there to take samples. Great to see Kalnaka with a metal detector. That was funny. I'm up for that.
01:09:46
Speaker
We need to ask Rick to clear this up, but they mentioned that the planet should be desolate and barren without any life due to a hyperspace disaster. Now, if memory serves, is that some kind of reference to the High Republic novels whereby some sort of hyperspace disaster was a culmination of the war with the Nile?
01:10:14
Speaker
We'll have to check out with Rick if that's the case. If so, that could be the first proper connective tissue with the novels that we've seen so far. Interesting that they're actually taking samples and studying the planet, looking for a virgins. Haven't heard that term being used since the Phantom Menace, where we see Anakin himself as being called a virgins in the force. Interesting stuff. First time we also,
01:10:44
Speaker
here a reference during this season of the term Night Witches, now whether they are or whether they aren't, the fact that Torben called them that is quite interesting. And certainly some of the stuff we see later on in the episode indicates they certainly have very similar abilities to the Witches of Dathomir, but I digress. Souls out and about, we see him
01:11:12
Speaker
discover the two children by the bunter tree. Again, which would indicate that they haven't been studying them for quite a while. They've actually just literally come across them by accident or by chance. And obviously he reports back to his team, completely overreacts, completely overreacts, suspecting they're in some kind of danger from their own family. I mean, a complete
01:11:38
Speaker
very strange overreaction. In fact, one thing that I think that Leslie did, I'm assuming Leslie expects, who is a very, very prolific and very clever writer. I'm assuming she's kind of written the episode for us to make the assumptions that the Jedi certainly aren't heroes.
01:12:07
Speaker
We see frailty on their part. We see emotional immaturity, certainly on Sol and Torvin's part. We see this unwarranted position of entitlement that they believe that they know what's right in the universe. And I can't believe that Leslie expects us to still see them as benevolent heroes after this episode. Certainly, I don't anyway.
01:12:36
Speaker
Interesting that the witches are using an old mining site. I certainly found it strange that supposedly there's been no life on this planet for 100 years. And yet, the dwelling where the witches have set up their cavern is an old mining site, which will explain Itsir very much in disrepair and in ruin. So that kind of colored that up for me.
01:13:04
Speaker
I found it interesting the way that Mother Anissa, Anissaia sorry, got into Torbin's head and manipulated his fears or most importantly, his desire to return home, to really manipulate him and to control him. And I thought that was quite an interesting way of going about it. But still all the way through this soul is blind and pushing for this
01:13:31
Speaker
for the team to take the children. It's really, in many cases, quite perverse that he has this assumption that it's right that they take the children. It's right that Osher becomes his padawan. It's, again, demonstrating emotional immaturity, which will explain why he hasn't had a padawan up until now.
01:14:00
Speaker
Indara knows that. And in fact, there are quite a few glances. I saw little, little subtle glances that she gave him, which demonstrate that I don't think she also trusts him as she knows how volatile he is at this moment in time and somewhat loose cannon. Anyway, moving on.
01:14:24
Speaker
It's interesting that her main lies as well during her test, which we kind of assume, but the fact is that Sol doesn't want to push it. He lets her go willingly without pushing it. Unlike the, uh, when Ocean went through her test and her trials, uh, where he manipulated the situation that she would pass. Uh, because again, um, he very much appealed to her, her own desires and manipulated the situation so that she would pass.
01:14:53
Speaker
again, really, really messed up. Everyone must be sacrificed, which was an expression that the witches used during the ceremony or prior to the ceremony. And I think that's where Seoul really did misinterpret where they were coming from and decided to interfere.
01:15:17
Speaker
The fact that the council said no is interesting. The fact that both Torbin and Soule defied the council, they've got no problem at all defying the council for what they believe is right. Again, this heightened sense of entitlement or superiority that they have, which very much came over during this episode. Interesting that they talked about
01:15:42
Speaker
May and OSHA being one conscious across two bodies, really, really interesting begs the question, something traumatic, or something even deadly happens to one of them, what happens to the other? Are they codependent? You know, down to the very fact of their, their, their very existence, their life, are they codependent that way? I'll take that will be certainly an interesting spin on their relationship, or again, that they're codependent.
01:16:13
Speaker
Torbin loses it, completely loses it, and decides for himself that if he can take children and take them back to Coruscant, then he can get, he can prove the convergence, sorry, the virgins in the force and go home. So it defies all orders. I mean, it's pretty chaotic, right? The amount of lack of discipline that these guys have got is astounding.
01:16:39
Speaker
Anyway, he goes off. Soul chases after him, but obviously colludes with him when it comes down to thinking what is best, and they then set forth to grab the kids. I mean, what an asshole. Anyway, Mother Coral, as we suspected, stirs things up. Very aggressive. She gets both May to destroy the workings of the
01:17:11
Speaker
The mining site door, but also start stirring the witches up and getting them prepped. She's right at the heart of all of this. We don't interestingly see her at the end of the episode, at the end of the flashback, which may well lean nicely to your and my theory that she's still afoot and still can play part of the current day situation that we may or may not see in the finale.
01:17:37
Speaker
um, soul kills mother. And I say, when all she was doing was trying to protect me and, and, and prevent, um, the battle that was then to commence. I mean, it was, um, what the hell, I mean, what the hell, I mean, talk about, talk about lack of control, talk about lack of discipline. I mean, how he even became a Jedi demonstrating these kinds of, um,
01:18:07
Speaker
Characteristics is beyond me, but yeah, certainly soul is not the hero of this season for sure. Interesting to see that it wasn't Torben and it was Killnaka in the end that was controlled by the by the witches. I thought it would be a reverse on that being that Torben seemingly is so weak minded. But now it's Killnaka that we end up see being controlled by the witches and kicking off with an almighty saber battle, seeing him throw down
01:18:35
Speaker
with that green saber and then to carry on with his fists was pretty awesome. And of course that was then that connection with the witches or control from the witches was broken by Indara. One thing that I couldn't work out and I was somewhat disappointed with was that it seemed that in breaking the connection between Kanaka and the witches, it seemed to kill the witches, which I was a bit disappointed about. I thought they were
01:19:06
Speaker
stronger than that, shall I say? I don't want to say that they seem weak, but it certainly seems bizarre that an individual, that Jedi, using her mind to break their influence on her collie, seemed to tip to kill them. Or is there something else afoot there that we're not aware of? But it just seems to be that she managed to kill them in pushing back. Bizarre.
01:19:33
Speaker
Interesting that we saw Sol choosing to save Osha as opposed to Mei. Now he was put in an impossible position and he was trying to save both at the time, but the fact that he purposely saved Osha over Mei demonstrates really the obsession that he has with this feeling that she should, her destiny lies with him and she should be his apprentice, which is interesting.
01:20:02
Speaker
And then lastly, obviously it wraps up with the lie. And one of the things I'm really surprised about is that was the most benevolent and the most controlling, sorry, the most controlled, the most leveled Jedi of all of them in Dara creating this almighty lie. We saw that Mei did not purposely start for fire. She was trying to set fire to Ocea's book and that was it. It was the
01:20:29
Speaker
I'm assuming the fuel or the gas within the lantern itself that created the fire when she dropped it. The fact that she was happy to create this elaborate lie that OSHA would then live her life or would shape OSHA's subsequent life with the Jedi, I found really, really bizarre. Anyway, lots to think about.
01:20:57
Speaker
Still quite a few threads that haven't been tied up yet. For example, we didn't get to see anything of Ymir and his history with the Jedi. In particular, those scars that he got on his back, which seemed to kind of make a decision for him to leave the Order. Didn't see any of that this week. While I did expect some flashbacks, I didn't expect it exclusively to be 16 years ago on that planet.
01:21:25
Speaker
If indeed Leslie is planning this or designed this to be a, either a standalone series or one of many seasons potentially. Um, Unfortunately, I got a feeling that we're going to see some of the loose ends not tied up by the end of this finale, uh, next week, unless of course it's extended extended finale. And we, we get a lot more time to be able to kind of tie those up in a, in a nice little bow or with a nice little bow.
01:21:53
Speaker
Don't know mate, don't know, but I really, really enjoyed it and I'm glad that some of the easy way out they could have taken weren't taken, if you know what I mean? The fact is that the Jedi aren't good, the Jedi didn't do the right thing. The fact that they disobeyed orders, the fact that they are showing
01:22:17
Speaker
clearly demonstrating their hubris and their arrogance here. And like I say, I keep repeating myself, their emotional maturity, I think is really, really good. It could have been just an accident. It could have been just the witches that created the issue. And that is not the case. So I'm really happy that they went down that line.
01:22:40
Speaker
to give us that kind of ambiguity and to give and to question who our real heroes are in this season or this series. Anyway, mate, really looking forward to catching up with you next week when I'm back in the UK. We're off now on the boat for a while, so it'll be a while till I catch up with you again. Hope you well. Look after yourself. Give my love to Madison. And like I said, really looking forward to talking about
01:23:08
Speaker
not only the finale, but the whole series with you next week. Look after yourself, buddy. Bye now. God, I can talk. So let me address the elephant in the room, and let me ask you a question. Are those hand dryers that we hear in the background? No, they're cranes and stuff, moving stuff around in the marina.
01:23:35
Speaker
I thought you were sitting outside of a public restroom or something and now it was the sound of everybody drying their hands. No, it's a working marina, so there's a lot of stuff going on.
01:23:49
Speaker
I just had to find somewhere quiet as best I can, which ironically had to be a... It was actually an Irish pub, so it wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad. That sounded good. So I took some Andy-style notes as it was planned, so I got to step through those. I enjoyed the hyperspace disaster reference as well. I assume that's talking about the great hyperspace disaster from the High Republic books.
01:24:16
Speaker
Well, well, I was gonna say subsequently, this is the reason why I was quite keen to remember what I thought last Wednesday, because
01:24:27
Speaker
My thoughts last, last Wednesday were literally as soon as I'd seen it. And, um, subsequently I've obviously listened to Rick's catch up and pause as well. And a few other folk that know that, know that media. Um, and they've pretty much said, Oh, this is a really cool callback to those times. So I don't think we need it legitimized anymore, but it's kind of cool that I got my thoughts aligned with the facts.
01:25:00
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So yeah, that was a cool callback. I thought it was interesting that Anastasia was the one who manipulated Torben. That was an interesting thing because I would have thought it would be Mother Coral. I thought it was going to be that. You mentioned something about like the breaking of the witches from Kal Naka.
01:25:24
Speaker
And it's interesting that you took it as that they died. I thought they just like passed out. That was that stuff. That's like still, I mean, I haven't listened to anything. So I still might continue thought it's like, Oh, it just like knocked them all out and that they're not all actually dead. Except for and the, and the, and the explosion at the end was what wiped them out. I, I, I, I, I'd be, I'd be okay with that. But at the time when I watched it, I was like, shit. What?
01:25:49
Speaker
They all just passed out. They all just like, well, it's like a overdramatized kind of, we've passed out now. It was really weird. Well, I think there's like this, I kind of made this point on a couple of different things and I'll mention it now. I think there's more, I think there's still more that we're not
01:26:17
Speaker
fully seeing about what happened. Yeah, I know that I know just from like the little bit of conversation I've seen in our discord and stuff and. And I'm sure people are talking about as well, it's like. About basically soul being an asshole. I still think there is more. Either good or bad about Saul that that we were not getting, I think he's purposely, I don't want to say being misrepresented.
01:26:46
Speaker
But I think there's still a more complex situation, including the pre-existing relationship with him and Indara, the reason why he doesn't have a Padawan. I think there's more to that situation with him and Osha. I think it's currently being led in that he's grossly overstepping in a negative way.
01:27:15
Speaker
Not that I think he's all good, I don't mean to say it that way, but I'm just like, my gut is telling me it's like there is, they are intentionally kind of doing a red herring with Saul being like, oh, he's just kind of indignant and impulsive and a real piece of shit. I think they're doing that intentionally. I think we're gonna get revealed what actually happened and what's actually going on in like the motivations or the rationale behind a lot of it.
01:27:44
Speaker
Can I interrupt that? I love that. The first flashback we saw was
01:27:54
Speaker
one side of a one perception. The second time we saw it was another perception or somebody else's side of the story. And then the reality is somewhere in the middle. I love that idea. I guess the only thing I would say is that that would land really well if we had more time. But it's the finale next week.
01:28:17
Speaker
I love that. I love that concept. In fact, our Bodhi Turbo has talked about the idea of each flashback being from someone's point of view or from someone's perspective and somewhere in the middle is the reality. I love that, but do we have time?
01:28:39
Speaker
um well i think that's kind of the no no no i think you're i think you're you're spot on and i think that's maybe where some of my disappointment is coming from i don't want to i think that's a strong word but because i think i went into this
01:28:57
Speaker
this show with the expectations based on what kind of Leslie Headland and Starward and Lucasfilm have put out about like, Oh, but now I'm reading between the lines more about I was expecting it to be like a one season one and done it with the possibility of being expanded. But I think they've I think they've misrepresented intentionally. So people
01:29:18
Speaker
go into it without the expectation of being multiple. But I think we are absolutely getting a season two. I think they're being truthful in saying that, oh, Leslie Headland originally wrote the treatment as a single season story. But I think when it came time to filming, they already knew.
01:29:39
Speaker
This is going to be a multiple season thing. Yeah. She, her original treatment was one season, but then it was changed. And now, but they've went with that story the whole time. So people didn't, so they expected it to be buttoned up. But I think we are now at that point where it's like, Oh no, they are absolutely doing multiple seasons.
01:29:59
Speaker
Cause there's like, I'm, I'm not going to harp on the train of like, there's just not enough time to do, wrap it all up in one episode. It's like, I'm sure everybody's harping on that already. And it's like, no, they have multiple season. I mean, I mean, there is, there is time to make it a very simple, straightforward story. But I think that.
01:30:19
Speaker
from my point of view, and I don't want to speak for you, but I think the reason why you and I have been invested so much is that the possibilities are really quite interesting. Really, really quite interesting. And so I don't believe there's a, I mean, there's certainly no coincidence, the reason why episode seven has been directed by the same person that directed episode three.
01:30:46
Speaker
Um, the flashbacks have been directed by one person. Maybe that same person is also, there's an extended cut of what was filmed, which they've said, once they got to a position where they said, actually, I want to drive this out to a second season. They might use that later, um, um, to, to, to, to put more flesh on the bones as it were. But, um, I mean, I'm not in any way disappointed, but like you, um,
01:31:16
Speaker
I want it to be deeper. I want it to be more complicated than perhaps the obvious.
01:31:26
Speaker
I mean, I love multiple seasons and more content. I'm always in that thing. I think they've created such a rich story that I will be, I think I was disappointed, I'm disappointed that they've like made it seem like we're gonna get a buttoned up one season story, like a tight, deep type story. But I think they've kind of diluted it a little bit the last couple episodes to be like, okay, if they do try to button this up in one episode, that's gonna be,
01:31:55
Speaker
It's gonna be hard to swallow because there's just so much. And like, I think it's deeper than, like, because there's always times where it's like, oh, you can flush that out with books and comics and supplementary materials. And I just think there's too much there.
01:32:12
Speaker
to lean on those. So that's why I'm fully in the camp of, oh, there's a season two and they've known. But they've wanted to keep that a secret because they didn't want people to be like, nothing's going to happen because it's going to be a season two. And plus, that's a nice announcement for a future event.
01:32:28
Speaker
from the business side of things. I don't want to say, disappointment's a strong word. I don't want to say, I don't mean it, like, ah, disappointed. That's like, uh. We, we, we, we.
Storytelling Techniques and Critique
01:32:39
Speaker
Cause I still love the show. I still love the show and I'm very excited for it. But, but even if you didn't, we don't do this. We don't, we don't do, we don't do the negative stuff. It's, it's, it's fine. It's absolutely fine. And I know that there's really good friends of ours that haven't quite felt about it.
01:32:57
Speaker
the way that we feel about it. And I also know there are folks that we love that have felt strongly or have really loved this series, sorry, this season versus other Star Wars.
01:33:13
Speaker
projects that have come out in recent years. This is the beauty of what we do. It doesn't have to be tip-top perfect. We can still analyze this and criticize it constructively and yet still really enjoy it. I'm having a blast. I really am.
01:33:36
Speaker
Same. And I think your point like what you're saying about turbo is that's kind of where my mentality is on it. It's that like that last flashback I think was from like an Indara and Torben perspective.
01:33:48
Speaker
And I think Saul, they still have as a mystery. We don't know any, we don't know any of his intentions. And I think they've done that purposely from a storytelling device to say like, we've never seen things from his perspective. Like, except for like him walking through the woods, but I've always felt like that was like a drone kind of out of body kind of.
01:34:07
Speaker
Unless we're seeing because the way that episode six ended, which is I will not let you go until you hear my side of the story. And then we have the flashback episode. This is soul's perception of what happened. In which case he is in his mind, done the most awful things.
01:34:32
Speaker
that he shouldn't have done, which automatically puts us as the viewing audience in a critical position when we consider him. But it's down to his perception of his actions. It's very easy for all of us that have done something bad to
01:34:55
Speaker
almost flagellate ourselves with what we've done and to over-index on the relevance, the importance, but also the heinous actions that we've done. And again, the reality of what happened may well be actually somewhere between the two. I don't know, I don't know, mate, but
01:35:21
Speaker
But I think that's what they want. I think that's what they want us to think. But I think if it's if it's Saul, then I think he will give when we do get Saul's real perspective.
Series Speculation and Production Insights
01:35:31
Speaker
I think he's going to like it's going to be like I keep talking about the memento thing. It's like I think we're going to get that clarity when we do get Saul's internal side of things where he's going because at some point in time, they're going to have to justify
01:35:48
Speaker
or give Sol's perspective on what he means by he feels connected to OSHA. And I think that is going to all of a sudden magically align a lot of puzzle pieces. Like, yeah, not necessarily justify his actions, but be like, oh, this is the piece of the puzzle. This is the linchpin that makes everything put everything into motion. Yeah, because that original, what we saw this week, sorry, last week now, so what we saw last week,
01:36:19
Speaker
was really weird and unhealthy. This obsession with this belief that he had or this vision that he had that you should be his padawan. It's like, all right, son, calm down. This is not right. So you could be right. So with that in mind, let me ask you a question. Do you reckon there are
01:36:46
Speaker
two versions of the Acolyte that were filmed. I don't mean in the same way that Rogue One was filmed and that Solo were filmed and due to editorial or change of directors that they changed. Do you reckon there are two versions, one that was originally conceived or storyboarded as a standalone episode? Sorry, a standalone season?
01:37:15
Speaker
as a series in its own right, as one season. And then the powers that be said, this is really quite juicy. Go ahead with your idea for four seasons, for example, Leslie. And as a result, there is stuff that has been filmed that may well find its way into a second season now that would have been
01:37:39
Speaker
films sorry that would have been included in season one had it been standalone so for example rather than a average of 30 minutes or 35 minutes per episode we'd have seen 40 45 minutes per episode but because the execs thought there was something juicy here let's let's turn it into two seasons and use some of that content in season two so it's a long way of me trying to ask the question
01:38:08
Speaker
Do you think there's season two? I do, it's gotta be. I absolutely think there's a season two, but to answer your question more granularly, I think the original treatment
01:38:18
Speaker
was a single story in a narrative about the complexities of a situation and the casting of decisions and impulsiveness and the Jedi and things. But then I think that story was they took two thirds of that story and said, we can expand on this and make it multiple seasons. And I think they're using two thirds of it.
01:38:41
Speaker
and have added things like this virgins. I think I still believe that this like creating of life stuff was not part of the original story. And I think it's going to be connected to Plagueis and Snoke and Anakin, yada, yada, yada. I think that stuff was added. I think it was originally like a high republic standalone, good evil people fucking up making mistakes.
01:39:10
Speaker
but then I think if they added this extra third and bolting on, and not only dragging it out in a negative way, but I absolutely think it's going to be multiple seasons. I like that. And the reason why I like that is because at the moment,
01:39:26
Speaker
I, I'm enjoying myself. I like the story. I like the fact that I'm speculating more than any other story that I've seen, because everything else has been pretty much cookie cutter, not cookie cutter, but relatively linear, let's say linear. So therefore it's quite easy to, there's no, there's no
01:39:50
Speaker
speculation of things that have gone on in the past. And so therefore, I like your idea because at the moment, despite how much I loving this, I can't see $180 million being spent. And I don't mean that as a criticism as to what I've got. I'm just thinking of the
01:40:17
Speaker
I'm trying to think pragmatically as to where $180 million was spent unless somebody's got a massive paycheck out of it. Honestly, I believe season two has already been filmed. I think they filmed it all together. That's kind of my point. I think that's exactly the point I'm trying to get to is that if we're talking about $180 million season that was
01:40:48
Speaker
let's say 45 to 50 minutes long per episode, that was a standalone story, then yes, I can see $180 million. If you're saying that actually it's $180 million, but there was so much goodness or richness
01:41:11
Speaker
in that story that needed telling more so they've decided to shrink the season one content to leverage an awful lot of that in season two plus extra content that will take the overall production cost down significantly but create more equity for viewers in the overall in the overall series that would make sense to me
01:41:39
Speaker
I mean, because if you zoom out, if you zoom, because I can tell you, I can tell you now, they didn't spend 180 million on CGI. That last episode, like, yeah, some of that was just the stuff was just absolute dogshit. And I'm not normally want to say that I'm usually very like,
01:41:55
Speaker
Like, oh, it's all fine. It's like, there was one scene in there in particular, I'm like, dude, this should have been cut. Like, this is not good. Yeah, I'm cool with that as long as the story's good. I mean, I mean, yeah, the first week that I was away, I don't know if you picked up on my point about the Camille's lightsaber when- It didn't glow on her face. It was really, really weird. It was absolutely no,
01:42:22
Speaker
no real world or there was no reflection of that sabre against either Camille or the surrounding areas. No directional lighting area. And it was like, whoa, that's that's really odd. It looked like old school, which, you know, maybe that's maybe that's the impact they tried to try to achieve. But it seemed quite quite crude in the in these days. And if we if we I mean, to your point, a minute ago, if we zoom out, like if we want to put put the put a different hat on like we we like to do, if you zoom out,
01:42:50
Speaker
I believe season two has already been filmed. I think it was all collectively filmed. I think the episodes could have been longer. It may may have even been one season. But if you look at it, we had the strikes. We had multiple issues come up. It's like, okay, can we can we re cut this down? Read? Like, rejigger it a little bit to be two seasons by us time for more content to be written, created, look at everything else that's been pushed out.
01:43:16
Speaker
And of course it was filmed in the UK as well, which wasn't under the same kind of diligence of the strikes that you guys had over there.
01:43:25
Speaker
So it was easier to produce content in the UK during the strikes because of course, an awful lot of the local actors are in the same union and writers and production staff and so on and so forth. So you could be right. Or to my point, you know, is that they had a really, really bloated
01:43:48
Speaker
Yeah. Season one, which is an all encompassing season one. It's like there's too much here, too much good stuff here to contain it within one season. Let's just spread the whole thing out because our slate after this doesn't actually look that good. And let's be honest with each other. We are very positive as people, but the slate after this does not look great. It doesn't look great. And so if they've done an awful lot of the hard work already, then great. Let's spread out into a
01:44:18
Speaker
another season next year which you know needs expanding on and hopefully we'll create so so at the end of the finale next week if it's I have no idea what the runtime is literally I've like I said I've got into the UK this morning so I've got no idea I haven't looked it up but if the runtime is similar is similar to the rest of the episodes we may find ourselves in a position where
01:44:48
Speaker
They don't actually, simply don't have time to wrap it all up. And so they, and so the powers that be said, well, don't let's, let's not let's use some of the content you've already got. Plus add some more, which takes our 180 or let's say, you know, 360, if it was two seasons, but actually makes it 240 million dollars because we've already got half the content of the second season anyway.
01:45:13
Speaker
just putting my business brain to it. It makes sense. It makes an absolute sense. I like the story. I really like the story.
01:45:22
Speaker
Yeah, and none of this is none of this is negative. It's like I love the story. It's just kind of like looking peeking behind the curtain of like, OK, how did we get here? Because some of those other points like all I talked about soul being kind of misrepresented like we haven't talked about the endara kind of in soul conflict,
Character Dynamics and Narrative Depth
01:45:39
Speaker
their friends. But there is definitely something that's been going on in the past. You made a comment about you can't like the the council saying no, I don't think she contacted the council.
01:45:49
Speaker
I don't think there was I don't think she I don't think she ever contacted him. I think she just came in and says the council said no. Like because I think there is a not a mistrust, but I think based on some of the other behavior. I think she made a decision and lied to him and said like the council said no.
01:46:07
Speaker
And I go, I can't believe that. It's like, yeah, I don't think she ever contacted him. And I think that's some of the stuff that we'll get eventually get to because I think there's a there's a general vibe of like something is off in every scene that we see. Like I hate to put it this way, but it's like the closer they are to that planet or that virgins or whatever this is.
01:46:28
Speaker
The weirder everything is everybody's behavior, the perceptions of reality, the people's actions. And I almost wonder if that's what they're leading to have like, oh, this virgins on the planet or in the in the area, whether that has to do with that hyperspace disaster, or it just a general force related thing.
01:46:48
Speaker
people are doing weird stuff or have weird perceptions of reality, the closer they are to this thing. Whether it's people acting super evil, like, uh, like in flipping out or Jedi acting in weird ways that there's something with that tree. That's like, it's still kind of just floating or background every once in a while. Like, Oh yeah, by the way, there's this like this tree that's just
01:47:12
Speaker
It's magic, but don't worry about it. And I think that like that adds like a lot of this like layer of. Whenever people are close to this planet in proximity or this virgins, just even the way it's filmed at times, it's just it's odd like there's odd interactions between people. People are I don't know. It's it's because it's very interesting how it all plays out. And so I don't believe in Dara ever contacted the the the council.
01:47:43
Speaker
Um, the, the whole, like, I think there's more to this, like Torben being, I think Torben is being scapegoated right now. Like even his behavior of like, I gotta get the hell out of here and just run. And like, I get wanting to go home, but like, it's still very like a vanilla sky dream worldy, like.
01:48:05
Speaker
people's just kind of infantile and impulsive behaviors. And so I think there's going to be more complexity to that added as well. I hope so because if you consider it, you know, six years later, he's made a Jedi master. And then for 10 years, he goes to Tron. So I think that I hope that is explained a little bit when at the moment he's
01:48:33
Speaker
I wouldn't have him washing my windows. And I'm just, I'm firm in that stance of like in the real world, if somebody junior does something like that, they put their ass to the grindstone. Like you're not going to be protected by your higher ups. And so that either to me that screams like,
01:48:53
Speaker
We're not seeing how things really were clearly. There's more to that story. Or Indara and Sol and others did stuff just as egregious. So they're all in this like, this kind of standoff of like, well, we all really screwed up here. So we all have to protect the whole situation. Because if there's just Torben acting like a child,
01:49:18
Speaker
Dude, they like they you've been in the corporate world long enough. Like, dude, he'd be gone. Like, yeah, that stuff rolls downhill on a say of getting killed. Like, even that is just it's there's just a bizarro kind of like, oh, she's trying to protect me. So I'm going to like ghost myself over there. It's like.
01:49:44
Speaker
I still believe that we're seeing it from somebody's perspective and that there's still something
01:49:51
Speaker
twisted with what was happening. Because it's just like, there's something weird. You could have just force pushed her or done something. But this whole like, whoo, I'm gonna do the super slow ghost move to like, dementor myself over there. But then I still get stabbed. There's just like, something odd about it. Like, I don't know if it's like, the virgins making things weird or if there's like a puppet master
01:50:17
Speaker
like pulling strings and manipulating the situation, which it could be, I don't know if soul is a good guy or like going to end up being the big bad, but I think that's where they want us to be. I just think there's something off. There's a lot of red herrings. I think where they're trying to make us thing and think things emotionally that they're going to slowly continue to unravel as we get more perspectives, which is really cool. I like it. I just, I've been under this mindset of like, we're going to get an ending. Uh,
01:50:45
Speaker
and my ADHD brain doesn't like to be told all of a sudden. It's like, ha ha, just kidding. We get season two. It's like, I'm excited for more content, but you, damn it. I was really hoping we'd get that ending. I've been, you son of a, and I just really don't like those like lost style cliffhangers where it's like big, something big and dramatic. It's like, find out on season two of the acolyte. It's like, you,
01:51:14
Speaker
asshole like i just want to know like i don't i don't like especially when we don't especially especially when we don't know what the slate lights looks like sorry what the slate looks like these days for lucas film it's not a case of we're already filming season two and we can get it you know we know that there's going to be this time next year we'll get the answers that we need it's um
01:51:36
Speaker
Yeah, that would be that would be raw and kind of gutting. Because it's also because it's also very fresh in my mind, too. I'll wrap this up really quick, too, because I did watch something. We finally finished that season one of the Chantarum show on Apple TV. It completely, it completely defrolled just from the book. Madison's like, this is totally different. You know what?
01:51:57
Speaker
It ends on a cliffhanger, it doesn't end, and then they cancel the frickin' show. So Madison and I are pissed. We didn't look any above. I watched it because she read the book. And so it's like, we get no answer. So maybe it's a little fresh in my mind, that frustration of like, mm, mm-hmm, cool, nice. So now we have no idea what happens. So yeah, I did watch that, and it made us very angry.
01:52:25
Speaker
I guess the one thing with Star Wars is that even if there is no continuation and they do wrap it up but don't tie up a lot of the loose ends, they've got a franchise there that they can use it in a different time frame, a different place.
01:52:45
Speaker
there may well be some court I mean we've seen you know we've seen in Mandalorian maybe not quite as well as I'd like it to have been done but we've seen references to the sequel trilogy in the Mando time frame and at some point maybe with the Filoni film I don't know but
01:53:06
Speaker
I'm just very excited that there's a new new era and there's a lot weighing on it. I don't want to. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whooshed out. Yeah. And I hope that I hope that there's not too much connective sinew or tissue between what we're seeing now and the man diverse because the you know, the money guys see the man diverse as being the way forward. But there are always
01:53:35
Speaker
means around, there's always a way around explaining what, you know, what you and I are looking for. So I certainly hope it's not in the in the written or the comic in the comic media, but please don't be another audio drama, not an audio drama, please. Yeah, no, no, don't do that, guys. Please don't do that.
01:53:59
Speaker
No, it's cool. It's cool. My mind is in two places at the moment. We've either got a very, very short amount of time next week to keep this satisfying and wrapping up everything, or they do the bold thing, and it's to be continued. And I hope to be continued. In my current state of mind, I hope that is the option that they take next week.
01:54:29
Speaker
Or they just all die. They just all die. Or they all die. Salt just kills everybody. And he's like, well, time to run. The end. Yes, I've had my revenge of the Sith. He looks at the camera, throws the horns. Yeah. Now there is no hope.
01:54:58
Speaker
until the next new one. Yes, exactly. But yeah, I'm excited for it. I'm I think I'll feel better just once, once next week's. I think I'll be happy no matter what what happens. It's just like knowing I just want to know like is it are they going to just ramrod it all into 30 minutes and be like,
01:55:22
Speaker
Dead, dead, dead, dead, dead. And it's all over. Cover up, cover up, cover up. And they were all actually just dicks. It's like, OK, cool. Like, whatever. We'll figure it out. Or is it going to be? No. But I'm excited nonetheless. We only got a couple of days and. Oh, I'm excited to talk about it. But yeah, season two, in my opinion, is definitely coming. The cover up at the end. I think it's still part of that like weirdness and like whose perspective are we seeing from? And yeah. Yeah, they were. I.
01:55:54
Speaker
I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. I'm really enjoying it. Is it, is it, is it as involved, am I involved as I was with, with, with Andor? No. Um, because Andor in many ways plays to an awful lot of.
01:56:14
Speaker
what I like about good drama, but also what I like about Star Wars, which isn't about the Force, which isn't about all of this mystical stuff that quite frankly is, in many cases, I find quite pompous and for the people that are portrayed to wield it and the rest of it.
Star Wars Evolution and Speculation
01:56:31
Speaker
But it's got me thinking. And there's very few new Star Wars
01:56:44
Speaker
I like thinking properties, properties, properties that have, that have made me thought about, I found, for example, I know, I know that Ahsoka didn't land with an awful lot of people. But what I liked about Ahsoka the most, as you know, is a story of, you know, of what happened with, with Bailin and
01:57:06
Speaker
And it's like, it's like, um, you know, that, that really, really, that those, their, their, their roles and their purpose and their motivations really, really.
01:57:15
Speaker
really, really appeal to me more than the main story, a lot more than the main story. And while we have, you know, good friends of ours that love the whole, the whole Thrawn thing, it was really them that, that, that, that, that really, uh, tugged at my interest and, and the same applies here as well as that I'm not particularly invested in one particular individual, although there, you know, there's a, there's a wicked Jedi, so I'm clearly gonna, um, navigate that way in the first place. But the point being is that, is that it's, it's just thinking about,
01:57:45
Speaker
what could be and what could be and where it could take us. I think I've thought about this more than anything else I've watched under the Star Wars property because it's been so new. And that's the reason why I respect it. And I said to everyone that maybe, I speak to friends of mine that
01:58:11
Speaker
that watch Star Wars and they like some stuff and they don't like other stuff. And a few of them don't like this stuff. And it's like, well, because it's not laid out for you, you've got to speculate, you've got to kind of work out what's going on. And that's why I like it. And that's not for them. And I'm cool with that. I'm absolutely cool with that, you know, things that are a little bit more straightforward. And indeed, if, you know, if we think that the
01:58:34
Speaker
Skeleton's crew is going to be a very, very different type of, you know, different take on, on Star Wars and different type of demographic, then that's fine. I hope to enjoy that equally as much, but I'm, I'm really enjoying it. And I, I, I respect pit folks, um, you know, folks that don't perhaps enjoy it as much as I do, but I'm somewhat sad that
01:59:02
Speaker
I seem to be one of a few people that enjoy it. Does that make sense? Yeah, it's not a means to an end and it's not filler kind of like mean like means to an end filler Star Wars where you know the end beginning and end and just fill it fill in the gaps like this has so much potential and I respect it a lot of people don't like that.
01:59:22
Speaker
like but i do it's like i love i love i love the idea i love the idea that that our heroes may not be our heroes and in fact who we assume is going to be our hero may not be our hero and in fact they may be the well be the worst the worst people of all which is you know something that i've always thought about the
01:59:39
Speaker
the hypocrisy of the Jedi in the first place is the whole elitism shit is just not in my camp and therefore I've found it quite interesting in the first place since the prequels. Star Wars branching into new genres is what it is.
01:59:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, maybe our hero is a bad guy. And that seems to be the case in this in this in this place. You have to wait. You have to wait to find out, too. Yeah. And you have to feel things. Some of them you may not like some. You can't just come in and know and expect things and then just get flashy, flashy, flashy bang bang.
02:00:20
Speaker
which is fine if you don't like that then don't you don't like it i mean i know there'd be people like if you took a pacific rim movie and they decide to make it more deep and give it a backstory and people be like well wait a minute i'm just here to watch robots beat the crap out of you that's fine exactly exactly exactly but exactly
02:00:39
Speaker
No, it's good times and I'm looking forward to speaking to you now only in three days when we can kind of sum up the finale and the whole season as a whole and maybe speculate about hopefully a potential future.
02:01:00
Speaker
Not only for this particular season, but, you know, whether we think, I mean, in my mind, I respect it for what it is. That's something different. Um, that doesn't rely on the skywalkers. It doesn't rely on our heroes. That is, we don't know who our heroes are. I love that shit. I absolutely love that shit, but dude, it's the, uh, I need to go because it is the, uh, the last evening. But I'm spending with my daughters before we all go back to work tomorrow. So, um,
02:01:30
Speaker
Mate, I'm well stoked that you and I got a chance to talk. And we're well over the normal time as well, which is pretty good going, bearing in mind I've not watched anything for the last two weeks. Or spoken to anyone for the last two weeks. Mate, I will catch you in three days' time where hopefully we'll be extremely full from being fed some great stuff. And I'll be full of it like always.
02:02:00
Speaker
Yeah, I'll be there. I was about to make a last night comment, but I can't really talk, can I? Anyway, it's wonderful to speak to you again. I'm so glad, I'm so glad to speak to you again after two weeks. Nick after yourself and I'll speak to you on Wednesday and thank you everyone as usual for listening.
Conclusion and Farewell
02:02:20
Speaker
Call all three of you. Literally doesn't do take us out, mate.
02:02:26
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you to Ed and Chris for last week. I really appreciate it. And it was awesome. I look forward to doing that again. Thank you for, to Andy, to coming back and talking with me again. Thank you to Andy's family for letting him step away for this whole time. Uh, you guys know where to find us just showing.com blah, blah, blah. Until next week, until three days from now, it's been fun. Bye. Goodbye now. Take care. Look off yourselves. Peace.
02:02:55
Speaker
Bye.