A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 100: The Last Command Pt. 2 (Ch. 11 - 18)

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

What awaits us for our one hundredth episode? Oh, the normal things: Smugglers being manipulated. Dark Jedi making power moves, and regular jedi offering therapy services. Clever tactical maneuvers using cloaked asteroids. Oh, and of course, a collection of trees that are not to be trusted. Support the show by going to Patreon.com/civilized! Next Time: We finish the Thrawn Trilogy Follow us on Bluesky   Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Ricardo Contreras (@a_cado_appears) Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)  

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zakhani, joined by Ali Akampora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. We are, as always, supported by you, our listeners, by patreon.com slash civilized. So head over there if you'd like to support the show and get access to all our Q&A episodes. Our most recent one covers Dark Force Rising, and there's some good questions about how some of this material might have been adapt. in an alternate world where Rebels borrows even more extensively from the Zon trilogy Plus, Austin thought about

the sequel trilogies, abandonment of some of the richest thematic and symbolic veins in Star Wars and Austin turned into Cato the Elder, live on air. So that was fun. Today we are looking at the second Encelo Delenda asked. What sequels in

Latin? I don't know. I'm not sure. I might have known that at one point. It's gone now. Yep. I needed all these good space for Star Wars names and information. Bye, declensions. That's right. Today we're looking at the second installment of The Last Command, reading up through

Chapter 18, picking things up from where we left them last week. Last episode, Mara is under house arrest after being accused of being an imperial infiltrator by the leader of the imperial infiltrators. As she's being interviewed by Leah, she learns that while she was asleep, the empire deployed a bunch of clones and realizes she actually knows where they're coming from. The emperor, it turns out, took her to help organize his storage unit back in the day. And so she remembers seeing a bunch of sparty cloning cylinders in there. The Skywalker Solo clan realized that they have an opportunity to save the galaxy from a new round of clone wars,

but only if they move immediately. So they bust Marr out and go on a secret mission to Wayland. While they are there, they realize they're going to have to march. through dense forests for weeks before they can reach Mount Tantis, which provides an excellent chance for people to ask what Luke's whole deal with Mara is, and Mara to ask Luke for his version of the Emperor's death. Without any exposition or important context mentioned, he explains his recollection of the fight and how it differs from the visions she's been having. Meanwhile, Talancard is rallying the smugglers against Thrawn. His buddy Mazek blows up an Imperial Star Destroyer

and Dry Dock at the Imperial Shipyards at Bill Bringey. But once that bit of business is complete, the smugglers start to lose interest in joining the war effort. Theron capitalizes on their ambivalence by telling Mazik that they had nothing to do with the raid at Whistler's Whirlpool Cafe, but someone not naming names associated with the smugglers probably did have something to do with it. Unfortunately, Theron assigns the job of actually framing card for the raid in the increasingly

sweaty hands of Niles Ferrier, who fucks it up, gets himself killed, and turns cards crumbling smugglers group chat into an actual resistance group. Thron's hands are increasingly full as Master Sabiof is starting to come undone or continuing to come undone. He learns that Throne is about to attack Corosan and fearing the Grand Admiral is going to level the city where his precious Jedi babies are living. He sees his control of the flagship Chimera. Thrawn talks him down the mix of cajoling, affable reasoning, and outright threat, but no sooner is his attack about to commence than Sabiof seems to get a premonition of Mara's expedition to Wayland. He demands be taken there at once, but tells Thron nothing of what he has seen. Thrawn suspect something

is up, and assigns our old friend, General Coval, to accompany Sabiof and carry out some other orders to Jedi-proof the facility. The attack on Coruscant provides Leia a front-row seat to New Republic dysfunction. The defense is initially a shambles as the politically reliable Admiral Drayson leads with his chin into every one of Thron's punches. She busies herself by getting elite slicer Ghent busy cracking Delta source, the imperial intelligence source that is relaying everything that happens at the palace. That taken care of, she helps broker a truce between Murmothma and Garm Bell Iblis. The defensive corosante is salvaged, but Thron executes his real plan on the way out the door. He launches a ton of cloaked asteroids and to orbit

over Corrassant, effectively keeping the planet under siege without needing to actually lay siege to it. With Corrassant out of the war and being mightily bored apparently of hanging out with her twins, Leia grabs winter and together they solve the riddle of deltasource. I, how did no one solve this before? How did no one solve this?

Not even us. I think it's pretty good. I like it. We'll get to that. It's pretty good. There's one element that I'm like, huh? No one saw this? But we'll get there.

Maybe I don't understand something from the reading. Maybe you'll have to explain something to me. We'll get that. Well, let's just, the segments sort of lead themselves. We can take them sort of as units. Let's, like, lead off with Mara and the trip to Mount Tantis and all that. I kind of dig that, you know, Han's like, hey, why are you letting our buddy? Why are you keeping our buddy in jail?

This is bullshit. shit. He's going to be in that zone right until he finds out that she's like, I really want to kill Luke Skywalker, at which point Han is like, maybe we should kill her. But Leah, Leah's actually really bonding with Mara by asking questions like, how are you doing? And how do you feel about that? And Mara's crusty exterior begins to crack like the top of a creme brule. When when Leah simply asks like, so, Did saving my kids from being kidnapped by the Empire have any resonance for you? Did you maybe do that because you're still working through your own kidnapping and trauma? No? Okay. That's, you know, I was just curious. I, one second, we got a question during the, uh, the Q&A that people should go listen to.

That was basically like, why does Luke and Mara work for you, but Callis and Z? Zeb not. Oh, this is so important. We're not, I don't want to, I actually don't want to just re-answer that here. People should go to the Patreon, uh, Patreon. Patreon.com slash Civilized, to listen to that answer. Because I think it's a slightly different answer than what I'm going to say or a thing that I'm going to say here.

I do think that there is buried in there and maybe alongside that, an ongoing conversation that I've caught wind of that's like, they're so mean tomorrow in a way that's maybe similar to the way we're mean to, like, suburb. Bean. And I think that it's two very different. I'm having two very different emotional feelings there, which is, I love Mara Jade. She's my perfect failed child. Like, she's an incredible fuck up who I can't wait to see on the next page. Being well rendered because of a terrible history of vulnerability manipulation and literal force brainwashing that she's kind of processing and getting through, Sabine is like a character who I wish they did more with. And I don't want to

like linger on that because we've had that conversation a million times. But like Mara to me is a joy. And I don't dislike Mara. I think that I think that she has been one of my favorite parts of these books. It's that the frustration is a completely different type of frustration. It's like, you know when you watch, it's like you know when you boo a heel in wrestling, that's the heel doing a good job. I think. when you roll your eyes at Mara Jade being like a petulant child about something, that's her gimmick. Like that's what her whole character is. And her in this conversation, and throughout this section of the book, slowly starting to maybe work through some of that, is the payoff of two

books of her being first talent cards, mysterious ace in the whole secret cool smuggler lady who's badass. And then increasingly, the woman who is caught up on a dead guy and the small amount of power she had that she thought was much bigger than what it was, who has to, like, confront the fact that maybe she was manipulated and lied to and then actually other people kind of look down on her even then. And like, that's a really fun arc that's kind of fun to have a sort of point and laugh at experience because she always like grinds her feet into like defend her terrible position and it's fun. I think that's much different than like when we're frustrated when a show fails to develop a character or a character makes decisions that don't seem

like they are, you know, on point. Or like, you know, another example is like poor writing around a character, like the way like the massage gets treated in that book we read, I think is a good example of that, especially towards the end of it. We're like, really? That's where this is all going to? Weird. Okay. If you say so. Like, to me, that's a whole different category of frustration and this kind of playful, fun frustration that I've been having. I can't speak for y'all. Maybe y'all actually hate Mara Jade. But for me, I'm having a blast.

I don't hate her. No. I don't think I hate her. I, I, I don't think I, I'm even, I'm not even, I'm not frustrated by her. Like, I've come to expect her to fail. which sounds horrible but in a way that's like she's like a silly goofy clown

but disguises like a haughty so true you know and so I like that I like that I like that she's kind of she's like this self-serious foil to Luke who's not as self-serious

but is serious in other ways and Mara is like but they both kind of like stumble and our goofy hijinks happen upon them but with Mara it's always like I can't believe this has happened and then I must

like stay goth and then and Luke is like oh well I'll go have some chalky milk and everything will be A-O-K I can't wait to talk about their scene later in this episode. I like that dynamic for the both of them very much.

But I don't see. I also want to clear the air that I don't see them being very romantic. So far, their relationship has not proven very romantic to me, but that's just me. Yeah. If Luke has chemistry with anybody in these books, Orlando. Agreed. And you should go listen to, you should. go listen to us talk about that relationship stuff on the podcast because on the Patreon because

we do a good job of unpacking some of that stuff. Yeah, I feel like, I mean, and I've spoken about this for it in terms of just like there was a lot of anticipation with Marjade. She was sort of like, I always wondered about her to like, so to see her be as pathetic as she often is, has been such a surprise, but like a delightful one. There's a lot to jab out there, and I think we're having a lot of fun talking about that. The only times I'm, like, frustrated by her are the same way that I'm sometimes frustrated by Thrawn, which is, like, you know, if I'm supposed to buy her as a secret assassin, as a master manipulator, as somebody who could be in the room and act apart, the places where she could be exerting that power and doesn't, either through. withholding information or, you know, manipulating other people about their idea of her. We don't see that a lot because she's so vulnerable most of the time.

But, like, put her, you know, that's the power of the Skywalker's. That's true. That's why. Right. I think that's part of the situation is we got the best faces in all the galaxy here to confront our heel and they're going to win because they're the Skywalker's, you know? I do like her in this scene, where, where she is, this is, this is, actually, I guess it's not this scene, it's the, it's the follow-up scenes. I'll wait until say, to say this stuff. But when

she gets briefed on what the mission is, her response to that is actually really fun. So, you want to talk about this Leah Convo more, Rob? Because this lines up with your big topic last time, which was her kidnapping as a child. Yeah, like, so much of, Mara has this mysterious backstory, right? But I think it's something that is maybe more apparent this time around than it's been in like previous readings of it is like, no, her mysterious backstory is kind of mysterious to her too. Like this is somebody who has been kind of programmed by the empire to simply not think about things. And Thron when he's like, it's his version of search your feelings. You know it to be true. When he's like your memory betrays you, you were glorified courier.

A lot of things start getting reexamined. And she has that moment where she realizes like, oh, Sabayov reminds me of when the emperor came to get me. Which feels like maybe the first time she's even had that memory. She doesn't, she doesn't call attention to it. But it's like something breaking through to be like, yeah, you were taken. And I think something it really locks in here with this conversation with Leah is this is a character who cannot conceive of herself as being a victim of the empire. She knows she's a victim, but she's like I'm a victim of Luke Skywalker, like ruining my life, ruining everything that was good about my life.

Because if she loses that narrative, you're forced to confront the fact that, like, none of this was, you didn't choose any of this. You are, you're one of Palpatine's victims, just like everyone else in this, in this galaxy. And your story becomes much, much sadder. And I think that's what, you know, she's surprised when she feels herself begin to, like, well up and, like, be on the cusp of tears, which saw that character, I don't think broadly has happened.

It's like I'm not sure in her point of view chapters she hits that moment of like nearly breaking down over everything and Leia is simply just like what do you remember about where you're from and immediately like the dam is starting to break because as long as the question isn't asked and she doesn't examine it she's Mara Jade Emperor's hand

brilliant assassin trained super spy the second Leia is like Hey, like, were you taken as a baby and, like, molded by an insane Jedi master? That's a really sad story. And she has this, and like, what she sort of had, what she, the exchange she has with Leia, she remembers more than just like the emperor showing up. She has the impression of, like, parents who didn't want her to go. It's a shadowy, murky memory, but, like, there is a feeling of, like, loss and, uh, regretting.

almost certainly implicit violence and in a lot of ways you know she it's a little bit like um a little bit like an andor right that he is forever trying to figure out like what became of where i'm from what became my my real family um god they're gonna have to they're gonna have to go back to that plot huh oh the sister i forgot they might but you know i wouldn't we'll see you know narratively it's well why you introduce it if you're not going to close the loop but the nature of like some loops don't get closed like what happened to my sister what happened to the the community i was with some like i don't think i don't think mar in these stories ever does get that closure may get it may be closed simply by the facts of how it was when you left that might be it my man you

know um we'll see anyway yeah yeah but anyway like here rob i think that makes sense it's a good comparison. But I think it's like it's one things I like about the things that the Skywalker's bring out is all the things that she uses now that are increasingly clear is like oh these are defensive strategies right. She is abrasive because if you're abrasive it makes people fuck off and maybe get impatient with you and lash out and the Skywalker's just refused to do that. That's Luke's strategy since day one is like I'm just going to be super nice and helpful and I'm not going to whatever you want to do.

I guess you want to kill me. You know, that's been his strategy. And Leah, Leah, like, just approaches are straight on about, like, so it seems like this struck a chord with you. And it did,

but Mara never examined why. Like, Mara snaps into, I have to kill these Imperial Commandos without any hesitation and never examines, like, why is that so important? Mm-hmm. And this is how and why

she, you know, after welling up, almost crying, and then Leah be like, all right, like, I'm not going to push on you, but like, you good? And Mara would be like, I'm fine. And then Leah be like, all right, well, you know where to find me. Like, you know, I hope you're okay in prison. Mara eventually is like, hey, hey, I know about those clones. I know where they are. I don't know exactly where they are, but if you got me into space and to a point close by, I think, like, I know nearish where it was and the thing I could follow. I think I could find the rest of the way there based on where we were by doing some hyperspace calculations or whatever. And like, you know, there, this is what the situation was. And like, here's how many there were. And here's

how quick Thrawn is doing his shit, which is like scary, scary fast as we've talked about. You know, that's the sort of like situation. I guess it's actually. Leah tells her how fast Thrawn is doing it, because Leah knows that Mara doesn't. But like, basically to say, like, hey, it's bad. It's going to be bad in the galaxy. There's this beat here that Mara didn't know about the clones because, like, nobody thought to tell her about it. She was in a sickbay for so long. And, like, it's interesting that it's, like, become fact so quickly that, like, it isn't news. You know what I mean? Right. For everybody else, this is just the truth of the situation.

Let's come to speak to the thing Natalie said in the last episode, which is like, you get to this new book and everybody is already just on the clone plot and like knows it. And Mara is in Natalie, your position being like, huh? Wait, what? Did I, was I asleep? Yes, you were asleep. Natalie, did you eject into an ion cannon blast? Did Luke Skywalker save you and put you in a back attack? This could happen to me This could happen This could happen to you This could have happened to me

It's sad that no one Like There is a point made that Even like everyone's gossiping About this as well Yeah And the fact that Mara hasn't even

Had a conversation with someone For longer than like five minutes That would veer in to the like natural territory of like so did you hear about these like you know like no one wants to talk to her or she's not putting herself out there and and her buddy is just like on the computer that is just doing his own thing yeah um against so funny what a funny character does it have a guy who's good at hacking and decryption but chill about it is just hanging It's so chill and just like vibing and like, hey, if you want this, like, I'll give it to you and

whatevs. I'll be back on my computer after. He's honestly like straight from hackers, the movie. Like he has that sort of like, I just want to hack. I think information is just like interesting and it should be free and it's cool to break systems and like see security stuff. And Leah takes to this guy, I know where this doesn't happen yet, but it takes to him. like a high school teacher seeing like that the kid in the poetry class is like actually kind of gifted and like hey you could there are like student journals you could submit your poems

to man like you know like that's something that could be you kind of have a knack for this kid you know so funny what is what is the context of gen's life that like this doesn't matter like if you're 20 to 30 years old or even if you're like 17 at least your life has been like torn up by war presumably the entire time like he's hanging with with card you know there's a weird like professor x thing happening with card where like talented stunted people are washing up in his camp and like you begin the suspect that like he has hobbies right one is I just want to get information out there and two is oh this is somebody you don't have people looking after you do you you can

join my my band of smugglers we've got dogs and that is kind of I'll buy you the nicest computer you've ever seen gee that's great and that's yeah uh with the news that mara knows where the clones are. We move things along very quickly. Luke's like, well, I guess I got to bust Mara out and go on a raid to Mount Tantis. And then Lando's like, well, that doesn't seem like enough people. I'm going to go too. And suddenly everyone is on board with, let's go do this.

Babe, we can't not let Chui go. He'll be upset. He needs to go. It's so funny. Because they hit this dilemma, which is like, Well, okay, well, I have to go because I'm Luke Skywalker, and you have to go because you're Han Solo, and Lando has to come because he doesn't trust Mara because he doesn't trust anybody, which, by the way, I think is a really fun through line here. He, I don't know if you remember this, but in the last book, Ferrier tried to like, before Farrier went to work with Thrawn, he came to Lando with some shit, and then it was like, yo, fuck off, I don't trust you. And I like that he again is like, I don't trust Mara Jade.

Mara Jade used to be the emperor's hand. I remember her in Jabba's palace taking L's. No, we're not fucking with her. I like that as like a little character flaw of his is that like he's played so many angles he can't trust anybody except the people who he's closest to. He also didn't trust Bell Iblis, you might recall, right? Which was kind of right, but kind of wrong. But it turns out like everybody wants to go except you can't bring Leah and the babies

and Chewy needs to stay back to defend them because otherwise she doesn't have a guard. She doesn't have any bodyguards here. And obviously you need bodyguards here as we've seen because Thrawn could just send in a kill team

and then Leia has an idea that'll help everyone let everybody get what they want Chewy can go on the mission she can keep

some bodyguards what's the plan team remember the no gree well that you couldn't just bring no anything right you couldn't just bring

no grie nothing going on you can't just bring no gree to Khorasan people will be like look those are the no gree

the type of people who are trying to kidnap Oh, don't worry about that. They're super short. They look just like jowas if you put them in a robe. Maybe you forgot because I'd forgotten, but this is true. They bring it up a lot more in this book. I think because Zanz, like, they're not going to pass for Jaws.

I don't think I've described them if people can pass for Jawa. They're little. They're just little guys like Jowahs. Now everyone's like they're so little. But they're shrunk. But they're great hunters. I guess if you're on Kurson, how often are you seeing a Jawa anyway? You see a little guy in a robe and somebody based.

Like, I would be like, I've never seen, well, I know somebody is going to pull up like a, of course, of course. Three by three pixelated image of a Jawa in the background of some movie. But when have there been Jawa's and Khorazan? When? Hang on, though. I think this is progressive of Zahn. So the Star Wars movies and TV shows are like, huh. Jawa is just like weird little dudes who live on Tatuine.

That's right. Zon is like, well, they're traitors. They'd do business on Tattooing, but Jawa would want to do business anywhere. They're basically a rolling garage sale. Like, why would they stick to Tatooine where, by definition, very little is going on? Yeah. So wouldn't they be wandering the galaxy? So I think Zon looks and was like, yeah, they're weird little traders.

And they do their Jawa thing. Like, you can imagine them doing that anywhere. And the rest of Star Wars is like, ah, the roving trades people of Tatooine. You can't trust a Jawa. It's very funny. Except they can, they can hang out around, uh, around Leah for like a week and it'll be totally normal. No one will ask any questions. I mean, yeah, because like, you never know when the problem's going to come up.

They can only be solved by a well-time dutini. What's so funny to me is like they met, they get, there's a whole section here where it's like they're in the, they're in the room. They're in like the apartment suite, the imperial, you know, the emperor's suite. They keep startling Han. They keep startling Han. peering behind Han. He is not happy about it. Which is clear they do it to fuck with people. Oh, yeah. I do love that the Nogri are clearly like they find it hilarious. Oh, yeah. The way they can just like ghost up behind people. Yeah, it's like Batman, like making

Commissioner Gordon jump. They find it funny. To the point where Han eventually, before they'd leave on this machine, he's like, I'm not going anywhere until I get to say goodbye to my wife, privately, which is great. But then, They kind of disappear for the rest of this reading. She, Leia's all over Corrassant constantly and they don't talk about the Jawa's being with her. I mean, there's like one bit where she like gets on board the elevator with them. Yeah, because they become a nanny cam. Like, Leia is like tired of being a mom suddenly.

Uh-huh. She is wandering around. She is detectiving. She had the kids. Now they are up to, it's up to the no-grue to raise them. I again things I wish that I wish I had gotten a chance to write more novels little things about we passed over this because we the kidnapping overshadows like her having the kids but little things like her realization that like she can sense everything the twins are feeling yeah but that also means that like existence is terrifying for babies and she like she starts like yelling at nurses like turn the lights down hurts their eyes and it's like discomfort and And pain and fear are developmentally appropriate things that babies don't have to go through. But like, but it recaptures like, I think it was really common to like first time parents, right?

Which is the like, no, no, no. Like this thing can't have discomfort or I failed as a parent. But like what if you were a Jedi and could like dial into literally psychological discomfort that this little, this little being has? Yeah, yeah. And I kind of like that. And I also love that that's alloyed with her awareness that like, oh shit, Han's going to end up in a really weird position in this family. which is everyone around him is like strong as hell in the force and connected. And he's on the outside of all that.

We've seen him complain about when Luke and Leah share their little Jedi like glances and then they talk in the force, which brings me to the number one problem with this reading in this section. Luke has heard Han say a thing and will not. Let it go. Does everybody remember what this is? Discuss it in committee? No, not that, which I think is fine. The phrase crazy, crazy Jedi things shows up like four times in this reading. I know. Because Hans, I guess this is one of those crazy Jedi things, right? And they're like, they're like, not really. And then he will not stop being like, sorry. Sorry, Han. I guess it's just one of those crazy Jedi things. He keeps doing it.

It's so funny. And, like, he's really trying to make it happen. He's trying to make it be, I've got a bad idea. I have a bad feeling about this. And it's like, it's not Luke. Come on, dial it back a little bit, buddy. It's okay. I can have a catchphrase.

Uh-huh. Oh, yeah, him. That's what he's saying. He's like, I could have a, yeah, exactly. Must be one of those crazy Jedi things. Your catchphrase can't come from what somebody else already said about you. That's right. That doesn't work.

Oh, it's a real. It's not a good catchphrase. It is a Luke thing, though. That's so funny. They're truly not crazy Jedi things. They're truly not. Why are you going to Mara to this planet? Because she knows where the clone facility is, and that's the only one of the key.

I don't know. It's one of those crazy Jedi things. It's like, I don't know. It sort of seems like you have to go there to blow it up. Yeah, you sure do. You sure do. Although really it comes down to, why do you trust this lady? And that's where he's like crazy.

I think. And it's like, oh yeah? Is that what it is? Is that what it is? Uh-huh. When we split the teams, why are you guys going alone? Yeah. Must be one of those crazy Jedi. Because of the force, you know, don't worry about it. Uh-huh. The force works better when we're together. Detective Vincent Hanna has a thing or two to say about this. This literally does make Luke feel like a 17-year-old with a crush. Where he's like coming up with excuses to like hang out with the girl he likes from biology class, you know? Why do you do group assignments really good together, you know? I think he knows that Mara would be more, like, that he's like the best one to be grouped

up with Mara. I think that's exactly right. He knows her, he knows her quirks, he knows how to handle her moods, and he knows no one else has the patience he does for her. And then no one else trusts her, really. The trust is really the thing. But the funny thing is they don't trust her primarily because of him. Yeah.

She's like, I hate Luke Skywalker and I'll kill him. Yeah. And he's like, look, if I'm cool with it, you all have to be cool with it. I don't think I'm going to get killed by this lady. Well, there's that line where Han is like, Luke is like, well, we just got to get to the to Wheland and finish. And I think she just needs to get to the to Wheland and finish this thing. And Han is like, what's that? smarty clone cylinders or your life.

And Luke's like, maybe both. Like, huh? I would be honored to be killed by Mara J. Yeah, dude. So, yeah, his whole crazy Jedi thing is, is very goofy. The, like, mission to liberate Mara, you know, she thinks she might be under attack. It's Luke. she's again

I think this is like just zombie a bit heavy handed with some of the stuff like it is just she gets kind of like in her feelings when she realizes that first she's like

I didn't say I would take you to Wayland to destroy the Sparty someone even though she had that conversation with herself we're basically like I guess I'm joining up with the rebellion now

and Luke's like but you have to Mara you have to come to Wayland because otherwise there'll be clone wars you've got to do it And she gets kind of like overcome by like, damn, Luke's busting me out of jail,

becoming a criminal, betraying his unkind for me, Mara Jade, the woman who's promised to kill him. And it's like, well, there's one little twist in there because it isn't for her. She knows that. But what it is is, she says like, because it's the thing the galaxy needs right now. which I think is actually her, that's the way in, right? Because that is part of what she, that's sort of like, you got to do what you got to do. Duty and loyalty. Duty and loyalty, right?

He's loyal to the Galactic Republic. He's loyal to people and he doesn't want war to happen again. And he's willing to do this thing that she believes is like a breach of ethics for him, even though they go like privately his whole crew is like yeah we're the rebellion we break laws all the time that's also subtext there so we're all agreed the new republic basically sucks at all this right wait uh-huh that is the subtext like like nobody's in charge of this thing we can just do this right like it is it is high level do what you will and ask for permission later type behavior we're the skywalkers it really is i'm a pretty is i'm a

Princess, you know, like, which is also part of the, the step that we kind of move past quickly here is Han gets to see Leia in princess mode, which he, he likes a lot. He normally doesn't like, but he really likes it on Leia. He's not a fan of authority, but he likes it on Leia. You know, who looks at you like Han Solo, looks at Leia? Truly. When she's in, like, Regal boss mode. Uh-huh. People are just, like, groveling at her feet, and Han's like, I dig that. Yeah.

Yeah, you better do. That's right. That's my wife. That's my wife. That's Princess Leia. Uh-huh. Real, like, the opposite of, what's his face? Von Matto's husband.

I'm looking at his name. Oh, Perrin. Peron. Peron could never. Absolutely never. And yet Perrin feels like he could emerge seamlessly onto the state. in any of these scenes. 100%.

Like if you just wrote Perrin into these scenes with Mamma, 100% there. It's just completely there. Yeah. Yeah, no, the degree to which is like, yeah, it's a small thing, but I do think

it also highlights the New Republic is getting increasingly just like bogged down and like we have to be a functional government and we have to have like dipshits around to do things. And here you still have the band of heroes from the first, from the, from the film was being like, but we're better than all this. Like, we're, we're just good at this.

Like, just let us go destroy the imperial facility. We got, we did this stuff all the time. Yeah. Well, and again, like two of them, three of them, if you count Lando, four of them, you count Chui. They're not even part of the government in any way. They're just private civilians. Han has given up his, his military commission. Like, they're just breaking the law of civilians.

Like, they're not even... The degree to which Leia is basically the Don Corleone of, like, this, of this, like, family is, like, her conversation with Mara are vettings, right? Like, that is fundamentally what is happening is, like, you got in with us because you saved my kids. We have to, we have to get into this whole, like, vendetta with my brother. but like, can you hang? And that is, that's kind of the role. Leia, like, she's like, I will go and I will go reason with people. Yeah.

Do we want to stick with Leia or stick with the... Oh, let's just follow them out of the jail break. After this. They hop into the Falcon. They go, Han is convinced they are being shadowed. There is, there is, one detail where I'm like, okay, they are beginning to, uh, like, there's one thing that happens aboard the falcon, then I'm like, oh, this is, this is romantic.

Han notes, Luke comes into the cockpit and Luke, and Hans like, we're here. And Luke says, Mara, I know, Mara told me. And Hans like, that's weird, because Mara's been sitting here the whole time. And also they haven't spoken the entire time. They've been aboard the ship and they appear to have been avoiding each other the entire time and the implicit like they just spent a week aboard ship being hyper attuned

to each other and like doing this weird choreographed like do not be seen in the same place but they're clearly talking talking in their heads love that love that so much what could they be saying what could they be talking about? Just plans

probably just let it like probably just letting each other know that like I'm going to be in the galley for the next 10 minutes, do not be there. Probably nothing else is coming through. But it's like, it's, okay, I'm leaving the galley now. I'm going to the cockpit. And it's like, okay, like, I'm still in my bedroom. You didn't need to tell me that.

But you are telling me that. So I know exactly where you are constantly. When is it that they have their conversation about what happened? After they make planet fall. Okay. they they Han is convinced he keeps seeing things like

on the sensors for a second they land on Wayland and cool little detail the empire imports these weird like

aggressive giant squirrels evil lemurs yeah some just grayford six feet tall like monsters that crucially hate the sound repulsor lifts, which is kind of a genius, like, security measure.

Yeah. But when they turn on their bikes that they were going to use to zip across the planet to Mountantus, these things freak the fuck out and, like, bumrush the ship. They have to kill a bunch of them. Big monster fight unfolds. And then Mara's like, oh, yeah, these are, or is it Han who knows what they are? Mara.

It's Mara, and she knows that they're tagged, or they're probably. Some of them are. Right. Which means if they stop moving, it will be clear that something happened and they're all gathered in the same spot, which is a bad thing, right? I think the ones she checked weren't tagged, but she said that they could be like descendants of ones that were tagged. But what's strange is that at one point after the attack, there were still like a bunch of the perimeter. And then I think they all just leave. And that was suspicious because it was like, oh, are they reporting back to someone?

Right. But it is kind of genius as a security measure for sure. It's like. That's fun. Yeah. I also love this beat because like, you know, things have been moving on such a pace in this book. And like, everyone is so protagonist. coded that it's like funny to imagine Han Solo just like dying to a wolf as soon as he lands

on this like it is such like oh these are people like for they have not been just people for a little while in this book for a long time yeah but he gets like pounced by two space wolves and it's a little dice well and then it's like all right I guess we have to walk for 14 days or whatever in the jungle to get to the storehouse, which I guess we should say this, like, isn't being defended by a huge garris. Well, we don't know what it's being defended by, but there's no, like, ships in the air, as far as we know. There isn't a space station.

There wasn't a fleet above the planet. Seems like an uncolonized planet, basically, which is the whole, like. Right. Yeah, which is why it's like a good place for obscurity. The second you put guards there, people will be like, that's something valuable. Exactly. Exactly. So, so yeah, and that's part of the thing Mara brings up.

It's like, there are two different indigenous peoples here. We could run into them. They don't like humans or outsiders because we suck. So that might go bad. And there's also these, yeah, these rabid squirrel creatures, giant squirrels. So be careful of that too. So they're camping. They're hanging out.

Is it in here that Han or that Luke and Mara have the, what happened conversation she starts reminiscing about murker right and oh man things you can't look tough doing you know what hang on this this we might need to actually you're going to read this yeah yeah this is just too yeah uh there's a lot going on here igniting his lightsaber again luke cut two more thorn bushes for good measure and he was preparing to shut it down when he caught the subtle change in Mara's sense. He turned to find her staring at his lightsaber, ration bar forgotten in her hand, a strangely haunted expression on her face. Mara, he asked, you all right? Her gaze shifted almost guiltily

away from him. Sure, she muttered. I'm fine. Throwing him a quick glare, she bit viciously into a ration bar. I have seen people try to pull this move, but only children. Angrily eating your snack is so child-coded. This is somebody trying to angrily eat a Snickers. Yeah. Yeah.

I love her. I'm just trying to remember the last time I was like upset and I had a bar-like food in my hand. And I'm just thinking of myself and how I ate it. And I think I ate it normal, but I don't know. Well, also as you age, you get less confident that you can just like viciously bite off a big chewy bar because. Yeah, I'm going to bite my tongue or something. Yeah.

But, and the whole scene is like, you know, pregnant with phallic implications here. She's staring at the lightsaber snapping off the ration park. Yeah. But after that, after that moment, you know, she asks, you're the only one. who knows how did the emperor die and he begins to explain the fight

and she tries to get out and she's like and then you ganged up on him and killed him she's like you turn to get you joined forces and you turned against the emperor he's like no I didn't I like swung on him once early on and then that was it and then it was like me and my dad

fought a bunch nope and then he doesn't say that me and Darth Vader you're right of course Then me and Darth Vader fought a bunch. And then, and then, uh, and then, you know, Vader picked him, boom down a big shaft in the, in the space, in the death star. And then she's like, that's not true. I saw you do it.

Both of you moved in against him with your lightsabers. I saw you do it. And Luke is like, oh, oh, weird. You, weird. That's not what happened at all. She got the, well, this fucking sucks. view of the like but it does feel like such a palpatine thing of like if it is his emotional perception not not like his his his game footage is not his game footage of what happened

right this is his emotional truth of his own death that's right and so he sees it the way syphers yeah which is these two joined forces and ah you're going to join up and like i guess luke will be the apprentice invaders finally making his play be master and that's not remotely what happens but this is again one of those things that like zon feels very dialed in about like what the cis whole deal is, which is Palpatine can't even understand that, like, you pushed this guy way too far one, one too many times. And, like, he acted like a father for a split second and not like a SIF. And Palpatine's like, these two greedy bastards.

The actual particulars of this exchange are kind of interesting to me because first, Luke is like, wants to clarify, like, she's like, you know, um, uh, He's like, I couldn't even kill the emperor if I wanted to. I was still paralyzed him from hitting me with lightning. And she's like, what do you mean if you wanted to? You went there to kill him. He's like, no, I went there to try to save Vader, to turn Vader away from the dark side. Damn.

And then she's like, why should I believe you? And he's like, why should I lie? And then, importantly, there's a moment where Luke is like, maybe it's earlier than this. But he's like, you know what? I yeah here it is it's it's why should I lie it doesn't change the fact it he countered but then he says it doesn't change the fact that if I hadn't been there Vader wouldn't have turned on him in that sense I am probably still responsible for his death so he like concedes that point tomorrow as if to be like listen I get it I'm not going to try to argue that I wasn't responsible

for the death of the emperor. Like, that's, that's fine, you know. And she's like, that's right. And he nods silently and waits for her to say more. And it's like, but she didn't. And after a minute, he turned back to the thorn bushes. I'd go easy on those things if I were you. Mara said, oh, that's her. I'd go easy on those things if I were you. Mara said from behind him, her voice cool and under control again, you don't want to trap us in an area this size of something big comes over the bushes. So it's like, he gives her the space to feel the thing that she's really feeling, which is, you did it, you killed him without saying, like, without trying to, like, weasel his way out. He realizes he's doing the weasel thing. He realizes, like, why didn't

technically kill him? Because, like, he's fucking Luke Skywalker. He's the reason the emperor is dead. That's true. And sits with that and is, like, instead of trying to weasel around it and giving her something new to be mad about, he just looks like, okay, yeah, you know what, I'm the reason the emperor is dead. Cool. But by giving her, by giving her

the context, it like, it's helping her process and I think continue to, like, work out that she may not have had, in this case, did not have

the full picture of what the emperor's of what was going on in general, of what the emperor's plans were for her, of what the emperor's plans were in general. Like, I think slowly, I think Luke does this really carefully so as to not ostracize her even more and push her even further away by making her feel like, oh, you have no idea what's going on at all, actually. And rather, oh, you had a slight, you had a version. of things that were manipulated and and I think that creates the through line to you are still

being manipulated now, you just have to accept that within yourself and it's going to be your own process because no matter what Leah or Luke say to her, she is going to have to come to that acceptance on her own. But they're kind of both planting the seeds very carefully to help Mara come to come to those conclusions on her own. Well, I think this ties in, I can't find the passage, but I feel like when they first meet on Merker,

there is a moment where she says, you're not going to talk me out of my hatred. It's the only thing. It's like, it's the closest thing I've got to a permanent companion. Like, and I think this is a very smart thing he does here at the end, rather than him trying to be like,

hey, you got it wrong. Like, I, I am going to try to wheeze a lot of them. this ties back up with like her hatred of him is foundational he can't be the person to attack it and it's also it's also him explicitly and I think this is Zanz's tactic he's like I'm not going to do what Vader or the emperor tried to do with me which is like get their claws in under the armor and start peeling back I'm not I could I could start trying to like paint a different picture in your head and try to explicitly leverage your vulnerabilities and whisper promises in your ear. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to tell you what my

perspective was, and I'm going to back off and let you sit with that. And that is not like, contrast that with Vader offering the galaxy to Luke or Palpatine, you know, trying to push, trying to like sense that vulnerability and that anger and frustration and align it towards his own goals, which is what he does with both Anakin and tries to do it with Luke. It's good. Like I think that it's, well, Luke's characterized so well in these books and it's so fun to see the extension of who he was into who he is. And yeah, again, we'd love to see an adaptation of this in some way one day. Well, it's so interesting. It also reminds me of like, you know, obviously this series opens with him saying goodbye to Ben, and Ben is a, like, still his bloodbenture and all that.

But at that point, we also, there is no, still no processing of, like, the certain point of view, like, rugpole that Ben does on him. Yeah. Which, like, here is Luke actually doing the more honest version of it, which is, like, here is my point of view. Here's what happened in my story. Here's how this played out, to the best of my knowledge. Uh-huh.

And it still fucked you over. Yeah. And that's worlds different than Kenobi being like, yeah, Vader killed your dad. Like, actually, you know who the real bad guy is and all this? You're right. Vader. Yeah. Yeah, he's also not doing a Ben or a Yoda, right?

Yeah. But yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's, it's cool moment. Like, it is him not, him not, him not. treading close to things that it's not it's not on him to like go and straighten this out or like put her straight about like how she should feel about anything and just it's a this this luke Skywalker's cool and it gets it like kind of what's heroic about Luke which is partly that like that like that dude can fight right like when it's go time like he's Luke Skywalker he's Jedi Knight and all that but like the actual superpower is very like Superman which is like I keep coming back to with him yeah yeah

it's how he relates to people it's how It's that he can show people hope. It's that he can put himself out there into his own vulnerable position in order to bring them across the finish line, whatever that is. You know, this Luke is so good that it's like, yeah, no wonder people love the Jedi. You know, like no wonder I love the Jedi as a kid. No wonder I liked Luke Skywalker so much. No wonder there is, you know, there is a sort of, at this point, We've talked so much about the failings of the Jedi order that it's really, really useful to see a depiction of why people fell in love with the Jedi in the first place, partly because it resets what the great tragedy of the prequels is, which is that like this order that is supposed to produce people like Luke Skywalker, instead produces this kind of naval gazing, clouded, you know, deeply.

misguided about what their political position is, a cowardly group that ends up stumbling face first into a war that accepts the idea that they are going to, like, lead an army of clones as de facto cannon fodder into a war that they never really investigate or get to the bottom of. Like, the failing isn't just, oh, Jedi as a as a concept are, that force users are always bad when they're part of the Jedi Order. It's like, oh, they could be more like Luke Skywalker. You could have people who act like this and instead they act the way and build a structure that is the Jedi Order that's fallen so far.

And like, it's really fun to see that, this kind of illustration of that because it puts that in context. And I think it also puts into context why people are often so hesitant to let, the Jedi go, despite what happens in all of these stories, right? It's like, damn, if they could only just be like Luke. And I think part of the critique of the prequels is like, um, unfortunately, when you build this structure, it is filled with these holes, right? And it starts falling in this direction because of its position. You've got to build something different if you want Luke. Luke in the old Jedi order wouldn't be Luke, you know, if he had to come.

up in, if you told Luke Skywalker he's not allowed to have attachments to people like, are you fucking kidding me? That's his thing. And that's, this is what like, I think, like, this is my Luke Skywalker in a lot of ways. It's the one that like ties into the

character from the original trilogy. Right. And it's what made Book of Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, cause me to like lose my shit a little bit, which is first it's uncanny valley you know, rubber eyes. CG. Let that guy

who was playing him, play him. Because I don't know if you remember those shots, but he looks fine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the other part is, yeah, that like this Luke Skywalker doesn't think critically at all about the fact that like Yoda and Ben kind of withheld a lot. Like we're very deceptive. But also that

a lot of the advice they gave him, the way they told him things would play out, just proved not to be true. They told him like, don't give a dude, you got to kill Vader. They basically tell him this. You have to go fight him and kill him. That's what you're here to do. And Luke's response is no. I'm not going, like, we're going

to have the showdown, but like, I think I can bring him back. Just because you failed doesn't mean, I mean, like, what's ironic is or what's interesting is, none of that full context was there yet, right? What we now know is that Yoda and, and Obi-Wan now have.

this history of failure with Anakin and Vader that's only kind of hinted at in the original trilogy. You don't really know what that is. And like now being able to like retroactively, to its credit, the prequels and the clone wars have done a pretty good job of getting you to where you get why Yoda and Obi-Wan are throwing Luke like a missile at Vader. Because like, they tried and they fucked up and they don't think it's doable. They don't think you can bring this guy back um uh and and luke is like well let me give a shot you know but it's just but then that that character would be like i am now going to uncritically parrot and like turn my life into a monument to yoda's approach and we're going to and then it's going to culminate in me telling

again a literal infant hey you little shit time make an adult decision you ready to grow the fuck up and be a Jedi stop oh you oh miss your dad oh you miss your dad I missed my dad too okay fuck you like for that to be Luke Skywalker sucks so bad it's so much worse it's not him and it's like no wonder like Kylo Wren happens because this Luke sucks but that's a more compelling story if he doesn't suck and it still goes bad that like if a good Luke Skywalker is still like the Jedi are the Jedi are tough I think that's what Ryan Johnson is getting towards is like the dogma of the Jedi is going to be a problem.

And I think Zahn's thinking that too. We'll get to something that happens with Leia in a bit when we deal with Leia. But I do think there is a critique and argument for how the force might work like running through Zon's portrayal here that I think it's actually really smart

and dovetails of some of the stuff we see in what turned into like the actual like Disney Canon and such but we'll get to that. Cool. Shall we, you know, now we got Mara in a clearing, clearing the air with Luke a little bit. Let's see what her boss is up to.

Oh, hell there. What if you had an excuse to have nothing but dinner parties with your peers? That sounds great. Hey, guys, let's meet at this cool haunted fortress I found to discuss how the clone hunt is going. Who is the location, location? guy for like who is putting the the whirlpool cafe who's putting haunted castle I just want to know I want to know that's answered in the text because because Gillespie's like how'd you find this place anyway and card is like it's all right there in the old

records yeah you find like some some reference to it in a in a what was it someone's report or something someone yeah it was like someone's yeah yeah it's like no one's around here there's no clone traffic like we just we just happen to find this place it's sick it's this it's awesome this series of books continues to just be a bunch of sick places card just bounces around between the coolest places like card is off on some anthony bourdain shit right now do you know what i mean like please that's another thing he is that is another thing he is the fortress of Higarna. I took a walk. Yes. The fortress of Hijarna had been crumbling slowly away. Sorry, can you read it more like Anthony Bourdainwood? Oh, God. Can I? I don't know that I can.

The fortress of Hizarna had been crumbling slowly away for perhaps a thousand years before the 5th Alderan expedition had spotted it, keeping its silent, deserted vigil over its silent deserted world. A vast expanse of incredibly hard black stone, it stood on a high bluff overlooking a plane that still bore the deep scars of massive destruction. To some, the enigmatic fortress was a tragic monument, a last ditch attempt at a defense by a desperate world under siege. To others, it was the brooding and malicious cause of both that siege and the devastation that had followed. To Card, for the moment at least, it was home. Fucking A. Yeah. Talen Card. This is the book. I get why he wanted to

call it the wild card like it should have been he's so good and there's things too about like sort of the little hero's journey he's on where he starts in this like verdant dream world he's created like this this this forest idol these got he's the man with everything that's right and we find him here driven to this brooding castle on a lifeless world and like is there anything sadder in those two little dogs

it's so sad wondering like they're now they're no longer on their own planet yeah they used to hear other vornskers out there howling there's nightlife and now they're just sort of sadly like you know depressed at his feet and he's sad he knows they're sad and he's like we'll find you we're going to get you a place with a yard in animals there's things you can smell there's something this is kind of like deep like weird metafictional analysis that I don't think is true I don't think Zahn had this in mind. But there's something really fun about the idea that we don't know who Talancard is before the book where they start taking the Salamiri off the planet. It's like the force couldn't touch him.

So we couldn't. He was flying under the radar of the narrators of the universe. You know what I mean? Like the camera couldn't even look at that planet until Thron showed up to start fucking getting rid of the Salamiri. and now the force can see Talancard. Now Talancard is in the sort of limelight, you know. I mean, quite literally, of course, Star Wars is supposedly the, what is it, the, like a narrative shared by the wills, the little beings that live inside of the, what's the mitochondria

called, the Middorians? And so it's like, yeah, they couldn't see him because he was surrounded by Salimiri. Once you start getting rid of those, they can start telling the great story. of Talen Card. I love it. It's stupid, and it's not explicit. That's not a thing that the book says, but it's kind of true. Well, and again, like, the fact that Card is also, like, so far it's been like, smugglers are cute and fun and like, oh, we're just all a bunch of ruffians. This gets at the colder part of like, Carr does increasingly find himself in a mob movie. This is, it's not a mob movie. It's not a mob movie. It's a different movie. It's not a mob movie. Rob. It's another one of

your favorite movies. This is, this is, this is, so you and the others want money, Gillespie braces himself. I want money. The others want out. This is payroll has come due. And, and there's like, this is a labor dispute. This is smugglers being like, oh, we're not in it for, we're workers. We have payroll to make.

Like literally that is the argument that gets brought up is like, you need to understand. Like, this is a business for. all of us. We have ships to maintain. We have crews to pay. And to me, that gets some of the stuff that we love about that style of crime fiction that treats it not as just a series of heists that come forward. Or even with the sort of like honor and nobility or like the foe, all that stuff in the mob movie. But instead is like, it's just business. It's jobs. It's jobs. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, there is kind of a unionizing dynamic too. Because like, cards like, why are they so hard up? And it's like they're not all hard up, but some of them are. And

it's, it's, it's sort of like, you know, you're going to have your Tom Seismore and Heat type character, you know, they're in it for the action. Uh, they're kind of, but the, the big thing is card is someone who's like, I don't spend more than I make. We have cash reserves. Like, we can, we can ride this out. Yeah, most people can't dude. Like, there's like, most people are, going to be pretty hand-to-mouth, and that's who these people are. Yep. And so he's like, let's drop everything and try to find these clones. That'll be for the, you know, greater good.

And Gillespie's like, these two groups are, they basically go broke the second they stop earning. Yeah. That's just and that's who they are. It will always be this way. He's like, you know this about these guys. You know that they run it, that they run week to week. They spend what's in their pocket. There's just, yeah. And there's just some great descriptions of Gillespie. There's the bit here,

where he's, like, it's explicitly, God, where is it? He, like, takes, he looks at the, at the fruit he's holding before taking it. Oh, yeah. Here it is. He says, well, you know, Carr, this whole thing's been kind of strange. Smugglers, I mean, doing this kind of snoop work, hasn't paid very much either. I've already told you we'll be getting some reimbursement from the new republic. Except we don't have anything to sell them, Gillespie pointed out. Never known anyone yet who paid for no delivery, Card frowned over him. Gillespie had produced a wicked-looking knife from somewhere

and was carefully carving a slice from the dribbless fruit. This isn't about getting paid, he reminded the other. It's about surviving against the empire. Maybe for you it is, Gillespie said, studying the slice of fruit a moment before taking a bite. You've got enough sidelines going

that you can afford to lay off business for a while. But see, the rest of us have payrolls to meet and shift to keep fueled. The money stops coming. in, our employees start getting nasty. It's so good. I love this whole situation so much. Card being out, take his eyes

off the knife. Yep. And this is his guy. The one he crosses, and when comes down to it, Gillespie's in his corner to the end. Yep, 100%. But Card can't stop looking at that knife as he cuts into the fruit. And like, there's just this implicit, your closest friend is still someone

who might turn on you. That's the business. Well, don't worry. Card has a solution for this. What have we just got them to pay us before we deliver the goods? Like an advance. Like an advance. A little net 30, you know? They're not going to mess it.

No. I already got a kid there. What if we just get him? It's like net negative 30. It is like, yeah, it's net negative 30. They pay us first and then we deliver the goods after. Yeah. Uh-huh.

It's incredible. He's going to have, he's going to have get, just pay them out of the Republic funds. He has the Venmo. He got the Venmo log in. Yeah. He got the Venmo login. And the New Republic is being run like, you know, like a, like a, the way children would run their own preschool. You know, like they're, they don't know where the money is.

Oh, so we, we passed over it. The actual, like, first we return to card is he has been brought to Bill bringing to see what Mazik's up to. Right. And Mazx basically just kind of blow the fuck out the Star Destroyer that's under construction. Just because he's mad that his buddy got got in that ambush. Yeah. And he's like, I'm going to destroy an Imperial Star Destroyer. It's almost built, but I'm going to blow it up.

And in the wake of that, he, like, his escape is covered by Ellor's group that shows up with Kralian gunships to, like, shield the retreat. And Card realizes, well, Elor can't afford warships, but he is plugged into the shipyards the New Republic uses to repair its ship. So this guy basically stole these from the dealer like the service department

and took these into a battle and then is going to return them. It's great. It's beautiful. The New Republic not ready for prime time. That's a maneuver that should just show up in Andor season two.

Yes. Stealing the ship for a quick battle and dropping it. back off feels like no one's going to notice it's a warship who's going to notice a few more burns yeah exactly yeah it's it's it's terrific uh but in the wake of that in the wake of that attack uh you know card thron explains like this is exactly why i didn't want to get into it with the smugglers this is exactly what i didn't you squeeze them they act out you pay them they leave you alone And so his plan to patch this up is, you know, he's going to have Farrier continue to infiltrate the group and implicate like card as like the author of this to get around on side with his with his strategy.

But crucially, the thing he uses to sell it is that he arrests Mazek. He shows that like Imperial Intelligence knows exactly who did it, knows where they're hiding. He brings Mazik in and is like, I just wanted to clear. the air. I'm going to let you go. This was all a big misunderstanding. And Mazik's like, huh, you're being really decent about this. Hmm. I better start working on like who actually did sell us out. And yeah. And so Farrier's going to have a little shadow guy leave a card, leave a, leave a data card that says, and then I paid the imperials to kill my friends. Full proof

I love how stupid Farrier is I just love that he thinks he can get absolutely anything over card Like All time All time Just poof

Just crumbles under pressure Has the clutch of Ben Simmons Zero charisma points Yeah Yeah Yeah, the opposite of Dup's polo here. Basically. Where is the feeling that Ferrier has ever, like, being good at his career, though?

Like, the time we're introduced to him is when he's, like, stealing ships in a highly, like, public location, smoking a very particularly smelly guitar, cigar. Yeah. I mean, that's... Do you don't at home, my man? But that's the thing. He's not a smuggler. He's a car thief, right? He's a car thief being asked to do a smuggler's work. And he shouldn't, you know, I'm not saying that he was like a particularly good car thief, but he was a successful enough one. He was getting away with it historically. We learn a little bit later how one of the ways he gets away with it is like a special net he drops on pursuing, potentially pursuing ships. Like, you know, he has his toys. He has his methods. He has a crew that's good specifically at the thing he does, which was, steal cars. Like, you can't ask the, unless you're in the Fast and Furious movie, you can't ask

the car thieves to heist a bank, you know, like, they had to get there. Fast and Furious one, they're stealing VCRs from, or DVD players from a truck. They're not heisting the big bank in Brazil. They had to get there. Niles Farrier went from one to five without any interceding movies. He didn't go to Tokyo. You know what I mean? He didn't recruit on. You know? I just can't figure out why why the DeFel would hang out with him at all They spend so much time together

Like why are you hanging out with him The Duffel sucks too Well yeah maybe the DeFel just saw Yeah what Maybe the DeFel's vibes Swaggy Maybe he's got swaggy potential Maybe he'll get better after the way this all shoots out

It's like people are like wow You must be awesome because you like become one with shadow. And it's like, yeah, what is he's dumb ass still? It doesn't matter. Wow, you're tall. You must hoop. No. No, that don't necessarily follow. That's true. This is true. God. But he's got swaggy vibes. He has. No, no, Natalie, you know what? The one to fell we saw in that art has swaggy vibes. That's not art to fell. I am once again, referencing the image, which I originally saw in the Discord, and it was the original

time that I saw the image. That doesn't mean the whole race is swaggy. That's not him. That's a defal. That's not our defal. What about this guy? What about this guy? What about this guy? That guy does not have Natalie.

I don't think that guy has swaggy vines. I don't, in fact, know what's going on with that All I know is you guys get 12 of them in his own to complete a quest and that's gonna be that like they drop they drop level one loot He's accessorized though Yeah that's just pulling the outfit together, you know? Yeah, but he's he's having like a like a swag holdback is what's happening being around Ferrier is like stunting his I agree

I agree with this I'm cured to see if after the way this all shakes out, now he might be around different types of people. Maybe they, maybe they help him move into a new era. Now, here's a point. I don't think we ever learned this guy's name. So I have doubts about that. I think we just ever, only ever hear him called. The carrier, yeah, exactly. Farrier's to fell or his wraith. Exactly. I meant the Perrier is immediately like, well, that guy fucked up. I knew he was going to fuck up. You're a fuck up. We should, yes. Agreed. We should get there because what happens here? Mazzick goes to Thron. Thrawn captures Mazik, one of the other smugglers. And like you said in the summary, Rob,

Thron is like, hey, just want to clear the air. I'm not here to send you to jail. You know, I know that you took out that Star Destroyer while that was being built, but I get it. That was for, that was revenge for your guy. We both bloodied each other's noses a little bit, which is an insane thing to say that, like, you blew up the Star Destroyer filled with people, presumably. I guess it's being repaired or being built, so simply filled with construction workers. But I killed your one guy. So I guess we're about equal.

But, you know, it's funny because, like, I didn't actually order the kill on your guy to begin with. In fact, I told them to stay away. Why would I tell them to get involved, the nearby garrison? That would just piss you guys off, the way you got pissed off. Someone made a deal. Someone bribed them. Someone hired them, in fact. And Matt, they're like, well, you can't hire stormtroopers.

You can't hire Imperials. And he's like, well, I got to tell you, sometimes you can. that some people are, I can't, you know, it's a shame, but sometimes even Imperials are willing to take a bribe for some action. And he, I can't tell you who did it. You can make some connections yourself. Who would benefit from that? Which is almost like Thron getting ahead of the fact. Like, Thron is a weasel. So Mazur could go back to talk to Thron, and I can imagine Thorn Thron being like, oh, I didn't mean card. I meant Farrier. I meant Farrier was doing this. And he sends Mazikov to go back to Card and potentially blow all this up. And then hires Farrier

to sneak proof evidence of hiring the nearby garrison onto his ship. Though Ferrier is like, I'll do it, boss. I'll go on the ship. And he's like, no, the fuck you won't. You're going to sit in your ship the whole time and send your little wraith in to drop it off. And now that I'm thinking about it, he doesn't stay on the ship the whole time. And if he'd just done that, if he'd listen and talk, just don't shut your mouth. Don't talk ever. Fly the ship there. Let your little wraith go do the thing.

And then that's it. You don't need to go to the meeting. That's it. What'll work out fine. This is the zero charisma is that you actually. Oh, you're right. You actually think you can speak. You're right.

And you absolutely should not. The literal line is Ferrier's like, and I'll go help Mazik, finger card, Farrier nodded. You'll do nothing of the sort, Thron said. You will sit in a corner

and keep your mouth shut. Ferrier seemed to shrink back. Okay, sure. He did not. do that. He did not. He failed. And hey, here's a little, here's a little preview.

He says, what you will do is go drop, is have your DeFel drop the data card into card ship. And he motioned and an officer stepped forward and handed Farrier data card. Ah, Farrier said Stilely, and as he looked at it. Yeah, I get it. The record of cards deal with this Lieutenant Kosk, huh? Now, this is where Thron fucked up. Thron should have said, don't ever say.

that name again. Lieutenant who? You don't know a Lieutenant Kosk. You don't know anything about this. He needed to... Arase from brain. Sometimes as a manager, you get someone who's really talented,

but does need micromanagement. You do need to be really explicit with the notes you give. They're not going to extrapolate or abstract out. They're just not who they are. They're going to do exactly what you told them to do and throw them fucked up.

Because Thron didn't give him exact directions. He should have said, never say Kosk again. Yeah, he reminded, he said he put the word in his brain. You're right, yeah. You've got to say, you don't know that man. Capable people can struggle to imagine the incapability of this possible. It can be difficult to imagine, like, surely no one would.

This is why he overreacts so much when that guy fucks up with the tractor beam. He's like, no, of course someone would read the entire manual and would like have the appropriate and he's like, this is a, this is an offense punishable by death.

And it's like, this is a pretty baseline level fuck up that like doesn't necessarily require exemplary punishment. Barrier, he can't really conceive of like just how badly this guy's gonna fuck things up. He can't, he knows this guy's a dipship, but he still can't really wrap his mind

around like, this guy is gonna he's gonna think he just can't help it he's gonna be like I can improve this that's a great plan grand admiral

but it just needed one more thing I want to put my own little twist on it it's so bad he'll deal with the old fairier spice so the other thing

even Throne is gilding the lily here if his objective but this is the thing he's indulging in his fucking vendetta with card he's still like

this is how we can get card. The meeting with Mazek would have just let the whole smugglers thing crumble over time, right? Like it probably would have, it probably would have, Mazik would have had his doubts and would have been like, I think we're barking up the wrong tree here. But instead, he's got to put the finger on, on card. And it all goes bad. Mm-hmm. Like, card knows that something is up. Like, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the Fowl gets kind of caught. Like, people see a shadows, like, traipsing around the wild card.

Yeah, real big, you got a mixed success in your tabletop campaign. Or you, like, you roll a stock check. You strongly suspect something was aboard that ship, but you can't find it. You see something, but you don't get exactly what. Do you want to go investigate it? Yeah. Ooh, foul up rules not much better. Yeah, you don't find anything, I guess.

You're pretty sure something was here, but you don't find any evidence. I'm sorry. that's it you're gonna have to roll with that and that's what they got and masick shows up and he is heated and he is love the deal he shows up with two fighters two two to two like customized like ships fighter ships and then like two additional and that like bodyguard sexy bodyguard that's that's right they do mention that there's a sexy bodyguard yeah and the second given given where this arc goes that like this comes up in later books and it is very funny when

card suddenly gets a scent a whiff of delicate perfume as a gun barrel is jammed into his head and he turns around and this like woman is just staring is like staring coolly down the barrel at him that is it turned several books later many years later we get an idea of the impression this made on talent card

but Mazik's like let's basically he's like guys we're pretty sure card set us up and all cards friends are like yeah let's search his ship and I guess we'll have to kill him and they're obviously uncomfortable with it

it's like ugh this is this is icky even the people are kind of like we don't trust card but they're complaining about like hey look sometimes we have to get in a gun battle with each that happens yeah but this is like weirdly personal well it's specific The specific thing that they're like that they feel like is broken, the rule is they're reading in, they're reading, because cards argument that someone is like, what, you wouldn't want us to search your private data cards card? And he's like, yeah, no, I have secrets. We all have secrets. We're in the business of secrets. We're all in competition with each other. And there, it feels like the, the other smugglers are like, it feels like it's breaking the rules of,

of competition if we learn what his secret routes are or whatever. You know, if we learn who his contacts are that give him a slightly better price on fuel, or if we learn what our fences are paying us or paying him or, you know, all the stuff that makes a smuggler successful, whatever secret routes he knows, like, we don't want to learn that shit from, from reading his data files. We want to just like outgun him and outride him, you know, like we're just, we want to whim straight up, you know? It feels like cheating. to read the, to go read his playbook. Like, that's what it really is.

We want to be on the field. We don't want to read the playbook and steal his plays, you know? That's not, that's not real winning. Um, but, but also we can't not, this is too big of a deal. We have to look at the playbook, unfortunately. And wouldn't you know it? One of his plays is betray my friends in exactly the way that matches up with this other half of a receipt that Mazik was given.

the Ferrier almost fucks it up at the moment's the reveal right he says what is the thing he refers to a data card they haven't found yet

I think that's right then LR is like oh but we do have the data card and the timing of it like everyone's like well that's right attention shifts onto the data card but Ferrier fucks it up right at the start

where he's like aha you know card is like I guess it's too late to mention we had an intruder we couldn't find the guy and Farrier was like yeah nice try buddy and a little late a little late and a little late for what Dravis asked frowning he's trying to throw suspicion on someone else that's all ferrier said contemptuously trying to make you think one of us planted that data card on him what data card Gillespie scoffed. We haven't found any data card.

Yes, we have, Eller said softly. If Eller hadn't just found that data card, it's done for card, or done for a farrier. Unbelievable. He's so bad at this. It's...

The flop sweats. It is. Just begin to pour off him. And then he's like, I bet you're going to say it was my defel who did this. It's like, no one has said it was your defel.

No one's even hinted. at that actually I bet you're going to say I've been working for Thron the entire time and I'll bet next you're going to say that like Mazek was put up to this by Thron and like I was I'll bet you're going to say that like I planned this data card and like I'm working with

Mazik to like convince everyone that you're and I was one who hired the guy to begin with to come and shoot all of you and like no no one no one was going to say any of that Niles what is your deal did you do those things no how dare you

Anyway, here's a thermal detonator. Because eventually he fucks up all the way. He does the classic. That data card doesn't say that I was the one who paid a cost. It says you were a card. And Mazik is like, how the fuck do you know that name? That's right. That's right.

It's an old classic, right? Just say a name or a piece of information you shouldn't have. I love it every time, though. I love the record skit moment. in these sorts of confrontations and it's like you're done. Like everyone now sees what's going on. Uh-huh.

What's the, what's the, how does Bodey do that on the wire with the guns? Remember that? He does something very similar to this. The cops are interrogating him. And he catches them saying a name or catches them trying to like push him to say something that he very clearly hadn't set up.

And it's like, and he, that's where this. He realizes they don't have shit because they say, they say something that he knows is bullshit. and is able to be like, oh, you can't pressure me for anything anymore. It's good. It's good every time it happens.

That feels like a hirken dozer fuck up. It probably was. It almost certainly was. Or it might be the two old guys who are still there in the major crimes unit at that point. Remember, there's like the, yeah. Anyway, shout out's the wire. Well, we haven't gotten to my... I just have a thing.

Thron is Stringer. Oh. Someone who's way overrated compared to the actual track record. Like if people are like, oh, this is like the tragic anti-hero, but like he's people being like, Thrawn's like this great military genius and like if he hadn't died, like it's so interesting what could happen and imagining the empire under Thrawn. And it's like the record is less good than you think. And Stringer is a similar thing where it's like, man, he just like, he was the smart business

guy who was going to figure it all out and like, you know, really turned the, the Barksdale crew into like a huge, a huge, like, successful, like, semi-legitimate crime family. And it's like, no, probably not. Yeah, probably still limits to. But also, crucially, had no code. And that is the, like, just the reflexive inability to see, like, what drives people. And, like, the way that betrayal will make.

enemies for life? Listen, man. A few more college classes would have pushed stringer over the edge. He just had to read a few more works of classical economics. The thing that happens in that scene in the wire, by the way, is the cops fuck up and they go, they put two guns or three guns on the table. And they go, we even have your prints on one of the guns. And he goes, oh, yeah, which one? And they point to one.

And it's the wrong one. And he's like, all right, I want a lawyer. I'm out of here. y'all have shit so good anyway um he pulls a thermal detonator on them and then reveals that the de fowl is in the ship with them whack so like you are a fucking loser a fucking you're just going to pull out a thermal detonator uh whack move yeah his gear whack his gear whack and then with the little net maneuver too like you are just you are a silly silly man he like holds up card and is like all right defel you keep these guys here card you come with me to the

cockpit you're going to fly me back to my ship and then drop me off and like he doesn't threaten to like take other ships of cards too because cards like no I'm not going to let you take those ships I'm going to blow them up you don't get my freighter they're not going to get the wild card Are you kidding me? And while he's before he takes off, he like flips the lights on the ships that he lets everybody know, like, hey, look up here. And they all look up and see that there's a gun to his head.

And they all figure out, oh, right, Farrier. Fairier is a piece of shit. Also, no one invited him here. That was the other thing. I love that that is what found him out. And he was like, I just, I cracked the code, obviously, of the invitation. Oh, my God.

I decru- And they're like, oh, the super, super-encrypted invitation that we sent out that, you know, it's very sophisticated, whatever you crack that. He's like, of course. Everyone knows this guy can't unzip a file. That's right. Yeah. It didn't work. I'm telling you transfer didn't work.

I'm trying to open the folder. It doesn't open. I change it from dot zipped to dot e. EXZ. Why isn't it opening? It should open. I put it, I made it. Just send me the fucking file. Just send me the file. Just send me the file. You suck so bad.

Um, it turns out defiles are not good. Apparently at being guards, they're good at sneaking aboard places. But I guess you can't just hold five smugglers, top tier smugglers in a room with one guy.

Even if that guy can disappear into shadows or whatever. because they just beat them but before they could get to Farrier he gets out the ship runs to his own ship launches and then launches a Conner net

I love the description explain it so he fires a big electrified like mesh net and it blankets the entire landing area where all the smuggler ships are and the implication is like temporarily

that thing is like an electric fence is just draped over those ships. And it might even do like an ion cannon, like short out the ships just from being across them. But either way, it's like they're going to have to burn the Conternet off before they can use any of those ships. Cool little, cool little trick he's got. Mazik also has tricks, which is more guys with guns hidden somewhere else nearby. and Card gets

is awesome send-off here not a send-off in the story but like the very nice bow on this he's like

well I guess we all learn something about what kind of man Grand Admiral Thrawn is shall we have dinner

and in the background like a firecracker like a bottle rocket a ferry ship explode somewhere nobody's even about him anymore it's time to die

it's so good he's explicitly like because Matt's like I guess we're going to have to get these nets out of the way and or you know I guess we'll have to have

to have the crew do that before we can get out of here and Cards like well I still have a proposal to present to you like can we get some dinner and I have a slide show to show you incredible

the slideshow by the way is fuck the empire we should like yeah we should be committed to those it's a good it's a good what a prequel

what an opening I love this for him He's so good I'm a big fan I'm a big fan of talent card Please please more You know Please

I just love the degree to which Against his will Heaps getting pulled in Not for the Han Solo Like I just can't get out of this base My ship is broken And I'm like hanging around this girl

It is genuinely like There's that moment That realization he has Where it's like The only way out is through Like, we're never, like, Thron's got to go or we're never going to be out from under this guy. So we're going to have to kill him. We did leave off a key thing, though, about Carr throughout the section of the reading.

And it's actually on the previous section, too, which is like, every six pages or so, he's like, I got to get Mara back. I got to get Mara back. But he's also like, he's like, I just haven't had the time to go back and get Mara. I'm so busy. Bro, make time, May time. That's right. I can't believe you got to talk to. Aves, stupid Aves. It's so funny. This wouldn't happen if Mara had been here. Mara would have

sensed the Defel, you know, would have found him probably using the force, but she wouldn't say it's the force. Good times. You know, like, it's great. There's a little, there's a little bit of like missing your ex, but like none of the romantic part. Just the like, yeah, on Thursdays, We used to go to that place near her work after, after, you know, after she got off for dinner. I have no reason to go there now. I have no reason. It's across town, first of all. I don't want to bump into any of her friends, but it was cool.

It was so good. It was so good. Remember we watched all of Frasier? That was fun. Like, it's not even about the romance. It's just, it was a good time in my life, you know? I kind of had it. My job was going good at the time.

That cool car, you know? Yeah, that was a good year That's it It's so funny Won't be calling her Yeah, no, absolutely not There is no card Future meme on the phone

You know Oh no She's probably fine Yeah, she exactly Yeah She used to get out a little bit He knows this about Mara She does

You're right Yeah You're right So in the backdrop of all this You know Like dealing with Farrier you see Thrawn just like

not understanding the degree to which this guy is can just going to be a problem. You can't put him anywhere where he's not going to do harm. But Pallion also notes that Thrawn is weirdly like passive about the guy who's in charge of the they'll bring his shipyards. And he's like he's fine

you know what are you going to do? Cry over destroyed Star Destroyer like you know this guy this guy got a little lazy. He's learned his lesson. I wonder if it's like a bit of Dron's thinking about, like, you know, a few years, it's going to be cable clones running this entire show.

What? I'm going to go, like, do an executive search to be the new, like, head of the Bill Bringing shipyards when, like, I could simply clone myself and, like, have, like, as someone, like, do it for me. Uh, because that is, like, it's so different than, like, again, junior tractor beam operator. fumbles a tricky situation

deaf this guy in charge while a smuggler rolls up and blows up to Star Destroyer Thrawn's like I don't know Pelion

you're being too hard on him he's learned his lesson we can just let it ride there's a there's a casualness here that wasn't there before and I think comes a little bit from the dude can't everything's like piped through him

any problem he has to solve. He just doesn't want to replace this guy. I hadn't thought about the idea that he could be like, like going back to the beginning of the first book where it's like, hey, we only have junior members of the crew, like, we've lost so many senior people that one potential answer to this might be, we just clone the senior members. We just get the best people and clone them and then and then replace them. Like if that's, that would be a really fun, you know, there's a low key, you just background in Thron in terms of his like weird species psychology shit. That would be a really

fun science fictional high key eugenics maneuver. Oh, we just need to replace all of these different type of people with one type of person. And especially it was like, and that person's me. It's all me all the way through little throns, different levels of command. That to me is more fun than any clone shit they've ever done with the emperor, you know? Or, like, he's trying to figure out, like, I need to find the best mid-level functionary that ever fucking lived. Yeah, because he wouldn't want to do it himself. All the important facilities.

You're right, of course. And so he's going to have, like, his gallery of clones. Well, and of course, eventually it's like, well, you know, the Bith are actually very good at blah, blah, blah. So we'll find the best Bith and then clone that guy really fucked up. Yeah, it's a good vision. It's a good fucked up vision for inheriting the emperor, the empire. his plan to punch the I guess actually the jurist stuff has to come first it's bad it's well

because Thron is about to go like attack Corrassant yeah Sabiof figures it out uh-huh and he runs in and he's like you can't do that great bit with Pelion by the way where Pelion is on the is on the like in the bridge and he's too far away from one of the Salamiri and he's like if I break out to run for one he'll just get me he'll be on me in a second. I just have to not have me to Salimiri and hope he decides he doesn't want to brainwash me this time. Like, not that he remembers the last

time it happened, but he knows it's possible. And he's seen it, he's seen him take over the other crew members at this point. So he's just like, all right, I just stand here and wait. And like the moment that Thrawn shows up with his little cat around his shoulder, he's like, oh, thank

God. Like, thank God. He's going to show up. He's a stormtrooper who carries the cat for him. That's right. And he gets close enough that the bubble protects him is so fantastic. Well, and then this is so far off the rails. Sabeov has like a full tantrum. And that's how Pellian describes it, is a full tantrum.

Like he raises his hands. He's crackling with force energy. And literally everyone on the ship, everyone that Pellion can see who's not in the force bubble, is like suddenly a marionette at their stations. And he's just like, I've taken control of your fleet. I've taken control your ship. I know, and Thron's like, well, surely, then you know what my planet is for Corrassant.

And this thing he does. Trying to rip the info out of people's minds. It's so good. Because what he's trying to do, because no one knows. No one. Why does Thron have 22 asteroids just hanging out of the shipyard? Yes. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

And the lines in his face sharpened with the depth of mental strain. Pelliod hadn't seen in the Jedi Master for a long time. I remember we talked about how he's gotten better at the stuff he's been doing. he's not straining as much. He watched the other, wondering what he was up to, and suddenly he understood. Out there around the asteroids were hundreds of officers and techs who had worked on the project, each of them with his own private speculations as to what the whole thing was about. Sabriath reaching out to all those minds, trying to draw out those speculations and compile

them into a complete picture. That's so good. That's such a fun way of thinking about, like, it's a little... my mind palace, but like in, it's, I'm building my mind palace with the impressions of other people. It's so fun. It's so much more fun than, like, not retrading Palpatine. Right. Like, that Zahn is thinking about, like, what else would a dark Jedi do? And his sobayoff is not Palpatine Part 2. He's dark Obi-1. The description. Everything is like the stuff that, like, would have been, like, these aren't the droids you're looking for. It is an anxiety that Luke,

Luke doesn't actually like that move. He doesn't do it when he has the chance in this. He tries to avoid doing it. It's too much. And Sabayov is like, ah, fuck it. That's just the beginning. You know,

what if you just tell people, though I do see the droids that are over there, you can do anything. And just the way he's described is like, what if, like, Obi-Wan did kind of go feral out there and just, like, use his abilities for evil

and had no respect for, like, individuality, like the privacy of one's thought. thoughts and how powerful, but also how limited that is. You know, Thron, that Sabyak can pull all this info, but to your point, all he gets are like these shattered, incomplete fragments of like, kind of what everyone suspects maybe is the plan, but he still can't see it. And then Thron starts to break him down.

Like, all right. I guess if you're going to lead the attack, you'll just have to do this. Yeah, he's like. the entire time. I mean, yeah, you'll have a great time. You know, you know who's in charge of the planet's defenses, right? You know where the orbital battle stations are on Corrassant. You know the type of ships they have, obviously, and you know how to use our tactical

weapons in the most strategic way or whatever, right? You know about the energy field, you know about the energy field, obviously, and the way the gravity works there. Yeah, you can do this. You'll be able to control the 37,000 people aboard the ship, plus every other. ship we take with us on the mission for like a week because it takes it takes a week to get there or whatever yeah and he's like well no i'll just have everybody everyone will answer the everyone will tell me what you're talking about it's like oh yeah i mean they know some of the

answers but you can't get all of the answers that quick you know and so sobriath is like fine well um you could be in my room thron is like let me take Corosan. And then later, once we've restored order to the galaxy, I'll present it to you. And he's I have the force. I'm never going to give me my empire. And he's like, oh, you know what? Yeah, okay, sorry. You're right. You're right. You're right. But you know what? I'm promising you. I'm not here to destroy Corrassant. That's not what I'm doing here. You know what? I give you my word. And Sabat is like, all right, then. Come get me. When we get me when we get. there.

All right, buddy. I'll get you. You want to take a nap? Do you want to take a nap? It's so, it's a new maneuver. We haven't seen him do this with Sauteroyov before. And it seems to work better than him either ignoring him or kind of trying to yell at him. So a little placation, I guess, goes a long way.

Well, and, you know, Pallion picking up that there's an element of... desperate pleading with with sabayov that like all this guy wants is his Jedi he again like the degree to which like loneliness is a driving theme in this series right like sabayov he is a megalomaniac and he wants to like mold Jedi in his image but also there's just this to what degrees he also the way he is because like he's a clone of a Jedi master who stuck on this planet sort of abandoned for years with no no context no past no present and just like these abilities that he's started to you know like gone kind of kill grave with really is the the direction he's gone and like palan is picking up that there is this yeah like it's it's a pure id response he can't which is thron's

argument for why he's not a threat but what palan's always been sort of keen to is like what this guy can do. And the thing, the level of ambition he's starting to exhibit is growing. And as he sees Thron off, as he sees Sabeoff off,

well, like right before they're about to go on the mission, Sabiaf changes gears. And he's like, I'm not going to Corosan. I need to go to Mount Tantis right now. Give me a good ship. I was like,

all right, cool. And Thron's happy. He's like, you don't fuck this guy. Yeah. And Pellion sits there and he's like, this is bad, but he can't, can't remember. He knows there's something real bad

connected with Sabiof and Mount Tantis, but the memory is blocked. And Thrawn doesn't want to linger over it and the conversation moves on, but it is so clear that like Sabiof knows exactly what's going to happen. He knows they're on their way to Mount Tantis. But the relationship is broken down

and he's not going to tell Thrawn, like, well, my Jedi are coming to Mount Tantis. He doesn't trust Thron to like, help him. So he's going to go there. And he's like, and don't worry, nothing bad is happening on Mount Tantis. We would know because we have deltasource. If the rebels or if the New Republic learns anything about Wayland, we'll learn about it

because someone will say it and DeltaSource will report it back to us. Also, Pellion has that moment when he's thinking about like, What if Sabayov got hold of him implied is every time Thron does the Sabaev does the direct like I'm going to puppet you It fucks people up like Thron needs 500 people brought over to replace his crew Because they're medical or whatever right they're like literally Need medical attention immediately and he there's a line specifically right where he's like I've seen what they you know you think it's to himself like I've seen what they go through to recover from this I want that

He doesn't want that Yeah, at all Yeah, it's bad So yeah Every time Sabaev is doing this Like it's It's not He is really strong

Is the thing Yeah He's like really really powerful He's just also Like a moody 10 year old That really wants a best friend And a best friend

That he can mind control um so bad vibes bad vibes i'm gonna deal with this guy well and not to mention lea's visions which we haven't mentioned but lea continues to have these have these visions of mara and luke facing off with a with a wacky looking guy in the back background and then a cloaked figure in the foreground holding a lightsaber and we could assume that the, you know, wacky looking guys, Savoyoth, since Leia's, Leia hasn't met Savoyoth,

I don't think. No, yeah, I'm not sure how much she's gotten the download of his whole deal. Yeah, I don't think she's gotten a ton, but. Yeah. Yeah, she sees them as like a shadow with a lightsaber and then, and then, and then, an old man, craziness in his eyes and blue lightning in his hands. Yeah.

So she has this vision right before the attack and course not begins. But the thing I want to get to there is this whole series, Luke's always being like, I just want to, like, I want to know what I'm supposed to do.

I want, he's asking the force for answers, direction, all this stuff. And he gets really abstract. Like, he goes to the dark side cave and he gets an impression of Mara, but, like, it's not really useful, like, actionable information. Mm-hmm. And he's always meditating on stuff, but he's never getting, like, clear answers.

It's all very vague. You know, there's a sense that, like, maybe I should, I guess Mara and I are linked in some way, but, like, I don't really know. It's not clear. He's kind of always lost as to what he's supposed to do. Leia, who doesn't really regard herself as a Jedi at all, has put off her training all this stuff, gets this image from the force that is basically like this is happening here's who it is involves

really like direct literal we are going to see the shot recreated at some point in the story basically and there's an implication of like the force seems to communicate most clearly to people who don't aren't trying to use it right that like the force will give you

a vision or direction when you're sort of a novice and like you you aren't really in tune with the force. You don't use it. You know, the force acts upon you. And that phase of Luke's life is over. Oh, yeah. Well, like, the image that Luke got from the Darkside Cave on Dagabah was of the past explicitly.

It was this could have happened. It was Mara on the barge killing him being like, hey, you would have gotten killed here if only Mara had been there. And then Mara, of course, gets very. visions that are completely fabricated visions from the emperor and and yeah contrast that with here laya getting what seems like a clear vision of what is going to be probably 10 chapters away from here you know we'll see we'll see how much it's right but it just like it seems to anticipate in some ways like the Jedi council be like we just can't see anything anymore and this is a thread zon picks up much later when he revisited these characters in later books this notion

that to wield the force, you lose its ability to guide. There's a paradox of force use. Like, if you're wielding it like a tool, you're not letting yourself be guided by it. But you need the force's guidance. At which point you have to stop using it. It's the trap of the Jedi. And I actually think it's a really clever one.

That, like, people who don't get schooled in it who sort of are willing to, like, mostly let their abilities be latent, occasionally the force will just tell you, this is like, this is where you need to be. This is what you need to do. do. If you're out there being like, Luke, the galaxy needs me to be a Jedi, I need to figure this out. What should I do? The force is dead silent. Listen, sometimes you make a trade and

the trade is you can do a double jump. Yeah. You can do a lightsaber. It's a good double jump. It's a good double jump. Yeah. You will all run. You can do a force push, you know, put two points in that. Who needs to see the future, you know? You need to be ready for the future. You need to see the future. I'll make my own future. That's right. If only Luke had that confidence. Maybe he'll get there.

If only for, Luke just leaned into the fact that like, you know, there's always going to be someone in the bar who knows with the exchange rate with the empire. Like, it's just going to break that way. Yeah. That's how it happens around me. Leah wakes up from that vision into air raid warnings, basically. Coruscant is under attack. We get a great, you know, sequence of her, you know, A, no, where you got the kids?

Cool, you stay here. I'm going to run to the war room and see what's up. And she goes into the depths of the palace. They're like sort of Pentagon type place. And it's not a good scene down there. Like the palaces, you know, the civis are terrified. And they should be because she gets into the war room. Nothing good happening there.

no it's hard to it's hard to figure it's hard to give in like a comparison about who she finds in charge because i'm like trying to think of like a really likable political figure and i can't come up with any but you know like imagine a world where everyone really liked chuck schumer imagine that world and there's like oh yeah we got chuck in charge everyone kind of likes him He doesn't offend anybody. So, like, we put him in charge of the war. He's not, like, a great tactician. But, you know, he's the guy.

He's not, he's not going to offend him. Hang on. Austin, the world you're describing is the head of the Democratic Senate strategy. Like, they did put him in charge. They did put him in charge. And it has gone this way. And it has gone this way. Meanwhile, three floors up, there's the guy.

There's the guy. The guy you need. But he's, he, let, Leia's like, is he throwing a, a little fucking pouty tantrum because he wants mon mothma to ask him to please be in charge of the military and like she goes up to scold him into that was belle iblis obviously garb bell iblis uh and she gets up there and he explains it's not exactly what you think it is it's not his pride that's making him refuse to be the military commander it's that mon mothma doesn't fucking trust anybody and that if he agrees to do this without it being her command

then it's going to lead to problems not because of their particular beef from the past because she will have so many doubts about his capability it will suggest that she will continue to doubt his capability that it'll turn into a bunch of little fights over time that the only compare that to the way she runs things with everybody else she only trust like five people. She trusts herself. She trusts the Skywalker's. She trusts Han Solo, kind of. She trusts Admiral Akbar. And that's why he explicitly, like, Leah explicitly realized, like, oh, that's why she kept sending me out on work trips, even though I was super pregnant. Because I'm like, one of four people she trusts to do anything. And so Bell Iblis is like,

I have to be one of those people. Otherwise, I won't be able to do my job right, because she'll just constantly be second-guessing me and worrying that I'm fucking things. up. And Leah's like, oh, well, like, she's not going to come down. And then Mon Motham is like, I'm right here. You'd be surprised or whatever. And I mean, before this, we should note, there's a whole moment where Bell Iblis is like, well, the thing you should do right now was move the ships this way. Can you text him? No. Can you text him? Can you please? Can you text Drason? That thing we saw in an earlier chapter? He's going to do it. He's going to do it again. With the interdictors, he's going to use them to, like, slingshot in Star Destroyers,

and they're for, like, a split second, they'll be vulnerable. Everyone hates Drayson. General Rikian, who's the commander of the Hoth base, is there. And Dracen's, like, have the planetary ion cannon shoot at the fleet. And Rikin's, like, can't fucking hit them. Yeah, they were really far away. They're really far away. And these guns aren't accurate, dude.

It's so good. And Garms just, like, I'm not getting involved. I'm just going to, there's a little bit of sulking. There is. That's what I'm saying. This is what he says. He says, I'm not sulking.

He's sulking a little bit. It's ambivalent, right? Like, he is sulking, but there is a core of a good point there too, which is that, like, he needs to be, like, truly empowered. That Maumathma doesn't let people, it doesn't give them enough, like, room to operate unless you are in her inner circle. And then you have carp launch. as we've seen because by the way it comes up that uh luke and co have freed mara jade and gone on a little a little solo mission to wayland and everyone who is not monmoutham is like you that's illegal and ron motham's like well let's see how it plays out i do just last thing at a time

when the battle's happening and lea's asking like where's garm she runs into his aide to camp And she's like, well, I hope you get him down here fast because my sons are aboard that dreadnought. And it's weird that it never comes up in other Star Wars stuff of like these ships are full of people, especially in the rebellion of the Republic. There would be friends, family relation on these things. And like ships remain kind of abstract. And that makes sense in the Clone Wars because like ain't nobody's family aboard those ships except the clones families. But it's just a weird like human moment of like this. badass like aid to camp ladies

been part of this like guerrilla army for years her kids were inducted into that they are a board garm ship which has been turned over the republic and now like she might be sitting there watching them be sent to their death for no good reason because Dracin's in charge and it's kind of a brief like

horrifying moment but a really affecting one of like man the cost of like not handling this right are going to be really severe for people like this is not just we're going to lose the battle. Yeah. It also separates the new republic and the rebellion from the empire, right? Because the empire would presumably have drafted people or people who have

volunteered from all over the galaxy and they get sent to the Imperial Academy and then they get sent back out on ships, you know, historically, in a way that's like they're not, it's not like their neighbors. Do you know what I mean? They're not farmers who've decided to join up with the rebellion together and now get to be on the same ship because that was the ship that came to town. They're like, okay, well, you're from Corrassant, you're from Alderan, you're from Corellia. The three of you don't know each other. You're going to end up all being, you know, bridge officers on the Star Destroyer or whatever. There's a sort of, the imperial identity overrides your local identity all the way through to how you serve in the military. And that's

not the case with the rebellion. That's one of the things that's really fun so far about rebels, sort of the things that's fun about Andor is like, oh, right, like, these people like work together for a while and, you know, there's a lot of, like, um, locality to, to who they are. And, and if they come from a different weird place, you end up with the situation in Andor of like, Vell and, and Mon, right, who, on Mothwa, who have like, a familial connection, right? Like, it is, that stuff runs in tight circles, you know? And the groups come in together. Like, right. Once Garm has sort of seen off this attack, And it is, it is now clear that, like, the last thing it happens is once Thron realizes, like, Garmin is in charge, it's time to.

Which is sick, by the way. We're in Legend of Galactic Heroes type shit. We're in, like, real, you know, ancient strategy, you know, war strategists. Strategies are being laid out. They've stopped trading rooks for pawns. Our old adversary, the Carillion, must be in charge. Yeah, it's so good. He's like, ah, yes, I see.

Things have changed since they changed commanders. And Pallion's like, huh? They did what? He's like, oh, you didn't notice? Like, it's so funny. And so he's like, it's time to launch the asteroids. Mm-hmm. And it's a cool moment.

Like, one of the Republic warships gets nailed by an asteroid as the Imperial's about to retreat. And Garm realizes what's happened. They opened fire on that trajectory. Yeah, they can't see the asteroids. They've cloaked the asteroids. They've put their cloaking shit. So they've done two things. The first is they fire up all of their tractor beams and set them to out.

You know like how a cartoon vacuum you hit the switch to unvacuum and like you can just like shoot dirt everywhere? Yeah. They do that with the tractor beam. Then they fake fire 187 times or whatever. They like do it way more than the number of actual asteroids they release. Then they release a bunch of asteroids. and when one of them is about to be found or like it's about to be shot out of the air,

Theron explicitly like turns off the cloaking device so they can see it. They can see, oh shit, it's a big asteroid that's about to get blown up. So they know what the threat is and in fact will overestimate how many there are as a way of having being terrorized effectively. Yeah, it's 287.

They shoot the tractor beams. They like, you know, fire. They dry fire it, like, 250 times of the 287 times, you know. And so there's only, there's only, like, 20 something asteroids, right? 22 asteroids get sent out. But, like, they think it could be up to 200 or whatever it was, that's so fucked up. It's so fucked up.

They're gaslighting them. They're gaslighting them. And let me tell you, as things develop, it becomes clear that they might not have what it takes to get the 22, you know? No. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. I love, so once they realize that this is what's happening, and try to make sure they see, because now they're trapped.

They know that they lower the planetary shields, which we know that, like, communication doesn't pass through the shields. Like, it's impenetrable, you know, so if they're under siege, they literally can't get anything on or off course on. And they lower that shield, the asteroid falls through. Is that necessarily a planet killer, but it's bad news. Also, Zon's coming right up to the limit of, like, wait, why would they even need that? Death Star now that you think about it. Why wouldn't you just... Don't worry about it.

Well, presumably the Death Star... Presumably the thing is the Death Star can get through planetary shields, right? That's true, yes. That's the thing, right? And so, because otherwise they can see... You can't just speed up a rock. You can't just, right, you can't just speed up a rock. I guess what you could do is just launch a few asteroids that are cloaked at a planet.

Well, the shields are not up. while the shields are not up. Maybe they would get detected quick enough. Who knows? Also, it's dangerous to just have the shields up, we learn later, because a ship could just bounce into them. Yeah. And get owned.

So, yeah, they are impermeable. Yeah. So, yeah, so in all this, Leah's like, well, Colonel Bremen shows up. He's like, Mara J. The attack must have been time to cover her escape. And Leah's like, uh, that was,

me and all my friends. And my mom is like, Leia. Come on. And Leia's like, we'll deal with this later. Yeah. Well, and she lays out, by the time we do anything around this fucking place, a thousand people know about it, which was Garmes Hall, this is why I have to leave the rebellion. And he looks at my mom and is like, she's got a point you now.

Well, especially with Delta source. I can't believe how well Leah parents. trapping Garm and Monmothma has worked out. It's so funny. It's so good. We did move past that moment a little bit, and I want to go back to it. Please. Mon Motha walking on the scene is funny enough, but like that she's like, well,

um, Garm, um, I just came here to, um, say, um, uh, he, he just like very like, you know, you know, understandingly is like, I'll lead the R. For you, Monmouth. And like, I love this moment. with Leah because, you know, I forget how it's written exactly, but, like, her, like, understanding the depth of the history that's there. And then, like, that's, like, something she can't touch. It's like, it's like when you're, like, you know, 20 to 30 years old and you have relatives that are, like, 50 or 60, and you're like, oh, there's a version of being

an adult. I haven't touched yet. Like, I don't have these, these, like, well, worn like canyons in my relationships with people yet. And it's, it's like just a tiny moment, but it's very, very good. It's so good. There's definitely, like, I don't want to reduce everything to, like, there's romantic overtures because it's bigger than that. It's like, maybe they did date once. Who could say, like, that is kind of the energy. But more importantly, they were people who were, like, deeply embedded in each other's lives for a long, difficult time. And the relationship that they built over that time got shaken apart and they got separated and now they're back together in a way that's like, you know, are we really going to, we're going to realign our

lives again in a way that's like really meaningful, you know, in a professional sense even, just like, but it is, it's a heavy feel. It's good. I like it a lot. I like them. They're good. A professional. And remarriage can be a professional one. That's right. Oh, yeah. Mon Mothman is Garbell Iblis's workwife actually And they've they've recommitted to each other Put the band back together Yeah that is it Outcast tour dates

That's right dropping near you So That's handled People are like Ah lay make a good point Our security does suck Gens like your crypto team sucks By the way

In the middle of all this She put Gett on the, she walks past Gett, sees the, like, Republic decryption team's office, turns around like a cartoon and goes and gets him and goes, hey, go in there. There's a little computer sure you to play with in there. Maybe you'll see something. Going out in the computer lab. Yeah, there's a, yeah, please. She checks with, like, the computer lab teacher, essentially, and is like, tell him what you do and see if he could find a use for you. Yeah.

Well, she specifically is like, the guy is like, well, Have you ever used a decryption computer before? And he's like, well, I took out this thing and that thing. And Lay is like, is that good? Which is so funny. And the guy's like, well, it took us a month, you know, and it took this kid two months. So, yes, he's good at this. And then he's bored out of his mind while during the battle because he thinks that the way that

they do things is kind of boring. But don't worry, he spent that time tracking down the location of Delta Source, the, like, physical range of it, basically, right? Is it the location? No, he figures out the Delta source encryption. Oh, that's what it's, it's the encryption. That's what it is, yes. Right.

So they can break, they can access what Delta source is outputing. That's what it is, which means that they can start being like, wait a second, we can test to see, we can start saying things in various places, see what gets reported through delta source, and then that will help us zero in on where it is. basically because like if we say in wing the west wing that you know we're moving troops to correa and we say in the east ring that we're moving troops to the alderani sector then which one gets sent up we'll start to zero in on where it is we'll start to test to see and this is what happens who is around when certain things were said and we'll zero in right it's much more important

it's less important that it's the east and west wing but it's more important that i'm walking around talking to my perfect memory assistant who can at any point be like yeah Tom was there Jerry was there Peter wasn't there Alice was there no it's so funny and Bob's aide was there they do all of this and oh first of all she cuts a hole in a wall somewhere to set up a private office without telling anybody about it it's like with her lightsaber is how it's described so that no one will know on Delta's. They won't get filtered through Deltasaurus. They have a little private security room set up.

It's so funny. And it turns out they don't get any leads from this. They filter, they sift, they do a reverse sifting where they realize like it's not just what gets reported. It's what doesn't get reported and who isn't in the room or whatever. And it's zero people. It's definitely this one hallway, the grand corridor. But that's something that she would turn. where winter is like, then if everything have, everything here is in the one hallway.

Because the problem they're up against is like, if there are multiple traitors, then you're never going to narrow it down because like what they've been trying to scan for is like you're trying to look at all these things that like, you know, by process of elimination, you find one solution. If there's two or three explanatory factors, it becomes like impossible to solve. Right. Because if two or three people are reporting it back, then it's really hard to pin it on one person basically and it's really hard to know for sure is person three actually part of this or they just happen to be in the same room a few too many times you know but uh the the insight gent has is that delta source doesn't have any ability to filter it's it reports everything

including complete trash yeah like someone's trying to like what shall we name are hatchlings Delta Force sends those conversations out to Imperial Intelligence and so they begin to like look at so if it doesn't have ability to filter it's running on autopilot Maybe it's an exotic recording system Yeah God the droid bit

We're like oh we haven't even thought about the fact that there's all these droids walking around Which I get because they're like we scan the droids every time they come in But like you didn't even think that it could be droid the imperial probe droids are like one of the defining moments of star wars like what if there's a probe droid hidden in a closet near here you know a droid could show a droid could show up from anywhere you never know you never know it's it's like in um like gosford park right yeah servants are not seen they're invisible but they're but you know what they have enormous

access power access to information right like but nobody thinks like oh i was alone they have whole interior lives. Three other people. That's right. Yeah. Just like droids. Just like that's, mm.

By the way, this is also 3PO and R2D2 on Wayland. They've been brought on that mission. They are brought like super secondarily. They're not part of any conversations about going. They're just at the end of that plan. Luke's like, oh, bring the droids, by the way. And then they're like, I guess the droids have to walk through the jungle.

Sorry. Sorry, Artu. It's very funny. funny in many, in many ways about how the droids are thought about. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love Eureka moment. Oh, it's not any of the droids.

I thought it worked pretty well. Can you explain it? What happens, Natalie? So, so they're like sitting in the central corridor or wherever, which we've been in many times before. It's a, it's a, it's a location we've been in quite a few times. and they figure out that they are that as long as they kind of keep scanning this area, they'll be able to sense where the, or figure out where the call is coming from because

they've kind of narrowed it down to everything that was discussed did come, did happen in this central corridor. So they, Leah's like on the phone. with both Bell and computer guy. Oh, it was a Gett. It's Gant. I thought it was Gett, but I could be, maybe it's winter. I thought she was with Winter in the room. But anyway, so she's on a three-way call, basically.

And security pops on her com link. It is like, hey, Leia, are you aware of the fact that there's somebody else on this call? she's like yeah I'm on a three way fucking call it's all good he's like well we're doing a security search and like was like the the book remarks that the security officer was clearly very excited because it's like he was convinced it gave the vibe that he thought he had found deltasaurus because he like picked up on a three way call

but she's like no I'm on a real three way call and he's like oh well if you could just if you could disconnect because, you know, we're doing a security sweep or whatever. And she's like, okay. So she hangs up the phone and she's now just observing, okay, who's coming in and leaving the room? To dodge the sweep theoretically. Exactly.

But no one does within the period of the sweep. And so she's kind of like, man, like we were. so close and then she's kind of discussing with winter i guess we could go back and and and re you know examine this like a couple from a couple of different aspects and it's like oh but that would it doesn't narrow down at all um and she's looking at the trees in the room and we've we've noticed the trees before in in our readings the the trees are known for when you touch them they have like a physical reaction

to touch they'll like burst red or whatever and and so they she does notice one particular droid that's like a tree droid he's the tree maintenance droid

and he goes up and down and you know kind of cuts all the the dead leaves and stuff off the off the trees and whatever and she

notices a few times that he has this like this kind of clicking chuckle that the droid keeps doing classic droid maneuver a little laughing doing a little guy laugh a little freak laugh

and she keeps watching the droid and I'll just read from here please And suddenly then it hit her Like a violent wave of icy water Fumbling at her belt

With suddenly trembling figures Oh wait Let me go back a little bit actually Lay a frowned Staring at the tree As her chain of thought Jolted to a halt Another small burst of red

Appeared on the slender trunk As she watched Sending a pale red ring Rippling outward And around the trunk Until it faded into The Quiet Purple Background turmoil. Another flicker followed, and another, and another. Chasing each other around the trunk

like ripples from a dripping waterline, all of them more or less the same size, all of them originating from the same place on the trunk, and each of them, exactly in time, with one of the clucking noises from the MN2E droid. And suddenly that it hit her, like a violent wave of icy water, fumbling at her belt with suddenly trembling fingers, she keyed for the central operator. This is counselor Organas Solo, she identified herself. Get me Colonel Bremen insecurity. Tell him I found the delta source. And so in all of the Chihala trees, there was like a tube inside them.

And meanwhile, the central corridor has like a thousand trees in it, right? Like it's just they, and it was, I forget what the coup they were again. gift from. But yeah, so it's like a biochemical. Yeah, they have something that can read the chemical signal. They have a tube connected or a wire or whatever connected to the tap root underground, eight feet in the dirt, reading these chemical signals and decoding them and re-encoding them as text because even speech triggers these trees.

and so an organic microphone an organic microphone I guess the emperor is the one who put these in there and Thrawn still had access Right because he was spying on the Senate this way Is one of the things that they note That like while the Senate was still in Allie

Yeah I love that Leah's reaction to this was like Damn the emperor really was that dude huh? Like he's like goddess She is like that I would have dug up if you you didn't dig once this is what I'm saying take the encyclopedias off of the take the encyclopedias off the shelf you talk and the thing like reverberates like you're in Spencer gifts something's happened you didn't get rid of everything that the emperor put in here come you didn't just do remodel whole remodel of the whole building I think I would have checked it

if there was a voice-activated tree. I think she destroyed the whole building. Like, a symbol of the republic. Like, fuck the empire. Raise it to the ground and rebuild. Put some people to work. Earthquake proof at this time around or something. You know the people who just lived through this war are looking for work.

Build a cool new, more republic. You know what I mean? Like, you don't, you're in the imperial palace. No, you should be in like the Republic state house. Come on. make jobs, create some jobs for your, for your republic. Fools. And that's why, uh, that's why the Soviets didn't use the Kremlin, right?

Like, this is, this is what governments do. Yeah. They move into the existing infrastructure is the thing. Like, they're just like, this has been the seat of government for ages. So we'll just move in. We'll just move in. But there's also, do, do, do, no, no, there's a thing. The old emperor was an.

evil wizard. Destroy his shit. They don't, but I think, the thing I love about it is, this is a really cool grand corridor. I know. And the trees react to everything, touch all sorts of stuff because like, so it is just a really cool decorative element. And I would bet you, nobody would even think if there was like some hardware with the

trees, you wouldn't think it's a listening device. It's only until you realize that like somehow the trees are the listening device, that you realize what all that is. otherwise you probably think it's like arborish shit because you think it's going to be a recording device and not a way to decode the impulses from the tree into speech into data transmissions I can't believe it was a tree

I love it it's so funny it's very funny you've got to get rid of the trees you've got to get rid of the emperors trees but landscaping is so expensive and we need to buy spaceships and we need to fund

to fucking Luke Skywalker's gold card well this is the problem it's when you move in with a when you move in with a roommate and it's like there it was like their apartment first so it's like all their furniture yep you don't really live there

that's their apartment it's their apartment but you're living there and then something happens where your roommate is like I got to give you the lease and I got to go and I can't take anything with me and you're like all right and so you're in the apartment with all

of the old roommate's stuff and it's not your stuff but also to go out and replace perfectly fine stuff is like not at the top of your priority list perhaps and let's let me tell you this roommate was a terror

okay this is how you end up with bedbugs let me tell you You got to be careful. You don't know what I mean? What if your roommate was, you got to fumigate, you got to get rid of some stuff. You don't know. Please, please get rid of your roommate's stuff. Please.

At least like for the vibes of it all. For the vibes. Please get rid of the old energy. This is Luke's point. At the outset, he's like, we shouldn't be here. I think the other thing this betrays is the Republic values, continuity with the old republic so fucking much that they view some of this not as like imperial palace stuff but like old republic senate still like but they're calling the imperial palace still

they're not calling at the new republic palace what are you doing they renamed it it's fine they didn't rename it it's still called the imperial palace no but maybe they're maybe the emperor renamed you know what I mean like I know I'm sure that that happened they should Maybe it's in committee still They're trying to come up with the name Well, that's the problem is Momah can't Like, she's just like, I will get to that. I know.

As soon as I find some, as soon as I find a decorator, I can trust. I can trust, yeah. But right now I'm working on finding admirals I can trust. We'll work our way down to like architects, I can trust. But I think it's such a, it's such a clever thing. I love that in the first book, it's tipped that it's the trees.

Because Luke and Winter having that conversation, he's like, I'm going to Joe Mark. And then a chapter later, Thron's like, deltasaur says it's going to, that Luke is going to, uh, that Luke is going to Joe Mark. And he isn't.

He changes his plans subsequent to that scene, but it's what the tree hears. Yeah. And so I, I just love that this is sort of put in place. Uh, the other thing they're probably distracted with is like trying to find those asteroids.

And their plan is dropping big clouds of chaff. Uh, they're basically firing glitter bombs in the space. And hoping the glist, glitter gloms onto the asteroid and you see the outline of asteroid, you can shoot it. That's it. I love that everyone's reaction in the room is like, well, this is going to take a long time, huh? This is going to take it forever.

Everybody knows this plan sucks, but it's all they can do. It's all they got. It is like searching, it is like they are searching. a like soccer pitch for like a grain of sand and they're doing it with a microscope and that is the scale that is the scale of the challenge they have before them and by the way the ships they keep sending out to do it they're automated freighters but they're still like up there getting smashed pieces by asteroids so like it's it's bad uh the siege of corson not lifting anytime soon but at least they figured out what uh delta source is I hope they didn't kill the trees. I hope they just, like, took the hardware out. I would keep those trees around. They were unrooted, right?

I'm surprised they don't just start feeding bad intel to Thron via it. I thought about that. Yeah, but it's a lot of trees. It's too many trees. Like, people are going to have conversations about like, here's how the war is going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. You're right.

You can't double agent, Delta source. Thron is effectively doing what Sabayath is when he tries to, like, like synthesize all the information from everybody from the other ship about about the Corrassant plan it's just he's doing it to the people on on Corrassan you know yeah it's fun

so yeah so on the next episode we're going to read the end of the series we're going to see how the raid on Montantis goes we're going to see how thron's plans unfold what the smugglers group is going to get up to who is Sabayoth's

twisted little Jedi Do you have guesses yet on that? Maybe like... One of the emperor's prize specimens. Mara jade. Okay. Oh, I see the second A. Yeah, I got you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh-huh. Fun. Yeah. Fun. That's what I'm thinking. That would be, I mean... Imagine that, actually.

I do. I imagine it's evil Mara Jade and regular evil. How vindicating that be, though. She's like, you can't be the one to kill Luke Skywalker. I'm going to be the one to kill Luke Skywalker. And it's like, I was imagining more like the reveal of the character in Ava, who is cloned. Go down to the basement, just, you know, huge, you know.

It'd be great. Anyway, we're going to find out. We're going to find out. But for now, we've reached the end of another episode of a more civilized age. age. Our show is produced by Ricardo Contreras and supported by our listeners at patreon.com slash civilized. Next time, the finale to the Last Command and the Air to the Empire Trilogy. Until next time, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice and consider who your prize clone specimen would be to defend Mount Tantis from intruders.

Thank you.