A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 143: Doctor Aphra Vol. 3 — Remastered

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Today we come to the end of our little dive through the modern Star Wars comics, as Doctor Aphra finds herself under the control of a new master--the murder-crazed Triple Zero. And for once, he has more than just murder in mind. Murder is involved, don't worry. It's just not... the only thing he wants. Next Time Star Wars: Zero Company (Through Dark Waters & Trick's first mission) Hosted by Rob Zacny (robzacny.bsky.social) Featuring Alicia Acampora (ali-online.bsky.social), Austin Walker (austinwalker.bsky.social), and Natalie Watson (nataliewatson.bsky.social) Produced by Michael Hermes Music by Jack de Quidt (notquitereal.bsky.social Cover art by Xeecee (xeecee.bsky.social)    

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zakam, joined by Ali Akampora, Austin, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. We are, as always, supported by you, our listeners via 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 and various other special editions. So we are wrapping up Afra tonight, and we open with a bit of a vignette. As we follow an adorable Trandotian Huntress and her trouble-making human husband being led into a monster dungeon.

A very video game monster dungeon situation by Afra, by a holo call which unfolds like someone trying to live read a gameplay walkthrough to someone who has never played this game before. And along their journey, the hunters find evidence that Afra has, in fact, hired and led to their deaths, just about every other monster hunter of note in the Star Wars setting. the quirk here is that the Trondotion Huntress has a rule. She doesn't do any immoral or unethical hunting.

She got banned by her Trandotian hunting clan for refusing to skin a baby wookie. But her moral code extends even further than that, which is if a monster has not done harm to you and does not appear to be a threat to anyone in particular, and it's just following its various monstrous ways, then you don't kill it. And so they confront the monster, they defeat the monster, and then the huntress refuses to administer the coup de grah. But fortunately for someone, if not the monster and not the huntress's moral code, one of the wounded hunters who was there on the scene with his last, with his last gasp, does a from hell's heart, I stab at thee, and kills the monster, which opens an opportunity for Afra to emerge from its belly like Jonah from the whale. wearing a zero suit, sorry, a null suit. A null suit. Please, Rob, a null suit.

A null suit, which is very quank, clon, clon, clon, clon, clon, clon, clon, clon, clon, cloned, coded for our, for our co-tour crew. And it turns out that she has been stuck in there for some indefinite length of time because she was here to steal the monster's treasured crystal, got swallowed by the monster, and then had to start sending out task rabbit requests. to all the monster hunters in the galaxy, hoping that one of them could kill this monster without, for various reasons,

they couldn't just shoot it. It would cause a whole blow-up situation. Anyway, point is it had to die sort of in a dune fashion at the hands of like a blade or a piercing weapon, but not an energy weapon. And with herself freed from the monster,

she jetpacks out and takes her crystal away, or so she thinks. But it turns out that that husband, who has been arguing with his, wife the entire story about the droid arms he wears on his back and sometimes teaches to do things like pickpocket people has pickpocketed the treasure that afra came there for in the first place and it provides a rare case of good people getting one over on afra and serving her up some just desserts eat well on this hold it close to you because this is about the last time good people come to

come to a good end, crossing paths with Afra. The rest of this arc is how things tend to go the other way for cute couples, cute couples and people with codes and beliefs and what it means to Afra to be someone's worst misfortune. From here, as we embark on the main arc of the story, it's time to reacquaint ourselves with Tolvin, the sexy imperial officer with a bionically enhanced steel jaw line that pursued Afra and her dad across Yavin. She's working at a dead end outpost under a lousy classmate from the academy while thinking

fondly of her lost mentor, Fanoff. Her brooding is interrupted by a raid led by Afra, and as Afra holds her gunpoint, the two open up to each other before Afra stuns Tolvin and escapes with her heist crew, unknown to Afra, the next part of the mission involved blowing up the entire imperial garrison. and when she goes to complain to her employer about the unnecessary bloodshed, we find that she is, in fact, enthrall to Triple Zero, who insists at her lowest ebb on making Afra call him master. Triple Zero is searching for his earliest memories,

he is just deep in his own navel, and has pressed Afra to join the search. To help her, he's hooked up with a cyborg handler, Rexa, and a rogue's gallery of psycho and sociopathic mercenaries. As they embark on their quest, Tollivan is narrowly escaping a firing squad for many screw-ups by being appointed then a successor within the inspectorate. The two sides clash in the vault of Watt Tambor, guarded by a monstrous beast. And the two start making out while hiding from said beast as Tollvin's imperials are slaughtered

and Afra's crew holds the beast at bay. When Rexa stumbles on Afra and Tollvin, Afra quickly kills the cyborg and continues with the mission without telling triple zero. The next stage of that mission involves turning themselves in at a rebel training base led by her old friend, Hera Sindula, kidnapping Hera and using her to barter their way into an old Imperial R&D island of Dr. Moreau.

Many such cases in this Afra arc. Afra's real plan is revealed when the rebels follow Sindula to the gates of the installation. It turns out that Afra is going to use the rebels' sort of mobile command ship. It's an old droid command ship from the Clone Wars. She's going to use that to steal the entire Imperial Data Corps from this base, very Carmen San Diego style. But first she's got to deal with all the monstrous machines guarding the place,

which she does by using a backdoor controller on one of her cyborg mercenaries, really the most like of the bunch, to have him charge into the monsters, get slaughtered, and cause his partner to go berserk and start wiping out the monsters. The plot works really well. Afri gets what she wants and so does Triple Zero. And so does Telvin after her fashion as she follows Afra's trail back to the syndicate base where Triple Zero has made himself a crime lord.

But the cost for this one has been high and Afra seems genuinely exhausted of herself, her choices, and what she does to people. She and Tolvan escaped from the rebels for a romantic getaway before Afra ditches Tollivan after finally telling Tolvin who she really is. The adventure ends with Tolvin sending Afra to an imperial prison where it's implied. Tolvin thinks she will probably find a way to escape. And both Triple Zero and Sindula discovered that the entire data core is encrypted with ransomware. It's a great moment.

I'll be honest. There's some stuff in here that's like not too modern, but you know, Afra says, FYI at one point. But one bit of that that doesn't bug me at all is the ransomware at the very end. Ransoming is eternal, you know? So I guess we had to be open

with the oddball of this group. This vignette here with the husband and wife monster hunting team. One of the few stories where it was kind of happy ending and likable protagonists in the middle of it.

Happy ending for not our protagonist for, I guess it's the thing is, there are protagonists in this story. Afri is off to the side being a jerk, which is maybe what she's best at. I mean, I like it. I think it's, I think it's very funny. Like a Trandotian, Huntress and her, uh, ne'er do well house husband. I think that's a, that is a funny bit. Yeah. They're riffing as they go on this mission and that he is getting under her skin because he

has. It seems like the spider arms are somewhat recent acquisition that he might have might be sort of a magic beans situation that he, like, sorry, I have a real important question because we did not mention part of the interior marital drama

between the two. He fucks as a quote-unquote tutorial droid. He steps out. Did y'all not pick up on this? No, I saw this. I really needed to discuss this. live and with you all because

I read it like seven times and I was like am I? Uh-huh. Am I reading this? Right? He fucked the tutorial droid, right? That's how I'm pretty. I mean, definitely. She definitely judges him for like throwing it anywhere with like a droids that could have been. Yeah. Let me read just the dialogue here. So it opens with just a picture of this planet, X3-299-11, beyond the outer rim.

I don't like it. You don't like anything, Nock. You're famous for it. You don't even like me and we're married. Stop fishing for compliments, win-loss. I'm not. It's just a fact. I mean, sure, you love me, but like me.

Uh-uh. You think I talk too much and I got no scruples. And above all, you're still mad about that black market tutorial droid on tattooing. That's why you hate this new gig so much. See, the client contacted me, and he goes on and on and on. And then later, so that's the setup. They don't like the tutorial droid. And then later, incidentally, if you mention the tutorial,

this is her, incidentally, if you mentioned that tutorial droid one more time, look, I told you, all I did was buy some pickpocketing routines. I wear this freaking spider rig, huh? and I might as well trick it out. How was I supposed to know the dumb droid would get the wrong idea you know, about, you know, interfacing? So I think the droid

pickpocketed his junk out of his pants? Is that what I'm supposed to understand? Later, she says, also, quote, learning to pickpocket is literally the worst excuse for fraternizing with promiscuous machines. So I think he, I think he fucks the droid.

But in the end of the joke is that he did actually learn to pickpocket. That is correct. So I don't know. Maybe there was a compromising position where like, maybe. Maybe they didn't actually do the deed. Maybe it was more of just like, I swear to God, I'm not getting jacked off by this droid. That's right. I'm learning how to pickpocketing.

Yeah, I fell. I fell onto getting jacked off by this droid. I tripped and fell Exactly For some reason It doesn't say I'm all the Wikipedia for it It doesn't say at all

That he got jacked off By this tutorial droid on tattooing It doesn't mention it at all And that's something they would include I would hope Is the concept of the tutorial droid explained It's not listed here at all Because I guess here's a thing

These guys show They show back up In future Dr. Aferstuff Written by Simon Spurrier who's about to take over the comic. So this is like a soft intro to characters who will be in a future arc. Similar to a previous thing that we talked about in a previous arc, there was a guy who gets introduced in the Star Wars comics,

the Star Wars Annual, and then shows up for real in the main one. I think even our last reading had a Star Wars and or a Dr. Afra character get introduced in the annual and then show up in the following arc. But I forget who it was now because we've read so many of these comics. In any case Yeah, they don't really mention it I don't really know what a tutorial trod is I guess it's a droid that teaches you something

drunk I guess I guess so is it like Is it somewhere you go Are you like inviting the tutorial Droid over Like what how are we Where is it all happening All right here we go

Is it like if you had to fuck the duolingo bird To learn the language Is that kind of how they operate A Tudor Droid also known as a tutorial droid or a teaching droid was a type of droid that could teach certain skills before being hired by Dr. Chelly Afra Afra Afra, Afra, the hunter winloss

bought lessons in pickpocketing from a promiscuous tutorial droid on Tattoine which irritated his wife, knock. Maybe she was just flirty. I think she was just flirty. I don't know the gender of the tutorial droid. I just don't know what it goes by. But either way, it kind of sounds like he was like,

I want to buy these pickpocketing routines. And what the droid heard was, let's do this. Let's do this thing. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. It's all about handiwork, right? Thank you. That's correct.

And again, he does pull it off in the end. He does. And here's the thing. Clearly, Nock and win loss have a lot of trust in each other. You're right. Knock comes away from this saying, we must be above such petty jealousies. Like, it's normal to feel, to feel feelings of jealousy about your partner,

but you're not, we don't see knock acting on them here, right? We see knock, you know, creating space for those feelings, letting them go, knowing that win loss is dedicated to her and that the relationship is valuable and important. He would just fucking them joys. He don't get right back, you know? She realized she should not be threatened by the droids. That's right. When he has with those droids is nothing.

It's nothing. Nothing compared to what they have. Knock, I'm going to advise you. Do not check win-loss's Instagram likes. Do not. You're not going to like what you see. He's going to put down... Just let him be.

He's going to put down the holophone. Do not pick it up and do not scroll through his DMs. Do not go through the DMs. The amount of tutorial droids in the DMs, probably? Word gets around Bad. There's also another big feature of who they are is

And I will tell you there's like a little of this often in I would say in Let's say pop cultural depiction of interracial relationships They're really giving each other shit Because one of them is a lizard One of them is a mammal. One is a reptile. One is a mammal. There's a lot of like you know how you mammals do it Rolling her eyes at them

which I've heard many black women with white boyfriends talk that way about their white boyfriends, I will say. So. Milk drinker. I'm like literally. Wow. She says, yeah, we're professional beast trappers when lost.

Trappers are beasts, monstrous aliens that will tear off your stupid mammal head and lay larvae in your stupid mammal chest. She's constantly calling this dude a mammal. See, the lane is open. for them to make the Star Wars version of something new. That's right. They can do it. A movie I just discovered because YouTube was like,

you like Simon Baker. I was like, do you love the mentalist. That's really funny. And it's like he was in romantic comedy. That's right. What? A mammal can't get no motion?

As you can tell, I think this stuff is really fun. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having fun joking about it. I think it's like kind of Balzy to get rid of your main character for a whole big exercise issue and be like, all right, we're

going to bet on this married couple. And I think Robin, your intro, you said that it was a very video game like dungeon. And I think that's a real high risk swing. That could go bad. It could be really bad to turn the page and be like a bunch of darts came out

of the wall. But I think it mostly works here as a little one-off, a little fun adventure. It's fun They're You know They're being guided by an audio log Essentially

They're finding Dead bodies Around With with contextual clues Of how they might have died It's good This is this is System Shock to me

This is They should make this game I play this game They should make In this new brave world Of good Star Wars games I know what the hell is going on We're getting like two good Star Wars games

Back to back Back to back Nehoh Like really good Like I was sitting there playing Galactic Racer today I was like this is like a game talking about a lot At the end of the air Because it's like

Do you remember Do you miss when this is me on like Facebook Like to other elder millennials right It's Remember when you go to the video store and you'd rent these and it's like an array of cool like SNES arcade

arcade rakes and game cartridges that's Galactic Gracer to me but you could absolutely make a Tomb Raider but with this couple here you could what if you were married to the dinosaur

you know Afram makes a great Cortana here she does yeah I think that's what kind of what works here is that like she still gets to like drive the action by being a brat who like keeps being like can you focus on the thing that I want

I want you to do for me but instead we're like following these like sweeties that you want to root for yeah it does work you know that's what you would need is you would need what's the stupid team that made brothers and the divorce co-op game and the breaking out of jail one

oh oh they're the Joseph fire Faris. The split fiction. Split fiction. They just, you know what? I don't really love the writing in those games.

Hayes actually. Hayslight. Hayslight. Outside of that time that the one prisoner looks at the plan and goes, can I eat that, which made me laugh harder than anything I've ever done in my life. I don't really love the writing in those games. But they could take a string at these two, doing some adventure stuff. Or sure.

And be like a co-op game, you know? I'd stream that. That sounds great. Let Amy Hedig have one more crap. at Star Wars and maybe let her finish this time. That'd be great. That'd be great. The, so as the other thing emerges in this, you know, we met so many garbage

trans oceans over the course of Star Wars, like to the point where you're starting to get to the point where I think you end up with the predators in the Predator series where it's like actually, fuck all these guys. Because like, it's like if an entire planet was people who had a country club. membership. And then hunted other people for support. And here, she's the one who's not about that. Like, it was like, will you skin the baby wookie? And she bravely said, no. She's like the Drits to Erden of, of Trandotian. She's the one good one. Like Drits to Erden is, of course, a Dungeons and Dragons character written by R.A. Salvatore. He's like the one good dark elf

famously. He is two cimitars, magic cimitars and a pet, Panther. It's like, oh, it's I got to tell you, I don't know that it's like good in terms of the racial story that's being told when there's one good one. But she's

kind of like that, you know? She proves it's possible. And then they killed her entire family. They did do that. So now she's out there and she's out there like I'm the ethical mom.

monster hunter. All the other monster hunters are scumbags who like they'll skin anything. They'll do anything for money. She's animal control. She's in this because she likes monsters. She's killing all the lantern flies. And so if you need them removed, she will remove them, but without killing them or harming them. So this is and also like, honestly, a little thing's always bug me about Star Wars. It's here's a critter just minding its own business. That's right. And everyone's like, we got to light this thing up. Like in the Mandalorian, when those birds kidnap those

Mandalians and bring them back to their big bird nest to eat them but it's like the birds are just hanging there, they're apex predators we can't talk about that episode we don't have it

I don't have the time the point is she would have just freed the children but then also let the birds go free she wouldn't have killed mama bird you're right you're right

and that's kind of the whole thing she's trying to avoid here is that you got a big monster and all the other lethal first monster hunters are here and they died at various stages of this of this dungeon probably getting the same walkthrough that they are

and so you have the deepening like oh no the the person they're listening to is the worst woman in the galaxy and and so like they're getting deeper and deeper into this thing and realizing that they are being led to the slaughter same as all their colleagues were and yeah you know they find they find one of their one of their rifles and i do love the the funniest side where he's a real scumbag and she starts like comforting him and win loss is like hey

like this dude sucks and also like he's completely fucked he's gonna die and she's like I'm just trying to keep him calm so he'll be bait without complaining

I know I know he's dead but we need to use him before he goes yeah there's there's all those little those bits are fun I think every time they find a new bounty hunter or sorry monster not a bounty hunter different

type of hunter who's been like shot by darts or picked up by the giant magnet tractor beam thing and like stuck to the roof the magnet one is very funny it's really funny and it really feels like afra is like i mean this is the video gaminess of it all too afra is like all right time to roll a new rogue like character and go through the dungeon again

you know like i know where all the traps are this time so this time it'll be better uh i think that that conceit just basically work and then the big payoff. They, they, the guy kills it because they refuse to. He shoots it dead. But with like a dart or something, right? Yeah.

A poison dart maybe. I don't quite remember. It's been a minute. And then Afra comes out in one of the suits from, like you noted like Cotor, the big space suit looking things. I don't know if it's literally that. She calls it a knoll suit, I think, which might be different. But, yeah, she comes out.

She's in there. She actually was here for the secret gem that she said she wasn't here for, wasn't, didn't want, and tries to leave with it and instead gets pickpocketed. And I will say the thing that was interesting is like, I was like, oh, I guess this is what Afra is doing these days. And that turns out not to be true as we turn the page and go into the next full arc. Because right here, the image that I got was like, oh, she's kind of like free from her obligations. she's separated herself from, obviously from Vader because that was all the way back in the Vader comics,

but also now from all of the relationship she had with Triple Zero and BT and with basically everybody. She's no connections to rebels or Imperials or criminal syndicate. She's just off by herself doing schemes. But maybe that's not exactly true. Doesn't seem like that's the case. And it's funny because we ended the, last arc with her laying on the beach and her big sun hat and her matching purple robe and

she gets, you know, surrounded by the people that rode for, ride for Duncan, Dukin, and Tucan. And you leave there and you go into this next little bit. You're like, oh, she figured that out. Like, she got out of that and now she's on to like the next. hijinks and kind of continuing on in this, just being this kind of, you know, slightly nefarious,

archaeologists, like running around, collecting things, selling them, finding the highest bidders, etc., creating more opportunities for monster hunters who need a shot at the big time. Yeah. Job creator, Dr. Afra. And I think that's what makes going into this next arc so shocking.

It feels like, it kind of feels like, wow, did I miss a chapter slash 12? Like, how did we end up here? And the arc slowly kind of reveals how this all came to be. but it's the reveal is so powerful. It's so strong. I'm getting ahead of us because we don't actually get that it's that her situation isn't just free-floating archaeologists, evil archaeologist right away. We get someone who has been caught up by the wake of her chaotic living first. Yeah, we find Tolvin on this outpost.

And the guy she's serving with are serving on. is messing with her. He comes, like, she, she's wrapping up a shift at this, at this, like, ass end of nowhere outpost where it's, you know, very imperial outpost thing, where it's, like, bunch of stormtroopers and officers, like, guarding nothing, basically. Like, like, stare at this, stare at this empty landing pad and canyon and make sure nothing, and observe and report. But she's, she's kind of stuck there because her career, because things went so badly, uh, you know, on Yavin and then the pursuit of Afra. But yeah, when that guy comes out and he's like,

oh, Captain, uh, I thought, oh, wait, it's not Captain. It's lieutenant.

Sorry. Force of habit. The guy fucking sucks. He sucks. Um, he sucks. And he's, he's so,

so funny. We're someone better at the academy than I was. But here you are. Uh, you know, now you serve under me. Mm-hmm. We also learned that Tolvin was apparently

protege to AMCA Fave Inspector Thanos, which is, you know, there's like a real part of doing any sort of serialized storytelling is making it seem like you'd always had it plan that way all along, but in fact, a narrative comes together in linear time.

And you have to wonder, was this a decision that was just made at this point? feels like it because like this is a because the way they sell the relationship is basically she does the Wolverine picture frame meme

but with the picture of Thanos yeah yeah she really does and you know what good for her I'm glad she had a cool professor I don't know what circumstances brought her into his like tutelage

but you know what fair enough It's just the like It's the her looking at the photo of them together Where she's like I know what you'd say to me What you'd say to me You'd say

Like enough with the Sir Tolvin Just remember Nothing happens without good cause From the overseason dinner To the destruction of the Death Star There's always a reason my dear girl You just have to find it And she's like

Is that his vibe? I'm like, would he say that? He talks about the overseas and dinner? Yeah, like, what are we saying? I didn't get that from him, but maybe we just didn't see him in the right circumstances. Maybe we're finding out he's a real big, I guess we kind of knew. So there's, that's like a very air-keel-poirot. It is.

You know what that is. The burden is sometimes we must all bear life's burden, and sometimes that burden is a slightly too well-done roast. And he kind of is a Poirot figure, even even, even, with like it's obviously different hair, different facial hair, but he does have distinct facial hair like Poirot, the Agatha Christie detective, who was, I think, immortalized in the David Chichet television series worth watching if you haven't seen that show. The show is a banger. And yeah, I hadn't considered that's what, that's exactly what it's doing down to my dear girl, which feels like that sort of affectation.

More me. Yeah, exactly. You know what, I'll allow it. Fuck it. You brought me back around. I'm happy with it now. I'm good. Look, I'm always here for like

evoking the great detectives, right? Like give me Star Wars Negro Wolf. I'm here for it. But yeah, so this is, she's sort of meditating on his lessons and how it gives, you know, how she would carry on through this.

And into the middle of this comes a gang of raiders. And Tolvin realizes the base is about to be besieze. She gets in a fighter. to she's going to, she's going to strafe the, the raiders, but she's already been anticipated. There is Afra. Now, there's a funny recurring bit that was established when they first ran into each other, which is every time, and this will happen throughout the Ritha's Ark, every time Tolvin, first lays eyes on Afro, you will get an insert frame of, like, glam cam, baby face,

Afra every single time where it'll just be like blue steel and it is like Tolvan Cam. Like every single time she sees this girl. It's not the same Afra we see. I can't, I can't stress this enough. Every single one of these panels is not the way Afra looks on the rest of the page. Sometimes it's subtle, but it is always like a heightened version of Afra, I think,

compared to what we are seeing from our more neutral perspective. Her hair falls down like very romantically, just like a single strand covering her face. Her eyes are brighter. A little blush out of perfect complexion. Now, wait a second. Maybe this is what she's seeing

because maybe she brings this out in Africa. You know, like, there is, you can have eyes for someone where you see them brighter and more beautiful than anyone else does. But sometimes being looked at that way can also bring it out you. You know what I mean? You can smile back in a way that moves somebody. And so I do think that you're fundamentally right, because I do think that there's a real like, you call it fan cam vision

is exactly right. I need to find the Afra fan cam, the baby girl, Dr. Afrafan cam with all of these shots. But, you know, I'm curious if, you know, this whole arc ends up being partly about the relationship with Tolvin. And I think all of it hinges on, they just have a connection. connection, right? Like, fundamentally, they see each other and think that the other one is cute and there is instant chemistry. Does that work for everybody on the show? I'm curious.

Are you rooting for Tollivan and Afra from this moment they see each other? I mean, I'm rooting for Tollivan the moment I see her all of the time. I also think that, like, I think, I think the reason why I think that this works for me, is because they are both so at the lowest place of their life that it makes sense that they're like, well, fuck it. Like, you know, what's going to get worse than this? I might as well make out with this person. And like, just sort of giving into that feeling

every time that they, like, run into each other is, I think, what makes it work. If it was just like a, we've put these characters together, they're bagnets for some reason. That's sort of a coin flip. But I think that, like, it is grounded in the rest of the tone of this arc

that I think it hits actually. I completely, I think prior to this arc, I was like, I wasn't necessarily bought in yet because I was just like, they just kind of keep running into each other. I don't see it yet, but I think what you just said, Allie, them being like kind of disasters together, but in their own lives and they just keep colliding in these ridiculous ways works for me starting now, basically. Whereas I think if, I don't know, prior to this, I just wasn't sure if there was ever going to be,

like it was like if it was going to end up more in a in a Zeb um call callous callous

yeah wow hadn't considered them in a minute where it's like yeah they ran into each other a lot and then they had like the what I guess this is this is us in the ice cave

took him home to meet the family the real important distinctions which is like totally didn't eradicate all of Afra's people Okay Yeah but one of the people

He annihilated said Calyx was cool Oh you're right I forgot about that I forgot that that happened And he has a new haircut now so Yeah My initial reaction to this is Yes I am more like on team Tolvin In some ways because at this stage

The comic has made a very persuasive case That most people deserve better than Afra Mm-hmm And so there's a little bit, especially something comes through here is also Tovin comes across as somebody who isn't easy with people and is a very reserved person. And so I can also like relate to that somewhat like this character of, oh, here is this disastrous like person who comes just like crashing into your life and blows through all. all that normal armor, but maybe this isn't the person you want to be getting through that armor. Like, this is the person that actually your guard should be up. But unfortunately, most people don't, like, most people won't curse that layer of reserve for

Tollvin. It's kind of a Darcy situation, right? Where it's like, most people are not going to try to break through that demeanor, that, like, that shell. And some of the people who would just, like, be able to just, like, do it could be really bad fucking news. And so like that you kind of look at this as like a little bit of concern, which I think is driven home because this ends disastrously for Tolvin. And also for Afra, but Tolvin doesn't know that. That this person could be an absolute monster. They, you know, they, they flirt aboard

the, uh, the ship where Afra is hiding, has been hiding there to capture whoever comes and tries to get this imperial, uh, like helicopter equivalent off the ground to like strafe the, the raiders. but she holds Tolvin at gunpoint and like tries to flirt with her a little bit and Tolvin responds please don't think I did please don't make fun of me I know I'm hideous says the sexiest cyborg ever put DePage I mean I know I know you can do a real I will say I'll bracket this because I don't want to make this sound like I'm I think you should throw the whole book out But I think you could do a really compelling, very grounded academic reading of this book and this particular arc that is like you can have the interracial, super hot lady lesbian romance in the Disney era Marvel Comics, Star Wars comic with the hottest cyborg you've ever seen. unlike when like cyborgization is actually like vilified.

And then in the same arc, you can have a gay male relationship, but one of the men has to have his face covered the whole time and the other one's head has to be cut off. And like those are the two relationships. And there's like, I don't think that that is a conscious thought. For the, for the listeners who isn't read these issues, eventually they came up with a bunch of mercenaries, including a gay couple, one of whom is like,

I don't know, Judge Dread Ironman. whose face is always covered, and the other one has literally been decapitated by an evil scientist from, from the bar on tattoo, from the canteen, from the canteenatatine because of fucking Star Wars. And I think that, like,

if you do a deep study, if you do a deep reading into the pictures of queerness and bodies and da-da-da-da, like not showing someone's face versus framing their face for, like, consumption, both of those things have a lot of baggage attached to them. And there's like, it is, it is very easy to imagine someone at the home office being like, oh, two hot ladies who kiss, thumbs up. A gay couple where you don't have to, a gay male couple where you don't have to see either one of their faces.

That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Exactly. Yeah, it's that's hilarious. It's played for laughs. He's got a fat gay husband who his head is cut off. Yeah. And again, I don't, this is not me saying that like either of the writers, again, Simon Spur.

or Karen Gillen have some sort of like agenda or anything like that. But I do think that when you do like the culture, like the biopsy on culture, you will find this pattern repeating sometimes. And it's not me taking away from, whoa, it's cool to see gay people in Star Wars. It is. But I just want to bracket it. I just want to say it. We don't have to linger on this.

But I do think it's worth saying it to a microphone because it was hard not to be like, yeah, loll, the fat gay husband without a head versus the two most beautiful. women you've ever seen in your life. Yeah, she's like, my deformities are obvious. And it actually does raise an interesting question of like, what actually has happened to her? There's a character that at some point probably will read these books, the Raith Squadron books, but there's this character who like, his tragedy is that he's

gotten an allergy to Bacta, which means basically all medical treatment in Star Wars doesn't work on him. And so he just keeps every time he like he his backstory is he's on one of the rebel ships during the Battle of Endor that gets like hit with a glancing blow by the Death Star. And so his body is like half burn to shit. And so they just have to keep adding more cybernetic bits. And that's cool. He is he is in a spiral of depression because he just sees every single time something happens. Less of his body is there.

And he is dealing with more and more like machinery to to take over parts of of himself. And like this kind of reminds me of that where like it's an extensive. You see it's like a full wraparound of her skull, her neck, everything. This might be a robocop situation effectively, right? Where like there is a small amount of original biological equipment. there and there is an entire like humanoid sexy as how but still a chassis

that she is inhabiting to an extent yeah I think we see much later in one of these arcs like her looking a bit messed up and you can see like the back of her head is kind of missing

we'll get to it later but yeah, it's, it's, I did appreciate Afra's attempt at, you know, kind of empathizing with, with Tolvin by saying, yeah, I know exactly how you feel. I have, like, tattoos I regret. They must be fourth. I mean, are those tattoos functional? Are those how she can wear, like, the cool bracelet that lets her see? Maybe, but the way she's described that, she's like, she's like, it's like, it's like my electro tattoos. Who gets those anymore? You're right.

It feels like it's like they're like tacky or like we're once really trendy. Like is this is this the the tribal tattoo of Star Wars or it's like regrettable and like not the vibe to get? But we're very trendy at one point. to an extent. Watch the two sci-fi shows that the Fox made like they made almost human and then

they made minority report. A TV like case of the week procedural based in the minority report movie and characters are tatted up all over because it's like it's how we defeat the surveillance state. The surveillance state can't read sick face

tattoos with like digital artifacts on them. And neither one of those got a second season. Almost human should have. But, you know. Even though I don't know it was not a bad show. It wasn't great the way almost human was.

And again, they just weren't ready for, again, it was a homophobic era where they couldn't even tolerate like crackling sexual tension. That's right. With screencarl urban and Michael Ely. That's right. But point point is i do find it kind of endearing that afra tries to make her feel better

about her extensive her extensive like surgically replaced cranium spine body part is like well yeah but i got these tats like an asshole like your like your stuff is cool i yeah right I made a bad choice. My story is I made a bad choice, which to an extent is true. Like, after it looks that, I'm the sort of asshole who got these tattoos. And I'm also the sort of asshole who then made a series of other bad decisions. Yeah. And we'll always make the bad decisions.

That is who she is, for sure. Like the girl on my high school paper who at age 17 was like, I need a giant tramp stamp Aerosmith tattoo. Wow. That sounds fucking awesome. And it was like Aerosmith? And she was like, I need it big. I love Aerosmith so much.

Wow. That's right. It's good to love things. It's so good to love things. Yeah, I think part of what works for me with Tollvin is, I mean, first of all, I just think they're a really great pair because as the arc will continue, we continue to say, does Dr. Affer believe in anything at all? It's like the big question. And I don't necessarily know what Tolvin believes in as an officer of the empire. We don't like sit with her worldview necessarily.

We get a little more Afra here in relation to to Triple Zero a little bit. But more importantly, it's like Afra is constantly getting herself into problems. And then like now the, you know, the chickens are coming home to Roost. It really feels from the jump that Tolvin has been like dealt a bad hand for someone in her situation. partly because Afra keeps bumping into her and fucking up her day, but also just because, like, it doesn't seem like things go right for her. She's, like, a little schlubby in ways, despite being so perfectly sleek and beautiful. I guess for the listener who isn't watched, who isn't reading along,

Tolvan is a character we met in the first Dr. Afra arc. She's an imperial officer. She has the kind of, like, green imperial uniform. And then her arms and her neck and, like, the outside of her face is framed in this kind of, like, metal, like, skin-tight body armor and or just a robot body. It's hard to know. She looks like an anime character, right? She has like, like, she almost looks like she's going to do a, like, oh, my God, like a hench.

Major Kusanagi. Or like a major Kusinagi. But I was going to go all the way to like a Power Ranger style transformation. And there's going to be like a visor that closes around her eyes. And she's going to look like a Japanese, you know, a superhero, right? If that ever happened. Yeah, it would be cool. It would have happened.

And she's like stark white hair that like comes down in a sort of slash and is like, she's like very, she's very like anime coded in design. And so this is the character who is like, I look so ugly. But obviously she had some sort of trauma to get her to look like that. So, and I think part of what works for it for me really is she's done, she's been done so badly by her situation. in some way. Yeah.

And unlike Callis and Zeb, Dr. Afra is not a freedom fighter committed to a great cause. She's in it for herself. She's constantly throwing people under the bus. She has some sense of, some sense of moral worldview in terms of what she does and doesn't want to do. But fundamentally, we'll make the choices that hurt other people. And so the whole time we're like, please lift each other up.

I'm begging you to lift each other up a little bit. Get each other out of this situation. can you please propel each other to like a little bit more stability? I would love that for you. And I think that's a good place to introduce a romantic lead because it gives you multiple stakes. It gives you will they, won't they stakes. And it gives you, could they really be good for each other

or will this be just be a passing thing stakes? And I think that works pretty well here. Yeah, this is my, like two thoughts I was having while kind of reading this arc and as we get deeper into their interactions and interfacing everything. It's like, one, I'm really glad that this doesn't feel like Han and Leah. Like, it feels important that for Afra, who is, you know, she shares a lot of similarities with Han and her kind of like irreverent attitude and, you know, bit, bit oriented dialogue and stuff.

but um but she's their interactions it doesn't feel like slotted into that kind of framework it doesn't feel like it feels like yeah they're going to come together and then they're going to like go apart for months maybe years maybe like i i there's no guarantee to me that these two people are going to like stay in each other's lives consistency there's like this this um ephemeral aspect to their encounters where it's like we might as well make the most of this because who knows if either of us

is going to be alive the next like everything is so chaotic and we live in these chaotic worlds who knows right and the second thought I was having is that this is like the closest

relationship this is out in other Star Wars is like my my uh uh like

fan um ship of andor and Cyril Karn coming together as a couple like

oh my god this is literally like if they you're right from that first arc right what if they made out after that

what if they made out after that what if that's wild like the idea that like Cassiant well you know

at the end of this first issue and well actually even in this conversation Afra asks Tolvin like so what are you doing on this like backwater planet where nothing's going on like what's the deal

and she's like I got demoted because of you because of like the shit you did I got demoted and I was just like serial card got demoted demoted after Cassian did some shit too

but um just to say that I love my I love them and I love yeah no like there's when A.U.

You've spun for us here where if only Cyril had turned around and locked eyes with with Cass and then everything would have been so different but it would have been a disaster because then Cassian does

doesn't help the Death Star plans get, because they run away together. Right. And they don't help the Death Star plans get to Luke. And Cyril Karin wouldn't be able to become obsessed with Dedramiro, which is so important that that happens. It's critical for their arcs. So we get to live through this, through Tolvin and Afra, what could be.

So. it goes real bad. Afra stuns Tolvin, but as she sort of lays out, like she's keeping Tolvin occupied, they're going to do smash and grab at this base, and that's going to be that. When the Raiders initially landed,

they were led by a woman who looked like a militant QP doll, and they blast their way back out of the base. The Imperial sort of held, up in their in their command room uh and basically like command room slash panic room and the raiders got what they want they all get back aboard after ship and they're lifting off and then uh this woman who's sort of actually the one in charge here rea uh detonates charges and blows up

the entire base killing the entire garrison um and this was not part of the plan like this is and the reason that wasn't part of the plan is because she explains that our employer knew you would not approve this part of the plan and you would cause issues so this was left to me and the boss she asked if you would do you want to make a complaint

after says you know actually I would I won't talk to the boss the boss is triple zero and there's a thing here so the thing I kind of dig here is that it almost feels like an

Elmore Leonard-esque arc for this. And what I mean by that is Elmore Leonard is a crime novelist and one of the, and also like the very sort of darkly funny crime stories. And so justified as an Elmore Leonard show. So is get shorty in Elmore Leonard movie.

Right. But, and you'll see this in all the works. Elmore Leonard fundamentally believes that a lot of criminals are kind of dipshits, they're impulsive, and they can be deeply funny, weird goofballs. Do not confuse that

with them being cute or likable or harmless because the thing is, all of that is wedded to people who just kill you at the heart, you know, at the drop of a dime. These are, in many cases, like the career criminals who populate these stories,

all that impulsiveness also is directed toward violent ends. They will just kill people because they're angry because they get bored because it seems like the simplest thing to do at the time. Triple zero kind of fits in that mold here where, you know, he was doing the HK47 bit for story after story with Afro. And he sort of, that ends with him being like, I just want to get back to my slaughtering sentience and living my best, like, comically ruthless psychopath life. but here actually we find a sadism with Triple Zero that I don't think we've fully clocked before, right?

There's kind of a almost like hunger to break down Afra in this way to sort of force her hands to get nice and bloody in a way to both to humiliate to control but also in a weird way Triple Zero thinks that this is maybe in some ways

helping Afra you know, come to accept this about herself. But fundamentally, the big takeaway here is that triple zero is here and it's not cute and it's not funny. Like, it's scary and pretty dark. The position he occupies in the story and the inversion that's happened here with Afra. Yeah, the visual storytelling. Go ahead. Yeah, I think you're probably going to hit the same thing.

Go ahead. Yeah, exactly what I was going to say is like her entire. entire demeanor is so unbelievably defeated. Like, we've never seen Afra in such a dejected, like, demoralized place. Her body language, she's, like, curled, kind of sitting on this chair, like, curled into herself. And the way that Triple Zero's hand reaches over to her shoulder and he says, no sweet Shelley. Like, he addresses her by her first name, which is, like, so haunting. It was so creepy and, like, gross.

And then he, in this full page panel, to end the issue, it's triple zero standing, like towering over her as she's like slumped kind of onto her knees. And she says, it's okay master addressing him, you know, the way that he likes to be addressed with BT in the distant background kind of glowing red menacingly. But it's, it's shocking to have gotten here. Like I was so thrown off by these last couple pages here because it feels, you know, we're working with this, yes, like a super buff cabbage batch android.

named Rexa, who I'm obsessed with. I want to know everything about her. She's amazing. Infant Zaria? Yes. It's like it's all fun in games, kind of, for this little, you know, it's like, oh, we messed up and, ah, it's screwed over Tolvin again. And there's still a levity sort of to the arc,

even though we start off by seeing Tolvin kind of at her lowest. But then we end up with Afra at her lowest. And I think that goes back to what Allie was saying at the beginning of this conversation of, like, they're both in these serious lows. And there's something really comforting about them getting to kind of be with each other and find, like, Afra's finding a moment of peace with her. And in some ways, Tolvan's finding a moment of peace with After. But it was just such a shock to see Afra going from, I'm zooming away from this bickering married couple, you know, seemingly of high spirits.

Before that, I'm on a beach and I've got some, you know, guys around me, but it's nothing I can't handle. Like, I was just like, how did we get to her being so far under Triple Zero's thumb? It's really scary. Yeah, it's scary. And I do you think, like, the visual storytelling here, seeing her curled up, not quite fetal position, but like curled inwards on the chair, his hand on her shoulder. Like, it is, she, for a character who is so defined by her freedom of. movement. She's here depicted in a very vulnerable and even violated kind of posture, right? She does not feel in control of her own actions. She feels like she's trapped here. It seems like

she's trapped here. She's being forced to do things she doesn't, she's not okay with. You know, she's drawn these moral lines for a long time. And what we find out, Rob, what you were kind of gesturing at here, right, is like, triple zero isn't just, I'm going to hurt people, because it's funny. But like, oh, I have a, he has like a project here. She's, she becomes, you know, his project. And I even think that the way that he shows up and hand on the shoulder with, like, the dark metal is very Vader-like.

And I actually feel like there's a little throwback here to Vader and are, the princess from the, I forget what her name was now, but from the, the, the, um, mining planet, where it was like, he's, he's making her. into an echo of himself. And the same sort of, Triple Zero wants to do the same type of thing here. Don't you see like it makes more sense to just kill people? Like, you know, you do it anyway. All this just works better if you admit that this is a thing that you like.

And it turns out he's no Darth Vader. You know, he does not know how to manipulate her into that direction. And I think there's another way in which he feels very Vader-esque because we soon learn that his whole motivation is like his own obsession with his past. but instead of being Vader's sort of like constant working over and of regret and then needing to like strengthen himself against that regret, here we'd have an absence. Triple Zero wants to know specifically who was the first person I killed, you know, which is kind of fascinating, right? Like he doesn't know, he was programmed to be the way he was, but he doesn't know how he became the person he is. And I do think that's like a fun little idea, you know?

Yeah, like, and ultimately it's going to prove his undoing in some ways. But this is a weird arc because I came here being like, what a light, fluffy arc. I don't know that we're going to have too much to talk about, but we're on issue one. I guess we read through the annual and now we're going through issue one. There's kind of a lot happening just under the surface here in what is otherwise kind of a fluffy. You know, we turn the page from that and we get a new issue that starts with Tolvin having a dream about Afra showing up heroically. Oh, sorry. We left out a really important thing.

We did. What's Afra say her name is? Joystick Chevron, because there's a Chevron in the, on the joystick of the cockpit that they're in. And so the next issue, Tolvin is having a sexy dream. It is a sexy dream. Because she's about to be executed by the empire for repeating. incompetence and door kicks in

there's Dr. Afro but she goes joy joystick Chevron this wound very silly yeah so it this

this arc contains multitudes it does it does I also think there's just a little bit with with triple zero triple zero self-regard here is also part of the undoing, like, like, almost there's the suspicion of, like,

there has to be more to me than I'm just a droid who likes doing murder, right? I can't just be a clown who commits crimes. And, but you kind of are, right? Like, there's this, there's, on the one hand, I sort of see the interesting, like, he's missing this, missing this part of his past. But also, like, it feels like there's the search for,

surely I'm a, surely there's a version of me, like, that's a fully realized character. Yeah. And so, no, actually, you just, you just kill a lot of people. Like, that's, that's kind of it. Yeah. I think they've also done a good job of kind of fully pushing him away from, maybe it's because he has so much power.

But he's not HK at this point. He's triple zero in a real way that I think is really strong. Or an improvement for me anyway. In any case, Tolvin is about to be executed for, for incompetence. And then this is very hand-waving. She is spared from the execution because Thanoff bequeathed her.

A job is like his heir of his like Colonel C or whatever, inspector in the, in the inspectorate. And so she is snatched from the firing squad to go be an inspector. And then she brings up the leader of the firing squad on charges. And that's his third strike. And so he's about to be executed by firing squad.

And so because she becomes an inspector, she only is used up three of her four strikes. So now she doesn't get executed. It's a very particular picture of how the empire functions in the officer corps that I don't know holds up to scrutiny and does move us into comedy land. And, you know, that's fine. You're moving, you know. Yeah. But in any case, you know, she is off on the pursuit of Afra, who's getting her briefing for this next leg of the mission.

And crucially here, Raya, our cabbage patch, a mercenary. I think Natalie said Rexa, and I think that's right. Okay. Sorry, I don't have these in front of me. You're good. It's an X, not a Y. But she wears a little metal halo headset. but she's not it's not a lobot situation.

It's like a little crown that she wears. Right. That she is working as a telepresence robot for Triple Zero. And so yes, she is the heavy of this group, but also she walks around with Triple Zero coming out of her head like a candle, like a lit candle. It's like Ratatooey. Yes.

Oh my God. It's a ratatooey situation. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. But I get the sense that Rexa is like, is Rexa someone that Triple Zero made? Question mark? Because I was reading her as a little bit of a lobot in the sense that she's like an android,

or she's a, she has some sort of cyborgification going on, right? She is a, according to the, um, right. Og scanner that she's given, that Afra is given. Rexa Go is a human female with AJ to the third cyborg construct, basically a remote-controlled knuckle. Her data file says her inclusion is non-negotiable. So she's a human. Right.

So I think it seems like a low-bod situation, right? I don't know if it's all the way. I don't know enough about the way the robot situation actually works. I don't know how much robot. I don't understand enough about how Lobot works to make the full claim, I guess. Allie, you look like you have some sort of insight. Well, it also feels like Rexa, like, almost turns on and off the... Yes.

The Triple Zero, like, connection. Like, sometimes she is speaking as Triple Zero. Sometimes she's just projecting Triple Zero, and her body is being moved as, like, a mule or whatever. Like, she's just walking through the city, like, caring stuff. But then she'll, like, refer to Triple Zero and Afra's relation. relationship to him separately from herself. Yes. It kind of slips between all those different positions, right? So, she's only one of the Rogue's Gallery of People we meet here.

I like this crew. Who's one's favorite member of the crew? It's, it's, it's, it's, it's got to be the, like, weird, ambient, like, It's like free verse poetry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's something, it's something. It's the first gen, it's a first gen Droidreca, which is, I guess, what ancient droids are.

Droidcas are the destroyer droids from the prequels. Do you know the ones that like roll up into a little ball? And then they pop up. That's a Doredeca specifically. Oh, okay. Yeah. Because there is a whole part of this where Triple Zero is talking about wanting to find, like, older droid. We'll get there.

But first-gen, Droiddeca retooled with probability tech, tinkered with his existential circuits too. And he says, the color is so beautiful. Can you hear them? I can. I can. Yes, so soft. Oh, the music of the void it calls. That's her introduction to him.

And I just, like, I spent so much time kind of just sitting with his random, you know, quips or, like, ramblings on the, whatever the situation was. And I just, it just is such a, it's such a way of speaking and also, like, such a, such a type of humor that I would never expect to find in Star Wars. It's like in some ways it feels so online In a way where it's like This motherfucker's on weird Twitter from 2017 He's on weird ass like esoteric girl Twitter Like I don't know it's like it's But I really fuck with him

He's my boy Yeah Everybody else have a fave I unfortunately really like The Violet Ghost Who is the first victim of The weird puzzle box The Triple Zero is beat for APRA

And this is first part is, hey, there's a bunch of people on the ship, but the ship can't carry the weight of all these people, so you have to kill one of them, just because. He's like an alderarian, Alderarian? Alderanian. Alderan. Prince Hare, who was not on planet when it was destroyed

and still wants his glory or whatever, and unfortunately beats his end here. And then after that, I do like, I do like the guy who's just a destiny character. Tam Posla. Yeah, Tamposla is a character.

He's just a hunter for destiny and I really like being a hunter or destiny. True. Ex-cop who like

was trying to do the job too good and they kicked him out. Yeah. And also now he's married to or this long-term

relationship to the uncranied or whatever. Right. Yes. Jason Bog. Right.

So the cop was going after the guy from the bar in tattooing in Star Wars. I forget what that guy's name is Avar, something like that. The guy with like the kind of like messed up face that Obi-Wan cuts the arm off. It's pretty funny though. This guy is like the Dr. Moreau Jack the Ripper of someone else's story. And he gets got trying to scare a child in a bar.

It's true. And just gets lit up by a Jedi. It's really funny. Not even for the shit he did. No, just because he was rude. If he just hadn't been rude, it wouldn't have been a problem. Anyway, that cop is dating Kaysen Bogg, who has been decranated by that doctor. And now they're, now they, you know, he was going after the evil doctor and now they got together, which is, you know, good job.

And of course, the cop, Pam, doesn't want to do anything dishonorable. And so there's a lot of managing his needs, his honorable needs, which of course is like a really fun duplication. of Afra's own internal sense of morality, which is not Tamposla's, but is still, you know, she doesn't want to be a random killer. You know, he's the paladin of the group, though. He totally is.

He's got a noble cause. A twist in paladin. It's Casein Bog. His boyfriend. Other other highlights of, I mean, let's go through the rest of the group. They're all highlights to me.

Sister Six Queen I think she's my favorite She's great Is amazing She was kicked out of the I sopter death cults for giggling during prayers If assassins had royalty

She'd Well she would have been killed Or she would have killed it by now Killed the royalty I guess Yeah And also Afro notes that she's actually kind of hot She's like a big

Gummy girl. She has like six arms and she's like a lizard. But she's like, but she's like rubbery lizardy. It's hard as tall as hell. She's tall as hell. She also kind of looks like a fraggle. She does look like a frugal.

She's cool. Shout us to Sister Six. She's awesome. Sister, what's her name? The Sixth Sister. Sister, six, right. The Six sister, of course, is Inquisitor. That's a different thing.

She also, her, her, like, intro line, because everyone has an intro line, which I read Deck Nils earlier. Her intro line is checking my stats, huh? Turn-ons include Toneret wine, back rubs, and knee shots. Damn.

Okay, girl. Then we have glassed ombra. A DeFell, remember DeFells? Remember DeFells from our books? From the Throne books. From the Throne books. DeFel Scout Vixen. Got that creepy shadow or

trick going on with the fur. Passive aggressive apex predator. Wonderful. And then we've also got a techno union guy named...

Yes. Kowin. Yes. Holio Baz. And that's their guide for this mission. So he's got the intel. Yeah, the plan, the mission.

that they're putting stuff together for is we kind of already gestured at it. I guess, Rob, you already covered this in the intro. But going to Skokoa, going to the tomb or like the archives of the former head of the techno union. Ooh, what is his name?

Someone tagged at it. Wat Tambor. Of course, Wat Tambor. Oh, big fan moment for me. Wat Tambor's archives to try to get the archives have like a bunch of weird droid shit, including it's once where

Triple Zero was stored, and so he's trying to go find out, hey, where are my memory archives at? You have to go find that out for me. And so they have to go to Skokoa, where Watambor and the techno union were based, and so they have to have a techno union guy. Lead them there.

I actually really like this mission from Triple Zero. Like the idea of this droid who has been transferred between how many dozens, hundreds of chassis, like he's had, he describes these as shuttled from body to body for centuries, new skills, new limbs, new memories. Like, the idea of this, in my opinion, being, like, existing in all these different ways,

having this, this, uh, motivation to find his own origins. It's been so long that he can't even remember where he first, or maybe that memory was wiped, actually, that would make more sense. Um, of like where he originated. What, what was his origin story? I really like that as a concept, um, as like a motivation for him. Yeah. Agreed.

Of course he's like, I want to remember what my first. murder was because it has to get like hkified but it's it's still good still good um yeah it's it's a fun i love the the introduction of the full heist crew uh the conceit i'm not sure the heist itself is interesting enough to live up to the introduction like as i often feel some of these um there's a gesture here at a longer and more interesting arc a bit like the screaming Citadel where it's like, oh, what if we just had a bunch of issues of this crew planning and executing like their master heist and using their, all of them are going to betray each other. All of them are, everyone is Wayne grow in this crew of some different version.

But that's kind of not what we're doing. It's that's going to be a, we're going to a big, we're going to a big dungeon and we're going to fight the monster guarding the treasure. we dispense with some of we we dispense the goodly number of these Merks along the way the techno union guy is sort of a patsy here uh he sells out the crew so that he could claim all of tambour's treasures for for himself and honor of the legacy of the the great techno union uh grande and then they're you know they're down the dungeon fighting the sentinel monster tollvin shows up who also

It looks like a fucking halo creature, by the way. Speaking of Cortana, it looks like some sort of halo super boss, the thing that they fight here. You got to shoot it in the back on the big orange spot, IMO. Tollivan and Afra end up diving for cover in the same, like, vent shaft, basically. And there is a funny bit here, which is the thing that appears to have set the monster off. If somebody touches the big, weird crystal thing. in the in the in the in the in the cavern uh big uncanny looking uh like stalactite it looks like

it's made of a starlight but there's a moment where uh i think it's afra asked like tolvan what's that what is that in your back and tolvan pulls out the big cursed stalactite that probably is what awaken the monster and they just burst out laughing together uh it's very good yeah yeah um Yeah, go ahead. A thing worth mentioning, because we've now seen this gag twice, and it'll come up again later. Afra has been, like, cuddling with a tiny little pet the entire time, this, like, little purple animal thing. Yes.

Are these from rebels? Are tuccas from rebels? No. No? They have kind of a loth cat vibe. Oh, that's what I'm thinking about. They have, like, a shiny loth cat. purple variant like shiny Pokemon yeah they do yeah but there there's I I kind of can't get

the sense of it if it's just like a purely biological thing or if Afra has also like hacked them she's hacked them she says that yeah she's like gene hacked them to make them explosive which I think we see hold on everyone be real careful the Tuka gets his name from Dave Filoni's deceased cat Tuk. So it is a, it's a clone wars thing, the Tuka. I'm guessing. Okay. We all love the Tucca.

We love the Tucca. We love the Tucas. I mean, unfortunately, I mean, I certainly love them more than Afra does, who keeps using them as weapons with the password. snuggle bum ugi-woogie which makes them immediately explodes. Yeah, this bit doesn't work for me. No, yeah. It's bad, unfortunately.

It's Afri's Quirk Chungus, you know. She's a big quirk chungus. She has a bad bad, bad at average. Oh, no, is Afro like cringe millennial? Like, is that what's happening? Yeah. She kind of is millennial cringe. Oh, wow.

Read another. Down to the arrested development of it all. Yeah. Oh my God, just so random. Just so random. Sluggle bum. Lady, you're 35. She's trying her best to learn how to adult, you guys.

Yeah. I can't. I can't. This is really reframing her entire relationship with Holden now. That's the thing, right? It's like they're both failed on it. in different ways. Yeah.

And it's like kind of miserable once you start thinking through it for real, you know? Triple zero is on the outside looking in being like, I got to, I got to jumpstart this woman. It's time for her to grow up. He's doing his best. He's doing his best. But unfortunately, all he can do is guide her toward like homicide. Yeah, all he can do is be like a terrible abusive boss. Yeah.

Listen, even Crenge doors, they need love. So, Um, they fight this big monster. She uses the bombs to, you know, free up some space. And as the monster is going to eat them, trying to make out. Time to make out with Tolvin. What else is there to do?

What else is there to do? Maybe more than make out. It's not exactly clear. I think, I think maybe just make out here. But there's definitely a segment at some point where it's like, damn, y'all found a lot of time in the middle of that gunfight. The way you're talking is a little more. a little more in depth

about what happened. Hell yes. So shoutouts. Well, it's very clear from how this is all gotten started. The Tollivan at least doesn't feel like she needs to know a lot more about joystick chevron. That's right. This is a you come through the door.

Yep. Yep. But before they can get up to too much mischief, Rexa catches them and thinks she's going to help deal with this Imperial officer and then we hear shot from off screen and exit Rexa. And yet again, it's kind of a sad, like, Rex is kind of the handler for Afra here,

but like, Afra doesn't have anything against Rexa. And Rex even seemed somewhat sympathetic to the fact that, like, we're aware that our boss sucks. Like, he's an evil robot who's surveilling us and using us for his evil bidding. Afri didn't, her path to freedom didn't include killing Rexa, really is part of her, part of her plan. But she does it because it comes down between Tolvin and Rexa, and she protects Tolvin.

And later she gets on the, she's got Rex's little crown, but no Rexa to deliver the briefing to Triple Zero. everything went fine, nothing to report. Yeah, and this is where she's like, oh, I get it. You want your memories back. And I do like Triple Zero's whole thing of like, you know, you don't understand how weird it is because you're all of you is inside of you. But my mind is kind of all over the place. And I don't know what other bodies I've lived in.

I don't know what other memories have been lost, which is fun. And then what we learned, another thing I think is just like fun world building detail is that the separatists are in D-Straised. all got siphoned up into not just the empire, but specifically into like Tarkins, skunk works, R&D lab, which I think is a really fun place to connect that. Like, it's like, okay, what happens to all of the stuff that the separatists had? Because they had all this tech that we don't see utilized outright in the empire.

And the idea of like, oh, yeah, like, it got pulled into, it got put under someone's, you know, control. Tarkin being that guy makes a lot of sense given. Which also feeds into something I mean we've touched on through a lot of different works here, which is that the impression you get from the original Star Wars is that the empire is like, we kind of believe taking with face value. They represent order, hierarchy, etc. But what we see a lot in these explorations of it is there's kind of like a chaos to it.

like an internal, like, like general, uh, Tash really, right, with the way that he's just going to be the star star destroyer guy. And everyone has these like weird feftoms and side projects. And the empire can't really make technological progress, uh, because they get, they inherit all the stuff. And it's like, yeah, we'll just turn it over to this. We'll turn it over to Tarkin and Tarket's going to go create the aisle, the aisle of Dr. Moreau. and that's how he's going to look at it too.

He's going to see all this tack. And he's like, but I want to turn people into dinosaurs. And that's kind of his big idea. He's got like big space station with big, big lightsaber gun. Yeah. And then he's like, what if monstrous?

When they get here, there's like stormtroopers who've been like grafted into a like scout walker legs. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, um, order is part of the rhetorical armory. Um, and, and maybe a sometimes side effect of having a hegemon, which is like, oh, yeah, like all of the chaos that happens has to happen inside of the hegemon. We don't get to have chaos. It gets to be chaotic.

But that's about it, right? And like, it doesn't, it is not a well-oiled machine, um, the, the empire as depicted in these comics, which, which is, which is pretty fun. Unfortunately, it's Colonel Kurtz's all the way down. That's right. Yeah. Unfortunately, the rebels also seem like an absolute mess here because the play, it's a complex play, isn't it? Yeah, I need somebody to help me with this, because I started to lose the plot a little bit.

So, the memories are stored in Hive Base One, Tarkin's secret R&D lap. to get that they go to a rebel flight base flight training base which is a which is a retrofitted what do you call it what's the trade federation like

the orbit like stations the orbit ships yeah the droid command ship which the droid command ships which the rebels have taken over their plan after's plan is to kidnap Hara, who is running this place. Ooh, there's Hara.

Fly Hara to the base, to Hive Base 1. Let her activate her rescue beacon, which will then bring the fighter-like pile. We'll bring the Top Gun School to High Base 1, which will then create a distraction and enough of like an opposition that her team can sneak in, get the stuff, and get out.

And I mean, actually, it's sneaking to get the stuff, but in the end, it turns out, they literally need the ship itself, the droid command ship, to grab part of Hive Base One, a big orb, and yank it off and hyperspace away. I'm not going to deal with any of the physics of it. It's all fake.

I don't need to, it's fine. You know, I'll hand-wave it. But that seems to be the very convoluted plan. Now, there's something that happens that's unexpected, and there's something that happens that is expected. You know, she has, like, trips and falls and gets herself in trouble in a way that seems like she's fucked up. But actually, she's, like, secretly stealing the device that lets you control the whole ship from wherever you are. But unexpected is that Tolvin, do you remember the, what was the name of the species again? the

del the big wolf people who can turn invisible the defel I want to say delvin that guy that guy is a defel that's in the group

leaves in the middle of the big monster fight sneaks away she has found him killed him skinned him and is wearing him allowing her to blend in

I gotta say that is really fucked up. You can see her face inside of his mouth. So impressive. It's, first of all, I know it smells crazy. Maybe she can turn that off with her cyborg stuff. I hope.

I hope. Maybe. But, like, how did you, you had time to, like, cure and, like, really, like, I'm, like, I don't know, man. There's a little. This is like one of those Instagram projects almost, like just the quick cuts at every turn. The Telf is like beautifully skinned. So first you have to kill the defal and then, wait, wait, how much is it a kill of defile?

Oh, it's all right. Okay, well, they just skipped over the part where you have to kill. Then simply remove all of the fur and skin. Oh, well, how do you do? Oh, okay, it's off. And then put it on, wearing it on your head. Make sure you clean it first. Make sure you quickly clean it first.

With what? I'm going to clean it off camera. One sec. One sec. And there it is. You know, you do like the clap change and then it's on you and you just look. Oh, my God. It's so, why did that have to happen?

That's so fucked up. I feel bad for the defal. This is the most, this book has felt like a tabletop game gone off the rails and the GM just goes like. Yeah. Yeah, I guess roll for it. You want to kill the defel and skin it? Oh, you got a crit. Okay, great.

You know what? I guess you've killed the defel. and you're wearing his skin like a cloak. With your deception, with your deception skill, nobody's going to penetrate the disguise. Like you're just walking around wearing a fur rug.

Also, do you have to set? You have put points into deception? When did you put points into deception? You're not a deception character. You're an investigator slash lieutenant in the military. Why is your deception so high? I didn't know you had a high deception. And she does.

That's a great point. That's a really great point. At this point, they're just sneaking little kisses, by the way. Tolvin shows up to rescue Afra from the jail. They sneak a little kiss. They continue to flirt. And we get a little bit of, we get a little bit of Tolvin Afra ideology conversation, right?

which is Afra is like you literally as I've been saying him I didn't realize that the fellow was a woman you literally killed her and skinned her

and Tolvin says I terminated a murderer and capitalized on a tactical resource I did my duty and will continue to do so and Afra says it doesn't have to be like this Tolvin I mean look I'm all four discipline

hot uniforms et cetera better than the alternative right but come on you're not black and white though You already kind of fraternized a bit. And wait, did I skip up? No, I didn't. Yeah, yeah, there we go. You're not black and white, right, though.

You already kind of fraternized a bit, and I'm totally on board with repeat fraternization. FYI. Here's the FYI. I hate. I hate FYI here. You don't have to be there, stooge, sir. And she lowers her gun a little bit. And she starts to say, my mentor, Inspector Thanoth, he always said, for some people, order is just control, power, plain and simple.

Others crave order simply for the chance to break it. Adventurers, criminals, hypocrites with a secret crush on the jackboot. Busted, says Afra. But when he considered the most strident disciplinarians of all, he proposed a theory. They crave order because they have none in their hearts, and it scares them. Sometimes a career is the only way to gauge the success of one's self-control. And Afra says, there are other careers. She calls her sir all the time

That's her little pet name for her also don't love it You don't love sir? I don't tell you on it though Fair enough And at this point I guess we should say Tolvin has has gotten Access to to

Thanos files and has like ferreted it out that there's some sort of Vader afra connection Because of like code words that are used And that are not available in the database And has kind of like figured that out And she doesn't ever really quite get an answer here, right? Because things

just take off in the other direction. Hera intercedes and they get zapped and next thing you know, they're like busting out and kidnapping Hera and stuff. But we get a little bit of like the way that this is framed and visualized, it's very clear that

Tolvin is talking about herself in terms of craving order because of not having any in her own heart. Which feels like the beginning of setting her up for a turn, right, for like a larger turn towards doing something else with her life. Drive to imagine, there's a lot of what the rest of this comic series is going to be about, but maybe one day we'll come back to that.

By the meantime, they have to go to this creepy base. It is creepy. And it lampshades a little bit. These things are totally going to come to life and try to kill us. And indeed, they do. the crew has to go through the creepy tableau of like frozen imperial creepy science projects and we're just waiting for them to wake up and start trying to kill the party and eventually they do but but first the the crew has to sort of heist the memory core here with with the aid

of the imperial ship following this is all like it's creepy I think the the main thing that happens in this whole heist, in addition to the fact that we have the weird imperial like garrison commander in his cover of Dune worm suit thing, is,

it builds to a moment where they're pretty much, they are in a jam. They are, they are stuck. They need to get out of there. And the guy used to be a cop, completely defects here.

Here's where he realizes this entire thing is a dishonorable endeavor that he is in among... What's his breaking point? What's the thing that causes him to realize I am out? I think...

Oh, it's very weird. It's that the things attacking them are the victims of the imperial experimentation that have been turned into weapons. And he's like, I won't fight them because they're the victims here. which I guess actually makes sense because the guy he loves was a victim of experimentation, right? Yeah, but he still has free will.

He does still have free will. These guys don't seem to have free will. Yeah. I think he's probably just sick of it. And also, we learn later, he's taking a liking to the rebels, right? So, you know, I think he's at this point, he's like, are you for real? Like, what are we doing here? But either way, he no longer will play ball.

He's not going to help them blast their way out of this jam. And after begs him, don't make me do what I'm, about to do. Yeah. And what that is, man, is she has hacked his decranated boyfriend's, uh, augmentations and has him just charge into the gunfire and get Bouch Cassidyed. Uh, and that causes the, the surviving boyfriend to loose his shit and just start, just start blasting using his various cyborg, augmenting.

But, yeah, Afrofield didn't want to play this car, but it was a car she was keeping in her back pocket to sort of force this guy to go into kill mode. It's pretty bad. It's like the worst thing that Africa does in the series probably. Yeah, it's really bad. Yeah, I mean, between between gene hacking animals to be explosives and then. I forgot about the toucas again. But we love the toucas, we love the toucas. We love the toucas, but I mean.

But why did they have to be grenades? Why couldn't that not be? But here's, yeah, I think programming a backdoor into the, the person, the decranated person was pretty fucked up. Also, like, I'm realizing now that that cop boyfriend is a droid, because I'm looking at this panel more closely when he, like, explodes. I think he's a cyborg. Because we do eventually see his face in a different panel. He does have a human face in there in the last issue, I think. Okay.

I'm pretty sure. I'll double check. I'll double check. I'll double check. It would be cool if he was all the way droid. guns, though. Yeah, he has made guns. He has made his body into guns.

His body is gun. Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure. I'll see if I can find and screenshot it really quick. Okay, I appreciate that. Because I was like, we really, in terms of like, the diversity of relationships, representation, like, we're really, like, just hitting all the angles. We could.

Wow. Yeah. Awesome. Broids should be able to date, IMO. It's when it's I believe yeah, the thing that happens is

we see his full body when Tolvin uses his outfit to sneak away. Remember, she is supposed to be I'll send you a screenshot of this page. This is this page. After six, leaves, there we go, here it comes.

And the bottom right panel here is him. You can see his human face there. He does have, like, lots of cyborg parts. Oh, that's him! Yeah, that's him. Because what happened is... I thought that was her. No.

No. He's an inspector gadget. That's right. He is kind of an inspector guy. The chin threw me off. Yeah, the chin threw me off. Okay. Because that's where I was going to be like, later we see... Tolvin looking like super fucked up and... I see what you're saying.

No, that's him. Yeah. Because the next page, if you turn the page from that page, Tolvin has been wearing his outfit and takes his mask off to reveal that it's her under there. Because she's been allowed to... She's a master of the sky. She's a master of the guys. She puts all those points in this episode.

You see? Okay. Yes. There's a couple parts of this arc here at the end that I got a little bit of. lost, but that makes sense. They really try to cover a lot of distance, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, justice for my boy who was used against his will, Kaysen, to be a bait for fire. That was horrible. And he appears to be the only normal one in the crew. By the way, it is

like, with the oddity that he has no head. He appears to be the only person who's not some sort of like twisted killer in the group is just kind of a guy going along with his boyfriend, these mercenary missions. Yeah. And so, yeah, he gets got. And I will say this also, it's from this moment. Affra does seem exhausted. Like this seems a moment where like Afra is finally just shattered, like fed up with everything she's been made to do, everything that she's.

And of course, the double cruelty of it. And this is what Triple Zero is kind of trying to get at. And has kind of been trying to draw out of her for me. This comes up a lot in previous arcs where he's trying to hold up a mirror and showing like the worst possible light, all the things she's done. And really is like, can't you just accept you? You have no moral center. That you, you are a selfish and evil person who is doing bad things because on some level she wants to and she doesn't care about other people. you are the bad thing in the galaxy

you aren't his victim and this something trouble zero has returned to a lot and it's something's trying to draw out here and with what she does to Kaysen here there is something to that you know she didn't want to do it but also

it's a fucked up plan that she has put in place and it was a plan like she she we see her earlier like repairing him right and he's sitting next to to his boyfriend and and he's like you know kind of like play like trying to console him like do give it a rest darling um she's just trying to be nice and meanwhile what she's actually doing is using rexas like yep you know uh uh head head thing

head remote control thing to program this, the ability to do this, the button that makes Cason run out into gunfire. And it's like it wasn't just some like, oh, I'm pushing you in

like spur of the moment, I'm pushing you in front of me like I'm using you as like my shield. It's like no, this was a plan that she thought of executed on ahead of time. And like, really

consider like how do all of these people serve me as tools and I'm not holding back in going forward with that. And knowing that, I mean, really it wasn't that like Kaysen wasn't able to do anything with that back door. It's just about

causing the last shreds of his partner's sanity to just like break apart and him to go berserker mode. Yep. And yeah. So after after this point does seem pretty, shattered by the things that she has chosen to do, the things she's had to do since working with

Triple Zero. And so we come to the end of this arc for her, where she kind of just wants to to get this to stop. And she kind of lucks out here because, well, Triple Zero is flown too close to the sun here that. I guess we didn't say this because there's a thing happening in the background of all this that they just tell us, but we don't really ever see. which is the triple zero is a crime lord right? Oh yeah that's the kind of important is that he's been building a crime syndicate like Darth Mall in the background

this whole time which he took over the Sontool Pride that's what it was that's what it was yes thank you one of the bidders at the auction he took that guy back to his mom that's right I remember and has been using him as sort of his thrall to run the mob

yes yes yeah That guy is going to show back up here, huh? He's not like in the... Seems like Triple Zero may have decided he doesn't need a middleman in terms of the running the show. But crucially, you know, part of his undoing as well here is that Tolvin has like put a tracker on Afra, right? Yeah, well, so they have their night together after they escape. They sleep together. They wake up.

She's going to just like walk out on her, which is. wild but does tell her her name. And then yes, it turns out Tolvin has been tracking her. And it's literally right after the conversation you were talking about before with Triple Zero being like, you were always a monster, right? We kind of blended this

because we were talking about her being a monster, but there's also literally a conversation where Triple Zero is like reveals that his secret goal was to reveal to her that she was always a monster and that she was already like him. And then to your point about her feeling

very clearly being like feeling really guilty about all of this, feeling like I just wanted to end. That is what she says makes her different from triple zero, is that she does all the bad stuff, but she feels bad about it. She doesn't expect to sleep well ever versus him who like enjoys all of the sadism and torture and murder. And for her, that's a big red line between the two of them. Whether we accept that or not is up to us, I think. But in the middle of that conversation, right after he said,

love is murder, which suggests that he loves her? Or that there is... The thing that happens... I want to see what you think about. What y'all think about this? When she said, I don't sleep well ever, he says, hmm, I see. Well, well, a disappointment then.

Oh, by the maker, it's true what they say. Love is murder. And she looks at him, like, horrified that he would describe... I'm reading this is that he would describe what he felt for her as a sort of love, which I'm reading as almost like a parental love or like a, you know, like I want more for you. Or a pet. Yes. Yes. And then orders her death, right?

Someone please deactivate her. And then as he says that, explosions. Just like Cosmo and sneakers. Just like Cosmo. There is that. It is. It's Cosmo and Marty in sneakers. It is.

Wow. So true, Rob. I think I've I've podcasted about sneakers on two or three shows already We can't bring it over here But people should go watch sneakers The Imperial show up Torch the whole place

Triple Zero and BT get away And she reveals the ransomware After she's escaped And Tolvin sends her to a non-existent prison Or minimum security prison At the very least It does feel like Elmore Leonard on the brain, I guess.

The end of out of sight where George Clooney's going off to jail, but he paired with somebody who's already escaped from this jail before he's a master'scape artist. And it's clearly the cop doesn't actually want him to stay in jail forever. And that's kind of the vibe here. Though if you turn the page, it looks like this jail's real. And she's going to prison for a bit. Because for that to be an arc.

Oh, you're right. You're right. You're right. Oh, so actually she's being dead serious here. Yeah. I was reading this is sarcastic. So Afra says a Kresker, she's being sent to a Kresker prison. She's like Kresker, but don't they say the probability of survival there is so low?

And then Tolvon says, it might as well be non-existent. I was reading that as like, I'm sending you to a place that doesn't really exist. But actually, she's being sent to the worst prison. I see. That's bad. Sounds bad. Yeah. I'm sure it'd be good for her in the end.

Yeah, I'm sure she'll make it out. I think it's so important that the thing that's maintained with Afra is that everyone who's been interested in her romantically will shoot her in the face to defend themselves. There's just always going to be a wall there because they have seen enough of her heart. Brutal. Well, that's not for Afra. Yeah. I mean, we started this arc with, I don't know if maybe Tolvin and Afra had time for Afra to explain that it was Rexa that hit the detonator on all of Afra's, you know. But, but, but if not for that, if not for that, would Tolvin had gone to be arrested, or be arrested again, I guess.

and then sentenced to death and then announced that actually according to her chain of command she's actually responsible regardless. That totally would have happened like the next day. The message would have just gotten there.

The check was in the mail. I don't know, with the bureaucracy of the empire, I feel like could have gotten lost. You need kind of a big event to like kind of shake things up, get things moving, you know? Yeah. You don't see at the important.

If it weren't for me, you might not have gotten that big promotion. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. You need someone to light a fire under your, yeah. That's like a motivating force while Tolvin was like really low. Maybe this really fucked up prison, you know. This is how AMCA endorses. carceral reform.

You know what, though? Maybe this is just what she needs. I was going to say maybe it's a place for them to get away together. Maybe like Tolvin will be like, okay, I know where Afra's going to be at. So I can go visit her and we can spend some more time together, you know, maybe. In a prison. But, well, we'll workshop this as ways for this. They have a happy ending for Tolvin and Afro.

We'll try and figure this out For sure But yeah It doesn't seem like the Chateau d'if is going to be the The place where they really figure out what they are to each other What this means but Yeah Afra's bad news

Stuff like this just happens around her Yeah You know it ain't it ain't her fault It was the killer droid that did it Yeah. And she importantly gets to like double cross both Triple Zero and the rebels, right? That's true. She gives them both encrypted information.

So triple zero is left standing in the rain. His criminal empire destroyed learning that the secret to his his back story is encrypted. All he has to do is send seven Bitcoin to this address. All right. And that does it for this arc, and that does it for Dr. Afra. For us, at least. Yeah, right? I've heard the rest is good. I think if you enjoyed this, you should probably go read the rest of it. I've heard really good things about it. Maybe one day it will loop back. But for now, Dr. Afra's going to rot in jail for us. It's a good stopping point, you know? She's going to stay put in this one place. She'll be there when we get back. It's all good.

So the next thing we're doing Is this mainline episode Zero Company? Are we doing anything in between? We're all right into it, my man. Zero company. It's zero company time. Zero company time. I guess there's a bonus thing that we should commit to and announce.

Should we commit to Allie's suggestion? Yes, I... We endorse this. I endorse it. You're here. Yes. So we're going to do the... what's the actual name of this?

It's, it's Vader's Castle. Star Wars Adventure Tales from Vader's Castle. Star Wars Adventure Tales from Vader's Castle which is a five-part comic book mini-series from the Star Wars Adventures line which was published by IDW in 2018.

This is a this is a spooky. It's a spooky one, is that correct? We're getting spooky with it for Halloween? I guess actually we should say there's two bonuses coming because we have to do catch up. There's Q&A bonus.

Send us questions to a more civilized age at gmail.com. Yes, about all of Afra. All of Afra that we've read. Yes. Mostly these last two parts, but since we are done with that for you can send all your questions, yes.

And then later in the month, we're going to do the Vader's Castle, Tales from the Vader's Castle arc. Yeah, because in theory, the Q&A is our September Patreon or September schedule just was a mess for many reasons. And then our October bonus

is going to be a little Halloween. A little Halloween fun time. And then we're going to start in with Zero Company. Rob, you've outlined for us what we are playing for this first episode. Yeah. So basically

we are going to your play through the introductions you are going to play through a mission called Dark Waters. Have I gotten there yet, Rob? No, you are about to do Dark Waters. You're very close. So it's a little further ahead of where we are at. But yeah, so you're play through Dark Waters.

You're going to meet the whole gang. You're going to be investigating some people. You're going to do a side mission. You're going to do there. There's our Clone Trooper trick. do his side mission that is offered, but do not do any side missions for your big blue friend cab. Leave his side missions for the next leg.

So up through dark waters, trick side mission to rescue his buddy. Love it. Really excited to get back to this. I guess if it's worth saying that you, if you are an AMCA listener who is not checked out Waypoint Radio or

the Waypoint Nope you know NEPA and Robber are streaming it over there So so you can see some some content of the game if you keep it on a lot of Waypoint But you can check out the remap channel On Twitch

I'm so sorry It took it took us two and a half years to stop doing that Yeah And it's listen we're in we're in We're in the little window. We're in the 10-year anniversary of Waypoint original launch right now. Oh, yeah, not to feel old. How is that possible?

It's really bad. It's not to get really bad. Oh, no. This Halloween would be 10 years of Waypoint slash rain app. Oh, that's fucked up. Next spring is going to be 10 years of breath of the wild. Someone else pointed out for Sotomay near Automata. That's 10 years ago, baby.

All that shit's old. If you were 10 years old when those came out. At the age where I keep here. it's the 10-year anniversary of this thing that was really important to you. Yeah, that was a few years ago. That was a couple of years ago. Yeah, that just happened, right?

Fucked up. And it's gonna be like this all the way down. Then it's gonna be like, oh, it's the 20 year anniversary of persona five, like, get the fuck away from me. Stop tweeting about it. Okay, but I actually think 20 might be easier than 10 because we're just going to be older about everything.

And maybe it'll loop back around to be like, oh, yeah, 20 years ago, wow, was I ever so young? Whereas right now it feels like, I just wrote that. But like right now it feels like I just wrote that breath of the wild review. Like it feels like a recent thing I did still. And I want to be clear, partly that's because all of our experience of time got completely jacked by COVID.

This is true. It really fucked us up. And so not just because some of us are suffering with some long COVID stuff, but also because it just put the whole world in stasis in a weird way. Our whole lives would be different. We can't go down this path. It's like too much for me to think about. Every time I remember I turned 30 in 2020.

I'm like, oh, okay. So I just got like, it just, it got ruined for me, basically. Yeah, basically. I'm sorry about that. Oh, no, the big 30th birthday bash. Damn. Anyway, we're going to read about Darth Vader and we're going to play some video games. Zero company.

And sorry, to your actual point, Allie. You can go watch Rob and Natalie play Zero Company on Remap's Twitch stream and on your YouTube channel. Yep. Twitch.tv. TV slash remap? Twitch. That TV slash Remap Radio. All right.

And now do Natalie and I have a bad habit of starting to riff during like plot critical cutscenes and talking over like important? That's never happening. You might miss a few things. You might miss a few things. But don't worry, Natalie will eventually be like, wait, what's going on? And then I'll explain. So you'll get caught right back up.

I have to say, Rob, playing Zero Company without doing it with you on Tactical Tuesday has meant it's gone so fast. Because you and I are not debating every single move that we make for three minutes. Not every turn needs to be constructing like a ship in a bottle. It doesn't. It doesn't. You can just keep it rolling, especially with you. Zero company on normal difficulty.

So I might bump it up hard for this. So we'll see. I definitely would. I think as you go along, it'll keep getting easier for you. And so it doesn't... I'm playing on hard mode. Yeah.

Even you. Even our playthrough, even our playthrough, like I think hard might be even too easy. Now, you got a game to finish. You need, like, well, you're making a game and also you don't want to be playing zero company forever.

But I think you could smoke could on the hardest difficulty. And I now believe that. I was like, I don't know if we're, I don't know if we're, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, think, we absolutely do. Even with, like, the resident, like, creepy guys?

You'll figure, like, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, through me about zero company is, every time they threw curveballs at me, it was like, whoa, this game just just got a lot harder. and then you adapt and you sort of figure out like how to use more more of your tools to deal with that and then it sort of stamps back down to your whatever your experience that difficulty was before

so yeah that's that's just my thought there anyway so for next main episode we'll be hitting zero company we'll be doing the Patreon Q&A on all of Dr. Afra and then we will be telling you terrifying tales from Vader's castle not a place I imagined would have a ton of tales since he mostly seems to

treat his castle like a closet that he lives in and just comes out occasionally to do bad things but learn out we'll learn all about it but what if he's like a what if he's a connoisseur of the grotesque and profane what if he's like Vincent Price introducing PBS mystery that sounds great welcome to another

tales from Vader's castle I just watched the what is the haunting of house no the haunting of hillhouse no not the haunting of hill house

the Vincent Price movie that's the haunting of hillhouse or a house on haunted hill house on haunted hill house on haunted hill I just watched that too nice to go with the skeleton yes bangor movie

and it's 72 minutes it's 72 minutes it's so fucking jaw dropping it's so good that's a good night Yeah, that movie kicks ass. All right. Until next time, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. And remember, it's getting cold out there.

So be sure to get your defal coat for the winter. Oh, no.