A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 15: Return to Geonosis Arc Pt. 2 (Clone Wars 28 - 30)

Episode Date: June 30, 2021

There are many reasons to be excited for this trio of episodes. There's the way the arc slides effortlessly from genre to genre, all while maintaining an overall sense of narrative continuity. There's the way that the lighting and effects work in these episodes show how far the production team have come since season one. There's the further development of characters like Luminara Unduli and Barris Offee, quickly becoming some of our favorites. But maybe more than anything, there is for the first time a long dark hallway, the baleful hum of brass, and a man walking slowly towards his future...    NEXT TIME: Episodes 31 - 33 (Grievous Intrigue, The Deserter, Lightsaber Lost) Show Notes Fallen Clones: Buzz, Gearshift, Trap, OM-5 (Honorary) Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Austin Walker Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Clone Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zackney, joined by Ali Akampora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. So far, I think it's fair to say that Clone Wars has had some ups and downs as a series. And maybe there's only been one episode I would have held up as flawless, which was the incredible cloak of darkness from season one. There's been some other great ones, but that one still stand out. I think today, however, we get another one as the series turns back towards horror and suspense as it foreshadows the fates of some of its major characters.

Happily, I think all three of the episodes here are basically winners and explore different facets of the Clone Wars, as well as some of the conflicts among the Jedi. and we're set up for this contrast in styles as Jedi Master Luminara and Dooley returns with her own Padawan, Baris Offie. Offie, yeah. Barris Offie in tow. And I think it confirmed for me that Luminar may be more than any other character we've met is what a Jedi should be if they live by their own teachings. If the vibe we get from a lot of the other Jedi is that the rules of the Jedi are best honored in the breach rather than in the

the strict observance. Luminara seems like the only one who is fully reconciled to live by and within the rules of the order and if necessary die by them. And that sets up a lot of tension we're going to explore both between her and

Anakin Skywalker and between their two paduans Barris and Asoka. To briefly sketch out the arc here, we are closing out the Giannosis arc. First, we are going to have a combat-focused episode with a bit of commando action as they blow up that damn

droid factory on geonosis then we're going to go into b-movie serial horror as um as obi won dons his pith helmet and raids an ancient temple and maybe genocides the genocens i'm not clear on that but we'll we'll maybe answer that before we call time and then the final episode is the fallout from one of the quirks of G&O's in civilization, which is their mind-controlling worms

that their queen lays. And what happens when they get loose aboard a transport ship with Asoka, Beres, and a whole lot of clones. And that will both be a really scary, intense episode

and also raise a lot of questions about what might be lurking in the sub-con of some of these characters. So, yeah, let's get into it. The Droid Factory. I think it's a pretty standard episode in a lot of ways, but I think it's still good at what it does. And I think a lot of it is because there are these tensions,

like, between the Jedi. I don't think the adventure is particularly interesting, but, like, the positions the different characters stake out as they approach this mission makes it a little more engaging than some other episodes we've seen. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think it was like,

out of the three of these, this one felt the most like typical kind of vibe, but it was really effective. I had a good time watching it, and it gave me some tasty little morsels of yummy lore, Star Wars lore.

So I was happy with it. We had like a lot of Anakin, Asoka, you know, Anakin stepping and talking for her up top, right, during the media. That was, yeah, that was kind of strange to me, honestly, because I felt like, you know, some of the past few episodes that we've had, or a lot of the past, the recent Anakin, Osoka dynamic has been mostly Anakin leaving Asoka to her own devices. and her kind of blowing it most of the time,

but he still is inclined to empower her and to, you know, leave her to lead, you know, a squadron or to accomplish a mission on her own or, you know, dictate the plan to when, as he, like, you know, fucking rams his ship into another ship and she's, like, stuck on the bigger ship and whatever. So that was,

it was kind of surprising to me to see Anakin so, um, aggressive in stepping over Asoka in this opening. Especially because there was not a, there's no, it's not like a difference in opinion was being seen here.

There was not a like, it was 100% about his voice being the one there and not hers. In fact, there's a line that it's hard to hear, but, uh, when, Baris and Luminara are approaching what Anakin and Asoka are saying is,

Asoka says, did you listen to what I was saying? I was saying the same thing as you were. And Anakin says, yeah, but when I say it, they actually listen to me. Which is brutal. That's. I mean, it speaks, I guess it's somewhat of a callback to the episode that I was referring to before in which Asoka is trying to give orders to. to, you know, a group of clones in place of Anakin.

And it's only when Admiral, what's his face, Yularin, yeah, comes in and, like, validates her orders that the clones decide to, you know, engage with what she's saying. So I guess it's somewhat of a callback to that. But in that scenario, Anakin was putting. her in the position of, you know, commanding officers on her own. So it's kind of strange that he would almost double back on his own, you know, platforming of Asoka in the first place and now, like, step over her in this way. To me, it feels a bit like, well, like, functionally in the story, what is doing is setting up for them

to be bickering playfully as Luminara and Barris arrive. But I also got a vibe of like, obviously this is a power dynamic that is really common, you know, everywhere where like dudes talking over women in meetings and such. And I feel like that's what it is nodding at. But it isn't really super consistent with, you know, as you pointed out, what we've observed of their relationship. I do feel like in the next episode maybe they get something a little more effective

which is there's a moment where Luminare is heading off on a side mission that will turn out to be the point of the episode and she tells Obi-Wan and it might be Obi-Wan and Anakin it might be Obi-Wan and fuck, conehead. Kitty Mundi. Yeah, Mundi. Where she's like, hey, don't do all the strategizing without me which again might be pointing out that like there's a bit of like war councils are for the boys

in in the Jedi order and at times like someone even like Luminaro who's on the council feels like they are cut out of the loop but here mostly what it is is to have like Anakin and Asoka arguing like siblings and sort of fighting over whose turn it is to give the briefing and And that's what Luminara walks into with Barris, and we immediately pick up, that they have a completely different vibe. It might still be somewhat sibling-esque, but, like, if so, the age difference is very different, but the level of deference is also very different. I think it's interesting as they're introduced, strong feeling that, like, Berris and

Luminara, unusually, are from the same cultural group. Like, they appear to be from the same planet, the same culture. They're both Mary Allen, yeah, which are sick. green people with face tattoos and... I fucking love them. Yeah, my... Incredible wardrobe.

Yeah, my old republic... If you played the old Republic, Star Wars, the Old Republic, the MMO, you could build it like a dynasty basically and relate all of your characters to one another. If you had, if you had alts, you could be like, oh, their siblings, these two are rivals,

these two, like, got married and had another kid. And so I obviously built like eight characters in various relations. And like the core of that was in Mary Allen. like brothers on the other side on each side of the conflict it was good when did they have like sims character building to that game this is from launch they had the shit at launch they don't see each other it's just a map it's just like uh in your own head

but i love them they're good they have like uh it's weird they have like a low key they have a different cultural relationship with the force than most other cultures if I remember I was going to ask about that because I thought that the, there, aren't they like force witches? They're not forced witches, but they, yeah, these are not our Dathamarian force witches. But the Mary Allen's before being part of the republic, I guess, even like just their home culture, they worship the force. These are our people who have a church to the force, have a, have a, have a, you know, organized, you know, belief in the force. but it's like independent of Jedi stuff I believe it's independent

or if it isn't now historically there that was a cultural element of Muriela separate from or unique of the Jedi I believe

I believe I'm double checking but yeah so that's neat it's neat thing I think that speaks to a lot of the way that she's characterized you know there's a lot of that like they're doing the thing

of like she is like said Rob all the way bought in on what it means to be a Jedi in a way that she upholds potentially to a fault depending on how you how you're keeping score at home and for me when they show up and are walking up to Asoka and Anakin it's just like all of my nerves are on edge because it's like please don't embarrass yourselves in front of like the proctor is here the cool teacher is here don't fucking please shut up and just like bracket this conversation for later.

It's like, the goofus and gallant vibes are so strong here, too. It really is, I don't know how many of our listeners remember highlights for children, but like, I couldn't go to a, I couldn't go to a pediatric dentist's office, you know, in my live without seeing highlights, and it's a shitty little moral lessons starring Goofusis and Gallant. But that is the vibe, where Barris is like very much.

much seen and not heard speaks when spoken to. She gives this deep curtsy when Luminara introduces Barris to Assoca and Anakin. And it's an interesting dynamic as well, because I do feel like there's an element of Asoka and Anakin are kind of rock stars in the Jedi Order where like they're in the shit probably more than anybody else. And like, yeah, they don't like play by the rules, but like they're, they're, they're they get the job done a lot and so to a degree you have this interesting like to me the thing I read into these opening exchanges is that Berris is a little bit intimidated by like holy

shit this is like you know Jedi Skywalker and Asoka and Asoka and Anakin are a little bit flat-footed because as you pointed out like oh it's the dean of the Jedi Council is here and they're the person that they are um uh like their Ph.D. student is going to be writing with us for a bit. That's interesting. That's a hundred percent of vibe. That's the vibe in my, for sure. I kind of, I definitely think that, that Luminar and Barris came off to me as kind of, like, almost like the ideal, you know, master Padawan combo. and that I almost got a sense of insecurity in Asoka

when Luminara is talking about Barris having memorized the entire, you know, catacomb like structure and map and everything and like talking about, you know, just like the competency of Barris to... It was very funny for that to happen after you pointed out last episode that there is often

a Padawan master, like, intern boss relationship, where last time Asoka was the one who had to memorize all the maps to tell, and was, like, telling, or telling Anakin that, like, this is a fortress, not just a wall. And I was like, here it is again. Like, it was Barris' fucking job to look at the recon and memorize all this shit. And I was like, yeah, Natalie called it. Yeah. But I will note, though, when Barris does that curtsy, there's that side-long glance between Assoca and Anakin, where they're both kind of like, oh, do you believe this shit?

Look, she's fucking bowing. She's bowing to us. And, like, so there, I think there is an element of, like, that little taste we got in Cloak of Darkness when Luminar kind of apologizes to Asoka, and it's like, I don't, like, I'm not sure I'm cut out for this. Like, I haven't been out here like this. I think maybe some of that is still in play, right? Like, fundamentally, these are, if we're saying that, like, they have sort of the, um,

the vibe of, like, the academic illusion. elite of the Jedi, they're pretty far from campus. Right, but they're not, I think one of the things that's interesting is they're not unwilling to get their hands dirty. And we see this in the next episode, especially, when I was like, BRB riding into a sandstorm, like, fuck them, let's go. And so there's some ways in which they're even idealized as ivory tower academics. Do you know what I mean?

They're like willing to jump into the shit. They're just not, you're right that she just isn't at. as it isn't she's as at home in it it hasn't rubbed off on her in the way that it has Anakin and Asoka well I there's a part of it it that I think they don't they don't revel in the action and the drama and the like the you know heroness of it all like they are they are doing they I mean I think it comes up in a you know further episode but they are keeping, you know, keepers of the peace. They are, you know, just doing their Jedi duty in a way that is like with a reverence to, you know, what it means to be a Jedi and all of that. And it's not as

much, you know, they don't kind of lose themselves in, in the drama of it all. But, but it, they still, you know, jump into action when called to. They're just not as like, they're not, heroes in the way that, you know, Asoka and Anakin have been portrayed to be, like, these action heroes. And something that struck me, too, is, um, Asoka and Anakin follow maybe more the Han Solo model of heroism where, like, the way Luminara and Barris are kind of introduced, like, it's kind of like, look at these nerds. Oh, you memorized the entire map. Oh, you know where all the chambers laid? What a fucking square.

And to a degree, like, it's interesting that that is such a throughline in so many. I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's a cross culture, but certainly a lot of American adventures where, like, being too prepared is nerdy, right? Like, you know, what's cool is just kind of showing up and, like, figuring it out on the fly. And here the mission they're given, that's not really going to work. Like, the thing they got to walk into is a, like, pile of spaghetti-like tunnels underneath the Gianosin factory. And they have to use those tunnels to infiltrate the factory itself, blow up the reactor, and bring the entire thing down. Otherwise, this is kind of like a real-time strategy game mission. That factory is just going to keep churning out new units, and they will never be able to storm it by force.

so they have to have somebody blow it up from the inside and that's going to realize. Very, very clearly in the exchange between Anakin and Luminara where he goes,

that sure is a lot of droids and she says, well, it is a droid factory. And he continues, as long as we can destroy them quicker than they can make them, we'll come out on top. And she says,

I love your simple logic, Skywalker. God. Yep. Big hymbo mode. I think it says it's I think it says a lot about me that like I like the introduction of Luminara and embarrassed to me I was like wow they're like the cool like they're the cool prepared like I want to like I want to ride with them like they seem to just like have this shit down whereas like Anakin and Asoka come off like just like bumbling like just

you know bulls in china shops just like knocking shit over and just like like like let's get in there and let's fuck it up. And, um, but I, I, I, I, I see that like, yeah, it just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, like, I don't know. Himbo with a big heart. Anti-Himbo. I think one of the things is they want us, or maybe they don't want us to, but the, the one way you could read this episode as at the end, it's like, well, Natalie, if you'd ridden with them, you'd be

dead in some fucking rubble. Yeah. Yeah. You need a hymbo with a big heart. and the belief in your ability to make it through to like to get through this shit the Jedi belief of just letting go he can't do it for you

you're right I could use a hymbo in my life who believes in me Anakin didn't do anything though they like stood there and argued about it yeah but he no he lifted the shit off after Asoka was able to give the signal but before that it was just a lot of like oh we should do something about this

Barris was in the fucking tomb being like, all right, I guess we're dead. So you need both of them. You got to be both. You got to be the hymbo and the bimbo. You got to be both. You got to have both just the willpower to get through life.

You can't just have the brains. I say this is, I'm way more of a Luminara than an Anakin. Way more of a Barris than an Asoka. This is just true. This is just the thing it is. I just told you about my, my Merallian Star Wars characters.

So, you know. I just know my own weaknesses. Yeah, no, and I'm equally drawn to both. This is my, this is my tragedy, is that I'm like, I want to show up not having studied and ace the test, and sometimes that works, but also I badly want to be so, like, utterly prepared that, like, I don't even need to test. Yeah. Yeah, and so those are incompatible things. But I think the other thing, like, that Barris provides. is, oh my God, thank God, Asoka has a peer.

We finally are going to see Asoka interacting with someone, not just like her own age, but in a similar role. And I think, especially lately, a lot of our issues like Asoka subplots have been, she is a character surrounded by mentor figures, and it's just which one is going to lecture Asoka this week. And here we're going to get a better look, not just at Asoka, but like, how has she taken those teachings on board? How are we going to see those projected when it's just her and someone she recognizes as a peer?

And I think that really starts to pay off in the third episode, but it comes into play a bit here, too. So, yeah, the plot is pretty simple. A big distracting frontal assault while the two Padawan going through the tunnels. I would desert. I would desert. I would desert When they're like You need to walk across this bridge What she literally says

Or maybe Anakin says I forget who says it Is like we're gonna do a parade march Right into the front door That'll get their attention I'm done Catch me repairing some bug armor Tomorrow or something

I'm saving up money to get a ticket off planet I'm done When Luminar's ship comes in for a landing There's a shot tracking the transport In over the ground And it's just strewn with dead clones Like, the body count of this operation is, like, in every shot. Oh, yeah.

Through the next three episodes, it is just, it is absurd how many clones are lost in this operation. Just for, with very little acknowledgement of the sacrifices made. Once every five episodes, we get a Jedi master being like, wow, we're losing a lot of people, and that's about it. Oh, it's brutal. It's rough. Anyway, yeah, the plan is that, right? You march some clones forward, get their attention, have Asoka and Barris run the reverse, you know, and have them end around through the tunnels and drop off the bombs.

Yep. Meanwhile, Poggle the Lesser is hanging out in the Droid Factor. slash fortress and there's a tactical droid there and it sounds like they got some they got some surprises set up for the Jedi of the tactical droid isn't fully in charge of this but the point is they're going to keep bringing out heavier and heavier guns as this as this day goes along yeah there's I want to say um there's not a lot to get into with a lot of this episode I will note I can't believe the Jedi are still being surprised

that they're on a bug planet full of flying bugs when they're approaching the bridge and like the fucking Gene Oceans come pouring out of their hives with their like guns and their bombs and they're like oh shit they fly it's like we just did this

we just did this we've been here for days yeah like just every single like the Jedi can't, they will step on every rake, put, you know, put in front of them. And it kind of goes that way here, too. I do like the, there are some good beats.

I love the sleeping geonosons that Berris and Soca come across. That's ominous. The fact that one of them grabs Barris across the face and its sleep is both horrifying, but weirdly cute You got to get out of that place Again, I would desert even as a Jedi Yeah, either one of these operations I'm out

I'm not going into the fucking scary-ass Bug catacombs And I'm not gonna fucking knock on the front door And get killed Neither one am I doing today It's a rough one It's a rough one I have a couple other small notes

here um yeah one is that the tactical droid has like bug markings on his his design and i got a note of the geotions put that there is that a personal choice oh i did not notice that it's just like some designs it's just like uh i'm trying to find a screenshot here it's just like you know some little i think little wings on the collarbone area and some other stuff i would love if the tactical droids like whenever like they're deployed alongside like actual separatist forces and they're just droids if they're just like I want to get with these people like hey like let's get tatted up together and show that bros I love that for them it's very good um my other one is uh I gotta share this you normally I read the Filoni thing

like oh there's a featureette and Filoni says some stuff I started I started to to transcribe this one And then I was like, I'm just going to record this. We're going to have to watch this together because this is the most, this is the most, yeah, this was an episode, and they need me to say something about this episode. One of these. It's also, he also just seems really high during this, allegedly, in a way that's very funny. I'm uploading it to you now, and I'll cut it into our episode underneath us talking about it. So the people at home will be able to hear it also. I will say

you will never guess what thing he's decided to talk if anyone has a guess I'd love to hear what do you think he guessed what do you guess he would talk about

in this feature at in this say something about this episode clip any guesses because I promise you're wrong should I look at

it does it just the episode the way it works is they go hey talk to us about an episode don't don't look at it yet

just guess what in this episode he would highlight to talk about I'm going to say he likes the super tanks. Super tanks. That's a good guess. What else?

I feel like the thing that I would expect him to talk about in this episode is not the answer. But I want to know what you would guess. If I were to guess just based on, oh, Dave Filoni's going to talk about this episode, I would say probably, you know, Asoka and Barris dying. leaving themselves to die in the... Sure, that would make perfect sense. You get a different perspective on the... Yeah. Yeah, exactly, totally.

Allie, do you have any guesses? The caves? The catacomb stuff? Maybe he's like, you know, it was a great design, yeah, we... Sure, okay. He's spent a lot of time working on the lights. Let's make this big screen. Yeah, that's a classic floating thing.

Oh, yeah, shout out to the great... The visual designers, you figure out the lights in there. They look really good. All right, ready to watch this one together? Yep. Three, two, one, go. I have always wanted to do a scene at the Jedi Temple where the kids are practicing cutting shapes.

What? I think circles are the most often cut shape, but Barris cuts a square. Uh-huh. What? I have no idea why. Maybe because she's a bit more square in a circle. There must be a scene somewhere where Yoda's teaching these kids,

and they have like a target shape they're supposed to cut. And some of the kids are cutting circles, but they're more like ovals, and he's like, no, that's not a good circle. You know, some of the kids are cutting squares and the ends of like a rhombus, and he's like, no, that's bad shape. I mean, do they get judged on that kind of thing? Is that part of their Jedi training? I mean, she has a pretty nice rectangle. Nice work. I mean, it's got like 90-degree corners.

It's very impressive. Dole of droids. We've got a dual droids. Asoka cuts this hole in this grave. He's like, we got to do the archival for this. Fulture joint, it's like a perfect circle. I mean, the muscle controller, you ever try to draw a perfect circle? It's almost impossible.

So when you think of a human being, why cut a circle? You create all that extra space. Why not cut a square? You can walk through it easier. So maybe Barris is just not either. She's kind of like a shape revolutionist. This is driving me crazy. I'm so upset because she, later in this episode, she also cuts a circle.

Of course she cuts a circle also Of course If he was important to him Why did he bring it up? Why did he like say that it was character? Because they were like All right you got to come into the office today You have to do you have to do these two minute clips

For each of these episodes And he skipped this one I'm so sure He was like I'm gonna have shit to say about Oh yeah that arc that's the bug arc The bug brain arc sure I got it And then they're like Oh yeah the one where they bombed the factory

And he's like excuse me Which one? Factory? Let me just kick up We just run it through. Oh, the square. You know what? I have had some thoughts.

Maybe she's a shape revolutionist. Also, two things. Yeah, please. I get the hat a little more now. He doesn't have a weird head, but I understand why he might just be like, I want to wear a hat. Like, I get it. Two, this will make no sense that anyone who doesn't know, like, Vice and Motherboard well. But the Jason Kebler vibes, he was giving.

They're off the chart. Yeah, just incredible. Extremely Jason vibes. You're exactly right. Weird. Okay. Just wanted to share that little tidbit with you. It's very funny.

There was actually one more very important piece of art in this episode. You know what I was going to say? What were you going to say? When the whole video was buffering like a billion times for me, so I just finished it. But, um, no, it's my fault. My internet is, uh, China's not your fault. But, yeah, Austin, stop, like, DDoSing me. The, I was going to say when I was like, what stupid-ass moment would it be because of this whole, the setup that you created?

I was like, you know, maybe it's when, like, Luminara and Asoka are walking, you know, into the catacombs and Luminara like Asoka starts to go Oh yeah sorry Barris and Asoka are going into the catacombs And Asoka starts to go first And Barris stops her and says No I know the way

And steps in and then Asoka lets her in I was like that would be a stupid ass moment For him to focus in on and yet it was like Steps ahead It was I like that's the first thing that pops into my mind and I was like that's too stupid it wouldn't be that it wouldn't have anything to do with that moment at all especially not the shapes that are being cut into the fucking wall the adlib the ad lib into imagining the Jedi temple where the younglings are being schooled on shapes and Yoda is being like mm not a circle but he didn't even do a Yoda voice he didn't even fake one he didn't even approach he was like that's a bad shape that's not that's not a circle not a circle. That's an oval.

Why is Yota squinting and sweating so much? Why does Yota seem really hung over? I want to be the person who works for LucasArson had to cut in the clip of those kids in the temple into that clip. We have to make this clip usable,

so. This is what we got? A couple hours. Oh, fuck. Extremely good. one other important piece of artwork in this episode really

like genuinely kind of top tier shit here how do I grab this image copy image let's see will it will it paste where I needed to paste yes this is on the front of one of the drop ships that comes in it's a 12thoombe

kickin duku in the butt and like the cape butt the caped butt he's pouting He's pouting. It's very funny. I'll put this in the show notes. I love that the clones are like owning

Duku. That just is good. Like making memes about Dugu. Yes. It's fantastic. Keep it up. Keep it up. Keep it up.

Also, midway through this as they roll out the super tanks, the tactical droids like, please let me deploy the secret weapons. And Pago's like, and then the super tanks come out somehow the entire battle and the way the super tanks roll out and they start firing those rockets

gave me strong avatar vibes this episode is directed by Jean-Carlo Volp but the entire thing has like mid-run avatar battle vibes as like here comes a new thing that you haven't seen before and it's going to swing the tide but ultimately will not influence

the outcome of this episode but yeah the uh the again droid the uh clone body count uh through the roof like who could have foreseen that the tightly packed bunch of clones uh fighting in columns against the uh against the droids would be such easy target for uh like for the super tanks yeah so it goes badly uh but it's again Again, like this is the entire dynamic of this war, the super tank is a solution to the Clone Army, not a great solution to the Jedi, and we see them kind of fail on two fronts here. One, they immediately drive on to this huge bridge, spanning this chasm, right where we know this about the Jedi, like, Jedi love to jump and vault and dangle, and so immediately

Luminara and Skywalker go plant charges. meanwhile the mission inside the factory has gone sideways the run into the reactor chamber which appears to be stolen level assets from half-life the run into the the chamber where they got the big the big electricity thing like shooting between the two parts of the reactor they plant the charges are ambushed by the tactical droid and a bunch of the flying Geonosons. The tactical droid Max asshole here. Just

remove their pathetic little charges, etc. And then when they try to shoot the tank, he sort of mocks them. It's impervious to throw the bomb. But we do see him eat shit because he's so busy getting in a little one-liner

that he forgets he's standing next to the thermal detonator. So he perishes. But the thing is the super tank Asoka gets knocked out after being carried off by the genosins the kind of

the kind of dropper I would want the super tank to be a little more resistant to lightsabers than it proved to be like Barris just

hopped onto the roof cut her way in and killed the two droids and I feel like if been at war with the Jedi for a minute here

they do that a lot I might just want thicker armor yeah Oh, my God, yeah. There was one thing that I wanted to give kudos to with the Genotion who follows them. Because I was like, it's a smart use of not having a protagonist brain. Because instead of like going in there by himself and confronting them, he goes and gets his boys.

And the whole squad goes in and they're able to do what needs to be done. And it rules. He makes sure he's right. He's like, I think something's up. He's not sure. He's tracking him for a little bit. And it's not until he like actually gets eyes on them. Well, he's like, okay, now I go call this in.

Prior to that, he's like, I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be that Ginoisan who's like making a little panicky bug noises into the phone. And like, there's nothing there. But like, yeah, he catches them red-handed. They probably shouldn't have brought the super tank to the fight. That's the lesson here. The charges, the Genosans do their job. They carry the charges away.

At that point, there's no way to blow the reactor. Except for the tank you brought. except for the tank. And so, yeah, Barris, okay, this bugged me a little bit. So,

Asoka, through no real fault of her own, but like her contribution here was to get knocked on her ass and, like, just out cold,

while Barris kind of saves the day here. And Assoca's like, yeah, we don't have the charges. We're kind of, like, we're kind of SOL, and Barris is like,

I have no idea what to do, even though Barris just had the idea to hijack the tank. And Barris is just like, I couldn't possibly solve this problem. And it's kind of this juxtaposition of like, ah, the creative problem solving of Asoka and Anakin versus the rigidity of Luminar and Barris. And I'm like, yeah, but you don't need to make Barris a dumbass. Like, I think Barris, she just hijacked the tank and used it to like save Asoka.

I think Barris can figure out the like, shoot big gun button would probably be the play here. But nevertheless, we got to have that whole, that whole bead where it's like, Barris is basically like, I am completely out of ideas, if only there were some solution to this unsolvable problem. And instead of Soca comes up with it. We do get, um, we know it's not going to play out this way, but it's a good beat where like she tells Anakin like they're not going to make it. And we're starting at the real sense of like, just how short a fuse anikin is on when he thinks one of his people is about to go down when they're in danger and she doesn't even because he's going to argue with her and she just cuts off the conversation

and blows the temple up it's a pretty spectacular shot um very end-of-fight club-esque all of the like big battlefield destruction like vistas we get at the end of the end of the of this episode are extremely pulled from a video game but also all kick ass um there's like all these incredible wide shots like looking down over the over the shoulder of luminaura and anakin at the rubble and stuff and it's like that camera's going to pan down and the levels are going to start but like i don't care it's good it's good yeah and uh the two paduan are alive but they're potentially entombed in the super tank um we get a bit of galus humor where where beres is like, boy, I'd sure would have rather died in the explosion than starved down here.

And we get the, uh, Asoka doing the, the fall is going to kill you, uh, part of the conversation where she's like, oh, we're going to run out of air long before we starve. Uh, but Asoka here does have the idea of sending whatever the Star Wars equivalent of Morse code is, uh, to, to Anakin and, uh, letting him know where, where she is. But on the surface, before that rescue happens, We have an exchange between Luminar and Anakin that I think is very much to the point, which is Luminar is trying to drive home to Anakin that like there's two things. One, loss is inevitable. And two, these are people with full agency.

And like, yes, it's sad if they die. It's sad if they have to like lay down their lives. But also they completed their mission. they died like fighting for what they believed in um and there's also some joy in that and so and an Anakin can't hear that and it's just an interesting um the tension between them where i think luminar does i think what yoda often fails to do to my to my endless frustration yota will just sort of give you a a catchphrase, a saying, and basically tell you to fuck off and, like, go deal with it. Walk it off.

Go harden up. That's all Yoda kind of gives you. Luminar, I think, actually, is beginning to try to point Anakin toward what's probably the better answer here, which is that, like, hey, like, you can't control the people you care about, and you can't always keep them safe. Like, you know, the vagaries of life, especially in wartime, are. going to happen to all of them and they still have every right to make their own decisions and decide what risks they will bear and what sacrifices they will make and there is space to

grieve and celebrate and Anakin pretty much rejects that entirely and uh luminar can kind of see can kind of see it but it's you know it's it's wartime you know it's not like they have a moment to fully work through the doctrinal issues around Anakin but it's it encapsulates what the issue is and I couldn't help but like watching it I was like Anakin needed more of this guidance and I think if there were more space for it things might go differently but instead often it's this message of self-denial or just sacrifice without purpose and without like respecting the feelings we do have toward others Luminarah embraces all of that and somehow reconciles it with being a good Jedi

Yeah. The exact exchange is Anakin's saying to Luminara, we cannot abandon our Padawans. And Luminara says, you misjudge me. I too care for my apprentice, but if their time has come. And Anakin interrupts her and says, I refuse to let Asoka die. She will find a way out. And Luminar responds, if my Padawan has perished, I will mourn her, but I will celebrate her as well through her memory. And Anakin is like, Like, well, I still plan on celebrating this victory with my Padawan in person. And I think- He's a self-righteous about it. Yeah. He is self-righteous. But I also think, like, I'm not mad at the, the, at what Luminar is saying. Like, I think she's right in, like, it is, it is the Jedi way, but exactly what you said, Rob, it's not, like, some stupid, like, catchphrase or some, like, dumb saying.

It's like actually, you know, an engaged reiteration of Jedi teachings or whatever. So it's, you know, a little bit more satisfying in that front. But also, I feel like there's still time. Like they could go, you know, do a quick sweep. Like go check out what's going on down there. Like she was like ready to pack. She's like ready to pack it up and head out. She says she's like, I feel them drifting away and they ain't drifted yet.

They're fucking, they're, she, fucking Asoka's... I mean, maybe we're talking about a matter of 20 seconds or something, but I don't think so. They're not, they're not, they're fine, right? Yeah. They get out of there, it's fine instantly. They will stand up. They're not suffocating in this moment, right? I guess maybe they are.

Not until the very end, they start to, like, lose oxygen. Like, the moment in which, um, uh, Barrison, Asoka are like, you. know, admitting their fate, Asoka's already kind of made the, like, call signal and whatever. And Barris is like, what happens to us now doesn't matter. And they, like, hold hands and, like, to die together. I was losing my mind. But, yeah, I feel like, okay, if I don't know about physics, as we know, or really chemistry. I don't know if this is chemistry or physics.

Or, I mean, I guess it's just science in general. But how long does it take for that space to lose all of the oxygen in it? I feel like it would take a couple hours, maybe. They were talking a lot. Does that affect it? Like, aren't you supposed to be quiet when you're, like, going to lose oxygen? That's true. They should not be, like, waxing on about, like.

Yeah, yeah. For reasons, for a variety of reasons I end up buying a C. two monitor last year. In part because I was convinced that I kept getting these headaches and I was like is it like air quality issues and everything? I want to tell you, CO2 level spike fast that there's not fresh air coming in.

And so like I can't like having now seen like what happens if two people are talking in a fairly big room but like everything sealed up I'm like, yeah I guess being inside a tiny little tank covered in like debris and shit. I could see them running out of air pretty fast. Okay, that's fair. But it does feel like, it's hard to gauge how time is passing in the episode

because they do like an entire excavation of this massive factory that's fallen down. You know, lickety split. They're like, hey, bring the copters over here, boys. You know, just haul the pieces of factory out of the way. But yeah, no, that's a good point, though. Luminara, it's the right message, but also it's like, man, the jet air. so quick to, like, fall back on fatalism. It's hard for me.

To think that, it's hard for me to think that this episode is, I think the, maybe the most generous I can be to the episodes that's interesting in mapping out the ways in which the Jedi teachings, even when delivered well, aren't enough to change who Anakin is. They don't engage with him in a way that makes him question his devotion and his attachment to the people he loves. I think less generously, it's hard for me to look at these episodes. I guess the thing is when you take it to these three episodes in total, and some of this will just have to wait into this third episode when we get there, it, there's a lot

of you do what you do to take care of the people you love, and that's the fucking message. And you push past, you push past people telling you that it's impossible or that it's too late and you do the thing that in your heart you know you need to do to get it done. That is obviously complicated in the third episode very directly and very intentionally, I think. So yeah, maybe what I said before, maybe that more generous reading is the one that I feel, which is that Luminara has been our best ambassador of the Jedi message. On paper, and for her, it works. You can understand how it might be that if someone could live by that code and an organization

could actually live by holding it up instead of finding the loopholes like every other Jedi we see does they might serve a purpose but even that version of the Jedi can't convince Anakin to walk away when he believes in his heart that someone he cares for is about to be killed

and that he could stop that from happening and like I think that's pretty effective in an episode that I think is pretty fine episode but it's like a pretty boilerplate episode to the points you both made before so yeah i mean anakin is aniken is vindicated at the end of the episode he's like look i didn't give up and they're alive and if you like you would have abandoned you know the and luminar responds it's not that i gave up on them Skywalker but unlike you when the time comes i am prepared to let my student go and that's such an it's such an interesting

way to end the episode when Luminara, you know, now knows that her, you know, Padawan was still alive, is now going to make a full recovery, you know, isn't, hasn't been seriously injured or harmed. But she is still able to stay within that Jedi teaching. Even seeing her Padawan, you know, walking towards her, she's like, yeah, I am prepared. to let her go. Like, just because she's, you know, still here right now doesn't shake my faith in the Jedi teachings at all. And that's really kind of wild to see happen.

Like, you've been proven, or, like, you've been proven wrong in a sense, and still your commitment to, like, you've been proven wrong. to like, you know, Jedi teachings is completely undisturbed. Well, I think, I think some of this is, to me kind of read the outcome of this as almost kind of part of the tragedy of Anakin, is that because he is so good and because, like, often he breaks the rules and things pan out, he does end up, he is the person for whom, like, RIP diagram, my mom, but I'm different.

Like, that is actually true, but also it prevents him from learning some of the things that probably he should learn, right? Like, it's almost unfortunate that the thing that he should be taking away from this to a degree is also like, hey, they made their own choices, and we need to be okay with that, and sometimes that has costs. But it works out for him that he's like, no, I still believe, and they, they can, carry off the rescue. And so the lesson that's hammered home is don't listen to, don't listen to these doubters, do what you know is right. And ultimately, like, all these, all these cautions

and teachings he gets from different Jedi do contain in them a seed of, of the warning that Anakin needs. But because of his own specialness, none of it can never sink in because he can always say that he's the exception that proves the, that he is the exception that disproves the rule. And that will, it feels like that's going to continue to be his story until, like, Revenge of the Sith. Let me add another one last layer to this, which is some more Mirielan lore, which it's, it's legends, it's not canon anymore, but so it goes. It would have been in the mix in the conversation when people were, you know, watching these episodes, presumably. I mentioned already that they believed in the force, like separately. They believed each individual's actions contributed to their destiny,

building upon past successes and failures to drive them towards their fates. Mary Allen would place a unique, often geometrically repeated tattoo on their face and hands to signify that they had completed a certain test or task or achieved sufficient aptitude for a certain skill. The number of tattoos would thus often act as a good indicator as to how, mature and or skill to Mary Allen is. This next bit that I'm going to just skim over is about how, because of those markings

were an externalization of, like, skill and power, they also would be like there was a heavy stratification or if you had more tattoos, you got better opportunities in Mary Allen's society. Despite its importance most Mary Allens did not know the entirety of the tattoo lexicon due to its complexity, which is fun. But, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But here's the last bit. Within their belief system was the view that the individual actions ripple through the force also affecting the destiny of the species as a whole. Because the force was understood through the notion of the cosmic force on a basic level, the cosmic force is the grand force. The living force is the living force inside of all things. Those things together are the force. This is like the Trinity of, this is like the Trinity equivalent of the force. There's the living force and the cosmic force. So the Murielands are all about the cosmic force. less so this individual idea of, like, the force is in you, much more this great weave of life across the galaxy.

Because the force was understood through the notion of the cosmic force on a basic level, the cultural significance of the energy was defined as fate. Those who were not sensitive to its call still had faith in fate and felt that it guided their lives. Mary Allen's always had a presence with the ranks of the Jedi Order. So the idea there of, like, yeah, they're in a culture that has that zoomed out, view of what forward progress looks like, where, yeah, sometimes people die for a thing that doesn't mean that death was futile. We have a deep understanding of kind of long-term change and long-term success where someone who's chosen to go down that route, if they succeed, they get a sick tattoo to prove that they did. And if they fail in the way, they still contributed to the

whole. And understanding those perspectives through through these characters, I think, is interesting because it's probably more than we've seen in the past of, like, compared to like the Wequay, who are like, often they're pirates. You know, like, it's kind of all we get. Yeah. Seeing like that, those elements of Mirieland culture turn into that, their particular relationship with the forest is kind of, it's kind of interesting. Yeah. That's all I, that's what I want from like, you know, Star Wars lore in general. I don't want.

Well, you should go read wherever all that shit is from. Let's see here. Star Wars Forced and Destiny Core Rule Book. Good, great. Sounds great. It sounds right up my alley.

You know what's better than playing role-playing games is reading their source books. Reading source books? Yeah, exactly. So, who's ready for this to get weird? So without... This episode. Pardon, Austin?

I said, God, this episode. So there's a few things we've learned. We'll learn over the course this episode. One, on her way into the planet, kind of sounds like Luminara bombed the living shit out of a Ginoisan temple and, like, flattened it so thoroughly that she doesn't think anyone could have survived it

or didn't be anything left. Yeah. Yeah. And two, by the end, it's possible. The epitome of a Jedi. That's what we were saying, right? She's the best there is And what she does

Well, the Jedi are at war Yeah So This is a bit of an odd one And it opens all It almost like feels like a bit of Anticlimax Like oh no

The Genocin factory is destroyed But Poggle I'm getting that name right He actually is named Poggle I keep thinking It sounds so much like Paggle Uh huh It's not Paggle

Poggle Poggle the lesser Is fleeing and they've got to bring him They got to bring him in, so they got to catch him. All well and good, but I'm like, why are we still on geonosis? Well, it turns out Pogel has a very special place to go. And that is to the layer of his queen where she is laying eggs for brainworms.

Inventing Twitter, basically, every day. She's laying eggs for brain worms that can, that she, the lot of, her to like telepathically control other beings, but also she's guarded by a Praetorian guard of zombies. And that's not you saying that. The show says zombies, multiple times. The show says the word zombie. Yeah.

They're fucking zombies. They are zombies. And we would all think this seems pretty bad, right? Obi-Wan might disagree Obi-Wan might feel this is kind of cool and we should hold on a second and see how this all plays out

and so we are off on a actually I think it's a fine episode it just feels like an episode where different characters feel like they are each convinced they're in a different episode from one another like Obi-Wan is in an Indiana Jones movie

where he's like, ah, yes, I'm going to master the secrets of this genocene queen. Luminara is in some sort of body horror nightmare. And the poor clones are unfortunately once again in James Cameron's aliens. So that's their fate here. And hey, the misery isn't confined to the clones. One of the first things that we're going to see is the truly pathetic lot of the droids. who've been tasked to escort Poggle to this secret destination

as he guides them through a whipping sandstorm and we get I think our saddest droid death in the series so far The two little droids huddling Like are you still there? I'm still here Wait, where'd you go? Don't leave

It was heart wrenching I was so sad I could not believe I was so fucked It was so fucked up. Why did it make me so sad? I was so sad. OM5 is my friend.

Oh, it's so fucked up. It's really fucked up. I was really hoping. These are my comfort characters. And Pogel was like, let's fuck it out. And the other dude is like, okay. Bye OM5. I really, I was really hoping that when Luminara speeder biked,

over that like the droid was going to like she was going to be like hey oh like i'm o m5 i'm nice now i'm a main character i'm the main character in the show from now on i'm joining the main cast yeah i will join you and be friends Roger Roger Roger that did not happen for every om five scene OM5 walks in ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha yeah instead uh um Luminara just zooms past him as the fucking sand collects over his dead body, and it's dark as fuck. Yeah, the desert just swallows him. Like, he falls down 30 seconds later.

He is covered, like, three quarters in sand, and we'll stay there forever. What if I told you that the sandstorm wasn't in the script at first? This is the floney thing for this episode. He says, in Legacy of Terror, the sandstorm is an element of the story that was never in the original script. You know, we had all these big landscapes, and that was interesting to a point. But when I began editing the episode with Stuart Lee, there just was a lot, there wasn't a lot going on. And I said, you know, when they go off on the bikes here, I'd love to see an approaching sandstorm. Everyone's like, oh my gosh, a sandstorm. You make one small

decision like that, and, uh, you have several problems. One, there is no mention of it in the script, so we had to rewrite it. You had to get, uh, and so that at this point in the footage of this, like, clip, it's just every time someone says sandstorm. in this episode, which is like a dozen times. Two, you had to get Luminarig goggles while she's riding through the sandstorm, and she's wearing Hondo Anaka's goggles. They just put Hondo's goggles on her. She wears the shit of her.

She wears the shit of them. It looks sick. What I wanted the scene here was this incredibly intense sandstorm outside, and you walk inside, and all of a sudden the density of the sound is different. I thought, wow, that's going to add a lot of tension. It really became a big character in the show. It really makes Act 1 work. Suddenly you understand why they can.

can't just go out there where Luminara is. Sometimes Star Wars has this sort of logic. Sometimes it ignores it. But I like to address it wherever possible, and it looks great. I mean, the Sandstorm is one of my favorite parts of the whole episode, and it sets you up for what happens to Luminar. It does look good. Well, it looks good.

I was just going to say, you mean to tell me that Dave Filoni didn't think that Luminar mysteriously finding a box in the desert and being like, there's a box here. I have to go check it out. Was it interesting enough on its own? No, it was not. Turns out that wasn't the key to setting the story up. Well, hold on. Austin, you mentioning that does remind me something that didn't sit right this whole episode is like,

the characters look grimy in a way that looks a little half-ass though. This was the thing where I was like, I don't know that everyone looks quite right for like having come through this. Like they're all sandblasted, but it wasn't the most elegant effect I've ever seen them achieve. That's because they made this episode and then put a sandstorm in it, I think. Yeah, when they walk out of this. sandstorm they look pretty what-ofs, IMO. So they've all been hit with a spray paint tool

of... Yeah, exactly. Probably, right? This was not baked into what this episode was going to be. But, like, it gives this whole first act so much. And I also think... My favorite thing about this episode is you go eight minutes without, like, knowing what this episode is.

You've been this whole opening being like, okay, it's going to be Luminara out in the wilderness by herself, trying to hunt down pottle, and the sandstorm is going to hit. And then it's going to be like, she's going to have to try to survive in the desert. She's been friends with OM5, for instance. That's something that could have happened. It didn't. We could have had that episode.

And the next thing you know, zombies. Well, and, yeah, like, there's this great misdirection. She arrives at the temple, and the clones kind of figure out, like, hey, they went down into this tunnel. And then we get a hard cut away as they're basically, like, ambushed. And we don't know the rest of what happens. And so the rest of it becomes, like, trying to, like, piece together what became of this expedition. So, yeah, you're totally proud. rhymed for like, okay, we're just going to be riding shotgun with Luminar this entire

episode. And right when, this is a very odd, it reminds me a bit of picnic hanging rock, if you've ever seen that. It's a really weird Peter Ware movie where it is about this group of girls on a school picnic who disappear seemingly in the thin air. It's like a magical realist horror film in some ways. Really good, but, like, one of the things that it does really effectively is it uses just, like, hard cuts away at, like, key moments to create the sense of, like, deep abiding horror. It doesn't feel, like, you never see anything, but it doesn't feel cheesy.

It just feels like you were ripped away from something, and in that, those characters pass beyond any knowledge of what became of them in a way that's, like, more profound than a way a lot of other horror films handle that. This episode kind of does that. Once Luminare has kind of been disappeared, Anakin and Obi-Wan finally get to do what they want to do for a while, which is go Mount a rescue. Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things that helps support that hard cut away is the fact that it's not just, you know,

we see someone show up and she's gone. And when she wakes up as she's being dragged away, like, she fights back. And for a second, you have the feeling that, oh, she could get out of this. Like, she could, she's, like, fucking up these, these genocens and is, like, able to, you know, hold her own without her lightsaber in a way that, like, gives you a lot of faith in her getting out of the situation. and I think it's that buildup that then as she's like trying to communicate to Obi-1 through the FaceTime that I always forget what the fucking FaceTime is called communicator I think can you say a communicator?

communicator that when that's when that cut happens it's like shit like this is this is really getting into some sticky business. Also, she punches into that dude. She like punches into the bug body. It's gross. It's really gross.

This is, like, again, effective lighting, effective character design. Because like, this is not a show that can do gore. It can't do what, like, The Walking Dead, like, made its bones doing, which is just, like, want to see more fucked up shit. Like, it just has to be conceptually disquieting

enough to freak you out, and it is. Like, the fact their eyes are just, like, completely white, the fact they move wrong for geonosons. We've seen a lot of live genosons, these guys are off. And it makes the entire scene like pretty

nasty. And then the fact that weight goes out with like the shadows on the wall as she's overwhelmed. Yeah, I wanted to comment on the lighting of this entire like catacomb sequence is so incredibly well done. Just like only having, you know, the beams from the clone helmets, like lighting things up or just

like the lightsabers and things like that, I think is so well done and so effective at just really creating such a sense of dread around every corner that they're walking towards. Even the, like, energy handcuffs that have a little flicker in the light, it's not just a steady, like soft blue it adds this this like strobe that makes everything feel unstable which is really great in contrast to the steady blue light of the lightsabers and and it just I kept thinking to myself they could not have done this episode in season one yeah and had it work because this whole catacomb area would have been so flat like I mean I guess they've done dark places in season one they did layer of grievous which like had some you know

nice designs and stuff in it, but it didn't look like this. Not with like the dimensional, like layer of grievous was typically like more open spaces, even some of the tunnels were like more open. So you didn't have as much of the dimensionality that these catacombs have where you feel like multiple layers throughout the environment engaging with each other. We also get, oh, go ahead. No, I was just like basically green. like layer of grievous feels like a very small set that they've got to work with they do a lot with

but it's very like you get the sense of there's backdrops but there's not a lot of like space that the characters are inhabiting uh here yeah like as the clones move through these tunnels um it does feel like there's just vast depths uh that they're exploring yeah we get a really interesting line from Obi-Wan that I wanted to call out as they're navigating through the catacombs which is

actually it might be as they're walking into the temple but Obi-Wan as they're looking around at like the statues in the temple you know they're trying to like figure out like who took

Luminar basically like what happened to her and the statues I guess like don't look like Giannosans is what somebody makes a comment about and Obi-Wan mentions the

geonosan queen but says that there's no proof of her existence which is kind of nuts to me that like the geonosons have been like a I don't know exactly what the conflict

history between like the Republic and the you knowsons are but at the very least there was a big conflict with them in attack of the clones where you know we're seeing like a glimpse into their culture where you have like this whole coliseum like you know thing going on and there's like this like you know like display of battle or of fighting and whatever um but that was that was really interesting to me that there's like this legend or like this, you know, this knowledge of reference to a geonosan queen, but that the Republic has no proof of her actually existing. And then to end up in a situation where there's clearly a very big operation going on

with the geonosin queen that has been like, seems like going on for a minute. I don't know, like at what point this. This part of the plan has really ramped up, but, yeah, it's, it's just, like, I guess. And it's like not even clear to me what her role is. Is she a queen in, in what senses is she a queen? Is she telling Poggle what to do? Is she, all right. I mean, obviously she's birthing genocence.

Like we see them pull pods out from her and like putting them in the ground and all that. But then does Poggle report up to her? Has she been, that's the read. I think so. I mean, I think. She's Karina the greater. He's Pogel the lesser. That's all you got to know about that. Yeah. I think

so, absolutely. I mean, when I say like she's an insect queen, like, I mean that even more than just like in her being, you know, the progenitor of like the population or whatever. Like the, the, the, the, when you

like look at bees for example like the queen dictates all worker bee behavior like wherever the queen is that's where like all of the worker bees like will you know conglomerate around or whatever

but this is kind of where I do find this interesting and weird because the genocin sometimes I get the vibe of like to a degree poggles out there doing weapons deals right like in a a weird way, like, the behavior here seems less

insectoid, more like mercantilist in some ways, where it's like, it's like, it's like discovering that, like, Germany after Roller 1 secretly had, like, an insect queen running the entire show behind the scenes, and it's like, wait, what? Like, was this whole thing?

So, like, do you all have free will? Or are you all just, like, respond to the dictates of a queen? Because, like, you all seem like individuals. I think they have free will. I think they have free will. Yeah. I think the brainworms are an additional project, an additional ongoing research tree for both the Queen and Obi-Wan Kenobi that is on top of producing new Gionotians. Gionosins.

No one says this the same way twice, including me, including Faloni. He was like, he was like Gino, Ginocians or something in a weird way. genoceneans or something once. I don't know how to say this word. But you know what I'm saying. That's a really interesting point because why are they like in, you know,

producing a separatist army? Like, why are they hosting a battle droid factory on their planet? Why are they like working with the separatists as this kind of like, you know, classic alien faction? But then also are harboring like like a mind control production operation to take over the universe question mark like what like making a zombie army like where does this come into like where's palpatine in this like how are we

yeah right sure getting back up there what were they up to yeah yes good question i truly don't Find out because they will all die. Ellie, it looked like you had a feeling about where the self fits in. I feel like I feel like Poggle is like the outside guy and then the queen gets to stay back and sort of work on her like internal stuff because the lack of cultural exchange certainly comes into frame in this episode in a way that's very, I will say, cringe. So yeah, I. Yeah, Poggle's like the

The biz dev guy Like the external biz dev Going around making pitches Trying to get some ad dollars For you know Sell of real estate Doing all the like Yeah

He's doing all of it Pogel Yeah Wait Ali what is the What are the Tell me the Crens moments please We're you know They go through the tunnels

They find that Luminars captured Blah blah blah What's the Cringe Decides that he could talk this out instead of fighting her or like I don't know his impulse there and I'm like so curious of like what he in his mind thinks that the like achievement of this conversation is I feel like he looked out of his character sheet and saw that he was awful good or saw that he had to talk about this season of friends that he had a character beat he had to hit that was like talk to a talk where we're fighting would be more useful or something like that He's like, ah, yes, Anakin, one second, please. I need to give my experience points.

But his opening is, it's great to meet you. I'm here to inform you that you're no longer a queen. And the queen is like, fuck you. And then, like, the conversation goes out a little bit. There's a second beat where Anakin is like, this has gone bad. I'm taking out my lightsaber. Obi-Wan's like, no, no, no, I still got this. And he says, you can't hurt us.

The Republic is going to judge you more harshly. Like, this lady gives a fuck. Like, what do you? How is that your ace? in the hole. He's very bad. His negotiation tactics were so out of pocket.

This whole, like, this whole exchange is beyond me. In his defense, I think he's like, okay, so this is a bit like in Die Hard where it's like, Hans, booby, these people are motivated, they're organized, they're happening.

He, like, he thinks this is kind of one kind of deal. And so, So he's like, she's a queen. She wants to retain this is our political power. We're going to negotiate. We're going to meet in the middle. And like, we've just never talked the right person. We thought, like, Pago was the guy we were dealing with.

But, like, now that we know there's this queen, we can treat with a queen. Nine-O-B-Wan Kenobi, Master Diplomat. I know how to talk to queens and do more than that, as we'll learn in later episodes. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But, unfortunately, the fatal miscalculation he's made is that she's less interested in, like, I will rule and like have a like regional empire and she's more like no I will be queen of my zombie slave army and that's a different like and I kind of get it like when she's like no I'm not interested in talking

because I could just brain control you and send you back out in the world and then I will have three votes on the Jedi Council and the Republican can do shit to me because the Republic will be increasingly infiltrated by my brain slaves. And so, like, yeah, Obi-Wan was trying to let her off the hook. And she was like, you know, even though the droid factory was destroyed and the planet is occupied,

here's my Hail Mary. I'm playing for all the marbles. But the play is like, hello, ma'am, we're here to arrest you. Hi. But, yeah, like, there's no negotiation. Slides, like, clipboard with the pen,

just write your confluence. they'll go easy on you and she's like he's staring at the motivation like the goals are not in line at all like it just in the past when he is negotiated

with the enemy there has been somewhat of an alignment of you know the end goal for both of them with the Getty people you know he was like we want you all to have your planet back. But the Yeti people ruled. They were great.

We love them. We love them. I mean, they were killing clones, but we still stand. In fact, maybe we stand harder. Who could say? I would argue, yes, absolutely. Bug queen, not bugs, sorry, insect queen. So she's not a bug. Absolutely not. Zero bugs in any of this episode. I was really disappointed that we didn't get.

Poggle now no longer a bug. Paggle is always an insect again. Poggle's always an insect Poggle never made bugs status You said that he was a bug the other day It's probably I didn't worry about it I didn't have to say that I'd even know better bit

I promise you I would love to go I'd like to go Natalie We had a whole bit About how maybe Gia notion Start as bugs Turn into insects

And in their old age They shrink back down And turn round Making them look buggy again Like Pogel I promise Pogle's not But Pogel isn't old

Yes he is He's a cane He's a walking cane He's an old man He doesn't He's chilling No, he walks around with a cane No, he doesn't

He was in the episode A lot of people just walk around Walking sticks Because they like This is true I'm not judging it I'm not judging it He's like a

He was the one who was hanging out With Padma's X That was the episode Where you called him a bug True I asked Is he a bug And we had a whole

A whole discussion I would like to This is the curse of being the producer Is I have it in my head Because I edited it but remember when pottle the lesser was walking around with the cane in the last episode he was being a little bug he was buggy that's the same type of people he's just an old do you think that they're when they're

young warriors they're insects and then when they become old yeah you know they're softened up a little bit they soften up yeah I would like to change my my ruling he is full insect vibes full insect no bug no bug to him what about the larvae or no they're not even larvae, they're just... I was thinking about them. Just the pods. Don't like them. The pods are bugs.

Pods are bugs. When it says wet slurping and they drop them into the sand. That's buggy. I'm not here for it. Is it? Is it? It's buggy, but it's coming, it's, it's got insect. It's, it's...

So are you watching, like, alien? In a void? The face, like, with the eggs, and you're like, mm, bugs. If those, if those pods. That man's got a bug on his face. those pods if they were in a vacuum they would be bugs but because they're born out of insect they're insects does that make sense okay they have the worm the book qualities but at the end of the day yeah at the end of the insect has insect qualities uh she talks like an insect i'll say that

much. How does she make so many eggs? It needs to be doing that. How do bugs, how do insects make egg? I think it depends on the bug. It depends on the bug or the insect. Yeah. Oh, they're like four arms situation that she had was great.

Like, looked like she had little legs. I think those were her legs. But like, that was her torso. A queen honey bee is capable of laying 2,000 bee eggs in a day. So she kind of like, not. even that hot shit. Is there other, like, do you, like, do you need someone else to help make you eggs? That's what I'm asking.

No, you just need to get, like, enough energy through, like, food and shit to, like, continue powering your organs. The egg machine? Like, yeah, there's, but there's no, like, auxiliary queens to, like, produce other eggs. Like, there's just one. No, no, no. I'm just saying, like, is someone meeting up with the queen to begin the egg making the They have fertilized eggs and there are unfertilized eggs, both hatch. But the eggs happen before, without anyone, the queen is just doing that on her own.

I believe, I don't know, fuck. Like, is Paul in the mix somehow? This is what I'm- dreading them. For some of them, probably. My understanding is, I could be wrong about this, that our drone bees are unfertilized eggs. And worker bees are fertilized eggs. Right.

I believe. I believe you. I'm not going to look at it. I believe you. I don't need it. I'm with you. It's been a long time. Anyways.

No bugs. No bugs in this episode. Only insects, unfortunately. Are worms insects? Yeah, I was wondering about the. If these worms weren't, so when I first saw, the first worm I saw, I was like, that's kind of bug. to me. That's like a little bug.

But then when the worms were going up noses and coming out mouth, insect shit. Insect shit. I was like, fuck that. Bye-bye. You're not a bug anymore. Again, Obi-Wan, again, really waiting way too long on the play. Never forgive that man if that was me. I would never forgive that man.

I could not believe. I thought he was just going to let it happen. 100%. There was no doubt in my mind. He already got brain bugged. He already got the worm in his brain. No, he just don't give up. Let's just see how this goes, Anakin.

He's like, I'm just down to see what happens. Let's see what happens. So this is another episode penned by our friend from the mentalist writing staff. Yeah. And the part where Luminara is up there about to be infected with the worm. And everyone's just kind of matter of fact with me. She's like, I would really rather not do this. And Obi-1's like, we got to check this out.

Anakin's like, we must do something, and Obi-Wan's, hold on. No, wait a second. Nose or ear. Which hole do you think it's going to use? And then they place the bat. They placed the bat. It's so fucked, but it's also, I mean, it's very, it's very funny. It's very funny, and it's very telling of our, we need like a name for him, of this, of this Obi-1.

Right. Anthropologist Obi-Wan. Yeah, Anthropologist, Obi-Wan. His, like, pit hat Obi-Wan as drop said. He's that he was like, I was going to investigate that worm. And, like, you don't do that shit. Like, you don't do dissections. You're fighting a war. You're a Jedi.

You're not in the lab. Do we think Obi-Wan has, like, a biology minor? Do you think that, like, no. He took a couple interesting classes in college. I'm sure he is. Yeah. He has, like, a novice, like, maybe chemistry set or whatever that he ordered off of Etsy that he, like, looks the chip, but, like, he was not going to get any information for that worm. No.

Zero chance. Like, Obi-Wan deep into cryptids. Oh, 100%. And, yeah. The real Anakin. And this is the thing. Like, it's really revealing of just, like, Obi-Wan, it's just very. very curious about the world and it's all just grist for the mill of his understanding of the

universe and kind of the war in the jedi should is secondary um and yeah this is this is a good reminder of who obi one is at his heart and that is a weird wannabe scientist um and the weird thing is though i just love the end of this episode because they're all just the jett i are all keenly aware they are the heroes in this and to a degree that they do have like plot armor and so to a degree there is kind of this like gleeful like even at the direst moments they can be on their own bullshit and that's that's just who they are sucks if you're a clone and you're like hey you go to the surface go alone go radio kiadi mundi and let them know what's up not good if you're in that boat or some peace gear shift

Yeah, it's, I was very deeply aware of how many clones went in to that temple and how few came out of that temple at the end of the episode. It was pretty stark. They needed them, flamethrowers. They did, well, why wouldn't you bring? You know what? I would agree with these flamethrowers here. Yeah, uh-huh. You're right.

Yeah, we got tunnels here. bring us the flame throwers, all of them. Yeah, just send them up. We need them all. Yeah. At least one. At the very least. More of those bombs from the factory, please?

We're just going to blow this whole shit up. Oh, yeah, throw them in. So here's my question. I mean, it does implode. This does happen, yeah. Yeah, they do fucking bury the entire temple. Did they just kill the G&Osen race? The answer is no, but I only know this for outside.

side reasons that are terrible. I'm guessing that... Podwell doesn't give the vibe of a dude who just watched his entire civilization be destroyed. There's zero Enders game vibes here where it's like, no, you've killed us all. So like, the species does apparently not depend on this queen, or the queen is still alive. Maybe she's in tomb down there, but like, everyone seems very chill. That's a good point because, like, so the next episode there's going to be some more worms. and they're still like a captain of that ship right

like is she's still down there just sending out those brain waves like no really like fuck up the Jedi good question yeah I oh no she has she that's that's the point of the worms it's they're coming from her it's her brain in the worms going out so but maybe maybe can the word is it like a mesh network Can the worms communicate with each other without needing the, you know, and that's just where the brain lives now through the worms? As long as there's a worm, there's a brain.

Good question. I know a thing about long-term geanosin existence. I don't know if I know it. I don't, I don't, it's dark. It doesn't go well for them long term. Are we going to see it happen? That's what I'm trying. I don't think it's in, I don't think that it's in clone wars.

I think, I'm trying to find out if it's in. What was that comedy show they did? It's not in that. I'm trying to find out if it was in, um, rebels or something. While you find that out, I would like to shout out one of the best lines of this episode, which is as they're running out of the falling temple, Obi-1 says, after Anakin kills the worm, Obi-Wan's like, what are you doing? I was going to study that. And Anakin's like, study the bottom of my boot. And like, it's really good. Got them. Yeah, that part's, yeah. All right. So it originates in Darth Vader 4 from 2015. the Kieran Gillian, uh,

Giron, uh, comic, uh, here we go. On Gionosis, wait, I have a question.

Uh-huh. What's up? Are we ever going to see the genocin's again? Or is this just, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

the thing that happens to them doesn't happen until post-clone wars. Okay, okay. Okay, they're fine. My actual suspicion here is she is a queen, but like bees, there are other hives out there.

It's a big planet. It's a planet, right? Yeah. I'm just going to read this. Okay. And we can just... Okay, so important thing to know. They end up, one,

Darth Vader, Allpoint, says the geonosids are a servant species. They are forbidden from breeding freely. And turns them into... They assist in the construction of the Death Star. They get assigned a new, unidentified archduke to replace Pogel. they become a servant species of the empire much like the wookies were when the genocents aren't able

to refine the super laser that's where Galen Erso comes in from Rogue 1 he takes over and fixes that laser situation for them and then after the Death Star's Hyperdrive was operational

so they helped build the Death Star No I don't want to hear this it's bad dude it's like genuinely fucked up you don't want to hear this you don't are you sure does their planet get destroyed

in a test no it's worse it's worse that would be fine why would that be fine because maybe there's some other ones out there and the future of the species could be so after they

the Death Star's Hyperdrivers operational grandmoth we hoof Tarkin I didn't know it was Tarkin's first name orders the Imperial Weapons Division to sterilize geonosis using imperial gas canisters, destroying all but one of the planet's population

of approximately 100 billion, the largest genocide ever committed by the empire to keep the weapon a secret. Wow. So to keep the Death Star secret, they sterilize all of the Gionosins. Man, you really can't tell Gillen's formative influences 40K. There's one male Ginoisan

who lives after this, and his name is. click is click clack and I think we're going to meet click clack in rebels in an episode called Ghosts of Geonosis Jesus God

Jesus. So I have a question Do you think that Anakin being like yeah you know what we should have servant classes after the Clone Wars was one of his radical ideas that Asoka refers to in the next episode

I know what we should should do. Yeah, maybe. Nightmare. But did Darth Vader? Who made the order? Initially Vader, right? Sounds like Tarkin.

Tarkin, I guess so. Maybe Tarkin made that final call. You're right. Tarkin made the call to kill them. Yeah. And render them sterile, including the last Nogynos and Queen. Yeah. It was Vader who turned them into a...

A slave society. Yes, correct. Correct. Correct. Well. Off to brain invaders. I... I...

Hmm? Ooh. Yeah. Uh-huh. I've had a... It seems like Ghost of Geonosis is going to touch on this. So we're going to... If we do rebels one day, which is so far away, we'll have forgotten this. Maybe if Ghosts of G&Os, maybe that's where we discover, like, there's one last queen left.

It'll be fine. Oh, maybe. Maybe. Yeah. It doesn't sound like it, though. I didn't, I stopped reading that page at that point. Sounds like they're getting the jar-jark treatment. Or it's just like there's one left and leading this pathetic.

His name's Click-Clack of the clown. He's with Jar-Dar down on the clown square, juggling for the children. Yeah. Anyway. Okay. So here we go to... To evidence that Obi-Wan was wrong. To immediate evidence that you have to kill all the worms.

You have to kill all the worms immediately and do a check. You got to do a check. Tell people what's up. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. You know what the worms do. Tell everyone.

Get the flame throwers out. This is the time. Get the flame throwers out. fucking just bomb the shit out of the temple, kill all the eggs. Not like, these are obvious, like, I, I'm sorry what's going to happen in Gio no since later, but this, for right now, we got to get rid of these eggs. These eggs are pretty fucked up. So do that before you, you know, pack up.

And instead, they just don't tell people like, hey, like, we have a quarantine situation. We got to put into effect down here. and like scan for these things like the basic security in this whole war effort is is pretty bad same deal like how cad was just able to walk off that transport into starfighter it's like we need to take like we need to take inventory of like you know how is everyone doing what are they bringing off the off the planet with them uh but yeah we get a group of troops so asoka and uh beris are going to be sent on an emergency rescue mission to deliver uh medical supplies to remember there's been this sort of galaxy-wide uprising uh sort of a sort of separat

offensive type situation where like the Jedi are fighting in places they did not anticipate they've been backfooted uh and kit fisto and i think they're going to say mace as well but like they need supplies uh out on the front they're on and uh maces on dantuin which is apparently a tie-in or not a tie-in it's referencing something that was in an EU book they the fact that they go like Mace is on Dantuin right now was because there was some EU book at the time where Mace did some shit on Dantuin. The funny thing about this is now

if you go to the Star Wars website and click on the trivia page for it for this episode, it specifically says what I just said is true. And then in parentheses, it adds, this does not mean that those books are fucking canon. It says straight up.

However, don't take that to mean that those books are part of the canon. Those legends books. so it's very funny to me yeah mace was not in fact identified shatter points on dan too yeah and so we get um they're going to be on this emergency run to deliver medical supplies they're going to be sent off on their own aboard this transport and accompanying them are a bunch of like really tough clone uh frontline troopers is the sense you get like even the vibe of this squad is just a little bit off like when their uh sergeant comes and rallies them uh one of them

has already had the worm go into his ear um and his you know we know he's infected but the sergeant wakes them all up by like shooting in the air they seem borderline mutinous uh to be disturbed in their rest i thought at first that the dude shooting in the air was the guy who got infected That was a strong entry vibe Like just waking everyone up fucking gunshots in the air All of your soldiers All of your soldiers who hear gunshots all the time Watch people die every single day

And you're like wake up motherfuckers Shoot bang bang bang bang Like hello I feel like this The squad just rolls this way They all got custom armor with like animal print on it and custom logos and shit. I feel like these are our rise and grind,

like clone troopers. Got tribal tats. They're like out here trying to do the most. They're trying to look and build. Yeah, they're 100% in their bag. There's one thing I really love about this group, which aside from Scyth, who has like a weird demon tattoo on his face and is bald,

it looks like they all discovered hair gel at the same time together. It was like, we're going to make this our whole thing. we're gonna all we're gonna figure out slightly different variations on jelling our hair a hundred percent look team pompadour uh when you when you see them coming at you uh you know the ralic is sounding their best don't fire and please you can see the glistin of their hair the commander feels taller than it's just a framing where he like the guy's standing up probably but when he first shows up like damn he's big This clone's tall

See, this is why the Fohawk was briefly popular Because, you know It's like you put a little Like a subtle little lift in your boot And you just brush that off And suddenly, whoa Who is this imposing figure?

What a dashing clone Who's this 5-11 guy? I just also shout out the way That is it Seith the one who gets warmed first. His like stand up with his arms

in the back to like yo that way riggers yeah great job uh huh

don't want to see it again I love his dead worm stare that was wild yeah it's good so this is the thing like

this episode this episode hits like every reference it does every single like beat it just hits like the way

he gets up It's just nightmarish, the way he's puppeted to his feet. And it won't be as dramatic, but when he does it to the entire barracks full of troops, the way they all, like, just sit both upright in their racks is, again, deeply horrifying. The way the people who've been, like, infected have that, like, slack T-1000 sort of stare, but also that, like, really purposeful drive. They, like, they have a sense of urgency. but not hurry, and they have a sense of, like, implacable purpose.

And it just permeates everything they do. And so we know, like, this mission is doomed to an extent. He's got a ridiculous number of, like, Yoshi eggs in his backpack. Nobody seems to see them. Did we set up that Obi, so Obi-1, Luminara, and Anakin are going to deliver Pogel to Corrassant and Assook and Barris are. are going to go deliver. So there's a split happening.

So all the grown-ups are going to Corrassant. Like, I don't know why you need three Jedi masters for that, but I guess you do. And then Asoka and Barris are going to go pick up the medical supplies from Kit Fisto and take them to Dantuin. Well, I mean, we're talking about Cloak of Darkness. The last time they had a high-value prisoner, they did get mugged by like a bunch, well, not a bunch of Sith. ventures showed up right ventures showed up and beat the shit out of luminaura who and and and asoka so yeah yeah and they just think this this is going to be a like basically asoka and berris are driving

in delivery van that's what they think is going on milk run baby like the clones are even upset they're like this sounds shitty it's going to be a lot of like hauling shit around right I mean this is the thing there's a great go ahead this is a great exchange between that this is one of the morsels of the episode where, uh, I don't know what the clone's name is, but he, when the commander like delivers the, the mission objective, he's like, I thought we were bred for battle, not running errands. And the commander collapsed back at him as like, we were bred to follow orders, Pulsar. You got a problem with that? He's like, no, sir, no problem. I'm like, dude, you're talking about being bred for shit. Like, why are you like, coming back? Like, like, like,

No, we were bred to die, okay? Yeah. We were bred to die for a losing war. Like, that's what we're here for. For a 15-year-old with a glow stick, okay? Now, get on fucking bored. So fucked. But again, it's like, that's the story of this episode in so many ways,

is this sort of, like, shadow of the truth of the situation, slowly growing and casting itself over the characters. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're all working towards the line, right? Which is... Yes. All right.

So, Pulsar sets up... Pulsar brain infected, but not moving around like a zombie. Important distinction from the undead... Yeah. It's like the thing. They can perfectly impersonate their host. Totally. And it's...

Go ahead. What's really interesting is, When the queen was describing the way that the brainworms work is she absorbs the memories and like the consciousness of the host. So what's trippy is that if she's doing that with the geonosins, why is it just that those geonosons that she had infected that point were already dead? So they were like maimed or whatever. And that's why they were like, you know, you know, walking differently than you're being. that those were quite literally reanimated corpses versus mind-controlled people. But they had bugs in them too.

Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah. I think the bugs can let you live through, can let you animate after what would be a deadly wound. But when you have all your functions, those are still, like, I bet their hearts are still beating and stuff like that. Right. In any case, Assoc, Pulsar is on board with the, with the, with the. worm pods Assoca can't sleep

Barris does the very nice friend thing of being like what's up and Asoka is like you want to give food and Berris bless her heart says yes to that could not be me if it was

like you woke me up in the middle of the night after the week we just had I don't I don't know that I'm going to the diner with you I love the diner but I'm not going with you at 4 a.m. Need sleep.

I need sleep. It goes out. And in that time when they're doing that, first of all, we just get like incredible shots of them walking through the frigate. All of the interior shots in this, which could look boring and clinical. Instead, like, there's a lot of great little shading

on every white surface that makes it look. It's so good. It's so good. Yes. And like the starkness of like the, almost like, squin your eye white of the table. where they're sitting. So they're sitting in the light and darkness, like, very subtle, but, like, it rings them. Also, there's lots of white noise in this ship. You can feel the ship, and it's, like,

light hum, which is just, you know, that's just classic alien shit. You know what I mean? That's just classic part of doing horror, science fiction, in a facility shit. And at that point, the clones walk in, and they've all been mind-controlled, and things start to go bad. And at that point, it turns into a slasher, as, or I guess, yeah, like the thing or something, as at this point, Asoka and, uh, and, uh, Barris are like trying to get distance and figure out what's going on. The clones hijacked the whole ship. And the line that we're talking about comes when they eventually corner Barris, uh, who is off trying to make, not make communicate, she's, I figure what she's doing. Um, but they corner her in this incredible sequence where the, you, the, you know, the, the, you, the,

orchestra starts to build up they approach her with the worm egg um uh they basically say the line which is if there's one thing we if there's one thing we clones know it's how to stop a jedi they just tweeted it out they just say the thing because it's in there that's in their heads and then we get this like red security laser door closing is that what we think it is and it cuts off her scream she starts to scream it cuts her off and then we just cut to this wide shot of the ship and it's like a perfect sequence it's so good Natalie what are you saying or Ali, go ahead. Oh, well, I was, that line is especially interesting

because, like, there's moments with Barris where she's, like, talking as the queen and her voice has, like, the harshness of an insect, and we get, like, the clone-speaking genotions. But, like, when that line is delivered, it's a very cloned voice. Like, it sounds like the humanity of him saying that shit. And it's distinct and it's terrifying.

When, like, person, Speaking personally, this was the episode where I was like, I think there's enough in the show to chew on that, like, it could bear off a podcast. Because, like, I heard that line and it was like, on some level, it's not just that the clones know how to do this. It's that they think about it a lot. It's that, like, on some level, they want to frag the Jedi. You're like in a deep, like a, like an erotic sense and a psycho, like deep in the desire center of these clones. some this engine is always running that is I could kill these Jedi I could kill these Jedi we could kill them yeah and I know how to do that we've been trained to do it

that's why I think the the mechanic of how the brain possessing works of the queen assuming the memories and like the consciousness of the host like my question is one is this the like accessing those feelings and it's like almost like a you know like a personality merge where she she is speaking but from that that that part of like the deep consciousness or is this I mean it's not the clone it has it is it has to be her speaking like as I don't know that that's true one like one with the clone why I mean, at the point at which the clones are speaking like

Geoenotion with each other and like But why are they speaking at all? This is the thing. If she's controlling them all directly, they're not speaking at all. Because it's just her. Then they're just digits for her to control. They have to have some degree of autonomy for communication to be necessary between them.

So I think I read it more as that in this case, and maybe it's different, because they're far away from the queen. Like, there are many light years away from the queen at this point, right? They're in hyperspace. They're not, like, near her. Maybe it's a situation where there is a goal that they're given, but not a direct control.

You know, it's a Mass Effect 2 situation. All of the collectors want to kill you. And sometimes the Harbinger assumes direct control, right? Or the, is that what's his name? What's his name? Allie. Is that right? Yes.

Okay. Yeah. That's a Harper, German, that one. Okay. I just don't think we get enough there, but I do think the fact that they talk to each other, even in Geocean, suggests to me that they're independent actors in this moment, and maybe they're being darkly comical when they say, if there's one thing that we clones know, but I think that they're right to say, I do think that that's an honest thing that that knowledge is in the clone head, and they're accessing that, right? to me the way this felt when I watched it is like in part because the impersonation is so perfect it's not like the clone is gone

it's like the clone's will is redirected to the will of the parasite but like when like the fact that the clones when those two guys are caught out when they interrupt that scene in the caveteria and the first two clones have been dealt with and the Jedi have them like pulled their lightsabors and holding them up um the fact that one of those clones we know is infected and just seamlessly like plays the act of like oh shit

i was just coming here to help and so like to an extent like the parasite knows what they know it knows what they feel and like i to me it's like the things that are expressed in this in this episode are not coming from the parasite if they're coming from the clone it's just like the inhibition is gone um as the as the as the parasite is like having them do all these tasks to allow this mass infection of, you know, of the galaxy. But, yeah, I find that, to me, like, the speed and glee with which the clones go after this Jedi, you know, while under the influence of a parasite, there's, to me, the level of satisfaction in like a job well done.

To me is like this is like this is the clones. And of course doesn't matter how the mechanic literally works because when we're talking about thematics, what we see at play here is foreshadow. Well, it's not foreshadowing. It's dramatic irony. We the viewer know that these clones, if left to live through this, will one day kill the Jedi that they're standing near when Order 66 comes through. They will once again draw weapons on Jedi and pull the trigger.

And so that future event is present in this moment And the whatever aptitudes they have at hand to do that with Actually, maybe I'm wrong Maybe this group will come out of this other side And be like, we got to make sure we're never brain controlled again I don't know if we get more pulsar and sith or I One of them is dead right one of them is dead dead Someone gets lightsabored in the gut in this episode right

But you know what I'm saying Maybe I guess I can speak specifically for these ones But the entire act is whether or not it's the queen or the worms or they are like dwarf fortress characters or you tell them what to do but then they do it autonomously you'd say like hey I need some dead Jedi and we'll figure that out don't worry about it and have their own autonomy who could say but the entire act is so clearly playing with that that future violence

that future betrayal it's good it's good and it's not the only thing and that would have already made it a great episode if the rest of this episode was just and then Asoka has to like avoid all these people and even if it you know the Barris stuff, Barris gets brainwurbed and there's like some fun Barris Asoka dual stuff even if that was

the whole episode it would be a top tier episode from what we've seen so far but we also get Anakin shit well I think the Anakin shit starts with the conversation they have in that commissary where they sort of

compare notes on their two bosses Yeah. And Asoka, one of the things I love about this is, it's this, this whole episode, the shadow of Anakin's deceit, the things he has not told people, like, this is the, like, darkness cast by him, is that it begins to implicate other people in it. Asoka, on some level, like, she has heard Anakin say things that he should not have said. And so when, like, Barris is talking to her, Asoka just sort of, like, sheepishly, like, elides exactly what he said, but she's like, Anakin has some pretty unusual ideas for what comes after. And Barris is like, well, what do you mean?

And Asoka just says, well, let me put it this way. Anika is someone who always do what he thinks needs to be done. can i read this whole can i read this whole yes because i think the whole thing is like is worth looking at so when they're sitting down at they're sitting down in the commissary and asoka goes you know thinking about what you said while they were sleeping um or trying to sleep barris says to asoka like you should really just enjoy the piece that we have right now like and Asoka's like I can't be like I can't enjoy it like all I know is war basically all I know is how to be in a fight like I can't enjoy this so they're in the the you know the kitchen now or whatever and she goes thinking about what you said earlier about enjoying the peace as a Jedi I'm not sure I know how to do that and bear's response master windew has said that we are keepers of the peace not warriors however once the war is over it will be our job to maintain the peace.

And Osoka responds, yes, but will we do so as keepers of the peace or warriors? And what's the difference? And Bear's responds, I don't have all the answers, Asoka. Like you, I'm a learner. What does your master tell you? And Asoka's like, Anakin, you might find some of his thoughts on the future a bit radical. And she's like, really why? and then he said and she says let's just say that my master will always do what needs to be done

I'm not even sure how peacetime will agree with him and there's I think there's a lot here in the beginning of like are we keepers of the peace or are we warriors are we fighters are we soldiers or are we like are we mediators are we like diplomats are we you know I don't know like liberators

and I think that is the most unclear for this generation of Jedi as like this you know given the fact that they are both paddivans around the same age seemingly

at around the same, you know, point of training, they don't know anything other than wartime. So, like, Barris is communicating kind of what the statement is, or, like, what the, like, what the, I don't know how to describe it, but, like, what the, what the message that, like, the official Jedi Council, you know, Jedi Council message is, which is we are Keepers of the Peace. That is what we are. That is our goal. And Asoka's like, yeah, those are just words, though, what we really are, our warriors. We're in battle all the time. We're fighting all the time. Like, that is our main job. And I think

that discrepancy, the fact that Barris responds with, well, what has your master told you? like, you know, what's his official stance on it or whatever? Shows that Barrett, I don't know how much Baris has her own distinct opinion on her role in the Clone Wars or her role. I mean, her role as a Jedi is the same as Luminarra's view of being a Jedi. It's you are the, you know, prototypical Jedi. That's just what it is. So it's really interesting that she can't even give her own opinion on anything. She says what Master Windu has told her.

She says what Luminara has told her. When Asoka asks her questions, she asks her back, well, what has your master told you? What have you been told to say back? and that's a really interesting dynamic as a, you know, as another Padawan. Like how many other, I guess this is the, this is what the standard Padawan would be saying, I guess. Well, and then, yeah, go ahead, Rob. Well, I would just say, like, to an extent, but like even Kit Fistos, like ex-Padawan has also like one of the things like under the surface of their

relationship is already this young this newly minted Jedi is like there are contradictions that I've identified between like what I've been told as I was marched after this war and like my experience of it and that doesn't resolve the guys killed uh in action before that can be before that can be addressed but like yeah what I dig about this scene is like Asoka This is one of the first scenes where it's like Asoka has a very broad perspective of the action of the clone wars

broader than a lot of the Jedi even because she's keenly aware of like this contradiction of like how do we go from like keeping the peace by a waging war versus just being keepers of peace in peacetime the whole thing is like she's anticipating the speech that Rambo gives the end of

first blood right where it's like you don't just switch it off and she recognizes that like this whole thing that the Jedi council is saying like well once this is over we can go back to doing like the regular Jedi shit there's an entire generation of Jedi which Asoka is going to be a member of like I've never done regular Jedi shit it's always been frontline combat and by the way I've been doing it for like a year

and already I can't sleep at night and then she's also clearly heard Anna can say things and actually internalized what they actually signify like Padme in part because this is the action that the trilogy has to have her take she has to hear him say like so proto-fascism and she's got to be like

wild oh you're so weird Asoka hears it and she's like I don't know what they're going to do with this guy after the war is over. Like, I don't know how he fits. And to be fair, this is, again, like, even if he doesn't turn Darth Vader, there is a tragedy waiting for Anakin, which is that he is good at fighting this, like,

to the death, bare knuckles war constantly. And the things that enable you to be good at that and survive that are at odds with, like, surviving and thriving in a peaceful society, you know, with other people. and Assoga can I kind of feel that coming and the Jedi just they're like we'll be able to

we'll be able to turn this around once the fighting stops she seems so not confident in Anakin's future in a really unsettling way like that she just does she has no idea

where he will land but she also knows she can't say what she's heard Oh, 100%. She knows that it's like, yeah, exactly. She knows that it's at odds with, like, not just the goal, like, Jedi goals or it's at odds with the Jedi order itself. She can see that.

And I wonder, I mean, I think it's interesting that the two, I mean, we've seen three Padawans, right? We've seen Kit Fisto's Padawan. We have Barris, and we have. Osoka, right? Well, and we've seen Anakin. I'm pretty sure. Historically.

Right. We've seen it. With Obi-O-W-O-B-W-W-W. That counts previously. Right. Yeah, it does count. It does count. But what I thought...

I guess we saw a little Obi-Wan. We saw the little Obi-Wan. That's true. Yeah. Yes. Yes. What I find really interesting is that the two the two Padawans, in Clone Wars at least,

Kit Fisto's Padawan and Asoka, who have been in, like, have very clearly been in wartime, like most of their, you know, Padawan training. Like, Kit Fisto's Padawan is talking about all these wars he's, like, all these battles he's been fighting, like, as he's, like, you know, meeting up with his master again, he's talking about, like, all of his, like, war experiences. Obviously, Luminara and Barris come off a little bit more bookish.

like Luminar is ready to go into action and is a very competent fighter, even though she doesn't calling back to Cloak of Darkness, doesn't really understand how to engage with Ventress, doesn't really understand how to engage with, you know, non-droid, like, non-predictable enemies. So there's something about the fact that, like, the two Padawan that have, like, seen that we've, meant that have seen the most war have a very individualized opinion on what's going on what their role is who they are as Jedi versus Barris who's kind of introduced as a more I mean she wasn't with Luminara when Luminara was like on the front lines last time and is kind of like given a more bookish vibe that she hasn't really developed an opinion for herself like I

I wonder if, as we meet more Padawans in the future, if that will continue to be a trend of just, like, yeah, no, being in it, like, you can't ignore the realities of, like, how, like, pointless and fucked and how we are losing this war. Whereas, you know, I don't know how long Barris has been a Padawan, how long Barris has been in wartime, like, what her, you know, training has. has been like but she definitely doesn't seem you know to be as I don't know she's not like skeptical individualized in her opinions right yeah yeah she doesn't have like uh yeah she's not gung-ho in that same way either she never speaks for her own yeah I mean but I think the point is she never speaks from her own perspective even if she was reiterating you know what she's heard before like she doesn't say it from her own voice she's she's directly referencing the masters that have told her

these specific things which is telling I think of just her perspective on the war itself like it's just it is the the official Jedi stands I guess

yeah from there the other I mean the big Anakin thing is that we get this like you know the They're in and out of communication with Asoka. At this point, Barris has been taken over.

Asoka is like, yeah, this is bad. I'm pretty sure it's brainworms. Pretty sure it's pretty sure pod people. Hey, Chief. We get that incredible pan over to Barris looking at her through, like, the map screen. And just like tilting her head a little bit. It's just, it's so fucking good. The music strike at that moment.

Also, Barris still has the force, by the way. It's not, whatever the brainworms did didn't turn off the connection to the force or make her forget how to like find the shatter point in the map screen or forget how to lightsaber fight. I was very curious if her, I was like anticipating her force choking Asoka at some point. Like there was there was like it felt like that was like waiting in or there was like a tension of that just because the fact that she could use the full. and is now has this like you know evil will inside of her like I was just waiting for that to come forward I think it's so good that it sets that up I'm with you that tension is there and then instead who do we get force choking someone Anakin fucking Skywalker what marching down the hallway towards pago the lesser cell as the imperial march plays for the first time in this show

it played very briefly in the Clone Wars movie this is the first in the show itself that deployment of the Imperial March of Darth Vader's theme as he walks towards Paolo the lesser and you're just like oh this is about to break bad it's about to go

he goes in there he tries to do a little bit he doesn't even try to do the force like the tell me he doesn't even attempt it because Paolo's like that she don't work on Genotions you know that and Anakin says who said anything about

about using the force, right? Or who said anything about Jedi Mind Tricks, basically? And just immediately starts to choke him to death. When the translator droid tries to be like, hey, wait a second, Anakin pushes him aside

and then begins to lift Poggle up in the sky with the classic Darth Vader force choke. It's fucking wild. It's wild. He wants to know how to defeat these worms. It's a good question A scow on his face Yeah, great question

Important question So Turns out the cold Well that's thing like Yeah that was such a like What? That's it? You just got to

Chill them out They're from a desert planet Sure Chill them out It's always something like that right It's always cold It's always water Whatever

Yeah What is its element weekness. So, torture works. Yeah. And Anakin gets the critical piece of information that he has only five minutes to get. And this is, like, again, we're talking about, like, Anakin drawing fucked up lessons. Yeah.

Everyone around him is always like, let's underreact. Let's, let's see how things play out, et cetera. And Anakin's like, no, my spider sense is saying this is urgent. and like I just got a bad feeling and I will do whatever it takes like now that my people are in danger like there is nothing that will stop me from doing what I think

needs to be done and yeah here we see like his heroism and his monstrousness are like side by side they're joined at the hip he saves the day

and further dams himself and the other thing is this again it is a thing that Anakin has done the clearly dark side shed that like vanishes like a stone sunken a pond where it just like

didn't happen just he doesn't acknowledge it nobody else needs to know that like where this isn't hey wait how did you get that information and and he's like I talked to him yeah I interrogated him

don't worry about where it's fine he gave me the info Asoka um like snaps awake with a gas and she's terrified and her first image is of Anakin sitting by her

bad. I love that beat because it's like on the one hand immediately reassures her and everything, but like on a subconscious level, is she already terrified of this man? Is she? Dude, the end of the very, like, not that you're going to hurt ourselves, but the end of this episode rules. I mean, we can just, we can just set this up because we've already gone a long time here. The rest of this episode is she freezes them out. She learns, you got to knock out the temperature, so she turns the temperature and the ship down. Yeah, this is all great. The fight in the vents, uh, the, the, the callback sneakers with a radio message while she's in the air dock and immediately, like, immediately, like, draws attention. The comment of the third man with the fingers going up through the grading.

It's all works. And then the final fight with Barris, where Barris is like, kill me. And Asoka refuses to do that, just like, you know, like, just like Anakin would. And instead punches her, and then we don't see the cut. We don't see her cut the worm. You can kind of guess, okay, but she just cut the worm. The show wants you to think about it, though. The show cuts away.

It is like... It does. It does. You're right. You're right. But they're together and they're safe and they're cold. And then she wakes up. And Anakin gives this long speech because she's like, I couldn't do it.

I couldn't kill her when she told me to kill her. And Anakin gives this long speech about how being a Jedi means, you know, you're trying to save people's lives. And when she said that, she was trying to save the lives of other people to, like, justify her saying that in some ways. And you were also trying to save people. And what it means to be, you know, a Jedi to have this duty is to try to save as many people as you can. And in the end, you know, to do the thing that you believe is right. You knew something she didn't know. You knew about the worm that you could freeze these worms.

She didn't know that. You know, it's important to like over attachments. but, you know, at the end of the day, you got to follow your gut kid or something like that. And then the episode is like her being like, okay, and then she turns over in her bed and looks out the window and an imperial fucking star destroyer is there because that's what the Republic has. And then two shuttles that look like the imperial shuttles go to land on it. And that's the end of the episode. And it is so potent with like, it's so filled with the energy of the future ready to come, ready to just like just devour the present. It's so good. Follone. Follone's read on this thing completely blew me away because he was like,

I think it's a pretty scary episode. And after all that intensity, it's important for Anakin to have a big sit down with Asoka and just talk through it. I mean, what you're supposed to do when a young person's been traumatized, and you know, that's a lot for her to go through. Kids need to see that. Yes, there are scary things out there. Yes, there are things that are going to challenge you, be it friendships, difficult situations. But you have your friends, your mentors, your parents. In this case, Anakin is there to guide her through it, to give her a sense of peace, a sense of comfort. And that scene at the end of it is one of my favorites. It makes the whole series of episodes of Geonosis sort of come to a close. I think all of that is very important.

I wouldn't do that episode if we couldn't do that scene because it cannot be just about the scary parasite infecting the clones. It cannot be about that. It has to be out to experience, the ordeal. And importantly, the outcome. In the end, through great darkness, great light can prevail. you should watch the show you base is this is this is is but is he saying that like saying like that's that's the PR statement but but that's the PR statement he had to make so that he could make this fucked up ending maybe I get what you're saying because we've had we've talked before about how it's a kid show and cartoon network has said you need a lesson in there it has to be about kids it has to be a blah blah blah blah but he said it with his chest if I sent you the video he says it like he believes it in that way and I get it I get what he's saying that, like, you can't end that episode with her waking up and looking out the window and that's it. Like, it's, I get that as a... At the most superficial level. Totally.

If what he's saying is... This is what he's saying. Right. If there's another version of saying this is, which gets rid of most of those words and is, it's important to make kids media that engages with dark and troubling themes and then helps unpack them for, for young viewers, I'm with you. But I don't, I really don't take through great darkness, great light can prevail out of the episode where your hero tortured a guy. And you got a, and you got a foreshadowing of the clones eventually betraying and killing all of the Jedi. They were the ones that like put in Darth Vader. That's right.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly. That's not me reading into it. You never did that before in your show. The first time you do it.

And at the end, you're going to be like, great light can prevail. Like, I know that's what dark. eventually, you know, but that's not, come on. Come on, Faloni, we see through your shit. I think Natalie, I think you're right. I think he was like, I'm going to talk about the torture episode? Okay. I just circled the last time, so I had to really try for this one at least.

God. Yeah, he already spent his circle, his circle card. So now he's going to talk about fucking. He was going to talk about, we all love. when a child is met by their dark mentor and lied to about the things they should take away from the

because it's nothing, it's empty. I think the advice Anakin gives is good. I don't, but go ahead. Give me your case. Maybe you'll bring me over. No, I mean, I think I think with Rob. I think Anakin is correct to say

like it was a judgment call. It was a hard one. It was a dangerous one. It worked out. again my position throughout all of this tends to be like if like it's one of those things where it's kind of outcome dependent like probably the smart play playing the odds the safe play would have been to just kill barris but it worked out barris is alive she saved barris um even though that's not what barris wanted um and like i think what aniken says here is

like it was a difficult decision it was made you know it was made in the moment and i think now that barris is alive she would probably be glad that you made that decision I think all of that I think all of that holds up I think for me the thing like Anakin is so touched by darkness that now he can't even give any like it's not really his answer anymore like this is what Anakin it's like kind of this is what the character I play around other Jedi would say but then actual Anakin is out there torture people like actual Anakin is like whatever it takes to protect people around you like cross any line, fuck their will, like, you know, the hell of everything. Do whatever you need to do.

Yeah, I think that's what he's saying through like, you know, vaguenies at the end, like his last sentence, letting go of our attachments is a difficult struggle for all of us. You followed your instincts. Like, she, I'm sure she would agree with you that you made the right choice. Like, he's delivering the, the Jedi official stance, letting go of our attachments is difficult. But then he's validating her choice by saying you followed your instincts. I think, I mean, Austin, as you were describing, you know, what happened between Berris and, and Asoka, Asoka had information that Barris didn't have. Asoka knew that if given enough time, this worm was going to die eventually.

Maybe they would all dive hypothermia together, but given enough time, she wouldn't have to be the one to pull the blade on Barris, because the worm was going to die. My question is, why, when the worm was flying out of her mouth, wouldn't you just yoink that shit out? Yeah. Just yonke it. The Padawan don't seem so good at it. Like, there are not a few times where I'm like,

I would have just force pulled that shit. And it seems like very few of the Jedi are confident enough to just be like, I'm going to grab it. It's a little worm like that. You lose it for a second? Because, like, what if he just goes into a warm place in the ship? That ship's all his engines. There are parts of that ship that are still warm.

What do you pull it too hard? You hit in the face with the worm and out of the worm. And you don't know what's going to happen to the brain from the, like, detachment. Grab it, squish it. You're way too confident, but you're on some, I could fight a wolf shit right now. I couldn't fight a brain worm. You don't know that. No, Anakin literally just stepped on one.

Anakin is a 22-year-old killer. Anakin torture someone cold-blooded. this episode. Maybe I don't know you that well. Shit. Maybe I'm assuming some things. It's a, it's a, it's a worm. Just.

What's last time you, what's the last? It's a worm in someone's brain. Yeah, it's a worm that's like a foot and a half big, one. And that has psychic powers, apparently. Has mental control powers. I'm not saying I wouldn't have tried it, though. That's the thing. Like nobody, there were a few times where I'm like, I would just try to yonk some things.

Like when the, when the clones were like burst in with the guns, I'd be like, I'm taking those guns. I mean, when they were coming at her with the egg. I'd have crushed that egg with my force power. It'd have been like, nice egg you got there. Squish. You wouldn't have been terrified as the people you trust to protect you have suddenly turned on you and are pointing their guns at you. Because the thing would have happened there was they would have shot her and she would have died.

She'd already been disarmed at that point. More importantly, all of this actually speaks to my beef with the Anakin advice, which is, and she says it. She says it up top. It's like, I could have done this and it could have broken bad. like this we this happened to work out this way how do I sit with this knowing that it was in some some instances luck that it worked out in the timing that it did because also I think we didn't mention for people who didn't actually watch the episode or just listening to us there's also a back final third of this episode C plot where the ship is is hurtling towards the medical station

and tug ships are trying to like keep it in place so like maybe they don't do a good job and it crashes into the ship who knows like there's all these other factors and the thing that bugs me about Anakin's advice is he could give word for word the same advice if she had killed Barris. There is no different advice that he would have offered if she had killed her instead. He would have even ended with the same line about attachments. And at that point, it's not actionable advice. It's an attempt to quiet someone who is at who is in a moment of unease. Or at the very least, it's just bad advice because it's not something I can move forward. I can inform my future decisions by except to say, well, as long as I'm going with my gut, Anakin will be happy with

me. As long as I tell him, that's what I felt at the time, master, then I'll get approval from him. But it isn't, and I'm not saying that the Luminar method of like, presumably quoting from the Jedi Code to say these are the three good ways to be a person is necessarily better. But what is so frustrating about this is that it, in some ways, it isn't advice, and it is, it is just more of calming. And maybe that's his role. Maybe a good mentor needs to know when to shut the fuck up and not give actionable advice and instead be like, hey, you just went through it. I'm going to say what you need to like work through this trauma right now. And I get that, but I also want to then be able to say that that's what he's doing.

And what he's doing is not giving her something that will inform who she is in a better way if this happened again next week, you know? Right, but that's like an interesting point, especially with the point that Rob was making before because like I don't feel like what he's saying is at a juxtaposition with what like the darkness inside of him or whatever like because you know in his life when he has these moments where he makes the bad call he gets positive reinforcement like he doesn't have any consequences that come from us he saves the day at the end of the day so like this episode right literally he tortures a guy and then it works out in the end uh-huh he got the information that he wanted and he saves his

padamon and okay torture people now great so like i think there's a part of it that like believes what he's saying to to um asoka here which is like yeah just you know do what you want to do it'll probably work out because that's the way it's worked for him yeah yeah that is my that is again so when i say it's not good advice that is kind of what i mean is it's very anakin it's aniken you know um i also think that's the job though of the jen i think this is the other part of it like what like I think to a degree you could do like after action reviews with like a board of Jedi like sometimes we see the Jedi Council there's implied there are like conduct reviews of like how like what were you thinking what did you do let's talk through your reasoning that seems like there's space for that but I also think sometimes the job of the Jedi is just you were in a tough spot you made a call it worked out it was a fine call sometimes you just had like better that you made it than that you had like that you hesitated like I think this is the weird thing is sometimes all you can do with somebody in that position is be like

kind of a comforting presence I think this is kind of the one of the issues of the Jedi is they're put in so many situations where it's like I don't know what I'm supposed to do I've never seen I've never dealt with fucking brain worms in my friend's brain before and like how do like how do you process that well maybe later you do you do it more thorough review but in the moment i think unfortunately a lot of times there's not great advice you can give except to kind of affirm like you did good and like you should trust yourself i mean how different really is is you followed your instincts from like you followed the force the the will of the force like i mean in in the world of star wars unfortunately it is literally different

because the force exists genuinely in the world of Star Wars. But the Force moves through you. That's true. That's true. Like, yeah, but when Anakin talks about instincts, I guess I sort of read it as

he's talking about that like your attunement to the will of the force. Because like when he's like, you know, locked in, you know, fighter jet mode or whatever dropping you know whatever like that's just fall that's that's the force moving through that that's that's turn off your targeting computer right yeah yeah that's that's

I think what we're seeing the ways in which there are limits to the ways in which we can talk about the force in that way because is the force also what compels him to force choke people Is the force what compels him? Is it his instinct to push Padmae away on Mustafa, right? Is that something else? Where do we draw that line? The force did want to balance it. Right.

Yes, it sure did. Was it the force in the Eric Andre, was it girl power when? Was the force moving through you when you eradicated the younglings at the Jedi Temple? Yes, I guess. And that's where it's like a zero-something thing at that point. Like, it's hard for, it's hard. Yeah. And I, I guess I've come around on the idea that, like, his job in this moment is to comfort her not to.

It's the thing, here's the actual, here's the tension that I think I'm getting at. This is why this is abrasive to me. It's he is not comforting her. He is justifying himself. He's rationalizing when he says, oh, yeah, it's hard to get over your attachments. But you just do what you think is right in the name of duty. He is rationalizing how he choked a man two hours ago, using the, the force, like not even using his hand.

He didn't even punch the dude. He used what is like a holy connection to all that there is to lift a man eight feet in the air and close his windpipe on him. And like a military leader who had been through some ship before who other Jedi had interrogated to fail, you know, to a failure state. So like, I think part of why this sits so poorly with me is that I can't read it as an honest. There's a there's a there's a there's two actions happening at once and one of them is deeply self-serving because he can deliver that that in delivering that sort of um that comfort

he is also washing his own hands of what he did to get here. Um and that is where I think my discomfort with it comes from comes from excuse me comes from. And it's patently supposed to be the yes I think you're right. The fact that Asoka is afraid at the start of the scene and not really comforted at the end of it like it's that Anakin can't connect on that level anymore like he is too touched by darkness and Assoca is starting to like

pick up on it I do we're only in season two I know there's so much left there's so much left yeah like that's I know we see Barris again which is wild I'm excited for future Barris episodes

that fucks me up thinking that like Anakin is too touched by darkness Anakin and Asoka are like just get I mean you know presumably they've been together for a few several months now I don't really know the timeline at this point but like their arc is really just getting started and the fact that like Anakin is already harboring like

the darkness just we have so much more to go through how does that accelerate like how does that continue to get to Reven to the Sith, Anakin. I think this is part of like, everyone around Anakin ends up holding some piece of confidence about his transgressions. Hadmay is sitting on the knowledge that he massacred, you know, that village on Tatooine. Obi-Wan knows a lot and he knows what questions not to ask, so he never has to address what he knows, like, Annaissance. is up to, right? Like, he basically knows Anakin is carrying on this relationship

in contravention of orders, but because he's never put the question to him, he can look the other way. Asoka knows that Anakin gives voice to, like, outright fascist thoughts and is increasingly, like, somebody who is clearly maladapted.

But can't speak honestly about that because it feels like it's betraying Anakin's confidence. I think this is the thing I love about this stage we're in of, like, every relationship Anakin has they're not bad yet

they're still very close they're good relationships they're fun to sort of sit in on and like and sort of watch unfold but all of them is a little

poisoned right now just because of who Anakin is and the way his transgressions force everyone into some role of covering for him

yeah good episode good episode good art Art. Great arc. Yeah. Really gets there.

I think it's funny to think all this starts with a bad love connection, a bad return, a bad meet-up between Padmae and Gray, whatever. I do have one other small nitpick about that last conversation. And we spoke about Obi-Wan and Anakin not being like, hey, there were zombies down there. People should know that. this is a bit of a shipwose nitpick but why wasn't he like no you shouldn't have killed her those fucking worms work when they're dead that would have been a bad idea good call yeah it wouldn't have worked if he killed her the worms are just reanimated her body

he was thinking that the whole time i was like what the fuck you're not wrong literally that that that yeah he knows that he knows it he should have been like asoka don't worry about it three days ago on Geonosis we went through this they'll just reanimate the body as weird zombies you did the right thing nailed it my actual nitpick with that scene

is the huge grin on Kit Fisto's face in the general demeanor as he walks in the room and is like oh everyone's having a good day no motherfucker we are not having a good day it's such a weird tone shift it's like it's so bizarre

It makes nice thing. Also, how did, how did, like, was Barris, was it just like the strength of her will that she could, like, speak beyond the worm and say, kill me? I think so. I think that's like, I'm a well-trained super force warrior, probably pushed through that shit. No offense to the clones. Also, again, the clones fundamentally are thesis. They want to kill the Jedi. in there, or I think deep down in there,

Barris does not want to kill her friend Asoka. Yeah, that is true. That is true. God, I want the debris in these clothes. I feel like that's a huge plot hole, Allie. Why? Like, what the fuck? If she would have killed her,

it probably would have been worse. Yeah. Arguably. Yeah, they would have just put the corpse in the medical, in the morgue, or the morgue on the medical ship, and then would have brought all those motherfuckers to life. Done. I don't know where worm eggs come from, but that would have happened. Another annoying bit of that, I'm sorry that I'm being this person, but

like, when Kit Fisto comes onto the ship and he, like, doesn't even have a helmet on, he's like, we got to be careful there. There's worms. Like, bro, like, you're not going to wear a helmet. Put on a helmet. Put it on a mask. Cover the ears and the, just cover it on. Mask up. Cover your holes. Kit Fisto, cover your holes.

Lack of preparation is going to, you know, continue to dog, uh, Kit Fisto. and yeah he lives as he'll die a little bit heedless but yeah I think that does it for this week's episode Patreon backers will get a Q&A episode next week covering this entire arc and then the next regular episode we'll see us returning to slightly more standard like adventure of the week stuff there's some good ones in there. There's some interesting ideas I want to get into. Do you like do you like doing

mysteries on Corrassant? We got you covered. Do you like knowing what happens when clones start to wonder if there could be a different life out there for them? We're going to get into that too. I'll fucking wait for that one. Yeah, so look forward

to that. Until then, if you've been enjoying the show, please rate and review us on the podcast platform of your choice. Check us out on Patreon at at patreon.com slash civilized and remember killing someone

infected with a brainworm isn't going to help the situation that will just come back as a creepy zombie and it will be works for everyone but most of all you because imagine having that in your head the rest of your life

see that's the advice I wanted anakin that's all that would have been a slam dunk Anakin you wouldn't even had to go into the torture bed unfortunately Anakin secretly

yeah like the clothes Yeah, like the clones, he secretly enjoys. He's looking for the subway. Yes, exactly. Oh, finally. No one's around. We're going to be. I'm going to be.

I don't know. Thank you. Thank you. Oh!