A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 23: Corruption & The Academy (Clone Wars 49 - 50)

Episode Date: November 3, 2021

I will not lie to you, friends. On paper, this is a hell of an arc. A return to Mandalore, now starving because of Separatist pressure and Republic failure? Duchess Satine and Senator Amidala as confidants and heroines? Ahsoka, sent to ferret out a secretive black market? How could anyone possibly be left unsatisfied?  Well...  NEXT TIME: Episodes 51 - 53 ("Assassin," "Evil Plans," and "Hunt for Ziro") Show Notes Clone Deaths: None, for once? Tummy Aches: Many. 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 Zakney, joined by Ali Akampora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. Even when the good guys win in the Clone Wars, their people often lose. That's the case on Mandelor, as we check back in on Duchess Sotene's policy of vigilant neutrality in a time of galactic civil war, and find a planet in the throes of economic depression, chronic shortages, and deepening corruption that's rotting at the foundation of Mandalorian government. We open with the season's fifth episode, Corruption, as Padme visits her new best friend to try and help her come to grips with the strife,

racking her own government. But the cabinet politics swiftly fade into the background as a profiteering racket, selling tainted, adulterated food to schools, causes a case of mass poisonings. team and Padme roll up their sleeves and get to the detecting as they ferret out

the chain of corrupt and complacent officials that leads back to a smuggling operation and a bloody shootout royale on the wharves of Mandelor. Gang, what do we think of corruption?

Well, not what do we think of corruption is a concept, but this episode. I think corruption is bad. Damn. Both of them. Oh, no. The real life thing

and this episode. I mean, let me, I just, it's, it's fine, like, it's fine. I, for so long during this episode, I was trying to find the thread that connected this, like, tea, ty, children's tea diluting subplot and the whole, like, ah, we really need to find the root of corruption and weed it out of, you know, politics. politics and so it took me like I was like okay how are we how are we gonna bring these two things together and it's like the most like heavy-handed just like let's connect them and I didn't really like that you know this is this was the most law and order episode we've watched so far

this like beat for I left it and I was like wait a second this was a law and order episode like down to, like, yeah, down to the ways in which the, you have this, like, rotating cast of, or not rotating cast, but you have just this cast of, like, local, you know, officials who are part of the various, like, tiers of a thing, like, down to the drug who fucking up all of the kids, like, I desperately wished iced tea was here to call it something very goofy, you know what I mean? Yeah. Wait, they got this new tea. T to children To children? Yeah, that's the plot.

That's the plot of it. Exactly. I wanted this episode to be good so bad. I was so excited to see Satin. I was so excited to see Padman and Satin. I wanted them. There's one moment where Satine is like,

Obi-Wan said da-da-da, and I was like, please keep talking about the Jedi you know. Please bring up that rel- Obviously, I should say, I don't want them only to talk about the boys in their life. But they both have a certain experience,

And it would be sick to see them get to talk about it for even a second. Yeah. Like, if that, if that, they're so close. They're so close to just like unraveling the chaos underneath of like what it means to have relationships with these two specific people. Right. And like there's so much. Juice in there.

I just want, I would love for Satin to say to Padmei, you know, Obi-Wan and I used to have a thing. And for Padme to be like, Word? Oh, my God. You have no idea. Yeah. But I don't even need her to say that.

That's the thing. I don't even need her to do the connect back. I need it to, like, be rolling around in Padmae's head that I don't even mind it if she then comes to the state that she's like, I can't talk about my shit because Satine decided, Satine and Obi-Wan did the mature thing. And we did the, you know what I mean? Like, I want her to at least, I want her to be put in relation to that and, and, and, but that just doesn't happen in these episodes.

That's just not what's happening here. No. I will say, again, I think that there's some interesting stuff off the jump for figuring out what's going on in the Republic from the, like, the intro text. Desperate Times are Mandelor, having one neutrality for the Mandalorian system, we know this. Duchess Sateen now finds herself an outsider with very little to aid, a very little aid to her people. Supplies are hard to come by, except on the black market, et cetera. and as a result, people are kind of giving up hope in the Republic. And there's this incredible opening conversation when Padmae first gets there.

She's received by Satin. And the highlights for me in this are when Satine and Padme are at odds with each other. And Padmey doesn't even understand that they're at odds with each other because she's so naive. Because this episode does a thing where like Satin, who used to be our idealistic politician, has now been rendered the kind of mature cynic in relation to Padme's, you know, youthful exuberance and, frankly, like, blindness to the state of the situation. And so Satin says, thank you for coming, Padmei. I know our decision to stay neutral has caused distress in the Senate, but for many here,

the fallout from your war has been too much. And Padmae says, if your government has trade concerns, we can talk. Many systems have been affected. I assure you not everyone in the Republic has neglected Mandelor. And which is fucked up to say, when someone is like, oh, my people are starving, for you to be like, not everyone here's neglected you. She might, not everyone here's forgotten you, I get. But neglected is like, no, you have. You have neglected us. You haven't done anything for us. Neglect is a state of being, not a state of intent. You know, you thinking about sending thoughts and prayers is neglect, if that's all you're doing. And there are those of us who would still vote to give you any help you require. We vote for you, baby. Uh, Sotin says, uh, the help we need right now is opening trade routes so we can get supplies more freely. And Padmey says, we're making progress in the Senate. And Satine's like, forgive me, Padme. I did not bring you here to discuss politics, which is a lie.

It's just like, I can't deal with you right now. I can't do this. I can't do this bit. Like, I can't, I can't pretend to do this, this entire interaction. Like, we both are just like, like, like chatting, politicking, like, not. not even like totally ineffectual like meaningless language that Padma this is Padma's like she's had she has this rehearsed at this point like how many times have we landed on a planet with Padmay or has Padmae walked up to someone and been like listen there are those of us in the Senate that support you she's always saying this she said this is the last arc to to what's her name people what's her name from From the moon, from the ice moon. Oh, yes.

Chucci. Choochee, yes. Choochee, she said the exact same thing to her. She's like, she says this all the time. Well, it, this is the most, I feel like we've, we got to handle on Padme now as a senator and like what, like, she's someone who has pet causes and who has like, there's a very particular image, I think, between those episodes that we get of who Padme is. Yes. And exactly how ineffectual she is. which might not even be her fault.

The Senate's big, and, like, it seems like she's a handful of allies. It's, it's, yeah, it's the constant maintaining of the position of, we are, you know, we are trying. We are doing our best. Like, we haven't forgotten you. And I love that Satina's like, none of that matter. Like, none of that is material. None of that matters. Like, what I need you to do.

Like, I don't even know, like, not I don't know what, but whatever votes you might be doing, might not even be towards the opening of trade routes so that Mandelaar can get supplies more freely. Like, it may be completely, you know, just, it could be on completely different policies that have nothing to do with this particular need. And I love, yeah, I love that it, that Satine and Padme here and in a couple other points in the episode are like talking at different, from different places and at different levels. And where Padme is, like, in this, like, you know, abstract, like, capital C change. Sotene is like, no, no, no. Like, there is, like, a real thing that, like, a real document that needs a signature that that just needs to happen so that we can not be starving here.

Well, I think Padme is an institutionalist. I think that one of the dangers of being an institutionalist in the way that she is and kind of an idealist about pseudo-democratic governance is that because you are convinced that in time your system will redress all these issues, it's a bit like, you know a phenomenon where like it can be dangerous to write down a to-do list because the mere act of writing it down triggers some of like the dopamine hit of like having actually tackled something. I think something similar like that happens with the political worldview where if we maintain the system, eventually we will get to this and we will solve your problems. Ergo, these people should just trust that the system will solve their problems. And then it will be good. We will take care of them. And this is kind of the argument, you know, we're not all neglecting you. We're taking votes.

Right. But the issue is, if it takes you 10, 15 years to address the issue, that's some people's lifetime. That's a generation, yeah, exactly. And so you didn't take care of it. You failed a generation people are here right now who needed you to suit up, and you're not doing it. We don't need a committee. We need action, right? There's also a bit of, the tenor of this conversation is also weird because Sotene kind of springs a Roman triumph on Padmay.

She was like, I just wanted to meet you in form. at the docks uh you know not a whole mandolarian greeting type of thing and then they turn in the corner and it's you know the triumph the confetti raining down the people like lining the rooftops and windows cheering and oh my god we cut from that to allie had allie did you have a thought on this thing well it just like that scene fucks me up so much because for all of like padmay's naivety and like showboating when she comes onto the scene like a literal parade who we know is made up of people who are starving. Like, I don't know how you organize these people to come down to the street

to cheer from having if they're not getting food. But they're there. And, like, Sotene being like, oh, yeah, well, we're a nation of tradition. Like, what are you talking about? Didn't you get rid of all of those traditions? Like, what is happening here? And she's also like, this is the new mandolour, a nation of tradition. Like, what are you fucking talking about?

Nothing says the new mandolour, like a Trump. procession of political elites down Main Street all the peasants cheer and scatterflowers in your path. Not for nothing, but Padmey's a senator from a tiny planet far away. She ain't even the queen anymore.

I'm not saying we should defer to queens, but queens bring parades with, you know what I mean? People like queens because that's how people are in the world. They got cool outfits and whatnot. Padmae is just a person. She's one vote in the

Senate. There are a thousand other Senate. There are a thousand other Padmaids. They all are going to get parades? No. You're going to parade because you're friends with Duchess Sateen. That's why you get a friend. If you're, that's why you're going to parade. If you're a friend of Duchess Sateen, you get a parade on Mandelor. Who doesn't seem to have that much pull on the planet? No, also, yeah.

It's not like people love Duchess Sotene. Like. Well, we get a glimpse of while this parade is happening, we see a bunch of goat dude not goat dudes snake dudes snake dudes

they have a name they have a name they are um uh mugens yum a word that feels

like a like a slur to me when I say it a little bit it it sounds specifically like

an Italian slur against black people it doesn't it's not actually but if you get rid the G and replace it

with an LI you get moulians which is what Italian people have called me before and Mugan is just like right

It's not the same But it's right there And also They are snake people wearing pharaoh outfits Why did the children Poisoners have to be literal snake people

Literal snake people That look like North Africans and Arabs And also their middlemen Who will meet his name But what I What I just realized

is they're not the middlemen. No, they're not. Sadiq is the middleman, middleman. Right. Mugans are, like, their main, the Muga main export is this tea. Like, what they make is children's tea. That's like what Muga. Right.

But then they're stepping on it. Right. Slavin. Which that, I don't like, that, I don't know. It's baking soda. They're out here, like, it's a push-a-tee track. They got the Pyrex up. I just didn't say this out loud before we get to the nitty gritty of this episode

you can't cut tea with the water just cut with water I don't want to pull it apart too far but like what is happening here well this is the thing that's so confusing I thought they were I thought that they all right so with spaceship lands snake people get out dressed like pharaoh has little feeties and it looks fucking cool as it does which is the bad which is also the one that was sort of like a like a squished mask in a squishing helmet?

Yeah, it's a cool one. I like that. I like it. They bribed the dude. Corruption Act number one, right? Dude is like, wait a second. Your papers, da, blah, or whatever. And they're like, oh, yeah, let's dealt with. Here's some credit chips. Some, here's, like a bunch of little tiny gold bars, gold and silver bars. And he's like, oh, yeah, sorry, that'll be taken care of next time.

Come right in. And then, yeah. So in my mind, they were moving tea, like. tea leaves. But I think it's like they're moving snapple. Yeah, because it comes off of the ship in bottles.

Yeah. And then they have to poison it on plant. Like, would you do that? I don't. This is any gritty. Yeah, why are they doing this at the port? Oh, that tells me that on Muga, the planet they're from, that place has good regulations. You can't fuck with the cheese there. They take pride in their tea.

so they're shipping tea in poison separately and then being like we'll mix it here but in the same bottle I guess in the same bottles but also is the is the way that they make like I'm looking at the process by which they dilute this stuff yeah what's up it's not like it's I guess they're adding some like the when the things goes when you're diluting stuff you get more liquid yeah it doesn't I don't that's what the dilution is I don't really get the vibe that we're getting more like like it's like this thing and it dissolves but it's not like you see the the water line the T line go up like an inch or two it just it's very I don't know it doesn't I don't know about this

diluting agent. I don't know how this thing works. Regardless, they should have just made it drugs. They should have just made drugs. Like medicine. Like, yeah. Tea, it doesn't really make sense. Also, they've got a whole big, weird poisoning contraption in their public storage unit in the shipping container.

It's like a crypto farm in a, you know what I mean? Yeah. With that crap scientist is like, oh, I don't know about all this slaving. They're like, it's to make you the tea good. What was he there for if not to do that? Right. He's like, so, what are we doing today? It's like you have the poison making machine in the fucking, in the pot.

When he woke up that morning, did he think he was just going to like move the tea from a bottle back into a bottle and nothing was going to happen? Like, why did he get brought in? Yeah, he's already been setting up the tea. The tea's already in the vats. There's like mad tea in the vats. So he already did like the pre-call of the day, like setting up the whole system. And then, I don't know, maybe there's like some last step and it's like a very unstable agent. Or I don't know, like it's like a, you know, it's very perishable or something.

So like the last step of making this kid's tea is that you got to add the. the non-preservative sugar or whatever. And you can only do that at the last second. Like, maybe, like, but otherwise, this whole operation seems like everyone just was told to meet up here on this day and do this thing. And then they were going to do crime. It's a very Saturday morning cartoon vision of corruption, for sure. In the meantime, Padme is sitting in on Satin's ruling council meeting as they're trying

to figure out what to do about the shortages and the deepening corruption in the system. The meeting is not going well, and Padme is like, hey, mind if I get in there and take a little swing at this? And Soutine's like, go right ahead. And Mighty Casey steps up to bat and completely whits. It turns out that the council did not just need a stern talking to. Weird. But then Satine, maybe I'll be sure. Is that the exchange where Padme is like, we just need to do this the right way. And I understand your people are starving, but you can't go to the black market. We have to do it the right way. The black market is no substitute for legitimate and legal trade. And then that dude immediately is like, you are a hypocrite. The republic's own dealings of the black market far surpassed mandolores. And hits Padma like news. You know what I mean?

Like, wait, where'd you hear that? Yeah, what? What? What? Damn. She's so much. She does, in a sense, she does unify everybody in the room. Because, fuck you.

And then we do get the line, is that from the prime minister who says the corporate alliance controls everything? Oh, was that Almec? I think it might be. He's in that room hanging out. Yeah. Which is interesting, given where this next episode goes. I wonder if that's the thing he truly believes.

So, I think we also got a little glimpse of the limits of Sotene as politician as well, who in the face of all this is like, fuck, I can't deal with any of you. I'm just going to, I guess I'm going to have to do more of this myself. and so there's a degree of there's a put upon quality to Satin that I think in this next stage she almost relishes the fact that she's going to get stuck into a problem she can solve because it's manageable

it's a place where like you can do something but this whole like planetary wide thing she doesn't have any real ideas she's like sure would be nice if supply lines opened up but since that's not happening I guess I'm just going to like be pissed at my management team But to cheer herself up and impress Padmae, she's going to show Padmae, one of the crown jewels of Mandelor, the hospital, tomorrow.

Yeah, they make that decision over dinner, and I need to know what people think of Padmae's new haircut. This is a new haircut for her, right? Serving. The two looks, the two dinner looks is, I wrote, shout out to women. I love that they're wearing their best outfits for each other. Heather. Yeah. So Tene has the little

like Firefly hair situation. Like the dragonfly wing? Uh-huh. Oh, it's sick. It's so good.

And Padmey has her like little bob cut with the yellow. It's so good. Like the high collar. There is a hair style continuity error because she goes from

she goes from wearing that little bob to uh. Oh, her vest. Look. Then she goes to her vest look, and then she goes immediately back to her Bob when she's talking to Almec, and then back to, and then back to, like, vest to look. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe, you know what I mean? Maybe it's just, she has, I would believe it. Yeah. She spent all the time as a queen, and I feel like you probably get a lot of wig situations going on as a queen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Otherwise, the styling time becomes too much. Yeah. I mean, you just, you, you know, you put the wig cap on in the morning and then you can just swap. Yep. When you got to go to the children's hospital where everyone's dead or whatever, you got to go to the ponytail look, your action, your action wig. Yeah. And then you're back in the state function and you've got to go back to the smart bob. So there's tons of kids stricken with bad tummy troubles at the children's hospital.

They're dying of a horrific sickness in which people go, ow. It's just it's real gruesome in the hospital and they reached the conclusion that something something poisoned these kids and so but in the very last moment of this dinner I did not realize where the poison was going to in the very last moment of this dinner they toast and their drinks have the exact same red color as the Slavin And then nothing happens with that I did not even notice this I'm a fool It's just to get you on the edge To put you at the edge of your seat It really kept me on my toes

The whole episode I was waiting for Padma to like run to the bathroom Oh they got me with the slave in Women be shitting That's true Women be having IBS At the end of the episode Satin turns that customs officer

and it's like, I got to blow this thing up with the wars. But it was just an interesting choice, I guess, to do that. It's just a little fun, little fun fun. I'm a gag just for you.

Thanks, Clone Wars. Thanks, Follone. One of the things not in the Faloni zone, but in the trivia thing about this dinner was that a lot of their food is cut into cubes because, And Delora loves cubism.

That's the quality of trivia you get at Star Wars.com. Happy to know it. Yep. Anyway, what else is going on? What else is pop? They go to the hospital. Kids are sick. Kids are sick.

We got to have an emergency crisis meeting. Yeah, Satine is like, I know that they're investigating the food at the school and that the doctors are looking into it. but I'm going to get a private military together to go question teachers. She invents a secret police out of the blue. You know what personal bodyguards need to be? A network of informers and police answerable only to myself. Uh-huh. It's so funny because the literal thing that happens is Padmey says,

well, we can't just sit here and do nothing. And Satin says, my thoughts exactly. And then it does the dial transition cut. clock switch, and it's them founding the CIA. Like, we can't do nothing. Let's create the secret police. And it's so funny. It's so incredible.

Well, but you don't see. Let's be clear. They do not have jurisdiction, presumably, over the plant. They're ceremonial guards. I bet they know karate. You know what I mean? They got a walkie that they can call. someone else to come.

They know fabric care and leather maintenance better than anything else that is the problem. And now they're going to be like, we're going to get to the bottom of this poisoning situation. But you understand, like, it's also interesting, you can see how Satina ends up here because her legitimate authorities can't take their eyes off Death Watch.

She tries to tell her counsel, like, hey, we need to look at, like, the food supply. And Almec is in there being like, it's probably Death Watch. It's got to be Death Watch, which totally tracks with like, I mean, that's war on terror era politics where it's like we have a problem it's probably terrorism right no it might be something completely else that's systemic well we're only set up to for the terrorism so we're

gonna we're gonna check out the terror angle um so you understand you understand how like satin ends up with like maybe a secret police force would be good and the short term maybe it would uh but you can see where like one decision is going to compound into further ones uh anyway They do start checking out the school. We get a little look at Mandalorian education, which is, yeah, cube foods and little tea Capri Sons. I wrote down, there's a bit where someone is like, they're like, we're not talking about the water. She's like, hey, maybe they're food and drink are poison. They're like, oh, we checked the water.

Water's good. And she's like, well, we're not talking about the water. I'm talking about the bottle drinks. And the dude's like, well, those aren't part of our menu. And it's like, well, start there. Start with me. Who's giving the kids the free sprite? What do you, like, it's that?

Like, I don't get it. What is everyone, what is, just head empty, like, just vibes, just, you know, it's, it's amazing to me that nobody was like, oh, yeah, we tested everything. but the third-party vendor bottled already the caps are the caps have been opened already before they've been delivered They don't make that sick pop sound Yeah and is this whole thing like about Like is this also hand-wringing concern over

And it was well-founded concern over the fact that Schools like throughout the 90s did a bunch of these deals With like PepsiCo and Frito Lutley to like get these vendor kinds contracts installed in these schools where like now schools I think we're making like part of like we're making a cut of like the sales of snacks uh in their in their cafeterias and so you had like the mainline uh like your school lunch and then you also had these like vending machines set up that were like PepsiCo operated or like free to lay operated and so like is this also a bit like

of a sort of nod toward the pseudo-privatization of school lunches that was happening in the way that like children's love of snack food became like a profit center in the 90s of 2000s. There is, so I got a little, yes.

The answer is yes, and I can support it from Wikipedia, which draws some extra info on this tea brand from Star Wars scum and villainy, case files of the Galactic's Most Notorious, Star Wars Encyclopedia and Starfighters and other vehicles and Star Wars Galaxy as the official Black Spire Outpost cookbook.

So the brand, this brand is Ardies, A-R-D-E-E-E-E-S, which I believe is also a thing we've seen, we have. We saw in Attack of the Clones at Dexter Jetster's place where he calls it Jawa Juice, but in the original script, it was called Ard-E-E-E-E-S, and so that they then continued to use that. And here's what it says. It's a branded version of Mugan tea produced by the Commerce Guild after it took control of the planet Muga. Oh, good.

So the Commerce Guilds, which are, I don't think we've met any of these groups yet, but they're other, you know, presumably their trait, yeah, they are affiliated with the, with the separatists. they specifically make this on Muga. And the Mugan version of it is just home-brewed tea. It's brew that tea. Then they sell it as two different things. This bottled version and then the canned version where it's fizzy. It's a fizzy tea in the canned. But I think this is just like a smooth tea.

So wait, does that imply? So the part that I think we skimmed over a little bit in the, in the like politicians roundtable is one of the senders is associated with the or it's not senators but one of the you know mandolorean representatives is associated works for has relations with the commerce guild and then is like called out on that as being suss and maybe linked to separatist and she gets very defensive so like yeah true is that can any can you just like get your commerce guild card and like you are what does it even mean to be i bet that that is that means that you are you have those diplomatic or business

relationships i bet it's not like uh i don't think that she is oh no she she specifically says yeah the guy specifically says i'm sure you end the trade federation like as if she's part of the trade federation so maybe she is Trade Federation. But they're related. They're both part of the separatists, right? Yeah. So maybe she is.

Like maybe she's like the Trade Federation representative on the planet, which would make sense since they're a neutral planet. Right, right. So maybe she is like their liaison here on Mandelor. I don't know. Which also, by the way, does maybe highlight that this policy of neutrality was in the end, stupid. Like, that neutrality doesn't exist. Like, you can't be neutral in this environment.

Like, it doesn't work. There is no non-aligned movement that can create some. Like a sustainable third way, like a neutral, like trade network. The thing is, there should be because, remember, she represents thousands of moons and planets. And if they cannot create a sustainable movement from thousands of moons and planets, and I don't understand what's happening. I don't understand everything about Star Wars feels like this is all vestiges of like a colonial imperial structure to the galaxy. that, like, nobody is self-sufficient anymore.

Everyone has ended up, like, hyper-specialized in one type of thing, and then all the infrastructure is controlled by a really small handful of people. But again and again, that one thing is not food ever. And, like, I get that part of what happens is that you have an imperial reach where you have that sort of specialization, an imperial core that, like, gets the benefits up. of it and then passes, everything passes through that core to the, to the other arms of it and things go up and, like, I get the situation of what happens there. But normally what you have is an empire where on one hand, you, on one end of it, you are making grapes and on the

other end of it, you are making bananas. Now, the banana place if it gets cut off, bad news, they're not getting grapes. They're probably not getting good meat. They might not be getting mushrooms. But they're going to have their bananas still, right? Mandelaar don't have bananas. Mandelaar doesn't seem to have much of any. There is not a, there is that a staple. What does Mandelor staple anything at this point? Cluster busts.

Cubs. Plaster busts. Glass. Glass. Right. And like, but like you're saying you don't have a, you don't, it's, it's, you're right, Rob, I think the thing that they should have done instead of becoming a, a neutral third party is just also split from the federal, or from the republic and become its own

sovereign state with its own military that could also protect its own shipping lanes and like they should all just trade with each other. Oh no, Death Watch is right. It's major exports listed in Wikipedia are mercenaries. Yeah. Uh-huh. And Starships.

But Satin shut down the mercenaries thing. So, Star... They don't do that no more. Real good, Duchess. Real nice. We finally had a Grove industry and you came in and fucked it all up. Well, her position in this fucks me up even more because, like, isn't Mandelor not a part of the Republic at all? No, it's part.

It's just neutral to the, to the war. Oh, because I remember her talking to Obi-Wan about, like, we're not part of the Republic, whatever else. Because she, like, relies on them a ton despite, you know. I feel like this, then maybe the thing that's worth saying then is that, like, maybe it's that thing that's we've talked about before where you're in the public, even if you're not part of the Senate. But I'm not sure because when we are on Toydaria, another neutral planet, they specifically said, yeah, they specifically said that they are not a part of the republic, but the way that they said it made it seem like they aren't at like the Senate

meetings or like they don't convene, like it seemed like they were totally removed from that. So I'm confused on to what degree you can be a part of the Senate without, I mean, theoretically, everyone is a part of the Senate, regardless of like your affiliation. No, I think everyone is, if we go back months now when we had this conversation, or when we like dug into this, the Republic is anything it touches. And that's how it, that's by the constitution of the Republic, anything it touches becomes part of the Republic. But that does not mean you get a representation. You don't get a senator the second that it touches you. You have to earn a senator or be gifted a senator or whatever.

It's bullshit. I just went back to my notes. And the thing about Satina in that previous arc is that she says that she opposes the war as an affront to life itself as the designated regent of 1,500 systems I speak for thousands of worlds that have urged me to allow them to stay neutral in the war. So in that sense, is she in, is that a different capacity than just Duchess Sateen? Is that her going to the Senate, including some Republic worlds that want to stay neutral, as the voice of them? But maybe Mandelaar itself is not. Does she speak for Toydaria? I think in that scenario, she was.

I do think she was speaking for, right. I think Toydaria was 100% one of those thousands of worlds that wanted to remain neutral. But then King Tunko does see the writing on the wall. And he's like, uh-huh. You got to go all in on this. Like, there is no, like, neutrality is a trap. Right. Well, that's the thing that gets me about the, like, inefficiency of Satine is that, like,

she couldn't get control of Mandelaer without the Jedi's help. And now she can't even, like, figure out that one of her senators is evil without the Jedi's help. Like, what is going on? What are you doing? Well, I think that part of what is going on is the sort of social class of people who did this and the institutions that trained people to do that work was ousted by Satine and the Jedi. Right?

The Republic. I'm not saying that Satine is a puppet governor, but I am saying it's pretty convenient that the leader of Mandelor in this time of Galactic Crisis has been, you know, supports a worldview and was forced to, because of an internal schism, push out the sorts of people who would stabilize a lot of the things that we're talking about here.

The people who now go to Death Watch previously would have been people eager to ferret out or be part of. On the other hand, those people also glassed the planet of Mandelor and the moon. So, like, you can also seem like they had to go. We're living in domes in the wasteland. It's bad out here. Sotin's in an unenviable position in many ways. I don't know what you do with Mandelor. I do.

And again, it is you have to start building a strong allegiance with these other neutral war. worlds. And the thing that ends up happening here, of course, and the thing that I think they're suggesting without saying outright is that the separatists are pirating. They're their shipping stuff. They're blockading. They're doing those that we saw in those earlier episodes of the season. And they don't have a military to push them off. And so you have to go to the Republic at that point and hope that they'll help clear those lanes. And the Republic seems to be saying, like, no, you're neutral. Why would we do that? And that's interesting. And like, it is, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, right? So the other thing we get a taste for here is just the layers of corruption and also complacency that are stirring, like, to shoot tendrils through Mandalorian government. As they figure out that like, oh shit, it's the, it's the tea drinks that are the source. They actually pretty efficiently, like, backtrace, when did all this come in? Like, where did it come from?

And in the middle of all this, the school superintendent, just tries to book it. It's so funny. He just plays it cool. I think he's fine. I think he gets out of here, clear. He's so not chill. Like, he could. The way he walks off, they're like, hmm, who could have done this?

And he's like, oh, I have to go. Bye. And they're like, wait. He doesn't even say it. He just, they're like looking at the warehouse. They're not even looking at the warehouse. They're looking at the warehouse. house terminal. They're at a computer out front of the door. And it's like, it looks like someone

erased the log and there's no record of an outside vendor. And he's like, scoot, scoot, run. And they're like, where are you going? What are you? And he's like, I have to go to the hospital. I have to go take care of kids. Bye. If he had just been like weird, the records have been erased. That's no good. He's fine. He's good. This is a critical failure. This is like a classic bad role. This is what a conscience does to you. He could live with his business. sakes. Well, this is, so after they, after he's very short-lived escape, uh, where he stopped dead in his tracks, uh, by, not even a chase sequence, it's nothing.

It's not. It's like, re. So teen's secret cops are there like in a, they're like in the background in that scene on a, one of these skiffs. And she's like, uh, could you stop? And they're like, yep, got her. Boom. Crash right.

Teaboned him instantly. Didn't even get out of the warehouse. Like just barely. and he just like a like a fucking clown like collapses on to the on to the like hood of the hood of the of the skiff or whatever and uh and it's just the most pathetic it just it's like dude what were you doing like what it's the equivalent of somebody like putting their like their foot out and him tripping over this is this is principal skimmer skinner tries to do crime no this is principal skimmer this is literal It's a little skimmer. Because what he outlines, by the way, is that, and this is the thing. I don't think this should be overlooked. Like, they sort of, like, ignore his reasoning.

But he's like, we do not have funding to get supplies for the students. Like, we are all ready. We do not have enough coming in to feed our students. So he took this contract in order to make that budget stretch. Now, he got a back end on that. Like, he got a kickback, and he was profiting off that, hence principal skimmer. Yes. And so he is lying in his own pocket, but I also don't think he's lying, that he genuinely thinks, like, look, this is the hand I've been dealt.

I could either not have enough to feed students, or I could take this deal and make myself a little bit of cash and, like, have it get through. And everyone's like, that's just justification. I'm not entirely sure that's true, given what we see of Mandelor. But either way, he gives up his source. instantly shady shipping company magnate Sadiq a wonderfully animated

completely amoral scumbach who's lawyered the fuck up and has no fear of the authorities I love Sadiq Going back to speaking to the principal really quickly because there's two things about that conversation

Sotin sternly saying you get funding from the government is like a real low point of this episode that that's all she has to say it's pretty tough best part of the scene though is in the beginning of the conversation when

Satin threatens the guy and Padmae puts a hand on her shoulder and it's like don't do that don't threaten him with violence and he's just like I'm being an adult right now can you just let me do this this man is poisoning

kids to death I can get a little a little agro. It's so funny. Anyway, Sadiq. Now, there are things I love about Sadiq. His vibe, his voice acting, his posture. Like you said, the fact that he's just like, yeah, I sell drugs to children.

It's what I like. Sorry kids got sick, but it's not my fault. Padmey's like, I'm not, maybe you didn't notice. I'm not kids. Why do I care? Padmey's like, what you're doing is illegal. And he's like, uh, we're in a war? Like, hello?

Like, do you know what's going on in the galaxy right now? Like, yeah, it's illegal. But try, just try and come at me. I've got like, I've got hella, hella legalese that protects me. And I'm not, I'm not going down for this. Well, this deal seems to be structured that, no, no, no, hold on. What he's done is legal. his partners are committing crimes

Right But his papers are good And so Sorry that happened Not my problem It's not his fault That the dock guy The overseer at the docks or whatever

Didn't check the shit right That's on him Yeah All I did was tell Was least them a parking spot You know What do you want from me? His best line in this is

My corporate contracts protect me It's so good Just being like Now. Not my problem. His name is Sadiq. Not great. Already, okay, what do you know about the name Sadiq?

Obviously, I think that it feels like it might be Arabic in nature. Sadiq is like a real-ass name that's important in Islam. Depending on what sort of Islam you practice, Sadiq is the term used either for, for Mahabha. Tom as closest best friend, or for his daughter. And it's like, in an episode we're already doing Egyptian snake men, poisoners, did we really need... And in an episode that is the whitest episode, has the whitest shot I've ever seen in anything. When they go into the academy and it is all little Hitler youth, it is all little, like, blonde hair, blue eyes. I mean, even the fucking procession, even the fucking...

There's no one of color in this nation of foundlings. Absolutely not. Like, if our earlier questions during, we had a question during a previous Q&A, if you haven't heard this, about what we thought about Mandelor being both the home of Boba Fett and also one of the whitest places we've seen in Star Wars. If we, if you thought that that question hit the decks of the Clone Wars production team, it has not. Or they heard it and went, yeah, no, they're all white people. They're all super white people. So to have that scenario and then have your like scummy middleman be Sadiq a name that has like great import in one of the world's largest religions that's already tied to a lot of this style of, this is like a classic stereotype of the, you know. And it's like it's bone deep in Star Wars where its vision of like corrupt business is a bazaari from like the Mediterranean or like Persia. And for one thing, like, even setting aside, like, sort of the inherent racism and all that, it also is, for a show, it's often concerned about, like, you know, a lot of these things are alive and at work in our own world. It's rare that we, like, you don't see a lot of characters who are clearly analogous to, like, Fortune 500 CEOs, right?

Like, it's always going to be, you know, oh, who could, who could have done this? Look for the guy with a, like, ambiguously Mediterranean accent. Or East Asian, as you look at the Trade Federation, the, the, the, what, the, the Nemoids, right? Yeah. Who have that stuff. And it's like, but you're right. It's Mediterranean.

It's, it's East Asian. It's, it's Jewish and Arab. Like, these are the stereotypes ranging from, uh, also, it's fat. It's right. Your Jabba the Hut, you're Wado. You're the snake men from Muga. Uh, you're Sadiq. right and and that's how you zero in on this every time yeah it's never it's a bummer it's never the

it's never it's never a white has never done anything yeah it's never Todd and and Steve and Chad and Bracen have never been the only time is Padmay's X right yeah and even he what was his name fuck or the scientist guy but that was Nouveau Vindy yeah Nouveau Vindy Yeah, Nuvavendi, yeah. But even he is coming from the same playbook of, like, mid-century trope men, in which case he was like the evil German doctor, right? Which, like, let's say, grounded in a different historicisticity. But what the fuck was his name?

What is the name? His name was Padma's X Star Wars? I did that search, and it's giving me Palo, which is the guy she mentions. No, Rush Clovis. Rush, Rush, Clovis. And, okay. Rush Clovis, yes, white guy. But we need more Rush Clovis's in the mix.

The ratio is fucking off. And I guess we can talk about prime minister guy here as being sort of cut from that cloth, but not really the Fortune 500 CEO vibes. That's not his vibes. Because like the reason he's in that category is because he's blonde and blue wide, but literally everyone on Mandelaar is. Like we get a brunette. this next episode, and that is all they are willing to give us. And it's so intentional. And that's

just because they need to differentiate a group of kids. It literally is. Because there's not a single brunette in this, in this episode. No. Except for Sadiq. Sadiq is. Sadiq is brown hair with graying. And his skin is a little slightly darker than anybody else is on the planet. And he is a five o'clock shadow, which is like, I don't know. I think he's kind of hot. But like that's just, I want the Sadiq show is what I'm saying. I'm saying, don't, hey, maybe we should call him something else, but also get me more Sadiq, please. Sadiq's a winner.

Like, where's the spin-off starring Sadiq making his business like thrive in a galaxy gone to shit? Yes, yes. God. People, other people want Hondo, I want Sadiq. So, and then this says up, though, our next thing that I,

that I actually, this is made my favorite beat in this. Satin now knows like what's going on here as far as this like smuggling operation and she brings like the head of customs of that like of that dock uh to call him to account and he just refuses to believe it and at first they're like this guy's got to be corrupt like he's got to be covering for this and it's like no he just literally refuses to believe that this could be happening on his watch on his team i don't know i think he's i think he might

be complicit. I think it's a little suss that he ordered his guards to blow up the tea making facility. He didn't want to. Satine ordered that. He was like, wait, what? We need that for evidence. Oh, I thought he gave the order.

No, Satine, like, I want this thing destroyed. And he was like, isn't that evidence? And she's like, shut the fuck up. Yeah, it's so weird. I do not. Oh, I totally miss that. Um, but it is funny that like in, in these two instances, both in these two episodes, both Padman Satin and then the kids in the next episode are speaking to someone. And in the next episode, it's literally fucking Satin, but are speaking to someone being like, yo, I saw some shit with my own eyes. I saw the evidence. It's so clear. There is no like ambiguity about this at all. This thing happened or is. happening and the person of authority in the situation is like no couldn't be couldn't be so

absolutely not I just had to double check it to be clear this dude is taking is the guy who took bribes at the top it is not he is he is I will show you a screenshot it is him this guy it's the no it's the blonde with the with the Mohawk yeah that's the guy who took it at the top but yeah is that not the guy at the end no no they're just the helmet on they're just both super the same person but no different eyebrows i guess you can't really see the eyebrows with the hall mom but yeah wukipedia also seems to think this is the same dude it's but maybe not the eyebrows are totally different well because either way the thing that's set up here is they march down to the docks and he's like hey why are my guards out outside

this shipping container and then he tries to give them an order and it's like it's kind of a cool beat where he realizes like oh these guys aren't under my command and you sort of see his like facade starting to crack of like okay this is not what I think it is and that first moment of realizing like shit these guys are armed and they're not listening to me but and they're like his pushback to Satin is so confusing to me because like she is supposed to to be, I don't know, when you think of monarchies, you think of that person being like essentially the voice of God. Like what they say is not contested because they are literally the king or queen or whatever. And the fact that he's like pushing back against her is like, no, you're wrong.

And then, and then what? Is Sotin? Like if he says, no, I refuse. Is Sotin just at a dead end? Like, she just, she can't actually. I think she'd have him arrested by the secret police. Mm-hmm. And then, but I don't know who, who, like, who would she go to if not him at that point to, like, make the order happen, right? Like, I guess his top underling. Right. And she, and even her, like, issuing an order to these guards outside, like, she's like, do you know the lead customs guys?

Like, do you know who she is? And they're like, and like, it's very, it's very strange. It makes me think, are these like off-worlders that aren't actually Mandalorian? No, I think it just speaks to what, like, Satine isn't the president, right? And or isn't the prime minister and people are starving and are losing trust in all of the institutions that they once held dear. I don't know where the loyalists came out for the Padmae parade. I don't know why none of the... But also, is it true that, like, you often have groups like the police who don't line up with...

You know what I mean? Like, yeah, maybe the Mandalorian police union is like, yo, fuck Sateen, you know? Yeah. I mean, they literally... It seems likely. The two... One of the guards makes an attempt to attack Sotene. And, like, that's wild to me.

Like, there's no, there's no, I don't know, there's just no, like, formality of the, the parade, like, that whole, the tradition and, like, I don't know, like, reverence that that evoked is just gone. Just absolutely gone. And this is what I kind of love is, like, the realization of how fragile all this stuff is, right? Yes, I mean, the czar was a god among men literally until just a few years before it all went. bus right like and there's that weird moment of realizing like shit that mat that spell is broken like it doesn't this person knows who i am and they do not care and they might even hate me um and so i kind of dig this moment here where like you see these different phases of like a declining regime uh in some ways either way though they're also mandolarians i was kind of impressed that

when it went down the complacent customs official just like was strict into the gunfire like getting a headshot. The, well, even before the, before they get to fire back, I love the beat of them. They open the door. And, and, and, it's, it's a custom guy who's like, hold it right there. And the response to that from the Mugans is to just immediately open fire and drop a bunch

of dudes. It's incredible. The speed with which it just becomes, the goat guys are also there, by the way. The goat guys do exist. as the manual labor for these toxin dealers or whatever um but yeah then it is a it is a gunfight uh and and that dude does go out shooting and padmay get some shots in which i was happy to see at least she did something i like the royal guards are like these shields aren't big enough let's get this dumpster and have the big shield in the gunfight and i was like hey that's good thinking

that's that's that's using your old noggin also it's wild the mandolour just have glocks or it's like it literally looks like a 45 it's just giant modern pistol it's it's and then padmay gets two kills padd may it's painy a through the roof yeah the the the the customs guys like damn okay and there's a customs guy who jump or it's a secret guard it's a it's a one of the secret police guys gets up there gets on top of like a container and blocks some laser shots with a staff? Are you like a secret? Do you start to see why the Jedi did not like these guys?

Yeah. Like, where it's like, uh, this is like, if the Jedi are like the Imperial Sartacar, the Mandalrians are like House of Traities, like, uh, special forces. Because it's like, they can do 70% of the shit. Yeah, enough of that shit. Yeah. Uh-huh. God.

Okay. watching this sequence of Satin telling giving the order it's bananas it literally makes no sense she's like burn the warehouse and he's like yeah there's but there's evidence

and she's like burn it down or I'll consider you a part of this conspiracy which is like any any connection to him is in the warehouse in the warehouse like what are you

and it's not like The tea ain't going to jump up and bite nobody. Yeah, it's like, you got it. It's everyone's seeing it. Like, everyone is seeing, like, the tea, right? You can take the tea out and you can go, you know, destroy it whatever way you need to. But there's computers in there that probably have some shit on them or fingerprint. I don't know.

You didn't just start, like, not trusting literally anyone who would be assigned to go get that stuff. These two episodes have broken me a little bit, I think, because. I've, like, gotten into, like, full Mandalorian conspiracy theorists. Like, if I'm sitting at home watching the news, and I found out that there were children on my planet being drugged, and that the queen put together a private military to investigate it, and then the next week, all the evidence is burned. And then the week after that, she brings in a foreign religious diplomat to go to the schools to look, like, to talk about corruption.

like I'm not liking this I don't know I'm like making hashtags this is how Ali ends up walking into Cometito a thermal debt matter 100% this is a nightmare babies from the Jedi I'm I'm on Twitter at this point I'm tweeting shit yeah well Ali is telling us not to buy Mandalorian furniture it's a whole thing the the thing that like Satine seems to want to be doing here is what she wants is like

those bust photos that, like, cops put out of, like, look at all this dangerous shit we destroyed. And it's like, yeah, but we probably should have been treating the root causes here, which is partly the corruption ring that caused all this, but also, dude, when they're, when they're adulterating tea for kids, like, your economy's fuck. It's done. It's done. I'm sorry. Wrap it up, homie. It's over.

Also, you've got to rebuild that fucking storage pod now. Y'all don't know money, you got to rebuild the fucking warehouse, which maybe was the teammate, I don't know, tea making warehouse. Like, I don't, I don't know, I still don't understand, like, who, who built what was inside the warehouse and how long that predated the tea poisoning. I mean, theoretically, this happened, I don't know, was this a new scientist that showed up that day and they've been like making this, this slave? and tea for weeks

and he fucked up the ratio. If the ratio was right, no one knows the difference. No one knows. And he was like, cool, this is my first time making the slave and tea. They're like, good luck, buddy. Don't fuck it up. And then, yes, at the end of this episode,

or two things. One, it is wild that when she does say, we got to burn this down. They're like, got it. Flamethrower is in the trunk. Be right back. I got a Where does come from? Two, at the end of it, when she was like, what we need is to put Jedi in schools, I was like, no, we can't do this. We don't need it.

We don't. I would have loved having a school resource Jedi in my middle school. That would have sort of a lot of things out. You have to understand that I was like ready for that. I was ready for it to be Anakin prowling the hallways or Obi-Wan, like, oh, we're going to get another We won, and it's a teen episode, everyone's going to come, and he's going to, like, go do, you know, like, uh, but I missed that she said undercover is the thing. Mm-hmm. I missed that what she meant was be a fake teacher.

And I assumed we meant exactly a, a, you know, a cop who just, like, hangs out in the hallways. And instead, I'm just a drug. Well, naturally, nobody would question a 14-year-old fake teacher. Nobody's. I, I am just crushed. we missed out on the opportunity for a adaptation of Rodney Dangerfields

back to school starring yoga I think there was a lot of money left on the table here that the Clone Wars should have scooped up. Let me instead pitch you the 1996 crime action let's say

masterpiece or malignant tumor, the substitute but starring Plowker Kuhn? What if Plow Kuhn had come here, crossed his arms and, like, taught these kids what justice really was? You know? So, but here we are going to get a little taste of, once again, the Jada are on their way back to Mandelor to sort things out. They're being called in to be just unaffiliated, independent investigators and crime solvers to handle stuff the local government can't. Teaching kids.

Teaching kids. Not figuring, not uncovering the root of corruption. No. Just teaching kids, don't do it. Don't do corruption. Hey, hey, kids, don't do corruption when you grow up. It's dare. It's literally dare.

I think it's super funny that on the way into this, Asoka, who is a child, 15, 16, maybe, is like, don't you think I'm a little overqualified for this? shut the fuck up what's a thing you know that you can teach because I don't think you have anything

like you'll say hey you kids want to know how to get a clone detachment killed needlessly you guys want to know how to do a circle or a square with a light save I'm in Pakistan

Yoda is very impressed I do okay wait I have one thing to say before we go to the next episode which is the worst thing about this episode title corruption

is how often And they say corruption. He's going to say it a lot. Agreed. Just nonstop. Agreed. Why? Anyway.

Well, maybe it went backwards. Maybe they didn't have a title and they named it. They were like, what do we name it? And they do be saying corruption a lot. Also, wait, hold on. One thing. So much for this planet being pacifist, they have real guns in this fight. Like, I thought their whole shit.

That's not what they mean. But I thought they were like stun guns only. Like, ba-ba. Like, oh, that's a team thing. They mean, yeah. I think they mean we don't have a standing army anymore because of how we were like a big militaristic invader for so long. I think they still, yeah, I don't know.

But now we've channeled that in a productive pursuit, like having our hyper-militarized society churn out customs agents who just happened to be ready to fight in the phalanx. At any moment. All right. So our next episode, the Academy, continues with this theme as Asoka is sent to Mandelor to implicate the next generation of leaders and officials about the nature of corruption. And she's so good at it that she inspires her weirdly well-connected students to go on their

own hardy boys, Nancy Drew Adventure to figure out why rations are so tight on Mandelor. In no time at all, they've created video evidence of high-level corruption and encounter the problem of all anti-corruption whistleblowers. Who exactly can you trust with that evidence? The kids tell Satin, who promises to look into it, but they get so impatient that they arrange their own meeting with Prime Minister Almec. They are saved from an ambush by Asoka,

realized that Satin has been kidnapped and together launch a daring or stupid or both rescue plan. By the end, Almec is in custody, and Satine is explained to Asoka that the entire plan was a faint to sneak her past Almec without knowing what she was really there to do and that everyone always knew Assoca could be trusted with an important mission like this. So, what do we think about this plan? These episodes are so much worse as a pair. Like, if you wanted to do the second beat of the

storyline and have the Almec thing happen, like, have it be Padma and Satin doing the political side instead of the like detective side or like just repeating the same beats of like, we're going to go to the warehouse and we're going to see what's happening, but just. with kids and then to reveal that one of those kids is related to Satin and can also DM the prime minister

It's so fucked up And then And then Satine is like Nah, that's not happening Like what are you talking about? We just saw this shit You're talking about Where is corruption happening?

Where is corruption? I need to find the corruption Some kids figured it out for you, bro. She wouldn't even look at the footage she wouldn't even look at the footage that they could have just enhanced bro the enhanced scene has me fucked up yeah we're okay we have to get there we have to get let's walk through okay I'm too stressed I was a hand off to you Rob yeah I can do it I believe so Asoka arrives with Anakin on Mandelor and yes to your point earlier Austin Assoca's skeptical that this makes any kind of sense and Anakin's like sorry kid they need me for war shit, but I know you got this. And so he dropped back into the sky.

It's like so, like the war is going so bad that Anna could only be on planet for 10 minutes. Like, a clone is like, we gotta go. I don't know. Like now. Like there's war happening right now. We need to go. I just, it's funny

that they send, like, I guess it has to be Asoka because it's clone wars, but like why not Sanube? Like, he's probably just chilling in the library right now. Sunube episode would have been good. Or like, I forget the librarian. I mean, she probably has a lot going on.

The library. Yeah, DeCasta knew. Or like some other, you know. Why didn't they send Tandivo? Well, Sotin wants to reach out to one of her friends or her friend's friend. She specifically is like, I knew a friend of Padmaid would help me, which is fucking, that's corruption, too. Like, what the fuck is happening? So, I think also,

they needed somebody to connect with the kids, and Asoka's closer to them in years. And so Asoka can credibly spin that chair around, sit down, and be like, hey, corruption isn't cool. You know what's cool? Being a dutiful Mandalorian, fulfilling all your responsibilities, and engaging in the legitimate market only. And that works, because the students are like, corruption isn't cool. Let's sneak out of the dorm.

They get snacky. Yeah, they're hungry. They're hungry. And they were like, what if we? They smoke a bowl. And they're like, I could murder a pizza right now. And they're like, oh, shit, there's no pizza to be had. And they're like, we're going to get to the bottom of this.

And they're like, but I saw the Domino's spaceship pull up. I know there's pizza on Mandelor somewhere. It says here on the pizza track that 30. thousand pizzas are delivered this year how come we don't got pizza how come and do we just have to go to the Domino's branded warehouse

yes so also it's wild that smells good as fuck there's two things that happen in this structurally that are just that set me off in like paranoia mode one is there's a kid in the classroom who's doing like the pencil twirl

thing in the background and I'm like He's guilty. He's corrupt. He's definitely. And the second thing is, at the very beginning of the episode, when we meet, we meet our three main kids, we meet three kids. We meet cadets Corky, Amos, and Lagos, which is extremely funny. And then they just have a fourth friend who hangs with them, who's their hacker friend. And I was like, oh, she's corrupt.

She's going to turn on them because we don't know her name. We've never met her before. Why was she not in that previous scene? Why not just, like, have her hang with her friends? This is the brunette one, by the way. It's like, does the brunette not get to come to official, you know, functions? Like, what's going on? Yeah, no.

Blondes only. Also, I love that. This underground student hacker, total white hat. Just all about rooting out corruption. Before we get too far, I also just want to point out a major faux pa of, like, what kind of cloud cadet school are you running? If one of your prime students, the first time they meet a Jedi is like, Hey, can I hold your lightsaber? The president is in front.

Your president aunt is right here. Like, why? That seems really rude. That seems kind of fucked up. What's happening? You're the one out of all three. You're the one. Like, your aunt has fucked Obi-Wan.

You should know you don't touch a Jedi's lightsaber. It's not on the table. It's not on the table. I am not. Okay, so next thing. We didn't, Assoca was going undercover as a teacher. It was supposed to be what was happening. She is there in her normal, I'm doing fights on the rooftops outfit.

She's on like tube top and action skirt mode. There's not going to, you don't want to come in Jedi robes. You don't want to come in like something more authoritative. Like she's dressed down more than anybody in the room. She didn't have a, she didn't have a teacher before? She's a cool teacher. I mean, that's an interesting thing about Assoca. Like, is it a cultural thing that she wears that stuff?

Because she's never worn robes. Yeah, that's true. We've never seen her in robes. So maybe. Maybe this is what the Tor-Tuga? That's wrong. That has to be wrong. What's the name of Asoka species?

Fuck. It's not bad about. Tagruda. Tagruda. Not far. Not far. But it's not, well. Because Shock Tea is also...

Right. Oh, right. And Shock Tea wears robes. So maybe... But who knows what they're... This is just her vibe. She's like... She didn't go to uniformed schools.

She's like... You're right. I just wear whatever. Yeah, she's like, oh, I thought it was public school. That scene got cut, but she was like, ah, shit, I thought it was public school. I just love how these children, like, this whole sequence of her being like, yeah, corruption, like, it happens from when you want money or power. and then the hacker girl takes off her glasses and she's like

wait a minute so it's about greed and I'm like Oh see Ice Tea made the episode awesome Good news I was like Have y'all not read like a children's story with like very basic

Like moral like and that's why you don't you know save the apples for yourself when you could share them with your friends or whatever the fuck like it's just it's and and the it's weird because

like there's this whole loyalist thing right like be loyal to mandolore and Asoka's like well being loyal to mandolore is also like calling out what you see and like holding your officials accountable and they're all like we don't have systems in place to hold her like that's treason

this is a monarchy like we don't have systems in place to hold officials accountable she's like no no just do it just like I don't know just say it out loud like who are they supposed where is the accountability like dot gov forum that you can like start calling out your fucking senators or whatever like that's not a that doesn't seem to be in place like this is a big big new lesson to teach like yeah hold your set that feels like a big disruption to life on mandolore i don't know it's political life on i think i think it's so cool that like Sotene is creating a secret police, and now we've got a network of child informants being built who are going to, lives of others, Mandelor, into a brighter future. If you're Sotid, why are you setting Asoka to your nephew's class?

What is it? I don't get. Because this is, I mean, that's the only thing that happens in both of these episodes is that, like, there's a planet of millions, but only this little tiny chunk of their entire population matters. Like, it's the, like, it's so fucked up that it's like, all of the events that are important happen on the same city block. You know what I mean?

Sure. But I just also feel like she's restoring evidence. She's having her family. Like, it's just, I'm so fucked up about it. Allie is joining Death Watch right now. Yeah. Uh-huh. So, so they go to the Dominance.

And they make a crucial mistake. because they bring their shitty gutless wonder friend with them. And if you're going to be doing sneaky shit, you don't bring your chicken shit buddy who's like, we shouldn't be doing this, we're going to get caught. You don't bring that kid. You don't need four. There's no like four person puzzle that you need to.

Yeah, you don't all need to stand on the tile at the same time. Or at least you got to be like, all right, you just, you be lookout. You stay here. You stay on this side of the warehouse door and just like, make a call noise when if someone's coming, you know? And don't bring your fucking school binder or whatever the fuck you brought.

What are those? They're enormous. Yeah. I didn't... I think there's a laptop. Oh, yeah. It's a laptop. Yeah. It's the hacker's laptop that is the foil for the whole... We didn't talk about Sadiq's alien wear either, but he also had like a great laptop.

Yeah. Uh-huh. So Sadiq's definitely a gamer. 100%. They over here, someone explaining the nature of a black market. Like literally the head of Crohn's Ring is like, so

as the prices begin to inflate, we make more money. What's going to sell? What's going to sell? Let's go sell. So, just breaking down. You don't lay. Okay, gang,

here's how the black market works. We're all here to be black marketeers. I swear to God, she's interrupting like a vector knives, like orientation or something like that where it's like look at me i make a clear a million dollars a year on the black market you could too and they take video of it all now crucially they take video from behind like they catch this this hooded figure lecturing this group of customs officials who are just like uh-huh uh-huh love it explain to the black market and then the kids like

oh i'm scared i need to get out of here and they're like fine fuck off and go and go and immediately he trips over some shit and knocks someone's shit over and the kids end up fleeing through the warehouse and they make a narrow escape but they leave behind like evidence as to who they leave behind a school binder whatever they're i think it's what's her name's yeah it's what's her name's the hacker's laptop it's the most important thing yeah it's the deck it's the most important thing they have in terms of like stuff it has probably has her her hacker alias on it you know what i mean Work. She needs that. I hope that's in the cloud. You think they got the cloud on Mandelor? I hope so. That kid does. They don't have Domino.

That kid does. That kid does. Yeah, they don't have Domino. Oh, I'd be so mad at my friend if we were breaking into an illicit black market warehouse. And he tripped and knocked over my fucking laptop that I used to hack us into the fucking black market warehouse. I would be livid. I'd be so mad. But you're the brunette of the group, so you don't fucking matter.

What do you do? You can't say shit. Yeah. That's the social rule. Also. Also, if. This little shit is on DM basis with the prime minister. Don't you think he would recognize the voice of the prime minister in this little meetup?

No, I guess not. I would think anybody would because of how it's the prime minister and he's like on record all the time talking. Yeah. He has a very distinct voice. They leave the deck behind, but they take the little iPhone with the footage of the hey gang we're doing corruption meeting

and they take it to his aunt sateen he's like we'll take it to my aunt she'll know what to do so they go straight to her apartment at which point

you the viewer go who's his what shut the fuck up upset just crashes her day walks in and is like

hey we caught a like a black market smuggling ring last night and we got we got the tape

and she is like, that's nice kids, but you really shouldn't be messing around with the stuff. Like, you should leave it to other people to handle. I'll look into it, I promise, but like, just be cool, just chill. And she

kind of brushes them off so she can spend more time with her aquarium. It's nice. The way that they enter, and the way that the one guard watches them a little bit too knowingly, as They're, like, walking through.

I thought this teen was like, listen, not here. Like, let's not have this conversation here. So I was waiting for, like, the next thing and be like, hey, you guys should come for dinner tonight. Like, on an unrelated note, it's, you know, family night. Pizza night. Pizza night. Just the big delivery of dominoes just arrived on planet.

Like, let's have pizza night at my house. like that's what that felt like it was setting up and no not at all no no in fact she should have trusted her guards because they're about to all get slaughtered i mean maybe she shouldn't have trusted them in the sense that they're not capable enough to protect her but well she she should have she should have like hey is it a good security program if one of you just throws the door open and is like hey what's up if you're to do any crimes and we just trust that nothing's going to happen um so the kids are like saturday Didn't take us seriously. And Corky is like, I got this covered. I've known the Prime Minister since I was a kid. We'll tell him. And so the Prime Minister is like, oh, that's fascinating. You have that information, huh?

Bring the only copy of your evidence and all your friends who know about them to a meeting tonight. And they were like, okay. And then they go to school. and Assoc is like, hey, guys, what did you do last night? And they're like, oh, you know, just exposed a corruption ring to all the other kids. Like, you just fucking. There are other people in the class. I was like, what is happening?

What is going on? Maybe they don't have a concept of privacy in the law. Maybe they don't have, you know what I mean? Like, well, hold on. One small. The drummer kid. The drummer twins behind them, the one who's spinning his thing. They're both wearing headphones.

Like, teacher is so good. They don't give a shit. No. She's like, yeah, I can't do anything with those kids. Yeah, I'm not getting through to that. It's not going to happen. Quick note on a cool thing. Yeah.

Actually, a neat thing is when they leave Sateen's place, they walk out into like the park outside. Yeah. And it is the park where the Death Watch bomb was off last time. And the, like, most of the rubble is gone, but, Not all of it. Like, the big statue was still all fucked up. And I thought that was a neat. That's a neat detail, you know?

That is neat. It was cool. Small thing I like in this episode, like, I don't like. So the kids walk into the trap. But Asoka's on it. She knew this was probably going to go this way. She literally drops from the sky like Batman and kicks all the guards' asses. And then they go, like, check out what happened.

And, like, now they know that, like, Alamek knew this was up. They go check on Satine. Satine's place has been raided. All her guards are dead. Her aquarium has been blown up, which is terrible. Oh, we skipped it. We skipped the thing. Wait, wait.

Did you say that they figured out that Allmec was involved? We should slow. Okay. Uh-huh. So, they have the recording from the back of the Black Market 101. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. It's very important, Rob.

And Assoc is like, let me see the recording. And they zoom in, and it's a bunch of people around a cloaked figure. And then it zooms in again, and it's just the cloaked figure, which I don't even, I don't understand how hollow recordings work. I don't understand how from nanomachshed. Like, I don't know how it works that they were up on top of a container crate looking down at a particular angle, but they got a 360-degree view of the thing. It's just Star Wars. Star Wars does hollow recordings. I'm sure I can read a book about it.

What I don't understand from there is there's a picture of the cloaked black market figure, face completely covered in shadow, facing the other direction, and Asoka picks out her little, like, playmobile fake phone, her little yellow plastic toy, and is like information retrieval, and holds it up to the cloaked face on the hologram.

It does a scan And then It fades his face into view Perfectly What the fuck That's wild technology To be sitting on Yeah

That is like Bro How did no one figure out Sheve you Right I That's his whole shit His whole shit Is and frankly

The Prime Minister does it better You can't see his face at all None of this like Nosed-down shit I can see Sheev's face from the nose down. He's done. If all so it has to do is like bop real quick on one of those things, done. And it's in the hands of a fucking Paduan.

Right. I've been thinking about this since last episode because when George Lucas Papanoidia had the blood scanner on deck, I was like, who gets these? Like, does he have a subscription to 23 and me? Like, what's happening? And then now... Asoka has, like, this, like, you know, pocket photo recreation software. Does it just code, like, officials in Jedi?

Or, like, I... Also, that shit's fake. It is the funniest joke about Enhance I've ever seen, though. I will say that. Like, it is the most ridiculous over-the-top version of Enhance that image that I've ever seen. It's so funny. It's so funny. ridiculous it's ridiculous i i hadn't made that connection when i when i watched this episode but

that is literally the most ridiculous piece of technology to put in a show where the number one bad guy wears a fucking cloak and yeah like unless this is the thing he does unless they just like it but it it may if asoka has this and they're seeing they have holograms of fucking palpeteen like in Darth Sidious mode or whatever why wasn't anyone I mean I guess do they not is have they never seen Darth Sidious at this point

but all they do is find one and it's done what what if Darth Sidious is no he fucking hits them up sometimes he's like hey it's me he's never okay no he's never done that Assoca's doing this with like a pre-recording, right? And what if Tosidius is like completely like covering his bases completely and isn't on any like recorded media? I got the BS right here.

If I'm if I'm Cad Bain and I got a call from Sheave, I hit record. You need that. You need that in your back pocket. 100%. Why doesn't Cad Bain do it? Why doesn't Cad Bain? Well, because he funny. I have this recording of this dude.

I'm going to. Oh, wow. Wild. I can play with this. He's on the other side of law enforcement and knows that facial recognition software ruins lives and only gets innocent people

like he didn't scare her and it said that it was palpit to you was like this shit is fucking broken. I don't use it on principle. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, time to jam this bomb into my friend's brain. So wild.

Love Star Wars logic. This is like some of the most bullshit Star Wars logic I think we've seen so far. And it's it's truly whatever. I get it. But we will probably never see this contraption again. We will never see the facial recognition by Toys R Us ever again. And it's just, why did you make that this? Why did you, why did you do that? Why did you? And the thing that's wild is, Asoka had already figured it out. Asoka is like, oh yeah, the prime minister sent you guys here to kill you.

And they're like, no, no way. And she's like, let me see, show me the fucking recording. Which actually, okay, wait, counter argument. What if this isn't anything? Yeah, no. Oh, yeah. This is how Jedi saw crimes, where it's like, it's who I think it is. It's who I think it is.

Yeah. Well, we didn't seize her go, you're all going to see the prime minister's face. Yeah. When I say so. That's just like, it's just open the Jedi shitbird recognition interface. I am just being like. Yeah, back in the slammer for this guy. I'm really fucked up about this because, like,

okay, so we're supposed to believe by the end of this that this was all a part of Asoka's plan. She was going to give them this, like, speech about her corruption is bad, and you have to take it into your own hands, so they would help her. Is she doing like a Jedi mind trick on that first lesson to make them all go? Because, like, I... No, I think they're all just hurt.

I think they're all just like, I can't, wait to be a good citizen. And then they go and do it and she's like, yeah, oh, guys, shouldn't have done that. Yeah, they chased after you because you did something illegal. Like, what do you? You're as, what? So,

you should have used, you should have used legitimate and legal exposing your corrupt officials' procedures. You reach out to Domino's and say, my order is late, and then they will take it from there. So yeah, Satine has been kidnapped,

and Asoka hatches a plan that doesn't feel like a plan. She doesn't. She's like, all right, I'm going to run you kids into jail and take you to the Magneto Prison that they've got set up on Mandelor. And Almec is going to be like, cool. I wand around these kids up.

And Asoka's like, and I want to round these kids up. And Soka's like, and I wanted to help. They were plotting. And so she goes into the prison, pretends to interrogate them, but really is like, hey, when I give you the sign, like, it's time to act. And then she finds a teen in some sort of like Zelda, like death contraption. It's glowing with like blue, like Gannon Dorf light. Yeah, they take the kids to maybe the most high security. prison in in Mandelor and it's like this seems like a misuse of

funding misuse of resources like if you put four kids in this like maximum security like floating in the sky shit like just put him in the classroom lock the door I do like that Asoka's whole plan is like I'm just going to use Jedi mind tricks and just like completely like take over this prison and do whatever I want. And it's working like a charm. Everyone's like, I will let you talk to those prisoners. I will take you to the Duchess Sotene. And she gets there and Almec is there and is like, shouldn't you use Jedi mind tricks. We were prepared for that. I loved that beat because I spent, it was one of those things where it was like, is she really going to use this again in this

episode for real? Are we really just going to hit the go back to this well? And I was happy that there was like a payoff on the repeated usage. I want... I want training to resist archaic magic. Where do you get that? Yeah. When do they get the textbooks for that one? That's mindfulness.

We got to hit up the monastery. Also, it's a mandolary tradition right there. Yeah, exactly. Maybe it's like you just have to like constantly have... Okay, so I've told this story on a Waypoint Radio forever ago. And I want you to know that I both think that the thing I do is extremely silly. and like stupid and it's fake but also that

me saying this to you feels like I'm into this microphone feels like I'm failing a chess game or like I'm opening myself up to retribution in a serious way but I have to the truth that I have to say it in the microphone otherwise it's not true that I don't believe it

when I have to enter my pin into an ATM machine or a thing where I've like run my card and I'm like buying stuff at the grocery store and I have to put my pin I think about different numbers than the ones I'm pressing, so that if anyone's reading my mind, they don't get my pin. Wow. Now, it's fake.

It's not real. This is bullshit. But I feel like saying this right now is opening myself up to mind readers who will now be able to get past that degree of. And maybe I'll have to switch to some other sort of secure. But I think that's the sort of thing that's happening here is that they're like, not going to, I'm going to close my mind off to this sort of influence. As soon as Assook is here, I'm going to. start saying the, you know, Mandalorian Pledge of Allegiance,

that's where my, my four, you know, brain is going to be so she can't get through and access the back. Do you know what I mean? Or... They're using the Austin Walker technique. Yeah. Or the prime minister is just, like, bluffing and saying, yeah, you're my... Like, he knows that she's going to get into

talking to those children in whatever way that she can. And maybe that is Jedi, like, legitimate use of Jedi effective use of Jedi mind tricks but he's going to know that and he's just going to walk back up and be like oh no no no those don't work but that I saw it as like a total bluff

but it doesn't work on them the second time like yeah they're like once he says that they're like in attack mode they have gotten a signal because they were given a signal like Assoca does not give those kids I guess we're yeah I guess we've never seen how long it takes for a Jedi Maintrick to stop working, but I would imagine that they'd be like, well, I'm still kind of

woozy from the Jeline trick, what's going on? Yeah. But wait, she has to interrogate the Duchess, right? We don't get any of that. Yeah. No, and the way this all unfolds is kind of Elmec kind of is doing his villain speech. He brings Satin out to torture her

and try to get her to sign like a letter admitting to being corrupt herself and turning all power over to Almec. Satine won't do it despite being tortured with a shot caller so he's like bringing the children and he's going to start

executing the kids until she signs the paper but he learns that you can only disarm a Jedi so far at least until you do something about the force you know but he can't do anything about that

because they don't know about the Osamairi yet sorry I feel we're not going to talk about these Elamiri I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity

during this monologuing section in which we could have understood what Almic wanted in any way or what his there's a missed opportunity to connect this to the previous mandolour stuff

that like he could have been the person who voices some other perspective on Death Watch some other perspective on the new Mandalor on the pacifism on the neutrality

whatever and he doesn't Like, there's not, like, another perspective brought up here. He's just a villain of the weak style, like, baddie who wants power, right? She starts at it. He says, like, listen, yeah, we're using the black market because we don't have any other recourse. And, like, the black market is the only thing, like, supporting, like, what our, you know, planet needs. but then there's no

there's no evidence behind that so it's like it could have been the thing where he's like yeah the only reason why we have any food in the schools at all is because of this but the fact that what's actually happening is there's a surplus of stuff and it's being like I don't know it just it could have been

a slightly better thing of like yes exposing corruption but also like this was this was the only path they had to secure support for the for the planet and it just it's just brought down to just being like a a superficial like veil over his actual greed and corruption I think the thing that gets me is we had really strong um uh foundation a really really really fertile soil for future Mandalorian stuff after that last three-parter, where we could have

come in on the Obi-Wan Sateen stuff, we could have come in on the pacifism stuff, the neutrality stuff. We could have come in on the Death Watch stuff. None of that comes up. And instead, we have this new two-parter that's about corruption. And it's only about the stuff in this arc. It's only about corruption. It's only, it's like a little bit about their neutrality, but the stuff that they do here around neutrality was already done better this season with the previous episodes about neutrality the previous episodes about the supply chain stuff being fucked up because of the separatists and the and the trade federation right um we already have all that stuff done really well and so here we had an opportunity to go back to any of those previous things i would have been

hyped for i would have been hyped for death watch i would have been hyped for more like mandolour as a big neutral leader in the war or in the in the galaxy during the war and we don't really get any of it and instead the only thing he can talk about is hey we're trying to get where there's a war going on and we want food and like it's fine but it's not you know I saw someone compare this episode to a Scooby-Doo episode and like yeah yeah I mean I did not need law and order and Scooby-Doo Mandelor you know it's they've referenced Death Watch so much throughout these two episodes as well and like Death Watch is literally the faction that has come out of citizens the situation of this of this type of corruption of

feeling the lack of support and resources for their citizens. Like, I, I buy this so much more if it's like a Death Watch, like, community support, like, they're just trying to, like, feed people and they're trying to, you know what I mean? Or even if it didn't end up being them, I would have loved a scene in this where they track down someone from Death Watch. And that person from Death Watch is like, are we benefiting from this? Absolutely. But we're not.

Did we do it? No. Yeah. You know, you think we'd star her own people? the whole point is. Exactly. Exactly. And we don't get that.

Isn't that connective tissue. They have their own, like, frustration or, like, they have their own, like, desire to expose the corruption of, like, they're the ones really with the limited recourse of, like, only being able to go through whatever this, like, production line is to, like, feed their people, feed their communities. And, like, this, the prime minister is the guy. at the top that like gets to control that the ebb and flow and profit off of that like that makes sense but this is not and I think something that in that vein that I find

frustrating here is that the episode almost gets here with especially the earlier one with the notion that corruption is on the one hand something practiced by individuals but is also a sign of a like deeper systemic problem like systemic problems derive individual actions and so the thing that frustrates me here is in both these episodes it comes down to

damn it sateen just need to get in there and sort this stuff out that we need to find root out the evildoers who were engaging in corruption and that will fix the problem and it's like this is kind of one of the tenets

of like in a lot ways like neoliberal ideology right which is that you try to you don't really examine too closely systems that are throwing up these outcomes uh that like have all these negative externalities you just punish a select few of the people you catch who engage in these behaviors or commit these crimes and you you punish them and you put it down to like an individual failure. And everything we've heard about how things are going on Mandelor in terms of like their economy being strangled under inability of trade, insufficient supply of basic goods.

Corruption is on the one hand a thing that like various people you meet are engaging in. It is also a thing that is guaranteed to happen in the way things are going on Mandelor right now. Like it is not, it is inevitable from the choices that like Satin has made. and from just the direction that Mandelaar has gone in the galaxy right now, you would see these problems. And both these episodes come back to, it's just these damn bad actors. It's the corruption of high officials.

And it's like, one of the people you busted was a school superintendent. Like, you're telling me that's like Professor Moriarty? Like, so the episodes almost get there, but they don't quite. And instead, they both end up with, unsatisfying perp walks, and they call it a day, which is a very, like, case of the weak cop procedural thing to do. But it also does reflect, like, as much as the show sometimes critiques, the mindset that leads to these problems, it also elevates a lot of the really customary solutions to them, which is just like, we'll just police harder. And it's like,

that's not the point. All that's going to do is increase the value. of the people who continue to be corrupt and don't get caught. I just, I feel like Sotene's whole closing argument at the end of this episode where she's like, that, like, I, to Asoka, she says, I know you know that I didn't bring you here just to be a teacher. Like, I brought you here because I knew something was wrong and that you, like, I knew you would figure it out. Like, you would find the corruption.

here. And it's like, okay, but you literally sent her to teach the children. And then the children came to you and told you that they had evidence of corruption and you wave them off. And then the kids are right there like, yo, we fucking figured this out. Asoka like definitely helped us get out of getting caught. But we only got caught because you didn't watch the video in the first place. Like it Right, there's a world where she's like, let me watch this video. And then she goes, you know what? Stay here, kids.

I'm going to call Asoka over. And Soca comes over and like scans it. And it's the prime minister. And she's like, all right, secret police, go arrest the prime minister. We're out. Yeah. Like, I don't have to go to prison at all. My fish live.

Yep. Like. My fish live. The fish will live. Yeah. But we don't get that. So, yeah. But two sort of redundant episodes side by side here and not successful overall, despite

some, I think, some decent beats in there. We're going to continue to follow the intersection of Asoka and the criminal underworld on the next episode as we watch Assassins, Evil Plans, and The Hunt for Zero. So brace yourselves. Zero is back. If you want to support the show, you can do so at patreon.com slash civilized. as always we're so grateful to everyone who has backed us so far and hope you continue to enjoy a more civilized age

as we continue with season three again that's the next three episodes yeah we're doing the next three okay yeah yep and then just being just making sure my own headspace is right yeah I had to triple check the calendar before this too because some things are changing and then after that for our Patreon backers

there will be a Q&A on those episodes That Q&A will be On this This and the zero Oh, not the ones Do we do a Q&A for the ones before this already? No

Okay We're banking episodes now Oh Wait, but then the next Q&A would be this Plus the episodes before No We're going to do that Q&A Next week

We're ahead that we're that far out You're not talking to me. You're talking to the audience. Uh-huh. Right. Yep. That's right. Yeah.

Uh-huh. Yes. I was with you. Allie, you and me? Same. We say, this episode now we're going to get your time. Good for us. Allie, we got to get this far ahead and our friends at the table at some point.

Anyway. We used to be. There was a time. There was a time. In the meantime, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. And remember this. Widespread corruption is just a widespread set of individual. failures of responsibility.

Oh. Makes you think. We just arrest the people who are bad. I know this episode is over, but I have to talk about something that's really fucked up, which is that Almanac uses a shock collar. I know. He uses a shock collar, which is like a scary, weird thing to have happened to this episode. And then Assoca's hero moment is using it against him, which is like,

Fucked up, in my opinion. Like, I didn't want to see that happen. It's not a score for Asoka. Also, also. It's a score for Annaecan, though. I'm sorry that this episode is still happening. But to the point that Rob has made about Anika, wow.

Wow, Anika's the gender swap. Anakin and Asoka's relationship. For sure. We're like, Asoka is slowly getting, like more harsh in the moves that she's starting to make. And Anakin is like, this is bad. I should not be encouraging her to do this. Asoka at the end of this episode is like,

well, Anika is like, you had those kids help you investigate? I'm surprised you didn't get hurt. And she was like, I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done. And Anakin has this like, his face like goes white for a second. And he's like, watching her walk away and is like, damn, this is getting out of hand. I should stop torturing people in front of my phone. Maybe he'll learn that lesson and he'll become a better person. Yeah, I think so.

There's also one last thing that I wanted to call out is when Asoka is, I don't know if anyone else caught this, but when Asoka is walking through the prison and, like, she walks past one of the. prisoners and like no idea who that man is who the fuck is that she like stops in her tracks i think that it's just supposed to be like here's a hardened criminal giving her the eye and she's like giving it back but i don't think it's a guy we know i first i was like was that like previsla why would she know previsla it's not previsal right it's weird how full that prison is though right like i wonder if it you know it crosses when you make secret police you need a secret But, like, I wonder if it crosses Assoga's mind at all to be like, I bet other people

are here and they shouldn't be. Like, should I help these other people or what? No. No. Not at all. I guess she's also a different secret police and believes in jails, but like. She believes in jails. Boba Fett is in a jail right now.

Yeah. But again, this is something that's been on my mind since last episode when they open up the jail and, like, they find the person that they find the person that they, they were looking for, but what if that was someone else? Just like a different prisoner of war. What do you do? Anyway, good night, everybody. Put them back in there.

Sorry, wrong cell. Beep. Yep. Didn't that happen? No. At some point... I think that happened in an episode of Mandalorian. Oh, sure.

I'm thinking... It did happen in the episode of Mandalorian. That's the space jail one. But didn't that happen in season... I'm thinking of it just not, maybe it wasn't a jail. It was some other sort of door opened, and there were somebody that they didn't know was in it and then they were like close the door

fuck them yes no that definitely has happened anyway anyway that was the last thing I went because I was just like this is such a it's a weird

I know exactly the moment you're talking about I do weird episodes weird ones well I'm sure it'll get less weird once zero shows back god Obi-Wan it's in

it's in Duku captured Obi-Wan is looking for Anakin on Duku's ship and he opens a jail cell on Duku's ship and he's like, you're not the prisoner I'm looking for and then closes the door and moves on. I'm guessing he closes the door. You know what? I'm not 100% sure he closes it.

Maybe he just leaves it open and then goes on and finds Anikim. But that doesn't sound like a very Obi-Wan thing to do. This is the first Hondo episode. I searched my notes for Hondo to find this note. So that's where I'm at in my life. Should we go to time? does we should I'm taking a screenshot and that I can yeah here you go um he does he closes the fucking door it's a bunch of weekaway pirates oh well you know uh fuck him they're like oh we got he's like

don't bother to get up you're not the prisoner I'm looking for and closes the door on their faces they're on ducu ship they're not like duke you know what I mean like they're in a ducu prison let I'm out. Yeah. Anyway, time that is. No, Obi-Wan will just blow up the ship after. I don't know that I would let Weekway pirates out. Hmm.

Damn. I'd be like, except they hadn't done anything to him yet. That's the problem. No. Like, host meeting them, I might be like, fuck these guys. But like on that day, I'm like, you know that scene a master and commander where they let the whalers out aboard the ship and they give them all guns? They're like, go raise hell.

And like, that would be me. I'm going to be able to be. You know, Oh! Oh! Oh! I don't know. I'm going to be.

I'm going to be. I'm going to be. We know. We're going to be. We're going to be able to be. We're going to be a bit of a bit of it.