A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 42: The Rogue Jedi Arc (Clone Wars 105-108)

Episode Date: September 14, 2022

Do you remember when, in one of last arc's Filoni Zones, Dave said something like "...it's the best fight that we've ever done... until next episode's." Well, that might be true for in a broader sense for this arc, too. Somehow, after the low lows of the middle of this season, we've hit an absolute golden pair of arcs to close it out. This week's material isn't perfect—the mystery has an unfortunate Scooby Doo quality, for one—but it's damn close.  And remember what Star Wars Dot Com said: [REDACTED] is 100% right. NEXT TIME: Episodes 109 - 113 ("The Unkown," "Conspiracy," "Fugitive," and "Orders") Show Notes 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 Zakeney, joined by Ali Akampora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. And I don't know where to begin. I was pretty confident. At the end of the last arc, I was thinking, boy, that would have been an amazing place for this season to end because I don't possibly see how this could be topped. And yet here I am thinking I might have liked this set of episodes even more than the last set. And this might be the most solid run of episodes.

If you count the previous arc, the most solid to incredible run of episodes of Clone Wars that we've seen. I'm overcom. Is that true? That might be true. I think it might, I think it might be, we broke our rule. It's like seven bangers in a row, right? Seven bangers in a row. Wait, what was our rule?

We don't talk to each other. Oh, we broke the rule. It doesn't, it doesn't count if it's saying I'm pissing and screaming and scromiting. Yeah, I, I, I immediately after recording the last episode, watched these, and I DM, I posted in our, in our, or it wasn't after the last episode. It was after the Q and A. It's important because it means that we do record the Q&A knowing any of this. This is why we do not watch ahead before the Q&A. I am so glad it would have ruined the Q&A.

Oh, 100%. Yeah, we can we that is that is a rule. That is a definite rule. But I just. What did you say in the chat after you watch it? Let me go back. Let me roll the tape. Hold on.

I said, uh, this first app. We need to record this week. week. We need to record this week. I'm actually losing it. I cannot believe DeSquod was like three episodes ago. We are all going to piss and shit on this podcast. Yeah. Yeah, okay. That is it. Yeah. So, and I stand by that. I still, even like going over my notes right before this podcast again, I was like, I can't believe that fucking, I can't believe we got that. that that this type of story finally in this show it's just you know it was a neat little surprise we feasted let me say that no morsels here no crumbs yeah full meals i am going to go back i am going to say i think season two might have a better run okay but not no peaks anywhere near as high, but a longer, these are decent episodes run.

Because it starts with the Cadbane arc, and then it goes right into the genosis, the Second Battle of Geonosis arc, and then it goes into, like, the deserterter, and then the Mandalorian arc. So it's like, there's a great series. It's a good run. Like, it's a good, we didn't know at the time. We thought better things were ahead of us. I don't know, though, but this is like, but this is all, like, max volume.

100%. I'm not saying that it's not. You're saying total number of episodes strung together good. But that's probably longer. Yes, what I'm saying is, I have not healed from D Squad and Younglings yet, is really what I'm saying. Is it like, when I think about season five, I'm always going to be the person. It's like, it's like when someone has a really stellar beginning of a season and then they're like, they're really good in the playoffs. And it was like, that's the best season ever.

And you're like, dog, look at the averages to the rest of the season. The whole season, he was trash. Like, they barely even made the playoffs. And so that's kind of how I've, this season barely made the playoffs. They came in on, it came in on a while. card and it happened to get it the highlight reel go crazy it goes crazy it do go crazy but I don't know what's the win loss record I don't want to talk you know what I mean like we're getting it yeah the stats the stats it's dirty it's bad yeah it's messy yeah yeah yeah they might

win the championship but they lost them games by 50 points like you can't be proud I mean you should be proud of these episodes these are great I love it. It's so good. I just wanted to defend the integrity of season two. Anyway. I respect that. Season two-truther out here now.

Did the show look like dog shit? Absolutely. I'm here to make everybody mad. If you worked on the show at any point, I want to say your shit was trash, but also that I loved it. That's the point. So what do we start?

So I'll just take you through the summary real quick, because we're going to go through some detail. Again, go watch these. If you haven't watched these, go watch these are a watch. These are a watch for sure. We've only ever said that about this in the previous arc. Isn't that right? Again, that's because in the context of everybody, I know so many people who got through either D-Squod

or barely through younglings or other way around got through younglings but couldn't get through D-Swad or barely got through younglings and we're like, I'm done watching the show. And so this is me being like, I need you to know they actually, this is again why I'm rating the season mid-disquered. No, it's not in mid. It's a good season, but it has... It almost breaks you.

It almost breaks you. It almost breaks you. Yeah. It rewards Faith. It goes in the line from the last arc. Oh, God. Faith has been the greatest... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Something like that. Only when it's been broken. Do, da, da, da, da, da, that. Okay. All right. So, summary. Yeah, so it starts off with all the episodes we sort of pointed out. All of them are named after Hitchcock films.

And for once, it's not entirely. a whiff in terms of like trying to call their shot. In sabotage, Asoka and Anakin are called away from fighting to the Jedi Temple to investigate a bombing that occurred there and it is feared that a Jedi

might be the culprit. And along the way they learn that even their presence as part of the investigation might be inflammatory because like people are turning against the Jedi. The public perception of the Jedi and the war is looming large in the background of this episode. They do

unmask the bomber, a dissident turned terrorist, but in short order she is taken by Tarkin to be tried under Republic law at the start of the Jedi who knew too much. Before she goes to trial, she makes her quest to see Asoka and reveals that actually she didn't do this alone. She was aided by a Jedi, and now she's afraid she is in grave danger. And naturally, just before she can say the name, as As Soka is standing there being like, was it? She is force choked and killed.

Asoka is immediately accused of the crime and arrested. And then after being in herself for a bit, she wakes up from a nap and she finds someone who's left herself basically unlocked. There's an access card right outside. And thinking it's Anakin, she begins to make her escape and finds the halls littered with dead clones. At that point, it is like, she, is caught making this escape, and a massive manhunt ensues for what everyone now believes

is a rogue, a rogue Jedi. Anakin and Rex arrived just in time to join the hunt, trying to make sure she is not killed by any of the guards. Anakin does eventually corner her, and they do the whole fugitive scene at the mouth of a sewer grate over a bottomless pit, and Anakin begs her to come in and trust the legal process. She asks him to trust her and vanishes into the lower depths of Corrassant to conduct her own investigation in to catch a Jedi. The Jedi Council has rapidly become convinced that there has to be fire behind all the smoke. They dispatch Plokoon and, with some controversy, Anakin as well, to continue trying to find Asoka in the lower depths.

Asoka stumbles across, well she's caught by, Assange Ventress, who thinks she might be able to net a nice bounty for Asoka, but in about 30 seconds of conversation, no Jedi mind trick required. Asoka plays the, we're not so different, you and I card. And Assange immediately says, damn, I never thought about it that way, and becomes Asoka's partner for this stage of the investigation. Asoka calls up Berris Offi, her old Padawan friend, to ask for help investigating the crime, and Barris comes through with a tip about

where the bombing materials from the attack might be located. Ventress and Asoka split up. Asoka goes to investigate the place alone, and as Ventress is leaving, she gets her ass kicked by a mysterious

figure. Okay, so this arc has a problem, which is that it's the guest casting problem. Whenever you see a character that it's too big to do nothing, like I will admit, it's kind of like just blaring throughout all this. So there's some suspense that maybe isn't really fully realized because there's one teeny little issue.

Anyway, someone, after beating up Ventress and stealing her lightsabers and the cool little mask she started wearing, does the same to Asoka. And once again, Asoka, he's called, by Anakin and the clones in the now surrounded by the equipment used to conduct this attack and sent to face trial in the wrong Jedi. In the wrong Jedi, she is so that she can be tried by the Republic.

She is expelled from the Jedi Order. And Anakin requests that Padmay be her advocate during the tribunal process at the Senate. While the Senate is convening to consider, or at least this tribunal of the Senate is convening to hear Asoka's case, Anakin continues his investigation, and in short order, figures out that, of course, it was Barris. He finds Ventress, who immediately tells him that the last person Asoka talked to was Barris Offey. He confronts Barris, who immediately gives the game away. They have a big fight, and he perp walks her into. to the courtroom just as a guilty verdict is about to be read, uh, sentencing Asoka.

The end, right? That's it. Then she goes free and joins the rejoin. No? No. Turns out. Offie gives her, gives her speech of, uh, you know, you're out of order. The entire system's out of order. And then the, the, the, I'm going to jump ahead for one second is T. So we, for people later. The star Wars.com trivia section about that speech says the following words. Barris' rebuke against the Jedi Order

though they led to dark actions is a hundred percent true. What? Star Wars.com. Wow. Star Wars.com, welcome. I didn't know you were listening Star Wars.com.

Hello? Search the patron. Search the patron. There is a real, we're going to get into it when we get into some Poloni zones. There was a real, like, the prestige moment in the way they talk about these episodes, which is very funny. So go ahead and finish Rob. But my point is, it literally says that about the things Marizofi says. Anyway.

So with Asoka now cleared, we get a truly, and we'll discuss this in detail, we get an amazing scene with the Jedi Council as they offer to reinstate Asoka. Asoka refuses and walks out of the Jedi Council. Anakin chases after her and asks her to come back and says that the Jedi, the order is her life, she's throwing it away. And she again reiterates that she is not coming back in. She has to do this herself. And Anakin reveals that he too often thinks

about wanting to walk away from the order. And the Soca, with a final look at him, says, I know, and leaves the Jeddah Order behind. And again, you should have walked with her. Grap away with her. What are you doing? Go on. Go find Ventris. Go get Ventris. Go into the sunset.

Go to the sunset. The end. Oh, wow. Star Wars ended here. This is such an interesting one thing for the series. It would be so awesome if it did. Also, I do appreciate a correct understanding of what I know. means in Star Wars, which is the most important thing you have to tell me.

Of course I already know. Of course I already do that. We're friends. We're tight. We know each other. Like, I'm not. It's I know. It's I know.

But it's not a bad I know. No, it's not good. I know. It's like, I know. Yeah. I know. I know. So, I mean, you know, do we want to get into it?

Yeah, I guess so. All right. So first of all, opens with the Nemoidians finally got it. This day happens in passing. It opens. It's not it bad. The separatists are just like, we're done playing footsie with these fucking turncoats. Now we're bringing the hammer.

And so Cato Namoidia is just getting obliterated by like a fleet of separatists. Dog, the trade federation is you. What you do? Like, we, I mean, we've talked about the, there is a distinction there, but it really does feel like the separatists have finally been like, all right, we got to go mask off. We have to lay siege to the trade federation's HQ, quote unquote. So that we can all just, like, be on the Zoom and, like, have cameras off. Like, we just need to all, like, be able to, like, meet up and not, you know, worry about it. So.

We're going to stop pretending we all hate new gun ray. We all love new gun ray. We love this guy. We need him here. It looks great. Yeah. It's incredible they found time in this arc to just sneak in a sick opening act space battle thing. Entirely different architectural style to the, uh, to the, uh, to the, uh, to the, uh, to the, uh,

the cities they're fighting over. Yeah, this is, I think we've been to Canada Namoidia once, which was Clovis, Rush Clovis, was here. This is where they came to meet Rush Clovis, Padma's X, because we talked about the cities are built on these, like, hanging, like, bridges between these mountainous backdrops, basically. It's very cool. It's like there's a terrace between these different things. But yeah, all new architectural style. we get the buzz droids that will show up in Revenge of the Sith. And, and I guess this is, like, this becomes increasingly obvious throughout all this,

but it was, like, the first thing I noticed, which is that suddenly Anakin is piloting a ship that looks a lot like a Thai fighter. And this is literally the ship he will pilot in Revenge of the Sith, too. And you're not wrong. There are other, there's another, there's a police vessel later, Rob, that literally has tie fighter wing. Oh, yeah, the transports they're using. The transports literally have the tie wings on it.

yep so yes we're in that design we're the the subtext of this is not subtext but like the the the B story of this the B plot of a lot of this stuff really the kind of like design B plot is oh the empire is here again and again and again and again all of the architecture all of the musical cues all of the the red crib the crimson guard for Palpatine like it's empire time Tarkin is here for real so yeah definitely there's a great gag here the like Anakin can't tell how bad his own ship is. He's like, yeah, I guess I'm having some, there's some more some buzz droids on me.

I don't know. I can't see them. And Asoka asks her two to like tilt the ship up so that she can get a good look at how many there are. And it's like, it's like pulling a log up and there's just a billion bugs under there. It's so funny. It works really well. The thing about this whole arc is there's a lot of one, there are a lot of comedic moments. But as well, this arc in a different tone is like a goofy Scooby-Doo, like Rut-Roe, like Zoinks arc.

But because Star Wars takes it so seriously and we know the like, especially the final, final act of the arc, I think really puts it into like a, you know, a very significant and meaningful place. But without that, you could see how you'd be like, all right, that was a wacky couple days or whatever. And then you move on. But, yeah, I really enjoyed that ship moment. And this will come up in a philoni zone. It's a tough situation where it's like, I want to show all the phallone zones, and I might just trim them down in the edit. We'll see. But in the one of the pheloni zones, he does talk about how they, this is really, this is,

The person who wrote this is Charles, Charles Murray, who comes to Clone Wars from a long history of doing procedurals. This is the first thing Charles has written for Clone Wars before that. And he goes on to write out, like, one more arc and maybe some rebel stuff. But besides that, he both wrote and produced on, I mean, he cut his teeth on third watch, I kind of like mid-low, late 90s, early 2000s, like cop and firemen and EMT procedural. But then we'd go on to also work on Sons of Anarchy. Again, there's a big Sons of Anarchy crossover with the show at this point, which is interesting. Tassel, Criminal Minds, Daybreak.

And then we go on to write for and actually executive produced the entire season of Luke Cage. And then I think he also did some production on Inhumans, I want to say. So he's now in that Marvel system in a real way. So, you know, the thing that he ends up saying in this, in the, in the Falloni zone is basically like, hey, George wanted to do this as a procedural. I don't know how to write a procedural. Thankfully, we hired this guy who knows how to write a procedural, and he does. It has all that, that has that rhythm that is the, like, there's a comedic undercurrent to everything because there is banter and there is interviewing and there is all of that. that and that it's like the third time they've tried this i think too like we like there was

the if if not more yeah uh so i was like that's the other thing i'm sort of stunned that like oh you guys finally figured out how i like do a good like detective story in clone wars uh without it being because when they introduced that shitty little uh gendarmery detective can divo yeah yeah he was such a clown it just didn't like the mystery wasn't very good and was playing it for laugh so often that it just wasn't it wasn't coming together but you know in fairness they have four episodes to work with here. And I think that's the other thing that hit me is like, okay, this justifies the switch to these longer arcs is they can set the table and then like play around with the like scenario and the cast of characters in a way that like

they had to introduce and do an investigation and resolve it with Handivo in the space of like 24 minutes. Like that's just not like even the decisions they were making aside that was not going to work. I guess the Sunubei stuff was not bad. That was a kind of a fun. Yeah, that was fun. This episode does have its gimmick joke detective also. He's just not as annoying. Oh, Rousseau? Yeah, Rousseau's not a joke. We're standing Rousseau.

You were standing Rousseau? Oh, yeah, no, I'm a S.I. Miami joke. He's a S.I. Miami joke, Rob. Yes, he does. Yes, he drops the sunglasses. And his name is Rousseau. It's David Caruso. It doesn't matter. Okay. I think it's corny. He doesn't know who David Caruso is. I'm on Team Corny, too. I don't know.

Rob? Rob doesn't know who David Caruso is? No, no, no, no, the robot, the droid. He's living in a different life. He should not be barred by these things. I don't know. David Caruso, Natalie, David Caruso is an actor whose final kind of claim to fame, I guess I would say, is being the lead on CSI Miami, where he famously in the 2000s would end every opening sequence with a bad pun, and then he'd put on or take on off his sunglasses dramatically and then the who's who are you or one of the other who songs

that was all the different c s i things would start playing and it was like a big dramatic swell but like very corny like procedurally corny right like purposefully a little corny he doesn't do it here he does the the sunglasses flip but he doesn't really do puns which i think was a smart decision that's why i don't just i don't hate him why not just go all the way why not just go all the way Well, no, so because I think the cool thing here is, so, like, Asoka rescues Anakin from this plane crash, basically. Also, fun little gag here. R2, waiting until he's out of sight to eject and ride back onto the plateau, and, like, clearly just decided to give them all a scare. And Asoka's pissed when he comes back out of the cloud cover and just sort of lands, and she had that beat where she thought, like, he was dead.

and he clearly is really delighted by that. I love it. But they can't even stick around to finish watching the separatists just like obliterate Cato Namoidia because they get the call that whatever you're doing, we got a bigger thing here, which is that someone just bombed the hangar at the temple. And we need you to come back.

And they explain that they need Anakin and Asoka to lead an investigation, which I'm kind of like, Anakin, really? Like, I couldn't pick. Everyone kind of knows he just don't have it up here like that, you know? I didn't, and then, of course, the reason it has to be him is because he wasn't there.

Like, they know that too, but he's the only one who cured and planted the bomb. And so he and Asoka have to do this investigation, and they are partnered with a little droid named Rousseau, who I kind of dig him because he's just like, Let me run the investigation, especially because he's the one to break it to them that nobody likes Jedi anymore. Yeah, but he's kind of being, like, slightly herbie about it.

Say more. I just feel like he doesn't have to be all that. Like, his whole vibe is just the vibes are off. I don't like him. Like, you could come to this with, like, an air of collaboration. operation like we let's you know put our heads together and get to the bottom of this a lot of people died let's figure out what went down and he's just like I'm gonna handle this one if you don't mind if you're a droid you got to handle the Jedi like that yeah I guess if you're

one of the rare droids who has that ability who is allowed to talk to a person a human in that way I mean make make use of it yeah talk shit to the Jedi ever go for that every time like Like, if you, if you've got the, like, social protection, go for it. Go do it. I do like that he has his own little crew of other smaller versions of himself. That's very fun. Yeah. It's very good.

So, wait, I have a question. Who, when they first announced that someone had bombed the Jedi Temple, who did you think it was? Did you have, like, a gut instinct? I've known about this arc first. Right. And I've known. And I've known, sadly. Which is, like, my most interesting thing about this has been the...

Seeing it flushed out. Seeing it flushed out, but I was really curious to know if y'all knew who it was, like, when you knew who it was. Which is a separate question. The answer of Natalie's first. I, right here, wrote down Cadbane. Oh. Because if somebody goes, who could successfully bomb the Jedi Temple? Yeah, Bain could have done this.

I was like, I have one answer to Cadbane. Cadbane. Cadbane. Good. 100%. More Jedi would be dead, but, yeah. Cadbane could have done this. Sure.

I was truly just on the edge of my seat I was in a roller coaster by You were hands up Yeah So I couldn't Because I'm pretty sure Do we see Luminara Die in

Revenge of the Seth? We must Can't remember in that montage But like she did occur to me there Because the thing that this sort of held out Is the war is becoming more unpopular There are people even the Jedi Council

that are increasingly convinced that all of this is a huge mistake. We shouldn't even be doing this. And so I had a moment when I was thinking like that I could most easily associate with Luminara but like that's,

you know, which I guess maybe is my subconscious being like, ah, but that's going to be bearish. You know, it's going to be bearish and not going to be able to sit with that feeling

I was going to act on it. But that's where my thoughts went. I just couldn't actually, I also just couldn't believe. that Luminara would do it. So I was more like, I was more with Allie there where I was like, oh man, like, who could this be? Who could have?

And I'm glad it wasn't someone introduced. I also had an inklet, I, like, had a brief moment where I thought it could be Sivo Diaz. Oh, interesting. That'd be fun. I was like, oh, are we finally going to get some, like, Duku, like, people, you know, leaving the order for Duku kind of vibes. Maybe. Maybe, no?

I mean, Sevo Diaz is in the wind right now, right? Remember? No one knows where he is. He made that order for those clones, and then he died, right? Isn't that the thing? Siobo Dias died a year ago. I don't know that I don't think, right? It's like Duku, like, found him and, like, killed him on this lie.

No, when, we've had this conversation before, when Obi-Wan goes to buy, it goes to not buy. When he goes to Camino to hunt down, uh, Fet, uh, Jango, he has to be like, uh, master Cipos Diaz died a year ago. That's right. So, anyway. I mean, I mean, Quinlan Voss. Quinlan Voss. Okay. Yeah, that'd be great too.

He would have just Samson at the Jedi Temple. Yeah. He doesn't need a bomb. He is a bomb. You know? I did love the sort of walk-through sequence and hearing Anna can talk about, like, I can still hear the screams. Then they go into this conversation where Assook is kind of like, how, like, how, How could somebody, you know, bomb a place for this sacred?

Like, how could this have happened? And it's Anakin, right, that says not every Jedi agrees with this war, Asoka. There are many political idealists among us. And then Asoka goes, but a traitor? And he says, one can easily become another. Huh. Just a curious little comment from my boy, Anakin. But he does add, remember Count Duke?

Duku and General Krell. I just want to note, I don't think Krell was much of an idealist as we saw. Duku, definitely. But it's interesting that Anakin thinks of Krell as an idealist, because does that mean that's how people talk about Krell in the Jedi Order? He was always such an idealist. He got driven to the dark side. Maybe that's an easier, you know, justification for his turn than...

A big unanswered question is, like, how much anyone knew what Krell was like. Because, like, Annikin is intimidated by him and overawed by him. But, like, did any of the way we saw him interact with the clones ever come through to, like, his peers? Because that's, like, that's the thing. You'd easily imagine Crowell was, like, your quintessential, like, abuser, right? Where it's, like, just completely different face to, like, victims. And then a face that makes anything they say completely, like, impossible to credit. when revealed.

So, like, Crow, we just don't, we just don't know enough. Like, I could imagine, yeah, maybe there was a face where it's like, man, he was just too good, and that's probably why he went bad.

Yeah, that's it. And not that his ideal was he thought clones should lick dirt off our shoes for forever. Yeah. Yeah. And then we do get the protest, right? Like, they track down, like,

okay, there's this one guy who seems like he's tied to this in some way. It's like a big penis. It looks like a big penis. He looks like a bunch. He looks like some flesh in bad shapes, is what I guess I'd say. We don't ever see his, I guess we see his face briefly on that data pad, right? Yeah, on the data pad.

And we find his hand, which is how they know it's him. They find a hand. It's like, ah, this guy. That seemed like a funny little gag for Anakin. It is. You think you got it bad. This guy's just the hand. and they go outside on their way out and see a row of clones with riot shields in the red and the white

and then a Jedi overlooking them and a group of these new Jedi like guardian defender temple guards bro obsessed with the uniform with the mask with the like this is the most co-tor shit we've seen ever in terms of design you know it's so good my new we don't even see that there are light sabers yet and then we will later we're gonna say you're new. They're so good but my new answer to like all of the like if you were a Jedi who you would be. If you were a Jedi what would you wear? What kind of light saber would

you have? One of these motherfuckers. I'm a prison guard I'm sorry to say. They're so they're so good. And then so Anakin just goes out there and is like interviewing the Jedi who's guarding this protest. Anakin's not slick. What Anakin does is approach

this approach to the guy and be like here's who we're looking for. Here's who we're looking for Here's a photo of him It sure would be good If you or anyone else Could give us information It's not

But I mean maybe Anakin Was doing that on purpose It was like, you know I think that was his play And his wife His wife appears I mean we have to say really quick The protest

People with holographic signs Of clones with no With like the no symbol through them. People chanting stop the violence. And I do have translations of some of these signs. The signs say things like the Jedi are corrupt and

stop cloning violence. Stop cloning violence is so good. That's such a good line, bro. I need a bumper sticker with that. I know that person. I know that person for sure. It's like someone who's like politics are good but they're like running for like state

Senate and they've kind of gotten a little corny. You know what I mean? Like, politics ruins everybody. Like, politics makes you talk in hashtags. It does. I mean, you're right. Yeah, stop clothing violence, but also. Stop being corny.

So good. Mm-hmm. Well, and yeah. Yeah, so, like, she's like, that's my husband because, you know, yeah, he flashes the big hollow, like, up there for everyone to see. And, you know, she has no idea. There's no idea where he is. And that's when that's when Rousseau finds the hand.

Because at first, though, just like, you know where your husband is. Oh, right. And they just let her go. And then they, Rousseau explains that actually, this isn't true. They question her right after this. They question her immediately after this. Yeah, but then she leaves. That's why she's back at her apartment later.

They just go, Rob, it goes right from that scene to, oh, you're right. That's not her apartment. You're right. You're right. Yeah. Yes. Okay. So how do they get your car to begin with?

that someone, there's a tip. That's what it was. Someone was just like, oh, I bet it was Jekar. Yeah. They're questioning, like, maintenance people who were in the blast. Well, yeah, that's the first thing. That's how they get on to him. Okay.

And then it's when Rousseau finds the hand that he figures out what the bomb delivery method was, which was, um, jacar was covered in nanodroids. Uh-huh. A technology we'd never really heard of before, but, and this is weird, he just happens to been like a foremost authority on nanoweaponry for the republic as he worked as a munitions expert for the for the for the for the temple so they go to his house and we get a really cool tense like hey you ever seen a fincher movie we get we get that whole like tense creepy like mundane but like really spooky environment as they go through it they're

finding, like, literature, like, about, like, protest literature. Um, we get a great slow, like, Asoka, see, is it, who is it who finds the remains of the, like, nanobots down the, uh, down the disposal. Yeah, it's Assoca. Yeah. And Anakin's finding the campaign lineage. Yeah. And Anakin's just like, there's a bit where he's, like, lifting up the painting to check

if there's, like, a safe behind it or something. I just, it's such a small detail. It doesn't go anywhere. But it's just like, all right. Here's the type of art that is in these people's house. And now it's military art. Yeah. Uh-huh.

It's like geometric shapes. It's like abstract star cruisers, you know, which is so good. Or Star Destroyers, rather. Big fan. We have skipped over some important stuff because I do want to say during the first questioning scene before they let it go. Beres is walking in the background behind Anakin. I don't know if you'll watch this twice and caught this.

It's so good because she looks at the camera as the door closes behind Anakin as a way to, like, intimidate Leda. Uh-huh. It fucking rules. If you know she's guilty, it's a joy to watch because she is constantly doing the shit, the entire arc. And it's just a little treat for a rewatch. This is also where we get good lines like, do you have any idea what someone has to go through to work at your Jedi Temple? not just anyone can walk into your precious temple yep it's really good

Asoka also notes when they're like walking into this rundown apartment you would think that working for the Jedi would pay better I was like dude shut the fuck up like you're the Jedi bro but it's the Padme thing like none of the surface dwellers on Coruscant have any idea no clue what is happening it's like no

this guy works at the temple where does he go after work I don't know and I don't care but I don't care two other small things here one is there's that scene with the Jedi like counsel basically being like hey we're getting lots of pressure on from the Senate about investigating this and we are doing our best to like just handle it as an internal matter which becomes a recurring thing here which is a great one because it's like they're wrong about this like this should be a public investigation lots of civilians die I think what's great about this is they're wrong and they're very right. And this is the way.

I mean, they know what's going to happen. They're right about what the consequences will be, for sure. Well, and also, like, there is no legitimate civilian oversight at this point either. And that's what we like, it's like, we'll get there. But like, the thing is, it's not a, like, it's not a criminal proceeding. It's already a military. Everything now is a tribunal. Everything is a military affair.

Right. Right. And so, like, the interesting thing now is, like, there are now basically two illegitimate. armed power grabs happening inside the Republic. And one of them feels very bad about it because they have built themselves up a mythology about what good guys they are. And the other one is like extremely ready to just take the world by the throne.

Right. Like, who do you think is going to win? Well, the second very small thing is on the way down to Lett is at home, there's just a very brief transitional shot of them in the coop going from higher up to lower down. and the sunset is hitting and it's like it's them in their film noir mode and it's just

I love it so much night is drawing in the sun is setting behind them yeah lose the the sight of the sky behind them as they get deeper into the like yellow energy light source deeper into corassan I love it it's great corson never been better than this arc honestly I'll note really quick they developed a lot of this stuff along with the 1313 video game team because that was in production at a similar time. Yeah, because I was sitting there, I was like, yeah, 13, 13. That, man, if only we could have gotten that, because this is tight. Yep.

And so, like, a lot of the things in terms of visual design and places were literally co-developed with that team or were drawing out work that they'd already done. And that game just never came out. And so this is, like, the closest we get. You'll note later on, all of the deep underground action takes place in 1312 to 1350. Flores, 1312, or levels, 1312 to 1315. And it's like, yeah, it's supposed to be that's the same place that game took place, and you're going to be able to be like, oh, shit, there's that train, there's that, da, da, da, da, da, da. Like, that was the intent the whole time, and, like, that game just didn't.

One more Star Wars project that never came out. It's astonishing how often they fucked up making a Star Wars game since the prequels, really. Just the, like, just go, just take the shot. Just take the shot. But no. Yeah. Yeah, so as they conclude the search, Leto walks in and asks, the wife of this guy walks in and asks what they're doing. Anakin tries to not be super-menacing, kind of, but still is like, you should come with us and explain what's going on.

And I thought she was going to run right then. She plays it smart. She waits until their guard is down and they get out on the street, and then she bolts. And we get a quick foot chase through this neighborhood. She's cut off, she's captured, and ominously warns the Jedi. They have no idea what is going on before she's led away. Running means you know more than you're telling us. Famous last words.

Nobody ever said he was dead. That's like where they get her. That cracked me off. Yeah. You said that he turned it to a bomb. The Star Wars.com trivia is so defensive about this. Really? It straight up has a thing where it's like, I'm going to find the exact words because

it was that funny for me to be like, all right, y'all, y'all are... The message boards must have been lit up. This is exactly what I think, Allie. I fully believe that the message boards were, like, trying to hold them on this one, because the example, okay, here it is. It's the last trivia entry on czarwards.com for this episode. When in snaring letter with her own words, Anakin points out that no one said that, that no one said to her that Jacar was dead, and he, dot, dot, dot, and he's right.

What Asoka said was, quote, someone made Jakar the bomb. Unless you were tipped off that the nanodroids were in Jakar's bloodstream, that phrase would ordinarily mean that someone created a bomb for Jakar. Okay. Actually, so I will say, I didn't think they got in it wrong. Like, listening to it, I was like, but it was the confidence of the statement was ridiculous. Exactly, yes. Of course he's dead.

We all know he's dead. He's missing after a bombing. Yes, exactly. But the, the, I need to go back and listen to here. Does she say, someone made Jakar the bomb? Or does she say, someone made Jakar the bomb? Because if it's the latter, you don't get off scoffrey on this one. You do not beat the charges, Star Wars.

Well, it's just the most, like, Anakin's been reading his encyclopedia Browns to get ready for this case. And so he's like, I know how to catch someone in a lie. I'll reveal a piece of information that only the true killer could know so yeah he goes nobody ever said he's dead running proves it was you people were killed because of you and then there's an interesting interaction between uh-huh anakin and isoko in which anikin's like uh this war is becoming less and less popular every day it persists

and then Asoka's like what if it had been a Jedi Oh I want to stay back on the actual The actual arrest Okay Because the two other

Very interesting things One is Asoka puts her finger In Lett's face And let it grabs her wrist And pushes it down Which I think is like I don't respect Jedi at all

I don't I'm not afraid of you You've lost whatever fucking mindshare you had And the second thing is Both Anakin and Asoka go dark side mode in this little alleyway interrogation. Both of them, like, get scowly.

They start yelling with like yelling voices, like frighten somebody yelling voices. And it is, they're in sync. They, you know, this is it. Like, Asoka is Anakin's Padawan in all the ways that we're about to see that to be true. And isn't in the one way that's different, which is, we've already mentioned, she will fucking walk away. he never could um so i i just i think that arrest scene is very convincing at being like here is how these two people have wound up very similar so but yes i wish we had more glimpses of that like a lot

like i i i get how we're here now i do i just i do wish i felt this coming a little bit more along the way in terms of like seeing more reflections of him and her i mean i think the the the full the most extent of that is like her being you know somewhat impulsive or kind of like going off but but it's always within like a military strategy vibe it's always within like you know trying to solve it's not as emotional it's way more like in terms of how they approach problem solving it feels like they're kind of similar she echoes him doesn't she force choke somebody not that long ago when was that did she do that she definitely had some episode where she was the one maybe it was a while ago was that with um that was back in season two

wasn't it that was um sometimes you force rags all somebody which is good i mean right that's allowed obviously um no going back to uh it might have been new gun ray when they were transporting new gun right oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but that was like that was like early so you know that was they drop it for a long time more than anything. Yeah. Wait a second. Wait a second. Isn't the whole deal there?

That's where Luminara is like, Asoka, what the fuck are you doing? And she goes in undertone, I wasn't actually going to do it. I wasn't actually going to do anything. So I think she stopped short of actually, like, conducting the assault. She just does the, like, you know, puts the phone book on the table, basically. But for Luminara, like, there's not enough daylight between those two things. Oh, you know what? It wasn't a force choke.

It was a lightsaber. the throat and a all fucking gut you type maneuver meanwhile Mace is like I'm going to loot this person's mind vault using the force anyone to get in on this God

like fucking psychonaut style just like trapezing right on in so any of their notes on this one what else was what else there's a small there's one other small thing that I mean one Anakin has the worst

the worst argument ever, which I think Natalie you were about to talk about, was their final conversation in this episode. Yeah. Which was him saying, I think it's him. He's the one who he says, I think we can guess her motives easy enough. Is that him or is that Osoka? He said, I think it's him. He says, I think we can guess her motives easily. Oh, no.

This is Mace saying this. I think we can guess her motives easily enough. Public opinion is swinging against the Jedi. that is becoming clear. The war is becoming lessenless popular every day. It persists. And that's when Asoka and Anakin walk away like you were saying. And Asoka's like, what if it was a Jedi?

That would be bad. And his answer is, they're going to be Jedi who disappoint us, Isoka. But as long as we know there are a good Jedi who fight for what's right, it makes it all worthwhile. If you say so. Think about all the good apples. Think about all the good apples. and there's the tiniest detail that again like I think that the animation has just gotten so good and there's such a devotion to like how can we sneak a little bit more in as they zoom out

from this like walk and talk in this broad Jedi hallway one of the last things you see is just a Jedi youngling showing off or demonstrating lightsaber technique in the middle of the hallway and be at Kiyadi Mundi and another it might be Kit Fisto I don't remember who the other Jedi is are just like watching him swing his lightsaber around and he's like a child he's like seven

and it's like I mean that kid's gonna die but also here it is this is what the Jedi are is like show me your lightsaber technique in the middle of the hallway you're a warrior Rob

and just everything here is that like the last rays of the golden sun like falling on the Jedi temple throughout with this entire arm it's like again it is it is golden hour for the Jedi

It's like in Revent of the Sith. Yeah. If rock star, if the rock star teams that are like obsessed with like the L.A. Noron Redded Redemption style rock rock star teams, like, ah, the end of an era made any Star Wars thing, it would be this arc. It would be this. Oh, the part where he confronts Barris and like, yeah, a hundred percent doubt. I need the most dramatic blind in. People of Star Wars don't even have blinds like this that off.

And she's like, oh, here's my prayer room. I want to face the fading sun and throw light. across my face. Oh, my God. So the next episode opens on a really cool scene. It almost feels, again,

so many things feel like the last of these. It is a state funeral for the fallen Jedi who were killed in the bombing. And there's Palpatine. There are all the Jedi we know, and we know most of them will be dead soon, right? It's just a gallery people are going to eat it during Revenge of the Sith.

And the six, the six caskets are arrayed above, like, their little, their cool little incinerator thing where the bodies are turned into beams of light that fly up toward the... Is that what was happening? Yeah. I thought it was just like a light effect. They fucking... What?

Wait, hold on. They did not do live cremation. They did it. They did it right there. They just put lighter fluid over Quigon. they're like well quigon's dead you're right they did they did incinerate quigon right yeah but that's because they were out and about

and because the body's just a vessel you're not really dead like that's the that's the other part of Yoda's whole eulogy is don't be attached to the corporeal right luminous beings we are it's an awesome ceremony cost of fortune could have housed could have housed that Beaumani for for years

what they spent on this effect but but still it's a hell of an effect and Barris is like oh damn One of my friends was killed there That's that's Tutsu Mara He taught me how to hold my lightsaber When I watched this for the second time I was like you're fucking kidding me

You were out of your mind It's so good What actually happened Tutsomara mansplained to Barris How to No you're doing it wrong And Barris is like Some bad

Yeah I'm gonna remember that I will kill you I'm going to commit murder against you God so yeah live for the living Jedi

we must live through us forever they will always good to take that six more months yeah and then Eularen

sorry not you Lauren Tarkin Barris Tarkin Barris Anakin and Asoka go for a little jaunt out of the funeral. And Tarkin seems to think that this is a military matter. This is not a Jedi matter, actually, because clones were killed.

And because clones were killed, the Senate and the military need to get involved. And he says something also interesting where he says, an attack on the Jedi is an attack on the Senate. And I was like, is it now? Uh-huh. It works that direction. It's like what he's saying is, we've enveloped you in a really, like, and that means that you're, you're an organ of the body of the state. Right.

Which means the state has ultimate jurisdiction, exactly, which I love. I like Anakin coming in here saying it's not right for us to be judge a jury over a citizen of the Republic. Are you kidding me? I loved it. If you say so. Now, if these were non-citizens, like, for instance, Tuscan Raiders off a tattooing out of rim world, then it's okay to be judge and jury. Yeah. And executioner, if you're going to be.

If you feel like it, if it's like the vibe. You learn from your mistakes. Right. In one time in his life, he was judge and Jerry. And now he thinks to myself, maybe that was a bad idea. Uh-huh. We'll see where he is in six months. Anyway, remember, uh, Soka, revenge is not the judge.

I weigh because Asoka Asoka says if let is guilty she's guilty She's guilty and she should be dealt with Which is again Yeah, Asoka's with her whole chest She's edgy She's She's spent

I don't know I don't know where she's been But she's She's just In a It's just such a fascinating thing Like to a degree Like the weird thing is

Again in different context wow this is actually good the Jedi are being made accountable to the Senate the state has like authority over them they are not just a law unto themselves cool but it is all being done through the guys of Tarkin as an extension of Palpatine and so when Asoka's

like fuck that we're the Jedi like we have our own criminal proceedings we will deal with this you're also sitting there being like you're damn right everyone listen to Asoka they're the law around here this is a Jedi business get the fuck out of here Wilhofe meanwhile

Now, Barris, again, like, not the most subtle thing. Barris is like, don't you get it, Asoga? Or something that nothing's going to change around here. She's so goth. She's so. But also, again, watch her eyes during this whole conversation. If you know she's guilty, she is like, hmm, okay, I'm going to look over here. Yeah, what should happen to whoever did this?

I couldn't say. Yeah, like, what would you do if you would. found the person like what would you say um there's a brief a brief uh comment that the that tarkin makes where he says that the chancellor feels very strongly that the jedi be removed from as many military matters as possible you yourself said that your peacekeepers not soldiers and then he and anna can have this little aside where Anakin goes in ways she's still very young like excusing Asoka's behavior for like her being

you know still a teen or whatever and being a Padawan still essentially Um There's also that Asoka pushback to Tarkin right Which is why I think Anakin's apologizing for her Where she's just like

I hope Chancellor Palpatine knows what he's doing And Tarkin is like I assure you Chancellor Palpatine doesn't do anything Without a strategy Which is true it's pretty true we've asked that question of how much does he know

and it feels increasing like he knows a lot also he was like doing spit kicks last week and now he's like in the black courtroom robes I was like I'd love to see you thank you for coming to the scene I love when he's there at the scene so in short order

Asoka is called to have this interview with Leta as the only person. The Jedi are trying to talk about their next move in the war and Asoka is summoned to interview Letta and she goes to this military headquarters slash prison and it's like one of these things where like that comment the Tarkin made about like the chancellor wants you increasingly out of military matters You look at this, and it's basically like a Wolfenstein-ass fortress meets, like, feudal Japanese. It's very, actually, like, kind of Blade Runner in some ways, like the Zigurot style, you know, Tyrell headquarters thing.

But the entire thing is, like, huge, like, giant scale statues of clones, monumental walls, et cetera. And you look at this thing and with what Tarkin has just... said, and it does kind of feel like while we've been away, like hanging out with the Jedi children and the droids like in the void, this has gotten really out of hand and really out of control of the Jedi. They've got a weird red flag flying over the base. Those red prison guard clones we saw. They're everywhere now. It's looking pretty fashy at the prison right now. We're in the transformation for sure. I do, I did just realize that. that we did not, in fact, go to the first Filoni zone.

And I'm going to skip, like, half of it, because I already summarized the stuff about working with Charles Murray on the writing. Charles Murray is the writer for this, and he's the person who came out of, like, doing lots of TV procedural stuff. But what I do want to go into as we start talking about Jedi public perception and the turn of militarism, et cetera, we should watch the end of the Theloni zone because this is where I really think we start to see

the beginning of the prestige happening, the big, very proud of how they've taken their story in different directions, let's say. So, okay. Three, two, one. Over the years in the Clone Wars, we've shown that there are, groups of people that question

what the Jedi are doing. Why are they fighting a war? The Lurman do this. Stop it now. The Tweed of Champsendula does this. Camson Dula does this. Ceteen does it. Queen. Well, all these things kind of slowly setting up

those were the three times. Yeah. This is why are the Jedi fighting this war? Knocking back martini's like Betty Draper. Being like pacifism. God, Satine with the rifle shooting first. For the first time in the series, we show within the Republic, a group of people protesting the Jedi Order, protesting the war.

Why is this going on? Why hasn't it ended? Why did you create the clones? Great questions. When you see the protests outside the Jedi Temple, you really realize that, wow, even within the citizens, there are people that aren't happy with the Jedi. I need you to come with me.

I thought it was great that George was willing to go that far and let us show. Maybe our heroes can't be painted with such a bright brushing. Maybe they have been compromised. Okay, Russo, you and Asoka should begin the interviews. I would rather interview the witnesses alone. Why? Many of the wounded... I do like this in grace.

A Jedi was behind this explosion. There will be ill will toward you. They'd rather talk to me. So really, we're laying the groundwork and have been throughout the entire series for how you vilify the Jedi order in the minds and the hearts of the people of the Republic. Did this woman say what her reasons were for attacking us? Not yet, but we're working on that. I think we can guess her motives easily enough.

Public opinion is swinging against the Jedi. That is becoming clear. This is a big development, and it's something that as we move forward, you'll see not only a change in the public's perception of a Jedi, but a change in the military that the Jedi have governed. And you start to see in this story arc more than any other we've done the rise of the empire and visuals

that will be what you see the might of the empire being in a new hope and Empire strikes back well waiting you see the end of this one he's got someone better at these the show has grown

and so is Dave's high band's persona ability to pitch yeah uh-huh it's so good so talk to us about Rob describe you know the visuals of this entire place

more than just so the outside of this. We see this facility a lot, right? That's like this whole arc is just going to be around this facility. But like it's out front, it's like a staging place, but the interior is also feels unlike anything we've seen in the Republic before. Fair to say? Yeah. I mean, maybe if we wanted to say we've seen something like it, it is the Jedi prison. Was it the Citadel? Citadel. Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure. And we explicitly in that point talked about the Citadel. now feeling like the Death Star. And this is the same. Really, really well is we approach this thing through Asoka's eyes. And she has to get checked in to talk to the prisoner. And they do a scan.

And they identify she's got a com link and two lightsabers. And it's weird immediately because it doesn't feel right. And of course, it makes sense. You can't just take weapons and gear and talk to a prisoner. But this is a clone demanding a Jedi yield all their equipment before they're allowed to go to this facility. And it's like, the Jedi are respected here. They're guests, but they're not in command, which is also new.

It's like all of this is now, this is independent and apart from the Jedi. This was their army, and now it is not. Also, Doug, why are people doing, like, marching maneuvers outside? Bro. You're on Khoris. That's the, that's all you think, like, why are heavy vehicles out there? Why is there, like, why are they, like, regiments? I mean, yes.

They are playing. March. This is also true. So part of it is they just clearly they want the tableau of like sinister, terrifying military facility, but also you have to think about it as like these are forces for a coup being marshaled. Like these are people under direct command outside the Jedi Order's command who were being like slowly built up on Coruscant. And if they're, you know, the whole like red armor thing, again, originally that was just they were like the prison guards and that still appears to be like technically what they're doing,

but now they're everywhere. And they have like full military formations. And so Asoka goes through this series of like gates and like twisting corridors to go see the prisoner. And, you know, obviously we know how this episode is going to go, the arch she's on, but like they capture really well the sense, anytime you've ever been in a place where they're sensitive facility or there's like a controlled access place, you always have sort of a weird moment where you're like, wow, it feels like almost I couldn't get out now

if I wanted to, right? Like passing through into the secure area. You don't feel like even if you're supposed to be there, you've transgressed some kind of boundary, and you have a moment where you're like, can I get back? Will I be able to recross back to where I was safe and

not in the power of these people? And that is very palpable as Asoka goes in there. And the guards are even sort of joking around like everyone's kind of kind of hoping that someone just like wax this prisoner

and Asoka asked the guards to leave her and talks to you know talks determined and yeah I mean we get the classic Hitchcockian

I have something very important to tell you I didn't do this by myself it was a Jedi but I'm afraid to tell you who it is because like I'm so scared And, like, literally, this is the man who knew too much. Like, literally someone trying to, like, tell the hero an important piece of information, and then, like, blood starts fountening from their chest.

It's great. Yeah. Curiously, though, she does say that she was told that if she ever needed help, Isoka was the Jedi to contact. Mm-hmm. And I have to wonder. I have to wonder if that is a part of the setup. Yes.

or if this was like maybe a bearis extending a hand saying come with come with me can i tell you why i don't think it is i would i wish i could but why would let it also because maybe you'd answer this from yawson too why would let uh in this context go to the person that barris told her that like she might be able to trust because barris is is is mega minding it and and being and just like orchestrating the whole thing and saying okay in other words setting her up right sorry when you say do you believe that barris mind tricked her into believing she could she could trust us or do you think that do you think that leta still trusts i don't think she just the question is where did where did leta hear this about asoka because i just i have a hard time imagining that she heard it from

barris and then thinks that that is information she can act on because she's scared of barris She's like that's the one she's afraid of She is right So then why go to the person who I want You know It feels like Someone else could have told her that

But at least they do But Barris and even though Leta is afraid of Barris they do have a common cause Like they do both hate the Jedi Baris is just the one With you know I think physical Like physical and

Power and can intimidate her into into doing, but at the end of the day they have the same end goal, which is fuck the Jedi. Like, let's you know, bring it down there. Oh, sorry. I mean, sorry. Yeah, they have the same goal and I think

the key here is that she thinks that Asoka will yeah, I don't know. I thought I had it untangled a little bit, but I don't. Because you're right. If she's afraid of Barris hurting her, which she is. Is she afraid of

bears hurting her? Yes. she's afraid of being, she's afraid of being, of betraying whoever it is she's been working with. She's afraid of exactly what happens. She's terrified of that. And she's hoping that if the minute she tells Assoc, she can brought in, like, protective custody and, like, protected from Barris.

Unless Barris has been pretending to also be another person, but we don't see that enough to, she does a little bit of that later, but, like, not really. I mean, the thing that's been, the thing that's been said is that there are Jedi, plural that feel this way. So I do think there could be other Jedi working, you know, is the thing I have a hard time believing is that Barris is the sole mastermind of this entire attack.

Like this feels like an orchestrated. To me it doesn't. To me, this feels like I think Barris could do because Barris is Luminara's, Padua. So everything about this is like, she's the best one. She's the one who, she's the one who's ready to graduate and like could manipulate everything everything to this exact perfect degree. She has the training for it. What has Barris seen really that we know about that would drive?

Maris saw half the shit that, that, I mean, here's the real thing about Barris is she's luminara's pupil. She was not raised by one of the, she was not raised by Ploucun or Anakin or one of these corner cutters. She was raised by someone who was a very particular idea of what the Jedi are supposed to be. Right. Which is honorable peacekeepers, mediators, not soul.

And she doesn't have a life of personal connections like Luminar does to be where, like, Luminar is like, I wish we weren't doing it this way. But that's Plow Coon. Because Lumara knew a new world pre-the-clone work. Exactly. And saw these people that way. But she raised Barris as a perfectionist. And also, remember the way the, like, what was that? The enemy within is that?

at the one where they're escorting the one where they're escorting the prisoner in Luminar Adventress comes aboard the ship and Luminarra faces her down and Assook is like you can't, you're not ready to face Ventress and the end of that it's sort of like, do you ever see

the end of, do you ever watch the first season of Fargo the TV show? Yeah, of course. So there's a great bit there where the sheriff who sort of has taken over the town has been a real thorn in our actual hero's side, Deputy Salverson. he's been just unbearable to work with unhelpful narrow-minded at the end of that season he sort of turns to solverson and sort of admits that like he knows he's fucked up but also he's just not meant to be a sheriff in a time like this he's like i just didn't think that people like things like this would ever happen here i didn't think people like this existed and that's kind of what luminaura ends up telling asoko which is that i am not like i am not made for these times a member of the jadai order but i am not made for the Clone Wars

and yeah you can imagine also imagine how frustrating that must be to be apprenticed to that and your job is like full time be on the front lines and you're like you're right like Plow takes to it like a duck to water he loves the camaraderie

of being being at the front Anakin loves the action like Anakin lives for the juice and Luminara doesn't want to be there so where is Luminara and all this though.

Great question. I would love to know where she is right now. It's so weird that she's not here. Do you know where your Padawan is? I mean, do we even know is, is. How is she not in the, at least in the, at the very, you know, at, how is she not a part of a single count, like, council moment or any, like, she, she, it's literally her Padawan that has. Wait, is Barrett still a Padawan? I think so.

Or is she a knight? Did she make it to knighthood? I don't, she doesn't have any, she doesn't have a. bead. She doesn't have a... I don't know. I don't know. My of a second, she was a Jedi, she was a Jedi Knight.

She was beyond Paduan at this point. Damn. Okay. So I guess that explains it. But still, I don't know. Yeah, I know. Luminar should have been in these episodes. This is why you've got to make me present a thesis. You just got to be like, hey, what do you think you got from this whole? I'm just curious. Like, sit before the board. We just got to want to wrap about like, what

Do you learn? Yeah. The thing that I wanted to point out where I was like, I actually think this whole thing is her manipulating Assoca in is there's that bit while they're doing the walk and talk earlier where Barris specifically talks about how like, you know, they're reminiscing about the time on geonosis and how they can get past things. And Barris says like, you know, that's the thing about you. you always know how to see things clearly you give me confidence and I did not mean to grab this exact screen shot but it's I think that this is a telling

set of facial expressions in terms of who is leading who down the garden fucking path you know Asoka is saying I you know it was so hard not to be afraid in geonosis but still you and I got past it and right before she gives this expression which is looking away from Asoka, like looking at the camera where Asoka cannot see her face gleefully.

She says, you've always been capable of seeing things clearly. And that is, and she kind of like, you know, squintes her face together. And Assook says, I guess I have you fooled just like everybody else. And nope, she is setting you up to go walk into a trap, to trust your instincts at the worst possible time that you can connect to another person and bring them out of it just like she brought Barris out of it and it is I think she's 100% setting up to table.

And also we haven't talked in a while but of course we have this intimate connection. Wow, you mean so much to me, Asoka. Yeah. Yeah, y'all were in one class together freshman year. Admittedly it was like wait for death in the buried in the entombed in the tank class but you know.

Yeah, I mean, to be fair, they trauma bonded pretty. Yeah, yes. Pretty significant. I would have loved to have. more bad. I mean, one of my

complaints about this arc is the same complaint as last year or last arc, which was just do this but more. This could have been

a whole season too. Just give me the Barris offy season. Give me the mall. Oh, just that maybe you need a season like mystery

in the background of all of this. Like, turned fully into an FX crime drama. Yeah. I would have loved instead of fucking

Lux Bon Terry, we could have had Asoka calling Barris. Like being like, yo, yeah. You need to look

on the bright side. Do you think there's any chance in the world that at one point they were not thinking how cool it was going to be when Lux was her advocate in the trial do you think there is any way that they weren't like

pointing the bat into the grandstands and then Lux is going to be on Corrassant and you know how good he is with the words because everyone on Anderon was like you're the best at the words Lux so like I agree we spent way too much time with him but on the other hand we are spared the falling in love

of your defense lawyer arc that I would bet. I would have been livid. It was bad enough having Padme do it. But Lux is like the single worst option. I mean, of course it was going to be Padmae. It's just like, you know, that of course.

But. Okay. I'm wrapping back around to how could Barris have convinced Leta to turn to Asoka And you have to imagine it's a long arc And it begins with Barris bonding with Leta They go out for drinks

They start to meet each other They tell stories Barris tells the story about Giannosus Talks about how good Assoca is How honorable Assoca is early on And then at that point That like gets drilled into Letta's head Like okay Assoca is one of the good ones

Assoca is someone who I can trust And that's like four months before Barris is like All right now feed your husband to these bombs And by then she's like Oh my God I have fucked up I am hanging out with

Like a psychopath Why would letta feed her husband bombs She loved him Because she hates the Jedi She's about that life But she loved him We don't know that Hang on when did they get married

Wait a second Is he a patsy Did she marry a guy with access To the Jedi Temple Yeah And To feed a bomb You know what

You know what She did say That she was like When she was going on her whole do you know what it takes to work in the Jedi temple? She was like, Jekar dedicated his life to serving the Jedi. Like, okay, so maybe you're not getting as much attention at home because, you know, Jekar's at the temple all the time.

It had been his dream. His dream was being at the temple, not being with her. Not just anyone can walk into your precious temple. Maybe she applied for a job at the temple and got rejected. Because Jekar went to his marriage with. Because Jekar passed all the entry tests that were needed with flying colors. and maybe Letta couldn't make it through the first interview. That's what I'm saying.

Wow, that went from he's not taking care of business at home to also he was like not helping her land a job. Uh-huh. Both could be true. Fuck to be true. Fucked your car. I'm just imagining them like sitting on the couch and he's like, look at this cool meme from Instagram and it's like the Jena are defenders and it's like

He hung Star Destroy Art on their wall And she's like Let me go get you another bowl of ice cream She got the salt shaker on it But it's bomb Hang on This is also This is a right now

Now it's a pattern Because this was the lightsaber loss thing too Where like the the mafia The dude with the piece And the little like Yeah His wife killed him too You're right

The wife did kill him too him. Yeah. We have some unsatisfied wives. That's true. And all the Jedi not allowed to marry. Damn, man. This is the most pro-Jedai show, actually.

This is, like, see, they're right, though. They're right. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we get an incredible cut. Sorry. Anyway, she gets choked to death. She gets choked to death.

She's about to say who it is. She gets lifted up off the ground and force choked. And Asoka does the wrongest thing you could do in the situation. it's a frantic situation she doesn't know she's not so fair what's going on what i do i go i look at the camera and i go not me hands hands out stepping away yeah a person is dying in front of you and you're thinking to yourself i'm i'm or just even just like wave at the camera right you could be like hey clones open the door open the door open the door there's clones outside the door open the door Open the door, be like, oh, my gosh, I'm choking her.

But the audio was off. She was saying help, but the audio got lost. Assoca turns left when she showed her to turn right a lot of times in these middle two episodes. By the last one, she comes along, and I agree with her. Well, to note, in that Zoom out, where she is, so they're watching her on security footage, and she's like, oh, no, help, help, help. And it looks like she's forced choking. You can see three other people in the prison on the,

the footage. Did anybody see who the other people were? I noticed the feed cutting, which was also interesting. Yes. That like enough is seen and then nothing more is seen. The emir Wat Tambor in this prison. Amir from Ryloth, the guy who was in charge of Ryloth in season one. Poggle the lesser, the guy who went down to the Queen's Chamber from Geonosis,

the head of the Geonosons from season two in this prison. and General Worm Lothsome, who was from the Clone Wars movie, the guy who Obi-Wan did the fake surrender to it. Worm, I forgot about him. In this prison. Wow. This is where they put Lita at. They put Lita in the Supermax.

Yeah, uh-huh. And is it because, I don't know, do you think Tarkin, this is the real question? Yeah, we're getting to it now. The question is, to Natalie's point of Barris couldn't have done this by herself, is this a sheave maneuver? Was Tarkin ready to lock up Asoka? I think Tarkin is jazz to lock up any Jedi. I mean, yes. But I mean, sorry, I just mean, was he prepared, not emotionally ready?

Is he in on it? The way he grabs her chin? Well, the show can't help. That's a reference. That's a reference? Wait, does he do that to Leia? It's a reference. He does it to Leia.

Oh, come on. Is it Scrantge up her? Hand gestures or references now? No, it's also immediately after Star Wars.com is calling it a reference. Star Wars.com is calling the way he goes into the room in the composition of the shot as a reference to the way Vader does it to interrogate Leia. And then the hand scrunch is like a direct reference. Yes, they're calling both of those references.

Not me. But if Star Wars.com is calling it a reference. No, I know. I know, I know. I'm just that they pulled this. I'm so mad. I wrote it down. I mean, they do, he does squunch it.

He does do the same maneuver. Here is their comparison. It's similar. Except that Leia. Yeah, Leia is like, get the fuck off me. I'm gonna break your fucking neck. And it's okay, it looks scared. Leia is hard as fuck.

Leia is about to just like drop this dude. Kick your fucking ass. Yeah, 100%. I love Leia. God, real one. The weird thing about the way that the clones arrest Asoka is like the line that the clone gives, Asoka's like, hey, kid, can't say I blame you for killing this lady, but got to arrest you. But the way he says it seems like this will be over and, you know, this is a formality.

At that moment, it's a cop talking to another cop. It is. It is. Okay, buddy. Like, you know what, you know, you just say, and by the way, if Asoka just said, she lunged for me, she walks out of that place, immediately. The clones like, yeah. I thought she had some micro bombs on her.

I saw, yeah, I smelled nanoboms. It's like fentanyl. Yeah, exactly. But then we get this incredible cut from Asoka being arrested first to the outside facility again, which again are just so many great establishes. shots of Star Destroyers over Corrassat here, and then to Tarkin just walking through the hallways of this place in a way that is just... He's made it.

The expression, yes, he's made it. He's like, it's all coming up. Like, everything is falling into place. He isn't, he isn't jubilant or anything, but he has this sort of like... Very comfortable. Very confident. Exactly. Is that, here we go.

I'm walking down the halls of my facility. my tea. Yep, 100%. I'm doing my rounds. But I do think it's, this is a great question. It's going to come up a lot as we go through this. To what degree is this just the happiest accident for Palpatine and Tarkin? And to what, to what degree, if any, are they stage managing all this?

Because Tarkin sure comes in. And, Natalie, I think you're dead on. He is, he has. A massive boner for arresting a Jedi. He's just like, I want to put one of these in cuffs. And, like, really, like, we're already, like, in terms of statutory authority, we are already, like, asserting our power over them. But to really drive the point home, we're going, not just going to subject someone who attacked them to our justice, we're going to subject a Jedi to our justice. And so, like, it is tough for me to.

parks. Like, he's ready to pounce on it, and I can't tell if it's because, like, he's on some level in on it, or if he's just like, oh, I've been blessed by the heavens. I think it's, yeah. I think it's, I think it's a ladder. I think it's a ladder as well. Like, I, I, thinking about Sheave, sheave is an opportunist. Like, I do think it can be, I, I like it better if there are Jedi who are, don't fuck with the Jedi and are trying to do their own thing. This is a separate thing. It's not a separatist thing. It's not a republic thing. And Barris doesn't

do that. We've seen this before that like Krell gives the big speech about how he wants to go join in. Yeah, no. Baris is like... That's not what Barris' thing is. Barris' whole thing is like this is we're a part of a hypocrisy. Like we're you know, we're

preaching one thing and doing another and we are judge and jury and who the fuck are we to be those people? So yeah, I'm going to make a fucking statement about it. I love that Tarkin and Sheave are able to exploit that for their own gain. This is sometimes like Sheev is the master puppeteer, but in general I think like his pattern is he subjects the system to stress. And when subjected to stress, some things become more likely. It doesn't mean you necessarily cause them directly to happen, but it does mean that inevitably something like this will happen.

And I think he and his people are poised for that. We're years into a war. The Jedi have been at war for ages. A lot of them are dying. A lot of them are like far in a way, like from what they thought they were signing up for, from what they, how they conceive of themselves. And so eventually, yeah, you're going to get, you're going to get your pawn growls. And you might get, you know, your barrises. And they're sort of poised for that, too, where, like, Jedi are going to start to crack under the strain.

There is something else, too, about him. which is that he is a delegator, and he's a particular type of delegator, which is that he puts people into positions who can self-operate, and he can come in and tinker or make certain demands. We know he does that with Duku. We know he does that with his own people. We just saw him go kill Savage, right? He will get involved personally sometimes. But when you think about things like every fucking episode, Nufo Vindy, we talked about this. I don't think she was calling up Nouveau Vindy, and it's like, well, how?

How's it going, Vind? He's saying, all right, go develop some stuff. Go do this. Go do that. There's a communications theorist, Canadian communications theorist and political economist, Harold Innes, who has this theory of empire and theory of kind of communications and history where he kind of divides. He says basically that cultures can be time-based or space-based, and time-based places

do things like build monuments, and they have lots of delegation. There's not like a single strong active executive. Instead, there's a core set of rules that get spread across a vast amount of space. Sorry, that get spread across, yeah, that do get spread across space. Maybe I'm getting these time and space flipped up. Well, you know, if you're an empire that spread stuff around space, you can't necessarily cross space quickly. And so you need individuals in those places ready to act instant. Whereas if you, and like, the example of this is like, your, your laws are etched in stone.

You have directives, not lots of little objectives, right? You've broad, here's basically what we do as a culture. And then there's other types of cultures that are fast acting. They use paper instead of stone, right? They're able to rush orders out from a central hub and get things changed quickly. And sheave is way more the former. Sheave is someone who is like, I'm going to put a bunch of stuff out there and spin it and see what comes. back. Oh, Zillow Beast. Okay, let's talk about Zillow Beast today. Okay, you're going to be over here doing

this. Grievous is going to be over here doing this. Everyone's going to be pursuing a general goal that is that is in line with my ideology. I don't need to be hands on in that way. I need to count on those people being loyal, being religiously loyal to my vision. And I'll drop. And I can, I'll drop in and have some fun when I want to. What I want to. Here or there. Yeah. Like on Mandelaar. I'll take a little, you know stop by I can confirm I'm right time-based media favor stability space-based media stuff that moves quickly through space instead of lasting

a long time in time facilitate rapid change all that schooling didn't just dip out my ear anyway yeah so I'm with y'all I think realistic if I had to make a guess in terms of what the writers believe this is not a sheev machination

this is bear a sophy making a decision of being disenchanted with the Jedi because of years of working with Luminar and then and then sheves she's up

she was you know lieutenant in Tarkin taking the opportunity not even I bet she've only got to call later you know what I mean

I think this is a Tarkin goes home tonight and is like bring the bottles out bring the bottles out bring them out I had you're not going to believe

it and and sheve being like I need to get Anakin under control hearing that He got the fucking paddle on the underlocking key? Because no matter what happens, that's more power over Anakin.

Yeah, yeah. He's only going to be able to continue pushing Anakin closer and closer. Damn, like, this is why Assoca's not in Revenge of the Sith, though. Like. I think, so what's interesting here is, actually, but this almost, but I think this almost causes the plan to hang by a thread, too. because if she gets convicted

and like Max sentenced by Palpatine like there is like there is pressure building up with Anakin throughout this arc and like he like you're you almost have a moment where he's like he demands to see Asoka when she's in this prison and there's a moment

you're like that's about to happen he's just going to come through that fucking glass like he's just going to come through the glass 100 but but this is the thing if he does that Palpatine is a oh I can protect you my boy yeah right or he Palpity, if he goes to jail, I think if he is the jury in executioner of Asoka, I think he's...

He just reads the card, though. It's the Jedi counsel who turns against him. But his plea is so obvious. He's sprinting to do it. It's so clear. He's voiced by Tim Curry now. I know. It's just like...

Curry has a line in here that is, I think, the most Tim Curry shit. We've, you know, he's been doing the voice now for some of the season. but he goes, take her away. And it's like, oh, that's Tim Curry. Tim Curry is here. Tim Curry's swag. Like, it's so good. Also good.

Rob, you're talking about Anakin coming to see her here. Not being allowed in, which is wild. Yeah. Which is wild. And what do they do to them? Who shows up? Allie. Well, I think it's very interesting that there are two clod guards who make sure to activate their, like, laser shit before even a

approaching him. They put on the electro staffs. Who uses these electro staffs? Who do we know who uses these electros? Sephirus, like, killer droids. The grievous guards. The guys that grievous, fucking grievous is about to fight with these against Obi-Wan in like a week. Not against Anakin because he never meets Anakin until Revenge of the Sixth Months for now in Rends of the Sith.

Do you think there's some clones that are getting like some cross-training? Like, do you think there's like a small, like a tiny little like poison of the pool? I would love to know. And armies come to resemble each other, right? Like, the longer they fight, their tactics begin to converge. Unless there's, like, major asymmetries in, like, their means and material, which is not the case here. Eventually, you start seeing. They're all getting it from the same people, in fact.

Like, that's the thing is whoever makes this electrow staff is calling both sides of this war, we're like, yo, we've got to sail on right now. Electro staff's half off. We have a surplus. Lipinson manufacturers are very new. they just make the weapons you use them however you'd like to use them yep so no one comes to see asoka well asoka did get a visitor but they just decided not to wake her up from her nap and they left the red key card from doom uh hanging just outside uh the little force field and she's like

wow thanks anakin and just because that's an Anakin move oh i'll just i'll just leave this subtle little escape device near her. I definitely wouldn't carve through the entire bulkhead to get at her. Yeah, Anakin, known for subtlety in general. You know, here's the thing that Zark makes clear. Asoka thinks really highly of Anakin more highly than we do and thinks that he is the sort of man who could do something like this. We know he wouldn't. But she's like, I will just use the force and float the little keycard out and unlock my cell. And this is also extremely normal and it's going to be awesome and then she comes out in the hall and there's nothing but like clones just broken bodies littering the hall none of them are dead yet everyone's like oh

and she's like oh that's weird come back to your cell and then she's correct yourself right then instead she picks up her weapons and her com language which have been left on the ground interestingly enough why didn't she at least okay she should go back to her cell but barring that she should have looked at the clone whose helmet was already off and be like hey are you okay yeah someone let me out of my cell what happened to you but what happened yeah well i'll go back to myself at this point but use com link hello anakin thanks for she does she do that yeah she's like because she's getting a phone call when she picks up the calm link so she's like answering and being like who's calling me and that's when the clone walks it was like she's escaping she's on

the phone it's like she like gets set up he's on the phone And so we get the whole chase sequence, and it's a long part of the episode, it's the balance of the episode. And it's a terrific, her on the run through this facility being pursued by ever-increasing numbers of the red armored clones. And she runs past literally one of the Death Star droids, by the way, that droid that looks like a fucked up bug C-3PO. Yes, I wanted to bring him up. Yes, that is an RA7 protocol droid, which is just the, it's the protocol. quadroids they keep on the Death Star, full stop. Damn.

I said, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, bro, Asoka on the loose of this alien motherfucker is here. Someone is setting her up. And if that was not clear enough, when she gets, she gets, like, to safety temporarily, she managed to seal herself off from, or she gets through a bunch of barriers

as they are being sealed. And finds herself in a room now with, now there are dead clones. Like, actually. And with lightsaber. Light saber. Lightsaber slices. That's right.

It's fresh. Fresh. Hot. Hot off the press. Hot. Yeah, they're cooked. And, oh, God. Okay.

So is this the point at which Anakin like sees her or something? So Rex comes up on the dead clones, right? and he says And Anakin's like Everyone make sure your shit is on stun Like we need to find her Like we need to do not shoot to kill I mean the thing is commander Fox

Who is one of the The clone He's the clone Like prison commander or whatever It's like all right Shoot to kill And Anakin's like Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

Belay that order And Rex is also like there's no way of Sokid Something like this Yeah No, but, but Rex does say in the fucking, after Anakin walks away, in his fucking, what is it called, walkie-talkie? Com link. Com link. She's killed three clones and should be considered armed and dangerous.

And I was like, how are you? You know she, you know, you don't know now. Like, I don't know you. Who are you, Rex? I don't know you. You don't know her now. apparently and you you don't know that she would never do this like I feel like whatever the brains I don't I know we don't know what's going on with their brains yet and like

with the whole order 66 thing like we don't know but if if if if if order 66 is some sort of like micro dosing like propaganda thing I it started this is I think the anti- Jedi trip is I think one I guess I'll give this to Rex He does have to pass along the fact there's dead clones And they don't know to look for anyone else And so he says she's killed three clones He didn't say there are dead clones

Right Or she has suspected to have killed Yeah like no he doesn't have He does say she's killed He does say she's killed them Like they she murk these fools And he's not a lot with his brothers though Like there's what he says in front of Antiquid

And then he's what he has to say to his guys And be like, watch out for this person I'm trying to not get y'all killed Y'all my boys But it's not her that's like He doesn't know that He just so hot on top of some That's why the micro doses started

Like use your relation You're pre They haven't been flying all over the galaxy Together for the past five seasons This whole sequence is also like It is cribbing It's time shot for shot the fugitive and actually they continue this in the next episode

where she goes to space Chicago and the reveal is ultimately she gets on an L train and fights people there but a thing George Lucas fought for the inclusion of that train was a good fight well chosen George he always knows where to draw his lines but I think in the fugitive

one of the infuriating things is there's all this accumulating evidence of the marshals pursuing Harrison Ford that like doesn't make a lot of sense that he would like actually be the killer that he was, like, convicted for. But also, it's not our jobs to care about that. Our job is to bring him in. And so while we're in, like, cop mode,

we're just going to, like, hunt him down, shoot, to kill if need be. We have no further questions. And it's only, like, when things get really far along, they start to, like, question, they finally start allowing themselves to ask, okay, what is actually going on here? But, like, they're definitely in this mode of,

to some extent, finding out the truth is not of interest to us. Like, we're here to catch her. There's something else here, which is, what was the last Rex arc? Oh, was it the Crowell? The Carnage of Crowell? Oh, my God. He knows a Jedi will kill a clone.

Was that the last time we saw Rex? Not the last time we saw Rex, but it was a Rex art. It was last Rex arcs. Was he not there for, for AWOL clone? No. For Eamnesia clone? Sunny Day in the Void, no. Oh, no, they're all droids, duh, those days.

squad. Yeah. Yeah. Rex knows a Jedi can break back. I think after Krell happened, there was a little retreat. The whole squad went to Camino

for the weekend. And I bet he said never Anakin and never Asoka. What they said to him was yeah, but if it happens, promise me, you do not beat around the bush. You do not defend them. Like, it's us. you know what I mean it's us so if it happens to oh yeah plow coon could never okay but if

plow coon does it us not a plow coon I'm not plos bros bros I'm bros bros right I guess yeah you also have to think about like how tense things must be on chorus on right now like we talked a little bit about let it getting put into like the hyper prison and it's like obviously they want to make an example of someone who attack the Jedi temple the clums are already feeling like some type of way because people are in the streets are saying don't make clones anymore like don't do this more and there's just general anti-jeti sentiment like to that to your point alley like even some of the like the fact that clones died from a Jedi attack at the temple doesn't bode yeah I can see why Rex would be like yeah she just killed three Jedi are killing people now like right and left they're killing clones yeah yeah

anyway we get my favorite one of my favorite beats on this entire thing is Anakin and Asoka talking from different parts of this facility oh yes

loved this their voices like echoing through the hallways as he's like it's me Anakin stop running and it and they end up

this is the thing where she ends up saying like no one will believe me she says I believe you and she's like you're the only one like it's no one else will you can't help me um and i just the decision to make them have this conversation at a distance where they can't make eye contact where their voices

are echoing around while aniken is flanked by two clones they've no privacy there's no way to like it's just so good and just like it's it's it's it feels in some ways and it doesn't have like the romantic overtones of the kilo and ray stuff in last jedi but the like talking at a distance has that same sort of affective mode of like we can't like we at once are closing a distance between us because we're communicating but we can't fully close it

is it's so good I'm a big fan of this this exchange and it sets up an awesome pursuit like now she is sprinting across the grounds of the facility we meet I guess clone canine unit they've fucked up

and their helmets It's mere the beasts. I know. They're wearing like helmets with like giant like pit bull jaws. Don't like it. Yeah, they're super creepy. Don't like any of it. There's a lot of like Batman the animated series here.

I mean, partly because it's like a stormy night and she's like up on giant art deco statues of clones in this case, which is wild to see. We are in fascism mode at this point, folks. She runs across this. There's a bit where she's on top of this. wall, this big brown wall. Did anyone have feelings on what that might be? I wonder what the legend on it was.

Okay, so there was this huge brown wall that she ends up sprinting across, it's like out front of this entire facility, and it has like the Imperial logo, sorry, it has the Republic logo, not the Imperial logo, which is very similar, but I actually looked at, I, it finally clicked on me, clicked for me how to understand the difference between the two, which is the imperial logo is just the cogs with eight or sorry with six kind of it's six congs in a circle basically the republic logo is eight and at the heart of it is the circle is the sunburst the circle with the rays of the sun coming off of it which is the Jedi logo that's also in the Jedi lightsaber logo that is like the exploding star with the beam coming

out of it which is like it's both of those things together anyway the wall the monument at the center of the republic military base plaza is an enormous slab of geonotion rock that list the name of clone troopers that fell in action during the first battle of the clone wars great love it would have loved more detail on it but love it have a moment like that's that's cool shit like if you're gonna put cool shit in the fucking show that we're watching call it out like that is interesting that that the world itself, like inside the world of Clone Wars, that they're doing these clone memorials, whatever. I would love to know if Jedi names are on this thing. I would love to know. Good point, because when this all starts,

were they just the Jedi that they were conducting that ceremony for? What happened to, like, the grounds crew died? Yep. It is who memorializes who, right? And it is part like, did the clones memorialize themselves as they construct this facility? is the Republic. Like, it's a really interesting...

Yeah, why are there these huge clone statues? Like, what is the... Who are they? Are they meant to be specific clones? Are they just clones in general? Right. And who is it for? And the answer is, it's not for the public.

This is a closed facility. Like, the public does not see this monumental architecture. It is for the consumption of the clones who work there. It's for the clones. 100%. It is both to, and it is both to, like, remind them of, like, I think, who has their interest are like who like who is uh you know who's the benevolent leader for them but also to sort of again very cop like also remind them that they are the true pillars of this society like literally

the giant statues that are there are like on like built their relief statues on this like giant column and like the metaphor is pretty clear right like you're the pillar on which the foundation now rests um we get an awesome chase across the ground it's so great it looks it

camera work is unreal she's the most like she is the peak performance looking the coolest she's ever looked deflecting like the choreography everything

she she is so highly capable she is a threat she feels like a threat she feels competent in a way where she does not feel like, like as much as she's on the run, she doesn't feel backed into a corner at any point.

Like she's always moving. She's like got a really like nice flow to her movement in general. She's reflifting, not reflecting. Yeah, she's deflecting the, yeah, she's deflecting the stun blasts that are coming in. which is such a cool effect. We see these stun blasts once in a blue moon. They're these kind of like blue rings that come out of blasters

instead of the normal blasts. And when she hits them with the saber, they don't get reflected. They get kind of dispersed. Like they get kind of like just kind of diminished into the atmosphere. And all of her maneuvers like doing that stuff are so acrobatic and like beletic. It's so good. also just

the wide shots of this whole facility it reminds me a little bit of the facility where from the cat the undercover Obi-Wan arc the fueling station because it's these like long pipes that they're running down

and they do they almost box her in a number of times and they just can't do it well the sense of speed is dizzying they shoot her in a lot of places with like layered parallax effect in the background as she's sprinting through plus you've got the gun

Chips drawing up alongside her again, like reminding us that she's moving at like superhuman speed here. And yeah, like they capture her on a like a landing for a bunch of stairs and it looks like she's cornered and

she jumps out of that situation I think makes it to one of the pipes, cuts her way into the pipe and begins running through. With a circle. Perfect circle. Yeah. And now the clones can find her but Anakin begins. Oh, that reminds me. There's one thing I want to

to go back to you from the previous episode. Sorry, but this is just... No, you're good. I do the shit all the time. The bit about Anakin's saying he'll still hear the screaming as they do the crime scene reconstruction. Oh, yeah. I think it's a sympathetic portrait. They're sort of setting up a...

If this is how Anakin experiences this period in history, this is how experiences the world. Like, think about the amount of death that surrounds him, that is, like, clinging to him. like an oily smoke right he can't get it he can't wash it off he can't get it off yeah um and that moment it was it was this little throwaway line

but it was kind of a terrifying line because the other Jedi don't make reference to that like obi one hears like the screams when like aldron is destroyed and then it falls silent like Anakin experiences like the emotional blood stain

of violence and so it's like one of those things where it's a thing that he says and nobody seems to you know we know where this is going this is a really bad sign

like if this is how experiences the world he is in the wrong line of work and it is dangerous to leave him in this line of work

but you know he's just pushing on with it and so but he uses that comes up here too he's so the clones are trying to like track her down

and he has to keep sort stopping and like listening to his heart basically about like where is she try to figure out Like, in all this noise, where is she?

Where did she actually go? And he homes in on her as she comes to the end of the pipe. And again, tries to talk her into, look, you know, I know you're innocent. We'll prove your innocent together. If we just go back, you have to come back. And then we can fix this. And I like that, like, she turns it around and makes it about him trusting her. It's not about her trust in him.

she does trust him. They just can't trust the system. And so he knows that too. He does know it too. Yeah. Well, you know, I don't think he fully does until the next episode. I really, I think he does. Because the interaction is they're, you know, standing at the edge.

And he's like, Asoka, what are you doing? She's like, you didn't even try to come and help me. And he's like, they wouldn't let me in to talk to you. You could have if you've tried. And then he's like, how would that look, Asoka, forcing my, way in would have made you look even more guilty. And she's like, I'm not guilty. And he's like, all right, I know that.

We have to go plead the case. We have to go do the jurisdiction. And she goes, I'm not going to take the fall for something I didn't do. She has no faith in that process turning out in her favor. I think Anna. She's right. Yeah. I hear what you're saying, actually, now that I'm saying.

Yeah. Anakin believes that going through the process will end up with her. here's the thing. I think also he thinks that process is going to have way more Jedi counsel in it than it does. I think this, like he doesn't, no. It has, let's get to the next episode. It has Jedi counsel in it. Okay. The next episode

is like where like fully in scales drop. But Natalie, you mentioned something of it, but again, I like this episode is doing a lot, which is in normal times, like, what she's like, you didn't even try. What that would mean is, if you really wanted to get me out of jail, you would have come through the glass.

You would have smashed through those clone patrols. And dealt with the repercussions. Right. And he is right that like that's not how we operate and I'm still subject to laws. I am still like bound by like this. He means that's not how we operate here. But he would do that on another plant. He would do that in Mandelor in a second. Yeah. In a second. But he's not, but he's not like sworn up to protect Mandelor the way he is. I think he would do that on, I think that he would do that on any Republic planet except this one. I I think he would go through the fucking window on Rodea to free her. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. Well, hang on. That's not the Imperial Corps. Whatever, but on Nabu, I mean, you know what I mean? He would do it in the second. Here, under Tarkin's nose, this boy that he wants to impress under Sheave's nose during the crunch. I think it's a different thing. This place where he's...

Three seasons ago, he would have. Because who are the clones? Like, he, the clones obey him. He is the general. There's no one really above him other than the Jedi Council that he respects outside of the chancellor himself. But outside of that, he can talk, you know, manipulate whatever, get his way out of any sort of sicky situation. But in this, now that Tarkin is a major player, I do think that like he's playing by the rules much more. in a

in a way that he wouldn't three seasons ago when Tarkin wasn't a factor. Would he do this for Yalarin? Would he have not gone through the window in a Yelaren run facility? Maybe. But I think he, yes.

With Yularen, yes. I think he respect, like, but my point is, like, where I'm just going on is with the, here's where my thought is having. Again, like, Like, it would be wrong for him to be like, fuck it, I'm a Jedi. You don't imprison one of our own.

Except seeing this facility, seeing how bad things are getting, you're like, oh, actually it turns out that respecting the law and what the chain of command here is like, that is actually wrong in this case. The, like, there's a real strong argument being made that like the best thing Anakin could do morally for Isoka at this point is to go through the glass and be like, we're taking her back to the Jedi Temple and you can take it up with Yoda. But like... But she's already been expelled. Not at this point.

Wait, no? Not at this point. Nope. No. Next episode. That's why... Believe it or not, we're two hours in. We're only two episodes in. It's dense. So then, yeah, he still does have the protection of the Jedi Council. She still has the protection of being a Jedi. The problem maybe in a way, Anakin is for some reason, hyper-sensitive to the anti-Jedi sentiment.

in general and like that's they all also the whole thing is but why would but why would Anakin be like Anakin because he grew up wanting to be a Jedi right but I think this is part of him saying there are always going to be Jedi that doesn't point us but we have to be one of the good guys and like this is his attempt to be a good guy

I think it's also like the tension of being in that facility and like not having the the authority that he would otherwise like that's the season two difference versus now Like, season two, he wouldn't have given them his lightsaber to get into there. He would have just been like, no, I'm a master. Well, and also, I'm sorry, who bought this army? Was it, was it Tarkin?

I don't think so. It didn't hit his name on the statements. So, like, I'm taking my shit through. But the other, yeah, the thing that fucks all of this up, but it's so part of it, like, what makes this such a clever trap is that, it's the fact that she has caught red-handed in a facility of the Jedi don't control. If this happens anywhere else, the Jedi take her into custody, and we have a negotiation over this, it is the fact that she never even got out the door.

And so, like, it is such an awkward scenario. And this is, like, it sort of sets it on the trajectory that's going to be on where the Jedi Council is hyperreactive, trying to figure out how we, how we, like, handle this and leaves them on the back foot. the fact that he can't get in there is unbelievable right the fact that there is no one he can call in that moment no one Anakin Skywalker can call to let him go in an interview his Padawan what like the moment has turned the times have changed I do like the notion that he is reacting to that sudden lack of authority in some in some ways his response I mean this is like what's my big my big thesis for Anakin Skywalker is that he's attracted to power, right?

Like, that's the thing that he most likes in the world, is power because power gets things done. And part of me is like, someone stuck their chest out further than Anakin did. And now he's come to heal. Like, and now he's like, okay, well, I guess if the most powerful person is saying that we have to do, I'm not allowed in anymore. And so that means that we have to do it by the person who controls whether I'm allowed in or not rules. And like, he's just a little boy. He's just a little boy who is, like, constantly looking to, like, get approval from and, and hope to leverage power, right? So, uh, anyway.

So she jumps. She jumps. She makes a sick jump. A truly incredible leap. I got to give her credit. Like, she, like, the drama of, like, she's giving her all here. It's a jump that you're like, you need a shoot. You need a shoot.

It's a far jump. Yeah. The force is your parachute. you know. Yeah. But she lands like a champ. So, also, I just love this. We've seen this big pipe that goes through Khorasan so many times now.

Some of our favorite little sections of the show, like when Plow Koon and her went down there many seasons ago, have been about, like, dipping down in this huge, weird hole in the middle of the planet. And it's just so fun that they went back here for this key, key, key, key moment, you know. I totally agree. Before we go to the next episode Can we Filoni's own? Can I drag us back? I You know, I'm just not going to say anything about what

You're going to see Filoni yourselves What? Did he do? You'll see how he's fine What did he do now? It's just fine. It's just that we're going to see a new felony today Philoni himself is

There's just a new version of the man All right Ready, it's a long one It's a lot Okay This is a Jedi who knew too much Right, that's the second one Correct?

Yeah Yeah, because the third one Yeah, okay To catch it Three Yeah Three, two, one, go So what happens to Leda now?

The bomber has been moved Moved Where? Why should she be moved? The Republic military Has taken her into custody Much better talk in this episode too By the way

This is a Jedi matter He knows he was rolling his arms. Clones were killed, which makes this terrorist attack in military matter. An attack on the Jedi is an attack on the Senate. Tarkin really represents the military established. What's up? And by that I mean, what you see in the empire. Oh, Philoics are playing the division.

Fashion is changing. We're going into the mid to late 2010. Right now, that arm is being run by the Jedi. It's been a beanie and a puma puppy jacket. of the peace with the brand that the Jedi want to remove them like censored the power of the I want a list of any guests

that showed up. The chance to set up men like Tarkin, men like Azzell, even Yularen to in the long run take over the military for the Jedi. We get a little bit of a sense of that argument in the Citadel arc with Tarkin and then we really show how it's

evolved this time when we see him because we see this grand facility for the military, the Tarkin has had built. We see a massive staging area. We see the clones at this facility answering very much to Tarkin and less so even Anakin.

And all of this shows you that there's this giant mechanism in place that's very hard for the Jedi to counter. You don't have to tell me any more, Commander Tano. Every time I see her hat, I think it's a Carhart hat, by the way. Oh, my God. It just has, like, that tag on it.

See the sound like a gesture wrapped up in the The strangler hands The straggler hands She really did that to her We have the underlying symbolism Of the big military institution Which has grown up

Almost off screen While we were rooting for it In the form of all the clone soldiers If we like so much We see that they're really The weapon of power For a group of men Who may not have the best intentions

for the Republican mind. You yourself said that you're... Remember that baby Republic officer corps from the first seasons? Well, it's all grown up and doing coots. You know, Tarkin, you always wonder how much is he aware of the Chancellor's plans to incriminate the Jedi.

I don't know that Tarkin really cares the Jedi or not. He just wants power for himself. True. I've been saying this. If he gets the Jedi out of the way in the military, he has tremendously more power. So I think that's what's at stake for Tarkin.

I don't think that... What's on this place behind, Dave? You know, he really... really consider Sith or Jedi Looks like Obi-Wan Oh, that's

Obi-Wan on... The fire has gone out of the universe. Mandelaar. You, my friend, all that's left

of their religion. So, I think he's a lot more pragmatic and political and just interested in ultimately having power.

Oh, that's with the Beanie I want to know. The villains in Star Wars. It's not something where all of a sudden one episode he's a good guy

in the next episode. He's a bad guy. There is definitely a change where we get to find out what is motivations are.

Stephen Stanton is never a good guy. Yeah, um, bro. Have you? Is it his ambition? Is it something He's a hot shithead when we meet him? And now he's just like a Nazi. Hopefully what we'll find out more and more as these episodes

go along. As an actor, there's got to be some kind of a change. Not only just Tarkin's behavior, but I think also in his voice too, you've got to be able to hear that he's becoming a different person. This is a secure facility. We do not have just anyone.

running about. And if there was someone else, why did you not sense them? Ew. The chin grab. What was going on in this arc and what Tarkin's motivations were. So I had a pretty good idea of what Tarkin was trying to do. And, you know, he's starting to become that guy that people don't like too much. And we can kind of get an idea of, you know, why this is all happening. That's crazy.

Of the clone helmet. On the clone helmet. And Asoka on the run is an awesome sequence. I don't know that our show has ever felt more like Star Wars than when all the clones are chasing Asokatano. The Red Flags. It just looks like Star Wars. Instead of Jedi's slizing up battle droids,

finally you have what looked like stormtroopers chasing down a Jedi. And that's something that I think I always picture. the Clone Wars really to be about. Really, when you look at it in a lot of ways, Danica leading it, it's Darth Vader hunting down a Jedi Knight. It's true. He's about to do this a lot more for this is his career.

What are you doing? In a real way. You didn't even try to come and help me. They wouldn't let me in to talk to you. You could have it. And he's in the all black. The moment between Anakin and Asoka at the end of the pipe is one of my favorites. I mean, it's obviously not the fugitive. You've seen the movie The Fugitive. There's something about that

moment of this kind of this concept of a leap of faith where Asoka, you know, believes in herself and her abilities to overcome this dilemma and asks if Anakin you have to trust me now. It's such a pivotal moment for

her character before she leaps into the beyond. It's really one of my favorite moments. It's something that I drew in the very first story meeting we had about this with George. She's a little like pen drawing leaping off. From the meeting. It's so good. It's shot in the episode. Is that what her uniform looks like?

It was really well done. I don't want to talk about it. I think that Ashley's acting and Matt Lanter's acting in that scene is some of the best that the two of them have ever done. And it just escalates from here into the final episode. So it's going to be exciting when you see that one. I love how you're signing you now.

You have to trust me now. It's so funny. I do trust you. I know you do. Wish me luck. Boom. we're going to get the little there we go

okay I need a little stink um the bit that he says about like this is the most it's felt like Star Wars and like this is the most I mean exactly what he says this is like this is the most

it feels like Star Wars and it feels like you know Jedi being Jedi running from Stormtroopers and this is where I thought the this is why I felt the show would be or I thought the show would be is so interesting in some ways because it makes it feel like

there was a point at which for Faloni this was going to be more a post-order 66 show or something you know and my understanding is we're not going to get that much of that you know so I think just the last season right

I believe just the last season and only maybe parts of the last season so oh my God so but it's it's like there it has to be an head that it's his responsibility to land the to like hit the landing in some ways

like even if that's not the thing that he's storyboarding or writing all the time like what is it about these characters that's going to lead them to this being their future and we've talked a lot about the reparative work that is this reparative of the prequels or isn't it

I think we've gone back and forth on that largely because it's been I'd say There are huge high points throughout the whole show, but we were so down the dumps at certain points in season three, four, and five that, and even earlier than that, but earlier than I think we had hope in our hearts, but that we've said, like, I don't know that it actually repairs all that much. This is the most, it's felt like they're really truly getting in the brain of Anakin Skywalker and be like, also he was thinking about these other things. like this is huge I mean Natalie you said it kind of you know earlier just like

this this changes everything for Anakin in that movie he's thinking about this in a real way and he is now like it's interesting to think about that being on this creative team's shoulders at this point like we're going to change what people think is happening we're going to change the interior lives of characters in a movie that came out 10 years ago

as of the time of this production Like to think about Anika, like, to think about Revenge of the Sith and think about Anakin coming off the loss of Asoka and Asoka, like, having left him, left the Jedi Order is, it, it, it, it does add. I mean, it's hard to grapple with because obviously it's being done after the fact and, you know, hating Christensen isn't acting with that in mind. we're not directing that with that in mind like that's not you know it truly didn't exist it did not exist at all but as far as I know I do think the Clone Wars show does a good job of embedding it in a way that you could still read it in like almost as a post script into you have to meet it halfway but I mean we'll see we should revisit it after the end of all this process I do think we should I do think we should I do think we should

yeah because anyway yeah well and I like to that though I was sort of thinking to the angle of reparative work I wonder to what degree also is like Luke is also reflecting on like what worked what didn't and also like a lot more history the clock has run on history a lot more like between in the intervening years between when he's making those movies and when they're making these kinds of episodes and like it does sound like he did not take his hands fully off the trolls for the show and like had really strong ideas about like plot beats to to bring in and so to what degree he also like there's maybe the reason like sometimes republic politics seems so sketchly imagined in the films is because like there's a lot of like vague unease with like

the politics of late 90s but they haven't fully crystallized into what is like what is the dread circling and by you know 2012 when they're releasing this episode it's pretty clear what a lot of those dreads are surrounding we should so the next episode to catch a Jedi opens with

a really terrific scene I don't know Austin if you want to run the insert the audio from this conversation that they have in the Jedi Council but like the politics of this room where Anakin

It is right after Assook is escaped, and he's brought in to talk to the Jedi Council about what has gone down here. Tarkin is on conference call. The degree to which the Jedi Council's confidence is wavering and collapsing, and the speed at which people like Mundi and Mace, honestly, are ready to throw Asokan Akon under the bus is, like, dizzying. You get the rain spattering against the windows. and like the only friend Anakin has in that room isn't in the room. It's Obi-Wan on remote.

Right. And even Plow can't quite bring himself to like offer a full-throated defense of Asoka. It is a dire scene. Like the Jedi Council, we start talking about

how they're continually sowing the seeds of their destruction in a lot of ways. And part of it is by not answering the moment when their own are in trouble or in distress and this is I think like one of the clearest examples of that where they just they don't even want to do an investigation at this point this has become an embarrassment

but I will say I there is a way to read this scene that I think is very clever on Yoda's from Yoda's position not to join the Yoda loved Yoda pills oh god what do you think he means when he says we believe she may have done this I mean I why wouldn't you believe she may have done this I don't know maybe she did it but anyway who does he who does he send he sends plow and Anakin and Anakin gets like there's a chip someone's like not Anakin and I think there's a degree to which when you pick plow and Anakin it's so that if Anakin gets it says if they make you take Anakin off the mission you're still sending plow.

You know what I mean? You're still getting plow out there. And those are the two. Those are the two. Mace goes, I think this, I think it's dead. She's dead. She's dead. Yeah, I do think it's a bit of a sheave move from Yoda to send Anakin and Plow because I do think that the last thing he leaves this conversation with is, first of all,

Windu is saying he's emotionally tighter. He's probably too emotional to do what needs to be done. And Anakin comes back at him and says, I'd rather capture Assoca and find out the truth and let her run because of a lie. And Yoda says, you must prove to us that you can stay. Wait, is it him or is it Windy that says that? It's Yoda.

You have to prove to us that you can stay focused. Yeah. And Anakin's like, don't worry, I already called the cops. That's my evidence that I'm focused. I already called the cops on Asoka on the lower levels to give them the run-down. To the point of Mace, maybe not being the one for this mission, he's clenching his jaw so tightly in this scene.

They all. Like, he's clenching his jaw so tightly in the scene that it forms a different plane on his face and catches different light. It's... They all look so... It's like... They're shook.

It is shook boys club. Like, everyone here, it looks broken down. Everyone here is down bad Everyone here is like I don't want to deal with this Can somebody else like please take this off our plate Plow says Like it begins with Tarkin basically delivering their investigation

And Plow says I do not believe that Asoka could have fallen so far And he's like head in hands Like just in just like everyone is Is listening to this hologram of Tarkin talking at them Being like The beliefs of the Jedi Council are irrelevant, actually.

Which, which, he's hitting them on two levels, isn't he? He's saying, the beliefs about the Jedi, they're not relevant about Asoka. He's also saying the beliefs of the Jedi are irrelevant. Y'all are a made-up religion. Yeah. No one cares. No one cares. And that's why we're going to ask you to expel her so that we can fucking try her on a military trial.

which is also interesting because it means that in the previous episode he's acting as if all the time he's acting as if this is not contested territory her being detained the stuff happening on the Jedi Temple he's making it seem as if like it's a done deal that's Senate business which means it's military business but the fact that he now was asking for her to get to get exiled from the council de-jetied means that that is not as simple as he was making it seem last time. But he had her in custody. Yeah. Right, but I mean, but he keeps her in custody and won't let Anakin in to see her because it's a matter of Senate business, right? Yeah, that's true. Even though it's a Jedi. And now they're getting to say it's Jedi business as long as she's a Jedi.

So it's like the, it's slipped out of his hands a little bit. A little bit, but also he's forcing them to cut the rope and put it back in. And so the missing link in all this is The last inkling we had something like this was brewing Was when they recovered that information About the secret hyperspace highway And Tarkin's like I'll be taking that fast

And Yoda's like I gotta talk to him And we'll figure this out What happened in that conversation Because the power dynamics flipped Like the Jedi Like basically The Jedi are facing a barely polite ultimat

them, which is we don't want to try a Jedi. You're right. We don't. We technically can't, but we will. Or you can make this easy for everyone and just expel her. And now she's totally subject to our law. Those are your options. And the fact that they can't, like, this has already slipped so far away from them, that Yoda's not saying, I will go talk to the chancellor. Those conversations are over.

There's little, like, you know, closed door meetings. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good point. Like, in a couple seasons ago, again, like, you could imagine Yoda being like, we shall talk to the chancellor directly and have a real, you know, have a conversation about this. But that's off the table at this point. There is no line of communication between the Jedi and Palpatine, like, Palpatine's talking

through Tarkin at this point. Like, we're not really seeing Palpatine and Yoda interact as much. And I think this is kind of what's brilliant is when do you know it's too late? you don't right you don't like when do you know is the last moment you have to like change the trajectory something something and the Jedi oh I think Yoda gave that shit up fucking ages ago but did he know when he was giving it up you know what I mean like does that meeting go and I love that we just don't see it or maybe like it just didn't register whatever this transition was there was no like pivot moment where it was clear that like the old the old

rules were gone and new ones were in place it's just like sort of crept up on these guys. And Asoka being accused this way has just like caused it to bloom into a crisis and that they like have to that they have to do this thing. I think it's terrific.

It almost feels like this is the moment because instead of like actually defending Asoka here they sort of do this song of dance of like oh we're going to have this pull aside with Asoka we're going to question her ourselves and we're going to decide if we're going to push her out but they've already made the decision that

they're going to push her out because the Senate is telling them to. And not even the Senate, the military claiming to represent the Senate. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. So, which I think that's the, that's been the missing key here. And in a way, like, if Shiva's hands on somewhere, I think it might be with this maneuver, realizing that by shifting the Jedi off the military, but maintaining the military,

he has all the cards. And, and you don't even, you almost don't even. need order 66, right? You almost don't even need it. This war could end with the Jedi disempowered, but Sheev wants to kill the Jedi. Right. So, of course he's going to order 66. He's not just, he's not just like a politician.

He's, right. He gets joy from seeing Jedi suffer. Like, he physically... He's, yeah. And also, like, the one thing the Jedi have historically been good at is eventually killing Seth. and so it is true like at a certain moment

even if he like wins politically if the Jedi are not dealt with they will like a homing missile just come for him and eventually like Yoda almost got him like he had he already had all the cards and Yoda almost got him

imagine like if he doesn't like clean out the Jedi you know you get a real ugly 47 Ronan type situation yeah yeah God that sounds great Anyway, Asoka. Asoka's on the run.

She's just got to call her best friend. She needs an ally. Oh. And if you didn't know who the killer was at this point, you do now. The minute she calls Barris, you're like, oh, Barris, huh? We're sure there's a lot of Barris off. They're friends. This is an Asoka arc.

Of course Bear should be here. Hey, Asoka. Hey, don't call me on this line. But keep me apprised of your whereabouts. I will do some investigating. Asoka offers some money for food to a goadle who takes a ration. No, she just offers a ration bar. A ration.

Yeah. And he's a goat. He loves it. His sick clothes. And they have the horns too. They have the horns too. So the hood fits her head and has little holes. This guy's fails.

Miserably, though. Miserably. Yeah, instantly. But we get the L-Train shit. We get these fucked-up cops. New cops. New fucked-up cops is dropped. Bro, they're like from Kill Zone.

Yes. They got the fucking hell-gast are here, chasing her through the L-train. It's so good. You can't quite figure out for a minute whether the people are droids. Like whether, like. Yeah, 100%. I don't, are they? Are they humans?

Are they clones? Are they droids? Are they? Are they. They, like. It's great. Great. Yeah.

Long, black, rubberized trench coat thing. Full body armor suit. What do we think about the guy with the brain who's just a fucking cop? Dead, you piss me off. The guy who knocks her over? Uh-huh. I was like, wow, people do not give a shit about Jedi. Yeah.

You live down here and the cops are chasing somebody. You're going to sign with the cops. Come on. But Jedi are also cops. I don't know that he can tell that she, I guess her pictures everywhere. There's always going to be a guy who's, Like, this could be a good neighborhood if it weren't for people like this. You're right.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, did you notice some of the other people who were on this train? Uh, Gritos? Yeah, I felt like it was just a gallery of all their alien character models. It's a lot of them, my favorite thing that's on that train is that they got a snake guy. Oh, yeah. Is he draped over the bars?

Or he's draped over the bars. He's draped over like the, the standy bars. The things that you hold on top of above. It's so good. That's like one of my favorite little gags. Yeah. It's always good actually Turns the little head

He's like Okay I guess Train fight is awesome Her vaulting from one train Like past another Like on the platform It's incredible Funny gag with the elevator

What do you make of that elevator bit With the kid? She's just shook She's in Anakin mode Yeah She's not looking for the button to hit She's up to cut a circle Was it actually broken?

Yeah It gets shot or something. No, the control gets shot, and it's like falling fast, but it's an express elevator. He just presses the stop button because she's about to cut. It shouldn't be making them any sparks if that's out to the door. It's an old elevator. They don't bring the repair droids out to this level. He's like, this Jedi is about to save me by jumping out of an elevator going like 300 kilometers an hour.

I'm going to break like one arm at. at least, or I can hit this button. Nemo, Ray, or whatever he's just... He's like, you coo-me-na, you coo-me-na, you co-me-na, you co-me-na, you co-my-na. Hit the button stops. Yeah, I was so distracted being like, if she, if she kills this child, and this gets added to her rap sheet. She's getting snipped, like, somebody's, like, taking her the fuck out. She's a danger.

She's a menace. And she's already fallen to the crosshairs of a hunter. because no sooner has she made her escape than we see a shadowy figure sort of stalking her but someone who looks familiar who don't recognize the armor it's a sage ventress

wearing a cool helmet sickest mask my mouth dropped I could not be so I thought I knew that she needed a friend right she needed a friend I thought it was going to be Honda

I did after he was going to sell her after she was imprisoned by him for sale. Sometimes he helps them escape. The vibes recently, I thought it was definite like at the beginning of this episode, let me be clear. At the beginning of this episode.

Because they were talking about she's on the run. Someone's doing acrobatic lightsaber. No, that's not Honda. Hondo, defense attorney at law. Oh, done. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Don't bring him and his dreads into the courtroom. No, I didn't think he'd be in the courtroom, but I definitely thought she'd hop on his ship for a minute, you know. Like, that'd be like a little getaway moment for her. She'd be, she'd go on a little, you know, joyride with Honda. I bet we get him in this mode before the end of it all. I bet we see something where he's defending somebody or giving a speech. I can just hear him say, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I can just, uh, it's kind of.

to be bad. Anyway. Better call Hans. This also... Better call Honda. I also love, by the way, again, you got a crime writer writing this episode because Asoka makes the very good point. You can't turn me into the Jedi.

You're a wanted criminal. She's like, I'll turn you into the bondsman. And I'm like, we have a crime writer writing these episodes. I understand how it works. Yeah, 100%. It's so good. I also love Assoca's move here of immediately being like, Oh, just work with me, and I'll talk to the Jedi, and you'll get a full pardon?

Huge check. Huge check. So many zeros. No way. No chance. No chance. No chance. But I love that she tries that.

And I mean, Ventress must be in a tough spot if she's taking the deal. Venture's a tough spot. Venture's in a tough spot. I was truly shocked for Ventris to go for this. I think maybe Ventures didn't have a lot going on right now. Like maybe she just cashed out big and this was just like gravy and she was like, oh, maybe I'll just like. So this is why I'm so glad we listened to that fucking audio book because I was, all I could think about was how much richer this all is because we know that like imagine how comforting this entire development is for Ventris to find Asoka. Even her tone of wonder when she, when she realizes who she's caught, Asoka Tano.

Because the big question mark for Assangeantris is, what if I'd gone, been a Jedi? What if they'd taken me in? Would I, like, I wouldn't have been, would I have still been abandoned and neglected by an abusive father figure? Would I have been betrayed in this way? And to find Asoka, who is, like, been the entire time, the, like, chosen reverse of Ventris's coin to have fallen into the same lot is, like, Like, yep, all Jedi and Sith are bastards. Like, any religious not with a lightsaber is a bastard. I love that she says so the Jedi aren't that holy after all.

Like, I just love, like, I love, because I think a lot of the time, we, it's not as acknowledge that it is like, there is this, like, religious, like, there is a sanctity. like we've they've been in such cop mode for so long that it's nice to have that reminder of the sort of like spirituality of you know like the sanctity of what it means to be a jadai and stuff like that and for ventures to call out that hypocrisy i think is great and and then isoka's response as she's trying to make this deal to call out the relationship with duku as you're saying like this this entire exchange was um i felt so rewarded for having to call out the relationship with ducu as you're saying like this this entire exchange was um i felt so rewarded for having listened to Duky Jedi lost, but her saying, I know that Duku tried to have you killed. What if this is his new apprentice? I've fallen from my path just as you've fallen from yours. We have a lot more in common

than you think. Plus, I can get you a full pardon if you work with me. And, you know, the full pardon thing, at the time I was like, how could adventures ever buy this? And I just realized, like, she doesn't know what the situation is politically. As far as she

knows, the Jedi walk in and get things done. As far as she knows, the laws don't apply to the Jedi. The Jedi show up places just like the Sith do and take what they want and get the outcome that they go for. They are key to the way the galaxy works. They have direct access to the Senate. Why wouldn't a Jedi be able to get this? You don't think Ventress has any inkling of the fact that the, that, that, that, the, that, the Republic is in control of, of separative? I don't think she, well, also, hold on. No. I don't think she thinks it's she've obviously like but the you don't think at any point she's a tool that gets used like she doesn't i don't think duke who brought her on any of that stuff

and all this like but i do think uh like the identity of a double agent is wildly like it is not it is not a wild bet to think like if there's one thing that gets you maybe forgiveness is sorry i was just an apprentice who was abducted as a child soldier And two, which, you know, the Jedi would still probably be like, well, you could have been a good child soldier for us. But she was trying to be that, and then she got abducted again. But if she catches like a Jedi who's turned traitor, legit traitor, not like falling to the dark side, but is like still like as one of the Jedi bombing the temple, that is probably the one chit I can imagine being just about worth a full pardon. Yeah I'm so curious

What that would have been like I mean I guess We still have time left in the show I know I know no it's not what happens But Anyway they end up walking around the alleyways together And Assoca makes another phone call

From a pay phone From a hollow pay phone To Barris Who is like I found it I found the evidence I found the place to go to How'd you find it?

I did some research. I told you I was looking into things. Okay. That is an answer to my question. Jesus' voice. You dumb as shit, boy! Like, what are you talking about? Dude.

It's so sad that she keeps calling Barris instead of once being like, yo, Anakin. Can we have a check in? Or Padmey. Or, like, so she also doesn't realize that the Nate of the show she's on has changed. Like, because previous seasons of the Clone War and honestly, there's tons of shows that used where it's like

the sort of procedural like CSI thing that we already saw referenced in this. Hey, I like the tech nerd will be like, I did some digging and you never question what that info is. The person is like, I did some digging. It's always good. This dude has come, the writer of this episode spent time

producing I said it before criminal minds. Pines. Mines, which literally has that character, right? The, like, the app-based character who gets, like, the quirky lady. I don't forget what her name is. You know who I'm talking about, right? And, you know, Matthew Gray-Guebler or whatever will call her up, or he'll be that dude.

And be like, oh, yeah, I figured out on the computer. Yeah, totally. I mean, part of this actually makes me think a lot about, and, Allie, maybe, I'm curious if you feel this way, too, it reminds me of making cred to the table in the sense that You can only make it forward in time. If they could remake all of Clone Wars, would Barris Offey be in 70 episodes? Oh, sure. Because if we could remake Counterweight, Jackie Green would be in a bunch of episodes before some key stuff happens in counterweight, right?

If we could retell that story, when you tell a story in this serialized fashion, you sometimes don't get to invest in the characters who are going to be important, like, structural down the line. as much as you would if you wrote it all at once and realized that a character would be important and then realize that they could be introduced to be load-bearing structures earlier. Right, yeah, but I feel like, I mean, and Clone Wars has been all over the place in terms of where they've spent time,

but I feel like when I think about Barris in this arc, like, she's doing so much and hurting so many people that I wonder, like, what is it about Asoka that made her the target in this? Because so much of this plan is about Asoka catching this fall. And is it like that like Asoka, especially being other Anakin, is this like ideal of the quote unquote new Jedi. And, you know.

This gets me quick. Right. Like Anakin is like the hero of the battlefield or whatever. And Soca is the next generation in terms of being like a Jedi super soldier. And Barris is like if I was more like Asoka or if Asoka was more like me, I wouldn't put her in this position. So I think you kind of need Barris to not be on screen for a little bit, so it feels like they've grown apart.

But counterargument, we haven't seen Barris in like four seasons. I do think we're missing a arc here with Barris and Asoka bonding again. Again, can we trade one Luxemeterre art for a Barris-Offi-Arp. I think that's what we're missing. Also, I was just sort of talking about the Anakin thing earlier, like the various Jedi, the various trauma of the Jedi are carrying with them. Barris's fate on Geonosis. The siege tank was not the worst thing

that happened to her there. It was the brainworm. She has consciousness and will subsumed by another creature and also watches the clones turn on a dime into being her commandos. First, clones do it to her. Clones, like, capture her and assault her with this mind.

The worm in her brain. And then she sees them turn into, like, her clock work soldiers and and she fights Assoca yeah in that episode and like you know we come out of that

God and remember how that ends is she is like just kill me do you remember and Asoka leaves being like being like being like

hey Anakin Barris wanted me to kill her because of the worm and wasn't sure that I could like use the ice stuff to get her out get her free get her free um and if if if this failed if this had gone bad the entire medical station could get warmed I could have made the worst possible decision I couldn't go through with doing the thing and I think about all of that in relation to this very interesting what's going on In Barris Offie.

I want to know. Because that was it. That was the last episode, I think, with Barris in it. Oh, really? She may be in the background. She may have been in the background in some other stuff. I feel like we haven't seen it, though. Yeah, it's been ages.

No. She was apparently in the background in the first, the first Rocco Hardine, Obi-Wan undercover episode. And then she was, like, in flashbacks briefly and some other stuff. But Grievous Intrigue was the last, or Brain Invaders, and then Gravis Intrigue. So Grievous Intrigue is the one that's after the brainworms, but I don't think she's like in in Grievous Intrigue.

She's just, again, briefly there. Yeah. So that's, and that was a long time ago. Brain Evaders, again, season two. Yeah, that's such a long time ago. Oh, man. One more arc would have been nice. So I just had to look this up because I'm really glad you pulled that scene, Austin,

because to drive the point home, Anakin looks over at Barris' sleeping form and says, I'm sure she would agree that you made the right choice. It is just assumed that we know how Barris is going to come out feeling after all this, and no further inquiries needed.

Yeah. Anyway. Fuck. It's good. Cloud Wars might be good. Clone Wars might be good. Anyway. I was just going to say, like, partway through watching this arc,

the Batman, the animated series thing occurred to me as well. And I was thinking, is this their Mask of the Fantasm? Is this four episodes their Mask of the Fantasm? Which is... In terms of quality, you mean, in terms of, like, being... And in terms of just tonal shift, right? Like, Mask of the Fantasm is the show, like, is the story they couldn't tell. as the children's cartoon thing

on network TV We see a little cat, creature Okay, they go their separate ways, right? The Asoka and Ventrists get jumped by guards There's a whole sequence where Assoca's like, don't kill them And Ventriss is like, what? Me? Kill people? You know, I'm doing a little joke.

The fight is a shit. It's a really great fight. It's a really great fight. She's like, see, I didn't kill anyone. It's the new me. Yeah, and they beat them up They go their separate ways They get to the

The location that Barris gave Asoka Which is a watchdogs level Which is a watchdogs level Speaking of Chicago Yeah, it's just like a weird foundry Where there's a bunch of pipes And fire and stuff and boxes Um

Ah Saj goes to walk away thinks that that um thinks that Asoka's following her because she sees a shadow that looks like her

it's revealed to be a weird cat which I'll have more on later and uh and someone knocks her out someone in a cloak and all black and she steals her lightsabers and her mask she's very clearly not wearing the same outfit

but we're just hand wave that I mean she looks dope with that mask on when she shows up and this strange figure attacks Asoka and they have incredible fight in this place that reminds me a lot of the venturous um um luminar fight from that from that earlier arc actually that first uh ventris arc um uh because she does like lots of throwing things at at uh asoka she does the cut open a pipe to to uh hit her with

the uh the steam trick which is like one of the first big things that we said oh yeah about ventrists was that she was willing to use the invite in these kind of underhanded ways. And so to see Barris do it here is very fun. It's just a sick fight. This was the first scene that I was like, okay, this is Barris. I immediately knew this was, like, at this point, I was like, it's obviously fucking Barris at this point.

Like, it's not, it's not Ventress. Ventress wouldn't just do all. Well, we saw Ventriss get knocked out at this point. So we know it's not venturous. Right. It's just like, what other girl, yeah, what other, like, you know what I mean, like. Uh-huh. This person is boobbed up.

We don't know who else that is. Who else could that be? Who else has titties in this arc? Nobody. Nobody. Padma. Yeah, mask comes up. Padma on a dollar.

Honestly, better, better franchise. That's in another AU that we don't have access to. Yeah, we don't have that one. We're not in that one. Soca gets blown the fuck up. Some cops who are harassing a random guy on the street nearby. I don't know if y'all pick that up. Nope.

Call it in. It's so good. And in his little tie fighter, like, police van, Anakin and Plocoon start to head that direction. By the time they get there, Asoka has been beaten to, like, again, she could have gotten killed here. Barris could have killed her probably but she wants her to take the fall very clearly and so she ends up getting force pushed down a pit and surrounded by the crates of the nanodroid bombs

I can't believe he found her here amongst all these nanodroids this proves that she did it yeah like why would she so just and you know it's she obviously like crashed through a fucking sea She's covered in gravel and blood and scabs, and she's just up near death. And they're like, oh, she's with the nanodroids that were on. Like, does nobody have critical thinking skills? What do you do?

She's surrounded by the fucking box. Maybe she really cleverly fucked herself up and then threw herself through the floor down six stories and was like, this will sell it. That's a huge brain move. That's a huge brain move. Snoopy had a full classic schedule He could not be on this investigation This is one where he's walking past the background It's like man we need you

We need you today We need you now I hate to continue to go into the Flolony zone However I did mention a cat right So we're gonna get some cat Backstory here Cat lore cat lore

Here we go All right three two one Go. The Underworld is an idea that George, I think, kind of started to develop post-revenge of the Sith. He was very interested in the layers that make up Coruscant. I think he really loved the city planet

and he wanted to see more development of it. So in season two, we see Asoka and Plowcungo down there. That was season two. Season two was good. The time after that, there'd been a lot more development of that area, a lot more clarity as far as what did it look like. Some of you've probably seen the game trailers for 1313. We really worked quite collaboratively with the guys from 1313 with what we were doing because everybody was kind of zeroing in on how does this level work, how big is it? If y'all haven't seen the 1313 trailers, you should just look those up after.

It's one of the logistics behind it. So there's so much more detail in the world now down there. This one just came in. Looks like the Jedi are after one of their own. These are people. I know. Her mugshot. Those are toys.

Those are people. Yeah, those are people. Yeah. The subway system was a big deal to him to want to include this train. So all of that kind of gave us a greater sense of the scale and the dimension that the world of 1313 and this kind of criminal underworld hat. This little... I've never seen a cat in Star Wars. I mean, you know, I know the neck suit, fine, but that's really big, and it's kind of got a rat tail.

And I've never seen like a straight-up, what I would call a cat. So we came up with this creature called a Tuka. Oh my God, I love it. I love it so much. And if you notice, these cats look a lot like the Tuka doll that Numa has in season one, when the little girl is found on Ryle. Oh, my, not her. And so where everybody thought that they were originally based on Twilax because of the twin tails on the head,

really, in reality, you find out later they're based on someone on these cats, these Tukes. And the reason they're called Tuk is because my cat was named Tuk. Yeah, it's neat. It's kind of an interesting thing. They're creepy little guy. It's so neat. Some out of a Miyazaki influence in their photo-O-S shape. I named them Tukes.

Yeah, cats in Star Wars. Why not? He's in an interesting place right now. Two chains voice. My cat's name Took, so I called him Tuk. And I'm going to be the one who collects. Fetris' role in this is something that I think we all became interested in about the time that she wasn't being such a bad guy.

The possibility of her having some kind of run-in with Asoka. Real shocking if that writer's ruin swore from that conception, Dave. And we wanted to kind of follow up on the history of the two characters there and see how they would now interact. Oh, you kind of got into one of your major antagonists. One major characters, yeah. I've fallen from my path just as you've fallen from yours. We have a lot more in common than you think.

It made a very unlikely team-up, but a very logical team-up all the same. Ventress has changed so greatly as a character from being just kind of a one-dimensional, you know, attacking force to this really personal dimensional character. that has feelings and her own agenda. Last thing we saw her doing was team, that's better for money. Yes. If you help me, I'll speak to the council on the Senate on your path.

And Asoka has matured in ways that I don't know that we could have expected when we started the show. So they kind of really naturally fit together as this great tag team, much to Anakin's dismayed because he doesn't know what it means. He's not sure why they would be helping each other. So it's kind of surprising. He does look jealous.

He does look jealous. He does look at one point when. Osoka says I have to admit I never saw us doing anything together ever Which I thought was pretty truthful

Every now and then I like to add lines Which are just pretty truthful As far as like making the show Definitely not a week in AO3 And she kind of pays the price I feel bad for her But she had that really cool helmet

That gets taken from her I wonder if by now You guys kind of know who's behind the villainy in this episode. For some of you, it's good. You accept it now and you can deal with it. And for others of you, it's going to be a hard Saturday next week.

But that's how something's going to clone war. All right. That cell was not as good. His energy is nuts. He's so tired. It's going to be a hard Saturday. Uh-huh. I'm obsessed with the cut from him being like,

it's a cat in Star Wars, it's kind of neat to Venture is pulling two red lightsabers across the ground as they spike. Uh-huh. It's great. It's good. I love Star Wars. I love it. I love it so much. I'm just going to say...

Final episode. Uh-huh. His little, his cold weather gear that he's wearing there, when they did that crime scene reconstruction earlier, I couldn't get the division out of my head when I saw that too, the way, like, you use your computer AI assistive technology to recreate events from the past. And I was like, even the little Whosh,

as like the playback, the sound effects were playback. I was like, this is an Ubisoft game. And there he is, wearing the shit that they were pushing in all their names at that point. You're right?

I do think that's like my favorite scene in this arc though. Just the way that the like reconstruction is like they're like walking over these like displays and there's these like little interactible like here's points of interest in this explosion. Totally. I'd play it. I'd play it. They shouldn't make that game.

He's probably drawing from Assassin's Creed. Division's 2016. Division's not out yet. So he's just anticipating that everyone's going to love the athleisure, fancy, like, cold weather gear is kind of... Or maybe the thermostat was just broken in the office that day. Well, when I was watching it, I was like, Heavy Rain Who? I forgot that heavy rain does that same shit. Yeah.

That would have already happened by now also, though. Yeah. I guess so, yeah. Oh, sure. So we come to the wrong Jedi. heavy rain. Sorry. Uh-huh.

Well, that's why we can all be so excited for the Quantic Dream, Star Wars game. Oh. It's going to happen to us. Oh, you're right. Pain. Oh, so much pain. Anyway. Yeah.

So the wrong Jedi, concluding episode for this arc, uh, opens on, once again, the, the ongoing negotiations, between the council and Tarkin, effectively, over how we're going to handle this. And Obi-Wan has returned from what we assume is his grieving process. He was just sort of conferencing in while he was just sort of, yeah.

Oh, he's going through it. Because I remember when he was on the Holocaust or whatever, he and he's like, we have to go the long way because we can't deal with these neutral systems. Who's the head of neutral systems right now? Oh, what's going on with that? I wanted to talk about that.

I forgot about that. I wonder if it's still mall. It's, I mean. Like, I really want to know what happens. Because the whole thing at the end of the last dark was she was being like, you're going to still, I still can put you to a use. And is that still being the head of Death Watch and running Mandelor? Or it could just be Almec running for cities.

Totally. Totally. Totally. Anyway. is like, listen, you're not going to have an internal trial. We're all very concerned. It would look biased if the Jedi did the Jedi tradition of internal court for a suspect.

So we want you to expel her from the Jedi and then we'll do a trial over here. And yeah, one of you could represent her, I guess. You decide who. And it's like, phew. and only Obi-Wan is like absolutely not only Obi-Wan is like we have to stand with Asoka and everyone else like

the one fucking hornful is like well she was seen at the scene of the crime I guess that's enough too so that's evidence you're a convictor I'm like you guys are supposed to be

the fucking wizards of the fucking place of the whole galaxy the fuck you yeah It's It is creating Mace

Go ahead Mace is ready to fold He does That's what I'm saying Mace is I think Shook about He's like afraid To seem soft on crime

You know what I mean Like he genuinely It's like I you know Well the Senate We don't want to set it To think badly of us A thing that I kept

Thinking about When Ever Mace speaks in this arc Is when we found out That Pre-war Technically Mace was the leader of the council because Yoda was sort of outside

and then it was like well Yoda's going to sit in both chairs when he like pipes in on these conversations it really feels like him being like well as the former authority here I'm going to be the person to push back on this argument yeah I completely we don't want to be in the opposition of the Senate

that would be bad and remember I have the authority from before you know I'm not just speaking out of my ass I used to be in charge elder statesman type shit and also So the coin is going to drop at different points for these guys. Like, Mace is also, by the time we get to Revenge of the Siff, he realizes that we're in a trap.

He realizes fully that they are boxed in. But at this point, he doesn't realize that, like, he only thinks his hands are on the machinery. Like, he still thinks it's the Republic. It's still his army, to some extent. Like, this is just an ongoing negotiation of power and not a stripping of power. Whereas, yeah, Obi-Wan, whether he fully sees it or not. recognizes that this is like he is standing up for a friend

but also this is probably one of those moments where you know if a line's going to be drawn it's probably now and they don't she is sent over to the Senate building for trial well wait no no no first there's the internal chamber of judgment the chamber of judgment the chamber of judgment featuring these fucked up Jedi guards again with the cool

with the cool hoods and masks and are really intricate elevator. A really intricate elevator. Everyone's up in their like balcony judgment seats. This is very last days of Krypton. Yeah, it is. It totally is. And it's the Jedi Council, right?

It's like Kiadi Mundi and Plow and Yoda and Obi-Wan and Mace. And there is a back and forth. Kiyadi Mundi is like, you have evidence, we've evidenced the contrary that you care about the Jedi Order. and it's bad, you know, she just doesn't have the answers she needs because she doesn't have the answers. Yeah, Anakin down there going full general's odd, where it's like, this is a travesty, this isn't even, you already made up your minds, why are you, like, just absolutely. And he's right that they already made of their minds, because the request from Harkin wasn't, we request that you have a trial to see if you should expel her. It was expel her. and they're going through the motions

Who do you think on this council They say later That it was not unanimous We know Obi-Wan said Did not say yes Yeah Do we think Plow said yes Or do you think Plow said no

Oh that's such a hard question I don't think Asoka had it in that conversation She doesn't have it She doesn't Because her being like I believe in the Jedi And then them being like Okay then why were you dealing with Ventris

and her being like, well, we were in similar positions. We had an understanding is not. Based on one thing. The fact that he calls her. Yeah, yes, yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the fact that he uses a name later that we'll get to. We'll get to that.

But I think he did have her back in this, in this. I do. But two four is not enough. Two four is not enough. and they take her little paduan beads away they rip them off her head they don't even say can you remove that please they reach out and grab the braid and rip it off

so violent so like like gross I didn't like that I don't know it feels to me like the Jedi becoming increasingly militarized I agree I agree you can't be killing clowns in attack of the the temple you think Yoda abstained or do you think Yoda just abstained like he just didn't vote one way or the other. He has been so, he has been walking the line so much to this. So with 3-1.

3-2-1. 3-2-1. I believe it. Yeah. Anyway, she's back in jail. Anakin and Padmey go and visit her. Yeah, Padmae's here to save the day. Padma is going to, Padmae has finally showed up this season in the final episode.

And she's here with a scarf on. you know looking like a priest I don't know what the deal is here that's her lawyerly outfit yeah is like is that like a is that like a pre-layer like like I don't know is that like I've never seen this outfit before my life she looked like she's about to give a sermon at a funeral she does which she is yeah the ear cuffs are kind of lay they had that kind of like yeah you know the crescents kind of could remind me of the buns I guess a little bit

that's kind of fun. Anyway, she's going to be His Soka's lawyer, and then Anakin is like, I'm going to go get to the bottom of this. I'm going to go find out the truth. And he finds Ventress.

And, like, important detail that I swore he was going to point out, but he doesn't. She doesn't have her lightsaber still. She's trying to fight him off with, like, pipes and shit. And he's just cutting through all her stuff. She says that eventually. Oh, does she? Does she say it? Out right? Okay. Yeah, she's like, find the person who has my lightsaber.

Right. That's right. Yes. Yes. Anyway, he force chokes her and then choke chokes her. When he force chokes her? And his whole face gets evil mode. Yeah. Yeah, I hated that too. It's a great story beat, you know? It's just really interesting. Yeah.

I love the narrative. Character development. It is character development. It is. Super important. Okay, and then... Okay, there is actually a beat, though, here that is incredible, I think. What were you going to say? Well, Ventris goes, after he chokes her out, Ventress is like, you know, you, your

Padawan and I do have a lot in common, basically reiterating what Asoka said to her. I don't know if this is what you were going to say. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um, and then Anakin's like, how, how dare you compare yourself to Asoka? And she's like, hold up. My master abandoned me. And that's exactly what you did to her.

You and your precious little Jedi order. You abandoned her, which is a hundred. Well, I don't think Anakin fully abandoned her. I mean, he's out here doing this doing this, but he feels like he abandoned her. But he feels it emotionally, which is not what I expected. I expected he was going to be like, all right, well, I'm going to kill you now. I'm going to push you off the edge. I'm going to like.

Right, right. I'm going to almost break you, right? And instead, it hits him, which makes me feel like, okay, that wound is tender. He does feel that way. Because he couldn't protect. This is his whole thing. He couldn't protect her. He couldn't stop this from happening.

Another woman in Anakin Skywalker's life, he couldn't protect. Man. Double wide fridge for Anakin. God. Oh. So he's also, so he's trying to figure out, well, it's not her. It was not Ventriss than who could be because she's the only person

that So could get contact with and that's when Ventris realizes that's not true and she recounts that there was a phone call and just talking to Barris and now it's on now it's on

we cut over to the trial which is just happening in the Death Star like it's just all of the weird vertical lighting stuff weird the Death Star stuff the again the Crimson Guard

is here there's Pipes Guard happened? So they showed up in a Wikipedia last arc, and I was like, I missed them last arc. I don't know where they were. They're here now.

Jedi. Jedi. Yeah. Those are the guys. Those are the guys. Those are literally the guys. Those are the emperor's guys. The chancellor now has a personal death guard?

Yeah. Uh-huh. Sorry, a sequel trilogy voice. They have death guard now? Didn't they show up after the, the guy got assassinated the senator

yeah yeah Uncle Ono and then they were like we need bigger security for the chancellor and then he was starting to get followed around by bounty guards I think they were weren't they in blue at that point though weren't they just they're sitting there bit by bit and now these are the ones

who are in like return of the Jedi some of these people have these robed for 40 years You know, or whatever, 23 years. Yeah, uh-huh. Do you think these are humans? You think these are clones? I think they're humans. Clones.

You think? I think they're advancedly microdosed clones. Advancedly microdosed clones. Advancedly microdosed anti-Jedi clones. Uh-huh. I don't, I see, I think if you're just a clone, you don't have to be. You're already sort of anti-Jedai. Like, the tide is turning.

I know, but to do Order 66, like, you really got to fucking hate these fools. Well, this is, hang on, this is one of our being, on answer questions. And let me tell you, we're going to have answers on a lot of this sooner than later. Shut the fuck up. Okay, so, Z plus got me again because it was like next episode. Can I just say it's a very, it's a short sentence, but it's like, oh, my God. So the synopsis for the next episode is Something Something Something

Dealing with a clone with a mysterious mental illness And I was like Uh-oh What? Uh-oh So Mental illness We don't know, I don't know

We're going to see what's wrong with this clone We're going to see what's up with this clone We're going to see what's up with this clone So Also just a thought that occurred With the Crimson Guard And the fact that like The red armored

clone troopers are everywhere. A thing I also couldn't get on my head is like is part of the way this is working is that you have all these different clone legions, right, who are serving with different Jedi and such. And as the way this entire thing is working is that one formation is detached to like senatorial duty for everything he's doing on Corrassan

and they just keep getting bigger and bigger and more developed as an independent culture. Because Rex is still rocking the 501st like blue I think we saw oddball still wearing like the gold uniforms and such but like everything around this like new school clone army

it's red yeah it's red and so the entire thing has this like Vathan SS type characteristic to it which is we have siloed off part of this military and completely change this chain of command but the way it all begins and I love this about what the show is done it all begins just with prison guards

it all begins with just a hey there's some scutwork that needs to be done on Corrassant so it would create a small specialized attachment of clones to do the work that nobody needs to, that nobody wants to do. We immediately know they're corruptible. They don't really live up to the same

code as the other clones and then they just keep getting cash dumped on them and turned into the personal army of the chancellor. Love it. Love it. Fuck. That rules. Attending, I don't know if you all notice this, attending the

Um, the trial for Asoka is like everybody who is in the Seteen click and the, the, I guess also the Padma click. Um, it's like Mon Mothma and Baylor Gana and that Pantoran and the, the lady with a cool, like, purple. Andor is going to be so fucking lit. Turbin. Yeah. Uh-huh. I'm ready. I'm ready for Andor so bad after the fuck.

Um, so yeah, I don't, you know, the prosecution lays in, Asoka doesn't have answers. Like, we don't need to go beat by beat on this stuff, because Asoka doesn't have answers. And Tarkin seems to. Well, he, like, nobody has a good case. Right. But without a good case, it's defaulting to her being guilty because she's there. Right. Exactly.

Well, and this is the thing. Like, the Jedi have turned her over into a non-functioning legal system. Like, it is a military tribunal, i.e. a kangaroo court. And, like, Padmae's like, where's your actual proof for what's going on here? And Tarkin's like, here's some bullshit circumstantial evidence. Need I say more? And everyone's like, well, time to burn the witch. But before that can happen.

She does look very guilty on the huge black and white screens they have in this place, by the way. I love those screens so much. The, like, it's such an on-the-nose metaphor for, like, getting rid of the nuance of a situation to just show the, you know, the suspect in black and white, but it's, it works, it works for me. So, we cut to Baris, uh, taking a moment to pray and meditate at her little shrine, the light coming through the slats and the blinds, pouring across the room. It's all so good. And delicious food.

She is so smug and so cool, calm and collected. And then there's the knock at the door. And I love when it opens. He is a black silhouette. He's a black silhouette in the fucking dark. Like, Darth Vader is at the door. Yep. He hunts Jedi.

This is the thing he's good at. I'm so proud of him. He plays it so cold. The first thing he does, what is it? What's the first thing? He has a lightsaber. Oh, let me just pick up your lightsaber. He, like, force grabs the lightsaber from the shrine just to hold on to it.

You know, just like it's like a casual. You got to do something with my hands while we talk. He's doing the meandering, round, about working up to... Yeah, just one more thing. One more thing. He's like, oh, yes, I heard that you called. I heard that she called you.

There's no trouble. There's no trouble at all. You know, what else did you tell her? Did you tell anybody else? Which is even better because it makes it feel like he's like, could he be in on it too? Like, he's playing very coy around it. Yeah. And just the...

It was just one last thing I got to check. Yeah. Uh-huh. And he says, he straight up says, like, she's like, where did you hear, how did you basically get in any of this information? They told you that I talked to her. Yeah, yeah. And he says outright that it was Ventress. And Ventris thinks that somebody else is involved.

And she's like, well, you don't trust Ventress. You don't believe Ventress. And he was like. I don't know. There's only one way to find out. ignites her own lightsaber and swings it

she pulls from the little vase behind her ventriss's lightsabers and let me tell you she knows how to wield those top tier exchange of those are ventrists's

lightsabers you should have gotten rid of those are funny those belong to Ventris you should have gotten rid of those and she goes I don't know I think they suit me just fine or something like that. And then she dips out. It's really good.

Yeah, she dips out huge rolling fight for the back half of this episode while the court case is happening. The fight is incredible. The fight's incredible. Also, because rare Anakin dual-wielding fight,

because now he's got two lightsabers for this. And all hell is breaking loose. The, like, temple guards are trying to close in and get a piece of this. Uh-huh. Sunube is doing,

lightsaber training with the younglings from the young god i was like one of them's getting killed immediately i know in that bit where she's like i thought catooney did you see catoony ctuni was there she was doing their whole crew is there the whole crew is there the whole squad's there the fact like i thought petro was going to try to step up well and cunubay's ready to go too he is like he is like if she moves towards the kids like is i will i will intervene here it'll be over um yeah it's it's incredible scene little trivia here when they promoted the scene

or this episode, they had a photo of or a screenshot of Anakin holding the two lightsabers. And they changed the color of one of them to green so that people who saw the promo wouldn't immediately know that it was Beresofi's lightsaber. Because they know that her color is blue. So they made it green to make it look like it was somebody else's lightsaber in the promo image.

There's this cool tree. and so the fight goes like across the rooftops and then like down into this training area etc through the hallways and eventually aniken like force throws her and holds her against almost chokes her but then in the public he's like no no no let me hold her up against this ancient tree is she's jumping that's my question my question is this the yoda tree oh from dugu jedi lost from ducu jada lost it has to be right i think it is no it could be it could not be it's not huge huge but it does seem like it's a special tree i believe it um yeah the way that that he stops her from as she's like jumping towards him and she he

forced it's not just a throw it's like you're right it's a stop it stops yeah and then and she's suspended in midair and then he throws her against the tree and holds her there for a second and then approaches and it's so visceral it's like she you fucked up you are done you are like you are completely powerless at this point and it's just like it's it's one a display of the amount of raw power that aniken just has and often does not tap into yeah yeah like it's a reminder Also, he doesn't fight Jedi that often, right? There's a... I'm not saying it's the same as Palpatine getting joy from fighting Maul and Savage.

But, you know, he gets to let the limiter off a little bit when he's up against Barris. Yeah, that's fun. It's true. Also, he's angry. So he's mad. Because she was trying to frame his friend. So it's all going to work up fine. It's not going to be fine.

No. So he walks her, he marches her into the... trial with the with the temple guard right as the verdict is about to be read and we get we get uh chancellor palpatine's little i hope you have a good reason for this and it's like yeah i did i caught her and i have uh beres's little speech yeah okay so what's the please read it okay so she her confession is as follows i did it because i've come to realize what many people in the republic have come to realize that the Jedi are the ones responsible for this war that we've lost our way that we've so lost our way that we've become villains in this conflict

and that we are we are the ones that should be put on trial all of us and my attack on the temple was an attack on what the Jedi have become an army fighting for the dark side fallen from the light that we once held so dear this republic is failing it's only a matter of time Amen. Star Wars.com says Barris' review against the Jedi order though they led to dark actions is 100% true.

I'll reiterate. 100% true. Star Wars.com. You ever hate the Jedi so much you kill like 10 people? It might be more than that. How many people actually died in that bombing? It might be more.

Yeah, but for every Jedi you kill, you're saving like 100,000 clones. But she like cut, clone next like she went into that police station and did the damn thing that was all her those are the cop clones though

police unions and unions I'm just saying but I think I think what's so cruel about Barris Offey's saying the shit the firefighter from Florida this week anyway I think what's so cruel about this though

is that the thing is both sides of the conflict are villains like the trap is complete there is no escaping it this is the thing you see the anti-war protesters on Corrassan and it's like you can't like here's the thing they can't get out of this war

the separatists when you see what happens when like they gain control of a world it's like both sides here are one is being run by a Sith Lord on the sly and one is being puppeted by his by him through his apprentice but it's like

it's like the trap of like in some ways you do the trap of liberalism at moments like this where it's like well we've we have stuck our heads too far into this machinery now to safely extract ourselves you know she like

the Jedi well and I think this is kind of what a lot of this is circling around the Jedi maybe there is still an escape avenue open to them it would to do the coup right now. It's a coup. Do the coup. Right. You have to do the coup. You have to realize

that you've slipped and you have to do the coup. Yep. And that's the thing, right? It's like to save all it, it's like the only path left to them. You can't restore the Republic through like its current channels. They're all controlled by the enemy. And you've left those channels.

You don't have, you literally don't have any presence in the Senate. Yeah. So it's like you can't pass anything to restrict Palpatine's powers. No. And there are people who want to do that, and they can't do it because they've been stripped of their power.

The moment, like, and maybe this is the moment. Al, you mentioned earlier, like, this is the moment to draw the line. Maybe this is the moment to be like, if they had gone, like, sorry, this Supreme Chancellor business is cute. We've needed a figurehead for this, but, like, we don't answer to you. And, like, if it's just on at that point,

that's the last chance. Yeah, because it feels like the point at which the Senate and the Chancellor are able to make, like, employment decisions on behalf of the Jedi, like, to strongarm them so badly that, like, you have to take this person out of your order is like, is this going to be the final ground that you're going to stand, or are you going to let it fall? And they made that decision very quickly. Once you, you know, again, it's, it is a tough, it is a tough one to unnot because it's like, on one hand, we have the space coughs. And on the other hand, we have an ascendant fascist military. And I think in this moment, the space cops need to say, the fascists don't get to fire us. Yeah. And that's not a side I like to be on, you know.

But I don't know what the alternative, they have walked themselves into a, because again, I think the important thing here, the thing that has shifted for me is the Senate should be able to fire a Jedi. Yes. The Senate didn't fire a Jedi. Tarkin got a Jedi fired. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Tarkin is running this as an authoritarian at this point. And Tarkin keeps using the fake leaf of, well, attack on the Jedi's back on the

Republic, so it has to go to a military tribunal. And that's where the disconnect is. It's like, wait, no, no, no, no, no. You mean it goes to a civil trial, not to a military trial. It doesn't. Exactly. Yes, Osoc is not being tried in front of the Senate. She's, the senators, a couple of senators happen to attend it, but it's a military

court. It's not. Small detail by now, but, like, I mean, this was such a, a central issue in the 2000s is was 9-11 an act of war or was it a massive criminal attack right and that shifts so much about what the people behind it and anybody quote unquote suspected of it what rights they have in terms of trials and terrorists and being detained quote and quote yes and generally in the past it was handled through courts and suddenly it was like we're going to create a class where, like, the law does not apply.

And so we have this, yeah, like, they are, they have seen this machinery spring up, and they've sort of let it get that far. And now it's, like, turned against them. Sure is a good thing that they stopped it. And now, Asoka can come back. You know. Come back. So, honestly, this meeting of the Jedi Council is embarrassing.

It is embarrassing. It is so embarrassing. Mace trying to be like, Mace, really was like, this was all a test. You know what? We want to give you a promotion too. No, they don't do that.

They don't do that. I was like, desperate for them to do it. Maybe they'll make it. They didn't offer that. This is your great trial. And if he'd been like, and now we know you're a Jedi, you're a Jedi. But, but he's, wait,

what? No. No. He just says this is going to make you a better Jedi. Yes. Yeah. I thought he says Jedi Knight. Does he not?

They offer her Patawan braid back. They could have been like, she could have gone to take it. And they were like, you don't need that anymore. You're a Jedi Knight now. And that might have been there. No, Kiyadi Mundi says this is the true sign of a Jedi Knight. That's what it had it in my brain. But they're giving her Padawan, her Padawan braid back.

Yeah. Yeah, no, you're right. I misunderstood it. I misunderstood it. I thought the way that Kiotti Mundi prefaceed. Yeah, I thought the way that Keatty Mundi prefaced. Maybe Keatty Wendy pushed for that. Maybe Candy Wendy was like, and like I always say, this is what a good Jedi Knight has.

And you got, like, even, even Plow is trying to play on their connection from, like, when she was a little kid. Oh, I always, we always knew that you couldn't do something of this little Soca. This was what I was referring to earlier when I said that I think, I think Plow would have voted in favor of not expelling Asoka because he refers to her. Yeah, he says, you have our humblest apologies. I agree, but the council was wrong to. He was not going to put it on the line and be, like, he was like, I think. vote no. Right, because the other thing that could have happened here is he, Obi-Wan, and Anakin could have lined in the sand in here and could have been like, no,

we're not going to do it. You're going to send her out, we're done. Right, 100%. This is the schism moment. Oh, I wish we could have had a schism moment. And it would have gone bad. Obi-Wanhas are anti-yota. Right, exactly. And yeah, it's, it's, here we go. I have Anakin Officer the Braves. I'm asking you back. Dramatic orchestral music. She closes his hand. I will come to the music in a moment.

Okay, yeah. It's because it's... It's good all the way through. And they were doing it differently than normal. So, and it shows. I like that, I like the difference between the way that Yoda frames this and the way that Anakin frames this. Or Yoda says, back into the order you may come. And Anakin says, I'm asking you back.

Like, Anakin is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, and is, you. extent, like, is saying, like, I want you a part of this. Whereas Yoda's like, um, you could come back if you, like, it's open. To quote Lewis Crossing, it's the high hat. It's still even now, it's the high hat. And Anakin does recognize that, like, there's a bell that can't be on rung here. And so he's trying to, like, take the personally cut through it. Yes, exactly.

A hundred percent. But that also means it hurts so much more. when she refuses because he understands why someone refused the council's invitation to come back

he understands why someone be like fuck the Jedi Order but it was in the process she also rejects him she closes the hand

back around the braid his hand around the braid as if to say like no you're gonna keep that and I'm gonna leave it's so

and then he chases after her like you said earlier It's like, yeah. The sky is beautiful and apparently based on a photo Faloni took of the sky outside the studio during the production of these episodes. Stop.

I hate that. You know he was in his feelings during this. Yeah. He was like, guys, guys, guys. And I've done this. I've been this person. This is it. This is the season right here.

Let me send you the photo. This is this, to me is the whole season. It's bright over here, but it's stormy over here. She's walking into the stormy weather. Asoka. Bro, I can't with that. That was what the drawing. drawing, the sewer jump drawing

was kind of tits out earlier. It was a little much. She does have the window. It was out of pocket. But it was an higher... It was a deep line. It went so long.

Also, wildly upset her and not in a way that it was just falling through the air. It's very funny. His little sketch. Look, he's not a storyboarder in that way. He's not exactly. It's very funny to think of him

drawing that while George Lucas is like and we need to have the L train. Make sure we have the L train from Chicago. He's just shading in her mood. I'm thinking about a little cat. Do you guys have a cat? Doing a little, I'm slipping my Lucas into a, into a, um, a David Lynch. Oh, yeah, that also. So, also, I also feel like, I, like, this is probably me over reading into it, like, over interpreting, like the fact they might do, they, they someone's fake camera focus in the show, But, like, as she's leaving the temple behind, the backdrop to me throughout all of this, it looks like it is all becoming, like, a painting.

It, like, not in, like, the map painting way, like, a lot of the show does, but, like, a painting you'd see a museum of, like, like, neoclassical art or something. Like, course of empire type shit. And almost like as she's leaving, like, the temple, it itself is, like, falling into memory. Yeah, it's in history now Yeah, that's lovely I really love that Asoka I need to talk to you He chases her out

Their silhouettes against the sky Why are you doing this The council didn't trust me So how can I trust myself He says what about me I believed in you I stood by you And she says I know you believed in me

Anakin and I'm grateful for that But this isn't about you. I can't stay here any longer. Not now. And he says, the Jedi order is your life. You can't just throw it away like this. Asoka,

you are making a mistake. Maybe, but I have to sort this out on my own. Without the counsel and without you. And then there's like the shot, it's like, this is the shot. This is the hero's shot. This is the one they've been building two for

five seasons of him looking off screen right and her looking down towards us. They're backs to one another. He says, I understand. More than you realize. I understand wanting to walk away from the order. And she says, I know.

I'm destroyed. Walks away. I'm destroyed. The show so rarely sticks to landing. And here it completely does. And the way like she is standing out, in the light and he is standing like kind of in the shadow of the huge like of the architecture but also like it is just a crushing weight that behind him like he is like

yep like the the the the pedestals he's under held up by these little like uh like these small little platforms and the so the entire frame just looks like weight pressing down on anakin's side of the frame and she leaves it all behind and almost like as she descends the stairs she like the frame is just filled with clear air she she She's walking towards light. She's walking towards freedom. She's walking towards open, open air. He's encompassing shadow.

Because he's talking about himself, right? Like, he is the one who cannot walk away from the order. He is the one for whom the Jedi Order is his life and cannot throw it away like this. Yeah, these are all the justifications he's told himself. Exactly. Every time Padmey's like, hey, he's like, well, the Jedi Order is my life. I can't throw it all away. you like yeah oh it's it's excruciating honestly and like she's pretty mature about it right because

like her point she is not like i'll never go back to them she's like yeah she's not i gotta do me time i got to sort it out i got to think through it i got to not be in the july temple for a minute yeah she's insane but she's like did you see ventrus ventures is doing okay ventures feels healthy ventures has the aura has the glow yeah i need to go out to drinks with ventress on not allowed to do that as long as I'm with the order. It's true. By the way, I forgot to mention, can you pardon her? She would not say that.

That just dropped. I wish she would have floated that by at some point. Me too. I would have loved his reaction about that. She might have been like, eh, eh, hilarious. Just to fuck with Dukku, yeah, uh-huh. What if she had been like, you can take me back, but only if you take Ventress, too. That would have been the best thing ever.

Yeah, Yoda would be like literally fuck off. No, but that would have, I just love that for her. Obi-Wan, I can fix her. Obi-Wan's like, assign her to me. Yeah, she'll be my Paduan. I'll take her out. I'll be good for me. It would be good for me emotionally right now.

You all know, I need something to focus on. Yes, I need a project. You know I need a project. All right, one more, one more, one more Pheloney's own for the season. And last one, I know we can finish this podcast. Season finale. Season finale. Three, two, one, go.

I'm saying the second that you didn't, like, drink ground on that thing. You've got to be ready. This season five finale episodes really show us that we're getting closer to episode three. True. It's getting a little bit darker. Hearing her. Anakin's getting a little darker. You can see in his expressions that he's starting to question things a bit.

Assylke is definitely starting to question things a little bit. You're not helping. And she is becoming like Anakin more and more every day. And I think that's interesting. I am not deceiving you. I would assume ventruses, but I can't be sure. My sense is clouded. Clouded by the dark side.

These things are Padawan Tano. If she hadn't have been... I do like that someone at that point was like... And not just these things. The dark side is out here right now. Yeah, yeah. ...will be stripped from you. And you shall forfeit all right.

and privileges within the grand army of the Republic. Henceforth, you are barred from the Jedi order. Fucked up. I hate that. This was something that in the original discussion of the episode, we were just going to have her brought back into the Jedi at the end and be done with it. But I thought, we have an opportunity here to do something different. I, like, truly, some shit is about the drop.

About the structure of the show. I don't think it's a mystery that I've always been a bit more. or in the Asoka lives camp. And George has been very full on in the Asoka dies camp. I think I've said that before, if not revelation for you. I thought expelling her from the Jedi Order is a good movement towards that end. And we stand on that bold new frontier for her.

You know, things have changed. She is not the same character. Yo. Asoka bursts onto the scene is this snippy Padawan. I can't look at the movie season one. This is the movie. You're supposed to green? Oh, my God.

This looks like fucking shit. It's so rough, y'all. Rightfully so earned the nickname Snips. She had an opinion about everything. Like, that nickname ever made sense. She was very green, as they would say. You're stuck with me, Sky Guy. What did you just call?

A lot, we haven't heard Sky Guy in forever. Because she's hoping he will get the message and stop calling her snips. And now, fast forward to season. Season five, and we have this major turn, and who knows what's next for her. Forgive me if I'm not optimistic. I thought I was part of that order, but everyone, except Anakin, has abandoned me.

Her life is changing, and the Jedi Order is changing a little bit. I think she's seen that things will never be the same. Throughout the episode, Throughout the episode arc with Assoca, you might notice the music sounds a little bit different. The difference is that Kevin Kiner, our composer, went out and he's used a full orchestra to do the music, which is something we do not normally do on the show. It's just a very time-consuming, and it's very expensive for our TV series to do so. But Kevin flew to Prague on his own time, on his own dime, and used the full orchestra for these final episodes.

So y'all should notice he did this in the music. And you say, wow, this is fuller. This is bigger than Clomber normally feels. It's all because of Kevin Conner. I hope he didn't pay the orchestra. Yeah, like, Cartoon Network don't have the pockets. Well, what if they were like, we're going to give you orchestra check and he was like, I got to go to Prague?

The best musicians are in Prague. Maybe. Anakin and Asoka, at the end of it, I think you see also how close they've become. Asoka, I need to talk to you And this is a huge arc for their relationship They've become in tune with one another Why are you doing this

The council didn't trust me So how can I trust myself What about me? I believed in you, I stood by you I think she has doubts I know you believe in me, Anakin And I'm grateful for that She has to make some really

life-changing decisions and all of her education and all of her experience comes to a head and um she has to make some choices that are tough the Jedi order is your life but you haven't been told you're allowed to talk with spoilers Asoka you are making a mistake maybe but I have to sort this out on my own the way he looks down when he says that he's not delivering it to her and without you Oh, yes, yes. Every episode of the Clone Wars ends the same way with that ring out. But, um, right, how many times have you been sitting at home watching the show and you get kind of, hopefully, if I've done my job, worked into a nice emotional state, and then you're just smacked right out of it by that ring out.

For years, I've been trying to, for years, I'm going to miss the shit out of the show. Not on every episode. I know. And that's fine. But just on certain episodes, I thought this arc was the arc where it had to happen. And I knew it as soon as I read the scripts. And as soon as George sat down and we kept the idea, I sat there and I thought to myself secretly, this episode is going to fade out to black.

It's so hard. I know, George, no. And I'm like, no way I can sell this to him when we watch it in a rough cut. It's not going to happen. So when he watched the rough cut for the first time, I didn't put it on there. I knew that to sell this to him right, we needed the lighting, we needed the sky, we needed the full orchestration by Kevin Kiner. So when he watched it in color, that's when we faded out.

The shit was so tight. It was so good. And they fade out the fucking Faloni zone. They don't do their bumah at the end of the Faloni zone. That's actually the best thing he's ever done.

It's the best, yeah, victory. Even the gold medals were all timers around this art. Yes, yes. We're in the golden age. Like, we're in it. Finally. Friends of the show have been saying

to a couple of us in a chat that we're in, like when I think of the Clone Wars, I think of these two arcs and everything that follows are most of what follows. There might be some, there might be some bad arcs to come here or there, a couple of bad episodes, I don't know, but people have been telling me, like, when I, in my mind, when I conjure the Clone Wars, it's from here forward. And I think that that is the most Final Fantasy 14 brain shit I've ever heard.

Yes. And it's illegal, and it shouldn't be allowed. Well, I think that does, that does a disservice to the better arcs from early seasons. Yes. Like, when we, when we discussed that, like, the sheer number of, like, themes that the show in the first season is handling surprisingly adroitly, even if the show, like, pacing-wise and animation-wise is, like, nowhere near up to snuff. Like, those first couple seasons, there's so much interesting stuff to dig into. But this is one of the first times where, like, it all lands and it all operates at, like, a really high intensity and a high quality. Yeah. I just don't think like any of the like beats in this arc really hit if you haven't been watching this for five seasons, right?

Like to have Barris come back and be like, oh, it's Assoca's good friend. He's going to help her and have that go away. Or even just like the way that Rex like look so much different from the other clones that are in red in that scene where they're like in the police office about to chase her down, like without having the attachment to Rex or the history of his character. Or like, why do you care about that beyond color choice? I agree. I agree with that. I do. What I suspect they mean is, like, we would not have, those things don't cash out until now. You know what I mean? Like, I like those Barrasofi episodes.

I like the, you know, I like the Embara arc. But the Embarra arc just got way better because now it exists in the continuity. This is the problem. Like, until the. these past two arcs, it has sometimes felt in Clone Wars that it doesn't know that the previous episodes have happened. Yeah. Yes.

Do you know what I mean? You're right that there is an investment in the show when it introduces a character. But, like, the Hondo stuff that we've been dealing with this season is a big part of this, right? Where it's like, Honda is a stock character that they come back to over and over again. They treat them like a stock character instead of the guy who just kidnapped those kits. Instead of the guy who, like, held us capped. Like, he's just... He's not, like, held accountable to the antics he gets up to every week.

It doesn't bleed into his character development. It's episodic and not serialized or whatever. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's as if the characters stop existing when they go off the screen. You know, no one ever talks about how grievous, like, tortured particular Jedi to death. No one ever talks about Eith Koff or what was the kid who got the, um, uh, Kistos. Yeah, and Neveb, yeah, Nadar, Nadar Veb. It's in the stupid brain now.

Like, why? That stuff never comes up, and it could. This could be a show where Kit Fisto, like, has feelings about that Padawan shit that happened, and Grievous killing that kid. I keep calling him a kid because he was basically still a Padawan. Yeah. And this is the first time it feels like the show,

these past two arcs really are doing it. There have been signs of it here or there, but, like, We've had to suffer through Tequito. We've had to suffer through Waybo, Jay Waybo. Grysbo, Hood. Oh, yeah, Jaybo Hood.

The lemurs, the whatever, Lermans. Yeah. It also, it feels like interesting context here, and I could be wrong, because we got a few Q&A emails about this, but, like, didn't the show technically get canceled after this? And then there was some weirdness with the next season? I believe there is something like that

I was trying to also figure that out I was trying to remember it I'm looking for this episode yeah last marriage massage ventress they planned an arc but they turned it into a novel following the series cancellation what the fuck yes yeah that's our disciples

and we got an email I'll dig into what we got so we can talk about at the start of the next episode but in terms of someone being like imagine what it was like to watch these episodes and think this is the last of the clone. Wait, this was a series finale for people? Yes. So then

the thing that ends up happening, so the series is canceled March 2013. As a reminder, this season, this season ends on March 2nd, 2013. So, so later that month, two weeks later, after the conclusion of its fifth season

as a result of the Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Lucasfilm and the decision to remove most of the expanded universe from the canon. Despite this, the Clone Wars was one of the few pieces of Star Wars media to remain part of the new continuity established by Disney, and the sixth season was released a year later, March 7th, 2014, on Netflix, along with additional media, such as comic books and novels based on unfinished story arcs that would have been included in the season. A lot of people have asked us to, like, watch unfinished episodes, some of which do get finished and get put into season seven, which comes out in 2020. right so there's a six year gap that's wild between season six and seven that's so much time it's so much time that's too much because like this is a creative team now firing on all cylinders and like well much of this creative team would go on to continue to produce rebels and other stuff right because those are happening in that gap i believe i guess star wars rebels starts 2014

if we were doing this chronologically we would now be About to watch Rebels, I think, which is so fucked up. No, I guess we would watch season six, then we would watch all of Rebels, then we would do final season. And I don't know what of the unfinished animatics and stuff from the unproduced season six episodes will end up watching, or where we'll end up watching them, or what. Well, and you know we got to watch Star Wars detours. It didn't get, that's just, it didn't get actually made, right? The only, like... CGA comedy series.

Uh-huh. I hate it. Voice by Seth Green. Oh, oh my God. I fucking... When somebody first told me about this the first time, I felt like a fight or flight fear inside of me. The idea that, like, they produced so much of this Star Wars Seth Green show. Uh-huh.

And that, like, it got erased. It just out there. Like, what could possibly be in the Seth Green Tomes that they had to hide? Wait, so, like, they just... They were just like, no, yeah, it's great that you made that, but we're not, we're not doing it. And I found an episode, it's like on YouTube or something. And it, like, it isn't like funny, bad enough to actually go look into it. It's just kind of a mid Star Wars comedy.

I also see it being like, so I genuinely, I spent a lot of times I've watched it, but like I genuinely thought robot chicken generally was funny. And Star Wars stuff was like some of its better stuff. But I could also see the things that made that, those sketches work, not really feeling like territory that, like, Star Wars, the people who actually own the IP, would fully let you play in if it's a Star Wars show, but I don't know. Yeah. It's also not jokes that, you know, can carry themselves for a 20-minute episode.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I remember watching some footage from that, from detours that leaked maybe around a Star War celebration or something, and being like, this is not it for me. And at that point, I was probably still pro Robot Chicken, Star Wars Robot Chicken stuff. So I just feel like, I don't know,

maybe we don't need to dig up these 36, 39 episodes. That's so many episodes to make of a thing and not release. Yeah. This is what, is this, you know, if that gets, if that comes out, does Seth Green still make a Bored Ape Yacht Club show? Or is he riding high? Yeah, you probably still.

You know. I have I have one last clip from the Emmys Do we want to watch this now or do we want to save this for If it's relevant to this right now I would say let's watch it It's the end of yeah let's watch it now I mean this is this is this is Is this David Tent though or this is no

No this is when George Lucas showed up right That's when George Lucas shows up yeah 100% So let's let's end this podcast It's like it's late late it's like late late here this is a long episode it's so late that it's dark where natalie is so i i've gone from not needing lights to needing lights yeah all right all right three two one go spectacular spectacular now to present the award for outstanding special class animated program i am thrilled to welcome a true star wars princess please welcome carrie fisher

Capping, clapping, clapping. Clapping for Terry Fisher. Queen. Absolutely clean. Oh. Most epic. The swag, the drip. Lucas.

She's slashing the drip. Lucas looking great. Thank you. Terry Fisher, getting the standing evasion. I haven't seen you since rehab. I don't know who that was about. Went well, no. Yes

Yes Lucas is destroyed Honestly Okay I'm Carrie and I'm an alcoholic Okay Okay I love her

Well animation has made Extraordinary strides In the last 40 years I don't care what you've heard It seems Anyone with a computer thinks she or he can be an animator

Or that they could rifle through government secrets, which is a less interesting form of animation, and the award show for that is on a different day. But anyway, which makes tonight's nominees even more remarkable. Our nominees that take us into worlds we've never seen before, unless, like Ozzie and myself, you've taken acid, in which case... Absolutely.

Oh, it's Ozzy Osbourne that she was saying, I haven't seen you since rehab. Ozzy's been loving it. Everyone is so... In which case, this category doesn't apply to you. Our nominees have not taken acid, at least not with me, which really is the only way to do it. As most of you know. George George had to laugh

he's hating this though he's like to get this get off of me now I do not want to tell you who I'm rooting for because that would be so on the nose right Ozzie to the Coke joke I won't tell you who I'm looking for Dan versus

Who? You know, shout out of Dan versus. Shut us. Oh, a thing I love about the season is, unlike Legend of Cora, they let the stakes be real at the end of a season. She really leaves.

She doesn't leave it and come back. Well, and the daytime Emmy for outstanding special class animated program goes to... What a title. Star Wars, the Clone War! I love her so much. I miss her so much.

I know. Oh, I wonder who might win. Can you imagine if they didn't? Oh, Dave looked so good. Oh, Palloni's stoked. Palloni's in the hole, the fucking three-piece. No hat. No hat.

Could you imagine if he was in the daytime, Ebby's in a three-piece suit and the cowboy hat? And the cowboy hat? My respect levels for a one. would go up a thousand percent. At our creative art ceremony, David Tennant won an Emmy for his performance.

Oh, shut the fuck out. I don't want to talk about him. Do you hear what they said? As the droid. As a word. I'd first of all like to thank the Academy for including animation. Dave, big smiles.

So, so. We've pulled ourselves up from the outer reaches of daytime television. And this is especially important to me. This is my first, well, actually, it's not my second. I just won an NCAA award for Best Picture with... He meant NACP. He meant NACP.

He meant NACP. He said NACP. The second award I've ever won. And I'd like to thank the Academy, but I'd also like to thank Dave, our director. Wow. Dave, he's not having, peaking right now. And the writers and the actors

and all those poor souls that toil over their computers. You know, at the outsource studios. Uh-huh. With this television series. We've been out there for quite a while and we're very proud to finally get an Emmy. This was our first year.

We even got nominated for anything. So we're very, very happy. Thank you. I really wish to let Dave to speak. Oh, they hit the cue. They hit the cue. They hit the cue. That, that rules.

You think, you think George asked for that specifically? Yeah, George was like, you got to hit us, you got to hit us with that, for sure, for sure. Wow. That's season five. I am, I knew we were in for a long episode. Like, I, like, I know, like. I know. We took a break for a little bit, but still.

15 minutes into the second episode of this arc, I was like, well, we're fucked. Like, this is, this is the night. Yeah. I was supposed to get some writing done. It's not happening. But yeah, that's season five. And look, from the lowest deaths, from the darkest night of Clone Wars. Yeah.

Came the brightest day. It has never been as good as best. We are like Asoka walking into the light now. Wow, true. The light of seasons six and seven. No, we still have two more seasons. Yeah. I mean, I was.

The light is in the next two seasons. I feel like meber gascon must have felt when you're just ready to end it all. And then you hear the flock of birds running across the desert. You hear the birds. Yeah. I forgot about the birds. Yeah. For sure, for sure.

So, yeah, that's season five. We're going to figure out a schedule from here. But one thing is that up in doubt is, I think next week is the Patreon episode for this and the previous arc. I believe it. I don't fucking have. our Q&A. Oh, I'm so ready for this question. Watch to discuss.

If you'd like to hear that or just want to support the show. Where do they send questions? The More Civilized Asia at gmail.com. There it is. And really, that's it. Don't send us DMs to Patreon. That is not the place to see it. Because I will see that like three days after we already recorded the thing.

Like, that's Allie checks the email. That is the only place Alley checks. So, yeah, if you want to hear that or you just want to support the show, you do so at patreon.com slash civilized send money there, not questions. Right, that's right. So next time, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice

and remember, you can leave. If it sucks, hit the bricks. Are they going to make us Statue to Assookin now? As one of the lost. She's one of the lost. We don't have time. They can't get a commission before everyone gets burned. They didn't fully. They didn't fully.

vest her as Jedi. The thing that's... Hmm. I guess she wasn't even a knight, right? She wasn't a night. Although, wait, wasn't one of the most infamous Lost Jedi. One of them was a Padawan.

One of them was a Padawan. No, but yes, but the last, the Lost 20 are only Jedi masters. According to... According to Elusive Man, Jr. I believe him. That's the man that I trust.

That's the man right there. Or boy, Jr., I don't know. That was the big baby and the end of Mass Effect, too. That's the elusive man Jr. Anyway, we did our side-off.

We did. Oh, I had another question. Yeah. What? What do y'all want the next Asoka story to be? I want her to be out and about. But you're doing what? That's a great question.

I have food here, so I'm going to go. Bye, everybody. Let's come back to it next episode. Bye, bye. Wait, we have to end clap. I'm going to be able to be.