A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 81: The Lost Commanders and Relics of the Old Republic (Rebels 18 and 19)

Episode Date: March 6, 2024

We were pretty high on our return to Rebels last episode, and for good reason. This time the mood continues to improve with the return of some familiar faces. Come on in, grab a cold one, and kick your feet up... because the boys... ARE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Support the show by going to Patreon.com/civilized! Next time: Rebels 20 & 21 ("Always Two There Are" and "Brothers of the Broken Horn") Show Notes Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Ricardo Contreras (@a_cado_appears) Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zackney, joined by Ali Akampora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. We are, as always, supported by you, our listeners, via patreon.com.com slash civilized. So head over there if you'd like to support the show and get access to all our Q&A episodes and various other tours through the erratah and deep lore of the Star Wars. World Universe. This week, I am pleased to report the boys are back in town. I'm so glad you did that. Sorry, it can be a little while to set things up before we started today. I had to do some work. I was just going to start singing that. So thank you for. Were we all just on the same way?

The boys are back in town, everybody. Boys! Toddol, send me these files, but I think you should just pull them from the OBS, I think. I think you've just got to put the OBS at the beginning of this. Shout out to Tim Faust. Uh-huh. This is what he was singing about. This is...

It was this episode of Rebels. That's what that piece is about. That's the episode. Yeah, Tim Faust is the vice writer who did... Oh. the incredible I put the boys are back in town on the jukebox 21 times

in a row piece? Oh. Have you not read that piece? Is maybe the best piece ever written? It's one of the all-time reasons advice. Like this, like. I do believe I have read that.

You were thinking about Phil, Phil Linnat, the lead singer of Lizzie. That's who you were. Yeah. That's acceptable. Shout out to both of them for their contributions.

society. Both of them are rock and roll superstars. So, yes. So for people who maybe don't know what we're taught, well, okay, so first of all, first of all, no, close your eyes and imagine why we would say, why would we potentially add, why would I go through the effort to do this? Who is back? Who is, I would like you, the listener, to guess who just got back today?

It's the fucking voice. Sadly not Plocoon. It was not plow. Well, no, not plow. But some of his brows. Yeah. So a depleted Phoenix Squadron task force needs a place to rest and refit following Vader singly wrecking all their shit. Yeah.

And for some reason, there's only one place Asoka can think to go for help with this, Captain Rex. That's fucking right, baby. And there's only one person she can ask, the severed head. of a separatist command droid. Yeah, it's one of our tactical droids. It's one of like the ones that we loved back in the day. Yeah. The really mean ones.

The dry, like, yeah. Yeah, we miss them. That's the scary ones who had the like really dark energy. No, it was those. They just got to redesign, Rob. It's that exact droid type, 100%. I think I, because I thought there was that whole archetype on. Oh, I guess there was the super tactical droids also, right?

It shows up on the planet with... You're right. That's the same. second wave of them. With the Moja Hadin. Yeah, the Anderan one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the first wave of those with the flatter heads, it's those.

This was the one that like Mesa Windu killed that time, I want to say. They're still a little sassy. They're not quite so. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yes. So it just has all their details up to up to date.

It's been keeping that email list just immaculately all these years. And so the gang quickly finds Rex. Rex, Wolf, and Gregor Goof ball Goofus Greger, this is Gregor this is Gregor. This is Greger

from the Rydonia explosion from Whoa, wait, that's what you were referring to. So he made it. He made it. He lived through that explosion. He stayed weird. He got weirder. This is the amnesia guy.

This is the amnesia guy. This is the guy who saw all his brothers killed and then went into it. His t-shirt is the diner. is the diner logo that he worked at. That's so sick. This is so good. I'm so glad you're here.

I was like, why is one of these guys so weird? That's why? What's going on? People don't remember the, whatever, Sunny Day in the Void arc that we always talk about with like out in the middle of nowhere,

the droid crew, whatever was the name of the droid squad? D squad. D squad. Natalie, I see you're making us making a single. I want to be a squad. B squad back.

The B squad is back. It was, I said, I said when we did our, when we did our little watch list, when we did our skip list podcast episode, I said, I said, and I said it with my fucking chest, and I'll say it again, that a sunny day in the void is important to watch. And I was right for this. Because you wouldn't know who this weirdo is otherwise. You wouldn't know who this weirdo is, and you wouldn't know about his tank top from the diner he used to work in.

It's important. With that dank top, that's weird. It's weird. And you wouldn't understand that it was the diner where he was being like enslaved by the worst diner owner of all time. But they made a good skillet, so he's honored it. That's right.

He just reps it. You know what? It's actually the most clone. I mean, to be fair, it's the equivalent of Wolf and Rex still wearing their clone armor. Like, they also had the worst boss of all time, sheave. And nevertheless, they're still wearing their old uniform. So, you know, it adds up.

Imagine punching in your time cards to sheave. I will not. Well, they couldn't. They didn't, apparently. They weren't down. No, they were Demo. We'll get to that. Yeah.

But I have great news as well. They've been doing like the coolest thing you can imagine, which is hanging out together in an RV. They made out of one of their like military walkers. Yeah. Pure vibes. So to earn their help after after the introductions, to earn their help, the ghosts have to help.

The ghosts have to help the clones go fishing for shy hallood. That is it. That is true. That's basically it. You know, Canaan is deep in his feelings about clones. Sorry, I have to answer Natalie. Natalie, it's the worms, the worm of Dune. Oh, I haven't seen that.

Yeah, big worm. Shoutouts. Canaan's deep in his feelings about trusting clones and relying on clones and the clones. have their own feelings about, you know, the legacy of being clones and knowing how things ended with the clone wars. But God, they just feel better with a Jedi around, don't they? This is the way it used to be. There used to be a Jedi who's just like, make it all go.

Well, they mostly seem better with a Jedi around, but it turns out the clone I always had the worst vibes about, the one I was like, there's no way this dude is not going to be like, hell yeah, let's kill some younglings. Wolf made it, he's there, and of course the minute a Jedi shows up, he dimes them out to Agent Callis because he's so scared the Empire is going to find out they've been running with a Jedi again that he's like, yo, you got to get down. He's a Jedi here. We can't make him leave. Everyone else is like making him dinner. I'm not, I don't want him to stay for dinner. I want that Jedi to leave. And so Callis shows up with a Star Destroyer and the clones ashamed at Wolf's

freak out in the fact that he reported them to the to the ISB decide ah how with it let's help these let's help phoenix squadron out let's help the ghosts out yeah and besides don't you want to get these stormtroopers in the lab and see what they're all about there is real like um like NBA our generation had it harder the game was harder back then you know what I mean they want to prove that the goat is wrecks and not Stormtrooper 8-8-1-2 or whatever, you know? Yep. So, yeah, the clones foul hard. They do.

That's right. You can still hand-check when the clones are playing ball. So, you know, it culminates in a old-school walker and old-school clone fight versus a, like, platoon of stormtrooper-led walkers with Agent Callis leading them. Let's see how it goes. it goes it's sick it's good are we gonna do you want to cut here and then come do you want to and do you want to was that I guess that's not the episode cut the episode cut the episode cut is earlier than that right between the two episodes oh let's just talk about the two

episodes to get that was the summary of the two episodes basically like I see that's that's that's that's the broad outline of the two episodes we can get into the the play by play here uh so like I kind of alluded to this first of all let's talk about this What do we think of the, we're on the run. The Empire's hunting is down and we're depleted. We need a base. We need to put ourselves in one location and immobilize ourselves. Do we like the strategy?

Doesn't this feel kind of like what causes the rebels to get absolutely rocked on Hoth? But that hasn't happened, so they haven't learned that lesson yet. So you think this will go well and it'll make them too confident in their ability to find secret bases? I was not you're saying, you're saying in other words, like, isn't the problem, When Empire Strikes Back, strike back comes, it's that the rebels are all in one place that gives them a bad, it's a bad situation. Everyone's retreated at the same place, and now they're all under fire. They're all in the target. Why should we start by being centralized like that instead of start by being decentralized?

You're right. And, yeah. They are starting by being decentralized because they've had all these disparate little resistance pockets. and there are other, like, as far as, I think, doesn't Osoko allude to, like, other? Yeah, there are other groups. There's no unified anything anywhere, right? I think that's the thing. And their particular base of operations, which was mobile, was the Wasato's ship, is gone.

So what they really, maybe what they need is, like, a good ship again, or I don't know that they necessarily need to get the whole rebellion in the same place, but. but they do need like a garage yeah they got a park somewhere they got a park somewhere I do like that the the show encourages you to think through this too because this plan comes from Ezra just being like

well what I used to live on the street I would hide somewhere and yeah I don't know that like Commander Sato Commander Sato is like weirdly annoyed on being interrupted but that is like

that's a good idea Yeah, well, the kid's right. When the kid's right, the kid's right. I'm growing on this Ezra kid. I think that throughout this arc especially, they do a really good job with Canaan and him. And they're in a good place for making me slowly like Ezra more, which is that Canaan is just deep in his feelings constantly. And Ezra has to like pull him out of that, sometimes directly, but also sometimes it's just by Canaan needing to be like, all right, I have to be better for this kid. Like, I have to get over my shit a little bit to project, confidence to help teach this kid what it is to, like, live in this world. And that, that relationship is really good, you know, so. And it's easier to deal with that than Canaan, like, grumbling constantly to the rest of the crew, who are his immediate peers, you know? And it's like, all right, dude. Like, they, come on. Step it up. They don't need to hear you wine either, you know. Anyway. Now, I was really hoping, maybe it's good that the show doesn't do this. I was kind of like, we're going to get the

Full download now on like what happened there what became the clones and like why did some like what did they do when the order came down? What did all our friends do when order 66 happened? Because we know fives didn't get the warning out. Well, we know that there is something about them that is visible. That is you have to kind of look for it. I didn't notice it. I mean, they say they did it, but I didn't see it. Yeah, they all have the same. Natalie, are you going to point this out? They all have a little scar on their heads on the side of their heads. It's the right side, I think. Yeah, they got those chips out. They cut them out. And so we, yeah, but, and like, we know Fives told Rex about this. And at the time, that was not enough to stop Rex from ending Fives' life.

Well, no, Rex didn't do it. It was that new. Oh, you're right. It was the reds. Okay, he was there. He was there. Wasn't he there? Just because he didn't swing the axe.

If he hadn't trapped him in a force field, maybe it goes different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. It was the Red Squad. It was the like Imperial Super Squad. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Who show up as prison guards, as we were calling.

Yeah, of course. Basically like real dog shit clone energy. Yeah. And but either way, like we still don't, we're not going to get the full thing filled in of like when did they decide to do it like what happened to like how do these how many of them react in order to say yeah right we don't know and we're not going to find out uh also we're not going to find out what isoka's been up to really like she's she says she has tried to reach rex multiple times over the years he has not answered back she hasn't

said what she's been up to trying to reach out to rex but it's telling that this is who she's reaching out to in this moment. That means, like, there isn't, she doesn't have someone else to reach out to who's in the position of power that she could call on for aid here, right? When, when she says, shit, who do I know who could help us find a base and be like an ally to us? She goes to Rex a 40-year-old retired clone. She doesn't have, like, another person that she thinks could step up in this role, right?

She doesn't have an and or she doesn't have, you know what I mean? Like, that doesn't happen. Yeah, it's telling that there's no one from. the years in which we haven't seen her that she's calling on. It's someone from the last time that she was, you know, a Jedi. Though I will say it was a little confusing that she kind of made this big Hubaloo about it being really difficult to get a hold of Rex. And then they find him in like one second.

Maybe she's like, right thing. You know, like, you know, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes you're texting a friend. I feel like she's been left on red, like for years. She has been. Well, we find out, we kind of find out why. But she just didn't just go? Like, just go.

She should have gone. Yeah, but she felt the lack of response was the answer. And I almost feel like this is, you send, this is the, you send an intermediary where it's like, Rex won't turn away this cute child. Yes, he rejected me. Because, like, I think what maybe is implied here is when it all goes, also when it all comes down. How does Soka feel about, like, you weren't there, you bailed on all these people? Yeah.

And it goes the way it did. Is there a part of her that feels guilty enough that when Rex doesn't reply, she's like, yeah, that tracks. I wouldn't answer me back either. This is still why I'm, like, hyped on the fact that we skipped Clone War season seven because it wasn't out yet at this point. I was getting so, like, yes, by the end, I was like, I'm stoked that, like, we have one more season of the Clone Wars. They left this ambiguity in this season. They could have been, they could have had a flashback

of young Asoka leaving Rex and running into Rex. We don't know what, Rex turning to it while being like, I think fives might have been on to some. Exactly. And that might happen when we get there into season seven or when we get to

Bad Batch or something. I don't know. I mean, that's exciting to me is like, ooh, blank space that will continue to get filled in as the years go on. The thing for me is that when Rex doesn't

acknowledge the fact that Asoka's tried to reach out to him. He does. He does. When? He says later, it comes up later that he has been, that there were other communications that came in that, or that someone says, like, she's tried to reach you for a while. And he's like, I didn't get any messages. And the subtext is that Wolf has been deleting them to keep them apart. Or Wolf has been hiding them from Rex. So that, so that the empire doesn't catch on, et cetera. This isn't the second episode, I believe. At least that's how I read it. That was the way that I read that.

No, that makes a lot of said. So I don't think he has been ignoring. I think the same shit happened where Wolf overstepped and was like, well, this is dangerous. Let me just make sure Rex doesn't. Just fucked up. Which, well, yeah, we'll get to. Like Wolf's whole role in this and how they've responded to their exile. It's like different understandings of what they are doing even.

But it is very funny to me that, well, there's kind of two elements of this. And Assoc needs to go to Rex because there's this little sense of the Clone Wars is this huge, far-flung, like, war that goes way beyond the Imperial Corps of Star Wars. Right. And nobody knows what's out there anymore. It's like, it's an entire like lost, like the maps are lost, the data, like, which makes sense. The only people fighting out there were clones, Jedi, and whatever became the separatists. There's entire battlefields campaigns that nobody saw. who's like alive and free right now. Like nobody, there's, there's no records of it. And so, like, if you want to know, like, what's out there in uncharted space, you kind of have to dig up a clone. Yeah. Because the empire doesn't, like, the empire is expanding back out.

Like, this is part of the story of this era in Star Wars feels like the empire is looking back out toward the outer rim as, like, grist for the mill of the Death Star that they're going to make. But beyond that, there's been no interest in what's out there, you know, who's out there. And, you know, this has all been lost since the days of the Clone Wars. So it's kind of cool. They got to track him down. It's very funny to me that the way to do that is through a separatist tactical droid.

But I think that also sort of gets to the sense of like a lot of knowledge was lost when the clones and the Jedi disappeared. and a lot of like the most advanced technology was also lost when the separatists were like beaten because like you think about and I know like andor is probably not a show that exists in the mind of the creators of the show it's like these two things are not in dialogue in that way but it's very funny that we go to andor a huge plot beat is like the scandal that ensues when uh dedra uses the like mainframe computing resources to do a simple info search and this tactical droid is able to just like

pull reams of data and spit answers back out in a heartbeat and it's like it's lost technology they're walking around this fucking severed head because they have not

there is nothing in Star Wars that has surpassed this goofy looking weirdo in terms of like raw computing power. Yeah, yeah, it's great.

It is so rare that we get that particular like beat about how are droids useful and this is one of the, like specifically what is it that they're able to do that a computer can't and like in this world this is one of those key things.

It's good. You know what my favorite thing about this episode is? What? It's when they go over there and they're like, you know, uh, you know, we really need you guys to, we really need you guys to help out and what we learn is what their life is like and what their life

is like is, is they just spend their days telling stories and Slinging for Jupas. They're just down here slinging for Jupas. Dude, I was so concerned what Jupas was. I was like, do I want to know that Rax's been spent the last 10 years? Like, he's out there slinging for them Jupas. He's slinging for them Jupus.

Didn't you hear the emperors of the Clone Army out served its purpose, retired us? Rects is out there's slinging for Jupas, man. Sling for Jupus. He's just trying to get by. There's nothing like a couple of A couple of boys And slinging for some goddamn jupas This is what I'm saying

On your traveling RV In your sand lake ocean It's the best It's the best I want to be there with them That like Halcyon first stop Second stop Namos

Third stop with on the RV Slinging for Jupas With a boy We got to get a boat. We need a boat. Can I just say, if you like the structure of this episode and of this plan and of the bait situation and the like getting swallowed by a monster, like coming out and being like,

well, I deserve to eat it now. You should watch Delicious Dungeon. You should go read Tudgeon Meshie. No way you've done her Meshie. The way I have that on my TV right now waiting for me after this episode. it's getting on the good stuff too this season finally anyway by the way I also have to shout out like the design of their little RV Walker thing

is so cool the fact that like they've taken all this like cast off military equipment and rebuilt it into a thing that's recognized with like different parts of like war machines we've seen but also has immaculate like what are those campers that you Put in the back of a pickup truck To turn it It looks like one of those

It doesn't look quite like an RV It looks like a pickup with a little camper van attachment thing Yeah, that goes over the pickup bed And like kind of yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about And it like it's such a cool piece of design They did for this episode Immaculate Uncle energy throughout Yeah, three uncles living in a van

You know, fishing And they won't help unless someone helps them sling for jupas. Mm-hmm. It's kind of, it is kind of hostile at first when they first get there. Like, shots are fired. They have to deflect blasts. Ezra remembers, says the number.

He's like, I'm looking for a 7-6-7-6 or whatever, and that's someone's number, and, you know, they have to talk, talk them down a little bit. Yeah, they said it was a birth number. Yeah. Which is interesting. That's Rex's, let me see what? Yeah. 7567.

There it is. 7567. That's Rex's CT-7567. Yeah, Captain of the 501st Battalion Which, like, I just, just to reiterate or remind people, like, Rex is Annikin's boy. So like, and throughout this whole thing, Rex is constantly being like, yep, served with the best Jedi who ever lived. I learned that from the coolest Jedi who's ever been on a battlefield, you know? Really wish Asoka was here.

Really wish Asoka was here. I mean, they meet up at the end. But if they don't talk about it in the season Didn't know shit until a week ago You're right you're right you're right Like she's probably also like man Well only I've been there My friend Anakin

The greatest Jedi ever Would not have disappeared during Order 66 I need I cannot wait For them to meet again Okay It's so I am yeah I just want to watch the whole season

So bad It's so hard not to binge the show I'm so up on it right now But yeah, they go in And they got to go Jupa slaying And Rob, that's fishing They're fishing for a big old monster Who lives out in the dang

Sand sea Is it a worm? Is it a, it is kind of a worm, right? It is a sandworm Yeah, kind of sluggy It is kind of sluggy That's the thing It's got teeth though

It do have teeth Well, it has pincer, it's weird And the way to do it is They have a, they got a little taste or something, don't they? They have a liking for. They got a little predilection for the species that Zeb is. What is that species called?

A LaSat. Right? A Lassat. They love the smell and taste and texture of Lassot, we are told. Texture was a crazy ass. They said that shit out loud. They said that shit out loud. I was like, yeah, taste smell.

Yeah, a little out of pocket. Texture? Yeah. Uh-huh. what's the different what's the what's the lasat texture like and to be clear

Zeb has already had some like at this point in the in the arc Zeb does not like these dudes they do not like each other uncle has smelled uncle they're like circling each other's tails you know what I mean like they could go bad

you know you're about to have a moment and and Zeb is they got Zeb out there on like a plasma chain hook thing being real Leah and Java vibes in some ways like

put this thing on your collar and go out there and let's see how this goes down uh huh yeah with the scene cut and I saw the like laser going from the ship to Zamp I was like this isn't good this isn't right

they should have talked about this more I would have asked some questions upon perhaps even before putting on the collar attached to the giant fishing reel yeah I agree

but you know what they knew their man because the thing is the minute I saw the Jupa I was like oh Zab's gonna love this shit yeah like the second we realized like the type of big game hunt this is gonna be and he has to do the most metal part of it

which is just go in there sometimes you just gotta go in there and hope that the rest of the crew does their part which I don't really necessarily I don't know that I really understood exactly they're trying to electrify it or something And I don't quite remember what the plan was after Zeb gets eaten.

Yeah, they got a whole little problem like you got to maintain the right level of charge. Yeah, yeah. Electro cable. But then they have to, look, does any of this really track? No. Remember the, the trick is they got to hit the electro wire with their own little pikes to like charge it up to cause like a fatal discharge for the Jupa. Yeah. Like, why can't they just adjust the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, it requires everyone to work together is the main thing.

Yeah. Yeah. I need someone to cut the, the, the, the moment where Rex pulls the trigger and shoots the Jupa, with the moment that the big robot snake thing in armored core six get shot. I was, I won't miss. Shout us to Rusty from AC6. yeah it's it's it's fun it's a fun adventure thing and it's fun that they get it done in the middle of this episode right um there's a version there's like the clone wars version of this arc is either four episodes long and this happens at the end of episode two and you're like

are we for real dragging this out for two more episodes or it's a one episode long thing and this happens in minute 20 and then there's no wrap up and it's just like well we Killed the worm. Thanks, everybody. Now we're friends. And instead it happens, you know, halfway through this episode, more or less. There's still enough time afterwards to kind of like unfold the situation and some of the next episode. Uh, one, Zeb is a fucking hero. Zeb's earned his, all with these guys now. They're all bros, which is like the necessary, the natural order of things that Zeb would become friends with, with clone veterans.

Like, to me, that is just supremely good. And then two, like, oh, the Imperials are still on their way and the Imperials are in fact looking for them send down a fucking probe droid because that's the era we're in. We're in the era of imperial probe droids and those things remain scary as hell.

Well, and I love the little aside we have here when Agent Callis gets news that one of the clones has reported in that the Jedi's shown up. And there's this undercurrent of we didn't wipe out the clones, but

We do keep tabs on all of them. And we've sort of told them they can reach out to us for, you know, help or everything comes up. But also we really find them kind of awkward and rather not deal with them, especially because you also pick up the sense that this is not unheard of among the clones. This particular clone, who we are going to find out as Wolf, has a record of sending them warnings, sending the, sending the imperials like warnings or, you know, concerns about like things he thinks he's seen or things he thinks are going on. And I don't know, to me, there's just a vibe of the Imperals are used to clones having kind of like hallucinations or delusions that they like reach out to the empire about.

And so they don't really take this report seriously. They don't want to investigate it. So they send up the probe droid because, yeah, that's what the empire does. But also they send out the probe droids so that nobody has to check it out themselves because they don't really think that there's anything going to, you know, come from this because it never does what the clones. Yeah. There's a question that comes in for the Rebels Recon episode for this first one, which I don't think we're going to watch. But in it, someone writes in and asks, you know, we have non-cloned stormtroopers. So what happened to the rest of the clones? And Pablo says, well, a lot of different things happen to them. Some of them have pretty sad situations. In many ways, the clone troopers are sort of this lost generation of unappreciated veterans that helped save the galaxy, citation needed, and were then discarded. Others, though, stayed loyal to the empire and became a sort of training guard, they became the instructors at academies across the galaxy training the next generation of soldiers. And I bet if this had come in from one of those, they would have been taken, it would have been taken more seriously, you know.

But for the ones who just kind of like were pushed out who were not part of that next training regimen, you know, or that next training class, basically, you know, you don't count anymore, right? you've seen some horrors, your reports aren't relevant, or more importantly, I bet most of the things that these clones are reporting are things like, hey, I've seen some stuff, I've seen some imperial officers abusing their authority. Yeah, yeah, we'll get right on that, right? Or I saw some people starving. Sure, buddy, don't worry about it. We'll take care of it, you know. Because a lot of these clones do still think they work for the good guys. A hundred percent. That we hear when, I can't remember which scene it is, but these guys are

asked about like the empire and they concede well it ain't the republic but oh it's so sad for them it's like look you know the letterhead changed but fundamentally isn't it the same company yeah yeah which we know but they do not right yeah um yeah my notes about that go back to back it's the the well the empire certainly isn't the republic but you can't do anything about that And then the next note I have is dudes rock the episode. Contains multitudes. Really contains multitudes. Sometimes dudes have to rock under empire.

It's just, it's resisting. Damn. True. True enough. And then it gets out. It becomes clear, oh my God, Wolf Rada this out. And that's... Which is exactly what Canaan has been dreading.

Like the other part of this is, Canaan doesn't like being around clones. And in, like, you know, I always get the sense he was like not that dissimilar from Ezra in terms of age when Order 66 happens. You just get the vibe of like this was a foundational experience for him as a young man. Yeah. And so here he is now surrounded by, surrounded by clones. And the clones are aware of why that is, right? Like they, you know, as, as, as Rex puts it, you know, they understand why a Jedi wouldn't blame them.

Yeah. I actually really want to, I'm going to drop this in or I'll have Cada drop this in. There's this moment where Rex comes out to see Ezra outside on the van, on the Harvey, where he goes out to just kind of give him the old one-on-one, you know, a veteran down to do recruit. he starts by saying you're brave today kid you jumped right in there to help a great Jedi once told me that the best leaders lead by example

you do that well thanks I've learned from a great Jedi too Canaan you know I don't think he likes me or ever will can't say I'll blame him the war left its skies on all of us

won't you reconsider joining us You know, I've out-served my purpose for that kind of fighting, I'm afraid. After the war, I questioned the point of the whole thing. All those men died. And for what? I guess what they thought was right. It's good. Canaan's expression at the end of that scene.

Yes. This little sigh. You can't see. You can't see. Yeah. Canaan has walked out in the middle of this scene. to eavesdrop, maybe unintentionally. But he does this little sigh where he just goes.

The minute he says what they thought was right. And I think there's elements of this where I think, you know, who knows, but it feels like part of what is uncomfortable is just, you know, Canaan now realizes that all this was delusion. Right. That the degree to which the clones were even permitted to think about what is right. that, you know, when they were on the, when they were the good guys, they weren't really doing it out of choice. And when they turned, they didn't have a choice either.

And so, Ezra's idealistic, like, you know, they died out something they believed. They did. Yeah. But they're also programmed to believe it. Yeah. It's brutal. And it's like, again, Rex constantly with the Great Jedi told me this. And another layer on this, as we get deeper in, it's like, Ezra says, you know, a great, I was also taught by a great Jedi or whatever.

Like, I have my own great Jedi, Canaan. And Canaan, you know Canaan is like, I am not a great Jedi. I am not one of the greats. Like, I don't know that I, it's increasingly not clear to me whether Canaan, how far along Canaan was. There is a moment in, it's either this one or the next Rebels Recon, where someone asks like, hey, how come Canaan, here it is, it's someone named Michael Cole asks, how come Canaan knows the fact about clone chips? It wasn't said directly to him in the comic book. And Pablo was like, oh yeah, by the way, everybody should go read this comic. It's like, Canaan, the last Padawan, which I have not read. But I'm curious, you know, what's up? But apparently that's his story. And I don't know if we're going to get that in this show or not. Does that come before?

It would have been out by now. You know what I mean? Maybe we should read it. Maybe we should read it. Interesting. Maybe we should read it. Yeah. I find it interesting that Asoka clock, I mean, one of the first things that...

Sorry, I just saw who his master is. We've seen this lady before. Maybe not in the show. Maybe just in Clone Wars. Or not in Clone Wars. in um in um the movies i want to say his his master was uh what is her name uh deepa blaba um this is just the front cover of this comic which is out by now so i don't feel like we're spoiling anything by knowing this uh it's this lady who like pops up in the background of at least the background

of revenge of the Sith maybe both Revenge of the Sith is she there and on Geonosis even she might be Anyway, man, I would certainly want to own an issue of a comic that says Marvel is batting 1,000 so far with their Star Wars comics from IGN.com. I hope that's like a promo image and not like, I don't know, man, it might be. It might just be on there. Maybe that's the, yeah, who could say? Anyway. The thing that Asoka emphasizes to the group, but I think she's,

really speaking to Canaan, when they first depart for the mission, is that whatever happens, like, you must trust my friend. She keeps referring to Rex as her friend. I forgot about that moment. What was going on with that? I don't, I think, I think she, my read is that she senses Canaan's Dis, that Canaan has like a distrust of

probably of clones specifically, but that for wherever Canaan was in his training or like whatever, however position Canaan was in at the end of the Clone Wars

that it's led to like here is Canaan in isolation here. Canaan has you know he's he's not when they talk about doing aid missions to people not from Lethal or when they talk about like joining a

larger group and stuff like that Canaan has already displayed a lot of resistance to these kinds of things so I feel like and maybe maybe Asoka has an even deeper read based on like tapping into the force or something that there is a big

sort of trauma here. But I think she could quite easily surmise that if Canaan saw the Clone Wars to the end for whatever position he was in, whether that's as a Paduaan or whatever, that he probably had a very negative experience

of a clone. Right. Which Canaan goes on to tell Ezra about in this episode. We actually get the story of what happened at the end of the Clone Wars to Canaan and his master so I think like that

that whole line of Asoka being like whatever happens whatever you do you must trust my friend and she is specifically calling out Rex which is interesting because Wolf then ends up betraying

it's kind of I'm like I'm curious of what the function is of this that like it feels like I guess a character arc for Wolf to come around and realize that he needs to let go of the empire and that the empire

is not what the Republic was and that both were institutions of control and militaristic control but it is if I were Canaan and one of the clones

in like it just it really complicates the issue that wolf is the one that that rats them out. Yeah, yeah. I feel like that's the one that that's the thing that like lives in the script or in the early pitch of the script because that's like an interesting element for a clone to have.

The fact that it was Wolf who is also someone who worked with Asoka feels like a knock on effect of simply Faloni wants his boy back on screen. And so there's only three clones and it's the one who I believe Faloni, maybe it's not Faloni, maybe it was somebody else described in one of the rebels recons as being maybe it was D Bradley Baker says that he's a shell-shocked unhinged, wacky uncle

about Gregor. And it's like, we don't want that guy to be the guy who betrays you, right? There's something there around trauma and like trustworthiness that you don't want to write. And then there's Rex and Rex is the one who Asokos has to trust. So it's got to be the third guy who betrays you. And I think

keeping that plot beat that he's like the clones are shook about the empire. is worth any sort of friction with, does it make the whole group untrustworthy? And in the end, they are trustworthy. In the end, they pull it out or whatever. They keep, you know, the rest of this arc is not Wolf is locked up, you know? Yeah.

They say, Wolf, you fucked up. But like, let's get out of this. Now you've got to help us get out of this mess. And he does. And then, you know, the crew sticks together. I think something quickly clarifies what's going on here, too, is like, it's so clear that, like, there's betrayal and there's betrayal, right? Right.

It's not that Wolf is some sort of, like, you know, imperial sleep. super agent like he's always just must kill Jedi he is so clearly ashamed that's interesting and scared when he like when her comes out having like found what the pro like having found the probe droid uh was was there and like sending out this transmission well immediately looks so incredibly guilty yeah like it is there's zero there's zero doubt as to who's responsible for this and stuff you know this is true it really is an act out of fear and not out of malicious intent. Like, he, he isn't like, come get these guys.

Fuck these guys. I hate these guys. He's, he's, it's, uh, an act out of, I want to ensure our protection. I don't want to get like, it's very kind of self, um, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, uh, self soothing is the wrong word. But he's trying to like acquiesce his own sort of fears and try and, and settle his own sort of insecurities about his position and his role in this post kind of, you know, clone army world.

And it's doubly irrational because, like, he's so deep in fear that the empire's, like, the empire, the successor to the Republic, the, like, absent parent figure of the clones. He is so, like, evidently in fear that, like, dad will get mad if he finds out we were talking to a Jedi. Yeah. And what's obvious is that they're forgotten. There's no way this ever would have been discovered. The clones have been,

these guys have been completely abandoned. Nobody knows you're out here. And they certainly don't know what you're up to. But Wolf thinks, you know, and partly Wolf still thinks they're important to keep tabs on that the empire would like be keeping their eye on them. And so we better get out ahead of whatever happens. And, you know, Narcon and the Jedi we see because otherwise the empire would be really mad.

Right. I mean, we didn't tell them. This is where Rex is like, the war is over. We are free men, which is like a wild, like, boy, the world has turned for Rex. But again, also delivering this while still wearing clone trooper armor to someone still wearing clone trooper armor. You know, he goes on to say we can't live in fear of the empire for the rest of our lives, right? And Wolf is like, I know, you know, Wolf is, Wolf knows that he's right, right? The Rex says that to live under fear isn't freedom, right?

And that is the sort of, again, there's a lot of blank space here from where we last saw these guys. But we know that from the big fives arc at the beginning of season six, at the very least, these are people who fundamentally believe it or want to believe in their own freedom. And they can now say pretty clearly, we are not part of what we used to be part of. are free now. And Wolf deciding the only way to protect people is to kind of like remanical himself to the empire is, I think, deeply sad in a way that allows him to be forgiven when he says sorry, you know, like it is, I think it's pretty clear immediately to Canaan and Ezra. Maybe left to Sabine, I'm not sure, that like, this is someone who was acting from a place of, you know, I don't know, maybe not immediately. I just looked up and saw Canaan.

his face and he was fucking scowling. And he made me for Canaan and it's more, all right, help us do this thing and we'll be back on all right terms, you know. But it is such a tragic, you know, decision in the kind of traditional sense of tragic, you know, this comes from a place where wolf who has always protected his, it's, you know, it's fucking wolf. It's plows bro's wolf. It's like, that's the wolf pack.

His name is the name of the crew. And he just wants to protect his guys, you know. So I think it's pretty clear that it didn't, it doesn't come from any sort of like pro-imperial position. And I think that that allows them to kind of move forward, right? Yeah. I do like how they, they set up his anxiety. There's one of my favorite shots of this episode is when Ezra and Canaan first sort of make the request for the coordinates of bases or whatever, you get a shot of both Wolf and Gregor cutting to. Like, Gregor nods to Rex, and then Wolf shakes his head.

And then Rex is like, let's go outside for a little bit. I'm going to talk about this with my guys. Yeah. And this sort of like, this first seat of like, oh, Wolf has this anxiety. And we don't know what that conversation behind doors is like, but you can imagine it comes from this place of protection and like not being, not having his fear represented in the next part of this plan or whatever. Right. Right, right. It's like you're, you, because the thing that happens is like Rex goes to offer them stuff without first doing the pull aside with the guys to like talk about what they think about it. And that that must feel like a little betrayal or not a betrayal, but like, oh my God, you're driving as close to the sun here. This is not a good idea, right? Driving, you drive close to the sun. That's how the expression goes. But, but yeah, speaking of driving towards danger, the next episode. is kind of all about that.

First, getting close to enemies and then getting close to a fucking cool sandstorm. Before, should we just say what Canaan tells Ezra about his experience of Order 66? Is that in the end of the previous episode? Or is that in the... It's the end of, yeah, episode three. Yeah, please.

So Canaan tells Ezra that the you know the clone assigned to his master like killed her in front of him um and this is the point in which rex wolf and greger like they overhear canaan kind of telling uh uh ezra about this and kind of like uh justifying his distrust and rex shows his scar and is like we all removed to ours before Order 66 happened. So we would, we would have never betrayed our master, or our commander. And then there was another moment. Which again, for Rex, is complicated because that Rex, Rex's order would not have been to

betray his master. It would have been to help his master kill Jedi, which is interesting, or his general. And yeah, I really am so curious what he will make of Anakin's transformation. He might already know. I don't know. I don't think he knows. You're right. He doesn't know.

He doesn't seem like he knows at all. Allie had, Ali bit back some words. I don't know what just happened. I just, if, if we don't have the Rex Asoka conversation on screen in this season. Yeah. I'm going to be,

I'm going to keep thinking about it. I'm going to be very bad. They need to talk. It's the timely call. Like, come on. I think it's coming. Well, the thing that we didn't say is I, I'm, or I don't remember.

we said is that Asoka said she's like going on her own mission during this time and that's why she can't be there with them to find Rex and Ezra's like I think it's Ezra he's like the Sith Lord and she was like there's there's more to see or something like there's more to figure out real the GM says no the level 15 character can't come with you on this quest they're busy doing their own thing she's she's got to go do some chores sorry otherwise it'd be too easy Yeah, she has some other shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The other thing is I think it's during the Jupa fight or something that I don't remember which clone it is, but I think it's Rex refers to Canaan as general Canaan.

Yeah. And then Canaan's like, I'm not a general or I wasn't a general. And he's like, oh, my bad, like Commander Canaan. and Canaan was like, I wasn't one of those either. And I think that that reinforces, I mean, outside of seeing this comic cover, reinforces in my mind that Canaan was most likely a Paduan when Order 66 happened. But even was, was, was a commander? Yeah, she was. But she's Asoka.

I suspect he was less Jedi than Asoka was. Me too. by fairly the middle of the Clone Wars cartoon. Yeah, I agree. But I thought that was a really interesting detail that there's this ongoing thing between, going through these two episodes of like this familiarity that the clones are kind of, like, sinking back into.

Like they're kind of falling back into this routine of like, yeah, it's us and our Jedi. And this is the pair. This is like the natural pairing of things. And we're at our best. It comes in the next episode, but at one point they say like, we do our best when we've got a Jedi leading us. Like there is just such a like this routine that they fall into that Canaan is absolutely not, does not share that familiarity, does not share that sort of comfort in that dynamic. So I'm just really, I really hope we get more insight into that.

Canaan's so fucking good. He's so moody. I love Kyle. I love Kyle. I love Kyle so much. But the part of the thing I like about him here, too, is that, like, the fact that he's moody and, like, scarred about this helps, it almost lets the rest of the show be a little more goofy at times. But I think that we moved past quickly is like, Ezra immediately

is like, oh, you guys have cool clone trooper helmets because Ezra is a helmet collector. Like, he's a helmet head. He loves to like, oh, look at this cool helmet from a different era. And like, that becomes something that has meaning, deeper meaning when you know that Canaan is looking at him and being like, are you fucking kidding me? The person who killed my master was wearing one of those, you know? And then, like, later in the second episode, Ezra has to put on Rex's helmet briefly and then take it off. And that is like, again, like you end up, this small thing that's like a character beat for Ezra ends up actually carrying some additional meaning because of what it means when other

people look at him wearing it and where we know what that context is with who the clones are. And having Canaan as a prospective character really helps with that. Ezra, deeply problematic if he ever gets hold of like an Army Navy surplus store. Oh, yeah. Real, real. Oh, no, I'm just a collector. I just like the history. But, like, I do think, like, we're going to be getting into that whole, you know, clones, better with a Jedi all through the second episode.

Second episode, we open with, first, the clones to sort of make a peace offering. They've come up with a bunch of candidate bases for the team to use. they sort of present it like again the three uncles the three you know sort of sheepishly like you know here's some places some old Mandalorian bases that even Mandalorians don't know about

that's not what I keyed in on you know what I keyed it on I'm worried about the smugglers space the pirate hideout oh you somehow are you are you still worried that Honda might show up

I think there was a moment where I thought Why fear the inevitable? We're not going to find Rex. We were going to go look for a Honda. I know Honda's going to come back. But like, can you imagine if Fosca was like, I have the, I have the guy for the job. Hondo is nothing.

That occurred in my mind while watching this episode. Because he is somebody that would know a lot of places. Why didn't she say Saul Guerrera, actually? That's what I want to know. Why didn't she say? Damn. No, because like, because, well, we don't know yet is how thoroughly radicalized hondo's become because that little jedi kid that he befriended

got god turned out to be that's so he's like there can never be enough dead imperial soldiers oh that'd be great that'd be great i love it uh anyway yeah they give them the the like here's all the cool places no one knows about including like you said it's a mandolian places which for me my question is ooh is that going to be sabine stuff like did they just give the rundown of the rest of the season. Like, oh, here's like six places that you can go check out. That's going to be six arcs worth of episodes. And each one's going to be have like a tie to a protagonist and we'll get more to da-da-da-da. Maybe. Plus Honda. Well, pirate bases, yeah. What if Honda turns out to like know Ezra's parents or something? Oh, God. That's, that's my call shot. Wow.

What is a little Honda voice like Ezra, your parents were the bravest. Exactly. Now I. Do not respect idealism, but I respected the bridges. Yes, exactly. There is the matter of the 3,000 credits they owe me, though, you know, with interest, of course. This man tried to wipe out a village that was farming medicine. Okay, yeah. Never brought to justice. No.

Anyway. Once he got part of that CIA program, they cleaned that part of his record, you know? But, yeah, once. So they present the info, but right as the base locations are being presented, the Empire shows up. And Canaan right away is back to just being furious at how all this has played out. The clones try to do the little bit of deception, you know, try to make the empire go away. It serves up a very funny. They lie badly about what's been going on. Wolf's like, ah, the cybernetic eyes acting up. And then Callis just sends them a picture the Progroid took of Lange. Jedi running truly caught in 4K Like there it is The RV is right now

We got the live shot on you We got the They're doing the police chase cam On you right now They're talking about you on the news But then it sets up One of my favorite moments in this Where he's like

Surrender the Jedi and be destroyed And right away the clones are like Oh you better have brought more than your Stormtroopers Yeah And Callis is like Well there's a lot of them So right away we get the

The storm troopers are quantity Yep But the clones They were quality They're all jango fat That's fucking right We're gonna see how this goes They are fucking ready to go

And And this is all happening As a giant sandstorm closes in on like the salt flat Where they've been wandering around I want to shout out two things about we are in Star Wars now because two of the things that we get, the first thing that we get here is the Star Destroyer releases the like five tie fighters to go down after them or three tie fighters

or whatever it is. And the image of tie fighters descending from the kind of like open hole dock docking bay of a Star Destroyer is just so cool. It's just so good. And the music throughout this episode, not just the big bombastic swells, but a lot of, especially the kind of more ominous stuff throughout the kind of like, not the imperial march, but the other imperial themes that are hitting and motifs are just so good. And throughout, I just like, I can't say this every scene, but they've gotten good at filmmaking. Like, there are some incredible shots throughout this, especially as the fight gets on, especially as they get into the sandstorm.

And there's just like the pacing is right, the timing is right. They start running playbooks for stories that we've seen in Star Wars since Star Wars, and it hits still. I just want to call it just the light of the ships in orbit. Yeah. Looks so good.

It really does. The way the show looks is, again, improving. We so far beyond what Clone Wars was doing until like, except for a few select episodes. episodes and its run. It's really terrific. And yeah, the empire starts mounting this assault. And the sandstorm is there to basically contrive a narrative way for this to not be a massacre. Right. The sandstorm is going to be the thing that evens the odds up a little bit because

otherwise, yeah, like Calus could just have them like, you know, bombed from the air and then crushed beneath like, you know, waves of imperial assault troops. But that sandstorm is there to give them away to sort of neutralize that raw advantage. Some cool weapons on display here. I don't know. Zeb's got a dang gatling gun. It pulled that shit out of the destiny

trunk. Pop that thing off. And I think it's Rex. It's either Rex or maybe it's great. I forget someone brings out one of the missiles, one of the rocket launchers from the Anderon arc. It's literally one of those ones, which I think was also just throughout Clone Wars,

but it was one of the ones that that Hondo brought to the rebels on Anderon. I love it. Love to see some continuity in, in weapon design and stuff. It's great. But yeah. And it's also where we begin to,

like this is where the clones start sort of talking about. We've seen guys fight like this before. This is how like the clones in the Jedi were designed to be a complimentary force. That like is the walker as impervious as the ATAT walker? No, but it's supposed to have a giant deflecting shots. Like this whole thing is the clones were designed to be the assist guys for, you know, their star volume scorers. And that is what we begin to see here is the clones dropping into the routine and Ezra and Canaan dropping into the Anakin and Asoka roles of like, you know, you guys get on the guns. And we'll get on the lightsapers.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And they run the defense play pretty good. They knock out the one tie fighter. They shoot it out of the sky with the rocket. And then the walkers are here. That was like a fucking, that was like an ultimate, like all misses from, from Zeb and the ghost crew trying to hit that tie fighter.

And the clones are just like sitting back watching. them and being like, uh, who wants to take this one? Who wants to, who was it? There's, of course, the great setup of like, why don't you use this big gun on the back of this walker? This is there on one of the ATTEs. That's the name of it, the kind of shorter multi-legged. I think it's like six legs walking, which is important because when they see the ATAT show

up, um, they're like, whoa, four legs. How do they get that thing to stand up without falling over? Which is extremely, you know, that's fun. They would have opinions about that stuff. Like, it's a little on the nose. but it's very cute, which again is part of this is like so much of this could be flatter if it wasn't so well acted and scored and shot where you, you, and I think that this ends up being some of the struggle I have with a lot of the live action stuff is that it looks

and is acted cheaply often. It doesn't feel like they got enough takes in to find the best takes often. It doesn't feel like the lighting helps bring me into the world. You think about stuff, I know we talk about Obi-Wan a lot on this show, and I think, again, a big part of it for us is that we really love the idea of filling in that gap with those story, and that's the one time they're going to get to do it with the Obi-Wan-Anne stuff. But there's only one time, Obi-Wan and Anakin get to meet for the first time after having been a part for so long, and that was that show. But, and I think it was done a disservice. That material was done a disservice because of the way it was shot. We talk a lot about like that whole first arc on that show where they're in the big city where you can kind of feel the screen of the volume in the background.

It feels like a stage production. And if this show had those problems, I might also be like, ugh, like I'm struggling with it. But I don't. And that means that I am brought in. And it means that I'm convinced I'm caught up in the mood, the tone, the atmosphere of the show, which means that when someone says something like, how do they get these things to walk with four, legs it doesn't just feel like a funny goofy reference to the fact that they actually get tumbled over in umpire strikes back and it feels like a fun thing the characters are saying

you know and so often i feel live action stuff because it's labor and there's so many limitations is hiding from the material in a lot of ways trying not to get found out that it can't can't execute on this can't get executed on that like you know the um just these shots here as the ATATs arrive and they have to head into the sandstorm. There's so many like long lingering shots of their, their little walker just like maneuvering through the desert and the sequence where they, RIP, they got to release the Jupa. What's, what's he say? He says, bye, bye, big bongo. That's what Gregor says, because Gregor's been calling this guy, Big Bongo. Yeah, it's the price fish. They lost their, they're taking a photo. Because they, they

didn't get a photo because callus and my photo they should print out yeah yeah you can you send them back to me some callus can you send me more like hey I know look I know we're on the run here but uh do you still have that probe droid image we gotta print that out I'll I'll venmo you

do you think they go back for it? I hope so that's good heats it's good eat they said they eat for a year off of one of them they eat in Jupa every night for a year year. Now, I don't know how long the years are.

Yeah, they seem too excited to do that. I've had, like, think of the most delicious dish every night for a year. Yeah, but the jupah's big, the jupas got a lot

going on. Yeah, you have different cuts. This is why you have to watch delicious dungeon. You have to read dungeon meshy. But it's all about this. You could make one of these things last and have variety.

There's different cuts. I believe you. The other part of this that, like, I was getting anxious, like, are they going to, like, this is how bought in I am on, like, what the show is doing. I was sitting there being like, I think they're going to seriously introduce all the clones and then kill them in the same episode. Because the clones are like adamant. I thought that was about to happen. We're not running. Yeah.

And I was like, you guys are just going to stay here to die to cover. Like, I like Ezrin Canaan, but like, I don't know that I would. If I'm the general manager of Star Wars, I don't know that I'm trading racks. wrecks for them for Canaan in Israel. Not at this point. But like the clones are just like no. Like one, they're in complete denial. Like that they're

what's so cool. They're so cool. They're in complete denial that they're even in danger. Yeah. They are so confident that like we got this. Don't worry. Just let us cover your escape and then we'll disappear. The empire will never will never find us. And it's like, no, they're going to kill you.

Like eventually they're just going to. stuck on the planet here and they're just going to kill you and the clones just are like don't seem cognizant or interested in the danger they're in so I was like convinced like holy shit they're gonna use all the kill yeah because because our crew is gonna leave they're gonna get in the little the little what's the name of the actual like detached ship from the phantom whatever that thing is called they're gonna fly it back up to the main body of the ship or it is the phantom it's the phantom the ship is the ghost right yeah right so they're gonna fly the And we've, this is something Clone Wars is, has done to us before.

Like, we have, like, we, many a time has there been a character brought in Uncle O'no. Well. Rip. Rip. We've been, we've been, we've been, we've been burned. Yeah. By this exact thing. Um, I fully thought that's how this was going to go.

And I'm glad. They are charging in. They're charging. Well, that's like, this is, I mean, this is, you're exciting about seeing the, the routine of Jedi and clones working together. This is the routine, the Jedi leave to complete the mission. Damn, true. Like, Rick says this is what we were bored for. Everybody has this, like, moment in the ship where Caden has this thing of being like, well, I don't like clones.

And I've been having all of this, like, racial tension, but I guess I'm going to go back and save them. And like, I was like, that's weird, but this is a cartoon. So I do feel like he's being heroic. And they go back, but this is just like the, like, Jedi's go back to base and the clones stay behind. That is what happens. Everybody thinks doing it. Every time.

Yep. He does literally say to Ezra, uh, as their leave, as the phantom is leaving and they're sticking by behind. They say, we're soldiers, Ezra. This is what we were born to do. And I was like, yeah, you were literally born for this. For this to go die. Yeah.

Born to do this. Stop acting. That's good to me. I don't want to start for you guys. You know, after a certain point, though, doesn't it feel good to just live according to your nature? Like, is the thing that created the clones monstrous? Yeah. But does it feel good if you're a clone?

to be like, all right, boys, let's lay down some cover fire for the dude with the lightsaber. Yeah. To do it. It's like a Labrador watching a tennis ball, goes soaring through the air. Just like, oh, finally. God. Yeah. It's a great, but it's a great thing.

Because they do just decide, like, fuck it. We're going to charge the ATATs. It is the most, we get this wonderful, like, little dog, big dog showdown. of them of them taking on the ATATs everything looks so good and then they you know they they they realize that's that's not gonna that's not gonna work that they're not gonna be able to make the escape what's the what's the trigger for like why they get ahead into the snowstorm the sandstorm they realize like their their weapons fire is

ineffective but they also it can't get out like the jelly can't make the escape it's that they know that both of the computer scanner won't be able to work in the storm, but because they have Jedi, they will have this, like, tactical maneuvering that the empire won't. They got the force. They got the force.

Yeah. They can sense shit through that storm. That's right. Which Canaan does. Shout us to Canaan for tapping into the force. He does. Yeah, I wrote down the note. They're in the weapons range of the walkers.

That's why it is. So, like, if they try to fly off, the walkers will just shoot down. They'll just get shot down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, I said, oh man, they're running an old Jedi play, but Canaan ain't a QB. So I was worried. I was worried that Canaan was not going to come through with this, but I should not have

doubted, uh, the sandstorm looks so good. It's this little walker that only comes up to like the knee of the ATATs, which by the way, these ATATs are taller than the Empire Strikes back ATATs. Um, they, they talked about does a lot throughout the trivia material for this episode. Um, they are, they are like, design. to be like prototypes of what comes after those ATATs or maybe these are like too expensive to produce to send off i don't know but they are meant to be yeah they redesign the bottle to use less plastic so they make them shorter exactly um and uh but them walking through the sand

with their like headlights piercing forward looking for the little ATT is just so sick this is It surprised me of the submarine episode in the Clone Wars where they're a stealth ship except vastly better executed because it's happening on two levels

you have Hera up there running silent the ship has to be completely bad yeah we skipped this but yeah Hera is up in space

and the is near the Star Destroyer and so it's had to shut down everything including chopper for a little while so that she doesn't get caught by their sensors and it's right above her

and then they have to get right in among the AT-ATs to hide from them because that's the safest place for them. And yeah, the headlights shining through, the uncanny light inside the ATAT interiors as Calus is getting increasingly antsy about just, again, like, he ain't, he's not a tank officer is kind of the vibe. Like, he's, he's an intelligence agent, and he's yelling at the tank drivers, like, go into the sandstorm, you can't see.

And everyone's telling him, this is not. a good idea. He's not hearing it. He's not hearing it. He doesn't understand. They got a job. He doesn't understand what fighting a Jedi and a tank.

This is the thing. He doesn't know what that means. He hasn't been through the ringer like that. You know, he didn't run on the other side of this play. You know, Kana might not be a quarterback, but I don't know that Kallis is on the field.

Kallis is a coach. What do you do it out on the field? But, you know, go pick up your clipboard. That's what you've got to do. You got to go look at the iPad. Calis is very cool, but we should not let the coolness

overshadowed the fact that like the difference between him and Cyril Karn maybe not as smaller yeah exactly yeah exactly

who said Kallis is cool that was Rob just now I think he's cool I think he's a cool villain Natalie nodding slowly yeah okay I think callus is a fucking herb

unlike Cyril Karn who Natalie loves Carme, who I adore. You didn't even say his name right. What did I say? You said carm. You put an M on his name. No, I said Carn. I said Carn. I said Carn. No, no, no, no, no. I said Carn. It was a soft N.

It was a soft end. Car. Can you just drop in what Natalie just said? Maybe it's wrong. Maybe it's wrong. Let's hear it. Yeah, just want the people here. It'll be the most progressive instant replay commercials. That's right. Yeah, I threw the red flag. What really happened? It's what really happened.

Unlike Cyril Karm. Unlike Cyril Karm. Cyril Karm. Well, there you have it. See, I said it. I said it just like that. You have to understand that Cyril is, I don't need to say any more about what that man is.

Look, I think we're both implicated here because I was like, hey, I know everyone home probably thinks Calas is cool, but maybe he's not. And maybe I'm the only one who's like, damn, we got a cool villain here. But then it turns out Natalie is like, you are nothing compared to Cyril Carn. I'm not saying, I've never said Cyril Carn is cool. I've never said that. I've never said that. I've only emphasized his, like, worminess. right and like yeah positive uh not derogatory uh like you know just his his like slimy snively

slimy pathetic little yeah just cry baby man in the metaphor of the atomic bomb and the toddler the baby versus baby he's the baby he's the baby who's the baby who's the atomic I don't know we even figure I think Andor is the atomic bomb is the atomic bomb. Who's, but what's the atomic bomb? Do you not know the meme? You don't know the atomic bomb versus baby meme? No, what is this? I don't know.

It's the thing I just said. Wait, yeah, you guys start out of this meet. It's just a picture. It's just a baby. Who's the baby? It's just a baby. It's just a baby. What do you mean?

It's this. It's hydrogen bomb versus coughing baby. Oh, yeah. And in this scenario, Cyril Card is coughing baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. 100% 100% Yeah

And Rob is saying Calus is hydrogen bomb That's all I don't think Callis is a baby though I just think he's a A herb Like Right

You just think that he sucks He's just like a little bit But not in a way that's moving No You don't like his menacing You don't think he's menacing No I think he's playing He's playing at being menacing

And I don't know why he's trying to position himself as menacing like when he last in the last episode when in the last two-parter when he's like standing next of Vader and you think it's a play you think it's a show he's playing at it. He has done nothing to earn my respect or my fear or my or intimidation. I will say this. I like because on this point I think I basically agree with Natalie. I think the show introduces callus is like. oh damn like this is this is well I guess maybe Javert's not that cool but anyway oh my god we're all having moments who's Javier never mind

so from Le Miz the oh yeah but I think it's a cop right is a cop he's a guard he's a cop okay but the point is like this is like this is sort of introduces like this is got to be the foil this is

the guy who's always on the trail of the ghosts. Right. Yeah. And I think the moment, like, we saw the fear in him when Tarkin showed up where he's like, oh my God, these guys are going to choke me. Vader's going to force choke me. Right. Tarkin's just going to order me beheaded.

This is a show that we know has Tarkin. It has Vader. It has Inquisitors. It's going to have what's his face? We got an introduction to a new villain. man. What's the, what's not, he's not my man. He's Rob's man. What's your man? What's your man's name again? Blueface. Thron? Thron. We know Throne is in this show eventually. So like, how is Cal is supposed to rank in that? That's what I'm saying. We had a Saj Ventress. Yeah,

bro. As a villain. Oh, yeah, I mean, but he, okay, but he's like, okay, but he's like, okay, eventually, but we still, every time she came through, we're like, she's so bad. She's so bad. We love her. He did love her. But you need a henchman, right? He's doing fine henchmen work. He's not the villain. I thought he was going to be a bit more of the, like, he's going to be the, like, a bit

what Dedra is in some ways, Nandor, the person who's like, I could, don't you see? Don't you see what's happening? I can see the picture. I'm on the case. I'm figuring it out. And with Callis, like, the minute he was like, oh, I'm in trouble, look terrified. The minute Vader's like, go and get me some coffee, commander. And Callis is like, ooh, I'm back in.

Ooh, look at how cool I am. The mid as he realized he wasn't going to be executed. Going. Do you think he's just going to keep getting washed week after week? That's a good question. I don't know. Okay. Like, I, there are times.

I thought, I was, I didn't think he was going to die here, but you could have written this where this is the fucking end of Callis. They blow up his dang 80-80. here. He just gets out via speeder bike. Yeah, somebody's got to come pick him up. Okay, loser, loser. You got to get picked up on the planet. Your fucking homies left you here.

Yeah, that's never happened to Cyril Karn. I've never said Cyril Karn is cool. But Cyril's Karn's, his value is in his, is in his uncoolness. So what you really need from Kallis is for him to sink lower. Yes. Okay. This is all his homies in a sandstorm. Right.

Cyril Karn pulls during a minor massacre. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, fair. We've skipped over something very important, speaking about boys acting in ways. Do anybody knows what Wolf did during this fight?

Commander Wolf awos. Commander Wolf howls to the fucking moon while he charges forward inside of the thing. We walk through all the guys are like all right, it's time to go do our big thing. At least we're going to go down fighting and Gregor's like,

I'm glad to follow you, Captain. And then Wolf just howls. The subtitle is a howling. Can you put that for me a quick? I miss that. I watched it twice. I miss that. Let me just, I'll screen share it. I got it pulled up right now. I'm so caught up in the energy

the boys. Okay, here we go. We're walking on the thing. Yep. We'd all hear some of the sound now. The rebel ship is escaping, but Constantine will deal with that. I think this is the right place. I'll find out in the second. There's callus talking. Yeah.

At least we'll go down fighting like a clone shoot in. On with all the way, Captain. See? I heard more wolf-like. One more time. One more time for the people in your back. It was like an ar-w. That's a husky,

like a husky, like just talking. Yeah, that's a wolf. That's a husky. That's a husky scene you have your dinner. I mean, a funny thing that came out of this, I don't think it was in this. You know what?

Maybe we should just go to the Filoni zone while I'm already doing some screen shares. That sounds good. Sure, yeah. We'll talk about the end of the episode. So then Pablo told me, but they don't have wolves in Star Wars. And I said, whoa, that's a good point.

Cato, we are coming in on this at 57 seconds. This is Rebels Recon, 203 inside Relics of the Old Republic. Three, two, one, go. I always wanted to see an ATTE fight and ATAT in like a big kind of kaiju battles. That was the driving motivator. I could have done 21 minutes of just that. You know, and what's the plot? Why are we worried about the plot?

Look at it. Just when those things are clashing, you just want to see that go on. Is it exciting to see, Walker's shirt? Oh, yeah, David wearing a shirt. The viewer that says, It sounds so great,

and Rex lives. You're watching it and Cal says first feet of head. And then there's a tape underneath it that says for now. It does. It says for now. I don't call him Walkers for nothing. So we're doing this chase, which is literally almost like,

old walking, and you've got old clones and I'm like, so, this works on so many levels. It does, Dave. And a fishing stroller. This week's episode proved that the clones still have a lot of fight left in them. Damn right. Going up against the more powerful

and technologically advanced AT80s. We once again sat down with cast and crew to talk about what it takes to bring these scenes to life. Did you get to direct D. Esrex and Ashley Assoca together? What was that like? Yeah, I did. Oh gosh. They get so emotional, those two.

So, you know how I am. I just, you know, I cannot allow their emotions to move me. Every single time I do a scene with D, like, we do the performance, and then I just start crying. I don't know all, but, you know, we've been performing together for so long. She's crying. There's video up there. She's literally crying. I don't take for granted the opportunities we have in the studio.

I relate to Rex more personally than I do, I think, any character I've ever done. And we never thought these two characters would say anything to each other again. So it was great to see Ashley slash Asoka yet again. Whenever it's involving Assook, Rex, I really, I'm pretty hands-on. His little wife of the eye, we know you had a tear there, Dave. I have been together and they're talking. There are some nice moments between them that kind of express the history that the two characters have had, and I call back to certain things, even back to the very first time they met.

Wow, the show's all over. Goddain. Look at her. Jesus. Jump scare. I know. Reboot-looking show. It's meant to be sort of like.

Really, it does look like reboot. Slightly ahead of what we see in the Empire Strikes Back. We tried to do a hybrid of ones that Joe Johnson and Ralph were designed in the ones that were in Empire Strix. Back to show that ours is a developmental version. The ones in Empire, this is a surprise people, are actually much smaller than the one in Star Wars Rebels. That scene from Empire Strikes Back is one of my very favorite.

It's one of everyone's favorite scenes. And to have these old guys in their fishing vessel Yeah. Go after this gigantic mobile tank. It feels very Star Wars. I mean, it really feels like this is what was so exciting about Star Wars in the old days. Is it at-at or AT-A-T?

Good grief. It's like this game everybody plays to say, I know more than you to say that like, you know, AT-A-T, but it's a classic debate. What? I still stick with what I said as a kid, Ad-A-T-R-Roy. Yeah, yeah.

If you're in the universe. What? This is a classic debate. ...nature that that Star Wars character says AT-A-T. A-T-A-T versus A-T. But if it's just me talking over coffee, I'm not going to correct you if you say Ad-Hat. I've never heard Ad-A. Yeah, I'm pausing it here.

I do want to note the chopper gets a meeting with an executive in this episode. This is the... Oh. And this was not the one that I thought it was because the one I was thinking of was, I guess, specifically Dave told D, you got to separate them out more. You got to make these three clones who've lived a lot. longer life, like, sounds slightly more different from each other than the traditional clones do in Clone Wars.

And they still have the same voice, right? But, like, this is part of why Gregor is the way Gregor is, you know, in terms of his voice performance. Mm-hmm. So, anyway. Fascinating. Shoutouts. Yeah, AT-A-T versus Ad-At is like...

I've never heard of at. And what's weird to me is that AT-A-T is the canon answer. but like they're not it's not A and T it's some Orrbash characters isn't it? You know what I mean?

Yeah, that's a good point but I don't I'm not Pablo they should be saying Oreck Trill Oreck Trill that's the letters except I am pretty sure that going back to a new hope

when you hear like imperial designations you're right they use our alphabet They use her alphabet. Yeah. It's being translated for us or whatever anyway. It's fine. Anyway.

Anywho. At the end of this episode, we get... Wait, wait, wait. I just want to... Before we get to the very end, I just want to say, the big fight in the sand... Oh, yeah. Ends up being the... Just doing a new hope, you know, turn off the targeting computers.

Yes. And it's great. Yeah. It works. It's so good. it works. You know what I mean? Like it doesn't just work in the fiction of in terms of like he does it. He takes off the helmet. He turns off the target computer. He feels out with the force. But that entire sequence plays. I cannot believe they just did that, but were masterful enough at it for it not to feel like a recycled plot beat, you know? I think also it speaks to like this has a really good sense throughout all of this that like Star Wars machines. are cool. They are heavy machinery that all this is like intercut with, you know, the stormtroopers

operating the ATATs doing their whole like drift compatible where to make a left. One guy has to throw his stick, you know, back and the other forward to make the turn, make the turn. And you see then these cuts to the wide shot of the ATATs cumbersomely like trying to like tighten up the circle around the clones. And then when it's time for them to make their move, you see that they're things a little more responsive and these old dudes are like throwing their little crane

to bring the boom around. It's cool. It's satisfying to watch these things work. And I think in a weird way, so often in lesser live action performances, you get this strong sense that the action is disconnected from machinery.

kind of weightless. Right. In a lot of ways, live action adaptations in the Disney Plus era kind of feel, all the machinery feels a bit the way

the machinery works on Embara where they're like, how the fuck do we fly these things where there's no controls? Everything kind of feels that way in the new things where it's like, yeah. You know, Mando's ship

can kind of do whatever based on the scene. There's no sense of it. Like sometimes it's a starfighter. Sometimes it's a freighter. It doesn't really, you know, doesn't really have a strong identity. Here there's always a sense of like, you know, machinery and weight to it.

That I think it makes all this much more satisfying to see unfold. Well, and we also just get some great queuing in terms of the shots one after another. We get the long shot that Ezra fires at the thing's neck, its famous weak point. And then we get the kind of close up of the shots. shot going in. It's very similar to the close-up of Luke's torpedoes going into the vent in the Death Star, right? We get that like, boom, you know, snap to the actual shot of the damage being done. And it, and it emphasizes the, like, weightiness of these big machines, but also that they all have, like, a, they're all fundamentally machines. They all can break. They all have

some point of weakness. And it just, it's beautiful in the sand and all of that. I also realized, that in thinking about this episode and talking about it, we've kind of, there's a sort of narrative switch we've made by mistake, which is that the big sand fight happens in the middle of the episode, then they leave and come back. They don't come back and then do the sand fight. The sand fight is what gives them the room to escape. They begin to fly away, and then they come back to save the day and get the final kills in. The other two big kills happen because they've come back with the phantom and the phantom plus the thing can win the kind of one-on-one fight now as they emerge out of the sand but in my mind that that part of the fight happened

and then it went into the sand and that's not what happened they do the sand stuff first and then they and then they come back anyway so yeah it's uh it's a great sequence and yeah we we do get the yeah it's time for it's time for the july to to go uh and the clones to stay behind and and fight it out. And this one, again, like, I can't believe that, like, the plot beats of this are so obvious. Yeah. And yet, I'm like, the ghost is going to leave the clones to die. I can't believe the show is doing this.

And in, you know, now that I've gotten to the end, like, of course Rebels wasn't just going to have. That's right. Caden'd be like, goodbye, Rex. Yeah. We hardly knew you. Thanks for this little sheet of paper. This was worth your death.

Could you just call that up to Heret? No? Okay. And we get the big final fight here, which is like them swinging back on the phantom, jumping out of it, landing on the top of one of the ATATs, cutting their way in with the lightsabers, turning it on the other ATAT as the little tank, the little walker is able to like climb up its knees almost and start shooting it from underneath. It's so good.

It's so good. Well, this is great. Look, sometimes Dave's instincts are spot fucking on. Like, he's like, this entire episode, we got to get, we want to see one of the Clone Wars era walkers, like, bash into one of the ATATs. Yeah. He's 100% correct. 100%. We get the long shot is there, is there flying away in the phantom of the smoking clone walker, making a solo charge against the ATATs.

And then, yeah, much like the clones themselves, is this little outgun thing, but it's so. tenacious as it begins to like again little dog versus big dog just gets under them and use that leverage yeah we um i want to shout out that this is we could probably do a better job at this actually maybe we should start doing at the top of the episodes rob i hadn't thought about it but uh the first of these episodes is written by matt mitchin novitz who wrote the citadel arc which we didn't really love in the club horse but also wrote umbara which we obviously adored. It was directed by Dave and Sergio Pius, who is one of the storyboarders on the show. And then the second episode was written by Stephen Melching, who wrote things like the malevolence

arc, rookies, bomb bad Jedi, a lot of the cat emperor stuff. So like highs and lows throughout Clone Wars. And it was directed by Bosco Ng, who did one of the better Obi-1 undercover episodes from Clone Wars and also brothers, the Savaj and Wall episode, and a bunch of other stuff. But these are people who've each done, you know, eight episodes of Clone Wars, and they've come back.

These are people who've been in the system, so to speak, for a while. And I think it really shows that whatever tools are here and whatever pipelines are working are working. You know, there's a sort of like expertise here, even from people who've made episodes we have not been super fond of, sticking the landing here, and I want to say that it's probably not just because I don't think that they were ever bad necessarily. You know, sometimes a good director or a good writer turns

in a lackluster script or production concerns change what was written on the page to be something that doesn't hit as well. That's kind of why I keep emphasizing that, like, I could imagine versions of these stories not hitting for me, and yet they hit here largely in part to the, them always being more than just a sum of their parts. I think these episodes are stronger than the summary that you'll read on Wikipedia. I think they're stronger than what they read as on the script or on the page. The music throughout these episodes is just, which again I think is Kevin Kiner, it's just, you know, it's a hard task to say, okay, go reinterpret and interpolate John Williams's score in a way that still feels important to these characters, to these

situations, even when these situations are echoes of stuff that you know already, it could come across like playing the hits, and it doesn't for me. Or maybe I've become someone who wants to hear the hits, but it really does work for me in a way that I'm very, I've been really happy with. Speaking of old things returning, we get someone who we actually met before showing up at the very end of this episode. Oh, yeah. We get a new inquisitor. Oh, that's right. The Callas' ship has been called away to go meet up with Vader's shuttle, and you think Vader might be coming back, but instead, it is one of the other inquisitors that we met in Obi-Wan.

I think this is maybe the fifth brother or something like that. Is that right? Yeah, this is the fifth brother. Sung-Kang was? I believe that that's right. Yeah. Oh, boy. I know.

Wow. He looks so different here. Uh-huh. Which is, you know It's just everything in that show was the disastrous execution Every single thing was like I don't know, maybe a guy with some makeup What's this would look like?

Do some different makeup. I don't understand how you got there. I don't, I'm putting them next to each other And I'm not dissing Sung Kang here Who rules? I would never in my life. But the Sung Kang Fifth Brother He looks like a mime.

It's just not the same, is it? It's just not the same. Man, what the hell? It just nailed them with pancake makeup. They didn't even look at this. They didn't give him contacts. They didn't give him new eyes and pose. The version of this that we have in rebels looks, you know,

they make him vainly. and stuff, but, like, the woman rebels almost looks robotic in ways, right? Like, yeah, it's a bit like the garris thing almost. Like, is that, is that flesh? It's hard to say. It's cool. He looks cool as hell here. And maybe he'll end up sucking

here, too. We don't know yet. Maybe we'll be like that guy's a her in a week or two also, but I'm assuming we're going to get more of him momentarily, right? Yeah, I'm guessing. I'm guessing he's going to be the villain of the season.

Yeah, I'm curious, I guess. The next episode is called Always 2 there are. So, hopefully Yoda's not in it. Hopefully, oh, wow, we. Okay, let's take a bet. Do we think Yoda shows up this season? Yes. As dancing lights or something?

For sure. As dancing lights or like, yeah, yeah, a disembodied voice again. Yeah. I'm thinking maybe like Asoka flashback, but I don't think interacting in her time. Okay. Any other characters you think will get this season. Sounds like Hondo. I'm voting Hondo.

If we don't get Vizago, though, I'm in a riot. We should get Vizago again. I miss Vizago. Vizago is the real pirate, the real, the real smuggler. I would say there's a great possibility of a Yoda appearance. Yeah, anybody else. Any other, any other Star Wars characters. Maybe Assage?

That doesn't want. You might want to be. Yeah, we read that book. Oh, fuck! I hate that stupid book. I hate that book. I hate that book. You dumb.

You, oh, we. You, I. Yeah. Yeah, I feel you. Uh-huh. Lady Lucas She's just lying on a Her corpse is just like lying in a dump on

Dathamere It's Katie Lucas Not Lady Lucas I know I couldn't remember her first name So that's why I said lady It's funny that it rhymes I couldn't remember her first name Miss Lucas

I hate you I feel like there's gonna be I feel like Obi-Wan's gonna show up But not the season Like I feel like Obi-Wan is gonna like pop up in the, they're going to save Obi-Worn. Yeah, not yet, not yet.

Right, right, right, right, right, yeah. All right. Wait, that's happened by, yeah, that's happened by now because... Yeah, Obi-Wan, again, Obi-Wan the show has already happened, so... No, no, I mean the Ventures. Oh, the Venture stuff. The Venture stuff? They were trying to...

Yes, we talked about this last episode. Obi-Wan happens 10 years before the Battle of Yavin. This is now four years before the Battle of Yavin. But doesn't the character we just saw die, or does he just quietly go? Yeah, all of the other, The Inquisitors lived in that. Okay. I believe you.

I don't want to tarry this anymore. I'm unfortunately right about this, unfortunately. I think that he in that show maybe just disappears. I don't think he... I don't think we ever get... Who would notice? Yeah, exactly. So...

The Inquisitors... The Inquisitors all have less juice than callous or cereal, unfortunately. The thing I'm thinking is, like, what have we learned that the Inquisitors are cool? but we didn't know that because I really wish this had been our first well now that you're restored now it's like yeah we can just forget like this is all part of the just like emptying the head of all memories of Obi-Wan people people think that we are too hard on that show what okay buddy asked and answered did we watch the same I watched that show twice

Because I watched it when it was airing And I was like Why the fuck did I watch the show? And I was hyped for it I'm somebody who's like Man, man I think after a little time goes by I'm gonna rewatch Hallamandlorian I dig that

I think it goes ups and downs But like the highs are so good I really like And I had the most charitable reading Of like Obi-Wan Anakin's fight Like on this panel I was like yeah That's got some good

I think things I think about that rooftop fight and how inert it is the whole chase gun fight really just twisting the knife oh my god it's like it's like slow motion I didn't raise this so that we could keep dunking on it well but but I mean but again it's this is part of why I'm so excited right now and you're like they should just make the rest of Star Wars animated yes this is the thing is like I I, this has it right now for me in a way that I did not expect it to. Or I expected to like like it, but I didn't know that I would be high on it like this. You know what I mean?

So. Yeah. Just one last thing I would want to shout out. When Kane and Ezra and Zeb descend from the, from the specter. Yeah. That's what it's called. Is it called the Spector? No, Spector is their call sign.

It is, it is phantom. Okay. But when we get the little freeze frame of them, like, all flying through the air superhero style, and we see, we see Rex just like big saucer eyes like, it's happening. Yeah. He's like just like the old days. Just like the old days. As they come in and carve their way into an AT-H-A. It's so beautiful.

It's beautiful, but it's sad because it's like, pro, the old days were all your boys dying so that Anakin could score points. And then Annegan, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. He doesn't know. Remember when Anakin was like, I have an important meeting. Well, Anagan didn't choose to leave them on Ambara. Yeah. But I am just saying I probably would have come out of that whole experience feeling less positive.

But, you know. We have to end this by saying, Asoka gives Rex a big hug when they finally meet up again. And he says, I'm glad you're still. First, he says you got old, which is extremely funny. And then she's like It had to happen sometime And then she says Or he says I'm glad you

I'm just like I'm glad you lived right Yeah That's fucked you know It's like That's tough Because they know what it is In other words like I'm glad my boys didn't kill you I'm glad you didn't get got like all the other Jedi

Is the subtext there You know Yeah glad you got Put on trial And for your fucking life And then chose to leave the Jedi Yeah, he says, I'm glad you're still alive, which is, you know, maybe that's broader. Maybe that's also the empire didn't get you, da, da, da, da, but still, I mean, that is still like a pretty morbid but, like, real, you know, thing to say.

Yeah. Well, and also that you know, she says, I'm glad you're still alive to, no, I'm right. I was right the right at the first time. Okay, she just says you too. Yeah, right. Okay. And also the, you got old line is funny because obviously he's looks much older. He's got like Santa Claus beard at this point.

point almost, but yeah, I think it also highlights, like, I don't know, the degree to which has applied, like the clones seem like they age in an accelerated fashion in some way. It certainly seemed like during the Clone Wars cartoon, that like there seemed to be a lot of like mileage on those clones by season, you know, four than there was on season, season one. Yeah. So it's funny, like, you know, she is now a grown woman, but she's not old. She's just like, you know, not the kid she was when she left. but they are maybe old men before their time.

And it makes it doubly affecting that, like, it's him, I think, absorbing the awkwardness. Like, she's going to see them and, like, they're not the young men they were. Yeah. You know, they have become, they have become very old men in a lot of ways. So immediately he sort of, like, gets, gets their head of her and makes a joke of it,

which, I don't know, just a little beat that I, that I like. But, yeah, I think, like, really simple episode and I'll be honest when they were going slinging for Jupa I wasn't entirely sure where this was going or if I was going to like it

I was like this is not entirely how I imagined Rex coming back into the show was like let's go have wacky hijinks well we just needed a little bit of the D squad energy back that's right

that's what I'm saying that's right guess who just got back today Well, boys, the boys just got back. We've reached the end of another episode of a more civilized age. Our show is produced by Ricardo Contreras and supported by listeners at patreon.com slash civilized. So let me think. In terms of the schedule, next week now, are we in sequence for next week? There's going to be a page of Patreon.

I believe is the Patreon Q&A for the first two arcs of the second season of Rebels said in your emails where do they send those two A More Civilized Age at gmail.com That is where to send the email questions do not put them in the Patreon

do not put them on Twitter or co-hosts we will not see them or we will see them and go yeah I'll try to remember that and we won't remember it put them in the email because Allie will go in there and be like Yeah, when I make the Q&A, I go to gmail.com and that's it. That is it. Except no substitutes.

And then in two weeks' time, we'll be discussing the next two episodes, episode five, always two there are in episode six. Brothers of the Broken Horn, don't look up the summary, the Disney Plus summary. Don't look at the images. And truly don't do that for any of this season. Truly, I need you to not scroll down on this page. I know, but Disney Plus is not helping me. It is so bad. I'm so, there are stuff in this season

that should not be in thumbnail. I'm pissed about it. Until next time, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. And remember, if you're running a few minutes late, just tell your friends, coming blue, I'm dirt. Why do you have to do Natalie like that?

Wait, coming. Fuck, that's what I said. I was like, is that a lyric of the song? I was like, what the fuck are you talking about, Rod? Coming blue on dirt. Come to blue on dirt. Madeline was running late today. I have one hand.

It's one hand to type with. It's true. Like Anakin. Like Anakin. And Lou. And autocorrect messed up what you were. You were trying to say, coming soon. I'm sorry.

Or something like that. that and instead you said coming blue I'm dirt and then never edited it or so we're all just like I don't know what that means I think it'd be faster for me to just show up than to try and fucking edit it's so true you're right

anyway coming blue I'm dirt we thought you were making up your like clone name what was the reactions to that in the voice we were confused set ass foils to attack position red five chat

checking in red six coming blue i'm dirt i'm dirt i thought it was a clone code that's what i thought it was damn what do we miss coming blue i'm dirt coming blue i'm dirt rha check my notes we go check on wikipedia where we got all right all right talk to you next week bye Thank you. I don't know. Oh!

Thank you.