House of R - The 'Ahsoka' and 'Star Wars' Mailbag

Episode Date: September 19, 2023

Jo and Mal are back to answer your burning questions for all things 'Star Wars' and 'Ahsoka' (05:32). They take on everything from book recommendations to grammatical corrections to their ideal spinoffs—and so much more! Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, what's up? This is Chris Ryan. On Mondays and Thursdays, you can find me co-hosting The Watch with Andy Greenwald. We are still cranking it out. We talk about a lot of things in pop culture, music, movies, but most of all are ever-changing TV landscape. So check out the watch. For recaps of your favorite TV shows, updates on the streaming wars, and recommendations on what to watch, because there's a lot to watch on Mondays and Thursdays on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The playoffs are here. And you can predict the action all the way to the final. with Fandul Predict. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus. Offered by Fandual Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expire seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at Fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors.

So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. I'm joining a wrong. Wow. What a messy way to start this podcast. I'm joining Robinson, by the way. That's Steve on the soundboard. Steve Allman, I haven't even introduced my co-os yet, but Steve Allman, I'm just talking directly to you. I just want to let you know that I'm going to be testing the soundboard. You on the soundboard today. Oh, no. It's going to be a test. Oh, no. Because here we are. I'm here with my beloved, beloved partner in crime, recent haver of a birthday. Number one, Orioles fan on a hot street. Oh, man. It's Mallory Rubin. Hi, Mal.

How you doing? Hi. I'm excited to talk about the last couple weeks of the 2023 regular season and the 2020-post season, which I believe is what we're here to discuss today. We are here today to discuss the Orioles. Yes, absolutely. Actually, we do have an Orioles question because today is an Asoka slash Star Wars slash whatever else mailbags, mostly Star Wars.

But, you know, some of those content might make it way in there. Who can say? Who can say? You are kind listeners sent us oh so many emails. That's my fault. I asked for them. And we have called them down into some fun and exciting prompts on the Star Wars front. We're not going to get too far, far, far, far into Asoka because we're recording this on Tuesday morning. We know there's a new episode of Asoka airing tonight, so we don't want to like sort of give you any stale takes, takes that are going to expire, you know, when the new episode drops tonight. But that is what we are here to

do today, Melanie, anything you want to say about the promise, the promise, the excitement of a mailbag? You know, it's evergreen content today, right? It's like we're back in the world between worlds. Yeah. We're just glimpsing ideas and kernels and, yeah, vibes, moments across time. We're out of time, but also time is all around us. And you'll be able to listen to this mailbag anytime you want. I love it. Before we get into the mailbag, just some quick. obviously programming reminders. As I already mentioned, there's a new episode of Asoka tonight, Tuesday, as we're recording. And that means you're about to get a new episode of The Midnight Boys, Poo-Poo!

With their instant reactions, I have been told that they're recording tonight, Tuesday night, to just give you the like hottest, freshest takes, I believe is the plan for the rest of the Asoka season. That is over on the Ring ofverse feed. Also over there on the Ring of Verse this Friday. Jess and Ben will be back with another button mash, talk about such acclaimed video games. Even I have heard of them. Things like Mortal Kombat.

Balders Gate. Early Spider-Man impressions, et cetera, et cetera. So join them over on the Ring ofverse on Friday, Buttonmash. And the list goes on on. We're going to talk about GenVe the week after that over in Ring ofverse. Mallory and I will be back, we hope, and pray, with some more Doctor Who content for you. There's just like a lot going on. Both the House of Our Feed, we will obviously be here with our deep dive on Friday for Asoka as well.

That's just a lot of content. How could focus keep track of all of that? I'd recommend you follow the pod. Follow the pod on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Follow the House of Our Feed. We're here twice a week. Follow the Ringervverse. Follow Prestige TV.

Follow Tribe by content. Follow all of it. And while you're at it, you can keep tabs on all the latest happenings by following the various ringerverse social handles. The ringerverse is on Twitter. The ringerverse is on Instagram. The ringerverse is on TikTok. And I mean, you know this today most of all, because it's a mailbag. Send your emails. Send your thoughts. Send your theories. Send your questions. Send your apple takes to hobbits and dragons at gmail.com. Yeah.

Send your reasonably sized emails to Hubbuss and Dragons and Gmail.com. Excellent stuff happening over in the email. Thanks to all the bad babies in Brisbane who responded to my call for community. We got a lot of emails about that. Great stuff. Please send me photos when you guys all meet up in Brisbane and I'll be jealous. Last one at least. Friendly neighborhood spoiler warning.

I don't know. Everything always. Wars. Through all of time? Star Wars. Star Wars. Yeah. Is there a book, a comic, a piece of fan art we saw once?

Who knows what we might be talking about? But if it was Star Wars and it happened, we might talk about it. So that is what is on the table. Today, Malé, without any further ado, should we just, like, get right into it? Let's do it. Oh, my gosh. Dreamy. So you dreams.

Yeah. We got a lot of questions along this sort of line of like Mallory and Joanna, please write future Star Wars. And I'm like, yes, Lucasfilm, are you listening? Of course. We would love to write future Star Wars. This question for dealer comes from Finn, who says, what is the dream Star Wars story to tell if Lucasfilm chose to dip their toe back into genre storytelling, a la Marvel's Werewolf by Night, special presentation? What characters, locations, hijinks do you want to see? I vote for a gritty detective noir set in the CD underbelly of Corrassant.

Gotta be as low as the levels where Luthin delivered his iconic monologue or I don't want it. All right. I don't want it. Don't want it. Thank you. Thank you, Kit Harrington, forever comedy legend. Mallory Rubin. What's your dream?

Sort of genre-e Star Wars film or TV project. Finn, I'd like to thank you. for the excuse, dare I say, opportunity to talk about my favorite thing in the world, which is the prospect of one day getting a Star Wars romance slash erotic thriller, starring my favorite Star Wars couple of all time, Obi-One-Kadobie and Satine Creas. I'll be out of them lots. No, that's the record. That's a new record.

Under 10 minutes. I love it. Had to beat it after last week. This will surprise absolutely no. Nobody who is listening to the podcast that this is my pick, but I have to be true to myself. If I pretended that something else was my pick, you'd all know that I was lying and I can't lie to you. I have to go with my heart in part because Obi-1 and Satine couldn't. And so we owe it to them to follow our heart in a way that they never felt like they were allowed to.

Here's what I'm thinking. Season two of Obi-1 Canobi is a prequel. And so we keep going with Obi-1 Kenobi as a rapper for little anthology snippets of stories across our beloved Obie's life. And maybe this opens with a shot of UIN as Obie, like meditating or dreaming and then reported back in time. And we get to spend a few beautiful episodes back in these youthful, heady, Mays. Mandeliorian Civil War. Stop me if you've heard this before.

There's conflict on Mandelaar. Record for the earliest non-rings of power. Have you heard of them, lads? And I think by the end of the pot, I'll stop, I'll break my record first. Stop me if you've heard this before. Utterances. I'm playing the hits today.

A 16-year-old Obi-Wan Kenobi. Padawan of our beloved Quigon Jin. They're sent. They're deployed by counsel. to help protect the young duchess from the Mandalorian traditionalists, their bounty hunters who are amid this scourge of civil war, attacking, pursuing, seeking to harm.

And Obie and Satine, along with Quigon, on the run, a year of turmoil, a year of peril, a year of uncertainty, and a year of lust and love yearning. yearning, yearning tendrils, indeed, yearning sabers here. They fall in love. They go back to their respective worlds and respective responsibilities. They regret it forever.

We know this because of the canon that we have already been treated to, right? Voyage of Temptation, one of the Clone Wars episodes that I reference most often, season two, episode 13, you know, we get that great moment where Obi-1 is explaining to Anakin, I live by the Jedi Code, and Anakin says, quotes Yoda about Jedi must not form a attachments, classic stuff. What does Obi-1 say? Yes. But he usually leaves out the undercurrent of remorse. Elsewhere in that episode, we get that beautiful moment between Satin and Obi when she says, I've loved you from the moment you came to my aid all those years ago. This is when she thinks she's about to be killed. And he says, Satin, this is hardly the time or the place for, and then withers.

In the face of her gaze, we'll see more of that. And he says, all right, had you said the word, I would have left the Jedi Order. So this is the story we're treated to. The moments that lead up to that, if you had said the word, I would have left the Jedi Order point. And I think this would be absolutely magical. I think we deserve this.

And I want to see this story. That is my pitch. I have a few other ones. I'd love to see that I could shoot your way in rapid fire fashion after we hear your pitch. But that's top of my list. What do you think? Well, my question is, are we calling this?

Yeah. Obie 2, Canobi, colon, wet dreams in the dark desert. Wet dreams in the dry desert. Moisture forming indeed. From the desert comes the wet dreams. Bad, baby. Oh, boy. This is what's so funny is I was sure this was going to be your answer to the next prompt.

I was so confident. Yeah. I went with it here. I considered it for the next one. You're like not enough. We need more time. I need more time. I need more time.

Exactly. Yeah. What's your pitch? I too am pitching a TV series because Star Wars movies, who's making those these days? No one. Except you know who's supposed to make a Star Wars movie? So we were told James Mangold. And I say, James, don't hold your breath.

How about instead you give us a TV series? And how about instead of your very cool idea of the beginning of the force? How about instead? This is a basic pitch. Everyone, their mother wants this, but like, it's because it's so good. Why don't we have a Dr. Afra adventure serial TV series already? If you are not familiar with this character, this is sort of the female Indiana Jones, as people like to say, sort of not wholly on the right side of the law, a rogue, a rhapscalion, if you will, but also a collector of items. the popular dream casting for Dr. Afra is Agents of Shields Chloe Bennett, but also a lot of people would love to see Palm Clementif.

But I'm saying either one of those ladies would be incredible. And I am looking for like a really recapture the old school Indiana Jones or what inspired in Indiana Jones, the like old old school like serials, directed by James Mangold, written by. with me now, Phoebe Waller Bridge of Lius Lee. If you've read the Afra Adventures, she's got like two droid murder bots that chill out with her. There's, we could bring in Cresantin who we met in Book of Boba Fett as a Wookie Bounty Hunter. There's just like a lot of like cool characters, cool opportunities to interact with, you know,

more familiar canonical characters, but like also. So you could just splinter her off. And this is a good answer to a later question we'll have about like sort of cultures and Star Wars. Like this is an opportunity for us to just like explore and dive deep into like a bunch of new worlds and planets that don't have lightsapers buried in the desert upon them. And I just don't know. This is like such a gimmie. I do not know why they haven't done this. Yeah.

It feels inevitable. Oh, I love it. I love the idea. I love the prospect and I will be overjoyed when they. this inevitably is announced in a couple years. You're right. I mean, it has to be on the shore list for future projects. I think this would be wonderful.

I love that this could range in tone. And like, is this, what's the violence level and the kind of, like, intensity that you're seeking in your version of this? I'm looking for, I'm looking for original indie, level violence. Okay. Okay. Okay. So more of the, more in the adventure mold than like, I need to watch this, Star Wars After Dark. Okay. I like this. I think this is appropriate. I do have a, I'll build off that with one of my runners up, which I'm going to, I am pitching you to Star Wars After Dark. Smuggle away. I want like a hard R. Action, Adventure, mystery starring Cadbean.

Like, okay, I don't mean to take away from anything that we got in the Mandalorian, which, as you know, for seasons one and two, and occasionally in three, I love. Right. But you know how in the early Mando days, before we all fell under the Gros spell and, like, embraced with joy, again, to be clear, joy in our hearts what Mando was actually going to be. There was a lot of the Favreau, like, discussion of the, this is like the seedy, dark underbelly. dark underbelly of Star Wars. And there's like some of that in Mando, but not, it morphed in a beautiful way that I am grateful for into something else. But I am sort of like, what if we got that hard ar, bounty hunter weekly adventure?

Who better than CAD? And I think like, to your point on the Afrofront about popping around to different planets, interacting with different people, some new, some familiar, this would be a really fun way to like follow, have a through line via a central figure, but every week is fresh. And I mean, I'm not necessarily pitching like a punisher level of violence here, but I do think with Cad B, you could do something pretty intense if you really wanted on the, like, with the genre prompt in mind here to do something that felt like distinct from some of the other things we've gotten in Star Wars. And of course, also with CAD, you'd have the option to set it in

like a couple different places in the timeline. Like, why wouldn't we want to watch Cadbeen use all of his gadgets to pry fingernails off of the bounties that he's hunting? I'm into it. I don't know if Disney Plus is into it, but I'm into it. Can I hit you with one of my smuggles? Give me one of your, give me one of your runners up. It's not terribly inventive, but I think we all know that it is a hit right at the gate.

It is Star Wars, colon, literally anything Cobb Vance. show us Cobb Vant, you cowards. Get out of the back to Cobb Vance, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Tim's done making justified. You know, so for the greater good of the Cobb-Vanth community,

just like make it happen, you know? I love this. I think we need it again. I think we deserve it. Yeah. Re-watching some of Justified to get ready for Prime Evil, it's just like there's nothing quite like

having Timio in your life as the lead of a show. But I think we're going to need, where I need Walton is like what City Primeval taught us is that we're going to need Walton Goggins and Timothy Oliphant. Like, give us... So is Gagin's the figure who... Is Gagins the figure in your pitch? Yeah. Who pulls Cobb Van out of tattooing?

Yeah. Or do you want another space? Are you daring to say... No. I'm daring to say on this episode of House of Hard that you want another series set on Tattooine. Please, dear Lord, we're spending like... We're going to spend 10 minutes on Tatumine, and then we're off on a cross-galaxy rip-roaring adventure after. But, you know, they dug moisture together.

Whoever... Beautiful. Space Boy and Crowder. Cobbant dug moisture together in Tatumian. But he's got to go stop him because he's like, you know. doing crimes all over in the outer room, something like that, you know? They dug crate dragon pearls together. It's beautiful.

You're onto something here. All right, my final runner up for you. Yeah. But I feel strongly about this the more I think about it. And especially with this like genre prompt, what have we not really gotten as like a primary focus? It's there in the background. It's there for maybe an 11 minute scene in the middle of a movie. Star Wars, colon, a sports story.

Let's get some Star Wars sports stories. I have two specific ideas for you. One, a bringing down the house slash 21-esque look at a Sub-Bak hustler. Like we've gotten little glimpses of this, right, when we see Lando cheat. What if that were the premise of an entire story? That would be amazing. Yeah, that would be really fun. Think of all the little seedy spots you'd get to visit.

This would be great. Or, we could do an entire series, maybe like a docudrama style, pod racing. Yeah, yeah. Like pounce on that F1 craze. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Look at you.

You were about to invoke Formula One. I was. Amazing. Because of you talking to me about it incessantly. Yeah, I'm still just waiting for your update on how far you are and drive to survive. Just waiting for your update. That's fine. I'll be patient.

Hands on a pod body. I don't know. What would we call your docu-series about pod racers? Man. Nope. I broke her. Okay. Drive.

Drive to Subboba. That's what I'm going to. I was trying to rhyme with pod, like pod instead of drive, but, you know, you would think I would know some rhymes for pod. And yet, here we are. All I got is God. All right. Pod Squad 5. That's Steve suggestion.

Steve is good at this, this and impressions. And cat sitting. Okay, anything else we want to say in this category? I had a lot of other thoughts, but I think this is what I'm content to pitch for now, you know? There's a lot of possibilities. Thank you, Finn. If you secretly work for Lucasfilm. If you secretly work for Lucasfilm, give us a ring.

And then we got a similar prompt from Brandon, which, and this is a much brisker prompt, which is basically what is our dream Tales of the Jedi project? one, 15 to 30, I mean, the tails of the Jedi aren't that long. 15 to 30 minutes, that's too long. Zip, zip, zip-de-duda. This is like 12 to 18 minute. Yeah, and Mal was like three of them, like, you know, Asoka got three, Duke got three, and I was like, no, one episode. So one episode, what do you mean?

Keep it tight, tighten up, Mal. What is your one zippy little tail of a Jedi you would like to tell? So I did consider going with the Obi-1 Satine. a stretch here, of course. But since I picked that for my genre pitch, I don't know if this is recency bias.

I'm willing to concede that it might be. But a few weeks into Asoka, my pitch is Baylon. I'm thinking of... Nice one. Hu Yang saying to Asoka

in part one, master, and apprentice after studying the hollow footage of the Hiltz, in the last 500 years, I've only known one student who built a saber such as this.

And that is the setting for my minisode. I want to be there for the forging of Baylon's blade. I want to understand what made it so unique and distinct. I want to understand what was in his soul that he poured it into the blade, what he heard when his Kaiba crystal called to him, all of it. And I think you could potentially build around that idea for an entire subsequent season on Tales of the Jedi built around. like you could do, we kind of joke about this,

but what if you leaned into the steer, leaned into the skid, like, oh, this person also survived Order 66? And that's the collection of characters for Season 2 of Tales of the Jedi. And we learned something new about all of them. Like you get Balin, you get Calcestis, you get Quinlan Boss, etc., etc. That's so funny. That's my pitch. I have a similar but different yes and to you,

which is like I'm imagining, did you ever watch Jim Henson's a storyteller with John Hurst? Mm-hmm. So for folks who did not grow up in around the 80s or explore old media, Jim Henson's a storyteller is a TV series where John Hurt as a storyteller would like sit by the fire and start to tell you a story and then we would go. It's similar to Shelley Duvall's fairy tale theater where basically you would go get an old fairy tale that had Henson puppetry in it.

It's just like one of the best things ever. So what if instead of John Hurt by the fire we get? Hu Yang and it's like Tales of the Sabre or something like that and it's just like every episode is like him talking about you know some something around a specific blade and that

does tail into my pitch which can go under the series and mine is about also about the forging of a blade but it is wika wika mace windu this has been explored in comics and actually Hu Yang is there in the comics

but I would love to have young Mace Window and his amethyst, Khyber Crystal, foraging the blade, how he, like, struggled with it, how he failed around it and how he ultimately succeeded. I, you know, I love, I love Mace Windu. I would love more time with Mace, so I think he's a Jedi definitely deserving of a tale. But I think we pitched a whole new series, in fact, a Lucasfilm, so once again, do call us. We're waiting. That's a great one. Would you also have a Mace Tales mini-sode that confirmed his survival. Somehow Mace returned.

That's so funny. Because last time I brought this up, you're like, you were so firmly he's dead. You're in the, he's dead camp. I know, but I know you like the theory. I know. And like, we could get Samuel Jackson would be thrilled to voice Mace window, don't you think, in like a Tales of Jedi episode? I never trust a fall in Star Wars, as you know, but a fall following an extraordinary

concentration of evil force lightning is tougher. Sounds invigorating to me honestly. I was just watching, I was actually just watching a video where Matthew Lillard was talking about how his character from Scream, Sue is definitely, like, still alive. And everyone's like, they dropped a TV on you. He's like, I'll drop a TV on you right now to prove to you that my character could still be alive. Anyway, bring back Lillard for another Scream installment.

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Next, this email comes from Christian. And Christian writes, and please forgive my production. We went back and forth on how we pronounce this. The term Glofshito is what we've decided to go with. Globchito was originally intended to be a dig at Star Wars fan, specifically the way we lap up cameo appearances like Luke Skywalker, lapping up milk on Octo.

But recently, right from the teat. Right, from the give us those cameos right from the teat. Still warm. But recently, the term has been repurposed as a noun to describe your favorite obscure background character in Star Wars. I'm a firm believer that everyone should have their own Globchito, for example, Mine is Boolio for Marisda Skywalker. I often find that my favorite rewatchable scene in the film is Booleel telling Phimpo to win the wall.

There was a request for an impression. Move over Mark Hamill. Yeah, move over Steve Allman. No, I don't want to hear Steve Alman's bullio. It's better than mine. Bonus Smuggle, classic House of Our Style. Are there any background characters and other fandoms you found a particular obsession or fondness for? So here's the prompt.

what is your background Star Wars character that no one else cares about but you care about? And then smuggle in one from another property franchise, whatever you want to do. I've got two little smuggles there. Do you want to go first? Do you want me to go first? How do you feel? Go for it. I'll start with my Star Wars, and then I'll go to your Star Wars.

Then we'll do our bonuses. My Star Wars, this is I told you before we started recording. This is the easiest thing I've ever done in my whole entire life was come up with my Star Wars answers. To that, to this, it is in a little film called The Force Awakens when we first are reacquainted with Han Solo. Yeah. And, you know, some receipts come due. Mm-hmm. And someone walks up and he goes, tell that to Kanja Club.

Tell that to Kanja Club is one of my favorite Star Wars lines of all times. Wow. I love that line. Great. So shout out. That's my answer. Incredible. I spent years just saying tell that to Kanda Club with like no, no actual real good reason to say it.

It's just delightful to say. What's your answer? I'll just use this opportunity to say that because of Bolio's prominent placement in the question, if anyone has not seen the YouTube video titled, Episode 9, but only when Boulio is on screen. It's so funny. I would encourage you to watch it because it is a

cut of Rise of Skywalker that only features Bullyo scenes in it is 14 seconds. Really good. So funny. It's really good. You see the title and you're like, oh my God, oh, I won it. 14 seconds.

It's hysterical. I rewatched that this morning just to make sure that my Boulio impression wasn't like terrible. And I was, I laughed really hard. And the best part, it's like the two brief exchanges and then just ends with the slapping of his severed head onto the table. Incredible content, remarkable stuff.

I absolutely love that this is Christian's pick. Okay. So peek behind the curtain. This was one of the first questions that I was like, let's definitely do this one. I love it. What a fun question. And then when it came time to pick, as I told you,

before we recorded, I went into an absolute spiral. I was like, how to answer this. I don't know what my pick is, who my pick is, because I think I am caught between, and Christian does a good job of sketching. out the evolution from meme to like full embrace of this idea. But I think I'm still more, still in the embrace way, but more in the like original maybe like meme definition space of this is a character who is a character somewhere in

canon or legends or whatever the case may be, but isn't necessarily mainstream. And then there's some reason that they come back into the public consciousness and you like flip out and you're overjoyed and a lot of other people are like literally who and what are you talking about and are you okay and do you need a gatorade. So even though that's not what Christian is asking, that was still where my mind went with it. And I don't think you'll be super surprised by my pick here either. My pick is Gungi because he's like featured in the gathering arc in Clone Wars, one of the younglings who is seeking the khyber crystal and forging the blade. And when Gungi appeared on our screens for the season two bad batch trailer, we're talking like a flash, like an instant.

It was my reaction, like if somebody knew me and knew what I cared about but didn't know exactly the context of what I was talking about in that moment and saw my response, it would have been like, did they announce a date for the winds of winter? And it would be like, no, we got like 0.2 seconds of Goonji in the Bad Bad Bad Bad Season 2 trailer. Did you just sit through four hours of a block of ice melting so that you could find out the date of the new season we came around. What a time that was. I have an actual, like, vivid memory of watching that ice melt. Vivid. I was in Neil Miller's house in Austin, Texas, because it was during, like, South By or something like that. I was sitting in the sunset Gower

offices, the old Ringer offices, just like unable to leave my desk for like sustenance, bathroom breaks, anything. I was just like, I can't. I can't walk away. I was downstairs and Neil's living with like my hand hovering over the like published button on my article that I rewritten, right? And then Neil was up in his office, and we were just yelling back and forth at each other that it was like still happening. And it was, I've never been more aggravated by anything. Anyway, sorry. What a memory. What a memory. But yeah, I want to know more about Gungi, like a wookie who is also a Jedi on the run for all this time facing trials. I just want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want, in the center of a Star Wars story.

That's my pick. Um, I did consider picking bigs. I think the Biggs is a pretty popular selection, and it's easy to see why. So we'll throw up Biggs as like a consideration. I was going to ask you if you thought, again, this is more in the like, this is definitively and decidedly not a background character. This is not the new definition, but in the first definition, if you thought Eli, my guy Eli Vanto was eligible because that's a like, oh my God, every casting for Asoka, I'm having a like absolute connoption wondering if this might be Eli and if that felt like it qualified in the first definition.

I think for my definition, I don't think you're going like obscure enough, but I'm not going to hold you to it. I support you. Alio and the 14 second rule. It's not applicable. That's the new thing that Christian is sketching out. But I think I'm just still in that OG meme camp. Tell that to Kanja Club edit. But love the meme.

It is even less than 14 seconds, I think, for good old Balatique in The Force Awakens. Okay. You know, I'll keep mulling. I'll keep thinking about it. I think everybody who has ever appeared in Star Wars canon is just like a main character in my heart. And I enjoy that part of this. And I love that you're very true to your heart in that you're like, and this is why

there should be a whole series about them. And I'm like, I don't know that I want to know more about Balatique. I just like that he exists. The same with Bulio. I like that it's 14 seconds of Bulio. You know what I mean? mean so. Yeah, I'm just still, you know, again, that like every time a new Star Wars movie or show

has announced to all the fans are like, oh, my God, gloop Shito is back, which is the original Tumblr post that sparked the meme. I'm like, yeah, and that's great. That's a great thing about Star Wars fans. I love it. I love it. Okay. I have two non-Star Wars examples for you.

Okay. One is, and I'm sure I've told this story on podcast years ago, but nothing, nothing since I've been at Thuringer for sure. Even though a couple weeks ago on trial by content, I talked about the film newsies and how much I love the film newsies, which I do. But for some reason when I was a kid, when I first watched newsies, I like fixated on this background newsie. And I couldn't tell you why. And he has like two sung through lines and like maybe three lines of dialogue. And that's it. And he is nobody's favorite newsie, but he's my favorite newsie.

and his name, his character's name is Skittery, and he's played by an actor Michael A. Gorgian, who you might know if you ever watched Party Five, or if you watched SLC punk. Like, he's been in some things, but he is barely in newsies. And he was, like, my favorite newsie before I'd ever seen him in, like, something else. I'd just, for some reason, fixated on him. So, cut to many, many, many years later. And I didn't even know. He's from the barrier, but I didn't know that. And I was walking down the St. San Francisco. and it was Valentine's Day. And I walked past him. And he is like someone, nobody, nobody with love and or something. He won an Emmy, but no one really cares about this guy, right? And I walked past him.

And I was like, oh, my God. That was Michael Gorgian. That's my favorite news. Oh, my God. And then I was like, Joanna, it is the day of St. Valentine. And if not at St. Valentine, once. So I turned back around and I went back to him and I was like, and I never talk to actors on the street. That's a weird.

I think it's a weird thing to do. I was like, hi, I just wanted to let you know that you're my favorite newsie. And his face did light up like it was Christmas because I don't think literally anyone said those words in that succession to him ever in his life. And then he was, he's a director now and he was like doing a film screening and he asked me to, he was like come to the film screening or whatever. And I didn't go because I was too nervous to go. But like that is my-

Joanna. Glouche-Val Valentine's Day story. And then just the other day. And I think the reason he's on my mind is just the other day. I got a publicity email. And he's got a new film. Nobody paid me to say this, but I'm going to say it. He's got a new film that he wrote and directed and starred in called Americotsi, which is the Armenian selection for the, you know, what do they call it now?

Not foreign language. International, international film at the Oscars. So, Ameriotsky, I haven't seen it yet, but it looks really good. And he's still out there thriving, my favorite newsies. So that's my guy, Skittery. He's the best. This is a beautiful, just a beautiful story.

What a wonderful thing. It's not very ringer-versy, my more ringer-versy answer, because I was trying to prompt you to come up with one. And I was like, what about Lord of the Rings? And you and I both watch Lord of the Rings every year.

Yes. We're coming up on the moment on the calendar. About time for that Thanksgiving re-watch, that holiday re-watch. Can't wait. You and Adam watch it every year Thanksgiving. Diana and I watch it every year at Christmas, and over the years, we have to develop these, like, inside just these, like, lines

that we say back. You know, it's just like something you do if you watch something together every single year. And the very first year we watch it together in the two towers right before Sam and Frodo get nab by Faramir, et cetera, like the only font moment. There's, like, a, there's a, a battle in, there's a bit of a fight, and Diana was looking away, and she looked back, and there was a guy, there's a close-up of a guy's face, and she's like, ooh, who's that? And I was like, Diana, that's a dead guy. Because it's just like this guy who falls off to all of fun. They just do like a close-up of his face on the ground. I know exactly what you're talking about. He's extremely good-looking, but he is dead. And so every year, like it's our own,

like it's our own Rocky Horror Picture Show every single year. We have to go, that's a dead guy every time he lands on the ground. So it's the, it's the, This is a stylish and stuff. I believe he's an Easterling, a dead guy from the two towers. Melo Rubin. This is a real, real safe space today. I love it. I love it.

I love it. I feel like I've learned so much about you, and I'm enriched by the experience, genuinely. Genuinely. Great. This is the beauty of a mailbag. Okay. I am going to offer up quickly one other Star Wars possibility that maybe honors the Bullyo spirit a little bit more.

more. What about what about our guy, Groomgar? From Maz's canteenah and Force Awakens. I think any canteena resident is a good... Is a candidate. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And the way that, and you know, his partner? Let's go with partner. Partner. Bazine is the one who, one of the characters who rats out our pals, like makes the call. But, you know, we just kind of glimpse the heft and might and menace of grum.

And I think that's compelling. There's some, there's some, like, intrigue there. You see that, that figure and that force. You see the way that everybody else in the canteenas, like, I'm going to leave you to sit on your throne. And I'm going to give you the space that you need. And I'm going to cram with all these other people in this corner and a huddle around the table where there's no extra space. Pick. Great pick.

Let's go with that. Yeah. Okay. Great. Two picks with Force Awakens. We did it. We both genuinely enjoy. Okay.

Here's my non-Star Wars pick. And... Is it a dead guy? Is it a hot dead guy from one of them? This character is eventually gruesomely murdered. I, again, don't know if this character's totally eligible because there's a plot line and a storyline where this character is featured. and has some lines and is some comic relief. But it's a finite, contained moment in time, and it's a beautiful moment.

And it's a moment I think about all the time, and it's a moment I want to live in. And it's our time with Moles Town Horr in Game of Thrones. Mollstown Horror is my pick. Yeah. And, you know, Sam made a lot of mistakes, and I don't think that was the appropriate place for Gilly and our beautiful beloved baby to be sequestering. and things took a horrible bloody turn, but we got to see the little

like pinky finger hang nail joke from Molestown Horror before everything went horribly awry. And I felt forever changed by the experience and Molestown Hor is my pick. Literally every time I watch Thrones and we get to see Molestown Horror

and spend some time with Molestown Horror, I'm like, why does Molestown Horne not have a spinoff? Why are we not at the Molestown brothel all the time? Have I ever told you, so when you're, you know, Conn of Thrones is a convention that you and I used to attend.

Wonderful. That was where we met for the first time. I know. The very first year that I did it, you were not there. And we did a panel that was like best spin-off. It was sort of like a great debate live thing that we did, but for best spin-off. And to this day, this is one of my favorite ideas I've ever heard, is that someone pitched a Golden Girls-esque show called Where Do Hors Go?

And it was all the sex workers of Westeros had like retired to the summer aisles or something like that and just like sat around on their wicker furniture talking about the old days of sex work in Westeros. Tyrion is greenlighting this immediately. I know. It's great. All right. Our next pick. Our next question comes from someone who signed their email Babu Frick and how can I not, you know, are the owner of the best. Bad Baby line himself.

Oh, beloved, baby. Yep, there he goes. Babboo. All right. This is about... Bado's kind. The Bible, Babbo's kind. This is about the future of Grogo.

Okay? So, we're about to do some... It's not Girl Math. It's Star Wars Math. Are you ready? My friend pointed out some math that would suggest whether or not Grogo

would be a baby in a future Ray movie. Yody, the original trilogy, mentions being 900 years old. but training Jedi for 800. This would mean that at 100 years old, he was definitely not a baby. Grogu is 50 in season one of Mando, which would make him, I think, 71 during Force Awakens. Species age differently is kind of a free path to make him not fully grown adult at that age. Personally, I think adult or even speaking age, Grogu might be a tricky biscuit to make work out of door seeing him and ray together.

So I'm curious how you all think he'd appear developmental. both in terms of following canon rules and also what will work best for us viewers. So, Mallory Rubin, is Grogu still a bad baby in a future film appearance? Or are we going to have to grapple with adult Grogu at some point? My goodness. This really, this sent me into just a number of places thinking about the future of Grogu's stories. So on the time frame Grogu Math. I know you can't resist a timeline.

Yes. Well, can't resist, but I think it's allowed in this case because it's part of the prox. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Tell me if I'm wrong here, but the Ray movie in question is supposed to be set. And obviously things can change on the Star Wars movie front 15 years after Rise of Skywalker, right? So we're talking 50 ABY, which means that Grogu would actually actually. be like 90, 91. Time to train some Jedi, you know?

So I think it actually makes the question even more... I agree with you. Germain. Okay. Malmath. This is a perilous place to be. If Grogu is about a decade away from that Yoda 100-year mark, it's really worth us thinking about this. Okay. First thing, we do not yet know enough about the Yoda Yadal Grogu's species to make any kind of deduction or generalization about how members of this species typically progress. Like, is the maturity and advancement that Yoda exhibited at 100,

typical? Is it atypical? We genuinely have no way of knowing. So I think that gives us and the creators who I have to assume want Grogo to remain a baby forever, a lot of leeway, a lot of room to play. However, I think the tricky thing here is that it is important that Grogo keep advancing and keep learning and keep evolving. So if we think about that 100-year marker as Yoda becoming a Jedi master, right? Like that's the milestone that we're crossing then. And of course, if you're a Jedi master, you're starting to teach in some capacity. That doesn't necessarily mean that Yoda was like overseeing and leading things in the capacity that we're accustomed to seeing him in in like the prequel say. Do I think that when he is 90, Grogu will have

learned enough, will have progressed enough in his force studies to teach other people something, to have mastered the force? My answer is yes. Now, does that mean that we want to see Grogu no longer in his sweet little like bone broth sipping phase. Babbling and cooing. I don't know. But like here's the other thing with Grogo that I think makes this tough to even like project. I don't want it. I don't want it.

Okay. Remember in the Star Wars story that we somehow reference and invoke the most, the book of Boba Fett, Chapter 6, Luke is training Grogo. And Asoka's talking about the training. And Luke says it's more like he's remembering than I'm actually teaching him anything. I think we have to keep that in mind in terms of acknowledging that we can't properly assess where Grogo even is. Right? It's like an arrested development sort of situation. Exactly.

Because if you think about the Jedi and Asoka's assessment, like, I mean, that was that really dark, like better to let his abilities fade. Fear assessment from Asoka. But we learned that he had been in hiding, post-order 66. He had repressed his abilities so that he wouldn't be detected. So he lost 28 years. There's more Star Wars math for you. Between Order 66 and coming into the caring clan mudhorn embrace of progress, of study, of growth. And so it's like coming back to him rapidly, maybe that means he will be at the Yoda pace and we just can't really tell now.

And maybe it means that he is off that pace because his life and his upbringing, were very different than Yodos. And then I think the other variable is just that he's not just training to be a Jedi, right? He and Dinn are off on their Mandalorian adventures now. And Grobu has all of this other stuff that he's learning. Like, our guy got that, his little shirt. Joe, the shirt, you got the shirt. And then he got his Rondel.

And he's learning how to be a Mandalorian. So does that accelerate being ready to teach because he's learning all these things? Yeah, the me thrill and the hubcap on the chest is like double protection for the chest, just don't, like, shoot him in the ear or anything like that because he's not protected. I don't want adult Grogu. There I said it. I just don't want it.

Yeah. But, okay, is it adult Grogu? That's the question. Because, like, when did Anakin take on a Paduan? When did Anakin become a Jedi Knight? When did Anakin take on Asoka and start teaching someone else? He was 19. Like, Obi-1 was 25 when he took on Anakin as his apprentice.

So I think that Grogu could still be in his like teen slash early 20s equivalent of being like a youngster, a precocious youngster and also start to pass on what he has learned. I don't think he has to be in the like I'm using a cane and my wisp of white hair tickling the back of my neck face. I didn't say I don't want an old and infirm Yoda. I just don't want like I don't. I'm just like uncertain. I even want a grogo who can talk at all. This is something we talked about a lot in Manda season three. So, like, I don't personally want it.

I am so sure we are going to get it. You know, like, Grogu is going to be rung dry in terms of content. But I don't want to, but then I'm happy to eat my words if I'm wrong. You know what I mean? Like, I thought I didn't want Grogu as a name. And here we are using it constantly. Can't imagine him being called anything else. But, you know.

I was just like so like, who are we sure when we heard Grogu? I would like to hit that sweet spot between Grogu preserving this like very particular and magical essence of cute while also allowing Grogu to continue to evolve for him to be a character on an art because we love a character on an art.

It could still be a precious baby who steals macaroons and then burps them up when the ship spins too fast. I think there's a problem, though. Like, I think that you run into a problem if you do develop him, then do you risk turning him into something like that is not as great as the thing that drew us all into the first place, which is the babbles and the bombs and all that sort of stuff like that. If you keep him young forever, then I start to worry about like the arrested development element and like how arrested is this development. Does Grogo need more intensive space therapy? Like, should we take him to the world between worlds? Like, what should we do?

Does, does, you know, force dust, Anakin Skywalker? Does Hayden want to, like, you know, help Grogu work through his issues as well? I would watch it. But, you know, here we go. Same. All right. Next question comes from both Rachel and Rob.

This is a trooper. This is a House of Reeds question. This is a Star Wars recommends a question. Rob's question is about Thron, and Rob is specifically talking about audiobooks, right? Drives a lot for work, wondering which Thrawn novel I'm supposed to start with. So that's the easy prompt. And then the slightly harder prompt is that Rachel wrote in saying that she has a very, like, precocious reader of a nephew's 12, loves Tolkien and is not super into Harry Potter. or, you know, has read Harry Potter, but, like, you know, what kind of Star Wars content?

What a kid who loves Tolkien? Too cool, quote unquote, for Harry Potter. What kind of Star Wars books would this kid like? Do you want me to start with some thoughts, or do you want to go first? Go for it. And I think the other part of the question that it's worth maybe quickly hitting is just, like, the prompt about whether it's worth reading Legends books still, which was a really interesting. really interesting thing to see in here. Joe, hit us.

What are some of your... I will just say as a tease that I don't know what books are appropriate for 12-year-olds or what a 12-year-old would like. I've always been terrible at that. So I will just offer up

some of my favorites. What about you? What are you recommending? I asked a children's bookseller that I know about this on the Star Wars front. And then something she recommended to me, and I haven't gotten to read,

I haven't gotten into the High Republic stuff. But she was saying that the sort of the newish High Republic, you know, they started this whole High Republic arm of storytelling, which takes us back in time. So sort of divorces us from the Star Wars, the meat of the Star Wars saga.

And that like sort of universally the most beloved are these two installments, the Light of the Jedi and Rising Storm by Charles Sol and Kevin Scott. They both came out in 2021. The Rising Storm, most people agree, is the better one, but Light of the Jedi is the first one. So, like, if this is a kind of kid who, like, doesn't mind diving into sort of, like, in media seres of a story, that the Rising Storm might have a better chance of hooking him sort of, like,

narratively. But if, like, Mallory Rubin, they're a completist and they want to start at the very beginning, than Light of the Jedi is where they should start was the recommendation I got. But I think for, you know, I'll let Mal talk about Thron in a little bit more depth in a second. But like, I think in terms of like, if you're talking about a 12-year-old who loves Tolkien, like the language of Tolkien, then I would say no one has written Star Wars with more elevated language than Timothy's on in my limited experience. Claudia Gray maybe like close second, but like, yeah, anyway, what did what did you want to say? Mara Rupertian?

It's just I love, love the question, love the idea of people discovering Star Wars novels for the first time, and people of any age. So while acknowledging that I love Rachel's question, which you answer beautifully and with specific intent and precision and care, I'll just use it as an excuse to talk about if anyone is like, hey, I want to start. Yeah. Like, I, I haven't read these. It seems like there's a lot. Where do I begin? I'll offer up just, there are a lot of Star Wars novels. There are obviously a ton of legends novels.

The volume of new canon novels has grown rapidly. So it can already feel like overwhelming. There's no bad place to start. That's the truth. Like, pick a character you like, pick a moment in the timeline that you're interested in learning more about, and start there and then continue to explore. I'll share, like, a few of my, favorites and a few that feel like maybe germane for where we are right now in Star Wars stories.

On the legends, on the legends front, though, but before I hit some of the titles, Rachel had asked, there's just so much, are legends even worth it now that they're not canon? So I think that, like, my answer to that is it depends on what you're looking for when you're setting out to read a Star Wars novel. Like, if you're specifically seeking to have, an expanded understanding of continuity in canon, then obviously Legends, like, isn't going to achieve that as fully as a canon novel. But as we talk about a lot on our pods, and we talk about this a lot with Faloni, like modern day Disney Canon, new Canon, Star Wars creators are very interested,

Faloni, obviously, top of the list, in pulling elements from Legends back into the canon. And so if that, like, maybe helps you say, oh, maybe this character who I'm going to learn about in legends. Like, we'll be back in the canon one day or whatever the case may be. You can, I think you could talk yourself into it that way. But I would just say more broadly, like, if you've got the time and you've got the interest, don't worry about the continuity in the canon. There are so many wonderful legend stories that are just like a great way to spend more time in the world,

like to inhabit a galaxy far, far away. And we can start there with like the Rob Smuggle with the Throne question because I think one of the questions that a lot of people have. And we've talked about this before is, do I, If I'm interested in exploring Thrawn novels, I'm interested in doing it now because Thrawn is about to make his live action debut in Asoka. Possibly tonight. I mean, it's, Joe, it could be tonight.

We don't know, but it's possible it's today. It might be Thrawn o'clock. Dragon Screech. That brought out a dragon screech in me thrilling. Do I start with these fabled novels that I've been hearing about from Star Wars fans for eons? Do I start with the Air of the Empire trilogy? which are legends. Or do I start with new canon?

This is another one of my like, no bad place to start answers because these are all wonderful. If you want one place to start, I would recommend the new canon Star Wars Thrawn trilogy, which is Thrawn, Thrawn, Thrawn alliances, and Thrawn Trees in 2017,

2018, 2019, also by our guy Tim Zon. The events overlap with like a period in time in Star Wars canon that you are most likely to be like incredibly familiar with. You've got Vader in the books. You've got Padme. You've got Krenic. You've got Tarkin. You've

obviously got the emperor, et cetera. And then you have all these other like new characters. You've got our rebels pals and like events like Adelon overlapping with some of what you're going to be reading about. I think it's just a great primer for like how Thrawn functions as a tactician, as a tactical genius, as a strategist, but also to like glimpse something that Joe and I talk about a lot when we explain why he's such a compelling character. Like the way that he interacts with the people around him and shows them respect and is like ready to hear their ideas, right? And his like consideration for people around him. And I think it's also a very handy way to understand his dual allegiances,

like his allegiance to the Chis Ascendency and his allegiance to the empire and how he pursues those things in tandem and how that makes him like distinct from a lot of the other like, I'm just a palpi worshipping imperial fascist. all that said, I would recommend listening to her reading, Gare to the Empire. It's incredible. And you're going to get like your faves, like, you know, Luke and Han and Leah and that.

And it's a different kind of thing. But that's the, the fabled drought ender. I think you should start with the new canon. If I were to recommend, I would say start with the new canon. And then if you're really enjoying it, I want to keep going, go back and listen to or read the legends. Books.

Because, yeah, again, like, I don't think, I never think it's a waste of time to read anything legends, even if it never is incorporated. Because then you're just like deeper understanding of the world of the larger fandom, then you'll like understand what people who were like old school in the fandom, like what they were existing with is the truth of Star Wars for so long. And also like when, when Faloni at all inevitably like riff on air,

of the Empire, like, you know, we're not going to get a straight adaptation, but they're definitely going to be pulling elements. For sure. You know, that's what you and I love is to be able to, like, recognize beats that are pulled from a, from a larger, you know, text into an adaptation. So that's always fun for me. But if you're, if you're like, I need this to pay off immediately in a very literal way, you know, new canons.

Yeah. And that's okay. Like, you know, it's different preferences for everybody. But if you're just like, you're just for more time in the world, legends is. It's a joy. There's just so much. And, like, I think that, like, drought-ending aspect of those legends books in the early days, like, there was no... Banlemberg has a wonderful ringer piece about this.

Like, there was no Star Wars for so long. And so this stuff means, in addition, just being really great and the stories are compelling and the characters are interesting and they became indelible. Like, this was Star Wars for so many people for so long. So, yes, definitely, definitely check it out. If you then do all that and you want more, get ahead on the throne. ascendancy trilogy, because that's the prequel, the Chis ascendancy days. And we have no idea,

but it feels reasonable to assume that with Thrawn coming into live action, the Chis are going to be a more central part of Star Wars canon moving forward. So like familiarizing yourself with the Chis, that's chaos rising greater good and lesser evil. Before that becomes more central to the canon,

that's a great idea. Some other quick recommendations for like, again, where we are in the canon now in the Mandoverse, We talk a lot about like the crumbling new republic and building this bridge to the first order. There are a number of good places that you could look. We've also talked about this a lot. The Star Wars Aftermath Trilogy, Right.

That's Aftermath, Aftermath, Life Dead, and Aftermath Empire's End from 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Chuck Wendig novels. Hux, Hux, Hux, Hux. It's a great time to be a Huck's head like Joe. So this is part of something called the Journey to Star Wars, the Force Aware. Waken's publishing initiative, as is another book that we'll talk about in a second. And a lot of the, like, impetus behind that is where we are in Star Wars now, right? How did the resistance rise? How did the New Republic fail?

How did Galactic Affairs arrive at a point where the First Order could emerge from the, like, pretty recently scattered ashes of the empire? That was the impetus behind a lot of these. And so even though the character set or timeline will not like exactly overlap with what we're getting in the Mandoverse, a lot of the ideas will. And it's become central already, like something like the contingency, palpi's contingency, which you've heard us talk about on pods before and other folks as well. That's like sketched out here. So you can learn a lot about like what happened with the fall of the empire that positioned these imperial remnants to like scatter or rebuild, et cetera. And just some great, some great characters.

Shout out Snap Wexley and Mr. Bones. You love Mr. Bones. You're a big Mr. Bones said. I am. Another novel that you've heard us and our pal Ben Lindberg mentioned before that is also a part of that, Star Wars, the Force Awakens,

like journeyed Force Awakens initiative, bloodline. So this is Claudia Gray, who Joe just mentioned. This story centers on Leah and, like, what went wrong with the Senate, that Vader parentage reveal

that we've talked about before that just torpedoes everything for Leah? And, like, the formation of the resistance And so helpful, in addition to just being like a fun read and a good book, helpful background for this path to the resistance, path to the first order period that we're in. Obviously, you've heard us talk about the eponymous Asoka novel, the 2016 E.K. Johnston novel many times before I would, of course, recommend reading that.

We really like that. That's a fun one. In addition to like a lot of great Asoka lore and Asoka state of mind, frame of mind, you get these fun little snippets with like Obi-1 and other characters who are grappling with the fall, the post-order 66 days. And then I would recommend another one we've talked about before, which is Master and Apprentice, another Claudia Gray novel. This is from 2019.

This has been really top of mind for me in the last couple weeks as we've talked about, like the central focus of this series of Asoka. This primarily centers on Quigon, who's come up a lot in recent pods, and Obi-Wan and this mission that they're deployed on this

is like in the pre-pre-pre-fantom menace days. And a lot of it is about the tension and their relationship and the way the frustrations that Obi-1 feels toward Quigon, the way that Quigon feels that he is like failing Obi-Wan because he can't be exactly the master that Obi-1 wants him to be. But you get to learn more about how they think about these Star Wars archetypes and these roles that these fabled characters are supposed to inhabit. It's like a great snapshot of how they think about these things. And you also get to meet like a character like Ryle Averos, who was the Duku. who's Padawan before Quigon. And he's like a, he's a cherished, when you hear people talk about the idea of a gray Jedi

and like a character who bucks some sort of tidy, dark side, light side box. Rael is like a great example. That's a great point. That's a great point. One of my favorite things about him is he just like fucks on the page and he's just like, what is wrong with everybody? Like, why can't you just have sex with somebody you're interested in

and then go about your day without thinking that you've compromised the sanctity? of your Jedihood. So I would recommend this novel, which I read last summer. Make Star Wars Sex again is what Mallory says. Yes, exactly. It's a great one. You know, and then there are a ton of others. If you want to branch out beyond the bridge to the First Order or Soka, master

and apprentice ideas, like read Dark Disciple. I mean, that's a great one. Ventress and Quinlan. Talk about a sexy novel. I love that one. And I did have, I had Light of the Jedi on my list too. I'm glad you mentioned that. I think like one of the cool things about the High Republic era right now,

which I am candidly quite behind on but eager to catch up on, is it's like a new on ramp. It's a very recent, fresh thing, just started a couple years ago where everybody is starting from the same place and learning new things at the same time.

And that's really exciting. And like, that's a great place to begin and just start consuming this, like, completely different stretch of the timeline. Who doesn't want to spend time 200 years before the prequels, you know? James Bengold, wants to go back even further.

Even further. We can talk about this stuff forever. We should talk about this more at some point. There are like a million comics we could recommend. There are so many great Star Wars comics. So we'll keep offering up the reading recommendations whenever we can because it's a really rich world right now. And there are like a number of great things that apply to basically anything you're

consuming in the moment in Star Wars. If you're like, I want to learn more about thing X or person why, there's something there for you. There's probably a comic. Yeah, exactly. All right. Next question we got, and thank you guys. We always love doing.

House of Rees question. So thank you for asking them. Comes from Sam. This is a tough one. Yes. Mallory, how many smuggles do you have on this one? You're going to be really proud of me. I have one main pick and one smuggle.

I really, I kept it. I kept it contained. I'm dazzled. It was that or like a million. It was pick two or pick 50. There was no in between. Sam's question is this. If you could add one more revisited moment for Anakin and Assoca

to the fog of memories from the world Between Worlds, what would it be? And I was like, ooh, I get to write, like, fan fiction of an episode that I already enjoyed. But, I mean, this is a really fun prompt. I mean, as, you know, when Mallory was first looking at this prompt, she was like, oh, God, how on earth do I pick just one? Like, I could pick a million, and that's true. But then if you're forced to pick one, then you have to, Tales of the Jedi style, like,

be so intentional with what is the moment and how will it either push the episode in a direction, that it didn't quite reach on its own or better highlight the choices that Faloni already made or something like that. Do you want to go first? Go for it. You go. Well, I was thinking, I've been thinking a lot.

We talked a lot about this idea, this kind of storytelling as kind of like a genre almost that I really enjoy. Memory flashback and interacting actively with a memory and a flashback and a dream, whatever you know, you decide it is. And I was thinking of two examples we didn't bring up when we talked about it last time, which are two of my two movies I absolutely adore, Eternal Sunshine and Spotless Mind and Inception,

both of which take place in sort of like dream memories, spaces, and deal with characters working through guilt or choices they made that they wish they hadn't, et cetera, et cetera. So I think I understand why he didn't do it, and maybe it seems like too much of a gimmie. But I think if we had gotten the moment that we've talked about so many times when Assoco walks away from the Jedi or- This is also my pick. I mean, how can it not be? But here's my twist on it is like to see it kind of as, because what we're watching in these, you know, when, when Anakin shows up in the siege of Mandelor, in that episode, he wasn't actually there.

So what we're watching are not actual memories. We're watching Asoka in her younger body, sort of confusedly interacting with things that did happen, that sort of stuff. So we wouldn't see it as it happened. In fact, what I think would be really interesting is if she, like, decides to stay. And this happens a couple times in Eternal Sunshine

and sort of one very crucial spot in Inception. Like if she decides, if she, like, if we watch it play out, but she decides to stay. And then if Anakin, whatever you think Anakin is. But let's say in Eternal Sunshine, you know, we're inside Joel, Joel's head is played by Jim Carrey. The Clementine, who's in there is not, the character played by Kate Winsland in there is, like, head Clementine. She's not real Clementine. But what's cool about her is that she calls Joel out on his shit. So it's himself calling himself out on his shit, right?

So if we watch that walk away from Anakin, walk away from the order scene, but she decides to stay. And then we get force Anakin, whatever you want to call him, head Anakin, saying, oh, but that's not what you did, is it? Or something like that. And then we get to talk about it more. And then I need him to talk to her about how I really need him to say it wasn't her fault. You know what I mean? That her walking away is not the thing that did it. And like, this is why this is my pick, too.

Yeah. Yeah. So tell me, tell me your thoughts and feelings about it. I just was like, this was a, this was the one where, again, the first reaction is like, oh, my God, here 50, 75, 100 possibilities. And then pretty quickly it's like, no, there's really one. And I'm not surprised we both landed there because like it is the, the most crucial moment in their shared history. And I wonder if it just felt like it would be to, because like those other moments,

like there are a lot of things as we talked about in the Siege of Mandelaar, or Final Four episodes of Clone Wars stretch that are iconic. But the thing that we didn't see Asoka dueling mall, we didn't see Rex turning, like those weren't the moments we got. We were just generally placed there. And I wonder if like it felt like going,

back to the wrong Jedi, the season five Clone Wars finale, Asoka's decision to leave Anakin's attempt to convince her to stay, felt like it was like too much of a head-to-head with a just iconic, iconic moment for fans of the Faluniverse. That's why I would want it to go differently. Do you know what I mean? So then you can like, just recreate it, that seems like a little bit of a waste of epistles. Because then it's like, you're like, I have a version of this that I cherish and I adore. So right, how do you work around it and like?

move around it and have them observe it and parse it. And I think like that element that we discussed of like would we have moved into this like truly rarefied air if we had gotten one more memory and one more emotional beat, this is the memory that gives you that beat. It's like the thing that allows them to discuss that. The trust thing that we keep talking about, this is where we get the like the how can I trust my self moment from Asoka that we've cited so often. this is where we get that. I understand wanting to walk away from the order line from Anakin and that I know response from Asoka.

So there's so much here that leads to that, like, opening note for this series that right reasons, wrong consequences idea that Asoka evokes and is clearly top of mind for her. And, like, for the characters to interrogate that together and parse that, that guilt, that regret, that feeling of, like, Asoka not regretting the decision she made, like still thinking that was the right thing for her,

but this anguish that has consumed her life about what she worries it meant for other people. Like, wow, if we had gotten, like, if we had gotten a conversation between them about that or a conversation with Asoka, you know, Asoka having with herself about that, like that feels like the breakthrough in therapy that I think if we get that, we're not like,

Asoka the White, I think we're like Asoka the White. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. You know, like this was the moment. And I like your, I like your suggestion of how to, how to have them navigated. I think that's the thing they have to, they have to navigate.

And it's like, I mean, that's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's one of the most, one of the greatest movies of all time, I think. What they do again and again and again is they will play out, they'll be playing out a scenario as it went and then they'll stop and they'll start talking about it. Right. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. And that's, you know.

I think too, like it's not, you know, you know. Because if we wanted to try to operate in the confines of the episode, which is like battle, war, then it doesn't totally neatly fit. But it's still the byproduct of, like, violence, the thread of war, the mistrust, the betrayal that has seeped into the council, the order, every aspect of life in the republic because of the creep of war. So I think it would fit even if they're not, like, charging alongside various clones in the field of battle. And you could still make it fog of worry Like you could still be still be in the fog Sort of thing so yeah And it would actually be nice to introduce that beat of variance

Of like a quieter you know Backdoor dealing like the council offering The Padawan beats again and it's like fuck this I also like too that it would be a way to get This was your trial Mace we have some notes I was thinking about like something like Mortis which is such a Kia Soka thing

But then you're introducing so much new lore Yeah yeah It's almost more I thought about that too Yeah it's like almost more, like, distracting than maybe, like, helpful. So something like this departing the order moment, it gives you everything you need. It heightens the emotion. It heightens the clarity of their shared history.

It heightens the sense of these, like, fulcrums for fulcrum, right? These pivot points that are defining in a person's individual path in their shared arc. And you don't have to navigate this, like, deep mythology download and in tandem with it. It would have been, it would have been perfect. Maybe one day. I was at a party this weekend in a friend. of mine, who's very smart and wonderful, and she's watching Asoka, and she hasn't watched any of the animated shows. She's watching Asoka, and she's sort of asking the group, like,

you know, is anyone else watching Asoka? And most people weren't. And I didn't wait, I don't know, because it just felt like work. So I just, like, didn't, like, decide to get involved in the conversation. But then she kept on talking, this is no criticism of her, but she kept talking about it, sort of explaining the folks there who I and watch it. She's like, the problem is if you haven't watched all this other stuff, you're completely lost. Blah, blah, blah. And then she said, what I really need is for someone to sort of, like, curate a list of episodes for me to watch or, like, do a condensed.

No, and I was like, honestly, with a little respect to her, with like a slight edge of my voice, I was like, that definitely exists. And like, everyone started laughing. And I was like, not only do we literally do it, but like literally anyone who creates content about Star Wars did a version of that. that. There are YouTube digests that you can watch. There are Disney Plus itself put out a curated list of episodes to watch. Like this service journalism doesn't exist. And like we don't have to get into whether or not you should feel like you should have to do any of that in order to understand.

And I know that there are plenty of people who are watching without that supplemental and are understanding and are, I mean, are enjoying, I should say more than understanding, are enjoying or are having a fine time. But it was just really funny because I was like, yeah, that definitely exists. man, I promise it does. But to that point, like, yeah, there would have been also the benefit of just this, like, real utilitarian, show the people the central thing. Show the moment. Yeah.

You don't have to go into the mortis gods, but show us the moment where she walked away from the order and she walked away from Man again, yeah. Okay, so we're on the same page. Because this felt like simultaneously, definitely the right one, the one we needed, the one we craved, the one we yearned for, yearning tendrils. did you feel compelled to offer up a runner-up of like a deeper cut just as a little like variance in the I did not but I support you doing that so Mallory what is your deep cut? Okay, here's my slightly deeper cut. It's not a deep cut by any means, but a slightly deeper cut than the most iconic Soko moment in the history of the character.

And I think this would have fit quite seamlessly with what we were seeing. How about taking us to that early stretch episodes like 2-3-5 of Season 5 of Clone Wars, training the Anderan rebels, Osoka, Anakin, Obi-1 Rex training Saw Guerrera, his sister, Stila, the Lux is in the mix, the rebels of Anderan to fight the separatists because... All Dave Filoni heard when you said that sentence was like, dollar sign, dollar sign, dollar sign, dollar sign, do I have to get you in what are we doing for Young Saw? What are we doing here? like all those

other stuff. So I think it would be nice to like have like a bearded figure in the background so that we knew Obi-Wan is there and it's a fun thing for us

but like you don't have to fully incorporate him into the scene though of course we would welcome it always. Osoka grappling with like the toll of their aid.

Right? Like the so much of the conflict that was central in this episode and the last couple episodes this idea of like, we say we're peacekeepers, but are we perpetuating this legacy of death and destruction?

We are trying to help, but through the like carefully managed rigidity of the Jedi Order and a republic that is being puppeteered by our arch nemesis. This is an episode where like those tension points or this is an arc where those tension points are so central. And like, I think Saw is an interesting character to quickly hit in one of these moments because he's not,

I don't think he's like a distraction, but it's another way to kind of heightened for viewers. The number of characters Asoka overlapped with and like guided and shaped in some way. And like I think particularly this aspect of the Jedi order, not wanting, like, fearing the aiding and guiding and crafting of like an essence of terrorist cell, which is what happens.

right? And then Asoka and Anakin feeling like it is not right to leave these people without assisting them to like leave them without sharing what we know without helping them to the point where they're like, hey, Honda, our people won't help us, but like do you have any missiles we can use? Like, there's just, you know, I think that aspect of like this very deliberately maintained approach to managing galactic affairs and the limits of that and the times where that went wrong and like maybe sparked a level of

vitriol that was then impossible to contain. Like this feels like something that Asoka would have been thinking about for a long time. Steala died. And Saw Guerrera went on a war path for the rest of time that even Luther thought was too intense.

You know? And even Luther was like, buddy, my guy. Maybe not. Speaking of intensive war past, we only have a few more minutes left, but we want to quickly address a few more things really quickly. So this is a prompt I'm calling the crimes of Chopper Wald. And it comes from Sam, and Sam says, over the last few pods, many mentions have been made of Chopper's seemingly psychotic, disregard for life and other things. To me, so far, he has seen like a perfectly nice babysitter for Jace.

Can you give a quick rundown of Charper's war crimes? I'd love to hear more about why he's such a dangerous addition to your droid family. That's addressed to me, loser of the droid draft. Okay. Joanna, so far he has seemed like a perfectly nice babysitter the first time that you had to consider whether the show, Asoko, that we generally really like and have been enjoying has completely failed. I was like, if people think this about Chopper, we have gone wrong somewhere along the way. Or maybe Chopper in his old days just mellow. Do you know what I mean?

You settled? You settled into just like a more kind of chill. even keeled existence. In episode 11 of rebels. Yes, great one. Chopper just straight up murders another astromack. This is something that Mallory and Van were happy to remind me of. And then shoved his lifeless carcass into the sewer.

Great one. That's a great example of his complete menace. I have a kind of like adjacent example from a couple episodes later. I think if you want to get just a snapshot of the harm that Chomper is, like the he helped. Key part of the Rebel Alliance, but the death and destruction that he has wrought across the galaxy,

you want to look at a two ways. Close range and from a distance, right? So, like, is he going to knife you or is he going to hit the detonator? Guess what? With Chaper, the answer's both. Why not both? Why not?

What classic? Why not that? Close to the example you just cited, season one episode 14, Rebel Resolve. If you want one episode to understand what we're talking about, watch this episode.

because you get a couple amazing things in really close succession here. There's a stretch where Chopper, he's gone undercover as an imperial courier. The actual courier, the Astromack, has been on the ghost. Chopper's been painted to look like him and is infiltrated.

He is attempting to escape. And in the attempt to escape, without hesitation, without a shred of remorse, he sends four stormtroopers into the vacuum of space, opens the airlock, and they are sucked out

without even an instant to potentially like grab a bottle of a lot of Lactica. We're going out of the airlock. It is astonishing. It is frankly astonishing. And then moments later, mere moments later, he returns to the ghost. And the crew is like, this guy, the, the droid that you replaced, like he was, Zeb is like he was a big helper around here.

Like, this is the toughest. He should hang out for chop. He should stay. And Chopper just like, the droid, to be clear, doesn't die. We get a shot of him. hanging out with some Lothcats, down on the grassy plains of Lothal. But Chopper murder pushes this poor innocent droider has been kidnapped out of the cargo. And then he murd laughs.

He laughs. He laughs. He laughs. He laughs. I love that he said murder push. Murder push and murder laughs. A maniacal murder laugh. I thought there was one time when he just like murder brushed his hair.

Season 2 episode 8, we should say. Chopper takes down the indictor. Episode 9. Stealth Strike? Oh, episode 9. Yes, yes. This is my faraway example. This is the other perfect one.

Near 50,000 people in one blow, would you say? Is that a correct estimate? I think that the, okay, so here's the crucial thing about this to me. Exact count. I think it varies on the internet. If you Google how, like, what is Chopper's death count? You'll see, like, there's like a great Reddit post from Block Pro 156, chronicleing like the attempt to tally the math.

and 50,000 is like in play. The reason that I love this stealth strike, Season 2 Rebels example, is because, like, to be clear, Chopper's following orders, right? Ezra, Canaan, they want Chopper to compromise the interdictor because of the gravity wells

that are pulling their vessel back in. But what are they asking him to do? The word you'll hear a lot in this episode is sabotage. They want Chopper to make the tech unusable. Here's what Chopper does, So they're escaping and nothing's happening. The gravity well, not only is the sabotage not clear, but the well starts to pull them back in.

And Ezra says, Chopper, you said you sabotaged it. And then again, we get this like, what I think you can only describe as gleeful response from Chopper. Like he's happy, he's jubilant, he's like really getting off on what is about to happen. And Ezra says, what do you mean? Wait for it. wait for a one. So Chopper's response to Ezra when he was like, why didn't you sabotage the gravity

wells was wait for it. You're about to see how many people like killed. Then the gravity walls activate. We learned from Ezra, the chopper has, quote, rigged their own weapons against them. It's pulling everything in. So two other light cruisers are pulled in. They like scrape against the interdictor. These people inside are like smushed alive long before the explosion. They're just crushed into like goo and dust. And then, the entire It's like a bag of skittles. If you just open the skittles in space,

everything explodes and chopper's just like thrilled and wants to be called a hero. It's the glee. It's shocking. It's just sort of like many, many people have crashed many an Imperial Cruiser or what have you in the course of a rebellion or a war.

Sure. But do they go wait for it and then just like celebrate it as they do it? I'm just unbelievable. I think Chopper's wrong, but I'm just saying that's who Chopper is. And then more importantly, I mean, I honestly think more importantly than all in that, there are times when he has literally put like Ezra or Canaan's life in danger, his closest allies.

He's got a lot of stuff to do. Just for fun. He has a busy, busy day every day. I was just like, don't worry, chopper wouldn't leave us stranded. And Candon's like, yeah, he fucking would. What are you talking about? That robot is trying to murder me ever since. I lit a finger on Hara.

So, you know. Incredible content. Chopper's a one of one. Extraordinary character. Two more things before we go. Okay. Number one, we got this question about what's the plural of Pergel. Okay.

From, I think it's Ewan or Ian. It's a very gale-ex spelling, and I apologize. We believe the answer is just Pergel. Mm-hmm. Yes. Multiple pergill or pergill. Yes, that is correct. We will attempt to say that moving forward.

I do want you to know that I consulted the ringer copy desk on this matter. I love you. There's a tradition here at the ringer called CopyChorner, where every now and then, Craig Gaines, our copy chief, will go take to the internet to clarify something on the grammatical front. And I hit up Craig and I hit up Jack McCluskey, who is our deputy copy lead. And in the early morning hours, Jack was all too happy to chime in, and he said that I can quote him.

Their space whales, Jack says. So the natural collective noun is clearly pod. This is to the second part of the question. Oh, yeah. The second part of the question is what should the collective noun be? Okay. Some people apparently also call a group of whales a plump, which is ridiculous, but pretty funny. Now, on the singular plural front, Jack says to me, I thought this was full.

fascinating. The argument for pergill as both singular and plural comes down to whether they're closer to whales or to squid. If it is the former, then you'd say pergels for plural like you do for whales. If it's the latter, then you'd say pergill like you do for squid. But of course, Joe, pergill, it's kind of, we say spacefell, but it's like kind of a whale squid hybrid. I like pergill as the plural for pergill. I think so too. I think so too. I may have Thank you, Jack McCluskey. I might have, thank you very much, especially in the wee small hours of morning. I might have been guilty of tacking on S.

I shall no longer. Would you like to hear my submission for a collective noun? Yeah. It's not Pod? You've got something other than Pod? Pod is the basic bitch answer with love and respect. And I say... Okay.

Tough one for me and for Jack. I'm going with... I mean, because you can get really fun. Like flamingos, as as... Mm-hmm. Yes. ...saidu says here is a flamboyance of flamingos. You can get really, really wacky and weird.

I didn't get that wacky and weird, but I was just trying to, like, think I was, like, picturing the burgle in the sky, in the fog. What about, like, a tempest of pergill? Beautiful. I love it. That's great. How about a tangle? A tangle of pergill, but you do not want them to get tangles. But that's, like, our most iconic pergul moment is tangling the tangle in the tentacle around.

Well, that's like a grasp of pergol. That's like a grasp of pergall. A coil. A coil. A yearning tendril, purgled tingle. A yearning purple tendril. Or after on Thrawn and Ezra. Last and not least, is genuinely an email that we got, and I did not make it up, but

a listener Spencer asked for some book tour updates for me. Whether or not I would be doing an event in Oakland. He'll be doing an event at Cape and Cowell, a comic great Eisner Award-winning comic bookshop in Oakland. For the full dates and locations, including the event that I will be doing with Mallory Rubin at the Grove, which is quickly selling out in Los Angeles, you can go to the MCUbook.com. That is the MCU book.com to get the latest update on the tour locations. And then there will be links to register or buy a ticket or whatever the case may be. So that is the answer for that.

That is the disgusting book promo for MCU. Col and the reign of Marvel Studios. I think it's wonderful. Written by your Strulia on October 10th. Pre-order now. Pre-order now! Anything else you want to say, Mallory Redmond? Before we go.

Thank you to everyone for the questions. We always love a mailbag. It's fun to do like a themed topic-specific mailbag like this. A Star Wars bag, what a treat. You know, part of the joy of having the house of our feed and having a couple pods a week is we have, like, more opportunities to do things like this. So we're going to try to keep mailbags in the mix. And like every so often when we're spending a lot of time in one fictional universe, we'll be back with a bag.

On that particular story, back with the bag. The bag. We got a great, great suggestion for something we might do like the next Star Wars round that we do. Anyway, we have a lot of questions that we'll come back to at some point. And because we teased it earlier on the Orioles front, say, got an Orioles question. Oh, we did. Not going to answer today, but we're keeping it in the back pocket. We've run out of time.

But guess what? The Orioles haven't. And they're playing in fucking October. And so we are going to have pods upon pods and weeks upon weeks where we can revisit the matter of Star Wars comps for the 2023 Baltimore Orioles. Get hyped. Mallory. Joanna.

Please tell them what you told me when I read Maddie's question to you of if you had to redo the entire Orioles starting lineup with Star Wars characters. Who would you choose for each position? I said, I would not redo this lineup. I would not replace anyone on the 2003 Baltimoreials with any force-wielder or other powerful figure from Star Wars lore. Luke Skywalker isn't

batting over Gunner Henderson. Luke Skywalker and eat shit! Eat shit, Luke Skywalker. That is what I said, and that is how I feel about it. But will I do a head-to-head character comp for everyone on the team in the 25-man roster at some point in the future? Eventually. Jackson Holiday is Grogo.

Wonderful. To back in for more at a later date. A disturbingly adult grogoo or a rest of development. No comment. All right. The prodigy who was promised. That's who. That has been our Star Wars mailbag, our Asoka mailbag.

Please do check out the Ring ofverse for the Meni Boys, PooPew, instant reaction to Asoka Episode 6, something we haven't seen yet, but we're very excited to see in just a few hours. I can't wait. Button mash on Friday. We'll be back all. So on this feed on Friday, with our deep dive, thanks as always to Steve Allman, who was not quite quick enough on the soundboard today to catch my test and trap for him. Steve, what would that have sounded like if you had been on time? There it is.

All right. Thanks to Steve Alman. You're the best. And we will see you all next time. Bye. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari.

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