Star Wars: Ahsoka

What if the Star Wars saga, with all its legendary characters and epic arcs, was just a backdrop to a more profound cosmic journey? Welcome to Project Geekology, episode 65 where we peel back the galactic tapestry to explore the untold narrative of the unofficial Star Wars Rebels season five, focusing on Ahsoka's pursuit of Ezra and Thrawn. Alongside our personal updates, we dissect the latest BlizzCon 2023 announcements. We talk about the expanding universe of Warcraft updates, Marvel expansions, and even K-pop collaborations(with Overwatch), displaying the scope of our geeky universe.

We kick off our galactic journey with an examination of the dramatic transition from the ghost team to an Ahsoka centered odyssey. We discuss how this shift offers fertile ground for the Ahsoka live-action series to explore the protagonist's complex relationships with her past master and her current apprentice.

Our exploration doesn't stop at the screen. We delve into the necessity of understanding the animated Star Wars series, Clone Wars, and Rebels before watching Ahsoka. We argue that while you can still appreciate Ahsoka without prior knowledge, deciphering the intricate web of character development and narrative arches is only possible with a thorough understanding of the animated series. The finale of our episode is a comprehensive dissection of the Rebels finale, a ranking of the Star Wars series, and an enthusiastic anticipation for the future of the Ahsoka series. Join us on our journey through galaxies and geekdom, and don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more interstellar updates. May the Force be with you!

Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak

Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y

Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA


Twitch (Anthony):
https://www.twitch.tv/odysseywow

Music:
Eric Godlow Beats: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRpkcYps82PdSo0tK5rEIPA

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome one and all to Project Geekology episode 65, coming to you from a galaxy far, far away. That was a terrible Clone Wars intro by yours truly me, dakota. I'm joined as always with Anthony and we're going to be talking all things. Star Wars Rebels, season five, today also known as Ahsoka, the live action series from Disney Plus.

Speaker 2: 0:26

The unofficial. I know actually it is the official season five of Rebels, but it's just not called Rebels.

Speaker 1: 0:34

Yeah, it's kind of weird actually because, while, yes, it is the natural next season of the Star Wars Rebels series, the shift in focus towards it being about Ahsoka and her master, her apprentice, and the struggles that she's going on and searching for Ezra and Thrawn and everything. I think it's really interesting the dynamic shift from the ghost team to now Ahsoka's little bubble, that kind of orbits that team. So we're going to talk about that in more in just a minute. Anthony, what have you been up to these past few weeks?

Speaker 2: 1:06

Well, I was on vacation last week. I was in Tennessee visiting some family. It was nice. I was able to hang out and kind of get away from the insanity of Florida, because sometimes Florida can it's like getting so packed with all these people. A lot of your peeps are coming down from New York, they want to live in Florida and snowbirds bro.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Yeah. So it was nice getting out there and hanging out and spending some time kind of out in nature, and when you live in South Florida, south Florida or just Florida in general, it's pretty flat. I mean sure you might get to some places where there's like hills, but it's nothing like Tennessee.

Speaker 1: 1:46

It's flat.

Speaker 2: 1:46

And so, yeah, it's just yeah, you get some like really windy roads and like really like hilly, and especially like when this time I didn't drive through the mountains, but the last time I was there I remember driving through the mountains and it's just, yeah, super windy. It's not something that I'm used to, so it was interesting and it was cool being able to see fall. Fall was like really like in full swing at that moment.

Speaker 1: 2:13

So I'm sure it was beautiful and you were in the Smokies.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Right, I was close to the Smokies, but I did well. I did actually go over to Smokies because I spent some time in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, so yeah, cool, cool, cool.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Did you visit Dollywood?

Speaker 2: 2:27

Yes, actually I did, I was wondering why you were in Gatlinburg.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Yeah, so well, I went to Gatlinburg, since I was a kid.

Speaker 2: 2:33

So I went to Gatlinburg. So I went to the area twice. The first time was to go to Dollywood with the family, and then the next time was to celebrate my birthday, dude 32.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Yes.

Speaker 2: 2:46

How does it feel I mean?

Speaker 1: 2:47

I'm also a third now, but yeah, it kind of feels weird.

Speaker 2: 2:50

Dakota leveled up a couple days ago. So I was doing that, really spending most of my time doing that on vacation and before that, obviously preparing for this episode. We wanted to record this episode before I went on vacation but I didn't pan out. So you know we're getting this one out to you a little bit on the later side, but you know we wanted to get this out to you nonetheless.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Yeah, it's going to be a good show. A lot's happened in the past couple weeks. You were talking to me a little bit about some of the events that happened at BlizzCon over the past weekend. Are you excited about some of the revelations that Blizzard has unveiled for some of their games Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft and so on?

Speaker 2: 3:31

So they did a lot. I felt like they announced a lot and some stuff I was not expecting. For Overwatch 2, we knew about the new hero Mauga for a while. I mean, I call him Maui because he almost looks like Maui the Overwatch version of Maui.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Maui from Milano.

Speaker 2: 3:52

Yes, yes, and so you know he was interesting. They had a play test for him this weekend so that we could try him out, but he does not release officially until the next competitive season. And they also announced a couple of other heroes that are coming out One called Venture. That's a DPS hero, and they actually showed some gameplay of her. And then there's another support coming out called Space Ranger, and she looks pretty interesting. That's cool, that's really cool.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Last time I was at BlizzCon, I had the opportunity to play test the now-vaporware game, Starcraft Ghost, which was actually really fun when I played it.

Speaker 2: 4:30

Oh wow, so you actually got hands on for that. I got hands on for a game that never existed Dude yeah, I've seen gameplay of that and I'm really upset that that game never came out.

Speaker 1: 4:43

Yeah, I think I was too young to really appreciate whether or not it was a good game. I just knew that it was a new game. Right, it was, and I was only playing a small amount of it, so I couldn't even tell you what I remember about it, besides just brief glimpses of it, but I remember liking it. Yeah, it just never panned out, for whatever reason, and probably for the best, because then they focused more on World of Warcraft over the past, over the next couple years, after that game was discontinued.

Speaker 2: 5:12

Right, I would say that World of Warcraft I mean you got Diablo 3 that was thrown into there and Starcraft 2. While we've gotten another we've gotten a couple of Diablo games in the recent years. There's the mobile one that came out and then Diablo 4. And it's been a really, really long time since we've gotten a Starcraft game. They haven't really done anything with Starcraft and so I didn't watch everything in BlizzCon, but I don't think that there was anything Starcraft announced. If anything Starcraft was announced, they would be like super headlines, like people were like Starcraft 3 is coming out, you know, like it would be one of the major headlines that I saw, you know, when looking for pretty much highlights of BlizzCon. But I obviously watched some of the World of Warcraft stuff, some of the Overwatch 2 stuff. Diablo 4 does have an expansion that's coming out. It's called Vessel of Hatred and it's going to cover Mephisto and stuff. World of Warcraft had an interesting announcement. Now we knew that there was most likely going to be an Overwatch expansion announced, but not 3.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Yeah, they announced 3 and it was all part of this giant campaign or story or narrative that they're calling the. What was it? The World?

Speaker 2: 6:29

Soul Saga yes.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Very cool. I mean, just the concept of an overarching 3 expansion story is pretty intriguing to me. I haven't, you know, actively played World of Warcraft in some time, but this does excite me, just by proxy of how much I spent on the game, you know, in my youth. You know.

Speaker 2: 6:50

Right, I guess they're releasing enough content that it's too much to release in one expansion that they want to break it up into three.

Speaker 1: 7:01

My guess is it's kind of like an expansion and a half of actual gameplay and new content and basically, instead of releasing, you know, two small expansions, they're releasing kind of like three small expansions, and it's just easier to focus on one at a time, because I think they mentioned that it was coming out one every year for the next three years.

Speaker 2: 7:23

So, yeah, it's within the next three years they're going to release an expansion and then, yeah, it's going to just cover this whole overarching story. And so I mean, obviously you're going to get like new dungeons, there's going to be new zones, there's going to be different raids and stuff. Honestly say, choose an announcement that was made for WoW and I was actually surprised that they did it. I didn't think that they were going to do it, but they're doing Cataclysm Classic and I didn't think that they were going to do that, because that's like almost modern WoW, you know.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Cataclysm.

Speaker 2: 7:55

Classic is it's older, but like it's after that point that I would consider it modern WoW. A lot of major stuff has happened. I mean dude, like Darnassus gets destroyed later on in the thing. I mean there's a lot that happens. But I consider everything that Cataclysm and up like kind of like modern WoW. So I was surprised that they were going to go through with that. I wondered like when's the stopping point? Are they just going to release all this stuff?

Speaker 1: 8:21

You know they may just be planning to, you know, eventually release all the way up until where they're at right now and just continue the game forward in the regular game. Basically, if they can make you pay for the game twice, again and again and again, I mean but you're not even like paying for it twice.

Speaker 2: 8:40

It's like coming out free, you know. It's like as long as you have like an active subscription, you know. So I mean, at least I didn't pay for any of the vanilla WoW stuff, Okay, so they did that. There's also, so WoW Classic is also. So they're doing some changes to vanilla, like you know. Just base World of Warcraft, you can actually play vanilla WoW Like it's an own separate thing, and then they have a version of WoW that just is just going with every expansion. But there's something called Season of Discovery that is coming out for vanilla and it's going to have like new content and like like features and parts that weren't like in the original vanilla WoW.

Speaker 1: 9:22

So it's like a multiverse of different types.

Speaker 2: 9:24

Yeah, yeah yeah, it's like content that was cut that never made the final product that they're. I guess at the time it wasn't polished, but I guess now it's polished enough that they're like we want to put this. There was probably an original vision that they had and then eventually it got to what it became, you know.

Speaker 1: 9:43

Sure.

Speaker 2: 9:43

So I thought that was interesting. There was a lot of WoW stuff.

Speaker 1: 9:48

But did we have any like updates on like are they still raising the level cap for these new expansions or have they stopped doing that at a certain point?

Speaker 2: 9:57

They cut down the level cap to I can't, and was it like Shadowlands? They cut it like way down. I think it was down to 60 or 70. They like brought it down.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Oh really, that's good. I guess that makes sense when you consider like the power creep right like kind of reduces what you can do once you reach a certain level. So it's 70. It's 70 now, so they shift it yeah dude, because it got up to like 120.

Speaker 2: 10:25

And then I guess they're like man, we, you know we don't want to. I guess they didn't want to have people leveling up all the way up to like 200, you know. So they decided to.

Speaker 1: 10:34

I'm sure many people would have.

Speaker 2: 10:36

Oh, absolutely. I mean a lot of people. But it becomes un-stain unattainable A lot of the. There's a lot of players that you know they just they'll hop onto their mains because they're already at the max cap. They'll raise their level up the next 10 levels. You know, maybe mess around on their character for a little bit and then go create another character. So yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:56

And there's also a Blizzard also released a mobile game. They released the Warcraft Rumble game. It's kind of it kind of reminds me a little bit of who's it? Clans Royale, clash of Clans, yeah, clash Royale, or whatever. So they changed it. I think it was supposed to be like World of Warcraft Starlight Rumble or something like that, but they just or Warcraft, starlight Rumble, but they just dropped it down to Warcraft Rumble, so that that came out on Friday of yeah, like last Fridays, I think, with the kickoff of BlizzCon.

Speaker 1: 11:31

So Did you try it out yet, or no?

Speaker 2: 11:32

I have, yeah, I messed around with it a little bit. It's interesting. I mean, I might, you know, mess with it from time to time, but I kind of fallen out of those tower defense type games. It's not really, is it tower defense? I mean, it's those ones that you like drag and drop. I know what you're just talking about. You like build your base up and you hope.

Speaker 2: 11:51

But it's not even a base Like it's. You're not even building up a base. It's just like you have like your one side and like you like sends people over to the other side to attack, and then the other side will send people to attack you. It's really weird, it's? I don't know if you've ever I don't know if you've ever played Clash Royale or Clans Royale, whatever the heck it's called Clash of Clans Royale. Yeah, I played it. It's literally like that.

Speaker 1: 12:16

I got you.

Speaker 2: 12:16

So I mean, yeah, other than that, what? What have you been up to? Did you look at any of the BlizzCon stuff?

Speaker 1: 12:22

Well, I saw the three expansions that they you know, like tease and I thought that was pretty cool. It did get me thinking maybe I want to eventually jump back in, but like I'm not mentally prepared for that, that time commitment yet. But in terms of like what I've been up to, marvel released this big old book, the Marvel Studios, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an official timeline book. It's pretty big. It's kind of it's the exact same size as the Star Wars timelines book that came out a couple months back.

Speaker 2: 12:52

It looks like very similar actually.

Speaker 1: 12:54

Yeah, it's the same company that produced it. It's not the same writers, but it's kind of displayed and all the events are displayed in a very similar way to the Star Wars timelines book. So I've been spending a lot of my time trying to get through that. I'm going to be doing a full review on the channel GeekWatik soon and if you guys are interested in that, please go check out my channel in the show notes below.

Speaker 2: 13:17

Yes, they'll be in the show notes. There was a collaboration between overwatch and a k-pop group wait was diva involved somehow diva was in it. So was Kiriko, brigita Tracer, tracer, whom I'm missing.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Sombra, oh my gosh most of their, most of their women.

Speaker 2: 13:37

There's so many else, that's. That's Symmetra. No, it wasn't Symmetra. Why am I like losing it?

Speaker 1: 13:45

I don't know, man, all that time you know you know it's funny was that they even Junkrat.

Speaker 2: 13:50

They gave junkrat like a skin part of that collaboration too, and like he's like the one character that you wouldn't expect to have a k-pop skin. I respect it, though it's a shame road hug didn't get one that would have been funny and, honestly tell you truth, a lot of people probably would have loved it. People would have been like, yes, roadhog k-pop, this is, you know, unlikely, but you know I know who knows he likes his little, like patch of Marys Okay.

Speaker 2: 14:15

No, I had it right, yeah, I was just. I just looked it up. It was Brigita diva, kiriko sombra tracer, and then Junkrat got hit his own skin. Look at that. I don't know if you can see it pull it.

Speaker 1: 14:26

Pull it back a little bit. I know it's like to break. I'll look it up. Yeah that's cool though.

Speaker 2: 14:31

So anything else that you've been up to. I know that you you just said that you're gonna come out with a Marvel timeline Video.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Yes, so it'll be a Marvel timeline video review of the book specifically, and then I'll probably do another video where I'll adjust my own like MCU timeline to, you know, best meet the new official Standard because a few things are moved around, some things make a little bit of sense, some things are kind of infuriatingly placed, but that's just me.

Speaker 2: 14:59

You're? You're probably just like yeah, they needed me, they should have me there.

Speaker 1: 15:02

You know what? I'm not gonna say it, but I'll let other people say it, so, thank you. So what was it gonna say? Oh, and I have some other timelines like that I'm working on, so I made the one-piece timeline that I was talking about last time I was on the show right on the one-piece episode.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Yes, on the one-piece episode that we did last time, I finally did the one-piece live-action timeline and I kind of I dived into the history of Basically everything that is said to have happened within the live-action series, like when it takes place and all that, and then I kind of compared it to what was said and explained in the manga and anime so that I could, you know, just get a more accurate Look at everything. But that was fun. I have two other timelines that I'm kind of working on in like various amounts right now. So I'm doing a extended universe frozen timeline. Yeah, it's gonna be an interesting one. It's probably gonna bomb initially and then we'll pick up like kids will find it eventually, so that'll be nice.

Speaker 1: 16:03

But yeah, basically there's a bunch of Frozen books, kind of like the Star Wars extended universe, before Disney took over, had like just tons of you know, extended universe content that wasn't officially canon but was kind of lore friendly. This is the same kind of deal with frozen, where that's at right now. So I've gone through all the books, I've gone through all the comics and basically just mapping it up right now and After that my big plan is to do the monster verse. So Godzilla, king Kong, you know the school island stuff, all the way up to the new show that they're coming out with Monarch legacy of monsters.

Speaker 2: 16:42

You know what'd be interesting to cover. You know it would be like kind of fun, I think. But you so you're talking about the monster verse. Wouldn't be cool at some point if we covered the universal monsters?

Speaker 1: 16:55

Yeah, totally. I mean, that was really the first shared universe in Hollywood.

Speaker 2: 17:00

Yeah, that's an insane, like.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Yeah you know, yeah, I mean that was, that's a huge, huge deal.

Speaker 2: 17:06

So I think that would be cool and I think it would be cool to like look into the connective tissue of those, if there is any you know.

Speaker 1: 17:14

Well, there is definitely some connective tissue. It's not as pronounced as obviously like the MCU.

Speaker 2: 17:21

Right, right, even like Godzilla and stuff.

Speaker 1: 17:24

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Well, even like the Godzilla stuff was, there was some Chronology like right like, I think, in like the third or fourth Godzilla movie, like he fights off Rodan and like Rodan is like Covered in a mound of rock and that's how he liked to feed him. And then later on they made a Rodan movie and he came out of that very like same, like boulders of rocks, and he started terrorizing again. So there's some like connective tissue between all those at least early Godzilla movies, but like the Toho monster movies. But yeah, so that would be really cool to cover the, the universal monster stuff.

Speaker 2: 17:59

Yes, yes, definitely. So I mean, I don't know if you have anything else that you want to talk about. We're about 25 minutes in.

Speaker 1: 18:07

Would you like to get?

Speaker 2: 18:08

into the, the meat of the episode. Well, I think that before we actually talk about anything spoilery, I would say if you haven't seen a soco, go watch it before listening to this.

Speaker 1: 18:21

Yeah, we get into some pretty heavy stuff here when it comes to stuff that's unveiled about the Star Wars universe, and we're gonna be talking about everything. There's gonna be a lot of fangushing, fan theorizing and just overall discussions about like the major themes and and happenings throughout these was it eight episodes.

Speaker 2: 18:41

Yes, yes, yeah, so I know I had asked you. So I know I had asked you before. But now that that we've watched the entirety of a soca, all the episodes are out. What are your thoughts on watching Rebels, even Clone Wars, before a soca? Have your thoughts on that changed?

Speaker 1: 18:59

So last time I believe that my thoughts were it definitely Hightens your appreciation of what happens, or just that you know getting to know the characters and like seeing them in live action. It's a huge Moment for Star Wars fans, of the you know the animated world of Star Wars, to be able to see these characters In live action and like a realistic depiction of the characters, like from their you know animated counterparts. I said that my from my personal experience. I have seen all the animated stuff. My wife has seen all the animated stuff. My parents have never seen any of the animated stuff but they really like the show, like all the way to the end.

Speaker 1: 19:40

They may not have picked up on some of the bigger themes, especially the you know some Teases that you may experience in the final episode of a soca, but they were able to enjoy what they saw because it felt like new and fresh Star Wars to them and I I actually feel like it probably feels more new and more fresh to them, having not seen the Animated series before. Then it does to us who have seen the animated series before, because a lot of what we see in this Does I mean it's not a retread. It's definitely not a retread, but it's a follow-up to the series, so it feels like a natural progression of Star Wars. Versus someone who's coming in totally blind to this era, it probably feels wholly new, you know right, right.

Speaker 2: 20:25

So for me. So I'm definitely with you that you can watch this show without watching the animated series and still enjoy it. I definitely think that you can enjoy it. But I do believe that there is a lot being missed if you don't watch the animated series, especially rebels, because it is a natural progression. You're like, okay, you know you're coming into the show, they lay some of the basic round work, but if you're coming into the show without watching rebels, you don't know why Thrawn is so bad. You know, you just know that he's okay, he's an imperial, he imposes a threat, but why does he impose a threat? He, they show a little bit of what his mind is, but you understand him a lot better.

Speaker 2: 21:09

And Rebels, you know, okay, ahsoka's relationship with Anakin, they explain a little bit, they show a little bit of it. You know, I'd say even watching Clone Wars, not all of it, but Clone Wars at least some of it to see that Relationship and to see what she was talking about. Because she had a moment where she talks about how you know, while not everybody was always there for her, anakin always was, and you see that, especially in a moment and I'm gonna be crossing into Clone Wars, where she has some issues with the Jedi Council and Something happens and the Jedi Council turned their back on her. But Anakin's the one that really gives her the benefit of the doubt. You know 100%.

Speaker 1: 21:51

Yeah, and there's a lot that happens at the very end of rebels. Yes they kind of very quickly gloss over and they expect you to know, like, why is Ezra and Thrawn suddenly nowhere in the known galaxy?

Speaker 1: 22:05

right, right, exactly, they don't really explain that in Ahsoka they just tell you they're not anywhere in the known galaxy. At the end of Rebels we know that Ezra used the force to Get the Pergill to basically like latch onto Thrawn's Star Destroyer and just send him away from the galaxy so that you know he wouldn't stop being a jerk to the rebels.

Speaker 2: 22:29

Basically right, right. And yeah, that's another thing like you know, the Pergill, like you see in these space whales, you know. So there's definitely like a heavy significance in rebels and, like you said, especially towards the end of that series. Like I said, you can enjoy that show, absolutely enjoy that show, without watching the animated series, but there's definitely gonna. I personally believe that there's gonna be a lot of holes for you if you don't.

Speaker 1: 22:57

I actually saw someone Online, someone I actually like really respect for you know, just in general and they had a. I would say it was a bad take Were. Basically they were upset that they were kind of left out of the loop because they hadn't seen Clone Wars or yeah, they hadn't seen Clone Wars, like, and they were feeling that like super left out of the loop when the those giant statues appeared at the end of the final episode. Anyone who's watched Clone Wars can, you know, deduct that it's the mortis gods. But for whatever reason, he didn't realize that until he joins or he until he turned on the social media and he got like kind of salty about it and I thought this was just a bad take. Like if you choose not to watch it, you can't be mad at it. You know, it's one of those like it's a weird thing.

Speaker 2: 23:46

Right.

Speaker 1: 23:47

I can. I can see people being a little bit upset about not being able to understand every single thing that they're seeing where other people can't right.

Speaker 2: 23:56

And the thing is is that Dave Filoni Told us a while ago that this is a follow-up to rebels. You know he wanted to do this and this show is definitely Mostly not entirely, but mostly for fans of the animated series. I mean, that's where he got it. That is where he got his start, man. He got a start in the anime field and even before Clone Wars, like he was doing stuff, dude, he worked on we talked about how he worked on avatar, the last airbender, he worked for Nickelodeon, he's worked for Cartoon Network, so that's where his start was, you know.

Speaker 2: 24:31

And then that's where he got his foot in the door of Star Wars, got the respect of George Lucas, and so, really, yeah, like that's what this show is, dude, you could pick a movie in the middle of a series watching and enjoy it, but you're not gonna understand everything unless you watch the beginning of the movie series, you know. So that that's the thing, and I Understand that animated might not be everybody's cup of tea, but there is a lot of very strong Story-telling that is happening in these cartoons. You know that if you overlook the fact that it's animated, you will absolutely enjoy. I mean, do bad batch? The Clone Wars has an amazing story, especially those like last few seasons do. Season 7 was just like it was a beautiful send-off and I mean rubble, yeah and in rubbles.

Speaker 2: 25:28

I mean, there's just. You know I'm not gonna talk about Resistance, that's definitely for a younger crowd, but yeah, you know yeah, resistance.

Speaker 1: 25:37

The High Republic Adventure show that is like for kids.

Speaker 1: 25:41

That's like a different kind of series. It's not expected that and anyone needs to watch and it's just for kids really. But it does add a little bit of lore here and there. And I think resistance is even semi. Well, I haven't actually watched most of resistance. It's semi important to the sequel trilogy and in terms of, like, certain background characters. But you know you're saying like how much story that the cartoons add to the overall Star Wars story.

Speaker 1: 26:07

Back when I was reviewing and I literally read cover to cover these Star Wars timelines book just because I wanted to get the full experience, you know, from the beginning of the galaxy far, far away to the end as far as we know it, and that thing covered not only the movies, not only the, the TV shows, but it also covered the cartoons, obviously covered comics, it covered books, it covered like short stories.

Speaker 1: 26:30

It was literally every single thing and it's my favorite reference book ever. But what I want to say is like if all you have seen is the movies, you're only gonna understand 25% of that book. There's so much Star Wars out there and even Like just the Clone Wars, it took up like 40 pages worth of like timeline stuff because there's so many episodes over seven seasons, plus all the little stories that they've like written in the comics or the books, like regarding the Clone Wars era. So I don't know. I mean, there's so much out there. And what I loved about Ahsoka was how effortlessly what can I speak how effortlessly it was able to bridge into Clone Wars era with those flashbacks in the world between worlds. Well, they weren't really flashbacks, it was more. It was like a vision that the force was presenting to Ahsoka. But man, when it went back to like certain battles throughout the Clone Wars, that was so cool.

Speaker 2: 27:25

Right, dude, when I seen Hayden Christensen and he did that and he did that Clone Wars Anakin, he was like hey, snips, I was like he was he was.

Speaker 1: 27:36

You can tell he's a fan of Clone Wars Anakin too. You can tell like he was playing that part. You know they even did his hair like Clone Wars Anakin.

Speaker 2: 27:44

Yes, yes, you know, man, let me tell you I absolutely love that Hayden Christensen is kind of getting the appreciation that he always deserved. You know that a lot of what happened wasn't really his fault, man. He was just doing what was written, you know.

Speaker 1: 28:01

Yeah, but one thing people like people blame Hayden for is actually just kind of like bad writing on Lucas's part or bad directing on Lucas's part, you know one or the other, sometimes both, but combined with someone who's not, you know, directed to act it out in a certain way, it comes out jumbled and clunky. You know and I think people remember that about Hayden's performance, when it shouldn't really be held against him because there's a lot of clunkiness in the prequels, even though I love them.

Speaker 2: 28:34

Right right.

Speaker 1: 28:35

I can't say that they're perfect movies by any stretch of the imagination. Right but yeah, seeing his redemption tour from you know Obi-Wan Kenobi and now even to a bigger degree, I think, in Ahsoka. I don't know actually, because he did play Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, but you know actual on screen, you know his face being on screen. I think a little bit more time was spent in Ahsoka.

Speaker 2: 29:00

So in Obi-Wan we got him in Darth Vader, but this is now redeemed Anakin, you know.

Speaker 1: 29:07

Yes.

Speaker 2: 29:08

So this is the Anakin that we knew before he fell, but like more enlightened, you know, it's like he learned a lesson at this point. It was just awesome seeing him the duel between Ahsoka. You know, I was like, oh my gosh, man, it's like so nice to see Hayden doing this stuff. And man, let me tell you, hayden really put in the work back in those old movies. Man, he put in the work for those duels. Yeah, and you could tell he put the work in for this one.

Speaker 1: 29:36

Yes, yes, like this was, that was one of the cleanest duels in, like Disney Star Wars era. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:42

It definitely brought back some, some feelings from the prequel era. I would say about the prequel era is that, like you said, they're not perfect. A lot where a lot of the prequels are fixed are in the books and the animated series.

Speaker 1: 29:55

Totally, and that's one of the biggest things about Clone Wars is that if there's anything in the prequels that you aren't particularly fond of, go watch or go watch. Well, yeah, go watch Rebels too, but go watch Clone Wars specifically, because that kind of wraps up all the loose threads.

Speaker 2: 30:11

Right, right.

Speaker 1: 30:13

Appeared throughout the prequels or anything that you didn't like specifically. They will definitely expand upon in Clone Wars.

Speaker 2: 30:19

And it gives you a better understanding of Ahsoka's relationship with Anakin, her relationship with the clones, why the clones did what they did, and it just makes a lot of sense and it gives you a basis for some of the characters that you have in Rebels. Like some of the clones, you know Rex Rex being like the most popular one, but you know he's shown in him. Who was it, rex? Was it Rex Cody? The three clones in Rebels?

Speaker 1: 30:47

There's so many clones. What are you talking about? There's far as Cody, okay, the three that they met.

Speaker 2: 30:53

That was in that old the AT, the old ATST or whatever it was called. You know the old Republic.

Speaker 1: 31:00

Walker yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2: 31:02

I know what you're talking about you want me to look at that really quick. I mean sure if you want to. I guess I'm just trying to build up why I believe that it's so, so worth it to watch the animated series to just have a better appreciation for the show. Like I said, you can appreciate it without watching it, but, like I said, there's so much that is missed without even like just watching Rebels, you know.

Speaker 1: 31:24

Yeah, so in that episode the Lost Commanders from Rebels. It follows clone troopers Rex Wolf and Gregor.

Speaker 2: 31:32

Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 31:34

Yeah, but yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2: 31:37

So, yeah, that's my little spiel about, or not so little spiel about why I believe that it's pretty essential to watch the animated series.

Speaker 1: 31:47

And that's my three hour rant about why you need to watch Rebels.

Speaker 2: 31:51

Yes, I could go on for three hours about that. But you know I mean that's how strongly I feel about the animated series.

Speaker 1: 31:57

You know you know I want to see Inesoka season two. I don't know how they could possibly do it, unless they do a side story with Ezra. I want them to revisit the bendu from Star Wars Rebels. Remember the big giant's force being.

Speaker 2: 32:13

Oh my gosh, yeah. Yeah, that would be an interesting character to bring in and I don't know what capacity, like how they would bring it in, but I was really surprised and I guess maybe the reason why, like, there was such a huge absence. You know we don't have Zeb. I know Zeb was off doing his New Republic stuff and he was probably going to show up in Rangers of the New Republic, so that's why he wasn't in Inesoka.

Speaker 2: 32:42

But, oh my gosh, dude, like he was such an essential character for Rebels that he was definitely missed, and I hope beyond hope that he is in season two. He has to be, so they brought him back for Mandalorian season.

Speaker 1: 32:57

Three briefly.

Speaker 2: 32:58

Right, he looked great, he did.

Speaker 1: 33:01

And I think, because they spent so much time making him look right in live action, most people assumed, okay, he's got to show up in Inesoka, but for whatever reason he didn't. But pretty much the rest of the gang was present. You know Sans Freddie Prinze Jr's Kanan Jarrus because you know spoilers, but Kanan's dead. Actually, what's interesting is in the ghost ship, when Hera is flying it, someone noticed like by the steering wheel she has a picture of Kanan Jarrus and it actually looks like a picture of Freddie Prinze Jr in like live action that they've like photoshopped into like with like his outfit. It's actually pretty funny if you go check it out.

Speaker 2: 33:40

I need to look at that. I don't think I paid attention to that, but that would be awesome if they did that. It's actually pretty crazy how much Freddie Prinze Jr like he loves Star Wars and he loves that character. I know I know.

Speaker 1: 33:53

Yeah, it's a great character. One of the best like character deaths ever in Star Wars is Kanan's. Let's talk. Well, actually, while we're still in the world between worlds and we're talking about Anakin, there's one line that he says that gave me chills, bro Ahsoka basically says something along the lines of I'm not going to fight you and he goes. I've heard that before.

Speaker 1: 34:16

And so what's cool about Force Ghosts and they don't really explain it in any of the shows or any of the films, but they touch on it in some of the books is that they exist in like all time, everywhere. You know, like they're not stuck to one body type, like that's why they can change appearances, change ages. Sometimes they can appear as Darth Vader, sometimes they can appear, they could technically, he could appear as little Annie if he wanted to. What's cool about that scene is that basically he's referring to an event that happened in the original trilogy. So actually, yes, this is chronologically after the original trilogy, so it's not like he's bouncing around in time, but it's so cool that he actually references the fact that, you know, luke Skywalker basically said I'm not going to fight you, father.

Speaker 2: 35:01

Oh, yes, okay, yes, yes, yes, yeah, I remember yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:06

So, anyway, that's just my two cents. I think Hayden Christensen's return in that episode was amazing. I think for me episode four was probably the strongest episode of them all. And maybe it wasn't episode four or five I forget if that was episode four or five but that was by far the strongest episode of probably the strongest hour of Star Wars that I've seen in years.

Speaker 2: 35:29

It was because it was so good. They did really good with Yunga Soka, like it was believable.

Speaker 1: 35:36

Yeah, I forget the actress's name off the top of my head, but she also played a young Gamora in Infinity War and Endgame.

Speaker 2: 35:44

Yes, I think she was in something else too.

Speaker 1: 35:49

She was in the Barbie movie, yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:52

She was in the Barbie movie. Yes, that's, that's why I was thinking she was the daughter. Yes, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:58

She's got a huge boost in her career. Right now there's a lot of stuff happening for her, so that's exciting.

Speaker 2: 36:04

Yeah, man, it had me like man, you know, I'd love to see some of this Clone Wars stuff live action. You know, putting too much dip on my chip, man, you know but it's cool.

Speaker 1: 36:13

A lot of people complained about, like, all the fog in those scenes. Did you have an issue with that?

Speaker 2: 36:18

I did not, because I knew it was there. It was their purposeful for effect. The force ghost of Anakin might exist in all time, but it's still. It's still kind of like a moment in time. I kind of saw it as almost like a Christmas Carol kind of moment, like where he brought her back into that moment. You know he was honestly helping teach her a lesson and yeah, and it was essential because you know she's having issues with Sabine and Anakin's like I remember somebody giving me some issues also, you know.

Speaker 2: 36:51

so you know, I mean, remember how strong willed Ahsoka is. The Ahsoka that we know in this show is not the Ahsoka from you know, even rebels. She's very wise, but in Clone Wars she was very immature. She was always wise, cracking, she always got on Anakin's nerve. But, you know, when she eventually, like, grew up, her character grew up. She was a solid. Just, you know, she was annoying at first. I was like, well, I was like this character is annoying. So I went through all that grime and I grew with that character. So I would say that, yeah, you know, there's a lot in the animated that's kind of essential to understand, a lot that's happening.

Speaker 1: 37:33

Now that I think about it like he's going back to the you kick. You keep coming back to that.

Speaker 2: 37:40

Okay, okay, yeah, Okay. Well, well, you know it's.

Speaker 1: 37:43

Yeah, everyone knows you gotta watch the one thing I want to touch upon, like from my perspective of the. Yeah, like the visions that she had about, like her time in the Clone Wars. I didn't see that as necessarily like flashbacks, kind of like what you said. It's either visions that are brought on almost by, like the ghosts of Christmas, past, present and future. You know it's not like it's actually happening. You know what's being shown. This is just a vision that's brought on by the Force and a lesson being taught by, you know, her dead master basically. So it kind of works that she's not seeing the entirety of the war rounder, because it's not like a lot of people were saying like they had clear budget restraints and I'm like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 1: 38:26

Star Wars, like Star Wars renders like huge vistas all the time. When it comes to like anything and or anything on Coruscant, it's always like huge and it's all CGI Like why would this have any difference in that respect? So it was a necessary choice by the creative team. Let's talk about Ahsoka's relationship with Sabine.

Speaker 2: 38:49

Right.

Speaker 1: 38:50

We know that in Clone Wars sorry, no, sabine was in Clone Wars. We know that in Rebels, sabine never really showed any signs that she was force sensitive or that she had any force sensitivity at all, unless I'm mistaken. But I was very surprised at the start of this series to find that Ahsoka had been teaching Sabine how to, you know, use the Force and to eventually become a Jedi. She was training Sabine in the ways of the Jedi. How did you feel about that?

Speaker 2: 39:18

I thought that was interesting. It definitely caught me off guard because I was like, hmm, I was like I wasn't too sure about how I felt about that, because a lot of Rebels covered Ezra's journey, as you know, becoming a Jedi, and his relationship with Kanan and I don't know, like I guess they were trying to mimic that dynamic between Ahsoka and Sabine. I feel like if that storyline wasn't there, I don't think it was necessary, Like I don't think it needed to be there, but they went that route. So I mean it was interesting. Sabine did show some sort of force, sensitivity eventually.

Speaker 1: 40:02

Yeah. So I actually liked the change, or it wasn't necessarily a change. So old interviews with George Lucas, like, if you go back and read, like anyone can learn the Force, but there are people who are generally, you know, naturally adapted it, they have natural talent. Sabine is not someone with natural talent. Right, and this is what Hu Yong says about Sabine like the Jedi would have never chosen her to be a Jedi. You know, like she has the ability to learn how to wield the Force around her, but it was never something that she was sensitive to until she tapped into it. Basically, right, and I think by the end of the show they had her fully tap into it and was able to, like do huge feats of strength with the Force. What are your thoughts on her being able to? Like? All of a sudden, she went from like not being able to use the Force to grabbing her lightsaber to then throwing Ezra 50 feet in the air, because that was a quick pipeline of like five minutes.

Speaker 2: 41:00

I mean so it was, but it wasn't the first time that she was trying to tap into it, like they showed that she had a concerted effort. We have to assume that before the show started was trying to tap into that also, because Hu Yang also was like you're, like one of the worst Jedi that I have ever met.

Speaker 1: 41:20

Yo. I love Hu Yang and I hope that they keep him for a very long time. Him, voiced by David Tennant, is so special.

Speaker 2: 41:27

You can hear it, I can hear that that's him yeah.

Speaker 1: 41:31

So I mean that's partially why I want them to bring the Bendu back, because the Bendu is voiced by Tom Baker, who plays the fourth Doctor, and David Tennant obviously plays the tenth Doctor. If they can get Hu Yang to interact with the Bendu in any which way, which is like plausible considering the nature of the Force and the way that they express it in the show, and like the big entities that they are clearly trying to bring up in this series, I could definitely see it happening. So, but anyway, that's like a wild wish of mine.

Speaker 2: 42:04

You're trying to have some like Doctor who interactions in Star Wars. Of course I am, you know me.

Speaker 1: 42:10

So I agree that the fact that she had been training for so long, mentally preparing herself to try and use the Force, and then finally unlocking that in a time of desperation, that would have been kind of almost like the Floodgate opening, I guess.

Speaker 2: 42:27

I mean, we kind of had a moment like that with Luke, remember, you know, it was almost like I mean, he kind of trained but it seemed like he was able to start using the Force like pretty quick too. Even though he was adept, even though that Darth Vader was his father, he still, you know, he still didn't have that confidence in him.

Speaker 1: 42:47

you know, in the same way that Anakin had this confidence to him, I guess my big complaint here is that there's a difference between what Luke was able to do with the Force over the course of the three films versus what Sabine was able to accomplish five minutes after unlocking her ability to use the Force, so like she literally threw Ezra like 50 feet in the air. We never really see Luke do that in the original trilogy or anything close to that kind of you know Force power. But I kind of like digress a little bit, like obviously they can't show everything that Senior Boy used the Force jump though.

Speaker 1: 43:25

Yes, but not 50 feet. I mean, I don't know it was pretty.

Speaker 2: 43:28

I think it was pretty far. I don't know like what the scale of it was, but that's true.

Speaker 1: 43:33

But it's Anyway. It's a small gripe on my mind. It took me out of the story a little bit. I was just like it doesn't seem like something she would naturally have the ability to do.

Speaker 2: 43:43

yet so I understand the Force push of Ezra, but the Force pull of the lightsaber handle is a little bit more believable 100%.

Speaker 1: 43:52

Yeah, no, and that's like totally 100%. Okay with me, because it was a moment of desperation and she finally was able to tune into Right.

Speaker 2: 44:02

She tapped in the universe rounder, basically In a time of need.

Speaker 1: 44:05

Yeah, and that totally makes sense, because that's what Luke did when he was in the Wampal Air, you know? Yes, yes. So that worked. That was totally fine with me. We haven't talked about Balan's Skull or Shin Hari at all, and we're now an hour into our discussion. I don't want to make this a two-hour extravaganza, so let's go over some Shin Hari and Balan's Skull. How do you feel about these two new characters?

Speaker 2: 44:31

I actually really liked them. I think that when they were introduced, they could have been the villains for the season. They could have been. They could have had their own show, dude, they could have had their own show, they could have had their own show, but I feel like they could've been the villains for the entirety of the season and that we could have gotten a surrounding reveal at the end of the season, and then his big season would have been the next season, Like you know.

Speaker 2: 44:58

I think that the build to the build up to Thrawn. And you know, because it was, that's what like half the season was the build up to Thrawn. And then you got to Thrawn and then it's like now you're receiving all this like new information, whereas the way that the season ended they could have done something similar to that, in the sense of you know Sabine is over and you know she gets brought over to that new place and that's where we get our first glimpse of Thrawn. And then boom, because we have a season two, obviously, but the next season is gonna be, you know, them trying to find their way to the known galaxy.

Speaker 1: 45:37

Yeah. So I agree that the moment they introduced Balon and Shin, it was just a huge moment for the series, because these are two characters that have like huge screen presence and outside of Shin, like Shin Hadi was, was great in the sense that she's just kind of you could tell she's not, you could tell she's an apprentice right, she has an unrefined talent unrefined talent.

Speaker 1: 46:01

She's angry, she's trying to prove herself and but she's also like simultaneously like shy and scared. A lot of times you could tell like there's like fear behind her eyes, even when she's like on the winning side. So I really like that performance. I think that was such a strong performance. But the real standout performance for the entire show for me was Ray Stevenson's Balon's goal dude, and it was so hard to appreciate it fully because I knew that this was the last thing that this, you know, the actor, ray Stevenson did before he died. So I was like I don't want to get attached to this character. I don't want to.

Speaker 2: 46:43

You know, allow myself to like, love these scenes, but man, every time he was on screen it was like the best thing since sliced bread he was so good, but his character was so interesting because I felt like he was like one of the few Sith that just didn't seem like they were consumed by anger.

Speaker 1: 47:02

Yeah. So I mean, I don't think he was necessarily Sith, but he was definitely dark side leaning Jedi, you know. So he was raised as a Jedi, he lived through the Clone Wars and he survived the purge, but past that point it seemed that he gave up on the Jedi path. But he stayed researching the Force and like the ancient maybe Sith artifacts or relics, whatever right and like. That's basically like what led him to Peridia, the planet in the other galaxy.

Speaker 2: 47:34

It's almost like him and Ahsoka are two sides of the same coin because, remember, ahsoka was also a Jedi, but she didn't completely abandon the ways, but she did abandon the Jedi.

Speaker 1: 47:45

That's a really good way to put it. Yeah, actually I hadn't even considered that parallel, but it's true, while she's light side leaning but not fully Jedi, he's dark side leaning but not fully Sith.

Speaker 2: 47:57

you know, right like they're kind of like gray, it's like two gray beings that are that he decided that I'm gonna be okay with using a lot more the dark side, whereas she was more of like. You know, I don't care about too much of the Jedi way, but I don't want to be bad, you know.

Speaker 1: 48:16

I also I, you know, I've been thinking about like Balan and Shin's saber color, because it wasn't a strong red, it was like a burnt orange. And likewise Ahsoka's lightsaber isn't the typical blue or green that you would see for most Jedi and even when she was a Jedi she had, you know, typical Jedi colors in her lightsaber. So because she's light side leaning, but not a Jedi, she wields white lightsabers versus Balan and Shin, who aren't fully Sith, so they're not using red lightsabers, they're using like a burnt orange because they're Sith leaning. That's a really cool parallel I hadn't even considered until just now.

Speaker 2: 48:54

And then Ahsoka's Ahsoka's Kyber crystals were she. She cleansed Kyber crystals of inquisitors.

Speaker 1: 49:03

Yeah, so in the story that we know is so it's kind of it's up in the air a little bit because they made this book called Ahsoka by EK Johnston and it does detail her taking down an inquisitor and using the Kyber crystals in his lightsaber to fashion two lightsabers for herself and she like what's known as like bleeding the crystal, like turns the crystal red. She kind of like drained the crystal and that's why it was white. So I thought that was a cool thing that I don't know that that story still can end technically, because the tales of the Jedi episode with Ahsoka defeating an inquisitor kind of overwrites some of the stuff that happens in that book. So it's a little bit off in the air like how I mean like what really happened with her lightsabers? But I would assume something very similar happened with her lightsabers. What was I gonna say? But but yeah, I mean I think that parallel between the different lightsaber colors is super cool. Let's talk about Ezra and Thrawn before we close this out. What do you think about Thrawn showing up?

Speaker 2: 50:06

Like actually finally seeing the live action Thrawn, I was like man like this is a bad guy, because you know, I remember him from Rebels and the setup of this story is essentially like kind of following heir to the Empire.

Speaker 1: 50:22

Yeah, and they've even like teased that he is the heir to the Empire in Mandalorian season 3, when there was that like shadow council of Imperial dudes yes, they were talking about like when Thrawn is coming back. So one thing that I really liked about the Star Destroyer and the stormtroopers over there was that they basically kept their armor in check by, like, by molding the cracks with gold. Oh, yes, so this is what's it called in Japanese that there's an art of like repairing broken clay vessels or broken glass with gold, and it's called Kintsugi and Basically, this was definitely what Dave Filoni was like trying to invoke was that, you know, it was almost like a ritualistic recreation of their armor so that it was even stronger and fiercer looking, with all the Basically repairs that they did to it right almost gave it a very similar thing with, like Kylo Ren's mask and the rise of sky, oh yeah even though it wasn't like gold, so it wasn't technically.

Speaker 1: 51:26

Kintsugi was kind of the same principle and it gave it gave his mask a little bit more menace.

Speaker 2: 51:30

I would say that this series Leans heavier into the samurai and Japanese influence, totally that George Lucas had put into Star Wars. But yeah, this throne was, you know, he's aged. So, like you know, they definitely made sure to like age him up. But it was really cool to see him and he definitely made some very strong calls, like when Bailey went out to go chase down or to go after Sabine, he was like well, they get stuck here, then they get stuck here.

Speaker 2: 52:05

You know he's like. They die, they die. I don't care, I'm leaving.

Speaker 1: 52:09

What's funny about Thrawn for me is that I personally think that Dave Filoni writes him differently than Timothy Zahn writes the character that Timothy Zahn was the guy who made Air of the Empire and created the character and he's also written, I think, six books in canon that detail like Thrawn's exploits and I feel like Dave Filoni Needs to give Thrawn more wins basically. So what I find happens a lot is Thrawn will do something and then the heroes will overcome it and Thrawn will be like all According to my plan and then it'll keep happening and Thrawn's just like still according to my plan and it's just like bulk you're getting. Your plans are dumb.

Speaker 2: 52:53

It's more like. It's more like all according to plan, but I'm secretly sweating on the inside, you know.

Speaker 1: 52:59

Yeah, he's just like. This is still acceptable. No, you're right.

Speaker 2: 53:03

I mean you know that, like we have to see why he's the heir to the Empire, there's a reason why he would be so trusted to be the one, the next one to take over the Empire, to the one to Lead the Empire back into power. You know, he's obviously so. I mean, at least he got kind of a win this time. You know he got away. No, he totally did.

Speaker 1: 53:25

He totally did. He got away. That was most important part. So I saw a lot of people like upset online about maybe not a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 53:32

But I saw I saw the comments about people upset that as that, as run, thrawn got away but a soka and Sabine didn't like they got stuck on Paradea and I I actually don't think that that's an issue because what needed to happen, like even if Hypothetically, if Thrawn came back and a soka and Sabine also came back, the New Republic still wouldn't believe Asoca and Sabine that Thrawn was back in the known galaxy. You know Like they would still question. But the fact that Ezra got back, someone who was known to have gone exactly where Thrawn went, that shows that Definitely Thrawn is back. You know like they would definitely believe Ezra like well, where did you come from?

Speaker 1: 54:15

You know that yeah yeah, you've been gone for like 10, 11 years. Hey, you've been gone for quite some time you know, I did like that initial interaction between Sabine and Ezra, because I felt like it was definitely like rebels ask what's funny about these characters is that, like you know, they have an emotional love for each other, but their actual relationship with each other is that of just friends.

Speaker 2: 54:40

Yes.

Speaker 1: 54:41

So you know Ezra crushes on Sabine and you know Sabine grew to love Ezra. But they never showed that in the show.

Speaker 2: 54:49

Yeah, so when?

Speaker 1: 54:50

they finally get back, it makes sense that they wouldn't, you know like, immediately embrace and you know like, oh my god, love, because they didn't have that relationship.

Speaker 1: 54:59

It's like a punch in the shoulder type, you know yeah but took you so long, you know good to see you, bud, where you been. We ends the season with Ezra and Thrawn in the known galaxy. Ezra, you know, sees Hera again. So they, they obviously get that reunion, but along with Ahsoka and Sabine stuck on Peridia, that like that world. We also have Balan skull and Shin Hati still over there as well, so I don't think they can really get rid of the character of Balan skull. I feel like they have to recast because it's such an important. It's really one of four people on this planet.

Speaker 1: 55:35

Yeah, yeah they're gonna have to do something. But and they left him with such a huge goal because he said that he was being called and drawn by something. And then you see him at the end literally standing on like the mortis god, the father's hand as he as it points to something in the distance.

Speaker 2: 55:51

Right, yeah, I'm just wondering who they'll go with and hopefully it's a decent recast, you know. I mean we've dealt with recast in the past.

Speaker 2: 55:59

I mean, you know, namely like Harry Potter, it was like one, like a huge one with Dumbledore, yeah, so but, yeah, and you know, there's something that I noticed in this series and I know that we're kind of like running into, but I wanted to point this out was that there was some aspects of the show that reminded me of things from the Jedi fallen order and Jedi survivor, which is when Ahsoka went to go look for the star map. She was an area that kind of reminded me of some of the ruins of Jedi fall as the Zephyr.

Speaker 2: 56:35

The Zephyr ruins right, Right and the way that she had to do like a puzzle to get that map. It was very Jedi fallen order.

Speaker 1: 56:43

Oh yeah, you could tell how Filoni was playing those games when he was writing them.

Speaker 2: 56:47

Definitely. And with the night sisters. We had the night sisters and then we had that whole moment with the zombies, you know, and there's stuff like that, and especially fallen order. You go to Dathomir and there's like these zombies and in the game. So that kind of reminded me of that also.

Speaker 1: 57:06

So I'm gonna be a little controversial. I didn't really like the zombies stormtroopers, not that I didn't like the concept. I think the concept was fine. I think it was the execution. For me Like it just didn't it.

Speaker 1: 57:17

That whole fight at the end didn't seem very Like. It wasn't very cinematic. I don't know like the way that it everything was framed, everything was like too wide angle, nothing was. You need more close-ups when you're doing like zombie stuff. You know it needs to be scary. You know, and I feel like their use or their overuse of like the volume, that room that projects the entire image that requires them to storyboard in advance. So they have to like nail down the shot before they even start filming, so there's no room to like do creative stuff with the camera and I think that that really hurt that final battle for me. Anyway, I thought it was really blocky and didn't feel very fluid and I wish they had spent more time with the zombie stormtroopers. But that's just me. I did like the like the three which the night sister subplot. I thought that was really compelling and it made sense why they finally had to go to that world to begin with.

Speaker 2: 58:15

And I would say that another must watch so that you understand the, Because you know there's a character from season two of the Mandalorian, you know the one that introduces live action, Ahsoka. You know that sets up the series. Yeah, morgan Elsbeth right and it's like, okay, who is she and why is she in the new Republic hands? You find out. The reason in the Mandalorian is because Ahsoka faces her down.

Speaker 1: 58:43

Do you have any final words?

Speaker 2: 58:44

well, you know. For me, my final words would be if you want the ultimate Ahsoka experience, watch the animated series. And it watched at least that one episode of Mandalorian, if you haven't called the Jedi in season two.

Speaker 1: 58:59

That was a good one.

Speaker 2: 59:00

That was a dude. I love that episode. It was amazing. But I mean, like I know that I keep on coming back to the anime series, but I really feel like it does a lot for the series. It just does so much so, but I appreciate that. But yes, it's. You know, I think, and I thought that they did pretty well with Ezra too. I mean, we didn't really talk too much about Ezra. I think that they did a pretty good job with live-action Ezra. I believed it was him, so yes, I agree, I was.

Speaker 1: 59:27

It was definitely Ezra. They did a really good job casting that and nailing that and I like that.

Speaker 2: 59:31

He built his own new lightsaber, so that was cool.

Speaker 1: 59:34

That was cool. That was cool saying that in live-action. So how do you rank this show among the other live-action Star Wars shows?

Speaker 2: 59:42

Oh, that's tough that.

Speaker 1: 59:44

So we we have Mandalorian, mandalorian, I feel like it's always gonna be number one because it's the first.

Speaker 2: 59:51

Two seasons were absolutely strong. Even the third one was kind of Blurred, but it had a decent storyline with the reclaiming of Mandalore. But you know, I like the characters. I still think it was really strong. I'm gonna put Boba Fett maybe at the bottom of all that. Kenobi I'm biased with Kenobi because I like you and McGregor, but I might put it. So it's what for live-actions? Right, there's also and or oh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, you're, oh my gosh, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:00:23

So and or, and or and or, oh my god.

Speaker 2: 1:00:27

So Mandalorian, I'll probably put it like number one because like I love, I Guess me with all the fan service stuff and like how strong it is, and or for sure I mean it could be number one, but and or for sure will be next, a very close, very, very close Second, like there you know it could bump that first.

Speaker 2: 1:00:46

You know, you know We'll see, like we'll see what the next season it might bump it. So maybe I feel like Ahsoka and Obi-Wan might be interchangeable. Ahsoka may be a little bit more above Kenobi, but Boba Fett, down there, it's down there.

Speaker 1: 1:01:03

That's. That's rough. Yeah, so I agree with most of your list. I would put Andor at the top just because I never expected to see like prestige TV in a Star Wars format before and that was just so good. So I would do and, or then Mando, then Ahsoka Kenobi and book above a fan.

Speaker 2: 1:01:19

I would say I think the reason, I think the reason why and or wasn't there for me was because and or Definitely wasn't it and or wasn't for everyone, whereas Mandalorian was for like a wider scope of Star Wars fans.

Speaker 1: 1:01:35

I agree, but and or man.

Speaker 2: 1:01:37

That's why I'm like it's right there, man. It's like, it's like man, man's like right there and where it's like trying to push up on it and it dude that the next season might bust those gates open. So we'll see. I might, I might be like you know what Dakota's right? I mean, I'm, I'm fighting myself a little bit. I'm like man, like did I put the right placement?

Speaker 1: 1:01:56

All right, so you heard it here first Mando, then and or for Anthony and then and or before Mando for me. But we're pretty set on Ahsoka being like the middle quality of all of these series and that's a pretty good spot because, you know, star Wars is still Star Wars, whether we like it or not, it's still fun right, it's like it's not top tier, but it's not the worst, yeah guys, thank you so much for listening to us here on P Geekology, project Geekology, for our 65th episode.

Speaker 1: 1:02:23

you can find us on Twitter at P Geekology and Project Geekology on Instagram. Thanks, guys, have a good one, bye.