¶ Clone Wars Season 5 Introduction
Take two Cold open . All right Coming up this week we're getting rebellious . Mostly it's the Clone Wars Season 5 , episodes 2 , 3 , 4 , and 5 . Right here on your Star Wars safe space , stick around okay , much better , and we're back I'm happy to get a second round of the music . It's all good . Yeah , I'll never get tired of it .
I'll never get tired of it . It's a banger . It's a banger , all right . Hey there , star warriors , welcome to star wars . Safe space , your non-toxic , low sodium star wars show .
That doesn't make you feel bad for not knowing that saw guerrera's character , played by the absolutely fabulous and incredible forrest whitaker in live action , was inspired by argentinian revolutionary che guevara I know how to read , I really do and mar Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz from the 1979 film Apocalypse .
Now , if you haven't seen Apocalypse Now , it's deep , it's deep . But I can totally see how the inspiration for Saw was built . So that's good stuff . So , whether you're a hardcore Star Wars fan or just a little swirzy curious , this is your star wars safe space .
And we are the circle of nerds and we do , in fact , love star wars , even if we don't always like it . So let's meet this , uh , this motley bunch , shall we ? So let's see who's gonna be first if I poke that . Oh , not that guy , all right . So the uh , the fabulous , amazing pilot of the parma Flyer is Crash .
How you doing everybody . S4 is locked , ready to go . Let's do this .
I like what you did . Captain of the Parma Flyer . I like that . I'm learning All right . That's pretty cool and hailing from parts unknown , it's our Holocron Keeper , the Keeper of the Holocron T to the O-N-E- , o-n-e-o-n-e .
Welcome back to the galaxy , everybody . Let's get going .
Yeah , yeah , and I am Tommy D , that dude over there . Okay , so what are we doing here ? Well , our mission is to watch all of the canon Star Wars films and TV shows in chronological order them down , connecting the dots and learning more about star wars and maybe even a little about ourselves .
So in a word of warning to all you would be star warriors out there , there will be spoilers . So this week we're going to get into it , uh , with what could be considered the spark of rebellion . Perhaps , perhaps this is uh where we're starting to see some things , some things happen , but before we do that , we've got some news , right ?
Tony , you got some news for us . We do Well , I mean a little bit of history in this case but today the last episodes of the micro series were released and you know that just takes us right into the very lead up to episode three which , as we know , is coming back into theater .
So that's going to be some fun and , you know , perhaps we'll have to rewatch that before we get into going to the movies .
Yeah , you might be right . The micro series is so good . It is so good it is . For those of you that haven't watched the micro series , we're actually gonna be getting into it a little bit more . Um , actually , not too terribly far off . We're gonna be hitting it a couple episodes actually . Well , no , not fairly soon at all , now I think about it .
So we still have to get through all of rebels . We still have to get through all of bad batch , the rest of the clone wars . Anyway , forget what I said . It's gonna be a while before we get to the micro series , but by all means , please do watch it on your own . It's so good and it it's . You know they're micro episodes .
They're only a couple minutes long each but it's in the days of dial up . Do you remember having to watch things like that on dial-up internet where you just had that annoying lag if your Wi-Fi was too slow ? Watching the original trailers for the prequel movies was just murder compared to today . I don't think kids appreciate that .
I don't know . I think I might have a few years on you . I think I got you by about 10 years . So I mean I do you remember like dial up ? Do you remember dial up internet ?
Okay , Tony , do you ? I remember it was definitely in my youth , but I remember it Like Tony's like .
I remember my parents talking about it Like .
I remember like like going to do homework and getting on the internet and then being yelled at because I turned off their phone call .
Yeah , I remember my dad calling . He worked third shift so he'd finally call home . He'd be like who the hell's been on the phone all night long Because our phone was tied into our internet and if you were on the internet the phone wouldn't connect . Right , yeah , for those of you those weren't there for this time . It was a great thing .
It was like the anti-telemarketer gold . Unfortunately , it also kept your dad from calling home from work when he really wanted to get through to you .
sorry , dad , right and if you were into the early days of like online gaming or chat rooms or anything like that , it was uh , yeah , it was . It was rough , unless you were like super fancy and had a separate phone line for your computer and then one for your home phone .
But I mean , you know , those are the , those are the kids we would hang out with , like because they have a table and they had like an extra phone line for their internet , so we would hang out at their house , even if you know oh yeah but yeah , you're right .
I mean trying to watch things back then on dial up , like you know , using aol to try to connect and it's just like I don't know .
Anyway ,
¶ Onderon Rebels Arc Overview
we're already off topic I think I think droid speak . You just swore like a mile long , whatever that was .
That's all right man , then we have a lot of droid action . This week we had a lot of droid action . We've got , you know , the , this new rebel cell looking to take back their home world of Onderon against the Separatist droid armies . And Onderon is actually a rescue from the EU . A rescue from the EU .
If you're not familiar with that , I think Onderon was from the Tales of the Jedi comic series back in 93 . But it takes place thousands of years in the past . Once again , dave dipping into the EU to bring us some goodness .
Don't play Easter egg hunting with Dave for for money , Cause he'll , he'll , he'll beat you every time .
Oh , if you , if you try to like , you know , try to like deep did . When the Mandalorian came out , that round table series with all the directors just sitting there and just chit-chatting , hearing Dave Filoni talk in that group , everybody else there was a fan , no doubt about it . Everybody , every single director on the Mandalorian series is a star Wars fan .
They were star Wars fans when they were kids . Whatever Dave is is different . I feel like dave is one of us .
Dave was in his room playing with action figures , playing with his star wars toys and waiting years in between films to come out , decades in between films to come out , and just waiting , waiting , waiting and creating all of these worlds and scenarios in his head using his action figures . And now he's playing with life-size action figures .
But like to hear him speak , to hear this guy talk about star wars and about the characters . It's , it's the same , like with sam witware . It's the same . It's that same level of love and passion and dedication that that you don't see directors and producers have . You know , in hollywood they're most of the time they're there for a job .
You know they go in , they do the job they want to . They want to make changes and make it their own thing and it's and it . It never works . But then you've got people like Sam and Dave and and John Favreau as well . But but yeah , like you said , you know , I mean just hearing Dave talk about star Wars .
I could just like , if he I want Dave to do a podcast , forget this , I would , I would unplug this podcast tomorrow If Dave Filoni sat down and did a podcast . Just to talk about all of the stuff that he knows I'm here for it . A hundred percent .
I'm switching channels right now .
If he starts , Damn , damn , you're just going to . Okay , wait To listen . I would listen . At least wait for the body to get cold . All right , so should we get ? Uh , should we get down to it ? Talk about this . So in these episodes this was a great little arc . Uh , a lot of people have said it's filler . It's kind of like a filler arc .
We've seen filler episodes . This is not in my . I don't find this to be filler at all .
Well , I say it all the time . You know , with Dave Filoni , filler is prologue , I mean , and Saw Gerrera is a perfect example of something that you would think this would be a quick write-off of like , okay , it's a short arc , we're never going to hear about this guy again .
And somebody at Lucasfilm was smart enough to say , you know , to start putting pieces in place , going okay , we got this guy from Rogue One . He's a little extreme . Where did he come from ? Well , and I'll get into that later .
But yeah , it's interesting to see sort of the retroactive retconning of his life story , right , and especially the fact that , like the whole idea , the rebellion may have been actually started by Anakin Skywalker , darth Vader himself .
Yeah , that's well , we're going to talk about that . I'm glad you brought that up . We're we're definitely gonna be touching on that . But it is very interesting because you've you've got this character , saw Gerrera , who is really polarizing .
You know a lot of people and we actually see that polarization between Anakin and Obi-Wan when they're talking about going to Onderon .
And you know Obi-Wan's , like you know , yeah , we don't really do the terrorism thing , and Anakin's like it's not terrorism , they do the terrorism thing and anakin's like it's not terrorism , they're not terrorists , they're rebels , they're insurgents . It's different , like he's , you know .
But , like you said , anakin was like we're gonna teach them how to hit the separatists where it hurts . And then obi-wan is trying to be that voice of reason like and I love , I love that moment where where anakin's like what's the matter , obi-wan , you don't trust me . And he was like oh , that's the problem , I think I trust you too much .
And then so they go . And it was also very interesting to see ahsoka and some of her reactions in the first two episodes . She was really kind of hanging back and she was really observing . She was observing the back and forth between anakin and obi-wan and the camera kept cutting to her and she's just kind of hanging back and she was really observing .
She was observing the back and forth between anakin and obi-wan and the camera kept cutting to her and she's just kind of like mom and dad are fighting again , so we're not fighting .
But you know , yeah , and then and then once they get to andaran , you know she's doing it again between you , the Guerrera siblings , and you know her little boy toy , her little love interest . We'll talk about that a little bit , you know . So , again , more growth for Ahsoka , as always , and I thought it was great .
So the themes and this is what I want to get into , and then you guys just pour on whatever you've got . So the themes in this obviously are that thin line between rebel and terrorist , between insurgent or traitor . You know , that's kind of like . You know , uh , um , I think saw saw had said it . He said , uh , resistance is not terrorism . You know that .
You know we , uh , the separatists , took over because we allowed them to take over , and there's kind of some parallels between that and what's going on these days around around these parts . Yes , there is . So , so and and actually , before we get into that , can we please talk about really quickly and then we'll get into the , the deep conversation .
But can we talk about the captain rex drip for a minute ? Can we talk about ? Can we talk about the outfit , the fit fit , the look , the drip ?
You think he , like you know , when he said Anakin called him and said , okay , we're going on a mission , you know he's digging through the closet for like his sweetest gear , you know best con day clothes , like , okay , throw a little hat on some goggle , got my like thing for my helmet on His J .
guys were on the test plate he's been . He's been sitting on that for weeks , waiting for an excuse when he , when he rolls out because it's like , it's like the standard , it looked like the standard issue like clone officer uniform . But then he added , he added some armor pieces to it , you know in the hat and everything .
When he came out I was , ooh , daddy Rex , you're looking kind of nice right now . Oh my goodness , oh , my goodness , and I would love to cosplay that . That would be so cool . I've seen a few cosplayers for that , but not very many .
Man .
Rex is just he's the coolest clone man . I don't care what anybody says he's the coolest clone man . I don't care what anybody says , he's the coolest . We'll have to do that sometime . We need to rank our clones . Rank the , our favorite clone oh , okay yeah , not right now . Not right now , that'll be , that'll be a good one to kind of ponder .
You gotta like you need a couple days yeah , go through that .
I feel like that's not on the fly .
Yeah , no , not on the fly . Like I'm good because , like my top five are captain rex , captain rex , captain rex , captain rex and gregor .
So those that's like my , that's like my top five barely gregor , barely well , and I guess you know , before we get too into the , the fashion of of andaron tony , what did , what did you think of this arc ? I , this is kind of yeah , tony's never seen this before , right .
I mean I thought it was great and for me , I think the biggest thing I mean you already touched on the concept of , you know , are they terrorists or are they rebels , are they insurgents ? And I mean for me that comes down to PR essentially . I mean it's all a point of view and how you present yourself to the people , and they do
¶ Dave Filoni's Star Wars Influence
a very good job in these episodes Stella and the Rebel Force of making sure that they are doing the absolute minimum amount of damage to civilians , if any at all . Right , and making their intentions clear and as a result of that , they get to people behind them and that helps drive the story forward .
For me , I think the biggest thing was seeing Ahsoka be trusted with this . I mean you know they make very clear hey , listen , when you guys start this whole thing , you are going to draw the attention to Dooku . They're going to come with everything they have and Dooku , who neither Obi-Wan nor Anakin have defeated on their own , go .
You're fine , ahsoka , you can handle it .
They really did . They really did take . They took her training wheels off . I mean they've been off . I don't want to say that , but I mean for this , they really did just kind of dip out and they said you know what handle it snips . And she did .
I think she handled it pretty well well , to the great , for me , the biggest thing I remember when this , this show first aired I was in the Rebel Legion . Everybody knows I was a big Rebel pilot and a Jedi costumer and I had that moment of as soon as they said the T word .
I kind of cringed , because I know a lot of guys who would take captioned pictures of people like me and they sort of buy a little too in the universe with the whole cosmic thing . Here's a few rebel terrorists and I was like dude , first off . We're just people . This isn't real . This isn't real . Take it down a notch , dial down the rhetoric .
You know the guys who start arguing in public . Well , the empire was the legitimate government and and to your point earlier , anakin was very clear about the fact that we're going to train them to target the separatists , not civilians , and for me that is the . George Washington is a terrorist . If you're in England back then , it all depends on who wins .
Who wins and the point of view , and we put his name in monuments and everything because , well , we won the war . But people in the fandoms , especially with Star Wars and the Rebel Alliance and the Empire and all people were getting a little too casual throwing the T word around and I was very aware of the fact . I was like , okay , you know cause ?
Battlestar Galactica had a great arc where the , the , the Cylons , take over the planet . They're on and it was just one of those things . Yeah , the , the , the head of the resistance in that story was basically like , look , there are no out of bounds , everything's up for you .
In that story was basically like , look , there are no out-of-bounds , everything's up for you , know . And that's where things get murky , you know . That's like you hear about the problems they had in Ireland with the British and the terrorist attack . You know , because they call terrorism when civilians were getting in the way .
I like the fact , the idea that the Jedi were very conscious of civilian casualties being kept to a fair minimum and just being the droids and I think that there's and there's a lot to be said for that because it's like at what point , at what point do you draw the line and at what point do you cross it in the name of freedom , in the name of liberty ?
Because it's I'm glad you brought up ireland , you know , because obviously they had their , their , that period , you know , I think it was called the Troubles . I'm not going to pretend to be a history buff , but you know they wanted a unified Ireland . You know they wanted all of the counties together , you know , under one Irish banner .
And you know it still is not a unified country . It still is not a unified country . But the IRA was considered on a global scale . They were considered a terrorist organization . But they would have seen themselves , and in many ways still do see themselves , as freedom fighters . But again , it's like where's the line ?
And I think I think these episodes kind of , kind of like subtly and almost not so subtly drew that line . It's like you don't , you don't harm civilians even when they first moved into the city .
You know , there were scenes where saw and the guys would like attack her and the people that were just passing by were afraid , you know , as anybody would be if you know gunfire .
But I think again , because this is because of the level of content , you know , I want to say this is a kid show but this is an animated show , it's geared to a younger audience .
This is why I can kind of see a show like this , or rebels in the same universesor , where they sort of are very clear on the idea that , okay , we have good guys , we have bad guys . The good guys don't do bad things , you know .
And whereas in Andor we may see him do some things that like in Rogue One , you know he shoots his informant in the back and you kind of go , oh Right , but that was for a little more mature audience . But as a whole you could see both shows existing in the same universe because the general theme is still there .
It's you know , there's a rebellion against a tyrannical government right and like , even with that , like you know , going back to what you said about this being kids show , yes , it's , it's geared .
I think at this point , as we're hitting season five , I think that the only thing you know really juvenile about it is the fact that it's animated , and even that doesn't even count . I mean , if you've seen any we've all seen you know specific anime or other other animated features or cartoons that are very adult oriented .
So because there was a scene in I think it was the last episode , with the , uh , the droid ships , when they came into their new secret nest area , they just came in and sprayed like 20 people and they and just hosed them completely . They they didn't show the execution of the , the last rebel who was there and that commando droid sauced her .
They didn't show that . Obviously it was implied . But those other like 10 or 15 people that were up there , they got just slaughtered , yeah , and we saw that . We saw this droid ship pop up , we just didn't see blood and gore .
We don't see that and and so that's and that's like we talked about before in the preview episode . You know , compared to a band of brothers that would show the blood splattering and the body looms coming off .
Dave's very good at working the quote-unquote camera but , you know you're telling some very deep , intense stories , but you're not doing it in a way that people would find inappropriate for a animated show on a channel that's marketed to children right and we don't necessarily need the gore .
You know you can , and dave's really good about that . You know dave is good about saying it without saying it . You know we don't , we don't we ? We get enough decapitations and and limb loss . We get enough gore from the jedi . We don't necessarily need it from everybody else . So I , I do , I think dave is is really good about that . Um , so what ?
What are your thoughts ? We see with , with saw . You know we don't want to jump too far ahead because , but we are starting to get a glimpse .
When you know Stela says you know we can't do this and risk civilians was like you know you're right , but you know you're right , but and in his mind I'm sure he's thinking collateral damage for the greater good , and we find out that you know that's his mentality .
Like he's , he gets so obsessed with defeating the empire for good reason , um , but it's like again that line you know , how far are you willing to go for liberty and for freedom ?
I I kind of just I was writing stuff down to think about for this episode and one line . The first things I wrote was this this story arc is a couple things , but it's also the tragedy of saga era . Yeah , because we we meet him in life and you find out what kind of guy he is .
And I chuckle because I know there are people in certain circles that was comparing me to Saw . I was a very polarizing figure , I was a very intense figure . I just like the good guys yeah , that was my crime apparently like they're good guys , that was my crime apparently .
So you look at a guy like Saw and you see the extremes and even , on Andor , some of the difficulties he has keeping things straight . I see it almost as a tragedy because you think about if Stila had lived I mean their own people when they had that vote to be the leader .
It wasn't like one of the rank and file nominated her , there wasn't a power struggle , it wasn't a contest . There was no , back chatter , prom king kind of drama . Right , they picked her because she was the best among them . They believed in her .
They believed in her , they believed in her and I really feel like when she died , you know , I thought could you imagine how things would have gone differently had Stila lived to sort of be Saw's balance ? Yeah , in Rogue One , his biggest fault is that he gets unbalanced up here , he gets paranoid , he gets you know there are no extreme .
There's no extreme to extreme in his mind . I feel like Steela would have been the calming voice that would have sort of said no , we can't go . Like Luthen said Saw is too comfortable using the tools . Voice that would have sort of said no , we can't go .
You know , like , like um lutheran said , you know he saw us too comfortable using the tools of his enemies to defeat them .
Yeah , and it's , it's just . That's a great point because they did balance each other out . You know , she was that balance . You know , even between saw , and I can't remember the young , the young boys , oh , lux , yeah , yeah . So you know , even with them , you know she saw the value of both sides .
She saw the value of words and politics , the necessity for that , and then she also saw the need for the fist and for violence and she saw that there is a middle ground there and if Star Wars has taught us anything , it's that the middle ground , while not as flashy or necessarily as powerful as the extremes , it's going to get you there in the best possible
way . You we've , we see that with stela , we see that with ahsoka later on . You know that it's that middle ground and it goes back to um . You know , obviously star wars is rooted in , you know , asian culture and it just goes back to like buddhism . Buddhism preaches the middle ground .
Take the middle path , you know , don't focus on wealth , you don't have to live in abject poverty , take that middle road , you know , and you'll be fine , you'll be happy . And and she was that , she was that counterbalance and then , yeah , like you said , by her , by her dying he's , he's just off the leash .
Now , you know , and now he's going to be moving and we're going to see him again , you know . Yeah , we'll see him again . I think rebels and in bad batch saw .
His mindset to me very much reminds me of luther from andor , where it's the he . He is committed to his cause . He knows he's
¶ The Politics of Rebellion
doomed himself . He knows that , that , that you know that that at the end of the day he's not going to live long enough to see the end results of his work right . And he knows that you know , for lack of a better term , he has doomed his soul for for going down the path that he has done .
But he is committed and he is willing to make that sacrifice of himself to make it work .
Yeah , absolutely . And Crash , like you said , it is the tragedy of Saw Gerrera . I mean , for anyone like him , what an incredibly lonely existence . Even though you're surrounded by people who follow you , you're still really alone in knowing that you're pretty much the only person who has the will to do what must be done and to really really get your hands dirty .
You know it's , it really is a tragedy , because had he just leaned a little bit more , you know , onto the negotiating side , then you know , maybe , uh , maybe , things would have turned out differently . But , um , so that that brings me to my , my , my , my big question Do we , as a society , just the human society ?
Um , are people like saw necessary , or are we , we , or do we need more people like Steela , someone that can walk that middle path between the pen and the sword and find value in both ? But do we need those just extremely hardcore , blunt instruments like saw guerrera could ? Could the rebellion have existed or prevailed without him in his efforts ?
What do you guys think ?
that's a great question . Um , I think we need I think we need more people like Steela , okay , but I also think you do need a couple of Saws .
Okay , yeah , I think the Saga Rares of the world get remembered sometimes for the wrong reasons . Patton got a movie made about him because he was a blood and guts tank commander who slapped one of his own men . But a general like Omar Bradley , you know , is why we win the war , is why we got through the post-war .
The level-headed , committed and loyal to their troops kind of mentality that Steela had is what gets things done . But people remember the flash , people remember the flashier banging parts of the fight and I think Saw sort of gets wrapped up in wanting to be right , wanting people to acknowledge that he's right . We'll see later on some of the things .
He's not wrong in what he believes in and believes about the Empire , but there's always that moment where somebody has to go okay . So I'll dial it down , dial it back , and I think that was what Stela was .
Stela was that little angel on the shoulder that kept him from going from liberator , you know uh , to terrorist and and that's we'll see later on with him in shows like andor and rebels and stuff so do we ?
you know not , do we ? But could the rebellion again ? Could the rebellion have succeeded without people like saw guerrera or cassian andor ?
Because those are two men that are very much cut from the same cloth and willing to do literally anything for the sake of liberty , anything , even if that means whoa , whoa what was that hurry yeah seriously um you guys heard that okay yeah , weather's . Weather's getting warmer , windows are open , people are on their bikes , yep um .
So , saw and andor , you know they clearly played huge roles in the rebellion and they were in many ways very instrumental in getting the rebellion off to a good , solid start . Could there have still been success without them ?
Would it have just taken longer , or would it have been impossible without those blunt instruments when you're fighting something like the empire ?
So I think that , unfortunately , speaking in war like , there's a great line from from West wing , which is one of my favorite TV shows of all time , where they're talking about war crimes and one of the generals says to Leo McGarry all wars are crimes At some point , no matter how many rules you try to have in place .
The very nature of war itself is a crime . When you're going against in this case , the Empire , which has no qualms about mass slaughtering people , destroying an entire planet , at some point , if you're not willing to be just as ruthless , you can't win .
So I think that it is necessary to have people like Saw and Cassian , at least at the start , to actually start the fight and make the moves that you need to make to get things going . But you also absolutely need people like steal and I think you need more of them to to rally the P , the rest of the people , behind you Once it's going .
Oh , you , you , you . You mentioned it as the spark of the rebellion . I don't think that spark exists without people like song , cassia Right Cause you need that like saw and Cassian .
Right , cause you need that predator , you need that force , I mean , in order to create a spark .
You know you've got to create friction , you've got to have that Right , and I think that's the role that they play , and I think people like Stila are are the oxygen and and and the fuel to build the fire .
Past that , Great points Crash . What do you think ?
Oh , I totally agree and I love that West Wing reference . I'm also a big fan of that show and I agree we sort of look into moments of our own history and you say , okay , who was the spark , who was the fuel ?
And there are times where you need people like Andor and Saw to get the ball rolling , to get people inspired to stand up and not just keep their head down . In Rogue One he asks Jyn , are you okay with the Empire taking over the galaxy ? And she goes only if you don't look up .
And that's a big lesson people need to take , not just from Rogue One but this arc of Clone Wars and , to be honest , even like modern day life . You know there's things out there happening that you know people need to keep their head up . There's Marvae Endor would say you know , don't be asleep .
And that's yeah . Like you know , the term woke has taken on a different , a different meaning these days . But you know , in its in its literal term , you have to stay awake . You , you cannot sleep because , like you know , like saw said , we allowed the separatists to take over on deron .
You know , when anything bad happens in a , in a nation , ultimately it's the fault of the people . You know , I'm not victim shaming , I'm just saying , you know , the people always have the numbers , the people always have the most to lose . So if they're not doing something , you know , like it's interesting , sherry had man . I wish sh she was on the show .
She went while we were watching the last episode . She had . You know , you see all , the , all the people coming out to steal his funeral . You know , there's , there's thousands , tens of thousands of people there and Sherry said where the hell were all these people during , during the battle ?
You know , and if you , if you look at , if you draw the parallels to things that are happening in our real world , where are all the people here ? It's the same thing . Not everybody is going to go out to fight , not everybody has that drive to do that .
They may want change , they may want liberty , but not everyone has that fire or the courage that's necessary to do that . You know .
So when we see the vast majority of you know these onduron or isis or not isis uh , yeah , it was , isis right , the city of isis yeah , unfortunately names it yeah , yeah , that did not age well , but we see the vast majority of the citizens out there and they did eventually start acting . But look at what it took for them to get there .
It took so much for them to actually for the people capital P to get pushed to the point where they're now getting off the bench and joining the game . Then you know , it's very much like what we see here . You know , we've got millions and millions of people who do nothing or don't vote .
I mean , we had I don't know what the number is , I know it was like tens of millions of people who didn't vote it was something like 33 , 36 , you know , did not vote at all and another 10 voted independent .
It was just like that . Yeah , it's what . I've worked on local voter registration campaigns and it's so frustrating because people say , well , why is voting mandatory ? And I always kind of counter , Well , do you want everybody's idiot cousin like's idiot cousin , throwing off the scales just by going heads or tails ?
You need an informed electorate , you need a passionate electorate and you need people that have to really take into account what these choices their leaders make will have on , not just in the case of Onderon . The king even said I was given a choice between the separatists and the Republic and he said they're both .
And he said it , he said it and they're both corrupt .
Yeah .
And I love not only do I love that the king said that , I love that Dave wrote that , I love that Dave is not shying away or pretending that the Republic isn't corrupt that line . It's kind of a throwaway line but it carries so much weight when you really stop to think about it the fact of where that line came from .
That line came from Dave and his writers , if not Dave himself , saying I looked at both and both are corrupt and I had to pick one before one of them picked for me .
Yeah , how many times in history have people had that choice made for them by somebody because they fit on a place in a map ?
Yeah , and we see it every day in the united states , certain states , you know when they uh the whole gerrymandering thing , when they redraw , you know the , the voter registration lines or whatever it's like . You know the whole district boundary was redrawn , you know , in order to favor the voting for one way or another , and both parties are guilty of this .
It's not , it's not one party or another you know , and it's just and that's what dave said too . I think , dave , you know that's his way of saying . It's still democrats and republicans . If we're looking at it , real world , they're both corrupt . They both have their own agendas .
See , the problem is and we can relate this to Star Wars or we can relate this to real life the issue is in a perfect world , when we go in , like personally , we should have more than two political parties , because that way no one party can have any true power , because they've got to work together . That's neither here nor there .
That's probably not going to happen in our lifetimes , because and that's a whole other .
And yes , but .
But to shrink this down , it would be great if , going into the voting booth , we had a choice between good and better . But in my lifetime we've never had that . We've had a choice between bad and worse . The lesser of the two levels quite frankly , that's more important and that's the part that aggravates . But in my lifetime we've never had that .
We've had a choice between bad and worse . The lesser of the two evils , Quite frankly , that's more important and that's the part that aggravates me is so many people are like , well , both sides are bad . Yes , they are no arguments there . But if it's a choice between bad and worse , picking right matters .
It does , it does and we've seen evidence of that since our nation's inception . And I know , you know we don't we don't really talk politics very much , but star wars is politics . Star wars is rooted in politics and george himself drew in the politics of our nation into Star Wars . I mean there's , you know .
There's a great interview he did with James Cameron . You know two really good directors talk and shop and George actually James , you know , sort of laid it out for him that the rebellion was based off the Viet Cong , which means we're the empire . You know , the general idea is that america lost the vietnam
¶ Ahsoka's Growth and Leadership
war , much like the empire did , because they started over and reaching , stepping into places they didn't need to be right , yeah , we at the time , you know my dad . I talked to my dad about , yeah , he served during vietnam . He wasn't in combat but he was on a ship in the region and he's got a very different For people who lived through that time .
They were sort of fed this narrative that we were there to do good and the protests against the war were sort of they take it personally because they came home and they said , yeah , if you were in your uniform .
They take it personally because you know they came home and he said , yeah , people would if you were in your uniform , people would spit on you , yeah , absolutely , as you walk by . And now you know people talk about that war and we say , well , thank you for your service . You know it came . It's become sort of a platitude . It is .
It is and it's been interesting kind of talking to him as he's gotten older , where the reaction of the politics of his lifetime changed . You know that war wasn't popular at the time it was happening , but now it's been through movies and everything else .
We sort of gloss over this idea that well , you know we're still the good guys there , even though you know things were done that I would exactly be proud of . You know we're still the good guys there , even though you know things were done that were I would exactly be proud of .
you know our part in of course but you know it's , it's hard when you're , when you're a a family member of a participant in that war , that you just sort of go well what you know . There's fault on fault in both fronts on that , oh absolutely .
Absolutely , and I don't know , this is probably a hot take , but I think that , honestly , world War II was probably the last justifiable war , in my opinion , I think , for us to have been involved in . I mean , that was a war of necessity .
I mean , war does not need to happen , but sometimes it needs to happen and in that case there was a very clear and defined evil . There was a very clear and defined level of human atrocity that was happening and someone had to step in and and make things right .
But then you talk about , like you know , like korea and vietnam , and even the war in the middle east and the war on a vague concept like terror , you know yeah because I mean that's you know when you talk about . You know insurgents and insurrectionists and things like that .
You know we , you know during , during , you know like , you know afghanistan and you know the war in the middle east . You know we were we referred to .
You know the quote-unquote enemy , as you know insurgents you know , we didn't refer to them as know anything else and it's like , but they're defending their homeland and their way of life and you know it's like that region yeah , it's . That region is completely overrun by religious fundamentalism and a lot of people live poorly because of it .
That region used to thrive prior to the onset of religious fundamentalism . I mean , that's where beautiful music and high-level mathematics and art and culture . I mean that region was just a mecca of learning and creativity , just a mecca of learning and creativity .
And then it all got snuffed out and it all got stifled because of religious fundamentalism , but that's their culture , you know . And at what point again we're talking about crossing lines this week ? At what point , you know , have we as a nation crossed the line into other people's problems ?
And that takes us back to the episode , because we see that with the Jedi Council you know , obi-wan and Anakin they said we just cannot get involved , we can't fight this war , for them is having a hard time dealing with that . She's having a hard time really understanding .
Well , these people are fighting for liberty and they're dying and it's like it's not a hundred percent our place to step in and you know who didn't have a problem hondo . And then there's hondo , our boy hondo . He's like , ah , they paid very well he doesn't give a shit .
That was one of my favorite scenes of Hondo , when he delivers those rockets , because that is him to a T .
And then when those commando droids showed up , he's like , oh , look at the time , it's time to go Bye .
Which makes you wonder how many times he's just dropped off weapons like this in the middle of a firefight anywhere . He's not committed to the cause . He jokes to Anakin about being a delivery boy , but if the money's , right , here's a pizza .
I love Hondo . And he did not even try to hide his presence . He came in in that big luxury yacht and sat down at their secret base and and was like here you go and then . And then he takes off . Love Hondo , absolutely love Hondo .
With with Ahsoka again and and you know the whole , you know , should the Jedi have been involved or whatever , we do see them acting as advisors and trainers . You know , almost taking on like a CIA type role , like going into a country , you know , providing them with training and weapons and money . And Anakin even said that , I believe , or was it Obi-Wan ?
They said we're still going to keep providing them with credits and arms , but we can't fight for them . So should that have Very similar to what we're doing in Ukraine , very similar to what we're doing . So there's all these parallels . Yes , star Wars is science , fantasy and yes , it is fiction .
But the parallels between what's going on in a galaxy far , far away and what's happening here in the real world , not just now but throughout , know the the years that star wars has been around it's , it's really amazing . And you can't have one with the without the other . You can't have the lightsabers and the space battles and and and .
All of that without the politics , because , at its core , star wars is a cautionary tale . This is what's going to happen if you allow it to happen .
Star trek . Trek was great . The original series , even the later series , were great about mixing in current political dilemmas , drama , whatever you call it in a sci-fi setting , in a different universe . You could talk about so many different topics and not pretend to be taking a side or playing favorites to one or the other , and it was just so much .
There's such good writing in that show yeah , like Gene Rodger and the same with .
Dave , on Clone Wars . There's such good writing and thoughtful writing , writing , but not lecturing again . Start Clone Wars was sort of at this point . You know it's clearly gearing more toward an older audience , yeah , but always that level of Star Wars being for , you know , early adolescent kids . You know , where do you ?
Where was the first time you actually kind of got introduced to the concept of , well , well , what is a justifiable war ? What is a patriot versus a terrorist ? And you know , like we've done just on this show , we're making comparisons to , like , george Washington versus , you know , other figures in history .
Like Obi-Wan says , it all depends on your certain point of view , and Star Wars is great at showing political struggles from a certain point of view absolutely .
And again , you just , you can't have Star Wars without the politics . You got to do it . The force , lightsabers , blasters , cute little monkey , lizards , you know funky , funny pirates , you've got all that , but you got to have . You got to have your uh , your politics in there , and I think we all can agree . Going back to hondo , hondo is under utilized .
Hondo is underutilized . He is an underutilized character I want to see . I want to see hondo in some kind of like a buddy road trip sort of movie , and I just don't know with who . I feel like him and obi-wan would have made like a great road trip team , because hondo , hondo gets on Obi-Wan's nerves .
But Obi-Wan can fire right back and be just as sarcastic and be just as big of a smartass . He would push Anakin's buttons too much and Anakin would end up killing him .
I was hoping for a Hondo cameo in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series . That would have been great , Even if it would have blown his cover . I'm like , okay , Hondo would not have snitched on his friend Obi-Wan Kenobi .
I don't know , I don't know about that . I think for the right price Hondo is going to snitch , but no hard feelings , it's like sorry Obi . We're going to wrapitch , but no hard feelings , it's like sorry Obi . So if we're , we're going to wrap up here shortly .
But Before we do that , I do have one question for you guys , because this is something I picked up on and I was kind of enjoying in the first episode . Again , this show is obviously following Ahsoka's path through life . Yes , what did you guys think of the pseudo love triangle ?
Oh yeah .
Her and Lux Vontari , before she realized that Stela was his sister . There's a lot of longing glances going on when people are interacting with each other and it's just , it was funny , as someone who's you know got us a sister and and we used to go through his fan circle I I had people that thought emily and I were a couple and you have to go .
No , dude , we're brother and sister . You know , like it's cool . I just I love that . This was sort of like the Ahsoka after-school special of like first time , you know , the boy she likes likes another girl .
Yeah , that's true and honestly , I'm glad that you brought this up , because there was one thing about this that kind of surprised me was that there's a point where and I don't remember if it's in the first or the second episode kind of surprised me was that there's a point where and I don't remember if it's in the first or the second episode where she turns
to Anakin . She's like , you know , just saying she's having a really hard time . She's clearly talking about this thing with Lux and he's like I totally understand .
And she seems surprised by that which , to me , is the Wait .
so I mean because to me it was pretty clear that at least going in that Ahsoka had a pretty good understanding of Anakin and Padme . It wasn't expressly discussed , she at least had an inkling of what was going on there . So for her to be kind of surprised by his understanding kind of threw me off a little bit .
Well , think about it . Up to this point the three of them haven't really been around each other that much . There's only been a few instances where the three of them are together , and more often than not it's usually padme and ahsoka who are kind of like hanging out doing the sisterhood thing .
Um , so we , you know , I don't think ahsoka , I , I think Obi-Wan at this point Obi-Wan is aware or has an inkling , but Ahsoka is no , I don't think she's seen it that much yet .
Yeah , there's a great short in the they did with Anakin , padme and Ahsoka on a mission and it sort of lets it slip that she , you know , she kind of lets it slip to the tomb that she's aware of that unspoken thing and I think this is this episode . Yeah , I thought it was interesting that Anakin's trying to give relationship advice to her .
Yeah , and I'm going dude , you are the bigger , you're the hotter mess than she is . Yeah , and you're giving love advice yeah , oh , I know .
When he said that , when he , when he was talking about you know focus , you know purpose over feelings , yeah , I was like like sherry and I looked at each other . You're like come on guy , come on anakin . No , no , no , no , I'm not taking love advice from you . No , you , you don't .
But he does have an understanding , he does , you know , he gets it and this is a crush for us .
Yeah , and to some degree . Yeah , it was nice to see that anakin can , without saying the whole thing out loud , can just kind of look at his panel and go . I can relate , kid , you know . We've seen obi-wan had a girl that got away , you know and he keeps it buried .
He keeps it buried for now but yeah , but Anakin , because we said , you know , love is his weak spot , you know , when he sees his Padawan having feelings about something that could be interfering with the mission , I was like , okay , pac call . You know Pac calling the kettle black , but at least it's good advice .
He cares for her so much he cares for her so much I love it .
And one other thing I will say , and I don't hold any faith . I don't hold any belief in this , but it's fun to go down the path , just like what we do with the Darth Jar Jar . I was reading as part of this because obviously for me this is the first time watching this and it came out years and years ago .
So I went back and looked at some of the feedback , some of the talk that came out when these first episodes first dropped and there was a small , granted very small portion of people that were like so did Ahsoka try as hard as she can to save Steela ? Give him that love triangle
¶ Steela's Death and Saw's Path
. I was like come on , dude , she got shot in the back . She did , of course she did .
It was kind of funny that they brought it up . I had said that to Sherry too . I said I was like , yeah , well , now she can get her boy back . And no , it was obvious she really did . She really did try . But that's one of those things , unfortunately , with Steela . It had to happen for everyone's growth , unfortunately .
And also , watching this , I was just seeing Anakin interact with Ahsoka , the level of caring that he has for her , the amount of love that he has for her . And then I just started thinking about the scene with Ahsoka and Luke in . You know , as we move ahead , you know her , her talk .
You know , while Luke is training Grogu and she's she's interacting with Luke . You know , the son of this man that she , that she loved and adored and cared for , you know , like , like a brother , more than a brother I I don't even think there's a . There's a familial , familial relationship that could describe the relationship between the two of them .
It's like as as much love , as much , you know caring , as you can have for someone , without it being romantic at all in any way . You know it's just , it was very profound , it was a very the relationship between the two of them and it just , it's just breaks my heart anyway .
And just that smirk on her face when she went older . Ahsoka says I'm a friend of the family . I mean she means down .
She does . She is a friend of the family . She is family . I don't even like that . She said that she's a friend of the family . Ahsoka , queen , you are family .
I called her Auntie Ahsoka when that episode came out because I was like that's the name from her mother .
I am so excited to see more of Ahsoka . I want more Ahsoka . It's just . She is the best character in Star Wars , Bar none the best character in Star Wars .
And , real quick , the scene where the current king whatever you think of him was going to execute everybody and Ahsoka was going to break cover . Yeah , I love that . They kept showing her just strutting to the front . It was interesting . Like you said earlier , anakin and Obi-Wan get recalled back to Coruscant and they leave her .
It was almost like you know the kids on summer camp with kids her own age for the first time and it's a very , I think , she sort of she was trying to follow orders and not expose herself and it was just that moment where it was like she was ready to break out those lightsabers and just be like I can't let him die yeah , and she's , she's not that person
, she's she .
Yeah , she can't let innocent people die , you know , and but it was nice seeing her too with this little crush that she has , because it also kind of like it shows her desire for normalcy . You know the that need of any young person who's thrust into an extraordinary situation to want to have some normalcy in their life .
You know she , she embraces the fact that she's a total fucking bad-ass . She loves the fact that she's a bad-ass and that she does bad-ass shit . Um , but I think in in this with her , her situation with lux , that uh , we do see that she wants , she wants a little normalcy . And then she gets friend zoned hard .
You know , after stela kisses him , she gives him the old little chuck on the shoulder like ah , look at you . And she just got friend zoned . I'm like , oh , ahsoka got friend zoned . How could you do that ? I mean it never would have worked out anyway .
I mean it's it would have been too much to repeat the same you know . Yet we know about anakin and padme . We know , you know . We now know about obi-wan on satine .
It had been a bit much for ahsoka to also have a unrequited love thing going on there and they're too committed to their individual roles in you know and anyway , and Padme and Anakin have a weird creepy relationship that's just unnatural .
Anyway , it's a , you know , like Palpatine would say , it's you know , the relationship that some would would not consider to be natural . I've never liked that relationship . Anyway , all right , so that's it . Do you guys have anything else that you want to talk about ? Any note ? Crash , you said you had some notes . Did we cover a lot of the stuff ?
Yeah , we pretty much covered the whole spread . I'm going out to Fan Expo Cleveland this weekend . We're going to shoot some test footage for a new segment .
All right , I might see you out there .
Okay , we'll be out there and just having a good time .
All right , sounds good , tony , I do have one little thing . As I know none of us are particularly big sports people , but first weekend of March Madness a very common time for a lot of guys to sit around and get drunk I decided to do something a little different this year .
So the final episodes of Young Jedi Adventures , just released earlier this week , are you going ?
to binge Young Jedi .
Adventures I am , and you know how . I've got my little game that I like to play with this , so we'll see how this goes oh .
So okay with us , so we'll see how this goes . Oh so okay , so we need to . We need to break this down for folks that maybe didn't hear about this in our first season .
So , as we've already discussed , you know , if you're , if you're tuning in for the first time , or maybe you know you haven't gone back as far um , when we started this , like we said , we're we're doing everything in chronological order , so at that time it was before the acolyte had come out . So our the beginning of our chronological order .
So at that time it was before the acolyte had come out . So our the beginning of our chronological timeline started with young Jedi adventures , which is Canon .
So we watched a few episodes of that just to kind of get a feel for it , and we created a drinking game to go along with this children's show , and it is wildly inappropriate and I think what , what was it like every time the kids are put into a a situation that child protective services would be called on ?
I mean that's one of the rules . That's one of the rules is you know if they learn a lesson and then apply the lesson within the same episode .
there's a drink , so you know you're going to drink every episode You're going to .
There's a few different ones . I'm going to have to look up the rules again .
If you haven't seen Young Jedi Adventures , watch it . As an adult , I can say it's a lot of fun , especially if you add alcohol to it . So alcohol and kids shows just go together . I don't know why it's just I would challenge anyone to find a kids show they like and I'm talking about a kids show .
I'm talking about something like on , like you know , I don't know , like Disney , disney kids , or I mean like just something like for , like the preschool crowd , you know , or you know , like Young Jedi Adventures . That's like , you know , preschool-ish , right , I think that's a demo . So Young Jedi Adventures , dora , you know things like that
¶ Young Jedi Adventures Chat
and make it a drinking game . If nothing else , like with Dora , you could apply the same things . If nothing else like with dora , you could apply the same things every time dora is put in a situation where her parents could potentially be arrested for neglect . Do a shot and you'll be fucking hammered within two episodes . I promise you you'll .
Just , you'll be done . You'll be completely schnockered . But uh , there's something wrong with us when we turn kids tv shows into drinking games . There's something wrong with us when we turn kids TV shows into drinking games . There's something . It's funny Cause we had a .
I just saw that we had a viewer pop on and as soon as we mentioned we mentioned drinking and kids shows . Oh there we go . Radio radio beach . She says blues clues .
So all right .
Radio beach . You got it . Now that you brought it up , you got to type it in the chat . How are you drinking ? How are you assigning shots to Blue's Clues ? Is it every time Steve says handy dandy notebook , or every time Blue finds a clue ? Or what is it ?
Because we need to know now , because now I want to do that , teletubbies , teletubbies is another one .
I'm purely joking here because I know he's a real guy and whatnot , but is that what happened to the actual Steve ? Is that he was playing the game in real life and got fucked up ? Because I know he disappeared for a long time ?
He did . Yeah , steve disappeared . I think he ended up going to college or something . I think he just needed to . You know , I think he went to college , fell on some hard times and , like you do , you know it happens , poor Steve , but he was great . What was his cousin took over , what was his cousin's name ?
I don't remember that other guy , I don't have kids , I never watched the show . I don't have kids either . I just watch kids shows . It's what . I don't have kids either . I just watch kids shows . No , I have kids . My kids love that . And then there was another show called Ubi .
I don't know if you guys ever seen Ubi , but it was like everybody , like the characters were hands . It was like straight up like people's hands , with these little eyeballs , like they were wearing , like it was like a ring with eyeballs on it and like they would just try to , and everybody's hand was like a different shape , it's like , and they would just .
There was a grandpa . It was like these two , these two kids that lived with their grandfather , and I think it was called ubi . Um , all right . So radio beach says for the blues clues , drinking game in the mail chair , and then , when blue finds a clue , yeah , I mean that's a guaranteed couple shots we just got a letter . We just got a letter .
We just got a letter . I wonder who it's from . Yeah , I , I was a stay-at-home dad for a minute , so that bear in the big blue house that was , was great . They had mail on that too . I don't know what . What is it about ? Mail on kids shows ? What's in the mail today ? What's in the mail today Today , I don't know .
Anyway , we're losing all of our viewers now . All right , thanks for . Uh . I guess that's a wrap . We've stopped talking about star .
Wars . Yeah , we've run out of talking wise . We're just on Tantus now .
We're on Tantus . All right , we're done . That's why we have a set schedule that we're supposed to follow and we never do . All right , so that's going to be it . So homework for next week , season five episodes six , seven , six , seven , eight and nine . So four more episodes for you , and that is the kids arc .
I think that's the younglings arc , if I'm not mistaken . More ahsoka , more growth . Radio beach said uh , kids love mail , and I guess that's true . When you're an adult you don't love mail anymore . It's always bills .
Well , yeah , when you remember when you were little , you got excited . I didn't win , like a card from grandma came in or something , oh yeah now .
Now grandma's dead , so you don't get cards from grandma , and everything else in the mail is just bad news . It's either spam or it's . I don't even get excited about email . It's like oh , adulting is the worst . Sometimes , man it can be it is oh , all right , radio Beast says good show . Guys , I'm out . Thanks for joining us and joining us in the chat .
I appreciate you All out . Thanks for joining us and joining us in the chat . I appreciate you all , right . So before we head out , we're going to do some of the obligatory pimping , like we do .
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And if you'd like to know what's coming up next , you can check out our timeline in the show description on our website and that's going to be circleofnerdscom slash , the S W S show . So we got our whole timeline on there so you can see what we're going to be watching . So , thank you very much for tuning in this week .
We really , really do appreciate you and , of course , thanks to all of our active duty military members and veterans for their service and sacrifice . So , thank you very , very much . We appreciate you . And next week , I think the 25th , is actually going to be medal of honor day .
So , uh , definitely , uh , tip of the hat to all of the those folks , uh , that have been a recipient of the medal of honor , because you don't get that on good days , uh , we'll just say that . So , uh , we have a lot of love and respect for our all of our service members and veterans .
Um , but the medal of honor winners , not winners I always say winners . You don't win the medal of honor , you receive it because you've earned it , uh , on the worst day of your life , um , so , yeah , anyway , so that's a .
So , if you , if you know a veteran , if you know an active duty service member , if you know a veteran , if you know an active duty service member , if you know a , uh , a medal of honor winner , if you're aware , uh , just you know , shake their hand . You don't have to say thanks for your service , it's , you know .
Whatever , uh , if you want to , if it makes you feel good , that's fine . Just you know , shake , shaking hands , pat them on the back , whatever . You want to do something like that , so all right . So that's going to be it for us . Anybody have anything on the way out ?
see you next week .
No , that's it right , we'll see you next week . Let me see if I can do this right . Um , I'll put that there , like that , and we'll see if I push the button the right way . All right , fingers crossed that I pushed the right . I don't know what's going to happen . Anyway , all right . So thanks , gentlemen . Thank you for joining us again this week .
And we almost got Felicia Day on the show this week , by the way . We'll talk about that more another time . So this close , I think she was here in Cleveland . She was hanging out at the West Side Market . So there you go . All right , so that's going to do it for us again .
Thanks everyone for joining us and remember , as always , if no one does anything nice for you , do something nice to yourself , and we'll see y'all next week . Outro Music .