Worrying. This podcast can hate spoilers for season three episodes seven of The Mandalorian and the movie Renfield out now in theaters. Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion and I'm Rosey Knight, and welcome to x ray Vision, the crooked media podcast where we dived ee to your favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture.
In this episode, it's a packed previously on some of the Star Wars celebration news, Boom Boom boom, movies, TV everything, and a breakdown of the Marvels trailer in the airlock. It's season three, episode seven of The Mandalorian in place you haven't been star Wars out by the Star Wars celebration, It's happening in the hive mind. Just absolutely delightful chat with actor and comedian Ben Schwartz to discuss Renfield, Starry,
Nicholas Halt, and Nick Kay Jurracula at you. Very delightful and quite profound in some ways and in nod doubt we have a theory for Mike on the Mandaloria.
Let's go coming up previously on first up, let's talk about the some of the big news coming out of Star Wars celebration, and I think the headline for me at least is going back to the movies. Three big movie project announcements no titles as yet, but the attached directors and then kind of what the movie is about were announced. We have a James man Goold project that we'll talk about basically the First Jedi, the First Connection
with the Force, the Dawn of the Jedi. We have Dave Feloni's project, which will wrap up all of his New Republic projects in a live action film. This is I guess, our chance to see Grogu and Din and the rest on the big screen. And then Miss Marvel director Charmine obiad Chenoi will direct the sequel to the Ray Saga. Ray is coming back. We would assume Finn is coming back as well. We're going to find out what she's been up to, and what she's been up
to is training the next generation of Jedi. Does that mean we find out Finn is fourth sensitive?
I say yes, now correct, I mean he is. Let's be real, these.
All sound really great. We were we were talking in the in the prefro, what of these three? How many get made?
Okay? I am of the belief looking at recent past, and the the success of announced lucasfilm movies making it to screen. My God says, I would bet that one of these one hundred percent makes it to screen, and I think it's the Ray movie.
I agree.
I hope is a Ray and Finn and Poe movie. You know, that's the tree that I care about. I think that the Feloney movie is second most likely, agreed, because people love the Mandalorian Grogu is very toyetic. You can make a lot of money from selling toys from him, and Rebels has gained a true rotty following. Yeah, and with the Soca coming, I think that one seems quite likely.
I just the slight doubt I have is how likely is it for us to see something in the Star Wars world make that big leap from TV to film rather than film to TV. I would love to see it, but I think it's quite ambitious least likely. But the one I would want to see most is this like biblical epic twenty five thousand years before the Star Wars sus Skywalker saga, James Mangold, like Beginning of the Force. I just think it's it's too huge.
It's just huge.
It's too huge. I would love, Like, do I want to see like a you know, Lawrence of Arabia style Star Wars movie? Absolutely?
Yes, absolutely?
Is it likely that probably not? That's my feeling right there with you. I think you read is exactly right. I put the Filony movie at something like a coin flip.
Obviously this is not science, but you know, depending on how the reception for a Mando and for Ah Soca goes, I could see them flipping that cachet into a big movie project. That would be pretty cool. And I think, but I agree with you, it feels like just too huge a swing for what has been I think a
historically conservative movie project space for Star Wars. Like maybe they've changed their tune, but what we've seen from the last few Star Wars movies, not counting Rogue one, has been a real kind of a real kind of aversion to kind of breaking the mold or doing anything big. And this would be this is as big as it gets.
I mean, you're talking about setting a movie like twenty one thousand years before Nights of the Old Republic, Like this is so much further back than anything that we've ever seen. It's such a cool idea, But what we've seen from the Star Wars TV shows especially, I feel like less so in the movies, though I wish they'd have done it more. We've seen them taking very selectively from established pre Disney canon like legends and making it
canon again. In the Disney world. This would be James Mangold, who I love, I mean logan, he's obviously and with Disney he's doing this Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny yep film. You know, this would be basically giving him carte blanche to create an entirely new era of Star Wars, which I think is very exciting but slightly unlikely unless perhaps we end up in a kind of High Republic esque situation where they used a new set of authors and books and comics to kind of establish the work.
Because I could see that that could.
Maybe happen, because basically one of the as we'll get into in a little bit with the TV stuff, we are now seeing them start to pull from the High Republic which they established in those books. So maybe, but I definitely think that's our that's our long shot, even though I would absolutely love to see it.
Also, the risk, I think is it's hard to kind of overstate. I think the risk. Recall the uproar when Midichlorians appeared in the scene as a you know, the first kind of real fleshing out of the underpinnings of the Force, and people didn't like it. And I and you know, the Force is this kind of like mysterious connective tissue that runs through the galaxy and the universe. There's something fascinating and intriguing about the mystery behind it and.
So tismatic and etherol.
And yeah, and so to really kind of pin it down and define it in this way is high risk, high reward. I would love, I would fucking love to see it, but my guess is that they pull back from actually doing this.
Also does hypothetically if this is their same biblical epic you're talking about, the first person to ever use the Force? Is this like a Jesus situation? Is this like an actual space Jesus like the first person to use the force? Gains are following? Are we going to see the I think that it's so much fun to imagine it because it is so huge, But like you say, what does that do to the thousands of years of cannon that comes after it? Like when do you use. What are
these two alignments? When does it split between the dark Side and the Light side? Do you have to bring back gray Jedi which have been decanonized in a very serious way. I think it's it's so huge, but it's very very exciting to imagine it, and I would love if the movie doesn't get made, I'll definitely be seeking out that script absolutely its to come.
And what I think is really the other thing that I think is really really cool about these announced projects is you've basically gone to the very beginning and the very end. You've pushed out the latest that we've ever gone in Star Wars. We're going the Ray project is going to be, according Kathleen Kennedy, fifteen years out from Rise of Skywalker, post War First Order, she says, in the Jedire in Disarray. So that's as late as we've been in Star Wars, the furthest Out and then the
furthest Back. If they end up making this movie that we've ever seen in the Star Wars universe, would be this twenty five thousand years before the Skywalker Soga, before the First Republic, before all of everything we know. So that part of it is really intriguing to kind of push the edges is of the timeline out as far as it's ever been. That part of it is cool. Up next to the Ahsoka trailer, I'm in. I mean it looks great.
I mean we would we were deeply targeted by this. Yeah.
Yeah, it looks fantastic. The casting looks amazing, the you know, building off what we've seen from and or from the Mandalorian, it looks movie quality. The trailer looks you know, the practical effects plus the makeup look amazing. I was so tough to see. Uh, my Star Wars wife Harrison Doula and our good friend Chopper, one of the one of the greatest mass murderers in Star Wars history. Yeah, Era, it looks freaking It looks freaking great. There's a lot cat there.
It looks my gosh, yeah, multiple lofts love to see them. Also, I think that they're having a lot of fun in this trailer, not only showing us who's coming back, but also like only showing Ezra Vira hologram. So you kind of don't really know. But the fact that we are confirmed now to get live action thron which is huge and obviously for the first time. This is doing what we always wanted. When they would announce something for the MCU, we would expect that the TV shows would immediately tie in.
That never really came across, like Spider Man at the end of Hawkeye and those kind of things that people wondered if they were going to do to tie these worlds together. We get the Las Michelson announcement. He's going to be coming back. He's going to be playing Thrown in live action. We see the back of his head in this trailer, and then as we will get into this episode of the Mandalorian immediately ties into that. You know, this is that kind of connective tissue we always wanted.
And with Thrawn being a major part, then we know that we're going to see Ezra irl but they're having fun with this kind of like he's only on the hologram is it? Where is he? It's very mysterious, very awesome. I love Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hero. That's super fun, what great casting.
Absolutely cast and now we have husband and wife in the Wars universe.
Yeah, I where do you think Ezra and Thron are and how much and how much of this, how much of the upcoming Ahsoka season is the search for Ezra and how do they find him?
You think? I think that Ezra search is going to be a key part of the mystery. I think Ezra and Thorn are somewhere on the outer Rim. That's generally like my feeling of where Thorn has been. And I feel like with this stuff we're seeing in the Mandalorian is probably tying into that. What has Thorn been up to? That's the big question, And that's kind of something again that we get into in the Mandalorian, like what is
his plan? What is his scheme? And how is he going to play into the future of what we see. I mean, I'm so excited to see live action Ezra. I love him so much. Okay, this is a question I have for you because one of the things I immediately thought about, so I love Rebels, obviously you love Rebels.
The end of Rebels was like so crazy because they gave us not only like one of the best final couple of episodes all time, but when we get that skip forward to see where everyone is, we meet here as kid you know who's named after Luke Skywalker's kid from Legends, Jason, and that was like this huge thing, this huge moment, right, I was like, are we going to see the kids? But when do you think this
takes place? Because I think there's been a lot of conversation of is this between the end of what we saw in Rebels and that's where we meet them in the skip forward? Is it in between that time? Is it after that time? Whereabouts do you think it's going to take place.
I think it's going to take place like before the skip forward, while the rebellion is still happening, and or maybe even just brewing. Like I think it's going to be very close to and Or. I think it's going to be close in time too when and Or happened. But I don't think it's gonna be I don't. I don't think it's going to be after the skip forward.
I think that's just in between you which I think. I think you're right. I would love to see the skip forward life because I love the idea of seeing the kids and but the truth is that it makes a lot of sense from what we know and what we saw at the end of Rebels that this essentially acts as almost like a expansion. It's a nice inversion of what we're used to with the animated series, where the animated series builds out what we've seen in live action.
I like the idea that this is a huge expansion of this tiny moment that we got in the animated series. It looks so good. I can't even it's just kind of mind playing. I think. Also, I think that you're absolutely right. If this show blows up and becomes the biggest Disney Plus show of all time or in a long time since one division, whatever the biggest one is, then I think that Felony show becomes a near certainty. Yeah,
so I think you're absolutely right. I think those two things are directly connected.
One more thing about the timeline. You know, one of the things that these projects, you know, one of the Jenga obstacles that these projects kind of have to thread is you know, why wasn't Ahska at the battle?
Yeah?
Then why wasn't where we're dinning Grogu during X y Z fight? And I think that to me is you can really kind of solve that with this show and show that like, oh, Soca was tied up doing whatever, that's why.
Yeah, even like World Beyond Wild, you know, you want to get into that kind of strange more mystical side of the force that Sabine and everyone from Rebels is a little bit more aligned to. It's a lot easier to argue why they weren't necessarily involved in like a military rebellion.
Next up The Acolyte. They showed footage from this, but no footage yet has come out publicly. They also did that for and Or, but that was apparently just kind of like a sizzle reel. So the Acolyte is this is our High Republic, Yes show, one hundred years before the Phantom Menace, created by Leslie Headland of Russian Dolphame and it's a star so cast including Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung,
Jay Man Agacinto and more. This is super exciting and I'm sure fans of the High Republic books and comics are going to be pretty soaked.
Yeah, I think that they They definitely actually bought in Vanessa Rowe, who was from the High Republic novels. They announced that Rebecca Henderson would be playing her. We got Junas who took over playing Chewbacca from Peter Mayhew. He's getting to create a new Wookie Jedi, which is really cool. And also this is going to be our first time with a movie or a TV show that is directly focused on a true villain, even though obviously there are
some movies like the Prequels. You could argue that all of Star Wars and the Prequels is about Darth Vader,
but you know they each have their heroes. This is going to be about a young Sith acolyte who is played by Amandler Steenberg and Leslie Headlam pitched it to lucasfilm as Frozen meets kill Bill, and the idea is it's kind of this like the how under the Frozen aspect comes from this idea of you think this person is the villain, but here is their story, and the kill Bill aspect is because it's going to be like
a badass revenge story. But what I thought was really interesting is Leslie said, this is the Sith when they are just the ultimate underdogs. This is a time when the Jedi is ruling everything. Everything is Jedi Jedi, Jedi High Republic, Utopian state. So if you are a Dark Side Force user, if you are a Sith, you are like a non citizen. You don't really exist. So that was kind of the intrigue that she laid out there.
I mean, Russian Doll's one of the best TV shows I've seen in a long time, with the incredible obviously Natasha Leone who we be love so and it's really subversive and weird and twisty, and it totally turns the time loop on its head. So the fact they're letting Leslie do one of these shows and it has, like you said, these squid game stuff. Daph Nick Keane has s X twenty three in it. You know, this is just like Jody Turner smith Icon, like so many good
carry Anne Moss playing a Jedi. I guess that kind of seemed to leak from what they'd said, from the what they'd shown at the the show. It just looks and sounds very very cool, and I would love to see it. Like, I'm not a sith apologist. I don't feel like Leslie's gonna do some like you should feel sorry for the Sith, but I will always want to see a different side. I would love to see this world that we love.
I will say that the way it was described felt a little bit like it's your fault. I'm the Sith, you know what I mean, Like the Jedi, why are you making me use the dark side, don't.
I will say that the Frozen comparison does make you think that's a story about the ice creen. You know, this traditional villain, so you wonder, like, what could that argument be. It'll be very interesting to see. This is one hundred years, like you said before the Phantom Menace, so the politics and things that drove the Sith could arguably be established to be very different. We could learn very different things. But yeah, I'm interested to see it.
I'm sure it's going to be really cool and great and probably totally upend whatever we're expecting it to be. But I'm ready for them to release that footage because i want to see it.
Switching universes now, the Marvel's True were dropped hitting theaters every tenth twenty twenty three. Here is our first Marvel project that is unambiguously launched by the television offerings of the MCU, starring Breed Larcen as Captain Marvel, Imon Vallani as Kamela Khan, Tina paris Is, Monica Rambo, and Sam MUELLL. L. Jackson returns as our friend Nick Fury. New villain Darben by Zali Ashton, one of the weirder minor Avengers villains.
You're really getting into that joyous space here that we've talked about many times before. This is a character who has two appearances. This is the classic. But I will say I am Look the trailer looks so cute. I was loving it. I was slightly nervous about this one, but it came out looking beautiful, look great, It looks gorgeous. I definitely think that they have strayed. I think originally this was meant to have more of an ant Man color palette from all the marketing that they did, and
I feel like they've strayed from that. I think this looks so cute. I love Kamala, I love the interactions they're having, the Rick Jones kind of body switching freaking Friday which we saw teased at the end of Miss Marvel. But all of that is to say, I do need to talk about dart Ben because there's two appearances. Plas, please look this is the truth.
Yeah.
Zahweh, who's absolutely stunning British actor in this unbelievable film called Dreams of a Life Theater Icon just wonderful. This is a character who's a cree only had a couple appearances, but and I might be getting carried away, but this is a very specific character and the appearances are very important. In their first appearance, they debuted in an Infinity one, the crossover issue from nineteen ninety one that was called there was Silver Surfer fifty three. So first of all,
there's a Silver Surfer connection. They established this which I think could come into play in this film, which is it's this Pink and Blue Cree war, which is this idea that there's two different kinds of Cree, basically human looking Cree like Captain Marvel and Blue Cree who you have seen in Ronan the Accuser, And there's this it's like a kind of clunky recurring part of Cree law.
But in this comic, dar Ben teams up with ale Dan, who is a Blue, and they decide they're going to do a coup of the Cree and become the joint kind of force to rule Cree for the good, and they're going to bring the Pinks and the Blues together. How do they do this in this issue? In the debut issue, they use the Silver Surfer too. Urder, basically the person that the Supreme Intelligence had put in place as a Cree leader. So are we going to see Silver Surfer in this movie? Probably not, but that is
a direct Silver Surfer connection. And interestingly, they don't actually really use the Silver Surfer. They use a robot of
the Silver Surfer. Feels very relevant to me. And you mentioned Avengers because this was they were an Avengers villain and Avengers three forty six, which is the part of the massive Avengers crossover Galactic Storm, which you may know because it became a video game, and the Avengers are on Hallow, where we know that at least some of this movie is probably going to take place the Cree
home world. And this is really I think, as I'm a Silver Surfer stand so I had to bring up the first appearance connection, But this is really what I think is exciting and weird about them choosing this character. This is a massive X Men storyline, and in this issue, it's a Cree versus the Shear storyline, like a key part of X Men Law. And this is an you know, dar Ben and Ale and their little Cree Pink and Blue kind of leadership party that they're trying to make.
They end up getting killed by none other than Death Bird, who is the sister of Laalandra, who is you know, Charles Xavier's lover and has all these connections with Corsair and these different kind of key X Men characters. So this feels like there are places that they can go with this if they want to dive into the Marvel cosmic and how it connects to bigger characters like Silver
Surfer and also the X Men. And that's the second to last issue of Galactic Storm, and the next issue is called Annihilation, and we haven't seen a big Marvel Annihilation yet, so I feel like there's so much fun stuff. Also importantly for me, this is the issue where the Avengers get their jackets and officially become the Jacket Avengers.
I just want to see It's huge if we are when we go to Haller, I just want to see the you know, the the the old school Supreme Pree Intelligence not played by Anette Benning, like the head in the.
Jar, big scary head in the jar. We need to see it. And also it does seem like in those two issues that dar ben is in, it's like the pre Intelligence has kind of been manipulating that she are, so they will kill these people who want to take over, and it does look like from what we've seen that Carol is going to have to go to Hala and fight.
It looks like she fights dar Ben. I just wonder if we're going to see some aspects of this idea of somebody trying to take over the kre home planet of Halla, reimagine the way that it should be run, and then have Carol have to go back and like save her planet. I'm doing big inverted commas here, because Carol's not been very good at that so far. In her cannon and all of that is very deep cosmic
law that I am excited about. But what I really want to see is these three characters switching bodies like free Fridays.
One more thing. Monika's got to stop touching stuff.
Oh please.
It's so funny of the trailer. It's like she's, you know, floating up to an alien energy space portal and it's like, once again, you're touching step She's.
Just like no one else.
Now, I you rightly pointed out that listen, the last time she touched a weird thing, she got powers. And I think if there is one lesson you take away from not just Marvel Comics, but superhero comics in general, is like touch it, touch the radiation, touch the radioactive spider, like let the radiation spill on your face. You know, all of the weird things that you definitely shouldn't get locked in the room that that you know will bombarge with energy, like all of the stuff, like touch it.
But still, Monica, there's no way this is scientific. It's touching, not touching stuff.
Especially after this specific touching where you send a teen into space in your place, I think you can learn that touching is bad. Also, I will say something interesting about this, especially that shows up when MOV When Monica touches something she shouldn't touch, they say this is a Saber space station where her and Sam aka nick Furia.
So I'm very interested because Saber is not something that's in the comics, and I guess it's going to be an arm of sword or a different version of sword, maybe something to separate sword off from the scrolls who helped establish it. But I thought that was an interesting note. But yeah, looks really fun. We don't know much about it yet, but dar Been is a great deep cup pull that can hint and we get to see these three having like a ton of fun all Right.
Up next, The Mandalorian Get ready to be transported to nineteen seventy three New York City with Stipped, the new podcast from Crooked Media and iHeartRadio. In this eight part series, host Jennifer Romalini takes you on a wild ride through the rise and fall of Viva, the erotic magazine for women started by porn king Bob Guccioni, founder of Penthouse, that rocked the publishing world with a team of feminist
writers and editors behind at. Viva in its original form had full fruggal male nudity, a fashion section run by and A Winter herself, and cover stars like Bianka Jagger. But were they doomed to fail from the beginning. Check out the first four episodes of Stift right now listen for free on your favorite podcast platform. Stift It's stiffening. Folks were stepping out of the airlock and into a
galaxy far far away. For Season three, Episode seven of The Mandalorian, titled Chapter twenty three The Spies, we will talk a lot about what they in the course of this recap, directed by Rick Famaua and written by Jon Favreau and a guy named David Floni.
May have heard him.
We open on Coroussant down on the street level where all the gritty, grimy, really dangerous stuff happens.
Run a neon lights.
It looks gorgeous. It's happen, and we see G sixty eight Elliot Kine. She's out of Amnesty House, skulking around the alleyways. She meets her contact and Imperial Probe joint Abbit to b ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. It connects g to her boss off Gideon, Hello, we were right, just saying right, I mean we.
Knew, I mean everyone knew, but it was him most obvious thing of old time. Come on, New Republic.
G then tells Gideon that, uh, the pirates on Navarro ran into a little trouble and he's like, oh, is it the You said the New republ wouldn't involved. She's like, well, it wasn't the Republic. It was Mandalorians led by Din Jarn and Bocatan. Gideon is pissed, but that's what happens when you hire amateurs to do a job that should have been a pro job. And he's alarmed because Bo and Dinn together doing something, leading a force of Mandalorians.
That represents a potential unification of Mandalorian tribes that were previously at each other's necks, and that is a threat to whatever plans he has. So he's like, Okay, I'll deal with this. He gets off the phone with g
and walks back to his zoom call. He's having a zoom call with a bunch of commanders from what will eventually be the First Order, and they're talking about how they need to continue to pretend to be disorganized like Imperial remnant warlords, just like hijacking hips and doing weird crimes across the galaxy, when in reality, what they're hiding is that they are a unified force of imperials who's hoping to, you know, spoilerlers, bring imperial rule back to
the galaxy. And the person who they are hoping to lead them there is none other than friend from the Chiss, the Chiss Immigrant himself, Grand Admiral thron Bomb bomb Bum.
It's a huge moment. We got funny legends throwback with Captain Pellion, who is an ally who kind of talks about here. So this is probably the most important zoom call of the galaxy.
Absolutely. Now there's only one problem, and that's since the end of Rebels, Thron is missing. No one knows where he's at, and there are doubts swirling about whether he's gone for good. And one of the people on the Zoom, and you can count by the way, maff Gideon is one of those people because he's definitely like, you.
Know, he's a that Yeah, where is this guy?
Now? One of the people on the Zoom is Commandant Brendle Ucks, dad of Future Screamer, General Hucks, General NEPO Baby, one of the one of the Nepo Babies himself. Now, Daddy Hucks is working on something called Project Necromancer, which we're gonna go ahead and guess is project bring Palpie Back?
Right? Got to be? It's gotta be. I mean maybe the name is so good and over the top and just totally fun and silly, and it's exactly what it says, Project Necromance. So they want to bring people back from the dead, and we know that that will lead to Palpy somehow coming back in the sequel trilogy.
I love this name.
Totally silly, totally TV pulp serialized nonsense, and I'm so happy that it's cannon and it's so creepy and good and yeah, it's bringing Palpee back.
And now mouth Getting is like, well, let's talk about this throng stuff for a second. He says, quote, I hear whispers from one end of the galaxy to the other, basically saying, no one's more plugged into what people are talking about than me. And then he continues, he says, and never a word of throng. You have spoken of his imminent return. Perhaps it's time we look to new leadership. Yeah, where is this guy? This guy's been gone, no one knows where he is. And the Necromancer comes back up.
Hucks is like, okay, well you're shitting on our throng dreams. Whatever happened with doctor Pershing, who apparently is the only guy in the fucking galaxy capable of doing genetic research. It's like, we need this guy for Necromancer whatever necromancer is, And Giddeyon is like, oh yeah, sorry, the New Republic got him. But like, I've got I've got my people on that. I'm working on that. He doesn't say more than that, but he suggests that he'll have a fix
for that soon. Huks then calls out Gideon for doing some like off the books research with Pershing on Navarro that no one knows about, and then he refuses to talk about and Gideon very very ably sidesteps the topic. Doesn't admit that, yes, I was on Navarro doing research with doctor Pershing that I'm not going to talk about. He basically just like flips the accusation. It was like, no, no, no, no, clones,
your obsession not mine. I was doing some other fucking shit over there, which we find out at the end of this episode exactly what that was, which is taking the best bits of different warrior societies and creating his super soldiers. Gideon then flips the discussion again, is like, okay, but what are you What are you guys going to do for me right now? Because you you all have been hoarding resources and I need stuff. What do I need? Here's my shopping list. I need Pretorian guards dun du da,
I need tie interceptors, I need tie bombers. And they're like, man, this is some serious weaponry for like, what are you scared of an assassination typ He's like, well, you know, like, here's what I'm concern about. I'm concerned about Mandalorians. They're coming back. They're coming back for their home world. And as we all know, people on this zoom we have we have some important projects going on on Mandalor and we don't want to share it. So give me my stuff.
And it's pretty clearly he's going to get his stuff. We go to Navarro where an Imperial fleet shows up over over the town. But then it turns out no, no, no grief, carcassays, don't worry my my terrified protocol droid. That's not the the Imperials. Look at the Look at the paint on the bottom that mythosaurse skull on the bottom of that light cruiser. Those are the Mandalorians. Now let me ask you how many gallons of paint did it take to paint the bottom of this Like a billion gallons.
Of paint at least to be able to see it. You're talking about a year of manpower and like so much paint you can't even comprehend it. This is like if you did the zoom it, you'd see one man and he'd be painting like white, and you'd zoom out and it would be like, you know, a centimeter on there and you have but twenty five thousand men.
I don't know how they did it.
Good for them? Maybe yeah the baby did it with the force, but yeah, too much paint is how much it costs.
So the Mandalorian fleet containing of course Axe Wolves's people and of course Bo Grogu and Din is making landfall by this. You know that new parcel of real estate gifted by Grief Cargo and the armor and her folks are already there, and a Bow is worried because the helmet ons and the helmet offs. These two groups don't
get along. They don't like each other. We all know about the history of interneesceine squabbling between Mandalorian sects, but dinner is like none, no, no, they'll cooperate because they need to to survive. The armorer welcomes everybody and says, hey, we're gonna make dinner. What do you guys want for dinner? Grief then comes up he's got a gift of booze, one bottle of booze for However, many.
Show it's a shame because like this was a good idea, like get them good. It was a good idea, but like, what's everyone having like one tiny sniff that I don't even know if everyone's gang a sip, but.
That's not all something. He's got something very very special planned and it's Baby's first Gundam suit. And Angella Mechanic comes into a Grief's office and he's driving the chassis of IG eleven now known as IG twelve because they've all bottomized IG eleven, taken out all his like you know, memory and drive circuits, so it's just kind of like the the stuff that keeps him working, the core systems.
And then uh, there's a little pilot's uh platform on the chest where the pilot can stand and just with two old joysticks like run the one I G twelve. It's more like a vehicle, Grief says, because Dn is like this is weird, and Din is like, okay, well, Grogu's too, he's a baby. We can't can we really have him driving.
Baby?
And Greg is like no, no, no, I want to do it. I want to do it. Probably wants to be in a Mac.
Who can baby in a Mac?
Grogu gets in the mech and denn Is like, okay, this is all fun and games, but get out. And there's apparently two buttons on the console, one for yes and one for no, and Grogu' is just like every time Dan is like get out, He's like no, no, no, no, no, no no no, and is like he seems like he seems like he's doing well. He's piloting pretty well. And then gir was like yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes yeah.
And he does like strong arms mando to like.
And he's like no now he's like bye, and then he just starts stumbling out to like the market street, grabbing fruit and crushing it, like just to show like what he could do, and making Daddy Dinn have to pay for all the street you.
Have to pay for that? Like, what's going on here? This is a terrible I'm happy the baby got a mech, but on a parental level, I understand why Din does not want that.
I understand now there's no as far as we know. I G eleven was of course a very very dangerous robot, but it like blasters and stuff, yeah yeah, And it appears that there's no you know, built in hardware weaponry on IG twelve, So I know, So I do wonder.
I think I think Grief made the mech with the intention of it being for Grogu. I think from the moment that Din had his insane, very project necromancer idea to take this poor dead body of this droid that had been turned into a statue and try and reanimate it with a brain chip card that, by the way, didn't just got distracted and never go.
We don't care about the brains.
You don't care about that anymore.
We're trying to repopulate baddle or we don't have time for side quest. Gotta go for a bath.
The side quest is over. The side quest has been taken over by a more important side quest. And I think that from that very moment, the Anzelians who love the bad Baby, they think he's quite cheeky and grief. I think they came up with this plan. So really Din's been out voted. But does it have weapons? Probably not. Seems like it'll be a silly idea, but it does feel like we're gonna get to see some hefty grogu.
Action in the mac in the phenomenon, I just I understand that he has the little best guard chess plate that is just held on by the tension, just tension of his robe. But like I can we get a blast cover, like he gotta have bos he needs in front of it. Yeah, time, something like a canopy with a little like a little like bombed deer's slit.
So you can see like that.
I just feel like he's like everybody's me shooting at center mass.
I even just like pull down something a little shield.
I can't have the baby get hit, but it looks fantastic job, great idea, grief, I love it. Uh that night over some roast gigantic animal that the Mandalorian's killed because they love to do that. The helmet Ons and Offs are eyeing each other warily, and Bo is like, Okay, I'm gonna I gotta make the we got to pull together speech. She gets up, she makes the speech. She proposes returning to Mandalor. She's like, we're going to go
to Mandelor with a scouting party. We're going to find the Great Forge, and then once we've secured that, we're going to create a little base and that at that point we're going to start bringing people back to Mandolor. We're going to retake the planet. So I want volunteers for the scouting party, and it's got to be from both tribes, which is a great idea. And there's no wonderfully, there's no shortage of takers.
Uh.
And that group includes din grow goo ax woves, paths and many many more. But those are the hefties.
It becomes very it's very spartacus. First people are a little wary, and then then says yes, and then suddenly it's this is the way, and everybody's going uh.
And they head out with honestly, for how many people say yes, a shocking amount of ships. They take the light cruiser and they waste in the ship and like a ships they take what looked like the entire fleet goes to Mandelor. Now they arrive on Mandelor with and they just take one of the smaller, you know, scout ships and they go through the atmosphere. Of course, the boat takes pains to you know, tell hey, when we go down, we're gonna be cut off. Nobody's gonna be
able to communicate with us. Uh. And then they land and then for some reason Bow is like, hey, the green Forge is like somewhere in that direction, let's walk.
I have.
Bo Why are we not fly? Just fucking fly there? Why should we walk it?
You all fit in that one ship. You can just fly, just fly to all your and then land babe, just it's not exactly a scenic walk, like this is not good time.
And by the way, my other thing and the and the mandal aureos. I think part of obviously the squabbling is a big factor, and you know why they've found themselves in the position they not not to victim blame again, but it's but it was a factor. And then I think another factor that they need to learn is like combined arms, like take okay, if the ships can't communicate with the other ships through the atmosphere, just have everybody come down into the atmosphere, Like why stay up there?
Haven't everybody come down? Because the upside of that is anybody that might come, enemies that might come looking for they have no idea where the fuck you are because they can't stand through the atmosphere. And now you can communicate with your people if they're all in the atmosphere. Don't just leave most of the up there and you don't know where they are, and then you walk away
from your spaceship. So what happens if there's like an EMERGENC You're gonna run back to the fucking ship like all miles or however far you guys, walked bad ideas anyway, just take the ships play are we walking? Later they encounter like this really really cool like sailing barge that slides the very reminiscent of the kind of walker that Rex and the older Clones were living in when we catch up with them again in season two of Rebels, the episode Lost Commanders. Really really cool to see this.
It floats up and big surprise for Bo. It's crewed by remnants of the night Owls, which were an elite fighting force that was once sworn to bow and they make it clear that hey, we're still with you. We have failed you, they say, but our blasters remain in your service. Very touching moment. They look haggard like they've been going through it. The very first thing they ask is, hey, you guys got food, got more.
Giant birth died beasts?
Hey you guys?
Yeah, you guys got any of the meat of jackie best meat.
So everyone gets on the night owl ship because again they left their ship behind and what could only be described as one of the most unwise moves we've ever seen. You guys could have just gotten on your regular ship that had like weapons and stuff. Anyway, Uh, the night Owls then tell the story of surviving on the on
the planet while the purge was going on. They apparently like moved across the surface from place to place, just kind of like dancing through the through the fusion bombs, and they say of their experience, you know, they the Empire punished us because we refused to surrender, and Bow then says, no, that's actually not true, and she tells them that in her desperation, when it seemed like everything was lost and Mandalorin's truly faced extinction, she met with
maf Gideon and basically forged a deal that they would submit to the Empire and disarm and then all the Mandalorians would be spared. And of course maf Gidion double cross them and just decided to like kill everybody anyway, and then took the Dark Saber. A huge, huge, that's huge mission. It's a huge, huge reveal, and it's also you know, for a Mandalorian to actually surrender, that must have been really, really way. Yeah.
It gives a lot of complexity to bo a character, and I feel like a lot of people either love or have a quite complex relationship with after seeing her in the TV animated stuff, and I think that Bo, the way they've treated bo heir and the performance that Katie gives and the additions of context around the choices that she made, especially this conversation is really huge, and I think it adds a lot to the character and to what we know about Mandalor.
I agreed. The arrival of the night owls now adds another faction to this very combustible mix of Mandalorianness. Bo insists, again, Hey, we need to overcome our divisions. We got to avoid these mistakes that have torn us apart in the past if we want to rebuild. Dinn comes away with a real appreciation for Bo and for the way the helmet Offs live their version of Mandalorianness, and he notes he says, like, you know, basically says we're survivors, right. He says, what
we'll rebuild? It isn't that our history? And Bo, you know, talks openly, very vulnerably about her fears about not being the leader that this moment needs. She says, I don't know if I can keep everyone together, which I think is the thing that you want your leader to worry, Yeah, would you definitely want that, you don't want over oh, yeah, I got it, exactly true.
That's always what goes wrong. You always want the person who doesn't think they can be a leader to be the leader because they're being chosen by the people around them. Very interesting moment between Din and Bo here because he just straight up says to her like I will serve you. He says, I will serve you because you have honor, because I trust you, and I think Bo being vulnerable and Bo being honest. It upends what Dinn has been told.
What the death Watch used to say about her, She was selfish, she would never surrenders, she wouldn't fight hard enough. He learns here that that was essentially propaganda. That this is a real human who tried to make a decision to save her people and was betrayed. And this is a huge This man has gone from being a bounty hunter who works for money and credits to now saying he pledges his allegiance to Bo and he will try and rebuild Mandolo with her.
That's massive, It's massive, and it's I love that Bo is really grabbing the mantle of Duchess Stine, who similarly, yeah, was just trying to hold her people together, trying to forge this new path, a political path, a less warlike path, and was you know, the focus of a lot of violence from her own people for it, and now here is bo essentially doing the same thing, but after you know, her people have almost been wiped out. It's really heart rending.
Now many of the night Owls are not well. They've been living on the surfaces bomb planet, eating who knows.
What and crystal something.
So the armorer is like, I'll take them back up to the ships that we left for some reason, I've in order and I'll be back and.
Let's let's remember that as we go forward.
Yeah, and the rest of them, the rest of the night Owls like who were good enough, who apparently have been who are healthy enough to continue? They're like, oh, the Great Forge, Yeah yeah, we know it, Like just it's right over here. So they head there. Later on the ship as they're en route to the grape Forge Pass and acts get in a fight over a board game, which I get it, I've been there.
It happens, it's reliable.
It immediately turns into this kind of like symbolic fight of between these two tribes, and no one is sure what to do. The Blades come out boat is a little bit frozen by it, you know, like protocol would seem to suggest, like you don't get involved.
You can't do it because it's two separate tribes, so you're not supposed to open.
Not supposed to And Dinn follows bose lead, but of course grogu doesn't. Grogu Is has the liberty and the clarity of being like disconnected from this history and steps up with his met between them, and everybody actually chills out. They're a little chastened because when a baby is like you guys are acting like babies that it really hits.
Ye maybe in a crying suit, is like, please calm down.
Soon after this, a giant kaiju monster, not the mythosaur bursts. Very confusing and this this is a fantastic episode of the Manor program television program, But this was the only moment where I was like, we already are primed to be waiting to see the minsar again. It's a little weird to then have a very similar looking.
Giant monster arrived and it comes at like an important time. It seems to be doing something that's relevant, but it's just a sea monster. It doesn't happen just a just a cool sea monster, which great because I love a cool sea monster, so I appreciate it, but slightly confusing.
It then wrecks the night Owls barge, and not every Mandalorian makes it out. You see several casualties in this explosion, but thankfully the Mandalarians with dialogue do you manage to make uh? And the new Mandalorians then head underground for shelter and they come to the ruins of the Grave Forge. Suddenly they are ambushed by Death Troopers with jetbacks clad in best gar. The fight they is brutal.
They basically look like stormtroopers crossed with Mandalorians. Absolutely good flible, and like you said, that fight is brutal, like they seem equally matched, which we don't usually see with any kind of trooper.
It goes it's they're shooting, it's hand to hand. It is it is. It's really bad. And so Ax is like, I'll go for reinforcements to the ships that we left outside the atmosphere that we should have just like had trailing us. But I'll go and and I guess how would he would he fly? Like all the way up? I know, do we refill his jet pack?
Because we know he didn't when he was looking for his son. But how no, no, no, this is as it seems like he would be bat No.
But I'm saying, like, can they can you fly all the way up into into orbit with just the jetpag like, didn't the armor take the ship?
I know, how is he getting up there? Seems unlikely, but I guess that's true mercenaries, So maybe I try.
I trust him. I trust the Axe knows what he's doing. And so anyway, Ax goes up and this really heartwarring sign of the unity that this tribe is experiencing now passes like I will lay down covering from He lays on covering fire, and Axe flies up through the hole. The new Mandos beat the troopers back, and they go to pursue and finish off their wounded enemy. But then they find themselves in a trap. It's a hidden imperial base. There's tie interceptors all around, and it is Gideon then
has sprung the trap. Gideon takes Din hostage as the rest of the party, you know, trapped behind the blast doors, watches helplessly. Grogu is like crying moth, then tells the new Mandalorians that what he's been up to, and here and here this basically tells us what he was using
Grogor for. He says, like, you know, I'm taking all the best bits from all the best warriors from all around the galaxy, best gar from the Mandalorians, DNA from Jedi, our little friend Grogro over there, other stuff, and I'm going to create this like super super soldier army. And with that army, I'm gonna fucking conquer the galaxy. He then is like gets on the horn with his tight bombers and it's like, go destroy those ships. Gideon then makes bow an offer. Listen, surrender right now, give me
the Dark Saver. Tell all your Mandalorians to lay down their weapons and follow me, and I'll spare everyone. But like, how can you trust the guy? It's absolutely yeah, hard No. They start shooting at the glass, which doesn't do anything, but like these guys love to shoot and stuff, and then Bo cuts a hole through the blast door in the back and they all escape. Meanwhile, the front blast door opens and here come all these death Troopers and pauses like I'm fucking going out like a fucking Viking.
I'm going down, like he goes. He basically goes like on a fifty person killing streak. It's like a fifty to one KDI ratio until those Praetorians that mof Gideon ordered on Imperial Amazon arrive and they take him out. Yeah, in a great scene, a really great scene, and rip to Paz.
Ripza Paz. He did great. I hope he's not really dead, but he's definitely really dead.
He's dead.
They muck him. Also, I just want to mention Muff. Gideon has like sick doth Veda cross with.
Pasma Captain Patsma.
Yeah, and I think he calls it is a Dark Trooper armor that he's created, and it's this best gard Darth Vader armor. And obviously he basically made it because he wants to have the Dark Saber and be the Dark Trooper. It's so emo. But this is really cool. I love this unexpected twist, this.
Kind of.
Dueling idea of wanting to rule mandalor Bo wants to do it for the Mandalorians and the people, and Gideon sees it as like a power vacuum where he can on a new version of.
Mandalor free planet. Yeah, filled with weapons, and why not? Why do not. I just set a base right here and uses the lunch had to take over the galaxy.
Yeah, very outrageous scheme. I don't think it's going to go well for him, just looking at what we know of Star Wars history. But this was a very cool episode. Rick just absolutely smashed it once again. I think if anyone had been feeling we we have been big fan and of the more out there side quest episodes because we love that kind of stuff. I loved the Plazi
F fifteen. I thought it was so fun. But I feel like if people have been looking for that, how does it all come together and how does this impact stuff going forwards? This is that episode where the loose threads begin to be tied together and we start to get an inkling of the greater plan Rosie.
The title of this episode is the Spies Now G sixty eight. Eliot Kine is certainly the one is definitely a spy, so plural spies. There's a lot of conjecture on the internets right now about who the other spies are. Who do you think the other spies are? I mean, certainly there are some suspects. I found it weird that we had that armorer scene in there where Yes just flies up with the night owls and then you think that you're going to see the attack on the fleet, but then you never see it.
That definitely suspicious Axe Wolves.
Also is like I guess I'm gonna fly my jetpack all over his space and get to the ships. Like yeah, So there's there's there's people who left in weird circumstances.
And we did get that thing that moment at the beginning of the episode last week where the man lawyers who acts leads mentioned that like, yeah, we'll be honorable for a few credits. So there's still that duality of like, do they really believe that bo won the lightsaber fairly? Would they betray her? I think another good I think this is really interesting because, as the Internet has pointed out, as we've talked about, the titles of the Mad Laurian episodes are usually incredibly.
Literal.
Yeah, very very very literal. So it seems odd to be in a situation where we don't know exactly what this is referencing to. And you made a great point before we started recording that it's rare for them to want you to be ahead of the story.
Yeah, that's usually just like a storytelling one on one. Ever, let the audience be ahead of it, Like if you're going to reveal that there's a betrayer amongst the Mandalorians, don't let people be looking for that person because it'll ruin the reveal.
I wonder, yeah, I wonder if they want that conversation because another person that I think could we could think about it as being about Moff Gideon because he's part of this Imperial Zoom and he's using the technology and the resources that they have while doing his own thing to try and take over the galaxy himself. So is he technically a spy in that space because he's betraying them? I think the armor a thing is a really great call.
I also wonder if maybe there is somebody within Moff Gideon's ranks who is actually potentially a spy for our Mandalorians who might turn in that way. I think that we could be in a possibility here because of the plural nature and the fact that it's obviously not just about Elliott, who obviously is a spy, we could have a big surprise in the finale of having a few different maybe a spy network that we don't know about or something. It's very it's a very interesting choice.
Here's my argument against the armor slash ax woves as spies from off Gideon. Wouldn't he no more stuff? Like why would he need G sixty eight then to tell him that that is a great the Laurian's interfered with the pirates because he would just be getting that directly the armor, yeah, from them. So it I wonder again, considering how as you mentioned, like the titles are always very very just what it is on the surface level,
like you know, no subjects, just text. I wonder if, like maf Gideon is the spy because ye, as we see in this episode, he is working against what the rest of the First Order, even though they're not the First Order, he's kind of working against what they wanted. They're all like, we can't wait for Daddy's throwing to come home, and he's like no, no, no, we're not looking.
He's like, who's throwing him? But it is, it is.
It's a it's fascinating, and I do wonder where. I wonder how much more coruscont and G. Sixty eight we're gonna get? And I wonder, I yeah, I wonder how much more of that there is, K would seem it would seem as if, unless that spy network is gonna get revealed, it would seem like we're kind of done with her.
Right, Yeah, like they got all they needed. Yeah, but she's so great kay O'Brien as Alias. It's such a we a kind of nefarious energy that she puts across that I wouldn't be surprised if they try and reveal Oh you know what I suppose, and this would fit into conversations we'd had before. I wonder if the spies is more to do with Alia potentially running a spy network within the amnesty program or something like that, you know.
I I wonder if that will come into play in the finale that like that particular storyline and how she helped Gideon is done, but maybe that Imperial network is a lot stronger than we thought, and we'll kind of see the resurgence in the finale as we know this is now all leading to that sequel trilogy.
Yeah, I just can't. I think it would be an adacious reveal if the Armor was like a spy for the like, that would be absolutely incredible, like a game level like Flip that if they did it right, that would be a gut bunch. But I just I can't get there, Like, why did she Why would she so helpful on Navarro? Then when they were fighting the pirates, why didn't she just kind of like not try that she didn't.
Yeah, they'd have to have an ultimately brilliant it all comes together reasoning, because you know, when you're a spy, you have to play both sides. You have to be believable.
But as you mentioned, she has done many things. I would say there are some kind of you could have some fun if it was revealed that she was a spy with kind of that flip flop nature of who she deems worthy to be a Mandalorian and how she goes from having these huge concrete visions of what Mandalor is and who the Mandlorians are to suddenly being like well as many Mandlorians as possible. I mean, okay, so
this is again on the audacious side. But what if the reason that she's been trying to grow this Mandalorian you know group, is because she was going to send them to this trap and have Gidde and kill them. He says, thank you for bringing all the Mandalorians to one place, you know, So there are arguments, but I agree with you. I think that is someone who does truly care about Mandalor we know she cares about best Scar and she's very deeply. But then again, she could
be help. She could have been helping Gideon make those uniforms. He knows how to do it.
That's true, but like when she why would she go, when would she do it? How would she get there? I guess, like the other side of it is that we've noted in past episodes, like how effective they're recruiting. Was this is even before you know Bow's helmet offs came into the fold. They they grew the population of
the covert pretty significantly. And so I guess the another way you could go about it, if indeed the Armor is a spy, is that she's been assembling this force of Mandalorians to then hand to Gideon to then become part of his army. Maybe that's it, but it's again i'd find it. It would be, it would be, It would be audacious, but it would be I don't know
if I could get there. I don't it, I don't think, and it would really tear apart everything that Din and Grogu and so many of those Mandalorians from the covert know about Mandalorian being a Mandalorian. Like it would destroy the ultimate betrayal. It would be incredible if it was true. But like, I just can't see it.
Maybe acts though, maybe yeah, a mercenary I could see that.
You know, you can see it at Vieham. Sure, all right, I can't wait to talk more about the Yeah, the finales next week. The finale of The Mandalorian is gonna be a banger. Let me ask you this before we get there. Rick Femau, who of course directed this episode in various great episodes of The Manlorin television program, has been quoted as saying that the title of The Mandalorian no longer refers to just didn't It refers to the Mandalorian people writ large, it's gonna.
Be bo that Star Wars celebration. It's more about that. Even this season, I think they were saying it's about the Mandalorians as a culture.
Yeah, And I think then, and I think if you could pull back like the curtain, you might say that some of the kind of like bottle episode segments of this season, you know, could have been necessary because of like how you know, maybe they didn't have Pedro as much as they wanted. Are they gonna kill? Didn't like
didn't know? Didn't we know that didnt doesn't show up in any battles going forward, like any of the any of the the big stuff New Republic versus the First Order, you'd assume he'd be there, although you could come up with any reason that he wouldn't be there. And it has me wondering that quote from Rick, plus where we are right now in the story, plus the fact that we do you know, we don't see Din and Grug running around in any of the big battles. I wonder
if they I wonder if he makes it out. Yeah.
I think you make a really good point, especially because we're getting so close to tying this to the sequel trilogy now and we know we don't know where Dinn was. It doesn't look like he was anywhere, So, especially when you're starting to do things like Praetorian Gods, you're really directing us towards that first order. Where Where would he be?
Why wouldn't he be involved? Where is the baby? Maybe they were living off planet somewhere, But I think that it wouldn't be completely out of the realm of possibility that Dinn does not survive. Probably not this season, but I think I could see a season four us saying rip to din Man.
I hope it doesn't happen. I hope it doesn't happen this season. I'm not sure too.
I mean, let's be wrong. I want to see him on the big screen if they're doing this movie. I want to see him with the baby, and the baby and the mech and dinner his ship. It'll be great.
Up next, The Hive Mind with Benny schwas himself, Ben Schwartz, Welcome to the High Mind, where we explore topic in more detail with the help of expert guests. This week. Absolutely thrilled to have actor and comedian Ben Schwartz. You, of course know him from Parks and rec Sonic the Hedgehog, The After Party on Apple TV plus end the reason for his apperiance here The upcoming film Renfield out on
April fourteenth. Wherever you watch your movies. We watched the movie Renfield and it's delightful.
It is a fun movie, very fun.
Here's our conversation with Ben Schwartz. Ben Schwartz, thanks for joining x ray vision.
Jason, did you see the video on MSG? Okay?
Great? Yeah, I did.
We start there.
How are you feeling, what are your what's your gut check feeling about the Knicks in the postseason?
I feel great. By the way.
I know people are afraid of Cleveland's defense. Of course it makes total sense, but I am so excited for a Cleveland matchup. I feel first of all, ever since we didn't get Donovan, I've been like, uh, every time I see him play, and he's had such a good year, I'm like, man, could you imagine if he was on our team?
Oh?
My goodness, you imagine? And now it's like, we literally are matching up with the guy.
That we almost got.
So I am.
I am like, I think we have a chance of winning, Like I really feel, I feel strongly.
I'm not saying we're the favorite, but I think we have a chance.
I think we know we're not the favorite. A mere text me this morning that we're the We're in the betting pools where the low. We're not above, we're the under.
How Dad never tell us the odds? Ringfield is so fun? What was it like being a villain, being a bad guy?
It was crazy. I got to like, they put back my hair, they give me fake tattoos. Every day.
I had tattoos all my chest and arms. I had to like all the things I've never done in my life, shoot guns, work out. I had to work out for this.
Race, cars, get into fist fights, do a ton of drugs. So it's like I just don't do any of that stuff in real life. So it was so fun.
And then I tried to like give the guy mommy issues and like make it so like all this stuff is coming from kind of a pathetic place where he just wants people to like him, and all that stuff was heaven to me. It was really really fun to take what a villain usually is and kind of blow it up a bit, which was really fo Yeah.
The whole movie really does that with kind of the idea of like who is the central force in a story about Dracula? Usually it's Dracula, and obviously here it's Renfield. But what was it like to get to work alongside Obviously Nicholas is incredible, but then you have Nick Cage second. Nicholas in like the most Nick Cage role of all time, So what was it like being on set with Nick Cage Dracula, and by the way.
Rosie, I won har person agree when I watched the movie back and you see what he did is Dracula, It's like incredible. He plays like seventy different incursions. It's it's the most Nick Cage you've ever seen. It's like and also I love his performances because he's so unpredictable. Now he has a role where his character is unpredictable too,
But it was amazing. And the best part is like in between the Nick Cage stuff, It's like we're shooting a scene where he's like choking me and then throwing me in and then they go, okay, cut, we're gonna switch cameras, and then we sit back on our tables.
But he's still dresses dragging, and I'm.
Like, I literally said to him, I was like, hey man, So the first time I saw adaptation, I stopped it started from the beginning.
I think that movie is unbelievable. I am so in lovable.
And then he's just he's just like he's just a great guy who loves movies. He loves movies and has like a pet crow. He's like everything you love Nick Cage for.
You're of course known for your your improv skills, your improv background. How much of that did you bring to bear in this part?
I they let me, Chris, let me go crazy.
There's a cut of this movie that's like an hour and change longer than this, and I can literally, oh my god, I could point to scenes because I love the movie is ninety minutes long, which makes sense because the movie's got to like move. It's like a bullet like goes off and you're off to the races. But so they had to lose a lot, but I had so much more. Every scene you've seen me in this film was like a full minute and a half longer,
and then they slowly cut it. But like there's a scene where like I have a bag of cocaine in my car and I get into a car accident and Aquafina and Adrian Martinez are are racing with me and I throw coke at them their cops. And then in that scene, Chris McKay, we shot up for two days, let me go into any of the extras cars and
like doud like fuck with everybody. And so I was we were going crazy, and like every scene you see, Chris, we did it as is, and then we did it with me going bananas, and some of that stuff got in there, and then some of it just like you know, if I'm going too long, the scene is going too long, and also the movie is too long. But so a little bit is in there. But there is like a treasure trove of nonsense somewhere out there on the cutting floor.
That's for the DVD extras. I don't know do they still do those. I still buy DVDs for the streaming extras.
What's the last dv what's the last DVD you bought?
Oh? The last DVD I bought? Well, the place I buy DVDs is the book off in Torrents, which sells dollar DVDs. So the last DVDs I bought was a double More a Combat and More All Combat Annihilation box set for one dollar.
Oh.
I have an extensively terrible DVD collection of movies that I love. And one of the things, like obviously comedy, that's like one of your big loves, one of our big loves here and one of the reasons we are so stoked to have you on here. This is like a podcast that was born of a love of comics. So can I talk to you a little bit about your love of comics and kind of like what was your comic book origin? What was the comic that made you fall in love with comics.
I've talked about my comic I talked about a Marvel card collection with Jason in the past. But like I so, I started by collecting basketball cards and Marble cards, and then I start with like you know, and then my comics start with like Slapstick.
I don't know if remember Slapstick. It was a marble flapstick, and then.
Like Wolverine, and then X Men was huge, and then when Superman died was an enormous moment. When I was in you know, there was like the black case that you could buy it in like the black plastic bag.
So you knew you were read in the right issues.
Yeah, and like there's I always loved like the incredible like there even like the cover sometimes would get me. Sometimes there'd be a fantastic for like silver Surfer cover where it was like silver and like I would like be so excited to collect like unique things. But anytime there's a first an issue, a like issue of anything, I'm on it just to start it.
And in my collecting mind is like.
Oh my god, this could be worth a million dollars. Also, but I was pretty only I was a huge X Men fan, huge Wolverine fan. Loves Spider Man because it felt like I know he wasn't, but like a Jewish kid from the bron I was like a Jewish kid from Riverdale.
That's a recognize there is a large contingent of Superpera readers who would say Spider Man's Jewish. I think it's a It's a big, a big one, you know, with the creators who are involved. So I think that's an ongoing conversation.
You know what.
I also did. I also did run and Stimpy. I also I like there, I did, I did everything.
My comic shop was called Alternate Realities on Central Avenue in Westchester, and I would just go there collect basketball, marble cards and click comics and then play the Jurassic Park pinol machine.
It was like, my It's what I would do after our high school. It was the best.
Speaking of that, you have been outspoken in your desire to see a Plastic Man movie, Pitch.
I've been so screwed this tour, this press tour. I feel like James Gunn is going to hate me.
Now. I have to say. I have to say this is partially my fault because in twenty twenty one, me and you chatted about Flora and Ulysses, and because it was for Nerdist and it was about comics, I was like, what comic book characters would you like to play? And we ran a piece about how you had a plastic Man pitch. And every time I see that story come up, I'm like, I'm sorry, mate, it is.
It is by far the superhero I want to be more than anything else. But I feel like it almost feels like the guy that like wears like the band's T shirt for the band. Like Now it's like, I feel so bad because I'm like so passionate about it, and I even pitched a plastic Man idea to that studio a very long time ago.
I have so many ideas for what it is.
But I feel like I want you your I started interrupted, Jason, I I like love that character, but ask your question, knowing now that I'm like so worried that every time this comes up to be like this guy won't shut up about but go go, I want to.
Answer a question.
What is it? I guess what is it about plastic Man that that resonates with you?
So when I watched Deadpool for the Marvel universe, I thought plastic Man could be that for the DC universe. And when I think is fun is that plastic Man is a thief. Eli Brian is a thief, right, He even gets the superpowers while he's you know, around his you know, bad guys whatever, and they ditch him, which I is also in the original one, which is also something interesting. Even that group of people who are assholes
don't like him. But I thought the fun of this character would be he gets powers, but he doesn't stop being a thief, and the course of the movie is people like he has to finally be convinced to use his powers for good. But I think he's so funny, and even in the cartoon versions he's funny. And then if you look at the new comics that Gail did, like,
there's so much comedy in there. And I think your article then brought out Gail who was a writer for a Plastic Man, and she had said that she based some of the character off of me, and like parks and stuff like that or something like that. So it's like it's also like I don't look too I can kind of look like him too. I could look like deal too, So it's like I can never be thor I can never be like So it's like I can play with the skinny guy that stretches pretty good.
So just the idea of it.
Being funny, the idea of it being like almost meta because he kind of breaks that he does all that stuff, and also just you know, it feels like the mask almost a little bit too, like that Jim Carry flavor is like, I can really improve it, really go bananas in this type of movie and turn it special and funny. But I love the idea of a thief getting powers and it takes a whole film for him to be convinced to use.
Them for good.
Yeah, I mean, Plastic Man is some of the most exciting kind of transgressive stories. Gail Simon's obviously incredible, Kyle Baker's Plastic Man is like one of my favorite cartooning exhibits. Do you have a dream like who would play your Woozy Winks? Who would be like your hapless sidekick?
Well, what's the exact ethnicity of Woozy? And that's that stays constant do we know is it a specific thing?
Is it you want?
Twenty twenty three. I think he's usually just a little white dude, but you can just pick whoever.
I don't think he's white. I think Woozy's not white, right. It is the first Filipino Eugene Corderio character.
In a Yeah, this is what I'm saying.
I think Bobby would be amazing.
If I don't know the ethnicity of Woozy because I know it's a little bit, but Bobby up morninghand would be amazing.
Eugene would be amazing. There's there's a.
Lot of different people that can play that role, but I would love some that I can bounce off of and we could, like, you know, find fun, gorgeous things. But yeah, and also the the idea that I think that Plastic Man essentially becomes a part of the Justice League.
So it's like that character is so insane.
In that world of like like all these like very straight laced characters that I would it would just be heaven for a comedian to play that type of role.
Speaking of Eugene Cardero, he is jacked, absolutely whipped. You mentioned that, just busting out of his shirt every time I see him, the guy is getting bigger and bigger, bigger. And you mentioned that you know you had to you had to get in the iron church and start praying to the to the to the weights for this role. Can you describe the workout regimen for Renfield?
Yes, it was very small. I had to be strong enough to hold two guns this way. No, I cut down a little a little weight and then I turned a little into the thing. And by the way, I needed it because to do these stunts, to do them over and over again, and like I played basketball, but you know, it's like I don't have like my muscle strength is not where it should be.
And no joke.
The first couple of days of doing tests with these guns, they were like these gold guns, almost reminiscent of like face off, like Caser Troy guns. And I have a scene where I stick up Aquafina and I put the gun near her head and I hold it for like a good minute and a half. I do this monologue. The monologu has been cut down quite a bit, but it's like so the first like take where you're like, when I was like doing screen test stuff, I saw my hand like going like this because I just wasn't
strong enough to hold these guns for that long. So my workout regimen was the Chris Brewster, who is the stunt guy, gave me like some workout stuff and it was mostly like wait, it wasn't like it wasn't like crazy stuff. It was like me getting in the hotel gym, me working out with free weights, me getting on some you know, just whatever and working out and it gave me enough to be able to do it, which was really exciting.
And then it was so funny.
The second I wrapped the fight scenes I was in New Orleans, I slowly gained weight for the rest of the movie, like you see my character like slowly gets bigger and bigger. The second I was done with all the parts that had to do with whatever, it was just I just kept eating and eating in that city. It's so hard not to It's so hard neat healthy in that city.
Yeah, too much delicious food. So with this you kind of touched on it, but kind of this idea of like turning the idea of what a villain is and exploding it. How do you balance those moments like that moment in the club with Aquafina that's in the trailer way. You have that monologue, you still have to be menacing. How do you bring that balance of kind of unhinged scariness with all the comedy and kind of pathetic aspects that you bring into the character.
That's a great question. It was something that Chris McKay was the director and I really thought about. That moment especially, was a big one. Even when I auditioned. He's like, I want to see in my head, I never killed somebody before. My character had never actually killed somebody. He's all talk. His whole thing is talking. He's just trying to impress his mom and his friends. So he has the gun Tako FINA's face, and then she's she says,
do it shoot me? I don't think you'll do it, and like you see my gears start turning, like, oh my god, am I gonna have to actually do this? And we spent a bunch of time being like, how do we make this look real and watch this person flip from being this person just talks to actually somebody's gonna pull the trigger and so like we shot that scene for days and had such great, like dramatic moments.
So for me too, there's a bunch of that scene that got cut where like I'm like doing bits with all the people, like I'm like intimidating everybody when I get in there. And then and then I finally get to her and have this really dramatic moment that was exactly what you said, where I'm juggling this big comedy and then Okay, now this moment, I have to be like serious and now this moment, I have.
To be terrified that I'm gonna take some of his life. And we really played with that.
We really tried to find those moments and try to make them real so you feel the character whenever they switch, like when I'm unhinged on drugs and then really zoned in and like, oh my god, what am I gonna do?
It was really a fun part of the whole process.
The action scenes are spectacular. Each one of them has its own particular hook which I really liked. You know, there's a strong Jackie Channel element here, and then the end fight is really exciting. Tell us about doing fight scenes, it's.
You know, it's so funny.
So I did a show called The After Party right before this, and it was my episode was a musical episode. So I had to learn how to do choreography and sing and dance and everything. And I couldn't believe how strong the dancers were and how incredible they were. And they were like all superstars and regardless of genders or anything, they were like cute. They were like superheroes to me,
and I had to learn how to do that. And so I went from that to this, and there's a lot of similarities, Like the to learn choreography was the first time I had learned like real like you know, me and Nichole for weeks beforehand, we go through our fights and you know, make sure we're not hurting each other and dada da, and it was really fun. And then I gained so much respect for the stunt team.
I spent so much my time on my off time with that stunt team and Marvin Ross and all all those guys, and so it's like it's incredible and it's all a dance. It's all like if you know, if you're rhythmic and can do it. That's so like my stuff from the After Party really helped me for my stunt stuff here. But when I first started fighting, I would do like every kid.
I would go like.
The director had to tell me to stop making the noises like post because never in my life if I like play fighter with someone and not pretended, you know what I mean.
It was so was very funny to get that note from the.
Stunt director and the stunt guy's being like, you don't stop stop moving your mouth when you're.
I was sorry.
Yeah, I mean Michelle Yo. She was actually a dancer before she became a martial artist, before she was in the movie.
She is so inspiringly incredible.
Icon Were there any action movie or particular fight scenes or anything that people directed you to or that you revisited as you are prep in for this, because it is like it's an action movie, and I think a lot of people won't know that till they go and see it in the theater.
And also the action is like superhero action, where like, you know, we get superpowers and I'm on wires and being thrown all over the place and being flung in the air and.
So people's limbs are getting torn off and yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's the best being used as dumb chucks. The I didn't watch it for the action stuff. I do love my John Wick series. I haven't seen the filth movie. I do love I do love a John Wick movie. But I mean I grew up, Me and my dad watched, you know, every action movie in the universe we watched together,
so uh, nothing that prepared the ones. The movies that I watched prepare for the role were Good Fellas, Donny Brasco, Mean Streets, And then I thought, my character had those posters on his wall, but my character could never.
Be those guys, do you know what I mean? Like it's like, yeah, he had.
Those posters on his wall, and he wants to be like them, but he's just he could never. He just doesn't have it in him to be in So that's kind of of those things he aspired to be those guys.
Yes, what I love about this movie is that it is First of all, it's fast paced. As you mentioned, the action sees are wonderful. It has a story. We were talking about this in the group chatter. I can't I legitimately cannot remember the last movie that dealt with a man in an abusive relationship before, which is a thing that is under talked about. And I can't remember the last movie that devil this. This deals with it in a really fun and cathartic way and it's really funny.
Was that how much of that was evident when you were pitched this project when you started going out.
The script was amazing Ryan Ridley, Robert Kirkman, who did Walking Dead and by the way, Invincible if you guys love comedy, Oh my god.
And the TV show is just unbelievably good.
But he thought the idea Kirkman then he gave it to Ryan Redley wrote for the first bunch of seasons
of Rick and Morty. The script was amazing, and the script had all that stuff in there, and it also is kind of like inspiring for someone who wants to get out of a toxic relationship to someone who is like their boss at work, is like they can't get out of their job and they just don't have they don't have they don't have the confidence in themselves to break free because you know, the negative and the failure is so scary. So all that stuff was evident in there.
But the script was the reason why I wanted to do it was I never got to play villain before in my life. I've never gotten to do these fight scenes. I remember talking to my agent because I at the time when after auditioned, I got lucky and I had two offers at the same time, and I had to choose what to do this or something else. And my agent's like, you're always going to be able to play this nebishy Jewish character.
You're very villain of a studio film, Ben.
And I was like, you're right, you're right, you're right, And it was just so clear that It's like, I had so much fun doing it. For the reasons why I never get to play those characters, but all that stuff was definitely evident in there, and I think it's what makes movies good. You know, when you have something to bite onto for any of your characters, that's when it's like the most exciting. If you're just seen fighting fighting, fighting,
it's you're gonna get bored. But if you know, even when we're watching Marvel movies or DC movies, if it's just a series of set pieces with nothing in between, you don't care about what happens. But if you make you care about the characters, and you see that Nicholet is trying to break free, and you see that Dracta is kind of petty, also, that's like, yeah, you're like you're like kind of like getting invested in all of it. So I think it's so necessary and I think Ryan
really crushed it. The script, the original version of the script that I read was one of the better scripts I've read in a long time.
Yeah, that really comes true. It's so funny, it's surprisingly sweet while also featuring people being like lambasted with you know, broken limbs. So the other thing I think is really cool about this, even though you know it's not necessarily being presented this way, this is essentially like a universal monster movie, and we haven't had one of those.
For a while.
The last one we had was Lee one on Invisible Man, which is like such a different movie.
I thought they crushed that movie.
So good relationship, Yeah, really watching that.
I remember watching that movie and there was a scene where it was just a blank. It was like a scene where the director was like kind of like filming near the ceiling or something like that, and there's nothing on camera, and I remember being terrified. I wrote down in a notebook how I couldn't believe how literally nothing like you think of that day they literally put a camera that press record and the weight of that scene
was so scary to me and so intense. I was really inspired by that, I wrote in a notepad, like they remember this, Remember that you can cause drama just by like you don't need things happening all the time.
I thought that was really beautifully done that movie. Sorry, yes you said that.
Every suggestion it's so powerful. Well, I was just gonna say, what's it like to then get to create a character, to get this brilliant script that's in this iconic world that goes back, you know, one hundred years, that has people like Bela Lagosi, like pure icons, Boris Karloff, And then to get to create a new character in there and be alongside Dracula, one of the most iconic you know monsters movie monsters of all time.
It's when I have my scenes with Draculine when he like, I don't even know if it's in the movie, but like when he like comes after me and stuff like that, it's like two, it's so exciting. It's so exciting because you know about where they shot these movies. You know, how long do they shot these movies? You know, Bram Stoker, you know all these things, you know Leslie Nielsen.
So it's like.
It's like to be a part of the legacy and then to create something new that could essentially now is like cannon, as we say in our dirty words.
So it's like that is like it's so it's so exciting.
And then technically, no matter what happens to my character, this character now exists in the universe all these other joy Yeah, and it's a brand new character, which is like, you know, so it's very very exciting. It's ah for someone who really respects this stuff, it's I'm very excited.
Okay, final final question. It's and it's a little bit of a nuts and bolts question for me. Does the size of the bug matter? Because Landfield's eating like little spiders and some ants and stuff and and at the end you snort like a centipede that's like eight inches long, dude, And I would imagine that the bigger the bug, the bigger the powers. What are you what? How did you what's the receive that? Yeah? What did you think about that?
This is a great question. I only ate one bug. He eats a series of different bugs. Now is it the hard is it the blood from the bug? Is it?
What is it?
What is it that's really fueling him?
You don't really know, but uh, I love that It's like my character starts, oh my god in that scene.
They cut at the beginning of that scene.
But that scene, at my very first scene where you see me in the car and I do coke, you, it was a whole scene before that, where I'm talking to my daughter and putting her to sleep while I'm doing coke and.
Doing this child.
That's how the move. That's how my character is. Like Entrance was in this and we did like I mean, I improvised forever on that. But I love that my character is mirrored that. The first time you see me storts coc and then when he gets to be this superpowered guy, he snorts the millipede in the same way. I would say that the bigger the bug, I said, the more mass, the better. That's why he's constantly.
That's where it goes.
The power grows.
I think I figure out like a spinach, if Popeye ate African of Spinach, would he be half as strong or would he still be as strong?
Did you have the power the whole thing? Out right?
Important questions?
That makes a lot of sense. Well, listen, go see Renfield April fourteenth.
Yeah, go see Renfield is total joy and James Gunn make that Plastic Man movie.
Ben Schwartz, thank you so much, Thank you so much for joining us.
Go Nicks, Oh my god, go Nicks. Absolutely go next everybody.
Thank you to Ben Schwartz for peering up dex nerd out.
In today's not Out, where you tell us what you love them, why, or a theory that you're excited to share. Mike posits the latter, a theory about the inspiration behind Mandalorian chapter twenty two Guns for Hire. And this is very unique. I've not heard this theory before, but it makes a lot of sense. Jason, I'll allow you to do the honors.
Sure, uh, Jason and Rosie. The entire setting of Plazi or fifteen reeked of the show making fun of disney World and Disneyland. The domes are very epcotesque, that is true, the monorail, all of the people focusing on leisure and not working, Dinbow being presented with a ceremony and key to the city, and Grogu getting knighted at the end,
et cetera, et cetera. All of this seemed like a play on the over the top experiences that people can have at a Disney park, which Mike professes to be a very ardent admirer of the magic of disney parks, and this is I think this is pretty interesting actually, the way the monorail speaks and everything too.
I hadn't yeah together considered it, but it's really interesting, especially like myke he points out, this could be kind of like a satire. It's not like some cruel mockery, but it's because the mocking it everything fun of Disneyland and kind of certainly.
Everybody who is staying on Plazia fifteen is absolutely loving life.
This would also make a lot of sense because it's kind of a nice fun rebuttal slash knowing wink to how much the Star Wars TV shows have actually been about promoting the Disneyland Yeah park, you know, the really fun Star Wars Disneyland park that they built. There's been a lot of direct tie ins in the Star Wars shows to that new location. So it's kind of fun to imagine that this is them sort of going not nod wink wink, like my Disneyland's kind of an evil
like leisure planet. Like, it's a lot of fun. I love this reading.
I'm running with this and the fact that, like we didn't I've not heard this before, So first of all, Mike, kudos for a really really original, so unique.
I had not seen anyone do this real.
It's so fun, and it leads me to believe that if this indeed is the subtext, right, I bet you no one caught it on the way out, like part of the reason why I think this would gotten exactly nobody caught it. And and of course it also does portray like if indeed it is a metaphor for Disneyland disney World, it portrays it it largely a really really great light. I mean again, like everybody's just like living and shopping and eating well without a care in the world.
All of their you know, needs taken care of by various droid servants. Like it's yeah, fun.
I kind of like Mike also makes the point that like he's like, I'm not, he's not one hundred percent sure where they resist the bar stands in that, But there is also an argument for the idea that for you to have fun at Disneyland, a ton of people have to work jobs that you don't have to do so you can enjoy it. And I think that's also
kind of an interesting aspect of it. The droid aspects also fun because the Disney the nature of Disney is there's all these kind of almost like five Nights at Freddie's folklore about the animatronics and the kind of spookiness of Disney parks, and I like that that leans into it. I just think this is such a cool, fun read.
And I mean all of this stuff constantly feeds off each other, the parks, the movies, the comics, the TV shows, the storytelling, the creators who are involved in it, so it makes a lot of sense that they could be having fun. I mean, even when you think about it, even the way that like Lizzo and Jack Black are dressed really feels like it sells into this Lizo's kind of this Disney Princess in deep Space.
One more wrinkle to add to this that supports Mike's theory, disney Land disney World is a noted hire of many older and retired cast members who work at the parks to augment their their fixed income. And that is absolutely in line with the Droids, who are concerned about.
Like that they're going to be replaced all.
Their models here, and we don't want to be replaced, like we want to still want to be useful. So there that's another That's another little piece that I think supports Mike's assertion. This is very very interesting, Mike Man, thank.
You so much. That was such a great theory.
That was a great one. If you have series of passions you want to share, hit us up at x ray at crooked dot com. Instructions are in these show notes. Okay, that's it for us. Big thank you to Ben Schwartz. Rosy Anie plugsug Blugs.
You can find me Rosie marks at Instagram and letter box. I have a substack that I'm running. It's gonna have some really cool interviews coming up soon. Recommend you all kinds of books and comics because I get loads of great messages of people messaging me and saying, hey, what should I read? What should I do?
That is a.
Wonderful graphic novel that I read that I will recommend to you. Now, that's cool. The Mothkeeper by k O'Neill absolutely delightful, just totally magical. I think all of our fans who love Lord of the Rings and fantasy and big, beautiful artistic stories will absolutely find a lot of joy in it. So check that one out and then obviously here twice a week talking about cool stuff.
Of course for me. Primo on Amazon Freeview May nineteenth. Watch Primo on Amazon Freeview. How much do I need to subscribe? It's free, It's free there, and it's tree. It's like old school television. There's gonna be commercial breaks and everything. Amazon freev May nineteenth, Primo, the Primo television program. Catch our next episode of the x ray Vision podcast program on Wednesday, April nineteenth for more market moves on succession and more creepiness with the Yellowjackets.
In case you've somehow forgotten from when I just said it two seconds ago, laws remind you that we are bringing you two episodes a week, not one, but two, and you can not only listen to them, you can also watch them on YouTube, where we post full episodes, so make sure you subscribe there. Also follow us at xrvpod on Twitter, where we're always retweeting cool stuff, sharing funny moments from the show and all kinds of rad things.
And check out the discord hang out with a bunch of cool, awesome X ray Vision listeners who love all kinds of rad stuff and not always talking about things even outside of the galaxy of what we talk about of extra vision and me and Jason are there saying funny stuff too.
Five star ratings, five star reviews. Fie, we need them, we gotta have them. You gotta give it to us. Here's one from Crystal m and the e King. I'm with you till the end of the line. X ray Vision. What a joy it is to get to listen to Jason and Rosie talk about my favorite things in life, not once, but twice a week. Their discussions and deep dives are so helpful and I feel like I'm part of the conversation anytime I reached out with a question or follow up. Rosie has been so generous with their
knowledge and expertise. Thank you for being my go to at favorite podcast.
Thank you, thank you.
That's wonderful. X ray Vision is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord and Saalrubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy's Rhard are editing and sound designers by the Facilli's Photopoulos. Dylon Villanueva and Matt de Group provide video production support. Alex Roller for handles social media. Thank you, Brian Vasquez for theme music. That's it for us. See you next time. Hey, Mike, this is his notthan marine. Yeah, we'll talk about thrown today.
I don't know if you knows about me, Mike, but part of the reason I might be la cost so much is I got laid off. I got laid off from my Imperial pipe fitting job. They just laid me off, no warning at all, no benefits, nothing. I'm just out on my ass listening to the radio all the time. But I want to say one thing about the hypocrisy here, Mike, because Grand Admiral thron Where is he? Where is this guy? No one knows, and yet no one's talking about coming
for his job. Apparently people are still willing to follow him into the next war or whatever is going on. They're they'll paying his salary. I get laid off. No one says anything to me. I don't hear anything. I don't hear from anybody. Grandmairal Throng disappears for months and years at a time. Nobody knows where this guy is, and they're still willing to follow him and still willing to hold his job for him. Where is the bike? I'll take my ants off the head, thank you,