May 4, 2021 • 18 mins
In honor of May the Fourth, Anney and Samantha dig into the chaotic, queer, morally ambiguous Star Wars answer to Indiana Jones, Dr. Aphra.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I've never told you production of I Heart Radio, and
welcome to a very special edition of fictional Women around
the World. Are sub segment segment segment, subsegment good enough? Yes,
(00:29):
And this is a special one because as you're listening
to it, it is May the fourth, our Star Wars Day.
Happy Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you,
Annie's favorite. Uh yeah, I get a lot of messages
that day, which I really enjoy. Yes, And I've never
really seen it as a thing until I started with
(00:50):
my heart slash at that point still how stuff works.
And I came in and there was cake and punch
and decorations that I was like, what is happening? What
is today? And everybody's like, May the fourth be with you?
And it was like nerds, but you still took home
the inflatable lightsaber and the cups saw them recently. It's
(01:10):
true I did not knowing what I was getting myself
into because this was pre inundated Star Wars times for me. Yeah,
that's true. Office party also, what a long time AO
that was a thing, remember shared food and everything? I know. Yeah, yeah,
so I guess I'm not sure when you're listening to this,
(01:31):
so it might not be made the fourth but when
it comes out, it is. And so that means we're
going to talk about a Star Wars character, perhaps one
that you might not be as familiar with. I am not. Yeah,
so I'm very excited to talk about this character. We're
talking about Dr Chelly Lana Afra or dr Afra or
Afra alias Joystick Chevron. Tell many thoughts to that name, yes,
(01:55):
as you should have many thoughts. Hopefully by the end
of this you'll have a sense of her character, Duren,
you'll know kind of why I'm saying. So. Before the pandemic,
friends of mine kept telling me to read the Star
Wars comics and I was like, no, I don't have time.
I'm afraid what will happen that I'll be consumed because
I am a completionist. Once I start something, I want
(02:18):
to finish all of it. But then the pandemic happened
and I was quarantined, and yes, I pretty much read
all of them now, all caught up. And one of
the things people kept telling me over and over right
before I read them was you'll really like dr Afra,
And they were right. Currently, there is discussion of casting
(02:39):
her for one of the million Star Wars things coming out,
but she has not appeared in any of the cartoons
or the TV show or movies. If you're like, I
don't know who this is, Yes, just a quick question,
who do you envision as dr Afra? I don't know
(03:00):
if you experience this, Samantha. There are some characters when
I read things that I have a really strong image
for how they look and it's not like anyone that
I know. And for Dr After, I have a really
clear image of what she looks like in my head,
and I can't think of a specific actor who fits
(03:23):
that I've seen. There's somebody that they're like, it's gonna
be this person, and I was like, yeah, I can
see it, but no strong like okay, yeah, yeah, I'm
generally kind of bad at that stuff. I would ask you,
but you don't know who I'm talking. Like, everything I'm
(03:44):
about to read off is because you wrote it. Yes,
because I relate. One of those things that I'm like,
I have no idea what's happening. I'm giving you free
rein this entire beginning of May because I know what
it's about to go. Down in preparation with the fat
we did the prequels, and as they will soon find out,
we did the original trilogy for this month for our movies,
(04:08):
and then we'll also be following it up with the sequels.
The sequel trilogy. Yes, because I planned it around May,
knowing that this would bring you joy and comfort, and
it did, but also a lot of unnecessary research on
my part as I want to do, and I'm having
(04:30):
to be like slow, slow your world, back up, back
away from the computer. So in shorthand when I'm describing
dr Afra, I usually describe her as a cynical anti
heroin version of Indiana Jones, which, as I was researching this,
that was what they were going for, So you succeeded
(04:52):
that that is what I picked up. She is a
queer human woman. I read in a few places she
was of Asian descent, which I'm always kind of like,
it's no Asian Star Wars. I guess I get what
you're saying. I don't know, And she is an archaeologist
alongside her real dark and messed up assassin juries. They're
kind of like a really dark humor version of C
(05:13):
three PO and R two D two they delight in
torturing people. They joke about it. They kill people. She
travels on her beloved ship, the Archangel and later the
Archangel to once the first one gets destroyed, looking for artifacts,
pulling off heist and helping out Darth Vader and where
Indiana Jones would say it belongs to the museum after
would say how much money do you think I can
give for that? She frequently encounters rare Jedi artifacts. Yep,
(05:37):
she often sells um. She's smart, capable, good with weapons
and technology, quick on her feet, well versed in history.
She's creative. She's also selfish, reckless, greedy, unpredictable and sometimes
straight up yeah, it kills folks if she sees something
she wants. I like her as I was created for
Marvel Star Wars Darth Vader comics by writer Karen Gillen
(05:58):
and artist Salvador Larocca in two thousands fifteen, a series
that went on to spawn the Star Wars Doctor Afra comics,
which I guess I'm gonna have to get my hands
on these. Now I can help you. I'm sure you can.
She was the first character introduced in the comics to
get her own solo series, so I'm surprised I haven't
heard of her before now. Emily Zoowela voiced her in Afra,
(06:19):
an audiobook original by Sarah Coon, also in Alissa Wong
and Marika Cresta continued after story with Dr Afra. Yeah,
I haven't checked out the audio book yet. I didn't
know that was a thing, but now I'm like, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna seek that one out. M hm. When After
was a child, her father poured all of his attention
into scholarly pursuits and including setting the Jedi, desiring to
(06:40):
bring back their light into the galaxy, as well as
this extinct spiritual group that may or may not be
related to, like maybe a different sect of the Jedi.
Because of his obsession, his relationship with his wife and
daughter suffered and then ended up leaving him. While After
was a child, and he has Afros their last name,
So I'm sorry if that's confusing, but that's just what
(07:02):
I call her, and I'm not entirely sure how to
pronounce her first name, So Afra Um their new home
was attacked by raiders and Afra's mom told her to
run and hide, and after returned, her mom was dead.
Afra eventually made her way back to her father, just
as the empire was rising to power. However, their reunion
was not a happy one, and she attempted to set
(07:24):
his life work on fire, yelling at him about his
wife died while he tried to save all of his
research and a psychologist diagnosed Afra with quote mental issues.
I don't think he's very helpful. She's just crazy. Come on.
(07:44):
She went to school for galactic history and ancient civilizations,
and she excelled in her studies. However, she disagreed with
a higher up at the university about what constituted an archaeologist.
He took Afra under his wing despite the fact that
she got into a bunch of Shenanigans and regularly mocked
him like Regg really publicly mocked him. Afro was so
confident in the significance of her final project she wasn't
(08:05):
concerned with angering him. But as it turns out, her
project really did not deliver at all, and also her
mentor was experimenting in illegal and horrifying mind control parasites,
something he revealed to her before telling her. The only
reason he took her under his wing was that he
hated her and wanted to make sure she never became
a doctor. When Afro threatened to black Malomy told her
(08:28):
no one would take her word for it over his.
With the helpless of friends, Afro stole the parasites, ripped
them so that they looked like they were ancient, returned
them to the underwhelming tomb she'd chosen for her final project,
planting them there as though she discovered them, and she
was applauded for her discovery, and the parasites were destroyed
in accordance with imperial protocol. Her mentor was forced to
(08:51):
give her the doctorate or else reveal what he had
been up to. Oh, sneaky, sneak. Okay. While they are
ever instances Afra being morally ambiguous, obviously and betraying people,
there are plenty of examples of doing her best to
spare lives. She kind of reminds me of God Mora
a little bit. Yeah, I could see that. You know,
(09:12):
she does a lot of bad things, but she's also good,
maybe the sister, maybe more the sister. Maybe she's like
a mixture of the two. Yes, in my head now.
In one instance, while she was exploring the abandoned rebel base,
on dant Wing right after alder One was blown up
by the Death Star. She allowed herself to be captured
by the Empire to say the lives of some stormtroopers,
(09:35):
and she ended up being sentenced to execution. She managed
to escape, and her opinion on the Empire change after
what they did to Alderan. But that happened for a
lot of those citizens. Oh yes, yes she Effra does
go back and forth as she is want to do.
But this is one of the cool things about the
comics in general, is Afro's kind of like one step
(09:59):
by hind like the story we know of Luke and
land Han, and there's sort of intersecting and interacting, but
you know they don't know it. After the Battle of Yeaven,
when Luke blows up the first Test Star, Afra is
recruited to work for Darth Vader to help him do
things under the Raider of the Emperor, who was actively
trying to replace Vader with a new right hand like
to his face was telling Vader like, yeah, I don't
(10:21):
like you and looking for somebody better. Um. So, Vader
had discovered some of Afro's accomplishments and he was impressed
with her talent and sought her out, and some of
the things he tasked her with included things like going
to Padme's home planet of Napoo and pad May being
Darth Vader's dead wife and Luke and Leah's mom, and
torturing the mortician who examined Padmey's body until he admitted
(10:45):
he lied about the death of the child she had
been pregnant with, because when the funeral possession happened, it
was made to appear as though she was still pregnant.
She had never given birth, so he said that pad
Man had given birth to a son who was taken
by two Jedi masters Obi one and Yoda. After's Joid
Electricu do the man to death. After that, um yep
(11:06):
Yep After placed a lot of value on pleasing Darth Vader,
both because she wanted to live, but she appreciated the
challenge of meeting his incredibly high expectations, which she often
did quite creatively. There were times when she could have
left him for dead, but came back for him. She
was constantly trying to prove she was trustworthy to him.
She was tasked by Vader to locate Luke, and she
(11:27):
took it on herself to attempt to kidnap him herself
to please Vader, something she almost succeeded in quite a
handful of times. Um On one occasion, after Luke had
been kidnapped and forced to fight in a gladiatorial battle
as the last Jedi, she bet money on his death,
but of course Luke survived. One of my favorite sequences,
(11:49):
she manages to Cashia Luke by painting her protocol Joy
to look like C three p O. But then Han
Solo attacked her and Luke got away, only to be
captured by stormtroopers, and then Luke got away only to
be attacked by an angry Wookie and briefly captured by
Afra again. Busy day that ends with La punching Affra
in the face and capturing her, and then Darth Vader
(12:12):
putting a bounty on Afra's head. Why a lot of
things happened that day to upset Vader, but it basically
she knew too much and I thought like she'd been captured,
get rid of her. Gotcha failed me one too many times,
So yeah, just just her failure, got it. So Leah
released Afra alongside Sauna. They rescued Han and Luke, who
(12:34):
had been captured by a bounty hunter a lot of
capturing around here. After escaped, was captured by the Empire,
met the Emperor himself, and then Vader shot her on
an airlock into space, even after he promised her he'd
kill her with a lightsaber, knowing she would have a
fear of suffocating in space. Yes, that's pretty cool, yes,
but also he does give the chance for her to escape.
(12:56):
He believes her to be dead, but she anticipated the
had a plan and fate her death just like any
good morally am b u s character who betrays a
lot of people and works with people who betray you. Yes,
her doctorate was suspended too, and she threatened her father
(13:17):
to get him to reinstate it, but he called her
bluff like. She's like, I'll kill you and he's like nah,
And he said he would only help her if she
would travel with him and help him continue his research.
Through this, she gets her hands on a crystal and
becomes convinced that Luke can reactivate it using the forest,
so she forces him into accompanying her to visit this
queen at the Screaming Citadel, who grants request if presented
(13:41):
with the worthy gift. After presents Lucas the last Jedi.
Things go arrive course, and Luke and After have to
make a run for it. Luke saves aff his life,
but they are recaptured. Lucas strap to a table and
his life forces dreamed from him for the Queen to
slowly enjoy, like through this kind of looking device. And
though Luke pleads with Afro for helps, she leaves him behind,
(14:06):
but she feels so guilty about it. Besides, she can't
leave him behind, comes back to save him, or kind
of give him a chance to save himself. She offers
him the crystal, and Looke did his whole Luke thing,
and it was like, I thought, you know, I'm not mad,
I'm just disappointed. I feel like you could be better.
And it really rattled here. It doesn't mean she didn't
(14:26):
continue doing things like back stabbing and stealing and kidnapping.
Uh like Harris and Dula from the cartoon shows. Yeah,
it did kind of stick with her lost him. Yeah,
I'm watching that one. I'm in season two. Uh So,
(14:46):
a bunch of stuff obviously happens. Vader realizes she's a
live surprise surprise, she gets turned into the Empire again
by an ex lover, where she's tortured and eventually escapes.
She's worked for the rebellion at times the Empire, others
helping the attract the Alliance, working with Vader again huge mistake,
saving the Emperor from an assassination plot, huge mistake. Witnessed
(15:08):
the introgation of her father captured by the Alliance, and
sent the location of the rebels on hot to Vader. Yeah,
she's busy. Yeah, she's in high demand. And there's a
lot of like i'll let you live this once happening,
Like Kara's like, Okay, I'll let you live this one.
You know. He's kind of on nut level right relationships.
(15:30):
So wise, Afred does not have a great track record.
That's probably no surprise. Like I said, she is queer.
She has a recurring romantic interest and enemy Magna Tolvin,
very adversarial relationship, lots of passionate kissing and then immediate
betrayal and like torture and capture and then they're kissing
again and then I'm like you two, this isn't healthy.
(15:52):
She's also had a relationship with Sana Stars who we
mentioned earlier, who was a black woman who later claimed
to be married to Hans Solo and then attacked after
it in a age when they reunited after Afro left her,
and then I think they kissed too. So a lot
of like really angry relationships going on, but all in all,
Afra is an interesting, complex, fund chaotic character who is
(16:15):
well loved. I read a lot of things where they're like,
it seems impossible that somebody could really stand out against
Vader and that this could be a woman in this
kind of toxic fandom and toxic entertainment medium, But she did,
and she is pretty well loved. I remember reading the
comics for the first time and being immediately hooked and
also surprised that they did not shy away from the
(16:36):
queer aspect. And one I think I read one where
it started immediately and they were like in bed together,
half dressed and kissing, and I was like, WHOA, go ahead. Yeah.
And also there is a passage in there that I
have included in this outline that is it encompasses the
(16:57):
cinnamon role and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's cannon,
is what I'm trying to say. I put it in
here just to prove that I was not making it up.
She didn't. She put all of it in there with
cine and roll at the top. Just in case you
have questions. Yes, and some of you probably have many,
(17:18):
I'm always available to answer them. Yes, she is, and
she will gladly do. So. You know who I think
should play this character. And she might be a little older,
but she doesn't look at Bianca Lawson. She is in Buffy.
She plays the second slayer. Yeah, I can see it.
I guess you're playing this character. Yeah. We'll be fierce
(17:40):
because she's got that like I will kill you Martino
you phase, but also mischievous phase. Yeah. Yeah, since it's balance.
I am campaigning for Biuncle Lawson. Please okay, Well, listeners,
if you have any casting ideas about who should play
this character, please let us know. You can email us
at Stuff Media Mom Stuff at i heeart media dot com.
(18:02):
You can find us on Instagram and Stuff I've Never
Told You are on Twitter at most of podcast thanks
as always to our super producer Christina. Thanks Christina, and
thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You
the production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
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Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I've never told you production of I Heart Radio, and
welcome to a very special edition of fictional Women around
the World. Are sub segment segment segment, subsegment good enough? Yes,
(00:29):
And this is a special one because as you're listening
to it, it is May the fourth, our Star Wars Day.
Happy Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you,
Annie's favorite. Uh yeah, I get a lot of messages
that day, which I really enjoy. Yes, And I've never
really seen it as a thing until I started with
(00:50):
my heart slash at that point still how stuff works.
And I came in and there was cake and punch
and decorations that I was like, what is happening? What
is today? And everybody's like, May the fourth be with you?
And it was like nerds, but you still took home
the inflatable lightsaber and the cups saw them recently. It's
(01:10):
true I did not knowing what I was getting myself
into because this was pre inundated Star Wars times for me. Yeah,
that's true. Office party also, what a long time AO
that was a thing, remember shared food and everything? I know. Yeah, yeah,
so I guess I'm not sure when you're listening to this,
(01:31):
so it might not be made the fourth but when
it comes out, it is. And so that means we're
going to talk about a Star Wars character, perhaps one
that you might not be as familiar with. I am not. Yeah,
so I'm very excited to talk about this character. We're
talking about Dr Chelly Lana Afra or dr Afra or
Afra alias Joystick Chevron. Tell many thoughts to that name, yes,
(01:55):
as you should have many thoughts. Hopefully by the end
of this you'll have a sense of her character, Duren,
you'll know kind of why I'm saying. So. Before the pandemic,
friends of mine kept telling me to read the Star
Wars comics and I was like, no, I don't have time.
I'm afraid what will happen that I'll be consumed because
I am a completionist. Once I start something, I want
(02:18):
to finish all of it. But then the pandemic happened
and I was quarantined, and yes, I pretty much read
all of them now, all caught up. And one of
the things people kept telling me over and over right
before I read them was you'll really like dr Afra,
And they were right. Currently, there is discussion of casting
(02:39):
her for one of the million Star Wars things coming out,
but she has not appeared in any of the cartoons
or the TV show or movies. If you're like, I
don't know who this is, Yes, just a quick question,
who do you envision as dr Afra? I don't know
(03:00):
if you experience this, Samantha. There are some characters when
I read things that I have a really strong image
for how they look and it's not like anyone that
I know. And for Dr After, I have a really
clear image of what she looks like in my head,
and I can't think of a specific actor who fits
(03:23):
that I've seen. There's somebody that they're like, it's gonna
be this person, and I was like, yeah, I can
see it, but no strong like okay, yeah, yeah, I'm
generally kind of bad at that stuff. I would ask you,
but you don't know who I'm talking. Like, everything I'm
(03:44):
about to read off is because you wrote it. Yes,
because I relate. One of those things that I'm like,
I have no idea what's happening. I'm giving you free
rein this entire beginning of May because I know what
it's about to go. Down in preparation with the fat
we did the prequels, and as they will soon find out,
we did the original trilogy for this month for our movies,
(04:08):
and then we'll also be following it up with the sequels.
The sequel trilogy. Yes, because I planned it around May,
knowing that this would bring you joy and comfort, and
it did, but also a lot of unnecessary research on
my part as I want to do, and I'm having
(04:30):
to be like slow, slow your world, back up, back
away from the computer. So in shorthand when I'm describing
dr Afra, I usually describe her as a cynical anti
heroin version of Indiana Jones, which, as I was researching this,
that was what they were going for, So you succeeded
(04:52):
that that is what I picked up. She is a
queer human woman. I read in a few places she
was of Asian descent, which I'm always kind of like,
it's no Asian Star Wars. I guess I get what
you're saying. I don't know, And she is an archaeologist
alongside her real dark and messed up assassin juries. They're
kind of like a really dark humor version of C
(05:13):
three PO and R two D two they delight in
torturing people. They joke about it. They kill people. She
travels on her beloved ship, the Archangel and later the
Archangel to once the first one gets destroyed, looking for artifacts,
pulling off heist and helping out Darth Vader and where
Indiana Jones would say it belongs to the museum after
would say how much money do you think I can
give for that? She frequently encounters rare Jedi artifacts. Yep,
(05:37):
she often sells um. She's smart, capable, good with weapons
and technology, quick on her feet, well versed in history.
She's creative. She's also selfish, reckless, greedy, unpredictable and sometimes
straight up yeah, it kills folks if she sees something
she wants. I like her as I was created for
Marvel Star Wars Darth Vader comics by writer Karen Gillen
(05:58):
and artist Salvador Larocca in two thousands fifteen, a series
that went on to spawn the Star Wars Doctor Afra comics,
which I guess I'm gonna have to get my hands
on these. Now I can help you. I'm sure you can.
She was the first character introduced in the comics to
get her own solo series, so I'm surprised I haven't
heard of her before now. Emily Zoowela voiced her in Afra,
(06:19):
an audiobook original by Sarah Coon, also in Alissa Wong
and Marika Cresta continued after story with Dr Afra. Yeah,
I haven't checked out the audio book yet. I didn't
know that was a thing, but now I'm like, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna seek that one out. M hm. When After
was a child, her father poured all of his attention
into scholarly pursuits and including setting the Jedi, desiring to
(06:40):
bring back their light into the galaxy, as well as
this extinct spiritual group that may or may not be
related to, like maybe a different sect of the Jedi.
Because of his obsession, his relationship with his wife and
daughter suffered and then ended up leaving him. While After
was a child, and he has Afros their last name,
So I'm sorry if that's confusing, but that's just what
(07:02):
I call her, and I'm not entirely sure how to
pronounce her first name, So Afra Um their new home
was attacked by raiders and Afra's mom told her to
run and hide, and after returned, her mom was dead.
Afra eventually made her way back to her father, just
as the empire was rising to power. However, their reunion
was not a happy one, and she attempted to set
(07:24):
his life work on fire, yelling at him about his
wife died while he tried to save all of his
research and a psychologist diagnosed Afra with quote mental issues.
I don't think he's very helpful. She's just crazy. Come on.
(07:44):
She went to school for galactic history and ancient civilizations,
and she excelled in her studies. However, she disagreed with
a higher up at the university about what constituted an archaeologist.
He took Afra under his wing despite the fact that
she got into a bunch of Shenanigans and regularly mocked
him like Regg really publicly mocked him. Afro was so
confident in the significance of her final project she wasn't
(08:05):
concerned with angering him. But as it turns out, her
project really did not deliver at all, and also her
mentor was experimenting in illegal and horrifying mind control parasites,
something he revealed to her before telling her. The only
reason he took her under his wing was that he
hated her and wanted to make sure she never became
a doctor. When Afro threatened to black Malomy told her
(08:28):
no one would take her word for it over his.
With the helpless of friends, Afro stole the parasites, ripped
them so that they looked like they were ancient, returned
them to the underwhelming tomb she'd chosen for her final project,
planting them there as though she discovered them, and she
was applauded for her discovery, and the parasites were destroyed
in accordance with imperial protocol. Her mentor was forced to
(08:51):
give her the doctorate or else reveal what he had
been up to. Oh, sneaky, sneak. Okay. While they are
ever instances Afra being morally ambiguous, obviously and betraying people,
there are plenty of examples of doing her best to
spare lives. She kind of reminds me of God Mora
a little bit. Yeah, I could see that. You know,
(09:12):
she does a lot of bad things, but she's also good,
maybe the sister, maybe more the sister. Maybe she's like
a mixture of the two. Yes, in my head now.
In one instance, while she was exploring the abandoned rebel base,
on dant Wing right after alder One was blown up
by the Death Star. She allowed herself to be captured
by the Empire to say the lives of some stormtroopers,
(09:35):
and she ended up being sentenced to execution. She managed
to escape, and her opinion on the Empire change after
what they did to Alderan. But that happened for a
lot of those citizens. Oh yes, yes she Effra does
go back and forth as she is want to do.
But this is one of the cool things about the
comics in general, is Afro's kind of like one step
(09:59):
by hind like the story we know of Luke and
land Han, and there's sort of intersecting and interacting, but
you know they don't know it. After the Battle of Yeaven,
when Luke blows up the first Test Star, Afra is
recruited to work for Darth Vader to help him do
things under the Raider of the Emperor, who was actively
trying to replace Vader with a new right hand like
to his face was telling Vader like, yeah, I don't
(10:21):
like you and looking for somebody better. Um. So, Vader
had discovered some of Afro's accomplishments and he was impressed
with her talent and sought her out, and some of
the things he tasked her with included things like going
to Padme's home planet of Napoo and pad May being
Darth Vader's dead wife and Luke and Leah's mom, and
torturing the mortician who examined Padmey's body until he admitted
(10:45):
he lied about the death of the child she had
been pregnant with, because when the funeral possession happened, it
was made to appear as though she was still pregnant.
She had never given birth, so he said that pad
Man had given birth to a son who was taken
by two Jedi masters Obi one and Yoda. After's Joid
Electricu do the man to death. After that, um yep
(11:06):
Yep After placed a lot of value on pleasing Darth Vader,
both because she wanted to live, but she appreciated the
challenge of meeting his incredibly high expectations, which she often
did quite creatively. There were times when she could have
left him for dead, but came back for him. She
was constantly trying to prove she was trustworthy to him.
She was tasked by Vader to locate Luke, and she
(11:27):
took it on herself to attempt to kidnap him herself
to please Vader, something she almost succeeded in quite a
handful of times. Um On one occasion, after Luke had
been kidnapped and forced to fight in a gladiatorial battle
as the last Jedi, she bet money on his death,
but of course Luke survived. One of my favorite sequences,
(11:49):
she manages to Cashia Luke by painting her protocol Joy
to look like C three p O. But then Han
Solo attacked her and Luke got away, only to be
captured by stormtroopers, and then Luke got away only to
be attacked by an angry Wookie and briefly captured by
Afra again. Busy day that ends with La punching Affra
in the face and capturing her, and then Darth Vader
(12:12):
putting a bounty on Afra's head. Why a lot of
things happened that day to upset Vader, but it basically
she knew too much and I thought like she'd been captured,
get rid of her. Gotcha failed me one too many times,
So yeah, just just her failure, got it. So Leah
released Afra alongside Sauna. They rescued Han and Luke, who
(12:34):
had been captured by a bounty hunter a lot of
capturing around here. After escaped, was captured by the Empire,
met the Emperor himself, and then Vader shot her on
an airlock into space, even after he promised her he'd
kill her with a lightsaber, knowing she would have a
fear of suffocating in space. Yes, that's pretty cool, yes,
but also he does give the chance for her to escape.
(12:56):
He believes her to be dead, but she anticipated the
had a plan and fate her death just like any
good morally am b u s character who betrays a
lot of people and works with people who betray you. Yes,
her doctorate was suspended too, and she threatened her father
(13:17):
to get him to reinstate it, but he called her
bluff like. She's like, I'll kill you and he's like nah,
And he said he would only help her if she
would travel with him and help him continue his research.
Through this, she gets her hands on a crystal and
becomes convinced that Luke can reactivate it using the forest,
so she forces him into accompanying her to visit this
queen at the Screaming Citadel, who grants request if presented
(13:41):
with the worthy gift. After presents Lucas the last Jedi.
Things go arrive course, and Luke and After have to
make a run for it. Luke saves aff his life,
but they are recaptured. Lucas strap to a table and
his life forces dreamed from him for the Queen to
slowly enjoy, like through this kind of looking device. And
though Luke pleads with Afro for helps, she leaves him behind,
(14:06):
but she feels so guilty about it. Besides, she can't
leave him behind, comes back to save him, or kind
of give him a chance to save himself. She offers
him the crystal, and Looke did his whole Luke thing,
and it was like, I thought, you know, I'm not mad,
I'm just disappointed. I feel like you could be better.
And it really rattled here. It doesn't mean she didn't
(14:26):
continue doing things like back stabbing and stealing and kidnapping.
Uh like Harris and Dula from the cartoon shows. Yeah,
it did kind of stick with her lost him. Yeah,
I'm watching that one. I'm in season two. Uh So,
(14:46):
a bunch of stuff obviously happens. Vader realizes she's a
live surprise surprise, she gets turned into the Empire again
by an ex lover, where she's tortured and eventually escapes.
She's worked for the rebellion at times the Empire, others
helping the attract the Alliance, working with Vader again huge mistake,
saving the Emperor from an assassination plot, huge mistake. Witnessed
(15:08):
the introgation of her father captured by the Alliance, and
sent the location of the rebels on hot to Vader. Yeah,
she's busy. Yeah, she's in high demand. And there's a
lot of like i'll let you live this once happening,
Like Kara's like, Okay, I'll let you live this one.
You know. He's kind of on nut level right relationships.
(15:30):
So wise, Afred does not have a great track record.
That's probably no surprise. Like I said, she is queer.
She has a recurring romantic interest and enemy Magna Tolvin,
very adversarial relationship, lots of passionate kissing and then immediate
betrayal and like torture and capture and then they're kissing
again and then I'm like you two, this isn't healthy.
(15:52):
She's also had a relationship with Sana Stars who we
mentioned earlier, who was a black woman who later claimed
to be married to Hans Solo and then attacked after
it in a age when they reunited after Afro left her,
and then I think they kissed too. So a lot
of like really angry relationships going on, but all in all,
Afra is an interesting, complex, fund chaotic character who is
(16:15):
well loved. I read a lot of things where they're like,
it seems impossible that somebody could really stand out against
Vader and that this could be a woman in this
kind of toxic fandom and toxic entertainment medium, But she did,
and she is pretty well loved. I remember reading the
comics for the first time and being immediately hooked and
also surprised that they did not shy away from the
(16:36):
queer aspect. And one I think I read one where
it started immediately and they were like in bed together,
half dressed and kissing, and I was like, WHOA, go ahead. Yeah.
And also there is a passage in there that I
have included in this outline that is it encompasses the
(16:57):
cinnamon role and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's cannon,
is what I'm trying to say. I put it in
here just to prove that I was not making it up.
She didn't. She put all of it in there with
cine and roll at the top. Just in case you
have questions. Yes, and some of you probably have many,
(17:18):
I'm always available to answer them. Yes, she is, and
she will gladly do. So. You know who I think
should play this character. And she might be a little older,
but she doesn't look at Bianca Lawson. She is in Buffy.
She plays the second slayer. Yeah, I can see it.
I guess you're playing this character. Yeah. We'll be fierce
(17:40):
because she's got that like I will kill you Martino
you phase, but also mischievous phase. Yeah. Yeah, since it's balance.
I am campaigning for Biuncle Lawson. Please okay, Well, listeners,
if you have any casting ideas about who should play
this character, please let us know. You can email us
at Stuff Media Mom Stuff at i heeart media dot com.
(18:02):
You can find us on Instagram and Stuff I've Never
Told You are on Twitter at most of podcast thanks
as always to our super producer Christina. Thanks Christina, and
thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You
the production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
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