Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld

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Journey to the dark corners of the galaxy where morality blurs and legends are born. Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld delivers six interesting animated episodes that unearth the origins and continued journeys of two fan-favorite antagonists: the former Sith assassin Asajj Ventress and the notorious bounty hunter Cad Bane.

Ventress returns from death itself, resurrected by the Nightsisters of Dathomir under a mysterious condition – she must live without her "heart's desire." What does this enigmatic curse mean as she navigates a post-Order 66 galaxy helping force-sensitive children escape Imperial clutches? For readers of the novel Dark Disciple, this continuation provides tantalizing connections while introducing new questions about her relationship with Jedi Master Quinlan Vos and the underground network known as "The Path."

Meanwhile, Cad Bane's story takes us back decades to the mean streets of Duros, where a young orphan named Colby and his best friend Nero scrounge for survival. The devastating transformation from desperate street kid to the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter unfolds with Western-inspired flair, culminating in a heart-wrenching showdown that cements Bane as one of Star Wars' most compelling villains.

The anthology format allows each character study to breathe while connecting to the broader Star Wars tapestry. We debate whether these tales strike the perfect balance between standalone stories and continuing narratives, comparing this collection to previous anthologies Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire. Rich character development, stunning animation, and thoughtful connections to established lore make this essential viewing for fans seeking deeper understanding of the complex personalities who operate in the shadows.

Subscribe, leave a five-star "crunchy" review, and join us next week as we continue exploring the stories that shape our favorite fictional universes!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Project Geekology at your service.
We'll take on any episode forthe right price, and that is a
quote, a direct quote from CadBane.
Not really, but I am one halfof your host, anthony.
Oh, this is episode 120 and weare covering Tales of the

(00:20):
Underworld Star Wars, andjoining me, as always, is Dakota
, and actually you're one thirdof the Underworld Star Wars and
joining me as always is Dakota,and actually you're one-third of
the regular hosts on ProjectEcology now, because we've had
Rich on for probably what 20episodes?
at this point you are right.
I am just so conditioned to saythat You're conditioned.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
It's been years of that and now you've got to
change.
Life is all about change, buddy.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Rich, how you been Pretty good.
You know, buddy, rich, how youbeen Pretty good Just working
hard, excited to be here Justworking for other people's
sunrises.
That's what I've been doinglately.
Ah, a little Andor reference,yeah, one that I'll never see,
but yeah, obviously, watchingthe end of Andor, loving that,
just absolutely really enjoyingit.

(01:03):
As I said last time, I justgoing it.
It makes it makes season oneeven better.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
I just really, I really think so I think we need
to like briefly touch on and orseason two, now that it's
concluded, even before we talkabout like what, what else we've
been up to for the, you know,over the past week?
Anthony, are you caught up?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
no, I still have like a few more episodes that I've
got to cover, but I don't wantus to get too deep into talking
about Endor, because we aregoing to cover it at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Sure, I do agree with that.
It's currently the best show onTV and it probably is one of
the best, if not best, evershows on TV.
So it's the first live-actionseries to have five episodes in
a row on IMDb that are rated 9.5or higher.
It's the first show ever liveaction anyway to get that feat.

(01:55):
So it's episodes eight through12 are all 9.5 to like 9.8.
And it's like I've never seen ashow end on such a high note and
this I'm so, so excited andlike sad that it's gone and
we're not gone, but it's over.
But yeah, I, I can't wait totalk about andor season two,

(02:15):
because that is literally.
I don't think we're ever gonnaget anything like that again.
It's like just lighting in abottle and I hope you know, I do
hope that they take lessonsfrom the reception of andor.
Like it's good.
Everyone considers it's good,you know.
Like it's like this is what wewant, not necessarily tonally,

(02:36):
but if everything's written thisway, if everyone's, if
everything's produced this way,you got a recipe for success for
the next 10, 20 years.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
So there were a number of things that occurred
in the show that I knew weregonna have to happen, right,
just because I've watched theother stuff, you know, and I
still found myself like on theon the literal edge of my seat,
like I know people say that,right, but I'm on my couch and
I'm watching Andor and I'm onthe actual edge of my couch like

(03:06):
chewing my fingers with thescreen Because I tend to watch
it on my iPad a lot in front ofme, so like three inches from my
face, like biting my nails,like crazy.
It just was riveting, rivetingtelevision.
And what I think I appreciateabout it is I think normally
with you know, superhero stuffor like Star Wars stuff, I don't

(03:28):
really question what's going tohappen, like I kind of know how
it's.
You know, like when InfinityWar ended, right?
Was it Infinity War or Endgame?
Infinity War is the first one,right?

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
When Infinity War ended and you know Thanos snaps
everyone Sorry, spoiler alert Ifyou haven't seen that, that's
on you when he snaps everyonebut people walking out of the
theater and I was just like myguys cheer up.
This is part one, baby.
Like you know, like this is not, this is not how it ends.
You know, wait, they lose theevent.
The the good guys lose I was.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
I don't believe it.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
You know, as much as I loved it, I wasn't truly moved
by many deaths.
I don't think we got to see theimpact, a lot of it, but I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
There's something about andor that had me watch
something that's under the kindof umbrella of my favorite
fantasy genre, kind of going onand what ends up happening is
they've created like rivetingtelevision and there are no
lightsabers, you know well, well, and I think with uh, like
infinity war, is that they kindof pointed out who was dead

(04:35):
completely and who was going tobe coming back, whereas andor we
only knew, you know there wasonly what a couple of people
that you know, andor and monmothma, that we knew that was
gonna live on yeah, it's one ofthose things where so it's so
difficult to you know watchbecause you know that there's

(04:56):
only like a couple characterswho have plot armor and there
really isn't like a lot of plotarmor, because we know cassian
andor does not survive the youknow the rogue one.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
So it's like we're watching this guy like walk
towards his doom.
But it's also it's justbrilliantly written.
It's.
It's so good we we got to talkabout it soon.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I'm excited to get on to andor, season two yeah, man,
you know, maybe in two yearsI'm gonna kill you.
Dude, look how long it took forus to cover the first season
yes, and that was a mistake.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Well, actually, no, it wasn't a mistake, because now
we have rich and, you know, wehave some extra commentary that
we didn't have last time, soit's okay, well, I mean, you
know, if it you know extracommentary being you know, met
Mets lore that's somehowinserted into the Star Wars
universe.
I'm sure there will be no Metslore today.

(05:51):
There's nothing more that weneed to know about the Mets Rich
is like just like biting histongue right now.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Just keep going, guys , yeah so, Andor, Andor, Andor,
yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
So I still think the third arc, the one that dropped
last week, which was episodeseven, eight and nine, was the
strongest week and it was alittle bit of a dip in quality
this week because it's a tie-into Rogue One.
You know, like everything'sleading up to the events that
spark Rogue One, the events thatspark Rogue One.

(06:24):
So it's even more bottleneckedin the three last episodes
because we know now's the time,this is it.
It's one BB wide.
Everything's going to come to ahead right here.
But what they were able toaccomplish with that third arc
on Gorman and Mon's speech crazy.
We'll talk about it soon.
But yeah, Rich andor, so I'mgonna shoot it over to anthony.

(06:46):
What have you been up to thisweek?

Speaker 1 (06:47):
man, I've been actually kind of a bit on a like
anime tear.
I've been watching, just kindof like catching up on a couple
things or like kind of or.
Or I re-watched the last seasonof demon slayer because we have
that movie that's coming outsoon and I've been watching.

(07:09):
So my hero academia has like aspinoff called vigilantes, so
I've been watching that and ittakes place before I think even
like season one of of my heroacademia.
Yeah, yeah, because like allmight is like pretty much like
in full swing and yeah, it'spretty cool, like seeing these.
You know, these are likecharacters that have, you know,

(07:32):
abilities that might not seem asuseful.
Like one he names himselfcrawler and he literally can
just like it's like slip andsliding on the ground as long as
he has three points of contact.
One has like a jump ability andshe's like a kind of like a,
like a freelance j-pop idol thatsings concerts on the street,

(07:55):
and the other one's like anolder guy.
He has like no quirk at all buthe's just super strong dude.
He fights one of the heroesbecause that one of the heroes
thought he was being a villainand he just got that old man
strength yeah, yeah, when herealized that this guy was not
using a quirk and he was justusing strength, he's like, wow,
whoa, yeah, yeah, pretty much.

(08:16):
But yeah, I know.
So I've been watching tales ofthe underworlds.
I didn't watch it fully twice,but I did watch at least the
first arc twice because of mecatching it, like you know, in
that pre-release and fortnite.
But, yeah, man, nothing tooinsane for me this week.
How about y'all?
How about you rich?

Speaker 3 (08:37):
let's shoot it over to you I think I'm finally gonna
pull the trigger and get a bluevineyard remastered.
I've just been seeing so muchstuff.
It's on my youtube.
You know.
I accidentally watched onevideo and then it was an
avalanche and I kept watchingit's an accident, I promise yeah
I think I want to get back intoit.
I really love the world ofskyrim and I've tried to play
even the ps5 version and I justI don't know.

(08:59):
The visuals are a little toodated for me right now.
You know, every time I play itI end up wanting to go back to
red dead or something because ofthe visuals and what I'm seeing
from oblivion is great, and Isaw a clip that really made me
want to buy it and it's kind ofweird, but it was a clip of
somebody said they've remasteredthe audio, right, so they had

(09:19):
people like literally theyre-recorded the parts, they like
recast some people to read theparts and they still kept some
of the original dialogue where,like this, one lady's talking
about what about, like patrickstewart, did they like get him
back in the well, no, no no,they didn't get him back, but,
like some of the side people,and they have like one woman

(09:39):
who's like she's like how muchdo what's the fine for
necrophilia here?
and then she goes oh, that's it.
In morrowind it was like 500and you know, you're just like
wow.
And then there's one where heyou know where a bounty hunter
basically says oh yeah, no.
So I walked into the party andI had to kill six-year-old girl,

(10:00):
you know.
So it's part of the job andit's just like nowadays you
probably wouldn't find that kindof dialogue in something, and I
kind of love that they've redidit and still like, still stood
firm.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
So okay, that's cool.
Yeah, that's that's pretty.
That clip might lead me to buythe entire game I have fond
memories of playing oblivionover like the summer breaks of
school, and my favorite thingabout that game is that you
could just spam certain actionsjumping you can keep jumping and

(10:31):
you'll keep getting better atjumping.
Yes, your jumps will get higherand higher.
You're, you're, I think it'scalled acrobatics yes yes, is
you're you can bring youracrobatics skill like to a point
where you can jump over likebuildings, or like at least
almost jump over buildings, andit's, it's, it's insane, my
friend frank.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
I remember the first time he came over to play it.
He's just hopping all the time.
I guess he's moving through andI'm like, what are you doing?
He's like I'm raising myacrobatic skill.
Man, never waste any motion.
I was like that's a littlecrazy.
And then I, two weeks later,I'm doing the same thing.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
It's amazing and it totally breaks the game because
you know, then you can do theyou know like just slashing and
attacking and just likeeverything you do, just
continuously like progressesuntil you reach, I think it's
like 99 is the highest level.
Yeah, I don't think it gets 100, but yeah, good times with
oblivion.
What else have you been up to?

Speaker 3 (11:22):
just I'm in the middle of a kind of hectic week
at work where I get paid to besilent to 17 consecutive days of
Rich Laconi being asked to justnot talk and watch kids test.
So it's not the most fun.
But, as we were speaking aboutearlier, sometimes you just find
the time to maybe multitask andlisten to something while

(11:43):
you're supposed to be doingsomething else.
So I will not confirm nor denylistening to anything while I
was proctoring, but Tales of theUnderworld was watched three
times.
I'm not sure if you would callthat a coincidence.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
That's an interesting coincidence.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yes, I will call that a coincidence, thank you.
In case the InternationalBaccalaureate is listening, I
just want to be clear.
There's not an admission ofguilt no, of course not.
It just two things happen to betrue separately so what have
you been up to down in dakota?

Speaker 2 (12:12):
a lot of work like actual work, boring old work.
I did listen and or watch thetales of the underworld a second
time while I was at work.
This is an admission to guiltand I doubt anyone from my job
is ever going to hear this, sobut anyway, no, I was just.

(12:33):
I was.
I'm an electrician.
I was working on outlets forhours, so I just, you know, plop
my phone down on the ground,click, play and start splicing
wires together.
That that's all I do.
It was fun, you know, gettingbite-sized Star Wars while I was
at work, so that's been good.
Usually I like to listen toaudiobooks and, occasionally,

(12:54):
podcasts, but yeah, oh, a funthing that I was doing this week
is I don't usually makeplaylists.
That's not something that I'mbig on, but like music playlists
I don't usually do, because Ilike listening to albums in
their full.
But recently I've gotten intothe habit of listening to like
Apple Music's recommendedplaylists based on you know just

(13:17):
what I'm into, or like what iscurrently downloaded onto my
phone.
And it's sometimes reallyannoying because I know that I
listen to like film soundtracksoccasionally, but when I'm
listening to like music, musicor like an artist that I'm
really into, or whatever, andthen it like cuts to John
Williams or Howard Shore or anyof those you know excellent

(13:39):
composers.
It's a total vibe shift and I'mjust like I wish Apple Music
had an option where I could justsay no more film scores, no
more Disney movie soundtracks.
I don't want that when I'mlistening to.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
No, I got it In my head.
You're listening to gettingjiggy with it, right, and you're
just like na na, na, na, na na.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
And then suddenly, like Star Wars themes hits and
you're like man, man, there goesmy whole vibe yeah, so but
anyway, I have kind of likeworked my algorithm a little bit
so that it doesn't happen toooften anymore.
But I've been thinking aboutlike music in general recently
and like why certain songs likeresonate with me and when and
others don't.
And one thing that I've foundis that I really like longer

(14:22):
songs.
I always find that if there's asong that's like two or three
minutes, four minutes, that Ireally like longer songs, I
always find that if there's asong that's like two or three
minutes, four minutes, that Ireally like, I always get a
little disappointed because it'sover too soon, you know.
So I started creating aplaylist called Songs that
Transcend the Six Minute Divide,and it's specifically songs
that I like or songs that fit myvibe or mood, but they have to

(14:44):
be over six minutes, and I'vegot about 20 songs in the
playlist now just based on, like, my listening habits and I'm
just I'm not like looking forthe songs, but you know, like if
they pop up on my recommendedmusic, I'm like, hmm, maybe I'll
add this one.
So I've been working on that,so it's a pretty fun playlist.

(15:06):
And right now it's mostly likevery moody and brooding, but
that's kind of me.
But anyway, what else I've beenup to?
I've been doing a lot ofwriting.
Last time I think I was sayingthat I was writing the avatar
kurok era.
I'm done with the avatar kurokera.
I'm well into avatar kiyoshiand like I'm really picking up
speed on that and I'm reallyexcited because, you know, once
I get past Kyoshi and Roku, thenI'm I can talk about the shows,

(15:29):
I can talk about the LastAirbender and, you know, legend
of Korra, then I'll truly be in,like the modern eras of the
Avatarverse and I can finallyhone in on that.
So I'm excited about that.
My video is very long.
I think I'm nearing 20 000words and I'm still in the
kyoshi era.
So I do expect this to be amulti-hour documentary style

(15:51):
thing, but it's a product thatI'm really excited about.
So yeah, that's what I'mworking on right now are you
gonna?

Speaker 1 (15:59):
is that gonna be like a one video type thing, or are
you going to do it like in?
Are you going to split it up?

Speaker 2 (16:05):
so I wrote, I made a video a couple months ago where
I I broke down how many avatarsthere have been and I calculated
, based on quotes from thecreators and stuff, that korra
is the 99th avatar and theavatar after korra will be the
100th.
That is actually mostly takenfrom this video that I'm working

(16:28):
on right now.
So that's a portion of thevideo that I'm working on, like
my actual timeline.
I took a chunk of that out andI made a separate video.
But once I'm done writing thescript and recording, I'm
thinking that as I go through myedit I'll release chunks of it.
So you know, era of rava andjuan, then like some of the like

(16:48):
mystery eras, because there'slike 7 000, 8 000 years worth of
stuff that we don't fully knowabout.
But I have a lot of likehistory that I've kind of
planted in there so I can make awhole video about that.
I can do some a video about likethe lesser avatars, like gun
salai and zito.
Then I can do a whole episodeon, or a whole video on, yang

(17:09):
chan.
I could do a whole video onkiyoshi and roku and maybe even
correct.
So I I have I think I'm goingto release it in parts but also
have a full video that you cango like if.
If you don't want to watch itin like chunks, you can just
watch it straight through,basically so that's kind of what
I'm hoping to do I think youshould do it like ironheart.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
You know, just drop half the season in one day, and
then half the season the nextweek, and you know is that what
they're doing?

Speaker 1 (17:35):
yeah?

Speaker 3 (17:35):
apparently they're.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
They're just gonna drop it in like two chunks I
mean it's hard to say that, likeespecially after andor, where
they were releasing threeepisodes a week, which is a lot
of content, like that's a movielength's worth of content every
week.
It's hard to say that thatdoesn't bode well for Ironheart,
because a lot of times whenthey release a show in its

(17:59):
entirety, it's usually a signthat they don't expect it to
have much leg.
Okay, so chucking's a littlehave much leg.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
Oh okay, so chucking's a little bit better,
all right Fair.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, but Andor was different in the sense that each
week was supposed to be its ownmovie, basically.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
You know they're releasing arcs.
Essentially, that's exactly it.
Yeah, they're releasing arcs.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
But yeah, I think that's all I've been up to.
I'm gonna say that's all I'vebeen up to.
Let's jump into tales of theunderworld people are you sure
it's not the underground?
I.
I keep off camera saying we'recovering tales of the
underground or tales from theunderground, and it sounds like
Underground and it sounds like ahip-hop album from the 90s.

(18:48):
Yep, Tales from the Underground.
I wouldn't be surprised if itwas.
But yeah.
So in past years, specificallyevery May 4th for the past three
years, Lucasfilm has released anew series of short form videos
or short form stories.
Two years ago, on May 4th 2023,they released Tales of the Jedi

(19:14):
, which featured three episodesof Ahsoka Tano and three
episodes of Dooku Sereno, and Ireally love that one.
I still think that's the bestof these episode drops.
Then, the year after May 4th2024, they released Tales of the
Empire, which it featured ohman, I forget the girl's name.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah, Barriss.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, there was Barriss Offee.
She had three episodes thattake place post-Order 66.
And we also got I think hername is Morgan.
I forget the other girl's name.
Oh man, it's killing me thegirl from Season 2 of
Mandalorian who ran that townand Ahsoka had to fight.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
I forget her name, oh yeah, are you talking about
Bo-Katan?
Forget her name.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
oh yeah are you talking about boca tan?
Yeah, no, no I know who you'retalking about.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah, you know you're right, dakota the witch like
the one who yeah she's.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
She's related to like house and then yeah which
sisters?

Speaker 1 (20:17):
yeah, I don't know why, I'm like, was it like
morgan?

Speaker 2 (20:19):
no, no, you're right?

Speaker 1 (20:20):
no, you had it right was it morgan?

Speaker 2 (20:22):
yeah, okay, yeah, all right.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Yeah, because it's supposed to be almost like a
morgan lefay reference from thearthurian tales that's what you.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
You mentioned morgan lefay and I was just like, yeah,
that sounds right, but it's Ithink it's a little different
than that, but yeah, it'sdefinitely based on that.
That was last year's sixepisodes the barisoffi and
morgan and now this year we havethree episodes of asajj
ventress and three episodes ofcad bane.

(20:53):
Really quickly, how do you guysrank tales of the jedi, tales
of the empire and tales of theunderworld under not underground
underworld?

Speaker 3 (21:03):
I think I go jedi underworld dead empire yeah, I
go with that ranking too I likeokay I like dooku too, like I
love dooku so much, you know,and in some ways almost I think
that's why I love this one somuch, because I definitely feel
way more attached, like to asajjventress at the same time.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, so, I'm a little different from you guys.
I would choose Jedi, empire andUnderworld, underworld being
the last for me.
I have some criticisms that Iyou know I'm going to explore
later.
But for me the reason I chooseJedi first is because Tales of
the Jedi were completelyseparate stories.

(21:45):
They were short stories thatdidn't really tie into one
another, you know, besides, likethe thematic arc of one's life.
That's kind of how that serieswent.
Then the Barriss Offee storiesin Tales of the Empire were a
little bit more streamlined,same with Morgan's.
It was a three episode storyinstead of three separate

(22:08):
stories, if you know what I mean.
So it was no longer reallytales.
It was a tale of barris and atale of this girl.
And this one, I think, like theasajj ventress one is probably
like the most egregious whereit's just like three very
consecutive, like they.
They take place days apart eachof the three asajj ventress

(22:29):
stories.
And that really bothered mebecause it's no longer the same
format that they were trying todo in the first place and I mean
maybe they were never planningto stick to that format.
I don't know, maybe I'm beingtoo critical there, but that
really bothered me because Iwant variation, you know, I want
to see different points of thisperson's life.
It seems clear to me they justwanted to tell a specific story
yeah, yeah, see, see, I get that.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
I think the reason why I place underworld second is
because, like when cad banerolls around, that was
definitely the strongeststoryline and, to be honest with
you, I felt like that storylinewas stronger than both the
Barriss and the Morgan ones.
You're right and so I would saythat that's what carried,

(23:16):
because I definitely agree withyou with the Asajj one.
I mean it was cool seeing Asajj, you know, in her like kind of
gray jedi, kind of like form.
She's obviously not, like youknow, trying to go straight
towards the life of a jedi, butshe has that desire to help a
little bit, just in her own way.

(23:36):
So it was cool seeing that inthe way that they tied in dark
disciple with it, which was Ithought that was really cool.
But man like that cad bane onewas so good.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
I really enjoyed the cad bane side of that show yeah,
which which of these two arcsdid you more resonate with rich?

Speaker 3 (23:58):
hmm.
So before I heard you sayanything, I was gonna go with
asajj ventress.
I just really like hercharacter, it I don't know how
to put it when she comes onscreen.
When she came on I was like, oh, I was like a Sash.
You know, I feel I know her alittle bit more than I know Cad
Bane.
I did like seeing obviously CadBane in live action and

(24:19):
everything, but I don't know,for me I think it's just I
really like Dark Disciple.
So seeing that kind of playedout here was anthony said was
definitely a treat for me.
And yeah, I mean.
But then you know, you do saythat this is only like one, like
three day arc in her life andI'm like man, I didn't think
about it until now.

(24:39):
I'm like, yeah, you're right, Ikind of.
I kind of wish it was a littlespread apart in her life and we
would have seen a little bit ofdifferent kind of moments of her
, maybe you know, somewhere withdathomir or something or I
don't know, just just a littlebit of a break.
But I think a part of the issuewith that is a lot of her stuff
was covered in.

(25:00):
I'm gonna say the wrong one.
But rebels, no clone wars yeah,I knew I was gonna guess I was
gonna say the wrong one, becausethey're all a 50 50 show I
watch, unless you're alsothrowing bad batch into the the
scene and then oh, there you gotechnically she does show up in
bad yeah, I watched.
You know I kind of binged allthe whole like I had kind of

(25:21):
ignored the star wars cartoonsfor a while.
I'll say animation, sorry, andI don't know why I was really
resistant to any of I.
I kept putting them on and likeI even tried with charlie and I
, it wouldn't stick.
I'd watch three episodes andthen I would be like I don't
even know what happened there, Idon't know why, and it kept
happening until bad batch cameout.

(25:42):
And then, once bad batch cameout, I was able to kind of go
through that and I really likedit and then I went back and
watched everything together.
So I really like Asajj in theanimation that I've seen before.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, did I hear that correctlythat you have also read Dark
Disciple?

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
All right, so that's pretty cool.
We got three panelists who haveall read Dark Disciple.
I think that might.
No, I think we've also all readLight of the Jedi.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Which yeah?

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yeah, I mean, we did an episode on that one.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
We did an episode on that one, but this is probably
the closest we'll come to a DarkDisciple-esque episode.
So for those of you who arelistening and have not read the
book or don't know what we'retalking about, it's six of the

(26:36):
clone wars, you know like they.
Season seven was canceledbriefly before it was picked up
later but one of the story arcswas an eight episode story arc
written by katie lucas, which isgeorge luc Lucas's daughter,
and it was called Dark Discipleand it was a story of Asajj
Ventress and Quinlan Vos fallingin love and she it kind of it's

(26:56):
like her break away from Dookuand turning to the light side
and it's a beautiful story andit was after it was cancelled
because they cancelled seasonseven, christy golden wrote it
into a novel form and it is liketotally canon it's.
It's extremely strong.
It's one of the stronger booksin the in the canon and it's

(27:16):
really sad.
Like I remember where I was,where I was, the first time I
was listening to it.
I was, I was like I was workingon cars, I was detailing cars at
the time and I was on some likeused car lot, like in a range
rover dealership, and I was onsome like used car lot, like in
a Range Rover dealership and Ijust remember, like you know,
because it was like winter,there was like snow everywhere
and I was just like I was like Ifell onto the snow.

(27:36):
I was like, no, I was, I wastearing up in the Range Rover
parking lot.
Yeah, that was, that was a funtime.
But this episode, the firstepisode with Asajj Ventress,
begins at the end of that novel.
So, spoiler alert AsajjVentress dies in that Quinlan
Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi bring herback to Dathomir, put her in,

(27:59):
you know, some green goo, somegreen liquid.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
They put her in the Lazarus pit, you know.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
They put her in the Lazarus pit, you know, they put
her in the Lazarus pit.
It's the same place that theydropped Imhotep in the Mummy,
right before he goes.
Death is only the beginning,and, yeah, so that's where this
episode starts.
We have Mother Talzin basicallygiving her an ultimatum.
Like you can chill with us,we're cool, you know.
Like we're all swimming here,we're all ladies, but you can go

(28:26):
back to the living world.
But the only thing is youcannot have your heart's desire.
And that was an interestingultimatum.
I like that shakespearean, youknow.
Like I like when star wars doesstuff like that.
But my issue is they don'treally explain what that means,
because does that mean quinlanvoss can't see her, can't love

(28:46):
her anymore?
Does that mean she can't loveQuinlan Vos?
Because she then spends thenext three episodes searching
for him and she comes very closeto you know, potentially seeing
Quinlan Vos.
There's the idea that QuinlanVos might be on that ship
leading to the path you know totake wayward Jedi to safety.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, it was cool hearing about that again too.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
The path yeah, something brought up in obi-wan
kenobi.
Yeah, that they are like justvery good at weaving stuff
together over over the span ofdifferent series.
But yeah, so like what?
What is your take on the Iguess, the ultimatum slash curse
that mother talzin put on asajjso that she can live again?

(29:29):
Can she still love quinlan voss?
Can quinlan voss still love her?
Or is it just too vaguecurrently?
Maybe it's well?

Speaker 1 (29:36):
obviously she still felt something, you know yeah
she, she was.
I mean, that was the wholereason why she was kind of
looking for the path you youknow with what was his name
again?
The kid Lyco.
Yeah, lyco.
So you know, obviously therewere some feelings on that and

(29:57):
maybe the ultimatum was I don'tknow, maybe it was a little bit
deeper than that, maybe becauseyou know that was, you know,
know, because she was kind of, Iguess, like it was almost like
she was being reborn again andso it's like that was part of
like another part of her life,and so I guess, yeah, she's just

(30:18):
trying to, I guess, live in away that would make him proud, I
guess quinlan voss yeah, whatare your takes on?

Speaker 3 (30:28):
it rich.
I mean, I could see it beingsomething like a I'll call it
the rogue curse, where she, asyou know she went to go touch
him.
She would be enveloped in likethe green magic of the witches
of dathomir, and that touchwould kill quinlan or completely
separate yeah, like maybe likethey would be incapable of

(30:51):
touching that would be,interesting.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
I could actually see that because the like the magic
with a k that they have, thewitches of dathomir.
I feel like that's somethingthat you okay, I like that
theory.
I like that theory.
Let's send it over to dayfeloni and you know, hopefully
in couple of years we'll get afull series.
No, this is our little writer'sroom.

(31:13):
We're working away at scriptsover here.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
And I feel like there will be something at some point
.
I think there's got to be.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
That's the thing with Dave Filoni like love him or
hate him, he's not going to lethis box of toys die, they're
just going to, on living to, sothey can just keep going through
more stories.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
The only one who I think can't just because it was
a perfect death is kanan jarisspoilers I'm not sure if that's
yeah, dude, I mean like I, Ifeel like once it's been out for
a while, if you haven't seen it, then the spoiler thing is kind
of on you.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Wait, did Thanos win?

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Wait, Bruce Willis was a ghost.
Oh no, that's kind of why, Iguess, in a way that's why I'm
like okay, let's buffer Andor alittle bit, let's kind of
marinate a little bit before westart talking spoilers.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
We're not big enough to hop on things right away I do
think at some point I wouldlike to do a couple episodes,
not necessarily of andor, but acouple episodes in a row of
stuff that is either coming outthat week or coming out, like
you know, within a certainamount of time.
Because I'm curious if peoplewill, because I think the people

(32:31):
who are listening actively topodcasts, or searching for
podcasts to listen to, arepeople who are fresh off of that
topic, you know, or it's it'sin their minds, so they want to
check it out.
So I feel like, yeah, I thinkthat would be like just to test
out the numbers, see if there'sany particular bump, because
that might actually help us out.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, no, I'm definitely open for that.
I just I guess I don't want tobe confined to that, if that
makes sense.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
You don't want the whole show to be topic of the
week, you know, and likewhatever's like coming out.
Which exactly which house, youknow?

Speaker 1 (33:03):
I just want to talk about stuff we like.
But yeah, no, I mean that couldline up to things that we like.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, totally, so is it.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Housewives or Love Island.
I just want to know which onethat we're looking at.
I don't even know if thoseshows are on.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
I just honestly love on the spectrum Too hot to
handle.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
I literally tried to pick the most detestable shows I
could think of.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
That are possibly still on television 90 Day
Fiance.
Most detestable shows I couldthink of that are possibly still
on television 90 day fiance.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
I think there was a clip from one of those shows
where this guy had seeminglylike no neck, all right, and my
students decided to big, big, alor big ed, yeah, yeah it's big,
ed I know exactly they werespamming me, like when I was
teaching, like I think hybrid.
You know, I'm did somethinglike mr coney.
This guy looks like you.
They drop it in the chat andI'd be like this is so offensive

(33:53):
to me.
I'm like I, I have a, I have aneck not them saying that that's
your doppelganger they saidthat, and william h macy from
what's the series?
I've never seen it before.
It's like acclaimed a seriesthat he's on willem h macy.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
I can't remember who that is.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
He's on like this hbo series.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Sorry oh uh, shameless, shameless.
Yeah, they saw, shameless.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
That looks like you I'm like that's just a random
white guy with like longish hairand facial hair that that
doesn't classify me as him likekids are ruthless.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Speaking of 90 day fiance, like I actually did like
during covid like me, my wifeand like her in-laws would just
like sit and watch seasons of 90day fiance like on the on.
You know, just in a row, justlike on the couch, like we would
go on like and I would pokeholes in it left and right,
because that stuff is all fake.

(34:49):
There's like they would like befighting and like the girl
would like run off, and like thecameramen are all like we don't
know where she is and likeshe's just sitting in a car in
the background.
Like we know where she is.
She's right over there.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
It's so stupid or they don't know where.
They don't know where someoneis, but there's a camera
following them.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, exactly so good stuff.
Yeah, that's the origin of mytime at Big N.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
How about 90 Day Fiance, cad Bane and Asajj
Ventress?

Speaker 2 (35:19):
I wouldn't hate it.
I think no, all right.
So what do we think about Lycothe new Padawan?
Oh, actually, before we jumpinto that, when do you guys
think this takes place?
Because I'm at a loss.
It's short enough where Lyco, aformer Padawan, is still
seemingly a teenager right.

(35:41):
So he hasn't got his knighthoodyet, presumably.
And he's all alone, no one herebeside me, and sorry, I have
that, the donkey song, I'm allalone.
There's no one here beside mein my head.
So he's young enough for order66 to still be quite recent, but

(36:04):
we now know that theInquisitors are fully in gear.
There's another, like you know,pointless Inquisitor where they
immediately offed, but thenthere's enough time has passed
for Quinlan Vos to have createdthe path, which I assumed would
be something like late in thegame.
Like after like, he'saccumulated a bunch of resources

(36:24):
, a bunch of people in thebackground.
That's something that I assumedwould have taken a long time to
like come together, but I, Idon't know.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
I'm having a hard time placing this one so maybe
it could be it could be safe tosay that it might kind of reside
around when obi-wan takes placeI don't know, because lyco's
too young for that.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
He's still obi-wan takes place.
Oh no, no obi-wan.
Yeah, I guess it could bearound obi-wan yeah, I mean lyco
.
Yeah, he is young, but I meanthere's all no, you're right, it
seems like he could have been ayoungling he could have been a
youngling, yeah I mean yeah hehe doesn't give yeah, or younger

(37:06):
on the padawan because he didhave a little bit of proficiency
with the lightsaber.
Yeah, it's a conundrum, I didn'tget him Do you feel like he's
Jedi Temple survivor youngling.
He might not have been at theJedi Temple, but he's definitely
a survivor of Order 66.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Okay, I know, I'm pretty sure that Anakin's pretty
effective.
He killed all the younglings inthe temple.
No, I just want to.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
I'm pretty sure that Anakin's pretty effective.
He killed all the younglings inthe temple.
I mean with the existence ofcharacters like Ezra, you know,
somebody who learned the waysafter the fact Like do you think
that Lyko is better than Ezra?
No, whoever he was with,definitely you know they got
killed while he was in the midstof training.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yes, yeah, that's the vibe that I got.
He's kind of like a kanan jaruswho you know his master died
protecting him during order 66and you know he grew up kind of
semi a jedi, but not really ajedi until it until, like, he
was ready to take on that roleagain.
So it kind of seems like thatcould be the case.
Or same goes for oh man, who'sthe kid from the Jedi Order

(38:09):
games?
I forget his name.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Oh, you're talking about Cal Kestis.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yes, yes, Cal Kestis also kind of falls into that
boat.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
There's a lot of.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Jedi.
Out there, guys, orphan Jedi.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
So we're saying that Yoda was a liar when he said
that Luke would be the last Jedi?

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Unless something really terrible happens to
quinlan voss and like I meanthat that still could happen,
like that, that would be a crazystory, just like, literally,
the rest of the jedi are found Iunderstand that it's yoda and
he said it, but yoda was also onthe planet of dagobah, kind of
like luke was.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Later he was on this dark nexus of evil cave thing,
that kind of offset and hid himfrom being able to be read.
I just think that I know yodasaid it.
I don't think the idea that wehave like yoda was wrong about
so much.
Yoda could have told anakinlike hey, it sucks to lose
somebody and you know it reallyhurts, and maybe you should

(39:05):
process those feelings insteadof like it's good, death is good
.
They embrace the force.
You know, as the guy's sittingthere in darkness brooding
because he's obviously upset,yoda couldn't read his mind.
He couldn't sense his emotionsin that moment.
I'm sorry to all those peopleout there that really ascribe to
this theory but I'm just likeno man yoda can be wrong.
That's what we.
We learned.
Like Yoda's folly the fact thateveryone always thought he was

(39:31):
right was actually our folly andthe galaxy's folly.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Well, that was the whole point of the prequels.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Makes me so angry.
He's such a like ah.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
That was the whole point of the prequels to really
like show how dogmatic the Jediwere.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Yeah, it made me wonder.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
I mean, they had some good principles, of course, but
there was definitely a lot ofemotion.
You know a lot of stuff thatlike if you told a therapist
that you were doing that, theywould be like, no, that's
unhealthy you know, it's kind ofstifling emotions pretty much
what I will say about the so orthe asajj ventress episodes.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
I really liked the way that they started it with
this new intrigue that she'sback, but like they don't give a
why, it's just a, you know,like this this is happening.
Now she's back and they don'treally follow up on that
meaningfully enough for it toreally make those episodes worth
it for me.
I guess I'm happy that she'sback.

(40:30):
I'm interested about whathappens to this Lyco kid.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Right.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
But it wasn't in.
Again, I would like, like youknow we were saying earlier, it
would have been better if theythese were three like disparate
stories, like completelyseparate and not telling one
incomplete arc.
Honestly it was.
It wasn't even like they didn't.
They never really resolvedanything.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Besides, I'm gonna stick with you like that was the
the gist of the arc yeah butanyway, final thoughts on these
three episodes guys I thought itwas cool to like kind of see
gray jedi asajj in an animatedformat.
Dark Disciple was amazing andobviously listening to the

(41:16):
audiobook was pretty much likelistening to radio, but it was
cool to actually see it visuallytoo.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
Yes, rich, what do you think?
I truly enjoyed it.
It was cool to like actuallysee it visually too.
Yes, rich, what do you think II truly enjoy?
Don't don't take what I wassaying, like the criticisms that
I was saying, to likenegatively impact your opinion
of it, because I do want to hearyour opinion like okay.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
So I'll admit, hearing what you said made me
want that.
But before you said that, Ijust really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed from thebeginning.
He tries to use the Jedi, youknow mind trick and she's kind
of like you idiot, like you'renot doing you know, like what
are you doing?
What a loser, yeah.
And she immediately kind oflike it's almost like a thief

(41:58):
watching somebody trying to likepickpocket poorly.
You know, I kind of reallyappreciated that.
I liked the ending of the firstepisode.
She's that I liked the endingof the first episode.
She's.
You know you gotta tell me whoyou are.
And then I'm a savage ventress.
I've probably killed manypeople that you've already known
.
You know that I thought waspretty, that that that was
awesome.
I mean, that was like a momentwhere that was cool that, that
was it reminded me of just Iknow it's often, but like when

(42:20):
mcbeth gets confronted by youngc word in act, act five of
mcbeth, and he's like you knowmy name will scare you and he's
like you know well what is it.
And he's like my name's Macbethand I've always imagined it as
my name's Macbeth.
And then a word for a femaledog because I just think it's
his moment of just kind of myname is enough to inspire fear

(42:41):
and when she says it I get thesame feeling.
So I think it's just because Ilove the character so much, I
hated her and then grew to loveher because of Dark Disciple and
everything and everything I'veseen.
I think she's so interesting.
I've always loved the Witches ofDathomir, ever since I read the
Courtship of Princess Leia,which is now legend.
But it was one of the booksthat was supposed to take place

(43:03):
right after Return of the Jedi,where basically han and leia go
off and get married and they goand they end up on this crazy
planet with the witches ofdathomir and writing rancors and
stuff.
That led to a lot of the stuffwe see here.
So I think I'm always going tolike somebody who's tied to that
dathomir in some way, becausedathomir felt like one of the

(43:25):
first really like nerdy placesthat I knew about, that not even
my other Star Wars friends knewabout, because they weren't
reading, they were just watchingthe stuff.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
That's not real Star Wars, man, real Star Wars, and
it would return to the Jedi.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Exactly so I think that the character of Saj
Ventress is just always going tokind of take precedence and
really kind of make me payattention more.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
So you liked her moment of my name is Inigo
Montoya.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Yes, Unsurprisingly, I have that clip in my iTunes,
so when I'm just driving that'lljust pop on randomly and it
warms the cockles of my heart.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Love it.
All right, let's talk about theCad Bane arc, and the timeline
for this is also kind of unknownbecause we I don't think we
know canonically like how oldcad bane is, but this all
clearly takes place prior toclone wars.
This is like very early cadbane, laura, and it starts with

(44:25):
him as a child, where he he goesby Colby and he has a best
friend named Nero Nero.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
I know that part was like really sad tell me your
thoughts.
Anthony hit me that like likethat, that part was really sad.
Like you know, when you knowyou kind of he's growing up on
the streets of Duros and yeah,like you know, just poor, you
know no family and pretty muchyou know his buddy, that's his

(44:54):
family, and you know they comeacross a bounty hunter that
looks very similarly to him whenhe gets older, you know, yeah,
like they kind of come intomoney helping him out and you
know his buddy gets caught andit's kind of sad because money
helping him out and you know hisbuddy gets caught and it's kind
of sad because you know likethey get separated.

(45:15):
You know he's sad that likehe's like kind of lost his buddy
and so, like you know, in thatmoment it's like dude, like
that's really sad, like his onlykind of his only family is like
he's about to get separatedfrom him.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yeah, it was an interesting dynamic and you kind
of saw it coming, or at least Idid.
I thought I kind of saw itcoming yeah, yeah, like one of
these people is going to be cadbane and one of them isn't, you
know.
So you, you kind of thinkeither this guy's going to die
or he's going to get separatedby them.
And you know, as soon as theguy came in with you know, like

(45:45):
this is an investment, you kindof assumed at that point that he
was going to take Cad Bane on,but not the other kid.
And the other kid was showingreserve to you know, aiding Cad
I forget the Cad Bane lookalikeguy's name, but he was showing
reserve to it, like is thisreally worth it, you know.
And then Cad Bane, like he'slike, yeah, you're right, and

(46:06):
then he turns around like let'sdouble the offer.
I thought that was really funny,but I did, like, you know, like
thinking about it now I do likethe arc quite a bit.
I think that they really madeCad Bane an unlikable character,
like he wasn't really like alot of people like Cad Bane just
because he's like the cool guywith the cowboy hat from you

(46:28):
know, clone Wars and he's anexcellent bounty hunter.
And it was interesting learningabout his backstory and how he
became the cold hearted man I am.
I'm quoting nothing Like I wasjust literally.
I was just trying to mimic hisvoice.
You were trying to like mimichis voice, yeah yeah, but yeah,
it does give you moments tosympathize with him, but because

(46:50):
of his actions throughout thecouple episodes, those brief
moments of potential sympathyfor the character are ripped
right away just by his actions.
If that makes sense, rich, whatdo you think?

Speaker 3 (47:04):
it's.
So it's funny I think I go intothis with.
I didn't.
I wasn't a cad bane lover goinginto it.
I mean, yeah, he looks prettycool, but from what I'd seen of
him and other star warsproperties, I kind of just
thought he was like a heartless,you know, a heartless bounty
hunter guy and I assumed that hehad a rough, you, you know, he

(47:24):
had a rough upbringing, you know, and that hearted him as a
young boy.
And there's only two pathsEither you become Batman or you
become a villain.
I wasn't super surprised,actually.
What ended up happening at theend of the arc is I was like
gosh darn, I hate this man morethan I thought I did before, you
know, like I always, that's howI felt I never like I.

(47:48):
I didn't like him.
I mean, it was cool to see himin live action, but I didn't.
You know, I don't have any lovefor the character I'd much
rather see uh, what is it?
Reef karga?
Is that the character played by?

Speaker 2 (47:59):
grief, yeah, grief, cargo right from yeah, from
mandalorian right frommandalorian that's my man from
rocky

Speaker 3 (48:05):
carl weathers, baby yeah also uh, by the way, just
because this is tangentiallykind of related carl weathers is
in happy gilmore and thealligator who was in happy
gilmore sadly died this week atthe age of 80.
So but 80, yeah, 80 years.
He's apparently a star of many.
He's been the alligator and andmany movies, not that I can

(48:27):
name right now, but anywaythat's crazy.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I did not know that alligators lived eight decades I
didn't know that either.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
I was like what?
I thought they were talkingabout?
Bob barker, and I was like no,bob barker died a long time ago.
So I clicked it it's thealligator.
But yeah, I guess just thathe's never been a character.
You know, I've always thought Ilike Boba Fett and I actually
ended up liking him.
I mean, this sounds crazy.
On the Book of Boba I liked himmore.

(48:56):
I feel like that disappointedmore people than ever because it
took away his mysteriousnessand people didn't like what they
found.
And I think it's kind of asimilar thing here with cad bane
.
Sometimes it's themysteriousness of the character
that makes them really cool, youknow, and I just think that if
once you start giving us toomuch, it becomes like that

(49:17):
terrible gambit character in thex-men movies, you know, like
just poorly well done.
I mean not done well, becauseyou somehow took the mystique
away from that character oh, I'mabout to make a name for myself
I think so.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
So for me, cad bane is definitely in this part of of
tales of the underworld.
It was more geared towards fansof clone wars, you know,
because that's where cad banewas that breakout character.
You know, one of the underworldwas more geared towards fans of
clone wars, you know, becausethat's where cad bane was that
breakout character.
You know, one of the breakoutcharacters in that show.
He came out in that show andthat's where a lot of people
liked him.

(49:52):
I always thought that cad banewas really cool.
I'm not gonna go and say like,oh, he's my favorite character,
but I always thought that cadbane was really really cool.
And when I saw that like he hadpopped up in, you know, book of
boba fett, like you know, Ithought, like you know, like
that was kind of like a treatwithin itself.
But yeah, you know, book ofboba fett, you know we we've

(50:13):
gone down that rabbit holealready and I'm not going to
talk much about it.
But the thing is is that, likeyou know, even with that being
said, this side of tales of theunderworld was the stronger side
, you know, even if it does takeaway, yes, you know, some of
the, I guess, mystique of cadbane.
You know, the thing is is thatthere's still a lot of mystique

(50:37):
to him because we had reallynever gotten anything about him
except for the fact that he is abounty hunter.
You know, we never had reallygotten too much of his backstory
, we just got him just huntingdown bounties and that's exactly
what he did in book of bobafett.
You know we got a little bitmore of him and and some of the

(50:58):
other animated series you know,especially clone wars.
But you know, cad bane wasdefinitely cool and it was cool
to see, you know, a little bitof his upbringing.
That story was actually brokenup in the way that dakota would
have wanted the assas one to bebroken up?

Speaker 3 (51:15):
yes, I agree.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
You know, the thing that I that I will say that was
really cool about assas and I Iforgot to pick this detail out
was that you can tell that shewas aged.
You saw it in her face okay,that there was that that age
there.
so I thought that that wasreally cool, some of that small
detail.
But yeah, the cad bane side ofthe story, I enjoyed it a lot

(51:36):
and it was really, really sadwhen he faced down his buddy,
nero, because Cad Bane was withsomebody called Aaron and you
know when Cad kind of got sentoff to prison for killing a
marshal some years prior, youknow some romance buds between
Nero and Aaron and you know atsome point, yeah, aaron passes

(51:59):
away and you know that pissesoff Cad Bane and you know I
think what really like made mesad was when he gunned down his
buddy.
You know the kid was there butthen like you realized whose kid
that was.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
And then he walked off to go get some milk.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Oh my God, Not the milk yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
No, I tell every once in a while I'll tell my wife
all right, I'm gonna be rightback, I'm gonna go get milk and
cigarettes and my son goes whatare you talking about?

Speaker 2 (52:31):
and my wife goes no, that's not funny, don't do that.
That's funny, that is funny.
You can tell her.
Dakota said it is funny.
No, so just to clarify, Iwasn't saying that I didn't like
this arc.
I just said that it makes CadBane a less likable character.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
Right, right, right, especially by the end of it.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Yeah, he really becomes irredeemable.
At the end he guns down hischildhood buddy, Nero.
Do you think?

Speaker 3 (52:58):
that Nero could have just in the like I felt like
there was when he went to thedoorway, like the, the kind of
he asked the boy to stand back,you know, and he's kind of in
front of him, right, and then hegoes to do the duel and the
whole time I'm thinking likejust yell, it's your son, it's
your son, right, like.
And instead he like starts thedual steps and then obviously

(53:22):
gets killed, like I just I don'tget it.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
I don't know why he didn't just yell it out yeah,
it's also interesting like cadbane even says something like
don't worry, I'll look after you, you know, like the kid, until
he realizes it's actually hisown kid.
And then there has to be likesome level of like oh man, I
screwed this up.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
And he just like walks off Like I mean it just if
it's even weird.
I think I would have found it alittle bit more believable if
maybe Bane just shoots him inthe back.
You know, I don't know, it waslike a weirdly honorable way for
him to kill his friend and hisfriend knew it was coming and

(54:02):
all he had to do was kind ofopen his mouth for the sake of
the boy.
I don't even mean to save hisown hide, like I didn't expect
that from him, but it was justfor the sake of the boy.
Because even if bane offers totake care of him I mean he just
watched what that, what kind ofman his dad is you know that
that can't be something you everwant to to follow I don't think
that cad bane would have beenthe type to gun down a childhood

(54:24):
friend in the back.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Even though he was a deplorable character, he still.
He had that whole instance withthe Marshal and he had no
emotional connection to theMarshal and the Marshal killed
his friend.
So Laszlo, that was the guythat originally had the hat and
even he went with the whole likedual moment with that he could

(54:47):
have just easily just pulled hisgun and shot the marshal in
that instant, but no you a lawman.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Now you trying to make sense of these scripts yeah
, I don't know like even hischaracter is cool, though, like
I will say no, he's cold-heartedand cool yeah like there's no
doubt about it, and just likehis entire vibe, even though he
kind of emulates Laszlo, hisentire vibe is very polished and
I will even go as far as to sayhe probably outstripped

(55:16):
Laszlo's ability to be a propergunslinger by the end.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
He definitely Cad bane, definitely pulls off the
man with no name, vibes.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
Yeah, from the good.
What did you think of?
What did you think about hislike original name, colby?

Speaker 1 (55:31):
I feel like it was believable.
Like you know, I think that cadbane is very much so like an
alias.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
So the fact that his name was colby before, like it
made sense to me I will saycolby is a a soft or a softer
name, you know, like a bobby, soI could see him shortening it
to bob or, you know, cat in thisinstance.
So it worked for me.
You know, one thing that Ireally liked about this episode,

(55:57):
the one thing that really stuckwith me, you know they were,
they were when they were kids.
Colby and Nero were, you know,going from dumpster to dumpster,
from trash can to trash can,pulling out like rotten fruit,
and they were really looking forsomething juicy.
But in the end they gotsomething even better they got
crunchies.
They got crunchies.

(56:19):
So in the honor of that, Ibrought my own crunchies, I got
my candies here and you know,usually we we like to, you know
suggest that you guys review ourpodcast with the five star like
a juicy rating.
But today let's make a crunchyin in honor of nero and the
crunchies that they ate.
It's like yeah, and thecrunchies that they ate, yeah,
and the crunchies that they atewith that one little coin.

Speaker 3 (56:42):
That might be my favorite Segway of all time.
I was like, yeah, okay, yeah,they're going to the garbage.
I was like, oh, and then I sawwhere it was going.
I want us to get advertisers onthe show solely for us, having
the most awkward Segways intothe e-commerce For us having the
most awkward segues into theconversation.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Speaking of, I think that we could really knock out
advertising.
That was just a crazy segueright there, Dakota.
To pretty much ask for ratings,you know.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Yes, please give us a five-star Crunchy review, guys.
Please make it crunchy thisweek, guys.
Thank you so much for listeningto us here for our 120th
episode.
Before we end the show, I justwant to ask what did you guys
like?
Final thoughts what do youthink of tales of the underworld
as a whole?

Speaker 3 (57:34):
rich, go ahead I had a really good time with it.
I I still find myself sometimeswith the animation.
I don't know what it is aboutmy brain.
I need to watch it more thanonce before I think I get fully
engulfed in it.
I also think that I might haveenjoyed and this maybe speaks to
your point.
I may have enjoyed, say, theAsajj Ventress just as one 45

(57:57):
minute episode.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
Because just that's the way that one went Right.
One 45 minute episode, okay,yeah, because just that's the
way that one went right.
I think sometimes the 15 minuteepisodes are a little bit of a
viewing anomaly for me.
I'm kind of almost past thepoint where I I very rarely
watch anything that's under halfan hour, so it was almost kind
of jarring for me when theyended.
But that's why why I ended uprewatching them and honestly, I

(58:21):
really like them.
If you haven't seen them yet, Iwould highly recommend sitting
down.
They're easily digestible and Ithink that they give us a
little bit more into two reallyinteresting characters in the
Star Wars universe.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Anthony, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Yeah, no, I think it was a really cool you you know,
may 4th thing that they gave usand I like that they're doing
this stuff it seems like yearly.
And yeah, like rich said, itwas cool to see two characters
that are definitely interesting.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
And you know, I mean, obviously they both hold a
place in my heart because I mean, you know how much I like clone
wars and so the fact that theyboth originated from there and
we got more of them, yeah, man,I thought it was awesome it was
a good time and you know, in themoment when I'm watching these
new Star Wars, it's only afterthe fact, you know, like when I

(59:14):
come to the podcast or I turn mycritical brain on after the
fact is when I kind of startbreaking it apart.
But in the moment I was totallyenjoying all this.
And that's not to say that it'sbad.
I don't think this was badstorytelling by any means.
It just wasn't what I wantedfrom the format, I guess.
So from that perspective I hadthe issues and even to a lesser

(59:38):
degree, the Cad Bane story arc.
Even though it was threeseparate stories that took place
over the course of years, theyall were one arc.
One story arc versus the CountDooku one and the Ahsoka one in
the first season of Tales of theJedi were completely separate
stories each time.
But anyway, I don't want toharp too much on that, that's

(59:59):
just my personal takeaway.
I do think that the Cad Banetrilogy of stories far
outstripped the Asajj Ventressone.
But Asajj Ventress for me is amore.
I like Asajj Ventress as acharacter more than I like Cad
Bane.
So I think I was probablyexpecting more from that.
But I also find this issuewhere a lot of times the bad

(01:00:23):
characters you know the enemiesin one film or the enemies in
one series end up becoming kindof good guys.
And I don't.
That happens a lot in Star Wars, like it happens quite a bit,
you know off the top of my head.
Boba Fett they made a wholeshow about like the baddest
bounty hunter in the galaxy,taking over a crime ring so that

(01:00:44):
he can do good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
He can do good by this town, that's, that's his
goal yeah, and make it intomandalorian season 2.5 yeah,
yeah, that was, that wasdefinitely you know, I mean, I
think it's, I think it's thetruth is, in almost any
storytelling right, the villaincan only be a villain for so
long before he's taken down.

(01:01:05):
So if you want the villain tokeep being a character, you kind
of need to eventually have themnot be a villain.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Well, that's also why I'm a little bit wary of the
Darth Maul series that's comingout.
It's called Maul.
A couple years ago.
They're making an animatedseries called Maul series.
That's coming out.
It's called Maul.
A couple of years they'remaking an animated series called
Maul and that will obviously,you know it'll take place with
Maul.
But yeah, eventually we'regoing to see Maul become a much
more nuanced character and he isalready a nuanced character,

(01:01:34):
you know like he shows up quitea bit in different mediums.
But yeah, I'm worried that,like all of these characters
like now, asajj ventress is likea good guy.
You have boba fett who's likevery clearly a good guy it just
happens a lot.
It's a trope that I I find notunenjoyable, just something that
I'm noticing and it's a patternthat I'm noticing that I'm just

(01:01:55):
like I don't want this to keephappening.
So, yeah, and I think that'skind of why I find andor
partially like I mean, it's it's, it's a fantastic show, but
like the bad guys stay bad guys,they're not turning around.
You know, like they're in toodeep.
Yeah, kyber, kyber, and he justgoes, goes down, you know, yeah,
so guys, again, thank you forlistening to us here for our

(01:02:18):
120th episode of Project Ecology.
I have no idea what we'recovering next week, but did you
guys have any ideas as to whatwe're covering?

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Not at the moment.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Survey says no, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
You will figure out what we're covering next week by
listening.
You will.
It'll pop up.
You're going to subscribe tothis podcast.
Put notifications on, and it'llpop up on your phone, your
cellular tablet device whenwe're ready to release that
information.
So good luck to you, guys.
If you want to check out any ofour socials, be sure to click
into the show notes down below.

(01:02:51):
And yeah, stay juicy, myfriends.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Or stay crunchy.