May 14, 2025 • 37 mins
‘Andor’ is quite possibly the greatest Star Wars we will ever get. In pod 139 Joe gets into the most recent ‘Andor’, gives quick thoughts on the ‘Grant Theft Auto 6’ delay and reviews ‘Thunderbolts’.
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Check us out at the links below!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kyberculture
Instagram: instagram.com/kyberculture/
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For more information, follow The @ KyberCulture on all socials: https://linktr.ee/kyberculture
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
What other folks, And welcome to the Kyber Culture, Episode
one nine with myself, Joe aka the Depocket, Laurean and
no one else. That is right, folks, this is my
first solo pod. I'm pretty sure this is the first
one I've ever done. I've been podcasting for a few
years now, but I don't think I've ever had an
(00:37):
episode where I always had someone else to vibe off of, folks,
so this is pretty different. I'm just like talking alone
into microphone. It's kind of weird, but you know what
we're getting through. It definitely gonna miss having this Pomoni
on here or a guest at all, but uh, you know,
I gotta do what you gotta do when you want
to keep it like, keep it consistent. Always wanted to
try to do a solo pod, and what better time
(00:57):
there is than now. I These will probably be a
little shorter, given I won't have someone else to bounce
ideas off of, but alas format will be more or
less the same. I'm just gonna, you know, speaking to
this microphone about some things I've been watching. I guess
you can call it like my audio diary for folks
(01:18):
that want to listen and I am very thankful for
any of those that are listening to this podcast as
long as we've been doing it, We're all very Me
and Erin are very grateful for you guys. As far
as the stuff I'm gonna be reviewing, I'll try to
get into some specifics, but again, it's just a little
tricky without a co host, because you know, sometimes Aaron
(01:41):
or his pimonium will catch things or whoever the co
host is will catch things that I normally don't catch,
and you know, it kind of like works both ways,
vice versa. Here we go. Anyways, be sure to follow
the Chybriculture on all socials, Twitter, Instagram, letterbox at the
Kibriculture on all platforms, and of course, of course, if
(02:02):
you like our show, give us a like common subscribe
dropped that five star rating and review if the you
know review system is available wherever you get your podcasts.
But yeah, we really appreciate that rating. Okay, so let's see.
First up, me and Aaron usually like talk about some
recent things in our life. Nothing really new on my end,
(02:23):
still still kind of down in the trenches with these
damn allergies. Most folks out here, like most folks out
in New York mostly been saying the same thing. Like
last year, I didn't get any bad allergies and neither
did anyone else, but this year it's just completely taking
everybody out. So I don't know what's going on. Paulin's
just pollining this year, I guess. But yeah, so we're
(02:44):
getting through that. Got off FaceTime with my mom not
too long ago because recording today is Mother's Day, So
shout out to moms everywhere, especially Cyril's mom from and
or Damn like some piece of Cereal light spoilers already
at the top of the episode, but we are I'm
going to talk and word bit and Cereal is just
(03:05):
like one of the characters that's in there, and spoiler
he dies, and like they show his mom and she's
just absolutely devastated. But anyways, we also try to talk
a bit of news. Not much news caught my eye
this week, except we did get a new trailer for
Grand Theft Autos six. I wanted to bring this up
(03:26):
just because I think it was like maybe last episode
of the episode before we were talking about red de
Redemption and rock Star, and I think I might have
called out that that we were probably going to get
another delay. I mean, it was just just a guess,
but I mean, no surprise here. They did delay from
the They did delay the game from this September to
(03:49):
May twenty twenty six, which is which is a pretty
big one. But I'm all good with it. I mean,
the game looks great. The trailer was pretty cool. An
article that they did use a blend of gameplay like
in game graphics, gameplay, and and some cutscenes. So it
(04:09):
looks like they're cooking up some cool Just as long
as the game is good and it's worth the weight.
I'm not I'm really not tripping over a delay. I'm
just really hoping that it's not like one hundred and
fifty bucks and it doesn't require like a terror Bidom
memory and like takes up everything, like all the space
on MYPS five because I want to have some space
(04:32):
for games like other games on my PS five, you know.
But anyways, we'll see what happens. I'll pay seventy bucks
for it, how about that, maybe even like sixty bucks.
I don't know. Well, we'll see, we'll see. We'll see. Yeah,
So Grand Theft Auto six can't wait for it doing
a lot of good things. I mean it does look good.
The graphics look amazing. I'm sure they're trying to work
(04:52):
out all the kings on like, because I'm pretty sure
that like Grand Theft, Auto of Five, like me and
Aaron were talking about this a couple pods ago, it's
on fine community Forward is still huge, so I'm guessing
they're just maybe working out the kinks there as well,
how it's gonna work on and on like a like
a bigger platform. Next thing, this is in news. I'm
(05:13):
actually just gonna talk about Thunderbolts for a second. I
love this movie. Thunderbolts is very, very solid. It is
for sure my favorite post endgame movie. And I want
to click quickly clarify that it's my favorite post endgame movie.
I'm not saying that it's the best movie since Avengers Endgame.
(05:35):
There's a big difference there. You need to, you know,
differentiate the two. I'm just saying that, like, I'm not
on the boat that all Marvel content is bad after Endgame.
I'm definitely not there. I am definitely in the boat
where it's like it's definitely been mixed. I mean, so
we're phases one through three. Like I've talked on this
I've talked about this on the show before. Phases one
(05:56):
through three definitely had their lows, and I think we
just feel it more now because like phases one through three,
it was all movies. There was no Disney Plus, so
we weren't getting shows. I think post Endgame there's been
a like a big, huge output of content like movies
(06:16):
and shows combined. So I think that's kind of like where,
you know, whatever that Marvel fatigue is comes into play,
it's because there's more content, and you know, it's a
mixed bag. Some of it is okay, some of it
is bad, some of it is pretty good. But I
don't think there's like a lot of stuff that has
reached the highs of like you know, Phase three Marvel.
(06:40):
But then again, like you know what, like not everything
can be Infinity War, Endgame, or even Winter Soldier or
Civil War for that matter. But again, that was Phase
three that was leading towards the conclusion of that story
that we're wanting to tell. I digress anyways, Thunderbolts is awesome.
It's one of those highs that I was mentioning earlier,
(07:03):
and it separates itself being a more grounded story, not
really interested in the multiverse in any way, which is
what the attraction was post endgame, right, It's like everything,
like you know, well not everything, but like that was
the main attraction. It was the multiverse. So it's not
a multiverse story. It's not only does it set itself
(07:24):
up from set itself apart from that stuff, but honestly,
it sets itself up from stuff that it was even
in the Infinity saga, because Tackle is a more serious
subject matter where they touch on things like mental health, depression,
and even suicide, and I thought it handled these heavier
themes with grace. Florence Pugh is of course great in
(07:48):
the role returning as Jolena, and got to be honest
with you, folks, I don't know if there's a hot take,
but I am more of a fan of Yolayna than
I ever was in Nataha in this case, being like, uh, like,
I think Florence Pew's Elena's like, you know, way more
interesting than scyletro Hans's Natasha. But I think that might
(08:10):
just be because she's given a little more to work with.
But yeah, no, I mean, I don't think scoltro Hanson
had a chance to you know, lead her own movie
with Black Widow. But I think like with that, I
think it's an okay. I mean, there's it's it's it's whatever.
It's a mixed bag. But Black Widow of the movie
(08:31):
had that come out like right after Civil War, I mean,
you know, release dates or whatever. I mean, I've tried
to put myself in that, like just pretend like this
came out right after Silver warn and leads into Infinity War,
Like just try thinking about it. I'm like, I don't know.
I anyways, I mean, at least we got Florence pe
(08:51):
in that movie. We got to got to see an
introduction at Elena So and we got seen introduction to
David Harber's Alexi. Those two in the Thunderbolts movie have
a great chemistry as like the father daughter duo like
that they set up in the Black Widow movie. And
to be honest with this movie kind of works more
as a Black Widow two than a big team up movie.
(09:15):
More in them later. But Sebastian stan is also great.
I mean, who doesn't love Bucky. I've been been a
fan since the first Captain American movie. We also have
Lewis Pullman here as Bob Bob or Robert Reynolds as
the Century, who had just found out is I did
not know this until I saw a picture of them together.
(09:35):
I didn't know he was Bull Polman's son. Sometimes it's weird,
like sometimes you see like a lot of actors share
the same last name, but personally I don't automatically assume
that they're related. Maybe the last name should make it obvious,
but I simply just don't know. Sometimes it was the
same deal for me when I found out that John Washington,
John David Washington, was Denzel's son, I was like, what
(09:56):
the fuck, There's no way, But I should have known anyway.
Like I said, he's great as Robert Reynolds, or otherwise
known as the Century, who is like the superhero, and
then the Void, who was like the alter ego, but
are the same person. And that's definitely a highlight of
the film. Why Russell I liked him in Falcon Winter
(10:18):
Soldier not because I thought that he was like like
an awesome superhero or like someone you should really look
up to for that matter. I just like that he's
kind of like I think they've written him well enough
to like be purposefully feel like a cheap knockoff version
of Steve Rodgers. Yeah, no, I liked him in Falcon
(10:39):
Winter Soldier. He felt like that, like kind of like
smart ass asshole in Falcon Winter Soldier. And he's back
here just doing the same thing again, and I think
he kind of rules. But again another actor that I
didn't know was related to like someone else, like he's
related to Kurt Russell, and I guess this. I guess
this movie loves its NEPO babies. Anyway. But aside from
(10:59):
the perform is the movie, the story is pretty easy
to follow. It's quite surprising given this as a team
up movie where the whole team has obviously shown up
in previous films and or shows. And it's cool because
after speaking with some folks about the movie, who like,
aren't you know, totally roped into like Marvel as it is,
(11:23):
uh mostly my co workers or yeah, so that just
can't keep up with it, you know, Like I think
that is one of Marvel's big issues. That And there's
been there's been an article about this as kind of
a sidebar, so bear with me here, but there were
like talks that that Marvel has almost created it like
a like a new note, new or no New Fans
(11:44):
Club where there's like too much content to watch. Not
a lot of people can like jump in just whenever
they want to write. But yeah, I mean like with
that to say, like I talked to some of my
coworkers about this, who hasn't who haven't seen like, for example,
the ghost in this right was in ant Man two.
I feel like a lot of people missed out on
that one. A lot of people haven't seen Falcon Winter Soldier,
(12:06):
people haven't seen Black Widow. There's just there's there was
a lot that kind of previous projects that introduced these
characters that people haven't seen. I asked them, I was like,
did you feel lost at all about like do you
feel like you needed to like see any of this stuff?
And they're like no, it was like pretty it was
simple enough to fall, which I think is a good thing.
You didn't need to do the quote unquote homework to
(12:28):
understand them. I think that'll be like, honestly, like one
of my little gripes is just because like I personally
like even though like I've been saying earlier that I
think Marvel is a mixed bag. I mean I still
watch this stuff like watching a Marvel thing to me,
or watching a Star Wars thing even for that matter,
it never feels like a waste of time, Like I'm
always happy to do it. It's just like, by the
end of it, do I like it or not? You know,
(12:50):
that's yet to be seen. But that is like my
one gripe is that, like, I feel like the first
hour of this is real heavy on the exposition to
catch people up. So I mean that's just me though,
just because like I said, I've already seen it. But anyways,
the characters are solid, the story is good. I didn't
(13:10):
care too much for the Val stuff. She kind of
serves as like the antagonist to the team of this movie.
I didn't care for her stuff, the Congress stuff or
her assistant in this Val does bring the team together
and like propels the story forward, but I think could
have used less of her and more focus on the century,
(13:31):
and that maybe would have pushed my score just a
little higher for this. Speaking of the century though, I
like how they essentially used the hero the century and
then the Void being like the villain. First. I just
want to talk about how like it's such a simple
character design for the Void. It's just an all black
(13:52):
shadowy figure with just slight little pinholes for eyes, And
I just kind of liked that they went with that
just because it's just kind of like a like a
little glimmer of light that's still within, that's still within Bob,
I want to say that too, like Bob Reynolds. So
he's like he's like the result of a like a
like an experiment. I want to say. They're trying to
(14:13):
like recreate super Soldiers because the Avengers are gone, and
so he was just experiment experimented on a bunch of
times and which resulted in him becoming either the Century
or the Void. They're like two different personalities, but they're
the same person if that makes sense. Going back to
the villain design, it almost like when you look at it,
(14:35):
it kind of reminds me of like a sleep paralysis
demon or something, you know. But I really thought it
was well done. With the Void, it's almost like a
manifestation of Bob's grief and trauma. And really it's like
the Void being the main villain, it's really just a
manifestation of the entire team's trauma. Because towards the end,
(14:59):
the Void is s actually like ropes everyone into like
this big, shadowy darkness, and it's pretty much just like
everyone just reliving the most traumatic experience of their life.
I thought it was really well done. Like you get
to see Elena's it's it's really Elayna's movie, I'll say
that much. It's Florence Pugh's movie. She's pretty much like
(15:19):
the main lead. And one of the things that we
get to explore with her is that she, like, you know,
when she was in the Red Room training to become
a black widow operative if you want to call it,
that there was this like another young girl that she
kind of had to like kill. I guess that was
like her trauma. And then another example that of trauma
(15:41):
that you get to see is Whyatt Russell's character, John Walker,
his like traumatic traumatic experience is him just like being
roped into his phone. He's being stuck on his phone
just reading articles about how he failed being the new
Captain America, which you've seen in The Falcon Winters Soldier,
(16:04):
so you get to see how that plays out. It's
pretty much he just scrolls through like articles of him
of like people critiquing him, and then that like spills
into his real life because he's like supposed to be
taking care of his kid, and he doesn't pay attention
to his kid because he's on his phone and like
he just doesn't he's not present. I guess is the
(16:26):
is what they were trying to like go for. There.
The movie goes on and then they pretty much just
show that he his wife left him and took the kid,
and yeah, it kind of it's a bummer, but but yeah,
so yeah, the the exportation of the team strama, that's
definitely a highlight for me. I guess some other nimpics
out here I have here and there's humor is like,
it's it's pretty good. There are some moments that I
(16:48):
definitely like laughed pretty loud, and then there's some stuff
I'm just like, yeah, that's kind of a little corny.
Like I'm a I'm a fan of watching I think
what is missing from a lot of like the Marvel
stuff or like I kind of feel like we've just
been missing this in like superhero movies in general, is
just watching your main hero just save people. And there's
(17:12):
a lot of that here, but I think it could
have done. Like there's one moment where they're saving people
in the streets and then there's just like this giant
slab of concrete and they all like push it over together,
which I'm like, okay, that's cool, that's nice. And then
they push it over and then there's this huge round
of applause from people. I'm just like, all right, little
cornball stuff here. By the end, they they're facing off
(17:35):
with the void and they essentially defeat it with a
group hug and the power of friendship. Absolutely cornball to
the max there. I was talking about these moments with
a friend from work and he said something that it
made me lose and I was like, wow, that is
spot on. Was that this is like if anyone has
(17:59):
watched The Boys, The Boys on Amazon Prime, pretty good show.
There's this company called Vought, which is obviously supposed to
be like your big like movie studio. It's like their
parody on it, and they make superhero movies. They're pretty
much just saying like this is like if Vaught made
these made thunderbolts, like they would insert these scenes in there.
(18:20):
I'm like, you know, you kind of hit it on that,
but it's just hilarious to think about that. With that
to say, I give it a four to five stars.
Definitely check it out in theaters when you can rest
in pieces of task Master, quite possibly the most predictable
death in all of Marvel, and it's pretty much becoming
a meme at this point. Oh and one more thing
(18:41):
that I haven't touched yet is the post credit scene.
It was very cool. You definitely feel the synergy is
back in the MCU, I mean, until it's gone again
with with you know, with possibly with the next Marvel project,
which is Ironheart in June, which no one's talking about,
not even Disney's talking about it. But I think that's
just because and Or is still running right now and
(19:01):
they want to like wait till that show's over before
they really start promoting Ironheart. But anyways, it's a good
tease for the next movie, the next movie being The
Fantastic Four. I will say, though everyone, everyone on the
internet hyped this thing up like it was the best
post credit scene Marvel's ever done, which it really isn't.
But I really can't think of like what post credits
(19:22):
scene really like pumped me up after watching it. But no,
I mean I don't know that this is one of them,
like one of the ones that really like, is it
going like they tease a Fantastic four. They see the
next movie. The synergy is back, It's nice. The way
people are talking about online was like, oh my god,
I'm like, dude, what are you guys talking about? Anyways,
(19:42):
And the salmon Bucky Samver's bucket thing is just weird though,
And like copywriting the Avengers name Sam is fucking weird.
I mean that just sounds like, uh, it just reminds
me of like the Drake losing to Kendrick Beef if
I'm being for real, just because like Drake is like
picking up his lawyers, be like, you go here from
my lawyer, Bro, that's Sam copywriting the Avenger's name. That's Thunderbolts.
(20:07):
Let's move on to and or So this is where
I'm definitely missing Aaron, and I'm probably gonna miss a
lot of things here, just like some quick general thoughts.
I mean, this is like nine episodes of TV that
I'm gonna try and get or no, not nine six
episodes of TV that I'm gonna try and like recap here,
But do we can? I definitely understand where Tony Gilroy
(20:28):
is coming from now, because he I think he said
an interview somewhere where he like they were talking about
the release schedule hows like three episodes a week, and
he was like, oh yeah, I feel real bad for
postcat podcasters. I was like, oh yeah, I kind of
get get what you mean now, but okay, let's start
with episodes four through six. This is very solid stuff.
I mean, I think we're like here, we're dealing with
(20:50):
the aftermath of the first three obviously, and again just
you know, each three episodes is one year later, so
we catch up with the Bix and cast in they're
trying to live like a normalish life, like a normal
ish life on Coruscant. There is here kind of you know,
waiting on their next assignments from Luthen. We get a
(21:11):
little more insight to what's happening on Gorman because last
part we talked about, like the Empire is pretty much
like planning and scheming about what they need from there,
and I think it's calkite is what they need to
mine from the planet. They say that, you know, they
need so much of it that if they mind what
they need from Gorman, then it will destroy the planet.
(21:33):
So they have to like figure out a way to
get the people off, like moving them elsewhere, or do
it by force. So there there's a new there's there's
like a rebel. There's a new rebel group forming there.
And Cassian stops in and just to check up on them,
and pretty much he like comes to the conclusion and
he leaves and says that they're not ready. After this,
(21:56):
Luthen and Cassian have this interesting conversation where Luthin kind
of just feels he comes off as like he doesn't
care what happens to Gorman, like if they're ready for
the rebellion or not, because if they try fighting it,
in Luthan's eyes, if they fight and they win, that's great,
But if they fight and they lose, it's almost like
that's better the way that he that he sees it,
(22:18):
because he says something where it's like, oh, well, if
they lose like Gorman, the Gorman loss will like burn,
and it'll burn brightly in just a way that like
it will propel. The loss of Gorman will like pretty
much like echo throughout the galaxy. And then he thinks
that like losing them will just get more people to
(22:38):
rise up, which is like, you know, an interesting way
to look at things. Yeah, so we also get some
stuff with Withsagerera and uh, get this cool little nod
to Force Awakens if you didn't catch it, it's SAWA's
current base of operations is on I think you say
this like Dakar in the Ailenium System, which was the
(23:00):
same base that the Resistance. Like the resistance in the
Force Awakens, this is where they had their base as well.
He has a pretty cool, decent monologue. He doesn't exactly
reach the highs of say like Luthen Marva or even
Ken o'loy, but he does drop a pretty cold line
saying like revolution isn't for the sane. All the while
(23:20):
he's giving this monologue, he's like inhaling this thing called riydonium,
which I believe is like pretty much like spaceship fuel,
but it serves like an interesting metaphor here because rye doonium,
it's what sparks up like the ship's engines and propels
them forward. So he's saying like he and is he
and his rebel group are like the fuel for the rebellion,
and which is pretty cool in their own right. Let's
(23:43):
see what also happens here. Bigs gets her revenge on
doctor Gorst from the first season, who did like some
weird brainshit on her. He put like this contraption on
her head, which I can only imagine causes very intense headaches.
Here she pretty much does the same thing. She puts
the device on his head and like tortures him, like
as she's walking away from the building, casting blows up
(24:05):
the hotel, which is or blows up this building, which
is pretty cool. But yeah, so I mean at this point,
you know, I liked these episodes. I will say, through
these first six episodes, like I'll say that I get
I gave them like a four and a half out
of five, but I was like slightly underwhelmed. That's where
the point five is, like, you know, that's what's keeping
it from a masterpiece for me. And then the only
(24:26):
reason being is just because there were such highs that
were in season one, like pretty much every arc. Maybe
maybe the first three would be the weakest, but you know,
like the the heist, the prison arc, the return to Ferris,
like all that stuff was incredible. These first two arcs
(24:46):
were probably I mean, they will probably go down as
like the weakest of the show once I go back
and look at it as a whole. Not to say
that they were bad episodes. Like I said, like that,
I don't think either of these stack up to we
got in season one. It's like, it's like I said,
it's still a very good first few chucks in episodes,
but it's that they are. I did find them all uderwhelming.
(25:10):
They're good in their own right, but compared to what
we've gotten, it's not great. At this point, I would
say that, like the show hadn't wrote me in yet.
That was it. However, let's get let's quickly get into
seven through nine. Seven opens up with the Rebellion finally
coming into fruition. The base on Yeavin is established, and
(25:33):
Casting seems to be a leader there and living on
Yeavin with Bicks. Something that kind of surprised me was
that the Force finally makes an appearance. Not that I
was expecting, Like, not that I was like, oh, where's
the Force in like my super grounded Star Wars show,
you know? But but yeah, so the Force shows up there.
(25:53):
There's a healer on Yevin that that's pretty much using
the Force to heal people's wounds and had a blaster
a blaster shot like on his shoulder that wasn't healing.
She heals him and he was he was very scared
of it. I think this is mostly because he just
doesn't he was fearing something that he didn't really understand
(26:14):
and he didn't think was relevant to the cause. Bix
took a took a real interest in this, in this uh,
in this Force Healer and pretty much the I didn't
catch her name, but the Force Healer was telling Bicks that.
And I really liked this conversation. It was that Cassine
was meant for something greater and that he's a messenger
(26:35):
pretty much like taking what he needs along the way.
I just really thought that Gilroy brought a something kind
of new and fresh when it comes to talking about
the force or something or showing the force kind of
felt like and it was in a different light. It
wasn't anything like super flashy. It was just like a
nice little conversation, and you know, Cassiane gets his uh,
(26:58):
his blaster bolt shot healed. Episodes eight and nine are
really where things like really kicking the gear like this
is where like this is how should I say this?
This is like watching season six a Game of Thrones.
(27:19):
This is like doing battle the Bastards and the Winds
of Winter, which was pretty much like Battle of the
Bastards penultimate episode Wins the Winter, the season six finale.
This is what these two episodes are for me, And
I might even like these two more than those just
I think just because, like given where the rest of
(27:39):
Game of One set it up. Anyways, upisode eight, we
get this this event called the Gorman Massacre, and we
talked about this, I think in the last pod. Essentially
it's this event where there's a protest and it's like
a peaceful protest. Imperial officers just open fire on protesters
and it's it's very tragic, and it was it was
(28:02):
interesting just because like I knew about this. I'm pretty
sure Aaron knew about this, Like we all know what's
gonna happen here. We know this event has to happen eventually,
and yet it's still tragic to watch the first time
it happens. It's just the most defin stating thing you'd
ever seen. But what I think what made it really
(28:22):
like really fucked up, is because I didn't know that
they were going to go this route. Essentially, there was
an like the way that the shooting starts is there's
an Imperial sniper like camped out on a roof somewhere
and he shoots another Imperial officer that signals to like
the other Imperial officers like, oh, one of the protesters
(28:43):
did this, and then they just opened fire on all
the protesters. And I think that was one of the
things I was like, fuck, dude, that was That's what
really makes it really tough to watch. I think the
craziest thing about this to me was that Stormtroopers have
never been more accurate in Star Wars. Like I've never
seen a stormtrooper hit one of our heroes, or like
(29:07):
hit anybody for that matter, and stormtroopers were like picking
protesters off like it was nothing. Also, I've never heard
like blaster bolts sound so like sounds so threatening in
Star Wars before might be the most accurate Star Wars,
or might be the most accurate that Stormtroopers have ever
been in Star Wars. If we're gonna be completely honest,
(29:29):
Cyril and Cassian like pretty much amongst the chaos they
they find. I didn't know. It didn't occur to me
at first, but they get into a brawl where it's like, oh, fuck,
this is the first time these guys are meeting, and
they they get into like this crazy ass like like brute,
absolutely brutal, like no holes, bar to hand to hand
(29:50):
combat and it's probably the most like intense fight you've
ever seen in Star Wars. Everything that I'm about to
say is like, oh, this is like new heights for
Star Wars, Like this is the most like like intense
Star Wars ever been because it's true, like you'd never
seen anything like this happen in the Star Wars. But anyways,
that fight happens and then Cassiane almost dies with Cyril
(30:11):
pretty much picked up a blast and was about to
shoot Cassian, but then Cassiane just hits him with this
who are you? And I was like, oh fuck, it's
wants me because, like I said, like they've never met before.
And it's crazy because ever since season one, like Cyril
is has dedicated so much of his life to capturing
(30:33):
Cassian just to just for casting to be like, who
the fuck are you? It's like this guy Cyril. I
really like Cyril as an antagonist because he's pretty much
dedicated to his life to a cat like to the
wrong cause, like just absolutely on the wrong side of history,
and he's like wanting such approval that he's willing to
(30:56):
like throw his entire life away, just completely, just get
lost in this thing, just for all of it to
be for nothing in the end. Like your main opponent
and who you in your head, you've he's created like this,
Like he's like, oh, this guy's my arch nemesis. And
(31:17):
I feel like in like other forms of media and storytelling,
sometimes when yet, like when your character has an arch nemesis,
they at least know each other. Batman and Joker know
each other. Like here, it's like Cassian's like, who are you.
I'm like, oh damn, Like there's like you might as
I think he would have preferred to just get shot
instead of having his spears just brought down so bad.
(31:39):
But Cyril does die here, and he gets shot in
the head, and I don't think I've ever seen someone
gets shot in the head in Star Wars anyways. Yeah, No,
Cyril really is like one of the highlights of the show.
Like you you expect, you expect a character like Cyril
to get some type of redemption arc, But I really
like the choice here that he just died because, like
(32:00):
I mentioned earlier, he commits to a cause and gives
it is all for nothing, right, it's it's a great
character to have opposite to Cassian, who is giving his
all to the right cause and it will be for
something in the end. Yeah, No, Episode eight was was insane,
but then we get upisode nine. Episode nine is not
(32:23):
as heavy on the action. But what the real highlight
is here is man Mathma and her speech to the
to the Senate h just absolute top tier Star Wars writing.
I mean I would pair this with like watch Marv's
speech in the season one finale and watch this one
(32:43):
back to back, like they are like like the Yin
and Yang like they like are one is like one
sparks the other. To name drop Palpatine in this speech
to like in a room where everyone is like pro
hal Patine is just crazy just because like you just
(33:04):
have to think about like what state the world is
in in Star Wars, like at this moment, like everyone's
super scared to speak up against the Emperor and that
I think that's what makes this episode so great, is
because like once she's done, like she has to get
the fuck out of there. Otherwise, like Imperial officers are
just gonna, you know, try to do what they can,
(33:25):
and like one of them tried arresting her, but then
Cassie comes in and save the day. I forget his
name is is it like Chlorax or Blorix something like that.
It was her driver that was like an ICB. Plant's right,
I think it's Chloris. It's like Chloris Chloris. I found her,
I found her, we got her. He's like, oh good.
He just shits him right there, and mon Moth was
(33:47):
just so shocked and it's really funny. But anyways, this is,
like I said, this speech was top two Star Wars
running and h to me, this episode or these past
couple of episodes really feel like in line with what
George's vision was for Star Wars that Disney has ever done.
And I'd even say it takes it to New Heights.
(34:09):
That being said, you know, you could call this recency bias,
but this is probably my favorite Star Wars thing ever.
I just found these episodes to be so so compelling.
And part of it might be just because you know
where these characters end up and spoilers if you haven't
seen Rogue One, but essentially what Rogue one is about,
(34:30):
and like why they made the movie was like for one,
like you know, Disney bought it so Disney bought the
rights to lucasfilm, so at this point they had only
released The Force Wakens and this was like the next
movie up. And man, the fan theories around that were crazy.
You're like, oh, jin is Ray's mom somehow like Jesus Christ. Guys,
(34:51):
like the idea of Star Wars movies that weren't really
connected wasn't in like wasn't a thing yet. But yeah, no,
I'm and just part of that, like knowing where all
these characters end up. It doesn't end well for any
of them, except for maybe mon Mathma. She makes it out,
but Cassian dies. You know where he ends up? You know? Yeah, no,
(35:12):
you know what happens in Rogue one. They can still
like shock you and surprise you and that like the
writing of these episodes, it's it's essentially like the prequel
series that like that we deserved. Sorry if you really
love the prequels, but for me, it's like the like
that we have a new like with this, once this
show is over, we have a new Star Wars trilogy
that we can really truly appreciate. That would be both
(35:35):
Season of vandor Rogue one and a new Hope. And
I'll well we'll coin it the Rise of Rebellion trilogy.
I mean, if you think about it, the destruction of
the first Death Star is kind of what is That's
like the the end to point of this story, right,
I guess that's unless they want to tell another story
acquiring plans for the second Death Star. But Ca'm lighty
that feels kind of cheap. Hope that doesn't happen. But
(35:58):
I have no idea how they're the top these these
last three episodes, but I really don't feel like they
have to, so as long as they line the ship
and make a fun, interesting connection into Rogue one. I
just hope like more people check out the show. I
just kind of feel like, especially with Andwid the first season,
there was like a lot of articles that came out
that it didn't do well, it didn't have high viewership
(36:21):
or whatever, even though it was a really great show.
And this is the last one, so I mean, hopefully
people watch it and give it a chance. I definitely
feel like there's something for everyone here. You really don't
have to watch the other stuff. You just have to
really know that this takes place, but like after Revenge
(36:43):
of the Sith, before New Hope, But yeah, no, I
mean up to this point after episode nine, not like
I'm like now, okay, now I'm roped in. It's it's
truly the best Stars stuff that I've ever seen. I'm
giving an and or five out of five right now.
I can't wait to see what they do with the
final three episodes. We'll talk about those final three episodes
and episode one forty and I think that's all I
(37:05):
have for episode one thirty nine, So, folks, thanks for listening.
Aaron and I will be back, well, hopefully we'll both
be back in episode one forty as a stay tuned
for that. Follow us on all socials. Be sure to subscribe, rate,
and review wherevery day your podcasts, and again, thanks for listening.
Please
What other folks, And welcome to the Kyber Culture, Episode
one nine with myself, Joe aka the Depocket, Laurean and
no one else. That is right, folks, this is my
first solo pod. I'm pretty sure this is the first
one I've ever done. I've been podcasting for a few
years now, but I don't think I've ever had an
(00:37):
episode where I always had someone else to vibe off of, folks,
so this is pretty different. I'm just like talking alone
into microphone. It's kind of weird, but you know what
we're getting through. It definitely gonna miss having this Pomoni
on here or a guest at all, but uh, you know,
I gotta do what you gotta do when you want
to keep it like, keep it consistent. Always wanted to
try to do a solo pod, and what better time
(00:57):
there is than now. I These will probably be a
little shorter, given I won't have someone else to bounce
ideas off of, but alas format will be more or
less the same. I'm just gonna, you know, speaking to
this microphone about some things I've been watching. I guess
you can call it like my audio diary for folks
(01:18):
that want to listen and I am very thankful for
any of those that are listening to this podcast as
long as we've been doing it, We're all very Me
and Erin are very grateful for you guys. As far
as the stuff I'm gonna be reviewing, I'll try to
get into some specifics, but again, it's just a little
tricky without a co host, because you know, sometimes Aaron
(01:41):
or his pimonium will catch things or whoever the co
host is will catch things that I normally don't catch,
and you know, it kind of like works both ways,
vice versa. Here we go. Anyways, be sure to follow
the Chybriculture on all socials, Twitter, Instagram, letterbox at the
Kibriculture on all platforms, and of course, of course, if
(02:02):
you like our show, give us a like common subscribe
dropped that five star rating and review if the you
know review system is available wherever you get your podcasts.
But yeah, we really appreciate that rating. Okay, so let's see.
First up, me and Aaron usually like talk about some
recent things in our life. Nothing really new on my end,
(02:23):
still still kind of down in the trenches with these
damn allergies. Most folks out here, like most folks out
in New York mostly been saying the same thing. Like
last year, I didn't get any bad allergies and neither
did anyone else, but this year it's just completely taking
everybody out. So I don't know what's going on. Paulin's
just pollining this year, I guess. But yeah, so we're
(02:44):
getting through that. Got off FaceTime with my mom not
too long ago because recording today is Mother's Day, So
shout out to moms everywhere, especially Cyril's mom from and
or Damn like some piece of Cereal light spoilers already
at the top of the episode, but we are I'm
going to talk and word bit and Cereal is just
(03:05):
like one of the characters that's in there, and spoiler
he dies, and like they show his mom and she's
just absolutely devastated. But anyways, we also try to talk
a bit of news. Not much news caught my eye
this week, except we did get a new trailer for
Grand Theft Autos six. I wanted to bring this up
(03:26):
just because I think it was like maybe last episode
of the episode before we were talking about red de
Redemption and rock Star, and I think I might have
called out that that we were probably going to get
another delay. I mean, it was just just a guess,
but I mean, no surprise here. They did delay from
the They did delay the game from this September to
(03:49):
May twenty twenty six, which is which is a pretty
big one. But I'm all good with it. I mean,
the game looks great. The trailer was pretty cool. An
article that they did use a blend of gameplay like
in game graphics, gameplay, and and some cutscenes. So it
(04:09):
looks like they're cooking up some cool Just as long
as the game is good and it's worth the weight.
I'm not I'm really not tripping over a delay. I'm
just really hoping that it's not like one hundred and
fifty bucks and it doesn't require like a terror Bidom
memory and like takes up everything, like all the space
on MYPS five because I want to have some space
(04:32):
for games like other games on my PS five, you know.
But anyways, we'll see what happens. I'll pay seventy bucks
for it, how about that, maybe even like sixty bucks.
I don't know. Well, we'll see, we'll see. We'll see. Yeah,
So Grand Theft Auto six can't wait for it doing
a lot of good things. I mean it does look good.
The graphics look amazing. I'm sure they're trying to work
(04:52):
out all the kings on like, because I'm pretty sure
that like Grand Theft, Auto of Five, like me and
Aaron were talking about this a couple pods ago, it's
on fine community Forward is still huge, so I'm guessing
they're just maybe working out the kinks there as well,
how it's gonna work on and on like a like
a bigger platform. Next thing, this is in news. I'm
(05:13):
actually just gonna talk about Thunderbolts for a second. I
love this movie. Thunderbolts is very, very solid. It is
for sure my favorite post endgame movie. And I want
to click quickly clarify that it's my favorite post endgame movie.
I'm not saying that it's the best movie since Avengers Endgame.
(05:35):
There's a big difference there. You need to, you know,
differentiate the two. I'm just saying that, like, I'm not
on the boat that all Marvel content is bad after Endgame.
I'm definitely not there. I am definitely in the boat
where it's like it's definitely been mixed. I mean, so
we're phases one through three. Like I've talked on this
I've talked about this on the show before. Phases one
(05:56):
through three definitely had their lows, and I think we
just feel it more now because like phases one through three,
it was all movies. There was no Disney Plus, so
we weren't getting shows. I think post Endgame there's been
a like a big, huge output of content like movies
(06:16):
and shows combined. So I think that's kind of like where,
you know, whatever that Marvel fatigue is comes into play,
it's because there's more content, and you know, it's a
mixed bag. Some of it is okay, some of it
is bad, some of it is pretty good. But I
don't think there's like a lot of stuff that has
reached the highs of like you know, Phase three Marvel.
(06:40):
But then again, like you know what, like not everything
can be Infinity War, Endgame, or even Winter Soldier or
Civil War for that matter. But again, that was Phase
three that was leading towards the conclusion of that story
that we're wanting to tell. I digress anyways, Thunderbolts is awesome.
It's one of those highs that I was mentioning earlier,
(07:03):
and it separates itself being a more grounded story, not
really interested in the multiverse in any way, which is
what the attraction was post endgame, right, It's like everything,
like you know, well not everything, but like that was
the main attraction. It was the multiverse. So it's not
a multiverse story. It's not only does it set itself
(07:24):
up from set itself apart from that stuff, but honestly,
it sets itself up from stuff that it was even
in the Infinity saga, because Tackle is a more serious
subject matter where they touch on things like mental health, depression,
and even suicide, and I thought it handled these heavier
themes with grace. Florence Pugh is of course great in
(07:48):
the role returning as Jolena, and got to be honest
with you, folks, I don't know if there's a hot take,
but I am more of a fan of Yolayna than
I ever was in Nataha in this case, being like, uh, like,
I think Florence Pew's Elena's like, you know, way more
interesting than scyletro Hans's Natasha. But I think that might
(08:10):
just be because she's given a little more to work with.
But yeah, no, I mean, I don't think scoltro Hanson
had a chance to you know, lead her own movie
with Black Widow. But I think like with that, I
think it's an okay. I mean, there's it's it's it's whatever.
It's a mixed bag. But Black Widow of the movie
(08:31):
had that come out like right after Civil War, I mean,
you know, release dates or whatever. I mean, I've tried
to put myself in that, like just pretend like this
came out right after Silver warn and leads into Infinity War,
Like just try thinking about it. I'm like, I don't know.
I anyways, I mean, at least we got Florence pe
(08:51):
in that movie. We got to got to see an
introduction at Elena So and we got seen introduction to
David Harber's Alexi. Those two in the Thunderbolts movie have
a great chemistry as like the father daughter duo like
that they set up in the Black Widow movie. And
to be honest with this movie kind of works more
as a Black Widow two than a big team up movie.
(09:15):
More in them later. But Sebastian stan is also great.
I mean, who doesn't love Bucky. I've been been a
fan since the first Captain American movie. We also have
Lewis Pullman here as Bob Bob or Robert Reynolds as
the Century, who had just found out is I did
not know this until I saw a picture of them together.
(09:35):
I didn't know he was Bull Polman's son. Sometimes it's weird,
like sometimes you see like a lot of actors share
the same last name, but personally I don't automatically assume
that they're related. Maybe the last name should make it obvious,
but I simply just don't know. Sometimes it was the
same deal for me when I found out that John Washington,
John David Washington, was Denzel's son, I was like, what
(09:56):
the fuck, There's no way, But I should have known anyway.
Like I said, he's great as Robert Reynolds, or otherwise
known as the Century, who is like the superhero, and
then the Void, who was like the alter ego, but
are the same person. And that's definitely a highlight of
the film. Why Russell I liked him in Falcon Winter
(10:18):
Soldier not because I thought that he was like like
an awesome superhero or like someone you should really look
up to for that matter. I just like that he's
kind of like I think they've written him well enough
to like be purposefully feel like a cheap knockoff version
of Steve Rodgers. Yeah, no, I liked him in Falcon
(10:39):
Winter Soldier. He felt like that, like kind of like
smart ass asshole in Falcon Winter Soldier. And he's back
here just doing the same thing again, and I think
he kind of rules. But again another actor that I
didn't know was related to like someone else, like he's
related to Kurt Russell, and I guess this. I guess
this movie loves its NEPO babies. Anyway. But aside from
(10:59):
the perform is the movie, the story is pretty easy
to follow. It's quite surprising given this as a team
up movie where the whole team has obviously shown up
in previous films and or shows. And it's cool because
after speaking with some folks about the movie, who like,
aren't you know, totally roped into like Marvel as it is,
(11:23):
uh mostly my co workers or yeah, so that just
can't keep up with it, you know, Like I think
that is one of Marvel's big issues. That And there's
been there's been an article about this as kind of
a sidebar, so bear with me here, but there were
like talks that that Marvel has almost created it like
a like a new note, new or no New Fans
(11:44):
Club where there's like too much content to watch. Not
a lot of people can like jump in just whenever
they want to write. But yeah, I mean like with
that to say, like I talked to some of my
coworkers about this, who hasn't who haven't seen like, for example,
the ghost in this right was in ant Man two.
I feel like a lot of people missed out on
that one. A lot of people haven't seen Falcon Winter Soldier,
(12:06):
people haven't seen Black Widow. There's just there's there was
a lot that kind of previous projects that introduced these
characters that people haven't seen. I asked them, I was like,
did you feel lost at all about like do you
feel like you needed to like see any of this stuff?
And they're like no, it was like pretty it was
simple enough to fall, which I think is a good thing.
You didn't need to do the quote unquote homework to
(12:28):
understand them. I think that'll be like, honestly, like one
of my little gripes is just because like I personally
like even though like I've been saying earlier that I
think Marvel is a mixed bag. I mean I still
watch this stuff like watching a Marvel thing to me,
or watching a Star Wars thing even for that matter,
it never feels like a waste of time, Like I'm
always happy to do it. It's just like, by the
end of it, do I like it or not? You know,
(12:50):
that's yet to be seen. But that is like my
one gripe is that, like, I feel like the first
hour of this is real heavy on the exposition to
catch people up. So I mean that's just me though,
just because like I said, I've already seen it. But anyways,
the characters are solid, the story is good. I didn't
(13:10):
care too much for the Val stuff. She kind of
serves as like the antagonist to the team of this movie.
I didn't care for her stuff, the Congress stuff or
her assistant in this Val does bring the team together
and like propels the story forward, but I think could
have used less of her and more focus on the century,
(13:31):
and that maybe would have pushed my score just a
little higher for this. Speaking of the century though, I
like how they essentially used the hero the century and
then the Void being like the villain. First. I just
want to talk about how like it's such a simple
character design for the Void. It's just an all black
(13:52):
shadowy figure with just slight little pinholes for eyes, And
I just kind of liked that they went with that
just because it's just kind of like a like a
little glimmer of light that's still within, that's still within Bob,
I want to say that too, like Bob Reynolds. So
he's like he's like the result of a like a
like an experiment. I want to say. They're trying to
(14:13):
like recreate super Soldiers because the Avengers are gone, and
so he was just experiment experimented on a bunch of
times and which resulted in him becoming either the Century
or the Void. They're like two different personalities, but they're
the same person if that makes sense. Going back to
the villain design, it almost like when you look at it,
(14:35):
it kind of reminds me of like a sleep paralysis
demon or something, you know. But I really thought it
was well done. With the Void, it's almost like a
manifestation of Bob's grief and trauma. And really it's like
the Void being the main villain, it's really just a
manifestation of the entire team's trauma. Because towards the end,
(14:59):
the Void is s actually like ropes everyone into like
this big, shadowy darkness, and it's pretty much just like
everyone just reliving the most traumatic experience of their life.
I thought it was really well done. Like you get
to see Elena's it's it's really Elayna's movie, I'll say
that much. It's Florence Pugh's movie. She's pretty much like
(15:19):
the main lead. And one of the things that we
get to explore with her is that she, like, you know,
when she was in the Red Room training to become
a black widow operative if you want to call it,
that there was this like another young girl that she
kind of had to like kill. I guess that was
like her trauma. And then another example that of trauma
(15:41):
that you get to see is Whyatt Russell's character, John Walker,
his like traumatic traumatic experience is him just like being
roped into his phone. He's being stuck on his phone
just reading articles about how he failed being the new
Captain America, which you've seen in The Falcon Winters Soldier,
(16:04):
so you get to see how that plays out. It's
pretty much he just scrolls through like articles of him
of like people critiquing him, and then that like spills
into his real life because he's like supposed to be
taking care of his kid, and he doesn't pay attention
to his kid because he's on his phone and like
he just doesn't he's not present. I guess is the
(16:26):
is what they were trying to like go for. There.
The movie goes on and then they pretty much just
show that he his wife left him and took the kid,
and yeah, it kind of it's a bummer, but but yeah,
so yeah, the the exportation of the team strama, that's
definitely a highlight for me. I guess some other nimpics
out here I have here and there's humor is like,
it's it's pretty good. There are some moments that I
(16:48):
definitely like laughed pretty loud, and then there's some stuff
I'm just like, yeah, that's kind of a little corny.
Like I'm a I'm a fan of watching I think
what is missing from a lot of like the Marvel
stuff or like I kind of feel like we've just
been missing this in like superhero movies in general, is
just watching your main hero just save people. And there's
(17:12):
a lot of that here, but I think it could
have done. Like there's one moment where they're saving people
in the streets and then there's just like this giant
slab of concrete and they all like push it over together,
which I'm like, okay, that's cool, that's nice. And then
they push it over and then there's this huge round
of applause from people. I'm just like, all right, little
cornball stuff here. By the end, they they're facing off
(17:35):
with the void and they essentially defeat it with a
group hug and the power of friendship. Absolutely cornball to
the max there. I was talking about these moments with
a friend from work and he said something that it
made me lose and I was like, wow, that is
spot on. Was that this is like if anyone has
(17:59):
watched The Boys, The Boys on Amazon Prime, pretty good show.
There's this company called Vought, which is obviously supposed to
be like your big like movie studio. It's like their
parody on it, and they make superhero movies. They're pretty
much just saying like this is like if Vaught made
these made thunderbolts, like they would insert these scenes in there.
(18:20):
I'm like, you know, you kind of hit it on that,
but it's just hilarious to think about that. With that
to say, I give it a four to five stars.
Definitely check it out in theaters when you can rest
in pieces of task Master, quite possibly the most predictable
death in all of Marvel, and it's pretty much becoming
a meme at this point. Oh and one more thing
(18:41):
that I haven't touched yet is the post credit scene.
It was very cool. You definitely feel the synergy is
back in the MCU, I mean, until it's gone again
with with you know, with possibly with the next Marvel project,
which is Ironheart in June, which no one's talking about,
not even Disney's talking about it. But I think that's
just because and Or is still running right now and
(19:01):
they want to like wait till that show's over before
they really start promoting Ironheart. But anyways, it's a good
tease for the next movie, the next movie being The
Fantastic Four. I will say, though everyone, everyone on the
internet hyped this thing up like it was the best
post credit scene Marvel's ever done, which it really isn't.
But I really can't think of like what post credits
(19:22):
scene really like pumped me up after watching it. But no,
I mean I don't know that this is one of them,
like one of the ones that really like, is it
going like they tease a Fantastic four. They see the
next movie. The synergy is back, It's nice. The way
people are talking about online was like, oh my god,
I'm like, dude, what are you guys talking about? Anyways,
(19:42):
And the salmon Bucky Samver's bucket thing is just weird though,
And like copywriting the Avengers name Sam is fucking weird.
I mean that just sounds like, uh, it just reminds
me of like the Drake losing to Kendrick Beef if
I'm being for real, just because like Drake is like
picking up his lawyers, be like, you go here from
my lawyer, Bro, that's Sam copywriting the Avenger's name. That's Thunderbolts.
(20:07):
Let's move on to and or So this is where
I'm definitely missing Aaron, and I'm probably gonna miss a
lot of things here, just like some quick general thoughts.
I mean, this is like nine episodes of TV that
I'm gonna try and get or no, not nine six
episodes of TV that I'm gonna try and like recap here,
But do we can? I definitely understand where Tony Gilroy
(20:28):
is coming from now, because he I think he said
an interview somewhere where he like they were talking about
the release schedule hows like three episodes a week, and
he was like, oh yeah, I feel real bad for
postcat podcasters. I was like, oh yeah, I kind of
get get what you mean now, but okay, let's start
with episodes four through six. This is very solid stuff.
I mean, I think we're like here, we're dealing with
(20:50):
the aftermath of the first three obviously, and again just
you know, each three episodes is one year later, so
we catch up with the Bix and cast in they're
trying to live like a normalish life, like a normal
ish life on Coruscant. There is here kind of you know,
waiting on their next assignments from Luthen. We get a
(21:11):
little more insight to what's happening on Gorman because last
part we talked about, like the Empire is pretty much
like planning and scheming about what they need from there,
and I think it's calkite is what they need to
mine from the planet. They say that, you know, they
need so much of it that if they mind what
they need from Gorman, then it will destroy the planet.
(21:33):
So they have to like figure out a way to
get the people off, like moving them elsewhere, or do
it by force. So there there's a new there's there's
like a rebel. There's a new rebel group forming there.
And Cassian stops in and just to check up on them,
and pretty much he like comes to the conclusion and
he leaves and says that they're not ready. After this,
(21:56):
Luthen and Cassian have this interesting conversation where Luthin kind
of just feels he comes off as like he doesn't
care what happens to Gorman, like if they're ready for
the rebellion or not, because if they try fighting it,
in Luthan's eyes, if they fight and they win, that's great,
But if they fight and they lose, it's almost like
that's better the way that he that he sees it,
(22:18):
because he says something where it's like, oh, well, if
they lose like Gorman, the Gorman loss will like burn,
and it'll burn brightly in just a way that like
it will propel. The loss of Gorman will like pretty
much like echo throughout the galaxy. And then he thinks
that like losing them will just get more people to
(22:38):
rise up, which is like, you know, an interesting way
to look at things. Yeah, so we also get some
stuff with Withsagerera and uh, get this cool little nod
to Force Awakens if you didn't catch it, it's SAWA's
current base of operations is on I think you say
this like Dakar in the Ailenium System, which was the
(23:00):
same base that the Resistance. Like the resistance in the
Force Awakens, this is where they had their base as well.
He has a pretty cool, decent monologue. He doesn't exactly
reach the highs of say like Luthen Marva or even
Ken o'loy, but he does drop a pretty cold line
saying like revolution isn't for the sane. All the while
(23:20):
he's giving this monologue, he's like inhaling this thing called riydonium,
which I believe is like pretty much like spaceship fuel,
but it serves like an interesting metaphor here because rye doonium,
it's what sparks up like the ship's engines and propels
them forward. So he's saying like he and is he
and his rebel group are like the fuel for the rebellion,
and which is pretty cool in their own right. Let's
(23:43):
see what also happens here. Bigs gets her revenge on
doctor Gorst from the first season, who did like some
weird brainshit on her. He put like this contraption on
her head, which I can only imagine causes very intense headaches.
Here she pretty much does the same thing. She puts
the device on his head and like tortures him, like
as she's walking away from the building, casting blows up
(24:05):
the hotel, which is or blows up this building, which
is pretty cool. But yeah, so I mean at this point,
you know, I liked these episodes. I will say, through
these first six episodes, like I'll say that I get
I gave them like a four and a half out
of five, but I was like slightly underwhelmed. That's where
the point five is, like, you know, that's what's keeping
it from a masterpiece for me. And then the only
(24:26):
reason being is just because there were such highs that
were in season one, like pretty much every arc. Maybe
maybe the first three would be the weakest, but you know,
like the the heist, the prison arc, the return to Ferris,
like all that stuff was incredible. These first two arcs
(24:46):
were probably I mean, they will probably go down as
like the weakest of the show once I go back
and look at it as a whole. Not to say
that they were bad episodes. Like I said, like that,
I don't think either of these stack up to we
got in season one. It's like, it's like I said,
it's still a very good first few chucks in episodes,
but it's that they are. I did find them all uderwhelming.
(25:10):
They're good in their own right, but compared to what
we've gotten, it's not great. At this point, I would
say that, like the show hadn't wrote me in yet.
That was it. However, let's get let's quickly get into
seven through nine. Seven opens up with the Rebellion finally
coming into fruition. The base on Yeavin is established, and
(25:33):
Casting seems to be a leader there and living on
Yeavin with Bicks. Something that kind of surprised me was
that the Force finally makes an appearance. Not that I
was expecting, Like, not that I was like, oh, where's
the Force in like my super grounded Star Wars show,
you know? But but yeah, so the Force shows up there.
(25:53):
There's a healer on Yevin that that's pretty much using
the Force to heal people's wounds and had a blaster
a blaster shot like on his shoulder that wasn't healing.
She heals him and he was he was very scared
of it. I think this is mostly because he just
doesn't he was fearing something that he didn't really understand
(26:14):
and he didn't think was relevant to the cause. Bix
took a took a real interest in this, in this uh,
in this Force Healer and pretty much the I didn't
catch her name, but the Force Healer was telling Bicks that.
And I really liked this conversation. It was that Cassine
was meant for something greater and that he's a messenger
(26:35):
pretty much like taking what he needs along the way.
I just really thought that Gilroy brought a something kind
of new and fresh when it comes to talking about
the force or something or showing the force kind of
felt like and it was in a different light. It
wasn't anything like super flashy. It was just like a
nice little conversation, and you know, Cassiane gets his uh,
(26:58):
his blaster bolt shot healed. Episodes eight and nine are
really where things like really kicking the gear like this
is where like this is how should I say this?
This is like watching season six a Game of Thrones.
(27:19):
This is like doing battle the Bastards and the Winds
of Winter, which was pretty much like Battle of the
Bastards penultimate episode Wins the Winter, the season six finale.
This is what these two episodes are for me, And
I might even like these two more than those just
I think just because, like given where the rest of
(27:39):
Game of One set it up. Anyways, upisode eight, we
get this this event called the Gorman Massacre, and we
talked about this, I think in the last pod. Essentially
it's this event where there's a protest and it's like
a peaceful protest. Imperial officers just open fire on protesters
and it's it's very tragic, and it was it was
(28:02):
interesting just because like I knew about this. I'm pretty
sure Aaron knew about this, Like we all know what's
gonna happen here. We know this event has to happen eventually,
and yet it's still tragic to watch the first time
it happens. It's just the most defin stating thing you'd
ever seen. But what I think what made it really
(28:22):
like really fucked up, is because I didn't know that
they were going to go this route. Essentially, there was
an like the way that the shooting starts is there's
an Imperial sniper like camped out on a roof somewhere
and he shoots another Imperial officer that signals to like
the other Imperial officers like, oh, one of the protesters
(28:43):
did this, and then they just opened fire on all
the protesters. And I think that was one of the
things I was like, fuck, dude, that was That's what
really makes it really tough to watch. I think the
craziest thing about this to me was that Stormtroopers have
never been more accurate in Star Wars. Like I've never
seen a stormtrooper hit one of our heroes, or like
(29:07):
hit anybody for that matter, and stormtroopers were like picking
protesters off like it was nothing. Also, I've never heard
like blaster bolts sound so like sounds so threatening in
Star Wars before might be the most accurate Star Wars,
or might be the most accurate that Stormtroopers have ever
been in Star Wars. If we're gonna be completely honest,
(29:29):
Cyril and Cassian like pretty much amongst the chaos they
they find. I didn't know. It didn't occur to me
at first, but they get into a brawl where it's like, oh, fuck,
this is the first time these guys are meeting, and
they they get into like this crazy ass like like brute,
absolutely brutal, like no holes, bar to hand to hand
(29:50):
combat and it's probably the most like intense fight you've
ever seen in Star Wars. Everything that I'm about to
say is like, oh, this is like new heights for
Star Wars, Like this is the most like like intense
Star Wars ever been because it's true, like you'd never
seen anything like this happen in the Star Wars. But anyways,
that fight happens and then Cassiane almost dies with Cyril
(30:11):
pretty much picked up a blast and was about to
shoot Cassian, but then Cassiane just hits him with this
who are you? And I was like, oh fuck, it's
wants me because, like I said, like they've never met before.
And it's crazy because ever since season one, like Cyril
is has dedicated so much of his life to capturing
(30:33):
Cassian just to just for casting to be like, who
the fuck are you? It's like this guy Cyril. I
really like Cyril as an antagonist because he's pretty much
dedicated to his life to a cat like to the
wrong cause, like just absolutely on the wrong side of history,
and he's like wanting such approval that he's willing to
(30:56):
like throw his entire life away, just completely, just get
lost in this thing, just for all of it to
be for nothing in the end. Like your main opponent
and who you in your head, you've he's created like this,
Like he's like, oh, this guy's my arch nemesis. And
(31:17):
I feel like in like other forms of media and storytelling,
sometimes when yet, like when your character has an arch nemesis,
they at least know each other. Batman and Joker know
each other. Like here, it's like Cassian's like, who are you.
I'm like, oh damn, Like there's like you might as
I think he would have preferred to just get shot
instead of having his spears just brought down so bad.
(31:39):
But Cyril does die here, and he gets shot in
the head, and I don't think I've ever seen someone
gets shot in the head in Star Wars anyways. Yeah, No,
Cyril really is like one of the highlights of the show.
Like you you expect, you expect a character like Cyril
to get some type of redemption arc, But I really
like the choice here that he just died because, like
(32:00):
I mentioned earlier, he commits to a cause and gives
it is all for nothing, right, it's it's a great
character to have opposite to Cassian, who is giving his
all to the right cause and it will be for
something in the end. Yeah, No, Episode eight was was insane,
but then we get upisode nine. Episode nine is not
(32:23):
as heavy on the action. But what the real highlight
is here is man Mathma and her speech to the
to the Senate h just absolute top tier Star Wars writing.
I mean I would pair this with like watch Marv's
speech in the season one finale and watch this one
(32:43):
back to back, like they are like like the Yin
and Yang like they like are one is like one
sparks the other. To name drop Palpatine in this speech
to like in a room where everyone is like pro
hal Patine is just crazy just because like you just
(33:04):
have to think about like what state the world is
in in Star Wars, like at this moment, like everyone's
super scared to speak up against the Emperor and that
I think that's what makes this episode so great, is
because like once she's done, like she has to get
the fuck out of there. Otherwise, like Imperial officers are
just gonna, you know, try to do what they can,
(33:25):
and like one of them tried arresting her, but then
Cassie comes in and save the day. I forget his
name is is it like Chlorax or Blorix something like that.
It was her driver that was like an ICB. Plant's right,
I think it's Chloris. It's like Chloris Chloris. I found her,
I found her, we got her. He's like, oh good.
He just shits him right there, and mon Moth was
(33:47):
just so shocked and it's really funny. But anyways, this is,
like I said, this speech was top two Star Wars
running and h to me, this episode or these past
couple of episodes really feel like in line with what
George's vision was for Star Wars that Disney has ever done.
And I'd even say it takes it to New Heights.
(34:09):
That being said, you know, you could call this recency bias,
but this is probably my favorite Star Wars thing ever.
I just found these episodes to be so so compelling.
And part of it might be just because you know
where these characters end up and spoilers if you haven't
seen Rogue One, but essentially what Rogue one is about,
(34:30):
and like why they made the movie was like for one,
like you know, Disney bought it so Disney bought the
rights to lucasfilm, so at this point they had only
released The Force Wakens and this was like the next
movie up. And man, the fan theories around that were crazy.
You're like, oh, jin is Ray's mom somehow like Jesus Christ. Guys,
(34:51):
like the idea of Star Wars movies that weren't really
connected wasn't in like wasn't a thing yet. But yeah, no,
I'm and just part of that, like knowing where all
these characters end up. It doesn't end well for any
of them, except for maybe mon Mathma. She makes it out,
but Cassian dies. You know where he ends up? You know? Yeah, no,
(35:12):
you know what happens in Rogue one. They can still
like shock you and surprise you and that like the
writing of these episodes, it's it's essentially like the prequel
series that like that we deserved. Sorry if you really
love the prequels, but for me, it's like the like
that we have a new like with this, once this
show is over, we have a new Star Wars trilogy
that we can really truly appreciate. That would be both
(35:35):
Season of vandor Rogue one and a new Hope. And
I'll well we'll coin it the Rise of Rebellion trilogy.
I mean, if you think about it, the destruction of
the first Death Star is kind of what is That's
like the the end to point of this story, right,
I guess that's unless they want to tell another story
acquiring plans for the second Death Star. But Ca'm lighty
that feels kind of cheap. Hope that doesn't happen. But
(35:58):
I have no idea how they're the top these these
last three episodes, but I really don't feel like they
have to, so as long as they line the ship
and make a fun, interesting connection into Rogue one. I
just hope like more people check out the show. I
just kind of feel like, especially with Andwid the first season,
there was like a lot of articles that came out
that it didn't do well, it didn't have high viewership
(36:21):
or whatever, even though it was a really great show.
And this is the last one, so I mean, hopefully
people watch it and give it a chance. I definitely
feel like there's something for everyone here. You really don't
have to watch the other stuff. You just have to
really know that this takes place, but like after Revenge
(36:43):
of the Sith, before New Hope, But yeah, no, I
mean up to this point after episode nine, not like
I'm like now, okay, now I'm roped in. It's it's
truly the best Stars stuff that I've ever seen. I'm
giving an and or five out of five right now.
I can't wait to see what they do with the
final three episodes. We'll talk about those final three episodes
and episode one forty and I think that's all I
(37:05):
have for episode one thirty nine, So, folks, thanks for listening.
Aaron and I will be back, well, hopefully we'll both
be back in episode one forty as a stay tuned
for that. Follow us on all socials. Be sure to subscribe, rate,
and review wherevery day your podcasts, and again, thanks for listening.
Please
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