Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld

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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Transcript

Project Geekology Introduction

Speaker 1 0:00

Project Geekology at your service. We'll take on any episode for the right price, and that is a quote, a direct quote from Cad Bane. Not really, but I am one half of your host, anthony. Oh, this is episode 120 and we are covering Tales of the Underworld Star Wars, and joining me, as always, is Dakota, and actually you're one third of the Underworld Star Wars and joining me as always is Dakota, and actually you're one-third of the regular hosts on Project Ecology now, because we've had Rich on for probably what 20 episodes?

Speaker 1 0:33

at this point you are right. I am just so conditioned to say that You're conditioned.

Speaker 2 0:37

It's been years of that and now you've got to change. Life is all about change, buddy.

Speaker 3 0:42

Rich, how you been Pretty good. You know, buddy, rich, how you been Pretty good Just working hard, excited to be here Just working for other people's sunrises. That's what I've been doing lately. Ah, a little Andor reference, yeah, one that I'll never see, but yeah, obviously, watching the end of Andor, loving that, just absolutely really enjoying it. As I said last time, I just going it. It makes it makes season one even better.

Speaker 2 1:09

I just really, I really think so I think we need to like briefly touch on and or season two, now that it's concluded, even before we talk about like what, what else we've been up to for the, you know, over the past week? Anthony, are you caught up?

Speaker 1 1:22

no, I still have like a few more episodes that I've got to cover, but I don't want us to get too deep into talking about Endor, because we are going to cover it at some point.

Speaker 2 1:32

Sure, I do agree with that. It's currently the best show on TV and it probably is one of the best, if not best, ever shows on TV. So it's the first live-action series to have five episodes in a row on IMDb that are rated 9.5 or higher. It's the first show ever live action anyway to get that feat. So it's episodes eight through 12 are all 9.5 to like 9.8.

Speaker 2 2:00

And it's like I've never seen a show end on such a high note and this I'm so, so excited and like sad that it's gone and we're not gone, but it's over. But yeah, I, I can't wait to talk about andor season two, because that is literally. I don't think we're ever gonna get anything like that again. It's like just lighting in a bottle and I hope you know, I do hope that they take lessons from the reception of andor. Like it's good. Everyone considers it's good, you know. Like it's like this is what we want, not necessarily tonally, but if everything's written this way, if everyone's, if everything's produced this way, you got a recipe for success for the next 10, 20 years.

Speaker 3 2:43

So there were a number of things that occurred in the show that I knew were gonna have to happen, right, just because I've watched the other stuff, you know, and I still found myself like on the on 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 on the actual edge of my couch like chewing my fingers with the screen Because I tend to watch it on my iPad a lot in front of me, so like three inches from my face, like biting my nails, like crazy.

Speaker 3 3:17

It just was riveting, riveting television. And what I think I appreciate about it is I think normally with you know, superhero stuff or like Star Wars stuff, I don't really question what's going to happen, like I kind of know how it's. You know, like when Infinity War ended, right? Was it Infinity War or Endgame? Infinity War is the first one, right?

Speaker 1 3:38

Yeah.

Speaker 3 3:40

When Infinity War ended and you know Thanos snaps everyone Sorry, spoiler alert If you haven't seen that, that's on you when he snaps everyone but people walking out of the theater and I was just like my guys 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 the event. The the good guys lose I was.

Speaker 2 4:01

I don't believe it.

Speaker 3 4:02

You know, as much as I loved it, I wasn't truly moved by many deaths. I don't think we got to see the impact, a lot of it, but I don't know.

Speaker 1 4:12

There's something about andor that had me watch something that's under the kind of umbrella of my favorite fantasy genre, kind of going on and what ends up happening is they've created like riveting television and there are no lightsabers, you know well, well, and I think with uh, like infinity war, is that they kind of pointed out who was dead completely and who was going to be coming back, whereas andor we only knew, you know there was only what a couple of people that you know, andor and mon mothma, that we knew that was gonna live on yeah, it's one of those things where so it's so difficult to you know watch because you know that there's only like a couple characters who have plot armor and there really isn't like a lot of plot armor, because we know cassian andor does not survive the you know the rogue one.

Speaker 2 5:07

So it's like we're watching this guy like walk towards his doom. But it's also it's just brilliantly written. It's. It's so good we we got to talk about it soon.

Speaker 1 5:15

I'm excited to get on to andor, season two yeah, man, you know, maybe in two years I'm gonna kill you. Dude, look how long it took for us to cover the first season yes, and that was a mistake.

Speaker 2 5:30

Well, actually, no, it wasn't a mistake, because now we have rich and, you know, we have some extra commentary that we didn't have last time, so it's okay, well, I mean, you know, if it you know extra commentary being you know, met Mets lore that's somehow inserted into the Star Wars universe. I'm sure there will be no Mets lore today. There's nothing more that we need to know about the Mets Rich is like just like biting his tongue right now.

Speaker 3 5:58

Just keep going, guys, yeah so, Andor, Andor, Andor, yeah.

Speaker 2 6:02

So I still think the third arc, the one that dropped last week, which was episode seven, eight and nine, was the strongest week and it was a little bit of a dip in quality this week because it's a tie-in to Rogue One. You know, like everything's leading up to the events that spark Rogue One, the events that spark Rogue One. So it's even more bottlenecked in 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 a head right here. But what they were able to accomplish with that third arc on Gorman and Mon's speech crazy. We'll talk about it soon. But yeah, Rich andor, so I'm gonna shoot it over to anthony. What have you been up to this week?

Speaker 1 6:47

man, I've been actually kind of a bit on a like anime tear. I've been watching, just kind of like catching up on a couple things or like kind of or. Or I re-watched the last season of demon slayer because we have that movie that's coming out soon and I've been watching. So my hero academia has like a spinoff called vigilantes, so I've been watching that and it takes place before I think even like season one of of my hero academia. Yeah, yeah, because like all might is like pretty much like in full swing and yeah, it's pretty cool, like seeing these. You know, these are like characters that have, you know, abilities that might not seem as useful. Like one he names himself crawler and he literally can just like it's like slip and sliding on the ground as long as he has three points of contact. One has like a jump ability and she's like a kind of like a, like a freelance j-pop idol that sings concerts on the street, and the other one's like an older guy. He has like no quirk at all but he's just super strong dude.

Speaker 1 8:01

He fights one of the heroes because that one of the heroes thought he was being a villain and he just got that old man strength yeah, yeah, when he realized that this guy was not using a quirk and he was just using strength, he's like, wow, whoa, yeah, yeah, pretty much. But yeah, I know. So I've been watching tales of the underworlds. I didn't watch it fully twice, but I did watch at least the first arc twice because of me catching it, like you know, in that pre-release and fortnite. But, yeah, man, nothing too insane for me this week. How about y'all? How about you rich?

Speaker 3 8:37

let's shoot it over to you I think I'm finally gonna pull the trigger and get a blue vineyard remastered. I've just been seeing so much stuff. It's on my youtube. You know. I accidentally watched one video and then it was an avalanche and I kept watching it's an accident, I promise yeah I think I want to get back into it.

Speaker 3 8:52

I really love the world of skyrim and I've tried to play even the ps5 version and I just I don't know. The visuals are a little too dated for me right now. You know, every time I play it I end up wanting to go back to red dead or something because of the visuals and what I'm seeing from oblivion is great, and I saw a clip that really made me want to buy it and it's kind of weird, but it was a clip of somebody said they've remastered the audio, right, so they had people like literally they re-recorded the parts, they like recast some people to read the parts and they still kept some of the original dialogue where, like this, one lady's talking about what about, like patrick stewart, 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 who's like she's like how much do what's the fine for necrophilia here?

Speaker 3 9:44

and then she goes oh, that's it. In morrowind it was like 500 and you know, you're just like wow. And then there's one where he you know where a bounty hunter basically says oh yeah, no. So I walked into the party and I had to kill six-year-old girl, you know. So it's part of the job and it's just like nowadays you probably wouldn't find that kind of dialogue in something, and I kind of love that they've redid it 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 buy the entire game I have fond memories of playing oblivion over like the summer breaks of school, and my favorite thing about that game is that you could just spam certain actions jumping you can keep jumping and you'll keep getting better at jumping. Yes, your jumps will get higher and higher.

Discussing Andor Season 2

Speaker 2 10:35

You're, you're, I think it's called acrobatics yes yes, is you're you can bring your acrobatics skill like to a point where you can jump over like buildings, or like at least almost jump over buildings, and it'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 and I'm like, what are you doing? He's like I'm raising my acrobatic skill. Man, never waste any motion. I was like that's a little crazy. 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 the you know like just slashing and attacking and just like everything you do, just continuously like progresses until 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 be silent to 17 consecutive days of Rich Laconi being asked to just not talk and watch kids test. So it's not the most fun. But, as we were speaking about earlier, sometimes you just find the time to maybe multitask and listen to something while you're supposed to be doing something else. So I will not confirm nor deny listening to anything while I was proctoring, but Tales of the Underworld was watched three times. I'm not sure if you would call that 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 International Baccalaureate is listening, I just want to be clear. There's not an admission of guilt no, of course not. It just two things happen to be true 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 the tales of the underworld a second time while I was at work. This is an admission to guilt and I doubt anyone from my job is ever going to hear this, so but anyway, no, I was just. I was. I'm an electrician. I was working on outlets for hours, 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, getting bite-sized Star Wars while I was at work, so that's been good.

Speaker 2 12:51

Usually I like to listen to audiobooks and, occasionally, podcasts, but yeah, oh, a fun thing that I was doing this week is I don't usually make playlists. That's not something that I'm big on, but like music playlists I don't usually do, because I like listening to albums in their full. But recently I've gotten into the habit of listening to like Apple Music's recommended playlists based on you know just what I'm into, or like what is currently downloaded onto my phone. And it's sometimes really annoying because I know that I listen to like film soundtracks occasionally, but when I'm listening to like music, music or like an artist that I'm really into, or whatever, and then it like cuts to John Williams or Howard Shore or any of those you know excellent composers. It's a total vibe shift and I'm just like I wish Apple Music had an option where I could just say no more film scores, no more Disney movie soundtracks. I don't want that when I'm listening to.

Speaker 3 13:51

No, I got it In my head. You're listening to getting jiggy 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 goes my whole vibe yeah, so but anyway, I have kind of like worked my algorithm a little bit so that it doesn't happen too often anymore.

Speaker 2 14:09

But I've been thinking about like music in general recently and like why certain songs like resonate with me and when and others don't. And one thing that I've found is that I really like longer songs. I always find that if there's a song that's like two or three minutes, four minutes, that I really like longer songs, I always find that if there's a song that's like two or three minutes, four minutes, that I really like, I always get a little disappointed because it's over too soon, you know. So I started creating a playlist called Songs that Transcend the Six Minute Divide, and it's specifically songs that I like or songs that fit my vibe or mood, but they have to be over six minutes, and I've got about 20 songs in the playlist now just based on, like, my listening habits and I'm just I'm not like looking for the songs, but you know, like if they pop up on my recommended music, I'm like, hmm, maybe I'll add this one. So I've been working on that, so it's a pretty fun playlist.

Speaker 2 15:06

And right now it's mostly like very moody and brooding, but that's kind of me. But anyway, what else I've been up to? I've been doing a lot of writing. Last time I think I was saying that I was writing the avatar kurok era. I'm done with the avatar kurok era. I'm well into avatar kiyoshi and like I'm really picking up speed on that and I'm really excited because, you know, once I get past Kyoshi and Roku, then I'm I can talk about the shows, I can talk about the Last Airbender and, you know, legend of Korra, then I'll truly be in, like the modern eras of the Avatarverse and I can finally hone in on that. So I'm excited about that. My video is very long. I think I'm nearing 20 000 words and I'm still in the kyoshi era. So I do expect this to be a multi-hour documentary style thing, but it's a product that I'm really excited about. So yeah, that's what I'm working 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 avatars there have been and I calculated, based on quotes from the creators and stuff, that korra is the 99th avatar and the avatar after korra will be the 100th. That is actually mostly taken from this video that I'm working on right now. So that's a portion of the video that I'm working on, like my actual timeline. I took a chunk of that out and I made a separate video. But once I'm done writing the script and recording, I'm thinking that as I go through my edit I'll release chunks of it. So you know, era of rava and juan, then like some of the like mystery eras, because there's like 7 000, 8 000 years worth of stuff that we don't fully know about. But I have a lot of like history that I've kind of planted in there so I can make a whole video about that.

Speaker 2 16:59

I can do some a video about like the lesser avatars, like gun salai and zito. Then I can do a whole episode on, or a whole video on, yang chan. I could do a whole video on kiyoshi and roku and maybe even correct. So I I have I think I'm going to release it in parts but also have a full video that you can go like if. If you don't want to watch it in like chunks, you can just watch it straight through, basically so that's kind of what I'm hoping to do I think you should do it like ironheart.

Speaker 3 17:30

You know, just drop half the season in one day, and then half the season the next week, 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, like especially after andor, where they were releasing three episodes a week, which is a lot of content, like that's a movie length's worth of content every week. It's hard to say that that doesn't bode well for Ironheart, because a lot of times when they release a show in its entirety, it's usually a sign that they don't expect it to have much leg. Okay, so chucking's a little have 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 own movie, 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've been up to. Let's jump into tales of the underworld people are you sure it's not the underground?

Speaker 2 18:38

I. I keep off camera saying we're covering tales of the underground or tales from the underground, and it sounds like Underground and it sounds like a hip-hop album from the 90s. Yep, Tales from the Underground. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. But yeah. So in past years, specifically every May 4th for the past three years, Lucasfilm has released a new series of short form videos or short form stories. Two years ago, on May 4th 2023, they released Tales of the Jedi, which featured three episodes of Ahsoka Tano and three episodes of Dooku Sereno, and I really love that one. I still think that's the best of these episode drops. Then, the year after May 4th 2024, they released Tales of the Empire, which it featured oh man, 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 that take place post-Order 66. And we also got I think her name is Morgan. I forget the other girl's name. Oh man, it's killing me the girl from Season 2 of Mandalorian who ran that town and 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're talking 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 the arthurian 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 I think it's a little different than that, but yeah, it's definitely based on that. That was last year's six episodes the barisoffi and morgan and now this year we have three episodes of asajj ventress and three episodes of cad bane. Really quickly, how do you guys rank tales of the jedi, tales of the empire and tales of the underworld under not underground underworld?

Speaker 3 21:03

I think I go jedi underworld dead empire yeah, I go with that ranking too I like okay 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 so much, because I definitely feel way more attached, like to asajj ventress at the same time.

Speaker 2 21:25

Yeah, so, I'm a little different from you guys. I would choose Jedi, empire and Underworld, underworld being the last for me. I have some criticisms that I you know I'm going to explore later. But for me the reason I choose Jedi first is because Tales of the Jedi were completely separate stories. They were short stories that didn't really tie into one another, you know, besides, like the thematic arc of one's life. That's kind of how that series went.

What We've Been Watching

Speaker 2 21:57

Then the Barriss Offee stories in Tales of the Empire were a little bit more streamlined, same with Morgan's. It was a three episode story instead of three separate stories, if you know what I mean. So it was no longer really tales. It was a tale of barris and a tale of this girl. And this one, I think, like the asajj ventress one is probably like the most egregious where it's just like three very consecutive, like they. They take place days apart each of the three asajj ventress stories. And that really bothered me because it's no longer the same format that they were trying to do in the first place and I mean maybe they were never planning to stick to that format. I don't know, maybe I'm being too critical there, but that really bothered me because I want variation, you know, I want to see different points of this person's life. It seems clear to me they just wanted 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 bane rolls around, that was definitely the strongest storyline and, to be honest with you, I felt like that storyline was stronger than both the Barriss and the Morgan ones.

Speaker 1 23:11

You're right and so I would say that that's what carried, because I definitely agree with you 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 you know, trying to go straight towards the life of a jedi, but she has that desire to help a little bit, just in her own way. So it was cool seeing that in the way that they tied in dark disciple with it, which was I thought that was really cool. But man like that cad bane one was so good.

Speaker 2 23:49

I really enjoyed the cad bane side of that show yeah, which which of these two arcs did you more resonate with rich?

Speaker 3 23:58

hmm. So before I heard you say anything, I was gonna go with asajj ventress. I just really like her character, it I don't know how to put it when she comes on screen. When she came on I was like, oh, I was like a Sash. You know, I feel I know her a little bit more than I know Cad Bane.

Speaker 3 24:16

I did like seeing obviously Cad Bane in live action and everything, but I don't know, for me I think it's just I really like Dark Disciple. So seeing that kind of played out here was anthony said was definitely a treat for me. And yeah, I mean. But then you know, you do say that this is only like one, like three day arc in her life and I'm like man, I didn't think about it until now. I'm like, yeah, you're right, I kind of. I kind of wish it was a little spread apart in her life and we would have seen a little bit of different kind of moments of her, maybe you know, somewhere with dathomir or something or I don't know, just just a little bit of a break. But I think a part of the issue with that is a lot of her stuff was covered in. I'm gonna say the wrong one.

Speaker 3 25:03

But rebels, no clone wars yeah, I knew I was gonna guess I was gonna say the wrong one, because they're all a 50 50 show I watch, unless you're also throwing bad batch into the the scene and then oh, there you go technically she does show up in bad yeah, I watched.

Speaker 3 25:18

You know I kind of binged all the whole like I had kind of ignored the star wars cartoons for a while. I'll say animation, sorry, and I don't know why I was really resistant to any of I. I kept putting them on and like I even tried with charlie and I, it wouldn't stick. I'd watch three episodes and then I would be like I don't even know what happened there, I don't know why, and it kept happening until bad batch came out. And then, once bad batch came out, I was able to kind of go through that and I really liked it and then I went back and watched everything together. So I really like Asajj in the animation that I've seen before.

Speaker 2 25:54

Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, did I hear that correctly that 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 have all read Dark Disciple. I think that might. No, I think we've also all read Light 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 Dark Disciple-esque episode. So for those of you who are listening and have not read the book or don't know what we're talking about, it's six of the clone wars, you know like they. Season seven was canceled briefly before it was picked up later but one of the story arcs was an eight episode story arc written by katie lucas, which is george luc Lucas's daughter, and it was called Dark Disciple and it was a story of Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos falling in love and she it kind of it's like her break away from Dooku and turning to the light side and it's a beautiful story and it was after it was cancelled because they cancelled season seven, christy golden wrote it into a novel form and it is like totally canon it's. It's extremely strong. It's one of the stronger books in the in the canon and it's really sad. Like I remember where I was, where I was, the first time I was listening to it.

Speaker 2 27:20

I was, I was like I was working on cars, I was detailing cars at the time and I was on some like used car lot, like in a range rover dealership, and I was on some like used car lot, like in a Range Rover dealership and I just remember, like you know, because it was like winter, there was like snow everywhere and I was just like I was like I fell onto the snow. I was like, no, I was, I was tearing up in the Range Rover parking lot. Yeah, that was, that was a fun time. But this episode, the first episode with Asajj Ventress, begins at the end of that novel. So, spoiler alert Asajj Ventress dies in that Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi bring her back to Dathomir, put her in, you know, some green goo, some green 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 they dropped 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 basically giving 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 back to the living world. But the only thing is you cannot have your heart's desire. And that was an interesting ultimatum. I like that shakespearean, you know. Like I like when star wars does stuff like that. But my issue is they don't really explain what that means, because does that mean quinlan voss can't see her, can't love her anymore? Does that mean she can't love Quinlan Vos? Because she then spends the next three episodes searching for him and she comes very close to you know, potentially seeing Quinlan Vos. There's the idea that Quinlan Vos might be on that ship leading to the path you know to take 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 just very good at weaving stuff together over over the span of different series. But yeah, so like what? What is your take on the I guess, the ultimatum slash curse that mother talzin put on asajj so that she can live again? Can she still love quinlan voss? Can quinlan voss still love her? Or is it just too vague currently? Maybe it's well?

Speaker 1 29:36

obviously she still felt something, you know yeah she, she was. I mean, that was the whole reason why she was kind of looking for the path you you know with what was his name again?

Speaker 1 29:50

The kid Lyco. Yeah, lyco. So you know, obviously there were some feelings on that and maybe the ultimatum was I don't know, maybe it was a little bit deeper than that, maybe because you know that was, you know, know, because she was kind of, I guess, like it was almost like she was being reborn again and so it's like that was part of like another part of her life, and so I guess, yeah, she's just trying to, I guess, live in a way that would make him proud, I guess quinlan voss yeah, what are your takes on?

Speaker 3 30:28

it rich. I mean, I could see it being something like a I'll call it the rogue curse, where she, as you know she went to go touch him. She would be enveloped in like the green magic of the witches of dathomir, and that touch would kill quinlan or completely separate yeah, like maybe like they would be incapable of 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, the witches of dathomir. I feel like that's something that you okay, I like that theory. I like that theory. Let's send it over to day feloni and you know, hopefully in couple of years we'll get a full series. No, this is our little writer's room. We're working away at scripts over 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 let his box of toys die, they're just going to, on living to, so they 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 jaris spoilers I'm not sure if that's yeah, dude, I mean like I, I feel 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, I guess, in a way that's why I'm like okay, let's buffer Andor a little bit, let's kind of marinate a little bit before we start talking spoilers.

Speaker 2 32:08

We're not big enough to hop on things right away I do think at some point I would like to do a couple episodes, not necessarily of andor, but a couple episodes in a row of stuff that is either coming out that week or coming out, like you know, within a certain amount of time. Because I'm curious if people will, because I think the people who are listening actively to podcasts, or searching for podcasts to listen to, are people who are fresh off of that topic, you know, or it's it's in their minds, so they want to check it out. So I feel like, yeah, I think that would be like just to test out the numbers, see if there's any 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 to be 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 like whatever's like coming out. Which exactly which house, you know?

Speaker 1 33:03

I just want to talk about stuff we like. But yeah, no, I mean that could line 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 one that we're looking at. I don't even know if those shows 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 could think 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 seemingly like no neck, all right, and my students decided to big, big, al or big ed, yeah, yeah it's big, ed I know exactly they were spamming me, like when I was teaching, like I think hybrid. You know, I'm did something like mr coney. This guy looks like you. They drop it in the chat and I'd be like this is so offensive to me. I'm like I, I have a, I have a neck not them saying that that's your doppelganger they said that, and william h macy from what's the series?

Speaker 3 34:04

I've never seen it before. It's like acclaimed a series that 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 hair and facial hair that that doesn't classify me as him like kids are ruthless.

Speaker 2 34:28

Speaking of 90 day fiance, like I actually did like during covid like me, my wife and like her in-laws would just like sit and watch seasons of 90 day fiance like on the on.

Speaker 2 34:42

You know, just in a row, just like on the couch, like we would go on like and I would poke holes in it left and right, because that stuff is all fake. There's like they would like be fighting and like the girl would like run off, and like the cameramen are all like we don't know where she is and like she'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 someone is, but there's a camera following them.

Speaker 2 35:08

Yeah, exactly so good stuff. Yeah, that's the origin of my time 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 Lyco the new Padawan? Oh, actually, before we jump into that, when do you guys think this takes place? Because I'm at a loss. It's short enough where Lyco, a former Padawan, is still seemingly a teenager right.

Tales of the Underworld Overview

Speaker 2 35:41

So he hasn't got his knighthood yet, presumably. And he's all alone, no one here beside me, and sorry, I have that, the donkey song, I'm all alone. There's no one here beside me in my head. So he's young enough for order 66 to still be quite recent, but we now know that the Inquisitors are fully in gear. There's another, like you know, pointless Inquisitor where they immediately offed, but then there's enough time has passed for Quinlan Vos to have created the path, which I assumed would be something like late in the game. Like after like, he's accumulated a bunch of resources, a bunch of people in the background. That's something that I assumed would have taken a long time to like come together, but I, I don't know.

Speaker 1 36:31

I'm having a hard time placing this one so maybe it could be it could be safe to say that it might kind of reside around when obi-wan takes place I 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 be around obi-wan yeah, I mean lyco. Yeah, he is young, but I mean there's all no, you're right, it seems like he could have been a youngling he could have been a youngling, yeah I mean yeah he he doesn't give yeah, or younger on the padawan because he did have a little bit of proficiency with the lightsaber.

Speaker 2 37:11

Yeah, it's a conundrum, I didn't get him Do you feel like he's Jedi Temple survivor youngling. He might not have been at the Jedi 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 in the temple. No, I just want to.

Speaker 1 37:28

I'm pretty sure that Anakin's pretty effective. He killed all the younglings in the temple. I mean with the existence of characters like Ezra, you know, somebody who learned the ways after 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 midst of training.

Speaker 2 37:46

Yes, yeah, that's the vibe that I got. He's kind of like a kanan jarus who you know his master died protecting him during order 66 and you know he grew up kind of semi a jedi, but not really a jedi until it until, like, he was ready to take on that role again. So it kind of seems like that could be the case. Or same goes for oh man, who's the kid from the Jedi Order 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 mean that that still could happen, like that, that would be a crazy story, just like, literally, the rest of the jedi are found I understand that it's yoda and he said it, but yoda was also on the 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 him from being able to be read. I just think that I know yoda said it. I don't think the idea that we have like yoda was wrong about so much. Yoda could have told anakin like hey, it sucks to lose somebody and you know it really hurts, and maybe you should process those feelings instead of like it's good, death is good. They embrace the force. You know, as the guy's sitting there in darkness brooding because he's obviously upset, yoda couldn't read his mind. He couldn't sense his emotions in that moment. I'm sorry to all those people out there that really ascribe to this theory but I'm just like no man yoda can be wrong. That's what we. We learned. Like Yoda's folly the fact that everyone always thought he was right was actually our folly and the 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 Jedi were.

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 of emotion. You know a lot of stuff that like if you told a therapist that you were doing that, they would be like, no, that's unhealthy you know, it's kind of stifling emotions pretty much what I will say about the so or the asajj ventress episodes.

Speaker 2 40:09

I really liked the way that they started it with this new intrigue that she's back, 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't really follow up on that meaningfully enough for it to really make those episodes worth it for me. I guess I'm happy that she's back. I'm interested about what happens to this Lyco kid.

Speaker 1 40:34

Right.

Speaker 2 40:35

But it wasn't in. Again, I would like, like you know we were saying earlier, it would have been better if they these were three like disparate stories, like completely separate and not telling one incomplete arc. Honestly it was. It wasn't even like they didn't. They never really resolved anything.

Speaker 1 40:53

Besides, I'm gonna stick with you like that was the the gist of the arc yeah but anyway, final thoughts on these three episodes guys I thought it was cool to like kind of see gray jedi asajj in an animated format. Dark Disciple was amazing and obviously listening to the audiobook was pretty much like listening to radio, but it was cool to actually see it visually too.

Speaker 2 41:26

Yes, rich, what do you think? I truly enjoyed it. It was cool to like actually see it visually too. Yes, rich, what do you think I I truly enjoy? Don't don't take what I was saying, like the criticisms that I was saying, to like negatively impact your opinion of it, because I do want to hear your opinion like okay.

Speaker 3 41:38

So I'll admit, hearing what you said made me want that. But before you said that, I just really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed from the beginning. He tries to use the Jedi, you know mind trick and she's kind of like you idiot, like you're not doing you know, like what are you doing? What a loser, yeah. And she immediately kind of like it's almost like a thief watching somebody trying to like pickpocket poorly. You know, I kind of really appreciated that. I liked the ending of the first episode. She's that I liked the ending of the first episode. She's. You know you gotta tell me who you are. And then I'm a savage ventress. I've probably killed many people that you've already known. You know that I thought was pretty, that that that was awesome.

Speaker 3 42:15

I mean, that was like a moment where that was cool that, that was it reminded me of just I know it's often, but like when mcbeth gets confronted by young c word in act, act five of mcbeth, and he's like you know my name will scare you and he's like you know well what is it. And he's like my name's Macbeth and I've always imagined it as my name's Macbeth. And then a word for a female dog because I just think it's his moment of just kind of my name is enough to inspire fear and when she says it I get the same feeling. So I think it's just because I love the character so much, I hated her and then grew to love her because of Dark Disciple and everything and everything I've seen. I think she's so interesting.

Speaker 3 42:53

I've always loved the Witches of Dathomir, ever since I read the Courtship of Princess Leia, which is now legend. But it was one of the books that was supposed to take place right after Return of the Jedi, where basically han and leia go off and get married and they go and they end up on this crazy planet with the witches of dathomir and writing rancors and stuff. That led to a lot of the stuff we see here. So I think I'm always going to like somebody who's tied to that dathomir in some way, because dathomir felt like one of the first really like nerdy places that I knew about, that not even my other Star Wars friends knew about, because they weren't reading, they were just watching the 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 to kind of take precedence and really kind of make me pay attention 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'll just pop on randomly and it warms the cockles of my heart.

Speaker 2 44:04

Love it. All right, let's talk about the Cad Bane arc, and the timeline for this is also kind of unknown because we I don't think we know canonically like how old cad bane is, but this all clearly takes place prior to clone wars. This is like very early cad bane, laura, and it starts with him as a child, where he he goes by 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.

Speaker 1 44:35

Anthony hit me that like like that, that part was really sad. Like you know, when you know you kind of he's growing up on the streets of Duros and yeah, like you know, just poor, you know no family and pretty much you know his buddy, that's his family, and you know they come across a bounty hunter that looks very similarly to him when he gets older, you know, yeah, like they kind of come into money helping him out and you know his buddy gets caught and it's kind of sad because money helping him out and you know his buddy gets caught and it's kind of sad because you know like they get separated. You know he's sad that like he's like kind of lost his buddy and so, like you know, in that moment it's like dude, like that's really sad, like his only kind of his only family is like he's about to get separated from him.

Speaker 2 45:24

Yeah, it was an interesting dynamic and you kind of saw it coming, or at least I did.

Speaker 2 45:29

I thought I kind of saw it coming yeah, yeah, like one of these people is going to be cad bane and one of them isn't, you know. So you, you kind of think either this guy's going to die or he's going to get separated by them. And you know, as soon as the guy came in with you know, like this is an investment, you kind of assumed at that point that he was going to take Cad Bane on, but not the other kid. And the other kid was showing reserve to you know, aiding Cad I forget the Cad Bane lookalike guy's name, but he was showing reserve to it, like is this really worth it, you know. And then Cad Bane, like he's like, yeah, you're right, and then he turns around like let's double the offer.

Asajj Ventress's Return

Speaker 2 46:08

I thought that was really funny, but I did, like, you know, like thinking about it now I do like the arc quite a bit. I think that they really made Cad Bane an unlikable character, like he wasn't really like a lot of people like Cad Bane just because he's like the cool guy with the cowboy hat from you know, clone Wars and he's an excellent bounty hunter. And it was interesting learning about his backstory and how he became the cold hearted man I am. I'm quoting nothing Like I was just literally. I was just trying to mimic his voice.

Speaker 2 46:40

You were trying to like mimic his voice, yeah yeah, but yeah, it does give you moments to sympathize with him, but because of his actions throughout the couple episodes, those brief moments of potential sympathy for the character are ripped right away just by his actions. If that makes sense, rich, what do you think?

Speaker 3 47:04

it's. So it's funny I think I go into this with. I didn't. I wasn't a cad bane lover going into it. I mean, yeah, he looks pretty cool, but from what I'd seen of him and other star wars properties, I kind of just thought he was like a heartless, you know, a heartless bounty hunter guy and I assumed that he had a rough, you, you know, he had a rough upbringing, you know, and that hearted him as a young boy. And there's only two paths Either you become Batman or you become a villain. I wasn't super surprised, actually. What ended up happening at the end of the arc is I was like gosh darn, I hate this man more than I thought I did before, you know, like I always, that's how I felt I never like I.

Speaker 3 47:48

I didn't like him. I mean, it was cool to see him in live action, but I didn't. You know, I don't have any love for 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 from mandalorian that's my man from rocky

Speaker 3 48:05

carl weathers, baby yeah also uh, by the way, just because this is tangentially kind of related carl weathers is in happy gilmore and the alligator who was in happy gilmore sadly died this week at the age of 80. So but 80, yeah, 80 years. He's apparently a star of many. He's been the alligator and and many movies, not that I can name right now, but anyway that'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 talking about? Bob barker, and I was like no, bob barker died a long time ago. So I clicked it it's the alligator. But yeah, I guess just that he's never been a character. You know, I've always thought I like Boba Fett and I actually ended up liking him. I mean, this sounds crazy. On the Book of Boba I liked him more. I feel like that disappointed more people than ever because it took away his mysteriousness and people didn't like what they found. And I think it's kind of a similar thing here with cad bane. Sometimes it's the mysteriousness of the character that makes them really cool, you know, and I just think that if once you start giving us too much, it becomes like that terrible gambit character in the x-men movies, you know, like just poorly well done. I mean not done well, because you somehow took the mystique away from that character oh, I'm about 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 fans of clone wars, you know, because that's where cad bane was that breakout character. You know, one of the underworld was more geared towards fans of clone wars, you know, because that's where cad bane was that breakout character. You know, one of the breakout characters in that show. He came out in that show and that's where a lot of people liked him.

Speaker 1 49:52

I always thought that cad bane was really cool. I'm not gonna go and say like, oh, he's my favorite character, but I always thought that cad bane was really really cool. And when I saw that like he had popped up in, you know, book of boba fett, like you know, I thought, like you know, like that was kind of like a treat within itself. But yeah, you know, book of boba fett, you know we we've gone down that rabbit hole already and I'm not going to talk much about it. But the thing is is that, like you know, even with that being said, this side of tales of the underworld was the stronger side, you know, even if it does take away, yes, you know, some of the, I guess, mystique of cad bane.

Speaker 1 50:32

You know, the thing is is that there's still a lot of mystique to him because we had really never gotten anything about him except for the fact that he is a bounty hunter. You know, we never had really gotten too much of his backstory, we just got him just hunting down bounties and that's exactly what he did in book of boba fett. You know we got a little bit more of him and and some of the other animated series you know, especially clone wars. But you know, cad bane was definitely cool and it was cool to see, you know, a little bit of his upbringing. That story was actually broken up in the way that dakota would have wanted the assas one to be broken 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 I forgot to pick this detail out was that you can tell that she was aged. You saw it in her face okay, that there was that that age there.

Speaker 1 51:28

so I thought that that was really cool, some of that small detail. But yeah, the cad bane side of the story, I enjoyed it a lot and it was really, really sad when he faced down his buddy, nero, because Cad Bane was with somebody called Aaron and you know when Cad kind of got sent off to prison for killing a marshal some years prior, you know some romance buds between Nero and Aaron and you know at some point, yeah, aaron passes away and you know that pisses off Cad Bane and you know I think what really like made me sad was when he gunned down his buddy. You know the kid was there but then 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 right back, I'm gonna go get milk and cigarettes and my son goes what are 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, I wasn't saying that I didn't like this arc. I just said that it makes Cad Bane 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 his childhood 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 the doorway, 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 he goes to do the duel and the whole time I'm thinking like just yell, it's your son, it's your son, right, like. And instead he like starts the dual steps and then obviously gets killed, like I just I don't get it.

Speaker 2 53:25

I don't know why he didn't just yell it out yeah, it's also interesting like cad bane even says something like don't worry, I'll look after you, you know, like the kid, until he realizes it's actually his own kid. And then there has to be like some 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 a little bit more believable if maybe Bane just shoots him in the back. You know, I don't know, it was like a weirdly honorable way for him to kill his friend and his friend knew it was coming and all he had to do was kind of open his mouth for the sake of the boy. I don't even mean to save his own hide, like I didn't expect that from him, but it was just for the sake of the boy. Because even if bane offers to take care of him I mean he just watched what that, what kind of man his dad is you know that that can't be something you ever want to to follow I don't think that cad bane would have been the type to gun down a childhood friend in the back.

Speaker 1 54:25

Even though he was a deplorable character, he still. He had that whole instance with the Marshal and he had no emotional connection to the Marshal and the Marshal killed his friend. So Laszlo, that was the guy that originally had the hat and even he went with the whole like dual moment with that he could have just easily just pulled his gun and shot the marshal in that instant, but no you a law man.

Speaker 2 54:53

Now you trying to make sense of these scripts yeah, I don't know like even his character is cool, though, like I will say no, he's cold-hearted and cool yeah like there's no doubt about it, and just like his entire vibe, even though he kind of emulates Laszlo, his entire vibe is very polished and I will even go as far as to say he probably outstripped Laszlo's ability to be a proper gunslinger 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 his like original name, colby?

Speaker 1 55:31

I feel like it was believable. Like you know, I think that cad bane 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 say colby is a a soft or a softer name, you know, like a bobby, so I could see him shortening it to bob or, you know, cat in this instance. So it worked for me. You know, one thing that I really liked about this episode, the one thing that really stuck with 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 for something juicy. But in the end they got something even better they got crunchies. They got crunchies. So in the honor of that, I brought my own crunchies, I got my candies here and you know, usually we we like to, you know suggest that you guys review our podcast with the five star like a juicy rating. But today let's make a crunchy in in honor of nero and the crunchies that they ate.

Speaker 2 56:38

It's like yeah, and the crunchies that they ate, yeah, and the crunchies that they ate with 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 saw where it was going. I want us to get advertisers on the show solely for us, having the most awkward Segways into the e-commerce For us having the most awkward segues into the conversation.

Speaker 1 57:07

Speaking of, I think that we could really knock out advertising. That was just a crazy segue right 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 this week, guys. Thank you so much for listening to us here for our 120th episode. Before we end the show, I just want to ask what did you guys like? Final thoughts what do you think 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 sometimes with the animation. I don't know what it is about my brain. I need to watch it more than once before I think I get fully engulfed in it. I also think that I might have enjoyed and this maybe speaks to your point. I may have enjoyed, say, the Asajj Ventress just as one 45 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 minute episodes are a little bit of a viewing anomaly for me. I'm kind of almost past the point where I I very rarely watch anything that's under half an hour, so it was almost kind of jarring for me when they ended. But that's why why I ended up rewatching them and honestly, I really like them. If you haven't seen them yet, I would highly recommend sitting down. They're easily digestible and I think that they give us a little bit more into two really interesting 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 us and I like that they're doing this stuff it seems like yearly. And yeah, like rich said, it was cool to see two characters that are definitely interesting.

Cad Bane's Origin Story

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 they both 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 the moment when I'm watching these new Star Wars, it's only after the fact, you know, like when I come to the podcast or I turn my critical brain on after the fact is when I kind of start breaking it apart. But in the moment I was totally enjoying all this. And that's not to say that it's bad. I don't think this was bad storytelling by any means. It just wasn't what I wanted from the format, I guess. So from that perspective I had the issues and even to a lesser degree, the Cad Bane story arc. Even though it was three separate stories that took place over the course of years, they all were one arc. One story arc versus the Count Dooku one and the Ahsoka one in the first season of Tales of the Jedi were completely separate stories each time. But anyway, I don't want to harp too much on that, that's just my personal takeaway.

Speaker 2 1:00:00

I do think that the Cad Bane trilogy of stories far outstripped the Asajj Ventress one. But Asajj Ventress for me is a more. I like Asajj Ventress as a character more than I like Cad Bane. So I think I was probably expecting more from that. But I also find this issue where a lot of times the bad characters you know the enemies in one film or the enemies in one series end up becoming kind of 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 whole show about like the baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy, taking over a crime ring so that he can do good.

Speaker 3 1:00:45

He can do good by this town, that's, that's his goal yeah, and make it into mandalorian season 2.5 yeah, yeah, that was, that was definitely you know, I mean, I think it's, I think it's the truth is, in almost any storytelling right, the villain can only be a villain for so long before he's taken down. So if you want the villain to keep being a character, you kind of need to eventually have them not be a villain.

Speaker 2 1:01:14

Well, that's also why I'm a little bit wary of the Darth Maul series that's coming out. It's called Maul.

Speaker 2 1:01:20

A couple years ago. They're making an animated series called Maul series. That's coming out. It's called Maul. A couple of years they're making an animated series called Maul and that will obviously, you know it'll take place with Maul. But yeah, eventually we're going to see Maul become a much more nuanced character and he is already a nuanced character, you know like he shows up quite a bit in different mediums. But yeah, I'm worried that, like all of these characters like now, asajj ventress is like a good guy. You have boba fett who's like very clearly a good guy it just happens a lot. It's a trope that I I find not unenjoyable, just something that I'm noticing and it's a pattern that I'm noticing that I'm just like I don't want this to keep happening. So, yeah, and I think that's kind 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 too deep.

Speaker 2 1:02:09

Yeah, kyber, kyber, and he just goes, goes down, you know, yeah, so guys, again, thank you for listening to us here for our 120th episode of Project Ecology. I have no idea what we're covering next week, but did you guys have any ideas as to what we're covering?

Speaker 1 1:02:27

Not at the moment.

Speaker 3 1:02:29

Survey says no, sir.

Speaker 2 1:02:31

You will figure out what we're covering next week by listening. You will. It'll pop up. You're going to subscribe to this podcast. Put notifications on, and it'll pop up on your phone, your cellular tablet device when we're ready to release that information. So good luck to you, guys. If you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click into the show notes down below. And yeah, stay juicy, my friends.

Speaker 1 1:02:55

Or stay crunchy.