Episode 22: (22 BBY) Clone Wars S1E11 / General Grevious - Age of Resitance Comic

You know people keep his pets and then they grow too big for the apartment

and let the Gundark go and he goes and you know finds a cave maybe they flushed

him down the toilet and he just popped up in the back. I had a feeling flushing

was coming in. Yeah yeah. Doku gets a crush on Anakin before bending over for

Hondo. The Jedi pull a Sicilian swap and Grievous goes goodies in a Jedi temple.

Today we discuss Clone Wars episode 111 and General Grievous in this edition of

the 11 parsecs podcast.

Hello and welcome to Episode 22 of the 11 parsecs podcast. My name is Eric. I'm

here with my co-host John. Hello. And that was a rather energetic hello. I mean we

haven't recorded in a while. So all right. So let's let's. It's been so long.

Let's yeah let's talk about the elephant in the room. Summer was here. I was away.

You were away. All our vacations and stuff kind of happened on opposite weeks

and we just weren't able to record. We do have two episodes coming up pretty quick

here. But yeah there's a little bit of a gap. A little bit of a gap. So if you're

listening to this. Just a tiny half a year gap. I mean it's not a half a year.

It's like what three months. Let's see the last one we pulled that we have two

others we've recorded we just haven't put out yet. But the last one that we

published was May 25th. So five months. Okay. Which is not half a year. You are

correct. It is a half a year. That is correct. I was correct. Thank you John.

Price is Right rules. Yeah Price is Right rules. Yeah exactly. We didn't go up. Didn't go over.

I bet a dollar on how long it's been. So let's let's let's re-review the podcast

in case anybody somehow hit the follow button on Spotify and they're like what

on earth is this podcast. I don't even remember this. Okay. My name is Eric. I'm

here with my good buddy John. And we're going through in chronological order the

entire Star Wars New Canon universe. So what that means is we're taking the BBY

order all the way back. So caveat. We're working off a list that we found a year

and a half a year and a half ago. About 18 months ago. The list is up on our

website and it's up on our discord if you want to go check it out. But it does

not contain a lot of the newer books that have come out within the past six

months by Charles Sewell. Stuff like that. Some of the stuff that goes really far

back into the High Republic. So right now we're kind of still just working through

what amounts to 22 BBY. And the interesting thing about 22 BBY is that

there is a ton of stuff that goes on in 22 BBY. So you've got the whole beginning

of The Clone Wars or a lot of The Clone Wars I guess I should say. And you've got

tons of other stuff that we've done in previous podcast books. We've done Master

Apprentice. We've done tons of tons of great comics. We're pretty much almost

done with the Age of Resistance enemies arc in the comics. Which we'll actually

gonna be reviewing one of those tonight. And yeah. So basically we're just running

through in BBY order. We're in 22 BBY. We're in the throes of The Clone Wars. So

a lot of these episodes are talking about. So a lot of these are talking about

different and specific episodes of The Clone Wars. They're not necessarily in

series order. They're sometimes jumping around just because we're still again

going by chronological order. And today we are reviewing episode 11 season 1

Doku Captured. And also a comic book we're gonna be doing General Grievous's

Age of Resistance comic. Which was a one-off comic that was in I guess a

series of four different comics. Which we reviewed I think all of them at this

point. We've reviewed Doku. We've reviewed Jango. I think those are the only two

comics other the other two bad guy comics in the Age of Resistance if I'm

not mistaken. But John let's let's get our beers open. Yes please. Have you been

waiting patiently? I very patiently. Okay good. Thank you. What are you drinking tonight?

So tonight I'm going to have from Trim Tab Brewing. Which is in Birmingham

Alabama. It is called Secret Worlds. It is a double IPA. I had a Trim Tab on episode

two or three of the podcast I think. Mm-hmm. Like I think it was two I think

it was Episode two or three. I had a Trim Tab Brewing. I see him a lot now. Yeah I

wish I remember what it was. Yeah I'm starting to see him a lot more yet too in the

Metrolina area. They're starting to proliferate. I am drinking a Bell's

Incessant. Have you had this? That sounds familiar but I don't know what it is. It

is a double New England style India pale ale. Oh nice. Yeah it's 8.5. So

anything by Bell's is good. Two Heart is great. Like Two-Hearted Light. I forget

what they call the Two-Hearted Light. Like the light catch or whatever they

call it. Yeah I'm a fan. Alright let's pop these open. You ready? Yes. Three two one.

All over the computer screen. I am cavemaning it tonight. No glass. We've talked

about this Eric. Right from the bottom. You're embarrassing me. Well first off and

I didn't mean to embarrass both of us I guess with the last podcast but I do

want to make a correction. I made a mistake in our last episode when we

started talking about the acidity of Wookiee semen and like like like why I

thought that the briny water like Kashyyyk made it a little bit more acidic and

made them grow a little bit bigger.

Kind of like that's why you know you they're ducking you know and all these different ships on the internet with that kind of stuff but a user alerted me and the water on Kashyyyk is actually very briny which would pull I think the acidity of the semen down to like basic so just as a correction I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page and we only report the facts here so okay so like I mentioned earlier the podcast we're in the throes of The Clone Wars today we're gonna be reviewing it is season 1 episode 11 Doku captured which aired on January

2nd 2009 so this is this is pretty old I mean well I shouldn't say pretty old I keep correcting myself I don't want to say pretty old in the context the media itself is pretty old the actual contents from 22 BBY which is about where we're at. This was written by Julie Siege directed by Jesse Yeh and I'll read the little the scroll up here.

Doku captured manhunt after a long and perilous search the Jedi finally tracked down Separatist leader Count Doku during a heroic attempt to capture the count Anakin Skywalker has gone missing having lost contact with Skywalker Obi-Wan Kenobi heads toward his friend's last known location a lone Separatist frigate in the far reaches of the outer realm.

This was a pretty good Episode I felt like I felt like it moved the story along a decent amount. Sure. I love that it started it jumped right it made me think because it jumps in to the middle of the action in Medius Ray so much that I thought I must have forgotten the last episode.

Yes I agree with that yeah because I was fantastic yeah it was because I was sitting there thinking about it and I was like where do we leave off because the last episode before this we talked about was Grievous's lair which Doku I guess technically was in the previous episode before that where we actually see him flying off in the solar sailor and then I think he gets shot in that episode and he crash lands or he it shows him crash landing in this yeah I thought that the using the Anakin thing for Bay and then Obi-Wan coming in was pretty good when they all three kind of crashed on the same planet.

Yes I felt very reminiscent of the the four Darth Maul comics that we read in the mini series where he's on the island hunting down the Jedi it's just kind of this Cat and Mouse thing in a really enclosed area that they both crashed at and and one's kind of hunting the other one doesn't really think that the other one knows that they're there that kind of situation I enjoyed the kind of the the tracking aspect of it like how I Anakin and Obi-Wan are they know that Doku's here so they know that they've got to go find him did you get that same vibe what like what did you feel like at the beginning of the car I mean beginning of the episode.

I mean beginning of the cartoon.

I want to go back to on the ship.

Okay.

So and I know that I have to caveat this right up front with I know okay I know I get it it's the Star Wars tropes you can sneak onto a ship and sneak around the ship pretty much as long as you want almost as long as you want so I get that and it's.

If you're a Jedi.

Okay sure if you're Jedi although we don't see we've seen Leia do that we've seen Padme do that if the plot calls for it you'll have C-3PO doing that it's just it's just it's a thing I get it it's totally a thing well actually but it's kind of fun.

Yeah okay fair enough.

So so the he finds Anakin you know no problem lets him go and they confront Doku and they didn't really have a plan did they they just walk up to him and say hey we got you.

Yeah that's what they thought they were gonna be able to do.

Arrogance.

Again with the arrogance.

Yeah it totally after these two guys pretty much got their butts kicked by Doku on Episode two you know what I mean it's kind of like where does that bravado come from all of a sudden like I get that he might be retreating with his ship and the Maleficent and all that stuff I mean he may be getting his butt kicked in the whole kind of Clone Wars scheme of things but it's still them two versus him you know what I mean like it's like where did the respect go like how did it drop away so quickly especially when he comes back.

That's a great point they did get their butts kicked by this guy two on one and they're doing it again that that was not a great idea of course he has the escape plan you know the escape chute and he's gone before they can do anything great tactics good job so they got to chase her after him.

And then they crash.

Yeah he gets shot he gets shot and then they end up going down too. Why did they have to get crashed I forget did they get shot?

No they were chasing him.

Oh they landed they didn't crash they landed okay that's what it was okay I couldn't remember for a second I was like did they get shot because I thought I remember them coming in hard too and being like all right well let's go find Doku and then we'll figure out how to get off the thing.

No I don't remember that I think they were tracking his beacon that he was signaling for help.

Yes I agree with that that's what it was that's what you're right you're right right.

Okay so they think that they've got Doku like in this cave type bit in the inner of the cave the the whole what did you think of your favorite this might even be another trope too of Anakin losing his lightsaber.

Yeah I appreciate it I think it makes sense in the situation it's it is funny to have it happen over and over again the the thing about the rocks though so how exactly do you survive 50 tons of rock coming straight down on top of you.

Well.

I guess you have Jedi Speed, right?

So you could just speed right out of there.

Yeah, but you just speed into the pocket that didn't get crumbled on him.

Is that what it is?

Well, I think that's what they're trying to allude to.

But one thing also is that it looks like, and this is a weird panel, but I mean, not a weird panel, but a weird shot.

It looks like he's dropping the rocks from the outside.

And it looks like I think it's supposed to look like he's crushing them.

But I think that when you flip back to their point of view, you can kind of see that it's like this, like, you know, like a couple of meters away type situation.

So I think that it may just be perspective on the way that the animation was done to make you think that it's coming down right on them versus he's actually trapping them in there knowingly.

You know what I mean?

OK, I didn't get that.

I can accept that.

I definitely know that they portrayed it as, oh, no, they've been crushed, you know, by all these rocks.

And I get that.

I get that's not going to kill them because we know why that's fine.

It's just I can accept your explanation a lot better than just they somehow escaped miraculously.

Well, there's there's OK, so let's even go back.

So, yeah, there's there's two parts in here.

So not all this is the first danger out of the three dangers in the cave that happened to them all within like five minutes, I think.

So the rocks come down, they get trapped in the cave.

They know they've got to get out.

And then they see the mother of all Gundarks that has to attack them.

That happens to be in the same cave, you know, so they so they're like they're like, OK,

so we've got a battle this thing without Anakin doesn't have his lightsaber.

And then the third thing is the pockets of gas thing where you're like, OK, so now they've got to get out immediately because they're going to die.

And then it shows up right at the right time.

But OK, so again, in Episode one, when they when the when they had the breathy things, they had the breathy things and they did.

They did not have the breathy things, the breathy things you're thinking of for going underwater to the Gungan City.

Oh, they had their breath.

You're right.

They held there's a shot of specifically Qui-Gon taking a deep meditated breath, you know, and that's all they had to do because the Jedi are freaking awesome and magic and wizards.

Well, I didn't have an ear.

Yeah, well, they could have taken that breath.

It's just that they couldn't move the rocks out yet.

Right. You can't take a deep forced breath and force move rocks at the same time.

Sure. But I'm just saying there's a timing issue.

I'm saying that, like, they didn't have the time to continue trying to move the rocks.

I think that's where Ahsoka comes in, is she was able to move the rocks out very quickly for them exactly the right time.

Sure. Again, I can accept that.

It's a it's a cliffhanger kind of resolution.

Yeah, but it's not a cliffhanger. It's only in the first 10 minutes of the episode.

I know. Yes. But the point of we can't breathe and they're about to pass out.

They're very clearly about to die.

Yes. At least lose consciousness anyway.

Yeah. And they get saved.

That's that sort of cliffhanger format of danger, danger, danger resolved.

Quick resolution.

So let's say let's say Ahsoka Ahsoka Ahsoka rescues them.

She seems to know that they need to you know, they need the exact rescuing at that exact moment.

She's got some clone troopers with her.

What did you think of the rest of the episode?

I thought it was I was trying to really understand Doku's actions with regard to the what we call them pirates.

Are they pirates?

Yeah. The weak weakest.

I think it's weak. It's it's it's Hondo's men.

But Hondo's the the main villain guy, but which we'll see a lot further in the future.

But the weak case, I think it's a weak case.

W E E Q A Y S weak case.

I think it's I think it's weak case.

But yes, it's just a band of roving pirates.

Well, he's very passive, like, oh, you want to take me prisoner?

OK, I'll get you some money.

Yeah. You mean Doku?

Yeah. And that was that was really weird seeing Doku who's we've seen multiple times in multiple episodes being this all powerful guy being like, OK, there's 20 of you.

I'll stop.

You know what I mean?

It doesn't even make an attempt to blow away at least half of them.

You know what I mean? It was a very weird.

He's not supposed to be a dumb guy.

So to have him not figure out that the pirates aren't going to turn him over to his people because then he'll come back and kill them.

They're not stupid.

Right. They're going to turn you over to the Rebels, to the Rebels, to the Republic.

It mirrors what happened in Doku Jedi Lost, where it's the where he's kind of like he can't.

I say this, he can't go back to the people that he left, whatever he kind of leaves the Jedi Order in that, you know what I mean?

It's kind of like, where was I going with this?

Hold on. I have no idea.

I had in my head.

OK, forget it. Just keep keep going.

So that was weird.

I just could not quite follow his his mindset at that point.

Just OK, take me, take me prisoner.

Whatever.

Well, I'm just amazed that he didn't fight back at all.

Yeah. I mean, like, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah. It was like, whatever.

I'll get you money.

If you want money, I'll get you money.

It's just is so passive.

Very, very passive.

You think you think you should have bargained more?

If not, if not, if not, bought more should have showed how rich he is and that he can do all this stuff for.

Yeah. Maybe, maybe, maybe he just assumed Ventress would come get him.

You know what I mean? And that was he didn't have to worry about it.

And then he suddenly sees the Jedi are alive.

You know, once. So basically, Hondo radios up to Southern Honda, raise up to Palpatine.

And he's like, hey, I've got this guy you're looking for. Pay me some big money.

And you're on your move.

Doku is whispering into Hondo's ear, are you sure you really want to trust them?

Do you think you're going to get your money or do you think they're just going to send someone down here to slaughter you and take me away?

And Doku is like, ok, maybe I'll formulate a little plan of my own.

And yeah, I thought that was good how Palpatine was like, OK, well, we've got two Jedi on the ground right there. We'll have you guys go over and check them out. Make sure that Doku is doing well and he can be taken prisoner and then we'll pay your ransom.

So Hondo is just like, yeah, sure. You can come over and check them out. You just got to not come with any weapons.

And of course, Anakin has lost his lightsaber at this point, but Obi-Wan doesn't come with a weapon either.

And then they outsmart the, what do you call this? The Princess Bride cup trick? Like, what do you say?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Iocane powder. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. So, yeah, so it was kind of like an outsmarting of wits and all the pirates end up enforcing a celebration, which I thought was very funny, too.

They kind of are forcing everybody to have a like, what was it, a dinner or something like that?

And they were going to, of course, drug the Jedi and take the Jedi with them and then also ransom the Jedi.

And they switched the cups and ended up, all the pirates ended up passing out.

And the neat part about the episode, there was a little bit at the end where Anakin has that little self-reflective moment, though, and says something to the nature of all these drunk guys captured Doku and we didn't, which was pretty good.

I mean, that's like a that's like an actual, like, reflective moment for him where he's got kind of like, you know, we failed this twice and these guys did it.

And look around you. You know, how did these guys do this?

Yeah. How did they do it? How did they do it? With numbers? You don't just have two guys.

I still don't think they had enough numbers for Doku. I think he could have fought and just got out of there.

I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. He's just supposed to be this all powerful guy.

You would think at this point that he could fight his way out if he wanted to.

And what we are. So, OK, that's a good answer. The weekend. How many do you think that would do? How many do you think were there?

I mean, estimate. Yeah. With with Hondo. Yeah. 40 to 60 total in the group.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah. And there were about 20 that show in that one scene where they have guns trained on them.

Right. Gives up and does the. Yeah. OK. All right. Which is why he gives up in the story is because I've got too many people ready to pull the trigger on me for me to take him out.

That's how it's sold. There was a little bit of. Yes, there is a little bit of humor where Anakin and Obi-Wan come in and look at Doku in the chains and Doku's, you know, the same position that I think was it Obi-Wan.

Three or four episodes ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's just kind of like, oh, look at you now. Chained up, you know, those kind of stuff.

And I'm like, guys, come on. Where did the respect for this guy go? You know, he's going to kick your butt now. I mean, it's just like, I don't know. It's very, very.

It was good. It was it was probably one of my favorite episodes that we've watched thus far. I still don't know if I would put it up there as like something amazing.

You know what I mean? Like something where I was blown away and been like, oh, yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, I would say blown away. No, not at all. But good. I enjoyed it.

OK, so this is our one episode that we're going to discuss tonight. One through 100. Oh, oh, God, really?

So I don't know how you don't expect this because it's been half a year. So it's pretty good. So I'm low 80s.

OK, we're getting close to OK. This is this is the first episode where I think we've been close on scores. I would say low 80s, maybe high 70s for me, the more I reflect on it.

But yeah, but but in there, I think was a bad. Well, you could say we've covered this. You could say high 70s and my low 80s and your high 70s would be equivalent.

But what I'm saying is that we review things. We've been away from each other a little bit. John, we're reconnecting.

I missed you. I missed you, too, John. Yeah. So we're looking at like high 70s, low 80s. Yeah, that's good. It's good. It's good episode.

A good episode thus far that we watched. We watched one, two. We since we're watching them out of order.

I'm trying to remember, but I think we have watched 10. I think this is our 10th episode, even though it's number 11. Yeah, it was good. It's pretty good.

So I'm super excited. We have not reviewed a comic in I don't know how long, probably like three or four episodes back.

This is Age of the Republic's one offs. So basically, it's a collection of usually they would do four heroes, I think, and then four bad guys.

And but the bad guys don't necessarily all have to be on the same bad side. So Age of Republic General Grievous.

The story is actually called Burn. It was written by Jodie Houser. Jodie Houser's done I think every single one of the Age of the Resistance's that we've read thus far for the evil people.

I really enjoyed this comic. It's really weird, though, for the comic. First off, John, what did you think of the comic overall?

And what did you like? What worked for you? What didn't work for you? So I have a really mixed reaction to the comic.

I really like the comic. Let's get that up front. Right. I think it's fantastic. The art is beautiful.

There's not a lot to the story at all. That's exactly what I was going to say.

Yeah, you're not getting a whole lot. I loved the idea of seeing because I have such little information about Grievous. I want to know more.

And that's good. That's a good thing.

You don't have to answer all my questions, right?

I actually prefer some of the mystery. That's fantastic.

This entire comic exists for like,

I had to pull them up one, two, three panels where you can see Grievous,

how he was. Yep. That is the whole purpose of this comic.

I think it does a really good job. So,

so I had a really big trouble with whenever I first read it,

I read it a couple of times since just because I thought I kept thinking about

it. I was like, I like this. I like this. I like this. Why don't I like this?

So the first two thirds of the comic, and again,

the comic's not too long. I mean,

I'd say it's probably like 16 or 17 pages total. I don't,

I didn't get a number, but it was somewhere there.

The first two thirds are him. Well, let me take this back. Let's,

let's set this up. The first third is him taking down two Jedi,

nameless Jedi that we don't know. It shows how ruthless and brutally is.

It shows him collecting the lightsabers. And I thought that was good,

but we kind of already knew that's how he's getting them. You know,

it wasn't anything new to me. Yeah. We saw in the layer of Grievous,

which was three episodes back. I think that this is what he does. You know,

he takes the lightsaber, he kills the Jedi.

That's his token of showing how good he is at his job, et cetera, et cetera.

But after he kills the Jedi, he finds the plans for this Jedi temple.

He visits the Jedi temple.

And this is where the comic got really, really good for me is he's,

he's avoiding all these, like,

I literally was like shouting out pinchers of power,

like booby traps from Goonies. Cause it's like all these different,

like kind of like old timey Racket pinion balls and like,

and like spikes and all this other stuff that he's,

that he's getting around. And I think that the cool thing that I thought about,

it was,

it shows him utilizing skills that he would not have had in his former

self because of his exoskeleton. Yeah. So like he,

so like he would shoot up to the top of the roof and he'd crawl like a spider

along the roof and he'd shoot, you know, like a grippler, a grappler thing over.

And then he could form himself up a little bit more fly over toward that and

then grip into the wall, crawl up the wall sideways, that type of stuff.

And it showed him being non humanoid and that he had this

huge advantage having this exoskeleton armor thing on. Yeah. And,

and then you go to the kind of the, the, the last third of the comic,

which was amazing to me, absolutely amazing,

where he senses something behind this waterfall and he,

he knows it's there. He can, he can tell it's there from the sensors,

all this other stuff that's like, you know, this, this extra,

the machine part of him knows that there's something there,

but he just tries to kill whatever it is behind the waterfall and he can't do it.

And, and then he slips into the waterfall, which was just,

this was by far my favorite comic that we've read thus far.

And I hadn't read this yet.

He slips behind the waterfall and he's in this existence,

this like other plane of existence.

He's in this other plane of existence. Like it's like a,

it's like another dimension. Like I don't even know how to describe it.

Like it's really trippy. It's really, yeah. That's it.

Another plane of existence. That's the way to put it.

And he starts to revert to his prior self,

pre-modified self. Well, first he talks crap.

First he talks crap about how terrible he never, he never stops talking crap.

But he's talking to like the void.

Like he's talking to like this power that has entrapped him in this thing.

And he's like, I'm better than all the Jedi. You know,

like I'm all this other stuff. And the guy's just like, no, you're not,

you're really insignificant and small. Right.

And this pisses him off. And then, then he gets to see,

then he gets to see his old self, you know, like before the machine,

before the machines or before he modified himself to become what I would

say, mostly machine. And that was really cool.

Like I had never seen that in him. Like, I think back in layer of Grievous,

there's a statue that's supposed to represent him.

But yeah, that's all we've seen.

All I've seen up to this point as far as how he was his, his former self.

So this was, this was great. This was really,

really something to see who he was before he basically went,

what do you call that when you, you have a surgical addiction mouth mouth,

mouth, mouth, whatever.

Munchausen syndrome.

Mouth is Munchausen syndrome.

No, there's a thing.

Yeah. Right. Right. No, I know.

I know exactly what you're talking about.

Munchausen syndrome.

Yeah, exactly. And that's exactly the way I get,

at least his character right now. Like,

it doesn't sound like a Vader-esque thing where they're, you know, they're,

they're putting this stuff on because Anakin needs it to survive.

Maybe I'm wrong. And maybe I just don't know the rest of this backstory for

Grievous, but based on what we've seen, it feels like.

Grievous has no connection.

Grievous never had a connection from what I can tell to The Force.

And that, that basically pissed him off. And he said, I'll show you,

I'll modify myself to be this killing machine.

Machine being the operative word. And I don't need you, you're a stupid force.

And it was by choice because I feel like that's what this comic is saying is he's,

he's, he's tearing him apart saying you've made this choice to modify yourself.

Yes. To be like this.

Yes. You know,

but you're really still all just a bunch of pieces and that you'll never be.

Yeah. You'll never be something greater.

Yeah. You'll never be something greater because you don't have The Force.

You're just this big machine killing machine.

And then it shows like the pieces of him like, Oh man, that's such a good.

Yeah. I really, really enjoyed this comic and actually,

and I'm actually going to say that the last page is my favorite.

He's the most favorite page we've read thus far in any comic.

After he tries to blow up the temple?

He does. He destroys the temple and he's walking down like, haha.

He's just like, yeah, I just destroyed the Jedi.

Look at me, I'm this huge powerful gun, I can do this.

He doesn't see that, right?

He doesn't see that. He never sees it, but it's still there. The power's still there.

But he turns his back, he's like, I burned you down, I'm done.

And that's when the power, the glow comes out.

And just showing that he has done nothing. He's accomplished nothing.

The only thing he's done is destroy the physical building.

He doesn't kill any of the spiritual part of it.

And he doesn't understand that because all he understands is the physical.

Right, exactly. It plays into all he understands is the physical. That's right.

It was a really, really good comic.

It's funny because literally, I shouldn't say literally, what, 40 words in the whole comic?

I like that. I like a show don't tell. I love a show don't tell.

And this had just the right amount of stretches where you're doing action.

And you're dragging me along, and it's not dragging, I'm compelled to follow along.

And so you have dialogue where it's necessary, because it is necessary in certain places.

Yeah, there are parts that are, I agree.

But overall, it has a real... what is it I'm going there?

He's the lone explorer, penetrating the temple, looking for the secrets. That's fantastic.

Yeah, and you see, and that's what I was getting at, is the parts where he's doing all this mechanical stuff

because he can, dodging all these booby traps and stuff, is because it's the artist showing you that he can.

Not because there's anything opining on it. You know what I mean?

It's not like, he says, I think he may say at one point, this is stupid because I can do all this,

I can get around all this stuff, like good try Jedi or something like that.

But he's not opining on why he's able to get around it. You know what I mean?

Which is the core of the story, is the fact that he's modified himself so much

that he's more machine than anything else.

I really, really thought this comic was wonderful.

I am, hands down, by far the best comic we've read thus far.

Even including the Darth Maul 134 and the Anakin and Obi-Wan series that we read way earlier back, probably last year.

Yeah, you like it so much, you might even give it an 81.

John, I'd give this a 92.

No you do not. Don't play with me.

I do. I give it a 92. I really, really enjoyed this comic.

It's so short, it's such a small sliver of a story that doesn't have any impact on the further universe at all.

I like that.

The visuals, the way the story was told, the art, Hauser's way of probably,

and I don't know who, if it was the artist, if it was her, I don't know how it was described to create the story this way

from the writer and the artist together, but man, it was really good.

And the thing that stinks too is I think it had the lamest Age of Republic cover out of all of them.

Which I was kind of like, oh, this needs a better cover.

This just needs, like, that one panel where it's like this Jason Edmiston eyes art piece,

like where it's just his eyes, is like one of the best drawn things that we've seen so far in Star Wars.

And that's including the Anakin Obi-Wan series, which was beautifully done. Really well done.

Right. It does have a very generic cover.

So what's your one through 100?

It's probably close to yours. Low 90s, I don't want to get it crazy, so nothing above a 92, so I'm going to say a 91.

Okay. Look at that, Jon. Look at us.

You know what's funny, though? It made me think about this because I was talking about how he's like the archaeologist, you know, exploring the temple.

Imagine, I would pay money to watch this. You have like an Indiana Jones kind of movie,

and he's doing all these things where he's going through the temple, he's defeating all these traps,

and he's working to get to the Ark of the Covenant or whatever at the end,

and he finally gets there and he has it in his hands and he smashes it.

That would be pretty good.

His mission is not to recover. His mission is to destroy, which is what Grievous does here.

That just strikes me as hilarious. You have all that work and effort, and he has it in his hands. Big moment and smash.

Well, part of it's just because the dichotomy with the Jedi who would find a Sith holocron and treasure it,

because they take it back for research. It's like a Holy grail.

Whereas, even though it's the other side, other teams, you know, past.

I totally agree with you that that would be hilarious to see that, and it would be in character, in almost all my opinion,

because we want to destroy everything related to the Jedi whatsoever.

We don't want it. Which is this old Nukid from orbit type thing at the very end of it.

Yeah, really good comic. Really good comic. I am very excited because I know a little bit more comic-wise in the future,

but you are going to love Dr. Aphra. I cannot wait until we get to Dr. Aphra.

I don't know who that is.

You'll find out. Very up your alley, I think.

Since you brought me back to the beginning of the comic, you covered it up.

I remember this but you moved on as one is wont to do but I also do love the fact that the two Jedi, the Master and Apprentice at the beginning, we don't really know anything about them.

I don't need to know the names. Completely nameless. That's also I think a very nice touch. Again it is show, don't tell, you don't have to explain everything. I get it.

I think one of the things I liked about that too was that I felt like the art for the people, the two Jedi was very vague. You couldn't tell. It was drawn in a way to show you, you don't know these people.

They are almost nondescript. These are just Jedi and these are Jedi running away from him and that's not part of the story. But if you look, whenever he picks up the lightsabers, they are very detailed.

I shouldn't say very detailed but they are way more detailed than the actual person who is wielding them. Which is just showing you that he doesn't care who the Jedi are, he just wants the lightsabers.

So you are saying that the unreliable narrator comes into effect here. The people are nondescript because he doesn't care about them. But the things he does care about, the lightsabers, have more detail because he is the one telling the story to us.

That's where I was getting at with Hauser and the artist. I don't know how you convey that. Who does the writer say that specifically or does the artist be like, hey I'm interpreting this from Grievous' point of view, I'm going to make these artistic changes because I feel like that's what we should.

It's a really cool dynamic. I bet people breezed over this comic. I bet people bought this comic off the generic front. I'm not saying that the cover is bad. It's not bad by any means. It just doesn't convey, in my opinion, the level of what the story gives the reader.

I'll be honest with you, I bought this comic when it came out. I did not read it. It was probably because I was busy or something else. It wasn't because I made a choice not to specifically read it. But I hate I missed this one. This was really good.

It was really well done. The hardest of the writing was really good. There's tons of these little, I don't want to say Easter eggs, but little detail things that I'm like, man, you had to plan that. That's really, really good. I like it.

Hopefully we get more small stories like this when we get up to the other Age of series coming up.

I liked it when I first read it and it has definitely grown on me. I am enjoying it more now.

Okay, John, we reached that point in the podcast. What else are you reading, listening to?

I know you're a huge dancer. What are you dancing to right now?

I couldn't name a single pop song right now. I'm drawing a complete blank.

I'll go first and you can jog your memory as I talk.

Is dabbing a thing? Is that a thing? Dabbing? No.

No, it's not. I know we haven't been on in four months.

Who let the dogs out? How about that one?

That was a pre-pandemic thing. I'm acting like I know dancing. I have no clue. I just know that that and the Macarena is what you're going to call it.

Watermelon Sugar High. That's recent. Ha ha.

There you go. That's from two years ago.

What have you been watching? What have you been reading? What have you been watching?

I never watched The Tick on Amazon Prime.

Wait, wait, wait. New Tick or Old Tick?

New Tick. I never watched New Tick.

You watched Old Tick, right?

Oh yeah. On the Fox. Like 20 years ago, whatever it was. And the cartoon before that, absolutely.

I did not watch the cartoon. I love the Fox series. I have not watched the Amazon series yet, though.

The Fox series was good. The cartoon was, I mean, I was way younger back then. It was fantastic. It really was well done.

Some of the characters are so funny in the cartoon. It's actually really hard to live up to.

I'm only a couple episodes into the new Tick series, which lasted two seasons.

Oh, it's already over?

Yeah, they didn't renew it for a third, and the contract's run out, so it's done.

Two seasons and done.

The first couple episodes, I am now invested, and so I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

All different characters, except for Tick and Arthur.

So yeah, that's what I'm into right now.

Is that the only thing you're watching, or is that... there's gotta be more.

We've had, what, three months?

Like, what have you watched in the last three months that you would be like,

I should tell the podcast about that, because it was really good.

Drawing a blank. Total blank. Oh! Okay, so, yeah, what was out in May?

Did Loki come out between then and now?

Oh man, it's so terrible, but I don't remember.

Did you watch Loki? Let's just cover it that way.

Yeah, totally, yeah, totally did.

And so, where would you rank that in the...

Lexicon of Disney+ Plus streaming?

Yeah.

Mine would be WandaLoki, Winter Soldiers.

Okay.

That's my order as of now. I'm very...

Are you excited about Hawkeye? I love the Ronin home alone.

Wanda just, yeah I appreciate Wanda for what it was.

It was very standalone to me. Loki, I like the fact that

they used it to further set up this whole multiverse thing that's gonna dominate

phase four.

That's fantastic. Not a great show, not like I love the show but

really really really.

Oh there's, I had something else. Oh What If? Now you know we're into What If?

I haven't watched it yet. You haven't watched any of the What If?

No, I have not. We can't talk about What If? Not a single episode.

A single episode. Then I'll make it really generic.

Part of me says it's, since it's not canon like

I'll watch it. That's the point. That's the whole point. I get it but I'm just saying since it's not canon.

Oh my god I want to talk about one moment. One moment in What If? and I can't because you haven't seen it.

For the free episode. I won't even, I won't even, yeah I won't

narrow it down. Well tell me which episode. Tell me which episode you want me to watch first.

I don't think you want me to tell you that. You don't want me to tell you that. You really don't.

They're not neat. They're serial right?

They're serial but I could name the number of episodes that came out.

Okay. There's a thing

in this episode that is

the whole point of the show and it's fantastic.

Okay. I'll try to watch. I will. I'll make a time investment.

It was so easy to get my wife to watch Loki and Falcon Winter Soldier

and Wanda and I just feel like it's not going to be as easy to get her to watch What If?

So it'll be a while. No I get that. I get that. My daughter has

Zero interest in What If? She liked the other series but

no I get it. I like the animation. I think the animation is fantastic.

Very well done. I'm really excited for Visions. Have you seen all the Visions trailers?

No. Star Wars Visions? No. It's six anime producers

that are doing a serial story for six episodes

in the Star Wars universe. And is it

do we know what it's tied to? Is it the Skywalker saga?

Time wise we don't know chronological order. We don't know. So it could be all over.

Hey we may be reviewing it first thing right when the first ones come out just because we

go back in time and stuff but previous to 22 BBY.

They would be so well served

to leave the Skywalker saga behind

and carve new territory.

Well that's what the whole like the newer books that are not on our list

are doing with High Republic. It's just that we haven't gone back in time to read those

for our chronological order because we're still pushing forward. But that's what they are doing.

It's a whole different era

and different characters and yeah.

It should be interesting. And maybe we should go ahead and take a podcast or two to just read

some of the

High Republic books and just kinda get a feel for that era that they've added.

And I don't know if Star Wars Visions is part of that era or not. I'm not sure.

It doesn't look like to me at least off the offset that it's gonna be

tied to the Skywalker saga necessarily.

But everything kinda is in the end. But you know what I mean. Like they could be

completely serial. They're just their own stories. Which I hope. I mean I hope it's like this

Grievous story which is just amazing. You know great art and then a little small

snippet of a story that furthers the character a little bit that really doesn't tie into the

rest the universe but

that's excellent. You know it's just kinda like. Yes that's what I'm saying. It doesn't have to tie into the rest of the universe.

You don't have to show me other things where I'll say that's the thing from the thing.

I don't need to do that. Yeah. I don't care about that. And it doesn't have to be the fate of the

galaxies in our hands. You know it needs to be.

There are stakes. There always have to be some stakes involved. It's really. But they can be

low stakes. They can be you know graspable stakes.

So I like this. I like this discussion and I wanna say

comparing a trash real quick just the last like two minutes of the podcast.

I am to a point where I enjoy the Easter eggs

and I enjoyed the crossbacks and the flashbacks and the places where the knots.

The gun darks. The gun darks were nice. Yeah sure.

No no no. The places where the knots tie in Marvel.

Okay. Okay. Where the weaves in the story cross

and what you can pick out. I love that. I'm to the point now with Star Wars where I don't

love that.

Like I want it to be this little like Grievous story. Like this little like

thing that's about a character but it doesn't have to be anything about the Sky Wars.

About the Skywalker saga. I mean I want it to be

these smaller stories that yeah it may be a character from there

but I just want I want something more than moving any

story forward which I kinda liked with Loki where it pushed into the next

you know the whole next phase. So it's like it's a different

I like them for different reasons. Does that. Are you in the same

camp or are you more on the lines of I like seeing the little flashbacks a little bit.

No overall I would agree with you. I'm always gonna get a little bit of a

like with the Gundark thing that I was just mentioning. It's always like

Gundarks. Gundarks. Oh yeah yeah. Gundarks. Right. It doesn't

serve any purpose really except for. Yeah I don't think that was fan service. I think that was just

that let them know. That was fan service. Come on that was fan service.

Why would you pick Gundarks?

Because it let them know what planet they were on.

I think they talk about it in the story or in The Clone Wars episode.

You could have a throwaway line.

Yeah, they do.

Gundarks are only on the whatever system.

We must be on the whatever system.

But you could say that about any animal that the writer could come up with.

The Flubians.

That's a Flubian. We must be on Fentor IV.

We don't know the Gundark import-export market.

We don't know this.

There could be underground zoos.

People keep them as pets and then they grow too big for the apartment.

They let the Gundark go.

And he goes and finds a cave.

We don't know this stuff.

Maybe they flushed him down the toilet.

I had a feeling flushing was coming into play.

We don't know all the dynamics of Gundarks.

I just remember specifically from that episode.

He's like, it's a Gundark.

So they're like, oh, we are definitely on system blah blah blah.

But again, not necessary.

It could be any creature, any planet.

You could plug and play.

It was not critical that it be a Gundark.

Agreed.

It was a passing thing.

Which makes it fanservice.

It does.

But you enjoyed it.

It's fine. It's totally fine.

Overall, I agree with your sentiment.

And that is, show me new stuff.

Don't worry about the others.

I'm bought in. I'm into your universe.

Show me the universe.

The best way to say it is that whenever there's going to be a streaming

Star Wars 7 or 8 episode

season.

I hate calling them seasons.

Because 1 is not really a season.

It's just 8 episodes.

Let's use the BBC terminology.

Exactly.

A BBC series.

I don't want to see any Star Wars ones that push forward

the Skywalker saga at all.

Right. Exactly.

Opposite of that, with Marvel,

I love that Logie pushed it forward.

And I want to see that kind of stuff.

That's what I'm saying. It's a very different take

for both the two

major franchises in the Disney+ house right now

for me.

I wonder if that's the same as other people.

Or are other people like, no, I want to see where everything crosses.

I have seen a lot of people say they're just

getting sick of Marvel.

It's just so much Marvel.

But I vehemently disagree.

I think what Marvel has done, what they've managed to pull off

is beyond amazing.

And when you have, you can have these loops

and these tie-ins.

When you have something, I'm trying to go to the opposite ends

of the spectrum, like Guardians of the Galaxy

and Thor Ragnarok

and Captain America,

Civil War,

and they can all have callbacks

and call forwards,

what have you.

They're very different slices of the pie.

And that's great.

Right?

People don't like certain slices.

I like them all.

You can see how different they are just by these last three

series that came out.

They're all completely different.

Completely.

And the Hawkeye.

That's why people talked about it.

Because one had everyone guessing what the hell is going on.

That's the whole Hawkeye for me.

It's this weird, brutal

justice comedy.

Almost showing it as like a

I got a Home Alone vibe from that trailer.

I was just kind of like, there's this little

slapstick comedy that comes in here.

It's like,

it was not a vibe that I thought I was going to get from Hawkeye.

Maybe that's the best way to say it.

That didn't surprise me at all because

in Ultron, in Age of Ultron,

when he is in the room

with Wanda,

because Wanda doesn't want to go out,

and he says, you've got to decide

if you're going to be an Avenger.

I'm a guy with a bow and arrow

and I'm fighting robots.

None of this makes any sense.

Which is very Weedon-esque.

It was a very Weedon-esque moment.

That vibe is what

that trailer was.

I agree with that.

But there's also

the slapstick part of it where she falls down.

There's slapstick-y parts.

Like parts that are like,

I didn't train well enough so this is what happens

type deals.

I'm eager to see it.

We're basing it off the trailer that was only two minutes long.

We could be like Wanda

where we have no clue whatsoever going in looking at the trailers.

That's what we're supposed to do.

There's a whole YouTube series founded off of a two-minute trailer.

Yes, that's true. I agree with that.

So I started watching Matrix.

I watched Matrix 1 again

after the trailer of course came out.

I'm trying to find

the wanton energy

to watch the second and third ones.

Did you ever watch the second and third ones?

Yeah, I watched them.

I actually watched the second one maybe two or three times in a movie theater

because I did not think

that it could be that bad.

Not bad, but let me take it back.

Two, I didn't think two was all that bad.

I thought it was nowhere near the first.

Two wasn't all that bad.

It was nowhere near the first, but that's a hard bar to jump over.

I understood it.

Three I felt was really actually bad.

I did not enjoy three at all.

That's the end of Lost, wrap up episode.

The bows weren't tied for me. It just didn't. The film didn't work for me.

But I'm going to give it another go. I haven't watched it in...

When did 3 come out? Almost 15 years ago?

Oh God.

No more than that probably.

Yeah, more than that.

Maybe almost 20.

Yeah, so I'm going to give it another go.

And especially just before the Revolutions comes out.

But I really enjoy that trailer.

That looked like the kind of Matrix I want to see.

That trailer was fantastic.

Yeah.

It was so well done.

Visually, the music, the audio, just incredible.

And I'm very excited about the movie.

I really, really...

Like so many people, right?

It's like, please don't suck.

Just please don't suck.

Yeah.

But it's going to be better than...

It's going to be better than 3, guaranteed.

And there's a good chance it's going to be better than 2.

That's my big wonder going in.

It could blow me away and be way better than 1.

But that's my big wonder is where is this going to fit in 2?

Is it going to be like, okay, that was pretty cool.

I enjoy that universe.

I like this.

I'd definitely watch more.

Which was what 2 was for me, I think.

But whereas...

Or is it going to be just this colossal, wait, what just happened?

Well, yeah.

The entire question about that movie is why?

What is this?

Why are we here?

And that has to have a damn good answer.

And if it doesn't have a damn good answer, it's going to fail.

That is a failure.

Hey, hey, it's no Men in Black 3.

But nothing else can be.

Absolutely not.

Yeah.

But I'm just saying, Men in Black 3 came with a little bow.

Well, thanks for joining us on Episode 22 of the 11 Parsecs Podcast.

The next episode, we're going to be back in a little bit with two more episodes of The Clone Wars.

Episode 12, Season 1, The Gunga General.

And Episode 13, Jedi Crash.

Also Season 1.

And it looks like we do have a little bit of...

We've got the Age of Republic special and the Age of Republic coming up in, I think, about two podcasts.

So we get some more comics coming up, which is good.

Because after that, oh my gosh, I think we're watching Clone Wars for the next 15 years.

Which is kind of crazy.

I think what we're going to do, let's throw some of the High Republic books in there.

Just to break it up a little bit.

We'll jump back in our timeline, because of course, we're 22 BBY, we'll have to jump back to 300 BBY or whatever for these books.

But I think that that's probably going to be a fun little break for us.

Because if we're doing two to three episodes per podcast, that's still a lot.

You go all the way to Season 5 before you even get to another comic book.

Which is looking to be about, oh, I don't know, 50 episodes of The Clone Wars.

Well, we knew this. We knew this going in.

We knew when we hit The Clone Wars, since we're doing this in chronological order and we're going to stick to our guns.

We knew we'd get some great Clone Wars episodes.

It's just that it's a continuous Clone Wars cadence.

Just Clone Wars, Clone Wars, Clone Wars.

So I think it would be good if we threw some of the books in there from the newer series and then go back.

I think that would be good.

John, thanks for joining me tonight. Was fun again.

Yeah, it takes me back old times.

Speaking of cadence, we will get this thing back on a cadence.

And we'll start getting these things out.

I'd love to go weekly, but we'll go...

It's bi-weekly, not semi-weekly.

Semi-weekly would be two per week.

Bi-weekly would be three plus per two weeks.

Right. That's right, right?

That is correct.

So we'll get back on our bi-weekly cadence and then we'll jump in to see if we can get to a weekly cadence.

Alright, man. Everybody, stay safe.

This is the 11 Farceks Podcast, Episode 22.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe and leave us a good review.

And be sure to check us out at 11farseks.com and Discord.

I'm Jonathan Smith with the inconceivable Eric Thompson.

Thank you for joining us.