Episode 3: (33 BBY) Qui-Gon Jinn - The Age of the Republic & The Weapon

Yes, I saw that on the panel and I was kind of like, okay.

And also the ship that Obi-Wan's kind of commanding looks kind of odd.

He just kind of jumps up to it. But anyways, that being said,

we are five minutes into the podcast and only on the first panel.

So let's keep moving.

Qui-Gon learns he drives better when he's Force drunk.

But violence is the root of all evil and the true meaning of Arbor Day.

Meanwhile, Mace Windu joins the Geek Force squad.

Today we discuss balance and the weapon on this edition of the 11 Parsecs podcast.

Hello and welcome to podcast number two of the 11 Parsecs podcast.

I'm your host, Eric. I'm here with my co-host, John.

Hello.

And we are bringing you our first comic book review today.

So for those that aren't familiar with the podcast,

please go back and listen to podcast Zero or what we call kind of the prequel.

Basically, that's going to explain to you that we are attempting to read

every single bit of Star Wars New Canon and also have an accompanying podcast

in which we kind of document it.

We started off on the first podcast reviewing Claudia Gray's Master and Apprentice,

which was a wonderful book. It's a great podcast. Go back and listen to that.

The book is definitely worth reading.

It really kind of was a great starter in my opinion for this whole kind of project.

But today, today I'm very excited because as a comic book reader for my entire life,

I get to introduce my co-host, John, to comic books.

Somebody who has never read comic books, right?

I mean, you've never read anything.

Well, OK, no, I've never read any Star Wars comics.

I read comic books like any red-blooded American child.

OK, well, what did you read?

About 30 years ago.

Oh, I don't know.

I read Spider-Man.

OK, like Amazing Spider-Man.

GI Joe.

OK, Marvel stuff. OK, I take that back.

I thought you had never read any comic book.

No, but I was never serious about it.

It was buy one, read it, and throw it away.

OK, so it wasn't like collecting or anything like that.

I've been comic collecting for pretty much my entire life at some point or another.

And I was really excited because I really thought this was your first comic book.

I thought you had just never read comic books.

Today, we are reviewing two different—well, I shouldn't say one comic book and one story.

And the reason I'm saying one comic book and one story is if we're going back down our list,

and again, if you're unfamiliar with the list, the list is our chronological order

in which we are reading and consuming all new canon stories.

That includes comic books, books, movies, TV shows, audio dramas, all different things.

Master and Apprentice was the first thing on our list at 4DBBY.

Today, I think we've jumped ahead seven years and we're at 33BBY.

And there's two things that happen at 33BBY.

Both of them happen to be comic books.

One of them is the Qui-Gon Jinn Age of Republic.

The Age of Republic comic book specifically for Qui-Gon Jinn,

which is really good because it ties into our last podcast with Master and Apprentice

and Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan.

And then also, there is another—and this is kind of tough to describe,

but if you're not a comic book reader, a lot of times at the end of the year,

or I shouldn't even say the end of the year because it's not necessarily December,

but at the end of a comic run after a couple of different issues,

they'll either have a special or an annual.

And that's usually just a small collection of stories that are like, I don't know,

eight to ten pages long that are just kind of little excerpts of things that either

maybe were hinted at in the comic book over the last run or just different things.

So there is a story called The Weapon that is in the Age of Republic special

that we're also going to kind of talk about tonight.

It's kind of neat because it's actually our first kind of foray into Mace Windu,

which is really cool because I love Mace as a character.

But let's start off with reviewing or talking about Qui-Gon Jinn's The Balance.

One thing I do want to note, and I should have noted it earlier on the podcast,

if you're unfamiliar with the podcast, maybe this is the first podcast episode that you're listening to,

make sure you understand that we are not in any way, shape, or form spoiler free.

We discuss every single bit about everything that we consume.

So that includes movies, that includes endings to books, that includes endings to comics,

that includes big deaths, all sorts of stuff.

If you don't want to know any of that stuff, please don't listen to this episode of the podcast

for these two pieces of media because we are going to totally talk about it and totally break them down.

John, are you good starting off with The Balance?

I think that's probably a pretty good way to start it off just because we just got done with Master and Apprentice.

Yeah, no, it's great.

So first off, just to clarify, both of us are reading this comic off of Comixology,

which is Amazon's digital comic kind of thing.

As a comic book collector, I actually have the Qui-Gon Jinn comic book,

but I didn't want to open it. This is going to sound so elitist.

I didn't want to open it because I didn't want to ruin the comic itself to read it.

Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, I know. I get it. I get it.

So I've kept it bagged, and I actually read the digital version because I've got the Comixology one.

which is really awesome because it allows you to read tons of different comics and this one happened to be on the list.

But that being said, it's different reading a comic book on the iPad versus having the actual paper in your hand and stuff like that.

So I hate that I wasn't able to patch that comic but I don't trust Grease on my comic book so I kept it to myself.

I actually did consider ordering the print edition to have the authentic comic book experience.

We still call them comic books right? These are not graphic novels.

No, no, no, these are comics.

To have the authentic comic book experience but this was really fun reading it digitally.

It's in glorious color, I mean it's so brilliant. It was a real treat.

Yeah, and to totally agree with you on that front, the colors are extremely vivid, the art is extremely vivid.

And don't get me wrong, you get that on paper product but to see it in digital format is kind of neat and it is a new way for me to read comics.

So as I just mentioned, I didn't want to read this one myself or take it out of my bag and board.

But I didn't want to take it out of my bag and board because I was afraid I'd get something on it.

And that thing that I would probably get on it is beer because as anybody that's listened to the first couple of episodes knows,

we drink beer while we consume Star Wars.

So John, I know for a fact right now you're drinking something tasty. What are you drinking?

I am drinking Reformation Brewery's Jude. That's their Belgian Triple.

Oh, that sounds good. I don't think I've had that.

It is very good. It's still not quite up to the Golden Monkey gold standard if you will because that's my favorite.

But what is?

Golden Monkey. But it is Belgian Triple and I love those so there we go.

So where's Reformation? Is it?

I think it's nearby. Marietta or something?

Yeah, Marietta. I couldn't remember if it was Marietta or Smyrna or where it's actually at.

But yeah, I knew it's around the North Metro Atlanta area.

So I'm going to bum you out because like I said, I'm still on my kind of keto thing going on.

So I have discovered scofflaw, who is another Metro Atlanta brewer.

Their hardcessors are actually pretty darn good.

And it's funny because like I know both of us were big fans of basement. Big fans of basement.

Huge.

But I've never enjoyed basement Pog, which is their pineapple orange grapefruit.

That's probably my favorite of the two.

Yeah, so I do not like Pog. I've never been a fan of Pog.

But I will say that they use the same flavors in their Seltzer and it's really, really good.

I didn't know they made Seltzer.

Yeah, and they're big 16 ounce cans too, which makes it even better because I can drink one and not feel guilty.

But yeah, it's not many carbs either.

So it's really good. It's a Seltzer.

I'm actually going to pop the top now as we normally do.

I'm sure you probably heard that through the mic.

But yeah, not bad.

130 calories for a 16 ounce Seltzer at 5% alcohol.

That's pretty good.

Next time I'll wait.

I didn't know we were doing an official top popping.

So on the next episode, we will have synchronized pop tops.

That'll be pretty good.

Yeah, we can sync the audio to that too.

That's how we know the podcast has begun.

Exactly.

Okay, so let's get down to the Qui-Gon Jinn balance.

So coming off our discussion last week about Qui-Gon Jinn and his kind of—I hate using the term rebel ways as a Jedi,

but more along the lines of not always in lockstep with the Jedi Council.

What did you think of this comic overall?

And like I said, last time whenever we reviewed the book, I wanted to do more of a review of—how do I say it?

I wanted to do a whole review and give a number.

But I really want to say that I think for the movies and the books versus the comics,

because comics are a shorter story, much more impactful because they've got to do a lot of things on one page and three or four panels.

So what did you think overall of the story?

And do you think it tied into Master and Apprentice at all?

Do you think it kind of extended Qui-Gon Jinn in your mind?

Like, what were you thinking?

It definitely tied in with Master and Apprentice.

It definitely helped round out the character.

I was very grateful for that.

It is a very impressive product.

It is just—the artwork is fantastic.

So if you want to get more detailed, I can jump right in on that.

Yeah, let me give a quick overview of the actual comic too.

I should have done this at the beginning of it.

The comic is called—it's Age of the Republic series.

There's Age of the Republic.

There's a bunch of different series that they kind of came out with toward the beginning of—or I should say the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019.

This is part of the Age of Republic series.

And the Qui-Gon Jinn, the one—the balance story that we're talking about is actually the Qui-Gon Jinn comic for that time.

So there was one specific comic for Anakin, one for Padme, and then one for Qui-Gon Jinn.

And I think Obi-Wan also had one in the series.

He may have had one in the later series too.

So this is the one specifically for Qui-Gon Jinn.

Hollywood reporter deadline like I think I think it's pretty safe to say yeah but

they're not actively working on it right now because of the strikes so as always

hopefully they can come to an agreement so that this can actually happen because

we really want this to happen right it's exciting news but it's in the midst of

the strikes which need to happen and like I said last week it's like Disney+

and all the other producers just need to get their poodoo together and it sounds

like it sounds like they are starting to go back towards negotiations fingers

crossed but just pay your writers more pay your actors pay your writers pay

your actors so that Donald Glover and his brother Stephen Stephen Glover can

write the Lando show yeah that would be awesome let's let them get to work

because Atlanta is awesome if they can bring that kind of absurdist humor but

also like this is a story that has something to say I think Lando could be

really special like it kind of reminds me I said this last week it reminds me

of the Tony Gilroy situation where they just kind of announced to the Cassian

show I think someone had a decent pitch for it but they hadn't gone far beyond

that and then Tony Gilroy was like we can go deeper with this series and

here's what it should be about and I wonder if that's similar to what

happened with Lando where they're like let's announce this we'll try to get

Donald Glover back and that's as far as they thought but Donald Glover might

come on and like obviously he's connected to the character he's a very

talented writer and actor and just all-around person he does everything

it's not fair Donald save some for the rest of us but I think he could write

something really really special and make the Lando series I don't know more than

just a surface level like look it's Lando and he's fun right yeah yeah as

far as like what kind of stories I want to see I would like to see how he met L3

I don't know if L3 is gonna be in this but I kind of hope so because I really

loved that character getting to see how they met would be cool getting to see

any of his relationships to be honest because every Pride Month Star Wars like

we're celebrating all of our LGBTQ plus characters and Lando's always one of

them and if you do a Lando show and you just leave all of that out I will be

upset and I mean Donald was talking about that when Solo was coming out that

he was like yeah it just makes sense that Lando would be the type of guy to

be pansexual yeah and it's in the Star Wars galaxy so it would just be nice for

that to be like officially addressed in a live-action show and you know we know

he has a daughter at some point so just just go there Star Wars just go there

and there's the the whole aspect of but people have pitched fans have pitched

the idea that Billy Dee Williams could also be in it which I think is a great

jumping-off point to call it the Calrissian Chronicles and have Billy Dee

Williams kind of start a story have it be like Princess Bride yeah where he's

at the beginning reading a story yeah like you can probably get Billy Dee for

a few days and he just has to like sit and narrate and he's talking to Janna or

someone he can narrate the story and tell it how he remembers it or wants to

tell it and then as we see it play out it's like Lando's failing a lot more it

doesn't it doesn't quite line up so I think there could be a lot of fun

comedy with how they present those stories framed citizen asks when we

started to like Ahsoka as a character so I didn't really have the attachment to

Ahsoka as The Clone Wars were coming out we've talked about this before but we

didn't watch The Clone Wars until after we had seen season one of Star Wars

Rebels I knew vague stuff about Ahsoka but I remember during Rebel season one

people were like oh Fulcrum's probably Ahsoka and I didn't have that same level

of excitement that people did so I guess I would say I started to really like her

after season one of Rebels because then I went and I watched all of the Clone

Wars so I just kind of binged it from there I mean yeah we we knew about the

character we didn't dislike her for any reason we probably just didn't have much

of an opinion but I can't remember when I saw The Clone Wars movie for the first

time but I did think she was cool in that movie I was like oh this is great

someone to like take Anakin down a couple notches and like she's snippy

hence the nickname

It was written by Jody Houser and then Corey Smith did the drawings for it.

It came out in December of 2018 so it was definitely one of the earlier ones

and I think that's kind of why I want to review this one first before we get

into the other one which is the weapon. Yeah so jump into it, jump into it John.

I want to hear what your what your thoughts are on it. Well I mean right

off the bat right it like so many Star Wars things it starts right in the

action which is fun but the problem is that quite frankly the Jedi are way

overpowered and there was never in that in that initial confrontation where they

are surrounded by dozens of guys wielding you know rifles laser rifles

you know they're not in danger you know nothing's gonna happen and that there

really takes a lot of it out right he just jumps up into the the ship that's

flying overhead and they get away. So just to summarize to the comic a little

bit basically Obi-Wan I mean I'm sorry Qui-Gon Jinn is rescuing a princess of a

certain planet so somebody has invaded her planet she calls them the the metal

clan but it could be humans it could be other people they just want to develop

her planet she's a more naturalistic princess Qui-Gon Jinn has come down to

grab her and save her before something catastrophic happens to this planet and

what he's done is he's been surrounded by these troops and he radios into Obi-

Wan and says hey come pick us up Obi-Wan flies in you know that we would does

because he's an awesome pilot he kind of flies in and to pick them up and as John

was just saying they just kind of jump into the ship and that's it. Like like

20-30 feet up and and the guys again who with her with the right yeah with with

her and the guys who are standing not 10-15 feet away in a circle around him

they're unloading their weapons and of course you know he's deflecting it all

with the lightsaber and then when he gets into the ship the laser bolts are

just bouncing off it's just there's no danger there. So I I took a little

different way so I think that I think that he's protecting her I don't think

that I think that if he wanted to he could start wailing on the guys if he

wanted I mean but he's also got to make sure. Because they're

overpowered they can do anything. Yeah yeah I get it. Okay this is something

that's kind of- There's got to be a story there John.

No, well then don't surround him with a whole bunch of guys if you

mean you don't put don't create a situation that you then have to be

superhuman to get out of because well that makes the guy superhuman and okay I

mean I know the Jedi are supposed to have powers okay but here's the problem

you go all the way back to and we're not talking about Episode one you go back to

The Phantom Menace and everybody points out right that in that one moment they

use super speed it's Jedi super speed to run down the hallway and they never ever

ever ever do it again that would have come into handy a whole bunch of times

but you never see it again and that's because they needed to do that at that

moment and then we forget it happened. There is no Jedi Bible there

needs to be a defined set of Jedi powers. No there doesn't need to be this is a

good point to do that between us so if you remember back at Master

Apprentice do you remember when Obi-Wan is falling down I think it was Obi-Wan

was falling down the- In the pit? Yes in the pit and he jumps from branch to

branch as the trees falling sure he jumps from branch to branch and does this

little like kind of Mario Donkey Kong thing where he gets out of the- Because screw

physics. Exactly but that's that's that's the Jedi that that's that's the story I

mean that's- See once you can dispense with with basic physics like that then

okay do anything just do whatever right blow the planet up with your mind who

needs a Death Star? Yeah yeah okay okay so so so okay- Limiting principle there

must be a limiting a defined set of Jedi powers. Okay I agree with you to a point

they can vary they can vary. This Jedi is better with nature, this Jedi is better with visions.

The Force is gonna help you do whatever you need to do to get out of a situation

right? That's a good summary. If you truly believe in it, if you truly believe in it, that it will help you

out in whatever situation it is right? That that's a great summary and that that

is exactly the problem with it it will help you do whatever you need to do in

that moment. Okay okay let's continue moving on. What danger is there? Yeah go

ahead. No no I'm saying I'm saying that at that exact moment I think he I think

he was more worried about the princess herself versus him. He could have taken them all out

yeah of course he could but my point is that that but could he have taken them all out

without her getting hurt? Probably. That's what he's that's what he's got to balance

he's gonna save her first before he worries about taking them out. Well I

could have if the story called for it because that's just the way things work. I know that's the way the Jedi work but

but that being said he's still the 20 to 30 foot jump yes I saw that on the panel

and I was kind of like okay and also the ship that Obi-Wan's kind of commanding

looks kind of odd and he just kind of jumps up to it.

In the dark side, made so by Darth Sidious, the building had been the place of Dooku's

apprenticeship, just as it had served as a training ground for Darth Maul before Dooku.

And who knew who or how many other Sith disciples before Maul? During the ten years preceding the

outbreak of the war, when Count Dooku of Serenno was believed to have been peddling his Separatist

agenda to disenfranchised worlds in the mid and outer rims, he had, in fact, spent long periods

of time in the works, coming and going at will, or as required of him, by Darth Sidious. Even in

the three years since, he had been able to visit Coruscant without fear of detection,

thanks in part to unique countermeasures the Genosians had engineered into his Interstellar

sloop. Dooku surveyed the docking bay with a certain fondness, recalling the years he had

spent under Sidious's tutelage, learning the ways of the Sith, practicing the dark arts,

perfecting himself, mastering evil, Yoda would have said. The problem was partly semantic,

in that the Jedi Order had seen to it that the dark side of The Force had become equated with

evil, but was shade more evil than stark sunlight? Recognizing that the dark side was on the ascendant,

the Jedi, in service to The Force, should have known enough to embrace it, to ally themselves

with it, after all. It was all a matter of balance, and if the preservation of balance required the

dark side to be on top, then so be it. With Dooku, Sidious hadn't had to waste precious hours on

lightsaber technique, nor on ridding Dooku of ill habits born of a lifetime spent in the Jedi

Temple, for Dooku had long before rid himself of those. Instead, Sidious had focused on giving

Dooku what had amounted to a crash course in tapping into the power of the dark side, a mere

taste of which had proved intoxicating. Enough to convince Dooku that no course was left open to

him but to abandon the Order, more that his entire life had been preparation for his apprenticeship

to Sidious, that at long last he had found a true mentor. The Sith saw no need to take on only young

disciples, the way they often did. Sometimes the training went smoother with disciples who had

lived long enough to grow disillusioned or angry or vengeful. The Jedi, by contrast, were shackled

by compassion, their penchant for showing mercy, for granting forgiveness, for heeding the dictates

of conscience prevented them from giving themselves over to the dark side, from becoming as a force of

nature itself. Paranormally strong and quick, capable of conjuring Sith lightning, of exteriorizing rage,

all without the need for the magic hand passes the Jedi were so fond of employing. The Sith

understood that the elitism and mobsterism of the Republic could be ended only by bringing the

diverse beings of the galaxy under the control of a single hand. The galaxy could only be saved from

itself by the imposition of order. What fools the Jedi were to not see it, blind to their own downfall,

the coming of their end time, what fools. Now, it might be a bit harsh to call the Jedi fools, but

I mean, well, maybe. Either way, he was right, they were blind to their downfall, they were definitely

shackled by all of their rules, no compassion, no attachments, this and that. A downfall that began

the moment he embraced the dark side, for Dooku that is, and that's really all it had taken, a mere

taste. It's all he needed to convince him to abandon the light and the Jedi. I wonder if the Sith

could have been training their apprentices in the works, right under the Jedi's noses for

thousands of years. Maybe the works history with the Sith is even older than that, much older. But

I'm curious who those other disciples that Sidious trained could have been, if there were any. Maybe

him and Plagueis trained there. Did you know that Plagueis had seven other potential apprentices

throughout the galaxy? I've covered that in another video. What do you guys think of Dooku's view about

The Force? That the dark side is a literal force of nature, and thus can't be any more evil or good

than the light? Is the dark side really evil? Or is its power so intoxicating that it's the evil within

its practitioners that causes evil things? Could there be, and herein lies the theory, who is so

incorruptible that they can use the dark side for good? Also, was Dooku right? Could there be balance

with the dark side on top? Why does it have to be the light? And if so, did Anakin bring The Force

into balance twice? First to the dark, then to the light. I thought it was also interesting that Dooku

received a crash course into the power of the dark side. Now in many ways, that was the nature of how

Luke Skywalker was trained too, in the light. A crash course to become a Jedi. If a being is

sufficiently powerful enough in The Force, they can ascend through more unorthodox means, it seems.

So it kind of makes me wonder just how powerful Dooku would have become if he had trained under

Sidious from the very start. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another video. Today we're

going to be covering an old yet very popular series that I started on the channel about a

year ago. It's from the book Star Wars The Secrets of the Jedi by Insight Editions. Now I call it

Luke's point of view because everything in the book is a canon point of view of all of these

characters, force powers, and places that is listed and explained. It's a really interesting take

responsibility for her people while also pushing the story forward to the Battle of Hoth.

But somehow that goal was accomplished, and we received an awesome Star Wars comic about

Leia's life, her future, and that of the Rebellion.

Next up is Han Solo by Marjorie Liu.

This 5-issue miniseries is set between episodes 4 and 5, and features a Han Solo that we really

don't get to see in the trilogy movies.

In this, he's a space racer.

But this Star Wars comic doesn't just focus on the speed of the Millennium Falcon and

the talent of its lovable crew, Han Solo by Marjorie Liu tells the story of a smuggler

trying to find where he fits in the constantly growing Rebel Alliance.

We get to see Han struggle with his past and contemplate his future, while also getting

our fill of some classic anti-imperial escape stunts.

If you loved Solo, A Star Wars Story, and just can't get enough of Han in your life,

then this comic is for you.

We won't lie, a lot of people sleep on this miniseries, but it's absolutely worth reading.

And you'll be glad you did.

Next is Chewbacca by Jerry Dugan.

Alright, now for being honest, we don't even have to give you a description of this in

order to get you interested, right?

Everybody loves Chewie.

I mean, he's buzzy, he gives nice hugs, he's badass, and also just look at this cover.

But seriously, even if you can't read Sherrywook, we all really do love Chewie.

And this miniseries by Jerry Dugan puts Chewie exactly where he deserves to be throughout

all five issues, right at center stage.

Between the events of Episodes 4 and 5, Chewie crash lands on an imperial planet and finds

a small sidekick of his own, an escaped slave girl named Zorro.

Chewie takes Zorro under his wing, or under his paw, or furry arm, or whatever, and the

story takes off from there.

This comic really proves that Chewie is just as much of a hero as Han, Luke, or Leia, and

that's exactly what us Star Wars fans love to see from a good comic.

The last miniseries on this list is Lando by Charles Soule.

That's right, you heard me correctly.

Another series by Charles Soule in this era.

We love to see it.

This five-issue comic is quite possibly the closest thing we've ever gotten to a heist

story set in a galaxy far, far away.

This Lando comic follows our favorite cape-donning scoundrel in a time before the events on Cloud

City in The Empire Strikes Back.

Did Orlando ever even consider joining the Rebel Alliance in the fight against the Empire?

He was planning the biggest win that he'd ever pulled off.

That is, if he can actually pull it off.

Hint, hint.

This miniseries has all the classic talking points of a good story.

Romance, betrayal, conflict, and a little bit of lore.

It sheds light on a character who doesn't get too much screen time in the trilogy movies,

but one that's always captured our hearts.

That'll do it for today's video.

I hope you've enjoyed our guide to the 2015-2016 era of Star Wars comics, and we hope we made

it a little less confusing for you and maybe gave you a good place to start.

If you want to talk more about Star Wars comics, make sure to join our Discord Community at

utini.com slash discord.

We have a few comics channels where you can talk about the latest releases or maybe some

older comics that you're reading for the first time.

And if you'd like to help support Utini more directly, please make sure to check out

our Patreon page at patreon.com slash utini.

Lastly, please make sure to visit our website at utini.com for news, reviews, articles,

guides, and timelines for every single story in the Star Wars galaxy.

Thank you all so very much for watching, and as always, may The Force be with you.

The Star Wars canon and Legends.

We're sure to learn more as the new canon continues to be developed.

The Legends lineage got incredibly muddled, but I would say the most important to keep

in mind are Ajunta Paul, Tulak Horde, Marko Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Freedon Nadd, Exar Kun,

Darth Revan, Darth Bane, Darth Plagueis, Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, and Darth Krayt.

But that's it for today!

Did I miss any Sith?

Let me know in the comments!

If you haven't already please like this video, subscribe to the channel, follow me

on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and consider checking out my Patreon page!

As always, thanks for watching and may The Force be with you!

But anyways, that being said, we are five minutes into the podcast and only on the first panel. So let's keep moving to the next panel.

Jumping forward, you were asking me how it ties into Master and Apprentice, and it ties in wonderfully with a big point in Master and Apprentice, and that is visions.

And you know what, I got it just as an offside. I love that Qui-Gon gets into a space car and basically says, Jesus, take the wheel and just goes wherever The Force, you know, takes him.

And it could be anywhere. He says, I hope I don't end up in a black hole or something.

Yeah, and the best part is he's like, does not know any star coordinates. He's just like feeling The Force and saying, force, take me where you want to go.

So let's think back on this though, too. The amount of space that there is in space, you're pretty much, in my opinion, if you just jut from X to Y, your probability of hitting a planet has got to be pretty small, right?

Oh, sure.

Space is vast. It is huge. So it makes it sound like he's like, oh, hey, Jesus, take the wheel. Drive me wherever I need to go.

But in all honesty, I think the percentage of him actually running into a planet or something is probably like 1%, unless I know.

I know, but he still did it. It was what he had to do. He had to be guided by The Force, so I understand that.

I'm not talking about how he didn't run into anything, so that's a problem. No, it's just, it's hilarious to me that he said, Jesus, take the wheel and just went wherever The Force took him.

But that makes total sense in the universe there.

But he happens to land on this perfectly pristine planet.

And of course, you have echoes there back to the cave on Dagobah, right, where you have this encounter, this vision. Now, in this turn, what does that vision mean for you?

Yeah, that's a great question, because I, you know, so to explain the vision, basically what happens is that Qui-Gon Jinn lands on this planet that he feels that he's been summoned to by The Force.

It's a beautiful, lush planet. It's charted, I think is what they say, but not a planet that people know or has been named.

He lands on the planet and he sees this lush, beautiful, light-filled world.

And then he knows that inherently, and this is a problem I kind of got a little bit, but he inherently knows that there is also going to be a balance to The Force.

And he finds this, what, you know, it's alluded that it's like a Sith Temple or a temple that's dark, I guess.

That's alluded to? I didn't get that at all. I got that as the same, you know, dark side tree, like in, or the dark side cave.

This is like a dark side tree. It just, it has the dark side in it. I didn't get any sort of, this was Sith. Was I supposed to get that?

Okay, okay, no, no. And that's, yeah, no, you hit the nail on the head. It's a dark place that has dark energy, but it's not necessarily Sith.

I didn't want to sound like it was like some Sith training ground or something like that. It's not. It's just like this dark temple.

Okay, so here's the question. If, we're talking about the balance, right?

Why do they always seem a little surprised to find something that is manifest with dark, the dark side?

Because shouldn't that be like everywhere if it's truly balanced out?

Shouldn't there be a whole bunch of light stuff and a whole bunch of dark stuff?

50% of the stuff, right? I totally agree with you. And I think that's one of the things with the Qui-Gon Jinn, though.

He accepts. I don't think he's surprised by it. I think we may be surprised by it as readers because no one else in the canon touches on it.

You know what I mean? Like, it's not like we don't see 50% of the dark stuff because, you know, with the main Skywalker saga and that kind of stuff,

we see that everything's like awesome. And then there's these two, you know, Master and Apprentice that, you know, start to try to change everything.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. I think it's more our perspective, maybe not.

It's more our perspective as consumers of the new canon versus it actually being like that in the world, you know, that they've created.

Does that make sense? It's kind of weird to say, but yeah.

So, anyways, so he finds this dark temple. He goes in the dark temple and he has a vision.

Well, I take that back. He sits on a, what looks like a thornish throne of some sort.

And he begins to meditate as Qui-Gon always does. And he finds a vision that it's like living roots, almost.

I mean, is that the best way to describe it? Yeah. Again, surrounding him, you know.

Yeah, humanoid root figures start to surround him. He feels the need to defend himself.

He also looks a kind of weird way because he's, you know, in this darkened temple.

And he starts to slay these root figures or root humanoid type things.

The roots, after he slays everything, the roots start to wither away and it's Jedi that are underneath the roots.

So, what was your initial impact of that? What was your initial thought?

I didn't, okay, I didn't, those were Jedi? I missed that entirely. I thought it was.

Oh, yeah. I think you could tell by their clothes that they were supposed to be Jedi.

Okay. And then he turns into a monster, basically. He turns into the roots. They consume him.

Well, I don't, well, the roots, yeah, the roots consume him.

And then as soon as they start to consume him enough to where he's about to die, he wakes up out of the meditation.

It's basically the same thing.

with the Dark Cave on Dagobah.

You say he felt compelled to defend himself.

That's not how I read that panel.

He attacked.

That was the lesson to me.

He did not take a moment to try to understand.

He just attacked.

If you look at the panel, they're not attacking him.

They're surrounding him.

They're menacing.

If you're one person with eight humanoid structures surrounding you,

you're going to defend yourself.

I think the point of the vision was that his mistake was attacking.

Didn't Yoda say something about that?

Maybe it was Obi-Wan.

You don't use this for attack. It's defense.

Maybe this is a cruddy kid. I'm getting confused.

I took it as they were attacking him.

I was like, these things are about to kill him.

He's got to defend himself.

That was my first read.

I made a point to go back and really look at that panel.

They are not attacking him.

That artist can show that if that artist wanted that to be the case.

Are they passing him a tea kettle?

Are they inviting him into the house?

They're standing around him like, but they're not doing anything.

They're just standing there.

What if they're tapping their feet or something?

They're about to do this big break dance or something like that.

Yeah, a big musical number.

He ruined it all.

He ruined it all by lashing out with his lightsaber.

Come on, Qui-Gon.

That was our only tenor.

Yeah.

Not Brian.

Anyways, I took it as he was defending himself.

That's something that if you're reading this comic,

if you're listening to the podcast, please go back and feel free to give us your opinion.

That's a key panel.

It is a key panel.

That's a key panel.

I hate it because I remember the panel,

but I also need to go back and look at it to where I need to see if the quartet is really just kind of hanging out with him,

and then suddenly he starts attacking them beyond Qui-Gon's nature.

But anyways, regardless, he attacks these things, and then the roots wither away,

and you see what to me plainly were Jedi.

I'm kind of amazed that you didn't pick up that they were Jedi.

You just thought there were other humanoid people that were there?

Yeah, just victims, just dead people.

Okay, okay.

See, I thought that they were supposed to be Jedi immediately because if you look at the kind of the clothes they're wearing,

I feel like it was Jedi, and I couldn't tell if he was –

if the vision was meant to say that he was the one that was going to cleanse the Jedi

or that maybe he had the right idea in –

okay, so let's also explain the end of the comic.

So basically after this whole vision, he flies home, and he's just like, yeah, I'm good now.

I did my little two or three-day vacation, and we're back home.

And him and Yoda are sitting there chatting, and he says to Yoda that he feels that the Jedi –

and this is definitely in line with Master and Apprentice –

he feels that the Jedi are too rigid and that they need to bend a little bit,

that they need to not hold the Jedi codes as strong as they currently have.

And I wish I had the panel up, and I may bring it up real quick just to read it.

But basically he just says they need to bend more with the Wind

and that they need to be able to adapt better, I guess is the best way to say it.

Is that what you got out of that panel?

Well, he makes, I think, a very good point, and that is that nobody understands the Jedi.

What exactly are they supposed to be doing?

And I certainly Echo that sentiment because I don't get it.

They talk about how they're being used as a force, as a secret police –

well, not secret police, but as a force for the government and soldiers and all that,

and that's not their purpose.

Now, I know what Qui-Gon would say, and that is that they need to focus on The Force

and meditate and have visions and stuff, but really it does get to the heart of

what is the purpose of the Jedi?

Agreed.

And that's something that I think Master Apprentice did a very good job of bringing about.

It's like if you're going to support an organization like Zerka or something like that with your skill set,

how can you – even if you know that you're doing something morally wrong,

how do you continue to go about doing it?

That's right.

And Qui-Gon Jinn is the one Jedi that's figured that out.

Obi-Wan's a little too young, I think, to understand it as much as Qui-Gon does.

And honestly, I think the biggest thing for me in that whole Master and Apprentice

and this comic series and this stuff we're reading today is still that Yoda is lost.

I mean, he's like – he's not getting it.

Right.

And when you watch the original movies and the Skywalker Saga and stuff,

you're like Yoda's this wise, wizened person, but he's not seeing it at all.

No.

And it's necessary, right?

Once you align yourself with the government and you –

to doing their bidding and Master and Apprentice does do a great job of pointing this out.

You're going to do their bidding. Or you're expected to do their bidding.

To keep the system intact.

Yeah, whether what they want is in line with what The Force wants or not.

So again, what is the point of the Jedi?

Shouldn't they, and this gets to me, why are they even on Koruscant?

Shouldn't they go find a monastery planet or something way out there and that's where they are?

But see that would remove them from being an active participant in galactic politics.

Yep.

But I would argue that's really what they should do.

They shouldn't be in galactic politics.

Yeah, agreed. And I think, you know, and just knowing what I know from the movies coming forward

and what we see, you know, with The Phantom Menace and the first trilogy, the first chronological trilogy,

we see that they become almost military commander-esque.

And that's going to be interesting discussions I think we're going to have whenever we get there

is why are they doing that? Or they were never meant to do that, you know what I mean?

And all of that works I think. It does help build up to what we see in the prequel trilogy about

they've really lost their way and they fall.

Agreed, agreed. And let me read you this last page of the comic.

And I don't mean to completely ruin the story, but I think it's a really, really good page.

After Qui-Gon Jinn has come back from his vision, etc., he comes back, he lands back on Koruscant,

he has a meeting with Yoda, and Yoda says, answers, did you find? And he says, I did.

And is off to the forest for more questions. And then Yoda says, hmm, good questions are.

We must ask them. Certainty in our understanding to arrogance, and this is the best,

kind of most showing part that I think that shows Yoda just isn't getting it.

Certainty in our understanding to arrogance leads to the dark side.

And then Qui-Gon responds with, and yet becoming too rigid is also a risk.

The tree that bends will snap with the Wind. And then Yoda battles right back with him.

He's like, ever present the dark side isn't always a threat. Bend to it, we must not.

And I think at that point, and again, just like in Master and Apprentice, whenever Qui-Gon's

kind of offered the job of being on the Jedi Council, I think he sees that I can do a better job

of educating Jedi with the ways of what I feel like the Jedi should be versus the ways of what

the Jedi Council should be. Does that make sense? Sure. Yeah, and I think that's kind of a great

lead in from a great post Master and Apprentice thought as we see that Qui-Gon really was,

in my opinion, he had it right. I mean, he, and maybe we're going to see things later on,

you know, outside of Phantom Menace or maybe Look Back or something like that where he was wrong.

But I really feel like he had the right idea about what the Jedi should be the entire time.

It's just that he could not get anybody to agree with him. And that was recently, the tragedy

of his death was recently highlighted. I think that was, was it yesterday when Star Wars said

that only Qui-Gon could have stopped Palpatine. Yeah, I agree with that. Totally. Yeah.

And that was, what was that? I forget who said that or what somebody said that.

I think it was, it came out of, it was official. It was? Yeah, it was from the official

Star Wars Twitter account or something. I don't know. Yeah. And I completely agree with that.

And the more I read, or at least the more we've started off in this project, the more I agree with that.

He's an underrated Jedi. Give him some love. He really, no, he really is. And if you want to transition

at this point to Mace Windu, who I think a lot of people, a lot of people think he's under underrated.

My take on him has always been, what is the deal with this guy? Why, other than he was played by Samuel Jackson,

why is he supposed to be so special? Yeah, let's take, yeah, agreed. Take out the actor and let's look at the character itself.

Because I've never been impressed by Mace Windu personally. I like Samuel Jackson. I love Samuel Jackson.

I think he did a great job as this character. But I've never actually been impressed with Mace Windu

in any Star Wars canon that I've read. Yeah. Far more impressed with Qui-Gon. Yeah, totally.

So you want to set up the weapon? Okay, yeah, so I agree. Let's start talking about the weapon.

So again, as I described earlier in the podcast, the weapon is a really short nine to ten page story

that appeared in the Age of Republic special, which is kind of like an annual, if you're into comics, an annual issue.

It was written by Ethan Sachs and the drawings were done by Paolo Villanelli, I think.

And Mace is really the only character that you would know up until the very, very end of the story.

So basically, just to kind of set up really quick summary of the story, Mace is captured by a warlord or his underlings

and is on a planet that the Jedi know about, but they don't know exactly where Mace is.

Mace gets captured. They break up his lightsaber, put it in a box, go over to his, this warlord type guy,

deliver Mace to him. Of course, it's a very Return of the Jedi kind of thing.

A lot of kids.

And there are other people too, but it's the kids that they're making a point.

All right.

So here's the deal with my thing with annuals and smaller, shorter stories like this.

A comic book generally, and I'm saying a general 20 to 30 page comic book,

it takes a lot of time to draw.

It takes a lot of time to write, to get every panel right,

because you only have so many panels.

It's a very hard thing to do.

When you condense a story down to nine to ten pages,

it's almost impossible to convey a message to me.

It just the only message that I got out of this comic was, hey, I'm Mace Windu and I'm badass.

OK, well, yeah, sounds like you got some more out of it.

And I'm eager to know.

I'm just I'm champing at the bit to to talk about my two problems with this.

OK, OK, start off. Go for it.

OK, so just like with

the balance Qui-Gon.

There's nothing they can't do.

OK, so they captured the guy and they they smashed his lightsaber all up. No problem.

Right. While the guys over there monologuing, that's the other problem

I have is the guy just monologues instead of just killing.

He does. He really does. Yeah.

I mean, it's classic, you know, monologuing.

So while he's doing that, while he's doing that,

I'm repairing my lightsaber, which is a very delicate mechanism. Right.

We've been taught that through all of the movies

that it's a big deal to construct a lightsaber.

That was one of the challenges.

But wait, wait, wait. Just just to just to say so.

Our knowledge of the Star Wars at this point in our project

is that we know all the movies, all the movies, and we know Master and Apprentice.

Right. And Master and Apprentice, somebody took Obi-Wan's lightsaber

and replaced the Kyber crystal with Cullen.

That's a good point. That's a good point.

But this was a snap. This was a broken lightsaber.

OK, agreed. Oh, great.

It shows him in one of the panels.

It shows him like through The Force, you know, just thinking about it

over there in the box.

It's going to be is putting itself back together.

Yep. OK. And then he gets a lightsaber and slaughters everybody

because that's what you do when you're a Jedi.

Yeah, agreed.

So that's the the the classic story of a trope of monologuing

while while the good guy gets to affect his plan.

And then the fact that, again, there is nothing the Jedi cannot do.

They are super beings.

They with powers like that.

I think that everybody who's not a Jedi

would eventually fear the Jedi and seek to destroy them.

Oh, interesting.

But we don't see that.

I wonder if that happens.

Sorry. So let's go.

Let's let's go back to, again, my argument.

There's like 10 pages to write a story.

What can you convey?

I don't think there's any way that any story that is involved

in like a summary issue or an annual issue of comics

can add to a canon.

Honestly, I think there's just not enough pages there.

There's not enough panels to tell a story that adds anything to a character.

I get your point.

I get your point.

But I did actually I was I'm grateful for your explanation

because I actually read this one first.

And so when I finished it, I thought, OK, is that what these comic books are?

That was really short and very, very narrowly defined.

And that's it.

It just makes this you know, we tried to say we can't save everybody

because some people can make bad choices, which true.

That's a good point, I think.

But then I got really focused on the fact that there's nothing that I cannot do.

Yeah, and no, and I understand what your argument was

at the very beginning of the podcast, too, about how you felt

they were almost so powerful that it makes it

a mute part of the story because they are so powerful.

But yeah, and and I do hope you're understanding that this is something

that's like comes out like once every year, something like that,

like an annual or a summer issue.

It's very rare that you have only 10 pages to write a story in a comic book.

That being said, though, this one didn't really do it for me.

Like, it just didn't.

No, not really.

We know that Mace is more of maybe a badass than we thought he was.

But he was always kind of a badass presented in the movies, too.

It's like not.

This is trying to play to that.

Look what a badass. Yeah, he's fine.

He's fine. He's fine. Yeah. Yeah.

It was just I don't know, by far of all the media that we've consumed thus far.

I would say that this one's probably the worst in my opinion.

That being said, again, I think the writer only had 10 pages to do something

and I don't think he could do it very well.

I think that as an artist, the warlord guy looks very in freeze nest

Rogue One ish, I'm not sure what it's called.

I'm not sure what it's called.

But I think that he's got a lot of talent.

I think he's got a lot of talent.

I think he's got a lot of talent.

I think he's got a lot of talent.

I think he's got a lot of talent.

Star Synch 6 and narrated by Noodle Gwebs助

of the story. The guy sits on a literal throne of skulls. Yeah it was kind of it

was kind of yeah. Okay so so let's let's try to make something out of this if you

jump to the end where the kid shoots the guy the kid that kills him. Yep. Was he

had gotten the better of Mace Hatton? He knocked him down. Wait wait wait you were

just arguing at the beginning of this podcast that no one ever gets the better

of the Jedi because they have this weird thing that they can do where they can

No no no they can temporarily get the better of a guy but he's gonna pull some Jedi

power out of nowhere and win the day. But do you think that if the kid had not

shot Mr. Big Bad Guy would he have was he about to win or was it it was

inevitable? No it was inevitable. I think the kid shooting it was supposed to show

it was that last emotional mark before Mace faithfully tells I think it's Yoda

that chimes in at the very end via radio frequency or something.

Via projection sorry. That did we save them all and Mace says well there was

this one rebel that was fighting me literally about to kill me earlier but I

want to save that person and Yoda's like we can't we can't get involved in local

laws. Again Yoda screwing things up. Yeah. You know I'm you know again yeah his

rigid stance on the Jedi messing everything up but anyways Mace is

like yeah well we didn't win everybody then or something like that. I forget what the

last panel was but it was something to the nature of like we didn't save

everyone because we couldn't save this person. Right that was that was the

thrust at the end was yeah well we didn't save everyone. So what we're

getting here is Mace Windu is a supposed badass but you and I are not impressed

and Yoda is a real jerk. Yeah Yoda's not getting it. Yoda's not

he's not up to snuff. He's just not there. I don't know he's just not yeah at

this point and I'm eager to watch The Phantom Menace just to see yeah where

the rest of the world is when Yoda is just just not getting things. So thanks

for joining us today on the second 11 Parsecs podcast. Next week we'll be

discussing more comics. We're actually got the Darth Maul arc which is gonna be

really cool because that's gonna be the first time we're gonna see six

contiguous comics we're gonna review in one podcast and then also the Age of

Republic Darth Maul special. So if you've enjoyed this definitely check out our

discord server on the links on our webpage and until next time stay safe.

This is the 11 Parsecs podcast episode number two. 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 11 parsecs.com and on discord. I'm Jonathan Smith with the

living weapon Eric Thompson. Thank you for joining us.