Episode 38: (21 BBY) Clone Wars Season 3 Ep 7 and 2 and Tales of the Jedi Ep 3

So like by the time you get to like the late 20 teens you could see something

like a Donald Trump presidency or something just absurd.

That could never... who would write that?

In this episode, Ahsoka's dream becomes a nightmare,

Mara Singh plants a kiss of death,

and the Jedi once again defend the elites.

We'll discuss Clone Wars episodes 3, 7, 3, 2 and Tales of the Jedi 3

in this edition of the 11 Parsecs Podcast.

Hello and welcome to the 11 Parsecs Podcast.

This is episode 38. My name is Eric. I'm here with my good buddy, Jon.

Hello!

And we're coming to you on the old 420 today.

Gonna be reviewing two different episodes of The Clone Wars and an episode of Tales of the Jedi.

Been a little while. I think it's been about two or three weeks since we recorded, Jon.

Been doing pretty good?

I have. I've been very busy, which is always good with various things in life.

Yeah, it feels like the end of the school year just gets kind of crazy with family stuff

and trying to record podcasts and watching all these different episodes.

But we did go a little bit out of order this week.

We are watching Clone Wars Season 3 Episode 7 and Clone Wars Season 3 Episode 2.

And for those that don't listen to the podcast, please remember that we actually go by the BBY order

of all the new canon stuff that we're watching.

We put our stake in the sand probably about two years ago when we started the podcast

and we have a list. We call it The List. There's a link on our website.

And it is all of the new canon stuff up until that point that was in BBY order

and we are slowly going through it.

This is our 38th podcast and we've probably watched...

We're up to 21 BBY if I remember correctly.

But we're The Clone Wars. Clone Wars are a pretty long show that didn't move that far in BBY.

So we're moving through Season 3 right now.

So if you hear us talking about podcasts, they're out of order a little bit.

That's why we're watching the 7th and then going back to the 2nd.

Before I babble on anymore, John, do you have a beer tonight?

I do indeed. And in fact, I think we may even have the same beer.

Did we have the same beer? Did you really have the birthday?

Well, I gave it to you, so of course I have to enjoy it with you.

Oh, this looks delicious. And I like the... It's kind of like the old 80s skateboard kind of art.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like deck art. You know what I mean?

It is the Hazy Birthday to Me by Beer Zombies Brewing Company.

Where are they at? Do you know?

They are in San Diego.

San Diego, California.

A child was born at the height of the eclipse of the sun.

46 years later, he begins to consume the people around him, even the brewers.

Hazy Birthday to Me, a birthday celebration beer for the founder of Beer Zombies.

Alright, I'm ready to dive into this one. Have you had this one yet?

Absolutely.

Have you tried it?

I must say, I did have it last week.

Okay.

And so, I'm not going to say a word.

Okay, let's crack them open. 3, 2, 1.

There we go.

Pouring into glass.

Yeah, you better pour this into glass.

What did I say for a second?

Oh, man. Yeah, I was about to say, I didn't do a good pour here.

I think I'm going to be sitting for...

I'm going to try some, but then I think I'm going to be sitting for a little while.

Just smell it. Just smell it. Smell it.

Yeah, that's a hazy man. Wow.

This is...

This is an incredible beer.

Well, let me try it.

Yeah, that's a good beer.

That's good beer.

That's like the sweet spot for me.

That's like...

Yeah, it's hoppy, but it's not like a beer.

It's a beer.

It's a beer.

It's like... Yeah, it's hoppy, but not like super hoppy.

Oh, man, it's good. That's a good beer.

That is a very good beer. Thank you very much.

Yeah, double IPA, not quite 9%.

That is a very precise ABV.

8.77.

They're measuring it, man. You can do that.

You know what's coming out of the bag.

Yeah, sure. Okay.

I wonder how much they made of this,

since it sounds like a birthday type deal.

I wonder if this guy is going to go away and we need to go stock up.

Yeah, I'll let you go to our local establishment and feel free to stock up.

Uh-oh. Did you grab the last ones?

No, I think there were some more, but let's just say that enjoy the beer.

Okay.

Just enjoy the beer.

All right. I'll enjoy the beer. I'll enjoy the beer.

All right, man.

So we're talking about the first episode that we're talking about,

Clone Wars Season 3, The Assassin.

You want to jump right in?

Yeah.

All right.

So we're still kind of in that same arc where it's Ahsoka versus Arsingh.

Ahsoka is unable to go with Anakin Obi-Wan on whatever mission they're going on,

and Ahsoka stays back, but then starts seeing what are really Force visions,

and starts saying that Padme is going to become under attack,

and she needs to go with Padme wherever Padme is going.

Padme is going to some conference or something that she can't get out of.

And this was a neat episode.

I mean, it shows we've done these one-off episodes where it's Ahsoka and somebody else.

Remember the one where she lost her lightsaber?

And these kind of like just Ahsoka-esque episodes.

Those and I've enjoyed them, but I think I enjoy this one a little bit more because it got more into like the mystique of Yoda, like really teaching her that these are forced visions.

They're not going to be correct, but they're going to tell you something that you need to know.

Well, I like the fact that it deals with visions because that's a really deep topic that you can really dig into.

It's if you get past the surface level, I mean, think about the concept of having a vision, right?

First of all, she has that one vision that kind of comes across like a dream and she bolts out of bed and she runs down to Padme's room and she stands with a lightsaber, protecting Padme and everybody's like, well, what are you doing?

That's got to be really unsettling to be shaken like that out of a dream.

Well, and think about it too, because this is after Anakin's run in and killed those like centipede things from Episode two.

So I mean, she's used to people like running into like, like waking her up, being like, hey, hey, you're in danger, you're in danger.

But this time there's nothing there.

So it's nothing there because she had a vision and she wasn't prepared for it.

So that's got to be really that's got to be very unsettling, just really unsettling to have a vision like that.

I have it seem very real.

How do you decide if it's a vision versus just a dream?

Well, also, too, you have Yoda sitting here telling you that, like, you have to trust this, like you need to concentrate on this because it is a very big deal.

It's something's going to happen.

But he also like looks you 10 seconds later and says, you can't trust anything you see, though, like it's not going to happen as you see it's going to happen.

It's not fate.

It's just a different variation of fate that may happen.

And I mean, how confused you have to be?

You're already having these visions that you were not experiencing beforehand.

And then to be fair, it sounds like there's only like a certain sub level of Jedi that can actually do this.

So that was a big question I had is why?

Yeah. Why certain Jedi?

And it gets to the broader issue of why do certain Jedi develop certain force powers?

Yeah, no, I completely agree.

And you have like like we'll talk about the next episode, but you have like Obi Wan with a kind of animal husbandry power.

Then you have The Force, The Force visions, which I think we've really only seen this a couple of times before.

We've seen it in Ahsoka, Yoda.

Was it who was it?

Was it Obi Wan that had the vision of we watched an episode probably about three or four podcasts ago where somebody kept having the vision of something was going to happen inside of it like his Greek looking temple?

Oh, what episode was that?

I forget.

I have to go back and review.

And then we've also like and then we've also seen Sifo-Dyas in the Doku Jedi Lost was having visions, although his kind of led him to be a little bit crazy.

It went down like a kind of a dark path.

Yeah, that's really all I can go to.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah, it's got to mess with your mind.

You it's got to mess with your mind.

I think that it would really it has to have led some Jedi to just go insane.

And I wonder if that's where Yoda is coming in is he's just like, OK, I know what this is.

I've got to teach you or it's not going to go well.

You know, like like looking at Sifo-Dyas.

And I feel like we've also had other visions, too.

I know that.

Yeah, it's got to be a powerful thing for, you know, just a normal human to deal with.

Or not a normal human, but a normal Jedi to deal with.

And then you've got Yoda, who I guess kind of like is a little bit of a tutor here that he has them also.

But I mean, it strikes me as like it's a very certain class of Jedi that gets to have these.

And it's not just that it's not just a certain type or certain Jedi.

It's certain visions.

What who's deciding what you get to see?

Right.

Why don't you see something utterly mundane that, you know, I had a vision.

I went to the bathroom.

I mean, why and I know what the answer is, OK?

The answer is that the plot says that you need to see something crucial coming up in order to drive the plot.

But taking it out of that, what is determining what a Jedi sees?

So so I'm going to go a different route and say what determines how far the Jedi sees.

And the reason I say that is that, you know, all the Jedi have these Jedi like reflexes.

Like and you saw we saw that with the third episode that we'll talk about today.

They kind of can detect when something's behind them.

They know when somebody's about to shoot at them like that's part of being a Jedi.

Yeah, it's like a spider sense.

Yeah.

But they're only looking two to three seconds ahead.

Whereas we see Ahsoka dream up something that's going to happen in two to three days.

You know, so it's like so it's like so how far out can you extend your your mind vision?

Your force?

We have we have dealt with or seen the holocrons, right?

The Jedi prophecies.

Those are thousands of years.

Yeah, but that's different.

That's different, though, isn't it?

I mean, that's different.

Is that not a vision?

It's a vision, but it's more along the lines of like a macro view and not a micro view.

You know what I mean?

Like it feels like it's more like I mean, yeah, I guess.

Okay.

Like the prophecy of Anakin and yeah, okay.

I mean, I agree with you to a point.

I'll agree with you to a point.

I still think it's more along the lines of we've seen this super.

Okay.

We've seen the super far off vision that we think is going to happen.

And we don't know anything about it because it's such a gray area.

But there's going to be somebody that.

that you know is born with all these midichlorians or whatever they call them, you know, and then flips back over to the other side, but then in the end flips back over.

I mean, you know, yeah, I think it's a vision, but I also don't know that it's what like necessarily Ahsoka's doing.

Like she's like seeing like, this is gonna happen to this person I care about that I know, I'm the only one that sees this because I know this person, and it's gonna happen in the next two, three days, and I've got to protect them.

Yeah, but then again, that maybe goes back to my point of maybe only normal Jedi see like, you know, two, three seconds ahead of time, or normal Jedi, normal Jedi, you're you're you're for shaming now, for shaming.

I'm sitting back and saying, saying you are not as good as this guy, because he knows what sandwich I'm going to eat in 10 minutes.

Whereas you only know that I'm walking toward the fridge, you know what I mean?

So it's like it Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's, it's, it's interesting. I feel like we're gonna learn a lot more during this series about the different types of force powers, more than maybe we learned in Master Prentice, Doku Jedi Lost.

Doku Jedi Lost had a lot of it in there. Because because that's whenever we learned about the the Seekers. Is that what they're called the people, the guys who got trying to find The Force sensitive kids and like, yeah, there was a lot of stuff in there that I think was kind of newer when it came to your job, your class, your archetype as a Jedi.

But, but this was the let's keep talking about our seeing ends up trying to kill Padme and pad. It stopped by Ahsoka only to find out that it's, what's her name? I love I love the Southern Lady Hut. What is her name? Oh, Zero, the Hut Zero, the Hut.

I think I think it's supposed to be a female Hut. But I love the accent. We've seen her before. Earlier in the series. And this was back like, I think during season one, but she talks like this. And she's a Jedi. It's almost like real Avarice.

If you remember, really, it is. It is. It's a little off putting. It's old. Is it attracting? Yes, I like it. It's so cartoony. It is very cartoony voice. And it just it breaks me out of it. Does it really? Yeah, I kind of like it. Oh, yeah. So we get to see her at the very end of the episode. And then they go visit her to figure out who hired our sing.

Yeah, it was a good episode. It wasn't it wasn't one of my favorites, but it was a very developmental episode for Ahsoka. And I'm definitely feeling like the first two seasons were like, let's see how the clones develop. And now we're starting to really dive into Ahsoka and see how Ahsoka develops under, you know, the tutelage of Anakin. Is that the drift you're getting? Or are you getting a little bit because we remember we saw her in the last two episodes where she was teaching all the the kids. Yeah, you know, it feels like we're just really character developing.

Her this season. And that's a new focus, in my opinion. Yeah, I agree with that. I would say that I really enjoyed this episode because they did not do the Star Trek thing of someone says I have a or, you know, I had a weird thing happen to me. And you obviously are mentally ill. Weird things have never happened to us before. You know, it's just it's always bizarre when shows do that. So in this show where they treated it seriously. Oh, you have a vision. Okay, well, let's deal with that. That was refreshing. Yeah, I agree with that. I totally agree with that. And I'd also say that the

and also to the fact that she immediately knows to go to Yoda and Yoda immediately knows what's going on. Like that's what that was kind of neat to me, because it's like his wisdom has seen this before and he knows what to do to help you. And maybe, you know, maybe Anakin really doesn't possess that skill because he's never dealt with it. Yeah, I don't know. I thought it was very neat. I thought it was very neat that she kind of learned from Yoda a little bit in this and says, you know, this is gonna be super confusing for you. I'm not an expert by any means in it, but at least I can help you with it.

Right, so now we're jumping back in time to I shouldn't say back in time. It's only like four or five episodes beforehand, five episodes beforehand. But we're gonna jump back to season three, Episode two, which is our troopers, which is supposedly happens next in BBY order, even though we're still in the year 21 BBY that we're dealing with Asajj again. This episode to me was really cool, just because a I love episodes about Kamino. And I love that. Like I think that's really cool. And I think that really, really makes sense. And I think it's really cool. And I think that's what I'm excited about, is that we're gonna be talking about that. And I think we're gonna be talking about that. Are we gonna be talking about that with some of our other episodes? I mean, to me, I think that's a lot of fun. Yeah, I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. I think it's really cool. So

that the whole clone army and the clone development is one of my probably favorite parts of the

prequel series. I really just kind of enjoy that whole like, like element or bio, what

do you call it? Like a biosphere, not a biosphere, but a bio environment on bio. Oh, what do

you call it, man? I forget what you call it.

If you hadn't asked.

I know.

Biosphere, I know where you're going for it.

I know. It's not biosphere. It's more like a biological.

Is it not biosphere? It's just biosphere?

I don't know.

I think it's biosphere.

I'll remember it.

We're going to say biosphere.

I'll remember it halfway through my conversation and then I'll remember it. But I just like

the fact that Shock T's on Kamino. What did you think of this episode? I mean, I really,

this was probably my favorite episode that we've seen of season three so far. It probably

will move to that later on. I mean, is that what you got from this? Like, I really enjoy

this episode.

Yeah, it was a really good episode. The right off the bat, the squid droid things, the attack.

Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. That's super cool. Yeah. And I had that in my notes too. And

then also the thing that Obi-Wan rides, like how he just kind of like makes friends with

these big beasts.

Yeah.

Like, randomly? Like, I love that. Like, I love that about him.

Because he did that back in, like, Master and Apprentice, where the...

They were doing that race, and he just finds this one horse-like...

I shouldn't say horse, I could trip.

This, like, horse-like dinosaur that he rides that just...

He has a communication with and all that.

And I love the fact that, you know, you see that same animal come back, like, later in the episode, which is pretty cool to save him.

And, um...

Yeah, spoiler alert.

But, uh, also, too, I really enjoyed the clothes.

Like, like, seeing 99 again, which is really cool.

And then seeing him pass away, which is...

You know, it... it... it sucked.

I was... I was really kind of amazed they killed him off.

I really was.

But, um...

It seemed like it was...

The writing seemed to be on the wall.

Did you?

See, I didn't expect it.

I expected him to not be...

I expected him to be a useful clone that everybody respects at the end of the episode.

I didn't... I didn't expect him to have the last words are,

I'm a soldier like you, and then die.

Like, I...

I was just kind of like, ooh, that's kind of brutal.

I mean, that's like, oof.

If he had gained some newfound respect in the end, then...

No, that would not have surprised me.

But I just felt like, you're... you're... you're numbers up, buddy.

I did feel like that the other clones treated him, especially like whenever...

This feels bad to say, but like, whenever it was the two clones that ended up becoming Arc Troopers,

all the younglings, or all the... the younger clones, and then 99 are like, holed up in this area,

and you have all these battle droids that are coming in, and they've got to devise a plan to do it.

It was a really good plan.

I think that they felt like 99 was part of the team the entire time.

So like, I like that element of it.

I mean, it wasn't like they treated him and the kids as the class sisters.

They're like, shoving the kids in the sleeping pods and being like, you take this gun,

and when we tell you, you jump out and you shoot.

Like, it was like a real like, we're being attacked.

Everybody's got to play their part here.

Yeah, but they also told him several times, didn't they?

Like, you don't belong here.

You know, get back.

Yeah, or don't go get the grenade, the extra grenades, or what have you.

And yes, he did defy them in the end, and that's what killed him.

But I mean, I don't know.

I just felt like that they treated him a little bit more fairly than I thought they would treat him.

Is that the best way to say it?

Because it always seems like to me that like, they really looked down on 99 like earlier in the,

I think it was last season actually that we first saw him.

And those prequel clones, not prequel clones is a bad way to say it,

but those first couple of clones that didn't do well, I guess you could say,

and, or the first batches maybe, I don't know.

We never really get into how many clones were created in those first batches,

but I'm assuming since he's number 99 that he was, you know, early in the development process.

I don't know.

I just feel like they kind of looked down on those guys.

And this one, they treated him fairly, and then in the end, pretty respectfully too.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

They could have gone in the direction of looking down on him, but it was good they didn't do that.

And then, plus I have in my notes, you get Kenobi versus Grievous, Asajj versus Anakin,

and then you get Spider-Crawl Grievous.

That's a pretty good ending of an episode to me.

That's like crazy.

Yeah, anytime he does a Spider-Crawl, that's just so creepy.

Yeah, when you get Spider-Crawl Grievous, that's like an A plus in my book.

But I'm just saying this was a very action-packed episode.

I feel like not only do you have the water battles, you have the awesome squid robots.

You also have the ones that attach to the Kaminoans' buildings and like let the troops out and everything,

which I thought was really cool.

And then, yeah, then you have the kiss from Asajj, which was unexpected.

But I mean...

I love you said that because it's in my notes.

I was like, that is just sick.

Yeah, that was...

Just sick.

Yeah, she's...

Her character is growing on me just because of how evil she is and how much she does not care.

Like on...

I keep going back to Doku, the audiobook thing, but she was brutal in that book too.

I mean, she was ready to kill Doku multiple times or Tyranus at that point, I guess.

Or no, he was still Doku at that point.

But yeah, I mean, it was like...

It was legitimate like...

Yeah, I don't know.

I think she's growing on me as just the pure evil face felony character.

You know what I mean?

Like, just like he doesn't care what he does with her.

He's gonna make her so evil if he wants to.

I hated that I could see where the ending was, you know, going.

Yeah.

They get away again.

It's just...

You see it coming and you hate it.

Yeah, I think so.

I think...

I feel like with what, 20 episodes or 18 episodes in each season, you're not gonna get any real development until something pivotal,

maybe at the middle of the season where you see a baddie changeover or something like that.

I just don't feel like we're gonna see that this early.

But they've got to keep using these characters for a while.

And maybe it goes on for multiple seasons.

But yeah, I just feel like everything's gonna be getting away in the end.

I mean, it's just this like scrappy war where like you try to do something and then the person escapes.

And then next time they're ahead of you and they escape.

And you know, when you see her look up, when you see Asajj look up and see the ship coming to pick her up,

you're just kind of like, okay, here we go.

You know what I mean?

It's not gonna...

Nothing's gonna change.

I know.

You gotta watch out for the whole GI Joe Cobra thing.

You know?

Yeah.

It just gets so repetitive.

It does.

It does.

And I think that unless you start to see more character development inside the episodes...

This one, I don't think actually had as much character development for anybody as much as the last one did.

Yeah, this was more of just a pure battle.

Episode I should call it. I mean it was just more along the lines of like

we're gonna show everybody fighting because it's really cool, maybe show another new move or

something by somebody but that was about it. But I think it was really well executed and I enjoyed

the fact that it was on Kamino and I enjoyed the fact that we saw a lot of new like tech and other

things like that. It was pretty good. It was a good episode. I definitely rate this one higher than the

first one. Oh sure yeah yeah much more action you gotta love that squid droids.

All right we're back on our Tales of the Jedi. So we missed this last week but we're still going

through Tales of the Jedi. This is not necessarily in canon order so this is you know some of this

is jumping back some this is jumping forward but we just decided that we'd take like we do

divisions we said we take the series and kind of like add one in pretty much every podcast just to

have something new and fresh for us to watch also just kind of keep it from the kind of I'm not gonna

say boring Clone Wars episodes but to get us through all the different Clone Wars episodes

because of course our job is to watch every single thing read every single thing listen to every

single thing in the new canon. Tales of the Jedi three choices this might be my favorite thus far.

I like the Ahsoka episode it was good. I like the the last episode with Qui-Gon it was good.

This one was really interesting because it paired up Doku and Mace which is two people I really

never think about together. Did you agree with that? Right yeah yeah absolutely. And you could

definitely see both of those characters as you see them you know throughout the movies acting in the

way that they would and also you see them you get a little bit of reasoning behind their decisions

in my opinion. I mean I don't yeah this has been out for a while so we can go and talk about it.

Really quickly there's a Jedi that's killed both of them are sent to go investigate the the

shooting and bring the body back. They end up feeling a little weird about the fact that things

are not really right and Mace being the kind of upstanding Jedi wants to go back to the council

talk to the council about it to figure out what their next move should be and Doku's like no we're

gonna figure this out now we're gonna figure out what's going on another Jedi was killed we need

to figure this out and both of them try to execute their plans and then basically Doku kind of wins

and in the process Mace has to kill somebody that maybe should have been killed but he understands

he had to do it and then there's a little bit of friction in them after this because of the way

Doku acted kind of jumped on it and you can tell even when they get back I think that the kind of

icing on the cake for me is the very last part of this episode where Doku kind of confronts Mace

and was like did you know that you were going to get the seat on the council before we even went

on this mission and he kind of like hesitantly like politically says no of course not you know

what I mean like he he didn't really say no either he kind of alludes to the fact that it would have

affected anything or something of that nature and I thought that was kind of weird but it does

definitely shows you that Mace is kind of buying on the political spectrum and that Doku is also

kind of sitting back being like what is going on here like what are we doing are we effective I

don't know yeah you get a sense the eventually right Doku has to to turn against the Jedi

so this is sort of flavoring in that the um there was a lot that I wrote down that the Jedi are the

lapdogs of the senate which is what one of the guys yells before he pulls a gun on Mace and Mace

has to block the fire and shoot the guy and yeah and well that's what's really funny is that you

see Mace like he's very well drawn to this other both the character all the characters are really

well drawn but Mace kind of feels like I can't believe you said that like you can see it in his

face he's like I cannot believe you said that um and then fired upon me you know I'm not glad I

killed you but you had it coming whereas Doku's like very pensive about it like he sits back and

is kind of like I mean we just saw him on the last adventure with Qui-Gon where both of them are like

going to that remember they went to that that city where the the senator's son was being held

in the barn and the mechs and all that kind of stuff and you can even see Doku there like just

losing his temper going you know ape crap you know just being like oh like let's get this done

we need to get this done this is stupid what are we doing here and then you see him on this one

where he's kind of sitting back and even at the end of the episode when he goes and talks to the

prisoner and he's like I understand your reasoning behind doing all this I just don't like the way

you did it you know what I mean and you definitely are starting to see Doku move toward that we're

not doing the right thing kind of vibe like like we are lapdogs of the senate we are not protecting

anybody we're pretty much being utilized and it's ironic to me that it just moves him into the fact

that he helps that out I don't know that that's probably the biggest question with my character

with his character thus far and you know it was it was talked about a little bit in some of the

Doku stuff we read earlier but just the fact that he is so disgusted with the Jedi that he ends up

being what the Jedi were against but it's not it's not in the same fashion of I'm gonna go do this

the right way it's that I don't like you guys at all and I think you're all fake and I'm gonna go

join the other side that's what's still a little bit of a missing piece for me I mean are you on

the same page oh yeah I mean the fact is we discussed this with that other Tales of the Jedi

the the Jedi

Dooku and the Jedi are on the side of the powerful, the wealthy, the status quo, the elites, however you want to phrase it in the current political terminology that we're seeing here in our country, and there's no way out of that. What are they going to do? Turn against the Senate?

The guy literally says in the thing, you guys are only here for the protection of the rich.

Like he literally, like that's his wording. And Doku's definitely listening to it.

Mace is still kind of like, no, we're heroes, you know, but it's a very weird dynamic.

And I really enjoyed this episode, just seeing those two dynamics together.

And then I did not expect the kind of fast one pulled, or I shouldn't say fast one pulled,

because I don't necessarily know that Mace was meaning to not let Doku know that he was going

to be joining, or having a seat, you know, on the council. But I thought it was neat that Doku was

taken aback by it a little bit. Like he was, you could tell it his voice, or at least the

cartoon acting, that he really was like, did you know this before we went? And then Mace kind of

like sidesteps the question. And I was just like, that's pretty, that's pretty...

Yeah, it's another sort of lever pushing Doku, you know, kind of pushing him out.

Good episode, very good art. I really enjoy the art on these episodes. I really do. Like it's very,

it's almost like Spider-Man Into the Multiverse. Like it's very, it's not as crazy as that. Like

it's not as blunt and in your face, but the art style looks the same. Do you agree? Like it's very...

I can't say I thought of Into the Spider-Verse, no.

You didn't? Okay.

I mean, I'm trying to think back really quickly. I guess I can see why you say that, but no,

it didn't occur to me. I just, but no, it is very well done.

I feel like it's like, I feel like they're drawing more in 3D than they are 2D.

Yes.

Is that a...

Oh, certainly.

It's more like this computer generated 3D modeling of how the character would look versus

I'm drawing this out to look 3D. All right. So for the back half of the podcast, we usually like to

talk about geeky things. We're watching and reading and playing and everything else. John,

you want to start us off or I have my list. Do you want to talk about your list? You go first.

There's one thing. I mean, I have a list of things because it's been a while and I consume media

regularly, but there's one that I really have to talk about. I don't know if you've seen it

for all mankind.

I have not seen it. It's on my list. You have continued to rave about it on our Discord for

the past, because this is like a long running show. This is like the fourth season, third season.

Oh, is there a...

Fifth season? It's been around a while.

It's at least three. I want to say that the fourth is coming.

Okay. So three seasons. This is on Apple, isn't that right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I just binged it hardcore.

So what is your... I've been getting snippets of your opinion on the show.

What is your... Did you finish all three seasons?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I can't wait for more.

All I knew about it going into it was that it was alternate history. What if the Russians

landed on the moon before us? And everything stems off of that. And I was like, yeah, okay,

fine. Big deal. Because a lot of the advertising for it really focuses on... And we have women

astronauts. I'm like, okay, so what exactly... What are we trying to say?

It is really well done, alternate history. Us losing the moon race, they take that and

they show how that could have just radically altered our...

Do you mean like... You don't have to get too much in the show because I do actually

want to watch it. Is it radically altered our economic situation, which then led to

other things?

By the time you get to, I guess it's season three. I should really know what season I

just watched. But you're in the 90s and they live in a different world.

Oh, wow. Okay, so you jump ahead. Okay.

Yeah. It does a lot of time jump and it does it in a very nice way because you're seeing

the same characters and they do a pretty job, aging them up a little bit.

Well, yeah, 90s, I mean, you're talking 30 years jumped in the head. Do you think that

it'll ever get past current today? Do you think it's going to go into the future, future

like a civilization video game or like...

I have no idea where they're going. I really don't. I don't want to say too much.

Is this completely fresh? This is new? They wrote this for the series or is this based

off a book?

I don't know if it's based on anything at all.

Because I enjoyed... What was the Amazon series? Oh, Maiden in High Castle?

Yeah.

Yeah. That was pretty good, but that was, I believe, based off of a book. They may have

expanded on the book after they ran out of material, but that was a good alternate universe,

but it didn't really leave the same time period. It was all within the context of after the

war. So that's...

Soon after the war, yeah.

That's kind of cool that this is jumping ahead almost to the 90s though. I mean, that's kind

of cool. I mean, that's a very big jump.

They use it to show you progress, like building a base on the moon, that kind of thing.

Again, very effectively, it allows them to tell bigger stories.

Just briefly on Man in the High Castle, I don't know if we ever talked about that, but

man, that just went nowhere. That went off the rails stupid in like, what was it, season three?

Yeah, I watched season one and then got halfway through season two and actually that was one of

the ones where it didn't fade away from me. I just quit watching it. Like, usually with me,

if you don't keep me like, entertained in season two, I'll fade away over season two.

I think I got like two or three episodes into that and was just like, I don't want to watch

this anymore. Like, it was a conscious decision. I don't want to watch this anymore. I want to go

find something else to watch. Yeah, we don't need to get too deep into it, but they set up such

wonderful possibilities and then just pissed all over. And see, I wonder if that's where the,

and I'm pretty sure it was based on a book. I wonder if the book material ended.

And then you're stuck with, okay, where do we go from here? And then it just didn't work out. I

don't know. I don't want to guess just because I really haven't studied that much about Man in the

High Castle, but like I said, I really enjoyed the first season. I was hooked. I mean, and actually

those first two or three episodes, I was really hooked. I was like, this is amazing. Like, this

is like a very interesting concept to me. And then season one ended, it was good. Then I got

a little bit into season two. I was like, no, I'm done. But no, I was just gonna say, I'm eager to

try this one. I really enjoy the fact that you jump ahead so much. That's a neat thing to me,

because you're not staying in your comfort zone. You're having to look out 30 years. That's pretty

cool. And I can say this without spoiling anything. They do the whole Forrest Gump effect very well,

where they portray things that happened in reality. But they portrayed them like happening

in this alternate world. And sometimes it's got a different spin on it. Sometimes it's the same

thing. And it's just they do a really good job with that. So when you jump to the 90s, and if

this is going to spoil anything for the show, please don't tell me. But like, if you jump to

the 90s, do you still have the same political figures and power in the 90s, just with less

power, more power, like whatever the storyline dictates? Do you still see like a George Bush or

Ronald Reagan? Or is it somebody that you never would have expected? And that's kind of the back

to the future edge of it. I think it's safe to say that history starts to diverge right in 69,

or actually prior to that, but really in 69. And the 70s, going through the 70s, it diverges just

a little bit more, a little bit more. And then by the time you get into the late 80s,

you're totally different. So by the time you get to like the late

20 teens, you could see something like a Donald Trump presidency or something just absurd.

I mean, is that never? Okay. Who would write that? Okay. Yeah. I've always, I've always enjoyed the

whole Encino main concept of waking up to like 2016. Oh my God. And being like, well, not the

full on Encino main cause you don't even know what presidents are, but I'm just saying like,

like, and being like in a coma or something and be like, who's the president here? You know,

that, that kind of thing. They pulled that in back to the future, of course. Yeah, I know.

That's what I'm saying. The actor? Then tell me future boy,

who's president of the United States in 1985. Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan, the actor.

Yeah. The actor. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that is true. I forgot about the Ronald Reagan part.

Yeah. So, so it sounds like a very interesting thing. I'm going to add it to the queue.

Is it going to be one of those that, and it sounds like it was for you based off our discord

conversations. It sounds like it was definitely one of those ones where you trekked all the way

through all three seasons straight. Oh, you, once you stop, once you start, you can't stop.

Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's, that's what I'm worried about because I like, there's other

shows that are like just coming out right now that I'm like, I want to be able to see, I mean,

you know, it's, it's, I don't know. It's so. Just today, right. We had the, the SpaceX,

what is it called again? The super heavy launch, super heavy starship. Starship, just called

starship. Well, yeah, it is a super heavy. The whole stack, the big full stack. Yeah. Yeah.

Obviously that didn't work. Yeah. You, you were, you were tweeting about it, you know,

talking about it on discord. This show is right up your alley. I mean, if you're a space guy,

if you're a history guy, if you're a sci-fi guy, it's got, it's got all that in spades.

And it's Apple. I mean, Apple puts the money into it. I mean, they don't, they don't shy away from

making a show as good as they can make it. You know what I mean? Like they, they, it,

they have a small palette of shows to work with. So they're very good about putting money into the

show. Lasso being, you know, one on the forefront, like, like it's just, they're, they're very good

about putting the money forth for it. So I will end up watching this. I know I will end up watching

this. It'll probably be fairly soon too. What else have you been doing, Eric?

Ah, so, so we won't talk about it today. We'll talk about it on a future episode,

but to finish up Mando, which we talked a little bit about today. I found that we just watched

the season finale. We're not going to give any spoilers on this podcast. I promise we try to

only talk about old stuff and spoilers that comes from stuff that we're going through

on the new Canon, but I do want to get.

A 1-100 view from you on the last episode.

What is your 1-100 number for any Disney+ Plus show?

I was thinking season 2 Episode 2 of Dog with a Blog.

That guy landed hard.

That was better.

This was very good.

I can't say I was wowed by it.

It was really good.

Solid ending.

Best episode of the season?

Can you hit me with some?

What do you think was the best episode of the season?

I think this was the best episode of the season.

What do you think was the best episode of the season outside of this episode?

Outside of the finale?

I'm trying to remember.

The Luke Skywalker episode was great.

The only thing that's hard about Mando is that it merges in so much with other shows.

Seriously, yeah.

You've got to remember what's, you know, what's for both.

I did want to state this for the record.

The episode where they go to, I don't remember the name of the planet, but they were going

so that Bo-Katan could get her fleet back and they had to do the side quest of going

into the big dome ball city with Jack Black.

Oh yeah, the one with Jack Black and Lizzo.

That was a Clone Wars episode.

That was a Clone Wars episode, top to bottom.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Totally agree with that.

And we've been watching Clone Wars so much recently that I definitely considered that.

I was like, this is a very, and it's funny because I was trying to remember like what

other, and I don't, getting back to The Book of Boba Fett versus Mandalorian and some other

stuff.

I'm trying to remember what episode was the one with Thundercat.

Do you know who Thundercat is?

He's kind of a rap.

Thundercat, Thundercat.

Yeah, he's kind of like a, he's kind of a rapper slash producer slash a bunch of other

stuff.

He played the doctor and I think it was actually Book of Boba Fett.

He played the doctor with all the different, with a hand that had all the different tools

on it.

And I think it was the first season of Book of Boba Fett maybe, where he would like operate

on people and the guys are like the hipsters that drove the little motorcycle thing.

Yes.

That was the Book of Boba.

So that was him.

And I felt like, and immediately when I saw Lizzo and Jack Black, I compared it to him

and his character to me was like super believable.

Like if you don't know who that is, you're thinking this is just some actor doing this.

And then the Jack Black Lizzo thing, I don't, again, I'm not trying to spoil anything.

If you haven't caught up, catch up.

But, but I was, I didn't, it didn't, it didn't hit me as hard as that other episode did.

So I was just kind of like, oh, okay.

Yeah, I don't know.

I felt like this last episode while being rushed, it was rushed.

It was like 40 minutes.

Like that was a lot to cram into 40 minutes.

Well, yes.

It was a lot of cramming in 40 minutes and they had, it was a second part of a series.

So I mean, I kind of get, you know, the season ender was technically two episodes, but I

felt that it was pretty darn good to me.

I felt that I enjoyed most of it.

There's a few aspects I didn't, but overall I felt it was pretty good season ender.

I really do.

It felt like a good movement forward for all the characters.

It felt like we got a lot of resolving on a lot of stuff and I thought it was pretty

good.

I thought, I thought it was good.

You have to love the aerial battle with the, with all the Mandalorians and the, and the

yeah, I remember not, not too much, not too much spoilers, but yes, I completely know

what I mean.

These guys have jet packs.

Exactly.

It's about time you saw them fighting in the air.

I know exactly the scene you're talking about and I loved it.

Absolutely loved it.

Do you know when, when I posted an discord, cause I was trying to spoil it for anybody

and I said, there's, there's one visual in this episode that is, yeah, there's actually,

there's actually, no, it's not that.

That's not what I was referring to.

You don't know what I'm talking about at all.

So we'll discuss this later.

I thought you were, I'm going to say it right now, but we'll bleep it out.

I'll bleep it out.

Okay.

Okay, good.

It is, it is when they look there is toward the end of the episode.

They, they are definitely not close that I doubt at this point because they brought it

to me.

Yeah.

They look up and the capital ship is crashing down into their cavern.

It's right there, coming straight down on top of you.

That was amazing.

Yes, I agree that that was good.

That was not what I was talking about.

I was thinking that you were talking about, and we're going to leave this out too.

I was thinking that you were talking about, and this is the part where they're literally

fighting in the air, and she's got the Darksaber, and the Smith, the weaponsmith girl has her

thing and they're like, it's like this slow-mo but yet not slow-mo anime scene.

Yeah.

And they're literally clashing with the other person.

That was amazing to me.

That was just, to me, that was like 10-year-old Eric would have flipped his lid.

That is the coolest thing I could ever possibly think of, and I probably wouldn't have even

thought of that.

But no, no.

You are correct.

I did not put enough emphasis on that.

That really was, that was fantastic.

Yeah.

Yeah, and there's one more scene that we'll talk about on the Discord.

We will not talk about it here because I don't, again, I'm not trying to spoil anything for

you, but we bleep that stuff out and you're probably like, why am I listening to this?

I hear a bunch of big bleeps.

But let's move on.

Let's move on.

John, did you- Well, you asked me for a number.

I did.

You asked me for a number.

Oh yeah, I did.

I did.

I did.

One through 100, what do you got?

Well, now that you've reminded me of what you just said, probably an 89.

Not quite up into the 90s.

I was 91.

I was 91.

I was 91 in my head before you gave me that answer and I think we're both on the same

page on that.

It was a good ender.

It was a good end cap.

It was good.

It was, yeah, it was good.

I thought that they ended it well and they did a pretty good job.

I'm eager to see, let me say this much.

I'm interested to see what goes beyond for all the different characters in whatever series

they show up in, which is probably the best way to set up everything that they wanted

to set up.

Do you know what contract they have Pedro tied to?

So here's my thing.

You can have him tied to whatever contract you want because he doesn't have to show his

face.

He doesn't have to be there.

Okay, fair enough.

I don't think you saw his face at all during season three, did you?

I don't think you do.

You're probably right about that.

And they have two different actors I know that play him as his body doubles.

Somebody told me that one of them was John Wayne's grandson is one of them.

And he doesn't have to be there.

So you're saying going forward, you think it's going to be just voice booth work?

Yeah, I think so.

I think that's all you have to have, which to him, don't get me wrong, amazing, amazing

actor.

We talked about multiple things that he's done on this podcast, Game of Thrones, everything,

Last of Us, but you don't have to have him in a studio.

I think that he can phone it in voice wise.

So I think that makes it a pretty lucrative deal for him.

If I'm not, if I'm being honest, you know what I mean?

So no, the funny thing about that is, so in season one, as it goes through season one,

I was thinking this poor actor that I'd never heard of.

He never gets to show his face.

You heard of him from Game of Thrones before this show.

Come on.

Actually, was he in Game of Thrones?

What was he in Game of Thrones?

Yeah, he was the spear.

He was the knight of the spear, uh, sun spear.

What?

I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, he's the dude that's got the spear.

Yeah, he's the dude that's got the spear.

Yeah, he's the dude that's got the spear.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, he's the dude that gets his head bloated by the Mountain, grabs his eyeballs and splits

his head open.

Oh God.

Uh, that sounds gory.

Okay.

So, uh, you watched Game of Thrones, didn't you?

Yeah, it's, I don't remember him.

Okay.

So I didn't know who that was at the time.

So I, I did, didn't click.

You know, when I saw him, uh, later in Mandalorian, I genuinely thought, I don't know, Pedro Pascal.

I don't know who that is.

Okay.

Right.

I'm not, I'm not frigging IMDB.

Okay.

I'm just saying he had a pretty big role in like what season four, season five of Game

of Thrones.

Like his role, he was on screen like a lot and he was in a lot of the episodes and ironic

word for it.

Yeah.

I can't, I can't believe you don't remember him.

And then, um, and what's, what's funny though, is that me and Lindsay were talking about

last night or sorry, me and my wife talked about last night.

Um, he, uh, the person that played his love interest in that Game of Thrones episode was

on Obi-Wan.

She was like a character in like two episodes of Obi-Wan.

So yeah, I just thought it was interesting.

Um, okay.

Well, I'm going to get back to my point now.

So in the first season, uh, I felt really bad for this, you know, up and coming actor.

He doesn't get to show his face.

That's awful.

And then of course, did he finally did, did he show his face?

But I was thought, you know, going forward, it's going to have to be limited.

Otherwise it's going to lose all meaning and you know, what, what a, what a pity.

And then he became superstar, right?

He, boom, he's everywhere.

He is the man.

Yeah.

And now, so here we are in season three and I'm thinking, oh, he doesn't have to show

his face anymore.

What a great gig.

Yeah.

Seriously.

Within three, three seasons.

He's done.

Did you watch Narcos?

I did not.

I know the show you're talking about, but no, I've not.

Yeah.

I haven't watched it either, but everybody says he's really good in that show too.

Everybody says he's really good.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

Anyways.

Good for Patriot.

Speaking of that, did, did he, did he, did he show his face?

Yeah.

He did.

He did.

He did.

He did.

He did.

He did.

He did.

He did.

He did.

He did.

Did you ever watch the Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal?

No, the movie, The Undeniable Weight of Being Nicolas Cage or something like that.

Of Unbearable Talent or something like that?

Yeah, I know I did not watch it, but it looked pretty funny.

I don't know anybody, no one said anything about that after it came out.

I bet it's pretty good, I bet it's pretty good on that kind of indie level.

I need to put it on my list, because I like it a lot.

Yeah, I should probably shout out to my Q2.

Yeah, it sounds like it would be pretty good.

Did you go see the Mario movie?

I'm sorry, go ahead.

I thought you were about to go somewhere else.

So, did I go see the Mario movie?

No, that is honestly not my bag, man.

Did you go see the Dungeons and Dragons movie?

No, it didn't rise to the level of being one you would go see in a theater.

Oh, Mary and John, I loved it!

Dude, you're struggling to read books and start series, I'm struggling to get to the theater.

It's expensive.

It's not just that, it's a time commitment, a financial commitment, it's just not fitting into life right now.

I will say that those are probably the only two movies I've seen in the last six.

I missed Ant-Man.

Yeah, I thought for sure we were going to go see that, because we're big Marvel people.

Nope, didn't bother.

What's the one coming up?

Guardians, right?

Guardians 3?

I'm going to have to go see that.

I'll go see that, but before that, I don't know that I've seen a movie in the theater that I've been geeky in a while.

I agree with you, and I totally understand the cost aspect of it.

It's just like everything else is out of control.

And to be fair, it usually hits streaming services. I think the Ant-Man movie hit last week to buy on demand.

Which is not, of course, Disney++, it's going to be another month or two before it hits Disney++,

but you could pay $20 to watch it at your house, which is, in my opinion, the sweet spot if you really want to watch something before it hits streaming service.

Yeah, and there was something that came out, I cannot think of what it was, but it hit, I want to say Disney++,

or something faster than I thought it would.

I was on the streets, like, oh, I get to watch this now. That was just in theaters. I have no idea what it was.

Was it Avatar, Jon?

I did see, that is out now, right?

Yeah, well, I don't know.

I thought I read that it's out on Disney++.

Oh, is it? Okay.

Or coming to Disney++.

Yeah, I know you can buy it for like $20, but I didn't know if you could actually watch that Disney+ streaming yet.

Avatar, we've got to just briefly cover. Avatar is...

Well, we talked about Avatar last podcast.

Oh, we did, okay. But, just to reaffirm that, it is freaking cinematic cotton candy.

It has no footprint, it has no lasting... I seriously would have to remind myself what the plot of that movie was.

That being said, it was exquisitely beautiful filmmaking. Like, absolutely jaw-dropping.

Sure.

Absolutely.

He's playing on like five, right? So, the challenge now is, can he basically tell the same story five times, make $10-15 billion, and it has no impact on our culture?

Yes, Jon. Yes, he can.

The answer is yes.

I literally leaned into my mic as if I was being asked by a civic committee if I thought that he could do that.

And my answer is yes, yes he can.

Because the movies are exquisitely beautiful. I mean, they are absolutely mind-boggling detailed to the nth level, and very, very well done.

I cannot... The public doesn't care. I cannot truly explain... I cannot explain how they are such runaway successes.

I do not get it. Why does Joe Blow Six-Pack give a crap about Avatar 2?

Guns. I mean, there's a thing for everybody, Jon. You can be an environmentalist, you can be a military man against a woke crowd of whale watchers.

I mean, there's something for everyone in these movies. There really is.

A woke crowd of whale watchers.

Of people that go into a whale's bellies and look at scripture that's inside the whale's belly. I mean, come on. You can't make this stuff up. It's so good. It's so good.

And the fact that he just builds amazing vehicles.

I love that you just said you can't make this stuff up. He literally made it up.

Okay, fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. You can't make up this stuff.

I can't make up this stuff. I have too much shame.

Yeah, seriously. No.

No talent.

No. Okay. Alright. So, one thing I did want to bring up, and this is the last thing we're going to talk about tonight.

We have two dueling board games that we've been playing. I have one that I've been playing a bunch at my house. You have one that you've been playing a bunch at your house.

I'm going to talk about mine first. We've been playing this board game called Hell's Gate.

So, you've been playing with your fam, we played during dinner a bunch now, it's really good, I thoroughly enjoy it.

But you talked to me about last week, you guys have been infatuated with a board game that I love, what have you been playing?

It's so funny because going back years, I tried to, with family, find some, not stupid party games, but something a little more, not crazy advanced, but something a little more engaging.

Something that would teach strategic thought and that sort of thing.

And I'd never heard of Seven Wonders, didn't know anything about it, not really into board games that much, I'd like to be.

And so it was super highly rated, so I bought it, I think we played it one time, it seemed really complicated, and put it back in the closet.

And it's always been on that list of, man I wish we played that more.

And I think I mentioned that, that we need to, first of all, we need to learn a game so that we don't spend half the night reading rules, that's number one.

And then play that, and you spoke up and said, oh my god, Seven Wonders, I love Seven Wonders, I played the hell out of Seven Wonders.

And so that really inspired us, so we sat down, we learned it, we watched videos, and it is an incredible game.

It is so nuanced, it is so, the strategies are so interwoven, there's so many ways to win, there's so many ways to lose, it is really impressive.

It's one of those games that I feel like you could play five to ten times with the same group of people and be like, yeah, this is a really good game, I think I get this, I think I'm getting pretty good at it.

And then you play the 15th time and you're like, holy crap, there's so much I don't know about this game.

There's so many different variations of skill in the players that you have to adapt to that.

And then by the time you play, so I told you this, I was lucky, we played with a bunch of guys that I used to work with, and we played for a whole year.

We played a lunch every day, literally every single business day.

We would play a game of Seven Wonders, and we got so into it that I would play these guys, and it would be competitive as competitive can be.

But then I would go home on the weekend and play with my family, and someone would beat me, because I was playing a completely different game than they were playing.

I was so used to playing with other people and their strategies of army building, of getting this one, or because you had this specific one.

And I was so used to that gameplay that it was very easy to be outsmarted by somebody that was just learning to play, that was just like, hey, I like the red tokens, let's keep going this route.

It's such an amazing game to me, because you have that breadth of skill that can win, honestly win, playing other people.

It's probably, in my opinion, everybody talks about Settlers of Thoth, everybody talks about it.

Seven Wonders to me is the best game that has come out, board game wise, in the last, what is it, I guess like 15 years old now or something like that?

It's just such a great, amazingly well designed game. I love it, I love that game.

It is absolutely, it really blew me away. I can state without shame that I have yet to win a single game of Seven Wonders.

And I'm okay with that, because I'm learning so much. I love the fact that we distribute the Wonders randomly, so you've really got to go with the flow, stick and move.

Certain Wonders can favor military, others favor science, etc. You have to just, well, you don't have to.

I haven't won yet, so obviously you don't have to do anything. You can just build military all day long and just win that way.

But it is such a good game. And again, a couple of marks of a good game, or a very well designed game are, you can see there's so many ways to victory.

And it's quick, right? It's really kind of a quick game. Quick setup, quick play.

Yeah, our games, we got really good at getting everything together. Now what's interesting to me though is that, we played it probably in about 30 minutes, but what's interesting to me about though is that the game changes so much just by very small variables changing the game.

Like you mentioned that you guys do random Wonders, which is really tough because you've got to know how to play all those guys at any given point.

The way we did it was we had six or seven guys in a room.

as we played constantly throughout the week and we said we had a select list and basically that list move one position every day of the week.

So, so like so like, I shouldn't say every day of the week it moved for six days straight and then we reset the list. So like, Bob, and I'm just making names up.

Bob would get to choose first on Monday, second on Tuesday, third on Wednesday, so basically, you still got to choose your strategy, but you only got to choose it if it was still available by the time it got to you, on your given day.

Yeah, I like that a lot.

But that leads to a completely different game almost though,

because like I'll tell you, there were certain wonders

in the lands that people wanted all the time.

So like if you were choosing third or fourth, you were like,

well, these are probably the ones I'm going to have available.

It's like the draft.

Like, these are the people I'm probably going to have available

to me. Like, what strategy do I want to try to employ today?

And that's a lot different than getting a random wonder, because

you've got to know all of them at that point.

You know, like you've got to know everything. Or, well, that's

what I'm saying. Or you don't. You just play whatever strategy

you feel like. And you beat dad.

Yeah, I guess.

Yeah.

That can be a little frustrating.

But, oh, what was I going to say? Shoot.

Oh, that's the other thing.

So we're only playing, there's only three of us.

So we've only played three-person games, which is effectively

the minimum. So when we get together and we're playing seven

people, that's going to be very different.

That's going to be, we've not done anything like that.

It's extremely different. And two, there's probably more

expansion packs by now.

I'm not sure.

But there was one, I think, expansion pack that we played back

then that added, I think, two different wonders.

And my guess is there's probably more expansion packs now that

add even more, you know, so the game can change completely

differently because you just shovel those cards from the expansion

pack into the draw hand.

And that's another thing that that game does really well is

it sometimes comes down to chance, just who's sitting beside

you and what they chose for their card.

You know what I mean?

Like there's a very neat dynamic there and that expands when

you're playing three people.

It's one thing, but when you're playing seven people, it's a

completely different thing because now you're like, I'm only

going to get one card when that hand comes to me, you know,

and I'll never see any of the others.

So I have no clue what everybody else is choosing yet.

You know what I mean?

So it's kind of a...

And that, no, that just hit me that when we play, I get to

see the same hand like what?

Exactly.

Three times?

Yeah.

Four times?

Five times?

And with a full table, yeah, you see it one time.

Holy crap, that's going to be so different.

Yeah, and also too, you can kind of like look at other people's

cards and be like, if you're playing three player, this card

will come back around to me probably because they're not

playing that card.

They're not playing that card.

Exactly.

But, and so I'm going to choose this one based on the fact that

I think this one will come back around to me.

That's out the door.

Like sometimes you don't even see what cards, you know, you

get literally handed the one card and that's it.

You know, it's a very, very well-designed game.

I highly recommend it to anybody.

I think there's actually an iPad version now that you could

go on and try and just kind of see like if you like the game,

but I will say that if you do play the game, give it time to

marinate because it takes, it's a learning curve.

And well, don't do what I did.

Don't sit down and think, okay, let's play Seven Wonders tonight

for the first time.

Let me read the rules.

Holy crap.

First of all, don't do that.

So you want to prep a little bit.

YouTube it.

There's like a 10 minute video that is eye-opening.

So this is not complicated.

Yeah, send me the link, John, and we'll post that on the show

notes because that definitely needs to be posted.

I got one that I remember watching.

I'll see if I can dig up.

It's the guy that always does the board game explainers and

and yeah, just watch the video.

I know it sounds really weird to watch a video but sit down

with everybody that you're going to play with and watch the

video and generally even if a concept missed one person, it'll

be caught by somebody else and be like, oh, yeah, the guy the

video talked about that.

It's much easier to sit there.

It's so daunting to sit down, especially trying to read like,

you know, these jerks and these German board games.

We were just like, all right, now wait, what is this again?

And then of course everybody's getting bored.

Everybody's eating chips.

Everybody's drinking beer behind you.

You're trying to figure out how to explain it to everybody.

And yeah, YouTube's a lifesaver on those things by far.

Yeah, I always think of a ticket arrived because we really

enjoy ticket ride, but we always had to read the rules, especially

set up.

I can't remember how to set this thing up.

I'm not going to remember.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a little different to me.

That's what I'm saying.

The 7 Wonders doesn't have that problem.

7 Wonders is so straightforward once you just get the basics.

It's right there.

It all makes sense.

There's nothing complicated about it.

Great game.

Great game.

Probably, like I said, one of the best I've played in the last

15 years.

It's just so well designed.

Okay, so thanks for joining us on episode 38 of the 11 Part 6

podcast. Next week we're going to be coming with episode 39,

which it looks like if we go by BBY order, we are still in 21

BBY. We are going to be watching season 3, episode 4, Spear of

Influence, and season 3, episode 8, Evil Plans.

So I have no real clue what either of those episodes are

going to entail.

The Spear of Influence sounds kind of interesting.

Do you ever read Spear of Influence?

year by Michael Crichton, one of my favorite books growing up, I thought it was really good.

Probably my favorite novel sci-fi novel certainly of all time.

Oh wow okay well that makes me have a little glow a little dance in my step John, that's great

maybe Sphere of Influence will be just as good. And we'll also review Tales of the Jedi

Episode 4, I don't remember the name of it at this moment. I feel like I remember being

something about Doku also, so we'll probably continue on that storyline, maybe all of Tales

of the Jedi is Doku's kind of back story, maybe that's what we end up being. But still,

very good series, we'll be able to watch episode 4 of that. And John thanks for joining me man,

that was an excellent beer. Oh god I'm glad you enjoyed it. And we will see you guys next week,

stay safe. This is the 11 Parsecs podcast episode 38. 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 11parsecs.com and Discord.

I'm Jonathan Smith with sincerity personified Eric Thompson. Thank you for joining us.