Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Starlight Archive. Bess Criffin High Republic podcast. This side of Brendok.
Today, we are finishing off our wave one spoiler full episode. So if you haven't read wave one and you don't want to, then this is the place for you. And if you haven't read and you haven't read wave one and you do want to, you should probably avoid this until you've actually finished it or go backwards.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Listen, read, read, listen. I don't know.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Maybe you should listen to us first and then read it with your newfound understanding of the greater area. I don't know. But we're going to be talking about a lot today. We're actually talking about the Starlight stories, which all appeared in Star Wars Insider magazine, and we're going to be talking about the Coruscant solstice story that appeared in Star Wars Life Day treasury.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: We all love some life day.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: We do love some life day and all other holiday celebrations and then Star wars holiday celebrations. And then, of course, we're gonna be finishing off our time with the first waveone comics, which appear in the first trade paperbacks of Star wars high Republic and Star wars high Republic adventures. So if you missed our last three episodes, you should probably go listen to those. But if you want us to just give you a quick rundown, then here you go. So, there was this accident that happened in hyperspace, and the hyperspace accident caused the ship to go flying out of hyperspace, but it ran in places throughout the entire galaxy called emergences. And the emergences were going toward planets, and the Jedi had to stop them from actually happening, and they were like, we don't know what happened to hyperspace. And we found out that was actually happening in hyperspace. We realized that it was because of this group of people called the Nile. And the Nile are a group of marauders that live in space, in the middle of no space, which is this kind of area that, like, is kind of impossible to get to, but isn't impossible to get to. It's kind of weird. I don't know. It's a floating platform. It's got a. It's got a.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: It's a whole thing. We'll.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: We'll get there later. So they're living out there. It turns out they were the ones that caused the disaster, and then the pieces started flying off into nowhere, and they had to find a way to stop them. So in order to. Sorry, not out of nowhere. The pieces started emerging out of hyperspace and they were flying toward a planet and had to stop them somehow. And so they use these crazy cable system, and they did so with the help of a couple named Joss and Picka Adrian. And before we go into further what's going on in the rest of that story, we should probably talk about that story. So that story is called go together. So Joss and Pega Adrian, in the first two starlight stories that appeared in Star wars and Center magazine, they're a couple. They just want to go on vacation. That's all they want.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: They've had a long time working on this huge space station, making sure everything's put together properly and the power's running properly.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Did they help build the starlight beacon?
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: That's very cool.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So, anyways, this story was written by Charles Sowell. It's split into two parts, which is kind of cool. And he noted that the first part is technically chapter zero to light of the Jedi.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: Cause it happens way before all that.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Cause that's when they end with go together.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Okay, so before light of the Jedi.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: So before everything I just said, jocelyn, Pika, Adrian are working on Starlight Beacon.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Yep. And they're all done.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: And they're all finished.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah, they're all finished.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: They're like, finally time for freaking vacation.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah. They're packed up. They're ready to go, and they're getting ready to tag along on the ship back to Coruscant with some Jedi and a couple of dignitaries. And then. And then Pica notices that there's some weird readings on her datapad.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Uh huh.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: And it's super distracting. She can't figure out what's going on, but she knows that she needs to go fix it. And Joss is like, let's just go on vacation. Somebody else take care of it. It's fine. But they both know that no one else is gonna find it in time, because they found it right now. And due to where it is, it'll pretty much shut down power to the entire station.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: She's like, this is a huge problem. We have to do it.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: And he's like, but we could just go on vacation. Somebody else can fix it. It's not technically our job anymore.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: And she's like, it's quick, easy fix. We know what it is. We probably know how to fix it. We just gotta go find it, take care of. So they. They get going, and then they run into a couple of Jedi and some other people from the senate, and they're like, hi.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: How do you do? How do you do? Hi. How you do? How do you do? How do you do?
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So basically, one of the administrators. Oh, it is there. Cool. Found it. One of the administrators that's. That's going around with Admiral Kronora as well. And the Jedi, they're like, hey, you worked on the station. We're all kind of on a tour on our way back to the ship. Why don't you just come join us for the tour? And they're like, oh, well, we gotta go pack because we don't want to let them know that, like, there's an issue that they need to go take care of.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah, we don't want to make. We don't want to cause a panic. We need to go fix this problem.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah, cool.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Play it cool, and we can go on vacation.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: And the administrator is like, no, this is your station. You're more qualified to give this tour than I am. And luckily, we have Nipah seek. So she's there with Barry Aga, who's the best. And they're noticing that, like, something's up. And especially biryaga, because he's this super empathic, super force empath guy, and he's, like, kind of nudging his master, like, hey, they need to go take care of something. And so she, luckily, she steps up. She's like, you know what? They've worked hard. Let them go get their suitcases. They are gonna come with us on the ship back to. Back to Coruscanthe. But let's just let them do their thing for now. And so they're like, oh, thank God, or, thank the force. And so they run off, and it turns out that there's a power conduit that has some faulty wiring, and it's right next to the starly beacons Jedi temple.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Because, again, we haven't really gone into it too much. Maybe that could be a future episode of what exactly is all on this starlight beacon, because it's both a partial Jedi temple and a republic outpost. A floating outpost? Yeah, a mobile outpost. So they're like, okay, we need to fix this, especially, you know, near the Jedi temple. So they go. And eventually they do fix it, because they're badasses like that. They eventually get their stuff, and they're ready for vacation, and they're on the ship back to Coruscant. When Picker writes up the incident report, like, hey, we found a wiring issue. We fixed it. It's all good. He sends it off, and they're kind of lounging around the ship where Admiral Kronara is with the rest of that crew that they found taking the tour. And then separately, Cronara comes on to the intercom systems, like, hey, oh, I.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Can read it right now if you'd like.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Okay, sure.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: She comes onto the intercom and she says, this is Admiral Kronara. We have received a distress signal from the Hetzel system regarding a system wide mass casualty event.
We are close enough to divert to offer assistance. Any passengers with piloting rescue or emergency medical experience willing to aid in the relief effort please make yourself known to a crew member. And then it falls silent. And Pika felt the third horizon drop from hyperspace and she had no idea what a system wide mass casualty event could be. But whatever it was, the important thing was that it was system wide. And that means billions of lives. And there's no other way to interpret it. And Joss is like, we gotta go.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: We gotta go. Yeah.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: And she's like, I know, I can't argue this then. So picket didn't even try to dissuade him. They could both fly a ship and they had all sorts of training that could be useful in a crisis. So she just looks at him and she nods and she says, I love you. Let's go.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah, time to go to work.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Time to go to work again.
And then they do. Yeah, yeah. And then that's when we get go together, part two.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So smash cut through the rest of light of the Jedi.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: So, yeah, all the things are happening. Big explosion, things flying out of space. We're trying to stop things from flying into, you know, suns and stuff. All the things that happened in the first episode of our spoilery thing. You could go back and listen to that if you'd like, or just listen to the fast version. And then they start going, hey, this is way bigger than. Just the few Jedi in the area can handle it. We need to do way bigger things. So start calling everybody who can possibly come and help. This is even before they fully shut down hyperspace. Because we're still dealing with, like, initial emergences. Yeah, because they were in hyperspace before they decided to fall out of it to go divert.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. After most of the Book of Light of the Jedi, we're getting to battle of Kerr, where.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Oh, is that. This happens?
[00:08:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Part two is after the battle of Kerr.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Oh, well, then let me get to the battle of Kerr and the other one. Okay, gotcha. Caught up. Sorry. So emergencies are happening, and then they're saying, okay, we have gotta help. So Joshua pick Adrian. They go and they do their helping thing, and, like, actually, in the book, in light of the Jedi, and they're saving people, and Buriyaga stops a giant entire cargo section that's full of people from being just blasted out of space because that was the initial plan of just, like, just blow the things up as they're flying towards the planets, and then they won't make sense. Hit the planets, except Burialga's like, we're gonna have to stop one of these things because one of these things is full of people, and except he says it, and it's like, you know, or whatever. And so they stop all the things, and they shut down hyperspace, and they're like, well, we got to deal with that. And so then into the dark happens before the battle of Kerr, for the most part.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: And so that's when you get wreath Silas and wreath Silas and Dez Rydan and Komach Vitus and Orla Gereni, who we love, they're all going to go to the starlight beacon dedication ceremony and everything. This is all meanwhile, and then suddenly they get pulled out of hyperspace because they're like, hey, we got to shut down hyperspace. Something is wrong with hyperspace, and we don't know what. And so they're doing their thing. They're hanging out with a bunch of people stuck on this space station called the Amaxine station, also known as the timeshare of one Philip J. Snoke. And, and on the Maxine station, there's a ton of plants, and there's a couple of mysterious statues, and so they hang out until everything's all good and ready to go, and they're just like, we just gotta keep the peace on this station between these people who clearly don't like each other. And wreath is getting hit on by Lydia, and she's like, hey, wreath, you're really cute, and she has a really annoying voice. More on that later. And then while this is all happening, there's also an attack on a ship with an ambassador and things like that going on, and Vernestra and Avon Starros and Imri Cantaros and a guy named Douglas and another guy named Honesty weft and a really, really cool droid named J Six, all crash onto a planet, and they're stuck over there. And then in the comics, doesn't that happen during.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Yes, but half the adults die, so they don't crash on the planet.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Oh, right, they, but they don't, they crash their ship. They can't fly it out.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: The kids do.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Not the adults.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Oh. Oh, they crashed too. They just don't. They didn't crash.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: They just blew up.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Okay, so they crashed, but in pieces. They blew up first, then crashed. Anyway, Douglas is dead, the ambassador's dead. But honesty and the kids, they're all still alive. At some point in the middle of that, all that loading, great. Storm gets taken, and Belle is without a master, and we don't know what's going on with Belle. So that is all happening. That was all last episode. Then, in light of the Jedi, happening at the exact same time, because light of the Jedi happens basically over the entirety of wave one, except for this comic section that we'll get to later. Meanwhile, the vessel and Orla and Comak and wreath all go back to the amaxian station. And they're like, we gotta go to Coruscant first, because they went to Coruscant. And while they were at Coruscant, the council was like, there's this. There's this problem on called the Nile, and that's what's causing all the issues. And so they're like, yeah. Oh, interesting, interesting. We met a couple of people who definitely fit that description. And what do their ships look like? Like a bunch of scrap all piled together worse than the millennium Falcon.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Ooh, I think I've seen one of those. And they were like, yeah, but I don't think so.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Yeah, wreath, you don't know what you're talking about. And you know who says it the most? Terry Rosacen. Cause she's a jerk. Anyway, so Reeth's like, listen, we gotta go back to the Maxine station. One, because Nandez definitely doesn't actually talk like that she's a Nile. And two, because these statues that Orla went to go fix up don't have any dark side energy in them, which means they weren't steeped in the dark side. They were holding back the dark side.
We gotta go figure that out. So they go back to the Maxine station, and lo and behold, there's a bunch of plants all saying meet. And the plants are alive, and the Nile are trying to deal with them, and everyone is in chaos, and the Nile are trying to deal with that. They put the statues, they set them all up, and they're like, cool. Drangier. Gonna fall asleep this way. That'll. That'll hopefully work. And then Reath goes down to where Dez Raiden got Scooby Doo'd through a door and then jettisoned into space. And it turns out that he also got Scooby dude and jettison into space. And so he is on a hyperspace escape pod, and he lands on a planet, and desride ends there. And he's like, reith, I'm a bad guy now because I'm poisoned and miserable. And he starts getting all angry and fighting him. And he's like, dez, it's not you remember, we both loved Joramali, our previous master, who's really, really cool. Remember her? She was in light of the Jedi. And he was like, I read that book. That was good stuff.
You're right. Light sided is. And then he drags him off. They fight some drangre. The drangrer keeps splitting apart because they do that whole, like, hydra thing, and they get on the hyperspace escape pod and fly back to the Maxine station. They get there, and Nan's like, what up, Reith? Why are you being such a jerk? And he's like, aha. You don't talk like that. And then she, like, tells him, wreath, if I meet you again, you're gonna die. But for now, because you were nice and we got along for a bit, I'm not gonna kill you. And so then they go off their separate ways. Reeth and afy hollow get together, and she's like, my foster mom is super bad. And it turns out this was a waystation for a bunch of indentured servants to make their time of servitude shortened by just doing dangerous hyperspace routes, which were not properly charted and are actually super bad. So we gotta go shut them down. So they go and they shut them down, and she winds up getting her foster mom, uh, arrested. And the bind guild gets shut down, which means the vessel gets to be on their own. Hooray. That's great. And then Reeth gets back from, uh, back to Coruscant with Dez. And Dez is like, I gotta take the barash vow because I'm really messed up. Yeah, those drangir really screwed with my head and have been torturing me throughout the entirety of the book ever since I got Scooby, dude.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: And I can't totally feel the force. And I don't know why, but I feel sort of it, but not really.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: And wreath even says like, hey, why are you taking the barrage vow? Like, you didn't screw up? And he's like, no, but I, like, can't feel the force, like something's wrong. So he's off doing his own exile thing. So Dez can't be that and then Reeth has to find a new master because Joramali super died.
Oh, spoilers. Joramali will die in the battle of Kerr, which we'll say in just a second. And then battle. And so then that leads us into the battle of Kerr. There is this thing called the Battle of Kerr. And effectively, we figured out that the nihil are at the root of this problem. And we're like, cool, we're gonna face off with the nihil. And so they send in a really mean, Douchey Nile. What's his name?
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Kasav.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: Kasav, that's right. So they send in Kasav, and he's a tempest runner, who's a tempest runner. And tempest runners are the highest ranking members of the Nile at that time before the eye kind of usurps that role. But there are three of them, and underneath them are clouds, and underneath them are strikes, and they all are part of what is called a tempest. There are three tempests, and they are all part of the storm. And Kasive goes in, and Pan Ada and Lorna Dee, who are also tempest runners, do not go in because they're like, you know what? We're just gonna, we're just gonna sit back and watch what happens. So midway through the battle occur, nihil Marchion row, who is the eye of the storm, and kind of gives everyone their paths is like, hey, plug these coordinates into your path engines and start fighting dirty. And then you're gonna take the tide and turn it towards yourself.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Trust me, it'll work.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: It'll work for sure, Z. And so they start putting in all their data, and suddenly they are hyperspace jumping into ships and kind of hold on maneuvering, but like, almost worse and way more chaotic. And they're all doing it at random moments because, which also freaks the Nile.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Out because Marcheon set them up.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And Kasiv definitely is like, do not put those coordinates into our ship. We cannot trust Markeon. And Marcheon is gives them all their markion gives them all their coordinates, and then, and then also tells them, like, you're Nile, fight dirty. So they start releasing radiation that, like, is leaking into systems and all manner of just absolutely dirty tactics. And the Jedi kind of know how to handle it because they at least are all kind of on that same wavelength because of the battle meditation. But the rest of the normal folk, who aren't force sensitive, start just getting their butts handed to them.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Deal with this randomness.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: No, they have no idea how to deal with this chaos. But that is what the Nile are. They're chaos. They're chaos incarnate. So the pilots are all, like, dying left and right, and it's going really, really bad. But the vectors are somewhat still alive. But one pair. One. Is it one ship or two ships? I think it's one ship. They're in a ship together, but one particular couple of people are making it. And that's Jocelyn Pica Adrian.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Yes, it is.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: And Jocelyn Picca Adrian are basically, they hack their system. They. They do a little fancy schmancy work to get their ship to be able to handle what's going on, and then they survive and start taking people out. Meanwhile, Kassif's like, well, I guess I'm just gonna surrender to whoever shows up on the ship. And he's like, hey, I surrender. And I have information about the nile. And the guy who takes him out is related to the planet that Kassav sort of held hostage and then accidentally didn't save when they paid him. And so he's like, yeah, fat chance, buddy.
And he's dead. Little pew pew. And Kossaf's gone.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: Which means one less thing to worry about for Marquion row. One last thing to worry about. It's a Hamilton reference. Anyway, so anyway, while that's all happening, Jocelyn, pick, Adrian, show up, and what happens? Brian, go.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: They are some of the only non Jedi that are able to figure out, or at least fight back against the Nihil as they're doing all this stuff and.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Right, because everybody who's not a Jedi is basically just being slaughtered.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And Avar Chris is using her cool battle meditation to kind of link all the Jedi together so they're better organized and they can help each other. Help each other out. Yeah, good stuff.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: It doesn't work for everybody, though, because Skere loses an arm, skir loses an arm, and people die, and Jorah Molly dies.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: So it's not saving all the Jedi, but there's these two civilians who have managed to figure out how to deal with it.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Yeah, they help out, battle ends.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Okay, so they help out. They figure out how to avoid all the things that the.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Yeah. But then also they know how to kind of flip it around and just attack the Nile.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: As the Doonle.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: So they're not just surviving. They're actually, like, a major part of this battle. Making it work.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Yeah, almost a turning point.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So battle crew finishes. There's a heavy losses on both sides, but it kind of seems like the Republic and the Jedi won.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And Kassav is dead, and they don't understand how big the Nihil are, so they're like, ha ha ha. This was a huge blow. Meanwhile, over in a test of courage, which is the book about Virtnestro and honesty, weft and Avon Staros and Imri Kantaros and J six, they're all stuck on a planet, and the planet has acid rain, and it's rough. And then they meet some niall who are responsible for the whole ship blowing up. And so they're really like, they're like, we gotta deal with it. And Imri's like, I'm gonna take these guys out. We're gonna murder them. And he's like, honestly?
[00:19:55] Speaker B: He's like, yeah, yeah, we totally should. They killed our father figures. And Imri's like, yeah, they did.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: And so Imri goes kind of dark side for a hot second. And Vernaeus Dero, who is actually the one of the youngest knights in generations, is like, hey, Emery, knock it off. And he's like, no, I'm a bad guy now. I murder people. And she's like, you've murdered no one. Shut the heck up. Because they got caught the first time he attempted to do the murder. He just gets caught and tied up. Yeah, like, it does not go well. Yeah, so she's a long time. She's like, first of all, you're not even good enough to murder. Second of all, you're not a bad guy. You're just mad. It's okay to be upset.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: You're upset. It's cool.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: It's okay to be upset.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: Understandable.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: And he's like, it's not okay to be upset, jed. I don't get upset. And she's like, they also don't murder people. But you're into that, so can you not.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: Can you not.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Can you. Nothing.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Well, they eventually fight, and then.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: Oh, they do fight.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Vernestra breaks his lightsaber. Cause she's like, no, no, no. We're done with this.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And then Keeve and Sskeer have just gone and done their Keeve's Jedi trials, which she screwed up because she didn't trials. Cause she didn't get all the way up to the top of the aggro crag, which is not what it's actually called. That's just a reference to Nickelodeon's global guts. So they get to the top of it. She doesn't get to the top of the aggro crag because pixie comes in and is like, hey, there's some giant bugs. And they're gonna take all of our village. And she's like, well, I better save the village from the bugs. And so she calls up to Stalimaru. Astalamaru. Good. That's what I thought it wastalamaru. And she's like, you gotta change the beacon. Cause it's, like sending a signal, and these bugs are migrating weird because of it. He's like, whoopsies. And then he changes it, and then everything's set up. Cool. And the battle of cur has happened. Let's have our dedication ceremony finally. And in case you were wondering, Kai, brightstar, and nubs and Yoda and what is that girl's name?
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Liz.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: And Liz are also at the dedication ceremony. They've gone and done all their fun times. And if you want to watch that, that's the young Jedi adventures. We just threw that in there.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: Yep. Anyway, but aside, it was just renewed for season two, and it airs in August.
I don't know where it's gonna go, because we know where the rest of the story goes, and it's all there.
It'll be fun.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: It'll be fun.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: Kids show.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Kids show. Yay. So then they have a starlight dedication ceremony.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: And the starlight beacon is dedicated, and everybody parties, everybody drinks, and that's when time go together two. Part two happens.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: Yes. And so that's kind of when this next story, part two of go together, comes in. So after the battle occur, the Adrians return to Starlight Beacon, and they're like, no, they can't get away.
[00:22:34] Speaker A: They have to go back to work.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Sorry, you gotta go hang out at the office for a little while longer, basically.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: And so they get called in for debriefing, and they're like, we've done a debriefing. We've done multiple debriefings. Like, what more did they want? They have all this computer data from the fight. They have all the Jedi. Why do they want to talk to us in trouble or what's going on? So this council was Chancellor Lena, so Avar, Chris Cronara, a senator, and a couple other government officials, and they're like, I guess we'll go to this meeting. I don't know why, but they're also exhausted and maybe slightly hungover because they're partying because of the dedication ceremony. Oh, this is, like, the day after, basically.
So they're exhausted. They're probably slightly hungover, and they're like, I don't know what else we could tell you. Cronara. Brings up this hologram, and it kind of shows what was going on. Walden I hill were attacking and what they were doing, and it kind of caught them off guard because they're like, we don't want to relive this. This was, like, pretty traumatic, but. Okay, well, kind of. We'll just go with it for now. So they're like, look at you guys. You're you're clearly doing something that's keeping you safe, but also, like, you're attacking and you're you're doing damage. What did you guys do? How did you guys do it? And of course, they were like, uh, uh, we we totally. We totally use the force, because, like.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: Maybe we use the force. You don't know.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And then they were like, yeah, everything has the force. You did not use the force. Like, come on.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: So, basically, they were like, hey. Like, we were engineers. We're pilots. We know how ships work. We know how these systems work. We kind of hacked the military systems.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: And we made illegal modifications and hot rotted out our cars.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Literally. That's what they did. Like, mid flight, they're like, well, we can get around these safeguards and these firewalls that'll let the engines do something different, and then we could pair these other things together. Basically, they broke a bunch of laws in boats.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: They broke protocol a lot.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: Yeah. But it was kind of cool the way they were explaining it, because Picca knew that Joss is a great pilot and knew her way around systems. So it was a joint effort between the both of them, and they were able to basically just use their skills together like a wonderful married couple does. And just that that's how they held their own.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: And so, couple goals, for sure. Relationship goals, for sure.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And so they were dismissed. They're like that. I guess that makes sense. We're kind of miffed that you broke protocol and you, like, messed with our ships, but okay, that clears things up.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: I mean, how miffed can you possibly be? Like, right. I feel like if they're miffed at all, it's. It's them being.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: How did they.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Crap. They outsmarted us. And if we didn't have those protocols in place, like, we could have done better. Maybe we could have done better, you know? Yeah. It's a. Yeah.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So, eventually, they go back to their rooms, they get some food, and they kind of calm down after this surprise meeting.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Greasy food, for sure.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Definitely greasy food.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: A couple burritos.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Definitely a breakfast burrito.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: A Toronto breakfast burrito.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Okay, now I'm hungry.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: And then eventually, Admiral Kronora comes and visits them, and she's like, hey, you know, we're putting together a task force to hunt down any remaining nile and, you know, get more information because we know that we didn't defeat them all, but we also don't know. We don't know anything. So we need people who's dealt with them and that can fight them if we do find them. And she offered them the job due to their skills and all that kind of stuff. And they were like, well. And pickle's like, well, I don't think so. Like, we just planned a two week vacation. We're exhausted. This has been a thing. I'd rather not.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: We just want to go on vacation. Yeah, like, just let us go have a break.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And so Kronor was like, fine, we'll see you in two weeks. So, basically, kind of a compromise. Like, we're not saying. We're not taking no for an answer, but go have your vacation.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: I mean, it's not even. Oops.
It's not even like, it's not even like a, oh, but we really want a vacation. Like, Picus straight up says, no. Yeah, no. My husband and I had a vacation plan for when we finished our work building this station, and then we got caught up in all this Nighhill business, and it's been nonstop ever since. We deserve a break. And then she folds her arms and looks her, and, like, you're looking down, Admiral Kranara. Like, you're like, absolutely not. I don't work for you. I'm not military.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: You're not my mom.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: But also, like, she's absolutely right.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Like, no, you can't just deputize us.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: Right?
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Like, we don't have to accept that right now. And then she said, so we want our two weeks on Amfar sun, Sandhya, no fighting.
But after that, I think we can do what you're asking. And Joss goes, we can.
And she goes, don't you think? And then he goes, yeah, I guess. I guess I do.
And then Admiral Canara says, we'll see you in two weeks. Yeah.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: But, like, I feel like you were underselling just how badass Pica is. She's just like, absolutely not.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Like, I am not doing this right now. Let me go hang out at the beach. Which is.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: I'm excited for this couple moving forward because they do show up in and around some of the books and some of the other short stories.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: They don't show up, like, at all in wave two, which was a bit of a bummer, because when they showed up in wave three, I was like, I don't know who these people are. They seem familiar, and when I finally realized it, I was like, oh, yeah, these guys. I love these guys. They're so smart. So, okay. So over in high Republic adventures on a much slower, less last time, or that's what you missed on glee form, the dedication ceremony has happened. Lula, Talisola, and Zine are now, like, meditating together, and zine has been invited to stay on the temple portion of starlight beacon, and they're gonna live there now. So Lula, Talisola, and Zine and Farzala and court, they all live. They all live on the station. And Avar has now been made the marshal of starlight beacon, so she now lives on the station. Estalimaru is there, and the Nile threat, whether it's that big of a threat or not, is being handled by the council's taking care of it. And Yoda has been like, hey, you're gonna have to take over. And Joramali's seat on the council has now been taken by Stellan. And Stellan, Geos is now a council member, which is perfect for him because he's kind of.
Kind of a bit of a rule follower to a fault. He can be a little mace windowy in that regard, but Lula and Zine are now palling around together, and buckets is there, and they're basically just kind of living life. But what they're waiting for is for Chrix to get back to zine, because Chrix was given that communicator by Yoda in the last episode. We talked about this a little bit of Yoda gave him a communicator and was like, hey, take this and get the heck out of here. And so Chrix, because he refused to be saved, just went up and is now with the Nile. And Yoda was kind of scheming a little bit by giving him a communicator. He also was giving him a tracking device. And so Chrix is watching and re watching this video message, this holo message of zine being like, look, I know I lied to you, but, like, look how y'all reacted. You know, we've been taught our whole lives that the force is bad, but, like, all these Jedi are super cool. So I don't know. I'm sorry, but, like, whatever. And Chrix is like, look, you ditch the Jedi, and, like, I'll come get you, and we'll get out of here, and we won't have to deal with Niall. We'll just run away together, you know, and we'll be on our own. It's very much that. Like, forget the Jedi, forget the sith. Let's just be friends now. That was my impression of Kylo Ren in the last.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: He's still mad that she lied to him. They're supposed to be effective.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Yes. He's still mad, but he's also like, look, just ditch him. And Zine's like, um, this is the only group of people who has ever known who I am and loved me anyway and not made me hide who I am, kind of dealing with a found family situation. And you're still mad at me for, like, not telling you a thing that you got mad when you found out about. Yeah.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: And the cool thing about the Jedi taking her in is they're not going to train her as a Jedi, but they're, they're gonna let her. Like, they're gonna show her meditation stuff and just some basic low level force things, because they do. They do see her force sensitivity, and she is pretty strong.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: But again, she's too old to be a Jedi. So they're like, just come meditate with us. We'll show you a few things here and there, but, you know, we're gonna.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: Teach you how to control it, but we're not gonna teach you how to become, like, a stoic warrior Jedi, because you have attachments, which means that strengthening your bond with the Force, it's not the same thing as having you understand your connection to the Force, you know.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: But we're still gonna keep you around because, you know, Chrix, and Chrix is all up in the Nile, so.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And she kind of feels that way, too. Like, I'm here because I am a strategic element.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, and she wants to do her part to help as well, because she's seen what the Nile do firsthand.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So meanwhile, while that's all happening, Chrix is on the ship, and he and Tromac, who is from the elders of the path, and he's a gran, which means he's that species with three eyeballs on stocks that have a sort of cow like mouth, and they're kind of just doing their best to survive among these marauders, but he's kind of guiding Chrix, saying, look, I know things that the Nile really can't know. I have information that they are not supposed to have. So we got, like, it's been with me for this long, for the longest time, and Chrix is like, what is it? And he's like, I don't want to tell anybody. And Chrix is like, right, but this is knowledge from our religion. Cult.
This is knowledge from our religion. If something happens to you, who else knows? And he's like, you're right, okay, there's this thing on this specific planet that the Nile can't know is there?
Chrix is like, cool. I will keep this information secret. Thank you, Master Tro Mac, for trusting me. And then he messages zine back, and now the Jedi have tracking, you know, beacon. And they're like, cool. We know where the Nile are. So they find the communicator, and they're like, all right, Tromac. All right, Chrix. One of you guys had a communicator. And Chrix is like, he did. I saw him talking on it at night. And Tromack's like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Chrix, what are you doing? And he's. And Mark Young's like, cool, Tro Mac, because it's your communicator. We're gonna feed you to the boggaranth. And Tro Mac manages to ride the boggy ranth somehow, and they escape on the bogguranths. So Tromac has gotten away, and then Markianra's like, hey, I know that that communicator was yours. I'm not stupid. But respect for selling out the old guy. Do you happen to know the information he knows? And he's like, oh, yeah, I know the information he knows. And he's like, cool. You are gonna be in Nihil then. But the problem is, is that communicator you had also had a tracking device, which means the Jedi know we're here. You're gonna keep on talking to them and pretending like you don't know so that the Jedi can find us. Meanwhile, the Jedi are like, hey, Zine, you're gonna have to keep on talking to him so that we can find them. And they're like, cool. So since we know there's a tracking device on this thing, we are going to spring a trap on them.
So they go. They go to this trash planet. There's all these bird things there. And Zine goes off on her own because she's like, chrix is my problem. I'm gonna take care of it. So she steals a vector, which are still really hard to fly anyway, especially for a kid who doesn't know. And lo and behold, she winds up crashing it. She crashes it because Chrix shoots her down, and he gets to her, and he's like, what the heck? It was you. And she's like, you shot me down. And they have their kind of moment or whatever, fighting each other. There's a big old fight, and they wind up spotting that Yoda's in the crowd. Tro Mac has managed to survive with the boggy rant, finds Yoda and is like, hey, I know who you are. I remember you from before, like, back, you know, like 150 years ago. 150 years ago or so, approximately, give or take. And Yoda's like, oh, yeah, no, okay, that makes sense. And he's like, cool, I need to show you something. We have to go now. And so Yoda's like, hey, I'm peacein out. Don't follow me. Cause he tells him, you can't bring, like, it's you. You're the only one I trust. And so Tromac and Yoda duck out and leave, and then buckets and Kantam psi are like, welp, yoda peaced out. I assume he knows what he's doing. And then the Nile are like, we got what we needed from this place, so we're gonna peace out. And then they leave, and at the very end of all that zine is basically like, okay, cool. I will live on the starlight beacon officially. Like, I'm not going anywhere. And they're like, good, because we like you. And you're gonna. You're gonna start hanging out in Palin route with us, like, more than you were already. Like, this isn't a temporary thing. Like, you live here now. We're family.
Family.
And then while that's happening, Chrix and Markeon are going to this Rando planet, and Yoda and Tromach are also trying to get to that planet, but Markeon and Chrix got there first, and they set up mines, and one of the mines winds up taking out Yoda and Tromac ship. They crash land, and nobody knows where Yoda went, so Yoda can't even call for help. So Yoda's stranded on a planet somewhere, and that's the last we're gonna see Yoda for pretty much the rest of phase one. Yeah.
[00:36:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: And then Chrix and Markeon get to what they're looking for, and they don't reveal what it was, but it's very important. And they managed to get to it before Yoda could because Yoda crashed. So here we are.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:36] Speaker A: So that's what you missed in high Republic adventures. That's the end of wave one for high Republic adventures. Then we jump back to starlight stories with our introduction to Velko Jahen and the mon calamari named Chief Tarpfin. Velko is a soyiken, which means she's got, like, really cool, like, silvery blue skin, and they're both security on the starlight beacon. And I thought this was so cool, for the record.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Like this. Those stories were so neat because they were kind of self contained, but also really spoke to the mindset of what was going on on the station as well as what was going on in the galaxy regarding things like, niall, regarding the Jedi, like what public opinion was. You kind of all get it through these security guys, because anytime there's a problem, anytime there's an argument, anytime there's a fight, anytime a random drangir decides to start sprouting up on the starlight beacon, Tarpfin and or Velko will wind up being there to deal with it.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: Which is a really. It's a really cool outsider perspective that I thought was genius on the part of the project luminous people. But this particular story is basically all about her very first time there. So the first story is basically her having to deal with a scuffle between a couple of dignitary types. But Estala Maru does show up, and that's pretty cool because you're also. It also talks about how this entire section is, like, because of how many people were displaced by the great disaster. You're seeing a lot of people who aren't supposed to be in contact with each other, still trying to, like, make territorial claims, and you're not supposed to be in our area. And Estala Maru points out of. Yeah, well, the great disaster didn't really pay attention to political boundaries, so. Yeah, sorry.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: Love a star.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah. But he's like, this is. This isn't something, you know, look, the station has to keep running because while Avar Chris may be the marshal of Starlight Beacon, the one running the show, the man in the chair, so to speak, he's floating in space. He's floating in the air, is Estala Maru, which is really cool, but Velko deals with the issue, et cetera, et cetera. Then in the next issue, which is also, this is a Kevin Scott story, for the record, the next issue is an assassination attempt that Velko has to resolve.
And there's all these people. Oh, this is with the robots. Yeah. And somebody gets almost killed, and they manage to survive. There's, like, an explosion on the thing, and she's going around, and Velko being the smart detective that she is realizes that something's not quite right here. And so she starts looking into it a little bit further. And because she's, again, an outsider, she has to remain impartial, which is really neat, too, because everybody kind of has, you start to see who has what predispositions toward blame and tensions between various people from various planets. And she realizes that the person who was almost assassinated was not almost assassinated, but faked their assassination. Velko and Tarpon both show up in the main storylines as well. They do wind up becoming kind of a bigger part of that.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Even in phase one. So it's really cool to kind of get their introduction, even though they don't play a huge part. They do play somewhat, and they do have a really good understanding. They're good at their jobs, which means if things start, if people start to notice how good they are at their jobs, that might become somewhat of an issue. But she kind of has, I wouldn't say it was a friendly relationship with Tarpfen.
[00:40:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: But she has a genuine respect from her and for her, which is really cool. And Tarpfen has some really cool history that comes up later regarding her relation, why she's so good at what she does and why she's not working directly for the mon calamari, which is very cool. So more on that later. So at the very end of the whole thing, after she spoiled the plot and we realized that the person was not being assassinated, but they were, in fact, just doing it to cause issue and saying that they were a victim when they really weren't because they were trying to. They had nefarious other plans. We go to the high Republic, issue number two, and this is kind of the rest of wave one happens during the comic the high Republic.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Definitely.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: So you got Serek and Tarek, whose names are a palindrome, and they are twins who basically share the same mind.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: And because they are never separated and because they are effectively two people as one, they are always referred to as they because they are part of each other, which is kind of cool. And then Skier and Keevite, who is now a Jedi knight who has been knighted by Avar Kris herself.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: So high Republic issue number two starts with Ceret and Taric and Keith, Trennis and Skier, all on a trip to go answer a distress call in Republic space where they are allowed to do so. It's not like they're out on the frontier or anything, mind you. I will remind you that Republic space is not the same as you might know it already, because the Republic is still in a time of expansion at this time. Yeah.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: They're a little smaller than, say, during, you know, Skywalker saga wars.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So we're not maybe reaching all the way out to, like, naboo, but they.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Are in the Republic, but it's still. That's one of the few planets that far out that is in the Republic at this time.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So they're on their way. And Cerrit and Taric are twins that are connected through the force. They're not like the dyad in the force situation. It might be related to their species. It's not entirely known as Ptolemy.
[00:42:23] Speaker B: A little bit of. Of column b, where they're kotabi bond twins, but also because they're so strong in the force, it just strengthens that bond. Anyways.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: So if one is happening to one, one's happening to other. So they're basically acting. They act kind of as a radio between each other in some ways because of how strong their connection is, which is really cool. Skere is, you know, currently sans his arm because he lost it in the battle of Kerr. And they get onto the ship, and. And there's wee Kuei and Gamorreans and all of these people strewn about. And in the middle, there is one big dead hut.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: And it is a two page spread, and it is beautiful. And Indido really just his artwork's great. Incredible. So they get there. They're pretty horrified. The droids are messed up.
[00:43:11] Speaker B: They notice that there's also this kind of poison gas that's around.
[00:43:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: And they realize, oh, this is what the nihil use.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Yeah, they're pretty upset.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Yeah. It's like, this is probably a nihil attack.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: The corpse shows the first signs of nagnal poisoning, which is the same gas that disrupts ship sensors. And it happens to be fatal to hutts in large doses. It's part of the, the whole smokescreen fog of war that the Nile use. And the hutts were transporting some sort of grain. They had some sort of grain, some sort of. They were doing some sort of trade with grain, which is really interesting because in the republic, there happens to be a planet that is almost exclusively dealing in grain, and that grain is refined and used to make bacta.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.
[00:43:59] Speaker A: And the Nile, who are currently using one Mari Santeka, to navigate and do all these path engine calculations, need to keep her alive, and are doing so by having her basically constantly in a tube of bacta, entirely in a back to tank.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: So, like Boba Fett.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: Kind of like Boba Fett is every day. Yeah. At the end of the day, while he's still healing up after his time with the Tusken raiders. And Bacta, again, is new in the republic, so they're dealing in what is like, it's clear that the Hutts were probably smuggling this, which is during a time when excessive bacta is needed for all the injuries and things that have happened because of the great emergences. The Hutts aren't necessarily on the up and up in this case, either, but the Nile have clearly taken it. Skere keeps on making these references to the Nile being, like, wolves and, like, animals, and it's like, hey, like, we don't call them that. And Avar gets on his case quite a bit for doing that, for, like, referring to them as animals and hunting like, dogs, that kind of thing. And then one comes out and bef. And tries to attack. And Skier, who is upset at seeing all this carnage and already has his own beef with a Nile, given his missing arm, straight up, just chops this Nile in half.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: Yeah, but then he keeps chopping.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, he does. You're right. He's just mutilating that body. So he's screaming at him, and he's. And he's chopping him up. And keeves, like, there was no way to disarm. And he's like, oh, really? We're gonna just use that word, disarm? No. Skier actually is like, disarm the coward. And they're all kind of like, yeah, that'd be. That would probably have been a good idea, but I. I guess. If you say so. So we're doing some detective work.
I like that. I don't like when people refer to the Jedi as cops because I don't really feel like they are cops, but I do feel that they are detectives.
[00:45:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: Like, they're not out here, like, policing in the same way that they are, like, solving crimes for the most part. Maybe they become a little bit more policey as time goes on, but at least at this time, this is much more detective work. We're trying to figure out how these people were murdered, how this hut was murdered, and they know that Cedri Minor is where the ship came from. So they're like, cool, let's go see what they were doing.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: So Avar sends Skere and Sera to Sedri Minor, while the other Jedi wait on the ship for Avar herself and Verne to come and help recover the ship.
[00:46:30] Speaker A: Vernae. Okay, so they get to the ship, and they leave one of the twins. Yes, Taric.
[00:46:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: So Taric stays on the ship. Cerrit goes down to the planet with skier, and while they're walking through the grain, a vine comes out and snatches Cerrit away.
And that's basically issue two, which this is all of the, you know, this is all that's left in this first wave. But as it happens, Taric is losing his mind on the other ship, and they've made it back to their other ship, and they're gonna come down and meet them also on Sedri Minor. So they go their way to Sedgy minor, and they get there, and while they're looking for Skere and Cerrit, Taric is losing his mind, and he starts saying really creepy stuff about how they've already lost. It must feed. It must be fed. It must be nourished.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: The darkness grows.
[00:47:21] Speaker A: The darkness grows. And he's. Because he's got. Because they've got this connection to each other.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: And Avar's like, yo, you gotta calm down. Everything's fine.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: And then keev starts walking around, and she starts talking to people, and the locals are like, our kids keep going missing. We've been missing. We're missing kids. We're missing teenagers. Like, people are going missing. And there's this sketchy other guy who's like, I speak for the community. I'm basically the mayor.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Yeah. He's like, we don't want any other government around. We don't want the republic pushing us around. We don't want the Hutt's pushing us around. We're our own thing.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: Yeah. So a youngling comes over to Keev and is like, listen, I know where the kids are going missing. Like, I'll help you out. And the adults are like, we gotta listen to the big guy. So we'll just listen to the big guy. And the kid, of course, is like, nah, we got this. And so Keeve. So the kid jumps into the hole. Kiev stops him from falling to his death, and she's like, why would you do that? And he's like, you're a Jedi, right? She's like, okay, kid. So they go into the cave while Taric is, like, comatose. So Imri and Vern start doing an autopsy with Astalamaru on the big dead hut. And while that's going on, they wind up finding Cerrit. And Cerrit, as well as a couple of other people, have all been captured and have vines going into their noses and ears and eyeball holes. They are all infected with Drangir. And the Drangir are speaking through them because they have a connection to the force, because they're super evil, dark force using plants. They're all saying that, you know, you're not safe, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:48:52] Speaker B: But it's cool. Cause this is our first visual appearance of the Drangier.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it is.
[00:48:56] Speaker B: Besides any covers that came out for.
[00:48:58] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a couple of variant covers that showed up, but it's.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the comic book. Issue number three.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: Issue number three. They do appear on a variant of issue. It says number one variant.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Issue number one.
[00:49:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. No, they label them. Okay, there's number two variant. There's the number one variant with the two.
Niall.
Yeah, it is. Oh, they got the statues. The stormbreakers variant. Sick. Okay, cool. Sorry.
[00:49:28] Speaker B: A lot more variants I need to collect.
[00:49:31] Speaker A: So the. The drangier are officially, like, in the comic, not just variants, but they're actually showing up in the actual comics. And while that's happening, taric on the ship is back with skier. Skier is trying to check up on him, and they're still connected. And they launch a swarm of some sort of nasty dark cloud.
[00:49:54] Speaker B: Yeah, they almost like spores.
[00:49:56] Speaker A: They look like spores.
[00:49:57] Speaker B: Which makes sense for the drangier.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: Did you ever see the green mile after John Coffey takes the disease and then, like, spits it out? It looks a lot like that, pretty much. And it gets all up in skier's face. And then Taric says, poor Jedi. So lost and alone.
Come with us, Skier. And then the drenggear are fighting with Kiev and Avar, and she's freeing all the kids. And Cerrit is taking the little boy that led Kyiv there in the first place. Everything. It's chaos. It's all chaos. And then Avar convinces Cerrit to let the kid go and is like, come back to the light. Sarah's like, I can't. Like, they're too strong.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: You're glossing over something very big.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: What? What big?
[00:50:39] Speaker B: Avar came crashing down and cut the drangier in half.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: That's fair. Avar comes crashing through the ceiling and rides that peter pan on the sails style all the way down through the drangier's body.
[00:50:52] Speaker B: Such a cool.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: And chops it entirely in half. And then now there's two, because hydrologic. And so it grows extra parts. And now we have two giant drangier monsters. And walking up between them is one. Philip J. Skier is one is skier. And Skier says, the harvests will be bountiful. The harvest will be pure.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: So he's out of control.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: So he's now being controlled. And then that takes us into the song of the Drangir, issue number four.
[00:51:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, I have that one.
[00:51:28] Speaker A: Nice. Oh, you have the statues. The stormbreaker variant.
[00:51:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Got that at Wondercon. That's why I didn't totally recognize it, because it's new.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: So it opens up. So issue number four opens up with a flashback to Kyiv, and they are at Kirama, which is where the Jedi go to throw their padawans off cliffs. And this planet actually comes up more than once. Yeah. Where they're like, okay, you're gonna jump from here to here. But this is how you learn how to force jump and don't fall down. And if they do, they catch them. And they're like, yep. You gotta trust that. Like, you're gonna make it. And then Kyiv runs, and then she jumps, and she doesn't make it. And Skere comes back and is like, all right, let's try it again. And she's like, I'm really sorry. I tried. And he's like, don't. Sorry. Don't say sorry. Don't apologize. There's no shortcuts on light's path. We strive, we repeat, we succeed.
So smash cut back to what's going on in the cave, and they're all captured. Now, Taric's still on the ship, but Cerrit and the little boy and Avar and Kyiv, they're all upside down, cocoon status, and Skere is looking at him. And then we start communicating with the Drangir. And the drangir say, through Skere, the drangir must feed, marshal. We must feed a. And she's like, oh, yeah? This is how you're gonna do that? Is this why you cut yourself off from the force? Is this why I don't hear your song? Because he doesn't. He's having issue with the force. And she said, he says, you will talk too much. You'll be silenced. So vine wipes over, goes over her face, and he says, once the drangir spread across the galaxy, feasting on flesh and bone, wherever it was found, the harvest was abundant. The harvest was plentiful. And then it shows us some. Some Sith.
[00:53:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:09] Speaker A: And it says, others saw our power and reaped alongside us, working together for the greatest gain. But nothing lasts forever. And soon they betrayed us, as it was their nature. Soon they paid the price. And so the the Sith that tried to betray this denguer got swallowed up. Fearing what they could not kill, they plotted against us. And then it says they trapped the first of us within their I force totems, and it shows us the statues from into the dark.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: Yeah, bigger versions of the statues. These things are massive.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Which I think those might be them because they had to use all of their force power to get them out. There's four of them right there.
[00:53:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I didn't. For some reason, I didn't realize how big they were.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: Yeah, these things are huge, and you can see a whole cult of people around. So this is like, pre rule of two. And while the great progenitor slept, which is. This is the first time we're even hearing about this thing. The great progenitor. While the great progenitor slept, we also slept beneath the ground until travels stumbled upon the progenitor, waking her from her slumber. Then you see reef, and we see wreath and possibly dez, maybe. Maybe orla or comak, but definitely wreath. Walking up amongst the drengir, it looks.
[00:54:23] Speaker B: Like the statues are. Those could be statues just overgrown with moss and vines.
[00:54:30] Speaker A: Meanwhile, on the starlight beacon, he says that it woke them all. Archivist Orbalin, who I adore, so good. Orbalin is a sentient cloud.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: Yeah, gas bubble cloud.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: Yeah. He is in a suit that he controls using the force, but it allows him to have physical, like, connection with things and limbs and things like that. Kind of like the sentient fart from Rick and Morty. Yeah.
[00:54:58] Speaker B: But he's in this really cool spacesuit that are in Jedi colors. Yeah, robe colors.
[00:55:03] Speaker A: Jedi robe colors. So he's in, like, the Jedi robe version of a spacesuit. And it looks so cool. It's. It's opulent, it's very art nouveau. It's got all the opulence and ornateness of high republic robes, high Republic lightsabers. But it's a spacesuit, which is super cool. And he's there. They're in the middle of doing their autopsy, and Verne and Imri are both there. And then they start noticing that something is alive in the hut body. And they're like, there's no way is the hut alive. And then Orbalin says, no, it's not alive. The cadaver is infested. He says, I believe our quarantine measures are about to be trusted to their limits. So that's all happening, and that's on the beacon. That's actually, I think, in hidden danger. That's probably happening. Simultaneously, if not just after, because this is when they're all waking up.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: So now the drangir are starting to wake up all over the galaxy, like, more so than they already were. Meanwhile, they're trying. They're pleading with Skere, and they're like, whatever they've promised you, it's not worth it. And Skere has a full arm now made of plant material that has taken over where his other arm used to be. So Skier's got this whole, like, arm that's made of plants now, and he's like, that's the thing is, it wasn't exactly what they offered me on purpose. It's what they offered me by connecting to me in the first place. And now that he's got this stronger connection to the force with the drangier, he uses that and starts force throwing them all over the place and kicking their ass.
[00:56:42] Speaker B: Yeah, he's like, I had to get in there to get. To get their weakness, to get to know them.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: So I sacrificed my own mind, sort of, but I'm actually pretty in control here. And so he takes it back, and they all start taking out Drangir left and right. Yeah, they just all got. They all got together and teamed up and killed it, cut it so much.
[00:57:03] Speaker B: That it couldn't replicate itself again.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: Meanwhile, the citizens are going to that mayor guy, and they're like, hey, why are you running off with all your money?
Because it turns out he. It turns out he was working with the Hutts, but also was ignoring the fact that the dranggear had taken root, and he wouldn't tell the people that he. That he knew that. And they were like, what's a drangir? And he's like, it's a terrible danger. And then Osalomar was like, hey, Starlight Beacon's kind of under attack right now because the Drangir have broken out of the dead Hutt's body and are now fighting on the beacon. And then as they're leaving the jerk mayor guy house, they notice a big platform is lowering down on a ship that looks like it's owned by Bowser.
[00:57:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:42] Speaker A: And on that ship is a fully armored, including mechanical arms hut with two rancor on either side of her being ridden by Gamorreans.
[00:57:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:56] Speaker A: And she says, rejoice, wretched creatures. Your planet is now the property of the glorious Hutt cartel.
And then in the final issue, there is a fight, and the.
[00:58:10] Speaker B: The Hutts are attacking.
[00:58:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, the Hutts just start attacking the Jedi.
[00:58:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, well, they, you know, and at the end of issue four, Skewer's also like, keev, bust out your lightsaber. And she's like, why are we expecting a fight? And that's when we flip the page, and we see Gamorreans right in the rancor.
[00:58:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Okay, so they. They've lit the lightsabers. As soon as they see that the Hutts have taken. Have shown up, and they're off. You know, they start fighting, and the rancor are doing rancor stuff, and it's so cool. They're smashing people, and everybody's been freed of the. The drangir from being, you know, trapped in there. So their lightsabers are busted out. They immediately start firing upon the Jedi. The Jedi are like, we have to protect the people because they're shooting willy nilly at us. Taric and Ceret are reunited, and they are fighting against the rancor. And the rancor are doing super cool stuff, and then the Hutts are doing.
[00:59:01] Speaker B: Cool stuff, but at the same time, we flash over to the starlight beacon, and Verne and Emery are fighting off the dringgear on the starlight beacon, stalling. Maru's in the background, kicking some ass.
[00:59:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And then skier uses his new drangir arm. And go, go, gadget grabs the. The hutt, and they're having their fight. And then Taric and Cerrit wind up putting rancor to sleep. And then finally, Keev's like, you're not in control. Like, this isn't controlled fighting. You've got to stop. And she chops his drangier arm off. As soon as that happens, he starts speaking with. With the. Well, I mean, it's in the comic. It's a. It's a black bubbles, so that you can determine that that's what it is. But he starts speaking with the drangier voice, and she says, like, you don't have to do this on your own. And he's like, they don't understand. This is beyond their comprehension. Here is another stupid meat. Did you think severing the roots would stop us? And she's like, well, I kind of hoped. And he's like, well, then you proved my point. You do not deserve to live. And so they're fighting, and then the money grubbing guy, he gets beat up by the families that have lost loved ones.
[01:00:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:21] Speaker A: And he tries to make his escape, and then the rancor crashes in. The rancor just barges right through. And Keev keeps is like, I'm not giving up on you, Skier. And Skier's like, Skier's gone. You know, there is only zool. And then she basically. She basically hits him real hard. Yeah. And he comes to.
[01:00:41] Speaker B: He's like, they still have a hold. I'm fighting back a little bit.
[01:00:45] Speaker A: But she's like, yeah, you told us you needed to find out what the drangier were planning. And he's like, well, that's not entirely it. It's been happening for a while, and I don't know why, but he's like, my connection to the force is fading. But that swarm that attacked you in issue one, I didn't notice it. I didn't sense it. I had no idea that it was coming. And it was the same when I should have sensed the dark side at the heart of that planet, and I couldn't do it then. And so she's like, why didn't you tell me? And he was like, I was ashamed. Like, I. Like, I let you down or something. And she's like, no, no, no. You couldn't do that. And you can really see that Keev and Skere are like, their bond is very close.
[01:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah. They have this great connection, and I.
[01:01:25] Speaker A: Feel like it's one of the only ones that's like that because so many other characters in this entire story had to be cut. Like, everyone's on their second master. Like, Emory's on his second master. Cause Douglas is dead. Wreath is on his second master. Bell is on. Is not. Is kind of on his second master because Indira Stokes has taken over for loading great storm. Spoilers, if you. We didn't mention that in our glee recap, so. But we really see that, like, this first Padawan, first master Bond is really strong here, the same way with Bel and load and great storm. But they're separated, and that's. We don't get to see them actually really work together.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Especially this works. It's really cool seeing this because they're not Padawan master anymore. Like, she's a knight, and they just happen to be on the same mission.
[01:02:12] Speaker A: So we really have only ever seen this with Anakin and Obi Wan.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And even then, they were off doing clone wars y stuff. So, I mean, now that this isn't in the middle of a big old battle, either, but it's not as extensive at this time as the clone wars just all of a sudden were.
[01:02:27] Speaker A: And also, Obi Wan and Anakin's relationship is way more brotherly than father son in the way that Qui gon and Obi Wan's were. You know, Qui Gon and Obi Wan.
[01:02:37] Speaker B: Much more father figure.
[01:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, he was. It was a father figure situation or like a benevolent uncle or something like that. You know, Dooku and Yoda Dooku went to the dark side. So, you know, that's that. This is the first real healthy, proper. Because, in effect, Anakin's first master was Qui gon.
[01:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah. For, you know, three days.
[01:02:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, he didn't really. He was just like, just watch what I'm doing. Just stay close. Yeah. Like they're throwing a fit. Whatever.
[01:03:04] Speaker B: Don't think. Use your instincts during the pod race.
[01:03:06] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, that kind of thing. But, like, he would have been a father figure for Anakin in that way. And then Anakin loses him.
[01:03:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:16] Speaker A: And then he has Obi Wan, who is not that much older than him and does really treat him like a brother.
[01:03:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:23] Speaker A: So, yeah, it's really cool. Anyway, so they keep on fighting, and the Jedi realize that there's too many. We are seeing.
We see distress calls are coming in by the thousands about drangir suddenly being everywhere.
[01:03:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's cool. Cause we see these little text bubbles pop up from the radio calls that are coming in.
[01:03:47] Speaker A: And so she reroutes all the distress calls so that the hutt can also hear them. And that's when they kind of realize that the nal hutta, like, nal hutta, is also under an attack. And the Hutt and the Jedi have the same enemy.
[01:04:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:06] Speaker A: So the Hutts and the Jedi combine forces, and the Hutt declares that they will be fighting with the Jedi. With the Jedi. Not just fight with the Jedi, but fight alongside them. And we see more Verne using light whip stuff, which is just awesome.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, Imri gets stabbed.
[01:04:25] Speaker A: Imri gets stabbed.
[01:04:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So thats when she busts out her.
[01:04:29] Speaker A: Whip and then Kyiv sticks her hand on skier and is like, oh, I'll talk to them. And she talks to the drangier through skier. And she basically convinces them that they don't wanna eat people right now because they're sick. And so everyone can get away from him because the Drangir are like, they're unclean. They're unclean.
[01:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah, we can't eat this.
[01:04:49] Speaker A: We can't eat this. That's gross. Oh, gross. What is this? Banana and onion soup?
And then skier collapses. And we end wave one with Keev holding her seemingly dead master in her arms. And she goes, don't you. Don't you do this to me. You hear me? Don't you dare.
[01:05:10] Speaker B: Don't you die on me.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: And that is basically the end of wave one.
[01:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: Now, there is one other story in the life day treasury, and it is super adorable, and it's during the Coruscant solstice. Stellan is on Coruscant doing stellan Coruscant things, and he kind of takes some time off to just go reflect and be on his own, and he sees a pickpocket, and he winds up following the pickpocket. And the pickpocket has some issues going back and forth, but it turns out, because he's gotten into trouble with other gangs, winds up going, like, down to the lower levels. 1313 status. And he eventually follows the pickpocket, and he's like, you can't be doing this. And he saves him a couple of times, and they have to kind of go on the run briefly together because they're both, like, getting chased by these other gangsters. And eventually, he comes to find out that there is the reason that this pickpocket is pickpocketing is because his mom's at home and she's not doing so hot. And so he goes and he visits them, shows up with some, like, food and stuff for him and, like, some supplies, and he kind of realizes it's kind of a nice little moment where he realizes that this is what the Jedi need to be doing. This is who the Jedi need to.
[01:06:28] Speaker B: Be, like, helping the people on the ground.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: Helping the people on the ground floor. They're right there.
[01:06:32] Speaker B: And that comes up later in the living force book.
[01:06:36] Speaker A: And so Stellan ends up basically having what is Coruscant's version of Christmas dinner.
And so Stellan has Christmas dinner with this pickpocket and his mom, and he's like, no more steel, okay. And he's like, we need help. And he's like, yeah, I get it, but you need to steer clear of these gangster guys. And that's basically the story, but it happens, technically, within the timeline of wave one.
[01:07:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, we did it, guys.
[01:07:04] Speaker A: We did it. This is. That is the end of wave one. Wave one, which obviously was a lot.
[01:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:10] Speaker A: But to get the full spoilery version of it, that was. That was gonna take a while.
[01:07:14] Speaker B: Right?
[01:07:15] Speaker A: It only took us, what, 4 hours?
[01:07:17] Speaker B: Yeah, not too bad thereabouts, but, yeah, that's, you know, wave one is just a huge setup to the rest of what's going on in the high Republic.
[01:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So the next thing we need to talk about is basically, what does this all mean for the state of the galaxy? Where is everyone going on through there? So we should talk about that in our next episode.
[01:07:37] Speaker B: Yeah, sounds like a plan.
[01:07:38] Speaker A: Okay. Very, very cool. Love that. All right, well, everybody, thank you for listening. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and threads at the Starlight archive podcast.
[01:07:48] Speaker B: We've been very active on threads of. Check out those.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Be sure to find us on threads. If you're not on threads yet, I understand, but it's.
[01:07:56] Speaker B: It's a good time.
[01:07:57] Speaker A: It's. It's been really fun over there. Arguably, it's where I think some of the healthiest conversation about the acolyte has been happening, which has been nice.
[01:08:04] Speaker B: More people are not putting up with the nonsense.
[01:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah, there's been a lot of people out there, you know, complaining this and that, and they don't. They're not tolerating about any of that. That nonsense over on the. On threads.
[01:08:19] Speaker B: Right.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: So, yeah, definitely. If you're looking to exit, no pun intended, ex it out of your current social media place, threads is a pretty cool place to be, so we're enjoying it over there. So, in the words of Jedi Master Skier, there are no shortcuts on light's path. We strive, we repeat, we succeeded.
The Starlight archive is brought to you by Bryce Rankins and Brian Romero. It was edited by Bryce Rankins and Brian Romero. Bryce Rankins designed the logo. Brian Romero did most of the research. It's produced by Bryce Rankins and Brian Romero. And basically, it's just us. The style and archive is brought to you by Sneakygeek Media 2024. All rights reserved.
