Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. My name is Bryce Rankins.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: And I am Brian Romero, and you're.
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Listening to episode four of the Starlight Archive.
Welcome to the Starlight archive. Best Griffin High Republic Podcast this side of no space. Today we are talking about comics and short stories and things that weren't the novels within wave one of phase one of the high Republic, the era of Star wars, that takes place between about 501 hundred years before the phantom menace, which as far as BBY is concerned, you can take care of that math yourself.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: You can math it yourself.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: It's fine. I mean. I mean, it's a fun little game to play. At what point in the Star wars timeline did this take place in regards to the Battle of Yavin? Because we decided that that is a point in time that was worth having a marker on. Yeah, Mark Rock and, like. And they're not calling it before the Battle of Yavin. So I'm really curious, like, what year do the high Republic Jedi think they're in?
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: You know, the same way it was like, hey, that lady had a baby out in that manger. Like, at what point? At some point, like, around 200 years into the ad time period, everyone was like, you know what we're calling this year? This based on when we think Jesus was born.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Everybody. It's like the catholic church, as they.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Did anyway, but, like, it's at what point who made this decision? Because I can't imagine, like, palpatine being cool with the time change being like, oh, yeah, the rebels are saying it's year two now.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: What are they talking about?
[00:01:34] Speaker B: John knows something about that.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: I do too. Who made this decision, John or Flores? The council of space. Nicaea.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Anyway, so we're talking about. You do the math. That's the point of this podcast, is that you have to do math. No, the point of this podcast is to do a nice deep dive into the events that took place during the high republic and get you prepared so that you know what you need to know before you go in and read it yourself. The point of next podcast, the next episode after this one will be to tell you everything about these comics. So if you were looking for spoilers. Yeah, that's next episode, right? So this one we're going to talk about all the things you need to know before you start reading the comics. But if you are looking for spoilers, then look for the episode that has a big, fat spoiler word in its title and go for that one. Yeah, because we'll label it as such. And that'll make it easier for you. So if you're here for spoilers, you're not going to find any. This is a certified spoiler free episode. The certification process is extremely complicated, and our vetting is.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: It took us years to get that certification.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it did. It did. There's a plaque on the wall right next to our food safe certification, which means that we can give you guys tacos.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: But we do have a b.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: We. We do have a b, yes.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: But I thought that was just more for us because our names start with.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: A b.
I don't think that's why he did that. We don't own a restaurant. We're not talking about this anyway. Today we're talking about the high Republic comics, specifically comics and short stories. So let's get to that.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Brian, how many different, like, comic titles. Titles are there within wave one of the high Republic?
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much have two main ones, and then we do have, like, a one shot kind of side story that we'll talk about in just a few. But the two main ones are the Marvel Star wars high Republic main comic.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Which is Star wars the high Republic.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And then we have IDW's Star the high Republic adventures. So we got the main, high Republic comic for Marvel from Kevin Scott and Ario Enandito. He does the main art for most of the issues as well as a lot of the covers. There's also a lot of variant covers, which, for those of you who aren't familiar with variant covers, sometimes the company will hire and commission different artists to put out just kind of a different version of a cover or an incentive cover, where a comic shop will order more than 25 books and they'll get one very special issue or just a b variant cover.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Yeah, they're honestly, they're like trading cards, pretty much.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: They're priced basically based on their rarity sometimes.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: And sometimes they're not.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Yeah, sometimes they are. It's kind of a combination of rarity. And how big is this artist? Like Scotty Young? Covers go for a lot as an. That's an artist. Scotty Young is an artist. But, you know, some other artists that don't necessarily have that cult following or don't have a really distinctive style that's sought after can come into play, but you're certainly gonna pay more for a rarer comic. Like, you're not gonna pay cover price, probably, for an incentive cover unless you really order it, and it's hard to.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Depends on the shop, too. Depends on the shop anyways. Yes.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a whole thing. But variant covers, they're fun and they've got really cool artwork.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So I got a few of those on my, my box that I'll get and I'll order out. Usually online, you can find what artworks can be attached to which comic, and you can order kind of what you want from your, from your local comic book shop. So do that. Shout out to comic book hideout for helping me out with that.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Anyways, then we have the high Republic adventures from Daniel Jose Older and Harvey Tollebau. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing that. And speaking of variant covers, the high Republic adventures comics typically come with an a cover or a b cover, and shops will typically get 50 50 on those. Sometimes there's a different special c cover, but for the most part, these have had two different covers with every issue, which is kind of cool.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: That's kind of neat.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Kind of fun to collect if you're a collector like I am. And then, like I said, there's a, there's kind of a one shot that came out with the regular Star wars adventures comic that, that one kind of covers stories throughout all of Star wars, mostly Skywalker saga stuff. So what they'll do is they'll have multiple storylines in each issue.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Like an anthology.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah, basically an anthology. And so there was one, one shot that they did that I believe Daniel Jose older wrote.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: So the Star wars adventure book, which is part of a series called Tales of Villainy, in issue number six of Star wars adventures, tales of villainy. So if you're looking for it, that's where you need to look. Or you can get it in the trade paperback for the Star wars, the high Republic adventures comic as well. Trade paperbacks are a great way to get your comics if you are not normally a comic collector and you were already confused about the variant thing. Trade paperbacks are really important because they compile multiple issues together.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yep. Typically they'll put them out as one story arc. And so that's where that comes in.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So this main first story arc that takes place in the first part of wave one included the short of a comic from the Star Wars Adventures comic, which featured Marquan Rowe and happens to take place just before issue number one of Star, the High Republic adventures, which at the time was being published by IDW. Yes, it is no longer published by IDW. As of the time of recording this, they switched it over to Dark Horse, which is really cool for Star wars fans because Dark Horse used to have all the Star wars stuff, but it has moved since then. But if you're looking for it, you're not gonna find it in the dark horse books. You're gonna find it in the IDW books if your shop happens to organize by publisher in that way. Yeah. So anyway, that's a whole lot of comic information that you probably didn't necessarily need. But if you want to know when it happens, and we're talking about chronological order, that's when it happens. It happens after the first issues of the Star wars, the High Republic, but before the first issue of Star wars, the high Republic adventure right in between there. Just a nice little squished in there. Anyway, it was complicated. Let me take a drink.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: This. And it's making noise when I drink. So.
So now that we've gotten out of the way, the comics that do exist and that we're gonna talk about. Let's talk characters. Yeah, let it. We need, like, again, a lot of moving parts within the high Republic in general and with a short story and two different comics starting during the course of Light of the Jedi.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: If not slightly before it.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: So technically, the high Republic.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: Marvel book.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Marvel book star. The High Republic, no adventures takes place about three quarters into the light of the Jedi, if not a little bit more, because it takes place after the Battle of Kur. Yes, but before the starlight beacon.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: So the first issue, at least the first issue does. And then it. And then it ends at the Starlight beacon. The dedication ceremony of the Starlight beacon is kind of a nexus point for all of these stories to kind of branch out from. Yeah, they all come to one spot, and then they all start branching out from there.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: So even the young Jedi adventures on Disney plus the end of season, one of the young Jedi adventures comes to a head at a dedication ceremony for the Starlight beast.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: It was so cool.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: So they all come to this one point. So with the comics because they don't really start before the light of the Jedi. The first ones all kind of happen during and in between. And then end at the dedication ceremony.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Right? Yep.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Except for, obviously, Star wars adventures, because, you know, Mark yon Rowe is not hanging out at the.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Yeah, no, he's not.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Dedication ceremony saying for light.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Yeah, no.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Anyway, so you need to know all the characters, obviously. So first we'll start with Keeve Trennis.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Where did we first hear about Kiev Trennis?
[00:09:45] Speaker B: We first heard about Master Trennis in Kevin Scott's Count Dooku book.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Dooku Jedi lost.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: And. Yeah, and Dooku Jedi lost.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Which wasn't a book.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: It wasn't. It was a audio drama first. Yeah.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: It was a book.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: It was a full cast audio drama. It went into, like, the behind the scenes of Dooku. Features a lot of visage ventress and her voice actress does in the book.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: So good.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: It's really cool.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: But it's also the first mention of the High Republic.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: So Kyiv is mentioned in there as.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: A Kevin Scott book.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: We love Kevin Scott.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Mm hmm. Good stuff. So she's kind of the main character of this book here.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Now, you said Master Trannis when you referred to her in Jedi lost, but she is not a master here. She's still a padawan in the first issue.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: We won't get into that because it's spoiler, but also, we don't really know what's going on in the. In between. Too much.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a long period of time she was mentioned, and. And the way in which she was mentioned was kind of interesting. Definitely moving from that. So Keev Trennis, who is awesome and goes through quite the journey in these comics, has a master, and her master's name is.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: It is Master Skier.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Skier with two s's.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Two s's. Yeah. Yeah. So he's been around in the order for a little bit. He's a Trandoshan, so he's kind of the lizard looking guy. Kind of like Bossk.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: In the original trilogy. And he's a great character. Early on, the authors were talking about this, especially Kevin Scott. The original plan was actually to kill off Skier.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Really?
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And the more he wrote and the more he wrote him and Keeves, like, master apprentice relationship, the more it didn't make sense.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: So they kept him alive longer than issue one or two or how many ever they kept him alive.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Sticks around. He sticks around for a little while longer time.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: No direct line as to when or if he has been removed yet.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Right? Correct. So, yeah, at the time, especially in wave one here, they didn't kill him off, which was the original plan, but they didn't do it. No real spoilers, but whatever. It's fine.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: But he is in the light of the Jedi.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Yes. So he has a decent part in light of the Jedi, the novel from.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: So if you've already read Light of the Jedi and you're moving to the comics, this is the guy that is honestly a little flirty with. With a certain other Jedi.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Which we'll talk more about in our spoilery episodes. I definitely want to talk about honest. I want to talk about the flirtiness in general in a lot of these Jedi.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Yeah, they definitely played fast and loose with the whole rules thing. I mean, for a lot of. A lot of.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: There's things. Ways that it makes some sense. We'll talk about this more. I have plans.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: I have plans, and I have thoughts.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: And then shortly after we go through the skier and Keeve trinis part and how they eventually get to the dedication ceremony, we also get introduced to a new species.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And those are kotabi. So the first issue ends, and there's a slight time jump. I'd say probably a week or two.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: We don't really know, but that's kind of what it seems like. So after, give or take, two or three weeks, we'll say the issue opens up with Kyiv and skier on a mission. But now they have new friends with them.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So we have taric and Cerrit. They are kotabi twins, and they share a really interesting force bond where I'm not really sure if it's the species that that kind of has this.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: They're not bond clear about it or.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: If it's the force or if it's a combination of both and it's just enhanced by the force, but they have this really cool, like, almost hive mind going on, and they share the same thoughts and the same feelings 95% of the time.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not quite like a borg. We are one. They definitely are kind. They're sort of individuals.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: They have their own names.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: You know, they have their own names, and they can, like, separate and go do their own thing. But if one of them is in extreme distress, the other one goes into extreme distress, and if one of them is injured, the other one starts to get injured.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah, they'll feel it, and they'll.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Yeah, they'll feel the pain of it, which is really interesting because it's not just emotion, but, like, physical pain. And then that goes even a step further. As time progresses, we start to see that their force bond is really, really severe.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So they're awesome characters to get to know. And a lot of times on some of these missions that they go on during these issues, they'll split up, and they'll basically communicate between walkie talkies. Yeah, basically. Yeah.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: They're just walkie talkie Jedi fighties.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah. But even from, like, long distances and stuff. So it's. It's kind of cool to see that, and we haven't really seen that in Star wars at all.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: In a way, it's like if you took the dyad and the Force thing from the sequel trilogy and, like, turned it up to eleven.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: But made it because of something more than just we're connected, and the Force likes us both, but in this sort of. We are. Were two parts of a whole.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And they're definitely twins. They're. They're related. Blood related.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: And then at the actual dedication ceremony, we have a boatload of Jedi. They're all there.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: But the most important of that Jedi is Avar Kris. But something that I will say, and we'll get into this a little bit more later, but if you are gonna read the comics first, certain things about the book might not make as much sense. So you probably should just read the book first, then go to the comics or listen to our spoiler episode and then read the comics.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Before we move on to the high Republic adventures and start introducing those characters, let's stick with the high Republic main comic title from Marvel.
What's really going on in this plot? Without giving too much away, because some of what happens in these comics eventually.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: So basically direct results of later movies.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So Keev, Skier Tarek, and Sera, they're kind of on a mission out in space, and they get a distress call, and they're Jedi. So, you know, they want to go keep the peace. They want to help some people out, and they run into some nihil and shenanigans ensue. I feel like I've said that before, but that happens a lot in these Star wars, if you guys didn't know.
But things kind of escalate from there. They end up on a planet, and they find people missing, and they find a lot of kids are missing. And so the Jedi are like, no, we need to help these people out. We need to see what's going on. And eventually, that's when Avar Krish shows up and she starts becoming a little more of a frequent character. And again, because of how the high Republic is working between the books and the comics, a lot of the characters bounce around, and everything makes sense to why a character's in a certain planet or a ship or just showing up where they are, which is really nice, I will say.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Despite her being such a major player in the light of the Jedi, Avar Kriss does not really have a major role in any of the novels after that.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:43] Speaker A: Like, she's sort of just talked about in most of them. She's not even present at Valo and that whole party, and she's like, if you really like Avar Chris, the comics where you're gonna find. Yeah, because she's kind of running point for the council to handle the various threats that are occurring in the Galaxy post great disaster.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Now, and with the. The Jedi that are mostly on Coruscant, and again, they're spread out throughout the galaxy, but again, the main temple is on Coruscant. She's kind of the liaison out into the unknown regions. I wouldn't say wild, but she's. She's out and about in the galaxy, hanging out.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: You can even call her a dangerous liaison.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: Ooh, we get fun. Little cameos from a couple other Jedi that are running around. We got Istalamaru, who's helping run security, and we love Astalamaru. Oh, he's the best. Over at Starlight Beacon, Vernesta Rowe shows up for a couple panels here and there. But again, everything makes sense for where the characters are in the galaxy, which is really, really nice. That kind of ties up what's going on for the high Republic main comic.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: From Marvel so very quickly, because they don't really branch out that much further. There's a couple of characters named Joss and Picca Adrian that show up in the light of the Jedi, and they're part of the short story go together, and it's by Charles Soule also. So it's kind of like bonus footage. Like, yeah, it's like DLC, like, oh, what was happening with those two characters? Let's have a little bonus thing about that. So it's kind of just a whole chapter of what they were doing, because they were a big part in some of the relief efforts that happened during.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: The course of the day. And they show up throughout the course of phase one of the high Republic too.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Yeah, they have a pretty big part towards the end of phase one, which is really nice. And then shortly after that, we get a story called first duty.
The first duty story is Kevin Scott. Those introduced, Velko Jaen and Gaal Tarpfin, who are two security people. One of them, I don't recall what her species is, but I know that Gal Tarpon is a mon Cal security officer. They're both security on the starlight beacon.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Non Jedi?
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Non Jedi. And they deal with the Jedi, and sometimes they're annoyed by them, and sometimes they're really happy that they're there, and they just kind of go about dealing with their business of what's going on or around there. And then there's the hidden danger. The hidden danger takes place toward the end, and again, we'll get into all of that chronological stuff. But the hidden danger does involve Avon Staross, which is kind of cool. And most of the starlight stories after that first Joss and Picca Adrian stories are basically about the security team on Starlight Beacon, which is kind of cool that there's this whole little side mini thing. It's kind of like when comic book based shows will do, like YouTube shorts or like one shot, the Marvel one shots, that kind of thing, where it's like, oh, we're focusing a bunch on this other character. Like, they're basically the agent Coulson of Starlight Beacon, which is kind of cool.
But those stories, we'll get into them when we get into the main arc. But I just wanted to kind of get that through because we didn't talk about them when we talked about the books in the last episode, but because these are kind of a smaller thing that weaves in and out of the books makes sense for the comics. The first two go together, take place during Light of the Jedi, just like the first issue of every comic they have. Yeah, but the next ones all take place throughout, kind of interspersed between into the dark and the rest of the comics. And again, we'll get more to that later, but yeah, yeah. So going forward.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Then we have Star wars, the high Republic adventures. It's the official title. There's a the, and all that is by Daniel Jose older. And the art is tollaba, which, you know, we've talked about. Tollaba has this really cool. His hatching is fantastic. So the art is really, really cool. When we love good hatching. We love good hatching. We're here for hatching. Cross hatching is a shading technique.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Cross hatching.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Now there's hatching and cross hatching. There's a shading. The shading techniques. I don't necessarily always love some of the designs. I feel like Yoda is very strange looking in these comics sometimes, but Yoda shows up, so that's an important thing to know. Yeah, there's a bunch of characters you guys might remember Yoda. He's basically a muppet, been in like.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: One or two movies.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: Yeah, he's kind of important.
So Star the High Republic Adventures takes place at the same time as all the rest of the books do, but it follows the adventures of some padawans. It starts during the light of the Jedi, same thing, concurrent. And it, you know, leads us into our little dedication ceremony as, as they all want to do. So. Star the High Republic Adventures is an IDW all ages book, and even though it's all ages. It does deal with some more mature concepts, but nothing obscene by any means. But there's definitely some darker storylines that happen. You're definitely dealing with a lot of, we'll call them big emotions.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah. And similar to with how the books are split up, the high Republic adventures, the average age of the main characters are like ten to twelve.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And I usually liken these characters and their writers to this kind of toy box system. We've used this in the other podcast, too, with, with Dave when we talk about superheroes and who owns what rights, etcetera. But typically the writers who write in and create a character that's kind of their person.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: And so if Geode shows up in a Star wars adventures book, to me, he's kind of borrowing Claudia Gray's toy, and it's like, hey, can I borrow your action figure? Can I borrow your toys? But at the same time, they also have a tendency to want to play with their toys the most. So if you're going to be reading the young reader, you know, the little square elementary school age ish book like test of courage or race to crash point tower, you're going to see a lot more of the high republic adventure stories. Number one, because these are already characters that the kids are familiar with. Right. And number two, these are his kids and these are his toys. And he knows how to play with these toys.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Writes them. Great.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: So he know he knows them and he knows what they're supposed to act like. And sometimes Justina Ireland gets ahold of some of those toys, and I think where she goes with them is really interesting. And I feel like if you really like the way she writes them, it's worth looking into how they are in high republic adventures because there is some growth there.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Definitely. Yeah.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: And you see it in the art, too. About midway through wave two, these kids have aged.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: They start looking more like young teenagers, which is kind of cool. So this whole story focuses around a group of Padawans, and the Padawans names are Lula, Talosola, Court Bibs, and Farzala. And Farzala's got these cool mutton chops. Court has a skull on his head.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got, he's awesome.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: He's got one of my favorite stories.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: He's one of my favorites.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I like his arc because it's kind of like Neville Longbottom's arc.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: That you're like, I feel for this kid, but you don't realize how much this kid is going through until you get later in the books and even later on.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: And a lot of these characters, there's not really necessarily, like, a story arc with specific characters. They're all kind of going through things together.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: And obviously, Lula's kind of. She is the main character of the book.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: But there's so many Padawans and younglings around in the background. You see their story going on, and again, like you said, you don't really realize it until later on. Kind of similar to Neville, where, you know, he's. He's one of the characters. He's not the main character, but by the end of the story, you're like, I love this guy. I mean, what amazing character.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: If. If Light of the Jedi was this kind of cataclysmic Marvel event where we brought in everything. Star wars adventures very much gives you that kind of Hogwartsy feel of there's a bunch of, because, again, the galaxy has Jedi all over.
You see a lot of interaction between padawans that aren't necessarily part of the same story. Like, by the end of wave three, we have characters from the middle of wave two that got introduced now hanging out with and making plans with and joking with characters that started in book one of Star the high Republic adventures. So they go to this planet. There's an emergency, no pun intended.
You'll understand that if you've read this already. There's an emergency. And the group is being led by a guy named Torben, Buck, and Yoda.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: Yoda, yes. So at this point in time, Yoda's kind of taken a half step away from the Jedi council. He misses teaching all the younglings and the Padawans. He's very involved with early teaching, and that's kind of how they retconned Obi Wan and empire. When he's like, oh, go see Yoda. He's, the Jedi master instructed me not. He's not the Jedi master that instructed. He's one of the many that did. And even if you watch the Clone wars animated series, you see it in there, too. He interacts with everybody. He knows most everybody, and he has a really cool connection with most of the Padawans.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: And Yoda specifically is the one who takes the younglings to go find their Kyber crystals. Yoda doesn't necessarily teach a Padawan usually, but Yoda does teach initiates. Yoda teaches full classes. And in the prequels, he's teaching the younglings.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Obi Wan comes in, he's like, I need help. And he's like, I got a bunch of cool kids, like, they're smarter kids.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: Solve this problem for us, this idea that Yoda is sort of the caretaker of how young children grow to become padawans, to me, it's beautiful. I absolutely love that. He's very much the principal of the school. He's the grandmaster of the school. He's the headmaster of Jedi Hogwarts, but he likes taking field trips. He and Doctor Hu Yang, or Professor Hu Yang go on field trips with the initiates so that they can get their lightsabers, so that they can eventually take the trials or not the trials. Take the trials. Yeah, take the trials, do the little ceremonial bouts, and be chosen by a master to become a padawan.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Or a knight in some cases. So who will be their master at the very least?
[00:27:20] Speaker B: And even though, like we said, that he doesn't have a lot of time to teach and have a padawan himself, sometimes he does. And actually, his old padawan, cantum Sai, is with this group, who is now Lula's master.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. Kantam Psi is a fascinating character who definitely had a sordid past, which I really liked, which comes up later in the later waves. But they all go, the group. They all go to this planet, and on the planet, there is a group of people called Elders of the path.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: And that's. They're a group of people who don't like Jedi. They have some major issue with using the Force. They think using the force is evil.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Forced users in general, not just Jedi.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: But everybody uses one of their own who has been raised and taken care of within this group has a secret, and that secret makes her a threat to just about everybody there, because they don't want force users. But her name is Zine Morala. She is a Mickey in, she's pink and has cool tentacles coming out of the back of her head. She's super cool, kid, and she's kind of this, like, elseworlds Lula Talosola character. They're very similar. They do a lot of panels where they'll show them as kind of two halves of a whole, side by side, not quite in the Sarah and taric kind of way, but definitely they're on.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: A very similar path.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: They're on a very similar path. And what's cool is because we aren't being super strict with all of the rules of training, they bring zine back. I'm gonna spoil the first issue a little bit, but they bring zine back with them because she can't be part of this group. Of people who hate. Hate that and how that affects her. Relationships with people who she once called family becomes a major arc over this whole storyline. But they bring her back and allow her to stay on Starlight beacon with the rest of the kids, and they are all.
They're training while she's, like, the cool muggle that hangs out on the side.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: You can also. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there's. And there's obviously other things that are going on. That's why the Jedi are allowing her to stay.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: That involves the nigh hill.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Yeah. She's got info, and she's got a best friend named Chrix, and Chrix was one of that same group that hated the Jedi, and that fuels a lot of Chrix's actions going forward. Within the story, we get a lot more information about some of the inner workings of the Nile. Truthfully, most of the high Republic comic that's by Marvel doesn't do a lot, at least in that first wave. Doesn't do a lot to show the Nile, at least not the main nile. Right.
Real appearances of some of these key players within the Nile are gonna happen in higher public adventures. When I say appearances, I mean physical, visual appearances, not, you know, appearances and just showing up in a book.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: All over the books.
[00:30:15] Speaker A: Yeah, they're all over the book, but in comic form. Like, if you want to see some of these characters drawn at the art of who they are, your first time seeing them is gonna be.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: In the high Republic adventures. So they go through, they do their various adventures. Eventually, Yoda will go off and do his own thing, and it'll be basically the Lula and Zine show with special guests. Farzala court, Torben Buck, and who also.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Goes by buckets of blood.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: Who goes by the name buckets of blood because Daniel Jose older really idolized an EMT that called himself buckets of blood because it sounds super metal and it has nothing to do with being super violent. You hear a guy going, oh, my name is buckets of blood. You think that guy's gonna be very, very violent. But really, he's like a healer, and that's kind of his specialty, is he is a healer. So some people will call him buckets. Some people will call him Master Buck. Some people will call him buckets of blood.
I'm not one of those people. I like. I prefer. I prefer Master Buck. I think that's the coolest version of the whole thing. But Torben Buck is sometimes buckets. I will sometimes buy buckets. I like. I like the short nicknames are supposed to make things easier, not, they're not supposed to be more complicated. That's just my personal opinion. But Torban Buck is a chagrin, and he is a healer, and he's also an excellent baker. But that is another episode. Yes, more on that later, because there.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Is a bake off issue.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Again, more on that later.
So the key thing that you need to know is that this group of Padawans is kind of on their own adventure, dealing with other things. But those adventures do eventually start interweaving with the rest of the stories because they start finding key information, and they become kind of a key part in tracking down and taking down the nile because of information that they know specifically. So beyond all that, that's kind of everything you need to know for this first wave in phase one is to just know that your characters are, you know, who your characters are and what they're kind of doing. I highly recommend picking it up. If you want to skip picking it up and you're only here for the books, then listen to our spoiler episode. We'll get to that.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Here we are.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: So for future episodes, we might make this its own thing, but for this episode, I want to kind of talk about purist chronological order. I am the type of person who, when the Marvel event siege happened.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: And when Asgard goes crashing into Oklahoma. Yeah, I flipped to that page in the, like, seven different comic books that. That happened in. Oh, yeah.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: Cuz all the tie ins and I.
[00:32:55] Speaker A: Would not read past it.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Right. I remember one day you had every single book out, and you're like, look what I did.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: Because. Because for me, I need.
I don't like when major status quo changers happen in another book and then suddenly change the course of the book that I'm reading. And that happens a couple times throughout the course of this. But in the first, without going into spoilers, in the. In this first story, the light of the Jedi, a lot happens, and all of the major status quo things that happen and have an impact on the other things happen in Light of the Jedi. Thankfully, nothing happens in the comic that suddenly changes the course of the other.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:33:36] Speaker A: Which is good. That's good storytelling. It's how it should be. So we start the story with the light of the gym, and the majority of the first issues and first short stories all take place during there as far as a cohesive, purist, chronological story goes. And then they all kind of converge at this dedication ceremony, if you will.
That being said, the dedication ceremony. I know we keep talking about how it's kind of that nexus point.
It isn't explicitly shown in the high Republic adventures.
[00:34:10] Speaker B: Oh, right.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: They do go up to starlight Beacon, and they're like, this is your new home, pal. And honestly, the image of them looking at it going forward is somewhat reminiscent of Luke and Leia at the end of Empire, which is kind of cool. But they go and make their home on the starlight beacon that is now officially has been opened up and dedicated. It's part of Chancellor so's great works. And what's interesting is if you look at the timeline, the events of into the dark really do technically start before the end of Light of the Jedi. Oh, yeah, because they're on their way to the dedication ceremony.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: And in the actual official timeline within the Star wars the high Republic character encyclopedia, those events that take place and the removal of the statues and the fallout from the removal of the statues and then the replacement of the statues. All that stuff happens before the dedication ceremony, as well as what happens with Kiev Trennis with removal of certain braids.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: So they still all converge at the starlight beacon opening. And then we go into the tales of villainy story, because that. That starlight beacon opening is at the end of issue two, I think.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Of the high Republic adventures.
And so then we go into the higher republic adventures books one through five. Then you have the events of into the dark.
And the events of into the dark release a new threat that we barely even talked about, which we will get very much into in our spoilery episode. But you'll find out all about them, and we'll talk about them as if we already know about them in every episode coming after this. Yeah, but the new threat emerges, which is kind of a fun little, like, what the hell is this thing? This is crazy. This is. What is this bilanti? You know, that's a Godzilla reference. Listen to sneaky geeks Kaiju episode coming out soon. So then you have high Republic main story again, three through five. Then you have the hidden danger, which is that short story about what's going on. But if you're gonna do the hidden danger, then that means you gotta have Avon Star Os. So then you have a test of courage.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: Followed by High Republic six and seven and high Republic adventures six and seven. And somewhere in there, you should read the Hidden Danger, which takes place in Starlight stories short story, which was available in Star Wars Insider magazine. Yeah.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: Or the big collected edition that he.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: Put out in most instances. I am very like, no, I will stop reading my book, read the comic, and then come back to my book. In this case, these stories were so self contained and had such little impact on the other issues that because the main events were taking place within different books. Novels.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: If you read the comics, you. You gotta go. High Republic one. High Republic two. Star wars adventures. Tales of villainy number six. High Republic adventures one through five. Into the dark. High Republic main story three through five.
And then a test of courage.
[00:37:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: And then everything all the way up to seven.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
In both.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: In both of them. If you jump ahead in the comics, you're gonna spoil the. The new threat that you wouldn't have had with the. Into the dark.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: But nothing really that's happening with test of courage is going to become an issue for you, except for starlight stories. And because they're so kind of accessories, you could read all of wave one and then go back and read the little fun Charles Soule story. The.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: That's what I did.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: We'll go together.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: And then you can go and read the hidden danger and first duty and read those. But first duty can kind of go anywhere in there because it takes place right after the dedication ceremony.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:38:16] Speaker A: So first duty is covered, and hidden danger is very much after you've met and encountered Evan Staros. So anytime after that, it's fine to read that.
So, by and large, I don't really. I'm. I wasn't too upset with these being out of order. I would have been annoyed knowing about all of the monster stuff happening in high Republic if I had read that before. Into the dark, because it's such a good reveal. And into the dark.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: So if you are trying to be purist and do all of it, definitely follow that order. There will be a list in the show notes. If you are not trying to worry too much about that, maybe just avoid issues of the main high Republic story, like issues three on until after you've read into the dark.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: And that's it. That's really all I have to say about it.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: It's not that complicated. It sounds way more complicated because of how many times I had to go through it. But, like, it's really read Light of the Jedi, then read the first two issues of High Republic, read the first five issues of high Republic adventures, read into the dark, then read the rest.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Basically. Yeah.
[00:39:26] Speaker A: It doesn't really matter what the order is. Once you get to issue seven of both of those comics and you've read a test of courage and you've gotten through the first four stories of starlight stories. You've read all of wave one?
[00:39:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: The only other thing that happens possibly in wave one is in tales of a life day treasury with stellan geos hanging out on Coruscant, helping a little, like, sickly child. Yeah, it's a great story. It was very sweet.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: But, yeah, overall doesn't impact.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: It has no impact whatsoever. It was very much like I wanted to write another stellan geo story, so I did.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: About life day.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: About life day. Yeah, well, actually, that one wasn't about life day. So the thing about the life day treasury is only, like, one of the stories is actually life day. There's so there's also a story of. Not the life day treasury comic. The life day treasury.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: The book. That's right. I just got to read the book.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: So the life day treasury book is really cool because it does go all over the place, but it's different cultures versions of Life Day.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: So there's a different version of it for Coruscant. There's obviously life day on Kashyyyk. There's a myth about the oil bringer, which is basically droid Santa Claus.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: But not, you know, robot Santa Claus from Futurama, this kindly old man who comes around and brings oil to the other droids. But it's very much about, like, the spirit of giving that kind of the spirit of the holidays kind of feel, but all over the place. But Stellan Geos's story on Coruscant technically takes place at some point during wave one.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Or during phase one. During phase one, wherein it's not exactly clear, but wave one makes the most sense because it's given everything else that's going on. Yeah. But it is also Stellan Geos on Coruscant, which means that it's probably actually wave two, now that I think about it.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Could be. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:41:20] Speaker A: Anyway, this has been another exciting episode. I just want to say whether it's me or whether it's Brian, I'm sorry about the editing that you had to go through. I'm saying this to you now from the past.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: I'm sorry.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: So, yeah, this has been your comics breakdown for wave one of phase one of the high Republic high Republican. And I think we got everything down.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: I think we did. If we didn't let us know.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Yeah. If we're way off, then be like, hey, they never showed that ceremony, you know, if you want to be that guy, be that guy, let us know. We can take it.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: We're here for you.
[00:41:50] Speaker A: Yeah. So we hope you liked it. If you have other things that you feel like we should definitely talk about, specifically about this going forward into our next comic book breakdown, then please let us know. We love to hear feedback and make sure you follow us wherever you listen to us. Whether that's going to be I heart radio or Spotify or audible or Apple Podcasts or Google Play Store, I don't know if you're listening to us and you haven't hit that subscribe button, hit that subscribe button. And if you could, we would also appreciate a follow on the Instagram. So pop on over there.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll post some cool stuff sometimes.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Without further ado, in the words of oh, we did Elzar, man. For the last one, we could do court. In the words of court, specifically wave one chord.
