Wave 2 of Phase 1! The State of the Galaxy!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Starlight Archive, the best Griffin High Republic podcast this side of Cyclore. Today we are doing a State of the Galaxy. [00:00:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:24] Speaker A: So we have finished Wave one, went through all of Wave one months ago, and we are moving on to Wave two of Phase one. [00:00:32] Speaker B: Yes. [00:00:33] Speaker A: So Phase one. Wave two. Wave two. Phase one. Which makes perfect sense. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Total sense. [00:00:37] Speaker A: Yeah. It's the second chunk of books. Yeah. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Out of three. [00:00:41] Speaker A: Out of the three within the first phase of the High Republic. [00:00:44] Speaker B: And I feel like this one's kind of the bigger wave. [00:00:46] Speaker A: It feels. I mean, this one also has the audio drama. [00:00:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:00:50] Speaker A: So this one is longer. [00:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:53] Speaker A: And I think a lot happens because they're trying. They're no longer trying to introduce us to a bunch of characters. They can actually focus a little bit more on events. [00:01:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Expand the story a bit. Expand the characters. Expand planets. We'll get into that. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So we need to talk about all of that stuff, but first we need a recap briefly of what happened in Wave one. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Wave one. Hey, Bryce, what happened in Wave one? [00:01:17] Speaker A: Before I start reading, I should say that this is a total complete list of spoilers for everything that happened in Wave one. So if you were planning on skipping Wave one and jumping straight into Wave two books, this is great for you. If you haven't read Wave one in a while, this is great for you. If you did just read it. But there's so much to keep track of, and you'd like a quick refresher, this is great for you. And if you don't want to hear a Wave one recap, then you should probably skip. [00:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah, just skip this part. [00:01:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:01:44] Speaker B: You ready? Hey, Bryce, what happened in Wave one? [00:01:50] Speaker A: Last time on the Starlight Archive. Peace. With the expansion of the Republic, Lina Sow's great works are underway, leading to the opening of the Super Space Station, the Starlight Beacon. A ship heading to Frontier space is knocked out of hyperspace and is spreading space debris across the galaxy. The Jedi save the day and discover these disasters. With the work of the dreaded Nihilist taking the battle to them, the Jedi narrowly secure a victory. A resolution at hand. The Republic is once again safe in time to dedicate the Starlight Beacon. [00:02:28] Speaker B: Yay. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Yay. Somewhere in space during all of that, a bunch of Jedi and Randos got stuck on a space station. They found some magic statues. They pulled them out to make them less spooky. Turns out they unleashed a horrible group of monsters. [00:02:39] Speaker B: More spooky. [00:02:40] Speaker A: And were sleeping there because of said magic statues. Dang It Jedi, why are you always trying to be so helpful all the time? The Drengir now all over the galaxy being jerks. And the Jedi and the Hutts, if you can believe it, are trying to stop them, but the Nihil are dropping their seeds everywhere because they're benevolent gardener types. The Jedi trick the Drengir into not eating people, making it easier to beat them because they're worried they're going to get sick from the icky people. And the Drengir care a lot about their health, apparently. But everyone's favorite Trandoshan Jedi skier got hurt pretty bad during all that trickery. And what will we do now? But like, that description actually skips a lot, so. [00:03:16] Speaker B: So what are you gonna do? [00:03:17] Speaker A: Maybe we'll just do more details. [00:03:18] Speaker B: Okay, let's hear it. [00:03:19] Speaker A: Here we go. [00:03:19] Speaker B: What happened? [00:03:20] Speaker A: The galaxy is at peace, Lina. So is implementing the Great Works, which includes bringing new planets and creating a great big giant beacon for better communications that also doubles as a mobile space station called the Starlight Beacon, which houses not only gardens and public spaces and medical facilities, but a pretty sick Jedi temple built too. Jorah Mali is gonna run the whole place, and it's gonna be pretty sick. People are making their way into the frontier to start new lives in a giant ship called the Legacy Run, which has been safely transporting people across the galaxy to their new lives for years and years and years. And then, bam. The Legacy Run is hit in the middle of hyperspace. Pieces of it are going and ejected at near light speed and heading straight for planets and planetoids across the galaxy in the Hetzal system, loading. Great Storm and his Padawan Bell Zedifar are on the ground making sure that no one gets selfish and tries to like Billy Zane their way out of the situation. But the bourgeoisie gotta let the commoners get on their escape ships before some giant hunk of Legacy Run comes plowing into their planet. Avar Chris brings everyone together in the Song of the Force because she's got battle meditation type stuff. They stop various pieces of super fast debris from hitting a planet, and it costs some Jedi their lives. But it's just a matter of destroying the rest of them and figuring out where they're coming from. But oh no. Burry Aga Agaburi, a super empathic Wookiee, then realizes that the debris that is coming through actually has people in it. So his master Nivaseq and some friends, including the Ithorian Jedi whose name everybody forgets, save those people. And in the midst of chatting with them in the Aftermath of it, they figure out that this flying space junk is actually because of a group called the Nihil, or the Nihil who Smacked the Legacy Run. Meanwhile, through the help of a supercomputer and a guy named Kevin avar and her BFF4L Elzar man figure out where emergences are coming out and they can predict their paths. And they do some cool, like, weather manipulation stuff. And it was really nice also. Meanwhile, Yoda. Remember him? He's the guy from that movie. [00:04:46] Speaker B: Oh, he was in the movie. [00:04:47] Speaker A: He's hanging out training younglings because he's awesome. And he's on a field trip with a guy named Torben Buck and Farzala Taraval and the Padawan pals, Lula Talasola. Court Bibs. And they get this distress signal and one of the space junk pieces is heading straight for Trimant four. So he takes the Padawans to go and stop it, but oh my God, there's Nihil there. [00:05:02] Speaker B: What? [00:05:02] Speaker A: And it turns out she's a pretty powerful Force user, but she has been hiding it because she's part of a group called the Elders of the Path. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Teaming up with the Padawan pals, Zeen helps save lives. And does her community love her for doing it? [00:05:13] Speaker B: Yes. [00:05:14] Speaker A: No. They hate her for it. Including her bestie Chrix, because apparently using the Force is a big no no in that community. So Chrix and an old gran named Tromach, those are the guys with the three eyeballs who kind of have cow mouths. They go running off with the Nihil because apparently that's why they're there. So they fight off everyone and the Jedi take Zane back to their home since her whole family kind of sucks. Meanwhile, Orla, Dranni, Wreath, Sylas, Kohmach Vitus and DEZ ride in, and their new friends Geode Afy Hollow and Leox Jassy get pulled out of hyperspace. Meet a cute girl named Nan, are all trying to keep the peace while they hang out with a bunch of ruffians and scallywags. They find some spooky statues and decide to bring them home to purify them under the temple. Meanwhile, over on Elfrona Bells out of far loading grade store, along with Adira Stokes in Porter Angle and a team mascot named Ember who is a charhound who's basically like a Houndoom or a Houndour. I don't know if dark guys watch Pokemon. [00:06:01] Speaker B: Well, I guess he'd be a light type. [00:06:02] Speaker A: He's a fire type. [00:06:03] Speaker B: It's a fire type, but It's. It's the Star Wars. He looks. I feel like he would look like more like a Houndoom. [00:06:10] Speaker A: He looks like. [00:06:11] Speaker B: But he's not a dark type. Because Ember's a good girl. [00:06:13] Speaker A: Yes, Embers a good girl. She's. She's lovely. Anyway, they're all chilling on their own Jedi outpost and helping people out. And then the Nihil show up and cause a ruckus. The gang gets together and they fight. And during the fight, Loden's vector goes down. Did he die? Belle doesn't think so. Even though Loden totally thought Belle should be a knight. He. He has Indira be his new master because he doesn't feel right just accepting his master's death without seeing a body. And he doesn't feel right becoming a knight without his master present because he thinks he's still alive. And good on him for that. Because this is Star wars. And when you don't see the body. [00:06:37] Speaker B: Just like anime. [00:06:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't see the body. I ain't. I don't believe it. Then the Jedi face off with the Nihil and they barely survive because the Nihil can outmaneuver the whole fleet that they're coming with because it's the Jedi and the whole like Republic Defense Force. They start doing a whole bunch of micro jumps that let them zip around like a DBZ character in a fight. Not to mention all the other dirty mind dropping, radiation cloud spreading dick dastardly wacky racer war crime tactics that they're using. The Jedi start having to take charge in the fight because the Republic forces are dying all over the place. And one of the three Nihil generals, who is named Kasive, dies. A bunch of Nihil die, A cool guy named Skier loses his arm, and Joramali, the marshal of Starlight Beacon tragically dies. Remember those spooky statues? Well, wreath Orla and Comack. Take those statues back to make them less spooky. At the Jedi Temple while they were explaining how they accidentally lost, DEZ Wreith is like, wait a second. I think that cute girl Nan might have been a Nihil because. Because her ship looks as crappy as theirs do. And the Jedi are like, shut up, kid. You're just sad because Joramali died. Let us know when you want a new master. And Orla and Komak go to clean up the spooky statues and realize there was no spooky. The statues weren't the spooky at all. The station was the spooky. That's no station. It's A spooky anyway, that what were the statues doing? And Reith says, I will most certainly not shut up, kid. And asks Orla and Comack if they want to ditch Coruscant and go confront Nan at the station. So they get there and it's overrun by Plantzillas and Niall and what do you know? Nan was a griffin Nihil. What I know. Wreath gets launched far away on accident to find dez and they find that he's been kidnapped by Planzillas. He helps DEZ escape, and then they go face off with Nan. She says next time they meet, she's going to kill him. And then she runs away and they decide not to put the spooky statues back because the Plantzillas can keep Plantzilla ing against the Nile. And they leave the station to get overrun. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Suckers. [00:08:13] Speaker A: Meanwhile, Ernesto Rowe, Emory Cantaros, Honesty Weft, and Avon Staros are with Emry's master, Douglas Sunvel, and Honesty's dad, Mr. Weft. And we're going to call him that because I forgot his name. [00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:22] Speaker A: The Nihil are on a ship with them and sabotage it. Vern, Imri, Honesty, and Avon, along with their not quite always following protocol droid, J6, are all marooned on a planet with acid rain. And the reason we only called him Mr. Weft is because he totally died, dear Master Douglas. And that is also a bummer. [00:08:37] Speaker B: It's also a bummer. [00:08:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So Emory struggles with his anger and the death of his master. Honesty struggles with his anger over the death of his dad. The two of them take on some Nile. They get captured. Vern, Avon and J6 have to go rescue them. They rescue them. Emery gets mad. They tries to fight them, tries to fight Vern. Vern schools him pretty hard and destroys his lightsaber. Later, when he's lamenting, Avon takes his old Kyber crystal because she's a rascal. Then Skier is out with his Padawan Kiev Trennis, because she's taken her trials to be a Jedi knight. She kind of screws it up, but saves a bunch of lives in a crazy swarm of migrating creatures that are about to overrun a city. And she and Skier go back to the beacon, and that's the end of the trial. [00:09:08] Speaker B: Womp, womp. [00:09:09] Speaker A: So on the way back, after the kind of failed Jedi trial, they pick up the kids from the planet, and Vern and all them are all picked up, and everybody goes to the dedication ceremony. Hooray. [00:09:18] Speaker B: Yay. [00:09:18] Speaker A: AFI gets her mom arrested for endangering everyone and dissolves the bind Guild. And now she's the captain of the vessel and will go off on her own with Geode and Leox. DEZ takes the Barrage Vow because the plants messed with his Force connection and screwed him up real bad. Orla goes and becomes a wayseeker. Comac takes Wreath as a Padawan. Zeen gets to stay with all the Jedi and hang out on Starlight Beacon. Belle and Dira and Porter take Ember to go to the Starlight Beacon. Skier knights his Padawan Keev, because she did the right thing and did some pretty dope Jedi stuff there in the process. And then they all go to the dedication ceremony. Hooray. Yay. Everybody sticks their sabers in the air dramatically, and they say for light and life, and life is pretty groovy. Or is it? Skier is super upset. He goes into his room and he's in a panic. And he's like, no, no, no. Or even better, he's like, no, probably not like that anyway. And Elzar, man, has a horrible nightmare. The dark side's all around him. Everyone he loves is dying being the cause of it. What's happening? And then presumably he wakes up all sexy like a la Anakin in the first act of Revenge of the Sith. Or not. I don't know. That's just what I assume. Anakin, nightmare scene, man. Good stuff. I don't know. That's just what I assume. Meanwhile, Markion Ro sits satisfied with the great disaster and with Kas of being dead because he probably wanted Kasiv dead in the first place. Oh, he actually did, because he probably killed his dad, Asgar Ro. Or maybe he didn't. It doesn't matter because the other Tempest runners will all be taken care of eventually. [00:10:36] Speaker B: Suckers. [00:10:37] Speaker A: After that, Estella Maru, the guy who's basically running the tech side of Starlight Beacon, approaches Avar Chris with Yoda. And they ask her if she wants to be the new marshal of Starlight Beacon since Joramly was, you know, now one with the Force. And she says, yeah, okay. Yoda tries to go save Chrix with the field trip crew from before, only to find that Chrix has betrayed the Grand Old man, tried, you know, from the elders of the Path, lured the Jedi into a trap, and is now the protege of the true leader of the Nihil, an ever running man named Markion Row. But no one knows who he is because he's being all sneaky, sneaky. Tromak finds Yoda and is like, dawg, I know who you are. And Yoda's like, get That a lot I do, and a lot I do. And Tromach is like, you got to come with me before these Nihil find the thing that they're looking for. And I don't trust Jedi, so we got to go alone. And Yoda is like, sorry, dudes, but got a dip I must. So the Padawan pals realize Chrix is not the getting rescued type, and they got to get out of there. So they leave. Yoda and Tromach race to wherever they're going, but oh, no. Mines. Markion Ro beat them there, and they're going to crash. Yoda and Tromak go down. Marchion finds the one thing he was looking for, and that's the end of the adventure stuff. Meanwhile, remember those Planzillas? Well, they're called Drengir, and they're about to be a real Griffin problem skier. And Keev and their cool pals Taric and Sarah, twins who are Jedi and connected to the Force, take the Ataraxia to go investigate it. Do they take the Ataraxia now? Take a ship to go investigate a distress signal where they find a bunch of toxic gas, a bunch of damage, and a great big dead hut. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:11:58] Speaker A: Skier kills some nihil. The gas, you know, that was the hint. Nihil love gas. Huge gas fans. No one likes the gas better than they do. And they're like, whoa, dude, can you be a less Trandoshan for a second? And he's like, the nihil suck. But yeah, sorry about that, team. Team Keefe goes to Avar Chris to drop the deadhead off at Starlight Beacon for a very large smelly autopsy performed by sentient glob in a spacesuit. Jedi Master Orbalin, along with Vernesta Row and her new Padawan, Emory Canteros. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Yay, team. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Keev then heads on down to Century Minor, where they where it turns out people are going missing left and right. After a bit of investigating, they get kidnapped by Drangir, and Sarah gets real messed up. Taric is therefore also really messed up because psychic bomb thing. Yeah. Skier bonds with the Drangir and they give him a new plant arm because he's missing an arm from the Battle of Kirk. So now he's got a new plant arm like he's some sort of mismatched action figure, and he seems to be on their side. Then, surprise. He uses their new plant arm to channel the Force, free his homies, and Avar Kris jumps in the air and slices through the Drengir right down the middle as they escape. But when they get out, the Hutts are there and they're like, rejoice. The Hutt Cartel is now owns this planet. Suck it. [00:12:55] Speaker B: Yay. [00:12:56] Speaker A: Rancors and everything come out of the ship and it's awesome. And they fight and it's great. And there's lots of cool action shots and it was lovely. Then suddenly Drengir are popping out. They're popping out all over the galaxy. It's a Drengir pop up fest. The hut being autopsied back on the station has a Drengir inside of it. Oh, no. Orbiline and Vernon Imry now have to fight it. Back on Sedri Minor, the Hutts and the Jedi united against a common foe, create an uneasy alliance. Then Keeve approaches a Jedi. Messed up. Sorry. Then Keev approaches a pretty messed up skier and he's like, the reason I screamed at the end of issue one is because I'm losing my connection to the Force and. And I was trying to get in the head of the Drengir when I joined him and get this cool arm, which has been great for the whole. Doing the whole I am Groot action sequences. But it's more than that. They also helped me get some of my Force powers and I kind of liked it. And she's like, dude, if they connect to you, maybe we can connect to them. Communication is a two way street. So she gets in their heads and is all like, yo, the food you're looking for is pretty gross and you don't want to eat any of it. And the Drenger decide to go look for it elsewhere. And Orbalyn and Ventaros, which is what I'm calling Vernestra and Amy Kantaros from now on, subdue the Drangir and the Hutts and the Jedi take out what they can with theirs. And now Skier is injured real bad and he might die. Oh, no. And that's what you missed on wave one. Yeah, yeah. Basically everything that happened in wave one. And when I say basically, I mean basically. Like, we did gloss over some things. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Which you can hear about in our previous episodes. [00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah, and our previous episodes are way more thorough on exactly what happened. And we're like going. I mean, we're not going page by page, but sometimes during good action sequences, we will page. Yeah. Anyway, so that brings us to wave two. Wave two is, like we said, beefy. [00:14:28] Speaker B: Because it now expands the story of all the characters that have been introduced. It introduces more characters. We get some really cool plot points and action sequences and Jedi stuff and Drengir stuff and more Nihil stuff. [00:14:42] Speaker A: Yeah. I actually really appreciate. Because the first. The first books are like the Wave 1 books are. You know, they're obviously very Jedi focused, and there is some Niall stuff. But when I was putting together the list this afternoon of. Of, like, every character I could think of, I was like, what do the. What are these main Nile appear in? And I realized they're in every book. Like, they are actually more of a through line for this entire story than the Jedi, than any individual Jedi, because the Jedi are. There's so many of them. But also, like, how the Overarch, because they're such an overarching threat, they're like. [00:15:15] Speaker B: They really are over everything. [00:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah, They're. They're a constant, which I really like. [00:15:19] Speaker B: And only one story doesn't have them, but it's. Because it's a prequel story. But we'll get into that. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Which one's that? [00:15:24] Speaker B: Monster Temple Peak. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Yeah. And no, I guess Edge of Balance has one, too. [00:15:29] Speaker B: They're in there, too. Oh, that's more Drangir. Well, it's a little bit of both because it happens after. [00:15:34] Speaker A: It's also because they're. They're. They're refugees from the Great Disaster. [00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:38] Speaker A: So. [00:15:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:39] Speaker A: Anyway, do you want to take on this document or do you. How do you want to do this? [00:15:45] Speaker B: Let's. Let's start with the books that are included in phase. [00:15:49] Speaker A: Yeah, let's. Let's talk the technical side before we get into any more lore. [00:15:53] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. So the way we broke this up in our handy dandy note section, we have books in Wave two, mostly in chronological order. We'll kind of go through it as we go. But the big crux of Wave two is the Republic Fair. [00:16:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:09] Speaker B: And so what we did was we. We took the stories that happened pre Fair, and then we have the Fair itself and everything that happens in all that situation, and then we have the Fair aftermath, which is a pretty decent chunk of stuff. [00:16:22] Speaker A: It's interesting because it's a big chunk, and it feels like the Faire is the big crux of it all. But the aftermath, because of how much of it has to do with the events of the Faire itself. It's like a looming shadow at that point. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Definitely. Yeah. And up till this point, the Nihil are just thought of as defeated at the end of Light of the Jedi, and now they're dealing with the Dringir. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is a much more present threat. [00:16:46] Speaker B: Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of where we're at. So we have a few comics that take place beforehand. We have our Republic High Republic Adventures. [00:16:54] Speaker A: Yep. [00:16:55] Speaker B: And then we have our Marvel High Republic Mainline. Those deal with more the fallout of the Drengir battles. And also the Drengir itself and the Nihil again are thought to be defeated at that point. And so they're just kind of like, ignored because they're not really around too much. Markion Roe is definitely building up his forces behind the scenes and making some plans, which. [00:17:17] Speaker A: More on that next week when we get into the Rising Storm. Because there's a lot of, like, machinations happening there. [00:17:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So pre Fair, we have Starlight Hidden Danger, which is one of the short stories. [00:17:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:17:30] Speaker B: And then we have the comic books, both High Republic Adventures and High Republic Mainline. And now there is a miniseries that came out called High Republic Adventures Monster at Temple Peak, four issues. It's great. And it's a prequel story to one of the characters that gets introduced in the Rising Storm. So there's two ways you can read it. With the way the Rising Storm plays up, this character is very much a mystery. [00:17:51] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:52] Speaker B: So some people, like. I don't know, because when I read it, I don't know how it is going for you right now. I. I felt like the mystery reveal wasn't that big of a deal, and that's why I put the book first. [00:18:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:03] Speaker B: And that's why a lot of the Internet does too. [00:18:05] Speaker A: And when I read it, I read the Monster Temple Peak. That gives the reveal. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:10] Speaker A: Like, first. [00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:11] Speaker A: I read that before I read the Rising Storm. [00:18:13] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:14] Speaker A: And I don't. I see what they're trying to do for the reveal. [00:18:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:18] Speaker A: But it didn't. [00:18:19] Speaker B: It didn't hit or land for me and for a lot of people on the Internet, because this was kind of a debated on the. The High Republic subreddit. [00:18:26] Speaker A: I almost feel like the best place for it. And I hate that I'm suggesting this because I feel like I'm always suggesting this. I feel like the best place to read it is in the middle. Like, let it still be the Reveal. But like, immediately jumping to that after the incident in the third story of the bar, that's when you go, okay, who is this lady, really? And then reading a Monster at Temple Peak and then coming. [00:18:51] Speaker B: Too much work. [00:18:52] Speaker A: But it's so much work. [00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:53] Speaker A: And that's why it's not really like, I feel like if the story had jumped there. But that is one of my very few complaints about any of the High Republic books is the Rising Storm specifically feels like it's too reliant on the other media. That's happening simultaneously, spontaneously, kind of. And more on that in a minute. [00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:11] Speaker A: Anyway, so I. I think reading it before is fine. [00:19:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:15] Speaker A: I. I can't tell you what it's like to read it afterwards, because I didn't. [00:19:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And that's how I read it. [00:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Because it was. [00:19:21] Speaker A: For you. It didn't land. [00:19:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And. Yeah. So the. Yeah. When it. The character. Because the character also shows up and showdown at the fair and Race to Crash Point Tower. So then we have the fair itself. Oh, it's going to be great. Which is all pretty much in the Rising Storm. And that just tells the tale of what's happening at the fair. And then things that lead up to it. We get introduced to a few more Jedi. We get a lot more Niall backstory. [00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:47] Speaker B: And what they've been up to the last couple months, especially this is months. [00:19:50] Speaker A: After everything that happened in Wave one. [00:19:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And then we also have Race to Crashpoint Tower, which is our young reader book. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:56] Speaker B: And this one happens. It's on the same planet that the fair is going on at. And it shows a little more behind the scenes. [00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:04] Speaker B: But from a different character's point of view. And it does tie into the main book at large. So it's almost like dlc. [00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah. There are moments that happen in the Rising Storm that's. That directly reference a Race to Crash Point Tower, and they try to kind of like, not get too into the details about it because they don't want it to feel super relevant. [00:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah. But it totally is like me. Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker A: Literally, there's characters that are like, oh, that problem was solved. [00:20:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:34] Speaker A: I ran into some people and things are okay. And if that were to be a line in a book that didn't have an, like, an additional story elsewhere, you'd be like, that's how you solved it. But that off screen. Yeah. Are you serious right now? Don't do that. That's not okay. And the reality is, is there is a place where you can go see them solve the problem, but it's in a completely different book. So they try to kind of play it off. Like, it's not necessarily, like, required, but in my opinion. And I'm going to do this on my read through that I'm going through right now. [00:21:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:01] Speaker A: You got to take a break from Rising Storm, read Race, Crash Point Tower, and then come back. [00:21:05] Speaker B: Or. Bits and pieces. I mean, I would split up, but. Yeah. [00:21:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Breaking down the bits and Pieces maybe. I mean, at least start the book before the prison scene, jail cell scene, and then stop at the jail cell scene. Watch some more, read. [00:21:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:20] Speaker A: Back or something. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:22] Speaker A: You know, I'm not asking you to like switch every other chapter or anything, but I do think there kind of needs to be a little bit of a joint reading. Yeah. Like. Yeah, yeah. You gotta. You gotta kind of do both at the same time a little bit. [00:21:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So then we also have the fun showdown at the fair. Now this is the children's picture book. [00:21:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:41] Speaker B: And there's three of them for phase one, but nothing else. No, no other phases. Which is kind of a bummer. [00:21:46] Speaker A: That is kind of a bummer. [00:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah. I really liked them. There's cool stickers in them. [00:21:50] Speaker A: There were cool stickers. [00:21:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Big fan of cool stickers. [00:21:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Yeah. [00:21:53] Speaker A: But it's a good sticker book. [00:21:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So it shows. It shows what happens at the fair. And there's a zoo scene, but it's. It's all from Berry Aga's point of view. [00:22:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:22:01] Speaker B: Which we love. And then next we have our High Republic Adventures free comic book day issue. [00:22:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:06] Speaker B: And this is all again, more just stuff happening during the fair. [00:22:10] Speaker A: Okay. [00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I won't get into too many details there because it's a fairly short book with our favorite characters from High Republic Adventures. [00:22:17] Speaker A: Hooray. [00:22:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So now that the fair has happened, it's time for the aftermath. [00:22:22] Speaker A: So, yeah, the fair was like. I don't want to get too much into the details of what happened at the fair, but it was not a good time. Was not necessarily had by all. [00:22:31] Speaker B: No. [00:22:32] Speaker A: And some people are upset about that. [00:22:34] Speaker B: Yeah, rightfully so. [00:22:35] Speaker A: And that is what the subject of most of the aftermath really is. Then what happened? [00:22:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:22:42] Speaker A: So now what? [00:22:43] Speaker B: Now what? Yeah. So we have our High Republic comic book, our mainline comic book. A lot of those characters are not at the fair, but they're hearing about it. [00:22:53] Speaker A: Yes. That is. This is kind of the. The. We didn't really discuss this quite yet, but yeah. The way Wave two is the splitting of the party, for sure. [00:23:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a big galaxy and so word, we're catching up on what everybody's doing around the galaxy. Yeah. So we have that. We have the edge of balance, number one, which is our manga of the series. [00:23:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:13] Speaker B: And great. Introduces a few new characters. We get a few cameos from a few well known characters that we have already. [00:23:20] Speaker A: It does start sooner than the fair aftermath. Like it starts beforehand. [00:23:27] Speaker B: Starts beforehand. Yeah. [00:23:28] Speaker A: There's so many huge spoilers about the fair that you're just gonna have to treat those first couple of pages as a flashback. [00:23:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is fine. Yeah, it's easy. But they also deal with some drunk gear issues. So there's a lot going on. But it's really fun. Awesome characters. And yeah, we have that. We also have the kind of side story of the Halcyon Legacy. [00:23:46] Speaker A: Heck yes. [00:23:47] Speaker B: The Halcyon Legacy issue with Bariaga. So this was a miniseries that Marvel Comics put out and it dealt with. [00:23:56] Speaker A: Remember the Star Wars Hotel? [00:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So when that first launched, they put out a comic book to kind of help hype it up and include it in the main Star wars lore. There's an overarching story going on and each issue takes place with a. A story being told that's relevant to what's going on in the main story from different eras of Star Wars. So our first one, we have Berryaga hanging out on the Halcyon Legacy and Halcyon Cruise. Halcyon Cruiser. [00:24:24] Speaker A: The Halcyon cruiser shows up more than once too. The Halcyon cruiser does show up again. Yeah. Spoilers. But like, this is not. This. This ship is not. This is not a one off. [00:24:35] Speaker B: No, not at all. Yeah. [00:24:36] Speaker A: And you know what? You get to enjoy this for probably 3 to $5 if you can find it in the shop somewhere. [00:24:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:43] Speaker A: And I mean, you could literally buy a thousand of those and it would cost you how much it would have cost you to go to the hotel. [00:24:52] Speaker B: That's our favorite inside joke with some of our friends. Anyways. Yeah. [00:24:56] Speaker A: So if you get it at a dollar bin, you can buy 5,000. [00:24:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:00] Speaker A: Carry on. [00:25:01] Speaker B: So this story isn't necessarily super important to the High Republic in general, but it's such a fun story. [00:25:07] Speaker A: And. [00:25:07] Speaker B: And we love Barry Yaga. [00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And it's. If you are looking to just kind of build that out and if you want to read literally everything that's happening within the High Republic and hasn't happened, you know, it's a nice berry aga. And. And Nibisi. [00:25:18] Speaker B: Like, definitely. [00:25:19] Speaker A: I'm a big fan of Nipsey. [00:25:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So then next we have Deck the Halls, which is a Life Day story from The Life Day 1 shot comic from Marvel. [00:25:28] Speaker A: I have to say, if. If you find any joy in Life Day at all, which I. I don't know why I'm such a sucker for. I do, absolutely. I think it's because my dad really likes the holiday. It makes it just a little bit more magical for me. But that entire special with, like, the chewy stories and all the stuff with, like, Han and everything else and, like, the little stuff. I think there's not. I think there's even a batuu story on that. [00:25:50] Speaker B: I think there might be. Yeah. [00:25:51] Speaker A: It's so cute. [00:25:52] Speaker B: It's so damn thing. [00:25:53] Speaker A: So. The whole dang thing is so cute. Anyway, Carrie, carry on. [00:25:57] Speaker B: So next we have High Republic Trail of Shadows. [00:26:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:01] Speaker B: So we won't get into this too much right now because it's. It's based off the very end of the. The Rising Storm. And some nonsense happens. [00:26:09] Speaker A: I'm gonna tell you right now, if you plan on looking in any comic book, just flipping through it, don't open this comic book. Do not open this comic book until you have read the Rising Storm because the first page of that comic book is major spoilers. Is a. And it's just a trauma bomb. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:26] Speaker A: Anyway, carry on. [00:26:27] Speaker B: Yeah. You'll probably be seeing it quite a few times within. [00:26:30] Speaker A: Oh, you will. It'll continue to show up somehow. [00:26:32] Speaker B: It's great. It's wonderful. So sad every time. And then we have our young adult book, out of the Shadows. [00:26:40] Speaker A: I liked out of the Shadows. [00:26:41] Speaker B: I did too. Yeah. [00:26:42] Speaker A: I'm really excited to dive back into that one in a bit. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have Vernestra and. [00:26:48] Speaker A: New characters. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Some new characters. And they're all on. [00:26:51] Speaker A: They're all on Sill Ship. [00:26:52] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. [00:26:53] Speaker A: And then they're on the Resplendent Pearl. Yeah. But we get a lot of really neat. We. We start to weave the tapestry of how did the hyperspace lane. Like, how did. How did the hyperspace lanes. And what are some of the things that were happening during what will end up being phase two happened? That kind of led and put some groundwork down. [00:27:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. We get some more nihil background, some inner workings. [00:27:20] Speaker A: We also see some. We get to find out the rival family to the Santekas. [00:27:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:24] Speaker A: Which are the graphs and see how they all came into play too. [00:27:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So some really cool. Just Star wars lore build. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:27:31] Speaker B: Fun stuff. Then we're back to our High Republic adventure comics. [00:27:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Then that's Trailer Shadows two. Okay, so technically, Trail of Shadows issue number two comes after the events. [00:27:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Trail of Shadows just. It's. It's sprinkled in through the last half of wave two, and then wave three, and then slightly after it's one of the last stories, finishes up in wave three. [00:27:53] Speaker A: Gotcha. So it's kind of a. Yeah, yeah. [00:27:56] Speaker B: It's Sprinkled in each story. Yeah. And then we go to High Republic adventures. I've got a few stories there. I believe this is the Maz Kanata Sav Mall again. Sav Mall Again intro. Great stuff. And then we're off to our short stories from the Star Wars Insider with Starlight Past mistakes. [00:28:14] Speaker A: Past mistakes. I think I do. I know. [00:28:16] Speaker B: I don't know if I read these two yet, so it'd be fun to get there. [00:28:19] Speaker A: The Starlight stories. Those are the short stories once again, that all were in Insider magazine that all revolve around a couple of minor like security. Like a security. That's like a head. That's the chief of security, an aide to the controller of Starlight Beacon. So they're very much kind of employees on the Beacon, doing their job and dealing with stuff. Yeah. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Non Jedi, non Republic force. [00:28:43] Speaker A: They deal with a lot of Jedi stuff, which is cool. There's a lot of inner. They all work together, come through. But it's kind of from a certain point of view of the High Republic. [00:28:51] Speaker B: Very much so, yeah. And we finish up Wave two with our audiobook, Tempest Runner. [00:28:56] Speaker A: Audio drama. Really? [00:28:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, Audio drama, definitely. [00:28:59] Speaker A: Full cast. [00:29:00] Speaker B: Yeah, full cast. It's what, five, six hours long thereabouts. Yeah. [00:29:04] Speaker A: But it's a full bike ride. [00:29:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Full cast music, sound effects, the whole shebang. Yeah, it's great. We get some really fun background on Lorna Deep. [00:29:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:13] Speaker B: And then just some more Nihil stuff, some more Jedi stuff. [00:29:16] Speaker A: Some conclusions to certain other character stories that had not quite come to their end yet. And then Mark Thompson is back to reprise his role as Pan Ada. And Mark Yonro helped give these characters. Yeah. [00:29:27] Speaker B: Characters voice, like an actual voice. [00:29:29] Speaker A: But like. Like Mark Thompson, I want to say icon. Like this is really an iconic thing. Like Mark Thompson's version of these characters voices was what everybody wants. Oh, yeah. And you know, he's obviously not going to play Lorna D in a Lorna D drama when you can hire a woman to actually voice a woman. [00:29:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:44] Speaker A: But Pan Ada is very distinct. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:29:48] Speaker A: And Mark Yonro is very distinct. So when their characters show up, Mark Thompson gets to reprise those roles as just the. The actor instead of, you know, necessarily being the narrator. Although I'm pretty sure he is also like part one. Oh, I'm doing that thing again too. [00:30:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:07] Speaker A: Anyway, yeah, I love the Tempest Runner. I really, really can't wait to revisit it a second time. Yeah. [00:30:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's the pre Fair books. The fair books. And then Fair Aftermath Yes. So a lot of good stuff in there. [00:30:20] Speaker A: So we have a bunch of old characters returning, obviously, because we. We know a bun. Characters from wave one. A lot of familiar faces are showing up. Some people from wave one that seemed really important aren't back for wave two. You're not going to see Jocelyn Pickett, Adrian. You're not going to see Kvintar. You're probably not going to see a couple of Jedi that you were really enjoying, and you're definitely not going to see the Jedi who died. But we do have a bunch of new characters. We've got rill, Dyro, and T9. We've got kit Rep. So John Lorene, Ty Yorick, Mantessa. Check it. Clarence Ram, Jammaram Sarn, Starbreaker, Zetar, Udi Disk, Kufa, Sylvester Yarrow, Nito, Janajana, M227, Zyland Graff, Emrakaftor, Saiyan Holt, Sav Malagan, and Mask. So those are, like, important, you know, I guess. But we should probably actually, like, break it down differently because the galaxy's being split up in so many different ways. There's. You got to kind of remember who everyone is, but where they all are now is kind of more important. So, first, Starlight Beacon. The marshal of Starlight Beacon is Avar Kriss. The head of operations is Astalomaru, and he's a badass. And he shows up in comics. Young Jedi Adventures. [00:31:20] Speaker B: Yes. [00:31:21] Speaker A: And, yeah, the chief archivist is a man named Orbalin, who is not a sentient fart. It turns out he's actually more of a sentient booger. Yeah, because he's a blob of mucus, not a gaseous form. Yeah, and I was mistaken when I said that he was more of a sentient fart last time, so I apologize. You've got the controller. He's a guy named Rodor Keen. The head of security is Gal Tarpfin. She's a Mon Calamari. And then the aid to Rotor Keen is Velko Jaen. And also on the Starlight Beacon, there's a professor, Shanar Kwasba, who's the head of the Agricultural alliance, and he is currently teaching under his tutelage, Avon Staros, the daughter of Kira Staros, who we'll talk about in a second. And of course, J6 her not so into following protocol. Protocol. Nanny Droid is Nanny. [00:32:12] Speaker B: Security droid. [00:32:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, she's also there. Then there's Team Drengir, which includes Avar Kris. Avar Kris is kind of leading the charge in the fight against the Drengir. Now she's like, I'm going to take on the Drengir threat. But she's also supposed to be the marshal of Starlight Beacon. [00:32:25] Speaker B: Yeah. She's splitting her time sometimes a little more in the field than on the beacon. [00:32:29] Speaker A: And certain other Jedi might not be too thrilled about that, but you'll find that out when you read. Skier is on said team as well, along with his former Padawan, now Jedi Knight Keev Keeve Trennis, and then Cerrit and Taric, the Force bond twins, who are connected somewhat because of their species, somewhat because of the Force, but they're a sort of almost hive mind of just of two. And then. May I go the hut, because. [00:32:52] Speaker B: Why not? [00:32:53] Speaker A: Because there's a hut on the team now, and I love a good hut. With her cool robot arms. Yeah. And her rancor and various other things that are at her disposal. [00:33:01] Speaker B: Very cool. Team up. [00:33:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Honestly. And it's interesting to see how many people are upset about it and how many people are apologists for it. And it comes up a lot within. Within the. [00:33:12] Speaker B: Within the story, I suppose, on the Internet, too, you know. [00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. And then we have the Padawan pals, which is what I call the High Republic adventure characters, which is Torben, Buck, Cantum, Sai, and Ober Glee, who are three masters. Farzala, Tarball, and Bibs, who are knights. And then Court and Lula Talosola, who are Padawans, and then Zin Morala, who can't be a Padawan because she's too old, but she's Force sensitive, and she and Lula are very, very connected. [00:33:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:38] Speaker B: And I feel like they're. The Jedi are being cool. They're like, we know you're Force sensitive, and we want to. If we want to guide you on the path, we can't train you as a Jedi. But, like, if you want to join for meditation every once in a while, that's cool. [00:33:48] Speaker A: And she's. She's getting a lot of the, like, stoicism without the, like, combat training. But also just like, here's how you're going to handle this. You're never going to be a full Jedi because there's no way you can't have attachments as old as you are. [00:34:01] Speaker B: That whole thing. [00:34:02] Speaker A: That whole thing. Then there's the Council, Grand Masters of the Council. Grandmaster Yoda, he went down with those mines. [00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And we still haven't seen him since. [00:34:10] Speaker A: We have no idea where Grandmaster Yoda is. Grandmaster Pratri Veder, he's a. I don't know. He's. He's got a real weird looking face, but he's real. I think he's look. I think he looks really cool. He looks kind of like. I don't know, kind of like a weird demony type thing. And then Zolaru, who was also a grandmaster, and I don't know anything about Zolaru, but he's been around a lot. He's been around a lot. Then there's Adampo and Charo, Roy and Soleil Agra. [00:34:36] Speaker B: This guy. [00:34:38] Speaker A: Oh, Zolalu's the Zolaru is the. The pterodactyl face. [00:34:42] Speaker B: Yes. [00:34:43] Speaker A: So you got pterodactyl face. And then Adampo and Shar Roy and Soleil Agra and Yariel Poof, who you might remember from the prequels. Opal Rancisis, who you might remember from the prequels. Stellan Gios is now on the Council because his former master, Reina Kant, can't be there anymore because she's dead. And then there's Ry Kaka, who came on after Joram Ali's untimely death in the Battle of Kerr. And then finally there's Terry Rose. Sason. We don't like Terry Rose. So basically, the Council hasn't really changed from wave one, except that Ry Ki Saka and now Stellan are both on the Council now. And Stellan belongs on the Council. He's very. He's an obvious choice. Then we have Republic officials. So we got Lina. So we already know her. She's the Chancellor. She's got a son, and his name's Kit Rep. So. And he gets introduced in the Rising Storm. Noro Quo is her attendant, and Laura Brezza is her deputy. I assume it's kind of like deputy mayor kind of thing. Senator Norris from Sereno. That's where Count Dooku is from. That's kind of cool. [00:35:38] Speaker B: He's from the One Thing. [00:35:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he's the guy from the thing. Yeah. Senator Vadu is from Findar. You remember Fendar? [00:35:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. [00:35:46] Speaker A: No, no, I have no idea what Fender is. I have no idea at all. Then Senator Tia Toon, he's a sullist, and he's got a secretary who's an Osri Alonso named Rotko and is a huge beefy man. And then Senator Girostaros, she's from Hosnian Prime. Hosnian prime is the planet that got blown up. It is a planet that got blown up. [00:36:05] Speaker B: HORSE AWAKENS but it's fine here. [00:36:07] Speaker A: It's fine here. Hockey Prime's still around here. Ambassador Tis is from Shili. That's the Togruta homeworld. And Regasa Yovet is the Togruta Queen of the United Tribes. [00:36:16] Speaker B: We like her. [00:36:17] Speaker A: She's super freaking cool. Yeah, she. She walks barefoot everywhere so that she can be in contact with the land of whatever planet she's on because she views it as a sacred thing. And I think that's heck of cool. And then real Dairo and T9. Real Dairo is a reporter with a cybernetic implant, kind of like Lobot, but it's over her, like, face, and it gives her a direct link with her cam droid called T9. So she is reporter and cameraman, camera person at the same time, which is Nito burrito, as the cool kids say. Since we're. We're doing pre fair stuff leading to the fair we have on Valo, specifically, we have Mayor Nos Lorene and her son Jom. Jom Lorene is making eyes at Kit rep. And more on that later. And then Idrax Snat, he's a Valo security force captain. He's a Neimoidian. And Samira Rayoun is the head of the Republic Fair. And if Mark Thompson's reading her, then she's got a cool Irish accent. And then Ram Jammaram is an antisocial Jedi Padawan who would rather work in his shop and hang out with his friends. The bomb racks. [00:37:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And he's. He's actually stationed and was born on Valo. [00:37:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So there's a Jedi Temple on Vallow, and that's where he's hanging out at. [00:37:30] Speaker A: Wait, he was born there too? [00:37:31] Speaker B: I think so. [00:37:32] Speaker A: That's so strange. That's not very common. Usually it's like, get them away from their planet. But. [00:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. [00:37:37] Speaker A: I don't know. Planets are big. Maybe. Maybe somebody in Star wars knows this. Yeah, and he hangs out with the Bomb Brax. And they're crass little guys that are also native to Valo and they swear a lot and they're like organic pit droids, basically. [00:37:51] Speaker B: Yeah, basically. [00:37:52] Speaker A: And then he has a boxy little droid who also has too many upgrades, much like J6 named V18. Other good guy characters. Real quick. We got Elzar man. Yeah, he's the unorthodox Jedi from the first wave who did weather tricks. Oh, and he's seeing dark visions. Yeah, that's a big deal. He's getting. He knows. He sees a Tholothian and a man and a woman, and he sees a darkness and he knows something's going on. [00:38:14] Speaker B: And he's got a bad feeling about this. [00:38:16] Speaker A: He's got multiple bad feelings about this. Is. [00:38:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:19] Speaker A: And then Nivaseek is Bereaga's master and Bereaga Agaburi, who is Nib's Wookiee padawan. He's super empathic and we adore him. [00:38:28] Speaker B: Yes. [00:38:29] Speaker A: Bell Zedaphar. He's a Jedi Padawan of Indira Stokes right now because he doesn't want to become a knight until Loden gets back. And he's pretty sure that Loden Great Storm isn't dead. And then he's got a charhound named Ember. And then there's Indira Stokes and she is the Jedi Master to Belle because it doesn't want to get knighted. And she's pretty sure Loading Great Storm is dead. Then there's Porter Engle. He's the Blade of Bardota. He's a one eyed, shaved down, horn, Santa looking guy. And he's not tactful. And I didn't realize that this, this isn't something I feel like they really did in the books. He's a Tank for sure, but he's also like, he says things that are like a little out of pocket. [00:39:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:39:06] Speaker A: Like, hey, you can't just say that. He's like, oh man, thought I was going to be like loading back there. And everyone's like, bro. Mika Supmani is an Ithorian Jedi. That's the guy's name. He was there at Hetzal with Nivaseq. He was at the Battle of Kerr with Jocelyn Pica and. And now he's at the Republic Fair because he's a badass pilot. [00:39:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker A: He's part of the air show because. [00:39:27] Speaker B: There'S an show, because it's a fair. Because it's a fair good time. [00:39:31] Speaker A: So he's off, you know, flying with the Jedi vectors. The blue. Yeah, the vectors and the vector version of the Blue Angels. Yeah, you know, from the moons of Iego, I think. Yeah. Then there's Vernesta Rowe and Imri Khan Taros, who are now knight and Padawan, and Wreath Silas and Comic Vitus, who are now Master and Padawan, not in that order. And then there's Arkoff. Yeah, you know way more about Arkoff than I do, I feel like. [00:39:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Archive is one of my favorites. But he's one of the Jedi Masters that was introduced in Edge of Balance. Edge of Balance. [00:40:06] Speaker A: Oh, in the manga. [00:40:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's there and he actually plays a really big role kind of going forward in things. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:14] Speaker B: Maybe not so much in the main books, but he's definitely around and if I say anything else, it'll be spoilers. [00:40:19] Speaker A: So there's a lot I want to talk about. [00:40:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:22] Speaker A: Keep an eye on Arkoff. [00:40:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:24] Speaker A: He's got some things going on. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:26] Speaker A: His former padawan. [00:40:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Lily Torah, Asi. And she's helping run the Banshee. Banshee. Banshee. I don't know. Temple. And again, this is where a lot of refugees are starting to head. [00:40:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Refugees from the Great Disaster. Remember the Great Disaster? That was a thing. Well, now there's fallout to the Great Disaster. Yeah. But she's, she's helping get the, like, new temple established. [00:40:50] Speaker B: Yes. [00:40:51] Speaker A: And then she's got a padawan. [00:40:53] Speaker B: Yes, Kieran. [00:40:54] Speaker A: And Kieran is her padawan. [00:40:56] Speaker B: He's a cool guy. He's there. [00:40:57] Speaker A: That's. That's really all you need to know going in. That's all you need. [00:40:59] Speaker B: Now then there's Ty Yorick, one of my favorites. [00:41:03] Speaker A: She's a Tholothian like Indira Stokes and like Adi Gulia. Is that Adi Galia? Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah. Like Adi Galea. And from the prequels. From the prequels. Yeah. And she is. And she's got a past. And depending on whether you read Rising Storm or the Monster of Temple Peak first, you will find out that past at one point or another. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she's sassy. [00:41:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:41:27] Speaker A: And I really, I think she's one of my favorite characters from Wave two. [00:41:31] Speaker B: Oh, she's. She's one of my favorite characters in general. [00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:34] Speaker B: I mean, my whole long list of, you know, 20 favorite characters. [00:41:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:39] Speaker B: But like, she's definitely up there. [00:41:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And loosely tied to her, our man Tessa. Checkout who's a Dr. Evil sounding adventure man, Tessa. Like, I just want her to put a pinky to her mouth all the time. Are you Thai Yorick? I want 100 million credits. My apologies to Mark Thompson. And then Claren is her daughter and Mantis is like an inventor and Clarence also has some inventing skills and they're techie. Yeah. So yeah, they're Kuranu, their new species for this. Was this species introduced in this book? [00:42:15] Speaker B: Yep. [00:42:15] Speaker A: Oh, that's exciting. [00:42:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:16] Speaker A: A good new species. And yeah, they're. They're a mom and daughter and they're, they're very. They're germaphobic. [00:42:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:22] Speaker A: Which was interesting. And then there's Sylvester Yarrow. She'll come up later. She's the daughter of A now dead chance Yarrow Chanciaro died in some sort of Nile raid and they lost their ship. And that was sad. And then there's Xylen Graff and he's a rich fancy man with rich fancy man money. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:42:41] Speaker A: And then there's Catriona Graff and she's a richer fancy lady with even more fancy lady money. She's the like matriarch of the graph family. You'll learn about the graph family in that story. I feel like front loading. It is kind of unnecessary. [00:42:53] Speaker B: But there is all. And out of the shadows. [00:42:54] Speaker A: This is all out of the shadow stuff. Jordana Sparkburn, She's a sheriff in the Santeca territories. And I believe she actually is technically a satanic. [00:43:02] Speaker B: She's a cousin. [00:43:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. And then she's got her own charhound. It's not a charhound. In fact, it's an electric cat. It's basically a jolteon. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:10] Speaker A: And they are nearly extinct because they've been hunted down by not so cool scientists who want to team rocket. They camouflage, basically. You mean. [00:43:20] Speaker B: Sorry, A successful team rocket. [00:43:21] Speaker A: A successful team rocket, yes. And then there's Thaddeus Wolk, who is a Gungan professor of hyperspace science and love it. He does not have the typical Gunganese accent, which I think is kind of cool. And I think they even remark about it. [00:43:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:36] Speaker A: That he's like. Yeah, I don't talk like that. [00:43:39] Speaker B: And then he worked on it. I think. [00:43:40] Speaker A: I think he did. I think he had to. Yeah. And then there's AFI Hollow and Leox and Geode, who are the captain, the man and navigator. And of course, Geode is the Casanova of the vessel. And then after that, the only bad guy characters left. Yeah, the bad guys. So we have our Drangir, we have the drain gear. [00:43:59] Speaker B: They're still around. [00:44:00] Speaker A: They are very much still around. Those are the plantzillas that I kept bringing up. They are still seeded across the galaxy and showing up. And the rumors going around the galaxy is that some whole planets have been lost. [00:44:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Now Hutta is apparently overrun with plants and they're struggling in general. That's the hut home planet for those of you who don't know that. And so, yeah, the drain gear threat is very severe, very real. And then. Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. I didn't even put them in the whole, like, list. And then there's the Nile. [00:44:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:29] Speaker A: Would you like to take it away? [00:44:30] Speaker B: Yeah. We got Mark Yon Row, who's definitely stepping up as the eye of the storm. And do the Jedi know this? We don't know. You'll have to keep reading. Yeah, we have. [00:44:37] Speaker A: He's also having them lay low. [00:44:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:40] Speaker A: During this period he's like basically ordered no major raids. Nothing that's gonna draw attention. Yeah. We need them to have their false sense of security. [00:44:48] Speaker B: All part of the plan. [00:44:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And then of course he's got his old lady who's been now exposed. He's got Mari san Tekka hanging out in his. She's basically an old lady who's so ancient that bacta is basically keeping her life alive and her soul hasn't left her body. Yeah. Effectively. It's real messed up. [00:45:06] Speaker B: It's. Yeah. [00:45:07] Speaker A: He even remarks about how he almost accidentally destroyed Hetzal with his legacy run plan at the very end of Light of the Jedi. Yeah, this would have been bad because he needs bacta to keep her alive. [00:45:17] Speaker B: Comes from. Yeah, yeah. [00:45:19] Speaker A: And then he's also got Dr. Utterson who is his like little chadra fan. [00:45:23] Speaker B: Right. [00:45:24] Speaker A: Bat eared, bat faced bat headed mad scientist. [00:45:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You could see them in the phase one comic Prelude. The gaze electric from hyperspace stories. So you get a good visual in that book. [00:45:38] Speaker A: Okay, so there's all them and then oodie this. Who dis Nooni hill Odi dis. [00:45:45] Speaker B: Yeah, Tell or tie. [00:45:46] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a tall or Thai. Yeah, like. Like the Ritu from Zelda. Like a giant birdman. [00:45:51] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. I'm like, I don't know that species, but I know. [00:45:55] Speaker A: Yeah, they're the big birdman people from Wind Waker. [00:45:57] Speaker B: Oh, that's right. I really need to reread that book. [00:46:00] Speaker A: Wind Waker. Oh, no, no. Yeah, yeah. He's a former addict and he's from Lorna's Tempest and now he gets to serve directly under Mark yon row. [00:46:11] Speaker B: Oh, good for him. [00:46:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. What a promotion. [00:46:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:13] Speaker A: What a. What a success story. [00:46:14] Speaker B: He's probably in for some good times. [00:46:17] Speaker A: I'm sure of it. [00:46:18] Speaker B: Then we got Chrix coming back. [00:46:19] Speaker A: Chrix is back. [00:46:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:21] Speaker A: We hate Cricks. [00:46:22] Speaker B: Yeah. We don't know. [00:46:23] Speaker A: Chrix is awful. That. Yeah, he's such a jerk. [00:46:25] Speaker B: Yeah. The worst. So he's still around. We also have the rest of the Tempest runners. [00:46:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So we still got Lauren AD running around still being all sketchy still though, because you know, she's cunning. Yeah. [00:46:40] Speaker A: She's vicious. She's very, very cunning. Very vicious. Very demure. [00:46:44] Speaker B: Then we got Panado. [00:46:45] Speaker A: He's also around trying to be as fancy as possible. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Yep. [00:46:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:49] Speaker A: He does not like how things are going in the Nile, and he does not trust Mark Yonro. [00:46:53] Speaker B: No, it's probably a smart idea. [00:46:55] Speaker A: Probably. Yeah. [00:46:57] Speaker B: We have Sarn Starbreaker. [00:46:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Up and coming. Cloud. [00:47:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:03] Speaker A: In the. [00:47:04] Speaker B: That whole hierarchy of Pan's Tempest. Yeah. [00:47:06] Speaker A: Cloud is directly under tempest, right? [00:47:08] Speaker B: I think so. [00:47:09] Speaker A: I think so. Because you got to have clouds inside of a tempest. Yeah, that makes sense. [00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:12] Speaker A: Okay. [00:47:12] Speaker B: It's all weather related. [00:47:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Because it's cloud, then strike. [00:47:15] Speaker B: Yes. [00:47:16] Speaker A: And then. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Anyways. [00:47:21] Speaker A: Thunder. [00:47:21] Speaker B: And then we have our Kassive replacement. Zetar. [00:47:25] Speaker A: Ztar is a Talpini in a mech suit. [00:47:27] Speaker B: Because he's short. [00:47:28] Speaker A: Because he's. Because t's are very small. But what's cool about Talpinis. And it's. It's interesting because this character does so much for the Nile. [00:47:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:37] Speaker A: Because he improved the path engines and he improved the scav droids. And, like, they don't give him any credit for it. [00:47:44] Speaker B: Not at all. [00:47:45] Speaker A: Scav droids become such an important part of the Nile process. [00:47:48] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:47:49] Speaker A: But, like, they got as quick as they did at tearing ships apart because of Zetar. [00:47:53] Speaker B: Mm. Yeah. And then finally, we have Nan. [00:47:56] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:47:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So she's back. We get a little more time and stories with her. [00:48:01] Speaker A: Yeah. You may remember her as the vicious lady from the Amaxing Station in Into the Dark. Yeah. [00:48:09] Speaker B: Reese's friend. [00:48:10] Speaker A: Reese's friend who said she would kill him if she ever saw him again. And that's basically all the characters. We have new planets and new ships and stuff. New planets is probably important, where things are going to go. There's an isle of seclusion on a planet called Ashla, and that's where you go when you need some serious meditation time. [00:48:26] Speaker B: Which is a moon of. [00:48:29] Speaker A: It's a moon. I didn't know that. Sorry. I know this is in the new planet section, but this is a moon. That's no planet. That's a moon. [00:48:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So Ashla is actually a moon of the planet Tython. [00:48:40] Speaker A: No way. Tython's like, old canon. [00:48:42] Speaker B: Important, old canon that got brought in with Mandalorian season two. Yeah. That was a fun planet where Boba Fett shows up. [00:48:51] Speaker A: Oh, and then Grogu gets taken at the ancient temple. [00:48:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or the scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's cool. But, yeah, this is the first appearance of the moon. But the moon was actually introduced in Expanded Universe legends stuff with dawn of the Jedi for Storm. [00:49:08] Speaker A: Neat. Which was a fun, neat story. That is super Cool. And then there's Valo, which we've mentioned several times now. Valo is the location of the Republic Fair, which is part of Lena so's great works. She wants to unite everyone and unite the galaxy and that's, you know, a thing. [00:49:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:23] Speaker A: Stronger together, that kind of stuff. Cyclore. I'd never heard of Cyclore before this, but it is the second biggest shipyard in the galaxy after Corellia. [00:49:33] Speaker B: Good for them. [00:49:34] Speaker A: So the Cyclorian shipyards are a big deal. And then Ristan is a mysterious planet with clues to Marchion's past. And that's all I'm gonna say about it. Might be Reistan or Rhys. Dan. Rhys. Stan. Anyway, Safrifa is a backwater, marshy planet with backwatery locals. [00:49:57] Speaker B: Florida. [00:49:57] Speaker A: Yeah. It's basically. Yeah. Tyre goes to Florida and has to deal with a big Florida gator. And then Gryzal is a jungly foresty planet that once held a large prison complex and is currently serving as the Loki secret base of the Nile because it's a little bit better fortified and they're worried they're going to get attacked because they drew a lot of attention to themselves. And then Banshee is a planet that's been used for relocation by those affected by the Great Disaster. And it shows up in the manga. And then TK is a small planet with a very small population, but it's out in the settler area. And that is where Jordana Sparkburn is currently serving as the sheriff. [00:50:44] Speaker B: Very nice. [00:50:45] Speaker A: Or serving as the deputy, I guess. Yeah, she's the law. She's the law. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Then we also have a little planet called Takodana. [00:50:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Takodana. [00:50:54] Speaker B: Featuring some of our favorite people, like. [00:50:56] Speaker A: Maz, because Maz Kanata is there. [00:50:58] Speaker B: Yeah, we have. She's still doing her pirate stuff. Well, I guess not still, because this is in the past, considering Force Awakens. But we get some more. A little more backstory on her and kind of what she's been up to. And then friends she's made and her castle. [00:51:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:51:12] Speaker B: And then the Jedi Temple across the street from the castle. [00:51:15] Speaker A: There's a Jedi Temple across the street from the castle? [00:51:18] Speaker B: I mean, it's a lake, not a street, but. [00:51:19] Speaker A: Yeah, across the lake. Yeah. I don't recall seeing a Jedi Temple across the lake when I was watching the Last Jedi. [00:51:25] Speaker B: Oh, no. I wonder what happened. [00:51:27] Speaker A: And then where else? There's also port. Haileep is back. Yeah, it's a port. [00:51:32] Speaker B: It's still a port. [00:51:32] Speaker A: It's still porting. Yeah, Good for it. And then there's the Great hall, which is not a planet, it's just a platform in no space. Yeah. With a big platform. So it's. With a big force field. [00:51:42] Speaker B: Yeah, still there. [00:51:43] Speaker A: So you can, you know, eat at the Great hall and feel like you're eating in the stars. Eat with the stars over at. [00:51:49] Speaker B: It's romantic, the Great Hall. Big nihil punk party. [00:51:52] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of. A lot of punk. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Not nearly as fancy as I made it sound. And then there's new ships. I love new ships if you're into ships. There's the Innovator, also part of Lina so's great works. The Innovator is like the Count. The. It's like part of two parts of the same hole as Starlight beacon. Yeah, Innovators, the ship that can go all over the place. Starlight beacon is not supposed to move that fast. [00:52:14] Speaker B: And it's like a science y research vessel that can go to planets and just check stuff out. So they talk about taking that heads all and checking out this new bacta thing and. Yeah, it's kind of got a bunch. [00:52:25] Speaker A: Of bacta, I think on it. Yeah, already. But like they're. They're going to. They describe the ship as a pioneer. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Like the starlight beacon is like the symbol of hope and it's great. But the real work is going to get done in the frontier thanks to the Starlight beacon, but it's going to be done by the Innovator and they're going to premiere the Innovator at the Republic Fair, which is also part of Lena so's great work. So like all of Lena so's plans are coming together and it's really, really exciting time. [00:52:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to be great. [00:52:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And then there's the Coruscant dawn where Lina so travels on. And there's the Open Hand. [00:53:00] Speaker B: Such a cool name for a ship. [00:53:01] Speaker A: Such a cool name. The Open Hand. Yes. This is the Open Hand. Ominous. I love that. Yeah, that's Kufa ship. Kufa is Marcion's cousin. [00:53:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:09] Speaker A: And you'll learn more about Kufa later. The Switchback is a ship that Silvestri lost when she and her mother were attacked. But it's really only like mentioned. So that's, you know. But it's still. It's another ship. It's cool. There's the Vengeful Goddess and that's an experimental ship by Zyland Graff or of Zyland Graffs and the Resplendent Pearl. Another fancy ship, that one. [00:53:30] Speaker B: For a fancy man. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Yeah, fancy ship for a fancy man. Like, imagine like the Love Boat. Like captain's quarters with curtains in it. That kind of thing. [00:53:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Lando's gonna be very jealous. [00:53:40] Speaker A: Yes. And then there's the Whisper Kill. [00:53:42] Speaker B: That's such a cool name, too, which. [00:53:44] Speaker A: Is a Nihil ship. And then there is a large space station, much like Starlight Beacon, possibly built by the same company called Everbloom. And that's really cool. And then there's other ships that we've already seen before. Starlight Beacon is still. That's the one on the logo. You remember that? The Ataraxia. That's Avar. Chris's ship. The Vessel. That's AFI hollow ship. [00:54:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:02] Speaker A: The Gaze Electric. That's Markion Ship. The Elegancia. That's Panada ship. And the Lorna D. Which is flown by Stalin. Yeah. No, I'm just kidding. It's flown by. [00:54:10] Speaker B: It's flown by Laura D. I guess that makes sense. [00:54:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And like, the General, what's happening in the galaxy is that Lina so's great works are, in fact coming together. [00:54:24] Speaker B: And the Nihil situation was taken care of. Everything's fine. Everything's great. [00:54:29] Speaker A: They. And they talk about it to the. The, like, senators and stuff. They're like, the Nihil situation is being contained. [00:54:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:36] Speaker A: And then they're like, but what about the Drenger? And they're like, the Drengier situation is also being contained. And then, of course, the methods by which the containment is happening get called into question because alliances with the Hutts are not good looks. You know, the Jedi being like, yeah, you have slaves, but, like, we got to fight. Yeah, you know, it's. It's. [00:54:52] Speaker B: But also the whole. Yeah, but also the whole. The Jedi. We got a fight situation comes into play too. Like, well, we're Jedi. [00:54:59] Speaker A: We're. [00:54:59] Speaker B: We're not supposed to fight. [00:55:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:55:01] Speaker B: But then it's like, well, what are the Jedi supposed to just let things happen? [00:55:04] Speaker A: Yeah, the Jedi. [00:55:05] Speaker B: Because things haven't happened in a long time, the Jedi aren't necessarily prepared for it. [00:55:09] Speaker A: No. [00:55:10] Speaker B: Philosophically or physically. [00:55:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, the fighting is supposed to be the last resort. And frankly, killing a Drenger ain't exactly easy. You gotta, like, slice them into a bunch of pieces and then tan their hides until they're dry enough to burn. And then burn them. Oh, that's a process. You got to, like, really harvest the drink here. [00:55:29] Speaker B: That's pretty much it going into it. [00:55:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, other than that. The only thing, like, as far as characters you need to know is that Avar, Chris and her side are doing their thing. Elzar and Stellan are together now. Elzaron and Avar were kind of the team up in Wave one. Wave two is much more of an Elzar and Stellan kind of situation. [00:55:47] Speaker B: So we get some cool backstory on Stellan and. But also those three because they're BFFs from when they were kids Padawans. [00:55:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And Elzar is going through it. He's still having those dark visions and he's not sure what they're about. And Stellan is also struggling because he doesn't really want to be in the limelight, even though everyone thinks he wants to be. And then Mark Yon Ro has plans, and he said at the very end of the first book that he doesn't really want any of the Tempest Runners doing their thing. He. He wants to get rid of all of them. But how exactly he's going to do that and the way he's kind of reforming the Nile to serve him a little bit more is very fascinating, very interesting. I'm very excited for that. I think that's it. [00:56:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's pretty much what you need to know going into Wave two of Phase one. [00:56:31] Speaker A: Yeah. That covers way more than it probably needed to. But, like, here we are. [00:56:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So thanks for joining us. [00:56:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:37] Speaker B: We have some really cool episodes coming up. We have some really awesome guests that we've booked. [00:56:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:42] Speaker B: That are going to come in and talk about the books and the comics and the characters and just general love of the High Republic. [00:56:49] Speaker A: I'm very. [00:56:50] Speaker B: For Phase one. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Yeah. For Phase one and. And through Wave two. But I'm really excited because it makes me feel much more like this is not just two dudes talking about the High Republic, but more of a full, like, High Republic community podcast. And I feel, I think that we're going to have a lot of fun, kind of getting new perspectives on books and not just me. Super fast reading. My. My summary that I jotted down on three pages of a Google document when I was supposed to be doing work at my actual job. But yeah, we good to close out. Be sure to follow us on our socials, on threads, on Instagram. You can always join the sneaky Geek Discord and get into the Starlight Archive channel that's in there. And of course, listen to this podcast and tell all your friends to listen to this podcast and be like, oh, here, I want you to read this dope book from Wave two. Oh, you don't know what happened in wave one. Don't worry. I got two guys who got you, and then, you know, throw them this episode. Yeah. So you can find Brian and I on our socials as well. You. You will see those in the show notes or in the caption or whatever it is. And there's 42 sky islands that are all places you can visit that represent each of the core planets of the Republic. In the words of Chancellor Lina so this is our Republic, my friends, our family, the spirit of progress, the spirit of democracy, the spirit of unity. 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 Starlight Archive is brought to you by sneakygeek media 2024. All rights reserved.