Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to another Star Wars themed episode of X
Speaker 1: ray Vision. We continue to explore a galaxy far far away.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a shorter episode, expanding on some stuff
Speaker 1: that we talked about in the previous episode and some
Speaker 1: new topics.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, just a quick note.
Speaker 3: We recorded a reaction to the first Acolyte trailer back
Speaker 3: when it dropped, but we were still on hiatus and
Speaker 3: didn't get to share it with anyone, So we're actually
Speaker 3: gonna play that conversation first, then follow up with our
Speaker 3: reaction to the new Acolyte trailer that came out on
Speaker 3: May fourth, so you'll get to both reactions back to back.
Speaker 1: Hope you enjoy the Acolyte trailer. Acolyte coming out June fourth.
Speaker 1: This is a new timeline that we have never seen
Speaker 1: before action taking place in the kind of years before
Speaker 1: the Clone Wars timelines. We have very little idea about
Speaker 1: what who the bad guys is, who the good guys are,
Speaker 1: what the actual story is. But this is super exciting
Speaker 1: and it's the introduction of the character Vern from the
Speaker 1: High Republic books.
Speaker 3: Your thoughts about that, Yeah, I thought this trailer was
Speaker 3: super cool and one of the things I really like
Speaker 3: about it is we kind of one of the topics
Speaker 3: I always talk about with Star Wars is this toxic
Speaker 3: nature of the Jedi master relationship. And this looks like
Speaker 3: it's gonna explore that again because we get a new
Speaker 3: Jedi Master in the High Republic, and we get the
Speaker 3: young Padawan who looks like it will be a Mandala
Speaker 3: Stemberg's character, and it seems like when she starts to
Speaker 3: think of things that are not balanced and beauty and
Speaker 3: instead of fire, she's gonna get kind of exiled from
Speaker 3: the Jedi Order.
Speaker 2: But I do think they're setting us up. It's a
Speaker 2: murder mystery.
Speaker 3: It's by Leslie Hedlind, who made the incredible Russian Doll show,
Speaker 3: So it's gonna be twisty and there's a murder mystery
Speaker 3: and apparently the Jedi are gonna have to kind of
Speaker 3: solve it. So I think we might see the old
Speaker 3: Master and Padawan Tea to solve it. I also think
Speaker 3: that while they want us to think this is about
Speaker 3: the Sith, I think it's actually going to be about
Speaker 3: the nature of democratizing the force, because there is a
Speaker 3: new family of witches in this who are not Jedi,
Speaker 3: but who do use the force, and there's this great
Speaker 3: line where it says it's not about good or evil,
Speaker 3: it's about power and who gets to use it. So
Speaker 3: I think we could be seeing something really interesting here
Speaker 3: about the dangers of maybe a full because the High
Speaker 3: Republic is an era, as we've seen in the books
Speaker 3: that is essentially like an age of Enlightenment where the
Speaker 3: Jedi are in charge and there's nothing wrong and everything
Speaker 3: is good.
Speaker 2: But as we know, that's never the truth.
Speaker 1: Never been more influential, never been more powerful. I am
Speaker 1: interested to see, you know, we've talked a lot on
Speaker 1: this show about exactly what you mentioned, the issues, the
Speaker 1: problematic nature of Jedi culture, the relationship between student I'm
Speaker 1: eager to see if that culture makes more sense in
Speaker 1: the setting of the High Republic thousands of years ago, like,
Speaker 1: because certainly by the time we catch up to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the Jedi during the Clone War years, et cetera,
Speaker 1: and on, it seems as if they are living in
Speaker 1: the past, trying to grapple with the galaxies problems with
Speaker 1: a structure that no longer worked. They missed the rise
Speaker 1: of the Emperor. You could go on and on about
Speaker 1: the things that they missed and I'm eager to see
Speaker 1: if they're just more effective, if what they were, if
Speaker 1: the kind of structures, the power structures, the governing bodies
Speaker 1: that they have in the later galaxy made more sense
Speaker 1: thousands of years ago during the New Republican. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they just didn't progress.
Speaker 2: That's a great point.
Speaker 3: Also, the cost for this is so stacked, like Amandla
Speaker 3: Stembug May, who's this kind of mysterious, potentially deadly Potowan who's.
Speaker 2: Left, Harry Anne Moss as a Jedi master.
Speaker 3: Oh, Jodie Turner Smith who plays the head of the
Speaker 3: which kind of community that we see obviously, Juna Somato
Speaker 3: who's taken over kind of Wookie duties, and then Lee
Speaker 3: Jung Jay and Manny Jacinto. Like it's just non stop
Speaker 3: my fearite cast stars. So I'm very excited about this one.
Speaker 3: I think it's going to be really interesting and I'm
Speaker 3: sure like there was a great quote when the trailer
Speaker 3: came out where Leslie was basically just like, whatever you
Speaker 3: think this show is, it's not that. And I love
Speaker 3: when somebody says that because I'm like, look, I have
Speaker 3: a lot of thoughts. So if it's not that, then
Speaker 3: you know, You're really going to have to do some
Speaker 3: stuff to surprise me, So I can't wait for that one.
Speaker 2: It looks great, a Jedi was murdered, the Jedi.
Speaker 1: Justify the galactic dominance in the name of Piece, but
Speaker 1: that piece Piece is a lie.
Speaker 2: So we have a new trailer for the Acolyte, which
Speaker 2: kind of just builds on what we already know.
Speaker 3: We see Master Soul, who's played by Leela Lee Jung Jay,
Speaker 3: asking to build. He wants to bring in his old
Speaker 3: padawam May played by Amandla Stemberg as she's suspected of
Speaker 3: being the murderer of the Jedi, which is what we thought,
Speaker 3: but we can assume from what we're seeing that's probably
Speaker 3: what's not what's going on. We see a fan favorite
Speaker 3: High Republic Jedi, Venestra saying this is just the beginning
Speaker 3: of a bigger conspiracy.
Speaker 2: It looks really fun set.
Speaker 3: We are now confirmed around one hundred years before the
Speaker 3: Phantom Menace. So the biggest takeaway here, I think, aside
Speaker 3: from how fantastic the action that's always taking, I mean,
Speaker 3: let's talk about that then, because it's like, the fight
Speaker 3: scenes look so good. Lots of hand time fighting, lots
Speaker 3: of non light saber fight.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean it seemed like a very conscious break
Speaker 1: from the style of certainly Jedi centric action that we've
Speaker 1: seen in the past, and you know, feels very matrix y,
Speaker 1: feels very Hong Kong action just in the snepas that
Speaker 1: we saw, and I'm incredibly excited by it. And it
Speaker 1: also like, depending on how how significant that new fighting
Speaker 1: style is, whether it becomes like new lore, I mean
Speaker 1: it kind of dovetails nicely with what Ezra's power set
Speaker 1: and style.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, yeah, that that kind of like
Speaker 3: the Jedi hand to hand fighting where you're using the
Speaker 3: force to fight. I think that's really cool. And oh,
Speaker 3: this is very interesting. Actually, are a super producer. Aaron
Speaker 3: just dropped this in the chat. But there's a quote
Speaker 3: from Manny Jacinto who says, I don't know if I'm
Speaker 3: allowed to say this, but I will just say it.
Speaker 3: So good for you, Manny. I like this. This is
Speaker 3: a good attitude. There's a lack of guns, which personally
Speaker 3: is someone who loves fighting and stunts. I love because
Speaker 3: it gives you that body to body choreography.
Speaker 2: That dance feeling.
Speaker 3: It actually just looks like a real fight as opposed
Speaker 3: to I point I shoot, which is kind of an
Speaker 3: easy cop out.
Speaker 2: And obviously we know that in Star Wars there's a.
Speaker 3: Lot of bad shooting by Stormtroopers, so I'm interested to
Speaker 3: hear more about this kind of fighting style. This trailer
Speaker 3: includes a lot more lightsabers. We get to see those
Speaker 3: real high Republic like multiple lightsabers.
Speaker 2: They're wearing the beige Jedi.
Speaker 3: Cloths that look a lot more refined and uniform like.
Speaker 3: And then, of course at the end, the big moment
Speaker 3: here is we kind of get this chainsaw man esque
Speaker 3: mask who is a new Sith character. And what's really
Speaker 3: interesting here is this is probably set around a time
Speaker 3: when the Sith are just a rumor and we get
Speaker 3: to see Master Soul say, you know what are you?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 3: Is that because he doesn't know what the Scith are?
Speaker 3: Is it because he doesn't know who he is? Lots
Speaker 3: of timeline rumors going around here, I mean, potential for Darth.
Speaker 2: Plagis the why there? You know it could could could
Speaker 2: it be him? I could see it also timeline wise,
Speaker 2: Darth tenen Brow, who was like Master correct his Master who.
Speaker 3: Was decnonized and then recanonized recently, and the Star Wars
Speaker 3: stuff so very interesting.
Speaker 2: I love the kind of reveal with.
Speaker 3: This scary sort of silver mouth. I trust Leslie to
Speaker 3: do something really strange. If you haven't watched Russian Doll,
Speaker 3: which was Leslie Headson's big breakout show, it's spectacular. Just
Speaker 3: this totally weird, surreal take on the time loop.
Speaker 2: And this is a fandom.
Speaker 3: This was something our producer Joel pointed out to us.
Speaker 3: This is a fandom that Leslie had then said saved
Speaker 3: her life. She loves Star Wars. This is something that's
Speaker 3: really deep to her, and in a great interview with EW,
Speaker 3: she said, I really wanted to tell a story about
Speaker 3: the Sith, and that was my dream Star Wars idea,
Speaker 3: but it felt like the time period to do that
Speaker 3: would be something pre Phantom Menace. That seemed the most
Speaker 3: interesting trajectory. How did the Sith go from the Rule
Speaker 3: of two and being quote unquote extinct to Palpatine coming
Speaker 3: into power without the Jedi knowing about it. That leans
Speaker 3: into one of our favorite talking points that we talked
Speaker 3: about before, which is how these stories get to fill
Speaker 3: in these gaps that really just happened because of the
Speaker 3: time that the stories were told in. But now we
Speaker 3: get these stories exploring them. So yeah, I'm very excited
Speaker 3: about this. We talked about the great action obviously. We
Speaker 3: also see daph Nicky in here, who played X twenty
Speaker 3: three Laura Kinney in Logan, which I just love her.
Speaker 3: And she says, now this is a big one.
Speaker 2: She says, they want to top the darth More fight.
Speaker 3: Wow, okay, and she says she thinks that's the most
Speaker 3: iconic fight in the Star Wars cinematic universe. Such an
Speaker 3: amazing fight. And we were all so excited about the
Speaker 3: saber fights. There's so much skill and craft that feels
Speaker 3: so og Star Wars and feel so impressive when you
Speaker 3: see it as a viewer.
Speaker 2: So that's I mean, that's a big hit. So I'll
Speaker 2: take that.
Speaker 3: The Acolyte is coming June fourth two, episode premiere on
Speaker 3: Disney Plus, so we're excited about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Coming up, we're jumping into the time capsule to
Speaker 1: talk about Ahsoka. Yeah next Ahsoka, which we missed because
Speaker 1: of a hiatus, and it was almost everything that I
Speaker 1: wanted to be. How did you, I mean, casting wise,
Speaker 1: I have like nitpicks, very very with fans. It happened,
Speaker 1: but otherwise it was just wonderful and everything that I wanted.
Speaker 1: The casting was perfect, the action was amazing, It looked
Speaker 1: so good, and as a continuation of Star Wars Rebels.
Speaker 3: It was basically the next season Estar Wars Rebels.
Speaker 1: Yeah, essentially, I loved it. Did you have any thoughts?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 3: I thought that they nailed the character moments, which for
Speaker 3: me is the big thing about Rebels, like getting to
Speaker 3: have Ezra comeback, and that reunion was so fantastic. It
Speaker 3: was amazing to see here on the big screen. Your wife. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I love Sabin. I thought Sabine Ran was everything you
Speaker 3: could ever want. I would see her in every other movie.
Speaker 3: I thought that Natasha was so fantastic. I loved seeing
Speaker 3: Thorn in live action. I know people were giving him
Speaker 3: a bit, you know, they weren't. They weren't feeling the
Speaker 3: Daddy Thorne. They were feeling more like the Uncle Thorne.
Speaker 2: And I know that people were upset, But I thought
Speaker 2: Lars Michelson was very scary.
Speaker 1: I thought he was very very scary and brought a
Speaker 1: brought a really sinister and ominous energy to the to
Speaker 1: the live action role.
Speaker 3: David Tennant as Hu Yang such a just joy to
Speaker 3: be back and just killing it. Also, I mean, really,
Speaker 3: let's talk about the best and saddest part of Ahsoka,
Speaker 3: which is Ray Stevenson as Balan Skull, because that was
Speaker 3: such an unbelievable addition to the law of Star Wars
Speaker 3: character lex mystery of like, who is this guy who's
Speaker 3: not a Sith, he's not a.
Speaker 2: Jedi, the light size and then he had this connection
Speaker 2: it seemed like too you.
Speaker 3: Know, the old ways of the Force, as it was
Speaker 3: hinted at the end, And I think it's heartbreaking that
Speaker 3: we won't get to see him kind of continue that
Speaker 3: role because he passed away. But I really loved him.
Speaker 3: I loved Evana Sucknow as Shin Hahti. I thought that
Speaker 3: was so good and I Shin and Sabine together that
Speaker 3: was just like everything.
Speaker 2: I loved that ship. I was really happy people were
Speaker 2: feeling it. I just thought it was.
Speaker 3: Such a joyous, enjoyable, fun expansion of Star Wars and
Speaker 3: what I really if there was one thing I had
Speaker 3: to pick, As you can tell, I loved a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff, but if the thing I had to pick,
Speaker 3: it would definitely be like I really loved the the
Speaker 3: delving into the Magic side of the Force.
Speaker 1: Same love that from Clone Wars. Yeah, and I continue,
Speaker 1: you know, and I continue to be very interested in
Speaker 1: that other aspect of the Star Wars galaxy, like how, yeah,
Speaker 1: is there any interaction between magic in the Force and
Speaker 1: how do they balance each other and how do they
Speaker 1: how do they interest switches?
Speaker 2: Like I want to know. Something else that I really.
Speaker 3: Loved, and that was obviously a huge talking point was
Speaker 3: the return of Anakin and that kind of redemption.
Speaker 2: Arc almost that he gets.
Speaker 3: Obviously they've been very interested in redeeming Anakin in recent years.
Speaker 3: I feel like, but we really get to see that
Speaker 3: relationship with Ahsoka via the holograms that he left her
Speaker 3: and he was training her, so like how and then
Speaker 3: obviously some flashbacks, How did you feel about that stuff?
Speaker 2: Did it land for you?
Speaker 1: It lands for me? Because obviously that is a that
Speaker 1: is a monumental relationship in her life, and I think
Speaker 1: was probably the most positive relationship he had in those
Speaker 1: final years of the Republic during the Clone Wars. And
Speaker 1: it also makes me think it used to be the
Speaker 1: binary between dark and light. It was pretty much like
Speaker 1: you go to the dark side, you're done. Yeah, you're lost.
Speaker 1: You're lost forever. And we're seeing more and more with
Speaker 1: the various redemption arts, with the ways people have dipped
Speaker 1: into Even Ezra dipped into the dark, was tempted by
Speaker 1: the dark, but then came back, and maybe we'll be
Speaker 1: tempted again and come back. That it's a lot more
Speaker 1: permeable that you can go from one side to the other,
Speaker 1: and just because you go to the dark side, it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that you can never ever come back. And
Speaker 1: I think like that is a pretty obvious thing to notice.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I think it has like
Speaker 1: pretty huge implications for the future of Star Wars storytelling
Speaker 1: and the philosophy behind the Jedi in particular.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I also think that it is an organic
Speaker 3: growth that makes sense because even our understandings in real
Speaker 3: life of redemption and forgiveness and the restore of justice
Speaker 3: and those kind of things, like we're moving past the
Speaker 3: bad idea of like a criminal is bad, a person
Speaker 3: who's homeless is a drug addict, these kind of myopic
Speaker 3: ideas that are out there and that play into shame
Speaker 3: and legalities and criminality. And I feel like it makes
Speaker 3: sense to have a Star Wars situation, like you said,
Speaker 3: with Ezra, who, by the way, we get to see
Speaker 3: Ezra in live action coming back, and I just think
Speaker 3: it makes sense and I loved I also loved to
Speaker 3: see him with his cool fighting style, and I think
Speaker 3: everyone should get a second chance in the Star Wars universe.
Speaker 3: And I like that these live action shows are kind
Speaker 3: of expanding on that. And obviously that comes from Dave
Speaker 3: Filoni's animated stuff, where he really gave those those great
Speaker 3: nuances that we were often kind of missing in the
Speaker 3: binary of it all, you.
Speaker 1: Know, perfect casting with Imanus Fondi, and his performance is
Speaker 1: one that someth like it was lifted directly from Rebels
Speaker 1: at times, like there was a there was a gentleness
Speaker 1: and a brightness behind everything that he was doing that
Speaker 1: I felt. I was just like, wow, I was it
Speaker 1: was honestly eerie at times. Yeah, watching him where I'm
Speaker 1: just like wow, I can't believe how well they guessed
Speaker 1: this exactly crazy.
Speaker 3: And his chemistry with Sabine I think was a huge
Speaker 3: part of that too, like they just so playful. Also,
Speaker 3: even his introduction where he's just hanging out with all
Speaker 3: these cute creatures and he's just been living his life
Speaker 3: that way. I think it was really fantastic. I was
Speaker 3: so happy to see him come back.
Speaker 1: I will give you now my small note, and it's
Speaker 1: not even it's really nothing but Rebels. Obviously, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of heartbreak and angst and emotion and sadness and
Speaker 1: unrequited feelings in Star Wars Rebels, but they had a
Speaker 1: lot of fun ye also, And I feel like the
Speaker 1: one thing I was missing. And I understand that you know,
Speaker 1: s Been has complicated feelings about the Rebels, about Hera,
Speaker 1: about Ezra, and about Ahsoka, and they all are kind
Speaker 1: of treating each other at arm's length for a lot
Speaker 1: of the series because of all the things that have
Speaker 1: happened and all the things that they've been through in
Speaker 1: the time they've been apart. At the same time, I
Speaker 1: feel like they spend so much time together laughing, having
Speaker 1: like joking, even when things were at their most dangerous
Speaker 1: during the Star Wars Rebels animated series, and I wanted
Speaker 1: some of that. I just wanted a little bit more
Speaker 1: of the friendship that I feel like I didn't get.
Speaker 1: But it made sense because they're older, they've been through
Speaker 1: crazy shit, really terrible, like truly terrible traumas. But I
Speaker 1: just wanted a little bit more.
Speaker 2: No, I agree.
Speaker 3: I think this is actually a press Beach TV problem
Speaker 3: because Avata, the Lost ebb End of the Netflix series.
Speaker 1: Exactly the same proce exact note.
Speaker 2: Where it's just like, guys, they have fun in that show.
Speaker 1: That has kind of tremendous fun in that show.
Speaker 3: It's more about how friendship and laughter can help people
Speaker 3: survive in the sake of war rather.
Speaker 1: Than like, yes, religious war that yeah, just like dealing
Speaker 1: with war.
Speaker 2: So I think it's kind of a prestige TV issue.
Speaker 2: But but I and I do agree with you.
Speaker 3: I think that hopefully when we get that kind of
Speaker 3: movie that's going to wrap up this era of the
Speaker 3: Felony Verse, I'm hoping that there is a bit more
Speaker 3: of that, especially because the chemistry between them is so
Speaker 3: good in the live action. Anna, I'm just hoping we
Speaker 3: get to see everyone come back. I really want to
Speaker 3: see Shin come back in the movie. Like, is there
Speaker 3: anything you're really hoping to see when that Mandalorian and
Speaker 3: Grogu movie hits.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to see how it. I want to
Speaker 1: see how it ties in with the main story. The
Speaker 1: we know how these how these characters and these huge
Speaker 1: events intersect with all the stuff that has happened in
Speaker 1: the larger universe that leads into the later movie trilogy.
Speaker 1: To me, that's always the question is like, where were
Speaker 1: they when this was happening?
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, it's the plotholes that you love but you
Speaker 3: want to know and then that I think about all
Speaker 3: the time.
Speaker 2: What about you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for me, it's like those character moments.
Speaker 3: I want to see an expansion on the magic aspect.
Speaker 3: I want to learn more about the ancient Force, which
Speaker 3: I think makes sense because they.
Speaker 2: Set it up here.
Speaker 3: I want to I would rather they didn't recast Balen
Speaker 3: and instead had Shin kind of continue his expansion and
Speaker 3: and maybe you know, rip he died.
Speaker 2: Off screen or something, but something like that. I would
Speaker 2: like to just see her get to kind of explore.
Speaker 2: I would like to see her.
Speaker 3: And so be and explore this kind of like enemies
Speaker 3: to lover's relationship but everyone.
Speaker 2: You can kind of see them having.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just think it's I like the TV
Speaker 3: shows for filling in those holes in the law the
Speaker 3: same way that the books have done. And now that
Speaker 3: we've seen characters like Thorn come over from the expanded universe,
Speaker 3: now known as Legends. I think these TV shows act
Speaker 3: in the same space as those books, and I'm always
Speaker 3: interested to see how those things tie in with the
Speaker 3: High Republic existing in the books before the Acolyte. I
Speaker 3: think it's going to be really interesting. Dave Felony's always
Speaker 3: been a student of Star Wars, so to see all
Speaker 3: of that come together, the TV, the film, the books,
Speaker 3: the comics, you know, every kind of bit of law.
Speaker 3: You never know what he's going to bring in, and
Speaker 3: that's kind of what makes me so excited.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: To see you next time, See you next time.
Speaker 1: X ray Vision is hosted by Jesus Subsion and Rosie
Speaker 1: Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Joel Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer
Speaker 1: is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and
Speaker 1: Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 3: Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman
Speaker 3: and Heidi our discord moderator.