USDN Presents The Hottest Shows Wrap Party

Come along as we close the book on Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and James Gunn's first entry into his first chapter, Gods and Monsters with DC's Creature Commandos. I have a all-star cast joining me on this episode to include Bill Bodkin (PopBreak), Amanda Rivas (PopBreak) and our newest member of The Council of Nerds, Randy Allain (Media-Lit). We have a blast discussing these fantastic shows. Enjoy!

What is The United States Department of Nerds Podcast?

USDN podcast is run by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds. We strive to bring you the all the latest news and rumors from the World of Nerds and consolidate it right here at USDN. USDN is for the people, by the people and of the people.

All right.

Welcome, everybody,

to the United States Department of Nerds,

where we are for the people,

by the people, and of the people.

You are listening to the USBN on the DSPN.

Thanks for watching!

All right.

What is up, everybody?

I have a whole gang of

people today coming on.

So let me introduce them to

you one by one.

And we will start with a

perennial favorite around these parts.

And that is Amanda Rivas.

Amanda, welcome to the show.

Hi, thanks for having me.

It's always a great time being here.

And you know me,

I'm never going to turn down like you.

I don't turn down a good

conversation about Star Wars.

Never, and if I do,

there is something wrong with me,

send help.

All right, who do we have next?

Ah, I know who we have next.

He is a BC+, first round, first ballot,

Hall of Famer.

We all know him from the pop break.

And basically,

he's everywhere and anywhere,

if you know where to look.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bill Botkin.

What's up, man?

I love this floating X-Wing

cockpit background.

I'm like, this is great.

It makes me feel like- It

goes with the theme.

But if you get nauseous, please, you know,

call the camera.

It's all good.

Amanda,

we're back on our mini tour like we

did a year ago.

We are.

I was like, it just worked out that way,

but that's- We just seen

each other last week.

Yeah.

But a year ago,

we were on this podcast

with you about Echo-

Yes.

We did Socially Distanced,

and then we did BCP Plus

for the Royal Rumble,

and we're going to be doing

it again this year.

We can't start the new year

without going on our tour.

Yeah, we can't burn ourselves out anymore.

Come on, let's go.

So we got one more guy.

I said we were going to have

a new guy on tonight.

I want to introduce

everybody to our newest council member,

ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,

children and all ages.

He is a schoolteacher at

heart and a podcaster by night.

Mr. Randy Allen, welcome to the show.

Jeff, thanks for having me.

And also a pirate by night,

as you can see.

I'm coming at you from Tac Renaud's lair.

Does he know you're in his lair?

Oh.

He knows,

but he's not getting in because

I'm nestled behind a whole pool of acid.

I am booby-trapped.

I am ready to go.

I am all yours for this entire show.

Cannot wait to dig into it.

There's no one who's ever

going to be nestled behind

a pool of acid like Randy Lane,

what can I tell you?

He's like a puppy in front of a fireplace.

I wish the food wasn't so rotted,

but... Well,

you do have that one glorious ham.

Oh, yeah.

You brought a ham sandwich to the party?

All right, everybody.

So we're all here tonight.

We're going to start off

with James Gunn's Chapter One,

Gods and Monsters,

and his first animated

adventure into his Gods and

Monsters chapter with Creature Commando.

So me and Amanda covered the

first half of this already,

so we're going to focus on the back half,

starting with Episode Four, I think,

is where we'll start with.

So I know Randy,

I just put him on the show...

over the weekend, basically.

Randy,

what were your first impressions

when I said, hey, check the show out?

So Creature Commandos has

been on my radar because

I've been hearing people

hyping it up ever since

James Gunn took over.

And I was like, that sounds cool.

But I didn't throw it to the

top of my list because I've

been on a journey to fill

in my DC background,

get to know my DC comic

world a little bit better.

But the hype has been real.

My Media Lit co-host Chris

Ingersoll is a huge comic guy.

He was really pumped for this show.

I know he's been loving it.

I was just chatting with him

before I came on here to

tell him how much I enjoyed the show.

But yeah,

I was seeing these characters for

the first time,

and I'll be commenting on

this throughout the night,

but they carried me away,

not only through good storytelling,

but as an English teacher,

all the big themes

surrounding monster

storytelling and the humans

being the real monsters,

through these characters,

I think they hit on every

major version of that story,

and it was just a treat.

So this is a question for everybody.

How did y'all feel with them

giving us the backstory of

each character and fitting

it to work in the present

show where we were at per episode?

How did y'all enjoy that

with the flashbacks to the

characters and how they

became who they were?

How did y'all like that?

Amanda, we'll start with you.

Well, I really enjoyed it.

I thought,

because sometimes when you take

this approach, it could go awry,

depending on, you know, it's here.

We see this a lot in anime,

where you have a ton of

filler that introduces character too long,

and there's no point.

It doesn't ever circle back.

Boruto, I'm calling you out.

And, you know, and then you're just like,

well, what was the whole point?

What I loved about this was

you got each character's backstory.

For those who were not familiar,

like I was not very

familiar with Creature

Commandos outside of, you know,

I knew who the bride was.

It's like pop culture context, right?

For certain characters.

So, yeah.

you know,

just being able to get the

backstory and they were really,

really well delivered, well done.

They were done in a way that

made you get attached to the characters,

that made you care about them.

And then it all came

together in terms of the

decisions that were made,

where the story went.

And so I feel like they were

meticulously done and there

was a strategy behind it.

And that way,

when we see them in future projects,

you know who they are and you care.

And that, again, very, very well done.

And more anime should learn

how to do that.

AMANDA SCHADE- Amanda always

steals the show with answers like that.

Randy, what did you think?

This is my favorite style of storytelling.

My love affair with podcasts

started because I became a

huge fan of a Lost rewatch podcast.

And Lost wasn't the first show to do it,

but that was the structure

that put that show on the map.

And while shows have stopped

trying to be exactly like Lost,

they are still using that format.

And whenever it's employed

properly in any genre,

it takes off and it works

and it hits for people.

even if it's... I'm blanking

on the name of it.

That show,

the Mandy Moore vehicle there

that just wrapped up.

This Is Us.

This Is Us.

I was going to say Tangles.

That was the format for that show.

It's a totally different...

Totally different genre and audience,

but when you can ground a

present moment in that past history,

it's really powerful.

Especially for a character I

didn't know how to wrap my mind around,

like the Weasel.

But we'll get to that.

Yeah,

that's going to be the very first one

we cover.

His was heartbreaking.

Geez, they started it with... Yeah.

Bill, what'd you think?

So, going off what Amanda said,

there are times where it's just like,

you're like building towards

this climax that are like,

let's take a detour down a backstory.

And sometimes that works.

For example,

Watchmen did a great speaking loss.

That was a game in Lindelof vehicle.

And other times it's like,

when you detour from the main plot,

it doesn't always work.

We saw that in Mando.

We saw that with Boba Fett.

We saw that.

And we've seen it like Game

of Thrones had its problems as well.

But,

Sometimes it really hits

like one of my favorite

Westworld episodes was when

they go back to Zach

McClendon's character.

He's like a warrior and they

go and tell his entire

story and how he got to

here and then how he gets into Westworld.

And it's one of the most

powerful stories going and

it ties really well into the ending.

So, but by doing this,

it's beautiful because like

with a team of characters,

like Amanda said,

characters you don't know,

you need to find it.

But James Gunn knows how to do that.

He knows how to be like,

here's how this backstory

is going to perfectly tie

into this episode.

And man, he does a beautiful job.

Every single time.

Every single time he made it work.

And another show that did it really well,

we covered on our last show, Amanda,

with Agatha.

The way they did it was really well done.

yeah that was great yeah so

let's jump into and talk

about the weasel story that

was episode four talk about

pulling some heartstrings

his story and how he ended

up where he did um and just

the the story that was

given versus the actual

story and the drastic

difference between the two

That was one of those

that... It left me like, man,

that's fucked up.

The Weasel's actually a good

dude giving a bad rap by bad people.

And that goes back to what you said, Randy,

with who's the real monsters here.

So how did y'all feel about

his story overall?

Was that what y'all expected

from his story?

Because I was kind of running with the...

like oh he he killed some

kids and that was the

complete opposite of

actually what happened

amanda yeah yeah yeah I I

didn't I expected it to be

very good because again the

bride story set up was

really good um I think I

want to say dr phosphorus I

want to say was that was

right before weasel

phosphorus is no he was after later yeah

But I feel like for me so

far to that point,

the bride story had been

one of my favorites.

And so I knew that it was

going to be well done.

I just didn't expect it to

be as emotional as it was

and very heart-wrenching.

And I feel like it was one

of the better stories that

connected to the main plot

in terms of here's what

happened with this girl

that's imprinted in his memory.

And he sees that in the princess.

And

you know,

it influences his decision to go

and just blow everyone's cover and do his,

just cause chaos.

And I thought that was a

really well done tie from

the emotional moment to, okay,

here's how this all ties together.

And I think it was one of

the better backstories that,

that did a great job of doing that.

I don't think a walk to

remember had a backstory.

That was just a,

I haven't seen it in so long.

That was a Mandy Moore vehicle.

I think that prompted the-

That was Mandy Moore, wasn't it?

It was.

Yes.

Wasn't that her first- Very

first movie post her music career.

Yeah.

Everybody had a crush on Mandy Moore then.

I don't care what y'all say.

Y'all had that crush.

Thanks for bringing up good memories,

Chris.

Yeah.

All right, Randy, how do you feel?

No, Bill, Bill, sorry.

Bill is really willing to chime in.

Sorry, it's the caffeine or lack thereof.

I thought that the weasel

story I knew was going to

be as tragic as it was going to be.

Because one,

James Gunn does love a furry

creature to have a

background that's so tragic.

And also his brother.

plays the character so I

figured like yeah he's

gonna be kind of tragic but

uh they kept saying he

killed all these these kids

and it kept changing and

I'm just like no he never

did because it was it was a

very very you know it's

easy to blame a monster to

do something like that and

we didn't really see much

of weasels like what he

could do you know and I

think like amanda said like

him tying back to the princess

the end reminding him of the

little blonde girl with

blue eyes that he was

trying to save was it was

it was a great moment to

show the humanity like um

and that would come into

the emotion that all three

of our surviving creature

commandos have like that

scene at the end where

phosphorus puts his hand on

the bride and that like

that showed how human they were and how

Nina really had impacted all of them.

Like we, we talked about,

I think it was just like, Nina was like,

she didn't do much,

but she actually did change them.

But yeah.

And then, you know,

it's just James gun doesn't hold back.

We see like, they just shoot a kid.

Yeah.

Which is like, that was the part.

I think that was the most tragic part.

It was like,

you see these two guys just

come in there and they just

start blasting,

have no regard for anyone who's there.

All right, Randy, over to you,

over to you.

Yeah, I mean, your head, so.

Yeah, no, I mean, like we've got, you know,

Amanda Waller is the

perfect villain because

this organization sucks.

Like they know that they are

messing with the bounds of morality,

right?

Like the whole concept here is like, well,

they're not really people.

But it's really hard to make

that case the more you get

to know each of the characters.

Weasel is the one,

it's maybe the easiest to

argue that he is not human, right?

Cause we don't really get

like his full backstory.

Like we find out what

happened with the kids.

We still don't really know

if we're non comics readers like myself,

where he really came from,

but we know that he has a

heart in the comic either.

But the thing,

in addition to the story of

the kids and seeing him

connect with the kids,

it was that we have his

defense attorney showing up,

making this case for his humanity,

referring to him like his sir, mister,

calling him Joe by this human name.

And she sees something in him.

And yes,

it's humorous and it's hard to

continue to sell it as he's

licking his crotch every three seconds.

And those eyes are going

googly in the sides of his

head at any given moment.

But yeah, even the weasel is human.

And I mean,

he makes the most like heart

based decision in the

closing moments of the season, right?

He's following his heart.

So yeah, really effective.

Jeff,

I have to give you kudos for having

Randy on here,

because for those who have

not listened to Randy,

I highly encourage you guys

to check out MediaLit.

He's one of the most thorough people.

Attention to detail.

He's just one of the best people.

I'm sorry, I know,

but I have to put him over now.

I can't help it.

I'm just excited to even

selfishly have this chance

to even talk with Randy

about Creature Commandos.

This is why Amanda is such a

best bud to everyone in the world.

You are always lifting us up, so thank you,

Jeff.

She is the biggest guest of

the podcast world.

And Randy, to quote Big Lebowski,

Randy is a good man.

Yes.

That's just like your opinion, man.

I really bring the room together.

You do.

You do.

You do.

I like that.

You bring us all in Tack Runner's lair,

and I'm here for it.

So for the past few months,

me and Randy have been

going back and forth on like, hey,

we're going to set something up.

We're going to set something up.

And finally, I was just like, damn it,

Randy.

We're doing this show on this day.

You're coming on.

He's like, okay, well,

let's come up with

something for you on my show.

I'm like, okay, what about this and that?

I'm like, you know what?

Let's just circle back later.

so we're going to circle

back later on I'm going to

come on the media lit later

but this this episode is

the one that like this one

in the last one really

although two that I was

like damn you james gunn

hitting me in my feels but

yeah man because for those

who don't know this show

picked up immediately

following what happened in

the original suicide squad

And then it just like the

very next this happens next

in that ongoing thing there.

So but we're going to go on

the next episode.

We got the Frankenstein episode, actually,

where he was nursed back to

health and later.

Reprieved her of her life, we'll say,

as he continued on his

journey to find his bride.

So.

And also,

this is the one where we find out

Cersei's visions about the

princess were false.

Because Clayface,

we get our appearance by Clayface,

took over the original Doctor's identity.

How exciting were y'all to

see Clayface in this?

And yes,

I'm petting a cat like I'm an evil

mad scientist.

Look at this pretty face.

Do you not want to pet her too?

You going to go?

Yep, she's going to go back to playing.

She made her appearance.

She did.

I saved everybody the

embarrassment of having to

look at her butt because

that was the very first

thing she would have done.

Same.

Would have honored the weasel segment.

she does that like they both

will do it give it time the

other one will make his

appearance as well bill

we'll start with you on

this one how cool what is

it seeing clay face make

his appearance in this it

was cool but also a little

head scratching because

this was one of the issues

that I had with creature

commandos but I'll get to

the negative before the

positive before the negative um uh

Clayface is one of my

all-time favorite Batman

the Animated Series films,

played by Ron Perlman.

Or Ron Perlman in the original series.

And then brought back.

I don't know if anyone

watched the Batman animated

series that was on Amazon.

That was terrific.

I have not seen it yet.

That's on my to-do list.

Thank you, Calvin.

Oh, hey, Calvin.

What's up?

Yeah,

I have to do my homework now for a

Royal Rumble podcast because he's on it.

and Amanda.

But we have our separate homework.

And it's like all these

different interpretations

of him as an actor.

And then he announced Mike

Flanagan's doing a Clayface movie.

I've never seen any Mike Flanagan work.

Doctor Sleep, Bly Manor,

House on Haunted Hill.

Phenomenal.

You know what I'm talking about.

I'll follow the House of Usher.

Oh, great stuff.

So I'm excited.

House of Usher, man.

I got through two episodes.

I had to stop.

dude did you not finish it

no it was a little too no

go back oh you got to go

back yeah there's there's

that's one of those where

amanda knows that that

history of the long list of

the shows bill has to

finish we'll move on but it

is it is it was great to

see the character there

because it didn't make

sense at first just like

why is the stephanie beatrice character

like all of a sudden goes

from so buttoned up to just

screaming lesbians to my

favorite reaction not

Amanda's favorite reaction

which is great but like

Frankenstein going well

that's not very

professional I don't know

why that just like set me

sideways but I loved seeing

the character but it was it

adds to something we'll

talk about later the

motivations of the princess

by impersonating that so

it's cool within the world

but within the finale is a

little murky for me so

excited but uh the little I

had a couple I had a couple

issues with it randy what'd

you think yeah I don't have

as as deep a history with

the clay face character so

like I think for you this

character is like

Oh, yeah.

What I was going to say, Bill,

is I agree with you.

That Caped Crusader version,

I really loved.

All these different takes on

the failed or the struggling actor.

So here he's firing up the Xbox,

which was kind of a fun gag and joke.

So I liked it on the level of like, okay,

we're bringing in this

Batman world to this

property that I'm less familiar with.

So in terms of that thrill,

I love a crossover.

that got me excited um and

you know like we'll get to

this when we get to the dr

phosphorus episode but that

that opens in a moment that

feels like batman the

animated series um and of

course we get like the

flash of batman later on so

in in terms of the world

getting bigger I loved it

um but yeah not as engaging

as other takes on the

character I've seen amanda

I enjoyed seeing him.

I did.

I also grew up with Batman

animated series kid.

We all did.

We were, we were raised right.

Um, in a good time.

And, uh, you know, it, it,

it was great to see him,

but I wish we would have gotten more.

It just felt, um, sometimes a little bit,

you know, I'm kind of on,

I'm there with bill.

Um,

I wanted more Clayface and I

wanted a little bit more of

a reason why he was there.

Sometimes I felt like,

I don't think the intent

was for him to be kind of a

gratuitous promo, but,

or like a gratuitous, like, you know, Hey,

here you go.

You want to, you guys wanted a cameo.

Here you go.

But I'm sure there's a purpose.

That was a good,

good one to bring in that

would fit with what he was

doing with this series.

Yeah.

And it wasn't a bad, it was not bad.

I'm glad we got him.

I just wish we had gotten

more and a little bit more of,

especially with the way the

finale ended too,

it left a lot more

questions than answers.

And I'm sure hopefully when

we get the second one,

maybe we'll get a better backstory.

Maybe we'll get more Clayface.

I just felt like his

appearance was abrupt.

And it was like, here he is.

Oh, that's great.

Oh, shit, he's gone.

Like, oh.

He's never really gone, though.

Yeah, but I wanted him to come back.

Just kind of like the Sandman, you know?

Yeah, this is true.

Drinking beers, running through crowds.

You know,

hitting on the et spots and

screaming lesbian at the

top of our lungs.

But so how did y'all feel about this,

what they did with

Frankenstein in this episode?

And kind of like,

I don't want to say it was a,

it was a chapter of his life that in this,

the way they did it here,

I don't know how I felt about it really.

You know what I'm saying?

Like,

it felt like it didn't really fit

with what they were doing

with the rest of the series,

if that is making sense at all.

Probably not.

Like,

the way they did his backstory with

him getting nursed back to

health after being nearly killed.

Well, he can't really die, I guess.

But, and then, you know,

killing the person who helped him.

That was very on par for

Frankenstein from the comic book as well,

by the way.

Just the random, like...

Right.

But what was your issue with

it in the series, though?

That's curious because you

say it was it was this episode.

The way they did his backstory.

And I'm not really saying

that was his backstory in

that one episode.

It just didn't feel like it

provided the same substance

as the other like flashback

sequences did for the other characters.

I think we got more of his

story during the Brides

episode than we did in his own episode,

if that's making sense.

get I get where you're

coming from yeah that makes

sense that makes sense but

I think it's I think it's

intentional though because

I'm sure because he so it's

david harper and yes

doesn't love that guy and

amanda what's the best line

he said throughout the

whole thing delphi piece of

I'll have that I'm gonna

have that etched on my

tombstone uh it's saved his

family from a sinking ship

that filthy son of a uh

cannon bombs reference

bravo yeah well played uh

it is um because it's david

harbour so it's like we

genuinely like david

harbour he's very funny

I think it's done this way

because it's like he is not redeemable.

He is.

No, he's trash.

Like he is a horrible person.

I'm sorry.

I have a creature behind me is.

Yeah, he's he's he's stalking the bride.

He killed this woman who is

obviously trying to save him.

He's not a good guy.

yeah and so I think that's

that's why it can't be as a

pack because we don't want

to say we can't sympathize

with this guy even though

we want to we just can't

yeah yeah he's in he's an

incel given creature powers

right yes and I was a

little surprised when he

killed his caretaker at the

end because it did seem

like she opened up his eyes

a little bit to you know you can

taken the world in different

ways and see beauty in

different ways and when I

was trying to explain it to

myself at the end I think

it came down to he is so

set in these beliefs about

how he thinks the world is

supposed to be structured

that he was like oh like

you know she was not

hunting with this shotgun

before I came in so now

she's not going to survive

and like he seems to be

selling it as a mercy killing

Like, this woman can't be left alone,

or it won't be an okay existence for her.

I'm not here to take care of her.

And yeah,

it shows how manic and

controlling that energy is

on a whole new level,

even beyond him chasing the bride.

Yeah, because the bride is solely his.

She was made for me.

Yeah,

they definitely undercut it with humor,

too, when he was like... Like,

you had he rips...

he rips Victor von Frankenstein in half.

And then we go on this

musical montage of her

beating him up through generations,

which is funny,

but I think it's also not funny.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Amanda,

you've never met a guy like that

before in your life.

Oh, no.

Not at all.

How did you feel about Frankenstein?

Oh, man.

I had some flashbacks.

You told me.

Yeah.

I had a type in my twenties, y'all.

You don't say.

That's why the story works.

Yeah, this is true.

You know, I just... So what,

you were into guys who were

sewn together from different cadavers?

That's wild, dude.

No,

that actually would have been better

than some of them.

I'm not afraid to throw shade here.

I'm not afraid at all.

Some of y'all are watching

in the live stream.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Y'all, uh,

those who weren't around in the

early two thousands,

this shit was wild y'all.

Yeah.

I'm just saying y'all.

Um, but, uh,

In all reality, though, to Bill's point,

I think it was very intentional because,

yeah,

David Harbour is a very likable guy.

And there are moments where, like,

the humor in this, like, from him, again,

like, we're best friends.

Are we best friends?

Like, I'm like, man,

sometimes you have those conversations.

His interactions with General,

what's his name?

With Rick.

Yeah, Rick Flag.

With Rick Flag Sr.

were great.

And it's just like.

That episode was phenomenal

with just the two of them.

Yeah.

When they discovered Clayface.

That was amazing.

Yeah.

Well, and you're supposed to, I feel like,

you know, one, remember,

he's unredeemable, too.

That was a great point, to Bill's point.

I'm here for that.

You know, because, again, with the humor,

you find out, like, oh, he's likable.

And no, no,

he's actually kind of a terrible person.

Yeah.

But I think, too,

you're supposed to have

sympathy for the bride

because she is going to be the leader.

And eventually,

and they're setting up for

this conflict because eventually,

from what I understand,

Frankenstein is one of the

creature commandos, too.

So you're setting up for...

that future dynamic to work

to to um kind of see where

that goes and it creates

can they coexist and carry

out missions and all of

that and that's setting up

the dynamic for people who

maybe are not as familiar

with creature commanders

and maybe have the only

background they have is

what we we've gotten in

previous works involving

Frankenstein and the bride

um so you're you're getting

this narrative the

storytelling built and

again you see the bride

you're meant to see the bride as strong

independent leader material who, yeah,

she's done some terrible things,

but you kind of like her.

The terrible that she did

was for better reasons than what

you know frankenstein did

exactly and I think that

was the point was you're

supposed to buy it made you

buy the bride more as a

leader and and be more

involved in her story also

seen through bullshit yeah

but you need the you need

that that foil if you will

or you need that character

to make that known and you

really sink into her story

because of how crappy of a

person he is um yeah

But yet, the humor mixed in, too,

and his personality.

You also have to accept him

as part of Creature Commandos.

You can't go too far off where you're like,

I can't accept him at all.

He's horrible.

I kind of have to like him a little bit,

a little bit,

to buy him as part of this dynamic.

Right.

At the end of the day,

they're both the twisted

creations of Victor.

And as much as the bride had

some feelings for him and

she wants to go back for that necklace,

it's pretty fucked up that

he built this woman,

referred to himself

basically as her mother, raised her,

and then he's sleeping with her.

Like,

I suspect this version of

the bride can see how

screwed up that is now as well,

even if it was a happy time

for her in some ways.

You kind of got that in her

flashback episode as well,

where she was kind of

like... I think it

finally... Finding the

necklace itself was kind of

like... And then when it broke,

that's when she was kind of like,

you know what?

This probably wasn't my good

situation I was in here either.

But let's go to probably...

As far as the main core goes,

this is probably one of

my... He's up there for me,

and that's Dr. Phosphorus' episode.

Basically,

we find out that he had been

taking money from the Mafia

to fund his research.

Basically, they come for his money,

I believe is what it was.

They stick him in his own

machine and nuke his ass.

Only you didn't kill him.

You left at the part where

they horribly murder his family.

Yes, there was that part too.

Yes, I forgot all about that.

I mean, that might have been a good thing.

Sorry.

Yeah.

They did kill his family and

then nuke him.

Expecting it to kill him,

which it did not.

Instead,

we get this awesome character in

Dr. Phosphorus now.

And this dude, a special, special human.

And perfect for this team.

I mean, is he leadership material?

No.

But is he there with the bride like, hey,

we have the mission.

Let's get the mission done.

So what was y'all's,

how did y'all see Dr. Phosphorus?

Like, because his one thing is like,

His family.

That was it for him.

That was taken from him.

Hell bent on revenge.

Gets his revenge and then

goes on this almost trying

to think of another Batman

character that kind of did

something similar to this.

I know the Penguin had done

it a few times where they

just like a night out on

the town that just never ends.

You know what I'm saying?

Before eventually getting captured.

So for y'all

I know this was y'all's

introduction to Dr. Phosphorus.

How did y'all, how was that for y'all?

Like getting to see him for

the first time and getting

introduced to this character?

he was beautiful I'm sorry

you're good uh I'm used to

having one person I got

three on tonight so we have

the direct traffic uh he he

was beautifully drawn for

one thing I just loved just

stunning right off the bat

how vivid his colors were

and everything I think just

one of the most

well drawn or well

illustrated um characters

on the show um alan tudyk

is amazing I mean just

right I mean they just

nailed everything with how

they they just made just

brought him to life um his

backstory I mean just again

just you could see how much

he loved his family and

then to lose his family is such a brutal

way and for them to pay the

price for his actions it's

it's a lot you're seeing

that play out um on the

screen is and and just

really sets up for how

dramatic the shift is when

he becomes dr phosphorus

and just lives the the

party that never ends and

gave us you know a meme

that went viral with the

real that went viral for

forever with the dance um

But, I mean, I thought it was really,

really well done.

And it gave you a good

insight into his character.

And, you know,

just the fact that he's just

not afraid to melt people's faces off.

I was like,

you have some brutal ways to kill people.

And, wow.

But, I mean, seeing what he went through,

though, you kind of... It's terrible,

but you kind of get it.

It's that primal rage.

I mean,

what do you do after you lose everything?

You just...

You go on the bender that

never ends kind of thing.

You have to find some way to

bury that pain.

But then now he's channeling

it for a different reason.

And he's definitely one of

the most effective team

members on Creature Commandos.

So I'm here for it.

Let's roll.

Because he can control himself.

Because you see him playing

with his child outside of

the house there.

He's tossing her up and

having a good old time.

And she's not getting burnt.

And I'm like, wait,

I thought he could just, I'm like,

does he have that much

control over his own self

to where he can turn it off

and turn it on like that?

So I thought that was really cool as well.

Randy, over here.

He seems to be able to rock

the wardrobe when he wants to.

Yeah.

But no,

I really wanted just yes and Amanda,

right?

Because he's lost everything.

He's got nothing to lose.

That makes him the perfect scary monster.

He's got a permanent mask to hide behind.

He looks like he's smiling

whether he wants to or not.

But I think there was

another thing driving him.

It was the anger and the vengeance,

but it was also...

His wife said,

you don't have to do it this way.

You don't have to go about it this way.

And he knew that she was right.

He tried to pawn off some

bullshit data to the mob,

got himself in too deep,

couldn't get himself out of it.

So when he takes on that persona,

when he goes after Rupert Thorne's gang,

he's like, yeah, I am the criminal.

I invited this into my

family's life I made it

happen so I think it's

vengeance but also guilt

because he knows that he

did it and she knew better

and she tried to warn him

um so I love that but that

makes him the perfect tool

now for this government

agency if I can yes and

randy uh I because what the

guilt part of it is super

important because it also allows him

like to have this change your heart.

Like he,

he does the face turn because

ultimately he's like, yeah,

let's just kill people.

I don't care about anybody.

Let's just burn the world.

You know,

he literally burned the world if

he wants to like literal figurative.

But at the end, again,

it's one of my favorite

moments is when he puts his

hand on the bride's back.

I've mentioned it before.

It just is like,

it's such a big turning

point in the part with the

kid too where it's just

like one of the most tense

parts because he is

maniacal and he says I'm

not smiling you're like oh

shit he is a killer he's a

monster and we realize

there is a shred of

humanity left within him

just want he just misses

being a dad and ultimately

I think that's what

overrides everything like

he is still going to

literally kill people in

the most vicious way possible oh my god

But I think he's more of a

team player now.

He's more for the side of,

as our buddy Tyler McCarthy would say,

for the side of the Angels type.

And I think that's important

because everyone goes through this,

and he's the antithesis of Frankenstein.

He's given this teachable moment,

which I hate that word.

Sorry, teacher.

It's this teachable moment,

and he gets the right lesson out of it.

like you know this kid saved

his life much like the old

ladies frankenstein

frankenstein's like yeah

I'm just gonna kill her

where he could have killed

the kid because you need it

like from his practical

standpoint he could have

but he realized now he'd

rather get caught honestly

than hurt his kid yeah

because I mean when he he

sees the little girl he the

first thing that happens is

he gets the flashback to

his own little girl yeah

and then when they come back

he's like they're playing

he's tossing her up and

they're having this good

old time and I'm like and

he yeah dr phosphorus I

will say there is another

spin off of dr phosphorus

that don't belong to dc he

belongs to another another

franchise that I wrote

about for bill and then

broke no I'm talking about

uh from ghost machine

Oh, yeah, that's right.

And our never-to-be-launched

best comic books of the year.

Don't worry.

I'm going to re-roll it.

I'm going to put the review

up on thedfpn.com for

everybody to read because I

thought it was a phenomenal write-up.

It was.

It was.

It was a true shame that no

one wanted to do that piece besides you.

Let's jump over to Nina's story now.

And...

This one was another one of

those where it's a parent

who just wants the best for

their kid and gives it to them,

but it isn't quite what he

thought it was going to be.

Also,

this is the finale episode with

episode seven, and this one was...

Oh, boy.

You all right over there, Bill?

Yeah, yeah.

That was just the rat that was in my eye.

Spoiler.

Just a hint.

I love it.

I love it.

But let's jump into this one.

So during this whole finale,

we're kind of getting Nina's story,

and they saved it for last for a reason.

And she really was the

character at the end of the

day that showed all of them

that there was humanity in them.

And, you know, but in the end,

it didn't save her because

the princess was a it is or was,

I should say,

a maniacal human being

herself who ended up really

actually being a monster in

the monster scene through it.

We'll start with, let's go with Randy.

Randy,

what did you think of Nina's story

and ultimately her demise

in this episode?

Yeah,

I was not at all surprised they saved

it for the end.

Because along the way,

you're trying to figure out

who is actually a criminal.

And by my personal assessment,

the only one who seems to be like...

officially a criminal is Dr. Phosphorus.

Presumably the bride's done

some shit because she's not afraid.

She's got a laundry list.

Randy, when you mentioned that just now,

I just got him dancing in

that Party City pimp suit.

That's the spinoff I want, by the way.

It's just Dr. Prosperous Prime Lord.

I would watch a whole series

of just that little moment in time.

That is James Gunn's ultimate power trip.

He's like, I'm going to make this spinoff.

They're like,

no one really wants it but Randy.

And it's just like,

I'm going to make it for Randy!

Right, and you end the series,

we get to see how Batman

took him down exactly.

We want to talk about Batman really,

really was,

he was really bulky in season four.

It was.

He was like a real fat Batman.

Yeah.

But like with Nina,

like the tragedy is like no

matter how much her dad loves her,

no matter how much he

stands up for her when, you know,

her mother is clearly

struggling with the trauma

that came with this

incredibly difficult situation.

this incredibly difficult birth.

And we don't like where she lands,

but we can understand the

story and how she got there.

And at the end of the day,

it's too much for her to bear.

She sees herself as a monster.

She gets captured.

If this story had followed

the trajectory of some of the others,

maybe she was going to have

an outburst and kill some

people after her father gets shot and

That's what I thought was

going to happen when her

father got killed in front of her.

I thought that was going to be her,

her breaking moment and how

she ended up being captured ultimately.

But she just willingly just

went after the death of her father.

Cause that's really what kind of set her,

you know, with, um,

I'm having a hard time with words today.

Good thing I brought Randy on.

At the end of the day, she's not a killer,

and that's what's so tough.

That's why Amanda Waller is

such a great villain.

The performance is amazing,

but she's an evil genius

because Nina's skill is she

is going to soften everyone

else and give them someone else.

really to protect um she

only lost that battle

because she wasn't really

prepared to kill someone

that wasn't really in her

nature she never wanted to

do it and that's it's uh it

makes me feel great about

the humanity of nina but it

makes the whole thing even

scarier because we don't

see those skills well we

didn't see the princess

being a complete badass

like that either go hop over to amanda

So Nina's story, again,

was really well done.

It was another

heart-wrenching story because it just,

you know, all of her story, in a sense,

just came about because

other people pushed her.

Like, she really had no...

say and what happened to her

I mean obviously her

parents she was too little

to make the choices that

her parents made she was

too little to affect her

mother leaving she was you

know kind of and even kind

of just being pushed out in

school like these were all

a lot of what happened to

her was the most impacted by other people

And that's hard to watch

because you really were

rooting for her and you

were wanting her to turn it

around because she really

was just a victim of other

people's bad decision making.

Yeah.

And just, you know, or, and again,

you know,

I think her parents were

well-intended and try,

especially her dad trying

to save her life.

And that's absolutely commendable.

I mean, who wouldn't do those things?

Types of children.

He did save her life.

Yeah.

He did.

And I think,

but I think she just fell into

a pattern of other people

heavily influencing her decisions.

Again, not putting up much of a fight.

Again, when you're grief stricken, though,

that's a reaction you can have.

It's realistic.

But, you know, she was led on by, you know,

the bride,

like everybody else in Creature

Command just kind of ran

her over a little bit politely.

They were never mean to her

or rude to her or anything.

But she was a follower.

She was not a leader.

And then to expect this big

moment from her to go kill

the princess was, to Randy's point,

a big ask.

And you were hoping that she

would channel some of that energy.

You wanted to see her become...

to stand up for herself and

to do something to like and

that's what I was waiting

for I was like okay we've

had this build and it goes

back to the first episode

where I think where amanda

waller was like she's the

one you need to influence

and that's a great point

randy that you made I

didn't think about that in

terms of her role in

facilitating kind of giving

giving everybody someone to protect

but I was hoping I think for

a bigger kind of a bigger

payoff and so for her story

to end and that's what I'm

hoping for in season two

that there's more to her

story like you really just

want to see her come into

her moment and to be so

close to it and then it not

happen that one I was like

oh like she was probably

the one that for the for

the pretty much the whole

time I was like come on

Come on, Nina.

Or just even to stand up for herself.

And at times she showed

glimpses of that in how she

interacted with the bride.

But I just wanted her to be

able to make her own decisions.

She was the bride's good

conscience at many points.

She was.

But seeing more of that and

seeing more of her

influence her own life is what I really,

really wanted to see.

And I'm hoping we still get some of that.

bill over to you yeah uh her

story is like james gunn

you and manipulate

emotionally manipulative

bastard like he did it

again yeah he did like we

had yondu and guardians too

hey that was still hurts uh

don't get me started about

that uh and I mean we had

there's so many things that

happen in the suicide squad

like like you know rick

flag you have other people just

he'll take someone off the board,

but I don't think Nina's off the board.

We didn't see them.

She wasn't buried or anything like that.

It's creature commandos, guys.

She'll come back,

and I think that's where

she's going to have that badass moment,

Amanda.

I think that's season two where I see her.

And what I ultimately hope

she does is she kills Aquaman.

Because... No,

he's not going to kill Aquaman,

but there's going to

definitely be Aquaman jokes

written into it because there should be.

Especially now that he's Lobo.

Yeah, and you know,

they're going to cast me as Aquaman.

It's just like old Aquaman.

Look at him.

He's got a bad neck and his

gills are rotting out of his neck.

Aquaman that I grew up with

in the comic book was a blonde-haired,

blue-eyed, white dude.

Not this big old Jason Momoa fella.

I have no complaints.

Excuse me.

I have no complaints about

how Aquaman got that glow up.

It's fine.

Yeah,

let him shake that water out of his hair,

man.

It's all good.

He saw that coming, right?

But I think that Nina is

just like ultimately her

story was you have to be one of us.

You have to be one of us.

And the story was no,

everyone needed to be one of her.

And I think that's what's going to work.

And

I wonder,

could that lead to her in a heel

turn in season two?

That she taps into some sort

of dark side or a revenge?

You guys convinced me to go

against my morals.

Now you've unwoken the beast

that's finally inside of me,

and I'm going to be this

evil mastermind who's going

to come back and

While she's recovering in the hospital bed,

she's like, you know what?

She's in a hospital.

I'd rather see them team up

against the dehumanizing

government agency.

That's my whole thing.

I agree.

I would like that back and forth.

The one thing I have to

shout out about Nina before

we move on from her is my

favorite thing to do in

life is just play a board game.

If I can ever convince the

people in my life to sit

back and play a board game, life is good.

That's my ultimate goal.

If I lived up Bayou Randy,

I would come play board games with you.

We're going to make this

happen someday because

they're holed up in the

brothel fighting for their

lives and she's like,

I see a gaming opportunity.

Let me grab Scattergories.

Are you in Jersey too, Randy?

Randy is a Bostonian.

You're a Bostonian?

Massachusetts anyway.

Okay.

It's basically the same thing.

The armpit of Massachusetts.

It's all Boston.

Listen, I'm in the armpit of America.

As long as they keep Sam Adams flowing,

we're all good.

Is it?

A fun visit to the Sam Adams

Brewery for sure.

So before we leave Creature Commandos,

how did y'all feel about

the ending and the bride

seeing through the

princess's bullshit and just ending it?

We'll start with Randy since

he just seen it.

How'd you take that final shot?

So the way I kicked off my

chat with my buddy Chris Ingersoll,

who loved this show,

was I love the ending.

Because I was like, wait,

how are they going to land the plane?

We're at a runway.

Is all they're going to do

just like set up season two?

And I was feeling annoyed for a second.

This was a perfect ending

for me because it wasn't too messy.

They tied up some loose ends

but left some open questions.

I love it because there's

some ambiguity here.

There's no part of me that

thinks the princess is innocent, right?

But I don't think we saw

anything to like one

hundred percent prove that

Cersei's vision is going to

come true like like this.

This princess is sinister.

We saw those eyes go evil under the water.

We saw that bloodlust for the kill.

And I think the bride did

assess the situation properly.

But we don't really know the

exact machinations.

Right.

Like.

I love the film Minority Report, right?

This whole question,

can you try someone for the

crime before they're guilty?

The bride does it based on

some pretty good evidence.

But what a great way to tie that up.

She just makes that call on her own.

Who cares what Amanda Waller has to say?

I'm going to follow through

on my mission my own way.

And that's why this was the

bride's show for me.

And I personally loved the ending.

I felt closure and just

sense of excitement for two.

Amanda, over to you.

I enjoyed it.

I thought it was a good...

It closed the loop on a few things,

but yet you got the

definitive backstories for everybody.

You got a sense of where

they were going to go.

It closed the chapter on

that current version of the

Creature Commandos that we got.

Of course,

it left the door open for the

new version as well.

There's a lot of Creature

Commandos that we have not

seen and that they can

introduce from the comic book.

I'm excited to see what

they're going to do with it.

So it feels very fresh for

them to go that approach.

But I also, I mean, the bride's a badass.

I loved her.

She's my favorite character.

So I'm just here.

I mean, it was circumstantial evidence.

It was.

I was like, whew,

that's a risky move there.

But it was effective.

I mean, the princess had it coming.

I mean, you stabbed Nina.

I don't like you either.

I mean, I was never going to trust her.

Like, the way she threw herself at Rick.

Like she was like the female

in a Hemingway novel.

It's the hair.

It's the hair.

I knew she had some ulterior motive.

I mean, he's a handsome guy,

but there was something

more going on there for sure.

It's because he's a dopey piece of shit.

Richard Flagg.

I call him Rick because he's my friend.

Leo?

Only you.

So, some issues with the ending here.

I brought up the Clayface part of it.

The Cersei prophecy thing is so muddy.

It's just like, okay, so Princess...

Cosmo because Marina

Bakalova voiced Cosmo in

Guardians and I forgot her

name within the show so

she's Princess Cosmo now

she employs Clayface to be

to go and infiltrate and be

the kill the professor and take over

I don't know how that fits.

It just doesn't,

the puzzle pieces don't fit

for me on that.

It's cool, but also like,

but I do love how the bride

pulled and Randy on our

socially distance episode.

I did, I did a reference.

It was a very Benoit Blanc type of, well,

I loved, like I said, like, I love that.

I love the new team.

which is great.

The King shark back.

Ah, so good.

I will take him at any kind

of media I can get.

Yeah.

And, and I just, um,

I just think that the

motivations and the vision, I'm just like,

it just didn't,

they didn't land the plane

for me on that.

But the ending where she

just caps the princess,

because I think the

princess was a hundred percent guilty.

Circumstantial evidence be damned,

your honor.

I've seen enough law and order.

I mean, she was totally guilty.

She was totally guilty, but.

That kill was for Mina.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was like,

you're getting this bullet for Mina.

And it was just the perfect dead center.

That's satisfying as fuck.

I don't care.

So we're going to jump over

to Skeleton Crew,

but we are greenlit already

for Creature Commandos Season Two.

And I love the fact that

James Gunn is just like, I'm DC.

This is my show.

We're getting Season Two, guys.

And I'm not mad.

Cheers to the Tin Man.

Oh, yeah.

Speaking of someone on the juice,

holy shit.

Yeah, robot man.

Oh, yeah.

I forgot about that.

What a glow up.

He did have a glow up in episode seven.

That dude got yoked and yoked fast.

Oh, my God.

Speaking of robots,

let's go talk about our new

favorite robot in SM-XXXIII, Shmi.

And close up Creature

Commandos for everybody.

I know we think we left off at episode...

For last time,

I think we're at the halfway

point the last time we talked about it.

So we'll jump right into it

at episode five.

And so just for everybody who doesn't know,

this takes place during the

same time frame as the Mandalorian.

And we're talking about a

planet that has been

potentially hidden away

since the old Republic era.

So this planet has been

hidden for a very long time.

And the planet just operates.

It continues what it was put there to do,

and that is to create Republic credits.

is a uh a complete treasure

planet which is you know

what they've come out now

and have said like oh yeah

we we kind of based this

entire thing off uh

treasure planet type of uh

you know you know spin to

it so let's jump in did you

make a reference to long

forgotten disney classic treasure planet

I did.

Because that's what they literally said.

Like, hey, yeah,

we literally took Treasure Planet,

fucking threw it in the Star Wars.

And hey, this is what we got.

And I'm not mad.

I really enjoyed this show.

We'll start with Randy.

What did you think about the

cast of this show?

so I was really excited for skeleton crew,

like conceptually, like, like,

can we come in and do this

Goonies ask show?

Um,

but I was a little bit worried because it,

it's tough to cast kid actors.

And I had the great pleasure

of chatting with Bill and

Amanda about the two part

premiere back in December.

Uh, and really enjoyed it.

And Bill's like,

I've done so many pods since then.

I can see it on your face.

No, but, uh,

I also was looking at

Amanda's twelve gallon jug

of water over there.

You know what?

I'm staying hydrated, sir.

It's Texas.

Listen,

I really loved the kids in the

premiere and they continue

to be a strong suit all the

way through to the end.

I really enjoyed this series.

I hope they find a way to

bring us these characters again.

But honestly,

my biggest critique is they

needed to write the parents

out of it more.

to let these kids stay front

and center for me.

That, that was like my biggest note.

Um,

And the kids are incredible.

And Jude Law was just on

another level because this

is my absolute favorite

type of character.

Even when he was saying

horrible things to the

children and like you hate him,

you love to hate him.

We've seen him previously

have this really meaningful

heart to heart with Wim.

And then to see this like

broken child there and Jod is just like,

you're the most annoying one.

And it's so painful.

And I'm like, why do I still like him?

but like but then you know I

know I'm going out of order

here a little bit but when

we get to the finale like

he's genuinely concerned

for kb when that ship is

going down he is not happy

that she might get killed

so there's there's

something redeemable there

um and I know we're going

to dig into him later so I

don't want to I don't want

to go too early on that but

yeah jude law was

incredible and these kids

really blew me away amanda

I mean, Randy, I get why you dug Jude Law.

I mean, he's a delfy piece of shit.

I mean, Jude Law, though, charismatic.

Charismatic as hell in this part.

But that's the thing about Jude Law.

I think there was a period

of time growing up where

Jude Law was everywhere.

He was in everything for a

period of time and then

kind of like low-key went

under the radar and then he's back.

He's one of those actors

that you sometimes take for

granted that you don't

remember how good he is

until he puts on a

performance like this where

he takes you through everything.

Everything.

And this just reminded me

how great Jude Law really,

and how underrated he is as an actor.

Because he really did, like, to your point,

Randy, I will, you know, he,

you loved him.

He was charismatic.

You saw him broken.

And then you see him and you're like, wow,

you are savage to these kids.

Like, what?

Dude, like...

But then you liked him again.

Yeah, I was like,

you are not holding back.

Wow, you just let them have it.

The kids were great.

I loved KB.

I thought she had,

and I know we'll talk about them more,

but each of the kids had a

different arc and their own

ways of growing and own paces of growing.

For me,

there was definitely a difference

in who had the most growth.

And, of course,

whose growth struggled a little bit.

But, I mean,

the kid actors were all great

in their parts.

Neil is the goodest boy.

If anybody hurts Neil,

you will answer to me.

And everybody here on this podcast.

And his girlfriend.

Exactly.

She can kick your ass.

exactly exactly I I'm here

for it I thought the kids

were all well cast um and

yeah the adults I'm with

you randy on that I I have

loads just although they

did have the the dad had

some some redeemable

moments I just later later

later but you know I I

think I think I think a

little compared to the mom

compared to the mom

Being a little harsh there, brother.

Compared to the mom.

Yeah.

But this is really about the kids.

As it should have been.

And Jude Law.

You greet the kids on the

beach at the end after

they've resolved the

adventure on their own.

That's how the formula works.

I got you.

That's true.

Yeah, I...

don't generally like kid

actors uh they're mostly I

feel like jude law and I'm

like you're annoying you're

so annoying but that wasn't

the case here and um my

sophie my daughter she was

a huge fan of kb she loves

a gal who's into who's a

who's technical get the job

done uh fern I felt at

times was a little too one note

But I feel like there was an

episode where everything

changed for this series,

and that was episode five,

when Jude Law has that

really heartfelt speech with Wim.

And then they all change for the better.

They all evolve.

Amanda, we talked about this,

the scene with KB and Wim,

when she's basically dying,

and it's so suspenseful.

Yeah.

I mean, even for a, you know,

for a forty three year old,

it was a little scary

because like those kids could die.

Well, and I was like, and it's Wim.

And it's Wim.

It's Wim.

That was my like.

Yeah.

You're like, you're calling him.

Yeah.

You're like, oh, push the button.

You're like, baby boy, what are you doing?

Yeah.

I was like,

someone that pushed the button.

This is the one that doesn't

listen to do it.

I was like, oh, gosh, this is the Bryce.

This is the Bryce Dallas Howard episode,

wasn't it?

Wow.

Yeah, I think so.

Let's talk about that for a second.

Didn't she do the crab one

with the giant crab puppet?

This is the crab one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When they're on the treasure,

where they find the treasure.

the spa they ruined it so

nice I would have enjoyed

that but I thought the cast

was great Jude Law is I was

telling Amanda up until the

final moment I was like I

was just hoping for this

whole like wink I wasn't I

was just being mean to you

because I needed to keep my

cover because I'm really the hero because

You liked him that much and

he was that convincing.

That's what's great about

that character because it's

such a gray area character.

He's based on Lon John Silver.

Lon John Silver was not the good guy.

He was not a protagonist.

He was not redeemable at all.

But here they made him

redeemable and Amanda's right.

We forget Jude Law, how great he is.

Go watch a great underrated

film that most people didn't see,

Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks.

One of Paul Newman's last roles.

Jude Law, a very

Before he was a star, Daniel Craig.

Jude Law plays this

gross-looking assassin.

Fantastic in it.

But he's done so much great stuff.

He was fantastic.

And I have to put over Nick

Frost as SM-XXXIII.

That's my dude.

I love Nick Frost.

I've been a fan of his forever.

And he was the perfect...

surly cranky bill bodkin of

a robot if there ever was

one and uh you know and I I

actually didn't mind the

parents you know tv on the

radios lead singer was I

thought he had some really

good moments where you said

like oh he is whim is his

father's son you know and

that was cool to see

although he kind of he kind

of beefed it in the end

uh fern's mom they did he

tried they just they they

did her dirty with the

writing because she's a

good actress carrie condon

but yeah overall it's a

really good cast some good

cameos in there and uh yeah

I really like what they did

here although apparently it

was viewed for a billion

minutes so I mean it can't be wow

Yeah.

There's a lot of shows you'd be surprised.

So many people... I've seen

that brought up today on a

meme where they were

talking about the number of

people who viewed it.

I'm like, a billion.

That's...

That's a lot of people who

watch this show.

No, it's a billion minutes,

not a billion people.

Well, yeah, a billion minutes.

That's still a hefty change of people.

And I think the show has legs, too,

because I'm hearing more people,

like just even my own social media,

Amanda, I don't know about you or Randy,

more people are catching it now.

Yes.

And I think that's like we

have to reevaluate streaming.

And I think companies still

haven't done this yet with

the stickiness of stuff of just like...

lot of people wait till it's

over then they watch it

yeah wait for socially

distance or this podcast to

come out and they're like

oh smart people and that

dilfy son of a bill said

watch the show yeah you got

to show some faith in a

project and all the stuff

they did with practical

effects on this show like

like the big set piece is

that stop motion crab

situation that looked hours

upon hours upon hours upon

days upon days to just do

like small portions to move

a leg I've seen the um

behind the scenes on that I

mean just at the end of the day

We don't just want washed

out CGI all the time.

No,

that was one of those... You want real

stuff,

like the completely real Tak

Renaud's lair behind me.

Which I thought actually was real.

There's a sucker born every day.

We don't have to talk about

each and every single episode.

Let's

let's just answer some

questions that I stole from

amanda human star wars

encyclopedia amanda rivas

for a reason they were good

questions so I was just

like hey amanda I'm gonna

borrow some stuff from you

and we'll throw some more

stuff in as we go so I know this question

So I like this one.

Yeah.

Who do you think John not

not Narwood really is?

And at the end of the day,

how did you feel him about

him being the the villain?

And what did you think about

Jude Law's performance as this?

I know we've already touched on it.

So it's a perfect time to

kind of just dive into that one.

And Crimson Jack is not a wrong answer.

No, I loved it, though.

I didn't.

Yeah, me too.

I love that reference.

I'll never get tired of that reference.

I think he is someone we are,

this is not a real answer,

but he is someone we have

not seen the last of.

I feel like he is a

character that we're going

to see in twenty twenty six

on the big screen in Krogu

and the Mandalorian.

You don't just do a one-off with Jude Law.

Especially if this takes

place in the Mandoverse,

which I don't know if this

is a question or not.

I'm glad we didn't get any

Mando cameos or characters.

We got the one.

And that was fine.

Which is, if people don't know,

it's one of the pirates.

It's the pirate who discovers the money.

But if you don't know that,

you're not missing anything.

But if you do know that,

obviously I didn't.

Uh, or at least I forgot,

like I always do.

It's even sweeter.

So, I mean,

there's a tie there into this

and that's what I want to see.

Like, I'm sorry.

Amanda,

how do you feel about Jude Law and

Pedro getting on screen together?

I mean,

I think that would be pretty crazy.

Somebody will have to do a welfare check?

Wellness check?

Somebody's got to check on me.

Brandon's just going to fill

a popcorn bucket full of

water and just dump it on you.

Hey, Brandon, check on Amanda.

We'll have loads to say next

time you bring on a Star Wars podcast.

We will.

I had to save her life more

than once during this TV series.

I think it's like we're

going to see this character

getting too good to pass up, too charming,

and has a lot of, Randy,

I'm going to just borrow your phrase,

a lot of runway left where

this could be an antagonist,

or it could be an ally,

or given what we know of

this Filoni-verse, a little bit of both.

Yeah.

We'll go over to you, Randy.

Yeah, I mean, listen,

I'm going to go out and say

I don't even know if I

would call him the villain

of Skeleton Crew.

I'm being a little bit

playful with my language here.

You're saying it's the parents.

You're saying it's the parents.

I mean, yes.

Okay, listen.

When you're in a movie like

this and you've been a

total piece of shit the

entire time and the villain

has a lightsaber to your

throat and your son can

save the galaxy...

You have to be, like, selfless.

You're like, no, do it, Wim.

But no, he's like, Wim,

let him have what he wants

so I can survive.

And I was like, dude, come on.

You had one job.

No, but no,

I think it's just the galaxy in general,

right?

I know we got a lot of lies from Jod,

but I am inclined to

believe we got more or less

the real story from him at the end where,

like, he was taken in by a Jedi,

partially trained, and...

thrown away basically like

the the jedi are a pretty

screwed up organization

like taking children from

their families thrown away

yeah she found him after

order of sixty six she

herself was a padawan she

still had her brain so she

wasn't even a full-up jedi

knight yet so okay so I'll

I won't push back on that but

What I would say here is

this Jedi way is so coded in, like,

these controlling, limiting methods.

So, you know,

I'm forgetting his

word-for-word speech about

the falling out here,

if they drifted away

naturally or if there was

any sort of disagreement.

No, she got killed by Inquisitors.

Okay,

so he's left partially trained or

whatever,

but the reason I'm excited by that,

and I would love to see him again,

is what I want from Star

Wars is I want the gray area.

I want those gray Jedi,

and every time they veer toward it,

they chicken out.

They chicken out at the last second.

And I want them to just lean into it.

Like we got pretty close with the Acolyte,

but then they went and canceled it.

So we don't get to continue

to fully explore the most

promising characters from that series.

I mean, maybe we will.

Those arms might be back.

I hope.

But like Judd could be a guy

where he is a selfish piece of garbage.

Wait, what's Dark Forces canon?

There's no such thing as a Grey Jedi.

This is zero.

This is Bill,

and we're talking about his

hair and my beard.

I would just love to see him

continue to be someone who

is self-serving,

but he's sometimes more complicated.

He may have a redemption arc,

but I'm not in a rush for it.

You know,

my favorite gray Jedi is from

video game lore,

which is no longer canon.

But I love to talk about my guy,

Jolie Bindo from the Republic,

who is an overall well-meaning guy.

But he's someone who left the Jedi Order.

He's someone who worked as a smuggler.

And I want to lean into that.

Like,

there's a way to access the force

that's not Jedi coded.

And I'm still waiting for

them to get there.

And Jod's a possibility for it.

So that's my excitement for him.

it's acceptable I like it I

want randy to write the new

the next time please as

long as he doesn't use the

term gray jedi oh I want I

want him the gray jedi all

over the place it's going

to be a lot of people talking in rooms

As long as you're right.

It's going to be very stage

play Star Wars.

Yes.

As long as one of those Jedi

is Chris Angersall, they won't be.

please.

As long as one of those,

I'm here for that.

And then if you can just

write a part for Manny

Jacinto to just show up

with his arms again, that would be great.

I mean, listen,

I think they established

him as ageless enough that

if they want to bring him back,

I think they can.

A thousand plus years?

There you go.

Yoda was like seven thousand years old,

right?

Come on.

Nine hundred.

That one wasn't nine hundred or so years.

It was Luke's incisive

questioning that didn't let

him live to a thousand.

Sorry, I realized

This was not meant to be an

Acolyte podcast.

I apologize.

No, you're flying, man.

It's timely.

It was one of the most

watched things on Disney

Plus in twenty twenty four.

So despite that,

and there's always room for the Acolyte.

We know.

Oh, my God.

I'm here for the lightsaber battles, too.

Come on now.

Those were great.

I mean,

we did get to see a crystal get bled, so.

Yeah, we did.

We got that, and we had, you know, again,

just.

We almost had Keanu Reeves as a Jedi, so.

You know, it's never too late.

Well, as a Jedi.

I prefer Sith.

Bring me Darth Revan, please.

Of course you prefer Sith.

You're like your Jedi.

You're like your kings.

Short name.

This is true.

Did you say we got Keanu Reeves as a Jedi?

He was supposed to be the lead of... No.

No, they're talking about that, too.

Oh, well, he was supposed to be...

Christ, I can't remember his name.

He was supposed to be the

head guy in The Acolyte.

Oh.

Squid Game.

It was originally supposed

to be Keanu Reeves.

Yes, that's right.

But he had to pull out due

to other commitments,

or he couldn't commit fully,

so they brought in the

actor from Squid Game.

Bill, I've got such good news for you.

You can catch Keanu as an

anthropomorphic animated

office building in an

episode of Severance.

Wait, he's a building?

He's an animated building that talks.

Is he the building that they work in?

Because that's ten minutes from my house.

Yep, yep, yep.

He's just a corporate video cartoon voice.

He's basically Mr. DNA from Jurassic Park.

Nice.

An animation of the building.

So Bill's going to go walk

by that building.

I could drive there.

Let's walk in distance from Bill.

Hey, I'm a building.

that's pretty much it yes

Johnny Monomic nice a DVD

that my dad got me as a

joke Christmas present one

year and I tried to trade

it in to Suncoast Video

they would never take it

they said we cannot even

give you a dollar for this

this movie is worth a

quarter and we do not trade

in for movies less than a

dollar I was like

I just threw it out after a while.

What do you think the

percentage of former

employees of that

particular store now run a podcast?

Ninety nine percent because

there was that one dude who

just didn't give a shit.

And it's all still from

their mom's basement.

Alright, guys.

The floor's so strong with this one, man.

I cannot.

We miss poor Jod and Jude

Law and his delfiness.

Let's jump over to the kids now.

Which of these kids, in y'all's opinion,

got the best arc and best

redemption out of all of them?

Who had the most growth?

See, I'm restructuring her questions.

KB.

Randy,

are you going to be the odd man out

and go with somebody different?

I'll be the odd man out.

Listen, I love KB.

She's awesome,

but she was so self-assured.

She does have to stand up to Fern,

finally.

But in terms of an arc,

I'm going to actually go

and give it to Wim.

That's what I went with the first time,

too.

Yeah,

like he's going from this kid who's

playing with his toys.

He's got these really simple

versions of Jedi and Sith in his mind.

And that's certainly

complicated through his voyage.

But, you know, he is able...

to in that moment with KB,

he's able to find some

focus and patience within himself.

He's able to lean into his

skills and come up and tell

that distracting story.

And as much as I've

complained about his dad,

he definitely does the most

work to like push his dad

in the right direction,

to instruct him on something,

to bring him somewhere.

And I also just thought he

was so fun overall.

I realize that's a little

bit different than an arc,

but one of my favorite

things about that

performance in particular

is the lines of dialogue

they wrote for him that

just sounded like a kid,

like just little grammatical errors,

like referring to Jedis

with the S at the end.

I didn't write it down,

but I think when they're

trying to escape from that

machine at the end of episode six,

he's like, it's chomped down too hard.

It's just always some

phraseology that a kid

would really come up with.

I love that about him.

And we go from activating

the lightsaber backwards to

being able to stand up to a

legit pirate and

He really helped everyone grow,

including Neil, my guy Neil.

So there you go.

Yeah, well said, Randy.

Well said on Wim.

I mean,

I was always a little bit partial

to Wim because he reminds

me of so much of my own kiddo.

Yeah.

At times, he did, and still does.

A little mischievous.

Yeah, definitely.

What's this button do?

but my little little revis

would have pushed the

button a thousand and ten

percent a thousand and ten

percent would he have

stabbed himself with the

lightsaber like nearly

stabbed himself holding

upside down absolutely okay

it's okay though you can

live from that now only

qui-gon guys from them this

is true yeah this is true

but well said well said on

on whim but what did you

think jeff you know what I

went with will last time

This time,

I'm going to go with my guy Neil.

Nice.

Not because he's an easy answer,

but because seeing him up

there on that big old

cannon blasting at pirates

was not the thing I was

expecting to really see from Neil.

So seeing his growth from

the scared child to this, oh,

let me climb up the ladder

and get on this blaster

cannon and start blasting pirates.

That was kind of like, my dude,

that's what's up.

And he got the girls.

He did.

It's the trunk.

They say it's not the size of the trunk,

but they'll prove different.

I mean,

I think it was more his overalls

that really sold.

It's been those last gosh, but gosh,

overalls he was rocking.

And that like comb over.

I heard it works.

I think it was that really

attractive moral strength

of character and emotional

intelligence that the ladies go for.

Girls don't dig that no more.

What are you talking about?

Yes, we do.

I don't know.

This new generation, man.

They go for emotional

intelligence and moral centers.

I'll tell you that.

Like, she's never seen kindness before.

That's pretty much how she phrases it.

And she likes what she sees.

Yeah.

Emotional IQ.

High emotional IQ.

Go, Neil.

Go, Neil.

Although,

I would say he took the most bumps.

Like, the most risks.

He did.

He did.

I was like.

He did.

He definitely.

He has a couple cracked ribs.

That final one.

Shmi almost got him.

Shmi almost got him.

He went nuts at the was it the temple?

I will say out of all the parents,

Neil's parents were also my favorite.

Yes.

His dad was a big old fella.

Yeah, you don't mess with him.

yeah that's why they didn't

put him in because like oh

man he's got some weight

behind him he definitely

yeah he definitely knocked

somebody out like he's got

that dad beer strength

you're like nah we can't

yeah show show would have

been over yeah at that

point that's intimidation

you're just like yeah

pirates glasses jones we

can do one of those like

where he takes his son and

sticks it behind him like

what'd you say about my son

Exactly.

He could fit his whole family behind him.

He was that big.

But yeah, that's why they're just,

that was smart.

So let's jump over to the supervisor.

What did y'all guys think

about the supervisor?

And like,

were y'all really shocked that it

was a droid?

I was shocked.

I was like,

I wouldn't expect the

supervisor to be a droid.

We'll go with a...

Let's go with Randy shaking

his head like he's like, yeah, pick me,

pick me.

Okay,

so I will say I usually don't call

anything,

but I was never more sure of

anything that this was

going to be a robot.

And the reason why, I mean,

it was partly like all the

robots controlling

everything else and

everything being so regimented.

And as we learned that this

planet seemed to be cut off

from everything.

But more than that,

despite all the talk of

like the Goonies and eighties movies,

when I started watching this,

I felt like I was playing fallout.

Because like as soon as we

were introduced to Aten, I was like,

this feels like a vault.

from Fallout and it's always some kind of,

you know,

social experiment at the bottom of it.

Now,

what did surprise me was that in

constructing this whole

system in this droid,

they apparently put all the

most essential components

right in that little,

very vulnerable eye socket

right there that one

lightsaber could deactivate.

I thought that was a pretty

big design flaw considering

all the heft and weight to that machine.

If we know anything about Star Wars,

architecture is never their strong suit.

No.

True.

Everything's always at one point.

Either are the fell safes.

Fell safes?

Non-existent.

Although I was wondering if

the parents were going to

be more surprised,

because I felt like Fern's

mom did not seem surprised.

She was the number two.

She got called up to the

supervisor multiple times

throughout the series.

So I think she did know.

but she still wanted fern to

show that proper decorum

like like you might show to

yeah a more traditional

living being but uh you

know that's where it kind

of got me because she's

like just you know

shoulders back you know I'm

like it's kind of weird but

I'm like I still feel like

it's going to be a droid to

almost anything when they

want to feel safe I guess I

mean they were safe like they

I got what you're I got what

you were putting down there

randy uh but yeah I I

wasn't surprised either

because every time they

just kept saying the robots

kept saying the supervisor

will see you and I'm just

like okay this is all

sports our son yes they are

there's one flaw they uh

it just kept I'm just like

this is not a real thing

this is going to be like

this is going to be just

this is a hidden society it

is archaic in so many ways

this has to be not a human

being running this this has

to be a droid or a robot or

a sentient being which it

sort of was but yeah I

wasn't surprised by that

and I also was very happy that

it was taken down so quickly

because it's like that's

how fragile this whole

thing was like yeah all you

had to do was like that was

stab it in the flashlight

and it was dead you know

and it's just like our

whole society's dead

because the light bulb went

out you know what I mean

and it's like I like that

fact of just how fragile it was because

It just spoke to so much

about faith and belief in

governmental systems.

It speaks to a lot of larger

things that someone who

hosts a media literacy

podcast could really talk about.

diving deep into like power

structures and belief and

all that sort of stuff

because like they even

though the mom knew it is a

god damn like it's it's

basically a Dalek without

legs you know what I mean

without a bottom it's a top

it's a Dalek head is the is

it rotates yeah and so it's

like she knew and yet she

was still like yeah I

totally submit all of this

completely subservient

like she was the number two

and this is what got me

this is why I thought it

may actually be a human at

first just because like

well she's the number two

maybe it's kind of like a

secession thing and that's

why these kids are tested

because remember we started

the whole season with them

being tested to see where

they will be in society so

I'm thinking okay it's like

the next man up type of

deal and her mom's the

number two so she's the

next person up to be the

supervisor I will

I will say after the whole

stick him with the pointy

end thing worked and stuck

him in the flashlight and he shut down,

a little part of me was like, oh,

was I wrong about the droid?

Is a Jeff Goldblum going to

pop out from behind the camera now?

Thank you.

Hey, everybody, I'm a shitty dad.

And you're like, oh, man.

And I'm here like, hi.

You're just a guilty piece of shit.

Come here.

Thank you.

I mean, to Randy's point,

that was exactly what I

thought it was going to be like.

I was like,

this is too simple for the droid.

Like, it makes sense.

But then I'm like, who's behind the droid?

And I still have that

question of where is the

droid getting orders from?

I mean,

he knew about Order of the

Sixty-Six as well.

So he was learning.

He knew stuff.

So that's where I question that.

This is just my

not-so-encyclopedic Star

Wars brain comes in.

Order of Sixty... So this is

during the Mandalorian time.

Order of Sixty-Six is history, right?

So...

they would have programmed.

It's just like,

it feels like this is an

old history textbook where it's just like,

we like that.

I had a Catholic school.

It was like,

we stopped at world war two or

we stopped at the Vietnam war.

And that's it.

Like,

I don't think it's Skynet to the

comment there.

Cause I don't think it learned anything.

I think it was just like,

here's my knowledge base, which is my,

you know,

it's just like the encyclopedic

knowledge it had up to this date.

they never stopped receiving

updates it never talked

about it never talked about

the the empire it never

talked about the you know

the any of anything that

happened it was like order

sixty six okay that's

history that's like someone

saying you know you're

talking to someone and

they're saying like well I

know what the you know you

program a robot and they're

like well we know what the

vietnam war is great that happened like

A long-ass time ago.

That happened over fifty-plus years ago.

Great.

That's history.

It's not today.

It kind of reminded me of WALL-E.

that's killing me yes it was

thank you I was thinking

the same thing I was like

there's a movie and I'm

like wally and and about

the ship that's following

the you know that's

following orders and not

letting anybody go back

home and it's been doing it

I mean that's exactly what

the supervisor reminded me

of of course I always have

the question of who set it

up to begin with I'm always

going to wonder that

question I was like is it

high republic time like

there was there's me just

going off well I mean we

had the high republic

references like even

Great work is a High Republic reference.

It makes you wonder how it

kept running and why nobody

questioned it and when

people phased out of it.

It left a lot of interesting questions.

They did say that we haven't

been seen by a diplomat in years.

But they didn't say how many

years it had been.

They just said it had been years.

so it's just interesting to

see how people kept up like

to to everyone's point here

how people kept up with the

charade like it's true yeah

they just they went to work

they they did their job

they made gold coins for

the republic and that's all

they knew that's what they

were put there for and they

were cut off and nothing

and they were cut off from

society they're cut off

from the stars like that

whole thing we're saying we

have never seen stars before like

That's like the whole your

head's in the clouds theory.

Because they can look to the

stars and wonder,

I wonder what's out there.

I want to go explore what's out there.

You've cut them off from

ever wanting to leave.

These people have been held

hostage for generations and enslaved,

essentially, to run this system.

Yeah,

I love the idea that I think it's

just like a bureaucratic failing, right?

Like you mentioned, like WALL-E,

like everything's on autopilot.

You know, I talked about Lost earlier.

One meaningless Lost mystery

that I'll spoil for you is

there's a pallet drop of

food from the Dharma Initiative.

And you eventually find out

that it's just like no one

ever turned off the automated shipments.

There are like two guys in a

warehouse somewhere still

getting like an automated paycheck.

And they don't even know that the...

the company's gone.

I think that's kind of the vibe.

So someone's getting them or

maybe someone like the

emperor or someone has that

knowledge in their back pocket.

I don't think the emperor

even had knowledge of that money.

If he would have known he had that money,

you best believe he would

have used it to make another Death Star.

They do love making those.

With one point.

One damn point.

One fatal flaw.

Speaking of,

we're getting into season two really soon,

so that's something.

I'm excited.

Oh, I thought you said season two of this.

I'm like, that's happening?

No.

Yes, and or.

Yes, season two.

It's going to be great.

I'm here for it.

Speaking of series like this,

how would you feel about

getting more one-off series like this one,

where it's kind of its own

little standalone thing,

where you don't need the

tie-ins to other Star Wars lore?

Randy, we'll go with you.

We're picking on you.

You're the new guy.

I'm going to say yes,

provided that they can

continue to create some

creative space for the

people attached to the project.

So all those practical

effects that we were

talking about earlier,

like the clear heart that

went into casting this series,

they did some special things.

My critiques are pretty

minuscule in a show that I

really enjoyed.

and really loved.

But yeah,

I think we kind of canceled it earlier.

Like, I think this can exist as a one-off,

but at the same time,

like give these shows some

time to breathe,

give these shows some time to develop.

Yeah.

Not,

not everyone's going to catch the show

right away.

Like game of Thrones took

several years before it

became what it became.

And I feel like forget that.

So.

Deal.

Deal.

yeah I mean so it's it's a

it's a tale of two cities

right uh the one city being

our imaginations being like

yes obviously like let's

let's have let's get

creatives to come in and do

their own thing we have

tony gilroy like famed

writer director who did

michael clayton who's done

serious stuff comes in and

does a prequel series that's like

you know, wartime drama, espionage,

character studies, spy thriller,

all these things that don't

fit into the magical fantasy of Star Wars,

but also does, right?

I would love to see, like,

there's no reason there

couldn't be an Ewok show.

There's no reason there can't be more,

like I said,

there can't be another

animated series in the vein of

clone wars or rebels like a

prestige show like we've

seen with marvel has done

that with x-men they're

they're doing three seasons

of your friendly

neighborhood spider-man

like I said the ewok show

that could be an animated

series there could be an

animated series about this

that's coming I know there

was an animated series about the ewoks

Oh, exactly.

My friend has a cell from

that in his apartment.

But I mean,

there's no reason why you can't

do that now and reintroduce

these characters.

But you have to make I think

I said this on social distance.

You have to make Star Wars cool again.

You have to make it more

acceptable because it is so

that the fan base is not us,

but like the fan base is so

hyper focused on everything

has to tie together.

Everything has to be more.

Everything has to be perfect

that it's never perfect.

Right.

And there's just so much

angst and bullshit that happens here.

Mm hmm.

And so the other city I was

talking about is the

corporate side of things.

They're like, can we justify keep,

you know,

being this creative or do we

have to go for the hits?

Disney did it this year.

They made Pixar cool again.

How do they do that or profitable again?

Because, you know, well,

you also had like four

years of like their big

releases being released for free,

but they did a sequel with

Inside Out too.

Marvel was struggling.

Deadpool Wolverine these are

all things that existed so

you're tacking things on

Star Wars I don't know what

we have with that right now

it's like okay we bring Rey

back well gosh we saw how

much heat that got for no

goddamn reason like oh

let's bring Finn back yeah

okay like there's you keep

seeing these things bounce

around it's just like I

would love because they

want to capitalize on

something right that isn't

Skywalker or Jason but they

always go back to it

They had it with Mando,

and I think that third

season and Boba Fett really did it dirty.

Maybe the movie rekindles that interest.

Ahsoka was great, obviously,

but something's got to

change within the dynamic

of Star Wars because I

think there's so many

people that have

generations of storytellers out there.

that can do great Star Wars stuff.

Bryce Dallas Howard should

have her own Star Wars.

She should.

Not episodes.

Unless she doesn't want to.

Give her a movie or give her

a whole show to run because

she's pretty great.

Let's do that.

I think there's so much that

can be done that I just

think we need to mine it

for more and figure out what to do.

This Patty Jenkins Rogue

Squadron thing could be awesome.

Why not?

It's got potential.

Bill,

you know how I can't help but quote

Kurt Vonnegut all the time?

Yeah.

In one of his rules for creative writing,

he says you have to write

to please just one person.

If you open a window and try

to make love to the world,

you're going to get pneumonia.

Yeah.

And I feel like they want to

keep their minds.

I don't know.

I've tried it, man.

I've been pretty okay.

I've been pretty good.

I think a Targaryen or two

has tried that as well.

Oh, yeah.

No,

but like Mando season three is such a

good example because I am

one of these Star Wars fans

who's coming in like mostly

with knowledge of the films.

I've been catching up slowly

on like Clone Wars and stuff.

but it's like they're like

okay we're but it's like

they're like okay we're but

it's like they're like okay

we're gonna double and

triple down on gonna double

and triple down on gonna

double and triple down on

mandalorian lore

mandalorian lore

mandalorian lore okay but

if you're gonna do that do

it okay but if you're gonna

do that do it okay but if

you're gonna do that do it because

I love Katie Zakoff,

but they made Bo-Katan a

boring character.

And then I'm listening to

podcasts and they're like, oh,

she has a history as

basically being a terrorist

and all this complicated thematic stuff.

And I'm like, that's cool.

Bring me into that.

Let me see it.

But they're like, oh,

we're going to do the lore,

but let's not do the lore

because some people might

not know what it is.

And it's like, dude...

Pick a lane.

Do the lore-free Mando thing

that was working, or do the lore right.

People will come if you do it right.

There's some great stuff in there.

You did see some of the Boca

Catan stuff in Rebels.

But for those who haven't watched it,

they could have served with a flashback.

They did it for Ahsoka.

You had that Clone Wars flashback.

Why not do something like

that with Bo-Katan?

That was the problem with Star Wars.

They always get cold feet

because they never know

when to commit to the bit.

Love Force Awakens, right?

Yay, Force Awakens.

I love The Last Jedi.

Not everyone does.

I thought it was a super interesting take.

then rise of skywalker came

and they're like uh let's

do what you can't be half

pregnant right so it's just

like amanda you can verify

um this is true actually

most of us can we all have

kids and just like you

can't be half pregnant and

it's just like so that's

what they always did

they're like well let's put

one toe in and one toe out

we can't really do it they

never did it and then they

got cold feet on everything

and it really just instead

of being audacious like

mando season two I think

bringing luke skywalker back yes

I mean, how many of us were all like, well,

it was also the pandemic and lockdown,

so we were all going nuts anyway.

But they did it well, though.

They did it well.

And then they brought in Boba Fett,

like a badass.

They brought in Ahsoka.

Yeah.

I still think about Ahsoka Mando episode.

Some of the shots from that

is just incredible.

Phenomenal.

The school being built.

Amazing.

They went for it.

Like, Randy, you were saying.

They tried to make everyone happy,

and they made nobody happy.

And now you're like, well, what do you do?

So be audacious.

Yeah, don't worry about Disney,

because you've got

thousands of former

Suncoast employees podcasting about it.

They'll fill in the blanks for you.

Exactly.

That's what people like me

and Amanda are full of.

They didn't hire me, by the way.

I mean...

Like, I'm, I just, I feel like, you know,

the fan base right now is so antagonistic,

like, you know, again, to Bill's point,

like such a kind of

antagonism that's out there

for live action Star Wars.

I will say this a hundred

times over that Star Wars

has the best and worst fan

base out there.

We can't have nice things.

Some of it is valid

criticism though because again,

to Randy's point, it's very cyclical.

They are not afraid to hit.

They hit and they hit well.

when they are just they're

wishy-washy again the I

think ever since you know

that the last trilogy of

films there's just been

this one foot in one foot

out one foot in one foot

out and it's telling you in

another year that last

trilogy is gonna be like oh

it's the greatest thing

ever I don't know about uh

I'm you know I I I liked

the first two movies they

did it to the to

the first uh trilogy but

that was a large part

because of dave filoni

fixing it with the clone

wars I think once the clone

wars came out and you had

people watch it and it went

back and it made it filled

in the gaps between you

know it made anakin seem

less emo um and just and

actually have purpose less

less he was less emo in the

series he wasn't in the

black parade on this one

yeah yeah that's true

Yeah, definitely not.

Kylo picked it up for him, though.

There you go.

But you got so many great backstories.

And again,

you got characters like Ahsoka

that were fully fleshed out,

beautifully written.

You had characters like

Asajj Ventress come to life.

You had so many different

stories that came in this

era that really made you go

back and look at the

prequels in a different way.

I just think George wanted

to kill Ahsoka off.

I know.

Thank God.

Thank God that didn't happen.

But you could have something

like that that may fix some

of what's going on.

But really,

I think it's ultimately about

going back to the... A lot

of people say go back to

the book content.

And I'm here for that.

Thank you.

Yeah, because the books are fantastic.

The books have done this already.

And I've said this before.

The books have already built

the world that's out there.

There's all these stories

that take place in the Star

Wars universe.

And so many of them,

like right now with the

High Republic books, they're great.

They're not connected to the Skywalkers.

And you can still have, like, again,

look at...

They're about a thousand years,

between two thousand and a

thousand years before.

Look at Dawn of the Jedi.

Look at those stories that are out there.

And, you know, I would say continue to get,

if you're going to get away,

because I'm a little

nervous now about the other

movie that we don't know,

that was announced,

but we haven't heard much

about with the... I believe so, yes.

I'm hoping...

I'm hoping that Ryan

Gosling's the only news so far,

but that was really it.

He's still only rumored.

Rumored, exactly.

Not even totally confirmed,

but you have content to work with.

You have, again, the book lore.

I know Disney's kind of

stickler about what are we

going to make canon, what's not canon,

but there's so much great content there.

The books will always be canon.

I don't care what Disney says.

Yeah, but that's the thing.

They're starting to pull some of that.

The Acolyte, I think,

pulled a lot of those ideas,

and that's what I enjoyed

about the Acolyte,

and we've all talked about it.

Some of what made the

Acolyte work was the

content they pulled from

this existing lore and the

speculation about who was

the Sith going to be that

was going to show up.

Are they going to bring in somebody?

People who've read the books

are really curious about that,

and you can bring them in

if you pull in those

elements and make them

work um so I think it's

again revisiting and

looking at some of the book

content like look at thrawn

you know like and how epic

of a trilogy if you don't

own his trilogy go go get it yeah

And I mean, so I'm here.

I'm in favor of looking at

the books for ideas.

I have a question for Amanda real quick.

X-Men ninety seven.

Great.

So we they continue.

They continue.

That's the continuation of

the original X-Men animated series.

Such like.

Do you think they could do that with, like,

Clone Wars or Rebels or

something like that,

where they could take

characters from a beloved

animated series and

continue it with some of

the vocal cast that's already there?

Obviously, like...

Do you think that could work?

Realistically,

Rebels is your best shot and

they've already done it

because if you're trying to

work in the Mando universe in time frame,

you already are starting to

pull characters like Zeb.

Again, you've pulled Ahsoka.

You've pulled Hera.

Sabine,

you're pulling them into the live action.

And Chopper, of course,

the greatest droid that ever lived.

I love it.

I'm here for it.

um but I think you can but

if you're going to continue

any of the animated series

like clone wars has a

definitive yeah rebels in

essence was the

continuation and in the in

the time frame of the clone

wars so I mean that's like

considered a sequel series

if you will but if you're going to

if you're going to carry

over any of the characters,

it would most certainly be

those from Rebels.

So you can,

I think if you're going to go

the animated route,

you can do it incorporating

Rebels characters.

It's just going to be, and I mean,

some of them did carry over.

I mean, Hera,

you could even carry Hera and

Kanan's son over.

They started doing that with

Rise of Skywalker.

Because their ship, the ghost,

is in the fight.

So you can technically even

carry a series where it's Jace.

You're following Jace.

Jace is Sindala.

Or Jace Sindala.

And that could work in an animated format.

So that's a way to bring

over the characters.

But again,

as long as Dave is allowed to

write and do what he needs

to do and is able to focus on writing.

Because that's what made the

content of the animated series,

both of them, so good.

was the writing and the

stories and the time to let

those things flush out.

He, if he has too much on his plate,

you can write, you know,

and some people have talked

about with some of the,

the shorts that have come

out with tales of the Jedi

tales of the empire,

there's been hit or miss

hits or miss with some of those.

Like they're not as

consistently good as those

in the animated again,

clone wars and rebels.

If you don't have Dave,

Dave Filoni doesn't have

the space to write and

then you have to be careful

with that too because you

don't want to start digging

the animated series and

start having that take a turn.

Tells of the Empire is a

good example of that.

Yeah.

I knew that's what you were talking about.

I just have to say,

ever since you brought up my guy Chopper,

all I could think about was

he would have such a good

time hanging with GI Robot.

Yes.

They would just be murdering

bitches left and right.

And then throw Smee in there.

Can we have... I'm telling you,

let's do a droids episode.

Let's get everyone in there.

And let's just go.

There is a comic book out

there called Dark Droids.

Yes, there is.

but nominal series the

ending of that series top

notch he does in this

actually but he was

possessed by I'll put it

like this in darth vader's

head isn't just anakin skywalker

I will leave it at that.

That's Natalie Portman.

She's in all our heads.

Son of a bitch.

It's like Black Swan incepted C-IIIPO.

Fuck.

Who's ready to see her in

Ahsoka Season Two flashback, y'all?

Because that's the conversation.

Let's fucking go.

I'm ready.

Bring it.

I'll see her in Avengers Doomsday.

Let's go.

I'm ready for it.

I will take Natalie Portman

in anything they'll give it to us in.

Let's wrap it up, guys.

Did this finale deliver?

We'll leave it at that.

Did it deliver?

Or would you want more

substance out of it?

I'm going to say it worked

perfectly fine for me.

I thought it was a good payoff.

We get the, you know,

our boy Jude sails off into the sunset.

He didn't get captured.

So he lives to ride another day.

The kids have their adventure.

Wim ultimately has the

adventure he's always

wanted with his dad.

That's what he wanted.

He wanted his dad to pay attention to him,

to be his dad.

To be involved in his life.

That was a big thing.

I think that message was delivered.

And they all became actual

friends instead of just a

bunch of kids thrown together.

And I think that's what they all needed.

And I think it paid off beautifully.

It's just like, it's a nice, simple,

happy ending.

And like, I'm good with that.

Amanda.

I delivered for me too.

I think it closed the

chapter on this story effectively,

you know, like,

but yet still left breathing room for the,

you know,

I think whim is probably the

most likely of the children,

although I would love to

see Neil in a future project,

but I think web is the most likely to,

to show up, um, and,

and a future star Wars

project in like a rogue

squadrons perhaps.

Yeah.

Could be, could be.

Oh, come on.

You've got to have Neil in that, too,

just to be his nervous goose.

I know.

Hopefully better faith than goose.

Hopefully.

I was thinking more like his

camp friend from Ferris Bueller.

Oh, no.

Yeah, I like it.

I like it.

That would be so great.

I like that they left the

ending for Jude Law open to return.

I think he's the most likely

of the characters to show

up in a future Star Wars project.

I would love to see him show

up in somebody like Hondo

and Naka's crew would be great.

So we didn't mention this,

but Hondo and Naka's

ship was at the space it was

what was it episode one yes

hondo was there we just

didn't see hondo it was

either yeah one or two so I

thought that was a cool one

I will always pop for hondo

I don't care bring me hondo

bring me hondo randy what you think

Well, as we know,

the execs over at Disney

are always tuned into my

podcast drops because they

know that I've got my

finger on the pulse of the

industry and whatnot.

And listen, Disney, I love this show.

Give me more of it.

That being said,

I didn't think the finale

fully worked for me.

Yeah.

I don't have horrible things

to say about it.

But the main reason it

didn't fully work for me is

I loved this show,

but I think the sweet spot

of it was episodes five and

six where we were the gooniest,

where the kids were on their own,

surviving on their own the most.

And I was a little bit

bummed out that we took two

episodes mostly to just like...

get the parents back involved,

like solve this big mystery of that.

And I would have preferred

to see them out there adventuring,

like just kind of

continuing to become

pirates or at the very

least solve it on their own.

Stay a little bit more in

this sort of like fantasy

ask environment a little bit more.

That's giving me, you know,

like when that big crab

creature comes out,

I'm getting shades of like

the never ending story and

all these stories where kids have to like

indoor completely on their

own and it lost like a

little bit of that magic

for me in those closing two

episodes I think that's why

I've been throwing so much

shade on the parents is

that like you know like

like kb and neil really get

sidelined for the finale

like I love neil I love

that he accesses that that

turret and buys them some time but like

They do all that so that the

parents are back in and

we're losing the time with

that friendship.

So I wish it had gone a

little bit differently.

But I am also not one who's

going to trash on creatives

because I love what they

did with this show.

And it is not my show to make.

And I think they did a phenomenal job.

Very true.

I can't argue that.

I agree with the parents part.

The parents did kind of.

It's always the parents, man.

Parents ruin shit.

Just ask my daughter.

But that is it, guys.

I know the plan was to get a little, hey,

what are you watching in an anime?

But we've gone two hours.

I think we'll call it here.

So we'll do the traditions.

We'll start with Bill.

Bill,

tell the folks where they can find you.

Uh, check, uh, don't need to follow me,

but follow the pop

break.com every single day.

We're,

we're turning out a lot of great

content right now.

Our music section is ramping up, um,

doing a lot more interviews these days.

Got a whole bunch coming out.

We're going to be talking with a,

believe it or not.

I have got three interviews in three days.

First one is a surf rock

band out of Poland called

Igor Jeziak and the Surfers.

Yeah, they're one of one out there,

and they're actually really great.

That's part of our High Tide

interview series,

which is an international

surf label out of Freehold, New Jersey.

So it's really awesome.

Friday, sorry, Thursday,

we're going to be doing Surfing for Daisy,

which is they're doing a

record release party.

They're an independent band at Aspyr Park.

Really awesome.

Big things on the way for them.

Then it should be Friday.

band gangsta grass they'll

be playing locally they did

the theme song to justified

uh they have a new record

they are awesome so season

one right uh no they did

the whole series I believe

for prime no no for um

justified I know but the

second no no no I don't

know if they did primeval

I know they did the original series.

That was so good.

They put a new album out.

If you're like, hey, country,

bluegrass and hip-hop don't mix.

No, they make it work.

And they're all from the Northeast,

which is weird.

So go check that out.

Those are my pieces that are

coming out on thepopbreak.com.

Follow us on all forms of

social media at The Pop Break.

except for YouTube, we are at popbreak.com,

all spelled out.

I'm the co-host of the

Socially Distanced Podcast,

which drops every single

Thursday with Amanda Rivas.

Tomorrow,

we are going to be recording our

episode on your friendly

neighborhood Spider-Man

with Dr. The Wife for

Faiths for Wrestling,

completing our full month

of spotlighting the Texas

independent wrestling scene.

So we're going to be talking about...

Oh, it comes out tomorrow.

It comes out tomorrow.

Yeah, that's right.

We've got this all taken care of.

And then the following week,

we're going to be doing our

final NFC East group

therapy session for the

twenty twenty four.

Twenty twenty three.

Twenty twenty.

I'm sorry.

The twenty twenty four NFL season for you,

for all of you.

Oh, fine.

I'm perfectly good.

Not our Eagles fan.

He's going to be doing well.

So we got that going up.

I'm also the Bill and the

Bill versus the MCU podcast.

On Friday,

we're dropping our Marvel TV recap.

I guess I don't know what

the hell it's called.

We talk about Echo and

Agatha along with myself and Alex Marcus.

And then finally, I am with TV Break,

which is our monthly TV podcast.

Find TV Break and Bill versus the MCU on

the pop break feed on all

your favorite streaming platforms,

social distance on all your

favorite streaming platforms as well.

And then Amanda and I are

joining the old chairman's buddy.

Kelvin will be on the BCP

plus live Thursday night,

Royal rumble predictions.

My favorite WWE PLE.

I said it's a pay-per-view,

but whatever it's PLE,

I guess is my favorite one.

They do every single year.

Doesn't matter how good or

bad the product is.

I am glued to that TV.

every single year and don't

forget uh amanda and I are

doing our first column

together too on the pop

break we're doing uh

dueling royal rumble

predictions you'll see that

friday we'll jump up to you

since you know yeah he's

giving you the flowers

bill bill got me writing so

yes he does that is my goal

for everyone so he's the

best so um I'm excited to

write and and uh write

first wrestling column I'm

excited I I'm I've already

started doing my homework

and I think I some of my

predictions I think will

not surprise bill and

everybody but some of them

are going to be like oh

we're going there all right

y'all doing the full thirty

man roster who you expect

to show up in the thirty

one we're gonna we're gonna try our best

yeah okay I think we're

gonna get surprises we have

our surprise lists and we

don't even know from each

other we're not gonna find

out we're doing it blind I

won't know and so we're

gonna have it done before

bcp on thursday and then I

will put it together and

we'll pretty much know what

we're saying about that but

yeah we do no idea who the

other person is picking

Yes.

And it's exciting.

So, so definitely excited to do that.

And of course, as Bill mentioned,

we'll be on the BCP plus

and it's going to be great.

Cause I always love talking

wrestling with the

wrestling peeps and it's going to be fun.

Of course, you know,

Bill talked about that.

I am the co-host of the

socially distanced and it's,

it's a blast.

It's just so much fun.

You guys, everybody,

everybody here has been on.

And so I'm looking forward

to having everybody back again.

So check us out.

Of course,

I am the co-host of the Anime

Pop podcast with my anime

brother and Bill and my mutual co-host,

Josh Arnecke.

We have a great time geeking

out on different anime that

are coming out every month

with a great group of guests and friends.

It's a great time.

Our current episode that's out right now

is on solo leveling season

two and Sakamoto Days.

And that is with our

wonderful friends over at

the Blurred Watchers,

Marshall and Courtney Stevenson.

And it was such a great conversation.

And of course, this coming month,

we'll be covering season

two of both My Happy

Marriage and The Apothecary Diaries.

So we're excited.

Get a little romance theme.

It's Valentine's.

It's the month of love.

It's appropriate.

So we're excited.

Sakamoto Days falls into that too.

Yeah.

it does it does because you

can't kill otherwise you'll

get a divorce and you get

kicked out of the family

because you've been adopted

this is true this is true

so it's a great anime there

are so many things that

happen in that one sentence

Yes.

You got to watch it.

You got to watch it.

It's really good.

I think I put it... Did I

add it to my list?

I might have added it to my list.

It's really good.

I'm finishing Shogun.

I'm actually doing my watch

of Shogun right now so I

can finally get to that.

By the Super Bowl.

I may do a rewatch of that one, actually.

Shogun is great.

It's great stuff.

But yeah, check us out every month.

We drop all of our anime randomness,

and we love it.

And so thank y'all for listening.

And of course,

you can follow me at

AmandaLorian on Instagram and threads,

at ResurShik, at BlueSky,

because I love nice shows forever.

And of course, we're touring.

New album drop.

I have a new tour.

I'm ready for a tour too.

It's going to happen.

We just got to pick our city.

We're just going to pick our city,

but we're going to, but we're going.

It's funny.

Every time I go to tag her on blue sky,

I'm like, Oh wait, back, back, back.

Resnores.

Randy over to you.

Where can the people find you at?

Listen, so first and foremost,

I would love for folks to

look up MediaLit, Media slash Lit,

wherever you get your podcasts.

We just completed our first

year of podcasting together,

my co-host Chris and I. On this show,

it's really a show about celebrating...

art and story and why it

means so much to us why it

makes us feel more human

feel more alive it's about

getting to know our guests

and sometimes it's about

playing pop culture themed

games uh which can be a

huge blast we love to do

all of those things uh if

you look up our pod you're

gonna see a huge variety of topics um

We will cover things like

Marvel and Batman movies

and nerd culture.

We will cover more recent

properties like Bill just

recently completed the

first in our Knives Out series.

We looked back at the first film.

We're going to be doing

Glass Onion at some point

in the not too distant future and

And of course,

we'll get together for Wake

Up Dead Man when that releases.

But we'll go anywhere.

I am currently in the midst

of editing a four-hour podcast,

a seven-person panel that

is a draft of Taylor Swift songs,

masterminded by the great Alex Marcus,

podcasting director of The Pop Break.

This is going to be...

Our kickoff event for season

two of Media Lit.

And the things that you

shared on this podcast were

incredible and personal.

It was so fascinating.

We got some really cool

guests from a podcast

called Space Swifties,

which is a Star Wars slash

Taylor Swift podcast.

So it was quite an event.

It was not supposed to be four hours, but.

but it was, it was an event.

So somehow I'm going to have

that up by Monday, February third,

and I hope people will check it out.

Um, but yeah, so we're on,

we're on blue sky.

We're on Twitter, uh,

Instagram media.lit.pod and

Instagram media dash lit at blue sky.

But, but basically find our episodes.

You can find our website.

We've got all of our

different segments and

things broken down there.

Uh, in addition to my work on media lit,

I am a huge contributing

member to the pop break.

Um,

in podcasting, uh, next week,

you're going to hear me

podcasting about Taylor Swift,

but right now you can hear

me podcasting about black

Sabbath on pod of doom with

Justin and Chris Mancini.

We just dropped our Sabbath

bloody Sabbath podcast, uh,

yesterday that just released.

I added it to the queue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And, uh,

I'm also doing a lot of

television coverage over at

the Pop Break.

Bill was insane enough to

agree to let me cover

Severance week to week.

Sounds about right.

That's legit.

I delivered with nine pages

on the second episode of

season two of Severance.

That's about five thousand words.

Yeah, it's awakened my imagination.

Let's just say that much.

The inner teacher is

assigning himself term papers.

Five thousand words,

double spaced pinpoint font.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah, check us out.

And of course, check out my co-host,

Chris Ingersoll, also on the pop break,

co-host of Batman by the numbers,

an incredibly kind guy,

an incredibly smart guy and

an incredible set of pipes on that one.

What a voice.

Yeah.

So when he starts dropping his ass,

it's great.

It's my favorite thing in the world.

I, Jeff,

I just got to put over both

Amanda and Randy real quick.

Go for it.

Amanda, we're entering our fifth season,

our sixth season, I should say,

episode two fifty going to be this year.

Can't do couldn't have done

this without Amanda.

Amanda is one of the best to

do a podcast with.

There's like Randy said,

she's everyone's big sis.

So it's been great.

And Randy,

congratulations on one year immediately.

He's a hell of a dude.

And if you have a podcaster,

but if you have to read what he writes,

I know you're going to say

nine pages on goddamn severance.

what the fuck but read his

stuff it is so masterfully

written it's just like

that's some it's some a

plus level writing and jeff

I have to put you over my

friend thank you for having

us yes podcast thank you

for one always being a

constant supporter of us at

the pop break and randy at

media lid it means the

world to us that you always

share our content it means

the world that you can come on our show

talk to us be a part of uh

be a part of pop break and

for letting us come out and

be a part of your first

ever live stream although

not your first ever live

stream but we're glad to be

glad to be a part of it and

we're glad you have

definitely be I didn't

realize I was going to have to wait

Thank you so much, Jeff,

because I've loved becoming

a creator in this past year.

But what I've loved just as

much as that is the

community that comes with

podcasting and entertainment writing.

And you are such an active

and thoughtful and caring

member of that community.

So thank you so much for the support.

yes absolutely absolutely

it's always a blast thank

you I I appreciate the kind

words they they do mean a

lot and anytime I get

invited on to anybody's

podcast I I try to put

everything into it and when

bill invites me to write

something that to me means

the world that he he trusts

this illiterate alabamian

to uh to write for him and

I there's gonna be more I I

know I'm here I'm here for

it I love it um

So what's going on with me?

Last night,

I got the opportunity to read a

new Kickstarter out there

by Bruno Caterino from the UK.

Of course, a great British name,

Bruno Caterino.

I know, right?

And it was a really good comic book.

I was surprised.

I was not expecting what I got from it.

And when I literally say, like,

you will be surprised of

who is experiencing these

very human emotions in this book.

It got my seal of approval,

so it's up right now on thedfpn.com.

There's been two books that

I put my seal of approval

on over on Kickstarter I

was invited to read,

and both of them were phenomenal.

That's why they're both

hanging right now on

thedfpn.com under Comics.

And if you have a

Kickstarter out there that

you would like me to read

and possibly put my

syllable of approval on, hit me up.

I'm not hard to find.

It's TheChairman at USDNPodcast.com.

That's my plug for that.

Shameless.

I'd love to read your comic

books and tell you what I

think about them.

But you can find me across

all social media platforms

at USDN Podcast.

So for Blue Sky,

you can find me at the USDN

Chairman over there on Blue Sky.

And it's a little bit more personable.

I do share a lot more of the

comic book stuff over there

and do a lot more with

comic book interactions

with the writers and that kind of stuff.

So what's coming up for me

tomorrow is New Comic Book Day,

so you can expect that

episode sometime tomorrow.

I love to say I was going to

shoot it today,

but I don't get my comic

books until tomorrow.

So I'll shoot that tomorrow

after work sometime.

Some point next week,

I'll be sitting down with Bruno Caterino.

from the UK.

We're just trying to figure

out a good day and time to

sit down and he's going to

come on and tell us about

his new comic book called

Bereavement that is live

right now on Kickstarter.

So I'm really excited to sit

down with him and

and talk to him about his

new book and hopefully get

some eyes on it and maybe

some support for him in his

new comic book because it

really was good.

Yeah, it was good.

The art was phenomenal.

If you're a fan of the newer

style art that's out right now,

it almost looks AI,

but you can tell there's a

human behind the pencil doing it,

then you'll enjoy the art in it as well.

That's it for me.

Randy.

Since you are the new guy,

I want to take the time now

to welcome you.

You are official.

You have gained the seal of

approval from the chairman.

You are officially a council member.

It comes with tons of responsibility.

It's mainly just like, hey, dude,

you want to do a show on this?

Randomly throughout the

month is what you get out of that.

There's no real perks,

just random invites to

podcast and that kind of stuff.

So welcome to the team, Randy.

We appreciate you coming on tonight.

Amanda, as always, I appreciate you.

Anytime I'm talking Star Wars,

you don't even need the invite.

Just show up at the door.

So I'm so honored to, to be on the board.

Thank you so much for having me.

Can't wait to get you on

media lit and make you an official.

We're going to find, it'll be awesome.

We're going to get us a

topic together and we're

going to rock one hell of a fucking show.

I am not kidding you.

but for me that is it I want

to thank everybody who

tuned in tonight I've seen

we had about five viewers

at one point I do

appreciate each and every

one of you who are sticking

around I still see I have

one person watching so I

appreciate that one person

for sticking around and

watching and supporting the

podcast I know we got off

topic a few times but

that's the fun of this

right but on behalf of

myself my council of nerds

and my newest council of nerd member

Thank you all for tuning in.

And on behalf of myself and

this fine council sitting in front of me,

this show is USDN approved.

It's supposed to play my outro.

Why ain't it playing my outro?