The force will be with you always.

It's a time for the echoes of.

Fear opening that now.

So while he opens that, guy, this is a mini series.

It is all connected.

It is written by George Man.

Excuse me, I'm still getting over what I probably have had, so uh.

Vincenzo Federici, Vincenzo Riccardi, Juan Samu In Georgia's Postido illustrate the mini series.

That's probably in order of everything.

The colors are by Michael Atilla, Vincenzo Ricardi, Francesco Cigala with Gloria Martin Martinelli, Nicola and Nicola Rehi are the color colorists.

And then the letters are by Comic Crafts, Tyler Smith and Jimmy Bettencourt.

Are you proud of me?

I've said comic twice?

Yeah, I was.

I was gonna make a comment.

Thank you for adding Comic Crafts to Tyler's name.

Uh.

And then of course the cover art Eduardo Mellow with Valentina Todaeo.

I really enjoyed this book.

Yes, a again gives a lot more context to trials of the Jedi, because in our review I'm like, how did they get the run?

And I'm like, oh, this is how cool.

I dig this because again it plays so much more into like the overall lore of Star Wars as well, you when you're going into like the temple and the archives and how they still hold like like Sith archives and information about Sith.

I dig that.

And in this format, uh, this comic versus like a short story, it really lends itself to how the story is being told with the archaeological aspects of what reaths trying to delve in to, with holocrons and different planets and telling a story like this is really superb in how it's done in that regard for issues, and we even get a sitboard in this.

I remember us looking at the preview pagees for what is it issue number two?

I think, no, it's issue one, Yeah, issue issue one.

When we get the story of Darth Robbie and looking at how it's spectacular those pages are.

Uh, it's just awesome.

It's really just awesome.

I I need I need a story.

I need a book, an ongoing comic, something that is about Darth Robbie because this is just like seemingly the end of his story.

Yeah.

Uh, I dig this, And I love how Amadeo and Wreath like Amadeo's like, should we really be like listening to this, Like this is a sith we're talking about here, Like what do you like?

What are we doing here?

Like we we can't honestly trust everything.

This hollow crown is actually saying, right, I I I dig it I I I like how much character Uh this book gave to Amadalo because yeah, we've had I think a total of two novels that had Amadale as a significant character.

Uh, but there still was a feeling of not enough in there and this, even though it was short, there was still a lot of fun moments with him as a character in here.

Yep, Yeah, I love Amadeo.

I'm wondering if tenderly Wreath will take him on as a pad one or if it's going to be comac since we no he's coming back to the Order.

I I like some implications that this story also puts for Wreath's future.

There is a moment where, uh, Wreath is confronted by the same exact Kiber mirrors that we saw in the Battle of Jetta.

This was of course a audio audible not audible original, but it was an audiobook, an audio drama.

UH and Uh, we got to see or we read about these things called Kiber mirrors where they show you potentially like your future or like possible futures.

And like the case character, I can't remember the character that we were with in the Battle of Jetta, but she go ahead, but I remember like something happened to her Padawan and like she got to see like like a happy ending or something like something kind of gave her closure to that character in the midst of looking at that mirror in this mirror, And I know we're kind of skipping around, but I just want to go ahead and talk about this because we did mention it the implications that this gives because Reith does look at the mirror, and when you look at the panels where it shows you his possible futures, you see the very first panel has him possibly attacking Aslan yep.

Then you have another one where he is older and he is uh holding on to a dead Padawan yep.

Then you see him in the council chambers in another panel.

Then you see him uh leading a battle, leading a battle against the Nihill because that is a Nihill mask uh, And so like there's so many different things here that's like, okay, like we know how this all ends for the High Republican initiative story, the overall big story that they were telling, but there's still so much much story they could tell with these characters.

This just kind of like I wonder if, uh, because this was also written by uh who again this was written by George Mann.

I wonder if.

I wonder if George went to Charles Soul and was like, hey, like, is there a possibility that I can have a Wreath story like later on in the High Republic because I have some ideas He's like, yeah, sure, and like he placed like little seeds.

Especially the one with Aslin is super interesting because we know he took off after Aslin at the end of Trials of the Jedi.

Yeah.

I love it.

It really tells a lot about Wreath as a person, and like us at the beginning, I feel like this story was made for comics, and like there's some stories where I'm like, could we have had this in a book instead?

Yeah, but like this one.

Worthy, I love it.

It makes complete sense now.

Uh.

This overall story surrounds these stones that are the echostones are yeah, the echo stones, and that of course is what Darth Robbie is after it eventually consumes him and he meets his end.

We do have a Jedi that we do follow in the second issue.

His name is Them.

And it was Claudia Gray's only story in Phase two, remember Yes in the in the one shot issue.

Yes, and we get to see a small story about how he's had interactions with the stones.

And I dig this because when he meets this other Jedi who is using this stone for the greater good, this has like the Lord of the Rings written all over it.

I love it, like the ring that can rule them all, Like this idea of like it has so much power.

He doesn't want to give it up, but he can't help but like keep using it.

I love this entire story.

Yep, Yeah, I dug this.

He eventually gives this stone to Barnabas, and Barnabas is like, Okay, you know, I'm going to take it and I'm going to you know, put it in its rightful place where we do inevitably see him land.

The implication is that he of course is on Planet X.

Yeah, because that's where we eventually see his craft in Trials and the Jedi right it was.

It was Barnabas.

Yep, that's the one that has takes off.

And so this then gives Wreath and Amadeo like this aha moment, like oh, there was like proof, like because because the whole story with Robbie, like Amadeus was like this could just easily been like a fork, a folklore story to like keep us away from the darks, like there is no actual evidence to show that this is real.

And then Reata is like, oh, but then there's this, and of course he tells, you know, the the holocron about Barnabas.

This definitely does show the possibility of this being a real thing, and so they want to follow this, you know these clues that Barnabas left.

Now there is a third issue that actually follows immediately a couple years after Barnabas's story, not like not in the same timeframe of real decades.

Yeah, it does say decades.

You're you're absolutely correct.

There is uh a Master and a Padawan Atticus and Padawan Jada or Ja.

I really like Jada's designed, by the way.

I love yeah, uh, the the purple hair, the yellow face paint like or the the the tattoos or whatever.

Love it, love it.

But they're also trying to find Barnabas.

All Right, y'all, we're gonna hit our first ad break and we will be right back in three two one.

And this is when we learn about the Rod.

I love this story because again it is like Star Wars has so much Lord of the Rings just like embedded in it.

Because there's this story that one of the locals of this planet, which the planet is called Verrovia.

Yeah, one of the Virovians tells this story about how this rod is like the main cause of like the civil war on the entire planet, and there is no peace, and these people want it for their power, and these people want it for their power, and they like it's just gonna be foreverything, and they're not sure how to make it end.

And so Master Atticus is like, we will look into it, and not because we want it.

We are not doing this for the sake of us wanting its power to take over people and everything else.

We simply want to take it to put you at ease and to put you peace yep, Okay, cool, yeah, yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

So they go and they are stuck behind.

They're stuck in front of this giant, massive door that does not open immediately.

They have to figure out how to open it, which I was a little upset there was no real explanation of how they opened it.

Again, I think this one was a failing of This is like the one part where it's failing in the comic design is like, Okay, could we have had a better explanation?

Well, And that's the thing though, Like my issue is with editorial, because if this is an anthology, you should have had the meetings of Hey.

Instead of the standard twenty four to twenty six pages, each one of these needs to be fifty pages, easy enough.

Now I'm reading these both digitally, the two books that we are talking about today, This one currently as I'm looking at the page numbers says one hundred and twenty four pages.

This would have put it at two hundred pages.

But there would have been so much more exposition, so much more context, more details that could help the reader fully understand the story that you're trying to portray here.

But like there is literally like two panels of like, oh, we don't know what to do, and like, oh, let's take a rest, and then the very next panel is Atticus being like I got it.

We're good.

The door's open, and you're like, what the hell?

What is it that opened this door?

You know, why make it such a thing that it couldn't open to simply just open it in one small panel?

And I think that's why they kind of explained it away with the Totolamites, because the Toolamites, we got a lot of exposition into the puzzles and whatnot in George Mann's book Tiers of the Nameless.

Yeah, and so they just kind of were like, okay, they explained that the Tolamites had dropped the rod off here in effort to hide it and like protect it kind of thing.

So those puzzles were meant for it.

Yeah, but we do see the rod is in case in some sort of like crystal or something.

I think this is the same substance that I believe it was in Tiers of the Nameless.

Inside the temple.

It was also encased in this kind of thing.

Yeah, I don't remember what it was, but.

Yeah, yeah, we see that there's actual temptation towards this item.

Again, Like I said, it has that you know, one ring to rule them all type feeling to it.

And we realized that the locals are actually running towards them in full battalion and everything else, and the Padawan is like, oh, well, it looks like they actually didn't have any They weren't intended to keep the peace.

They actually just wanted us to figure out the puzzle so that way they could get the rod for themselves.

Yep, we see Atticus actually attempts to destroy the Pillar of Crystal and this causes a massive like reaction for the temple to basically cave in on itself.

They kind of say that this was done on purpose or not really, uh, you know.

Master Atticus is like, oh, we'll We'll never know.

We'll just have to wait and see if our actions you know.

Uh, he says specifically, all we can do is trust in the force and hope that when the time comes, the future will judge our actions kindly.

Ye.

And this leads us to the last part of that story where uh, Master komak Amadeo and Wreath all go and try to find that rod, which they inevitably do upon like going on like two or three trial.

I love yeah, I love they We see the transition of Verrovia between issues three and four, Like, I truly love how Man was able to accomplish aging the planet so well and showing how what the Jedi had done in issue number three had benefited the planet like it.

And and I like how like there's a small just like the way that the uh what was the species again?

The vans.

The Rovian that talks to them is kind of giving them the same speel of like, oh, like are you gonna take it or is it like gonna be just power for you?

And all of these other things, and they kind of have the same back and forth with Coma, but like they're actually genuine about it in the sense of, like, we don't want another war to start, so uh, if you find it, please take it far away from here, and they okay, we'll do.

And so they go on their journey.

They do find the underground tunnels that eventually get them to the actual rod where they actually find a droid.

I don't remember this droid at all in future stories.

I don't the key's there either.

I think that they just rescued him because he was kind of begging to be rescued.

Yeah, like, which I do think is like a little silly and a little funny, but like this could have been a helpful droid in like the future of this story, you know, yeah, I would think, but yeah.

Yeah, like I guess maybe we'll see if like he comes back in like a future wreath story.

Maybe maybe.

One of the panels I wanted to shout out in this issue, I do love how we get we're getting to see breath use the shield.

Yes, but like this giant maze one again to show the progression of time.

The double uh splash page was really nice.

I really dug that.

I this one was super cool, and like the first time I read this I got confused, but then going back through the second and third time, I was like, oh wait, like this is actually super cool.

So yeah, I dig that.

I love the color palette because of how dark it is, how the lightsabers really shine here, how that kind of goes onto their armor and everything.

Really dig all of that.

And like they kind of made a big deal out of these like creatures that were around the rod, but then like they were done with it within like two panels.

Again, small little things like that, I'm just like, why even make reference to it if it's just going to be a snap of your fingers and everything is fine type of moment, but again, they only have limited time, They only have limited pages and limited panels, so there's not much I can do about that.

Yeah, I think that's it.

I think that's like the biggest things with these issues is we wish there was more to the story and like, but ultimately it is a comic.

You're only going to get so much with comic.

Yeah, So overall, I think both of these trades are superb, Like, yeah, do I see there being some things we could have potentially taken out of dispatches and thrown somewhere else or but like yes, but like also what we got is really good and then echoes George Mayne killed it.

Again, Like yeah, I would like to see more of George man honestly.

Yeah, And to think that he wrote these with the terror of potentially having brain cancer over that, like the dude killed it like bravo, bravo whatever, Like superb.

Yeah, it's his storytelling has been absolutely amazing in the High Republic, and I cannot wait to see more of it.

One person that we still haven't seen more of is Lydia Kang.

We said we wanted more and we have yet to see more of her.

Yeah, I think she is currently writing the short stories for this phase of the High Republic.

Yeah, so they're in the magazine.

So once that collection gets announced, will purchase.

I can't wait to read them.

Yeah, I know if you're if you're that type of person and you want them right now.

I don't have a lot of time to read them right now.

But like apparently Star Wars Insider, you can go get on Libby at any time basically, and so you can go read these stories for free.

Yeah.

I also just got kicked out of my Libby account because I haven't verified my library card, so I have to go to do that.

Oh man, uh but yeah, that is it for the episode.

So guys over here at Patreon you will.

Guys will get this the week that we are taking a break on vacation, and then for anybody listening to this on our regular feed, I don't know when that's gonna be.

It'll be on a random day where neither Katie or I want to spend the time getting in front of a camera, which is it all the time?

Actually, we tried to make an effort to make every single episode happen live on YouTube.

So with that, guys, thank you.

Guys.

So much.

You guys know where to find us.

We're here on Patreon.

I will say this plug the Blue Sky account.

Yes, I literally just created the day that we are recording this a blue Sky Star Wars Alliance account.

It is the exact same handle as all of our other stuff was Star Wars Alliance.

No a in Wars very important, don't forget it.

With this now found time on my hands, I am actually going to be making an effort to up our game on social media.

We recently had a friend of ours I say recently, but a couple months ago, say that they would like to help us possibly get into Star Wars celebration, and we had promised to ourselves that the only way that could possibly be a thing is to get more viewership, get more listeners, up our social media game.

So we're going to try heavily to do that, and you guys supporting us here on Patreon is a lot of help with that.

So please go and follow us on Blue Sky.

And we have a threads in an Instagram at this point, but I'm not.

Entirely to try to get back into them.

I will make an effort.

Yeah, I'm sorry, No, it's all good, it's all good.

But yeah, Katie, go ahead, and oh we'll go ahead.

I got kicked out of my Twitter account on my PC and it won't let me back in.

So the only place I have my Twitter account right now is on my phone phone.

Yeah, I I refuse to give Twitter my phone number, and so that's the only reason why I can't log in on my computer.

Yeah.

Yeah, So if I'm on Twitter list, that's why because most of my Twitter time is on my PC.

Was on my PC.

So but yeah, you could find me on most social media platforms.

Is at slay Katie, this show, like Clay said, find us some Blue Sky Star Wars alliance with no Am the Wars, and then you can also shoot us a text or leave us the voicemail eight three zero five three eight four eight two eight Uh, just give us a way to reference you on the show.

And then the same user name as always at gmail dot com.

Remember there's just no a in the wash.

That's where you can find us on everything if we're there.

So with that, guys, I want to share on a great day or night, whatever time of day you were listening or watching, and we will see y'all next time.

Day the Force be with you