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Star Wars The Last Order Review CCLXIII · Star Wars Alliance

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Speaker 1: The Force will be with you always.
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Speaker 2: We had the awesome chance of getting the last Order
0:27
Speaker 2: novel early.
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Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Random House. We appreciate it.
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Speaker 2: Yes, very much. So this book, well, I I want
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Speaker 2: to I want to know surface level non spoiler thoughts, Katie.
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Speaker 2: Where on the spectrum of Star Wars novels that we
0:56
Speaker 2: have read, where is this book?
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Speaker 3: So? I think so this is not a spoiler. So
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Speaker 3: I truly believe that my opinion on this book was
1:13
Speaker 3: affected by the synopsis of the book.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so we're on the same level.
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Speaker 3: Yes, and I only had a chance to read this once,
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Speaker 3: So I still plan on going back and maybe it'll
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Speaker 3: be a future discussion where we go. Okay, we've reread this.
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Speaker 3: How do we feel now without knowing what we're getting into? Because, guys,
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Speaker 3: I can basically count. There is less than ten chapters
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Speaker 3: after the Rise of Skywalker. Yes, everything else is pre
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Speaker 3: Force awakens and guys. The summary says, following the end
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Speaker 3: of Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker, the Resistance rescues
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Speaker 3: a shipful of young passengers who have been kidnapped by
1:59
Speaker 3: the First Order. As Finn and Jena set out to
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Speaker 3: find the First Order officer responsible before he can endanger
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Speaker 3: any more children, The two former Stormtroopers must wrestle with
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Speaker 3: their own complicated past as soldiers of the oppressive regime
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Speaker 3: take a deep dive into the past popular characters Finn
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Speaker 3: and Jenna in this action packed story that fans have
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Speaker 3: been asking for. Guys, this was not the story fans
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Speaker 3: have been asking for this reason. And don't get me wrong,
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Speaker 3: I think Mabalia's work on the book is very good.
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Speaker 3: He balances everything phenomenal.
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Speaker 2: Yes, and that is the reason why I wanted to
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Speaker 2: ask for your non spoiler thoughts and your ranking of
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Speaker 2: this book, because I had the exact same quote unquote.
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Speaker 2: Problem is the expectation that the synopsis gave for this
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Speaker 2: book is literally not what the book is.
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Speaker 3: You might could say that last line of the synopsis
3:06
Speaker 3: is how they get away with it. Guys, When you
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Speaker 3: are summarizing a book in a synopsis, it is supposed
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Speaker 3: to be the main Like the overall, we spend more
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Speaker 3: time before the Force awakens than we do after the
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Speaker 3: Rise of Skywalker. So I don't know why the Rise
3:25
Speaker 3: of Skywalker was even mentioned in this Like, this is
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Speaker 3: not a post Squel trilogy book. This is a before
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Speaker 3: Force Awakens book yep, and unfortunately the timeline listed as
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Speaker 3: after the Rise of Skywalker, so it's going on my
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Speaker 3: bookshelf after the Rise of Skywalker novelization because whatever. But
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Speaker 3: that is the most frustrating thing to me about this
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Speaker 3: book is that it was said to be a post
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Speaker 3: Squel trilogy book and it's not.
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Speaker 2: I agree. Also, I want to make light of this
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Speaker 2: conversation because I know that it sounds like we are
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Speaker 2: very negative on this. This book does a really funny thing.
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Speaker 2: If people are not aware stormtroopers don't have names, they
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Speaker 2: have numbers. So, as me, a person who can't memorize
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Speaker 2: most of anything, for shit, when I am reading these
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Speaker 2: random numbers, I'm like, okay, I am reading a book
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Speaker 2: about random stormtroopers. And it wasn't until about chapter twenty
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Speaker 2: that I'm like, wait a second, what was Finn's number again? Yea,
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Speaker 2: oh okay, for the past twenty chapter what I thought
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Speaker 2: was a random stormtrooper was Finn. Oh wait, Jana is
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Speaker 2: also in this book. I never even knew her number.
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Speaker 2: I have to go research that what is her number?
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Speaker 3: And that was the point in the chapter with her
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Speaker 3: identified with the Flower, is to kind of give you
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Speaker 3: that hint of oh, okay, this is Jenna. The problem
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Speaker 3: still lies in the fact that most people are not
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Speaker 3: numbers people. And I didn't have any problems with the
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Speaker 3: Stormtrooper numbers because eventually, like in Jena's scenes, it boiled
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Speaker 3: down to the nicknames.
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Speaker 4: In Finn's boiled, so I weren't read it more Appelli
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Speaker 4: as like a main character.
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Speaker 3: I really I.
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Speaker 4: Mainly struggled way out of this book because of how
6:06
Speaker 4: they because of how they've chose to spread out of
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Speaker 4: the present chapter versus Captor. I think the they's gone
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Speaker 4: talked to the bottom and said, hey, we're gonna start
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Speaker 4: off with an m hm post prizes, and then we're
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Speaker 4: going to give us a reason to do, and we're
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Speaker 4: going to spend the majority of the time in the pack,
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Speaker 4: but then we get the thing of the Past cup
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Speaker 4: and then we go back to the President to the
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Speaker 4: book game instead of Hicks for first and present day
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Speaker 4: after within the past, I think that would have been
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Speaker 4: a lot well, even though I'm not singing of it,
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Speaker 4: I still oft like, I think that would have been
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Speaker 4: a lot more successful because, like, you have new character
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Speaker 4: who has a presport problem and kind of needs a
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Speaker 4: little bit of help.
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Speaker 2: Yees, now I'm back in.
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Speaker 3: The identify chapter.
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Speaker 4: You're in the order of local and that's how you
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Speaker 4: know your transition.
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Speaker 3: Down in the middle. And well, I feel like where.
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Speaker 2: Not only that, the way that this book transitions the
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Speaker 2: very first time is there is on one whole page
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Speaker 2: it says years earlier.
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Speaker 3: Yep.
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Speaker 2: It never then comes back to saying now or present
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Speaker 2: time or anything else. So the break the the years
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Speaker 2: earlier page, I think although sets up a tone of hey,
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Speaker 2: we're going back, just so you know we're going to
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Speaker 2: move in this direction. If you were going to set
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Speaker 2: that up, there needs to be a like, hey we're
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Speaker 2: going back page also, yeah, because.
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Speaker 3: I literally when I figured out that, hey, the past chapters,
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Speaker 3: there's multiple past chapters, I had to figure that out
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Speaker 3: on my own because I was expecting, Okay, hey we
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Speaker 3: got years later. Now we're transitioning to a new chapter.
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Speaker 3: I was expecting to see Finn and Jenna, and you
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Speaker 3: don't get that you still are in the past.
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Speaker 2: One thing that I think, one thing that I also
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Speaker 2: think is an indicator that I'm just now realizing is
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Speaker 2: the literal chapter. Sure, the word chapter when it's present tense,
9:07
Speaker 2: when it's in the present. When it's in the now,
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Speaker 2: the word chapter is spelled out completely. When we are
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Speaker 2: not in the present time, chapter is spelled it's abbreviated CHPTR.
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Speaker 3: I noticed that, but I didn't put that together.
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Speaker 2: Neither did I until literally just now, I thought this
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Speaker 2: was a because, guys, one thing that you need to
9:41
Speaker 2: know about reviewing these books, because we get them early,
9:48
Speaker 2: there is a big chance, a probable chance, that we
9:53
Speaker 2: are getting a unedited version of a book that has
9:58
Speaker 2: happened before.
10:00
Speaker 3: I'm so used to that, but this is edited. This
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Speaker 3: is I'm guessing what everybody else.
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Speaker 2: Is getting, I assume. So now that like it's clicking that. Yeah,
10:12
Speaker 2: because when I first saw that, I was like, oh,
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Speaker 2: that's a little silly. Why would they dispel the word
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Speaker 2: chapter that.
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Speaker 3: I was like, two, I was like, that's weird.
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Speaker 2: But yeah, now that I actually see it, I legitimately
10:27
Speaker 2: think that the word chapter is supposed to Yeah, because
10:34
Speaker 2: like if you go to all of the chapters that
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Speaker 2: have the full word spelled out within the first sentence
10:44
Speaker 2: or two, you realize that we are following a character
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Speaker 2: named Coy. So yeah, that's something else that I I
10:55
Speaker 2: understand the cleverness of the indicators, but it unfortunately, with
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Speaker 2: something like this, I think it needs to be spelled
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Speaker 2: out to us.
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Speaker 3: Especially considering you're going to run into Like I am
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Speaker 3: very curious how the audiobook does, because in an audiobook,
11:15
Speaker 3: that's not going to translate.
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Speaker 2: So I can tell you because for myself, I only
11:30
Speaker 2: got one read through in because guys, I am unprepared
11:35
Speaker 2: all the time. A little bit of inside Baseball. Katie
11:42
Speaker 2: and I were going to have another book review this
11:45
Speaker 2: past weekend, and I thought that review was going to
11:49
Speaker 2: happen literally tonight after the show, and this review that
11:54
Speaker 2: we're literally doing right now was going to be next week.
11:58
Speaker 2: I don't know how to look at a calendar. I apologize.
12:02
Speaker 2: So I was knee deep, sorry, not deep, knee deep.
12:08
Speaker 2: I was like ears deep in our other book, the
12:11
Speaker 2: other book by the way, being Master of Evil, not
12:14
Speaker 2: gonna spoil anything from there. I was, you know, ears
12:20
Speaker 2: deep into that book. And then Katie was like, hey,
12:23
Speaker 2: we have to pivot. There's some things going on and
12:27
Speaker 2: we'll have to do that at another time, so we'll
12:30
Speaker 2: have to do this, and I was like, wait, are
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Speaker 2: you telling me that I should have already been reading
12:35
Speaker 2: this book. And so I was like, oh, speed reading.
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Speaker 3: Time. To point out on our schedule, which I have
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Speaker 3: not edited since we pivoted, it says October nineteenth, Master
12:48
Speaker 3: of Evil recording.
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Speaker 2: Again, I don't know how to look at a calendar.
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Speaker 2: I just see. I just see literally the titles, and
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Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, those are the books that I need
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Speaker 2: to be reading right now. That's all. That's all I see.
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Speaker 2: And I was so close to the end of Master
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Speaker 2: of Evil that I was like, oh, I could definitely
13:09
Speaker 2: read the last order in time. And then when you
13:13
Speaker 2: said that, I was like, oh, I should have this
13:16
Speaker 2: book already done with crap. So I was speed reading
13:22
Speaker 2: for like the last three days, which, by the way,
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Speaker 2: I will also say this, there is no need to
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Speaker 2: attempt a speed read. This is a very easy book
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Speaker 2: to read.
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Speaker 3: And very easy book. And I know, guys, for the
13:39
Speaker 3: first fifteen minutes of this we have focused on the
13:41
Speaker 3: negativity portion of it. I'm basically done with the negativity portion.
13:46
Speaker 3: I'm reading how.
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Speaker 2: Much same here Mambalia. He is more famous for writing
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Speaker 2: young adult novels. So for the writing style, it's very
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Speaker 2: easy to comprehend. It's very it's it's a very simple read.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say this is definitely true young adult,
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Speaker 3: whereas some of the Star Wars books recently have young
14:13
Speaker 3: adult books have leaned more new adults. This is like
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Speaker 3: a true young adult.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I feel like care Uh reads very similar to Alex
14:22
Speaker 3: Segura's podamm roon book free Fall.
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Speaker 2: I was going to say, because I haven't read free
14:31
Speaker 2: Fall the like looking at the young adult novels that
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Speaker 2: we have read for the High Republic and just you know,
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Speaker 2: normal timeline, Skywalker saga stuff, I would say this book
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Speaker 2: is in the same writing style, but better than Patawan
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Speaker 2: in my opinion, Yes, as far as like the flow
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Speaker 2: of the book and everything else, I think that the
15:00
Speaker 2: this is a tier above Padawan. Now the audiobook. Listening
15:10
Speaker 2: to the audiobook, there is the transitions. Do not say
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Speaker 2: like before or after or now or anything else. The
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Speaker 2: only thing that really tells you that you are like
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Speaker 2: in a transition of the past compared to the future
15:36
Speaker 2: or compared to present time is that the past chapters
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Speaker 2: are all dealing with stormtroopers, so everybody has like some
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Speaker 2: sort of vocoder, like the voice is altered. But this
15:51
Speaker 2: is one narrator. So yeah, I have to literally wait
15:58
Speaker 2: until one of the numbers is mentioned until I can
16:04
Speaker 2: finally realize, oh, okay, we're following this person not the
16:06
Speaker 2: other person.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't know then, because I got the audio
16:13
Speaker 3: book on audible, I don't know if I'll listen to it. Then.
16:17
Speaker 3: I may hold on to it just for like a
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Speaker 3: rainy day, but I definitely would get super confused, even
16:24
Speaker 3: though I know already that there's less than ten present
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Speaker 3: day chapters. I think I would get confused, especially with
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Speaker 3: following Stormtroopers, and like you said, the vocode a portion
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Speaker 3: of it.
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Speaker 2: That being said, I want to go ahead and also
16:41
Speaker 2: state that this narrator, uh Torian Bracket Braquette, he has
16:58
Speaker 2: been apparently on all of the dramatized versions of Fourth Wing.
17:05
Speaker 2: He plays a voice in there. I as a very
17:10
Speaker 2: big fan of audio and audio dramas. I think his
17:16
Speaker 2: voice sounds great. I really like his voice. I'm probably
17:19
Speaker 2: going to look for more of his audio books. So
17:24
Speaker 2: it is not a like I.
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Speaker 3: Think that's the narrated one.
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Speaker 2: Yes. The only thing is because I know now that
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Speaker 2: we follow Finn and Jana, there is because of the
17:39
Speaker 2: way that they did the sound design on the vocoder,
17:43
Speaker 2: there is no real distinction of female versus male. That's
17:49
Speaker 2: one of the biggest things. But I do like the
17:53
Speaker 2: narrator's voice. I think he did a very excellent job.
17:58
Speaker 2: So let's get down down to more of the positive things,
18:03
Speaker 2: the reasons we had fun for this book, Kate, What
18:09
Speaker 2: was some of the big highlights for you?
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Speaker 3: So I really enjoyed getting to know Jannah better. I
18:21
Speaker 3: feel like a lot of the times where we have
18:25
Speaker 3: got well, I say, a lot of the times. She's
18:27
Speaker 3: only been in two projects so far. I liked getting
18:32
Speaker 3: that expansion of her character because I think there's a
18:36
Speaker 3: lot of promise there, and so getting the how and
18:41
Speaker 3: the why of why she left the First Order and
18:47
Speaker 3: how she left the First Order and how much she
18:51
Speaker 3: cared about her squad. I really enjoyed that and had
18:54
Speaker 3: a lot of fun with it. And I think Mabalia
18:59
Speaker 3: really did a fantastic job of just expanding things and
19:05
Speaker 3: making it work within the parameters with probably what he
19:09
Speaker 3: was given, because there's not a lot known, and so
19:15
Speaker 3: to truly go into that area with a character that's
19:20
Speaker 3: mostly undeveloped, it's a super cool experience, I'm sure, and
19:24
Speaker 3: he did a fantastic job with it. His Finn work,
19:28
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed what he did with Finn. I will
19:32
Speaker 3: say that I think he probably struggled a little bit
19:35
Speaker 3: more with Finn than Jenna. In my opinion, I think
19:37
Speaker 3: the Jana chapters were a little bit better, probably because
19:40
Speaker 3: there's more known about Finn.
19:43
Speaker 2: And that was what I was wanting to bring up.
19:45
Speaker 2: I think for Finn, you have to have a precise
19:49
Speaker 2: ending point with how Finn looks at life, and I
19:55
Speaker 2: think that does fit very well when you look at
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Speaker 2: like it doesn't it doesn't. There's there's a little bit
20:03
Speaker 2: of a tip for tat here for me. Here, we
20:07
Speaker 2: know that the first time we see Finn is in force,
20:11
Speaker 2: awakens and he literally starts having a panic attack and
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Speaker 2: he wants to leave the order right like, we see that,
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Speaker 2: we know that how does he get there? This book
20:25
Speaker 2: can very well tell you, Hey, this is where he
20:29
Speaker 2: first starts to get those little inklings.
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Speaker 3: Yep.
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Speaker 2: The only problem is when he ends the book where
20:37
Speaker 2: he ends in this book, it very much feels on
20:41
Speaker 2: a more positive note when it comes to like the past,
20:46
Speaker 2: like not literally where the book ends, but where his
20:49
Speaker 2: past story ends. Yeah, it does feel like it's a
20:53
Speaker 2: little bit more on a positive note. So it does
20:55
Speaker 2: contradict just a little bit, but I will a hunter
21:00
Speaker 2: percent agree that Jana not being a well known character,
21:06
Speaker 2: he had all all the rains to be like, hey,
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Speaker 2: I can write whatever I want here to establish this character.
21:14
Speaker 2: And I really enjoyed that we have our inclusion. Of course,
21:20
Speaker 2: these are two characters of color.
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Speaker 3: We also have a disabled representation with coy Tria. There's
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Speaker 3: not a lot. There's some little flirtation I would say,
21:36
Speaker 3: with Poe and Finn to kind of beef up that
21:39
Speaker 3: head cannon portion if you wanted to call them attracted
21:46
Speaker 3: to each other, But there's.
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Speaker 2: Nothing flirtatious bros A flirtatious bros A my best spread
21:55
Speaker 2: at Ie flirt all the time. Like we we we
21:58
Speaker 2: do that all the time. But that was one thing
22:01
Speaker 2: that I was a little disappointed in. It's not a
22:04
Speaker 2: huge retraction of like what this book does, but it
22:09
Speaker 2: has been a big point of hours to say, hey,
22:13
Speaker 2: Star Wars has made leaps and bounds in the progression
22:19
Speaker 2: of inclusion. So when I was reading this, I was
22:23
Speaker 2: looking for those things and not having a obvious inclusion
22:30
Speaker 2: of LGBTQ plus yeah, was a little bit of a
22:36
Speaker 2: downer for me. But I think that the very well
22:42
Speaker 2: written story of Jana m does make up for that
22:49
Speaker 2: a little bit.
22:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Mambalia has other he's got more focus on
22:59
Speaker 3: people of color are in this and disabled, so obviously
23:03
Speaker 3: want to see everybody represented. But I think he does
23:07
Speaker 3: a good job with the representation that he had present.
23:12
Speaker 3: And really I don't see a lot of room for
23:16
Speaker 3: where he could have introduced like a romantic relationship other
23:20
Speaker 3: than with Foe and foe ship name.
23:25
Speaker 2: That's the ship name Foe. Now, well, so here's here's
23:31
Speaker 2: the other thing that I kind of think. I know
23:35
Speaker 2: why he could not put an LGBTQ plus character in.
23:41
Speaker 3: Here because of the current environment.
23:44
Speaker 2: No, not because of the current environment, because everyone that
23:49
Speaker 2: we really see in this book we have to remember.
23:55
Speaker 2: And it's something that I was very much like aware
23:59
Speaker 2: of reading this. This is the First Order. These are
24:05
Speaker 2: the bad guys.
24:07
Speaker 3: The Stormers have trained romance out of their kids basically, So.
24:14
Speaker 2: There is that, But like the weird thing is like
24:20
Speaker 2: we had this like weird fantasization that like there is
24:25
Speaker 2: people who were truly wanting to help people. We've never
24:31
Speaker 2: seen this side of this of the First Order of
24:35
Speaker 2: Stormtroopers before. When we read from a certain point of view,
24:43
Speaker 2: we definitely had the I want vengeance for my family stormtroopers. Yeah,
24:52
Speaker 2: but we've never had Hey, let's make this galaxy a
24:55
Speaker 2: better place, Stormtrooper. So that being said, when we do
25:04
Speaker 2: see these Stormtroopers, there's either a lot of them being
25:10
Speaker 2: shown as bad guys or a lot of them being
25:16
Speaker 2: killed and punished by superiors. I would not want to
25:23
Speaker 2: create a character for Star Wars, especially Beinggt. LGBTQ plus,
25:31
Speaker 2: just to kill them off.
25:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially because I think Mabalia does a very good
25:39
Speaker 3: job articulating how the first Orders working. I mean there's
25:46
Speaker 3: a whole battalion dedicated to finding traders within the Stormtrooper
25:50
Speaker 3: of battalions, and so I think he does a good
25:55
Speaker 3: job with that. And I think you're right that that
25:57
Speaker 3: would have come off worse than not having anybody present. Yeah,
26:01
Speaker 3: you're definitely right there. I what did you think about
26:06
Speaker 3: Captain FAsMA being present? And I know you haven't met
26:10
Speaker 3: Captain Cardinal before, but Captain Cardinal is also a previous
26:15
Speaker 3: character who was introduced in the Julilah S. Dawson books
26:20
Speaker 3: Captain FAsMA and oh gosh, what is the Black Spire?
26:35
Speaker 2: These characters. Again, like Katie said, I have no idea
26:41
Speaker 2: who they were. All I know is, oh, you're a
26:45
Speaker 2: big shot in the first order.
26:46
Speaker 3: You know who FAsMA is.
26:48
Speaker 2: Except for FAsMA. I knew who FAsMA was. So like,
26:54
Speaker 2: I got an inkling like, especially like with Jani's story
27:00
Speaker 2: and both honestly, both Finn and Jana, they had this
27:04
Speaker 2: mentality and because it's more so because the Force Order
27:07
Speaker 2: beats this mentality into their subordinates, is the idea of hey,
27:13
Speaker 2: I gotta move up. I got to be on the
27:16
Speaker 2: good side of all these people. Janna mentioned FAsMA several
27:23
Speaker 2: times throughout her story, and she was like, the big thing,
27:29
Speaker 2: small spoiler is remembering the dreams she has, these dreams,
27:35
Speaker 2: and you could tell that even before this particular story,
27:38
Speaker 2: these dreams were reoccurring because even her squad had known
27:43
Speaker 2: about them. And it's very much a like fear mongerie
27:51
Speaker 2: of FAsMA, like egging her to be better and to
27:57
Speaker 2: try to reach the top quote quote So like I
28:03
Speaker 2: liked because honestly, there's a like in one of the
28:09
Speaker 2: very last chapters, Uh, there's a Pasma chapter where she's
28:14
Speaker 2: like getting a message from somebody from a data pad
28:20
Speaker 2: and he's like, apparently doing it all wrong. She completely
28:25
Speaker 2: destroys the data pad and she's like, you come to
28:31
Speaker 2: me and say that this ship that just came in
28:35
Speaker 2: had the right codes, but you didn't even look to
28:38
Speaker 2: see if it was actually the person that they said
28:40
Speaker 2: they were. I want you to personally give me all
28:47
Speaker 2: of my messages from here on now. That is your
28:49
Speaker 2: new job. You're gonna tell your superior that that is
28:52
Speaker 2: your new job. And every single time you come to
28:56
Speaker 2: me giving me my messages, every single one will be
29:00
Speaker 2: an evaluation. Like chills Katie. I was like, whoa, this
29:05
Speaker 2: is like, this is like this is the FASTBA that
29:07
Speaker 2: I would love to see.
29:09
Speaker 3: And then oh, you're gonna loveasma. Delilah Dawson does an
29:13
Speaker 3: incredible job with her.
29:15
Speaker 2: Immediately after she gets the news that everybody is dead
29:22
Speaker 2: upon this one mission and you learn more about that later,
29:26
Speaker 2: but she gets so pissed off she wants to hit something,
29:30
Speaker 2: and so she's like, oh, hey, you come into my
29:33
Speaker 2: office real quick. And then the chapter ends and you're like,
29:36
Speaker 2: oh snap, like you just know that that person is
29:40
Speaker 2: not coming out of their lives. So I I really
29:44
Speaker 2: enjoyed those moments. Everyone else the other top officials in
29:54
Speaker 2: the First Order, I felt was really well written for
30:04
Speaker 2: what the Force, what the First Order has always been
30:07
Speaker 2: known to be, what the Empire transitioned to be. Like,
30:15
Speaker 2: we know them as these people who are not the
30:18
Speaker 2: types of people who want to serve the galaxy, right,
30:23
Speaker 2: they want to serve themselves. We have talked about this
30:26
Speaker 2: many many times before. The only way that people in
30:31
Speaker 2: the Empire and in the First Order move up is
30:34
Speaker 2: if they step on others first. Seeing that play out
30:40
Speaker 2: throughout these chapters, I think was very very well written. Yeah,
30:47
Speaker 2: I really didn't try it.
30:51
Speaker 3: I completely agree. The no Old Troopers thing really cool
30:57
Speaker 3: to like tie in because you could kind of that
31:00
Speaker 3: from the movies, and then other things.
31:05
Speaker 2: Well even spread out. So yeah, even so, there is
31:10
Speaker 2: a quote on page three hundred and forty three.
31:15
Speaker 3: It is I opened it to the exact page.
31:19
Speaker 2: That's awesome. It is a major goal or gal or goal.
31:25
Speaker 2: I can't remember how do you pronounce it? This one
31:29
Speaker 2: quote from him, and I was like, I need to
31:31
Speaker 2: set this marker here. It says, and who do you
31:34
Speaker 2: think manufactured these heroes? Because finn uh two is telling
31:40
Speaker 2: him that we're supposed to be heroes. And he's like, oh, well,
31:42
Speaker 2: who do you think manufactures those heroes? I do the
31:45
Speaker 2: idols you worship, the soldiers you champion, the history you commemorate.
31:51
Speaker 2: I create that. I build your adult all. Yeah, I
31:56
Speaker 2: build your adultation. I design your rage, the thirst for vengeance.
32:00
Speaker 2: I am the first order. Without my words, you would
32:03
Speaker 2: have no purpose, no motivation that within itself. When I
32:11
Speaker 2: read that, I was like, I I think this might
32:16
Speaker 2: be one of the best written mustache twirling Star Wars villains,
32:27
Speaker 2: because there's a there's a lot of Star Wars villains,
32:31
Speaker 2: there's not a lot of mustache twirling villains. Yeah, and
32:36
Speaker 2: Major gall is by definition a mustache twirling villain, Like
32:43
Speaker 2: he hit all of the check marks in this book.
32:46
Speaker 2: And with that monologue there, I was like, this is
32:50
Speaker 2: just gold. I really love his character.
32:52
Speaker 3: It really does. Mabalia does an incredible job bringing in
32:55
Speaker 3: the propaganda machine into this talking about like morale session
33:00
Speaker 3: and like the end of the day reports where basically
33:03
Speaker 3: and we see it happened because one of Jana's missions
33:07
Speaker 3: is manipulated around what it actually was. And she hears
33:11
Speaker 3: that report, she's like, that's not what happened, and yeah, yeah,
33:17
Speaker 3: one of her squad mates has to go. Okay, but
33:19
Speaker 3: that is what happened. Otherwise you're dead, like you have
33:24
Speaker 3: to focus, and so he just does a really good
33:28
Speaker 3: job with that. Now I don't want to spoil the end,
33:32
Speaker 3: but this is the last question I had for you.
33:34
Speaker 3: I really loved how Mabalia mapped out redemption and not
33:41
Speaker 3: perpetuating the cycle of hey, let's just get revenge on
33:46
Speaker 3: everybody over and over and over again.
33:49
Speaker 2: Okay, So I'm glad you brought this up because, as
33:55
Speaker 2: somebody who very famously on this point podcast is always saying,
34:02
Speaker 2: where's my Star Wars happy ending, Where's my Star Wars
34:05
Speaker 2: happy ending? Where's my Star Wars happy ending? This technically
34:10
Speaker 2: has a Star Wars happy ending. Again, not going to
34:13
Speaker 2: spoil what happens, there was a little bit of me,
34:19
Speaker 2: it any bity part of me that was like, f this.
34:24
Speaker 2: I don't want my happy ending here. I want this
34:30
Speaker 2: cycle to continue with just this last person, Like the
34:34
Speaker 2: cycle can end here, but let's not just move aside
34:38
Speaker 2: and be like, hey, let's all hold hands kumbayah. That
34:43
Speaker 2: was that was kind of like the one thing. This
34:46
Speaker 2: was very much ah with slightly spoiling the ending, a
34:55
Speaker 2: with the power of love, We're going to win all,
34:58
Speaker 2: you know type of ending, And I think there is
35:05
Speaker 2: really good stories that have that, and then there are
35:07
Speaker 2: stories that don't really hit the mark. This overall book
35:13
Speaker 2: is a satisfying read, but throughout reading the very disturbing
35:23
Speaker 2: and heinous crimes that the First Order is committing throughout
35:27
Speaker 2: this entire book, what are two heroes go through through
35:33
Speaker 2: that time, and then seeing that happen at the end,
35:37
Speaker 2: there was a little bit of me that I was like, oh, hell, law,
35:42
Speaker 2: it's so big.
35:43
Speaker 3: For me because, especially raising a daughter, there's things that
35:47
Speaker 3: happened in my childhood that I don't want to perpetuate.
35:50
Speaker 3: There's things that happen to my mom that I don't
35:52
Speaker 3: want to perpetuate through the generations and everything. So that
35:56
Speaker 3: is something that I am trying to learn myself when
36:00
Speaker 3: it comes to life. And so I actually really enjoyed
36:04
Speaker 3: seeing this because like with the beIN Solo News, it
36:09
Speaker 3: was a really big topic in my family chat and
36:11
Speaker 3: I had to reiterate, yeah, I didn't want Big Solo redeemed.
36:15
Speaker 3: I wanted him to stay Kylo Grien, he can go
36:16
Speaker 3: rotten hell. Basically, I know I'm like very few persons
36:20
Speaker 3: on that, but like I didn't even want Anakin redeemed,
36:23
Speaker 3: Like obviously I knew he got redeemed, but like watching
36:26
Speaker 3: Revenge of the Sith and then reading Revenge of the
36:28
Speaker 3: Sith is like, I don't want Anakin what to do redeemed?
36:33
Speaker 2: There there is a and it has been a very
36:38
Speaker 2: big topic of conversation I think throughout the last ten
36:42
Speaker 2: to fifteen years. For sure, the idea and I have
36:48
Speaker 2: famously said this, had this debate with UH with comic
36:53
Speaker 2: book characters specifically like Marvel and DC villains is like, oh,
36:57
Speaker 2: villains don't just stay villains anymore. They're always have to
37:01
Speaker 2: go through this redemption arc. And I think you're partially right,
37:06
Speaker 2: like I want a villain that stays a villain, especially
37:11
Speaker 2: for a story like as timeless quote unquote, as the
37:17
Speaker 2: Star Wars franchise can be, like the idea, because even
37:22
Speaker 2: Travis Snell will agree with me, like there's no reason
37:25
Speaker 2: why he should be a quote unquote force ghost going
37:28
Speaker 2: to Force Heaven when he murdered a whole bunch of children,
37:32
Speaker 2: Like you know, and we mean about it all the time,
37:38
Speaker 2: but like it's true, Yeah it is, And technically, Kylo
37:46
Speaker 2: Rinn did almost the same thing. He you know, murdered
37:51
Speaker 2: and butchered people and did all these other things. We
37:53
Speaker 2: didn't see him kill any kids, but like, he was
37:56
Speaker 2: still a very bad person. So like it's it's a
38:03
Speaker 2: very like I can see where that discussion can be
38:08
Speaker 2: on thin ice for some people. And with this I
38:14
Speaker 2: think for sure, no questions asked, the First Order is
38:20
Speaker 2: still the bad guy. The First Order is still the
38:26
Speaker 2: equivalent of Nazis, Like, let's be real people. But the
38:32
Speaker 2: way they played it through in the story of Redemption
38:37
Speaker 2: and everything else, I still understand why they took throughout
38:43
Speaker 2: that they did and how it makes sense. I just
38:47
Speaker 2: want to throw that out there.
38:49
Speaker 3: No I do. I I agree, that's just my personal opinion.
38:53
Speaker 3: I can see how it makes sense. It's just my
38:56
Speaker 3: personal opinion. Okay, I thought it, but y'all, that is
39:02
Speaker 3: all I had. I think we have covered basically everything
39:05
Speaker 3: and anything in this book. I know, guys, I hope
39:08
Speaker 3: you got through the first fifteen minutes of this review
39:11
Speaker 3: because we really just needed to harp on the formatting
39:15
Speaker 3: part of it.
39:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's it's I think one thing for sure
39:19
Speaker 2: that it is very important and maybe something that we
39:25
Speaker 2: can you know, hopefully in the future discuss with somebody
39:29
Speaker 2: like Tom or you know, pick the brain of uh
39:33
Speaker 2: this fine author of like, hey, why did we go
39:38
Speaker 2: this route instead of doing something a little bit more
39:43
Speaker 2: plain out, you know written, Yeah, the way that it's
39:48
Speaker 2: that probably some people wanted it to be, but who
39:52
Speaker 2: knows like it we can what if this thing to death?
39:55
Speaker 2: It's already published. It's a book that exists, and we
39:58
Speaker 2: did as we took, you know, another forty minutes to discuss.
40:05
Speaker 2: We we did enjoy this book.
40:08
Speaker 3: Yep, all right, Well Clay, where can they find you?
40:13
Speaker 2: Of course you can find me at fanboy Clay on
40:17
Speaker 2: any and all social media. I want to apologize again
40:21
Speaker 2: for the lack of content on our other socials. I
40:28
Speaker 2: am having a hell of a time potty training a
40:32
Speaker 2: child right now. I am honestly really surprised that I
40:37
Speaker 2: still have hair on my head and that is literally
40:42
Speaker 2: taking every bit of my day. Ah, she's never going
40:49
Speaker 2: to listen to these podcasts or these episodes. My daughter
40:54
Speaker 2: has peed on my shoes twice, so like I I
41:00
Speaker 2: love her to death, but like my shoes were literally
41:04
Speaker 2: just by the coffee table and we put her little
41:07
Speaker 2: potty like next to or close to the TV, so
41:12
Speaker 2: that way, while she's playing with her toys and like
41:15
Speaker 2: we're watching TV as a family, if she needs to go,
41:19
Speaker 2: she doesn't feel like she's like missing out. Like we've
41:22
Speaker 2: even told her like, hey, we can pause the movie
41:24
Speaker 2: or we could pause your show like this are these
41:28
Speaker 2: are things that can happen. She can't comprehend that, so
41:30
Speaker 2: she feels like she's missing out. She holds it in
41:32
Speaker 2: and like all this other stuff, and we don't want
41:34
Speaker 2: her to do that. So we're like, hey, we're gonna
41:35
Speaker 2: put this small potty right here in the living room
41:38
Speaker 2: whenever you need to just go. And she just forgot
41:44
Speaker 2: to sit on the potty and I just saw all
41:48
Speaker 2: of this splashing and my shoes were right there, and
41:51
Speaker 2: so I was like, oh, fun.
41:54
Speaker 3: I think I think we're close to getting the stool.
41:59
Speaker 3: To expect her to pottying, I need her to be
42:04
Speaker 3: able to communicate more.
42:05
Speaker 2: First, Yes, I would one hundred because because here's the thing. Also,
42:09
Speaker 2: when we first introduced it to her, she like did
42:13
Speaker 2: it like on the first three tries, and we're like, cool,
42:16
Speaker 2: you got it, and then like she never wanted to
42:19
Speaker 2: use it again, and so now we're having to like
42:21
Speaker 2: superincantivize and me being a person who was raised by
42:27
Speaker 2: military parents and all of this stuff, like I am
42:30
Speaker 2: not the right person to be doing this because I
42:33
Speaker 2: am super frustrated. Like I've taken away all your toys,
42:34
Speaker 2: I've taken away with the TV. You need to go potty,
42:36
Speaker 2: and it's just like not the right thing to do.
42:39
Speaker 2: Uh So I'm I'm learning as well, guys like I
42:44
Speaker 2: am not a perfect parent. But yeah, all that to say,
42:49
Speaker 2: content is coming to our socials.
42:53
Speaker 3: I'm trying. I put a question box up and nobody answered.
42:57
Speaker 2: I am I really, Katie. I realized that as soon
43:01
Speaker 2: as I like reposted it, I was like, I should
43:06
Speaker 2: have answered the question also, but I like it didn't
43:10
Speaker 2: even like two and two did not like connect with me,
43:13
Speaker 2: And it's probably because I was going insane with trying
43:16
Speaker 2: to potty trade my child. But also, yes, I want
43:20
Speaker 2: everybody to applaud Katie for also putting in the efforts
43:25
Speaker 2: for putting amazing content. Amazing because because the thing is,
43:30
Speaker 2: I put out content that is just literally generated by
43:33
Speaker 2: images and audios and everything else. You're putting your face
43:37
Speaker 2: out there which I think is amazing.
43:39
Speaker 3: So can you figure out how to do the green
43:41
Speaker 3: screen thing? I could do reels, but I can't figure
43:44
Speaker 3: that out. So yeah, you can follow me on both
43:49
Speaker 3: social media platforms. It's at Place Katie. Remember, guys, this
43:53
Speaker 3: show is on, like Clay said, it is on Blue Sky,
43:57
Speaker 3: Instagram and threads. It's Star Wars Alliance. There's no way
44:01
Speaker 3: in the war is very important, don't forget it. That
44:05
Speaker 3: is also our email address, guys, that user names again
44:09
Speaker 3: Star Wars Alliance No. A in the Wars at gmail
44:12
Speaker 3: dot com. Uh So with that, guys, I want to
44:16
Speaker 3: wish everyone a great day or night, whatever time of
44:18
Speaker 3: the day you are listening or watching, and we will
44:21
Speaker 3: see you'll next time. May the Force be with you.