In This Episode
On this episode of X-Ray Vision, Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight take off their helmets! In the Previously On (1:16) Jason and Rosie discuss the recent shake-ups at Disney, the dissolution of Marvel Entertainment, and why this is actually potentially massive news. In the Airlock (9:46), they dive deep (deeep) into season 3 episode 5 of The Mandalorian, recapping and discussing The Armorer, the powerful incentive of real estate, and more. Then in Nerd Out (47:45) Jason and Rosie discuss a listener theory about what the series finale of The Mandalorian might look like.
Note: Imprecise timestamps are an unfortunate side effect of a new ads system. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve this issue.
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Nerd Out Submission Instructions!
Send a short pitch and 2-3 minute voice memo recording to xray@crooked.com that answers the following questions: 1) How did you get into/discover your ‘Nerd Out?’ (2) Why should we get into it too? (3) What’s coming soon in this world that we can look forward to or where can we find it? If you’re sending a theory, feel free to send only a summary of your theory (no audio needed) for Jason and Rosie to react to on air.
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The Listener’s Guide to all things X-Ray Vision!
From a Certain Point of View (2017) – An anthology of 40 short stories, each story told from the perspective of a background character in A New Hope.
Memories (1995) – an anthology anime film based on Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga series.
TRANSCRIPT
Jason Concepcion Warning. This podcast contains spoilers for season three Episode five of The Mandalorian. Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion.
Rosie Knight And I’m Rosie Knight.
Jason Concepcion And welcome to X-ray Vision, the Crooked Media podcast, where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture.
Rosie Knight In this episode, in Previously On, Ike Perlmutter is out at Disney.
Jason Concepcion Good riddance.
Rosie Knight Good riddance to bad rubbish. This is a shocking news. Oh, we’re going to talk about it and why it matters and what it means for Marvel Entertainment. In The Airlock, we’re talking about Season three, Episode five of The Mandalorian, which was just a ton of fun. It was so fun.
Jason Concepcion It was really fun, really.
Rosie Knight And we’re going to be moaning about those Mandalorians, as always. And in Nerd Out, from Mike, he’s going to talk about what scene may close out The Mandalorian Series.
Jason Concepcion Of course, if you want to jump around, check the timestamps. That may or may not be accurate due to issues beyond our control that we are working on. But check them anyway because they’re there for you to check coming up next, Previously On. First up, shakeup at Disney at Marvel Entertainment. News Flash. March 29th New York Times. Ike Perlmutter out at Marvel. Here’s the quote. Perlmutter was told by phone on Wednesday that Marvel Entertainment, a small division centered on consumer products and run separately from Marvel series, was redundant and would be folded into larger Disney business units. According to two Disney executives briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive personal matter. Ike, for those of you not aware, is one of the execs who you know has. I think it’s let’s give him his due has been a driving force behind certainly the early period of the MCU in the launch of the MCU and is also a famously spin thrift individual who who lobbied loudly and vociferously and aggressively for not not a repeat not doing diverse Marvel movies such as Black Panther and Captain Marvel. He’s really, really mad that they made a Black Panther movie very mad. Voted for Trump twice and said he would do so again in 2024. That’s Ike Perlmutter and he’s out. Your thoughts, Rosie Knight?
Rosie Knight Well, so, yeah, I agree. You may you have. If you listen to the podcast, you’ve heard us talk about Ike. He is a very notorious figure in Marvel. He was a board of directors at Marvel Comics in 1993, went on to take over the company with Avi Arad from Toy Biz, and he was the one who eventually, after establishing Marvel Studios, would sell Marvel to Disney for $4 billion. Now, my biggest thing here, let’s go back to that New York Times quote, because this is huge, guys, and I know I can’t help it. I love this stuff. It makes me worried. Look, they say Marvel Entertainment, a small division centered on consumer products run separately from Marvel Studios, was redundant in the eyes of Disney. So Marvel Entertainment is Marvel Comics, and the consumer products that they sell are comic books. So I would say that this is not the last that we’ve heard of this news. I am very happy that Ike is leaving and hopefully with him a lot of those outdated views not only on race and gender and all that kind of stuff that you mentioned, but also unlike the way workers are treated, he was known, like you said, for not spending money for cutting corners.
Jason Concepcion And it’s also just like, you know. Kevin Feige and others, not to mention returning CEO Bob Iger have had to spend in the past so much energy like keeping. I could pay that. Hopefully things will get easier on their side now.
Rosie Knight Yeah, fingers crossed. I am very interested that this news came out the way it did because like I saw a great tweet where somebody said, you know, this is like Trump arrest day for comic book fans. Like we have, this is actually one of the biggest. One of the biggest shocks about this news is that Ike still had any kind of responsibility because this chairman role that they had given him had kind of it seemed like he’d handed his responsibilities over to people like Foggy. Alan Fine. So the fact that he is still needed to be laid off was kind of a shock, but a good shock. But I do not believe that Disney would have wanted this to be the way the news came out, because the question that me and many other people are now asking is what happens to the comics division right? In The New York Times? They said Marvel Entertainment was based in New York City. Based on all of this reporting, that Wikipedia page for Marvel Entertainment now says that the company no longer exists and is defunct. So we know Marvel still going to keep making comics. The question is, what does that look like and how does this impact the people who work that day to day? And also, what does it mean for Marvel to no longer be in New York? DC Comics takes place in all these made up places, you know, Metropolis, Gotham. But let’s think about Marvel. It’s like looking out your window. You’re in the X-Men, you’re in Westchester, you’re in New York, you’re with Spider-Man. That location is has always been Marvel. So it has huge.
Jason Concepcion It has famously been based in New York for its entire life, although, you know, like some might say, what’s the big deal? DC moved their comics offices to L.A. some years ago, blah, blah, blah. It is. It’s a big shift and there’s a lot of questions. We don’t know about what this means.
Rosie Knight Exactly, that it’s about keeping our ears to the ground. If anyone from Marvel wants to let us know what’s going on, we would love to know. I’m very interested and I’m hoping that everyone at Marvel who does great work making those comics is had prior knowledge about this. I’m interested to see where it goes next. But yeah, I’m very I’m living in Margaret Thatcher Ding dong, which is that moment like obviously we’re all celebrating. The Ike will no longer be a part of this. I just want to know what’s going on with the comic.
Jason Concepcion Well, obviously a lot of information is still to emerge, but it seems like. I am sorry to theorize, but here it is.
Rosie Knight It’s speculation, it’s what we do.
Jason Concepcion It seems like something like a more something more substantial perhaps, than a rebrand where they fold Marvel Comics and start a new company called Marvel Comics, plus something.
Rosie Knight That all the people involved are common, right?
Jason Concepcion That all the people that work for that company have been fired but now and instantly hired to work for this company. That’s a completely different entity. It’s the same thing.
Rosie Knight This is if you are somebody who loves comic books.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight Ever since AT&T and Warner and these kind of DC merges that have been impacting DC Comics for so long, those conversations about what does a corporation know about how to make comics? Well, they get rid of the Comic Con. Will they license it out? That has always been part of the conversation with Disney buying Marvel. People wondered if this would happen. We don’t know what it’s going to look like, but we can assume from the fact that they’re calling Marvel Entertainment redundant that it will change. Now, I will say DC moving to L.A. was like a stroke of genius, and the DC offices are beautiful and they hire a bunch of wonderful different people who work there. And I’m sure that there is a version of Marvel moving to L.A. That would be great. It makes sense with the studios with this does make sense, but what will that look like, especially as we are now in the first week of the promised 7000 layoffs that Disney is doing? So you know what? I will give them a slight bit of credit for starting with execs because when does that ever happened? Yeah. This is. This is kind of huge. I expect the ramifications to be large and continuing. But as Jason pointed out, we don’t really know that much now.
Jason Concepcion We don’t know that much.
Rosie Knight We do know that this was likely in response, at least in part to Ike Perlmutter trying to do a shadow takeover of the Disney board with his friend Nelson Peltz, which was in the news a lot. And it’s actually very interesting to go and read about. So if you’re wondering if you’re looking for the why, it is not really because of his bad behavior in the past. It’s because he tried to be cool. Yeah. This is because of corporate shananigans.
Jason Concepcion He tried to take over the company and then tries to try to take over the company because of his in part, certainly ill feelings about Bob Iger, who shelved him after he lost a power struggle with Kevin Feige over again.
Rosie Knight And Feige he tried to fire.
Jason Concepcion Right. Over again, the fact that I didn’t want to make a Black Panther or Captain Marvel movie. Bob Iger.
Rosie Knight Two billion movies, can we just say.
Jason Concepcion Right, Bob Iger in his book or in some other interview was asked how, you know, if Ike’s feelings about that perhaps fueled that takeover bid. And he said and Iger was quoted as saying, well, you’d have to ask Ike about that. But let’s put it this way. He was not happy about it. And I think that unhappiness exists today.
Rosie Knight I agree.
Jason Concepcion Anyway, up next, returning to the Mandalorian in The Airlock.
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Jason Concepcion We’re stepping out of The Airlock and onto the mean streets, the beautiful once, and will be again, beautiful streets of Nevarro for season three Episode five of The Mandalorian at Disney Plus titled Chapter 21: The Pirate, written by Jon Favreau, directed by Peter Ramsey. Super, super fun Episode.
Rosie Knight Real Star Wars vibes here.
Jason Concepcion Absolutely.
Rosie Knight If you love those Star Wars vibes? If you want to feel like you’re a little kid with a R2-D2 lunchbox and you’re playing with your cheap, plastic but beloved Kenner toys, this is the episode that’s going to send you back into that nostalgia and so much happens.
Jason Concepcion Could not agree more. A lot happens, so we start in Nevarro. High Magistrate Greef Karga is playing SimCity on his desk with his Where these people Are. Adam He’s in the middle of this development meeting and is like, Where are we going to put the railroad? We got to put the rail spur over here. We’re talking about car, every mass of cargo moving through the city and the meeting is broken up by the arrival of Pirate King Shards flagship. Shard hails Karga and Shard is like, Holy shit. Greef Karga. That sounds like you Greef Karga. Eh? But the Guild master of the Nevarro Hunters, the famed Nevarro Bounty Hunters. But all I see before me is a pampered nobleman and Shard of course, is still hot that Karga and Din Djarin shot his pirates.
Rosie Knight In the street, dead. Like the six of them.
Jason Concepcion Now, you know they were up to no good as pirates often are. And Karga notes quite accurately that they drew first. And Shahed is like, Well, now I’m going to shoot first. Karga then tries to bluff. He’s like, Hey, you fuck with us, you’re going to fuck with the New Republic because we’re about we’re we’re part of the New Republic. Now, what about that chart is like, Well, I just looked at galactic Wikipedia and it says, You guys are independent. So whose lying? Is it Wikipedia, or is it or is it you? And I know that Moff Gideon is not here anymore because he is either dead or was on trial and nobody fucking knows where he is. So what’s going to happen? Corey was like, Well, okay, what about the X-Wing patrols that come through here every once in a blue moon at Shard is like, Well, I’ll take my fucking chances. Peace. And then he fucking hangs up and starts opening fire on the city streets packed with civilians. They’re just getting, like, murdered left and right.
Rosie Knight Also as well. Like, I feel like I love Carl Weathers. I love Greef Karga. But I also feel like, is the New Republic really going to stop a pirate? Like, not like could they stop them? I’m sure they could. But like, is that threat really so big? I feel like he may have played the wrong card there.
Jason Concepcion Well, as we will see, The New Republic is just in there, a new administration, and they’re having a lot of trouble getting a.
Rosie Knight They’re in a mess
Jason Concepcion Their business off the ground. Greef Karga gestures to his astronaut droid and he then, although we don’t see it, records help us. You’re our only hope message. And then when his protocol droid runs up and is like, Hey, we got to get out of here. We got to we got the escape pod ready, Karga bravely, courageously is like, No, I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving my people. I need to lead my people back to the most significant rise in property values in moral history. We’re coming back. We will rebuild.
Rosie Knight We are making real estate money. We cannot leave.
Jason Concepcion We will rebuild. And he tells his people, Hey, head for the hills, go for the dunes and we’ll regroup. Just get out of the city. There we go to an unknown jungle planet where that is a base for the New Republic’s a Delphi Rangers. And we see our friend Captain Teva. He’s taking some R&R at the base cantina. When he’s told that there’s a message, he puts it in the in the player and realizes this Greef Karga asking for help with a ongoing pirate siege. And Karga says, quote, I’m afraid that our planet will fall and Shard will turn this into a pirate base. And we hear a voice. Someone has overheard this and says, I really thought I was going to make it. And it’s our friend Zeb, the ghost crew looking up, looking legitimately fucking incredible.
Rosie Knight Unbelievable.
Jason Concepcion In live action ILM. Can we get ILM on the end of the volume on on this I didn’t have I didn’t have any particular notes on the MCU, Ant-Man and the WASP Quantumania. But but like, this looked great. He looked amazing.
Rosie Knight The Mandalorians just consistently knocked it out of the park. Would they use the way they mix practical and CG?
Jason Concepcion So good.
Rosie Knight And Zeb looked so good here. Like, this is definitely a moment where if you know, you know, and if you know, you scream like this, it’s like, I can’t believe it. Oh my God, I will get into this more. But I think this hints at a probably a a much bigger inclusion that will get you this season. I agree. But this was so cool. Looked brilliant, super cool, totally within character. I just feel like.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight It was just all good. Ten out of ten, good stuff.
Jason Concepcion I could not agree where I’d like started shouting. I was like, Oh. Teva tells Zeb that he’s going to go to command and he’s going to ask for permission to take on the pirates. But as we’ve seen, as we’ve already talked about, the transition from two decades of empire is not easy. It’s a mess. You know, just being true, being legitimately charitable. It’s in your republic. It’s this is hard work. And then Zeb says, hey, they’re swamp. They haven’t returned a message in weeks. Teva then decides, okay, I’m going to give it the personal touch. I’m going to fly to Coruscant and I’m going to get Nevarro the help. It needs to have a saunters into command to see Colonel Tuttle on Coruscant. And it’s a good example of how chaotic things are right now for the new administration. That Tuttle, ostensibly Teva’s commanding officer, he cannot even get his droid to follow orders. He’s like, Hey, don’t droid. Don’t put that tray of records there on my desk because I. And the Droid. It’s like, Fuck you. And that just drops the tray right there. Like, Holy shit.
Rosie Knight Can I just also just talk about I was just so happy to see Tim Meadows. This is just like, such good.
Jason Concepcion What a wonderful surprise.
Rosie Knight Casting. Well guess what? He’s in a really great episode of Poker Face, which I’d love to see him and this is so good because he has the perfect exasperated bureaucrat voice like, and you just realize in this one scene, in one performance, like The New Republic is getting nothing done. They are trying their best, but they are struggling.
Jason Concepcion They are trying really hard and they have the best of intentions. But it’s really hard.
Rosie Knight They’re doing. They’re doing better than some of the radical organizations we’ve seen before.
Jason Concepcion Yes, we have.
Rosie Knight But I mean, they’re not trying to replicate the Imperials. They’re trying to do their best. But it is they are stuck in a bureaucratic rut.
Jason Concepcion I mean, like there are larger questions here to be asked, like whether. Whether a gal, galaxy spanning government is even a good idea.
Rosie Knight Like, Yes, I think that’s a great question to ask.
Jason Concepcion But they’re trying and they have good intentions and they’re not very effective right now, but they’re trying. Elia Kane, otherwise known as G68, the former Imperial, currently working on some unknown neo Imperial scheme from inside the New Republic leadership.
Rosie Knight Always acting. She’s always acted shady as fuck.
Jason Concepcion She.
Rosie Knight Like.
Jason Concepcion I got to say G, don’t make evil scheme faces all the time because somebody is going to notice at some point.
Rosie Knight Katie O’Brien is so good as like the villan. Like every time you see how you’re just like everyone just look around. She’s scheming, she’s doing a scheme face, she’s looking evil, like I believe it, like she’s doing it. And nobody seems to know as I love it. It’s great.
Jason Concepcion So Teva barges in and Tuttle’s like, Who the fuck are you? You know, his his Rodion, you know, assistant is like, I’m sorry, this guy just barged in. And Teva gets right to the point. He’s like, There’s a pirate siege on Nevarro in the outer rim. And a High Magistrate I know, sent an S.O.S. and we should do something. Tuttle plays the message. And at that point, G68 comes in with this helpful offer. Hey, I’m going to the commissary if you want, like some of those Imperial biscuits. I know you love them.
Rosie Knight People are really delicious, right? One of the one of the good things about the empire, you know, not very many good things, You know, like they were one of them.
Jason Concepcion The trains. They made the trains run on time. Yeah.
Rosie Knight And the biscuits are delicious.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. And then Tuttle is like, oh yeah, that’s right G68, in your, that’s right. In your capacity is an Imperial soldier under Moff Gideon noted war criminal,l You spent some time in the outer rim, Right?
Rosie Knight How did that go for you?
Jason Concepcion Yeah. What do you know about Nevarro? And she’s like, Yeah, I did spend some time there. And then at that point Teva notices G68’s very unique kind of red striped badge, which identifies her as a former Imperial and part of the amnesty program. And she is like, well, you know, unfortunately, Nevarro never signed the New Republic Charter, so they’re not part of this whole thing. And Tunnell notes that, Hey. You see how fucked up things are right now? We have member worlds that can’t get the help they need. How is it going to look if I go and help some independent planet? And then Teva is like, Hey, we got to connect the dots here. There’s something bigger. Why is Nevarro always coming up? We heard reports of stormtroopers in the streets and Maro Moff Gideon was known to be skulking around the planet doing who knows what. Meanwhile, ask this lady right next to you because she was serving with T.I.E. fighters were flying openly over Nevarro. What’s with all the action? Nevarro And Tuttle says, okay, you could get to hyperspace with a leap like that, Like, come on. And then tell us, like, how do we know? Like he basically is like Moff Gideon could be behind this, right? Like, we don’t know where he is. I heard he never made it to trial. Like, what’s going on with that? And then, you know, Tuttle again says, I listen, I’m just a pencil pusher. I’m just like a quirk. And I just basically all I can do is get you things. So what do you need? What can I do for you? And I got to say, before we go further. I think that the amnesty program, I think it’s a good idea and I think it’s a well-meaning program, and I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Maybe there are a lot of positive success stories and good things to come out of it. Like like I would assume that the other people that Dr. Pershing and G68 were sitting with back at Amnesty House, like are not working on neo Imperial conspiracy conspiracies. Right. That said, I don’t think that we should allow former Imperials to have this kind of access to New Republic like decision making levers. Why? Why are we just like letting former Imperials work in high command?
Rosie Knight I also feel like specifically in this situation, if somebody used to work for Moff Gideon and this planet is connected to Moff Gideon, that’s like, This is a conflict of interest, my guy. I agree. Sorry you can’t be involved in this one. I think what this scene does really well, as well as being funny, is tomatoes. It’s, like, really fucking funny is. It highlights how it’s really easy for 68 to take advantage of this system because nobody knows what’s going on. Tom didn’t know anything about the IRS, so he just asked a war criminal who worked for like a famous war criminal with a magical sword. He’s like, What do you know about it? Yeah, And this is exactly how she’s managed to rise up the ranks. And it’s very interesting to see them kind of explore that.
Jason Concepcion G68 suggests that, hey, you know, maybe Nevarro would sign the charter if we let him get punched in the mouth a little bit by pirate flag.
Rosie Knight Yeah, very fascist.
Jason Concepcion Maybe a little, little bit of mass murder happened. They understand that they’d want to be under the protective umbrella of the New Republic. Wouldn’t that teach them a lesson? And Teva says, sounds like Imperial thinking. It absolutely is. But that title is a little. Oh, you’re out of line. How dare you say that? You’re out of line there. How dare you besmirch the good name of this former war criminal who worked for an even bigger war criminal.
Rosie Knight Who’s saying some very war criminal sounding things, like.
Jason Concepcion And G is like, takes the high road wonderfully. I love this moment. It’s so funny because G says, hey, no, no, no, I get this all the time. Listen, as a former Imperial soldier who worked under Moff Gideon Evil, infinite experimentation regime working to acquire scientific knowledge of horrific and now illegal cloning technology. I get those kind of comments all the time, but I want you to know I’m a changed person. I am a different person now. And Teva is like, I mean, it’s easy to say when you’ve been fucking captured, you know, it’s like. Yeah. And she corrects him. No, no, no. I was liberated, and it Tuttle’s like, okay, like, you see all the files and shit on my desk? I will look into it, get the fuck out of here. And Teva and his cool bomber jacket go to leave. But they leave with a warning. They say something big is happening. The resurrection of Palpatine, something.
Rosie Knight No, somehow Palpatine returns.
Jason Concepcion The resurrection, however. That’s because something big is happening out there and you better act before it’s too late to stop it. Spoiler alert, They won’t stop it.
Rosie Knight They will not stop it. We’ve seen it. It occurs badly for everyone.
Jason Concepcion We go to the outskirts of Nevarro. Greef and the citizens are now refugees huddling in the dunes. And he promises that, listen, help is on the way. Yeah, well, how? Where?
Rosie Knight Whom?
Jason Concepcion Whom? And it looks really bad. Elsewhere on the mysterious planet that is home to the Mandalorian covert, Teva, following a homing signal lands at the edge of Crocodile Lake just outside the forge. Every mandalorian gun is on him. Paz Vizsla come strolling out with that big fucking chain gun of his. Get out of here. We don’t like New Republic cops, and we get it. Honestly, we get it. Din then comes out as like, Wait, how did you find us? And? And Teva says, Fortunately, someone I served with in the rebellion is among your ranks. And the R5D4 unit comes out, and it was like, Oh, it was me.
Rosie Knight It was me.
Jason Concepcion And let’s stop here.
Rosie Knight Yes.
Jason Concepcion We’ve already talked about the kind of twist of fate aspect of R5’s, you know, kind of coincidental relationship with R2 and how that really did shape the future of the galaxy. But I was not aware that R5, this R5 actually was in the the rebel alliance.
Rosie Knight Yes. This is actually a really nice nod to something that I believe was established in the books, which was basically that R2 communicated to R5 that the galaxy was doomed and R2 was the only hope. And then R5 was like, cool. And just like, loosened the hinge on his plate and like, blew it up so that he could, like, sacrifice himself so that they would buy R2 and R2 would be able to go and help. This is incredibly sweet. I love when they build in these moments for droids. But can I just say as well, Yeah, and I love R2. Doesn’t that just sound like something the R2 would make himself?
Jason Concepcion Hhe’s very self-aggrandizing.
Rosie Knight He’s such a little drama mama, you know?
Jason Concepcion Is it absolute egomaniac drama mama
Rosie Knight Yeah. And that was from the the red one from a certain point of view, which it’s just the funniest little stories where they imagine like, different and expand on different scenarios. It was by Ray Carson and that’s what they established that R5 kind of did make this sacrifice, and I guess his mind was later wiped by Jawas and that’s why he kind of didn’t know that he was a rebel ends up with Peli. So I love that they reference this. Those books are really fun. And yeah, R2 convinced this droid to blow his own head up and he did it for the rebellion.
Jason Concepcion And then I have other. I guess Teva just kept R5’s like, cell phone number and knew.
Rosie Knight He just texted him.
Jason Concepcion Somehow.
Rosie Knight Can we talk about that? How did he do it?
Jason Concepcion I guess they have been like on their on a group chat and like R5 has been telling Teva like that’s the only way Teva could possibly know, right? Is like if R5 is like, Hey, guess what, I’m hanging out with that mandalorian now.
Rosie Knight What if? What if?
Jason Concepcion I’ve been roped into a mission to Mandalore.
Rosie Knight If you’ve had them astromech in your ship does it like, you always remember it and you can always just be like, Oh, I wonder what R5’s up to? And like, it was like a homing beacon. So yeah, we need to know how did they get in touch? Is there a rebellion group chat? If so, seems like it should be, well, better protected.
Jason Concepcion I agree. And as you’ve seen from the Delphi ranger base, a lot of downtime. So I would have a lot of opportunity to just text with friends.
Rosie Knight I would also say I’m very happy to see more Teva. I love this character. I want to see, actually, I love I live to see like a Teva spin off that kind of New Republic, like interesting X-Wing kind of slice of life stuff. So it’s really fun here to see.
Jason Concepcion Iconic Bomber Jacket.
Rosie Knight Like what I look, his whole look is just perfect.
Jason Concepcion What a look. Din, I think speaking for the covert here is annoyed because the entire Covert is going have to move now and that is just such a fucking hassle.
Rosie Knight Well can I just say something? I disagree. You should say thank you to Teva because you should have fucking moved a long time ago.
Jason Concepcion I listen, we’ve been. We’ve been on that corner for a long time, but now it’s like, can’t put it off anymore.
Rosie Knight If I knew that all we had to do was go to the Crocodile Lake and visit them so they would move, I would have actually done it. Like, I would have done it. Because they need to move. This is this is bad times.
Jason Concepcion So then Paz Vizsla is like, well, well, hold on. We don’t have to move. If we commit murder, what if we just kill? What if we just kill this cop? What about that? And Din is like. No. You fucking psycho.
Rosie Knight What is wrong with you? Why won’t you chill the fuck out?
Jason Concepcion You fucking maniac. And also, I owe this guy one. So we’re not going to do that. Go, like, bond with your son or something. And then. And then take it from there. It is like, okay, just now get out of here because you see what I’m dealing with. Bizzle. Let’s a flat out murder you. And then Tim is like, I can’t because here is Greef, Greef Karga’s S.O.S. message. So Din is like, well, it just fucking you that you were probably just fucking go over there, do a bombing run and take them out. And he’s like, well, Coruscant doesn’t care. So then Din I think asks a really good question is like, well, why do you care? Like why you don’t know Greef kind of from Adam. Like, why are you doing this? And he says, Well, I basically I care because I think vampires is up to something. He says, The New Republic has to know the Empire’s growing again and and basically someone needs to do something about it. And this is, I think, the only way I can get their attention. And he thinks that the pirate, you know, siege is part of this and then believes and is like, hey, listen, I know you guys are going to leave anyway, but I promise I won’t tell anybody about you that you’re here at fucking Crocodile Lake. You know, you still see Big Bird planes.
Rosie Knight I’m like, Don’t keep it a secret because these people are going to die.
Jason Concepcion Yes.
Rosie Knight If they stay here, I tell everyone if it means they’re going to bloody move.
Jason Concepcion So he flies off and then Bo is like, okay, so what do you think about doing? Course DIn has to go to help, but he can’t do it alone. So Din then makes his pitch to the Mandalorians about why they should go to Nevarro and fight for Greef Karga. And he’s like, Listen, I know you fought against him when you rescued me and Grogu, but Greef is a different guy now. He’s not. He’s unlike G68, has legitimately had a change of heart. And so let’s payback that kindness. Go to Nevarro’s aid before it’s too late. And then he’s like, And by the way, if if a a a pitch to your generosity doesn’t do it.
Rosie Knight How about Capitalism?
Jason Concepcion What about what about some land baby? What about some land? He says Greef Karga offered me a tract of land on his independent world. The sun. Forget that. Independent world. Perhaps it’s time for us to live in the light once again on a planet where we are welcome so our culture may flourish and our children will feel what it is to play in the sunlight.
Rosie Knight Thinking about the baby again.
Jason Concepcion Thinking about that beautiful baby.
Rosie Knight That baby would just love to just be chillin.
Jason Concepcion Absolutely. Paz Vizsla is like I can’t let someone have the last word. I need to speak up. And he’s like, okay, this is going to be a hard fight. Fellas, fellow Mandalorians, they were really real hard fight. Perhaps some of us will die, as many of us did die when we fought against Karga on that very same planet. When we fought to save this guy over here’s life and this baby over here’s life. But dead Madolorians, That sounds fucking great. Let’s do it. I love war. I love war, guys. I love it
Rosie Knight This is a great turn around.
Jason Concepcion I love war.
Rosie Knight He starts off and he’s like, Why should we help this man? But he’s actually arguing like, we should do it because we get to kill people. Yeah, right.
Jason Concepcion Easy. Straight up. Like, Hey, a lot of us are going to die. I love it.
Rosie Knight He’s like, I’ve got fucking massive guns. It’s probably not going to be me
Jason Concepcion And then he’s like, I’ve had my disagreements with this man, meaning Din Djarin. But he risked his life to save my son, who I don’t even really care about. I don’t care about that kid. But he did do it.
Rosie Knight I didn’t fill up my jet pack enough
Jason Concepcion By the way. And Bo-Katan Kryze also did not give up on my child’s life, even when the rest of us did. This made me laugh so hard, he said. Bo-katan. Kryze did not give up on my child’s life even when the rest of us were fucking burn.
Rosie Knight He also burned himself. Like he burned himself.
Jason Concepcion Yeah, I know. What about you, Dad?
Rosie Knight You know, just like this happens all the time. I lost three kids to that bird last week. Like. But Bo was like, this is fucked up. Like.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. And so, anyway, this is the way. Let’s get that real estate. They head off to Nevarro, and the plan which Bo lays out as they’re in hyperspace is a two pronged attack. Din and Bo will stay in the skies. The rest of the Mandalorians with Pri at their head. Also, The Armorer will be the ground assault team, and then Bo gets her speech. She says Nevarro’s an independent planet no longer under Imperial Remnant or New Republic protection, but it’s that very independence that makes it appealing for you to settle. You lived there once, hiding the source, which I don’t think anybody needs to be reminded of that.
Rosie Knight I don’t think that’s a good like.
Jason Concepcion I don’t that’s a pitch that we want. We were just like, Hey.
Rosie Knight Like, you remember when you had to hide in the sewers and you weren’t accepted? Now go and save these people.
Jason Concepcion Smelling like shit and piss.
Rosie Knight You know, it’s like the good I don’t know if it’s the good pitch, but I get where she’s going. She’s like, I guess like once you were like, peasant. This is a really funny pitch because she’s basically saying, like, these people didn’t accept you and made you hide under ground like Morlocks. But now you can be heroes.
Jason Concepcion Right. Right. And homeowners, let’s not forget that independent planet.
Rosie Knight Oh yes. That’s a huge deal
Jason Concepcion Hit all the important notes. X-ray vision will be back. And we’re back. So they arrive and the pirates fucking running wild. They’re having a grand old time. They’re roaming the streets.
Rosie Knight Like Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s a Long Beach Pirate festival. That’s the real thing. That pirate.
Jason Concepcion Pirate Christmas. Pirate Valentine’s Day rolled into one. Pirate St Patrick’s Day. They’re drinking they’re robbing.
Rosie Knight They’re ravaging.
Jason Concepcion Waiters, their loving it. The Mandalorians arrive. And it’s truly an amazing battle.
Rosie Knight Like, yeah, again is animation. Animation on the ships is second to none. Like, ILM is absolutely doing it. The fights are so good. There’s so much good practical costuming. Practical, most practical creature work it is is absolutely delightful. And we get a great armor. A moment that made me like I was like fist pump in I when I saw.
Jason Concepcion The the shot which they used in the trailer where you see the Mandalorians airdropped down onto the streets is so fucking cool.
Rosie Knight It is so cool.
Jason Concepcion Some highlights from the battle. The ground assault is led by Paz, who I think needs to learn about cover. They’re all just standing out in the middle of the street. They get pinned down in the town square. To relieve that, we see The Armorer go to work with her hammer and tongs as weapons. Really? Really.
Rosie Knight Oh, so cool.
Jason Concepcion Takes out a pirate firing position that was stationed in Greek cargos. Once luxurious office, hopefully to be luxurious again. We get to see baby Yoda up in the sky, riding in Din’s lap, taking it all in this beautiful baby eyes.
Rosie Knight During this like crazy battle. The baby’s just chillin in his dad’s lap, so we need to.
Jason Concepcion Strap him in, right?
Rosie Knight I know. Not even like a single. I don’t know. That’s just the dad. Or maybe he’s staying there with the force. But it was very cute.
Jason Concepcion Baby. See a little Baby Bjorn or something for that.
Rosie Knight Baby Bjorn feels like it’s coming.
Jason Concepcion The Nicked up Pirate Vane. Remember him? A complete non-factor.
Rosie Knight Yeah. Just useless.
Jason Concepcion Absolutely useless. Didn’t do a damn thing except for talking shit in his little snub fighter.
Rosie Knight Which is funny. He’s the one who got let out. He was the one who survived. So I’m like, If you’re going to cause the problems and come for the vengeance, then do something. But he doesn’t. He just breezes off his life when immediately flees.
Jason Concepcion Immediately is like, No, I’m not. Day Looks like things are going bad. I’m out of here. But like, has I guess the the class yet to give to give notice to pirate king start like he does. He’s like, oh, he’s like, Hey, pirate king. Sure. I just wait it out. I’ll be giving my two week notice two weeks ago. I’m leaving right now. He just like my invite. And finally Din and Bo manage to blow up a pirate King Shard’s ship before he can blast the city. What a fucking murdering maniac this fucking spinach head is. He just is like. I guess I’ll just, like, kill everybody, but they blow up his ship before that can happen and the citizens get to get some payback because the pirates are fleeing the destruction of of their forces flee right into the arms.
Rosie Knight Of in moment look like.
Jason Concepcion This citizen.
Rosie Knight They get to they get to take over the gang that’s come into that town.
Jason Concepcion Greef Karga. Did we expect anything else? He’s good to his word, he says. All the lads from the Western Llama flats to Bullet Canyon are now the home of the good people of Mandalore. Yeah.
Rosie Knight I say let’s go to that real estate. They’re so they’ll stay here actually going to build a house or will they just find the most dangerous natural spot and just chill outside? Is that is the Mandalorian. So you never know.
Jason Concepcion I hope we live.
Rosie Knight Where the giant lizard live. Can we live next to him?
Jason Concepcion Well, I would expect they’re going to live above ground now, right, Because of what happens next. Paz then comes over to Bo is like, Hey, The Armorer wants to have a word. So he leads her back into that sewer where they used to live and The Armorer is in her old forge, just kind of looking around and she makes some small talk and then she’s like, okay, take off your helmet. What? Bo is like the creed.
Rosie Knight And is this like, is this a trick? Yeah, I think she’s fair to ask on.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. There’s the creed and Din had to fucking dive into the waters of the living waters of the fucking minds Made it look like I could just take off my helmet and. The Armorer says, Listen. The diaspora, the mainland diaspora is all over the place. And there’s. We subscribe to the creed, but many don’t. But we have to if we’re going to unite as a people, if we’re going to take our planet, we have to walk the way together. And that means all Mandalorians. I was taught the Mythosaur is a legend, and yet you saw it. It’s a sign that the next stage is upon us. You have walked both worlds. You are the one who can unite us. So The Armorer is basically saying you’re going to be our ambassador to the diaspora out in the galaxy and we need to go and retake Mandalore. And I think this is actually a smart and good idea from The Armorer.
Rosie Knight Yes.
Jason Concepcion Listen, all respect to The Mandalorian, recruiters who have been growing the ranks of the Mandalorian.
Rosie Knight They have been hustlin. They’ve been hustling.
Jason Concepcion Off camera. But they need a lot more folks if they’re going to take back the planet. And that means reaching out to, you know, the folks we saw in the Clone Wars who didn’t wear their helmets all the time, you know. That’s the other thing that’s kind of like unspoken is like this covert is essentially descendants of death. Watch you a much more hardcore mandalorian warlike take on the Mandalorian culture and lifestyle. And they were very and synthetically against everything that was going on on Mandalore proper, and particularly the leadership of the Duchess Satine. And so this is a really cool gesture, I think, and one that the one that Bo is really uniquely suited for.
Rosie Knight Yeah, it’s a huge moment and it makes a lot of sense.
Jason Concepcion I agree.
Rosie Knight Because it look, does it could it feel like slightly jarring.
Jason Concepcion Or kind of is a lot of it.
Rosie Knight Is it ?
Jason Concepcion Of flip flpping.
Rosie Knight There’s some flip flopping here. But I will say the thing I think they did that was really smart here that makes it believable is the mythosaur.
Jason Concepcion Mm hmm.
Rosie Knight The The Armorer basically sat with it for a week or a few days or whatever and was like. If she saw them at the store, that’s like, I need to cancel my shit out. Like I need to. This is someone who clearly has some kind of role to play. Now, what does that role look like? And then she thinks, Well, we really struggle with recruiting new people. We’re recruiting a lot of children, baby dragons, like, oh, wait, there’s actually like thousands, tens of thousands of Mandalorians all over the galaxy, some of whom used to follow Bo.
Jason Concepcion Yeah.
Rosie Knight And maybe by becoming more inclusive and accessible, we can create like, a unified mandalore. And I think it’s really good. Very simple.
Jason Concepcion It’s really great. Very, very smart.
Rosie Knight Yeah. The perfect person.
Jason Concepcion I completely agree. I think that. What The Armorer without laying it out is aiming for is like, okay, if you are a Orthodox follower of the creed, then just don’t take your helmet off. You never take it off. But if you’re in the.
Rosie Knight Yeah. Stay with the covert, you know, stay where we are.
Jason Concepcion If you’re a more secular mandalorian, we welcome you as well.
Rosie Knight Yeah.
Jason Concepcion And this is great.
Rosie Knight Yeah.
Jason Concepcion So The Armorer and bow without her helmet. Here. I don’t know how she keeps her hair looking so good.
Rosie Knight Oh, my God. Don’t even get me. That’s what I want to know. It’s. How is the hair Always looking so good. Perfect. Same length. Not one single split hair.
Jason Concepcion No frizzy.
Rosie Knight Perfectly straight.
Jason Concepcion What’s going on?
Rosie Knight Stunning. No roots. Unbelievable. I mean, that is. That’s the biggest mystery of the Mandalorian, is how is her hair stay that good? Never any static after being under that metal. I need to know the secret.
Jason Concepcion So The Armorer and Bo, no helmet, go to the other Mandolorians and the other Mandolorians are Like what? Excuse me.
Rosie Knight What is occurring?
Jason Concepcion What is happening? And The Armorer is like, okay, this is what’s going on. Bo is our ambassador. She is going to bring the rest of the exiles to us. And together, we’re going to retake Mandalorian. Paz, and I get it, Paz.
Rosie Knight Me too. Me too.
Jason Concepcion He’s a little annoyed. He’s like, What the fuck is this?
Rosie Knight She took the helmet off like.
Jason Concepcion And then she’s like, No, listen. Bo-Katan has walked both worlds. She can bring all the tribes together. It’s time to retake Mandalore. And I think, listen, we’ve been saying, why don’t you just go to Mandalore? And I think that this is the right way to. This is smart. This is a good way to do it, because you can’t send any messages on the surface of Mandalore use Nevarro as a base to bring the diaspora together, and then let’s all go to Mandalore.
Rosie Knight In this way. I think The Armorer finally did something great because we were like, Why don’t they just go to Mandalay? Why don’t they just get mad binding? She’s right. Get like 100, 200, 500, a thousand Mandalorians together on some kind of same page, and then try and go back to the once poisoned, like, wildly overgrown and dangerous climate that you once lived on. Also, I will say I will think I think we can take a we were right because we did say Bowe was going to be the one who would potentially ride the mouse or who would reunite the Mandalorians. This is great. So happy. I also want to congratulate Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, who essentially wrote themselves out of a corner hair by making it okay for Mandalorians to wear a helmet or not wear a helmet. Well, that.
Jason Concepcion Was previously not okay. And now it’s okay.
Rosie Knight Now it’s okay. And it kind of explains away some of the bigger characters, one of whom we likely going to see soon as well, I feel like, after this episode. So yeah, they’re retaking Mandalore. Good for them.
Jason Concepcion Later in deep space, I would assume somewhere. By the you know, outside of Coruscant and the interim.
Rosie Knight Some some kind of outer rim situation. Yeah.
Jason Concepcion Captain Trevor, just by luck. And by the way, space is a big place, so. Yeah, very big. Fill out your fucking lottery take. Maybe.
Rosie Knight Maybe it was the force. Maybe the Swiss guy didn’t him. You just on it. That’s, you know, love it.
Jason Concepcion I honestly love it. Captain Teva comes across a transport ship heavily damaged, does absolutely wreck the pilot. You can see some of the crew there, corpses in there floating around. And he learns that this is the craft that was moving Moff Gideon.
Rosie Knight He was right.
Jason Concepcion Ostensibly to trial, right?
Rosie Knight He knew it and he never made it.
Jason Concepcion He knew it. And he scans the wreckage and there’s a little chunk of beskar stuck in the side. And it leads, we believe, our friend Teva to, to, to wonder if Mandalorians did this. Dun, dun, dun.
Rosie Knight Dun, dun, dun. And then it’s obviously a frame up. I just need to say that frame up is suspense. Like it’s a fucking fright muscle airframe. I also just want to shout out like this moment. There’s this.
Jason Concepcion Clearly a frame up.
Rosie Knight It’s obviously a frame up, but like this moment of this like empty floating ship, there’s this really brilliant anime called Memories, and there’s a show in it called Magnetic Rose, and it’s like a trapped room horror where a guy finds an empty floating spaceship and they kind of go and explore it. And it’s really beautiful. And this was giving me big vibes of that. You should go and watch it. It’s really good. But yeah, that it’s a frame up. I’m sorry, but I should also should know this like, so all the he’s like it’s best gar in the guys on radios like Mandalorians did this and I’m like, bro you know Mandalorian wouldn’t do this. They would. Why would they leave the beskar? This is a frame up.
Jason Concepcion They love, they love the beskar.
Rosie Knight They love the beskar. That could have been turnedinto a tiny child’s helmet, like just leave it be. It’s not.
Jason Concepcion Yeah. Their entire culture is based on finding any scrap of brain, returning it to the community. And what? Like a chunk of The Armorer broken. Come on. Why? How? Why?
Rosie Knight No.
Jason Concepcion No, this is.
Rosie Knight Okay.
Jason Concepcion Leaving the Imperial. Is this a neo Imperialist plot. Probably masterminded by Moff Gideon and whoever he’s working for to kill the Mandalorians.
Rosie Knight Okay, I go crazy. I go crazy. Other options. I just realized I do believe it’s a frame up. But this is an empty Imperial ship. What if a mandalorian had gone there to, like, scavenge or look for the Darksaber or something? And it was like Sabine doing some archeologists kind of shit? That would be really cool, right? Like it? I do believe it’s a frame up, but I. I feel like after we met Zeb, I feel like Sabine. I had not expected that this could be a space where we could see her. But I’m feeling like now. Well, that’s more than likely.
Jason Concepcion I kind of agree. Listen, if Bo is going to go out there.
Rosie Knight Exactly.
Jason Concepcion And bring the Mandalorians together.
Rosie Knight Why would it be random Mandalorians? Surely you’re going to at least get one. The most famous other Mandalorian that we haven’t seen.
Jason Concepcion I it makes so much sense to me that at least for the finale, the assault on Mandalore when they fight, whoever is behind all of these machinations around Nevarro, it’s we’re going to see her.
Rosie Knight We have to. Or at least some of her art. That’s the other thing. We haven’t seen any of the iconic art. I also just realized, thanks to these incredible notes by a super producer Saul, next week’s episode is Bryce Dallas Howard, I am so stoked because do you remember how like fucking game changing how Boba Fett episode was?
Jason Concepcion Absolutely wonderful.
Rosie Knight Like I am ready to see what she does with this like, frame up kind of mixture of this mystery why The New Republic is now going to potentially be seeing the Mandalorians as a threat. But we also have the Mandalorians doing like outreach for the first time and living publicly. I think that’s going to be really interesting.
Jason Concepcion I’m very, very, very excited. What a fun episode.
Rosie Knight So much fun.
Jason Concepcion Up next, Nerd Out.
Rosie Knight In today’s Nerd Out, where you tell us what you love and why. Or, tell us about a theory that you’re excited to share. Mike shares some thoughts about what the End of the Mandalorian series could look like.
Jason Concepcion Hey, Jason and Rosie, long time first time in your recap of Mandalorian Season three Episode one, you talked about the potential for an Epilog time jump at the conclusion of the series. Two in growth could be the leader of Mandalore. I guess I’m thinking about that possibility and I want to build on that idea 30 years after. So this is this is Mike’s idea, 30 ish years after his adventure with Din, Grogu’s sitting in a throne room on Mandalore, a mysterious figure enters, Who could it be? A yellow, lightsaber wielding Rey Skywalker. She’s looking for other forces and leaders in the galaxy to create some sort of new Jedi order. Wow, I do love this.
Rosie Knight I love this.
Jason Concepcion I absolutely love it. We’ve seen how Disney has loved bringing back Star Wars actors into movies and series on and best, of course, and it seems like it could be a fun way to bring Daisy Ridley back to reprise her iconic role a handful of years from now after more seasons of The Mandalorian. Love the show. Thanks, Mike. Mike That’s really cool. I love it.
Rosie Knight It’s so much fun. I also think like, look, we can always fudge a timeline in Star Wars.
Jason Concepcion We have to fudge it by maybe a few centuries. When you’re growing up. But that’s okay.
Rosie Knight You know? Oh, you know what? Maybe because he’s got this connection to Mandalore and the force, by the time he’s like, 100, he’s a little bit more, you know, let’s be real. Yoda was like 800. And he was looking old.
Jason Concepcion He was nine.
Rosie Knight So there’s a middle there, you know.
Jason Concepcion He was nine, nine and change.
Rosie Knight Nine and change like he’s living and he was old. So what I love about this is it makes a lot of sense as a fun theory to kind of expand upon because we know that they are connecting this to the trilogy series now.
Jason Concepcion Yes. Absolutely. Only makes sense.
Rosie Knight For the later trilogy. That’s just an idea. Somehow connecting Rey after delving into this whole Palpatine situation, There’s something really fun there, and I’ve always wanted to see a kind of young Jedi adventures like Jedi School, Jedi training, and it could be cool to see Grogu represent A Mandalorian insight into that.
Jason Concepcion I mean, listen, Grogu’s going to be with us forever. There’s no world in which.
Rosie Knight He will outlive us.
Jason Concepcion He will outlive us. He will be here. They’re making Star Wars movies and shows in 60 years Grogu will be a part of it. And so.
Rosie Knight Teen Grogu.
Jason Concepcion You know, it’s only a matter of time until Grogu who appears in a Star Wars movie like that will happen, right? It just feels like it’ll happen.
Rosie Knight Yeah. You just make a Star Wars movie called The Child. I mean, it’s not. It’s like they’re making money quickly when that happens.
Jason Concepcion Thanks, Mike. If you have theories or passions you want to share, hit us up at Xray@crooked.com. Instructions in the show notes. That’s it for us. Rosie Plugs, plugs, plugs.
Rosie Knight Plugs. You can find me here. Listen to X-ray Vision. It’s cool you already listening to it, but keep doing it. We appreciate it. I’m RosieMarx at Letterbox’d and Instagram. And yeah, just read comics. Read comics, buy comics. Go to your local comic book shop, ask them to start a poll list and buy some of those good comic books because they’re the reason that we’re all here talking about this stuff.
Jason Concepcion Watch Primo on May 19th on Amazon Freebie wherever you stream.
Rosie Knight You better watch it. It’s very good.
Jason Concepcion Amazon Freebie May 19th. Watch Primo catch the next episode on Wednesday, April 5th for more Yellowjackets. Plus, due to popular demand, we’ll be covering Succession on our Wednesday episodes in the Previously On segment. And next week on our Friday episode, we’ll also be covering the two episode finale of The Bad Batch, alongside with the next episode of The Mandalorian. So folks catch up.
Rosie Knight And yes, in case you have forgotten, for me, just telling you 2 seconds ago now to remind you that we are bringing you two episodes of X-ray Vision. Two. Subscribe on YouTube, where you can now watch full episodes of the shows as well as listening to them and follow @XRVPodon Twitter, where we’re always sharing cool stuff. And check out the Discord, where you can meet a ton of great people, loads of fun conversations, super passionate. And sometimes me and Jason pop up too.
Jason Concepcion Five star ratings, five star reviews. We love them. We got to have them. You got to give them to us. Here’s one from Emily Kay. A weekly must. Love this pod. Historically, not a comic reader, so getting insights into nerd stuff from the comics is great and inspiring me to pick up more comics and find who cares. Thank you, Emily.
Rosie Knight That’s the dream.
Jason Concepcion X-ray vision is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord and Saul Rubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy Girard. Our editing and sound design is by Vasilis Fotopoulos. Delon Villanueva and Matt DeGroot provide video production support. Alex Reliford handles social media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for a theme music. See you next time.
Rosie Knight Bye.
