S4 EP13: Best of Star Wars 2021

Welcome to another episode of Radio Rebellion, Star Wars, that's our big end of the year 2021 recap. It's our final live show of the year. And look at that panel down there. Someone just made it as the intro was going on.

He beat it up. Yeah, Andrés just made it in. We weren't about. You weren't about him.

My own personal castle run. I've got you made it just in time. So yeah, here we are, end of the year 2021. What a year in general, real life, a lot of stuff.

But Star Wars, some good, some bad. We'll try to focus on the positive and just celebrate the year that was Star Wars in 2021. And like I said, and you can see them on the screen, there's a lot of great guests that we have here, a lot of great guests. Like I said, fans, I've been here before, not from you guys here.

So let's go ahead from to my right, I guess, if I'm reading the screen correctly and then everyone kind of introduce yourselves. So see her. Hi, my name is Rachel. I'm from the followers of the Force podcast.

I'm Arzio. I'm from the Geeky Waffle in the Space Waffle podcast. I'm Andrés from City Minutes. Lauren Romo from the Eagle at the podcast.

Hi, I'm Oti. And I'm from El Pocas. So it's Star Wars. Yeah, he knows we're here.

All right, so thank you all you guys for being here. We've been talking for a few weeks, trying to get everyone to be on this show today, as we celebrate, like I said, before 2021, the best moments of 2021. We have to shuffle the crew a little bit some people couldn't make it, which is fine again. There's a lot of stuff going at the end of the year.

But we're here to celebrate Star Wars. And let's start. You know what? Let's go ahead and start.

So we're talking best of Star Wars. So if you guys are ready, I'm not ready. Let's start Star Wars 2021. All right.

Yeah, I feel like it's on my face. Yeah, basically that's over. We have to go about. Again, we have a great chat here and a great group of people out in the comments.

So our friend, Mo, is here. Happy Radio Rebellion, Saturday, everyone. Thank you, sir. Star Wars Saturdays.

We like to start with Robert and I got this also here. And of course, Amy, everyone, great group of people here tonight. So we tried to do. Just have a fun time on this Saturday.

So as we start, so today, as I said already, like four times, we're celebrating 2021. We got about 10 or 11 different categories to go around. But before we jump into those, and I want to start with you, just in general, how was the overall feelings about 2021 in Star Wars? I thought 2021 was a good year for Star Wars.

I started Star Wars podcasting in 2021, so I spent a lot more aware of it. We had some good stuff this year. One for a year without a big theatrical movie release. We've barely gotten a lot.

That's right. It was one of those, I guess last year, also, what? No movies. Everyone kind of will TV replace a movie experience.

But we got a lot, not just on the movie site, books, comics, animated shows. That was a lot this year. So also, we just overall kind of your 2021 thoughts. I mean, I think it was a good year.

Like Rachel said, I think it was a lot going on. A lot in like, fight-sized pieces, which I appreciate. So it wasn't all done on us. We got so much high republic this year, and we're going to talk about it later.

But there was so much of it that I very confidently told somebody it started in 2020. Because I can't believe that all that happened over the last 12 months. But yeah, I guess only when you think back, you realized how much actually happened this year. I think it was a good, nice spread out year.

It wasn't all at once kind of thing. And of course, if you're here, you're going to have your Nile High Republic show. So I appreciate it. Yeah, go.

I finally got one. Next time we talk, I'll put it on, so we can all finally match. So for you, what was your overall impression of 2021? Yeah, so I think it was a good year and an important year for me as a fan.

It helped me define what kind of fan I want to be in the sense that I entered the year going like I'm going to read every single comic and single book. And like three months in, I started to be a little bit more selective on what I read and what I do. So yeah, but it was a great year. High republic started.

So how could it be bad? Yeah, so those things, I'm not right on the chat. Who'll say, I think a few days ago, we were just talking on Twitter. Same thing, high republic started 2021.

And we've gotten so much stuff for the most part, everything has been great. And it's this great story that we think been in it for years, just we fell in love with it. This era is something that most of us love. So a year ago, I didn't know who Mike and Roy is.

And now I'm like, yeah, he's not a person. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of that going around. So Lauren, what kind of stands out for this year?

You know, I think it's interesting, as far as Star Wars wise, I mean, we kind of, throughout the year, if you look at TV and animation, it was kind of like, bad batch, low, then we got visions, which was fantastic. And then we got a little bit of a low. But now we are heading into the book of Boba Fett, which is going to be fantastic. So looking at that kind of aspect of it, it's been kind of an up and down year, but like everything that we have seen and we're going to see, obviously with Boba Fett's going to be great.

You know, if you look at books, comics and everything, the High Republic has been absolutely killing it since the beginning of the year. And as Arzu talked about like a little bit, obviously 2020. So if you are a book fan and comic book fan, this has been a great year, like, obviously, a great year for readers of any type of media. I'm like, it's been a good Star Wars year for that.

Yeah, I think that's kind of the main thing. At least for myself, it's the Polish inside, the books is the one I've kind of taken off this year. So yeah, I've read a couple of Star Wars books in there, but it's the High Republic at least for me. I read the front thing and I kind of, yeah, that's done.

At least for now, I have my interest with Thrawnself. But almost next year, next year, 2022, again, now that's gonna be the TV year I was like, we were talking before, I'm in Los Intana, my father-in-law was re-watching Mandalorian. He hadn't seen the second season. We just did a re-watch just finished it this afternoon.

So yeah, you're so Boba Fett, so little Enclave, so I'm ready for bookable, I've had in what, like 12, 11 days, man. Yeah, crazy. Yeah, crazy. And we're gonna call that a 2022 show.

I know it's 2021, but now it's just one episode of the end of the year, it doesn't count. Might as well call it. Chiles, Mark. Let's mock it off when we talk at the end.

We're looking for- Are we doing fiscal year? Are we doing- Yeah, thank you. If it shows up in a four year consideration post, then it's a 2021. That's fair.

We're all dragging it. All right, so Andre, some for you. What was 2021 like? Well, 2021 had definitely on the book side.

I love to read nonfiction and I don't really read much fiction. So for me, High Republic was like, okay, I'll jump in and read some fiction in between all of the history and like military and random books I read. So the light of the Jedi came out on my birthday. So January 5th, and I'm like, oh sweet, I'm gonna buy this book birthday gift to me.

Let's go. And then got it paid off. But now, following Star coming around the corner and like wifey and I've already discussed and it's like I'm buying this book, I'm getting that beanie. The story's a banger.

And it's been a ride. On the experience, I got to go to Galaxy Sedge twice and I've done everything but the cantina and the droid depot. So I'm like- Okay. Okay.

Don't you like Saber? Yeah, I was like, okay. I've had this really, really good experience with it. It's a really fun land.

And like having gotten vaccinated and boosted, I was like, okay, feel comfortable being in that space. And yeah, it was worth the trip from Colorado. So good year overall. I also had the experience of going to Galaxy Sedge early this year in July.

So it was a bit hot out there in the middle of Disney, but it was a great experience. Unfortunately, I couldn't do right. So the resistance, I ride the resistance, I couldn't go to the cantina. I did do the droid depot, so I got it all droid down there and didn't get to build my own that savory.

I got that duke one back, which I just love. So, All right. So before we jump in and start kind of more specific, if you're watching this live, thank you as always, for the whole year. You guys are once I keep me going.

Same as the guests. A lot of times I'm here by myself. I'm like, okay, I got a tough for 20 more minutes. But every time I have great guests, I give you guys kind of healthy experience.

So thank you to everyone. And if you're watching this later on the replay, make sure to comment down below. What are your thoughts on 2021? And all the categories we're going to be talking about.

And same things for everyone in the chat. Jump in at any point. Let us know what your favorite moment of 2021 was. Every books, favorite villain, favorite everything.

And we'll go through it. So yeah, Mr. Ress is here. Tony Ress, thanks for being here today.

Our friend Daleard, and he's here. Hello there. And Roberta is adding the Harry, Paul, has been everything. I think it's been the single thing that I take my interest throughout the year.

I think for the most part, at least I'll be there. But again, we start in visions was there. Bad batch for a lot of people. A lot of us I have some issues.

Most I think gonna love doing a show love for terrifying tales, we got Lego, Lego politics, hilarious. He was pretty cool. That was my favorite one was with Darth Maul and we was trying to get it. So I love that one.

All right, so let's go ahead and let's just start. Best of 2021, I will start with a big one. So favorite moment of 2021. We're not gonna wait till the end.

We'll start with a big one. And Rachel, I started with you first, I'll jump to our, so when I can have any point you guys and jump in, what was your favorite moment of this year in Star Wars? Well, if I just say the High Republic, that's not, that's not a whole collection. And honestly, it was the High Republic.

Like I know I have my favorites within the books and all that, but just the whole thing and watching this massive story, like slowly start to unfold and you can see all of the connections, like across mediums. Like I know that's a deterrent for a lot of people because of just how many like different comic publishers and different comic series and, you know, the order of the books and things like that. That's the most common thing I see is what order do I read these books in? So I didn't express you if anybody wants to find out.

But like that has just been, because I love interconnected storytelling and that's why I started reading all the Canon books. Like to have this be like, yes, here's this big interconnected story and it's so far removed from anything else that it's brand new. So that's why the High Republic was like, absolutely my 2021 highlight. Yeah, and those really are important.

I see a lot of people asking and different people have posted them. And I think I've seen yours, it's very detailed, not just the books and all the comics and all this stuff. And sometimes it's daunting, seeing everything that's out there. The same time, sorry.

Go ahead, go ahead. No, that I've seen not recently, but people kind of, is it too much? I'm too late to start doing this. And again, you don't need to read everything out there.

I said here to the chagrin of Ariswan Magu, and she said I haven't read the High Republic comic books. I'm sorry, apart from Monster Peak, but it's fine kind of peak and choosing what to read because there's so much out there. But I'll follow all same mind because it's in the same vein. Yes, it's the High Republic.

I haven't showed up in the High Republic in almost a full year. But if we have to be the specifics, I get to say Into the Dark became my favorite Star Wars book, especially that second half. And a lot of it had to do with the way that Claudia Gray kind of introduced this idea, because we've talked before, a lot of people are like, well, the Jedi, not that good. They have a lot of issues.

But the way she introduced the, not the quality, but the conflict that Comac and all that had, do I follow the order or do I follow the force? And Comac then kind of deciding, well, I gotta find myself again in the order that's one gonna take this father-mon with me. So just everything that kind of challenged, or seeing Jedi kind of questioned themselves in the Jedi order, was something I didn't expect because this was built as, oh, it's the Jedi in the prime. And to see all this Jedi already have an issues with it, was something I come here by surprise, and I think it has been my favorite so far.

So we'll keep going, Oti, what's your best moment for you? Man, it's, yeah, it has to be the High Republic, specifically, there's a moment in Light of the Jedi, very, very early on in the book, right before they do the, when they pick up the rubble to avoid the massive disaster, that Ava Chris is describing how everyone, the book is describing how everyone sees the force, because Ava is like feeling it. And that moment, like every single Jedi has a different interpretation of the same thing, that just, that was a moment I realized, like, okay, we're in for something very special. And I read that part and it's a little amazing.

I read Rising Storm first, I did it wrong. Sorry. I did it really wrong. These gray hairs of mine are because Rachel told me that she started with the Rising Storm.

I started with a test of courage, which is not the same time, but yeah, starting with Rising Storm, you're kind of, what the hell is going on? It's fine, I'm confused anyway. So I'm up with your Light of the Jedi now, so I went back. Thanks.

So I was thinking like very hard of another moment, but I just keep coming back to that moment. And that's probably the reason why that's my favorite star was for Tuesday, so yeah. Right, Lauren, are we gonna keep going with the High Republic? Or do you have something else for your favorite 2021 moment?

Yeah, I'll switch it up a little bit as much as, and then again, rightfully so, I think this year has been a year of the High Republic. I mean, there's no doubt about it. I think that has really kept many Star Wars fans interested in, got through this year, hands down. For me though, I am an animation lover.

I love Star Wars animation. I don't care if it was Visions, Bad Batch. Like those two series, I think were really, really special to me, because I love them. I love what they did, especially in Visions, how it was different.

But specifically in Bad Batch though, I think how they're telling that story in like an era that we're very familiar with. They keep surprising you with stuff, and I love that. And I honestly was not sold on the show until the final trailer, honestly. I was like, why do I care about these four guys that I met in season seven of Clone Wars?

They made me care and more. They delivered on that first season for me. And it was really, really awesome to see the growth of the characters Omega, and obviously the very end of that show of seeing the city of where the clones came from. I mean, that was huge for all of us, as fans of the prequels.

It was the end of the era for us, I feel like. That was just, it was sad to see that shot of them just showing the complex completely empty. That was just like, wow, it felt like, okay, this is it. We are moving on.

This is the end of that era, and we are totally into it. A totally different era in the Star Wars now. So that, for me, it had to be Bad Batch, for sure. Yeah, I had my ups and downs with Bad Batch.

I wasn't interested before it came out for the same reason. I said, okay, this is for more clones. I love the first few episodes, and then it kind of went up and down for me. We'll be talking more about Bad Batch.

We'll be talking more about Visions as we go on. And Dress. Yes, favorite moment. I'm gonna go with Lauren here and Sidon Visions, for sure.

I was super hyped when it first came out, and they announced it because Star Wars was George Lucas playing with Western myth, Eastern imagery. It's in the DNA, right? You can't get a good Star Wars without getting some good Japanese influence. And this was Star Wars on the other side of the Skywalker saga saying we're gonna go back to those roots, and we're going to let these studios create that art.

For me, the creative decision, like best creative decision Lucasfilm made this year was saying, we're gonna do anime, but we're gonna let those studios make Star Wars and tell us that they made it, and we're just gonna distribute it, right? There wasn't a behind the scenes of, I don't know, Dave Filoni with a bunch of storyboards. These are the stories I wanna tell. We're gonna send the work out to Japan.

They're gonna send us completed files, and we're just gonna air it. And the visual rebirth, Ronin is hands down my favorite novel. I will die for that, Sid's Lord any day of the week. I will gladly burn the Empire down, et cetera, et cetera.

But yeah, it's such a fresh take on the galaxy at a time. After Rise of Skywalker, after Bad Batch and everything, I feel like Disney is rightfully so. Still playing in this really rich, three generation saga. But for me, Visions was a visual refresh, a story refresh.

Everything was just so new and wasn't tied to anything or a hint to anything else. And I was like, I hope Disney Lucasfilm uses Vision as the wellspring to draw for what does the galaxy look like 500 years from now, and maybe pull something from that to make whatever the next story is, because it's so beautiful. All right, and we'll have more chance a little bit later on to keep talking about Ronin when we talk about non-high republic books. I love Visions, and I also love that they all kind of behind the scenes they did after each episode, kind of all these studios how they got into it.

They've been Japanese influence, influence Star Wars, and then now Star Wars influence all these studios, you are straight to see. And for you Rachel, what moment can I stand south for this past year? I have a really dark horse moment that's kind of weird. For Disney Plus, we know that there wasn't a lot of Star Wars news that was disappointing, but there's a prize star worth showing this year Rogue One hit theaters again.

So I got to see my favorite movie in the theater for only the second time. I've only seen Rogue One in theaters once, which if you know my Twitter first though, is very strange. I was getting ready to go to grad school when it came out so I literally had no time. But Rogue One hitting theaters again and seeing all the love for it on its fifth anniversary of about 20 minutes before we recorded my fifth anniversary.

Which I've been showing to literally everyone as they came on the street. Yes. When Rogue One, I know down there in that corner, it's not the biggest fan of Rogue One, but it's got a lot of love. Especially as this 50th anniversary came out, just kind of went by yesterday.

It's a lot of love. So again, it does have to be something specific for this year. You said that a great experience going to check another Star Wars movie out there. Of course, your favorite one.

So before we jump into what the fans voted as their favorite moment of 2021, let's say hi to our friends from Ina Galaxy podcast they're here. How are you doing? I hope he doesn't read that in the movie announcer voice. In a galaxy.

Yeah. All right. And they're also adding what they're saying. Here we go.

That they also saw only Star Wars one in theater once, which is not strange at all for him. All right. So what did the fans say out there? I'll have my envelope here, which is a piece of paper with all the notes.

No, no, no, no. Yes. So we didn't read this. I'm getting a certain to go back.

46% of the votes, the fans voted, the high republic, the historic of the high republic as their favorite moment of 2021, not surprising us here. What was funny about doing this poll, the first couple of hours, everything that was, I might be spoiling a little bit. Everything that was bad, bad related, kind of jump in front. I think all the bad, bad fans kind of saw that.

And then it started getting a little bit more competitive. So the bad, bad series kind of started. But then it kind of didn't win this first category out there. And they're saying, Ina Galaxy said, in the high republic served moment of the year, which that's what we talked about.

All right. So for a second, and here's what's going to get from his favorite animated series. I'm going to start with Lauren. Because Lauren, you were here three times as we tried to record our visuals recap.

We mentioned visuals. We mentioned the Bad Batch in the chat. Don't forget about Turifine Tales. What's in a series?

What I can just animate a show out there? Blows Galaxy of Creatures, I believe, is the name of the show on the Star Wars YouTube Kids channel, which is another fun show out there. You're an animated person. What was your favorite animated show?

Oh, man. Yeah. I mean, obviously I talked about Bad Batch earlier. And I think overall, as a story, I loved it.

I loved what they did with it, given us different perspectives, things that we were accustomed to, like Order 66 again. They bring that back. But it's beautifully done every time. I mean, seeing Caleb Doom, Cane and Jairus, as a little kid, and for that whole moment to be seen in animation, it was awesome.

Hera was another stand up moment for me in that series. But again, as I talked about earlier, like that ending of going back to the city and seeing it destroyed. That was emotional stuff. Again, like I said, it's almost like the end of an era.

And it was a nice way to do it. I feel like an animation. It felt right, doing it in that way, because we were so used to it in Clone Wars and things like that. It was a perfect way to end that type of story in the Bad Batch in animation.

And then obviously to get an announcement that Season 2 is coming out. That's exciting for me. I'm really pumped up for that. So, 2022 is going to be a really big year, I think, for live action and animation, it seems like.

But I mean, that's nothing to put away through visions. Visions was beautiful, like Andre's was saying earlier. I mean, the stories I told within those little short stories was amazing. The animation was amazing.

So that's nothing to take away from visions itself. But for me, it was Bad Batch. I had to say my favorite anime series was Bad Batch. Do you have any ideas on it you're hoping to see?

Or is this on 2-A-Bad Batch? Ooh, yeah. You know, for me heading into it, obviously, we could get some more cameos. I mean, in my head right now, like Callis, he could definitely, he's in that time frame, where maybe he's young, he's in the kind of academy, maybe we can see him.

Hondo, I'd love to see Hondo show up in that series. That'd be amazing. And also, there are certain things that I think we will hopefully see again. I mean, I hope we get the Martes sisters again.

I love them. I love those two. So yeah, I hope we get back to the same crew, obviously. But giving some more cameos and different animation characters that we have known, I think, be really, really cool for sure.

Right. So Andreas, you kind of mentioned vision has been some of your favorite moments of this year. So I'm guessing I'm leaning towards vision very in your favorite anime series. Absolutely.

I've got the Darth Vader Visions line t-shirt. And I just love the stories with it. I love the design. Like for me, if you got a chance, you should watch Yo-Jimbo.

It is a black and white Japanese, like Samurai Flick. But if you watch that movie and then immediately turn on the duel, it looks like a shot for shot, just continuation of that story. And from that moment with vision starting there, I was like, OK, I'm binging all of these. It's nice to have 10-minute Star Wars, 10 to 15-minute Star Wars.

That doesn't then prompt me to want to watch another movie or some other hour and a half arc of something else. So for those of us who you got your 15-minute breaks and your lunches and you're working that grind, it's really nice to be like, OK, this sucks right now. But hey, I can watch a lightsaber duel in 15 minutes that has no other repercussions to the galaxy. I can go back and not get distracted being like, oh, man.

But then Luke Skywalker's going to show up in like three years or it doesn't have that interconnectedness, which was nice to have in 2021 and has something that I can just plug in, disconnect from, but still be in the Star Wars milieu. And then Ronan as an audio book experience is just way too long for a one and done thing, but beautiful. You're not saying live here that you were at work watching Star Wars, right? It was a great time.

It was during my break time. All right, that's in case. I have booked Mark those specific visions episodes. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I can get this done.

Yeah. So for me, favorite animated series, again, has to be visions. It's the one where it was announced, gravitated towards it. I've been an anime fan when I was younger, late 90s.

Not a lot of them, but some Dragon Ball Z, Samurai X, and then being even younger in the 80s, some of those big robot ones that I used to watch. So when visions got announced, I shouldn't be excited about it. Then we didn't hear anything for a while. And then kind of the trailer dropped or something.

I guess, yeah, this is coming in about a month or something. And then just watching everything. Like you said, yeah, it's not canon. Who cares?

There are just great stories that make sense in a Star Wars universe or part of our universe. So I love everything about it. I'll talk a little bit more when we talk about our favorite visions episode. But yeah, everything about visions I love.

I'm pretty sure we're going to get a season two. If it's the same studios, find some of the same stories or just something completely new, we'll see. You can go either way. But I think that got such a positive reaction.

They would be kind of weird if they didn't kind of keep exploring that area. And then I guess, Ronin did great. So there's a lot they can do with it. Rachel, how about you?

I'm going to go with the people in the chat and say, terrifying tales. I love this short. The LEGO specials are so cute. I love them.

They bring me immeasurable joy. My friend refers to the Christmas one as sweater Poe entirely. But I love that they focus on Poe Dameron. I love that it was these three tales that are the like the Star Wars version of a legend almost.

Like, is that exactly how Ben Solo became Kylo Ren? Probably not. But that's the version that the galaxy has heard. And I loved it.

I thought it was charming. And I've watched it a obscene number of times. I loved it. I thought it was adorable.

And the Wookiee's paw was so funny. I loved it. Yeah. I mean, LEGO doesn't miss.

They know what they're doing with this type of little 40-minute movies. And watching 35 tales was great. Everyone has said it reminded me of some of those early simsomes, kind of three house of horrors when they have the monkey's falls. So it's a great kind of callback.

And seeing all these stories were great. Going back to Mustafara, Vader's Castle, the hotel. The hotel on the hardware. I love seeing aliens just kind of with construction gear and stuff with a little helmet.

I mean, no building of that piece was capital is a blood speed. Yeah. I mean, yeah. The same building of the rest of the car.

It's really funny. And then I think it was in Clone Wars where they had the Transotions, dog workers with their overalls and the jumpsuits. It's just funny because they had to exist. Writing Star Wars, aliens have to be doing this regular 85, making 15 minutes on the break to watch some weird movie out there, because they have all those holo shows.

So it's great seeing that. So yeah, very fine. So also, where did you? Before I get into my favorite anime thing, I do want to shout out Terrifying Tales because it came out on my birthday and gave me Baby Ben Solo on my birthday.

So that just sold very personal. So I just want to put that out there. So thank you. But of course, Ben Solo makes his return when I was here.

But my favorite moment, I think, was Visions, which I wasn't expecting because when they announced it, I was like, OK, cool. I was like, child of the 90s, Sailor Moon Pokemon, Dragon Ball the I was like familiar with anime. But I was like, OK, I don't quite know what to make of this. And then it's like I said, it came out and it's not disconnected, but not sort of you're not waiting for Luke Skywalker to show up, not waiting for the next piece of the puzzle.

It's just maybe a legend, maybe a nothing that exists in this galaxy. You kind of follow the logic because they have lightsaber. They talk about the Sith. You know where you are, but it is so on its own.

And it works so well on its own. And just being so far removed from everything, I always think the Knights Jedi being supposedly so far in the future from everything we know. I find deeply unsettling in a really good way. So I just want to shout out visions for that because I don't know.

It totally exceeded any and every expectation I had of it. So for that reason, it was my favorite moment of the year. All right. And I'll tell you how about your favorite anime series of the year?

Yeah, no, for me. I echo basically what Ari so just said, visions. I was excited. I was a Dragon Ball C fan.

It was interesting to see Star Wars go back to its main roots. So I was excited, but then I wasn't hyped up. Like, oh, yes, finally. I'm going to wake up at 6 AM and watch them all.

That wasn't going to happen. And I started watching them. And I found them so delightful and just fun to watch and something new, fresh air. Yeah, it just ended up loving it.

Some of the episodes don't work for me that much, but the ones that do. Yeah. All right. Welcome back to that as we're talking about visions a little bit.

Let's say before we jump in, what the fans were on Twitter, on the chat, Eli from Star Wars, I got like, he's saying, I'm calling it right now. Season two on the back, Batch will be the Dark Horse of Star Wars in 22. Not saying, can nobody under Book of All of it. Again, Book of All of it is a 21, 22.

We had that discussion. Mango season three, won't be great, but the Batch will destroy again. We'll see. And then, my favorite moment from Vision was the V.

Let's right. Save a reveal. And from the Bad Batch was in Hera, Chopper, and Stogorara. Everyone loved that.

Like Save a reveal with a little hill kick. It was a great moment. And then they just want to see Ochi Batch in the Galaxy and knocking down doors. All right.

So our fans, they voted with 52% of the votes. It was Vision. So this was one of those that the Bad Batch just kind of went ahead, jumped in, was winning easy. And then I was kept going by kind of Vision Stook over.

I don't know. There she is. I don't know if she. Rachel was so upset.

She did. I said, come. I'm not going to do that. That's a win.

Rachel, I defected the camera. Sorry. All right. So for third category, now we jump into what was the best moment or the favorite moment of 2021, which was the High Republic.

We'll jump into our favorite, the High Republic book. We might have said already. But I'll start. I cannot mention already that if it's my favorite Star Wars book in general, favorite High Republic book has to be into the dark just for the way I kind of challenge my perception of the Jedi and where they belong inside the order.

And then when they challenge, what do they do some take the barrage bow for all the reasons? Others decide to be way seekers. So they say, no, I got to jump back into the idea. I order and find myself in it.

And then of course, all that has kind of gone wild in the rest of the books. But into the dark is my favorite High Republic book. And I can't wait to see what Claudia Gray does with the fallen star, which is going to hurt. Yeah.

Wait. I don't even want to talk about it right now. I think I can wait. Yeah.

I know the year everyone has their emotions kind of off. Let's not talk about falling star right now. But Rachel, favorite High Republic book. I've only read a couple of them because I'm really, really bad at keeping up on things.

I really liked Rising Storm, but I feel like other people are going to talk about that. So I want to shout out Race to Crashpoint Tower, which is the first Middle Grade Star Wars book I never read. And I was really impressed. It handled some tough stuff really well.

And it was just this really cute story. There is something deeply, deeply unsettling about carnivorous plants that can talk and use the force. I'm not OK with that. In so many ways.

Just wait. Yeah. I don't like it. You need.

I don't like it. They're at their best and funniest in Race to Crashpoint Tower. They only get scarier. Yeah.

I think my brain is singing the songs for Little Shop of Horrors. And I don't like it. Yeah, I find that because every morning, during the year, I don't want to spoil anything four years if you're having a river into the dark when they kind of show up, just change everything. Yeah, forget about the night at that point.

Just give me those evil plants. I just care about meat like I'm dressed like that. They're scary. And everything happens in the comic books with them.

They're scary, but they're also very silly. Other things. Something very, it's like the same thing. If you have a Venus fly trap, you're like, that can't be a thing.

Right? It's just like this. No. And then Mom has like three of them in her classroom.

My name's Amal Audrey too, and she doesn't get it. But it's fine. But yeah, the race to Crash Boy Tower, I was really impressed. And I really liked, I cannot remember the kid's name, but he feels the force and can use it in such a way with mechanical things, which is kind of ability.

Yeah, the idea that you could, every Jedi has their own special skillset within the force as well, which is something that I think is really cool. Yeah, around Joe Moran, which I mean, I've arrived in this community a few weeks, I talked to him a few months. He's going to have a big part of it, apparently. So I'm one of those characters, kind of introducing these middle grade books.

A lot of people, older people like myself or anyone else like, yeah, those books are just for kids. I saw the great Harry Potter books. The first one that I read, I can make sure I taste of courage, deals with a lot of things that you don't expect to get from a middle grade book. So don't sleep on those.

I always get on people for sleeping on Star Wars young adult books, but then I literally just sleep in on the middle grade books. So don't that either. Yeah. So also, what was your favorite Harry Potter book?

Well, my favorite Star Wars book, Full Stop, is Rising Storm. So obviously, it's like Harry Potter book too, because it gives me, Marcia and Robachra. It gives me plenty of time of selling to you. So those are my favorite Harry Potter characters.

So what's not to love? I love that it has the first half is a lot of fun, and it's very light, and it's almost like slice of life. Rob preparing for The Carnival, which is such a real world book slash movie problem to have. And then it goes Full Star Wars in the back.

It's very dark and very heavy. But for that first half, it's just so, so light and fun. And they mix it really well like the two. So that's why I became a favorite Star Wars book period.

And it's my favorite Harry Potter book. Rising Storm, it's just a lot to love about that book. And you start, oh, we are this zoo. Just in this floating island.

That's not going to end up well. It's not going to go wrong at all. And then if you've read before this from Skavaskot, Duke, who did I lost, they have a similar kind of flying platform. So that didn't work too well for everyone.

So yeah, I was waiting for it to go downhill. And it did. But seeing all those. You got Star Wars.

It's a small world. Yeah, literally. We have Jedi doing it. And I introduce one of my favorite new Jedi's, which is Tyurek.

I love that character. Jedi doing multiple acts with people, maybe not sure. But we're not only men. Let's go.

Not only. Not a Queen, multiple men. All right, so I think you mentioned that at the beginning. Yeah, but I have to make a pause.

Did anyone listen to the Rising Storm audiobook? No. OK, OK. So Laura knows they make Mark Thompson sing the song, like sing the song.

Yes, it's awesome. But does it sound like it's a small world? Yes. Yes.

Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does. He does a very high-pitched voice. Please.

Fave the water. Yeah, it's worth listening. You can use your next Star Wars Explained Audible credit for the Rising Storm book. Yeah, just listen to it and give it back.

And they'll give you a free one. So OK, my favorite book, my favorite Star Wars book, is Light of the Jedi. Rising Storm was just back closed. But there's something about how Light of the Jedi brings us into this era.

Juggles all these characters. And it's funny because most of my favorite characters of the High Republic are not even on that book. We make them later elsewhere. But I think it's just such a solid entrance to this moment in time.

And the book, more than anything, is about that moment in time. What's happening, the historic consequences of everything that's going on. And I just love that book. The introduction of the Nile and Mike and Ro as these basically unstoppable force and how they just will continue to build throughout the era.

Yeah, it's perfect for me. Yeah, what I love about Light of the Jedi, a lot of it. But it's the way it starts. It starts off hopeful, right?

It starts to pages. And then, oh, you like this captain and this crew? That she's taking these four refugees, taking them. Oh, look at these four kids.

Finally, got the courage to us. It's crushed out dead. It's like, what's going on? That's basically the whole book.

Like, oh, you like this Jedi? Yeah, I don't want it. This is going to happen now. Yeah, but then when the third chapter is going on, and the planet is going to explode, the moon, I'm like, oh, come on again.

But then, oh, this is able to Chris and the Jedi. Oh, they're here to help or something like that. I'm like, yes, they're here. So it did a great job bringing you down.

And then just elevating you and giving you that hope. Yeah, that really is so great. Lauren, which book kind of stood out for you? All great books, as you're honestly.

I mean, I think if you had a certain kind of flavor, hyperplochazit, whether it's comics or novels. But for me, specifically, I'll say Into the Dark, only because I like my stories on the darker side. And I think this story, I love how they really died into a little more of the lore of the Jedi. And then I think I love how each character kind of went through a moment of doing a dark path.

There was just so much of that kind of introspective stuff in that book for me. I loved all that. So Into the Dark is probably, I had to be my favorite high republic book. But again, rising storm, as Arzua said, it's so good.

It really sets up, I think, what we're going to see in the next phase of a high republic, and it's great. But for me, as far as a fan, Into the Dark, I just speak to me more on the themes and the tone of it. I think it, for me, was my favorite. I agree.

I already said it. Andres, which one was for you? For me, I'm going to go with Out of the Shadows, a little dark horse there. I think I love the high republic for how it, again, kind of gets back to balancing politics and action and the heady concepts of the force with the Jedi.

But Out of the Shadows gave me a lot of insight into the yarrows, the guilds, the republic, and how these different families are using and abusing the political system to get what they want and these background machinations. It also, to me, made the Nile a much more robust threat. When you, if you're just reading the main books, it feels like they're putting all their eggs into one basket and then something either works or doesn't work for them. But Out of the Shadows lets you know that they have multiple irons in the fire.

And Mark Jonro is not dumb enough to think that any one weapon is necessarily the trump card. We'll see if that's the case going into next year, but it really made me think of OK, the Nile, or there's a lot of different elements, not all of them, or even raiders. The events of that book prove that there are elements of the Nile that are hardcore R&D folks. And they're only using the materials from the raids to do whatever else they're working on.

But it makes them a very different treat. And it also makes Lorna Dee. I'm rooting for her so much more in a totally different way than when I started that, which is something I didn't expect to have from a villain in the high republic, knowing that there's so many different Jedi and so much stuff going on. The villains are just going to be the villains in the back of my mind.

That's just what I thought. But then having out of the shadows shows so much more about Lorna Dee. I was like, OK, there's development happening here. And now I'm curious about what the Nile will do, or what happens internally for them, just as much as I'm concerned about what happens internally to the Jedi going forward.

Yeah, out of the shells have some great reveals, especially as we get closer to the end. But specifically for me also was Lorna Dee is now positioned and saying when you read Tempest Runner, it's just positioned out to make her move against Mark Jon, which we didn't think anyone would be able to see is in light of the Jedi. And then as you go in writing Storm, he's kind of that. And he's still, of course, a top dog, where he's kind of, I get a deal with the Jedi because I have my own vengeance against them.

Well, Lorna Dee, especially then in Tempest Runner, she's like, I'm taking you down, same as I did your pops. You're going to suffer now. Yeah, Mark against this guy, like the ground under him is trembling and he's like very cocky, so he doesn't want to admit it. And the lever was just like a bandaid to that trembling, but yeah, they look like a very interesting.

Oh, the leverator. We'll get to some of those. All right, so for our fans, our friends on the child, Robert is saying favorite book, Lotto of the Jedi, but my favorite Harry Pollock moment was in the writing storm. L's are telling, he needs help, small but powerful moments.

I totally agree. I love the friendship between L's are and Stella. And I think it's like such a solid, like a solid male friendship that I don't think we see enough of. In media, like it's just pure.

It's very obvious they love each other. I love this. So yes, Robert, I agree. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And very poignant. Like it's, I think that's one of those moments that'll go down is like every now and then something happens in Star Wars that aligns perfectly with the current moment. And it's like a male asking another male for help after a year and some change of a pandemic, like in the real world. And like reading that was just like, OK, like, yes, this is unglad that like fandom is going to have this conversation, even if it's in a roundabout way.

It's like, people were talking a lot about like when that book and spoilers were out on Twitter of just like, yeah, like what Anakin's life had been like, if he just like broke down in front of Obi-Wan, it's like those are conversations that get people's gears turning like, oh, like maybe I should ask for help about something. It's like, yes, you should. So like, thank you, High Republic. Thank you for giving us that moment.

All right. And Amy's adding into the dark may be my favorite book, but the first connection moment between Ty and Els are in writing Storm may be my favorite moment in Jedi writing dragons and the connection they had. And that's some of the great tie yoricks of her connection with different creatures out there is great. And Roberta is adding that, oh, they might be his lost twin because they think alike a lot.

So I don't know each other. It was a nice surprise. And for our friends on Twitter that made their go-to-serve on the polls, it was no surprise. Like of the Jedi, we're 46% kind of a good chunk of people in love that are the Jedi.

I think that one kind of just stood as the number one and didn't look back. All right, so here we go. We all love the High Republic. But as we mentioned before, there was a lot of new books out there this year.

So favorite non-high republic book. Let's I read a few of them all, actually. And I list for myself. I'm going to throw out the two throne books that we got this year.

Trona's tendency. We got lesser evil. I believe this year. I love Trona's a character.

I love that people love him. I can't do the throne books anymore. But we're talking about favorite books. And it had to be for myself because I didn't read Ronin.

I'm sorry. I should have wrote it then. So I'm going to go with the Alpha with Squadron victory price. They tapped out the trilogy, which was a great trilogy.

Might have not been my favorite one of all three. But Alexander Fried did a great job with those characters. Some of the interactions with them were great. And I just said I had some issues with the throne once.

And I think it's the way that Timothy Sun writes space battles compared to Alexander Fried. You feel for the characters in Alpha with Squadron. Because it's smaller ships. Will you do get those big story stories and report cruisers or whatever.

But you feel what the characters inside those ships are feeling, every time they get a shot, they're sweating. They'll tell you they're bleeding in thrones. You don't know what's going on inside the story. You're like, hey, you're under a hundred eight degrees.

And then go three steps down the gravity well. I don't care if no one there is suffering. It's like, no, sorry. I mean, I guess so.