Expounded Universe

Well, we know Shaw is still alive now, and meanwhile we settle the debate from the end of the last episode (Jef was right, weird) and see what's going on with Thrall and Ji now that they've arrived on the insurrection-torn shores of Zuldazar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay so I may have lost this episode for a few weeks. And that definitely means I forgot what's in there, besides that there was definitely some fairly intriguing Matthias Shaw romance. So hopefully you're into that! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this installment, we finally do what WOW must do, devote way too much time to Thrall. After he meets with the other people the game frankly could abandon for six expansions and everyone would be happy (obviously Tyrande and Malfurion), it's time for Zul'More Trolls (Hah, remember that? I'm so old) in Zuldazar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'd like to say that this is the start of a depressing trend of torture in this book, but at least the book seems aware of it, and it's just Alleria and Turalyon both times, so maybe it's part of the story and will be dealt with. We can hope it gets fixed instead of getting the 24 treatment. Meanwhile, Mathias Shaw is sailing along with Flynn Fairwind, who is actually from the games! And Nathanos is meeting up with Apari the Blood(?) Troll again for various dark purposes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yep, it's one of the classic staples of the WOW genre, That kind of justified torture that your favorite heroes just can't help but do, because of the greater good. Oh and also Zekhan meets Bwonsamdi and ... I'm sure there must have been a third thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In which we figure out who's likely to be our primary Horde protagonist, we send him on his way to adventure, and also Anduin continues to fret in well-known locations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sheesh, I thought we knew some stuff about World of Warcraft but we're completely in the weeds here. We don't know about Battle for Azeroth era trolls, and that's what we seem to have blundered into. Oh well, at least Bwonsamdi is cool. We're meeting some maybe-important Blood Trools, hanging out with Talanji, and meeting WOW's ultimate wife-guy energy man, Nathanos Blightcaller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And we're back! Our new scene is set, it's split between Westfall and Ogrimmar, in which an author must deal with the dizzying array of world leaders available in the Battle for Azeroth era of a game at least a bunch of us were already starting to forget. You'll never forget such luminaries as Kiro, Caravan Leader of the Vulpera, right? I sure won't. Anyway, we barely even get an idea of what's about to happen here. Something about the elements being angry? You know how these are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All your questions answered! All our thoughts explained! And of course the next book, announced! I, uhhh, I let Jon pick again. I will always vote for the chaos option given the choice, you know this. What horrors are we due? You'll soon find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The end is upon us! Or at least of this book. Once again a massive amount of stuff needs to be handled in just a few short pages, and this time, well, it kind of isn't! Do we at least finally figure out specifically what the deal is with Zonama Sekot? No! What fun! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new character has entered the arena, though we've been hanging out on them for a while now. That's right, it's time to meet Sekot proper, unravel some secrets of the past, and set up for the last 20 pages, where apparently, almost all of the stuff will happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And, as must happen in all these books when there's like 40 pages to go, the action kicks into high gear. Anakin, Jabitha (are we sure) and Ke Daiv are in one ship, Shappa Farr and Obi-Wan in another, and all the while our petulant pal Raithe Seinar is up in space being lorded over by Tarkin. All in all, a good time, with a good moment even! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tarkin arrives, Seinar fumes, Obi-Wan and Anakin finally encounter that most regular of EU traditions, the eleventh hour info dump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Man it has been a JOURNEY to get this thing to air. The ship is built and Ke Daiv attacks, I don't remember the rest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The shipbuilding begins! As Jabitha (that can't be right) leaves our heroes at the gate of the great factory, they meet new characters just in time for Anakin to start making it weird. Meanwhile, Seinar hangs out on his ship, and we hear about the comic misadventures of Ke Daiv, currently trying to buy a Sekotan ship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Anakin meets a little girl roughly his age, Obi-Wan is bored enough to start getting crabby, and Raithe Seinar is just having big old sips of other people's anger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our heroes emerge from the unexpected ball bath covered in the winnings of victory, which of course are more balls. Then a bunch of ball-related stuff happens. Luckily Seinar breaks in for one chapter to ... well sadly he just maintains that he is still heading towards the story from a distance, but at least he's not doing a ball thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an attempt to give Anakin some more depth, we introduce... more whines of his? I guess now he loves spaceships but hates spaceships. Anyway he's still a kid, we can let that slide. Our heroes slowly explore the city of Middle Distance, while Seinar begins his own set of dastardly contingency plans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's weird to be reading a book that is ostensibly full of weird surprises and decisions that necessarily go nowhere after Attack of the Clones came along and changed them, yet still keep running into stuff that is somehow important all the way to the Yuuzhan Vong crisis. But let's do it anyway! Today we finally land on Zonama Sekot and meet a couple very grumpy cult people. Also Raithe Seinar pouts a little but gets a cool new uniform and that cheers him up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another episode about shifting pieces into place for a story to happen, but still there's something here that's working for us. Not sure if it's the gay from space billionaire villain Raithe Sienar, the crazy polychaete alien Charza and his tidepool bioship, but something's just clickin' here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, so now we know the bad guy of the hour! Raithe Seinar, starship engineer and generally rich weirdo, is apparently the right man for this job! Meanwhile our heroes absorb some info on Vergere before getting on a worm's tidepool spaceship. Honestly, respect for this guy's willingness to go crazy with the aliens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Classic villain introduction this week as we watch a discussion (that we find slightly charged in that good gay way) between Raithe Seinar and Wilhuff Tarkin. That first name might not mean much to you, but he's a big name in TIE Fighters. Also Anakin is in trouble and Mace Windu is ready to drop the hammer about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're opening with just chapter 1! That's right this is gonna be a 67 episode season! Ah okay I'm just kidding, chapter 1 is just weirdly huge compared to the rest. We catch up with currently 12 year old Anakin doing... I'm not gonna sugarcoat this he's just doing more race stuff. Just backpack podracing. Also Obi-Wan wants to stop him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here we are at the end of all things, time to discuss our overall take on this look at the X-Wing side of the universe of Star Wars, answer just a big old heap of listener questions, and of course, you know it, announce the next book! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The big finale for the first Wraith Squadron book has arrived! Who will live? Who will die? Will Tyria get any lines? And what will become of Admiral Fancylad Trigit? Stay glued to your seats and you too will learn! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shoot I forgot to remember what was in this episode. I think Trigit maybe dies? I was supposed to remember this, wasn't I. Well, put it on my permanent record. Star Wars stuff, I tell you what. That's what happens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finally, a resolution to that whole "Get the crew of the Hawkbat sick via extremely convoluted heist" storyline! They... get the crew of the Hawkbat sick. Also an unexpected assignment, an accidental ambush, and Grinder gets his. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The heist continues! Along with some sorta obvious character assassination of our Bothan slicer, presumably to set him up for either a betrayal arc or a big ol' red herring. Meanwhile our heroes just can't stop brutally killing folks who just have desk jobs! Hooray for the New Republic! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well at least they're not performing psychology on each other any more. Instead now our squadron of heroes is dating, donning stupid costumes, and basically RPG-style infiltrating an Imperial planet to steal some X-Wings and a disease. Will it work? CAN IT WORK? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time for a bunch of psychoanalytical work as performed at its best, by a group of die-hard edgy pilot kids with chips on their shoulders! Can our heroes fix Myn Donos and his perfectly understandable PTSD by just being really mean to him? Can Kell Batman his way into being nicer to Wes Janson? These chapters are the worst on today's Expounded Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The plan continues! The wraiths are still blowing up Imperial sympathizing targets while pretending to be the crew of the Night Caller, until they come calling to the wrong band of pirates. Pirates that have endlessly describable uglies! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've made it eight episodes in and now we finally get to see this commando squad do any commando business! The Wraiths launch a surprise raid on a secret Imperial window factory (editor's note: canopy factory, dammit) and immediately ruin everything by using their call numbers instead of their names. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The plan to make a tiny spaceship out of other spaceships continues, before an assault is launched, a captain is killed, and the Wraiths take possession of a super special ship! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finally some action ensues as our heroes face off with a bunch of TIEs, including a nickname for Interceptors we do not care for, then get caught in a complicated bomb situation that we're still not sure we understood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I bet you're all wondering if they spend more time in this episode training to fly X-Wings. Well I'm not gonna tell you. Instead I'll just say that Kell Tainor sucks and I wish this book was about Piggy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time to really put the team together. Sure enough, we're switching main character from Wedge to Kell in these chapters, and meeting the rest of the squad. You know the mold, sexy humans, goofy aliens, someone with a chip on their shoulder, that kind of stuff. Han Solo stops by for a brief nothing of a "this is what was happening at this time in other novels" sorta appearance, and we look at some X-Wings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the recruitment montage! What sort of weirdos are we gonna get on our X-Wing/Commando squadron this time around? Also, we meet Admiral Trigit, who knows he looks good, and Warlord Zsinj! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Season 22! We're going to be spending more time with the legendary destroyer of Death Stars Wedge Antilles now, so get ready for X-Wings, X-Wing shenanigans, wacky pilots, and every Republic character you've ever heard of even tangentially. Today's episode sets a lot of scene work for a book with a high possibility for silly times ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We answer YOUR BURNING QUESTIONS! Also we discuss the Lando trilogy as a whole, what we liked, what needed work, and what we would have done differently. Finally, after we deal with all of that, the announcement of the next book! Don't miss it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ooh, a grand finale! It's all cool space battles and shocking revelations from here on out, so strap on your space belts and get ready for the sudden clash of all this books weird sci-fi concept creatures at once! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone's gearing up for the big battle. We've got Ones, Others, Rests, Whetts, and all the rest of our regulars and every one of them is waiting out the calm before the storm. Gepta is doing regular Gepta business, while Lando suggest a plan that might be a bit shit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SABACC! Lando found a way to play sabacc with the Oswaft, so he's doing that. Meanwhile, Gepta fumes, Shanga stomps around oozing toxic masculinity all over the drapes and furniture, and we get the least dramatic shock reveal ever regarding Ottdefa Osuna Whett. Remember him? From two books ago? Well, good news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No joke folks, I recorded this episode, headed to Vegas for two days, came back with intent to post, and immediately caught RSV from my daughter (who is fine!). I have no idea what's on it. It's probably about Lando Calrissian, maybe Rokur Gepta. Vuffi is in the title, that's a safe bet he's in here. It's a mystery! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lando puts on a big show, Lehesu can turn your... leftovers into diamonds, and Rokur Gepta keeps killing messengers. Meanwhile we meet the One, the Other, and Rest, and their fantastic inventing comedy routine! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a difference continuity brings! We're finishing strong and actually covering the entire Lando Calrissian trilogy. We've got giant Manta Jellyfish space creatures. We've got Rokur Gepta meeting Klyn Shanga! We've got it all and more and we couldn't be more excited. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey! Sorry for the delay, but we're back on track with the Flamewind of Oseon wrapup. A little conversation, a little self reflection, and a surprising amount of answered questions await you, dear listener! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh wow, the shit all hits the fan here! Action! Intrigue! Extended lawn orgy! Thrill as we finally meet the legendary richest man in the galaxy Bohhuah Muttdah and his desperate attempts to enjoy his day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh wow, the shit all hits the fan here! Action! Intrigue! Extended lawn orgy! Thrill as we finally meet the legendary richest man in the galaxy Bohhuah Muttdah and his desperate attempts to enjoy his day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cue the Strawberry Alarm Clock, because it’s time for a trippy flight through a rainbow space montage! Also there’s sabotage afoot, and fighters attacking! Exciting times indeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/expounded-universe-225-a-waywa-with-words.mp3 Well, it may have been a bit, but dang it we aren’t continuing the intriguing tale of Lando in jail, Rokur Gepta in monologue, and Klyn Shanga and his motley fighter squadron in space. Also joining us this week are the worst cop ever, a cop that is Big Bird, and Lob Doluff, recently bereft of his goddamn cool. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices