Expounded Universe

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/expounded-universe-224-back-to-back-sabacc.mp3 Finally some quality time with Rokur Gepta, who is rapidly shaping up into one of those villains who already knew you were going to do that, which might suck, but let’s face it, his method of torturing his own underlings are funny as hell. Meanwhile you’re never going to guess what Lando’s doing! Oh, no you will. He’s playing cards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/expounded-universe-223-twisted-steel-leather-toilet.mp3 Next book! And whoa, this one starts out with the libertarian coming on strong. Man, how did I not notice this when I read these at 14? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/expounded-universe-222-mindharp-wrap-up.mp3 The poll isn’t over yet, but it’s looking very likely that we’ll just stay right here in the Centrality with young Lando and his cool droid companion for at least one more book, which is just fine by us. Also, we discuss every little detail of our thoughts and then answer a bunch of questions. We’re pros! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/expounded-universe-curse-your-sudden-yet-irrelevant-betrayal.mp3 Time to bring it home! We finally discover not only the titular Mindharp of Sharu, but also what it does! And we confront this book’s big villain… well sort of. But revelations abound all the same! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/expounded-universe-220-vuffis-adventures-in-wonderlando.mp3 Is this episode big? Little? Both! We’re not sure exactly who’s doing the size changing around here, but everyone is brand new sizes (except Mohs, who instead has liberate’d tutemi ex inferis, apparently(yes I know what it actually means)). Also we’re inside the pyramids now, so that’s neat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/expounded-universe-219-the-taking-tree.mp3 We’re stepping up the pace to three chapters. Today we check in with Lando (tied to a tree, dying) and Vuffi Raa (full of arrows, dying), and then amazingly more stuff happens! What a concept! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/expounded-universe-218-who-gave-that-toka-a-crossbow.mp3 First, a brief discussion that has a surprising lack of detail available without going to a website: Does the Falcon have a bedroom? Feels like it should, right? But here’s Lando sleeping on the floor under the Dejarik table. Then other stuff happens! Mohs breaks bad! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/expounded-universe-217-mohs-tavern.mp3 A man with a gun bursts through the door! And then things get slapstick, confusing, slapstick again, a little weird, maudlin for a second, really really confusing, and finally Jon and Jef fight for like 10 minutes! What an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/expounded-universe-216-toka-and-fugue.mp3 Well heck, the last episode was certainly a bottle episode, never leaving Duttes Mer’s office, but this one is almost a bottle episode too, insofar as it’s set exclusively in a series of bars. Oh wait, that’s a pun too! Hooray! Lando gets started on his surprisingly vague assignment and we learn a little about the locals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/expounded-universe-rokur-gepta-i-hardly-know-er-gepta.mp3 Bottle episode time! These two entire chapters never leave the office of one of our two villains. This time around, we’re going to meet Duttes Mer, the regional governer of the Rafa star system, and his boss, A motherfucking lunatic SORCERER. That’s right, it’s time to bring in Rokur Gepta, Sorcerer of Tund, from back in the days when everything didn’t have to be force powers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/expounded-universe-214-this-mynock-empty-yeek.mp3 Oh my goodness it is a new book, and instead of dealing with Corran Horn for even one more goddamn second, we can finally hang with the cool man with the capes, the Tuxedo Mask of Star Wars, it’s Lando Calrissian! This book series is very old (1983!) so get ready for a world free of the EU baggage, and a Lando free of owning a mining facility! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/expounded-universe-213-i-jedi-wrapup.mp3 Time for the moment where we ask ourselves what the hell did we just read? A little bit of final thoughts and a lot of listener questions, plus the big announcement of what we’re gonna do next! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/expounded-universe-212-i-jensaari.mp3 And the rocket ride comes to a sudden stop. And was Jef right last week? No! Jef was only about 1/5th right! Oh well, I guess those aren’t just the Yavin students, but what are they then? Surely no one would wait til the last 8 pages of a novel to introduce a HUGE new element of the Star Wars world, would they? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/expounded-universe-i-vengeance.-i-the-night..mp3 As the title may suggest, this is a bit of a Batman set of chapters, as our hero sets about scaring all the pirates off the planet they live on. For reasons. I’m sure they make sense. I assume it somehow has to do with rescuing Mirax in the next… four chapters? What!? But for now we’re really focused on using psychic powers to scare pirates. Here we go. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[/audio]https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/expounded-universe-210-i-dont-care-about-things.mp3 Another episode, another few weeks spent in pirate town. We have the big showdown with Remart, a whole chapter in Horn’s head (shudder) and we meet an exciting new coincidenc-I mean character, Elegos the Camaasi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/expounded-universe-209-i-oceanbound.mp3 Chapter 36 opens with our new favorite phrase: “Several months later.” The languid pace of this rescue is wild, right? Anyway, all three chapters this week concern Corran’s attempts to impress a bunch of pirates. He hasn’t advanced on the case of his wife yet. The book has about 12 chapters left. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[/audio]https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/expounded-universe-208-aye-pirate.mp3 Okay, here we go! We’re done with the Jedi temple, we’re done with Grandpa’s house, time to finally rescue Mirax, all we gotta do is… join up with a pirate crew for at least a month WHAT IS THIS HOW DID THIS HAPPEN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/expounded-universe-207-i-not-a-jedi.mp3 Obviously Corran is feeling a little down on himself for spending two and a half months at the Jedi academy instead of just looking for his wife, so the most natural course of action is to go crash at his grandpa’s house for an impromptu family reunion and night on the town! Okay, fine other stuff is happening too, but that is the main thing that’s happening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/expounded-universe-206-i-died-offscreen.mp3 Ooh lots of ground to cover this week, as get this, Corran Horn is leaving Yavin 4! With about half of the book left, will we finally start the book? Also we get to deal with Exar Kun, and meet Booster Terrik! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/expounded-universe-205-i-gonna-get-you-sucka.mp3 The cavalcade of guest stars visiting Fantasy Planet continues, as we are now getting a chance to meet Han (again, remember!?) and Leia, along with the Solo twins, make brief appearances to deal with the Luke being in a coma situation. Also, we finally meet Exar Kun! Gotta admit, it is sorta funny watching a straightforward evil tempting ghost deal with our pedantic overexplainer lead. But hey, you’ll see! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/expounded-universe-204-i-try-to-say-goodby-and-i-choke.mp3 I can’t help but wonder just exactly how much of this book is Jedi school. It became increasingly weird to deal with a book about a missing wife, clearly in some form of mortal danger, where the answer was “Take a few college classes and then go look for her.” Anyway here I am, looking at Kyp and Mara Jade stories just being retold from this puffed-up ex-cop’s overly pedantic perspective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/expounded-universe-203-i-blueleaf-myself.mp3 I looked at how the book was and realized this first person gimmick was going to wear out its welcome sooner rather than later, even if the book makes it work a little. I just don’t have that tendency to self-narrate, and also there aren’t any sexy people in my editing space for me to describe at length every time I see them. For now, we’ll soldier on, as the Exar Kun investigation begins and a round of guests and new students begin to arrive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/expounded-universe-202-i-sometric-exercise.mp3 Over and over I’m exposed to characters I’ve heard of, stories I faintly remember, but at each turn I’m confronted with the nagging fact that someone has been inserted into each scene. It’s Corran Horn, obviously, and as each story from Luke’s temple unfolds, he’s usually nearby, being slightly superior. How do I go on? How long til this book gets to the missing wife stuff? This is a weird plan, I remind myself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/expounded-universe-201-i-camp-counselor.mp3 After a little too much time noodling around on Coruscant, I found myself excited to finally get to the Jedi Factory. Am I finally going to get connected to the few new recruits we met all the way back in Jedi Search? Before that, I reminded myself, it’s time to watch Corran Horn just fail again and again to read the room. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/expounded-universe-200-i-jedi-search.mp3 Intrigued, I perused further into the book. “Nonsense!” I exclaimed! It’s already chapter 7! How is he still doodling around on Coruscant receiving praise from all his famous friends? Surely he must eventually go do something, I reasoned, pressing ever onward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/expounded-universe-199-i-wife-guy.mp3 I looked to the opening lines of the novel and couldn’t believe my eyes. A Star Wars novel written in first person? Reviewing my long years of reading other EU novels, I came to the inevitable conclusion that at least for myself, this was a first. Could I tolerate living directly between the lobes of this Corran Horn in this way? I would have to persevere to find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/expounded-universe-198-street-of-shadows-wrap-up.mp3 Time to take the long view of this game, also answer some questions AND announce the next book. And let me tell you right here and now, it’s a doozy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/expounded-universe-197-aurra-sings-final-clowning.mp3 The final four chapters! How does it all end, what with the murder being solved already? Well obviously by wrapping up the loose ends and setting up the next book. Messing with the team makeup, setting minor hints, all that good stuff. Is it good? Well, here’s an hour on that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/expounded-universe-196-the-butler-did-it.mp3 Well, this generally acceptable (and again, selected entirely off the title) book just succeeded in making us madder than every one of these Star Wars books since The Consent Gun Kidnapping of Princess Leia, and I bet you’re eager to find out why. Oh also we find out who killed Ves Volette. You’ll never guess who. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/expounded-universe-195-a-conspicuously-convenient-cathar.mp3 Laranth vs. Aurra Sing! In hindsight this is sorta depressingly predictable. Anyway they have a noir-grade showdown in the midst of a very weird festival, then Jax heads off to Dejah’s to once again be sexually frustrated by a 2003-era clubwear shimmer dress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/expounded-universe-194-aw-come-on-hes-just-a-little-guy.mp3 Whoa, two chapters in a row that are a continuous story? Don’t think we’ve seen that yet! Anyhoo, the gang is still in “sit around bickering” mode, until Den kickstarts things by getting arrested. Then it’s time to visit a bunch of fun aliens and… sorta just pretend to be detectives at them. You’ll see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/expounded-universe-193-a-cragmoloid-never-forgets.mp3 We’re about 2/3rds of the way through the book, and for the first time ever any path that anyone is on seems like it might actually cross one of the other ones at some point (just not in this episode). So what is going on? Well, Jax and gang need a few bucks, and Typho information gathers from some colorful species of the Coruscant underworld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/expounded-universe-192-two-side-stories.mp3 Den Dhur spends a little time wandering a big space market full of Wookiee Luau and disreputable merchandise, which he hates (Dhur hates everything), Typho adds bureaucrat to his already impressive roster of things that apparently were included with bodyguard training, and Sing finally racks up a win everyone can enjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/expounded-universe-191-vindalian-wife-explainer.mp3 Doing things in the wrong chapter order? Why not? It’s pandemonium gone wild as Aurra Sing continues to brag and lose, and Jax shows his… questionable side. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/expounded-universe-190-the-typho-singalong.mp3 Back in action, just in time for the classic noir event of nursing a crappy drink in a low gin joint. Den and Laranth finally meet the Cephalon, and everyone’s around to talk lightsabers. Meanwhile, Typho can’t stop making it weird, Aurra Sing keeps overpromising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/expounded-universe-189-volette-are-you-okay-are-you-okay-volette.mp3 Oh no, where once there was only intrigue, now there is… MURDER! Who killed Ves Volette? Who else is working an angle? Rhaninn? Laranth? Certainly not our dear and trustworthy Den, who wanders the streets each night muttering about how he hates it! Also Aurra Sing is still hard in monologue mode, we need to get her in front of a protagonist fast before she Xizors out entirely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/expounded-universe-188-yo-dejah-pump-this-party.mp3 A whole chapter devoted to our secondary antagonist, the legendary Aurra Sing, known for… standing on that one rock in Phantom Menace. Also I think she’s probably in the cartoons. But she’s sure dangerous apparently! Meanwhile, paths begin to converge on Coruscant and Den has a lot of thoughts about the foulness of this city he calls home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/expounded-universe-187-walkin-in-memnis.mp3 And the plot… begins. Both chapters today deal with the psychic fallout of a massive event of destruction and death, so obviously the episode is all jokes. Very much in setup phase right now, surely these disparate elements will come together soon! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/expounded-universe-186-take-the-i-5-to-coruscant.mp3 Whoa, what the heck did we miss? A lightsaber fight with Xizor and Vader? Oh well! We’re diving headlong into the middle of a trilogy set in the aftermath of Order 66, as our detective Jedi hero Jax Pavan and his ragtag gang of gray jedi and hangers on end one adventure and start a new one! (book photo in German because I’m sick of converting webp images this morning) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/expounded-universe-185-wrap-it-up-boys.mp3 Time for the final episode! What did we think about the episode? How many questions do you have for us? What comes next? All this and more revealed! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/expounded-universe-184-making-balls-blue.mp3 We made it! Time for the attack on the mall, the witch fight, the obvious method by which Juliet’s endless story finally reaches some manner of end, all that stuff. Come along for the end of the ride! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/expounded-universe-183-your-dad-has-impressive-rack.mp3 Animal fight! Harmon and Dean start the long walk to Elizabeth’s house as Sam wanders around a mall for two chapters (which would be 20 seconds in an episode, easy). Do we check in with Juliet too and nothing really changes? You bet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/expounded-universe-182-the-titular-canyon.mp3 Holy cow, not only are they finally finding out who the bad guy is, but they even finally said “Witch’s Canyon!” It’s happening! Anyway, they walk around, remember their dad, and are antagonized by Harmon Baird, rapidly becoming the best character in the canon of the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/expounded-universe-181-mr.-terrific-and-booster-old.mp3 We’re back! Both of us are off various vacations and ready to get through this here Supernatural ghost story. So what happens? Well the brothers finally see some action while everything else remains in the sort of vaguely pre-opening credits thing where we meet a character and they die. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/expounded-universe-special-edition-sham-bone-la-1.mp3 Jon’s out of town but Jef and Claire are making content now? And holy cow is this ever some content warning content. Instead of trying to catch up on Witch’s Canyon, Claire provides some classic Supernatural fanfic as a springboard for a rousing discussion on fic, pairings, Wincest (that’s capitalized right) and a lot more. We won’t blame you if you sit this one out but come on you know you’re not gonna. Just don’t listen on work speakers. The Fic in Question: The Road to Shambala (author: Astolat) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/expounded-universe-180-the-baird-necessities.mp3 As tensions rise and the body count increases, the boys finally find an ally that knows anything at all! Will the not especially mysterious Harmon Baird, survivor of two ghost cycles, be the key the boys need to solve the puzzle once and for all? And do we have time for the what… seventeenth flashback about their dad? Of course we do! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/expounded-universe-179-sneaky-preev.mp3 Okay, now the killing has started in earnest. But the brothers are still busy thinking about hotel keys, gun cleaning, girls, just anything but the haunted town scenario. Can they get onto the right track? Can we? This episode is, to put it politely, shaggy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/expounded-universe-178-werewolf-out-there-juliet.mp3 Jon seems fairly confident that this is all right on track, but as far as I can tell this book so far is like a lawnmower that won’t start. But hey, let’s pull the cord again! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/expounded-universe-177-gazpacho-maleficus.mp3 These chapters are just more tension building, so we went sorta crazy trying to fill the space by ourselves. Fair warning, I guess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/expounded-universe-176-chopping-mall-1.mp3 There’s trouble down by the old mall! But first there’s a bunch of flashbacks to Jeffrey Dean Morgan being mean to children, because this is based on season 1 stuff. Also Juliet is destined to be a major character since she’s back and… well she thinks based on nothing more than timing coincidence that the Winchester boys came to her farm and tore her cows apart by hand. For at least a second. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices