Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast: your source of geekly entertainment! Tune in every Thursday as we talk about everything from LEGOs to Brit Lit and beyond!
Episodes
Thursday May 30, 2019
Thursday May 30, 2019
Heyyy, welcome to the GNAPcast--your source of geekly entertainment!
As if there hasn't been enough Star Wars Legends this season, we're back with one of our favorite games and a dynamic duo--Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister!
...okay, not really. Too soon for a Game of Thrones joke?
Anyway, join Seth and David this week as they ask and answer Google's top questions about Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. We'll also discover that David and Seth have learned how to alphabet since the last time they did a Star Wars episode; but that the internet, to no one's surprise, doesn't do grammar so well...
Fact Checks & Extra Stuff! - Seth
Weekly GEM (Seth) - The thing I didn't mention from Fire Emblem Fates is the fact that, having been reunited with your birth mother for the first time since your birth, you then kill her with a magical exploding sword that you didn't know was actually a bomb and then turn into a giant ragey dragon monster. And that's the prologue. Then again, that's pretty standard for Fire Emblem.
"Does Obi-Wan appear in Star Wars: Rebels?" -- Actually, he does. Though it's not from the Legends canon, Old Ben Kenobi features in an episode of the show's third season, "Twin Suns," in a final fight with his nemesis Darth Maul...who somehow knows where he is...when the entire Empire has been hunting Jedi for the last nineteen years and can't find him...
"Does Obi-Wan die?" -- According to my math, neither Vader nor Obi-Wan was as old as the characters in Up. At the time of A New Hope, Vader would have been forty-one years old, while Ben would have been fifty-seven. But just 'cause it's fun, here's the fight between Carl and Charles Muntz from Up.
"Does Obi-Wan have PTSD?" -- A'Sharad Hett is another Jedi who survived Order 66, but fell to the dark side through his desire for vengeance against the Empire. After a duel with Obi-Wan on Tatooine (resulting in the latter removing another forearm with a lightsaber), A'Sharad Hett wandered the galaxy and eventually resurfaced nearly one hundred and fifty years later as Darth Krayt, leader of the One Sith. You can find his full story in the Star Wars: Legacy comics.
"Does Anakin Skywalker have a middle name?" -- "Consort of the Lady Vader" is the title originally given to Han Solo by the Noghri in Dark Force Rising. ;) They later start calling him "Han clan Solo," but that first one makes me laugh every time I read it.
"Why does Anakin Skywalker join the dark side?" -- YOU DON'T KNOW THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE
"What does 'Obi-Wan' mean?" -- I couldn't find anything conclusive on this, aside from the fact that you can write his name as if he were a droid: OB-1-KNB. Beep boop.
"How did Anakin Skywalker's Padawan die?" -- Shaak Ti was not fated to survive Revenge of the Sith. There are at least two deleted scenes of her being killed from that film: first at the beginning by General Grievous (as David mentioned), and then again during the attack on the Jedi Temple by Anakin Skywalker (replacing the scene in the final cut of him murdering the younglings). No love for Shaak Ti, apparently...
"Does Anakin Skywalker scar?" -- Here is the entire fight, from Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (2003), featuring the climactic duel between Anakin and Asajj Ventress on Yavin 4. This is the moment in the Legends canon where Anakin gets his notable facial scar, as well as being the moment that convinces the Jedi Council to promote him to full Knighthood. On the subject of scars, here's an official explanation for the scar on Harrison Ford's chin.
"Can Anakin Skywalker use Force lightning?" -- The way it's explained in-universe is that you can only project Force lightning through a flesh-and-blood hand, and since Anakin had only one and a half arms at the point where he was powerful enough to be able to summon it, his potential for doing so was dramatically diminished. Interestingly, Force lightning has a light-side counterpart dubbed "electric judgment," seen to be used by Jedi such as Plo Koon and Luke Skywalker in a handful of places.
"Does Obi-Wan like Asajj Ventress?" -- Though most probably think Duchess Satine from the Clone Wars animated series is the forbidden love we keep mentioning, it's actually a fellow Jedi. Siri Tachi was a fellow learner when Obi-Wan was Qui-Gon's Padawan. The two were really close, and when both were Knights almost left the order together to pursue something. ...and then she was killed by a bounty hunter named Magus months before the Clone Wars broke out. :( OTP...
Thursday Aug 30, 2018
Thursday Aug 30, 2018
Heyyy, welcome to the season finale of the GNAPcast! In our last episode of Season 1, David explained the science and strategy behind the competitive event of speedcubing, or solving Rubik's Cubes really quickly. His explanations made too much sense, though, so we turned to the internet and decided to ask it questions about them!
Just when you thought Rubik's Cubes were complex enough, we find a way to make them even more convoluted! Join Seth and David for our last episode of Season 1 as we play Google Autofill with Rubik's Cubes (though not at the same time, that might be difficult).
It's been a great season! We've enjoyed sharing all this craziness with you guys and are really looking forward to more. Tune in next week for a quick GNAP-date. (Yes, we did really just say that.)
Fact Checks and Extra Stuff! - David
Again, because this episode was recorded so far in advance, some of the information is a little outdated. Never fear, though! Here are some further explanations and links for you to find out for yourself:
F - Here's a link to The Cubicle, if you want to buy your own puzzle cube.
K - And here's a link to ZCube, for all of your puzzle cube or keychain needs!
L - The Rubik's Cube mechanism
N - Here's a forum post from SpeedSolving, talking about more of those bizarre cube names.
O - An online timer, in case you want to try your luck.
P - Herbert Kociemba's website
U - We may have already included this link in the last episode, but here is Kevin Hays' underwater world record video.
V - Back at The Cubicle! In addition to puzzle cubes, you can also find some silicon-based cube lubricants (cubricants??) here.
W - The name I couldn't remember in the episode was SeungBeom Cho (who does go by Steve, so I got that right). However, the current world record (as of May 5th) is by Feliks Zemdegs, with 4.22 seconds.
X - The X and O Method is also called the Ortega Method, or the Corners-First Method. To use this algorithm, you solve all of the corners (creating an 'X' on each side with the center pieces), and then solve the edges while using the corners as a reference. This was actually the very first method I used to solve a cube, though I had no idea what I was doing at the time. You can read more about it here.
Z - Since this is an audio episode and I'm talking about an extremely visual thing, here are some links to the kinds of things I'm talking about! This is the zigzag pattern, and here are some other ones.