Episode 015 – Star Wars, A History and Critique

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Health, travel finance, parenting and entertainment. This is the Suburban Folk podcast. I’m looking forward to having some real talk. Some real folks. Welcome to the Suburban Folk podcast. This is your host Greg. Today I am joined with Brandon. Hello, and Eric, how you doing? I’m okay, so you guys continue to be my repeat co host. So thanks for putting up with me one more time. For the episode today around Star Wars. We are about a week away from episode nine you two are the experts in the field of Star Wars. So I’m going to be very interested to hear your backgrounds for all things Star Wars and what we try to do with any of our subject matter is assume people listening are uninitiated to the topic. We’re hoping that we can introduce people to the original trilogy in the highest level of terms talk about what it is that made Star Wars appeal to each one of us. And then our

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down the line into the prequels into the 90s. whatever other media you may have been into a Star Wars just became the behemoth that it is. And then into the new movies. I’ll call it the Disney era of Star Wars. So, Brandon, I think you may be the elder statesman of the group here. Why don’t you go first? Tell me why when you first got into Star Wars, and what exactly was it that spoke to you? Well, it was a long time ago, in a state not so far away, Pennsylvania, where I grew up, but I got into Star Wars pretty much since forever, as long as I can remember Star Wars was around and something that I enjoyed and loved I, I had the toys.

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I watched the movies as often as possible. I have copies of those movies in every conceivable format. I’m sure if I looked or

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Still had access to to those boxes, or if they hadn’t been destroyed. I probably had it on beta. But I definitely have the trilogy on LaserDisc because I have those in my attic. I have them on VHS,

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DVD blu ray, a couple movies here and there on streaming.

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And I don’t know what I liked most about it. I know I like jet. I was my favorite movie as a kid. I really did it like that one the best. But I think I just heard everything about it. There wasn’t there wasn’t one thing I can say that I really like about it other than it is a very familiar story just because I grew up with it. And it’s, it’s got so many different themes that I think even though it’s set in space, and it’s sci fi, there are still a lot of themes, I think that are

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relatable to people which is which is probably why it’s endured so long. You said beta

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You think was the first format? That just what your family had? Did you? How did you get it? Oh, yeah, we had a Betamax player in the house before we had a VHS player. We had, I guess, an eight millimeter version was the first one that we had. And Eric, I’ll segue over to you. What was your first recollection of having the movies? Sounds like Brandon saying, Return of the Jedi, which I’d say for me was the same was the one that I liked the best. What about what’s your recollection? I mean, as a kid, my favorite I think was also Jedi. As an adult, I still get pissed off when you have people that give the Ewoks a hard time. So I would go at Yoda kid. And an important distinction. I believe that we had a bootleg version eight millimeter of empire to start with. So that that’s kind of I think,

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the earliest memory I have is is kind of watching that opening. So I’m with you on the bootlegs our beta copies.

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may have been, like recorded off of HBO or something.

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Exactly. So I remember watching the beginning of empire over and over and over and over again, and then kind of,

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you know, working backward to the original movie and, you know, July so.

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And I would mirror what Brandon was saying that, in as a kid, I probably would have just said, I don’t know, it’s cool. As an adult, like, I think Star Wars is a familiar story. But Lucas kind of design that intentionally. I mean, he used a lot of the, the elements within myth to kind of take things that are universally familiar, and he kind of mash them up in a new and unique way. And he did it with, you know, kind of new technology. So I think that that’s really the appeal. It’s kind of that universal story that, you know, humans have kind of been telling for ever. And what do you say working backwards with, whether it be Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi and then going back to the original, I’m thinking

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Similar, especially if I had to rank when I was, you know, 567 whenever we first started watching those movies, the episode four definitely was what I watched the least. And I’m not exactly sure why that was, but it was a similar experience. So like I mentioned, maybe for me that is potentially uninitiated at this point. What do you guys want to volunteer to give the synopsis of episodes four or five and six? Why don’t they just watch the Family Guy versions?

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Right? Yeah, that’s probably right. Or you know, it is on several streaming services. I’d say it’s worth it’s worth your time to kind of have a listen if you will. First of all, I want to find the person that has never seen Star Wars that stumbles on this podcast. I got an hour to spend so yeah, I mean, I branded Go ahead, knock yourself out if you want to do a synopsis but my recommendation to that would be probably just watch the movie. I wouldn’t do it justice. Like I would I would do a horrible job telling the story. But it did.

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made me think of like, when my wife and I were dating. One of the things at some point I said,

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we’ve been dating long enough. And I’m like, have you ever seen Star Wars? And the answer was like, Yeah, kind of. And I’m like, Well, no, it’s yes or no. So we we sat down and watched and, you know, 456123 as God intended was the order that we watched it.

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So that was, you know, she was marrying material after that.

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Well, I think I might have even told a story for our Disney travel that Yeah, my wife has not seen any of them at all. And I was given a hard time about all things Disney so basically the pack was I would quit giving her a hard time or less of a hard time about all things Disney if she went through and watched all of them, so she managed to get through, but it was somebody that had not seen them up to that point. And yet mentioning the people’s like

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Said has got intended. I’m fast forwarding, I think she says the newest ones are the best ones and even ranks the prequels ahead of the original. So I it’s hard to get on board with that, I think. Yeah, thank you.

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Yeah, I could see, I could see how someone who’s who’s new to it could say that because they didn’t grow up with it. And, you know, maybe it is that we grew up with that original trilogy, in that we put more weight on it, because for us, it came first for us, it was part of our childhood. And for us, there’s so many memories attached to it. I think it’s difficult to look at it without that type of bias.

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As compared to somebody who’s never watched it and watching them all for the first time as an adult, playing devil’s advocate. Yeah. I wonder for our age. One of the things I assume for people that were old enough to see it in theaters, which FYI for anybody that does not know us, we were not old enough to

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See it when it first came out, of course, is the special effects. And you know, you always hear about the first shot when you have the ship coming over top and how it sort of larger than life. And if you compare it to movies probably 5678 years after the fact, Star Wars is still better special effects

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throughout, you know, the whole period, I would say so, it’s interesting for us talking about, you know, the childhood memories and so on. But we had it all as a package, because they were all out. I mean, what, two, three years old when Jedi would have first come out but not going to the theaters to see it at that point. So I wonder if there is that much of a different experience for people that are this point, what, five, six years older than we are that may have actually seen it in theaters and if they follow it quite as much as as as folks that you know, weren’t around when those trilogy when the trilogy was first coming out, which then again, I guess puts you in the mindset for people that haven’t seen it until their adult years. I mean, it came out a new hope came out

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Two years before I was born, right, right. Well, I will attempt I guess a real quick synopsis anyway, just in case there’s anybody that hasn’t seen it. On the surface of you’re introduced to Luke Skywalker in Episode Four A New Hope you’re introduced to Darth Vader who quite possibly is the most iconic bad guy in all movies. I think that’s certainly arguable.

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The main issue is the Death Star. That star is going to blow up the rebellion. Luke Skywalker meets Obi Wan Kenobi

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learns the force is able to blow up the Death Star big battle between Darth Vader and Obi Wan. Obi Wan is dead at the end of that one. And that’s pretty much the end of a new hope. empire strikes. Also, boiler alert. Well, then, what’s the forest?

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What the forces? Well,

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what does it it binds us, it surrounds us and I’m sure there’s quotes there that I don’t don’t have welcome

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Completely down. Jet Iser space wizards. Is that that that kind of is the

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Star Wars version of superheroes?

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Were really good with swords. Yeah. And of course, the big one for Empire Strikes Back and the others I mentioned for us, again, we didn’t get the anticipation of that first movie coming out to the big reveal of Empire Strikes Back that when you watch documentaries you would hear about, but that’s the main thing in a nutshell, right is that Han Solo gets captured and goes to Java. Yeah, you have to watch the know who the heck that is and the gangster, but it is revealed that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker, his father, which in the movie before you hear that Luke Skywalker, his father was killed by Darth Vader, not really true, he became Darth Vader, and then get you into Return of the Jedi with the big face off between Luke and Darth Vader. Ultimately, he is able to turn him back to the good side and

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Defeat the Emperor. And that’s pretty much the end of the trilogy with a lot of special effects and other stuff in between. Yeah, I’m gonna go with my original suggestion of just watched the movie, just go watch the movies.

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So before we go into the time between those trilogy movies and the prequels Is there anything about the trilogy? Again that you guys remember that’s worth noting? That is your theory of why Star Wars has been as big as his other than it is kind of a familiar story set in space. Anything else that that we may have missed? Well, let’s let’s just set the record straight about one thing about the about the original trilogy. Is that Han shot first.

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And you know what? Disney plus a change that again, yeah, somebody described it to me because I don’t exactly know what the changes he gurgles. It’s like you know, everyone

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Loved the changes maybe if you keep changing it will love it even more now he like doorbells something it’s like Oh, that makes it clunky. Yeah, it’s like it’s like oh, that’s Yeah, it’s better now Now we love it. So yeah, just just put it back the way it was and everyone it was that a Disney change or with George Lucas about anything to do with that? Oh yeah, no no that was a Lucas change that was before Disney got hold of it that was a special a special edition change. And then it was that they’ve they’ve improved it. Were the original Special Edition literally it looks like someone just like kind of like Yanks at the film negative and he sort of pops out of the way and then shoots. Disney has continued to tweak it, but that was on Lucas. Well, you actually you know what that is probably a good segue for the timeline, at least from the movies. You know, skipping the other media, but that would have been the next iteration on the big screen is with the special editions that had come out. I honestly don’t remember how many years ahead of the prequels were

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I’m going to say five, maybe like maybe the first one came up at five. It was like right before it, was it. Yeah, it was like a year before I think is when they released them. Okay. And actually I only ended up seeing the so for in theaters I somehow I managed to miss the other two. Well, I don’t know why the hell you’re hosting this thing. If you all know.

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That was an event. I remember that being a giant deal, but they were going to be in theaters. Well, yeah, I remember when I went that to that one. I was the only time I think I’ve ever been in the exact front row in a theater because we got there late and it was the only seats that were left. But yeah, I didn’t end up catching Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi on the big screen. So yeah, you’re right. I do sort of lose my credibility there.

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But with the special editions.

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Yeah, I guess it depends, obviously. hacia. First was the big gift from the first one. There was Java. That was the first sense going into the prequels as well, but maybe Lucas jumped the gun. I’m gonna

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We go back to the special effects because they’re distracting and pretty much every single sense I’m not sure that any of the stuff that got added really made the movies any better Am I am I not thinking of anything maybe the lumpa in Empire so the Java scene was something that was originally shot and intended to be in the movie

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but you know they shot they shot the that sequence with a you know a big dude and a giant fur coat they replaced him with the CGI Java

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and may and you know they did their best making Han walk on his tail and all that stuff.

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And they cleaned up some of the effects like the glows on the on the star ships. They took the little the film smudge that was underneath the the speeder

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going across the desert

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with Luke and Obi Wan and stuff like that. So I mean, I think there was some places where

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It was kind of, they kind of did a little bit of cleanup, but it definitely was sort of like

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Lucas went a little too far. And I think this really played out in the

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really, in Jedi. They put that whole musical number in it with size notes. they redid that. Yeah, and just like they went overboard with the slapstick

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comic Enos of that I was going to point to that as the worst that I can think of. Yeah, and then,

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you know, they even did it again. They even made tweaks when they put the original trilogy on blu ray, they made tweaks to the movie to the movies again, they made Vader yell No, they made the he walks blink in the DVD and the blu ray special editions. So you know, they mean, this isn’t anything new that they’ve done is just, you know, more tweak after tweak. It’s just sort of

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tweaking for tweak sake. It’s throwing wasn’t

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just wasn’t worth it for some of those things is really caught got a lot of people sort of, you know, pissed about it well, and it’s such a weird thing, you don’t see that in anything else. I mean, you’re right there, there was the original special editions, then they revamped it again for the DVD pack and blu ray to kind of help match it up with the prequels. And it sort of, for me, one of the ultimate examples of it’s if it’s not broke, don’t fix it to Nobody. Nobody was clamoring for these changes. And, you know, to be fair, I’m always a fan of anything that kind of

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helps the story move along or makes the story clearer. And I can think of a few minor scenarios where Special Edition was better. Specifically, when Han and Chewie are chasing the stormtroopers and the death star in the original version, the same three stormtroopers like turn around and then they panic and it didn’t make a lot of sense. And in special edition, they run into like a Tie Fighter hangar and there’s hundreds of stormtroopers and then they panic and turn around. So that was an example of something where

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I thought it helped make the scene a little clear. By and large. You know. And to your earlier point, Brandon, I think some of it might be, you know, this isn’t my Star Wars. This isn’t how I remember it, but they’re making changes like adding Hayden Christensen at the end of Return of the Jedi. And was anyone confused as to who that person was? I mean, we all got it we all understood was anagen. Like, it just seemed like making changes. They’re saying to make it cohesive, but you know, we’re not that stupid. Like, what we’re putting the pieces together. It’s fine. That wasn’t the blu ray, I guess, where they tried to connect the prequel. And that did I agree, felt very, even down to the fact that they changed the end music of Return of the Jedi. I don’t know why that I think that’s what annoys me the most because that particular song I don’t think appears anywhere else in any of the other movies. So that’s just gone. Yeah, you’re correct it they they wipe that one out. And there’s some other small things that just sort of bugged me like they changed both FETs voice and Empire so that he sounds like they closed it and again,

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It’s just one of those things where this was not a problem. You know, we were we were connecting those dots. He was fine. So, yeah, it’s a weird scenario where it kind of keeps fit. It’s currently being tweaked with the 20 plus version now, so I really don’t understand why that is. But you know, you bring up Boba Fett. I mean, there’s, there’s a history of bad decisions in the Star Wars catalog. And Boba Fett was his first appearance was one is in in one of the biggest ones. Yeah, the Star Wars Christmas special. Right. So I mean, are we really surprised when some things kind of go sideways? Yeah, no. And I think the Christmas special is I think amazing for how how bad it is.

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Yeah, so I mean, the entertainment value there. But you know, I think that’s the first time that Star Wars kind of made a blatant cash grab. And I would suggest that now it’s it’s more cash grab that. Not

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But you’re you’re right it’s not like it’s got a flawless record. There’s also a Christmas in the stars The Christmas album

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or any of the assorted disco things that they released along the way. Yeah

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Can we please agree that the worst part of the holiday special is I don’t remember to his dad’s name but him sitting down to that virtual reality thing and watching the descriptions are vaguely appropriate you kind of feel like you’re watching

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this like looking guy yeah, it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s I would say borderline creepy. Yeah, I mean, you expected him to maybe like throw a couple credits out while the thing was going on. Yeah.

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That’s about as

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nice way

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I don’t know what the rating is on your podcast. I don’t want to go too far with

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that.

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And by the way, I have the Christmas album. They had it at the at the library when I first got here managed to get myself a copy.

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For that, which is apparently famous for its Bon Jovi’s first recording ever. So there’s a little piece that I found out. Yeah. I forget the name of the song, but but yet he’s in there. And so we’re also hinting at the is Star Wars for children. Is it for adults? Did Star Wars change? Or did the people that were children just grow up and want, you know, an older version? I’m going to use that as my segue into the prequels

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because, of course, our favorite character Jar Jar Binks was probably the primary gripe when

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the Phantom Menace first came out. So who wants to walk us through their experience with the prequels? The hype, of course, that came with a brand new Star Wars movie 20 some odd years from the last trilogy, and just what it went into all that I’ll take a stab at it. So yeah, the prequel

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I was 100% on board, as you said it was, what better part of 15 years, more than 15 years between anything and

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Star Wars fans, the only thing I had to fill the gap there were books, comics, video games, that kind of stuff, which some of them were better than others. But it’s the same thing as have to be going to be visual medium. So I was super pumped up about it. I remember loving Episode One, I went to see up the opening night and I went to see it again the following morning. So initially, I loved it.

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I guess I’ve become a bit of an apologist for

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the prequels, because a lot of the stuff I hear people harp on, I understand why it’s irritating, but for me at this point, it’s sort of like, I really gauge any new material for Star Wars is does it make the hole better or does it make it worse, and like Jar Jar Binks is obviously for kids and he’s goofy and, but he doesn’t really impact the story, either.

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that much. There’s a lot more in Episode One is an example. Like the middie chlorines was like, this is just ruined like a whole aspect of Star Wars so and the the casting was awkward with that kid was just too young for some of the things that they were, you know trying to develop. So for me like, after kind of getting over the initial like Wow, this is great and there are legitimately like episode one seems to be the movie that everyone’s like, Oh, what a piece of garbage. There are parts parts of that the opening scene of that is, in my opinion is terrific. The ending scene of that other than, you know, baby anicon flying around yelling up and stuff, the ending of that movie is really good. You’ve got a lot of kind of awkwardness and strange things to work through in the middle. But

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I still think there’s some redeeming qualities about those about those movies. So I definitely was caught up in the hype. I’m not nearly as you know, gung ho as then, but I also haven’t kind of thrown it all out or kind of Pooh poohed it like I know a lot of Star Wars fans

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Real quick on the last scene, I thought I’ve read in the last few years that people are even starting to say that they don’t like the

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lightsaber scenes from the prequels that they’re too overdone. Is that really a critique? Because I feel like that’s one of the best parts of the prequels, like any of the lightsail. So I’ve heard that before. Part of what I liked about the middle gap between the original movies and the prequels is

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the books and comics and that kind of thing. Again, some are better than others, but it let creative people kind of think through in story explanations for things and I thought again, and the prequels came out, those folks kind of went into overdrive, and I thought they were great. I mean, they’re just fun to watch. I think there was some really cool characters, Darth Maul being, you know, top of the list. And I heard that criticism is sort of the official explanation was, I think the criticism was like, we got Luke and Vader who are just sort of like, you know,

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Throwing, you know, they’re kind of like old school, middle medieval style fencing, and then you’ve got this where they’re doing all these crazy flips. And, and the kind of instore explanation I heard was, well, Luke was not really trained. I mean, these guys have been doing it since they were kids and they’re, they’re full on Jedi, where Luke was just kind of figuring it out, which I thought was whether that was the intent or not. I have my doubts. That was the intent, but I thought it was somebody thinking very creatively on their feet. And I like the explanation. Brandon, yeah, that’s same, that same sort of explanation explanation where, you know, the, the fighting with the lightsabers is more polished. It’s, there’s more technique to it is because you’re right, Ben, if you think about it, that was the the height of the Jedi Order right before they were all killed. Spoiler alert.

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And like you said, you know, Vader and Luke Vader was restricted by

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his body and the

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You know, the fact that he was, you know, robot do robotic, and Luke wasn’t really well trained. So they were really just sort of hacking and hacking away at each other. Whereas you’ve got these fully trained Jedi who’ve they’ve gone through the Jedi Temple and all the training and all that stuff. You’ve got Darth Maul, who was like probably your first was probably like the first live action appearance of a dude with a double bladed lightsaber, it was sort of like, let’s see what this, you know, this badass could do. Because the only other Sith we had seen was was Vader and,

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and Palpatine. And neither of them could really get around well, so maybe overcompensate for that. And I think that sort of that same that same mindset went into the

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the polish that was on the spacecraft, because a lot of a lot of criticism was like, Oh, why are things so much newer and shiny or in the prequels when that stuff was older, versus the original trilogy? Well, number one, let’s

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Just look at when the movies were made and accept that that’s just a reality of, of production at that time. Number two, it’s symbolic of the way the Old Republic was. And then the way things were when the Empire came on board, it was not just a technological shift, but it was almost a

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that that that lesser technology that more industrial look was a symptom of the overarching evil that was in the in the universe. So I think that’s another way to look at things too. But, Eric, like you said, with the, you know, with the prequels, I mean, let’s, let’s be honest, anybody who says they hated the prequels, when they watched them, the first time is a liar. We ate it up. We loved it. We wanted it. We needed it because we hadn’t had new content from Star Wars aside from like,

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the droids cartoon series, the little he walk, the walk series, that was on like a

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bc or something. We were waiting for a movie we have been waiting until what 1999. I was in college when it came out. I was fortunate that our

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college auditorium, they would get pretty early releases of movies, you know, not like right when they were released in the theater, but not not long after they were released in the theater, we got him at our college. So it was really great to see that and me and my friends were total nerds and did lightsaber battles in the aisle. We didn’t dress up. But we did that, you know.

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But unfortunately, you know, over time, it just didn’t. They just didn’t hold up as well as the original trilogy did. But in that moment, we love them. Because it was part of the story that we knew it was familiar, and it told us things we didn’t know.

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You know, Phantom Menace. And you know, if you go and look back, man, that pod race was really drawn out. And, like you said, the kid that played in it.

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Man that dude was kicking a lot of game for a little kid. A much older woman

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tackle the clones. Hayden Christensen is just awkward.

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extremely awkward. But uh you know, Revenge of the Sith was pretty It was pretty rad It was very dark towards the end once Anakin went to the dark side and you know there was there was a lot of emotion between Anakin and Obi Wan in that fight in that final battle and

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you know so there’s a lot of there’s a lot of there’s a lot of high moments a lot of good points and I think they closed a good a nice plot hole for me which was like wait a minute, if Darth Vader if Anna can build in oc threepio Why does see threepio not know anybody or not know what tattooing is? And they had his memory wiped. I was like, okay, thank god like I

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For me that was like Great job guys because that’s the thing I’ve been wondering since they first reintroduced see threepio on tattooing, but you know, the The good thing about the prequels especially is that it’s spawned the Clone Wars series animated series. And that is a hell of a series. Yes. And I it’s it’s it’s a really good one if you guys have watched it, I have got I would say it’s really good for adults. It’s not a you know, if people look at it, and it’s CGI, and they think, Oh, it’s kid show, but as a adult, I kind of enjoyed it, of its own merit. It’s really good. And to your point, it kind of it helped build that story up where I think I agree, I went revenge this came out. I feel like it had become cool to just kind of trash Star Wars. And all I heard about from Revenge of the Sith was the end where Vader gets up and does you know, and and obviously they’re making a tip of the hat.

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Frankenstein there. And I don’t know if that’s the right decision or not. But like, if you go see a two hour plus movie, and all you want to talk about is the 10 second piece of it that you dislike, I think you’ve kind of you’ve missed the point here, you’re, you’re just looking for reasons to dislike it. So and I get my criticism of Seth was that it felt a little rushed, but something like Clone Wars really fills those gaps. And and it does it in a very satisfying way. Yeah. And, and, you know, we might, and I think it will probably get into this into the sort of the last, the last portion that we want to talk about is, is the Mandalorian series going to try and tie into

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some themes from the Attack of the Clones. So we can, we can hope that maybe, you know, cloning or that that sort of theme may play out more in the Mandalorian Well, I have not seen

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All of the Clone Wars, and I’m a few episodes behind them. And

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the only thing I would add for just the prequels in general and going back to even Phantom Menace, the other, not only many Koreans but when shmi Skywalker says that essentially anagen is Jesus because there was no father

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didn’t seem like the most creative thing in the world. Now. I think there’s also rumors going on that they maybe are going to try and close that loop in some way with the new movie. I thought I’ve heard that who knows what exactly that may or may not entail. And then again, Brandon, you mentioned the pod racing. Eric, you mentioned the age of the actor that was and again, and that was really my main critique is just Yes, that part was long and also, it just set up the next two to have to cover a lot of ground that ultimately I didn’t think it had the chance to cover. I was said in a nutshell. They needed to have Revenge of the Sith.

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While I think it was a solid movie, basically just mostly Darth Vader, mostly hunting down as many Jedi having as many like knockdown drag out battles as it possibly could have and there just wasn’t any time to devote to that I think because Phantom Menace left so much still to get to in the next two movies. That’s what I really remember thinking. Well, if you want to watch hunting down of Jedi, you’re going to need to watch rebels Star Wars Rebels okay? And that’s when did that come out? I that’s a relatively recently right started when Clone Wars wrapped up so I’m going to ballpark it at like four years ago, something like that three or four years ago. 2014 I have plenty of non non Movie Star Wars media to consume clearly. Which I think that gets us to all things non movie. Books, comics, video games, TV shows, like we’ve touched on, Eric, I’m gonna let you start talking about from even the original trilogy.

33:00
What type of media you do? Maybe storylines that were better than others. And where that went leading up to the prequels, and then maybe where it went after the prequels. So I really focused on the novels, which is now the the legends version of the Star Wars timeline. And I, for the most part, like them, I mean, there’s a ton I’m not going to go through individual ones that started with the Timothy’s on series, where, you know, it kind of reintroduces the characters, they bring in some

33:32
villains that are really interesting in their own right that I see if they I know they’ve already introduced Thrawn via the shows. So it it gave you something familiar, but it also introduced some new things. I’d like to say all of the books are as good as that that’s not the case. Some of them kind of felt like a rehash. But that was was really what I got into primarily.

33:53
And I think, potentially I’m still kind of struggling with that, that. In my opinion, that timeline is sort of what we

34:00
Hope I mean Han and Leia get married, they have kids, Luke gets the Jedi Order going back again. And it’s sort of what you hoped the story was going to be. And I would suggest the new movies are not at all like, you know, if someone was writing out what they sort of hope the next step was, unless you’re some kind of sadist, I don’t think anyone was was picking out what the new movies are doing. I was, as much as I love comics, I was a bit of a late comer to the comics. Again, some of those stories were really good. Especially I would say they actually got

34:35
I don’t know if I want to say better. Kind of the prequel in before era comics, I think are the good ones, where you’ve got like Tales of the Jedi and that kind of thing, which takes place thousands of years before the movies do.

34:49
And then when the prequels came out, that kind of expanded in a good way.

34:55
There’s some low lights, which, you know, I wish I could say I’ve got a lot of our

35:00
optimism for this new movie, but I think they’re taking some story ideas from one of my least favorite, which was dark Empire, which long story short, the whole point of the trilogy is, you know, Luke resist the dark side, he now becomes a new Jedi. And then that series came out. And it’s like, No, actually, he just decided to join the dark side because Cloner Palpatine is here. And I just thought it kind of undermined the entire whole point of the movie trilogy. So that’s an example of of more of a low light. But But I think that’s a case where the prequels might have helped the quality and kind of brought a little more

35:37
focus to the expanse what was the Expanded Universe is now the legends universe. I think I had just read I forget where a comparison of Lucas and the prequels and all the reasons we’ve talked about much maligned, versus what Disney has done up to this point, which seems to be fairly paint by numbers. pretty predictable scores.

36:00
killing off all the characters. And where we’re going to end up in. Yeah, it was at least giving the prequels credit for the worlds that were used and created and especially with weaving all of the the other media again, in particular, the TV shows into something that actually maybe was more well thought out than it was originally given credit for. as to where we are now with, with the new movies. Brandon, how about for you? What were the types of books, comics, video games, TV shows that you were watching in between the movies? While I was in college? I know. So actually, I had an old Atari game. That was about Star Wars. It was very like wireframe based, and it was literally the worst. I never had et but if I had ever played the ET Atari game, I mean, I guess this would have been my version of the Atari game. I don’t know who was an empire strikes back or A New Hope or a Jedi game, but you were supposed to

37:00
To shoot stuff and fly a plane, fly a vehicle some way through space, so that was like the first Star Wars video game I ever played. And it was it was terrible.

37:11
So that that helped me over for a while until I’m thinking the Super Nintendo. The SNS, Star Wars games came about where you’re like jumping around as Luke with a lightsaber and you’re holding it up right straight to deflect the blasters near jumping up and down the platforms on the sandcrawler

37:35
and then I played the Rogue Squadron, Video game for PC and that game was legit like I had a joystick for it. And I that was like really like the coolest thing and you could put in the code or download the mods to fly a Tie Fighter or the Naboo Starfighter. Those were like the add ons that you got afterwards. So like those were that was a

38:00
Really cool. A really cool game that I that I remember playing in college was that

38:07
Rogue Squadron game. But after that, I’d have to say my all time two favorite Star Wars games, were the Knights of the Old Republic games, because it gave you a glimpse at pre New Republic times. And it talked about some of the Jedi and Sith

38:33
mythology, the lore that you never got from the movies and I never read any of the books or the comics.

38:42
Up until very recently. So you know, that was talking about Darth Revan and Darth Malak or Moloch. And you know, just that, that it’s just adding to that mystique of what the syph used to be. Before the the syph that we knew

39:00
insidious and Vader and

39:06
mall and what was the other guy, Darth

39:12
from Clone Wars from enough from clone wars but from Attack of the Clones tyrannous. There you go the Forgotten one. Because he was just sort of there. Yeah, exactly right. Right. Um, but I’d have to say it probably was wasn’t until I moved down down here to Virginia. So it was it was post 2005 2006

39:35
that I was finally sort of like, Man, I’m hungry for some more content. Like I want to I want to know I want to do some more. Maybe it’s like for like, finally, like the seventh or eighth time that I finished Knights of the Old Republic. I’m like, I’m tired of this. I want something new.

39:51
So I dove into the hand of Thrawn trilogy, and I like burn through those three books. And then I think I started another like a

40:00
fourth book. And by that point, I was like, I had just burned through three of three books as fast as I could. And I’m like, yeah, I’m not going to finish this. And then just sort of put things down and went back to my old school Star Wars days of just watching the original trilogy and watching the prequels and just being happy knowing that’s, that’s all I’ll ever have. And then,

40:27
and then Clone Wars came out. So I watched that, and then it was like, oh, The

40:34
Force Awakens is coming. And it was a brand new happy day. One thing I’m thinking of with the video games as you’re going through those, has there ever been an easy Star Wars video game? I remember some of the games we had.

40:49
The one for new hope was hard. I think we had the Empire Strikes Back when which was hard. I don’t remember if they made a Return of the Jedi or not. I’ve heard that the s&s game was

41:00
was also very, very difficult. You mentioned Rogue Squadron before that was rebel assault. Oh, that’s the game that’s the one but rebel assault was was the first person shooter. It was sort of like a rebel assault was sort of a mixed game like you flew x wing at the beginning but then there were some somewhere you’re, you know, I think you get to use a lightsaber in it, but I know there’s a point where you’re using a blast or and it was really hard it was it was sort of the it was sort of the game before Star Wars games really took off. And x wing was a great game but impossibly hard and you had to every time you died, you had a chance of every time you got shot down, you would either be killed, which happened most of the time and you had to start over. You would be captured by the Empire and you had to wait like real time, months before you would finally get a thing that was like you’ve been released, you can start playing your game again. Or if you’re really lucky, you get rescued so I am

42:01
You know, I think part of the reason I got into computers was because of Star Wars games. It was like we need to find your save file. And then if you die, you log out of the game you go back in and you restore your save file, then you read log into the game and it’s like, but this sounds like a lot of work for entertainment.

42:17
Maybe that’s why I was into TIE Fighter because I remember with Thai fighter, you could just set it up where you couldn’t be be shot at all. And I don’t remember.

42:26
I was gonna say the answer to your question on has there been an easy one? It’s Thai fighter, because yeah, you could make yourself invincible, and you could still progress it again. That’s why I liked it. I like the ones where I don’t have to work too hard. Cuz I feel like with some of the more recent ones, like, Battlefront, isn’t that the one that’s also kind of either you love or hate, but it’s a pretty tough one. Well, Battlefront is designed as a player versus player game. So yeah, if that’s your thing, it’s great for me personally, I don’t want 13 year olds like cursing at me and telling me I suck and that kind of so that’s just not my style of play.

43:00
But I think if you’re into that kind of game it’s you know, no more challenging than another game in that genre. Maybe you should just try not being a noob Yeah, I guess see that’s the thing but then I’m not investing enough time to not be a new by guess. For me it’s just like I don’t need to be subjected to people giving me a hard time because I’m not putting enough sweat equity into my video gaming. But that was it the new fallen Jedi game that just came out looks pretty legit though. Our Jedi fallen order Yeah, you hit Knights of the Old Republic great yeah, so yeah and even TIE Fighter while you can make it easier Thai fighters the first game I remember loving because it had a story built into it as you progress through the game you’re becoming like the hand you think the highest level you can reach is the reach of the Emperor because you had mission like Empire mission objectives and then you had like Papa teens personal assistant mission objectives for everything. So you could you could try

44:00
Everything or you could focus on one or the other. And as you completed Palpatine missions you there was a tattoo you could look at in your profile which showed you what rank you were for the, for the Emperor personally, and I thought that was super awesome. Well, I guess we are to the point of the new movies. Maybe we’ll hit maybe the highlights of the non episode movies. I’m sure there’s a different name for it, but Rogue One and solo. So let’s start with row one. Because I will say that if I’m having to rank all the movies, it’s at least in my top five, maybe even higher than that, that suffice it to say it

44:42
made one of these movies for the way that people that have been fans, longtime fans of Star Wars wanted one of the movies to be made, including Darth Vader just being super dark, super badass. What I think like I said I was hoping for maybe more of in Revenge of the Sith.

45:00
So, what do you think for Rogue One and solo? Brandon, let you go first. I agree with you of all the new ones that came out.

45:10
I’d have to say Rogue One is probably the best of all of them. And I think it was, I think it really took

45:20
I think it was what was so good about it is that it was it was very focused. Right? It was how did the rebels get the plans for the death star? It sets up the original trilogy. It’s it’s that movie was that movie was based off of one line.

45:39
Right.

45:42
And, and it’s just it was so dark. It was. There was there was a very human aspect of it in the fight and the plight of the rebels.

45:55
Of The Reluctant people who are fighting reluctantly and

46:00
This rebellion and it’s just dark and it was it. You know, there were some sad endings to Star Wars movies of you know, we were sad that Anna can got his limbs lopped off and he became Darth Vader that was very sad and that he killed all these kids and

46:19
in the Jedi Temple, we were sad when Han Solo got frozen in carbonite, but spoiler alert row one everyone dies. literally everyone, you you you put equity in for that entire movie is now dead. The Empire has the Death Star. Yes, the plans get out. So you know, ultimately things turn out fairly well.

46:46
But I mean, that’s, it was just a it’s just, it’s just a great movie and

46:53
I feel like they had just the right amount of humor in there with the

47:00
With the robot, the droid can’t think of his name. I know what you’re talking about, but like he was the he was like the perfect amount of humor to have in that movie. It wasn’t over the top. He had great one liners, he and he was a great foil a great great you know, he was that that sarcastically funny guy who was the great opposition to this entirely just horribly dark movie.

47:29
So I mean, Rogue One definitely gets my vote for the best of the new the new live action series that have come out. The other things that stick out to me for this one is the new characters they introduced like you said they did a nice job of developing them that you actually by the end of the movie care about them even though you know what’s going to happen before it happens as far as everybody’s because chip alone up on the final. Well No Actually Actually the original version of the script

48:00
They made it out. Oh, really? Yeah. Because and Eric, you probably know this because I’m going to take your nerd level to the to the top of the game here. I think you’re at the top of the charts. But there was a shot in like the original trailer where the where they were running on the beach with the like the data pack. And they made it off the tower, right. And they did an extensive reshoot for that. I mean, Rogue One was the Star Wars movie I didn’t know I wanted. When I heard that tear point ran the one line and made a movie out of it was like, boy, this is going to be like the worst cash grab. And the premise didn’t even sound all that intriguing to me, but then watching it. And right before it was released, it was announced they were doing extensive reshoot. So I’m thinking this thing is just cobbled together, it’s going to be a disaster. And then when I saw it, as I said earlier, at this point, anything Star Wars related. I’m kind of looking at it to see is it making? Is it making everything a little better

49:00
Or is it making everything a little or a lot worse? And Rogue One is the first one that came out that as we were talking earlier, yeah, the Vader scene is amazing. They even did it in that tank going through there’s no finance but which all forces you know what you see in the original trilogy when they have read five go down and I mean, that’s like a nerd thing. Like I felt like they were talking directly to me. I was like, oh, read five. That’s why Luke was that’s why they just let some no name kid fly. They just needed a body. It’s so like, they put all those little kind of tip of the hats and and then I would agree with everything you guys said before, you know it’s the right. They develop the characters. Well, there’s the right amount of humor, you really start to get invested in it. So for me, other than the original trilogy, Rogue One, and it’s not close. Rogue One is the best by a landslide. I like solo, but I don’t know that it. I don’t know that it really propelled things forward. It was interesting. There were some pieces I

50:00
I liked better than others I think I liked that they started tying in some Clone Wars things here and there. There were some other things that I thought were maybe a little over the top

50:11
so I like to solo but for all anything that Disney is released Rogue One is you know, a tan and everything else is no more than a four. Yeah, and Solo Solo is good. But it did seem that like there was times where it sort of dragged on and it’s definitely not my favorite but it did set up potentially more movies or shows because they they just surprise everybody with Darth Maul at the end of this thing. And who if you know, like we talked about, if you watch the Clone Wars or Star Wars rebel really does play a major part in both of those series. So you know, if you’re only looking at Darth Maul as to what he’s done on the big screen or where his impact has been on episode one

51:00
Then again he shows up in solo. You know, that’s sort of like that could be some some straight up Disney marketing machine right there. It’s like, oh go Okay, you like Darth Maul in episode one you’ve been hungry for him. You’ve missed them. We’re going to drop we’re going to pepper in a little bit in a little bit of Darth Maul here and you’re like, Who? Where do I get them? Well, you go to rebels, you go to clone wars. And you know, you’re just sucked back into that cycle of

51:28
more Star Wars content, to watch to consume to buy if you have to. I made the mistake of finding out that Darth Maul is in solo before actually watching it. And I didn’t realize it was so far to the end. So I think I was so in anticipation of him showing up that Yeah, the movie was fine.

51:51
I feel like chewy has been so downgraded and all the other new movies that it was nice that he got to be more than just a bystander which is one of

52:00
Felt like with seven and eight. But yeah, it wasn’t a bad movie, but I don’t remember anything that really stood out to too much. And the only thing I would add for Rogue One as well is

52:11
Grand Moff Tarkin is awesome as well. I mean, the way they did his CGI character and it was as seamless as it was going to get, and I really appreciated them even building his character up, you know, leading up to A New Hope, which was just yet another thing that they did really, really well. I’m going to agree like putting him the way they shot him. And I think they were very, very careful about how they did him.

52:41
You know, showing him in sort of shadowed in darkness. It just, it shows again, how far technology has come since the the prequels, right? Then the prequels that were like all about showing off how

52:58
how good can we make

53:00
The CGI how much can we show off this tech?

53:06
And I think this this might be a good transition not about Rogue One and solo but into the, you know, Force Awakens. And and and last Jedi is that from a from a special effects point of view you see Grand Moff Tarkin you see the new the new series, the new the new movies, they’ve gotten back to sort of that that base where the original trilogy was with practical effects. It’s grittier. It’s more there’s more realism to them than there is CGI involved. But it’s a it’s a much better balance. It’s a much better blend than leaning like the prequels did late to just lean so heavily on special effects that it became comical after a long time. So I think they learned that lesson and let’s do some more practical things

53:57
when it comes to special effects in the

54:00
The the new

54:02
the new movies I totally agree with that that they look way better. Where the prequels can tend to be distracting with the technology they were trying to use wasn’t quite there yet. And yeah, like you said, having the actual sets complemented by the CGI works better than just relying so heavily on the CGI. So Eric will kick it back to you. We’ve got episode seven and episode eight synopsis and your thoughts when you went to go see those movies? I would agree. I think the the practical effects help though I would say by the time you got to Revenge of the Sith, they were kind of toning down the CGI enough that it was not distracting like it was in the original.

54:42
So I think it looks better I just wish they would have gotten a story together to go with it. Because I you know, I when I remember I heard a lot about Force Awakens before going to see it because I didn’t see it. It had been out maybe a couple weeks. I kept hearing Oh, this is great. This is great. And I remember watching it

55:00
And just thinking, or is there. I remember the first time I saw this when it was called Episode Four there was there was nothing new, it was just a rehash. But it wasn’t even. It wasn’t even a creative rehash. It was just sort of like, everything got a little bigger and a little faster, and a little more by proxy a little more convoluted. So I just remember sitting through the movie, and I kept thinking, when is the good part coming? I kept hearing about, you know, why this is is good, or how great this is. And it was sort of tip of the hats in the wrong way. I mean, halfway through that movie, I was sort of expecting the cast to just stop and like lead the audience and applause that Harrison Ford was back as Han Solo. I mean, it was so over the top that that, you know, it’s that it was about Han Solo and here he is. It’s Harrison Ford, can you believe he’s back? That it just

55:54
I just didn’t and don’t have a lot in my opinion Force Awakens is the worst Star Wars movie ever.

56:00
Mermaid, it just goes, it just goes nowhere. It there’s no new New Thought I still don’t really care about these characters if they killed all of the new characters off. I think Kylo Ren is as I refer to him Darth neener. Like I like I don’t find him threatening, I don’t care about his story, I don’t care, you know what his motivations are? It just seems so convoluted. And I have not read some of the books and things that give you sort of behind the scenes and maybe I need to do that. When all the planets get blown up, you don’t even know it’s happening. It’s just like, I guess a bunch of we care that these planets got blown up by this ridiculous planet sized monstrosity that is, you know, just basically a bigger version of the Death Star. So I remember kind of processing it and the more I thought about it, and you know, we could do a whole show on all the problems I have with Force Awakens. But I think I think at the end of it, what what really kind of

57:00
rubbed me the wrong way is not only did they rehash something that already existed, they made it a little worse in the process. I’ll give you a specific example, which still irritates me. When they have the Millennium Falcon kind of light speed right to the planet. It undid what had been pre existing where you had to get out of a gravity well before you could use your your hyperdrive to get away from things. So if you take that logic and then streamline it after the rest of the movies, so Han Solo was basically an idiot in the first movie, he’s calculating all this stuff and do just hit the button like it’s literally as simple as just hit. Why didn’t you do this when you were leaving, just hit the button. So it’s like not only did I think it was bad, it made everything that came before a little worse. tirade over. That was pretty good. I was going to point out the one critique that I remember reading was

57:55
when laya basically cold shoulders chewy after haans dead

58:00
Like goes against, like really?

58:03
At least that when they came out afterwards JJ Abrams straight up came out afterwards was like I dropped the ball. Yeah, I definitely should have like seen that. But yeah, I mean, that’s literally I could probably go on for an hour about all the ridiculous things that are in force awakens that that just make no sense whatsoever but I’ll leave it at that tirade. Brandon, what do you think for for Episode Seven? Well, it’s gonna be difficult for me to follow that one up.

58:30
But let’s let’s start with a few things she’s been getting has not been getting his his fair shake of things or credit of things since Episode Four. He didn’t get a medal. That’s true. Why? Why is there Wookie racism and

58:52
I think it’s a commentary on racism. I don’t understand that.

58:57
You said they toned back the special effects.

59:00
On Revenge of the Sith, they fought on float on flying robots on a lava planet. Yeah, but I think by that point, I guess the technology had come far enough where there was definitely so my biggest criticism of Revenge of the Sith, which I’m surprised, like, I never hear anyone except me complain about this, is they have that giant fight all over the planet. And then at the end of it, Obi Wan says, I have the high ground. You can’t wait. I have a high ground like we’ve literally been, like springboarding all over the place, but you have the right piece of dirt and like that means you win. So yeah, there’s definitely still some silliness in there. But I think perhaps the technology had come to a point perhaps he was talking about the moral high ground. Yeah. Yeah. And that works great. figuratively. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make an ounce of sense literally. So yeah, I was like, Well, what? So let’s talk about the Force Awakens and last Jedi I I have resigned myself.

1:00:00
Off

1:00:01
to the place where I am happy that I have them. I’m just happy. I you know, we

1:00:11
we talked so much trash on the the prequels

1:00:17
and it’s like, you know what? I’m gonna I’m just happy. I’m getting new movies because you know what? I’m gonna watch him. I like watching them.

1:00:25
I like the Force Awakens more than I like last Jedi. Last Jedi. I mean, I think Luke’s performance seemed a little forced. I think he was that whole thing about everything you just said was completely wrong. Like it was forced the first time he said it and then he said it a second time at the end. And I’m like, yeah, this is bad. So sorry, Mark Hamill.

1:00:51
I didn’t like it.

1:00:53
But I think it’s I think they they they got a little bit better mix of humor than the prequels are

1:01:00
They, you know, like I said, the humor, the humor in the prequels want a little bit to slapstick, and too corny and cheeseball. So I think I think they got better at that.

1:01:09
However, those, that creature that was in the cargo ship where the Millennium Falcon went into that big giant rolling ball of death, that was a bit silly and weird, but, I mean, overall, I’m just happy to have have new movies. And I’m honestly just happy. The fact that we can, like sit and talk about these things. And, you know, honestly, I just, I just like the stories they’re coming up with just because they’re there. And then I get to rank them. And then I get to talk to you guys about them. So you know what, some of them are going to be good, some are going to be bad. I’m just I’m just literally happy that that there’s new Star Wars movies, because, I mean, if you look at the first three movies that came out, you could literally call everything except for like, you know, little tastes here and there of the cartoons that were out and the Ewok series are

1:02:00
Like a drought of Star Wars stuff, and now we are just being bombarded by we can actually pick and choose what we want to watch. So, I’m going to say I’m happy to have them. I definitely agree that that episode seven is can rehash of basically A New Hope so totally agree with that. And this is just my own theory of even going into these movies like if you look at the main three characters Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher like of the three of them who had the best career obviously Harrison Ford, which one of them are you probably not going to get for the next three movies? Harrison Ford G is Han Solo gonna die in the first movie? Yeah, it’s just a few sort of step back into real life and you know who they’re only going to get to sign on for one and then it’s I it almost feels like their original thought is, each one of these movies would be a sort of a swan song for the three main characters from the original, obviously with Carrie Fisher’s dying after last July that had to be shifted

1:03:00
In some way, I guess that’s what we’re going to see. But then the same thing with Mark Hamill. Okay, I’ve got Carrie Fisher, I got Mark Hamill, who relatively speaking has had more of a career since you know, this original Star Wars, probably Mark Hamill, probably, he’s going to be the second one to go in there. And then, you know, I know they originally said that laya was going to have this major impact, in fact, and again, it just remains to be seen, what and how they shifted from there, but even that of bringing the characters obviously, the marketing is very easy to understand that they’re bringing those characters for people like us to go and see the movies and then trying to get you to latch on to the other characters. Eric, I agree with you that there is nothing about the new characters that I’m overly invested in. I don’t really have a favorite with any of them. If anything, I’d say maybe for last jet. I I like Laura Dern is an actress and I thought she did okay.

1:03:51
I also like bonito Del Toro, but the whole casino scene thing. Going back to the pod racing like oh, my goodness,

1:04:00
That that whole scene which you know, what does it run like 20 minutes maybe maybe even longer than that. That seems to if it wasn’t already derailed maybe got derailed at that point. Now on the other end of sort of whatever the logic is for space travel and so on a lot of people complained about driving the the ship back into whatever the Big Star Destroyers now they call it something different I’m pretty sure I didn’t wasn’t Starkiller Base whatever they call the big dreadnaughts or something. Yeah.

1:04:33
I that didn’t bother me. I mean, it seemed to make sense is like a kamikaze run. But I know there was some sort of complaints about that was not that somehow defied the laws of of space battle in some way. However, I just watched the movies again, of course in anticipation of the new movie and with that opening scene with the, the bombs that get dropped in the roses, sister, whatever her name is, that makes them go

1:05:00
It occurred to me aren’t they in space? Why do those bombs actually go down? There’s there’s there’s gravity within the spaceship and that’s what the inertia It forces it down onto the ship I like that. Is that official or

1:05:15
what I see I was just saying I like creative explanations for what you know the real reason is I wanted to do like a world war two analogy probably but I like that I like your you’ve got an explanation, Brandon, so we’re going with that. God bless. Well, definitely. Force Awakens anything else with last Jedi before we close it out with expectations for the new movie? Now I actually feel like I need to watch last Jedi again. I had kind of a mediocre response to it. Again, I’ve become too much of a Star Wars nerd. I was so flabbergasted that they just did like a one liner that Admiral Akhbar had been killed was like no you do a close up he’ll trap and then you can come up but you don’t just you don’t just like sweep him out. Otherwise I didn’t have quite as a reaction to that. I think it does. Episode Seven kind of for me

1:06:00
setar I think so. And for the new movie, I’ve watched a couple of the trailers we hinted at at least, like Darth Sidious is going to be back in some form. I don’t know what those theories are supposed to be. I didn’t realize that it’s possibly a clone. Because I had not read any of those on the backstories or anything like that. But any expectations for you guys coming into the next movie? Brandon, we’ll start with you. Yeah, so I mean, I think there’s a lot of a lot of unknowns with with this with this one, you know, is this is this happening on Endor? Are we going to see he walks again?

1:06:41
Is it really Palpatine? Is it his,

1:06:46
you know, dark side of the force and projection onto the ruins of the Death Star that crashed? Is he is he actually alive still? Is it some other form of him or his or

1:07:00
Is this speaking? Is it? Is it coming from some type of Sith? Holocron?

1:07:06
So, you know, I think there’s so many, so many questions out there. And I think with all of the

1:07:13
elements that have been built up in the Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, between Jedi and Sith elements, I think they actually have a pretty deep pool to go to whether they’re go to that or not for the, for the masses, because I mean, you have to think they have to keep the movies kind of broad stroke, right? They’re not going to dive into things like they will with the comic, but the comics are the books or the The Animated Series just because those are for a different audience so much more

1:07:46
hungry audience who really wants to dive deep into Star Wars?

1:07:52
You know, there’s, there’s there’s things and my friend Matt and I were talking He’s like, Oh, I think I think it’s going to come out that ray is a club

1:08:00
of

1:08:02
layer, maybe she’s a clone of clone of Palpatine somehow, you know, so So who really knows? I mean, there’s there’s so many different ways this could go. But I would like to find out who’s raised parents are. Because I think that’s a big question on everything. And hopefully we get closure on that. But I would just like to say I hope ray is not a Skywalker, a Kenobi

1:08:27
or a Palpatine. I hope she’s some other thing. Some other family or some other. I don’t know, whoever she is, I just hope she’s not one of the main ones. Sort of like this, the force elite, family family member. And, you know, she’s sort of like broom boy from last Jedi where anybody could be a force user, but at least explain who our parents are. That would be. That would be nice. I would send Echo, that sentiment that

1:09:00
I think it was another critique from the last movie that No, your parents were nobody. Well, hopefully that was just sort of a talking point there that they they resolve that in some way. Eric, what about you? Are you holding out hope for any redemption? Yeah, yeah. I mean, definitely, they could somehow pull all this together and tie it up where it makes some more sense to me, that would be great. And I actually thought that was a pretty good summary, Brandon, I’ve been pulling from some of the things that

1:09:25
I, we already know, work would be nice, I’d love for it to be a Holocron all of a sudden, that’s something that, you know, I would be back back on board for. I’m nervous about something. And that’s probably, you know, a little bit of a bias from some of the worst stories that came out of the old Expanded Universe clones. So I’ve always, you know, kind of a little skeptical of, of that whole thing. But yeah, something that kind of cherry pick the best of what’s out there and, you know, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. So, kind of pull those things in.

1:10:00
And I hoping they do it in a way that I start to care about the care. I mean, I’d love to come out of the movie and be like, I had some reaction to,

1:10:08
you know, one of these new characters good, bad or different, something where I actually like, feel like I’m invested in the story. And I know I’ve heard you know, Ray anything from you know, she’s a new virgin, where she’s basically like a reincarnation of Vatican and that’s just a thing. I don’t know, maybe they could spend that and that would be interesting or, you know, somehow make an attachment to Kylo Ren where you get some piece of the backstory where he’s more of a tragic figure rather than just a whiner I just something that makes me connected to these to these characters. And I know what the name of the movie there. I’ve heard a lot of theories that kind of get into the, you know, Skywalker is going to be the Gray Jedi, you know, they’re not quite evil, they’re not quite good and that that grounds been covered pretty extensively and other media and it can be interesting, I think.

1:11:00
Sometimes it gets overdone but, you know, I could see them doing something interesting with that, but

1:11:05
I’m really hopeful that that somehow there’s some thread that’s gone through this thing I’m missing and, you know, they have kind of a role where I have kind of a rogue one experience where it’s like, Okay, this was sort of the piece that I didn’t know I was missing that I was missing and it really kind of pulls it all together and any other hopes beyond episode nine when we wrap up here? I think officially Disney is not really saying what they’re releasing next as far as the the main timeline of the you know, there’s not gonna be an episode 10 anytime soon. I know. Gosh, I think there was potentially a Boba Fett Gosh, was there even going to be maybe some other solo installments all those sort of backstory ones, as far as I’m aware are pretty much on hold. But anything you guys are looking forward to beyond episode nine. I know. I haven’t heard anything official but

1:12:00
I know there’s been talks as a standalone movie, an Obi Wan movie that takes place between Sif and the original. And I guess you and McGregor has said he’s interested in doing that project. I think that could be a really interesting movie, especially if you and McGregor was involved. I think he’s one of the shining bright spots from the prequels. So I’d love to see him return to the Obi Wan role. And really, I mean, as we’ve talked about, like Clone Wars, I have not started watching Mandalorian. But really,

1:12:31
as far as I’m concerned, they haven’t missed on on those kind of things. And I think part of that is got a group, a group of, you know, kind of dedicated fans that are producing those things, and they just come up with really good ideas because it’s a passionate group of people making it. So for me, I’m always interested in and consuming new content. So I hope that the shipping out

1:12:56
you know, at the same what I would consider same high quality, I think

1:13:00
They really help kind of fill in some of the gaps that the movies just can’t I mean, you can’t watch a gonna make a 10 hour movie so I think the shows are great for that. Brandon now but you anything beyond the movies? Yeah I think the the Obi Wan it’s actually going to be was announced earlier this year is gonna be a Sarah Obi Wan series with you and McGregor on Disney plus.

1:13:24
So that’s that’s that’s going to be a good one to watch is that is that confirmed then they are going to do it as a show. Yeah, I believe they they will they revealed that at a

1:13:34
earlier this year. Okay, that was going to be a show.

1:13:40
But as far as shows go, we touched on this in the very beginning with the Mandalorian series.

1:13:48
I it I know Greg, you said you’re a couple episodes back but if you’re if you’re at least seen like the probably episode two or three of the series

1:13:59
The

1:14:01
Spoiler alert, there’s a baby Yoda if anybody hasn’t been on any type of social media. For those of you using the internet, if you haven’t been on the internet, there’s a

1:14:11
there’s a baby. That’s not actually baby. And spoiler alert, it’s not actually a baby isn’t actually baby Yoda. It’s just a baby of his species number three that we’ve seen, okay.

1:14:25
Yeah, so the Mandalorian, the the, one of the characters in there. This this doctor who was experimenting on baby Yoda, a patch on his arm looks very similar to the patches that were worn on the arms of the clones from Attack of the Clones. So I think it’s kind of cool. They’re trying to bring a

1:14:52
you know, maybe some legitimacy to the prequels or legitimacy to some of the themes that were in the prequels.

1:15:00
Maybe make people more comfortable with them. But I mean, the Mandalorian is just I mean, that thing keeps getting better and better. I’ve heard some people kind of dog it for cheeseball soundtrack, but I’m like, just get over it, like, relax people again, just Let’s relax. It’s a movie. We’re loving the fact there’s a whole series about the Mandalorians. We really, you know, it’s another opportunity to take a dive into that.

1:15:31
into that mythology, the Star Wars Rebels, gets into some of the Mandalorian culture.

1:15:40
Knights of the Old Republic, that game for me, got into talking about Mandalorians now, I didn’t read any of the books or any of the comic books that talked about Mandalorians. So I mean, it’s it’s just, it’s just a great a great deep dive into our it’s starting to get to be a deep

1:16:00
Dive into the Mandalorian culture and the storyline of some brand new character

1:16:08
who

1:16:10
you care about. So Eric, you said you don’t care about the characters in really, you really don’t care about the new characters that have come out in the new series.

1:16:22
I’m gonna be honest, I can’t remember a lot of their names in the new series.

1:16:27
But at least I know the Mandalorian that’s how I know him.

1:16:32
And you, you you want him to win even though he’s this bounty hunter.

1:16:40
is a great again, it’s one of those great dualities, where you’ve got this hardened bounty hunter who’s going out and hunting down, people potentially killing them. He literally is V vaporized, probably like half a dozen jawas

1:16:56
you know, with his rifle, but then he has this soft spot

1:17:00
In his heart for this

1:17:03
baby Yoda being and it adds so much depth

1:17:12
of emotion that

1:17:16
has to be portrayed in his actions in

1:17:22
the dialogue in the script writing because there’s no, there’s no face, there’s no there’s no face to connect with you only see him wearing a helmet. So I think it’s very well done and the fact that you have all of this humanity in this character who you’ve never seen his face, but yet, there’s some very human and very relatable emotions connected to him. So I think the Mandalorian is absolutely a stellar series and you know,

1:18:00
I think I think people are being very short sighted if their dog in the soundtrack or dog in the

1:18:08
house there was one episode where he’s riding some creature that looked like a really shrunken down T rex without a giant head looks like a almost looked like a running meatball with tiny little arms. But

1:18:20
that thing had been, I think that thing had showed up in like a comic book or a book somewhere earlier on. So it’s like, That thing was already in the universe. Relax.

1:18:30
But yeah, I mean, Greg, you need to stop this podcast tonight and go watch the Mandalorian and get caught. I think that’s a good place for us to get to our closing. Yeah, but maybe

1:18:46
maybe Star Wars will do the inverse of Marvel. I think I just saw today that Marvel is stopping. I thought it said all of their TV. All PD projects. They’re halting them. Yeah, yeah. So

1:19:00
So maybe it’ll just be the inverse where Marvel’s TV ventures have not done so well. But of course, the MCU has been huge. Star Wars, the movies haven’t been quite what people have been looking for, but they’re going to find new life with the new series that they’ve got coming out. So yeah, I think we’re going to sign off now. We will all probably have seen the movie, let’s say within a week or two of it coming out. So we’ll I’ll try to get these guys to record a quick synopsis and review of the movie. And we’ll put that into a follow up episode. Guys. I appreciate it. And I will talk to you later. Thanks. Bye.

1:19:37
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1:20:00
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai