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Ep 3.4- An Elegant Podcast For A Civilized Age
15 Plays3 days ago
It is a period of civil unrest. Rebel podcasters, striking from a hidden recording studio, have created their first episodes of a NEW SEASON.
Now, Ryn must bring Sam back to the beginning, to the very first STAR WAR, to show her the place where it all began...
What's this? A Monday update? On an off-week?
Happy Star Wars Day, listeners! This is Part 1 of 2 episodes about A New Hope, covering pretty much just the plot and visual choices! We'll talk more about The Making Of and associated topics next time! But for now, topics include Leia being the most competent character, yippee-coding, post-release changes, the Force, a we establish the season's first new Rule of Fantasy! And also C-3PO and R2-D2 are married. We make the rules and they're married. Anyway, come listen! I promise we're charming to the last.
Covers the plot of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977)
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Transcript
Exploring Hadestown: Character Portrayals and Performances
00:00:00
Speaker
We can talk about how we saw Hadestown again. Because we're gluttons for punishment. i mean, if Hades wants to give it. i mean, I wouldn't blame you.
00:00:11
Speaker
Dark Olympus Hades, specifically. it Or Wicked at Villains Hades. I don't care. Yeah, no, you're not too picky when it comes to Hadeses. I still remember the first time we saw it chatting with all of our friends at intermission and some of the going, yeah, as soon as Hades started talking, I thought of Rin.
00:00:30
Speaker
thank You have known weaknesses. Well, see, okay, the Hades we saw, the Hades we saw was, he's very, very good.
00:00:42
Speaker
He's very, very good. Oh, he's excellent. He's great. But didn't quite trigger my voice kink quite as much as the Hades that I saw on Broadway.
Orpheus and Eurydice: Audience Perspectives and Critiques
00:00:53
Speaker
You'll have to send me a recording of one of his performances just so I can compare for science. yeah um that one i think i was sitting next to abby and both abby and i like both went like oh my god like simultaneously that was a lot of fun i didn't expect it to be the same cast we'd seen before mostly the same cast we had a ghostly a couple different people but eurydice was incredible I think we've established a pattern now that Orpheus is just never as good as the Eurydice.
00:01:28
Speaker
Poor Orpheus just constantly, oh my God, but speaking of, so the track that I was initially on was that it's such a difficult role because there're such high expectations. we and We have to believe in the power of his song. And if the actor doesn't deliver, then he just gets overshadowed. But then the butterfly of thought went to The girls who are sitting behind us, teenagers, during intermission, talking to each other about how all of the problems in their relationship and Eurydice dying and getting taken to the underworld were basically Orpheus's fault. And the quote from one of them was... He could have taken like a 10 minute break and helped her gather supplies. You know, he could have because for those who haven't seen the show, spoilers for Orpheus and Eurydice. She gets taken to the underworld he has to go down after her. So he's working on his song and he's so obsessed with his art. that he's not helping Eurydice gather firewood and feed them through the treacherous weather events. And so she dies.
00:02:33
Speaker
But the girls were like, he's literally just writing a song. Relax. Another direct quote. I feel like he could have put some more effort into the relationship. And then the other one is like, he was trying to save the world. And the other one goes, yeah, but. Which, so fair.
00:02:50
Speaker
So fair. I love them. i I think it was like a teen and her mom. Yes. Okay. I didn't know how many because I wasn't super staring at them because they were behind us. But yes, no, you're right. a teen and teen and mom.
00:03:03
Speaker
So good. And, you know, the the teen, have of course, like teens do, had so many
Memorable Performances and Actor Insights in Hadestown
00:03:08
Speaker
opinions. And I love that. She was clearly a theater kid because she was talking about all these other performances and comparing it to other performances they'd seen of other musicals. We've seen this actor before. We saw him in Hamilton.
00:03:20
Speaker
that was very cool. yeah But on the note of the Eurydices always being stronger than the Orpheus's, I was listening to, because the piece that gets stuck in my head all the time is the little solo bit at the end of Wait for Me.
00:03:37
Speaker
So I went and I like found a bunch of other recordings of that. The West End recording, the original cast album, the Tonys, Jordan Fisher, who was, who later played, or he was not the first Hearst Orpheus, but he was one of the later Broadway Orpheus's something he had posted on YouTube. And then of course people were like putting bootlegs of shit everywhere. yeah,
00:04:03
Speaker
Jordan Fisher is great. The original Orpheus Reef Carney was good. But, you know, when standing next to his now wife, Eva Noblezada. Aww. Aww. ah Yes, they're married. It's very cute. you but Don't turn around, bitch. You're locked in h I feel like I've told this, i've I've mentioned this in the pod before, maybe, but so Reeve Carney left the show before Eva Nobwazada did.
00:04:32
Speaker
And so when she left the show at her last performance, Hermes called out at the end when everyone was doing their bows, Orpheus, take her home.
00:04:47
Speaker
i would have been sobbing. And Rivecardi came on stage and carried her off stage. Once in 5,000 years of telling this story, Orpheus actually got to bring Eurydice home. and But anyway, back to Jordan Fisher.
00:05:04
Speaker
Jordan Fisher is a very, very good singer. He was in Hamilton. He was in Dear Evan Hansen. He was in Sweeney Todd. He's a Broadway superstar. so listening to him saying great but then i saw a compilation of all the eurydices that played opposite him doing their section in the reprise reprise reprise holy shit goddamn also i was already gay for isa brionis he And I'm now more gay for Issa Briones.
00:05:37
Speaker
She is for the listener, she plays Dr. Trinity Santos on The Pit. Oh, dear. And so she's a mean lesbian on The Pit.
00:05:48
Speaker
And she played Eurotice on Broadway opposite her father, who was playing Hermes at the time. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, her father, Jon Jon Briandes, just played Hermes while she was playing Eurydice.
00:06:02
Speaker
And holy shit, she's incredible. There's a scene in the newest season of The Pit where she's singing a lullaby to a baby in Tagalog. Because the baby won't stop crying and being a mean lesbian, she's like, i I hate kids, but also nobody's around and nobody's here to see me being vulnerable in front of this baby.
Introduction to Fandom Apprentice Podcast Hosts
00:06:24
Speaker
so i'm gonna be vulnerable and sing a lullaby to this baby and i was like holy shit she has an incredible voice and i was like oh wait she's a broadway actress yeah that'd do it yeah and some of those actresses just put out so much power in that what do what do you do with that that just takes your heart and crushes it to pieces no speaking of hearts crushed to pieces like all the hearts on alderaan like a thousand voices cried out in fear and were suddenly silenced
00:07:13
Speaker
And welcome back to another episode of the Fandom Apprentice. My name is Rin. I'm one of your hosts. I grew up with Star Wars and a number of other nerdy media and have made it my mission in my adult life to voice that nerdy media on my dear friends who did not have the privilege of encountering it in childhood.
00:07:39
Speaker
I'm that little cat gif going, yippee! I'm having it foisted upon me. Hello, I'm Sam. I'm the other one. i have now seen my first Star Wars movie.
00:07:51
Speaker
And it was pretty good. Thumbs up from me is my review. It's like mildly underwhelming. No, it was good. it was good I'm about to record a long podcast talking about why I liked it. It was wonderful.
00:08:06
Speaker
This is true. So yes, what we are doing here in season three of the Phantom Apprentice is we are talking about Star Wars in a specially crafted machete order that I have developed to cause Sam maximum emotional damage.
00:08:22
Speaker
By bonding you to various characters and then having horrible fates befall them. me It's called Star Wars, not Star Happy Endings.
00:08:35
Speaker
You know, that hadn't really occurred to me until just now.
00:08:41
Speaker
Hmm. There is unfortunately not a happily ever after here in the galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars: Cultural Context and Personal Reflections
00:08:47
Speaker
if Baby Yoda ever dies, and if I haven't seen more seasons of The Mandalorian, if a little hair on his head is harmed, I am killing everyone at Disney Studios.
00:08:59
Speaker
So, we started out by talking about season one of The Mandalorian, which Sam had already seen. And now we have come back to the beginning of the Star Wars saga with the original movie released in 1977, originally titled simply Star Wars and then later retitled Star Wars A New Hope and then later after the prequels retitled Star Wars Episode four A New Hope.
00:09:30
Speaker
I'd like to set the scene for a moment. The brain cell, I literally was about to use the phrase set the stage. Please continue. It is 1977.
00:09:42
Speaker
Jimmy Carter's in the White House. Hearings on MKUltra are being held in the Senate. Atari released the Atari 2600, which popularizes the video game as ah as a format.
00:09:53
Speaker
Smallpox was eradicated. The last execution by guillotine in France occurred. The original D&D box set came out. And two films were released that have had a profound impact on my life.
00:10:06
Speaker
One, of course, was an animated musical television special written by Romeo Muller and directed by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass. And the other, of course, was Star Wars. And just out front, there have been doctoral theses where written on Star Wars, podcasts and documentaries and books, essays. And if there has been a form of media discussing other media, Star Wars has come up there.
00:10:35
Speaker
There has been research and analyses and we are not going to do anything groundbreaking here in this podcast. But we are going to have a good time talking about it.
00:10:47
Speaker
I'm still really mad about Alderaan. I was like, yeah, not like how they broke all the ground on Leia's home planet by exploding it with the Death Star. I'm mad about that. ah this is This is new ground for me and not really for anybody else, but hopefully it will still be fun. You know that I had fun. And we're gay, so we'll talk about it in a gay way, which is always great. and And this is going to form the foundation of how we talk about the rest of Star Wars. And after we go through the plot, I want to ask you a little bit, um just to have this mulling in your brain, a little bit about now that you've seen the original Star Wars, are things from The Mandalorian now making a little more sense?
00:11:30
Speaker
I did note a couple of
A New Hope: Narrative and Character Introduction
00:11:32
Speaker
things as I was going through going, oh, I recognize that from The Mandalorian. But plot wise, after we have our discussion, maybe more threads will join in my mind.
00:11:42
Speaker
There is a number of various production notes and history, and we can talk about that later. I think I want to start with going through just the plot and our thoughts on particular visual choices, etc.
00:11:57
Speaker
But I wanted to start out, I was talking with my dad about this. Because if you're new to the podcast, my dad is the one who got me into sci-fi and fantasy.
00:12:09
Speaker
And so I talked about how he introduced me to Star Wars back in our intro episode. But I was texting him last night, asking him about sort of his history with Star Wars. And he was saying, like, he saw it very, very early in its release. It was released at the end of May 1977. it being early summer potentially even for his birthday, which is...
00:12:35
Speaker
right around that early summer period. And he said he remembers the opening crawl and that first scene with the music, the opening crawl fading into space and then the starship coming along with the shots being fired off.
00:12:51
Speaker
And then the Star Destroyer just comes in and keeps on coming until it is the entire screen. He was like, that just pulled me in completely and utterly. Yeah.
00:13:04
Speaker
you know He was saying he would have just turned 15 and went in totally not knowing what to expect because he hadn't seen any previews on television, just a poster. And he said he remembers walking out into the setting sun feeling like he'd just come out of a dream. That's so lovely.
00:13:22
Speaker
And that's obviously 15-year-old boy, that's... This is movie for 15-year-old boy, obviously. Mm-hmm.
00:13:37
Speaker
But then, you know, for a 15-year-old boy who was already a big sci-fi and fantasy fan, he was telling me, like, he read Lord of the Rings in early middle school and then frantically started searching for anything else like it.
00:13:54
Speaker
Narnia, Chronicles of Pardane, Ursula Le Dune, Watership Down, anything he could get his hands on. Yeah. And so this was right in that vein for him.
00:14:09
Speaker
you He started playing D&D in 1977. So this is you know this is what started his love of fantasy and then got passed down to me.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's really special. So that was very fun. i I wanted to get like his first impressions because we are viewing this now 50 years later. Star Wars is one of the most iconic movies of all time.
00:14:37
Speaker
Adjusted for inflation, it remains one of the highest grossing movies of all time. Not surprising. I think it's the fourth highest grossing movie of all time adjusted for inflation and the second highest grossing in North America behind Gone with the Wind. interesting, not what I would have expected, but I also don't know anything about movies, so maybe that's not surprising to people who know about movies.
00:14:59
Speaker
It became the highest grossing movie until E.T. was released in 1982. It ended up receiving six Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and 13 Saturn Awards, among others.
00:15:12
Speaker
Hell yeah. And has spawned literally 50 plus years of media following it. There are spinoffs and parodies And so watching this now, we're like, oh yeah, it's Star Wars.
00:15:31
Speaker
It is a genre unto itself. But at the time, there were things like it, but not really.
The Force and Jedi Lore: Understanding the Universe
00:15:39
Speaker
So you had space opera-y type things in Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon.
00:15:46
Speaker
You had sort of the space fantasy John Carter type stuff. And you had sci-fi. You had 2001 A Space Odyssey. But I was watching a documentary about the making of Star Wars and George Lucas was talking about he wanted this to be very fast paced because the last big space sci-fi out there was 2001 A Space Odyssey.
00:16:09
Speaker
And it was very, very cerebral, cinematic and slow. m He was like, and I want this to just go. yeah And it does just go. it moves quick. I was not expecting it to move that quickly, actually.
00:16:24
Speaker
So I guess to transition into our viewing experience, it was kind of emotional whiplash. We had a lot of people, um our whole D&D group, over to my and my partner's apartment.
00:16:39
Speaker
We're playing D&D. We're having a lovely time. It was right before the big epic snowstorm that hit the northeastern U.S. and also some other places in February of 2026, if you're listening to this in the future. And so we knew that it was going to start snowing around 7. And so we're like, OK, you know, we'll plan to wrap by 530-ish so that everyone can get home before the snow. So we watch the movie. It's lovely. We're having a great time. We're surrounded by all our friends. We turn off the movie. We pull out the DVD that I had borrowed from the library, pack it up. And then suddenly everyone's phones simultaneously start blaring this incredibly loud and scary emergency alarm announcing that there is a travel ban starting at 7 p.m. and that everyone needs to get into their houses now because there's going to be big, horrible snow. and
00:17:31
Speaker
So you guys were all hustling out the door. Miles and i are freaking out trying to figure out what to do with all of our pets. And so we end up going to their parents' house. We're scooping all of our earthly belongings into suitcases and getting out the door within 20 minutes and getting alarm. So we went from this lovely experience to suddenly being isolated and buried under three feet of snow.
00:17:53
Speaker
It was kind of a lot It was a little emotional whiplash, yeah. A little, just a little teensy bit. And then the week after that, we watched Hadestown. So we are having a real, real normal one.
00:18:06
Speaker
And I obviously didn't take notes during the actual viewing because I just wanted to enjoy being with my friends. But I went back through. And I don't think the cut that I found is the exact same one that we watched.
00:18:19
Speaker
I think there might have been some stuff added or some stuff different. But I just took notes on the relevant parts that I remembered. Yeah, so I, because we watched the original theatrical release. We found the original theatrical release, y'all. I know.
00:18:32
Speaker
Rin found it. I just borrowed it from the library. You did the work. couple episodes ago, we talked about, you know, if anybody knew where we could find the original theatrical release, and we got an email from a listener. So shout out to you. Thank you for letting us know that the 2006 special edition releases had as a bonus disc the original theatrical release.
00:18:55
Speaker
So we found that our local library still had the original, ah or the 2006 releases, and we borrowed it. And thankfully, the DVD was working still just fine, not scratched to oblivion.
00:19:11
Speaker
And thankfully, your PS4 can play DVDs. Yeah, that was in the second thing was, oh, God, how are we going to play a DVD? Yeah.
00:19:20
Speaker
If you have a PlayStation, that'll do it. I assume the Xbox also can. Yeah, but we found that. And then i took my notes off of whatever's on Disney Plus, which is the, I think, quote unquote, special edition update of the movie. It has a bunch of new like CG added and it's got a couple of added scenes that were originally deleted. And some of them have added CG elements to them.
00:19:47
Speaker
Shall we just kind of skim through the plot, stopping at parts that were interesting and noteworthy? Yeah, I think so. I would hope that most of our listeners are familiar with the story of Star Wars, but also we know that that's not that's not universal.
00:20:06
Speaker
Clearly. as this is the point of the podcast. Mm-hmm. But yeah, we can we can just kind of skim through.
Iconic Star Wars Scenes and Character Interactions
00:20:14
Speaker
So we open with space fight, as you said, which is just fun. There's a great sense of scale.
00:20:22
Speaker
There's fun laser blasts. I love it. And I was not expecting it to open on R2-D2 and C-3PO. I didn't know who would be... sort of the first characters that we saw not expecting it to be them but I love them and it's very clear immediately that they are gay married and in this essay I will no I can't quote every single line that they say or beep but I know it in my heart to be true and I will find more evidence to support this as we go on
00:20:55
Speaker
The fandom has collectively agreed that R2 swears all the fucking time. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure he knows all kinds of new swear words that we just can't at frequencies we can't even perceive.
00:21:09
Speaker
and And at one point to 3PO even says, like, watch your language. Yes. Love it. Also, Darth Vader shows up right away, which I was also not expecting. I thought that would be a sort of later, ooh, who's this mysterious bad guy we've been hearing so much about? Then there would be some, you know, big dramatic entrance. No, he gets a big dramatic entrance instantly.
00:21:30
Speaker
No, we get big dramatic entrance. We learn about the Death Star straight away. I also thought that would be later. Yeah, that the structure, the narrative structure is not what I would have assumed. Yeah.
00:21:43
Speaker
it's It's not a modern story. It's not built around maintaining tension and avoiding spoilers so that you can market it to a mass audience and have it be this big marketable thing. It's not designed as a money-making enterprise. It's designed to tell a story.
00:22:04
Speaker
Yeah. And I think you can definitely feel that. It's telling a classic story. hero's journey type tale. And so it's very quickly to like give you the whole, the dramatis personae and here's the problem.
00:22:22
Speaker
But we're currently following the problem through the eyes of these two bumbling gay little robots. You know, who's not bumbling is Leia. She's hiding. She gives a message to R2-D2, the droids pop off in an escape pod,
00:22:39
Speaker
Vader's looking for the location of some rebel base. The droids land in the desert. And they are just extremely funny. One scene of them that I did highlight is 3PO and R2 arguing about which way to go. And 3PO is like, you'll be malfunctioning within a day, you nearsighted scrap pile. And then kicks R2, stomps across the desert. R2 whips its little head around in the absolute shadiest way possible. And I think it was around this point that I also realized, oh,
00:23:13
Speaker
He's just swearing constantly. just Whatever was beeped just then unrepeatable and is just delightful so then r2 wanders off and we get jawas who are my favorite little guys from the mandalorian which i'm sure it's very funny to everybody who already knows about star wars to hear me go oh it's just like in the mandalorian because it's the other way around but that's the order that i experienced it so that's the only experience i have uh-huh i love their little language their little
00:23:46
Speaker
I just think they're really cute. I love their big ship thing. And it seems like the kind of thing that you would know, Rin, is did they have a little model remote control car in the sand or something for that? Because it seemed very practical.
00:24:02
Speaker
Oh, we'll talk about the effects. Okay, so maybe we can bank that one. But I do want to know about the Jawa vehicle because I was very charmed by it. The sand crawler.
00:24:13
Speaker
the sand corner. There's also, i believe it's a gonk droid. i love that. I love it with my whole heart. It's so stupid. Listeners, if you're not driving right now or sneakily listening to us in one earbud while you're at work, Google a gonk droid. It's two big Tupperware storage containers glued together and a person's leg sticking out of it. And it's the best thing ever.
00:24:39
Speaker
Every droid fills me with so much happiness. and And the sound of a gunk droid is just... It's like a Pokemon. Gunk, gunk. Perfection. No notes.
00:24:52
Speaker
Then we get Luke strutting out in apparently his Gucci boots. Everyone was talking about his Gucci boots when he came out. I don't know whether whether they're Gucci or they're Chanel. Doesn't matter. Chanel boots. Fancy.
Jedi History and Han Solo's Introduction
00:25:06
Speaker
Doesn't matter. That and also ah painted white Levi jeans with the pockets taken off of it. Amazing.
00:25:16
Speaker
Because that was how they decided to do the costume. Hey, if it works, it works. this Also hearing his voice, I was really shocked by. i didn't realize that that, who's the actor who's Luke Skywalker?
00:25:31
Speaker
Mark Hamill. Okay, Mark Hamill. Yeah, I don't think of Mark Hamill as being a baby. I think of him as being a handsome older man. And so hearing his just whiny little, how old is 19 voice was really jarring.
00:25:46
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And around this point, I was also wondering what C-3PO's job is. R2's job is kind of unclear, but at least he's conveying a message. So that's something. But apparently C-3PO is a protocol droid, which just means he's professionally super polite. And because of that tone, everything he says is hilarious and well thought out, but also...
00:26:14
Speaker
Mark Hamill was 26 when the movie was released. 26? He seems so much younger than 26. He was born in 1951. So, and the movie was filmed like 75, 76. Damn. I guess he just had a high-pitched voice because he sounds so young.
00:26:33
Speaker
Well, and Carrie Fisher was 21. Yeah. But she exudes so much more of a mature aura. I guess that's called being a good actor. That's what that is, is it's acting.
00:26:45
Speaker
We'll talk about the both of them in a bit because I absolutely adore them both. So speaking of Carrie Fisher, Luke uncovers the fragment of Leia's message. We learn about Obi-Wan.
00:26:57
Speaker
Luke has a meal with his family. He and his uncle are both wearing cool space robes. And his aunt just looks like a normal Earth lady in the 70s, which was very funny to me. She's just wearing what I think would be a cute 70s outfit with a little blazer and a jean jacket. Yeah.
00:27:17
Speaker
And apparently Luke just wants to go to college because he has some friends who are going to college and he wants to get out of this small town. And his aunt and uncle seem kind of reluctant to let him go, even though the droids theoretically will take over whatever job Luke has been doing.
00:27:35
Speaker
Very unclear what it is that they do. There's something with condensers. I don't know. Yeah, they live on a desert planet. And so they are moisture farmers. So they collect water from the atmosphere.
00:27:49
Speaker
Moisture farmers? Yes, they're moisture farmers. That makes a lot of sense because it's giving very agrarian but also science-y. So sure, they're moisture farmers, whatever, I guess. They drink blue milk.
00:28:03
Speaker
So that's fun. I don't know where they get the blue milk from. oh wait, no, we do. They're from the big things with the curly horns. You told me this, where the blue milk comes from. I don't recall, to be precise.
00:28:15
Speaker
It's one of the big beasts. The Banthas? Yeah. I don't know whether it's Bantha milk, strictly speaking. Doesn't matter. Because also in another movie, there's blue milk coming from another... c Anyway, everything makes blue something in this world. We had the blue alcoholic beverage from the Krill and blue milk from Banthas and potentially something else.
00:28:37
Speaker
Watching this now, knowing what I do about the Star Wars universe and watching Luke's aunt and uncle exchange looks with each other, they obviously know something Luke doesn't.
00:28:50
Speaker
And they're concerned about something. Luke's uncle is very much like when Luke brings up, Obi-Wan, maybe the droid means old Ben.
00:29:01
Speaker
And Luke's uncle's like, No, not the same person. Never heard of an Obi-Wan. Sounds like a fake name. Obi-Wan died around the same time as your father.
00:29:13
Speaker
Wait a minute. Yeah. he's He's frantically pulling for random pieces of information and random ways to get Luke to drop the subject and accidentally mixing up his lies.
00:29:27
Speaker
Speaking of Obi-Wan, R2 wanders off on his own to try to find him. Luke and C-3PO go after him in a speeder, which, side note, what pronouns do we use for R2-T2? I've been calling i've been calling r two a him. I don't know what is appropriate.
00:29:43
Speaker
for a droid yeah i mean most of them will use most people will use he him for droids droids do seem to have genders but sometimes they'll also get object pronouns yeah that makes sense Just, I feel like it's part of the cultural miasma of Star Wars to go, oh yeah, obviously R2-D2's a boy robot, but I never really thought about that until this moment. And I was taking my notes going, don't know.
00:30:13
Speaker
But anyway, R2 wanders off trying to find Obi-Wan. The sand people attack and Obi-Wan saves the day, which is great. And these are the Tusken Raiders from and the Mandalorian, right? Same guys? Yeah.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yep. But in this, they're just referred to as the Sand People. Naturally. And Obi-Wan shows up and Luke's like, this is Ben Kenobi, the old crazy wizard who lives in the desert.
00:30:38
Speaker
And interesting for Uncle Owen to describe him as an old wizard. This will start our question of how much do people in the universe know about Jedi and the Force? Yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
I literally had a question about that in my notes for later when they're in the rebel base talking about the Death Star plans. I have questions about this, too. And I guess we can just talk about it now.
00:31:05
Speaker
Because at the end of this big meeting where they're sharing plans with all of these rebel troops... The guy presenting the meeting goes, may the force be with you. And so I go, okay, do they all know about the force? Does everybody know about the force? Is this a thing? Because we can't take Luke's very sheltered perspective as representative of what people do and do not know. But also it seems like the Jedi are extinct and they're seen as kind of weirdo freaks. But the idea of the force also seems to be widely accepted. At least, i don't know.
00:31:35
Speaker
I don't know what the fuck is the deal with the force. So this is one of the many pieces that's a little bit kind of both believable and not at times, depending on who you're talking to.
00:31:47
Speaker
The Empire has been in existence for 19 years at this point. What we see at the end of this movie is referred to as the Battle of Yavin. And every date in the Star Wars universe is going to be measured in relation to the Battle of Yavin.
00:32:05
Speaker
You have mentioned this, and now I see why it's so important. It is kind of a big deal. Right. That's not done in-universe, but every date that we reckon and discuss as the Star Wars fandom is reckoned in relation to this.
00:32:19
Speaker
So 19 BBY, before the Battle of Yavin, m is when the Empire rose up. It's the year Luke was born. the year Leia was born.
00:32:31
Speaker
And theoretically, it's also the year the Jedi all died. So it's been 20 years, which is both a long time and not a long time.
00:32:43
Speaker
And so, you know, for people who are part of the elite, it makes sense perhaps that they know a little bit more about. about the Jedi, because this will come in later, but at the height of the Republic, there were apparently 10,000 Jedi in the galaxy.
00:33:01
Speaker
Which for a whole galaxy, it still doesn't seem like that much. No. Not when you realize there's trillions of people in the galaxy.
The Death Star and Strategic Planning
00:33:09
Speaker
There's likely less than one Jedi per planet on average.
00:33:14
Speaker
So there are people who probably have never heard of the Jedi. There are people who have seen... Or heard things about Jedi, but never would have had cause to encounter a Jedi.
00:33:28
Speaker
There are also other Force users that are not Jedi in the galaxy far, far away, and that will start to become a thing in the larger Star Wars miasma but there's I guess two big reasons why we might have less accepted or less knowledge of the Jedi currently at the time of the Battle of Yavin just in general which is one a lot of people had never seen one beforehand just because of numbers and now it's been 20 years
00:34:00
Speaker
And two, the Empire has a vested interest in destroying information about them and preventing information about the Jedi from proliferating.
00:34:11
Speaker
The Force is a little bit different, I feel like, as a concept, but we don't have any more. And things like may the Force be with you could be in popular language in the same way that we say, like, bless you when somebody sneezes. But we're not all Catholics.
00:34:32
Speaker
These are not the plague years. Or goodbye, which is a shortened version of God be with you. Yeah, that makes sense. so yeah just linguistic drift i guess i suppose but also but the actual explanation is george lucas hadn't quite figured all of this out yet and speaking of jedi background obi-wan gives us a whole bunch of exposition he was once a jedi the same as your father i wonder who luke's father could possibly be
00:35:06
Speaker
But at the time when it came out, I'm sure this was, you know, very mysterious. Nobody knew that was probably very impactful twist. We'll talk about it when the time comes. But Luke gets his lightsaber. which is apparently considered a very elegant, civilized weapon, which I guess you can see by the fact that later on when Obi-Wan and Vader fight with them, it's like they're made of papier-mâché and they're being extremely delicate.
00:35:34
Speaker
And that's that's a practical consideration. that Which is very fair. It's just really funny. Yeah, Obi-Wan says it's a more elegant weapon for a more civilized age. elegant weapon...
00:35:46
Speaker
For the more civilized angels. There's lots of references to things in this exposition dump, like the Clone Wars, the Old Republic. These things ring bells to me as being in the miasma, but I don't know what they are.
00:36:05
Speaker
So I am just putting a pin in the fact that those things are mentioned in the first movie. What are they? Don't know. The bad guys have a big meeting, and it is at this point that I realize that That everyone is wearing kind of normal military clothes. And Darth Vader is dressed in what is basically a silly wizard outfit.
00:36:27
Speaker
And people don't take him as seriously as maybe they should. And he does force choke a guy who is not listening to him. That is the first actual depiction we get of the force.
00:36:39
Speaker
So, i yeah, I guess that makes sense. Because I thinking about Luke doing his thing with the ball, but that's actually later. That's later. We don't see, this is the first depiction we see of anybody using the force.
00:36:53
Speaker
Does that not count with the Jedi mind tricks? Or is that also later? Never mind, that's later. That's also later. I'm getting my order mixed up, even though I'm literally looking at my notes in front of my face. Well, and I feel like we're so used to the the like squeezy, choky hand thing.
00:37:09
Speaker
But Vader's doing a pinch motion with this. Which in context of how, you know, force choking happens and at other points, it's like he doesn't give a fuck.
00:37:21
Speaker
This is him fucking around. Damn. And then we also get the classic line. I find your lack of faith disturbing. Yes, that is one that I have heard before.
00:37:35
Speaker
listen There's also a conversation amongst the bad guys later about how the Jedi are extinct and Darth Vader is the last one. And so there's very much a tension between him and all of the other kind of Empire officials.
00:37:49
Speaker
But back to Obi-Wan and Luke at the desert, the Jawa vehicle, the Sandcrawler has been destroyed. And Obi-Wan is saying it was set up, it was staged to look like The sand people had done it, but it was too clean and only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise. And I know the joke about stormtroopers and that they're not precise. And so that was very funny to me in a meta way, although obviously that had not been established at the point that the movie came out.
00:38:20
Speaker
I mean, this is the meta. This is the source of the meta joke. is Supposedly Imperial Stormtroopers are the elite. They're so precise. And yet they never hit shit.
00:38:35
Speaker
But Luke rubs his two little brain cells together and realizes that if the Stormtroopers are after the droids and their information... which he does refer to them as robots in that line, which I just think was kind of fun that they're called robots sometimes and droids other times, ah that they might have been led back to his house, which they were, and his aunt and uncle have been brutally murdered. It's actually extremely graphic. There are these blackened skeletons with bits of sort of red charred flesh on them. it's really They don't linger on the shot for super long, but it's really upsetting. And Luke, I think, is just kind of in shock and now has no choice but to go on an adventure.
00:39:22
Speaker
is We had the refusal of the call step. And now this is the the call pushing back. The call is knocking harder.
00:39:33
Speaker
The call is calling twice to get past your do not disturb settings.
Legacy of Star Wars and Character Development
00:39:38
Speaker
We bounce back and forth between the Death Star and what we know to be Tatooine. But the word Tatooine is never mentioned in the movie.
00:39:48
Speaker
Interesting. this Yeah, I guess I hadn't picked up on that. But we have Vader coming into Leia's cell and a creepy little fucking droid floats in behind and we zoom in on a needle attached to the droid as Vader says, you know, we'll find out the truth now.
00:40:08
Speaker
And then it zooms to the back and follows the cell door closing down and then the follows the boots walking off of the guard down the hallway. And that was a really good shot. Yes.
00:40:20
Speaker
And then we arrive at Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. And there's been a bunch of inserted shots here with extra animation.
00:40:31
Speaker
And, you know watching this now on on Disney Plus, like, this is, it's really obvious. Yeah. What's been inserted after the fact.
00:40:42
Speaker
And, you know, supposedly this matches George Lucas's vision and he wanted more things but didn't have the budget for it in 1977 and so could edit with CG later, but it was it was a test for the prequels.
00:40:54
Speaker
It's a fine movie the way it was. The grumble grumble. It's fine. There's a couple of other inserted scenes and after the cantina scene. There's an inserted scene where they sell the speeder and an inserted scene where Han talks to Jabba.
00:41:09
Speaker
But we'll get there. The cantina's just... The cantina's great. but You can't not love a room full of puppets and people in silly costumes and there's a song that's an absolute banger and the bartender is racist against droids, I guess, because he sees... c-3po and i don't even know if r2 is in there i assume he is and goes get the fuck out we don't serve your kind in here and c-3po goes okay thumbs up and just leaves i am not going to get involved in whatever this guy's deal is but oh my god that's so obnoxious and i love the fact that it's like we don't serve your kind what would a droid need to be served they don't really require anything from you some oil or something i don't know But it's just so aggressive for no reason. But this is a very aggressive environment. Later, Obi-Wan cuts off a guy's entire arm and there's blood everywhere and nobody cares. So this is just one of those places. But we do meet Chewbacca and Han Solo.
00:42:14
Speaker
And we have discussed the types of people that one meets in a tavern where there will be caught per our law of fantasy. And he definitely falls into the cocky type of person in a tavern.
00:42:28
Speaker
ah Very clearly. Also, he shot first as I believe is a joke in that it is funny to people for a reason. But it is It is because in the later edits, they insert Greedo shooting at Han, and then Han shoots back and kills Greedo in self-defense. But the Han shot first thing is, yeah, no, Han just killed him.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, he just did. Just outright. Greedo pointed his gun at him and Han went, yeah, no, fuck you, and kills him. So that's the Han shot first thing. I think that's that was one of the more fundamental edits that people got up in arms about.
00:43:11
Speaker
Inserting other animations or changing a couple of things. Cool, whatever, fine. But fundamentally changing a piece of Han Solo's character as a character that is willing to shoot first and ask questions later.
00:43:23
Speaker
Yeah, he's not really ah a sympathetic guy. He's a fun guy. He's great, but he's not nice. No, and Han's character arc is going to be really interesting over this. He is very obviously true neutral when we meet him. And he, like, gets to neutral good by the end.
00:43:43
Speaker
Good for him. Kind of. he's I feel like by the end, it's less... I feel like it's less duty to the rebellion when he comes back at the end, because... Spoilers, he comes back... He leaves before the final battle and then comes back and helps save the day by getting fighters off of Luke's tail.
00:44:03
Speaker
I feel like he's motivated less by duty to the rebellion and more by... Well, fuck, I started to like this kid. And now he's in danger and I got to do something about it.
00:44:15
Speaker
How inconvenient. It's a, it's a, you got brought into my crew and I'm going to do something for the people that are part of my crew. Mm-hmm.
00:44:27
Speaker
And if I get a reward out of it, even better. If I get to fuck a princess, even better. I love everyone's faces as Obi-Wan and Luke are asking Han for a passage on his ship.
00:44:39
Speaker
Because Han is mentally calculating how stupid these people are and how much money he can make from them. Obi-Wan knows that Han is doing this and is just trying to get the conversation over with so they can leave. And Luke is just making these big, clueless puppy dog eyes...
00:44:56
Speaker
trying to follow the conversation. He's really not contributing anything. He's just sitting there looking pretty. They get on the millennium. I'm going to space. Yippee! He is also yippee. He's yippee-coded. Good for him. Um...
00:45:11
Speaker
They head off in the Millennium Falcon. Luke is ah obnoxiously, he's in the cockpit, which I think the first thing I would have done if I had this child on my ship would be you. This is your seat.
00:45:23
Speaker
Go sit in it. Don't talk to me. Don't look at me. Don't touch me until we reach our destination and then get off my ship. But for some reason, he's in the cockpit asking what every single button does and just trying to touch things and getting in the way while Han and Chewie are just trying to do their jobs.
00:45:39
Speaker
And it just seems infuriating, but it also kind of reminds me of Baby Yoda a little bit pressing all the buttons. but Especially out front when their job is running a blockade.
00:45:50
Speaker
There's like somewhere between two and three Imperial cruisers just in orbit around Tatooine. And they're like, ah, okay. fuck Yeah, gotta get past these guys.
00:46:01
Speaker
Right before this in the edited version, there's an insertion of a conversation with Jabba, which I actually like the scene. I think it adds a lot to both Jabba's character later on and to Han's character.
00:46:13
Speaker
But Han exits from the scene by going, Jabba, you're a wonderful human being. Jabba is a giant slug. So that's just a fun piece. The other piece is when Luke shows up, we get a another famous line of, what a piece of junk.
00:46:35
Speaker
Describing the Millennium Falcon. And Han is offended because this is his baby. It's a very expensive Lego set. Yeah. And also, she'll make 0.5 past light speed. 0.5 what? times light speed?
00:46:50
Speaker
Is that... one point five times light speed is that 0.5 parsecs past light speed now that we are using parsec for whatever the fuck we want i guess also the speed of light isn't fast enough for galactic travel yeah we had a whole conversation about this and wormhole shit yeah alpha centauri is four light years from earth i think i'm gonna might be proxima centauri i'm gonna say that and somebody's gonna come at me in the comments But hey, that's comments. That's engagement.
00:47:21
Speaker
Tell me I'm wrong, but do it nicely, please. Do it in the form of a five-star review and we'll read it. hu The star lines for the jump to hyperspace, the first time we get the star lines, I remember watching that and being like, oh, that's incredible.
00:47:37
Speaker
Yeah. That is just, that was the most brilliant effect that they possibly could have come up with for seven-year-old me watching Star Wars for the first time.
00:47:48
Speaker
Did you then always think of it when you were driving in the car in the snow at night? Yes. Because i've I always thought of that, you know, just being, again, a person in the world who knows that this exists. I remember being a kid and, you know, seeing the snow fly past on a cold night. And it's it's very magical. It's fun.
00:48:06
Speaker
Well, and any other science fiction I have ever read, watched, played anything, when I think about jumping to whatever their version of hyperspace, warp, whatever it is, like Starlines.
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's obvious. Duh. That's how it works. You can't just, you know, everything goes black or we jump into a wormhole or like face opens up before you. None of that is as as interesting as the Starlines.
00:48:31
Speaker
And that may just be the fact that I was seventh. You are at the exact right age. You are primed to have Star Wars directly uploaded into your brain. Oh, yeah. But we jumped back to we jump to hyperspace and we jumped back to the ah the Death Star.
00:48:49
Speaker
And Governor Tarkin, Grand Moff Tarkin, has brought out Leia for a demonstration. Is this the skeleton man? this is This is Peter Cushing, yes.
00:49:01
Speaker
He's very gaunt. He's very scary looking. Yeah, he was originally offered the role of Obi-Wan. He could have done it. And then George Lucas was like, actually, i think he'd work better as a villain. ah um I love the the line when Leia's brought in. she goes Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash.
00:49:24
Speaker
I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board. Charming to the last. She's bold as shit for this. And narratively, it serves to remind us that she's 19. Yeah.
00:49:39
Speaker
That is a teenage clapback. That's why I play my D&D character like that. Thea would say that. but She absolutely would. And Tarkin just goes, you know charming to the last.
00:49:55
Speaker
He's fucking monologuing. I don't think we officially established a villain monologue rule of fantasy. but I don't think Rule number six. A proper villain must monologue.
00:50:07
Speaker
I like it. Because I think there's a difference. No, this is just stupid in my brain. Because I want to say, I feel like there's a difference between, you know, a character who's evil and does bad things, but like a villain, like a real proper, like, yeah, this is a bad guy. this is a villain. You know, there's a certain yeah upper echelon of villain that's, you know, someone can be a villain because they do bad things. But if they're a villain with a capital V and they're really just like really good villain, they got a monologue. Yeah. No, there's there's antagonists and then there's villains. Yeah.
00:50:40
Speaker
And to be a villain, you need a monologue. Absolutely, i agree. Cool. The other piece that happens here, they decide to threaten Leia with destroying her planet if she doesn't give up the rebel base, and then she gives up the rebel base, and they go, cool, you may fire when ready.
00:50:57
Speaker
The giant planet-destroying laser beam that we see warming up and then going through the Death Star goes within like feet of these dudes just standing on a platform who have to lean away from it. It didn't occur to me to think about that.
00:51:11
Speaker
Yeah, it establishes a very, very important rule of Star Wars, which is that there is no such thing as OSHA in the Star Wars galaxy.
00:51:21
Speaker
Oh, definitely not. The speed at which those sliding, descending doors slam down. That's like, talk about fucking guillotines in the 70s. You're standing in the wrong spot. Those doors are chopping off a limb. This is not a safe workplace environment.
00:51:39
Speaker
No. Railings? Nowhere to be found. Giant planet-destroying lasers going five feet from your head? Right there. um But we know show up in the Alderaan area. We have a discussion about the Force in the meantime, and Han is a skeptic about the Force, and we establish sort of...
00:52:01
Speaker
Han and Luke as two sides of a hero coin. They're foils to each other. You need Han to temper Luke's idealism.
00:52:13
Speaker
And you need Luke to drag the good guy out of Han. Yeah. And we get another famous line of, that's no moon.
00:52:25
Speaker
It's a space station. Mm-hmm. Which immediately, of course, is followed by, i have a very bad feeling about this. And Obi-Wan goes, turn the ship around. And Han goes, yeah, I think you're right. And then they get dragged in by the tractor beam.
00:52:41
Speaker
All fucking hell breaks loose. And we are now on the Death Star. We you know knock out some stormtroopers, take their armor, and Obi-Wan goes to disable the tractor beam. And meanwhile, they find out that Princess Leia is here and going to be executed. Han is like, Han literally says, better her than me. Yeah.
00:53:07
Speaker
yep And Luke very intelligently appeals to his sense of business acumen and goes, well, she's a princess. There's probably a really big reward for rescuing her, right? Which is also hilarious to me because he does get a reward at the end. But in my mind, I'm going, okay, what money is this reward going to be from? Because her whole planet just got destroyed. Presumably that's where all of her money Yeah.
00:53:35
Speaker
And of course they don't know that that was her home planet or necessarily that it got destroyed because Obi-Wan just sensed the disturbance in the force. But that was very funny to me going, she doesn't have any fucking money.
00:53:48
Speaker
Well, I mean, yeah, they know Alderaan is no longer there. m But they decide to fake handcuff Chewie and use that as their way into the cell block.
00:54:02
Speaker
disguised as stormtroopers disguised as stormtroopers and they say that Chewie is a prisoner transfer from cell block 1138 which is a reference to George Lucas's previous dystopian sci-fi movie THX 1138 very nice
00:54:17
Speaker
Of course, everything goes to shit. The ruse is seen through. They have to kill all the guards. The alarm's going off. And there's a message from superiors somewhere else being like, what the hell's going on down there? And Han rolls a nat one on his deception check.
00:54:35
Speaker
He gets so flustered that he just shoots the intercom because he doesn't know what to say. Everything's under control. Situation normal. Had a slight weapons malfunction, but everyone's fine. We're fine. We're all fine here.
00:54:47
Speaker
How are you? And I think at the end, he goes, that was a boring conversation anyway. Something like that. Yeah, well, and and the the, you know, superior is like, who is this? What's your operating number? We're sending a squad down. And he's like, negative, negative. There's a reactor leak. Very, very dangerous. Can't come down now. And then, you know, they're like, they clearly don't believe him. And he goes, well, and like shoots the thing. Yeah, was a boring conversation anyway. And then shouts back, Luke, we're going to have company.
00:55:21
Speaker
absolutely incredible love it so while this is all going down luke gets leia out and she proceeds to be tied with chewy for the most competent person on the squad at the moment yeah she is yeah always handling business they get trapped in a trash compactor it's funny and good for tension but not a whole lot happens in there There was a piece. ah There were two pieces. One, the music is so intense that it's kind of corny.
00:55:49
Speaker
And two, at one point, Han shouts at Leia to get on top. And I was like, I wonder how many times one of them has said that to the other. wow Because for the listener. In or out of character. Yes.
00:56:00
Speaker
You know, of course, obviously we all know that Han and Leia get together. That's kind of a given. But during the filming of Star Wars, Carrie Fisher, who was at the time 21, and Harrison Ford, who was at the time in his 30s married with two kids, oh had an affair.
00:56:20
Speaker
I didn't know that part. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they had an affair and Mark Hamill, who is just also out of character, apparently a doe-eyed wonderful little naive child, but he's older than Carrie anyway.
00:56:41
Speaker
But he showed up at one point to Harrison Ford's house or the house that he was staying in while they were filming with donuts at 730 in the morning. And Carrie Fisher was there in a bathrobe.
00:56:54
Speaker
And Luke was like, oh, good. You're here already. We can all have breakfast together. What? Sorry, not Luke. Mark was like, yeah you're here already. We can all have breakfast together. Did not figure it out.
00:57:07
Speaker
Oh, dear. ah Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher were so convinced that they'd been caught. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty damning. What other conclusions are you gonna draw from Carrie Fisher being in your home at 7.30 in the morning, it not dressed, but no, your co-star just is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and not putting two and two together?
00:57:33
Speaker
It's nice that he brought donuts, though. They were probably hungry. Hmm, probably. Anyway, Obi-Wan goes to shut down the tractor beam. And then again, there's no fucking railing.
00:57:45
Speaker
I want to point out here, that is a matte painting of the giant drop down into infinity. That is a matte painting. Alec Guinness is in fact standing a few feet off the ground. Oh, damn. That's really good.
00:57:57
Speaker
Yeah, we'll, again, we'll discuss more about the special effects because you can't talk about Star Wars without talking about the geniuses at ILM. When they get out of the trash compactor, apparently Mark Hamill is like, wouldn't we all still have wet hair and clothes? And so like he has wet hair and clothes and the other two are perfectly fine and perfectly like Carrie's makeup is great because at Harrison Ford apparently turned to Mark Hamill and, you know, in his Harrison Ford voice goes, it ain't that kind of movie, kid.
00:58:32
Speaker
Continuity does not matter here. You're not getting extra credit for this. But while everyone is getting trashy, there is face down between Obi-Wan and Vader.
00:58:44
Speaker
And there's all kinds of loaded dialogue about how the student has become the master and they fight and it's great. But then Obi-Wan says a thing that I didn't notice the first time, but I noticed now, which is, if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
00:59:01
Speaker
What the fuck does that mean? also It's kind of unclear to me whether or not he dies. I mean, Darth Vader seems to think he's dead. And I think if Darth Vader thinks you're dead, you're probably dead. But I know the lesson that you have taught me, which is that if you don't see a body, if you don't have a crispy air fried aunt and uncle out front of your house, you know, nothing is certain. And then we kind of hear Obi-Wan's voice in Luke's head later. So I don't fucking know what's happening with that.
00:59:35
Speaker
This is one of those mysteries that actually continues to the current arcs of Star Wars. What the deal is with Obi-Wan?
00:59:45
Speaker
how obi-wan did that because that is not something that all jedi just do they don't just disappear at death yeah i love the little stomp that vader does on the robe like huh where did he go is he is he hiding under the robe that just fell the ground with the lightsaber little mouse scurries out polymorph There are a couple of interpretations, and one of which that that I choose to believe is George Lucas didn't fucking know. hair And it was just a cool thing to say.
01:00:16
Speaker
And also it sort of it sort of is the, is it Obi-Wan becoming more powerful? Or is it now you have assumed that I am the enemy, but if you strike me down, I become one, a martyr, and two, I have already passed my knowledge onto someone else, and you now don't know them and you don't know their capabilities.
01:00:36
Speaker
it's it's I have become more powerful than you can possibly imagine because I have created all of your future problems. Yeah. And you don't know what they are. Much to consider.
01:00:46
Speaker
Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah, I'm not going to come down on one side or the other on that. I'm not solving a 50-year-old debate right now. But I'm going to noodle on it. And, you know, I think eventually we might get some more information. the The current folks making Star Wars are sort of working and alluding to some of the powers that allow Obi-Wan and others to do that. But it's very mysterious. It's the mystery that is the Force. The other thing that i want us to pay attention to as we go through all of Star Wars is the what the fuck does the Force do? Mm-hmm.
01:01:21
Speaker
question because the answer is whatever the plot needs and also it's you know the the like annoying fanboys favorite thing to be whenever somebody makes something new happen with the force Particularly when it's a girl.
01:01:38
Speaker
They're like, the force can't do that. And the answer is, well, yeah, it can because there's no fucking rules to the force. It's pretend magic. It can do whatever you want.
01:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, we never establish rules of the force, but it is very fun to, as fans, start and as the kind of people that we are, start to piece together how everything works.
01:02:06
Speaker
Yeah. That's the kind of person I am. I want to know why. It's why I'm a scientist. m And that is an admirable trait. Thank you. You know who doesn't know things?
01:02:17
Speaker
is luke he somehow knows how to work the guns on the millennium falcon because there's a big space fight but he's the chosen one i guess so whatever and i know that he had some kind of gun on his speeder because he could shoot what ah what womp rats yes and that's mentioned later so he has fired a gun before but i'm just chalking this up to he's a chosen one he can use an unfamiliar system in the heat of battle sure And so there's this big fight that seems harrowing, but Vader actually let them escape because he put a tracking beacon on the ship, which I think is very clever.
01:02:57
Speaker
And Leia figures this out immediately. Because she is the most competent person on this ship. Yeah. And she knows this. She calls Han a heartless douchebag.
01:03:10
Speaker
Not in so many words, but basically. And then Luke comes in after Han is complaining about her and then he goes, she's kind of hot though. You can tell. the The energy, the chemistry is there.
01:03:23
Speaker
Well, there's also a little bit of that from Luke. Yeah. And again, we go, George Lucas didn't have this shit all figured out yet. But there's nothing, nothing irredeemable.
01:03:37
Speaker
and He's like, okay, if you don't know that they're siblings, there is nothing that the fandom has to really reckon with. in that in that way yet.
01:03:48
Speaker
I don't know. You're making a face that tells me there's things I don't know. So I may eat my words. But for now, it's all kosher. Back at the Rebel base, we learn there's a weakness in the Death Star. There's an exhaust port or something. That's great. They just shoot it in the special hole and it will all explode.
01:04:07
Speaker
And this is where I noticed the May the Force Be With You bit that we talked about earlier. Mm-hmm. And after this big meeting, Han does get his reward. So good for him for rescuing the princess. And Luke then tries to appeal to his better nature to get him to stay and finish the fight and that the people need you. And then immediately pivots to insulting him the moment Han goes, actually, i would like to not die.
01:04:36
Speaker
i have done my job. I did my good deed for the day. I helped you, saved a princess. I can't enjoy this reward if I'm dead. So I'm actually gonna go. Thank you. And you know, I think that that's very fair. I think that's a reasonable reaction to the situation. He's not at this point like invested in the rebellion at all. This isn't his fight. And sure it's objectively good and noble to participate in it. But also i don't think he's obligated to stay. But a combination of Luke's whining And Chewie, seeming to agree with him because he makes a groan of agreement, does sway him. that's nice.
01:05:18
Speaker
And they also apparently, the rebels just give Luke his own ship to pilot. I don't know how many ships they have. If they have a shortage of pilots, I don't know the skill distribution of people in the rebellion.
01:05:30
Speaker
But kind of like him knowing how to operate the gun, I was kind of surprised that they just gave him a ship to be in charge of when they just met him today. So there's there's a deleted scene. I mean, that deleted scene that gets put back in in the Disney Plus version. Mm-hmm.
01:05:46
Speaker
where his old pal Biggs Darklighter shows up. And there's another deleted scene that didn't get put back in the in the Disney Plus version, where back on Tatooine, Biggs has already left for the Imperial Academy, because the Academy is the Imperial Academy. And so Biggs has been there at the Imperial Military Academy for a while, and he comes back to Tatooine to tell Luke he's leaving to join the Rebellion.
01:06:11
Speaker
Okay, because I had questions about that. Because we had mentioned earlier that Biggs and one of his other buddies were at the Academy, and i was going, is this the Academy? Did he lie about being at the Academy? Because this doesn't seem like the Academy. That makes sense.
01:06:23
Speaker
Biggs was at the Academy and then left to join the Rebellion. But so they show up and they reunite and one of the wing commanders comes by and goes, Skywalker, you sure you can handle this ship?
01:06:35
Speaker
And Biggs goes, Luke's the best bush pilot in the Outer Rim territories and vouches for him because clearly Biggs is an accepted member of the squad. And they're all going to their ships and Biggs goes, we'll hear all your stories when we get back. All right.
01:06:50
Speaker
And then says, it'll be like old times, Luke. They'll never stop us. does Biggs die? Biggs dies. oh oh of the Of the three fighters who are there at the end, it's Luke, Wedge, and Biggs. And Wedge pulls away, and then Biggs gets shot down.
01:07:08
Speaker
And I think you know this scene and then that other deleted scene that didn't get put back in... make that actually like a an emotional beat as opposed to just like another dude who blows up because there's a lot of dudes that blow up in this battle yeah when i watched it i just went oh that's a dude that blows up okay whatever but yeah oh that's really sad uh-huh emotional damage yeah
01:07:40
Speaker
So they're flying and fighting. Luke hears Obi-Wan in his mind. Then there's X-Wings attacking just like in The Mandalorian. And this big chase on sort of the outside of the Death Star is where you and our other friends taught me about greebles.
01:07:58
Speaker
And I learned that the act of applying greebles is called greebling. And I am deeply charmed by Grebel's, which I'm sure I could Google the definition of and recite to you, but I will just give my vibes-based definition for the audience if you don't know this delightful new word. it's It's the bits, it's the pieces, the little boxes and switches and stuff that you just kind of slap all over the outside of something to make it look sci-fi and textured.
01:08:26
Speaker
So this scene where they're flying through these narrow sort of channels on the outside of the Death Star. And there's all these boxes and irregular surfaces and bits and bobs everywhere. Those are the Griebels.
01:08:38
Speaker
And I love the Griebels. And all the bits and bobs on the outside of the Millennium Falcon are Griebels. It's all Griebels. It's Griebels all the way down. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of imagery from World War II movies in this section that probably would have made a lot more sense to us if we were viewing this in 1977 with a background of having watched all of those movies that came out in the 60s and the 70s.
01:09:02
Speaker
That actually makes so much sense now that you point it out. Uh-huh. There's, you know, a lot of various shooting and... Lots of call signs and radios back and forth. And the first bombing run doesn't work. And then another group tries to go and doesn't manage to get it. and And then Luke's group goes and Wedge peels off because he's lost his starboard engine. And then Biggs gets shot down. And then Luke is alone and clearly about to get shot down by Vader and his two wingmen. And then...
01:09:35
Speaker
Han shows up. Han gave in to his better angels and came back and helps drive off the TIE fighters. There are a couple soundscape things I noticed during this. One was the the TIE scream, which we've had throughout the movie. But the TIE scream, the classic sound of the TIE fighter, sounds...
01:10:00
Speaker
it's ubiquitous, it's everywhere. The X-wing doesn't have an equivalent sound, but the TIE scream is its own kind of terrifying moment.
01:10:11
Speaker
The trench run is a reference to a couple of World War II movies, which I can find the titles of for when we talk next time, because we're definitely going to have to do a part two ah to this. ah So sorry, listeners, and also not sorry.
01:10:25
Speaker
And then during that final trench run, the music is a like tense, minor rendition of the theme. And the enemy ties get blasted by the Millennium Falcon.
01:10:37
Speaker
And we get Han's Yahoo! But it's still over this minor theme. Yahoo! Look out!
01:10:48
Speaker
You're
01:10:51
Speaker
all clear, kid. Now let's blow this thing and go home. Which I didn't remember. I mentally have that in my head as
01:11:04
Speaker
Han shouting over the major theme. bu bu but on a dance du It's triumphant. It's yay, we did it. It's still that minor rendition there. And so it sounds kind of discordant.
01:11:20
Speaker
But Vader gets shot off course and my brain just went, I'm spinning like a valerie. Yeah. Luke gets the torpedoes into the, you know, tiny little chute by using the force, Luke.
01:11:35
Speaker
Which, of course, is obviously classic. The Death Star is already trying to fire on Yavin. And I do love the last two lines we hear from the Imperials in the movie are, stand by stand by, and then an explosion. Mm-hmm.
01:11:51
Speaker
It's very in the 2012 Avengers where Thor is standing in front of Loki and goes, listen well, brother, and then gets snatched up and is flown off. And Loki's just standing there and he goes...
01:12:08
Speaker
I'm listening.
01:12:11
Speaker
We're waiting. Standing by. and it is a big epic explosion. I think we are desensitized to big epic explosions. This is a really good one. It's real satisfying watching the Death Star blow up.
01:12:27
Speaker
Yeah. The guys making the explosions, nerdy engineers, they like to make explosions. These are the same kind of people and sometimes the same people that ended up working on Mythbusters later and it in their careers. I was just thinking about a gif that I saw earlier of a Mythbusters episode that I don't remember from childhood but just learned about where they vaporize a car into a red mist. Yeah.
01:12:55
Speaker
It's beautiful. There's just this giant steel plate rocketing towards it and you see it in slow motion. Just, I don't know how they did it. I'm going to have to go back and watch the episode because I want to see the car get turned into red mist.
01:13:10
Speaker
It's very pleasing to me.
01:13:14
Speaker
least it's a car and not a person. Me with my public transit agenda. Vaporize all cars. Anyway, so the battle ends.
01:13:25
Speaker
Then we cut to this big award ceremony where everybody except for Chewie gets a medal for some reason. I don't know why he's excluded if this is a human only event. But as we established early on, he's one of the most competent people there. He did a lot of the real work while everyone else was bantering. so I do feel like he deserves a medal. Please tell me that this is also something that is discussed as an injustice against Chewie.
01:13:52
Speaker
I mean, it definitely is. And also, in the novelization, Chewie also gets a medal. Good. Okay, I'm glad he gets his medal. So at least it was fixed in the novelization. No, then fixed, I say, is the novelization technically came out before the movie.
01:14:09
Speaker
I had questions about that. We can talk about that later. Because I know there are books. Did the books come out first? But yeah. Yeah. The movie was adapted into a novel, which was released a couple of months before the movie. And there's a whole...
01:14:21
Speaker
But we'll talk about all of that next time. Because I know we spent a long time talking about the plot and some of the visual choices, but Star Wars has spawned a legacy.
01:14:32
Speaker
and you know And I know we can't talk too much about some of these visual choices yet because you haven't seen how they carry through. But we're going to be beholden to all of these visual choices.
01:14:46
Speaker
from technology that was available or just whatever George Lucas decided to put there or whatever ILM decided to do with it for the rest of Star Wars. No matter what other technological advancements or ideas come in, like this is what establishes the aesthetic of Star Wars.
01:15:04
Speaker
I had a thing in my notes about just... the atmosphere overall being so rich and I was thinking okay how much of this was intentional how much was pre-planned did they know that this was going to be a series and so they were setting things up for the future or did they just want to fully go ham with details and richness and vibrancy I don't know but it is I'm glad that they gave themselves a lot to work with in the future you're not It's a distinct look, the Star Wars look, I feel like, but you also have a lot to work with in there. Mm-hmm.
01:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, you definitely do. Do you have concluding thoughts that you want to talk about for the plot of A New Hope? And we'll talk about the making of and the cast and crew and the music and the influences and all of that next time. But if you have concluding thoughts as as our new Star Wars fan, what are your what are your thoughts as you come into the fandom?
01:16:08
Speaker
I think my only concluding plot thought is during this sort of wordless medal ceremony, i love Carrie Fisher's expressions because Leia and Han are having this intense eye contact. flirtation exchange. He's sort of making advances and she's brushing him off, but also kind of coming back. And there is this whole thing happening between them while Luke is just standing there with the Mii Plaza music playing in his head. He's just happy to be getting a medal.
01:16:40
Speaker
Completely oblivious. Love it. i feel like I just keep using the word charming because I love it. It's so... Deeply lovable. I feel like I understand how this has spawned so many different things because I would watch, you could pluck any character out of this. I would watch an entire series about R2 going on his own adventures with no dialogue, just beeps and physical comedy. I would watch a whole thing about Jawas. I would...
01:17:08
Speaker
consume anything about Star Wars at this point. Maybe I'll become more discerning as we go on later and there will be things that I think are stupid. But right now, it's all just lovely.
01:17:20
Speaker
And I definitely see how it made such an impact and you know has carried on for so long so it's special it's it's got the sauce for sure and i am really my main big question that i left for myself at the end of my overall notes was what's my queer reading here besides l lol the robots are gay and i don't think i have one yet i think i'm gonna need more juicy story stuff to find yeah queer things but i know that is also definitely a twink
01:17:55
Speaker
We're going to need to talk about this more when we have more time because everyone was also saying when we were watching it together, oh, Luke's gay, LOL. But I need to know. I want to hear more. i want to know more. Because I went into Lord of the Rings with such... I mean, that's fair. And just his whole like vibe. um But with Lord of the Rings, I feel like we went in with such an intentional queer literary analysis lens.
01:18:20
Speaker
And we got so many interesting, juicy things out of that. So that's just sort of setting my intention for future... media i don't know what i'm gonna find but that is one of my lenses that i'm going to be using as i examine things i was again when i was texting my dad yesterday was like it's so much fun to come back to this both now having done a ton of star wars re-watching in the last couple of years like i was doing a full star wars re-watch when we came up with the idea for this podcast and
01:18:52
Speaker
And so I decided not to touch the original trilogy because I was like, we're going to do that soon. And of course, the original idea that we had for this podcast was in the end of 2022. You found the original message in our Discord DMs and pinned it to our conversation.
01:19:10
Speaker
Yeah. So I think it was like December 22. And at that point, I hadn't watched the original trilogy in a hot minute. And so I have watched every other bit of Star Wars in the intervening couple of years, but not the original trilogy.
01:19:25
Speaker
Oh, I feel special. And so it's very fun to come back to that with like this media analysis lens and also having recently seen everything that comes out of this.
01:19:36
Speaker
Star Wars feels like it was made for the love of the game. You know, it's a classic story, but it feels like it is made for... not just to be like a mass market, shade the serial numbers off of King Arthur, and now it's just the same story. Doesn't matter that that is the classic archetypes we are using.
01:19:54
Speaker
We are still trying to tell an original, fun, interesting story with interesting characters that you can connect to and relate to stories that you already know. Yeah. Yeah.
01:20:05
Speaker
But we are running low on our timing here. We rarely have a hard cutoff, but we do have a hard cutoff today. So listeners, thank you so much for listening to this episode. Next time we will do...
01:20:21
Speaker
a lot more discussion on the ins and outs of the technical aspects of A New Hope. So if you would like to hear that episode, you can come back. We release every other Tuesday.
01:20:36
Speaker
If you would like to hear as soon as this lands in your feed, you can follow our podcast on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. If we are not on your preferred podcast platform, preferred podcast platform every time I fuck that up, every single goddamn time.
01:20:52
Speaker
please let us know. You can let us know by messaging us on one of our social medias, which is at fanapppod on whatever social media site we happen to be on. We are on many of them.
01:21:02
Speaker
Find us on your preferred one. Some of them I post on, some of them I don't. You can also, if you actually want a response in a timely manner, send us an email at thefandomapprentice at gmail.com. I check that every day and you'll get a response within three business days.
01:21:16
Speaker
My request, just for my own selfish curiosity, is if you are listening from a country that is not the USA, which apparently a lot of people seem to do, I would love to know how you found us. Apparently, we've been doing great in Inner Mongolia this week. if you are a listener in Inner Mongolia, hello, welcome. If you are just in Cincinnati and you have your VPN set to Inner Mongolia, that's valid too. But I am just deeply fascinated because we have downloads from so many places all over the world. And it does make me just feel the magic of the World Wide Web to go, oh my God, there's people far away who have heard me talk about Star Wars. Okay. Yeah.
01:22:01
Speaker
It delights and surprises me. And I would just love to know, was this just randomly recommended on some algorithm? Did someone tell
Podcast Reflections and Listener Engagement
01:22:08
Speaker
you about it? This is not being leveraged for marketing purposes. This is just me, Sam, desperately wanting to know how this happened.
01:22:15
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. I so, want because we talk about how word of mouth is absolutely the best way for our podcast to spread. And, you know, knowing that getting a five-star review from any of you lovely listeners definitely helps us with algorithm stuff. Yeah. But if you're not finding us through word of mouth, how are you finding us? Or if you're finding us through word of mouth from your friend somewhere else, let us know. This is this is very cool for us. um you we are We have many of our friends that listen to this podcast who know us IRL, but it's very fun to hear from people who...
01:22:54
Speaker
Just find what we have to say interesting. And I'm so chuffed because we make this for us. And I'm so glad that this discussion that we have for fun, that we'd just be having like in our day to day.
01:23:10
Speaker
even if we didn't record it resonates with people and that people enjoy listening to it. That's that makes me feel really great. So thank you so much for listening to us and we hope you will come back for part two of our star Wars, a new hope coverage. And then we will continue on with star Wars episode five, the empire strikes back.
01:23:35
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next time. See you next time. Bye. The Phantom Apprentice is produced and edited by Rin and Sam. Our music is composed and performed by James.
01:23:46
Speaker
You can find more of his work on Spotify and Bandcamp under Baeruz, B-A-E-R-U-Z. Our art is by Casey Turgeon. You can find more of her work at KCT Designs on Instagram.
01:23:58
Speaker
The content discussed is the property of the original copyright holders and is used here under fair use.
01:24:41
Speaker
I'm gonna cry real tears right now on the podcast. This is gonna throw off the vibe. yeah Listeners, I think I've mentioned this before. You have no idea how many times we've sat down to record a podcast and I've just decided this is the time for like an emotional breakdown. And then we've had to edit out like 20 minutes of me crying. This is a known phenomenon.