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S02E54: Killer Krayts and Studio Shakeup!
28 Plays11 days ago
We're back with a look at the Season 2 premiere of the Mandalorian (one of Bob's favorite episodes), but first we'll talk through the recent changes at Lucasfilm. Hot desert, hot tempers, and hot takes... it's all right here!
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Transcript
Introduction & Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
The Mandalorian strikes back, but first to shake up at Lucasfilm, we're examining it a little bit longer this time. Let's go! Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short?
00:00:11
Speaker
Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper? Welcome back to Short for a Stormtrooper, a 15-minute Star Wars podcast, and just a quick announcement.
Dave Filoni's New Role at Lucasfilm
00:00:23
Speaker
It might go a little bit longer today because we realized we are going to do what we promised we would do and review Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 1, which is a really rich episode and has lots of stuff to talk about.
00:00:38
Speaker
But we would be remiss if we didn't, at least for a moment, address Mandalorian the big Star Wars news, the big announcement this week that Dave Filoni is taking over as chief creative officer and co-president along with Lin-Win Brennan, who is basically going to run the business side of it. So, and so the two of them are going to be co-presidents. You've got one guy who's doing creative, one guy who's doing the business, uh,
00:01:08
Speaker
I don't know if we care that much about the business side. I think that's good. I kind of like this model being set up. It makes me think of Walt and Roy Disney, right? Where Walt was the creative guy and Roy was the money guy. And they made that work between the two of them. So really the most interesting thing is about Filoni. And I'm wondering what your guys thoughts are on that.
Filoni's Impact and Knowledge in Star Wars
00:01:32
Speaker
Yeah, certainly really interesting shakeup here, Bob. I do feel like, um, just based on my sort of limited experience with the Filoni of it all, if if his episodes of The Mandalorian are any indication, I don't know how confident I feel about the direction of Lucasfilm at this time.
00:01:50
Speaker
um But, you know, I know there's a wide breadth of work that he has. I know you said he's worked on obviously worked on The Clone Wars, obviously worked on some other things as well, I'm sure. But if if just taking The Mandalorian as sort of the basis, I don't feel super confident about this. Though, I do agree that I like the idea of sort of the business side and the creative side. I think that's really valuable for you know the direction of the franchise going forward. yeah Yeah, that's cool.
00:02:15
Speaker
Ben, what are your thoughts? I'll just say, i don't know what happens in the back rooms. You know what i'm saying? like Whenever Star Wars comes out with stuff, you know that whatever reception you give it, if you really liked it if you really hated it I don't know who's in the mix with all that alchemy. Here's what I do know about Filoni is that he has a nigh encyclopedic knowledge of all the stuff that's going on in Star Wars. yeah he's He's been close to George Lucas. I think he gets what Star Wars is and you could like or hate any particular thing he's doing, but like...
00:02:48
Speaker
the thing that you want to avoid, I think in a transition moment like this is putting somebody in who's got like literally no idea what this whole thing's about. And so I don't think we're gonna have that concern. So, you know, I'm, I'm cautiously optimistic.
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. My thoughts, I would say I am that way as well. I think if you look, especially across Theloni's animated work, like there are some dogs in there. I mean, you know, the clone war cinematic movie, they kicked that off. Not good guys, you know, but then one of the, I think it was the third episode of clone wars. It was the one where Yoda was trapped in a cave with, ah with a bunch of clone troopers. It was really, really good. i was like, okay, maybe this has some promise. And
00:03:39
Speaker
you know We've talked about this before, Ben, like some of the the later work in Clone Wars, the last season of Clone Wars is amazing. ah Rebels, it's the same way. It started off very light and goofy, and it's just like Aladdin set in space.
00:03:54
Speaker
um with a street rat. And you know by the end of it, like you you can't watch the last few episodes of the of Rebels and not be moved by it. So um I am very cautiously optimistic about that
Challenges in Filoni's Storytelling
00:04:10
Speaker
as well. I think his transition into live action has been a little bit rough when he directs, when he's running the show.
00:04:16
Speaker
You know, Ahsoka was okay, but not my favorite. that This is the thing that I have the biggest concern with. And I had meant to bring this up last week when we talked about the end of season one and Moff Gideon emerging with the Darksaber is...
00:04:36
Speaker
that moment kind of ah it kind of committed what we're realizing is the cardinal sin of forcing people to do homework to really understand a full story, right which I think has been the downfall of Marvel.
00:04:51
Speaker
like with all of what Marvel has put out over time, ah it's like if you don't stay up to date on all of it, you're lost. And so you go into a new theatrical movie and it's like, if you haven't watched every Marvel show on Disney+, plus you're completely lost.
Significance of the Darksaber
00:05:11
Speaker
I think he could have the tendency to do that in his desire to make it one consistent universe. And you know you're just not going to get... the full audience who watches the Mandalorian to be people who go back and watch the animated series where the dark saber, you know, and the importance of the dark saber meant being no. So, Oh, so that's ah that's something from a previous series. Absolutely, yeah. I didn't know that because I don't, you See, this is the thing, Phil, and and you missed this, but everybody who who watched um Clone Wars and Rebels knew this. The impact of Moff Gideon emerging with the Darksaber was whoever wields the Darksaber is the rightful heir to the throne of Mandalore. Mm-hmm.
00:05:57
Speaker
So wow he comes out. i didn't get any of that. Right. You you miss it. Like, it's like, oh wow, that's a weird, cool. Well, I was, I was like, it's cool. That's, and it's like, oh, it looks like kind of an evil lightsaber. so i was like, oh, it's a dark saber. Cool. yeah I get it.
00:06:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, but no, it's it's very significant, very significant to the story of the Mandalorian. But again, I don't know. we'll We'll see as we rewatch season two and season three, how much they actually explain about that. But I feel like they they kind of don't, they kind of leave it alone. And so you miss a lot of nuances if you don't know that. Yeah.
Kathleen Kennedy's Influence on Star Wars
00:06:32
Speaker
If I'm if I may, just because, you know, movie nerd here, ah just to give a little bit of props to Kathleen Kennedy. I don't know if she's going to a new role after this or if she's fully calling it. But if I may, just.
00:06:44
Speaker
Eight Best Picture Oscar nominations. ah Also, obviously, you know, led a bunch of Star Wars movies. Also co-founded Ambulent Entertainment with Steven Spielberg, which, you know, just to name a few productions and franchises, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Twister, Men in Black.
00:07:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Clearly a very culturally significant producer who maybe this is the end of her tenure in the movies. Maybe she's going to be producing, you know, just with Spielberg, you know, um so remains to be seen, I suppose. Yeah. I think the idea is that she is going to keep producing. That's what they announced. So I hope that's true. Yeah.
00:07:25
Speaker
yeah You, you cannot argue with her pedigree and I think she gets, she gets a lot of hate from, very vocal minority of Star Wars fanboys for wrecking Star Wars, for making it too woke, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. She's amazing. And, you know, what we in nerd culture ah really enjoy, we owe so much to Kathleen Kennedy for what she's brought to that. 100%.
00:07:55
Speaker
hundred percent Ben's dying to weigh in He might have a slightly
Disney's Acquisition Strategy
00:08:01
Speaker
different view. $11 billion dollars worldwide, Ben. Just going to throw that out there. Let's just let's just remember on the original Raiders the Lost Ark, she's a production assistant.
00:08:11
Speaker
And every one of these franchises you named has been driven by a different creative mind. It's Steven Spielberg. It's George Lucas. She's been in a producing role. That's great. Again,
00:08:22
Speaker
how much of of what those things are is attributable to her or to Robert Zemeckis for Back to the Future, to ah Barry Sonnenfeld, I think his name is, is for men in Black. yep um you know there's There's a lot going on there. And I think the the where I see people criticizing her is just that when um Star Wars kind of came into her tenure, right? It was this thing that Disney had purchased because they were trying to get the teenage boy audience back, right? Disney at the time was perceived as a brand that was really over indexed on princesses. And so they were like, well, how can we get boys? And so they bought star Wars, they bought Marvel.
00:09:05
Speaker
Um, 10 years later, ah they're going, we have a boy problem. You're like, how that possible? yeah You guys had like the most boy-friendly, teenage boy-friendly, ah um you know, franchises that you could possibly get your hands on. And, you know, that's happening under Kennedy's leadership. And, and you know, she's not shy about um progressive credentials and wanting to, you know, advance these different storylines and stuff like that.
00:09:33
Speaker
I'm not taking a point of view on like, should you agree with this or disagree with it or whatever, right? But you know if it if it does create some divisions in the 40% of America that doesn't sort of go for that, then you know you're your ah you know you're reducing your audience a little bit.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah.
Transition to Mandalorian Discussion
00:09:51
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know Ben, there are people that love The Last Jedi and then there are people that are wrong. Oh.
00:10:02
Speaker
We'll just leave it at that. We better pivot into talking about The Mandalorian or pretty much this whole show. you know And like I said, this show is going to go long. So let's talk about Mandalorian
Recap of 'The Marshal' Episode
00:10:11
Speaker
2.1. two one And I realized I forgot to generate the the the synopsis of it. So just off the top of my head, it's called The Marshall. It was written and directed by Jon Favreau.
00:10:25
Speaker
And, um you know, we see Tatooine, we see Cobb Vanth, we see a Krayt Dragon, we see some pretty amazing things and have a pretty big adventure. So, Phil, let's start with you. What are your thoughts on Mandalorian 2.1?
00:10:42
Speaker
I really liked it. I think going into ah the second season, I had heard some rumblings that, you know, it's not as good as the first. It maybe has some mixed fan reactions, I think, especially in the third. But I really liked this first episode. You know, it is I'm going to say this a lot.
00:10:59
Speaker
very Western. Uh, I, some particular highlights, Timothy Oliphant, so good. His origin story. So cool. Um, Tusken Raiders.
00:11:11
Speaker
Great. Loved that. Um, love the town folk and the Tusken Raiders coming together. um I loved the climax of this movie. I love the aspect, the rate, uh, aspect ratio change at the very end of the episode as well.
00:11:27
Speaker
Um, There's some really exciting things in here. I will say, maybe it was just sort of my state of mind when watching it, but Ben has talked about a little bit how some of the Western references are a little too on the nose. yeah Again, I really liked this episode, but I felt from the first time in watching this that I was like, I'm getting a little tired of the like very direct Western allusions, I should say. yeah But overall, I really liked it.
00:11:53
Speaker
Yeah, interesting. Ben, what are your thoughts?
Cobb Vanth & Tusken Raiders
00:11:56
Speaker
I really enjoyed the introduction of the town marshal Cobb Vanth. I mean, is is there too much Western in there? I don't know. But if you're going to do it, that's the guy to do it with. Timothy Oliphant really sells that role.
00:12:11
Speaker
Really thought it was interesting how they kind of sidestepped the inevitable duel between the Mandalorian and the town marshal over their armor. ah By giving them a new ah new enemy. um I think we've learned more about the Tusken Raiders in this episode than we've ever learned in however many 40 or 50 or however many years of Star Wars we've got now because they were all the way back there in A New Hope. and Right.
00:12:37
Speaker
You know, essentially they've been just kind of ciphers for desert people who will attack you on site and you don't really know a lot about them. But this time we get to know that, you know, you can bargain with these guys. You can make common cause and so forth.
00:12:51
Speaker
So I thought that was a lot of fun. And of course, all of this stuff with the Krayt Dragon and the big, you know, fight with that thing, it was just amazing. And it it i won't say it was like Jaws, but I liked the, there's this moment when they, when they,
00:13:08
Speaker
when the Krayt Dragon comes out and you think it's going to eat a Bantha and it eats the guy instead, this yes the Tuscan. And you're like, oh this isn't like just some idiot creature that can be like led around. This is going to be a real thing. You know what i mean? It's it's crafty.
00:13:20
Speaker
Yeah. I did make the note that there were a lot of allusions back to Jaws, but mostly in in the suspense. I thought, you know, the suspense of the giant monster, like, where is it? We know it's somewhere underneath and we don't know where it's going to come out.
00:13:35
Speaker
We know it's coming. There are really, really great moments of suspense in this. You know, i I started off writing the note before I started watching it again. This is one of my favorite episodes ever of The Mandalorian.
Reintroducing Expanded Universe Elements
00:13:48
Speaker
I remember that before we even started looking at it. And yeah, for all of the reasons that you guys cited, I mean, Timothy frickin' Oliphant.
00:13:56
Speaker
um And cast as Cobb Vanth. So it's interesting with this, you know, while I was taking my notes on this episode, I coined the term Favroni.
00:14:09
Speaker
which is Favreau and Filoni working together. One of the things I love about what they've done is when Disney bought Star Wars and they basically said, okay, all of the stuff that is in the extended universe is not canon anymore.
00:14:31
Speaker
and There was a huge outcry from a lot of people, right? but And people were really upset about that. I didn't really care because I think most of the extended universe stuff was mid. But the thing was, was what they were really saying was, we're going to keep the good stuff that works and we're going to get rid of the stuff that doesn't work. And we're not going to be beholden to you know, what Kevin J. Anderson wrote 20 years ago and made me throw a book across the room. Literally, that happened.
00:15:02
Speaker
And so I love that. can youe yeah can you Can you just explain for a moment what the expanded universe is and yeah why that was a big deal when that changed? Yeah, the expanded universe was basically any Star Wars content that came out that wasn't the movies.
00:15:17
Speaker
Or Lucas famously said, like, what counts as official Star Wars storytelling is the movies and the radio shows. Anything out of that, the comic but you know the comic books that weren't direct adaptations, even even the novel adaptations, was not considered canon. you know For example, in the Return of the Jedi novelization, ah they make the point that Uncle Owen is actually Ben's, Obi-Wan Kenobi's brother.
00:15:48
Speaker
And that they had a falling out and that's why they don't really like each other. And then of course we find out in episode three, no, he was Anakin's stepbrother. So, you know, like that's the type of stuff. So anything with that, but really the, the extended universe really hit in, um,
00:16:08
Speaker
When Timothy Zahn wrote the Heir to the Empire books, that's where he introduced the character of Admiral Thrawn. That first trilogy of books is great. There's some stuff in there that's not so good, but it's really, really great.
Boba Fett's Armor & Portrayal
00:16:20
Speaker
And that really kind of started this the Star Wars renaissance that happened in the early ninety s um And there was a lot of those stories that were kind of built on each other too. I mean, the idea. Yeah, that's right.
00:16:31
Speaker
Yeah. ha And Leah had twins and Luke Skywalker meets up with someone named Mara Jade. and They have, and they have families. There's like multiple generations of, of, of stuff. And it's all different authors that are building up.
00:16:45
Speaker
Yes. Right. Kind of a corpus. And that all goes away at some point. Yeah. But this is the thing again, it's like, they're they're not they're not saying none of this happened or whatever. They're basically saying we're going to pick and choose the parts that are good. And so that's why we've we've seen Thrawn again. That's why we've seen a few other things. Cobb Vanth,
00:17:09
Speaker
is one of those people. Although actually I think, so Cobb Vanth started in the aftermath books, which I think actually are posted Disney acquisition. thus So those are considered Canon, right? But still they changed the origin story a little bit. He, he was Boba Fett's armor. He was the Marshall who wore Boba Fett's armor. Right.
00:17:31
Speaker
And um again, I think, well, I went really down a tangent on that, but still, I think Timothy Oliphant is fantastic in that role. And he's one of my favorite characters in The Mandalorian. We're gonna see him again.
00:17:45
Speaker
Oh, we will? Oh, great. Okay, good. I wasn't sure if wasn't a one and done type scenario. So that's great. Yeah, yeah he's he's great. um Remember at the end of our last podcast, I promised Phil a really good cameo at the very beginning. It wasn't Timothy Oliphant. The one that I was thinking of was Gore Koresh, the one-eyed alien who Mandalorian winds up stringing up, voiced by John Leguizamo.
00:18:11
Speaker
That's who it was. i was like, his voice sounds so familiar. And i forgot to look up who it was and I couldn't place it. But I was like, as soon as I heard the voice, I immediately knew. this was somebody that I would recognize. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Sure.
00:18:25
Speaker
um There were some other things in this episode that i just love. One thing that I think is really funny is, again, the return of um of Peli and ah back to her hangar bay. I think it's hangar bay three five. um It seems like her hangar bay is the reject home of all of the old Lars homestead droids. So we see R5 before in this one. i think in the next episode we see Treadwell, who was the very first droid that we ever saw Luke playing with. um That's just a... She's got a Gronk droid too, doesn't she? Yeah, yeah yeah she's got she's got a whole bunch of stuff. That will continue to emerge as we run back to her from time to time. um The biggest deep cut on this, which again, so this was a fun deep cut because...
00:19:17
Speaker
It didn't really matter with the plot. At the very end, when they're harvesting the Krayt Dragon and the one picks up the the big sphere,
Easter Eggs & Speculations on Boba Fett
00:19:26
Speaker
right? It looks like a big pearl.
00:19:28
Speaker
That's called Krayt Pearl. And that was from the Knights of the Old Republic series. ah video game, you know, 20 plus years old, you would you would kill a Krayt Dragon and you would harvest that. And that thing actually was made of kyber so you could use it to jack up your lightsabers. was really cool. Again, that was just like a friendly nod to people who are super fans as opposed to being something that you really should know about, like the Darksaber.
00:19:53
Speaker
So I love that. And how can we how can we leave this episode without talking about the very end, the coda? Yeah, who was that? Oh boy, here we go.
00:20:05
Speaker
Is this another deep cut that I don't know because I didn't watch the 2004 episode seven? This is a character in the Clone Wars. You watched episode one, episode two, and episode three, right?
00:20:17
Speaker
Did you watch episode two, Attack of the Clones? Of what you mean? Star Wars episode two, the movie. Oh, the movie. Attack of the Clones. Yeah, but it's been um it's been a while. Okay. for For our listeners, you know, the whole conceit of this is that I haven't watched a lot. I haven't watched these in quite as as depth as Bob and Ben have. So I've seen it, I'm sure in my youth, multiple times, but it's probably been between 10 and 15 years since I've seen that movie.
00:20:44
Speaker
That's fair. Well, this is all I'll point out to you because first off, many of our listeners are screaming at you right now into their ah into their phones or whatever they're listening to. This the whole premise of the episode. is that That's right. Yeah, right. It is. it is um That character at the end was played by Tamora Morrison, who also in Star Wars Episode II played Jango Fett.
00:21:08
Speaker
Oh. Jango Fett was the source, ah that the seed source of the DNA of all the clones. And Boba Fett was basically the first clone that they you know gave to him as his son, as his payment for for being that. So that's all we know for sure.
00:21:28
Speaker
So that guy in the desert bears a startling resemblance to who probably Boba Fett looks like. Whoa. yeah And and there are there is a whole ah book, I believe, right? it The Book of Boba Fett?
00:21:40
Speaker
so It's a series called The Book of Boba Fett. We will probably not be doing a rewatch of Book of Boba Fett. Although, to your earlier point, Ben, about the the Tuscans and the culture of the Tuscans, I thought The Book of Boba Fett started really strong when he was living with the Tusken Raiders, those first couple episodes. And we did see so much more about their culture. And I really, really loved that. And I thought, you know, that was a natural follow through from this episode. Yeah.
00:22:07
Speaker
Of the Mandalorian. um So I did love that. But then, know, Book of Boba Fett kind goes downhill from there. So, yeah. Could I throw a... Sorry, go ahead, Ben. I'll just i'll just add on. Remember that Boba Fett is the first guy we ever see anywhere in Star Wars wearing Mandalorian armor. That's what I was going to say. So there's some like lineage there too, right? 100%. Yeah. And he he kind of then sort of cast this shadow over our series where Djarin, the Mandalorian that we're familiar with at some point needs to kind of come into continuity and reckoning with this older Mandalorian tradition. yeah That's one of the things that without giving anything away, I think we're going see a little bit more of in season two is is what happens when we get more Mandalorians and community and not just when they're all part of the same enclave as as Din Djarin was with ah the armor and the others that we met in the season one.
00:22:57
Speaker
Well, we've got to go, we are we can't end again. This is the same time saying we can't end without talking about this, but we've already been 10 minutes over. So I do want to bring this up. One of the things I love the most about this is twice, we saw the missile coming out of Boba Fett's backpack. yeah and for a kid who you know was obsessed with Star Wars toys in the 1970s, Phil, if you don't know this story is ah Kenner toys who made the figures famously offered, it was probably about a year before the empire strikes back came out that you could send away box tops for the first character from star Wars, the empire strikes back. And it was Boba Fett. Nobody knew who he was or what he was, but it was a Boba Fett action figure. And he was supposed to have a rocket firing backpack and you could actually fire the rockets. Yeah. out of the backpack. But then from the time that they announced that to the time they actually released these, some kid with the Battlestar Galactica toy shot a ah missile down his throat and choked. And so that brought a whole new level of safety to toy manufacturing. And so when the Boba Fett figure actually came out,
00:24:14
Speaker
No rocket. It was there, but it was glued in. You couldn't do anything about it. So for a kid like me, actually seeing that missile finally come out of the backpack, very fulfilling.
00:24:24
Speaker
not yes That is great. And again, another sort of like Easter egg, I think that clearly Favreau and Filoni know. That's right. I know we're over. I just want to shout shout out two things. One i liked and one I'm questioning.
00:24:39
Speaker
So I wrote in all caps as I was watching this yesterday. It spits acid. And I was like, that was so, that was so amazing. That was so, right so cool.
00:24:50
Speaker
Loved that. Um, and then I wrote, um, you know, Mando says this once or twice, but but essentially he's like, he's trying to hand off the child to his people, like his kind, right? His like yeah species like him. I'm a little like iffy on that. Cause it that sort of seems to be the narrative driving force thus far for season two. And I'm wondering, like, it it seems a little, it doesn't quite seem to align with where he left it at the end of season one in terms of his relationship with the child. Maybe that'll change. you know I'm sure it will change obviously as the season progresses, but, I'm surprised that he's trying to maybe not get rid of, but it seems to like like part with the child. So I'm just curious where that's going to go as season two evolves.
00:25:32
Speaker
Well, your intuition is serving you well with that. the The one thing that I will point out is because he he brings it up on this episode or maybe the next one, but I think it's this one, is he's been quested by the Armorer to do that.
00:25:46
Speaker
So he kind of has an obligation to do that. Yeah. Okay. So we'll leave it at that. All right. And we'll leave this exceptionally long for a storm trooper episode um at that. So never introduced you guys, but Ben Dyer, Phil Salmo, as always, thank you for being here. It's been a pleasure to our listeners. Thanks for hanging with us this long.
00:26:09
Speaker
We'll see you next week with Mandalorian season two, episode two. Until then, may the Force be with you.