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CLL 47 - The Mandalorian & Grogu Super Show
28 Plays10 days ago
STAR WARS IS BACK ON THE BIG SCREEN — and Captains’ Logs & Lightsabers is HERE FOR IT.
This might be the most current episode we’ve ever recorded. No waiting for the discourse to settle, no catching up after the fact — Chris and Jonathan both saw The Mandalorian & Grogu twice before sitting down to record, and they had thoughts.
Before diving into the movie, Chris swings by with a Toypalooza debrief — let’s just say his inner Ferengi was very active at the toy fair — plus exciting news about joining a panel at 3 Rivers Comic Con for a discussion on 60 years of Star Trek. Jonathan shares some real-world career news and recaps the ongoing saga of weekly bar trivia with Kylie.
Then: the main event.
The hosts deliver a thorough spoiler-light breakdown with no plot points discussed, but the completely spoiler-averse may want to return to the episode later — what landed, what didn’t, and why they still walked out of that theater grinning like it was 2019 all over again. (Spoiler warning clearly flagged, don’t worry.) Then, for those who’ve seen it: stay tuned. Chris and Jonathan go beat by beat through the whole film, from the quasi-in-media-res cold open straight through to the finale.
New Star Wars in theaters for the first time in seven years. We had to show up. Pull up a chair.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction/Cinema Experience
4:40 Chris’ Toypalooza Acquisitions
10:05 3 Rivers Comic Con Updates
16:45 Jonathan Career Updates
24:00 Bar Trivia Exploits
30:05 Spoiler-Free Discussion
52:00 Spoiler Warning / Open Discussion
1:57:00 Wrap-Up & Outro
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Transcript
Introduction and Initial Thoughts on New Star Wars Movie
00:00:00
Speaker
Captain's log. consn solo I'm Captain Millennium Falcon. This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise.
00:00:18
Speaker
in on secure channel.
00:00:31
Speaker
You're listening to Captain's Logs and Lightsabers. Hey, welcome to Captain's Logs and Lightsabers. This is episode 47 of the podcast with Feast of Fandoms that discusses both Star Trek and Star Wars in a single show. My name is Jonathan, and I am one of the two hosts of this program.
00:00:53
Speaker
Joining me as he does every episode is my co-host, Chris Stow. How's it going, man? I'm doing great, Jonathan. It's good to talk to you. Looking forward to another good show with you.
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So we're coming back and recording a lot closer in between episodes than we usually do. Well, I don't know. Why would that be, Chris? Why do why do you think we we're we're here recording tonight on on May 24th?
00:01:21
Speaker
Oh, something special happened in the Star Wars universe a couple days ago. So we finally got to release a first Star Wars movie in theaters in seven years. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal.
00:01:33
Speaker
Yes, it is. You know, it's it's always special to to go and, I mean, to go away onto a big screen to see all those Star Wars ships and characters and watching the ships jump into hyperspace. It's not the same as it is on the TV. It's so much better on the big screen. So it's exciting. Plus we had tie in with Burger King. So we actually got to go and splurge on fast food for the last month to go and buy collectibles.
00:01:58
Speaker
invari Yeah, yeah. You know, yeah. For sure. so as as you know, as we are sitting down and recording this episode, Chris and I have seen the movie each two times. yeah I know you saw it on Friday night for the first time and you said you saw that at your local Cinemark. yeah What format did you go? Did you go to Cinemark XD or?
00:02:22
Speaker
No, we just did a standard format at that point. um To be honest with you, I wasn't sure if Brandy was going to want to go my wife. Yeah. And I kind of was right about that. She went for me, but she fell asleep during it was snoring. Yeah. Oh, geez.
00:02:41
Speaker
ahha but then the next day i went with my star trek club the uss stella perrata through starfleet international we went to amc in the waterfront which is in homesteadpa and we saw it in standard because everybody's you know finances you are different from the others so we just kept it simple Sure.
00:03:00
Speaker
but it was so it was But it was great. The first time I saw it, it was I had a little hard time following it. I don't know if it was because I was tired or because I didn't have my glasses on, so I didn't see it as focused as I'd like. But watching it the second time, it things a lot of things became more crystal clear.
00:03:17
Speaker
You know, so it it was it was it i the way you and I talked about this offline here, but it's this isn't the best Star Wars movie that was ever made, but it's a very fun popcorn summer movie that I think people will really enjoy.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, for certain. And, you know Chris and I are are certainly looking forward to giving you all of our thoughts, especially after each, you know, having the opportunities to see it twice. You know, you always, you always, i always love to see a Star Wars movie at least two times on the big screen before I make a, you know, like a final judgment on what my thoughts are. And, you know, and and and whenever possible, I do try to get in a third screening, especially if I really like it. But...
00:04:02
Speaker
But yeah, Chris and I are are really looking forward to breaking down our thoughts. We'll give you our, you know, we'll give you our our attitudes more, you know, after the first time we saw it, we'll go into detail on what we'd like to, you know, the second time that we saw it, we will have a brief spoiler-free discussion, just giving you our spoiler-free thoughts. But we will eventually move into full spoilers when we talk about the specifics of the plot. So we'll give you plenty of warning and let you know when the spoilers commentary
Personal Events and Toy Collections
00:04:35
Speaker
begins. So that way, if you haven't seen it yet, you can go see it unspoiled and then come back and listen to our show after you've seen it. So...
00:04:43
Speaker
But before we get into any of that, we're just going to play a little catch up because it's been about three weeks since we last recorded. So things have happened, you know, of of note for both of us. So, Chris, why don't you let us know how things have been for you, irl sure So besides just working and just, you know, being married, you know, like, just like, you know, so the really the two things have, have come up that were a lot of fun. So on Saturday, May 9th, we, there was a show at the Monroeville Convention Center called Toypalooza.
00:05:20
Speaker
And it's it's just basically, it's a toy show for a vintage toys. Yeah. You know, and it was a it was a lot of fun. there were either there It was kind of overwhelming because there were row upon row upon row of of vendors.
00:05:34
Speaker
A lot of fun. But I did pick up a lot of fun things. a So there were two big things I picked up and in a bunch of little things. One of the main little thing that I picked up was back when I was a little kid, when DuckTales was on the air.
00:05:48
Speaker
and but play school I think it was either Play School or Hasbro, one or the other, but they had these stuffed animals of the the the ducks. And they each one of them had their name written ah on their shirt.
00:06:01
Speaker
And I always wanted one. in When else was in first grade, I wanted to do it. Really, really bad. And, but my dad was like, no, you guys aren't getting them. And, you know, I threw a big fit and all of that kind of stuff. So I never got the Dewey one that I ever wanted, but I found a Huey one Toypalooza and I got it for 10 bucks.
00:06:20
Speaker
nice It wasn't in its box or anything, but to finally have one of them with the name on the shirt, I was so excited to finally get one of those. And other little things, I picked up some loose action figures from different franchises here and there. The big things I picked up was I got a complete 1993 bridge play set of the Enterprise D from Playmates.
00:06:41
Speaker
So marries my twin brother, Matt, always had one. He wouldn't let me play with it when we were kids. obsessed with that thing. Matt, Matt, come on, man now it's in Now it's in pieces somewhere at my parents' house. if you know Now I have one, and it's so I have to assemble it and put it together, and that'll be fun. so And then I also got from 1996, there was a release from Playmates from the classic s Star Trek line of the Galileo shuttlecraft, and it came with an exclusive Captain Kirk figure from his Where No Man Has Gone Before uniform. So that's still sealed in its box. So I was very excited to get one of those, you know, so I don't know where I'm goingnna put everything. I keep bringing stuff into the house and I'm running out of room. Starting to become the point where they're now going into totes in storage in the basement.
00:07:32
Speaker
Uh-huh. No more room at the private office either? I'm running out of space there, too. Yeah, I've collected more over the years than I probably should have, but it's fun.
00:07:43
Speaker
Yeah. You know? Gotta have fun in life. So, yeah but yeah, those are my big things. And, you know, you're picking this stuff up at, like, Toy Fair, so you're not necessarily paying full retail price.
00:07:55
Speaker
Right. Right. Absolutely. So, but yeah, those were nice little things to bring some nostalgia back. There will be another palooza show at the Monroeville convention center in September.
00:08:07
Speaker
So that's something to look forward to, especially since I'm going to be missing steel city con in August, because I said in the last show that weekend I'll be in Vegas for the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. So, you know, least I'll get to go back to the convention center for another show, you know, shortly after.
00:08:25
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, nice. Nice. Right, right, right. Yeah, that'll be good. You know, you get to... ah Because essentially, Toypalooza a lot like Steel City Con's vendor floor. It's just... Yes.
00:08:38
Speaker
It doesn't necessarily just focus on highlighting toys based on the guests that are there at the at the at Steel City Con. You know it's a kind of a... yeah They have toys of all types, of and of all fandoms and...
00:08:54
Speaker
varieties. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, it was, there was Star Wars stuff all over the place. Trying to find Star Trek stuff, like, hard, but Star Wars everywhere. It was like a bomb went off.
00:09:07
Speaker
Oh, I'm sure. Vintage and stuff from when we were kids and current stuff, and yeah, was it was something. I mean, Star Wars is probably the most lucrative merchandise franchise of all time.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, just the ah the sheer amount of individual pieces of things that are branded with Star Wars or you know cross promotion with Star Wars. You know, there's there's a reason why people like Steve Sansweet and Rancho Obi-Wan have like hundreds, you know over 100,000 pieces. I may even be you know selling them short for the number of unique pieces they have of oh Star Wars memorabilia.
00:09:50
Speaker
oh Oh, I can imagine. Yeah. I mean, there's no way anybody can collect all that. Everything that's out there. just, it's limitless. You know what? Steve Sansweet tries, man. I don't know. like Yeah. We'll give him a, you know, a you know, he's giving him his kudos. He's done a really good job. If anyone, collect if anyone can collect everything, it's him.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. But that yeah, that was one thing. And then so on Saturday, June 6th and Sunday, June 7th, my Star Trek club, again, the USS Stella Parada through Starfleet International will be going to Three Rivers Comic Con at
Chris's Panel Invitation and Challenges
00:10:29
Speaker
the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh. And we do that show every year. One of the reasons is for recruitment for the ship, but also because we participate in earning money for the the convention's charity of choice, which is called Extra Life. And what Extra Life does is earn money for kids for pediatric cancer. One of the things I heard that they do also is like get video game systems for kids who are in the hospital. They have things to do. And all of that money is donated through, to i believe it's Pittsburgh Children's Miracle Network.
00:11:02
Speaker
at all It's all connected or whatever in some way. So we have activities and stuff planned that we're going to be doing. And what but the one thing that's unique about it is our sister ship that's in, I believe, in Westmoreland County. if The USS Solstice is also – they always attend the there as well. and Oh, i was okay.
00:11:22
Speaker
I did not know that there was a ah ship based in Westmoreland County. where Whereabouts? i know they I believe they're in the Jeanette area, if I remember correctly. Okay. mean, that's not far. Yeah. So they're the USS Solstice. And there was also another ship in PA not too far from us called the USS Venture. But I believe they broke they recently broke up, if you see what I heard. But the Solstice, they their crew was asked to do – we come like What are they called? a panel.
00:11:52
Speaker
they were They were asked to do a panel on the history of Star Trek for the 60th anniversary, including a discussion of how Star Trek influenced technology that we have now in the 21st century. And I was asked to actually join in and participate in that panel. So this will be the first time I've actually participated on stage in an actual panel for a con.
00:12:15
Speaker
So that's going to be my con. yeah Yeah. Congratulations. That's huge, man. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. So, yeah yeah, so I was assigned a certain era of Star Trek to be the one talk about. And it's um it's the era that I'm not very familiar with. So I have to do some research. It's all...
00:12:34
Speaker
Discovery, Strange New Worlds, those ones. So, but I mean, i and there's a there's more than enough material out there. I can i can find some information. to Sure.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah. know so yeah So do you happen to know, like, will someone be allowed to record that panel? Or does does Three Rivers Comic reserve the recording rights or...
00:12:59
Speaker
Because that would be great to publish that panel on the Feast of Phantoms YouTube if we could get a recorded copy. I will – you know what? I will follow up and ask the the people at the convention if that's possible. I will also ask the – the captain of the of the Solstice is actually the one who's like taking lead on this. He's going to put most of the of the PowerPoint together. So I'll ask him if that's what if they're going to record it professionally in some way, and I'll get back to you.
00:13:27
Speaker
Sounds good. Yeah. And I mean, we're happy to give credit where credit's due and shout them out. Of course. Absolutely. Absolutely. And if you're ever interested in information on the solstice, you could go on to, or the Starfleet International's website is www.fsfi.org.
00:13:44
Speaker
So if you're ever interested in wanting join a ship closer to you, there's, you know, there's information about the solstice and they have their own website. So if you're ever interested. Oh, very nice.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah. That, sounds actually quite lovely hook to look. Yeah. I'll certainly take a look. S F I what? in Dot. Dot. Dot.
00:14:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's the official that's the official website for Starfleet International. And anybody out there listening, there are 20 different regions around the world of Starfleet. It's all over the planet. And, you know, just find an area, your area, of what region it is, and go on their website. they're On there, you'll see a list of regions. You go on there, and they'll have all the chapters listed, and you can see all the different ships that you can join in your area.
00:14:31
Speaker
Okay, very cool.
00:14:36
Speaker
SFI.org doesn't come up with anything. There's sfi there's database. That's interesting. let's say Maybe they did some changes. i know that for the Let me me see if I can pull it up here on my phone.
00:14:48
Speaker
It's always been www.sfi.org. Let me see. www.sfi.org.
00:14:56
Speaker
dot or Huh. They must have changed it. I know that they did they just revamped the ah Starfleet Academy website where you can actually, as as a member of Starfleet International, you can actually do take classes. Free classes about different things. And they call it Starfleet Academy. Let me let me just type in Starfleet International. Maybe they changed it.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah. Starfleet International. Fan club. Okay. Okay. Oh, is this it? Yeah, they changed it. It's now Starship. It's StarshipKid, K-I-D-D, dot org.
00:15:36
Speaker
Huh. Wait a minute. Is that? Wait minute. Region. No, that's not it. That's the region, a region three. Huh. Okay. Yeah. Something changed. Wow.
00:15:48
Speaker
Okay. So ignore everything I just said until I find out what's going on. I had no clue. Yeah. I was just on sci-fi.org a couple days ago.
00:15:59
Speaker
So that's that's, wow. Okay. That is wild. Yeah. All right. Well, that's awesome. Again, you know we're getting back on track, that's awesome that you are going to be part of the panel. Yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
But yeah, I'm looking forward to hopefully if we at least watching you on the panel if we're not able to get ah ah you know record a copy for Feast of Phantoms. But yeah either way, yeah I definitely want to watch your panel.
00:16:28
Speaker
Absolutely. I'll see what I can do for you. Definitely. All right. so What's been going on with you? Well, let's see.
Jonathan's Summer Salary Challenges
00:16:39
Speaker
It's work has been interesting.
00:16:43
Speaker
oh a lot of behind the scenes stuff, but I think, I don't know if if I mentioned the last time we recorded that we're off again in the summers.
00:16:53
Speaker
Yes. Okay. And well, it essentially, you know, when, when they laid us off for the summer, you know, that's seven weeks that we don't work.
00:17:06
Speaker
We're taking a pay cut. Based on what our salary is set at for the position that we do. Okay. So, you know, essentially, you know, you take what we earn over the course of seven weeks and that's, that's a pretty significant pay cut.
00:17:22
Speaker
Well, we had a meeting where our, the, the, basically the heads of our agency came and told us that, you know, we're, you know, the the pay rate is staying the same and we all spoke up.
00:17:37
Speaker
Like, Hey, you know, that's not cool. Like, you know, we were hired at a certain rate for, and a salary for the job that we do. And you're making us take a pay cut all because you don't want us working over the summer.
00:17:52
Speaker
hold So ultimately it came back and our, you know our team leadership, the, the, you know our direct management advocated for us. A lot of the people with Westmoreland County, like the children's programming division worked with, you know, they, they advocated for us with the head of the behavioral health department. And, we found out on Wednesday that we, the program is fully funded and we're getting our salary. So when we come back in August, our hourly will go up to, you know, adjust accordingly.
00:18:28
Speaker
Oh, good. Good. ahead i'm glad to hear that because there's nothing scarier than hearing that something's going happen with pay. know Right. Yeah. Especially, you know, with with the current state of things and how the the prices on and everything have just skyrocketed recently.
00:18:43
Speaker
over Absolutely. It's going to be hard for this. It's going to be hard being off over the summer with, you know, only making about 45% of what I'm used to. Yeah, that's a rough one.
00:18:55
Speaker
yeah Yeah, but I'll figure it out. This is not going to be a downer. You know, where this is of an episode. this It's going to work out. Everything's going to be great. I'm going to figure it out, and I'm still going to have fun this summer, you know, and enjoy as many of those seven weeks off as I can. Absolutely. Yeah, and you need to mean look at at it this way. if you If you can't get out and do a whole bunch of stuff, at least you're you're regenerating yourself for the new year.
00:19:20
Speaker
so which is True. Which is invaluable for what you do. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you probably don't get nearly as much time. Not really. When started private practice, I was told I should take at least three vacations a year. Yeah. reading Because it's just you get you get burnout very quickly.
00:19:41
Speaker
For sure. and But, you know, with a trip coming up to Vegas and we're actually the Stella Prada is talking about going to the recently announced vacation. Creation Entertainment started a convention in Philadelphia in November. Oh, so okay. we're talking about that being a crew road trip. And so that's going to cost more money too. So I got to work. And then when i'm and then um when I'm in Vegas, I'm going to be missing almost a week and a half, two weeks work.
00:20:07
Speaker
know And being self-employed, I have no PTO, no sick time. So when I don't work, I get zip. So, you know, it's going to be a lot of building up and trying to keep ahead of things until August.
00:20:22
Speaker
do Yeah. Do you still keep in contact with Matt Yatsko from Cal? Yes, absolutely. I mean, I know they they take a lot of vacations. He and his wife are both therapists and they they take a lot of vacations. so Yeah.
00:20:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah yeah yeah. You have to, because when in in that kind of line of work, you have to, as a therapist, you're not just listening and going, how does that make you feel? a lot of Active listening can fry your brain.
00:20:51
Speaker
It really can, because you've really got to narrow in, listen to what they're saying. You've got to be able to try to reformulate whether or word back to them what they're saying. You have to formulate the therapy while in the middle of what them talking, while you're deciding what you're going to say to them, oh what activities. And it can be it can be it can be very draining.
00:21:09
Speaker
i know the night you know There are times I'm so exhausted and and just wiped. I love what I do, but it can be it's a lot of mental work that can be very draining. So and I'm sure yours is too.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And in much the same way that you... hear about a lot of people's problems. I ask a lot of questions about mental health symptoms. And, you know, I i hear stories of, you know, kids, you know, personal struggles with mental health and with suicidal thoughts or, you know, or trauma abuse. You know, I i i hear it all.
00:21:52
Speaker
So, yeah. absolutely. Plus, and in your case manager role, you have to be the one that knows all the services out in the community if you need to make any referrals to anybody. Exactly.
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah. You know, not easy. No, no, not at all. And then, you know, the throughout the year, you know, if i if I meet with a family at the start at the at the start of the school year, I'm working with them the whole rest of the school year, you know, until June or whenever it ends, you know.
00:22:21
Speaker
So, yeah ah you know, the parents, you know, needs come up from time to time where, you know, I'm going to, I have to provide resources and referrals and, you know, sometimes I'll have to provide, you know, a lot of support.
00:22:33
Speaker
Or, you know, I might need to refer to, other you know, county programs. okay Oh, definitely. Yeah. and And your clients are going to expect that, you know, every single thing in this entire county and beyond.
00:22:47
Speaker
and So, yeah. So it's it's a lot of work doing the research and having putting, you know, notes and folders together and knowing where you can go to access things. and For sure.
00:22:57
Speaker
People don't realize how how much that can, how hard that can be. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So moral of the story is take that vacation, take that PTO, you know, what's the point of hanging on to it if, you know, especially in in a high, in a field where there's high burnout, high turnover.
00:23:16
Speaker
Absolutely. You're absolutely right. You know?
Trivia and Movie Discussions
00:23:20
Speaker
So, good yeah, so that's, that's how things are going from a ah work and career perspective personally.
00:23:28
Speaker
we've I think I've talked a few times about going to bar trivia every Thursday night at a local microbrewery. So far, we we've gone every week this month in May that they've had trivia. So next week is the last week of, you know, I'm sorry, this coming week rather is, you know, this coming Thursday is the last week in the month. And as of right now, we are the top team for the month.
00:23:54
Speaker
Oh, nice. How many people are on your team? ah Most of the time, it's just me and Kylie. Occasionally, our friend Sarah will join us when she's free because you know she she has a baby, so she's not always free.
00:24:09
Speaker
or you know She may have things for the baby. She still has a personal life, you know, too. So she doesn't always join us. But oh yeah. So, yeah, some sometimes we have two or most of the time it's just Kylie and I. She'll join us. Sometimes she'll bring a friend as well, you know, to to make, you know, to be the fourth on our team. So, yeah, yeah we have two, three or four people on the team. But the thing is, we regularly hold our own very, very well against a team that consists of like eight people.
00:24:40
Speaker
OK. So even if it's just the two of us, we're holding our own, you know, but as far as, you know, we're almost, we may not win every single week, but we always get a high amount of points, almost always get a high amount of points.
00:24:55
Speaker
So, you know, when you, when you look at the monthly, we tend to, you know, we, we tend to rank pretty well in the monthly standings. Yeah. Well, that's wonderful. But this, we were yeah,
00:25:09
Speaker
I think we were in third place after the second week in May, and we were second place last week. This week, we should be first place because the one week, the team of eight wasn't there. Okay.
00:25:27
Speaker
And then last week, the team that was in first place like as of last Thursday, wasn't there this past Thursday. So, and we got 40 out of a total of, I think, forty we got 40 out of 44 points. So that catapults us into the lead against the team that was leading, but they missed last week. So Okay. basically Basically, we're going to win the monthly competition. we' We'll be number one in the standings for the monthly as long as we don't bomb hard.
00:25:59
Speaker
Oh, gotcha. you guys if When you win, do you guys get trophies or anything? So if you win each week, you know, you each week, the first, second, and third place teams get a gift card for the microbrewery. And then if you win the monthly, you get, i want to say you get like 50,
00:26:17
Speaker
Normal prizes for every week are $20, $10, and $5 gift cards for first, second, third, respectively. And I want to say that the monthly is like a $50 gift card.
00:26:30
Speaker
Okay. Not bad. Not bad. And it's fun. You get out. It is You know? It is. This week was fun. so so the the way that this trivia works is he breaks it up into four rounds and each round has a category. So the questions all fit into a category.
00:26:51
Speaker
So, and round three is always a music round, but it's a themed music round. So like this week it was all hair metal bands was the music round. But the round before that round two was called, it was like, it was TV characters jobs.
00:27:08
Speaker
okay And one of the questions was, what is the job of Din Djarin in The Mandalorian? Okay. Oh, wow. I'm like, bo I know that one. Wouldn't have gotten any easier. Right.
00:27:24
Speaker
Well, it actually did get easier than that. What was Al Bundy's job was one of the questions. And I know you're a fan of Married with Children. yeah One of the others, what was what is...
00:27:38
Speaker
Well, what what was Norm's job in Cheers? Oh, okay. Was he an accountant? Yes. Yes, he was. Okay. At least until he got fired in the first season.
00:27:49
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah. And then he was just kind of, he floated between jobs, and then he was a professional bar fly, basically, for a while, where he just, all he did was sang out at the bar at Cheers.
00:28:01
Speaker
Oh, okay. Okay. always came in dressed professionally, so obviously he had you know, but yeah, he loved his beer. Yes. Yes, he certainly did.
00:28:14
Speaker
But yeah, yeah. So I'll let you know the next time we record, hopefully in June, what, you know, whether we want or not. Oh, please do. That'd be exciting. Good luck to you guys for that.
00:28:25
Speaker
Thanks. All right. What do you say we talk about the Mandalorian and Grogu? Sounds good to me. Don't get technical with me. Magic is the beginning of wisdom of Maris, not the end.
00:28:39
Speaker
A Jedi uses their force for knowledge and defense. All right. I don't really have much of a transition, so we're just going to get right into it. But again, yeah overall, just kind of give me 30 to 45 seconds spoiler-free thoughts on on on Mandalorian and Grogu after seeing it a couple times.
00:29:00
Speaker
So it it definitely keeps your attention. It's a it's a fast moving movie. So, and a lot of it, there was, it definitely follows up right where season three left off. I mean, you don't need to know everything that happened in season three, just, just some basics. So you know, the setup of it. And, you know, it was, it was fun to follow up on a, on a previous character from another movie, I guess you could say. And,
00:29:27
Speaker
I think it it honored the characters very well, and it it was a good story. And Sigourney Weaver, we that's not a spoiler. Everybody knows that she was in it. It was nice to see her in something that wasn't in movies. you know she She had a really good job and did a good job with her character as well. I thought it was well acted, and it keeps her attention. i think I think everybody's going to need to see it at least a second time to kind of keep up with whats everything that's going on and pick up on things. But it's definitely worth going for a couple times, you know, so love it.
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, i I also agree. I, especially after the second time of watching it, I thought it was, I thought it played better much, or I, yeah, I thought it played much better the second time seeing it because...
00:30:13
Speaker
You know, the the first one, you're so engrossed in trying to follow the story. i know, you know, at least at least when I watch it, I'm engrossed trying to follow the story and follow the main plot and the main beats of everything. And I'm not taking time necessarily to take in the everything that's happening, you know. So having that that opportunity to view it a second, even a third time, especially in in a theater I think it's, you know, I get to absorb more of the movie and and ah pay attention to more to things in the background and catch the references and stuff that, you know, you you may miss the first time around.
00:30:51
Speaker
Yes. You know, that's the that's the beauty of a Star Wars movie is there's there is often most in in practically every Star Wars movie, there is a lot of rewatchability.
00:31:02
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And this is one you're right. that If you you, as you watch it more and more, you're going to pick up on things, things hanging on the walls or, you know, little things that are said, little Easter eggs. It's going to be fun for people to just keep going back and watching and looking for that stuff. It was chalk for good things, you know? Yeah.
00:31:22
Speaker
You know, again, like I said before, it wasn't the best Star Wars movie that was ever made, but it's a lot of fun and it does a job for a good summer movie. Well, let's take that a little bit further. you know You say it's not the best Star Wars movie ever made. Let's let's yeah let's give some spoiler-free criticisms. what What didn't you like or what did you think may you know could have been better?
00:31:48
Speaker
some of the pacing in this, like the beginning of the second half of the movie is it went from being very action packed through a lot of the first half. And then it kind of just slowed down and we'll see. i mean, yeah the people out there will see it just kind of,
00:32:04
Speaker
In a certain part, it starts to slow down just for a little bit. It eventually picks back up again, and it's very action-packed at the end. But if just's its just you kind of slog through a small section of it.
00:32:16
Speaker
and I noticed even the second time when I rewatched it, it was I started to losing in focus. I started focusing on how to go to the bathroom more than the story. know So that was that was my biggest...
00:32:29
Speaker
thing as well. Plus, i don't think I don't think any story of Star Wars is ever going to really take place of like the Skywalker saga. I think those are so strong and so interesting, and like you just get drawn into it you know and it's and the and like Even though the characters in The Mandalorian are really, really good, I don't think they're ever going to be as iconic as what you know the regular original Star Wars movie characters were. so I think that's sometimes that it's just...
00:32:58
Speaker
you don't get dry dragged into their story as much maybe that's just my thought you know what i mean yeah i i see what you're saying i i will say that and you know if i am going to levy some criticism at mandalorian and grogu i would say that there are times where it certainly feels like it's you know while while favro and filoni you know swear that you know the the movie was it was written as a movie from concept to execution it still felt at times like it was a couple of you know like four episodes of the mandalorian stitched together uh-huh that's a point now now granted i'm not you know it did even though it did feel like you know like
00:33:52
Speaker
a few separate story arcs of the Mandalorian. I will say that it did feel more cinematic than the show. Like they did some pretty clever things with shot composition and camera angles that made it feel more cinematic in nature and and less like, you know, a TV show.
00:34:13
Speaker
I, I liked how, I liked the music for the most part. I think like Ludwig Goranson did a fantastic job of making the the you know, using the theme he created for the Mandalorian, you know, the ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba, all the different variations on that and the different arrangements throughout the movie. It it felt like it was, you know, a big screen
00:34:46
Speaker
adaptation of the Mandalorian. It felt like an episode of the show. and and ah i mean It felt like it belonged within the the show and in the established look and the aesthetic of the show.
00:34:57
Speaker
But yeah, it did it did feel a little too much maybe like the show, especially that third act you know that you know where you said it does slow down.
00:35:08
Speaker
Because pretty much acts, you know, like acts one and two of the movie or if you want to say episodes one and two of the movie were action packed pretty much nonstop. And then, you know, episode three kind of takes it back, slows it down. You know, it's almost like in a TV show where you have a bottle episode after episode.
00:35:28
Speaker
you know, you know, you have a bottle episode that's, that's lower cost, low, you know, less production, you know, less cost to produce because, you know, you blew your effects budget for the season in in the, the, you know, the, the two prior episodes, you know, yes it's like in the six season of deep space nine, where you have the dominion arc for those first five or six episodes. Yeah. and then they do the bottle episode, the very next episode where Worf and Dax get married.
00:35:55
Speaker
right know Not very special effects of full, and it was just on the sets. and you know yeah yeah But at the same time, that that third section of, or the you know the third act of Mandalorian and Grogu, really, yeah there was still, you could tell that there was, you know,
00:36:13
Speaker
budget put into it, at least as far as the the puppetry was concerned in that third act. Like, I mean, the puppet work in in the film is absolutely phenomenal.
00:36:25
Speaker
yeah And and i I appreciated a lot more the second time around. Yeah. but Again, because I was able to pay attention more to, you know, to the background stuff, to the things that you missed the first time around.
00:36:40
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. and And I'll be honest with you, even though that act three was kind of slow, there was character development. and For sure. You know, there was a lot of growth. And we'll talk about that later in the episode. But yeah, there was, it wasn't like pointless. It wasn't a pointless time in the movie. It was so important.
00:36:59
Speaker
Correct. Correct. There was character growth. I've seen some complaints about the, you know the characters don't learn any lessons or don't grow. I, I absolutely disagree wholeheartedly with that. yes There's, i would say that maybe the criticisms are valid. oh for as far as Mando, or you know, his growth is concerned or lack of growth in Din Djarin, but the other main characters in the film really have a lot of growth throughout Oh, especially Grogu.
00:37:29
Speaker
For sure. Yeah. And a lot of it happens in that slower third act. That's the ironic part. yeah Yeah, exactly. Exactly. you know, it's you, if you were watching this as a a season of the Mandalorian, you could hardly call this a filler episode. You know, act three, you can hardly call act three a filler episode. Yes.
00:37:52
Speaker
Yes. because it does advance the characters. It does create growth. It does, you know, it does have, know, the characters end in a different spot than they begin the act. Right.
00:38:03
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, yeah, I think, I think that the movie did its job for, you know, having a lot of fun, ah action packed adventure where you're cheering on your, your heroes and your, you get pissed off at the, at the baddies and you want them to, to lose. it It's true. It's typical. you know it just it kind of reminds me of like what George Lucas said about the original Star Wars. It was just supposed to be a fun movie, you know like a popcorn movie. And that's what it felt like to me. i mean me yeah I mean, I still would like to go back and see it a couple more times before it leaves theaters.
00:38:36
Speaker
you know For sure. I mean, and it's something it's something for people to look look forward to and have, you know, some fun with. I actually saw on Facebook earlier today, some random guy, sometimes i just see random things. And he he was taking his son who's 10 years old to his very first Star Wars movie. And this was it, you know, and that's going to be his special memory of the first time seeing Star Wars on the big screen. I think it's wonderful.
00:39:01
Speaker
You know, it's like for for me, my first one I saw as a kid was Star Trek five. Most people hate Star Trek five, but it's special to me because that was the first one I was old enough to see in theaters. Right. You know, and I'm sure you have yours, you know, or your Star yeah you star Wars movie, you know? So yeah this movie will be special to a group of kids, of people, you know,
00:39:23
Speaker
So, and it's also, again, one of those movies, you don't listen to the critics. They're always going to gripe and moan and groan about something. You have if you're going to go to a movie, you have to go into it with a clean slate and say, I'm going to just watch it for me and make my own decision.
00:39:37
Speaker
For sure. Yeah. And, ah you know, sometimes critics have a tendency to really,
00:39:48
Speaker
overanalyze a movie, right? this You know, this was not meant to be like, know, this was not meant to be a Skywalker saga movie. You know, you can, you can tell throughout, you know, there the spots where this felt more like a lower budget Star Wars movie, right? Yes. yeah it But the way that they, I think that even though it was a lower budget film and you can tell in some of the effects and some of the the shots that,
00:40:18
Speaker
don't look quite like they had the full, you know, might have ILM behind it. You know, the latest technology is making sure that it looked perfect and crisp.
00:40:30
Speaker
i I, you know, you can tell though that they spent every single penny of the budget on something. Yeah. right Whether it was the puppetry, whether it was the stop-motion animation, which you know that's he that's hella old school when it comes to Star Wars. and you know that That takes Star Wars back to its roots with the stop-motion animation.
00:40:54
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. and And I'll be honest, the first time that I saw the movie, there were times where that stop-motion, it pulled me out of it at first because it it was so...
00:41:08
Speaker
different than I yeah like, you know, you could tell that it was stop motion, but it almost looked a little janky at first until you kind of, you know, it did look a little janky and it looked like it was maybe not as crisp as it could have been. but i again, the second time it played just fine. And, you know, there's there's a couple, you know, there are a couple, know, there are a couple moments where Yeah, there there are a couple moments in the film where the stop motion, you know, you can tell it it's mostly stop motion. And both of both of the sequences look pretty good. I will say that the stop motion, the big stop motion sequence...
00:41:54
Speaker
in the the the second time around with those steampunk looking droids in, you know what I mean, right? Yeah. yeah That was clearly stop motion, but it I think it looked better because of the, the darker nature of the, the set.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah. It wasn't as jarring as, you know, the, the stop motion on the white sand and, you know, terrain that, on that planet in the opening act.
00:42:23
Speaker
oh here Absolutely. Absolutely. You know what? One thing, speaking of that opening act, it reminded me of, I always noticed, even when I was younger and all six of the first star Wars movies, before they move into the main story at the beginning of the movie, they always have a little side adventure that's going on and then it stops and then leads into the the main story.
00:42:45
Speaker
I saw that in this in this movie. That whole first opening was was exactly like that, and i thought that was really cool to have that again. you know Something thrilling and exciting that didn't necessarily have everything to do with the main movie, but got you encroached in what was going on with the characters.
00:42:59
Speaker
It kind of reintroduced that world. yeah Right. yeah that Yeah, that very first act was... a I mean, i guess you could call it a cold open, or... i mean, it's a filmmaking style, I believe, that you would call in-media res, where you're joining...
00:43:14
Speaker
something already in progress. yeah You know, it just drops you right into the story as it's ah happening. You know there is no setup. There is no, you know nothing leading up to it. It's just like, boom. It's like, we're right here. We're, we're starting off with the, you know, right in the middle of a conversation, essentially.
00:43:34
Speaker
Exactly. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, i believe in media res is the correct filmmaking technique to describe what what happened there. Okay, cool. that's like That's nice to know because I always wondered what that was.
00:43:47
Speaker
Yeah. and Yeah, but you can call it cold open, right? Because it did, ah you know, all of that sequence did occur before the credits rolled. Uh-huh. Absolutely. mean, we got, you know, we got the little text blurbs up on the screen. Can't call it a scroll because it wasn't a scroll. Yeah.
00:44:06
Speaker
ah Exactly. Exactly. You know what? It reminded me a lot of how Solo started. You know, you had those couple few sentences that displayed to kind of set the the the tone and set the set the scene, essentially.
00:44:19
Speaker
Absolutely. I agree. But yeah, overall, absolutely enjoyable. i am psyched that there's a new Star Wars movie in theaters. I am. I cannot wait to go back to see it a third time, maybe a fourth time. I mean, the beauty of it is the movie is going to be in theaters.
00:44:37
Speaker
I'm assuming through through the end of July. Right. That's know, that's going to give it a good 10 week run in the theater. I think that's perfect. I think. And and you know another thing about the movie and critics and and talking about all of that before we got – before we kind of tangented into more discussion of the movie, the the cinema score, which is – they interview people right – literally as they come out of the theater.
00:45:06
Speaker
they They talk to people and get like real-time reactions of people just walking out of the theater It's got an A-minus cinema score, which means the people that went to see it, that were interviewed, that were you know that were pulled after they walked out of the theater, had really good things to say about it. aha That's good. I'm glad to hear that.
00:45:27
Speaker
Yeah, and that generally garners good word of mouth. So I think the movie is going to continue to perform well. I was looking at the box office mojo numbers today before were recording. I don't know. I got into a little discussion on the Feast of Fandoms chat on Facebook. Yeah, a little back and forth with Garrett. Like, yeah you know, the movie worldwide has already made $165 million, dollars which is the production budget for the film.
00:45:56
Speaker
Now, you know, when when when you look at the production budget, almost almost ah reliably, you want to double that to be inclusive of marketing, reshoots, and all of that stuff. So $165 million dollars initial budget, double that, you're at, what, $330? So the the fact that the movie has made back production budget in three days of the opening weekend is pretty impressive. Yeah.
00:46:24
Speaker
I'm sorry, like the fact that I don't care what in adjusted for inflation, whether it's not doing as well as solo or an open less well than solo solo had its own problems with the marketing. Plus, you know, that was 2018 it's it's post pandemic it's post COVID, right?
00:46:43
Speaker
People aren't not everybody's flocking to the theaters right away, opening weekend to see movies. weve you know that The studios have finally got people convinced that you know the going to the theater is a necessity to see these movies because you know the the the window of time between theatrical release and when they appear on a streaming service has gotten significantly larger. We're talking like you know sometimes seven, eight months in between when theatrical and when it appears you know when this film is going to appear on Disney+. Yes.
00:47:18
Speaker
like You know, it was one, the fact that on a holiday weekend, Memorial Day weekend, in the first three days that the movie was in theaters, it made back production budget. That doesn't count today's numbers Sunday, the 24th. That doesn't count what the movie is going to make on Monday, Memorial Day. Right.
00:47:38
Speaker
There's still two more days part of that long weekend that's going to add to that opening. you know, even though it's not the technical opening weekend gross, it all matters. Every dollar spent matters.
00:47:49
Speaker
Absolutely. You're right. The biggest indicator, I think, and we really talk like box office numbers like this. so this is really this is really weird for us. its all It sure is. But we're going with it. we're We're rolling with it because this is where the conversation took us.
00:48:05
Speaker
ah It'll be interesting to see how it performs in its second weekend and to see what the percentage drop from opening weekend is. If if it can hold steady at like only 30% drop,
00:48:19
Speaker
that the film's going to have legs. It's going to do well week after week after week, the whole time. And it's in theaters. It's going to, it's going to make that 300,000, $30 million dollars back and then some. I just, I have a feeling. I can feel it in my bones.
00:48:34
Speaker
Absolutely. So, you know, it looks like it's going to end up being a success. Even if it doesn't make all the money that maybe be some of the other ones did, it still it did something that brought Star Wars back in a positive way and it'll lead us into next year when star Wars Starfighter comes out.
00:48:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Lucasfilm wants to make money, but, you know, they'd be happy if the film can just break even and make back its production plus marketing. so that's, that's, you know, that's a good sign.
00:49:01
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. If it can do that. hu So, all right. So any other non-spoiler thoughts before we go into full on spoiler, spoiler territory and discuss plot points and, you know, really spoil some of the references and cameos and such. Yes. I can't think of anything else. I'm ready to dive into the nitty gritty. Yeah. All right. Sounds good.
Spoiler Section Begins
00:49:27
Speaker
Well, folks, this is your spoiler warning.
00:49:30
Speaker
Red alert, red alert, spoilers ahead, whatever, you know, spoilers are coming. Abandon all hope ye who enter here. if you haven't seen the movie from this point forward. Okay. So this has been your warning. Yes.
00:49:44
Speaker
All right. How do you want to discuss this? you want to go like moment by moment or, you know, like basic set piece by set piece? Yeah, we can do that. That's fine. Okay. Sounds good. All right. so the movie kicks off, you know, again, we talked about it in media res, right? It drops us with a few title card or a few titles.
00:50:05
Speaker
we you know ah A you know few cards just kind of setting the scene and letting you know what is going on, what Mando and Grogu have been up to since the we last saw them in season three of The Mandalorian. We find out that Mando and Grogu are working very closely with the New Republic, even though you know he's a bounty hunter for hire, really. you know is he, though? Yeah. You know, he's he's been helping to capture Imperial warlords that have been hiding, you know, as part of the Imperial remnant who are trying to hold on to what little power they have remaining.
00:50:41
Speaker
So he's been helping out the New Republic and hunting down these warlords, which really, guess, isn't too much of a spoiler considering that the marketing and the trailers did have some talk about that. But we do, you know, we get the title card or rather the text card.
00:51:00
Speaker
Cards saying what's going on We're dropped into a middle of a conversation. It's like a little bunker. You can tell that it's on a cold ice planet because you you know you can see the the the Imperial Warlord's breath you know as he's talking to his people that are in the in the boardroom or the bunker with him.
00:51:19
Speaker
yeah And then then they start to hear some noises, and there's some calls on the radio from stormtroopers. Mando's in the building. Grogu, you know we see them. about yeah and we see mandu Mando really start to kick some ass.
00:51:33
Speaker
He it in. mean, dude doesn't miss a shot. you know It's it's very action-paed you know oncemando starts like from the time that from the time that the action starts in the it you know in the bunker from when mandu it doesn't let up until the end of that first part like yeah you know it's it is near constant so yeah yeah so mando and grogu work together they're both you know in different parts of the bunker i love i love the mouse droid and grogu like
00:52:10
Speaker
Yep. That was such a great part. I mean, and that was only, you know, that was only ah a little tip of the iceberg aware of the Grogu content we were going to get in this movie. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know the one part I i really liked doing that whole Imperial scene, it wasn't, i did I missed it the first time I watched it, but when Mando was was fighting everybody and the Imperial warlord told all of his subjects to arm themselves while he fled, I missed that part.
00:52:39
Speaker
and initial oh and I don't know where my brain went. I was like, I must have zoned out for a second or whatever. But and then when he comes in after he kills those two with snow troopers or whatever, yeah and they all drop their guns and point to the elevator. I thought that Yeah, because the warlord's like, lay covering fire. like yeah that's That's the equivalent of, you're going to be you know my cannon fodder. You're going to cover my escape.
00:53:04
Speaker
Yep, which is typical Imperial behavior. Yeah, I mean, wouldn't you drop your weapon and point to where he went to? Hell yeah, I wouldn't die for him. Hell. so stupid That's some bitch.
00:53:16
Speaker
Exactly. Only caring about himself. Exactly. Exactly. And then ah I was surprised when ah that one guy on that was at the ATRT, I think they called them. Yes. he saw A little thing. And then he went down, I was looking for Grogu and then they shot him. and Exploded. I was, that took me by surprise. I was like, Whoa, that's pretty violent. oh I mean, you know, you figure that that that those AT-RT walkers are meant for larger targets and yes the size of those laser bolts. Yeah, that would that would definitely yeah separate your your body parts from from one another.
00:53:52
Speaker
Yeah, he's definitely not coming back together after that one. Humpty Dumpty, yeah. Yeah. humpty Dumpty had a better chance of survival. Exactly. Exactly. Now, the AT-AT part, i that was one of my favorite parts of the whole movie because we never got to see the inside of an AT-AT. Yes, I know. and its like So you're like looking around like at every little thing to see what stations there were mights and all the lights. Obviously, you know they're big, but I mean i mean it could hold quite a lot of people. There was even an escape pod in one of them.
00:54:30
Speaker
the warlord got away. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. yeah I, I, me either. I mean, again, you never get the, you get the sense of scale that these things are huge, but they never focused on the body, the fuselage all that much in, in previous times that we've seen those walkers.
00:54:49
Speaker
But the fact that we get that, yeah, that was, that was, I agree with you. That was one of the coolest sequences was being able to, to see inside of a, an AT-AT walker and and see how they, know, how much effort goes into running them. I mean, it's like a tank, basically. It's, you know, you know you've got a lot of personnel inside of a tank.
00:55:10
Speaker
Absolutely. or Or maybe not a tank, maybe more like a troop transport. You know, you're going to have a lot more of a crew necessary to run it. Absolutely. Yeah. and And just that planet itself was beautiful. I've always had a thing for snow planets.
00:55:26
Speaker
Yeah. know just some I guess maybe it kind of brings like a Christmas kind of vibe to it a little bit. You know, just the snow and everything. But it's just I thought the planet was beautiful. and And the scenes where he was running in the AT-RT down that slope.
00:55:41
Speaker
well broke I think it was right before the AT-AT park. Yes. It was beautiful. Whatever they did, if whether that was computer generated or they used real footage somehow and melded it all together. It was just it was stunning to see on screen.
00:55:55
Speaker
I mean, i know i know there were scenes of the film, like, ah I don't know if they got shot composition or, you know, had you know that they had put, you know, used some film and then projected that.
00:56:07
Speaker
yeah But I know a lot of the movie filmed in California. So, yeah you know, as varied as California is, I mean, with the fact that you've got ski rate ski resorts in the same place that you have beaches is pretty Yeah, pretty impressive, right? Yes, it is. Yes. and And what is it with like planets in sci fi shows and and movies all being like mono climate?
00:56:35
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Star Trek is just as guilty of it, too. Yes, it is. That's what's always been fun about Star Wars is every time you get a new movie, there's a new planet. There's some sort of new biosphere or whatever that you've ever seen in your you know the what But why are there so many snow planets, man? that's That's true. I guess after a while, you run out of things.
00:56:59
Speaker
You know, I mean, he scar if they at least they got a beach planet in there at some point. I think that's all it is. You know, when Star Wars was fresh, you had the desert world, you had the swamp world, the snow world. After while, there's not much more. I mean, think of how many city planets there are now.
00:57:16
Speaker
but Yeah, yeah. I mean, we had... we had hard Yeah, Shikari in this one. We had Janux and Darth Maul, Shadow Lord. yeah. I will say that this is kind of jumping ahead a little bit as far as plot, but Shikari gave me, it gave me a lot of Blade Runner vibes in the way it was designed, like with the outdoor food stalls and restaurants and like all the stands and the neon and the fact that, you know you've got the trains overhead, you've got the speeders, you've got other like flying cars, you know, it definitely had a ah very dystopian vibe.
00:57:53
Speaker
look and feel to it. That's a good point. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And you notice it was the city itself was just a single level. It's not like Coruscant where, you know, levels upon levels upon levels and the planet just kept building on top of each other. yeah You know, it's not a layered city like that. I mean, you figured, you know, we got in and it was, yeah. And Was it Andor or Kenobi? One of the shows where we got a view of Coruscant, the only piece of the natural...
00:58:32
Speaker
beauty of coruscant could be seen in that that peak of the mountain yes ah in the mandalorian yeah yeah in the mandal it was in the mandalorian i swear it was in andor too it might you know what it might have been as possible i know where we so yeah yeah it was definitely in mando's the third episode of season three because i just did a season three rewatch right before okay movie came out and that was a big piece with uh yeah dr pershing Yes, that's right. yeah Yes, you're right. You're right. Yeah. So they show them out like you figure the
00:59:04
Speaker
The fact that the city is built up to the peak of a mountain gives you an idea of how many layers and levels there are to Coruscant. But Shikari was nothing like that.
00:59:16
Speaker
Oh, no, no. And again, you're right about the Blade Runner Because I've been thinking, even the color of the city, like that rusty orange brown, you know, goes right along with what you said. That was a good catch on your part.
00:59:28
Speaker
Yeah, I love that aesthetic. that That might actually be, of the city planets we've seen, so far, Shikari is my favorite. Is it? Yeah. can see why. it It had a neat look and a neat feel to it.
00:59:41
Speaker
You know, so was, and it was a lot, there was a lot of fun that happened on that planet. Yeah. In this movie. And they could have taken a different direction with it. Like they could have made it more like a Vegas style, you know, but absolutely. Yeah. The fact that, yeah. And, and, and they, you know, they, they built in some interesting lore with the, with the, with the city itself or the planet itself, how the government ration salt.
01:00:09
Speaker
Yes. bohu Yeah. That was, that was very unique. Yeah, that's not something you would ever think like would be a thing in Star Wars. But yeah.
01:00:20
Speaker
hello But hey, rationing salt, making it, you know, it treating salt like the commodity, like the, you know, like the the very ah lucrative commodity it was in the early civilization. Right. Yeah.
01:00:34
Speaker
I think I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about Yeah, yeah i was listening to the it was I was listening to a podcast just earlier today, the Blue Harvest podcast. So I'm going to shout out those guys.
01:00:50
Speaker
The one co-host, Will, was saying that the word salary comes from the days of the Roman Empire when a lot of the soldiers would be paid in salt.
01:01:03
Speaker
ah huh And that was that was their wages because of how valuable salt was. So salary comes from salt. That's a real, that's a cool piece of trivia.
01:01:15
Speaker
Right. You know, hopefully they'll ask that question to you at your trivia. all together Yes. Yes. He did a thing like that once with the trivia category where it was a lot, you know, like things like that, like weird facts and it did not go well. It was probably one of the the categories that had the worst overall performance from all teams. Uh-huh.
01:01:44
Speaker
It was pretty bad. Really? Yeah, he said, yeah, I'm probably never going to do a category like this again. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, so, okay, so let's rewind a little bit. We were talking about Shikari, but ah really, i guess, you know after the AT-AT sequence, you know, we find out that You know, mando is a little bit of messy when it comes to how he takes out the the guy the Imperial Warlords in the in the deck of cards, you know.
Plot Details and Character Missions
01:02:15
Speaker
yeah
01:02:15
Speaker
when he you know When he returns after a successful mission, when he returns to... and like i what i cannot think of the name of the planet where the New Republic base is. Yeah, I can't either. I kept thinking it was navar part of Navarro, but I know it's not. No, no, it's definitely not Navarro.
01:02:35
Speaker
I know they mentioned it in season three of Mandalorian, didn't they? they were They were at the base there. That's where we first saw Zeb in live action. Right. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So whatever the name of the the planet that the base is on, you know, we we get introduced to Colonel Ward. Was that her name?
01:02:56
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. Colonel Ward played by Sigourney Weaver. She is not too happy with Mando because the whole idea was to try to bring him, bring the, this warlord in alive so that they could get information where the other warlords that they're tracking down are.
01:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. it's It's a little hard to, it's a little hard to get information out of somebody who's dead. Yeah, very true. so so Yeah. um mean, yeah, go ahead. Sorry. Mando did what he thought he had to do by shooting him down, you know, to stop him.
01:03:30
Speaker
You know, trying to kill him or not. But I mean, he was trying to stop him one way or another, you know. But yeah. So I wanted to real quick go back to that before they landed at the base.
01:03:42
Speaker
now The opening credits was very unique. I loved it. I loved that. Watching the name the names of the of the actors at the front for the first time. That was very neat. It's never been done in a Star Wars movie before.
01:04:02
Speaker
yeah and you know Watching the names popping up while the Mandalorian theme is playing, that was i loved it. It it was just it was something something small, but something fun.
01:04:13
Speaker
It puts a unique stamp on the movie. Yeah, I mean, it did feel like a TV show. You know, that is another thing to kind of chalk up to feeling like ah an episode of the show. Yeah.
01:04:24
Speaker
But, I mean, it's hard ah this is hardly the first movie to ever do a credit roll like that. Uh-huh. So, you know, it's it's like, know, I guess i'm i'm willing I can overlook that by, you know, that this...
01:04:37
Speaker
I'm just picking k nits at this point, really. Exactly, exactly. you know and I mean, I didn't expect that there was going to be an opening crawl. And I did see it an interview with Dave Filoni where he said that's for the Skywalker Saga movies.
01:04:50
Speaker
Yeah. those but Yes. And that made that made perfect sense. That was a great explanation. Leave it at that. you know Exactly. I agree. I mean, we didn't get anything like that for Rogue One. you know We didn't get a crawl. We didn't yeah get a a crawl in Solo.
01:05:04
Speaker
We're not going to get a crawl for Starfighter. Exactly. but That's okay. Yeah. Just like you said, that little opening text was perfectly fine. That's all we need. You know? Yeah. So, all right. That's one of the the fun parts about, so we find out that, who is it?
01:05:21
Speaker
Colonel, what's her name? Colonel Ward again? Yes. So she wants to send him on a mission to go and find Rada the Hutt. And this is be a request being made by they the cousins of Java who took over his empire.
01:05:35
Speaker
Yeah. that was the big That was basically the big plot of this of the rest of the movie was was that this mission. Yeah, right. that's they're They're running Jabba's Empire, but they are not, they don't own, know, like they haven't inherited um Jabba's fortunes even though they're running the criminal empire for him right okay okay so he's given a razor crest so he can go meet with the Hudson now how to get information about Rada so he can go and find him totally what it what did you think about that the explanation of why they found him a razor crest again
01:06:14
Speaker
So I guess maybe i maybe I missed part of it. I just thought that they just they had the ship and they gave it to them. no No, no,
01:06:25
Speaker
Was it a sail or something? Colonel Ward talks about how they got hold of the ship. Right, yeah. It an Imperial. yeah yeah Yeah, an Imperial warlord that had a collection of vintage starships. Yes, right, right. it was a stock model.
01:06:40
Speaker
Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I thought that was i just thought that i thought that was that was all that was necessary, you know, yeah because from from the very first few episodes of season one of The Mandalorian, we are told that the Razorcrest is an old ship. Yeah, it's rare. they Right, it's very rare. So, like, the you know, the trailer showed this new Razorcrest, and a lot of fans were like, well, that doesn't make sense. You know, the Razorcrest is rare. How is this possible?
01:07:10
Speaker
it's possible with ah two lines of dialogue. And I felt satisfied with that. Oh yeah. Yeah. That part I heard, I didn't know if it was like, like if there was more of a reason that they said like, Hey, we know this, that this is something that you loved or had attachment to or something like that. I didn't, obviously i didn't hear anything like that. I just heard them say, you know, this will be part of your pay or part of your, you getting to do this job.
01:07:34
Speaker
And she let them use the ship. You know, that was pretty much what I thought. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was definitely part of his compensation for the mission. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. No, but i yeah i'm just just the the explanation for why it exists, why so why a Razor Crest that looks like that exists. Right, exactly. Yeah, it was perfect. it didn't There wasn't a whole lot of exposition on it. It was just, like you said, a couple lines, and worked. It worked.
01:08:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And just a little side tangent here. i I like how I've written. No, not like I love how this film didn't take the audience for granted and the the knowledge of the audience for granted. Right.
01:08:17
Speaker
It it you don't need to know who Zeb is. You don't need to know who Colonel Ward is. You don't need to know a whole lot about.
01:08:29
Speaker
any of the characters to enjoy the movie, being somebody who, you know, if you've never seen the Mandalorian, you don't need to see it. Yes. It puts us right in the middle of the story. It doesn't spoon feed us who the characters are and their backgrounds, right? It is very much rewarding for the fans who consume everything, but accessible to fans who may only watch the movies or may have never seen an episode of the Mandalorian.
01:08:56
Speaker
Exactly. So you're right. yeah So i thought I thought that was very well. I thought that i think the fan the movie does fan service very well. you can tell where You can tell exactly where Dave Filoni had his fingerprints on the references and the callbacks and and you know just the little nods to to the things that we've seen throughout all of Star Wars you know across every single project that's been out.
01:09:25
Speaker
Absolutely. it was It was fan service done well. And I know a lot of complaints of some of the newer Star Wars shows on Disney Plus is that a lot of it is tell, don't show. Uh-huh.
01:09:40
Speaker
And this very much was, we're telling our story. You figure it out. If you want to know who these characters are, you can do your research later. We're not telling you. We're just telling the story for you know,
01:09:53
Speaker
for everybody, you know, so follow along and then look up, basically look up who these people are later. Yes. yeah So I really liked that part. Yeah, I agree. All right. So, okay. So, yeah, so we kind of, we're on now Hutta.
01:10:13
Speaker
What did you think of now Hutta? Like the, the look and, and appearance of the planet. it I liked it it It was very grimy, which I guess fits the hunts.
01:10:25
Speaker
You know, it was very for sure the swampy. It looked like a lot of the the fortresses and things were built into trees. It kind of reminded me little bit of Kashyyyk to some degree in that regard.
01:10:36
Speaker
See, I got more Dagobah. I got both. I agree. There was the swampiness of Dagobah, but like the stuff built into the trees but kind of reminded me Zeke a little bit.
01:10:47
Speaker
but i i mean it was it was ah It was. You could just tell like that it was a very uncomfortable world. Miserable. you know And again, it just it fits the whole theme of the Hutt Syndicate.
01:10:58
Speaker
Yeah, it was like a, I mean, Dagobah itself has is a pretty savage planet as far as, you know, the the ecosystem, the flora, fauna, the the creatures. But Nelhada felt more dangerous than even Dagobah because, you know, a lot of the creatures seem to have a lot seem to have a lot more sentience.
01:11:24
Speaker
And they were a lot, you know they were a lot more, they were more humanoid than they were creature. Yeah. So like, you know, these, it's not just, you have to understand how predators work. You have to understand how like,
01:11:38
Speaker
predators with advanced brains think, and and you have to adapt. It definitely ah felt like a more dangerous planet than than even Dagobah.
01:11:48
Speaker
Absolutely. Now, one question I have about all those droids that they had for security. Were some of them related to super battle droids from... sit Yeah, it kind of looked like some super battle droids. So what so that droid, those are basically like droid mercenaries.
01:12:07
Speaker
Okay. Like, they're they're they're a fee for service, right? They're they're like they're almost like like a private military contractor, right? They're they're available to you provide security for a cost.
01:12:22
Speaker
Okay. Or they're kind of like, you know, if we follow...
01:12:29
Speaker
If you kind of look at the the origins of Star Wars being inspired by samurai films and Kurosawa, that part of the the inspiration, it's like, you know, they're a lot like Ronin, you know, they're they're muscle for hire.
01:12:41
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. I just put, i was wondering if they were maybe repurposed from the separatists or or whatever, you know? Yeah, it's very possible. Yeah.
01:12:52
Speaker
You know, I mean, wouldn't, wouldn't surprise me. They had how many billions or trillions of droids. I mean, I'm sure they would have ended up somewhere. Right. Right. Right.
01:13:02
Speaker
Yeah. These, I mean, the, the Yeah, these droids essentially united around a new purpose of essentially being like, you know, they they have a reputation, obviously, as well for being very good at providing security.
01:13:17
Speaker
Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, one thing, this is just the twin part of me coming out, but I, I could relate very much to the two huts, the twins being very connected to each other, sitting close to each other, finishing each other's sentences, things like, right.
01:13:34
Speaker
You know, is, you know, my Matt and I are the same way. Yeah. kind of I felt for them in that, in that regard, that kind of connected with it. Yeah. It's kind of weird.
01:13:45
Speaker
But yeah, so mean, they're slimy as hell. they're They're bad. you know than right um you know i mean they they made it They put on a good show of saying how much they cared about Rata, but as we find out later on, they just want to get rid of him.
01:14:01
Speaker
It was funny that the only image they had of him, you know even knowing how popular he is, was just him as a baby from the Clone Wars movie. Yeah. And again, that's, that's what I think. That's what I'm saying. Like about fan service done right. Like it was there, but they, there was no explanation given of who that character is or the connection. But like if you've seen the clone Wars movie, you know exactly who it is. You laugh, you you know, at the, at the absurdity of it. And yeah, absolutely. Yeah. it's just one of those things they can go and research them and watch the movie if they want to on Disney plus.
01:14:36
Speaker
So yeah, for sure. Yeah. Let's see. So, yeah. So we find out that from the twins that that their mission is to ah rescue Rod of the Hut, Jabba's son, formerly known as Stinky, by you to Anakin and Ahsoka.
01:14:54
Speaker
Yeah, so they have to rescue him because he's fallen in with a bad crowd and lost his way. who ah so yeah, so they send him to, know, what the heck?
01:15:07
Speaker
Why can't I think of the name of the planet? sakari Shikari. Shikari. The Moons of Shikari. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. So the, that you know, he sent to the Moons of Shikari and, you know, to to rescue him who's being held prisoner or being held captive, as as the twins say. Uh-huh.
01:15:26
Speaker
That kind of kicks off our you know our second act of the movie where you know we we find Shikari and mando is looking yeah sorry Mando is looking for information. So you know he stumbles across this food truck or food stand owner, voiced quite you know quite well. or yeah very I love the characterization by Martin Scorsese of this character. Okay.
01:15:56
Speaker
You knew that was Martin martin Scorsese, right? Like, i the director of the god the director of The Godfather, and... I didn't know... No, that's Coppola. Sorry, that's Coppola. Never mind. Okay. um yeah So, it Martin Scorsese did the the alien there?
01:16:12
Speaker
Yes, he was the four-armed alien. Oh, I didn't know that. i thought he was the the the bald-headed Imperial later on. No, no, no, no, no no yeah no. No, no, no, no, no. That's...
01:16:25
Speaker
That's, they didn't really think too hard for the character's name. So you're talking about Janu Coyne, right? Yeah, Coyne, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. So the actor that plays that character, his name is Johnny Coyne.
01:16:39
Speaker
Okay. So Janu Coyne for an actor named Johnny Coyne. They really didn't vary too much from the actor's actual name. um Yeah, apparently.
01:16:52
Speaker
Okay. No, no, that is not Scorsese. Okay. No, Scorsese was the alien, which I believe that's the same alien race as the pilot in Rogue One.
01:17:05
Speaker
Oh, okay. yeah I knew that his race looked familiar. I just couldn't so remember where where he was. Yeah. you saw Yeah, he was a tiny... He was a smaller creature with the forearms, so...
01:17:18
Speaker
Yeah, and he, I mean, he wasn't the same race as Dexter Jetster, the diner owner in in episode two. Okay, yeah. um So, yeah, he was smaller for, yeah, he was definitely, and I can't think of the race of creatures, but yeah, he was the same, I think he's the same type of creature um that was the pilot for Woody Harrison's character.
01:17:38
Speaker
and and in Solo. so solo Solo, not Rogue One, sorry. Okay. Yeah, I was thinking, I was like, wait a second, did I miss something in Rogue One? getting my movies mixed up, yeah's a its yeah. okay. As of us recording this, ladies and gentlemen, it's 10.36 at night, so we're probably getting a little tired.
01:17:57
Speaker
Perhaps. Alright, so yeah, so Shikari, the moons of Shikari, so he finds out from Martin Scorsese that You know everyone knows Radha, right? Radha is like the the you know the favorite fighter in these arena fights, in the you know, in the pits, in the fighting pits.
01:18:16
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah, so we find that Radha is being kept in ah in a prison cell, but he's got massage droids, you know, just taking care of him and giving him, you know, percussion percussion massages and just, you know, after his big fights.
01:18:34
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, and and he he we find out that he really wants to get ah escape from the they i guess the the shadow of his father.
01:18:45
Speaker
you know right And you can also see that he doesn't want to be this bad, evil kind of tyrant. There's actually kind of a heart to his character where he just he doesn't want to be evil. He doesn't want to do what his family has done. He just wants to make his own way out of the universe.
01:18:58
Speaker
You know, which made the character interesting. But also, he was really looking forward and he really believed that he was going to be a free agent after this last fight. And he was going to get out and be able to just do whatever he wanted.
01:19:11
Speaker
You know, and little did he realize what was coming behind the scenes. and we find out. Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And then, you know, I i appreciate how, you know, they tell us that Radha somehow got into debt with...
01:19:29
Speaker
the Janu, right? We don't know how he got into that debt. It's not told what he did to get into that debt. It's just, you know, it's it's a little bit of knowledge that's dropped, you know, kind of like, you know, when Lando talking about the the battle, the the move, the maneuver at the Battle of Tanab, right? You know, we don't know what the, we don't, it took us forever to find out what the Battle of Tanab was and find out what exactly Lando did. So it's kind of like that. You know, will we, you know, 30 years down the road, will we find out how Radha you know, got, got into debt with, with Janu.
01:20:03
Speaker
Right. Right. Hey, you never know. Who knows? But yeah, that's, those are the things about star Wars that I love. It's just just, like these little drops of these little nuggets of lore and, and background without any further explanation. It's just there to get fans to think and talk about just like we're doing on a podcast. Who'd have thought.
01:20:24
Speaker
Absolutely. All right. We see Rada goes in and he does his his fight and Mando and Grogu are watching, you know, and then Seth, try to remember, he goes and Mando goes in and tries to find, he talks to Janu, right? That's his name, right? Again, Janu?
01:20:44
Speaker
Yes. And it sounds like basically it's like he wants Mando to actually join him in the fights as well, because that's a rare commodity to have a Mandalorian actually fighting in these these kind of arena things. But we also find out because...
01:21:00
Speaker
you know Mando's supposed to go in and get Radha and take him back to the the rest of the huts. we find he He says this is his last fight, and but by talking to Janu, he realizes this is, what did he call it? A Djarik fight?
01:21:13
Speaker
Yes. Is that the word? Djarik? Yeah. Djarik, yes. Yeah, and basically he's going to fight until he's killed. right you know yeah You know what is, right?
01:21:24
Speaker
It's a card game, isn't it? No, no. Djarik is that hollow chess game that they play on the Millennium Falcon. You're right. You're right. Absolutely. You're right. I never realized that until just now. yep Yeah.
01:21:36
Speaker
yeahp And if you notice, all those creatures in and Mando and Grogu were the same creatures on the board, the chess pieces on the board in Djarik. Wow. Okay.
01:21:47
Speaker
Well, good. So now that we actually got to see it for real, that's awesome. Right. And I don't know if you noticed, I caught it the second time around, but the floor of the arena is has those round circles and then the the colored squares that looks like a Djarik table.
01:22:04
Speaker
I knew there was some sort of pattern on there, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Okay. yeahp Now it makes sense. Yep. Yep. And, you know, again, fan service, this might have been maybe the most on the nose bit of fan service was the one, you know, the one creature in the dar in the arena doing the same move to the other creature that he does in A New Hope, where, you know, the bigger creature picks up the troll like thing and slams him on the ground from behind.
01:22:34
Speaker
Oh, nice. that was That was a move in the original in A New Hope. and And that was the move that that pissed off Chewbacca that got him to roar, where you know that that sparked Han's comment about you know suggesting to let the Wookiee win because Wookiees pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. That was the 3PO's move that pissed off Chewbacca.
01:22:59
Speaker
Interesting. Okay. Okay. I'm going to go watch the new hope and that watch that part. I'm going to just try to piece it to it together to what we just saw. So cool.
01:23:09
Speaker
All right. ah I don't know about the little like electrified creature. If that was, if that's ah on the Dejarik board and we just never saw what it does in the brief time that we see it in a new hope.
01:23:23
Speaker
But you know, the one that the the catalyst for all hell breaking loose When Rada threw him up into the electric the electrified like barriers, basically.
01:23:35
Speaker
Exactly. Did you see the oh shit look on those people? They realized the trouble's gone. Yup. They couldn't get out of there fast enough. Janu was like, I suggest we make a quick exit or something like that. Absolutely.
01:23:54
Speaker
But yeah, like... Like we were talking, you know, Radha is trying to escape the trauma of living in his father's shadow and and trying to be hit like he says, he tries. He's trying to be his own man.
01:24:05
Speaker
Right. and And escape that shadow like that. You know, that that that that's pretty profound. Yeah. Yes, it is. You would think he'd be this spoiled rich kid, basically, who would want to take over his dad's stuff and live a privileged life.
01:24:24
Speaker
Right. He didn't. It's complete opposite from any other huck we've ever seen. Yeah. It's, you know what? It's in in, I mean, I'm not saying it's exactly the same because the circumstances aren't at all the same, but it's almost like the parable of the prodigal son. Yeah.
01:24:41
Speaker
You know? Absolutely. Yeah. And so so we find out that Rada really didn't believe Djarin that he was slated for death.
01:24:52
Speaker
you know and yet You know, he actually kind of betrayed him, really, and fought him in the arena before all those creatures came out to finally kill him, and he and he realizes what's going on. Right. That was crazy, watching all those creatures go jumping out into the streets.
01:25:07
Speaker
Yes. And raging havoc. It reminded me of kind of of Remember the... Rampage, the the video game, even though they weren't climbing buildings per se, which is reminding me of them destroying stuff everywhere.
01:25:20
Speaker
You know? So... Yeah. Yeah. ah but So that was that was a lot of fun. And then we finally got Rata. They they they finally caught him and put him on board the ship.
01:25:33
Speaker
And this is where we find out that Janna, what was his name again? Janus? Janu. Janu. Janu. Okay. Janu is actually this imperial coin that he was actually looking for. And at first he didn't believe Rata, but Rata said to him, and he's right, you know, you're a bounty hunter. You know when people are lying. Am I lying to you?
01:25:55
Speaker
You know, e spell it took us on a trip to the beach. You know, I guess it was still on Shikari or was it on another moon of Shikari? That was on that was on one of the moons. Yeah. OK, for sure. Yeah.
01:26:07
Speaker
That was like his his mansion. Yeah. His his beach side estate. His his. Yeah. Yeah. And we find out very quickly that he was telling the truth because the house is loaded with stormtroopers.
01:26:19
Speaker
You know, Armando comes in again, starts, you know, shooting in people and everything, just like at the beginning of the movie. And they finally catch what's his face, Janu.
01:26:30
Speaker
And, you know, they have a nice high speed speeder chase with the stormtroopers. That was really, that was really yeah exciting to see. Did that... I was sorry, interrupting for a second. Another little callback, you know, that scene, that that scene reminded me a lot of the car chases in Indiana Jones and the last crusade, that car chase scene.
01:26:53
Speaker
Yes. Yes, it did. move on And I would not be surprised if that's exactly what that was meant to evoke. Oh, I'm sure it wouldn't surprise Heck, if you even look at the speeders, they had an art deco kind of look in that era.
01:27:05
Speaker
Yeah. You know, so you're probably hitting the nail on the head right there. Yep. You know, yeah this, this, I mean, like all these little things, like, I, know i I did not expect yeah to get all of this amazing content in in this movie, honestly.
01:27:25
Speaker
Absolutely. The more I think about it, the more I love this movie. Yeah, I know. it did like I can tell with us both talking about it, we're getting excited and know about the parts. So we we watched and yeah, it's pretty cool.
01:27:39
Speaker
It's pretty cool. And again, you know, we we we we talked pre-spoiler about some of the criticisms. Like, you know, neither of us is saying this is a perfect film. but Exactly.
01:27:49
Speaker
But it was a fun film. Yes. You know it's it's certainly worth it. It's good that it got made. You know, it was something worth, something good to add to the lore. of Star Wars in general. So yeah and it so after they so they take Janu back to the base and turn him over to the New Republic, that this was the part that really kind of bummed me was about the movie. I thought there was going to be more Imperial involvement in it than we actually got.
01:28:16
Speaker
you know I thought it was going to be more like dealing with the Empire in this film. But once he's turned over, that's about it with the Empire. They're done. Their story's over for the rest of the movie. And it kind of shifts back to Rada again. you know And they go what do they do? They go back to Mando's house. But Mando kind of suspects that they're being hunted.
01:28:36
Speaker
and know And and ah so he shuts all the the lights off or whatever. But right before that, too, what are those little creatures called? And Zellens.
01:28:47
Speaker
And Zellens. Okay. And Zellens. A-N-Z-E-L-A-N. Okay. so they yeah So they all showed up and they were in the third season of Mando as well.
01:28:58
Speaker
Right. But, you know, we were we were introduced to that race for the very first time in The Rise of Skywalker with Babu Frick. Yes. Yes. So they must have some sort of popularity with the fans because, you know, for them to keep popping back up, you know, they're funny. they're they're they're right theyre Yeah. And, and they're used just the right amount. Like, you know, they're not used excessively because the, the, the stick could get overused.
01:29:26
Speaker
Yes. absolutely Like I love, i like, you know, the speech and the little one-liners coming from those and, you just just the you know like and and the thing And the fact that you have to pay really close attention to the things that they say because of their syntax is very, you know, it's very broken, basic.
01:29:45
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. i They're just, they're they're funny. Like the one-liners written for them are are hilarious. Oh, yeah. Bad baby is hysterical. Bad baby, yes.
01:29:56
Speaker
Yep, yep. um you know And then when they get to now Hada, you know, after we're jumping ahead a little bit, but whenever they, they and Grogu get to now Hada, like the one just talking about now Hada, this place, you know, just, just the commentary about how creepy the place is.
01:30:16
Speaker
But yeah. but yeah So yeah. yeah. yeah Mando and Grogu take a little break. They go back to Mando's ranch or farm or whatever on Navarro, but yeah, they're being hunted by a bounty hunter you know, because for them double crossing the twins, because, you know, because they didn't bring Rada back to the twins, they, the the twins hire Embo, the bounty hunter from the clone wars.
01:30:44
Speaker
Which, by the way, another Clone Wars character making the leap to live action. Very, very well done. I was very impressed with Embo's fighting style and the way he you know the way he used his body. Very much like ah like a ninja.
01:31:01
Speaker
Uh-huh. I thought. Oh, yeah, he did. He did, definitely. Definitely. So, yeah, so they take him back to now, Hutta, and then... So they so they're obviously they're they're angry and and want him dead because of the betrayal. And they actually disgrace him first by taking off his helmet.
01:31:20
Speaker
you know And then we see Rod has actually been captured from – because he was on – a ship came to Navarro and picked him up. And so they they ended up getting him, and he's now hooked up to some sort of table getting like electricity or something in his stack. Mm-hmm.
01:31:34
Speaker
And Mando tries to stop them and he gets sent down to pit, kind of like in Return of the Jedi. And we see these, there are those two weird, like amphibian kind of characters. I guess they were, they were in episode four. is Like I saw the action figures.
01:31:50
Speaker
they were the The Amani. yeah what That's it. Yeah. Couldn't think of the name. Yeah. not I don't think they were. Were they in episode four? I know there was one on Jabba's sail barge. Maybe that's what it was.
01:32:02
Speaker
Okay. Maybe that's what it was. Because I remember they were showing action figures from the vintage years. And I think they call the character, like the character's name is like Aman Aman in the Return of the Jedi. So he's of the Amani race.
01:32:17
Speaker
whom So I guess Amani is the plural, Amanah is the singular of that race, if I had to guess. ah huh Just a little background, you know, it's one of those characters, one of those background characters that, know, never really had much of a story until fans started, you know, picking out the character design and, you know, the story was built around...
01:32:41
Speaker
the character for like the the card games and the data book entries, you know, all of that started to get a history, but yeah, it was good to see those characters or those creatures coming back into star Wars again. And, and really seeing how, how effective they were at fighting, right. know, they were pretty deadly.
01:33:00
Speaker
a They were pretty savage. Like I can see why Jabba had one on a sail barge. You know, it's it's pretty, you know, pretty ah difficult creature to to take out ah from his, from his own planet.
01:33:14
Speaker
oh Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So, okay. So he goes down the hole and he takes out those two characters. Then we see another wonderful, huge Star Wars beastly character, this dragon snake that tries to eat him. And eventually we find out he, when it takes him into his jaws, he gets punctured by a tooth.
01:33:37
Speaker
And so he's fighting poison now in his system, which the Hutts say, you know, even if you win, you're going to die. You're going to lose no matter what. Right. you know And then so Grogu and the little the little guys end up using an explosive to actually get him out of it through a vent or something, I guess, in the in the wall.
01:33:57
Speaker
And yeah that's how's how he's able to escape. And then the Hutts go and send all their droids and everything after him. And he he manages to do a very good job during that that fight.
01:34:08
Speaker
I mean, he shoots most of the droids down to the point where he's finally at the end. He's like, I can't do anymore. I can't move. you know? And so Grogu was supposed to have gone away with, with, I always forget their names. that What is it again? The Anzellans. Okay. The Anzellans. They have their tiny little baby little ship.
01:34:27
Speaker
know that obviously Mando was like i that was a funny moment he's like i shit oh so he sends Grogu away and he thinks that Grogu went with them but he didn't you know because when right and Mando finally collapses and all these scorpions are walking on him Grogu comes back and actually eats yeah eats the scorpion and then it finds a way to build like a like a Yoda kind of mud hut essentially like he had on Dagobah over him to protect him But he doesn't build it big enough, which leans to that bit with Grogu using the force to pull him out, push him in, clunk, pull him out, push him in, clunk.
01:35:10
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. The kids especially loved that in the audience. Oh, I'm sure. They were getting freak out of that, you know. yeah But yeah, so, okay, so we see that Grogu is going around. He's getting water from, like, one of the swamps for them to drink, and he finds this, ah what's, like I guess, a fish kind of, sentient fish creature?
01:35:33
Speaker
It's like sitting on floor. i want to say you know you want At first, I thought it was a Doug like Sebalda the first time I saw it. But then the second time that I saw it, I think it's just like It's meant to be like an alligator. I mean, you figure it's a swampland. I think it's just supposed to be like a gator who's, you know, it's like part, you know, hit yeah, it's like, it's supposed to look like an alligator. And then like the the character itself is supposed to be like the shaman, you know, deep in the bayous of Louisiana, you come across the shaman who with his little voodoo tricks, you know, You know, that's that's what the that was the aesthetic I think that they were going for with the the character's personality. But yeah, but the fact that it's yeah, it's and it's like a bayou or swamp. I think it's meant to look like a gator, like a space gator.
01:36:26
Speaker
That's what it sounded like. That's what it sounded like. Yeah. So so but he ended up ends up having the cure for this poison he gives to Grogu. But he doesn't know if it's if they're going to make it in time.
01:36:37
Speaker
But Grogu feeds it to him anyway. and We find out the next morning that it worked perfectly fine. And so they decide they need to get off this planet once and for all. They find the ship that Rada was actually tra was transported from.
01:36:52
Speaker
and off navarro from And so they actually Mando and Groob will come to a crossroads. Do we leave or do we fight back and say enough is enough? Because he also he also we also heard earlier in the movie when his helmet was taken off. The only way that he wouldn't be disgraced is if he killed them.
01:37:10
Speaker
So we knew that that was a big Big thing that he needed to do. Otherwise, he would have been disgraced. if probably would have had to go back and get bathed in the waters again. Yeah, yeah exactly. midwar You know, so that's what kind of led back to this whole thing. They decided they were going to get Rada. He was going to kill the Hutts and their reign once and for all. He'd had it. ye Now, I do have an one nit to pick with that sequence with the ship.
01:37:39
Speaker
Again, ah you know this was ah this was probably the the movie's maybe maybe not only, but at least the most egregious example of tell, don't show.
01:37:50
Speaker
We did not need the line from Mando saying that that was the ship, the the gunship that brought Radha. that you know that rada went on we would have the ship design was unique enough even with all of the stuff in the swamp coating it you knew you didn't need to be told that that was the ship and then you certainly when they when that ship took off with that the unique like little legs but we would have known what that ship was we didn't need an explanation we didn't need mando saying that it was the gunship i thought that was a little that was that was that was a very egregious example of tell don't show
01:38:26
Speaker
I gotcha.
Grogu's Growth and Crime Syndicate Future
01:38:27
Speaker
Good point. Good point. Yep. But yeah but ah the the ending battle with with the Hutts and their forces, that was that was certainly very exciting. you know so you Seeing all the droids get taken out and you know finally seeing Radha being freed and then attacking the the Cousins.
01:38:49
Speaker
And how he basically beats him into the floor and they're saying, no, you're going to kill us, you know, kill us all. And they go falling. And then we got one thing in this movie did really good with Brogu too, was showing him using the force. was getting stronger with that. And to see that little guy lifting Radha up from that pit.
01:39:08
Speaker
Yes. first I didn't know that was Brogu doing it. I just thought maybe Radha was on something that brought him back up. Cause he was like standing, it looked like he was standing on his tail.
01:39:19
Speaker
you know You realize, oh, he's being lifted out of there. And man, those cousins got what they deserved. You know, they deserve to get eaten. Oh, for sure. And, you know, I know you said the snake itself kind of freaks you out with the because you don't like snakes. But the fact the fact that when the snake was swimming away, we could see the two distinct lumps yeah from both of the huts in its gullet.
01:39:45
Speaker
Yes, that was cool. That's exactly how a snake eats. You know, when a snake eats live prey or like a rat or something, that's exactly what it looks like. You see that lump as it's, you know, slowly swallowing and digesting it. I thought that yeah there was those beautifully played out.
01:40:01
Speaker
Absolutely. I agree with you. Yep. um yeah If we can go back for a second to Grogu using the force to yeah to raise Rada out of the pit with, you know,
01:40:13
Speaker
i that was a That was a fantastic callback to how far we've seen Grogu come in his mastery of the Force from the very first season of Mandalorian, the first three-episode arc with the Mudhorn, right? And, you know, little Grogu, baby Grogu, uses the Force to essentially levitate the Mudhorn a little bit to give Mando time to get away But then, you know, he drops it and then he falls asleep because he's exerted himself so much. And now to see him lift a character like Radha, who's probably just as heavy, if not heavier than the Mudhorn, you know, with with perfection, lifting him out of the pit, setting him down and not being tired and not having to take a nap. Like, you just the the growth of that character in the Force, like you said, is it's it's so...
01:41:10
Speaker
It was so cool. oh no Yeah, it was. That that was definitely... it was it was it's you don't expect to see something that little being able to do that, but then it's kind of a nice little callback to Empire Strikes Back when Yoda was able to lift the X-Wing out of the swamp.
01:41:26
Speaker
Yes. you know yeah i don't exactly yeah yeah i don't know if they purposely tied it in like that, but it should but it is it it is a parallel. Yeah, yeah, I would say so. And, you know, obviously Grogu succeeded where yeah where Luke did not because he did not believe in himself enough. Right.
01:41:46
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, know, and yeah, again, I'm going to have to nitpick just a tiny bit. And I'm sorry. And this comes from a place of love. Please don't get me wrong.
01:41:58
Speaker
Sure. But I think during that whole sequence, when Grogu was lifting Radha out using the force, I think rather than whatever musical cue that Ludwig Gornstein used there, I think if he had done a variation on the force theme,
01:42:15
Speaker
Like his tank or you know, his ah his own unique arrangement of the force theme, I think would have played better there than whatever track he put in. Fair enough. Yep.
01:42:26
Speaker
But yeah again, look little, little tiny nitpicks. Like, right. Yeah. It's so, it's so minuscule. Yeah, exactly. But that's part of being a fan. Nothing's been as, you know, yeah.
01:42:40
Speaker
So, and what did you think of the the New Republic fleet coming? That was a nice call back to, you got that the X-Wings coming in, the Y-Wings coming in.
01:42:50
Speaker
You know, we got to see Dave Filoni flying one of them. The gentleman yu the the gentleman with the beard. I can't remember his name. The Asian. Yeah. Carson Teva. That's it. That's it. And then at seeing Sigourney Weaver piloting an X-Wing, that was pretty cool too.
01:43:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she's a sci-fi legend. So that's just great. Yeah, I mean, I know her, you know, she's Colonel Ward, but let's let's let's let's really, you know, just like, you know, we have space Jimmy Smith's we have space Sigourney Weaver I don't care if her name is Colonel Ward she's space Sigourney.
01:43:23
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, so that was ah that was fun watching them take out the, you know, the Hutt's base once and for all, you know, so yeah makes you wonder now what's going to happen with the Hutt, you know, or what's going to happen, you know, with these crime syndicates and stuff. now yeah there's basic Nobody left and RADA clearly doesn't want it.
01:43:43
Speaker
Right. So it I love the fact that when they brought him back to the New Republic base that he actually said he wants to do something for the New Republic. Jabba would be rolling in his grave.
01:43:55
Speaker
written Something like that. know what i mean? Right. And it was funny that Zeb was able to kind of say, I have a uniform that might fit you. you know yeah you know and the fact that Mando said i don't think you're going to fit her on here it'll take this the wrong way what was almost like he was kind of making like a fat joke just in a different way yeah yeah I mean that was a little that was a little bit much yeah yeah but you know that does it it worked it all worked the humor worked did it did yeah I mean some great one liners yeah absolutely
01:44:31
Speaker
Actually, I wanted to so yeah You saw it twice. so the little the yeah The sound of the engines that the little Ann Zellen's ship makes... yeah I don't know if I'm just... If this is Mandela Effect or if I'm just remembering a sound wrong, but...
01:44:50
Speaker
Did it sound to you like the same sound the cars make in the Jetsons? Yes. Yeah, but it wasn't the ship itself. It was that scooter or whatever that they had when they first came to their house on Navarro. Okay.
01:45:03
Speaker
Okay. You're absolutely right. Somebody good. I was wondering if anybody else thought that it did sound that way. Was it the sound or it is it enough of a sound alike that it's tricking us to thinking it was the exact sound?
01:45:18
Speaker
That's a, you know what? I don't know. That's a very good question to do research on. You're right. You're right. okay It could have been just enough to make it sound like it, you know? Yeah.
01:45:29
Speaker
But it was definitely, it's definitely based off it. There's no denying it. Okay. I'm glad I was not hearing things. No, you weren't because I thought the same thing. Or we're both being Mandela'd. I don't know.
01:45:42
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. but ah So I think that takes us pretty much right to the end of the movie. So yeah I guess the question is now, where do they take Mando's
Speculations and Criticisms
01:45:53
Speaker
story from here? Is there anywhere else to go?
01:45:57
Speaker
That's a very good question. Now, I mean, I wonder if we are ever going to get that Avengers style crossover where, know, the events of Ahsoka, Mandalorian, whatever other projects, you know, I know we never got that Rangers of the New Republic series that we were supposed to, but, you know, remember they were planning like an Avengers style crossover to be ultimately like one film to tie it all together and Filoni's supposed to write it.
01:46:27
Speaker
Okay. So that's still that's still on the planning stages or... at Last I heard, it's still in process. It's just they're they're focusing on getting Starfighter out now.
01:46:39
Speaker
And of course, you know, Filoni needs time to get the pieces on the board where they need to be right for that final film. Absolutely. Absolutely.
01:46:50
Speaker
So we may yet get another even abbreviated season of The Mandalorian to move yeah those characters into place. Absolutely. Yeah. I don't think they're done yet. Just after watching it because at first I said to myself, when when Mando was dying, I said to myself, I wonder if they're going to kill him off. And thats this is going to the it for that story.
01:47:10
Speaker
you know And then when they he survived, I was like, oh, they got other plans here. Something's coming. They're not just going to leave this hanging. you know, yeah, for sure. Right. The ending was like, was an ending to the movie. It wasn't an ending to the story.
01:47:23
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. You know, so it'll be very interesting in the next year or two to see what, what's announced, you know, especially when next year when Star Wars celebration hits, there's you know, or even San Diego comic-con who knows what's going to be mentioned there.
01:47:37
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know, but I think overall, I thought it was a wonderful movie. I can't wait till it comes out on, on Blu-ray. I'll make sure I get my copy of it.
01:47:49
Speaker
Yes. You know, it's definitely worth, this was going to be worth adding to the collection. So, you know, for sure. Yeah. I, so I agree with what you said earlier, eight out of 10 for me. Yep. Yep. Definitely an eight out of 10 after a it's, there's, it's very possible that it'll go up a tick higher.
01:48:07
Speaker
after seeing it another time, like I was saying in the in the Feast of Fandoms staff chat. Yeah, it's it's very possible it could go up to like an 8.25 for me. Yeah, there you go.
01:48:19
Speaker
Very good. Cool. All right. but We need to discuss about the movie. I was just going to ask you that. So I believe my answer to that then is officially no. I think we've... Yeah, pretty much. I think we've...
01:48:36
Speaker
Right. The only little side thing I'll say is, and as as i'm we're talking, I'm sitting here holding the Actionverse figures from Hasbro. I have Zeb and I have Grogu. Mm-hmm.
01:48:47
Speaker
I'm not impressed with the molds. Grogu's looks normal, but I haven't bought the the Mandalorian yet. that's the That's the last one I need still. um But he and Zeb look over muscular, kind of like those Power of the Force. ah Yeah, yeah. don't know if you've seen them in the store, but they look like Mando looks like like Hulk Hogan on steroids. yeah and And they even released the Darth Vader figure. I saw it in the same line.
01:49:15
Speaker
I saw it at Target ah last week, and he looks buffed and muscular and stuff. It just looks odd. They look oddly shapen. You know, Grogan looks great. Looks normal. That's the what so that's just a little side note. It's not the movie itself, but just of the the products that came out. the I felt they should have made a a nice figure line for the movie, not just some distorted looking because they're not going to sell. Right. Crap. Everyone's going to want them.
01:49:44
Speaker
Yeah. You know? Yeah. But other than that, the movie was fine. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, i those Those figures that you're talking about, those are the ones that just kind of carry the Mandalorian and Grogu branding. They're not like Black Series or anything.
01:50:04
Speaker
No. Yeah. Yeah, they just created their line called Actionverse. And there were just three of them, you know? Yeah. So I guess, you know, you should allow it a little bit of grace because it's not trying to be hyper-realistic mold. Exactly.
01:50:18
Speaker
Right. that one Those are the figures that are that are geared towards the kids that are going to want a toy to play with after seeing the movie or before seeing the movie. The Black Series, those are the ones for the collectors, the you know the ones that care about points of articulation and what the the mold looks like.
01:50:38
Speaker
Absolutely. I will say, though, that it's nice to have an action figure of Zep. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, hasn't there, has there been a black series of Zeb? I want to say there has to have been. There might have been. I, you know, I'm not sure. Now the one figure I've wished they would have made, maybe they're going to, I don't know, is Radha.
01:50:57
Speaker
I want a Radha figure, you know, that, that would, that would be, that would be perfect. I have a job of the hut from years ago that spits slime. So I'd love to add Radha to that collection, you know? Yeah.
01:51:11
Speaker
so Yeah, they did. They did. do they They have done a black series of Zeb. I thought so. They did. Okay. Yes. Okay, good. Awesome. Well, that'll be good to look for. Definitely.
01:51:23
Speaker
Yeah. Now, whether there's going to be one for Rada, Hasbro does not currently offer an official six inch figure, black series figure. So nothing has been announced yet, but it's possible.
01:51:36
Speaker
Hey, you never know. Anything's a moneymaker. So, you know, I mean, Yeah, yeah absolutely. All right. So, yeah, it ah we have been recording for damn near two hours. So and we sat down about three and a half hour. or No, about three, you know, about almost three hours ago. we sat down but to you know to talk pre-show. So.
01:52:02
Speaker
Yes, I think ah and that on that note, we have talked this movie, this two hour 12 movie, we have talked about it for the past hour plus, I think we've talked it to death. So let us know what you thought of the Mandalorian and Grogu.
01:52:19
Speaker
With this episode, we might try out a new feature on YouTube where Kat from yeah our our fearless leader of Feast of Phantoms was telling me that YouTube now has a feature and where you can insert trivia questions and answers into a YouTube show video.
01:52:35
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. So I may come up with with a few trivia questions to intersperse through our YouTube post of this episode. So we'll see. Very nice.
01:52:45
Speaker
right but But until we get this episode released and then until we sit down and record episode 48 Captain's Logs and Lightsabers, this was episode 47, the Mandalorian and Grogu's super show, as I'm going to call it. But yeah, we hope you enjoyed our conversation. And until next time, may the force be with you.
01:53:09
Speaker
Live long and prosper. See next time.