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ArTorr FINALLY Reveals His Thoughts on The Mandalorian Season 3 (Ft. ArTorr)
60 Plays1 year ago
This week on the podcast, we sat down with ArTorr, aka Parkes, a creator who makes video essays here on YouTube! You may know him from 'Star Wars Rebels: A Prophecy of Hope', 'The Mandalorian: A Gunslinger's Odyssey', and more!
This is the Wayseekers is a Star Wars podcast, with new episodes every other Friday @ 8:00am CT. Join your hosts Austin SWE and Scotty Holiday SW as they navigate their ways through the Star Wars galaxy.
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Transcript
Shift in The Mandalorian focus to Bo Katan
00:00:00
Speaker
Now you got me wanting to stir the pot. OK. How did you feel about the Mandalorian show becoming the Bo Katan show? Interesting. I got to stir the pot. Yes. Get those takes out in one way or another.
Podcast Introduction: 'This Is The Wayseekers'
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome back to This Is The Wayseekers, a podcast for Star Wars fans by Star Wars fans.
00:00:28
Speaker
My name's Austin SWE. I'm here, as always, with my co-host, Scotty Holiday. Scotty, it feels like we were just here talking about Bad Batch. Yeah, I remember. I was banging on my desk and going crazy. It was great. Yeah, yeah. Wonderful episode. So if you guys want to see our Bad Batch thoughts, go ahead and check out our recent episode. We did a Bad Batch trailer reaction.
Special Guest Introduction: Artur, Star Wars YouTube Essayist
00:00:50
Speaker
But today we have something special, an interview with someone in the community that I
00:00:56
Speaker
respect a lot and have been wanting to have on the show for a while. But before we get into that new episodes of This Is The Way Seekers release every other Friday at 8 a.m. Central time. But we like to switch it up sometimes. So make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube or wherever you're listening. So you never miss out on an episode, especially recently. I think there's been like five episodes of This Is The Way Seekers this month when there's supposed to be like two a month.
00:01:21
Speaker
So many bonus episodes, you do not want to miss them. Yes, but Scotty, what's on the agenda for today's episode? Who are we talking to today? Today we sat down with YouTube video essayist Artur, aka Parks, who you may recognize from his Star Wars Rebels, a Prophecy of Hope video, or his three-part Clone Wars series.
Dave Filoni's Evolution in Star Wars
00:01:41
Speaker
We discussed everything from the evolution of Dave Filoni in the Mandoverse, the escapism of Star Wars, and of course we had to get into what goes into making a long-ass video essay. Hell yes, yes, it was a jam-packed episode and Scotty, how do you think we did for our first interview in kind of the new Wayseekers era?
00:02:01
Speaker
I mean, I think we slate it and we also had an amazing interview. So I hope you all enjoy. Yes. Well, then without further ado, why don't we pass it to our past selves and get on with the interview?
Interview with Parks on YouTube Success
00:02:16
Speaker
Scotty and I are sitting here with Parks, better known as Artor, someone with over 68,000 subscribers on YouTube, amassing close to eight million views, talking about your favorite franchises, such as The Last of Us, Mass Effect, Indiana Jones, and of course, the reason you're here, Star Wars. Parks, how's it going, man?
00:02:38
Speaker
It's going I'm I'm happy to be here. I'm happy you guys got me on here Austin You're a creator that I've that's been on my radar for a while. So this is a pretty cool moment We finally get to work together and there's Scotty over there too, I guess but Scotty
Artor's Journey in the Star Wars Community
00:02:58
Speaker
I I was watching some of your videos today. So I'm now also a fan. So yeah Thank you so much. Yeah, amazing
00:03:07
Speaker
It's funny because Austin, you mentioned wanting to work with them for so long. Austin has been talking to me about trying to get you on our podcast for so long, like months. So I'm really happy that it's finally happening. Yes, sir. Finally.
00:03:23
Speaker
Yeah, our first interview here on This Is The Wayseekers in kind of the new era. And we have some interviews lined up, but we're super excited to be talking to you, Parks. I've been watching your channel for a while now. And then we obviously met through our friend, mutual friend, All Star Wars and Star Wars Exchange. So yeah, super excited to have you on here. Scotty, you want to get us started with a little Star Wars conversation card from Kelly Knox.
00:03:52
Speaker
Yes, we're going to start off with the hard hitting questions right out the gate. So I've got a conversation card here and oh, OK. So bad news. You work for the empire.
Hypothetical Empire Boss Discussion
00:04:06
Speaker
Good news. You get to choose who your boss is. Who is it? My boss is. Oh, God. There's no there's no good answer there. I mean, I it's got to be someone who just like
00:04:22
Speaker
I don't know, man. I might for some reason my mind went to Deidre because I can't. I was like, I was like, no, not her. Like she is so hardcore fascist. Like maybe not her. Maybe like an imperial officer who was not good at their job. So maybe some of the maybe those two dudes and rebels on Lothal. I forget what their names were, but. Oh, like the one that's constantly getting demoted.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yes. Maybe I'll work for him because the job will end sooner. You know, they'll be like, you know, we don't we don't really need your position anymore because we keep demoting them. Or alternatively, if I do well, they might go like, hey, you have his job now. And then I have a career there, you know, working for the empire, which, you know, yeah. Stop and smell the roses. You know, when you're working for a big.
00:05:15
Speaker
I don't know. Not that I support them or endorse them. Well, that's why it's bad news.
Nostalgia and Clone Wars Video Essay
00:05:21
Speaker
She does specify that bad news you work for the others. Unfortunately, yeah, you have to make money. Yeah. I feel like I'm in a similar mindset where it's like someone who's bad at it. So I was thinking like maybe some of the defectors like Callus or why can I think of any more defectors? Bodhi, I don't think he was considering. I didn't verse you.
00:05:42
Speaker
I didn't verse. I wouldn't mind being a part of Inferno squad. That's a nice group. How about you, Scotty?
00:05:53
Speaker
Uh, so I feel like I'm actually prepared for this. I did not read the question beforehand, but kind of along the same thing. I'm like Lieutenant Gorn from Andor. Um, yes. He was, he was really great when it came to, uh, the people under him where he let them go early. If they finished the job to go watch the eye of El Donny and you know, he was a defector and then maybe Taladurith from Kenobi.
00:06:17
Speaker
another defector. Yes. But I just love her. She has such a heart. So I'd like to think that carried into her work. But, you know, I'm surprised no one said Grand Admiral Thrawn. I mean, I mean, he seems pretty far into it now, but like at the start, he had those good intentions. We had that little Thrawn PowerPoint.
00:06:41
Speaker
So Scotty and I know about the good side of Thrawn that probably doesn't exist anymore. The book side. I mean, Thrawn is probably preferable to Tarkin, but like. Yeah.
00:06:57
Speaker
You know, it's also it's a race to the bottom at some point, you know, like, yeah. Yeah. Well, luckily, none of us have to work for the empire, hopefully. Thankfully. All right. Well, Parks, we have put together some questions. Obviously, you've been doing YouTube for a while now and we wanted to.
00:07:16
Speaker
Know all about your journey with that and also some things about your personal Star Wars tastes and maybe some things outside of your Star Wars and content creation Atmosphere you have going on but first I want to talk about that first Star Wars video that you did according to your channel the first Star Wars video that you did and
00:07:37
Speaker
So it was released in March of 2020. It was the start of your Clone Wars series. And I want to know what led up to you making that video and was it your first Star Wars video or were you kind of part of this Star Wars content creation thing before that?
00:07:53
Speaker
So technically, it wasn't my first Star Wars video. It was the first Star Wars video I ever did on our tour. But before our tour, I had a sort of like a let's play YouTube channel called Cytor. And I, you know, would play through games like Nights of the Old Republic, the Force Unleashed games, Lego Star Wars.
00:08:15
Speaker
So if you count that as Star Wars content, like that's kind of where I started. But, you know, the the Clone Wars video was really the videos were really like my first sort of attempt at a sort of Star Wars video essay, which I think, you know, from that period of like the sequel trilogy, you know, up to now has just gotten to be a very popular sort of
00:08:42
Speaker
uh cornerstone of like star wars you know on youtube um but for me the the clone wars videos you know that was around the time that season seven was coming back and obviously i was very excited for that um but on uh in a much like sort of
00:09:00
Speaker
bigger way i was having this bit of a return to star wars at the time um i've talked about this a little bit in those videos but um i think during the time of like the sequel trilogy i of course i was a star wars fan but i was you know more so excited for those movies for the experience of seeing it with my friends it was sort of like our christmas get together um but
00:09:27
Speaker
By the time of Rise of Skywalker, I think it was The Mandalorian and Jedi Fallen Order, that sort of one-two punch and that whatever week of November that was, where I was like, this game looks cool and this show is awesome. Have I been sleeping on Star Wars? Because I know there's the movies, but like,
00:09:47
Speaker
you know, this thing I loved when I was a kid, like, am I am I missing out on it? And so for me, I was like, maybe I should revisit the Clone Wars, because that for me, being too young for the prequel trilogy, the Clone Wars was my Star Wars. So let me revisit that, see how I feel about it, see if it still holds up. And I was honestly kind of shocked how well it held up for me and how much it like immediately just sort of brought me back to
00:10:14
Speaker
the experience of growing up with it as a as a kid. And for me, then, you know, having started this new channel and wanting to do video essays at the time, it didn't really seem like there was a lot of video essays about Clone Wars on YouTube nowadays. They're all over the place. But at the time, there wasn't a whole lot of, you know, stuff on the show where where someone could watch the show, go on YouTube and watch their favorite YouTuber.
00:10:40
Speaker
just talk about it the way that I could find a video essay on, you know, any one of my other favorite movies and hear someone talk about it. So I thought, hey, let me let me do that. And let me make a video more than anything else that I can revisit and go, that's everything I love about the show.
00:10:58
Speaker
And so that's what I did. And when the COVID-19 struck and ruined all our lives, it was sort of the thing helping me out the most at the beginning of the pandemic. And during lockdown, I just sort of chiseled away on those videos until they were
Artor's Video Essay Creation Process
00:11:13
Speaker
done. But yeah, that's where that came from.
00:11:16
Speaker
I love that. We just talked about that last night, Austin, being like, damn, I really wish I would have started the grind during like Covid when everybody was at home on YouTube. So I love that you mentioned that. Right. Yeah. Because like the legend of Star Wars, the Clone Wars, it literally came out like what, 10 days before the pandemic was declared. So.
00:11:38
Speaker
I can imagine that that was like, was that kind of a good point for you to be making all these videos and such?
00:11:47
Speaker
It, I mean, it absolutely was because at the time I had just moved to, um, to Florida for college. And, um, I was, you know, in between classes, cause I'd only had like four classes a week. I didn't live on campus. And so I would, uh, just commute like once, literally just like once a day for one class. And then it'd be like, well, what am I doing? So I'd stick around at school and work.
00:12:13
Speaker
on this first Clone Wars video, but I remember getting that first video done, published, and I was in a rush to get it done because I was about to start spring break and I was about to fly home to my folks in PA and I remember getting on the plane and a woman next to me had a mask and she had wipes and this, you know, beginning of March and she was like,
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, I've just been seeing the news lately. I'm very concerned and I'm like, no, that's okay. That's fine Then literally like five days later That's when my college I turned a bunch of my friends colleges were like, yeah, no more like School is not like in person for the rest of the semester so Stuck at home didn't have to worry about that what was a really long commute at the time for me to school and it was just like
00:13:04
Speaker
God, the news cycle sucks. Like this is just not, I'm not happy with this. I'm just gonna focus on this because it makes me happy. And I know, you know, the season is wrapping up in May, season seven. So let me try and like, let me see how quickly I can get these videos done and get there in time. And that was a...
00:13:26
Speaker
It was, for that reason, I kind of look back at that period and go, it could have been a lot worse. I'm kind of happy how it turned out for me, but double-edged sword of awful pandemic, it wasn't good for anyone. Yeah, yeah. Real art tour fans heard some of that story in A Gunslinger's Odyssey. That is true. You are a real art tour fan, evidently. I didn't talk about it there.
00:13:54
Speaker
I wasn't getting what we said. We just talked about this last night and we're in Austin mentioned from the Mando video. And it's so funny hearing it all back. I have to ask because I am 30. Austin's much younger than me. So I grew up with the prequels and like Austin talks about growing up with the sequels. And you said you grew up with the Clone Wars, which I feel like is I always feel like I'm in a really interesting place where I was like so young. I was six, I think.
00:14:23
Speaker
when the Phantom Menace came out. And so for you, I guess that would put you kind of like right between where we are, if I'm not mistaken. Pretty much. I mean, I I know some people who would say they grew up with rebels. And it's like at that point, I mean, what rebels starts in 2014, runs till 2018, the sequel trilogy. It's pretty much just a year off of that schedule. Like it's so it's it's negligible in that instance, but
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, I was eight when the Clone Wars came out. So the kind of the right age for that. And I had gotten into Star Wars when I was like maybe seven. And so it was kind of like.
00:15:07
Speaker
I got into it by watching the prequels were being aired on TV for the first time. My parents were just flipping through the channels. I was like, what's that? I remember seeing posters for that when I was younger. Naturally, if you're just a young boy and you see the lasers and spaceships that encompasses the Star Wars, you go, I need to know what that is right now.
00:15:32
Speaker
Yeah no I was the perfect age for Clone Wars and for me that was like okay here's some Star Wars I get to hop on the train for like from the beginning and the lessons of that show and then a character like Ahsoka that you know you got to grow up with as the show went along that was you know a very like
00:15:52
Speaker
a nurturing thing for me in a way as a kid where I was watching her learn and reflecting those lessons on my very own life. So it was, yeah, that will always be what I considered to be my Star Wars.
00:16:04
Speaker
Oh, I love that. That's so wholesome. We always hear the stories about how, oh, you know, everybody got to grow up with the Soka and like, you're literally one of those people. And she's one of my favorite characters. I didn't discover Soka until 2014. That's when I started Clone Wars. So I was like super late, already an adult. I was like 24. So I love that, that you got to grow up with her.
00:16:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it's so interesting, like you hear some of the interviews of the people on like the Ahsoka show, like some of the crew who are also people who grew up with the Clone Wars. Yeah. So whatever sort of opinions anyone has about the quality of that show and any opinions I have about it, I go, hey, that's kind of cool. Like that we've come this far, you know, for that the Clone Wars to the people who grew up with it to now be working on Star Wars. So it's really solidified its place.
00:16:56
Speaker
for sure yeah i actually i think i think we're only like two years apart because i was like six years old when the clone wars came out okay but i say i grew up with the sequels because i didn't get like super into star wars until the sequel trilogy when i was like 13
00:17:11
Speaker
So I obviously saw Clone Wars on TV and such like I remember being in like first grade and us getting like Clone Wars books with like Ahsoka and at school we would go out and you know we didn't even know the characters names like
00:17:27
Speaker
For me, I thought Clone Wars was about like Luke Skywalker. When we were out there and people were like, I want to be this character. Instead of Ahsoka, a lot of the girls would be like, I want to be the orange girl. I want to be the bald girl, referring to Ventress. I don't want to be the bald girl still. I was at that age where I didn't even know what was going on. Yeah.
00:17:51
Speaker
Something that you had said before is you started off going with just streaming games. So I've also streamed games. I also make YouTube videos. But something that I struggle with is creating what people consider a video essay, because like to me, a video essay is like 45 minutes, very long and researched, you know, just really intense, no matter how hard I try. Every one of my videos is like 10, 15 minutes long. Sometimes they're five minutes long.
00:18:21
Speaker
even though I feel like I'm writing so much stuff. So what is your definition of a video essay or what makes a video essay?
Defining Video Essays and Inclusive Discourse
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting how video essays have evolved over time. And I think any sort of
00:18:39
Speaker
medium of art or whatever, of media, the more you try to provide a hard set definition for what it is, the more the essence of what that thing really is kind of slips through your fingers. It's as impossible as trying to define what a movie is or a show, other than by some pretty agreed upon metrics of
00:19:03
Speaker
you know, must be 90 minutes long or not even that, you know, some boards would say it's 60 minutes long and bam, it's a movie. And does it have a character and a story and stuff like that? A video essay for me, I tend to hold a pretty inclusive definition. And I think a more useful term for defining it in my view would be replace the word essay with discourse and video discourse. Anything that you would consider video discourse is a video essay.
00:19:31
Speaker
For me, the first video essays I ever came across around, I'd say 2014, 15, were from a Twitter account called One Perfect Shot. They're in the bygone days of Twitter. You won't find them tweeting much anymore these days.
00:19:49
Speaker
they uh they were kind of like the de facto like here's the film is art twitter account and they would tweet out like still images from movies of like cool cinematography and then they'd they'd either directly produce or repost like video essays they called them video essays and they were usually uploaded to like vimeo
00:20:07
Speaker
because most of the people making video essays were like people who went to film school, you know, and a lot of those video essays didn't have any written commentary didn't have like any writing in them at all, it was literally just like
00:20:23
Speaker
Let's juxtapose that word. Thank you. Yes, I was a few too many syllables in there. Thank you. Let's do that with the shots of the movie Nightcrawler and then shots of the movie Drive and kind of compare.
00:20:43
Speaker
and contrast how maybe Nightcrawler was inspired by some shots of Drive, how maybe both of these character, both of these movies portray what we would call today the literally me type of character, you know, that, that, that, that loner who, you know, is like a, like a person in the night kind of all by themselves. And let's put some music over that and watch it and just think about it. Only three, four minutes long. That's a video essay because it, it, it does produce some sort of,
00:21:13
Speaker
thought or consideration. It is discourse about the conversation about those films. And so anything that would fall under that, it can be written, it cannot be written, I would define as a video essay.
00:21:28
Speaker
Well, we love inclusivity here. This is the way seekers. So I love that answer. Yeah. Yeah. I think Scotty, that's something you and I have talked about a bit is like a video essay doesn't necessarily mean like a 90 minute video or whatever, you know, like I don't see a video essay as a time thing because like I look at what Scotty does and they literally write an essay and then read it. And even though it's only 10, 15 minutes, I'm like,
00:21:56
Speaker
How is that not a video essay? You know what I mean? That is a video essay. You make video essays. Yeah, 100%.
00:22:03
Speaker
You are a video essayist. I feel so validated right now. All I needed was for parks to come on and tell me that I'm a video essayist. I feel so validated. I can go put that in my Twitter bio now. There you go. Amazing. Well, on the topic of video essays, I want to ask you what your process actually looks like. Is it the same for every video? Do you have like an assembly line? Are you all over the place? What does an art or video behind the scenes look like?
00:22:32
Speaker
Yes, so
00:22:36
Speaker
There is a process that I do follow, mostly the same for each video. It starts, of course, with an idea. Whenever I decide I wanna turn that idea into a video, I will write a pitch. And a pitch is basically, I mean, in any sort of professional setting, the pitch is like the thing that's gonna help you sell the idea to someone, but I don't need to do that. So the pitch is really just there as a sort of like,
00:23:04
Speaker
a way to officiate the process and for me to write this sort of one page description of what I want to do with the video. And so when I'm like three or four months out from the video being started and I'm like, you know, I'm I'm I have tunnel vision and I'm not really sure what I'm saying or doing anymore because it's been I've worked on this thing for so long. I can reread the pitch and go, that's right. That's what I originally wanted to do with the video. So it's kind of like my my touchstone from there.
00:23:33
Speaker
It could be a lot of research, it could be a little amount of research. I'll do a couple different outlines to try and walk through the video in my head and go, okay, what am I going to say there, there, there. So I'll keep doing that over and over until I'm like, okay, I know what every part of the video is. Then I sit down and write it.
00:23:53
Speaker
I don't usually get it right on the first draft, so that takes a second draft and then sometimes a third draft. After the third draft, I'm like, okay, let me record this thing. I'll try to wait for a quiet time in the household and then record it. And then editing, and then editing is also a multi-staged process. I start with, of course, cutting up the commentary that I've recorded, but then I will do music.
00:24:19
Speaker
Um, and sometimes music is something people put in last, but for me, I put music in like right there with all the audio at the start. Um, and it's sort of, yep, it dictates sort of the flow of the entire video in that way. Um, interesting. I do not do that. So that's really interesting. And I'm the musician here. I don't know about you, but I'm a, I'm a musician. So hearing that y'all do that, I'm like, Oh, maybe I'm doing it wrong.
00:24:44
Speaker
I mean, I feel like the more conventional thing is to like do it last or close to last or find like, you know, because in Hollywood, like you ask a composer, you know, after the movie has been cut to put the music in. There are some exceptions. I know James Gunn is an example of this where he'll have his composers write all the music and then he'll play that music on set. And then in editing, they already have all the music to sort of cut to. But
00:25:12
Speaker
As a person who gets to remix all of this content after the fact, I have the freedom to be like, hey, I want to do the same thing and have the music here. But yeah, after that, it's pretty much just that's the audio pass. I do the video pass then, and then I'll do a bit of an effects pass where I add in maybe transitions and sound effects and stuff that I might do in After Effects.
00:25:36
Speaker
Uh, and that's pretty much like at the finish line right there, uh, minus all the other little things like, you know, let me get my social media, uh, uh, ready and to tweet out the video and all that stuff. But yeah, that's, uh, that's how you make an art tour video. Um, sometimes I will, the video editing almost always goes in that way, but sometimes with the writing, at least with this, this last video I'm doing, I didn't do a pitch. I didn't do an outline. I just went right into writing it. Um, and it's going pretty well so far. So.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean sometimes that's the best option is just get it out on a page. You can figure that out with a second third draft That's kind of my process That's probably why I haven't had a video essay out in like a year. So Maybe I need to you know
00:26:22
Speaker
put it together nicer like that but no I fully agree with you about the music because for me the way I look at it is a lot of the times and I notice this a lot with your videos music and like editing to the music is a big part of what you do and so
00:26:39
Speaker
you're able to cut kind of to the beat or like, you know, when a when something slows down, you're able to fade out, you know. So I always look at that as super beneficial, not to just focus on what you said about music, but that's that's always my thought process with that. Yeah, I totally agree. I love the idea that you mentioned, too, of having like a
00:27:03
Speaker
a statement or, um, I don't remember exactly what you had called it a pitch, but like having that pitch, especially when you're like second draft in third draft in, and you're like, I have all this stuff in my head. Now I have it all like on paper or written in a document, but like, it still feels all jumbled up because sometimes I run into that. And I'm like,
00:27:23
Speaker
Sometimes I get so off topic because it's about something I love so much that I'm like, what the hell am I trying to say with this again? Because now we're over here talking about something completely different. So and it can be overwhelming. Like I was just talking about this today and I feel like this is the Ventress Renaissance for me because I just keep talking about her lately, which is every day. But like I have a dark disciple review that I started and worked on for like
00:27:50
Speaker
six months maybe and I'm on like draft three and I'm just so overwhelmed and I'm like at this point I feel like I need to start over but Like maybe maybe I need to remember what exactly I'm trying to say with it And if I have that to kind of relate back to then it'll keep me more on track So I'm definitely gonna take that advice. There you go. Yeah. No, it's it's it's it's useful cuz I mean especially if you're making like something that is an hour long for me, that's like
00:28:20
Speaker
That's definitely over like 12, 15 pages of writing. You know, invariably you're going to lose sight of where you're going. And even with the outline, even with the pitch, I still do get lost, but, um, it's always good to have like a reminder of like, that's, that's what I'm working towards. Yeah. I love that.
00:28:40
Speaker
Now, we've talked about our love about the Clone Wars already. We've talked about a little bit about mentioning rebels, a little bit about the Mandalorian. And I've noticed that a lot of your videos have a huge focus on the Dave Filoni corner of Star Wars. So how do you feel about him not only as a storyteller, but with his progression from where he started to where he is now?
Dave Filoni's Storytelling: Animation vs Live Action
00:29:02
Speaker
Hmm.
00:29:03
Speaker
Well, Dave Filoni, Dave Filoni, what do we say about Dave Filoni? Yeah, I mean, I guess what I'll start off by saying is my feelings about Dave Filoni are, I think, largely rooted in that I did grow up with the Clone Wars and that I already have such a protective
00:29:26
Speaker
regard for the stories that he told and I look back on now and go man that really like influenced me as a kid like as a young person growing up.
00:29:37
Speaker
and I you know, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to some of the Star Wars celebrations during the time the Clone Wars was airing and It was an interesting time for Star Wars 2 because the Clone Wars was arguably like the most exciting thing happening at the time aside from like maybe some video games, but yeah, it was kind of like the main event and I remember
00:30:03
Speaker
The thing about Dave Filoni and that damn hat he wears is you don't forget him once you've seen him. It's like, oh, there's the guy with the hat. And so I knew from sort of going online and seeing interviews about the show or any clips and seeing that the hat that when I saw him at Celebration, I was like, that's the guy. And at this time, you know, I am a big Star Wars fan, but I'm also getting into filmmaking and I'm also kind of watching movies like The Dark Knight and going, man, how how does a person do that? And
00:30:33
Speaker
For me, getting into that at the same time I was a fan of the Clone Wars, hearing Dave Filoni talk about some of the ways that the Clone Wars was put together and how some of the filmmaking went into that and how they would write the show and how they would work with different people to put the show together.
00:30:51
Speaker
I kind of looked up to him in a way and not to mention when I was a kid, I had a sort of obsession with wearing like a knit beanie. My parents would yell at me because I would just wear it all the time and they'd be like, you'll lose all your hair by the time you're 30.
00:31:11
Speaker
all the time. And I was also like Dave Filoni. I was from Pennsylvania. So I looked at him and I was like, hey, I could do that one day. You know, that kind of inspires me. So my feelings towards him are always going to be sort of rooted in that. I think. I think he always manages to, you know, wherever, like, I guess with live action, his jump into live action,
00:31:38
Speaker
I think everyone kind of agrees, or maybe not, maybe people are ambivalent about it, but I think his strong suit is animation, and he excels there, and live action, he must be ecstatic that he ever got the opportunity to make that jump into that medium.
00:31:56
Speaker
Not many people get to sort of have that lateral career move in the way he did. But other than that, like sometimes he has a tendency to make decisions in live action that feel really dull, uninspired.
00:32:12
Speaker
Stuff like Ahsoka, while I really like, I think, a lot of the core story that's there, and he always, as I was about to say, always manages to put a character in or tell a story that disarms me and makes me go, dang, that kind of hits me in a profound way.
00:32:33
Speaker
It is sort of wall to wall with, with, you know, I was watching your guys's podcast on the, uh, ranking the Ahsoka episodes, how you went on about like the puzzle solving and it's stuff like that where I'm like,
00:32:50
Speaker
This is not challenging the characters in any way that like produces anything meaningful or tells me anything meaningful about them. It's wasting my time. It's wasting their time. The music is really good, though. But of course, that's the that's thanks to the kinders. Not Dave Filoni. Exactly. Exactly. But.
00:33:12
Speaker
Yeah, I I despite that, he always manages to to write something that I think disarms me and means something to me, I think in and really with Ahsoka in general is of character. You know, this was a character that I loved as a kid revisiting the show for those videos I made. Ahsoka
00:33:37
Speaker
meant a lot more to me than she ever did as a kid because it was a way for me to reflect on a bit of religious trauma that I had. That's a big angle of that character that a lot of people relate with. The same thing goes for the Mandalorian. That is a character who also encounters some
00:33:56
Speaker
sort of religious trauma coded sort of experience for a lot of people. And I like that he brings those characters into Star Wars and same thing to a similar extent with Sabine where she has like familial trauma.
00:34:11
Speaker
and brings that into the story. And the Ahsoka show, Ahsoka is sort of encountering this legacy of something that she thought was behind her and something that she stepped away from because she didn't want it to define her. But maybe it's too late for that. And maybe she feels cursed with it in a way. And that's something that for that episode with
00:34:38
Speaker
Anakin, of course, as awesome of an opportunity as I'm sure it was for everyone there to go, we can get Hayden Christensen on screen. Why not? But in a deeper way by the end of that episode, I was very moved by her sort of
00:34:54
Speaker
Um, ability to sort of move beyond all these sort of feelings that were trapping her and start something new. And I may, I, I just hit me in a deep way where I was like, man, like that is so much a feeling I feel. So stuff like that will always is where I go. You know what? Filoni's all right. Like, you know, he, he has the goods when it's really needed, but, um, I.
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, he has a long road to go and live action otherwise. For sure, for sure. Yeah, I think with Dave Filoni, I think a lot of people can agree he has amazing ideas. He is the idea guy, and I think that's a huge reason why he got this new promotion at Lucasfilm, because he's able to step in and
00:35:41
Speaker
guide and give some ideas. I think Dave Filoni would benefit from better collaboration skills. That's my thing. Absolutely. In a few areas, you know, in terms of Star Wars canon, that's a big criticism he always has, but like, you know, does Dave Filoni really need to be writing eight episodes by himself?
00:36:01
Speaker
I don't know if he's there yet, but yeah, I. That's that's something you always talk about to Austin, and I agree. It's like he does so well when he's collaborating because he has the ideas. And then when you get the people that can make it come to life and they all work together, we get things like Twilight of the Apprentice, right? Yes.
00:36:22
Speaker
Yes. One episode that I will always give Dave Filoni credit for, because he completely wrote it himself, is Trials of the Darksaber. Something overcame him that day.
00:36:39
Speaker
But yeah, I think I think Dave Filoni, he's he's he's somewhat important to keep around. So yeah, right. I definitely wanted to hear that, hear your opinion on that from making these types of videos. Yeah. And, you know, speaking about that sort of corner of Star Wars, one of my favorite videos of yours is a Gunslinger's Odyssey, the Mandalorian video.
Mandalorian Expanded Universe Discussion
00:37:02
Speaker
It's about the first two seasons and kind of the journey that Din Djarin goes on in there. But as we know, Book of Boba Fett, Mando season three have come out since then and now Ahsoka. And we have been hearing all about
00:37:19
Speaker
There's two movies in the pipeline. There's another season of the Mandalorian maybe. Do you think that was the right decision to kind of broaden that story out to make like a whole Mando-verse or would you have wished it stayed contained to Din Djarin and Grogu?
00:37:34
Speaker
I mean, ultimately, I guess I would have preferred one of two things. One would have been keep it confined to Din Djarin and Grogu, as you said. Or another approach I'm okay with is
00:37:51
Speaker
This, if you want to venture out into the Mandover, so to speak, you know, you want to touch base with all these characters and this greater imperial remnant conflict that is brewing in the background. The best way to tell this story is not necessarily in a series of spin-off shows. What you really need is another anthology show.
00:38:12
Speaker
you know, yes. And mentally, I am treating these shows when I sit down and watch them like an anthology. It wasn't like that from the get go, obviously, you know, certainly not when Mandalorian was, you know, just the Mandalorian and you didn't have other spin offs. But by then a book of Boba Fett, it just seemed to me it reminded me that show reminded me a lot of like,
00:38:36
Speaker
Arcs and the Clone Wars, kind of like the Onderon episodes in season five, where you have three episodes of them on Onderon. But then out of nowhere in the fourth episode, they go over to whatever planet Honda was on.
00:38:49
Speaker
And they're like, hey, man, we need some rocket launchers to go fight a proxy war in Onderon. And so all of a sudden, Hondo's in the story out of nowhere. And it's fine, though, because you are used to the revolving door cast of the Clone Wars. And I think the Mandoverse would have been better suited to that approach. And plus, you wouldn't have to stretch out one story out over eight episodes or however many episodes.
00:39:16
Speaker
if that's all you had for the title, which is Ahsoka or the Book of Boba Fett.
00:39:23
Speaker
if really all you had was maybe a good solid idea that would take maybe four episodes to go through and then you wanted to, you know, now let's touch base with the New Republic and explore a story there. When we just confine it to, you know, the character name we slap on the poster, it can be very limiting. And obviously I feel like the appeal of that is, you know, based more so in the sort of corporate optics of,
00:39:49
Speaker
You know, here's the Mandalorian character. Here's the Ahsoka character. And now when you see the merch in the store, hey, you know, it's her, you know, it's him, you know, that sort of thing. But the best thing for the story overall would have been to build it out like an anthology. We can spend time with Boba, we can spend time with Mando.
00:40:05
Speaker
Although I guess at the same time, the downside of that is it would be even more expensive than what it currently is because you can spend eight episodes on Tatooine or seven episodes on Tatooine with Boba Fett and reap the rewards of sort of reusing sets and reusing costumes and reusing props through those seven episodes. But if you are jumping around so much in a live action Star Wars show in an anthology format,
00:40:32
Speaker
Um, you know, that cost is going to go up because you're going to have to try and reflect different planets, different costumes. So then we circle back around to what Lucas did with the Clone Wars, which is, Hey, maybe it should be animated because then we have far less limitations. Um, so, but that's not probably, I mean, it could happen, but it will be an anthology show if anything. So.
00:40:56
Speaker
It's so funny that you mentioned that too, thinking about like, if they did do it as an anthology, we would get so many more planets. Like when we saw Teth in Ahsoka and everyone hated it because it was just smoke. Yes.
00:41:13
Speaker
Exactly. Or what was the other one? The Twi'lek Planet? Ryloth. Ryloth. We don't know, but we could tell it was Teth because Pink Smoke and then Ryloth because there was like two Twi'leks in the background. I imagine we'd get a lot more of that. But it's really cool because I love the idea of thinking if they did do it as an anthology. I mean, I talk about it on the pattern on my channel all the time.
00:41:38
Speaker
I love the Clone Wars so you're like speaking my language in this. I'd be interested to hear what Austin thinks though as like the Clone Wars Rebels. I prefer Rebels fan because it's not as much of an anthology like the Clone Wars is. Yeah.
00:41:55
Speaker
I think an anthology sort of thing would have been perfect for it. I totally agree. I would prefer that over what they're doing now. An ideal world for me. And this kind of already happened with Ahsoka. Ahsoka kind of stands on its own. I mean, obviously there's the whole rebel sequel aspect, but in terms of the actual Mando verse, it's not like you have to watch the Mandalorian to understand it. And so I would feel so much better about it if
00:42:24
Speaker
you know, the Book of Boba Fett show was the Book of Boba Fett show exclusively and not continuing the story of the Mandalorian within that. Because for me, like I, I'm a defender of the connected storytelling, like kind of what the MCU does. I mean, not a defender of like their current content, but their current output. But I mean,
00:42:47
Speaker
in terms of like phase one you know iron man stands on its own captain america stands on his own thor stands on its own and so then when they come together it's like an actual crossover i feel like by the time we get to the crossover the characters have already crossed over so yeah it's getting there yeah so you know uh i would have much appreciated it if it was more like just
00:43:10
Speaker
seeing the connectivity really should have just been the Imperial remnant and seeing how the Imperial remnant affects these different characters, Din Darn and Grogu, Boba Fett, Ahsoka, whoever else they want to do, Bo-Katan, whatever, you know. But I'm not a huge fan of the, you gotta, you gotta
00:43:31
Speaker
watch every single one to now understand, you know, I can't even imagine the people that didn't watch Book of Boba Fett before season three being like, what the heck? And, you know, we talked about this on the pod. Our joke is, you know, we don't want to get into tinfoil hat conspiracy theory territory. But sometimes it's hard to ignore, like, was all of this the best creative decision or was it the best financial decision?
00:44:01
Speaker
I hate when the financial stuff gets mixed in with the creative stuff, but it's hard to avoid, I guess.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah. And I guess altogether, like it is one of those compromises that you make as a fan of any sort of franchise these days where you see it everywhere. It's like, okay, if this thing is successful, it's going to have a spinoff. It's going to have a prequel or a sequel, you know, this won't be the end. Like they're, you know, as long as it's successful, a studio is going to want to keep this going.
00:44:33
Speaker
So obviously, you know, that was on the table for Star Wars. And I think the advantage of Star Wars, as far as that goes, is Star Wars has a very long tradition of, you know, side storytelling, you know, ever since the original movie, really, when you had Splinter of the Mind's Eye and you have
00:44:54
Speaker
all these other sort of imaginations of what happens outside of the movies because the universe is so interesting. And so by all means, I'm totally down to explore that in a bunch of different shows. Like you said, Austin, like if it was a show that relied less on, hey, you have to watch this to catch up, you know, then that's great. But
00:45:15
Speaker
It's when you sit there and you feel like you're not necessarily exploring a different corner of Star Wars or even just a side step away from another character. For instance, a Mandalorian show and then a Boba Fett show. Totally fine up until the point it becomes a Mandalorian show again.
00:45:36
Speaker
It would feel a lot better if I sat there and I didn't feel like it was trying to sell me on something else. I much prefer that isolation or if it's gonna be connected, put them all together in like one continuous running thing. So now you got me wanting to stir the pot. So how did you feel about the Mandalorian show becoming the Bo-Katan show?
Critique of The Mandalorian Season 3
00:46:04
Speaker
Interesting. I got to stir the pot. Yes. Get those takes out in one way or another. Well, it's tough. I feel like, you know, for me, I go in whenever I'm excited for something like really excited for something, I will imagine I met and everyone does this. You know, everyone just has a different relationship with it once the show is actually airing or the movie comes out or whatever.
00:46:33
Speaker
You know, I'll imagine sort of how that story is going to go in my head. I see trailer three. I go, oh, boy, you know, this is going to happen and this is going to happen. And for me, I had just done a crazy long video I say about The Mandalorian. I feel like I knew that show like the back of my hand or, you know, whatever your analogy of choice. And I went into that season with all kinds of sort of expectations and
00:46:59
Speaker
feeling like I would be rewarded for my comprehension of the story that was told beforehand in how this story was about to go. Book of Boba Fett, you know, whatever sort of weird creative decision was made there to have Mando and Grogu reunite. I told myself, okay, that is such a flagrantly bad creative decision to do that in the other show without any sort of feeling of time elapsed. Surely it is because there is a much
00:47:28
Speaker
more important story. They need those characters to be together for come season three, right? And to their credit, like, Grogu isn't just there the entire time. They do stuff with him. I liked in that, I think it was the Minds of Mandalore episode how
00:47:44
Speaker
You know, there's the bit in the middle where Mando's like, you know, he's trapped in the cave with the weird cyborg monster and Grogu like goes to get Bogatan and brings him back. I'm like, Oh, that's cool. Like you're giving this character like agency he didn't have before, which is interesting. And there was, there was stakes in that moment. Cause I'm like, gosh, is, is like baby Yoda gonna like actually, you know, save him in time? Like I'm, I'm concerned, you know? But.
00:48:14
Speaker
Other than that, like there wasn't really. It's tough because they got so far from the story of what the first two seasons of The Mandalorian were about. You have a guy.
00:48:26
Speaker
who is sort of a hard-ass, stone-cold killer who essentially has to learn to take off his armor emotionally and in one way physically with the helmet by having to take care of this kid. And so the first season is about him embracing that responsibility, and the second season is about him letting go of that responsibility and having to come to terms with that.
00:48:49
Speaker
So, in that sense, you have kind of like the front and back of a book very perfectly together. Obviously, there were plot threads on the table that you could very much continue with Mandalore, and you could very much, you could challenge that relationship with with Mando. To me, it seemed like
00:49:07
Speaker
the direction of the story after Book of Boba Fett was, oh, Mando's an apostate, which feels like a very like unfair sort of position to put on him. You know, this this like religious cult thing he's a part of has some pretty strict rules. Like it would be very interesting. You know, Dave Filoni, I see you over there with your religious trauma characters to have this guy try to basically
00:49:33
Speaker
like be radicalized out of his like sort of belief system and realize that maybe it's leading him astray. But no, season three doubled down on this belief system. And by the end of the season, I felt like my head was spinning because I was like, was...
00:49:54
Speaker
It was just one of those things where it made me wonder if I was reading the right things from the previous two seasons, if Jon Favreau stopped caring. If like, you know, there's or maybe there's a different message that I'm not quite picking up on here, where it's, you know, this thing can be good for you, but also you can accept other beliefs like bokutans. The problem then was just how the season arrived at that sort of conversation where
00:50:23
Speaker
for no apparent reason, the armor is like, you know, cool with Bo Katan taking off her helmet and walking both worlds or whatever she says and stuff like that. It was a very messy way to have any sort of like, I don't know, to build off of anything that was established in those first two seasons. So I was disappointed, but I don't know. We'll see. Maybe the movie will be
00:50:51
Speaker
I wouldn't say redemption. I would just say maybe it's a space Favreau's more comfortable in. He's a filmmaker. He's used to that to our format. He might be tired of telling stuff on the TV side of things. Maybe a two-hour story is like, hey, I have a cool idea for just a concise Mando adventure. Or maybe I don't. Maybe I'm being forced to make a movie off of an eight-episode season that's now six episodes in a movie.
00:51:20
Speaker
I'm dreading it a little bit, but maybe it won't be so bad. I don't know Yeah, we'll just have to wait and see but yeah, I totally agree with you. Like I think that
00:51:30
Speaker
my thing with Bo-Katan, like I love Bo-Katan and seeing her story continue, seeing Katie Sackhoff get to play her in live action. Absolutely. Amazing. But I can't help but feel like the story that Din Djarin was supposed to have was kind of given to her, like not even in the sense that like, oh, she's the main character, whatever. I'm not really one to complain about that.
00:51:53
Speaker
But in terms of this whole thing, like you said, it almost seems like out of nowhere, the armor is just accepting of Bo-Katan taking off her helmet. I can't help but wonder if that was supposed to be Din Djarin. Was he the one that was supposed to walk both worlds?
00:52:12
Speaker
be the Mandalorian that was part of the watch and then remove this helmet and it's like see guys it's really not that big of a deal you know yeah and you know don't forget to the armor definitely alluded to some drama in the book of Boba Fett when she was telling the I think what did she say the tragedy
00:52:32
Speaker
of Bo-Katan Kreezer, she used a very negative adjective to describe it. I think she said she was cursed or something. I can't remember exactly, but yeah. Or that she brought a curse to Mandalore by taking the Darksaber without winning it in combat. Right. Yeah, I fully thought they were going to fight in season three, talking about what we thought we knew. But yeah, and then it was just like, hey, girl, like you can do both.
00:53:00
Speaker
Maybe it was reading too much into the trailers, but the vibe from that, too, was like, oh, man, there's going to be another like, you know, Mandalorian Civil War, you know, like Mando is going to have some people from The Watch and then Bo-Katan is going to have her Mandalorians. And then, you know, Mando is going to be like, wait, why are we doing this? That's more in line with where I thought it was going. But this was not the way, I guess.
00:53:30
Speaker
So I feel like you've kind of hinted at this already mentioning some religious trauma and relating to the stories of these characters. For me as a queer person, I'm always looking for characters in Star Wars that I'm able to see myself represented in or see a part of me in them. So other than maybe Din Djarin, who are some other characters or just Star Wars projects in general that you see yourself represented with or identify with?
00:53:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I have the sort of benefit of having all kinds of characters that I can sort of immediately relate with on some level. But I guess in a very personal way, maybe characters who struggles like I.
00:54:13
Speaker
mean something to me and I look at them and in any sort of character or story where I go, you know, that's a character that helped me through maybe a difficult time or something. A character I will mention, I guess would be Cal Kestis
00:54:29
Speaker
And this is interesting, Scotty, because I watched your how the the stars video games are queer video earlier. And so it's interesting to get your perspective on Cal and of course, a perspective that I had never even considered before, which is so interesting. But for me.
00:54:47
Speaker
And specifically Cal and Jedi Survivor, I will sort of harp on more so here. I think it was so interesting going into that game the time I did, I had waited a few months to play it. And by that time, almost everything about the game had been spoiled for me, sadly. But I
00:55:10
Speaker
Remember going into that game and I was waiting to play it because I knew that when I did, I was probably going to start thinking about a video of some kind or some sort of content for it. So I held off on playing it. Exactly. Us content creators.
00:55:26
Speaker
walk a very difficult path. We can't enjoy anything for what it is. But yeah, I was holding off on it. And I had started working at the escapist at the time. And
00:55:41
Speaker
I won't get too into the weeds of it, but it was a very, very busy job. And at the time I was doing that plus a day job, plus trying to do YouTube. And it was a losing battle for my YouTube channel. And I remember...
00:55:57
Speaker
playing that game. And it was I booted up because I was like, listen, like, I just need some sort of relief or escape from what's going on right now. You know, a Star Wars game has to be the best medicine.
Connections to Cal Kestis and Jedi Survivor
00:56:10
Speaker
And so I played it. And I think what was so interesting about that story at the time I played it was this desperation Cal has for a dream of his to come true, essentially, which is
00:56:23
Speaker
I want the Empire toppled. I want my friends to be safe, you know, and I'm going to fight as hard as I can for that to happen. But gosh, darn, I've been fighting for five years. I've been surviving for 10. When will the day come when this like fight is over? And and so he's a very tired character in that game. And you see it on his face and he just looks exhausted. And for me, I was like, man, like,
00:56:51
Speaker
I'm exhausted too playing this and in a deeper way by the end of the game, you see in a sense how his desperation for Tano lore and for this escape that he has drives him to make some very unconscionable decisions and to cross some boundaries and defy his code in a way that
00:57:15
Speaker
He did so because he did it from a place of fear and and he wasn't ever able to truly let go of that fear. And at the end of it, you know, though he has a tan allure, there's this this greater sense that.
00:57:31
Speaker
You know, he has really only walked out of this journey with a lot of tragedy and sadness and his dream, his ultimate dream of the empire being toppled is really no closer. And to me, that story is the epitome of anyone who is trying to chase something that is a bit ambitious, something that they're not likely to succeed at, a dream of sorts. And for me, it's at the moment, it's content creation in the sense of
00:58:01
Speaker
um cal sort of going you know i originally wanted to chase like this goal of defeating the empire as i you know that mission beginning the game and he sees the hologram with all the sort of places across the galaxy where the empire is and realizing how hopeless that is
00:58:17
Speaker
Taylor is like that alternative of, okay, here's something I can make happen. For me, you know, during the pandemic, I went to college to become a filmmaker and I was very adamant about that. And I had switched schools. I originally was going to school in Philly and I went to school in Florida to be closer to some family down there and to try and, you know, meet some people that were out of my comfort zone and try to build connections and network and all that fancy stuff you're supposed to do in college to get a career.
00:58:47
Speaker
And then COVID happened and I was home for the next like three semesters or so and I
00:59:00
Speaker
was sort of feeling hopeless about the whole thing. I was sort of getting towards the end of I think my third year and I was not really feeling like I was any closer to what I originally set out to do and I felt very stuck in a lot of ways. But then at that same time, the YouTube channel was sort of taking off and I was like,
00:59:20
Speaker
Okay, maybe I should work on this and cultivate this and see maybe opportunities can come from this. And so I switched gears to that. For me, that was like switching gears to Tana lore and trying to go along that journey, but.
00:59:34
Speaker
Yeah, after the last sort of few months at the escapist, it was sort of stuck in the mud on a Jurassic Park video that wasn't getting done anytime soon. And I just felt really hopeless at that time and felt like I had sort of lost sight of my goals. And ultimately, Cal Kestis was there to sort of, you know, remind me that I'm not alone in that struggle and I'm not alone. And there's so many people out there who
01:00:02
Speaker
You know, just because they want their dream and they pursue and they work hard for it doesn't mean they get it. But at the same time, that doesn't mean it's a hopeless pursuit. There's always another chance to go after it.
01:00:14
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. There's a character that I relate with. I think that I love that you said that, though, is that one of Cal's things is just realizing that he's not alone. And I think that's one of the big overlaps between both of our relations to the character. You with what you just explained my video about how queerness is kind of surrounded his journey, even though he himself is not necessarily queer. Right. And what I what I love about Cal Kestis on top of all of that is just how relatable he is. Yes.
01:00:43
Speaker
as a character, but also like he's the perfect character for a game because you can find things about Cal that you relate to and he's great for that. But I don't know. There's something about Calcast is he's a great character. It's fantastic. Yeah. And Cameron Monaghan, I mean, he's he's just they couldn't have cast someone better for him because he really is, you know, just so many people are able to project a part of themselves on him and
01:01:12
Speaker
His sort of struggle in a, in a world where he doesn't necessarily get to get what he wants. I'm sure everyone can relate to and our capitalist hellscape. So, yeah, I love that. And I love that you're able to, you know, you were able to have Cal Kestis in those moments, because I feel like that's what a huge part of Star Wars is, is, you know.
01:01:32
Speaker
these lessons that you're able to take into your life and apply them to your life and not feel so hopeless. It's all about hope. Things may not be looking good. What's that quote from Leia? Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it, you'll never make it through the night.
01:01:48
Speaker
And I love that. And I love that Star Wars is here for us in these moments. And yeah, I just want to say thank you for dropping the wisdom about Calcastis on us here on This is the Way Seekers. Yes, that was that was great. Thank you.
01:02:07
Speaker
So we know Star Wars, huge franchise, so many things, so many avenues to explore. Are there some things in Star Wars that you haven't gotten to explore in your videos or may never get to that you still, you know, love and want to highlight here?
01:02:22
Speaker
I thought about this earlier and honestly, probably the books like and the comics or the books. There's just so much awesome stuff happening there, especially with the High Republic. I started catching back up on that again. And it's like, man, like all those authors are doing such an amazing job and and telling such like an intentional and purposeful story. Like seriously, anyone listening
01:02:47
Speaker
If you are a prequel fan and you haven't listened to the, or I say listen because I've been listening to audiobooks, but if you haven't read any of the higher public stuff or engaged with any of it, you really should because it is such a fascinating sort of like, it is basically like, okay, here's the prequels. Let's like walk back 10 steps from that. How does their public
01:03:09
Speaker
become that, what was it before that? And it very logically traces back what kind of government, society, the Republic and the Jedi would be to fall into what it succumbs to in the prequels.
01:03:27
Speaker
So great stuff that I don't think I'll ever have the opportunity to really do as a sort of video essay just because it is like a series of books and unfortunately my medium is limited by video and it needs to be something that people can watch on a screen. Yes, I feel that.
01:03:46
Speaker
But yeah, yeah. And then even some of the like other sort of expanded universe books I grew up with when I was a kid. You know, those air to the Empire books are really cool. I'm sure that could come up, you know, in like a video about Thrawn or whenever they get to do the movie. I invariably like those.
01:04:05
Speaker
books are going to be an influence and are an influence on some of the Mandovers storytelling. But yeah, no, the books deserve more credit, I think. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Couldn't agree more. And I say that as somebody who just got into reading in general. Oh, yes. Like a year ago. So why doesn't more people talk about this is awesome.
01:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, no, you're missing out if you're not reading, especially the Star Wars books. They just they do some great things in those books. And I agree. I wish they would just get more recognition. I mean, we're all creators. We know how videos do when you review a book on YouTube. Unfortunately, people aren't looking up the book reviews, but I'm like, y'all are missing out on so many good stories. And I say this is somebody who's also not reading The High Republic, which I know I'm missing out on.
01:04:53
Speaker
horribly. It's in it's in my back catalog. I'll get there. There you go. Yeah. Scott, I saw you started Lost Stars, though. You enjoying it so far?
01:05:05
Speaker
Well, unfortunately, and I say not unfortunately, but when I started reading it, I read the prologue, I read about half of it and I was starting to fall asleep now because it was bad, but because I was just really tired. So I put it down and then we got a bad batch trailer. Right. So unfortunately, I haven't been able to pick it back up yet because, you know, when I go to bed at night or like get in bed, I'm exhausted from working on bad batch content all day.
01:05:33
Speaker
So check back in with me in like six months and hopefully all of it read at least half of it. Cool, cool. One of my favorite books. I was super excited to see that you were starting that parks, kind of the flip side of this question.
01:05:51
Speaker
talked about things that you might not get to explore within your videos, but is there something within Star Wars that you wish Star Wars would explore themselves? Like Lucasfilm, make more stuff about this corner of Star Wars.
01:06:07
Speaker
I mean, there's a couple obvious answers and I don't have really an interesting opinion about this. The older public, along with the Clone Wars, that's like a big piece of Star Wars that I got into when I was a teenager. Anything in that era would be cool. I'd love to see them attempt to
01:06:26
Speaker
Maybe embrace and then try to answer the question of why do things in the older public seem so high-tech? Yet all this time has elapsed and like the technology feels the same There was there was like a thread on Twitter I saw about that like maybe yesterday or the day before about that where it's like I
01:06:45
Speaker
You know, the clumsy aesthetics of the old Republic and it's like, I don't care. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, those star maps in the old Republic, they just look so cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely saw the same thread because I even commented on it and.
01:07:03
Speaker
My take is I actually kind of enjoy the fact that the farther back you go, the more high-tech it seems because it feels more lived in. I believe George Lucas has talked about that. That's why the prequests feel more futuristic than the originals because as time goes on, it gets more lived in, which obviously
01:07:25
Speaker
Does that make the most sense? No. But, you know, I feel like it's a creative choice I can respect. And another part of that too is I feel like with all these wars and, you know, oppressive factions like the Empire, they come in.
01:07:41
Speaker
I like the idea, well, I don't like it, but from a storytelling perspective, I like the idea that these kind of oppressive forces, they kind of ruined the galaxy in a sense that, yeah, it kind of did set the galaxy back a bit to the point where they don't have the best technology. Like by the sequel trilogy, we're seeing they're basically just using original trilogy aesthetics and whatnot and old equipment.
01:08:06
Speaker
I like the idea that these kind of big conflicts have set the galaxy back. Again, does it make the most sense that things haven't progressed? No, but it's something that I can respect, I think. Yeah, exactly. So it'd be interesting to see an attempt that, I mean, there was, I remember watching a video a number of years ago that basically
01:08:29
Speaker
argued that a possible reason the galaxy never progresses like past that point in thousands of years is Because of constant war and war is expensive And so there's never time to actually innovate anything because all that money is being used to fight a war So that's an interesting perspective But yeah, other than that, I would I'd be very interested in some sort of
01:08:54
Speaker
And or style sort of exploration of the founding of the New Republic. I I've been getting into.
01:09:06
Speaker
a lot more history in the last year. It's something I really loved when I was younger, but I've sort of reclaimed that hobby recently. And I think it's so interesting how many similarities you can draw in Star Wars to sort of certain revolutions that take place throughout history.
01:09:26
Speaker
And then certain wars wars often coincide with a lot of revolutions But a period that you don't ever really get to see in star wars and unfortunately the sequel trilogy You know, I enjoyed overall but it skipped over this interesting period which is um the trials and tribulations of trying to establish like that new government where sometimes you know in the sense of uh america's founding, you know the founding
01:09:52
Speaker
fathers were, you know, knew they didn't like British occupation. They knew they didn't like, you know, being just a British colony, but they didn't necessarily know what they wanted to replace it with. Not right away. And they wouldn't for several years until they finally wrote like the Bill of Rights. But yeah, so it'd be interesting to see that sort of happen with the New Republic. And I think, you know, Lucasfilm has the right
01:10:21
Speaker
minded storyteller to kind of dive into like the mechanics of that right now with Tony Gilroy. And if he's so interested. So I mean, they've already got Genevieve O'Reilly, too. She'll just come back for the indoor sequel series about the New Republic. Right. I would. I'd be so into it. As soon as she was put into Andor as Mon Mothma, my next thing was like, now I want to see Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma post the original trilogy. And we got that in Ahsoka. So yeah, there's.
01:10:50
Speaker
We could see this happen. Who knows? Maybe you could be a part of that team in the future.
01:10:55
Speaker
Oh, I would I would flip out. There's no way, though. It's just inflating my ego right now. Just hey, sky's the limit. We already really is. We already talked about it with Cal Kestis. Like, just put your mind to it. It'll be. It's your channel or it is. It is. It's mine. And you know what? You know what? I bet. I bet you Saru Akarn. He has what it takes to make it all the way to there. He's going to he's going to.
01:11:26
Speaker
Still eating cereal at his mom's house. Yeah. He's like, he's like Darth Maul, but instead of just like surviving over hate, he's just like surviving over just super uptight. And yeah, he's just like, hmm. Yeah.
01:11:44
Speaker
Well, we've we've kind of touched on this with kind of talking about the different pockets of the Star Wars universe, but I want to take it into our universe and talk about the different pockets of the Star Wars fandom. We know there's a reputation for the fandom. There's the positive side. There's the toxic side, unfortunately. But I'm curious, especially with the content that you make, what has your experience been with both the positive and the toxic sides of the fandom?
01:12:15
Speaker
I mean, for me personally, in terms of what parts of the fandom splash over on my videos, it's been thankfully extremely positive. I'm very fortunate for the viewership that I have and the community that I have around the channel.
01:12:35
Speaker
um i've had comments that told me like hey like like we appreciate your videos because like they are a genuinely positive and interesting space like to to really like think and talk about these stories um outside of you know other channels and and other sort of creators who
01:12:57
Speaker
really just they'll go to the same depth, but only to complain about this and that and this and that and this. And I'm like, yeah, sure, absolutely. Like, you know, and I always try to be genuine with it. You know, I don't necessarily love all Star Wars things, but I never want to do anything but create like a positive space. That being said, something I've been thinking about lately for, you know, hopefully reasons that are will become kind of obvious.
Addressing Toxic Star Wars Fandom
01:13:28
Speaker
is the sort of delicate ecosystem that as a creator I am a part of and that ecosystem involves other creators that I respect and enjoy, but it also involves creators that I disagree with, that I think are not necessarily a good influence on the space and on the fandom and are perhaps helping perpetuate or are a gateway to that sort of toxic part of the fandom.
01:13:54
Speaker
And it's, it's a tough thing because, um, as a YouTuber, like my, a lot of my viewership, and this is maybe the case for a lot of channels. I imagine a lot of my viewership trickles down from bigger star Wars channels. Um, and so while I do, you know, have a sort of.
01:14:18
Speaker
you know, a bone to pick with maybe certain creators or channels. It is the irony of that and the hypocrisy that I am complicit in as a creator enjoying the viewership is a lot of my viewers come from the videos of like some of those toxic channels. My video gets recommended on theirs, not because the content of it lines up with anything they've said, but just because Star Wars is in the title.
01:14:46
Speaker
viewers find the video and they don't necessarily come to the video bringing toxic tidings or anything like that, but they come from that. It's just interesting to think about and it has just sort of
01:15:01
Speaker
made me all the more determined to offer a positive space because if someone comes across my video, I don't want to cultivate someone's hate. You know, I don't want to cultivate someone's negativity or dislike or frustration. Like those aren't, I think I, you know, fundamentally, I don't think that's good for you as a person. Um, and it's certainly not what Star Wars should do for you either. You know, Star Wars should make you feel good. Um,
01:15:27
Speaker
If possible, it could also make you think and think a little bit deeper about who in Star Wars is usually the one hating and who's the one learning to let go. Exactly. With that, I would contend
01:15:44
Speaker
You know, and maybe this is dictated more so by my sort of pervasive optimism more than anything else. But most Star Wars fans are probably not toxic. It's probably a vocal minority, like a vocals, like a minority of a wider slice that is the online Star Wars fandom. We all deal with it. We all brush up against it. But
01:16:08
Speaker
It's not all encompassing. And if you go to something like Star Wars Celebration, you will never encounter anyone like that, any part of the toxic fandom there. Everyone there is so positive and so nice and cool. And it's honestly really reassuring. It kind of restores your faith in a way and after all these negative interactions online.
01:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, no, there's, yeah, that's transition. I love that. Yeah, you bring up a great point about, you know, no matter what the person's opinion is that's actually watching, like a lot of those people, we even see like our channel with WaySeekers, we just hit 200 subscribers, so we're not anywhere near, you know,
01:16:57
Speaker
anywhere near huge or anything. And even I see like last week we made our episode, we were talking about the Ray film and kind of that drama recently where it was rumored that it was indefinitely delayed and whatnot. And you know, kind of who was making these claims? Who was reporting this, right?
01:17:16
Speaker
And we're talking a lot about how, you know, the spread of misinformation. A lot of people like to just spread misinformation in their videos because it gets clicks. And, you know, we're actively combating that in the video. And I look at what, like where people are clicking on this video from. And a lot of people were clicking on it from those videos that we were talking about.
01:17:40
Speaker
And I was like, wow, like, but we didn't get any comments or anything being like, you know, fuck you guys, woke, whatever, blah, blah, blah. So I was like, hmm, like maybe, maybe there is hope. Maybe, maybe a difference is being made. Who knows? But, uh, yeah, I, I'm in the same boat where I like to believe that, uh, not everybody's like that in the Star Wars fandom. A lot of people are here to enjoy Star Wars and love Star Wars. Doesn't mean you love everything, but
01:18:10
Speaker
Exactly. And we can have conversations about things we don't like without being defensive. Yeah. It's tough, but the, the important thing to remember is like, look, we're all stars fans. Like we're, we already have more in common than we probably don't because we're passionate enough about this thing to, to want to talk about it like on the internet with, with strangers, you know? Um, so yeah, I, uh, it's, it's just not worth getting worked up over sometimes.
01:18:38
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I talk about it all the time too. And like, and I think we can all relate to this. I watched some of these creators that you would call toxic back in the day. And the reason I stopped watching them is because I was just like, I don't want to watch content about the thing I love making me not love it or making it, making me not feel good about it. Cause like you said before,
01:19:01
Speaker
I go to Star Wars to feel good, mentioning that you had Jedi Survivor when you were going through a rough time with just for an escape. That is Star Wars. It's my escape. Exactly. Yeah, totally. So all right. I'm kind of moving on from Star Wars fandom content in general.
01:19:23
Speaker
Outside of all of this, what are you doing with your time? Are some of your hobbies or things you like to do outside of making your YouTube videos?
01:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, sleeping, scrolling on my phone for way too long, trying to look for that dollar bill that I know is underneath the mattress to pay for rent. No, of course, I love movies, video game shows in my free time.
01:19:54
Speaker
I love sort of going to the theater by myself. I say that as a point of pride because it's something that people feel insecure about or they're like, oh, I don't know. But I'm like, hey, man, like go to the theater by yourself. It's great. Like, it's awesome. It's quiet. Well, depending on when you go. But it's it's quiet in your own little bubble.
01:20:11
Speaker
But yeah, I do a bit of long distance running, something I've done since high school. So that's a good way to air out the frustration sometimes. Yeah. I mentioned earlier, history is something that I'm really passionate about. Next year, I'm
01:20:34
Speaker
And I guess this also, I do like to travel. Next year, my mom and I are planning to travel to France to experience some French history. I don't know why I said French that way. If anyone's French watching this, just... I was like, I don't think that's a French accent, but it's okay. They're like, look, we're another American white guy just thinking he can
01:21:00
Speaker
Thinking he can impersonate a French accent, but no, yeah. So that is something I'm looking forward to. And yeah, I love travel. And then, you know, I like, what kinds of things do I collect? I mean, I, Legos, I have this cool Jurassic Park set behind me. That's kind of the gist for parks. I used to do a lot of short films with my friends, but all my friends have moved away. So they're often grad school or off doing a more career related job.
01:21:30
Speaker
We talk about actually doing it more than we get to do it nowadays, but that's just the sad reality of growing up that I am currently grappling with.
Artor's Hobbies Beyond YouTube
01:21:40
Speaker
I feel that once again, I'm the 30 year old here. So now that my friends have children and are getting married, I created a YouTube channel. There you go. I love that you said you run, though, because I'm like, as people who sit at a desk and edit and work on videos, running is like a great thing to have a hobby of, because I'm like, damn, I need to do some exercise instead of just sitting at the computer desk all day. Yeah, I love that for you.
01:22:09
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. After staring at Adobe Premiere for like eight hours a day, it is almost a gift to be able to just be on my feet for any reason at all. So, yeah. Right. Yeah. I recently started running too. I actually, this weekend I kind of started
01:22:28
Speaker
spontaneously, because I was watching my Kansas City Chiefs playing in the AFC division. And so I, you know, it was a really close game. And like, I was like, screaming with my dad the whole time. And I was like, I need to like, go run, maybe get some like masculine energy out. Yeah. There you go.
01:22:51
Speaker
And I, I did, and I, I ran around the block and then I was like, Oh, uh, definitely not as good as, uh, these, these football players running around for three hours. Well, they're getting, they're getting paid to do it. You're doing it for free. You're doing it for your health. They're doing it for $3 million. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of a difference.
01:23:15
Speaker
All right, before we go, we're trying something new here with our interviews called Galactic Grilling.
Galactic Grilling: Rapid-Fire Star Wars Segment
01:23:21
Speaker
And this is going to be a series of questions that you have 60 seconds to answer. And you're going to try and get as many as you can. And then in the future, when we have more guests on, you'll be on the leaderboard and we'll see where you end up. But today you're setting the pace. All right, no pressure. So Scotty, let us know when to go.
01:23:43
Speaker
All right, I'll give a countdown. Cool. Three, two, one. All right, who is your favorite Star Wars character? Ahsoka Tano. Favorite Star Wars movie? The Empire Strikes Back. Favorite Star Wars director? Ervin Kirschner. Favorite Star Wars writer? Dave Filoni? What's your favorite lightsaber color? Green. What's your Star Wars trilogy?
01:24:13
Speaker
The original. Favorite era. The prequel era. Favorite droid. Oh, the B2emo, the one from Andor. Who's your favorite Jedi? Kip Fisto. Favorite Sith. Darth Maul. Bounty Hunter. Cad Bane. Clone Wars or Rebels? Clone Wars.
01:24:43
Speaker
What's your favorite Star Wars game? Jai Survivor. Time. All right. That was 12. That was good. All honest answers, but they were all close to honest, at least.
01:25:01
Speaker
Well, you can once the episode comes out, you can make a post with your real answers. And you're like, this is what I said here. But here's the actual real answers when I can think about it. And I'm not going on a tie. Yeah. Yeah. This is the only question we didn't send beforehand. So no time to prepare. That's why it's galactic grilling. All right. Grilled. I was.
01:25:25
Speaker
All right, well, this has been an extraordinary episode of This is the Wayseekers parks. Thank you so much for coming on and being our first guest of the new Wayseekers era.
Guest Social Media and Podcast Promotion
01:25:36
Speaker
Where can everybody find you at on the socials?
01:25:41
Speaker
Well, of course, you can find me on YouTube as our tour. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at Parks Harmon. You can also find me on Twitch at twitch.tv forward slash site tour. Amazing. Well, on top of making sure you follow our lovely guests, make sure you follow This Is The Wayseekers on social media at Wayseekers Pod or wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss out on an episode. Thank you all so much for watching or listening. And may the force be with you always.
01:26:11
Speaker
Bye!