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Delving into Star Wars THE FORCE AWAKENS | 007
25 Plays23 days ago
Join Branwen and Seah as they deep dive into all things Star Wars! This season, we're on a rewatch of the OG Trilogy, Prequels, Sequels and maybe a cheeky spin-off! Follow along as we fly off exploring all the wonders and geekery of a Galaxy Far, Far Away, chatting nostalgia, worlds, lore, music, story, behind the scenes, and much more with each other and some very special guests.
In our seventh episode we're celebrating "The Force Awakens", the JJ Abrams blockbuster that kicked off the sequel trilogy. We break down the story, go off into some background details, and share lots of emotional memories!
Sisters of the Force is a weekly, UK-based, Star Wars podcast, produced with joy and love by Seah and Branwen.
Follow us on instagram @sistersoftheforcepod, bluesky @sistersoftheforce.bsky.social, https://www.youtube.com/@SistersoftheForce, and at www.facebook.com/sistersoftheforcepod.
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Transcript
Favorite Star Wars Lines
00:00:15
Speaker
Sia. Hello. What's your favourite line from The Force Awakens?
00:00:21
Speaker
I like that Wookiee.
00:00:25
Speaker
That's amazing. That had the accent and everything. I panicked and that's the one I've gone for. that was There's three on this page, but that is the one I'm going for. I stand by it. Nice.
00:00:38
Speaker
Hey, Bramwen. Yeah. What's your favourite line from The Force Awakens? I bypassed a compressor.
00:00:47
Speaker
Which I didn't have to do an accent because Ray's accent is English. It's pretty much yours, yeah. Which helps. i love Have you seen, there's a video meme of that? Is there? Where they show the sequence of them flying through hyperspace and everything's going a bit wild wonderful and shaking.
00:01:02
Speaker
And there's some really, really loud dubstep playing. And then Ray flips the switch and the dubstep goes all quiet and the man looks up and says, what did you do? And she says, I bypassed the compressor.
00:01:13
Speaker
That's incredible. but I haven't seen that. It's like they didn't need to change the script. The meme just wrote itself. It just worked. Okay. Anyone who is not into audio engineering will have no idea what we're talking about. Nah, it's fine.
00:01:28
Speaker
But we you know you all love a bit of audio
Revisiting The Force Awakens
00:01:30
Speaker
geekery. So you're listening to Sisters of the Force. I'm Bran Wen. I'm Sia. And today we're here to talk about Star Wars Episode 7.
00:01:40
Speaker
The Force Awakens. Oh my God. how How do you feel about The Force Awakens? What what was it like re-watching it? Well, I watched it this morning, like I do, my little...
00:01:52
Speaker
As is your system. As is my way, my system. But it's been a long time since I saw this one. You said something just before we started recording that shocked me slightly. You said this came out 10 years ago? It really did, yeah. Like the week we're recording this, 10 years ago this week, the first proper trailer came out.
00:02:13
Speaker
That is wild. It's unbelievable, isn't it? That is wild. It's a decade-old movie, which is quite scary. Wow. That is quite scary. I remember going to see I remember the hype around this. Yeah, the hype. remember vividly going to see it.
Excitement and Trailers
00:02:29
Speaker
but In our Phantom Menace episode, I think it was, I talked about the hype of the prequels as a sort of original trilogy lover. and you know Yeah.
00:02:37
Speaker
I don't know whether this might have been more hype looking back. There was a lot of hype. But I suppose at this point, they've got however many generations of people. Yeah, yeah. I guess there's more people.
00:02:48
Speaker
They also had the returning cast, you know, yeah Harrison and Carrie and Mark and yeah even Peter Mayhew, which, and St. Daniels, obviously. That was like a big thing for us. Yeah.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I think. It was very, very exciting. Yeah. and And to be fair, they nailed the trailers. Like the trailers were so exciting. That first one with the shot of Finn standing up into frame. Yeah, it's great. And then right at the end, you see the three-bladed lightsaber, which yeah I think that shot never actually ended up in the film, as often happens with trailers these days.
00:03:22
Speaker
Yeah. I remember going to see this in the cinema
Cinema Experiences
00:03:25
Speaker
as well. It must have been the week that it came out. Probably, potentially not the day. I don't think we could get tickets on the day. yeah um But we went to the first cinema. We couldn't get a ticket.
00:03:35
Speaker
We went to a different cinema. and so There was a little group of us and we were we were just moving around cinemas in Bristol trying to find somewhere that had any space left. Yeah. Which meant that the first time I saw it, I saw it in 3D. Oh, amazing.
00:03:51
Speaker
Very expensively with Stormtrooper glasses. Amazing. That I had to buy. Yeah. love it. You could either have Stormtrooper or Kylo Ren.
00:04:04
Speaker
And we got one of each because there was a few of us there. Brilliant. We had a few different pairs. Yeah, I think I went to see it at IMAX at one point, but not the first time I saw it no we saw it together at the IMAX yes was that my birthday maybe that was your birthday yeah yeah that was so good and my cousin Jamie was there shout out to Jamie and I think Tom Tom came yeah Justine's and Chris's son yeah yeah it was good times that was a good one I think I might have seen it in Carmarthen because I'd given up on Muldan. Sadly, anybody in West Wales knows that there's a cinema in Muldan in Cardigan, which is really great. This is our second shout out to Muldan. It is, except that this time I'm sadly going to say that the cinema has been letting me down there.
00:04:49
Speaker
Shocker. I'd been to see a few films in the run-up to The Force
Star Wars Influence and Nostalgia
00:04:52
Speaker
Awakens. I noticed that the the left and right main front of house speakers were wired up out of phase, um which meant that the sound sounds displaced in your head. um yeah Difficult to explain that. um But yeah, so I was like, I'm not going to go and see it there.
00:05:08
Speaker
So I went to see it at The View in Carmarthen. And I think me and my mum and dad maybe went to see it at the midnight show. In Midnight Showing. Of course you did. I'd expect nothing less. Absolutely.
00:05:23
Speaker
I think all of the three sequel trilogies, we did that, I think. Did you? Yeah. And Rogue One, I think. Wow. Possibly not solo, but yeah. The only film I have ever seen as a Midnight Screening is At World's End.
00:05:37
Speaker
Oh yeah, yeah. The third and final of the Cornetto trilogy. Yeah.
00:05:43
Speaker
Featuring Unkar Plutt, I believe. Yes, exactly. Little Star Wars tie-in. And also, to be fair, I can't really think about mostly the prequels. I can't really think about Star Wars in general without ah having a bit of a Simon Pegg thing in my brain because they're so linked to Spaced in my head.
00:06:05
Speaker
Which I've never watched. You've never watched Spaced? I know. Oh my God. Oh my God. Fair enough. ah Spoiler alert. They've got hundreds of Star Wars references in them. Sounds like my kind of show.
00:06:21
Speaker
But yeah, it was so exciting um yeah going to see
Disney's Star Wars Era
00:06:25
Speaker
Force Awakens. It felt like ah a new era. It was the first thing a lot of us, well, the thing that any of us were seeing on the screen from Disney.
00:06:33
Speaker
um I mean, no that's not true because Rebels had been out, I think, beforehand. Oh. But that's on the small screen, and I don't think at this point um you could watch it anywhere other than Disney XD or one of the Disney channels, which are hardly going to add. Which meant no one had seen Yeah, like the UK didn't really really have get much of that. um yeah Rebels has definitely found its footing since it appeared on Disney+, plus obviously. Yeah. But that's a story for another podcast. That is a whole other season. Absolutely.
00:07:05
Speaker
I really want to just talk through this film all right blow by blow because all right let's do it there there are so many things.
New Star Wars Aesthetic
00:07:13
Speaker
For starters, yeah like seeing a Star Wars film without the 20th Century Fox thing freaked me out. Did it?
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah. I think it's like I've spent, you know, 20, 30, whatever it is. Used to seeing it. Yeah. Seeing it with the the fanfare at the beginning and to just go straight in with the Lucasfilm logo was kind of strange. Oh, interesting.
00:07:37
Speaker
There is something that I noted down, like literally the opening shot after we've had the big text on screen and we've had the whole music bit which yeah I remember just all of the tingles watching it for the first time being like oh my god we're back reading you's crawl this is so exciting watching the crawl again yeah they mentioned the last Jedi which I'd forgotten about which really cool Sorry, the first shot. So good. Yeah, so the first shot. There's an opening shot and you see, I can't remember what ship it is, but it's flying across the planet.
00:08:12
Speaker
Is it Star Destroyer flying across the planet? But when it first comes up the planet, it looks like a giant middle finger just floating past the screen. I don't know just that. They do that on purpose. What's going on? Well, there are a few things in the sequel trilogy are, yeah, a little bit like.
00:08:33
Speaker
It cracked me up. I had to watch it again. I was like, did I just see what I thought? Yeah, I think I did. I've never noticed that. I love to look at it. I know the Star Destroyer has got a little thing on the front, like a little vein or something, which looks like a little cross or something.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's what made it look like it. I mean, yeah, straight away, though, the cinematography. like I've made loads of notes about cinematography and like and amazing shots. It's just visually... I'd forgotten how visually incredible. It's beautiful. It's just like... It just has so much warmth and detail and...
00:09:03
Speaker
like character to it it's so slick throughout some amazing amazing shots and that opening shot like you say I mean it's kind of a reference to the several other Star Wars films that open with shots of ships in space but then those four little drop ships come out and like the perspective of them flying around And we get those like strobe shots of the troopers. Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker
Like, oh, wow, we're we're focusing on the stormtrooper. We're focusing on them, yeah. That's not been done before. No. Super light interesting new plot twist kind of thing. yeah. We've never seen anything from the troopers' point
Opening Scene Analysis
00:09:35
Speaker
of view. No, no. And we're about to get right into a trooper story, which is brilliant.
00:09:40
Speaker
I did write down that it's a pretty brutal beginning. It is, yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's a bit of everything. There's a bit of, like, cuteness because we meet BB-8. Yeah. um Who is super cute and got a new droid sound that, you know, yeah we can get used to. A little analog analog synth tweaky voice thing.
00:10:00
Speaker
And we get a bit of, like, straight in with the lore, literally, as in lore, San Tucker. I see what I did there. Yeah. um who incidentally did you know that he's played by actor called Max von Sydow I Sydow not so hard to pronounce his name who played Ming the Merciless in like the 1980 Flash Gordon movie what no I did not know any of that have you seen the Flash Gordon I have seen Flash Gordon with the Queen soundtrack yeah yeah yeah yeah he's like the big evil guy with the the moustache and that's him we used to have a rooster called Flash Gordon
00:10:36
Speaker
oh So cute. He was my booster.
00:10:42
Speaker
I love Flash Gordon. I mean, it was queens all that queen yeah yeah for me. um Brian Blessed as well. I mean, wow. I was a bit confused as to this. who Who is this guy?
00:10:55
Speaker
How do we know him? We we didn't at the time. He was like a completely new character, right um which I love that we get this. ah like When I mentioned the idea of lore, it's like L-O-R-E, lore.
00:11:06
Speaker
It's like he's a ah new character who's got obvious history. He's an older person, older character, and he obviously knew Princess Leia. So there's all this implied history, which is one of the things we've talked about in Star Wars already, with the whole two-name things all that stuff. But we've never met Yeah, he's just like coming a guy.
00:11:26
Speaker
Since, though, we've had loads of background. I think were talking about it last week, maybe, when we were talking about hyperspace and we went off on that hyperspace tangent. Oh, yeah. um with Jessica that the San Tekkas have since been written about in a big way. okay Lots of generations of them as well yeah um from the High Republic era, which is like probably 300 years before this film or 250 to 300 years. And they were hyperspace prospectors who were like plotting routes and finding out the new hyperspace routes, which they could then make money on being discoverers of them. So he's like...
00:12:03
Speaker
They were explorers, I guess. Yeah, like um galaxy explorers. And he he is currently living in this village on Jakku with kind of, I suppose, acolytes might be a good word. That name has now been nicked by another Star Wars TV series with completely different theme. But like they're like um acolytes of the Force, I think is their kind of cult almost. And okay even though there are allegedly no Jedi left yeah because of the purge,
00:12:32
Speaker
um they still like They're not force users, but they love everything about the force. And they're kind of gatherers of curios and objects <unk> and things like that, I think. So that's nothing to do with um the San Tekkas, but it's to do with him. like He's part of that.
00:12:49
Speaker
It's almost like historians that that like really love what they do, okay bordering on a cult. I think that's something that is like quite prevalent in this film is that we keep getting thrown into things that we don't really about. really understand, yeah.
00:13:03
Speaker
And you have to just keep going with it. You have to with it, yeah. Until Disney releases a bunch of books and animated series to explain it all for us. But yeah, it gives us that sense of of realism. But yeah, brutal, you mentioned. it is brutal.
00:13:16
Speaker
Really brutal. like It kind of shocked me, I think. Just another cinematography shout out. There's going to be loads of those throughout. There's a shot where Poe comes out of the hut with Lor San Tekka behind him and he says, you need to hide. And Lore says you need to run or whatever. can't remember which way around it was, probably the other way.
00:13:32
Speaker
um But it's a lush, like, rack focus back and forth. So the focus is on Poe, first of all, then it racks back to Lore Santaca and then racks back to Poe. It's really slickly done. Very detailed. Nice. Orientated. it's Nice, nice.
00:13:50
Speaker
thats for And as he's running away, like there's a shot, the reveal shot of his X-wing is a drone shot. And I don't think we've ever had a drone shot Oh, is that the drone shot? And at this point, 10 years ago, drones were still not that common in cinema films, you But it's like it kind of tracks with him, ahead of him, and it's kind of tilting as it goes. yeah So we get this like unsettling tilt of the dunes. Yeah, yeah.
00:14:16
Speaker
as he runs over and then and then it goes up, which is really surprising because at the beginning it's almost like it could be a Steadicam. yeah But then it light flies up and we see like a big wide shot then of the village in the background and his X-wing in the foreground.
00:14:28
Speaker
And it's just wow. Beautiful, beautiful camera work. love it. Beautiful camera work. I thought that a lot. I did note down quite a lot of nice camera work. Yeah, let's give them some shout outs as we along. looks visually stunning. This is beautiful. It does.
00:14:42
Speaker
I also, my other note about this was I love that literally as soon as we meet Kylo Ren, they all treat him like a knockoff Vader. They're just like... Yeah, both Kylo Ren and Loris and Decker alike.
00:14:57
Speaker
Absolutely not. Yeah, we're not having In different ways. Like, your sound deck is just, like, absolutely crushing, whereas Poe's just like, I'm just going to give you banter that's what you deserve. I'm going to sass you. Yeah. I was really shocked that we discovered that he is Ben Solo right at the beginning. know yeah but I thought that was going to I mean, we kind of knew, I think, beforehand.
00:15:18
Speaker
Was it kind of leaked? I can't remember. I think it was in in the kind of ether, but like I was really surprised they didn't hold that for the end of the movie. Yeah, yeah. But it was kind of cool, you know, because like you get the conflict then straight away. in context from the beginning. Yeah.
00:15:32
Speaker
I liked the kind of device of using the handprint on Finn's head. Oh, so we know which one he is. Yeah, because otherwise you're trying to follow Stormtrooper. I'm assuming he's the one we see in the dropship. At the beginning, yeah. It's like a close-up, but we'll we'll never know that. but No.
00:15:48
Speaker
I guess at this point I should bring up this book that I am just holding up to the camera, which nobody else can see. Which nobody can see. can. It's a novel. Well, it's not actually. It's three short stories in one paperback called Before the Awakening.
00:16:01
Speaker
And there are three stories, one each about Poe, Finn and Rey. um And I don't think I bought it before the movie came out. And it's like each story is just like a little background. Poe's one, um actually, no, I think all three of them pretty much lead up to the beginning of the film. Really this?
00:16:19
Speaker
Okay. So Finn's one like ends with Phasma talking about him coming on the first mission because it's like his first mission as a trooper. So the the short story is about him in like simulation tests with his yeah like fellow troopers and how he's really good. like He's a really good trooper.
00:16:37
Speaker
Okay. um Which kind of, again, makes a bit of a sense about why um Phasma's on his back so much early on in the film. Yeah. And yeah, so it was it was like good to like read a little bit about them. The good little short stories, the dialogue and stuff is really good in all three of them. Okay.
00:16:54
Speaker
Give you a bit more context as well. Definitely, which I think some of that will come up as we go through. As we go, yeah. Sure. I was wondering, like watching it this time around, I felt like they've done some work on Kylo's voice in post-production, like since it's come to Disney+. plus Oh, interesting. Because I think when I saw on...
00:17:14
Speaker
in the cinema and I had the Blu-ray of it before Disney Plus appeared. Yeah. And I found his dialogue, like when he's talking to to Poe, it's quite difficult to understand what he's saying because there's like a lot of distortion on his voice. Yeah, yeah. And like the pitch shifter, obviously, and like the effects to give us the kind of helmet voice sound. Yeah, yeah, helmet voice thing.
00:17:35
Speaker
But I felt it was really much clearer this time around. Oh, interesting. can hear him. Yeah, maybe it's a setting on my home theatre. Maybe.
00:17:47
Speaker
The setting's just better. But I know, it just sounded like they'd gone back in, which I know they do. I think they do go back and tweak each week. Very much might have done. Pointless note.
00:17:58
Speaker
Have we been to Jakku before? No. No? No. This is the first time? No. This is the first time we've seen it. Okay. Again, well, it was in the novel, the the not the novel, the short stories I just mentioned. Yeah. Ray's story is obviously set on Jakku.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah. And in there's quite a bit about Jakku in the Aftermath trilogy, which I've mentioned yeah multiple times and will be mentioning again later I think. um There's quite a lot on Jakku, particularly in book three of um the Aftermath trilogy. Okay. Okay.
00:18:27
Speaker
Because that book describes the Battle of Jakku, which is shortly after Return the Jedi. And it's the last big fight. Because, you know, at the end of Return the Jedi, they think they've won. Empire is defeated. But of course, there are Empire remnants all across the galaxy. All over the place, yeah.
00:18:47
Speaker
So the New Republic take out you know they they go on a mission to take out all of those Imperial holdouts. And the last main battle of that is above Jakku, which is why Jakku is a wasteland you know for scavengers of like bits of old ships and stuff. yeah So yeah, this is the first time we've seen it. Okay.
00:19:08
Speaker
It just feels familiar. Yeah. Yeah, I think we were all speculating it was going to be Tatooine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it is a bit like, ah i I do have a few issues with The Force Awakens and one of them is like the similarity between it and A New Hope.
00:19:22
Speaker
Yeah. And you're having this lone, you know young, disillusioned person stuck on a desert planet. Oh, we've seen this before. It is very much parallels. But there's so many things that aren't parallels, so I'm going to let it off. Let it go, yeah. Yeah.
00:19:37
Speaker
Apart from the fact that I just love the film and it's such a ride. yeah So yeah, this is our our debut Jakku experience. okay um I loved Kylo holding Poe's blaster bolt in the air.
00:19:51
Speaker
That was the first of several new force skills that we get in the sequel trilogy. And absolutely loved it. Yeah, we haven't seen that before. The way they shot it and the way he walks past it and looks around at it, the perspective of that shot. It's like, how? How are you doing that?
00:20:06
Speaker
How did they animate that? It's so good. And then right at the very end of the scene, Kylo turns to leave. And as he turns, the blasster bowl blaster bolt continues yeah and hits something. Yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
Wow. There's a little shot of BB-8 wandering off into the desert at the end of this scene. And this like weird head thing comes up. Yes. Yeah, I didn't know that. This is like so random.
00:20:29
Speaker
I read or heard somewhere that it represents, like it's a reference to the opening shot of the cantina scene. Okay. The first alien we see in that sequence in the cantina is an Ancona species, which have got like that kind of two-eye stalk type things with glowing eyes.
00:20:50
Speaker
it's not Apparently, I looked it up because you know sometimes we do research. Yeah. Occasionally. We Google things. It's called a Night Watcher and it's like a big worm thing.
00:21:01
Speaker
oh It's an enormous thing and the bit that we see is only a tiny little bit of it, like the tip its nose almost. Yeah, it's like a really creepy little creature um or a creepy little bit of a creepy big creature. creature Nice.
00:21:15
Speaker
but Just randomly watching BB-8. that's Yeah, I did wonder if that came back at any point. I noted it and then went, and then we just never saw it again. It's just one of those one-offs. But we'd mentioned them a few episodes ago about the the kind of, I think it was in the Return of the Jedi episode with the frog creature. are the little frog creatures. Yeah, but they always have those shots where you have a little zoom out and you have a creature. Yeah.
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And this was one of those. and And I think back then we mentioned the bird creature that we're going to see in a bit at Nima Outpost, which I also looked up. And it's called a steel pecker, apparently. a Steel pecker. Nice.
00:21:49
Speaker
Imagine if it's a name as it's pecking on some metal. Excellent.
00:21:57
Speaker
Oh, So then we've got this kind of introduction to Rey, I suppose, after that yeah sequence. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, we get that amazing bit inside the Star Destroyer. Yeah, where she's scavenging.
00:22:10
Speaker
Yeah. Well, well actually... Which is preceded by an amazing, amazing match cut. oh Because Poe and Finn, are they met yet? I think they've met and they're about to escape.
00:22:24
Speaker
And we get a closeup of we get close up of somebody's face, like a helmet on the Star Destroyer where Poe is being kept. Oh.
00:22:35
Speaker
And it match cuts to Rey's face with her like salvaged Stormtrooper goggle things that she's wearing. And it's the same sort of close up. Same close up. Okay.
00:22:47
Speaker
think it might be Kylo. I think it's like when, is it when Poe screams Kylo's torturing him? Oh yeah. I did note the return of the torture chair. Oof. What a nasty torture chair. Cool.
00:22:58
Speaker
We're going back here again, are we? Excellent. Yeah. And not only is the chair doing some of the torturing, but I think Kylo is doing a brain choke thing. Like, ooh, really horrific. Yeah, sorry. Back to Rey.
00:23:10
Speaker
Back to Rey. I had a note that she treats droids as people instantly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When she finds BB-8, she's very much like, well, he's a person and therefore I'm going to look after him.
00:23:22
Speaker
She's the perfect, like, take everyone like as they are, treat everybody equally. i think I feel like she's yeah she's a good soul like that. I liked seeing her scavenge and that whole sequence is yeah great.
00:23:36
Speaker
so Again, cinematography has massively wide shots of somebody abseiling down inside a Star Destroyer yeah and then cut to outside the Star Destroyer in a massively wide cinematic shot of a yeah dune with her standing on top in front of the Star Destroyer.
00:23:52
Speaker
hot They knew how to like up the game Star Wars films. Really, really good. I feel like they got... ah Obviously, prequels were Lucasfilm exploring the world of digital cinema and how we do CGI sure to the max. I mean, CGI had been around since like the mid-80s, led by Lucasfilm, but they're...
00:24:17
Speaker
They obviously went overboard in in the prequels and maybe the technology wasn't quite there, particularly in Attack of the Clones where they really went into it. yeah Whereas this, we've come full circle and they obviously used a lot of practical stuff wherever they could, but the CGI is so good yeah yeah that it feels like the original trilogy. yeah I know they were going for the feel of the original trilogy, that kind of...
00:24:40
Speaker
real hands-on practical practical feel of everything and even when they've had to use cgi they've done it in a way where it still feels like that yeah which is amazing it is amazing i love ray's theme i love it john that was almost my favorite theme my favorite bit of music almost or almost almost Okay.
00:25:00
Speaker
This was the first one in rewatching that I was like annoyed that I was watching it on my laptop. Oh, because of the sound? Because of the sound. My laptop sounds good, but it's like, it was the size of the screen and it was the sound. Yeah. And I feel like this is going to annoy me.
00:25:19
Speaker
for the next little bit. Yeah, it's definitely cinematic. yeah Like more more so, I would say, than a lot of what happened in the prequels. Yeah, sure. And maybe it's because it's like that I haven't seen this one as much as well. So i've like the I know what the others look like on different screens. But yeah, true my laptop's teeny tiny.
00:25:39
Speaker
So if loads of you could just subscribe and pay lots of money and buy me a bigger screen, that'd be great. Yeah. Sounds like a plan. Actually, I want a projector. That's what I want. I want a projector. Ooh. I've got big white wall here. be great. Nice. Be fine. Got speakers, got sound system. Just need the projector.
00:25:59
Speaker
Just saying. Anyway.
00:26:04
Speaker
We meet Tito. Yes. Who are a very curious, like, creature. This is when she meets BB-8, isn't it? BB-8, yeah, yeah. Tito has given me big Jim Henson, especially the labyrinth vibes.
00:26:17
Speaker
Did you feel that? I did, yeah. And his mount, the thing he's riding. Yeah. Yeah, I think that it was a puppet the whole thing. It was like an all-in-one puppet. All-in-one puppet.
00:26:27
Speaker
That's cool. But the way it moved yeah felt very Jim Henderson. Very puppety. So we also get this bit where Ray visits Nima Outpost. Yeah. Which has got a few little background things. Sorry, this episode is going to turn into Bramwins' little tiny background. Yeah. Easter eggs.
00:26:44
Speaker
I love it. I thought I didn't know very much about The Force Awakens, but I've realised that the amount of audiobooks I've listened to and um visual guides that I've read. You give me know, you know. I'm a bit, yeah, I'm just as geeky as I am about the sequel trilogies. Okay, there we go. Particularly The Force Awakens, so it may not be quite as so detailed next week.
00:27:02
Speaker
um Yeah, Nima Outpost. Two things about Nima Outpost. Yes. One is that it's named after Nima the Hutt that we talked about last week. but In the Aftermath trilogy again, when we're on Jakku, we meet Nima the Hutt.
00:27:15
Speaker
and She's like a wormy hut. Yes, I remember. Remember? Yeah. and she's She's a bit of a kind of like outer rim kind of gangster. Gangster thing. Apparently, she was in charge of protecting...
00:27:31
Speaker
something that the Empire was working towards, which won't go into too much detail because it is a big spoiler for a whole load of stuff. Okay. While also capturing orphans of Jakku, which I think were being recruited to become ultimately First Order stormtroopers. Stormtroopers, yeah.
00:27:51
Speaker
Which is very dark. That is dark. I think by this point, new Nima is dead. She got killed by bounty hunter, apparently, which I've never come across that story. It's probably in a comic. It'll be somewhere. yes Yeah, yeah. But Nima Outpost, where Rey goes to to exchange her salvaged goods, is named after Nima the Hutt.
00:28:09
Speaker
Okay. That's one detail. There's another detail, which was, I think it might have been in an early trailer or teaser or perhaps in an early image release or something. There was a character that we never got to meet called Constable Zuvio.
00:28:23
Speaker
Okay. Who was at Nima Outpost. um I think he had like a kind of conical hat on. And I think we saw him getting killed. not sure. Anyway, Constable Zuvio never appeared in The Force Awakens. He got Yeah.
00:28:39
Speaker
on the courtroom floor. Poor Constable Zulio. RIP. But he's recently made a reappearance. There's a free audible, like, audio book thing. Okay.
00:28:49
Speaker
Which has only come out about a week and a half, two weeks ago, which is very good timing to match up with our podcast. Excellent. Called The Jaws of Jakku, which is like a story about Rey in between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. So it's like she's training with Leia and she goes on ah little excursion to Jakku to try and like get back to her roots a little bit.
00:29:12
Speaker
Sure. And the story is being told by a character we've never met before. um who works in a cafe, cantina type thing. Yeah. And she's telling the story in like first person. Yeah. um And she's telling it to Constable Zuvio's son.
00:29:28
Speaker
What? is so random. And so she mentions Constable Zuvio. It's like the most niches Easter egg within Easter eggs thing. So fun.
00:29:39
Speaker
So I still wonder if we might we might might get a bit of Zuvio stuff somewhere along the way. Yeah. Might still be there. But i suppose that's the same. they They flesh out so many characters that they've just got endless characters to choose from, really. Yeah.
00:29:54
Speaker
And like, oh, well, if we've got this character, then we can have an offspring of this character that we can have... yeah. yeah Just whatever. ah love that. We just keep going. Apparently Daisy was like struggling in this okay early part because I think they shot the Jakusta first, yeah which...
00:30:14
Speaker
It's bit brutal, like, hey, let's go to the desert. Let's go to the desert. and Really, really difficult conditions. um But yeah, I think it's fairly public knowledge that she she got cast partly because of her amazing audition tape, which I don't know if you've seen. is i haven't actually, no.
00:30:30
Speaker
The scene that she's doing is when she's being um like interrogated by Kylo. Okay. Later on in the film. And she's like in floods of tears. It's really intense. It's like an amazing performance.
00:30:44
Speaker
But think she was, by the time they got to the shoot, I think she was probably feeling a bit intimidated as you would. Yeah, yeah, yeah. By the whole thing. By this juggernaut of Star Wars. But I think JJ like worked with her quite closely. And if you watch the Tito scene we were just talking about, yeah when she's talking to...
00:31:02
Speaker
BB-8, she's really underplaying it all. And I think that was what JJ was like, nudging her towards that right rather than overplaying. She's like throwing lines away, which you makes it feel very real and yet light. You connect with her, yeah which is really good directing, JJ.
00:31:20
Speaker
um I love all the cinematography here. I love like the wide shots of the desert and this... There's one shot with like the sunset and she's flying across in a speeder in the distance. And there's just a couple of people walking across the desert.
00:31:33
Speaker
Some evaporators. It's just lush. Where did they film that? Do you know? I can't remember.
00:31:40
Speaker
I don't think it was Tunisia because Tunisia is where they shot. tattoo yeah And I think they specifically went to different place. Different. desert yeah yeah there are so many no no not again you've been here for two tree trilogies we can't have you go away but it does it does look a bit different yeah it does yeah it doesn't look it's similar to tatooine but not not the same as tatooine but there are so many locations in in this trilogy that i know yeah just yeah what
00:32:16
Speaker
but yeah In this film, there's few. In this film, yeah yeah. Oh, I've been there. Oh, been there. Okay, I know where they are. ah I mean, I guess a lot of it was shot in the UK, as Star Wars often is, but often the locations aren't shot in the UK. Yeah, sure. They often shoot like the studio stuff here and then locations elsewhere, but this one they used like locations as as. They used quite a few locations, yeah. yeah Yeah.
00:32:39
Speaker
Which was really cool, watching it in the cinema going, wait a second. This looks very familiar. Should we flip to the Star Destroyer then? Yes. With this whole spooky Kylo stuff. which like Kylo Ren's obviously pretty powerful, but just no one takes him as seriously as everyone took Vader. Yeah, I think he's like fighting for his identity a bit. He's trying to prove himself yeah throughout both this film and the next, to be honest.
00:33:09
Speaker
so I think by Rise of Skywalker, he's kind of there. But like these first two, he's, yeah, he's really... Can you imagine talking to Vader the way that everyone talks to him? You'd be dead. ah Yeah, yeah. and I mean, I think he's like, he's very young. He's much younger than Vader. Yeah, that's true.
00:33:25
Speaker
he's got too much of a tie to his past. He's obviously finding it difficult to like let go of his past. Yeah. um All the way to the end, really. Spoiler alert. But yeah, he's really... It came out 10 years ago.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah, true. He's quite bratty. um Did you ever come across the... He's such a bitch. oh That's one of my notes. It's just Kylo's a bitch. Did you ever come across the Twitter account?
00:33:49
Speaker
Yes. Oh my Yes, I did. ah Okay, so loved for this will probably get mentioned a few times, but for those who are unaware, I have a life-size cardboard cutout of Adam Driver in my house.
00:34:06
Speaker
and We need a reel. We need a reel to prove it. You can have a reel to prove it. I've had a life-size cardboard cutout of Adam Driver in my house since ah my 27th birthday, which means I've ah kindly bought for me by JJ and Derry.
00:34:25
Speaker
That was lockdown birthday as well. So Derry brought him to my house, ah like masked up. He masked himself and the cardboard cutter up. and was playing birthday songs on a boombox outside my house.
00:34:39
Speaker
But there's been an ongoing thing, which means every Kylo Ren meme you can think of has come my way at some point. Yeah, of course. I don't even know why I asked you about emo Twitter Kylo. But that one was so good.
00:34:54
Speaker
Genius and so accurate. I mean, him and Hux, because Hux is very young as well, and yeah he's also a bitch. He's such a bitch. Like upstarts. um I've got some Hux backstory. Have you? Oh, yes, please.
00:35:09
Speaker
He is Armitage Hux, as we know and love. And um his father is Brendel Hux, who guess which trilogy of books he's from, the Aftermath trilogy.
00:35:21
Speaker
It's like Aftermath bingo. right So he's in the Aftermath trilogy like 20, 25 years before or whatever. Okay. Okay. And he's part of the Emperor's like contingency plan, basically. Right. um Because obviously the Emperor's dead recently at the beginning of um Aftermath.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah. And so he had left it in place several contingency plans of which Brendel Hux was part of one um We're going to see Brandel Hux very briefly in Mandalorian season three, I think. He's he's part of like a a shadow council of imperial kind of leaders, ex-imperial leaders kind of thing.
00:35:59
Speaker
And he's played by Domo Gleeson's brother. ah Because he's like obviously his dad, but like at the same age because we're 20 years earlier. so there's this whole like It's a really nice bit of casting. Nice.
00:36:15
Speaker
um But yeah, anyway, so Brendel Hux was sort of like part of the formation of the the First Order. Right. um And would have been buying... and orphans off Nima the Hutt so he's a nepo baby he is absolutely gets set in charge like he's like pre-teen at this point I think in in the novels yeah and he just gets chucked in charge of like look after these kids and teach them to fight yeah i like which was the first stormtrooper regiment of the first order so sure wow
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah, and he gives off such Nepo energy, doesn't he? does, yeah. He's such Nepo energy. And Kylo's like the inverse of that because he's like absolutely not. I mean, he's the grandson Aveda, but he's also son of the Republic heroes of the New Republic kind of thing.
00:37:09
Speaker
So he's struggling between those two. They've got quite a bitchy energy between them as well. whenever they' I love their banter. I think their banter is my favourite banter in the film. So good. We've got a banter track going on, as you know. Among the many things we're tracking. Banter. And banter is becoming one of them.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yeah, they're really funny together. They're just constantly trying to look better in front of Snoke. It's so funny.
00:37:35
Speaker
But yeah, we get to meet Finn. Yes. FN2187, as he is at the time. I say FN2187, they call him 2187. Do you remember where that number comes from? Bit of an Easter egg question. It's the cell that Princess Leia is in. It's the cell number, of course it is After however many years of trivia, I should know this. It's that throwaway Han Solo line. yeah you go get her.
00:38:00
Speaker
um And he mentions, and he says 2187, which I think is why it doesn't compute because they don't say 2187 in the film. They say 2187. 2187. Good little East direct. Yeah, a little bit of a direct. to Almost too direct, JJ. We'll let you off. I love the way Finn is just like, stay calm, stay calm. He's like, I am calm. Yeah, and he's like, I know, I'm talking to myself.
00:38:27
Speaker
ah So good. We get something else in that sequence. What do we get? Wilhelm scream. What? ah Is that in the TIE Fighter escape when they're... Yeah, when they're trying to escape in the TIE Fighter.
00:38:39
Speaker
It's the second or third trooper that they blow up with the TIE Fighter. Amazing. You are so good at trekking Wilhelms. I never get them. like I can always find them. Oh.
00:38:53
Speaker
Maybe I subconsciously just defer to you. yeah It's fine. Sia will get that. I'll tell you what I was focusing on um in that scene is, A, the fact that we see a TIE fighter launching, which we've never seen before. We've seen them pop out of hangar bays, but we've never seen one actually launch.
00:39:09
Speaker
And the amazing like sound design and visual effects of it being caught on the end of the cable. yeah I love the way it sort of jolts and then swings back and forth and like, oh, really, really cool. So good. The deck officer people are like panicking and like there's an unauthorised tie launch from Hangar Bay, whatever it is. In a terribly English, terribly evil way. Very, very English, very evil.
00:39:34
Speaker
but So many incredibly young looking, which i think is intentional. Intentional, yeah. To show the First Order is like almost cobbled together. And and it is. It's like it's the Empire's contingency plan. But as we discover through the trilogy, it's not the be all and end all. It's just like a little almost distraction yeah for Palpatine while he's working on bigger things. Sure, sure.
00:39:57
Speaker
But yeah, they're so young and and lots of them are quite scared. and Yeah. I mean, they're scared in the original trilogy because of Vader, really. Yeah. Because usually Vader's around. He's terrifying. He's terrifying. And he just kills people all the time. Yeah.
00:40:12
Speaker
He's brutal. And although Kylo kind of does or like... Kylo kills stuff all the time. Yeah, he attacks things. And like he's not as obviously sure of himself as Vader. Yeah, yeah, sure. And so I think the the crew are kind of, yeah, I don't I think they're very light nervous generally.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah. ah I mean, maybe the conflict in their leadership is not good. It's not good leadership. Yeah. No. One thing I noticed during all of this banter is particularly between Finn and Poe when they're in the tie, like each of them says Jakku differently, ah which is kind of a development on our two names for things thing.
00:40:53
Speaker
But one says Jakku and one says Jakku. Yeah. Like emphasizing the opposite half. And that's just throughout all the films whenever Jacko is mentioned. There's no consistent pronunciation. There's no consistent way of saying Well, it makes sense. so so There's no consistent way of saying Aberystwyth either.
00:41:11
Speaker
ah so Oh, very true. Jakku. Back on Jakku. We'll be back on Jakku. We got the TIE Fighter escape. We got the TIE Fighter escape. I remember watching that in the cinema and being like, well, they can't have killed Po off that quickly.
00:41:25
Speaker
Yeah. Because that's a whole I don't know. Yeah. yeah it's It's left for quite a long time. It is, yeah. I remember in the novelisation we get a bit of Poe's story.
00:41:36
Speaker
Okay. we We know much earlier. So i'm I'm assuming it was in the screenplay and maybe they even shot it, um but we never got to see it. It just would have like stopped that stop that being random, he turns up on Takodana, like, hey, well he's fine. We never find out what happens.
00:41:57
Speaker
But yeah, I think you just crawled free of the wreckage. and he just carried on. yeah You got lift to a um spaceport, I think, is what happens. It's been a long time since I listened to the audiobook. But the the audiobooks or novels, if you want to read it and like with your eyes instead your ears, they are really good of all of the, well, the prequels and the sequels.
00:42:18
Speaker
Yeah. there aren' I don't think there are any original trilogy novels out there officially. I've got the original ones that I bought in the 80s. Okay. They're ancient, but they're not considered canon anymore because they they too, I mentioned in the New Hope episode where we get all that stuff on Tatooine with Luke's friends and everything. Sure. um But they're not considered canon.
00:42:40
Speaker
So there i don't think we've had like updated novelizations of the original trilogy. Okay, gotcha. But the prequels and the sequels have great novelisations. They've just re-released the Revenge of the Sith one um with loads of extra like footnotes and stuff by the the author. and They always have extra scenes, which I think are considered canon. So they would have been in, if they were allowed to make movies that were five hours long. Exactly. Yeah.
00:43:08
Speaker
I mean, often they shoot them and then it's like, it's not so much that the film's too long. It's just that it disrupts the flow, narrative flow and the kind of energy that they're going for. Sometimes usually it's like trim, trim, trim to keep it moving, keep it moving. And like seeing Poe get on a speeder and this is like, no, we don't need to see that. But it is a bit weird how we just have to, yeah, go with the fact that he's still alive. still alive somewhere.
00:43:37
Speaker
There is ah whole like bromance thing between Poe and Oh my days. Absolutely. Which I was begging them to act on and just be like, come on. But then like Disney 10 years ago. Yeah. they They weren't going to do it. but They just circled it all around Rey, like totally unnecessarily, and like put Finn in the friend zone, which was devastating for everybody concerned. yeah and And then did this little suggestion of Poe and Rey The Rise Skywalker, I seem to remember.
00:44:09
Speaker
yeah um Or is it nursed at the end of The Last Jedi, I think, when they first meet? And it's like, oh, come on, Disney. No, stop it! Yeah, yeah. That's the kind of thing that makes me check out a little bit because I'm like, well, this works. this is a This is a fun duo that could be really interesting.
00:44:25
Speaker
There is the biggest world of fanfic of it. Yeah, of course. Feel free to dig in. oh my God. Guess what we're doing bonus episodes on. Did you know, incidentally, yeah Star Wars as a thing, second largest tag on Archive of Our Own fanfiction website?
00:44:46
Speaker
Reylo? oh Star Wars is generally. No, just Star Wars in general is there are that many. And I speculate 80% of them are Reylo. Quite possibly.
00:44:59
Speaker
Like, I think Reylo, because it's perfect Reylo because yeah it leaves. So many tropes. Great. Pin or foe. We can't really like ship them name-wise. so um Anyway, yeah, they certainly when they meet, oh, I can't remember the name of the the planet that the Resistance face is on.
00:45:21
Speaker
Wherever it is. yeah um Yeah, that shot where they meet and we get Poe biting his lip. Like, come on. Come on, Disney, let them be gay. I think your otra Oscar Isaac was clearly sowing the seed. Like, yeah whether JJ was even aware, like, Oscar Isaac 100%.
00:45:40
Speaker
hundred percent You can't play that scene that way. No. and not like I think it's kind of given that Poe is, like, pan yeah or bi. Yeah, yeah. like he's 100% not heterosexual man.
00:45:52
Speaker
He's straight. No. Which is cool. And I mean, yeah, of course he's going to flirt with Rey. You know, Daisy's pretty woman. Yeah. And she's got all the Jedi mystique about her as well. but like Yeah, sure.
00:46:04
Speaker
But that doesn't mean he's not going to be into Finn, who is equally hot. I mean, we have a nice little hot trio going on here. No, there is a nice little hot trio going on. What's that? Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:16
Speaker
Anyway, rant over. I just needed to say it. Finn gets to meet... um Well, he meets a Habibor first. Yes.
00:46:25
Speaker
ah um And then he gets to meet Ray. Yes. And yeah, I love that. I did have a note. The Finn-Ray BB-8 triad banter is pretty great. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, at the speed of it. There's some really good speedy dialogue there that's very satisfying. There is. And I assume like Finn doesn't seem to be able to understand BB-8, but Ray can. Yeah, I think that's what's going on. Yeah. Yeah, Finn finn knows his sign language, like he recognises the thumbs up. and Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:46:53
Speaker
We have to give a shout to the Falcon reveal. Yes. Oh my gosh, I think that's my favourite point of the film. Yeah, yeah that was a ah heart and throat moment of... I think so. i think we saw it, kind of saw it coming. i think I knew it was going to happen because we knew the Falcon was going to be a ni it'd been in the trailer. Yeah, sure. Yeah.
00:47:12
Speaker
um But somehow, even though you knew it was imminent, it still took you by surprise. Yeah. let say I've had this again recently with the whole His Dark Materials thing.
00:47:25
Speaker
um Yeah. So I was obsessed with His Dark Materials as a kid. And then... having like this Book of Dust trilogy, and I was listening to the audiobooks and just going like, oh, i I know and love all of these characters so deeply. And it just feels like coming home, coming back to their world and like and hearing them spoken about again. and yeah And I had exactly the same feeling watching this, I think.
00:47:47
Speaker
It was just like... oh yeah we're home now this is is yeah i mean this is that's the line yeah yeah yeah exactly that is the line we're home but that whole every time you saw an original cast member and every time yeah yeah any of that was revealed it was just like oh yeah this is this is very nice i mean some people but slate it and call it fan service and blah blah blah but like i'm a fan don't care serve me i Yeah.
00:48:20
Speaker
Give it all to me now. yep i do not care. No, i love it. And I love that they're like, Ray being a badass and and flying is amazing. Again, people are like, how does she know? how to but She can fly. She's very good. Three short story books that I mentioned at the beginning of the show is's quite a lot about her. Like she's got a a flight simulator thing in her at-at that she lives in. And she does get to fly a ship in that story. Yeah.
00:48:46
Speaker
And she's an expert in the kind of electronics and the mechanics that make ships work because she's been scavenging. I feel like we kind of accept it in the same way that Anakin can do it. you know like It's a similar parallel. Yeah. yeah Also, yeah, because she's she's got the Force, which we don't know yet, but why why We do.
00:49:04
Speaker
It does work. I was a bit disappointed to discover that that whole escape in the Falcon was CGI, like the whole thing. The whole thing? wow. Well, not not the internal shots of like Finn at the gun and right the controls and BB-8 stopping himself from being smashed into a million pieces. But yeah, the out the outside stuff.
00:49:25
Speaker
But it is fundamental. It's very good. yeah It's got one of those um light crash zooms I was talking about in Attack of the Clones where the the ship The Falcon goes into one of the bits of old Star Destroyer and and the camera just like so really quickly zooms in. Zooms in on yeah. Which feels really organic, camera work-wise. It's a bit rough and ready. It's a bit messy as a zoom. And i think that likes to stop you feeling like it's CGI.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, really cool sequence there. Really thrilling. Just what you need from Star Wars, definitely. Yeah. We get a whole lot of um Millennium Falcon lore and Han Solo lore over the yeah sort of sequence which follows all of this where you know they get picked up by Han and Chewie in the big ah freighted freighter thing.
00:50:11
Speaker
and Then we get the kind of like the dialogue between Han and Finn and Rey is telling us a bit about what's happened to the Falcon. We learn a bit more about the Falcon and how it works and how Ankar Platter's messed it up, which is the compressor line.
00:50:26
Speaker
And then we get the Guavian Death Gang and Kanja Club, which are really funny. It's so funny. Again, a lot of people, I've heard people moaning about that scene. Oh, it's irrelevant. It's very funny.
00:50:38
Speaker
It's affirming Han Solo. like we're We're reconnecting with Han Solo. yeah He does the point thing. Yeah. um And we get these stupid groups, like the Gravian Death Gang, I said, look like um something i out of a 70s TV sci-fi show. I'm trying think of a good example, like Buck Rogers they do in the 21st century. And um there was a show, a BBC show called The Tripods,
00:51:01
Speaker
Okay. Which is really, and Blake's Seven as well, which is another BBC show. Oh no, think was ITV actually. And and anyway, they they had these kind of like outfits like the Gravi and Death Gang where they have like the whole face is covered by the round with with a leader that's got a Scottish accent. yeah No disrespect to the Scottish accent, but it's just like a surprise to hear one in Star Wars because don't think we had at that point.
00:51:26
Speaker
now I love that we've heard multiple Scottish accents in Star Wars now. got a few different accents going on. Yeah. We haven't really heard before. I love that. I love when we get different accents that tell us about different parts of the galaxy, you know? Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like a micro, a micro geography gone macro or something.
00:51:45
Speaker
I also love the, the rathas and the sounds that they make. Incredible. That sound design's great. And Ray's got that brilliant line. That was lucky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That almost was my favourite line. Yeah, I did have that as well. and It makes me laugh so hard because Finn just doesn't get it it's all. know And the what do they look like?
00:52:07
Speaker
That. Yeah, they look like that. it's a really We need that kind of comedy. Yeah. And then we're at Maz, Maz's castle. I love Maz.
00:52:20
Speaker
I nearly cried with Han when like, um, Ray is taken aback by the amount of green. Yeah. And, and then like his, his conversation with her when he's offering her the job and like, he's, he doesn't want to get sentimental. So he just blames on Chewie. Chewie kind of likes you. I really, really love all of that.
00:52:41
Speaker
But yeah, Maz is brilliant. I'm glad that you picked on Maz's line and I love that you picked that line. She's so cool. Yeah. and The only thing about Maz's castle that I would have tweaked if I had made the film is that I've had a few more aliens that we know. Okay, instead of new ones. They're all new. They're all new, yeah.
00:52:59
Speaker
Like, I just wanted to see a Rodian or Ithorian or, you know, something familiar. Yeah. Where is Maz's castle? On a planet called Takodana. Okay. That's all I can tell you. To be fair, she pops up in lots of the like audio book novels stuff.
00:53:19
Speaker
I think she's even mentioned in The High Republic because she's old. She's nearly as old as Yoda, I think. Yeah. Okay. She's very old. Yeah, another technical issue I have is coming up actually where we see Hosnian system be destroyed and the physics doesn't really work for me at all about how we see the red weapon from Starkiller Base. Yeah.
00:53:46
Speaker
Like I get that we might be able to see that. It's it's a hyperspace weapon. Like it fires through hyperspace, which is incredible. um yeah Terrifying. And also has multiple beams, obviously, so that you can take out multiple plans because it's got to be better than a death star. They blew up Martha. know. She didn't even speak.
00:54:05
Speaker
know there's Yeah, I think, again, there was some extra deleted scenes with some of the Republic people on Hosnian system. Yeah, yeah. Like, I think we get to meet them. we get to meet them.
00:54:21
Speaker
Because I remember seeing her face and just being like, oh, oh, no. Okay, gone. You're not going to get any more about her. We get nothing about her. I can't remember. how She has got a character name. then She's just Martha from Doctor Who. Yeah.
00:54:35
Speaker
but Maybe it's little Easter egg. Yeah, yeah. Yes, pretty awful. But and the music in that scene is really terrible as well, like in a good way. It's yeah awful, devastating.
00:54:46
Speaker
But yeah, I think the fact that they can see it from Maz's castle doesn't doesn't work sit well for me. And you sort see this the different planets, I think. like Like you can't see individual planets in a system from a whole other system. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:55:02
Speaker
Betelgeuse system is our nearest, is it called the Betelgeuse system? It's like our nearest is, we can't even hardly pick out that sun, let alone the planets that orbit around it. like I don't think, unless Takodana happens to be really near Hosnian Prime, which I don't know. maybe Starwars.com has recently updated its map of the galaxy.
00:55:23
Speaker
So I might go and have a look on that. Go and have a look. See if I can find out. I think I did look up once before and I've got Atlas, I think, a book Atlas. And I was like, no, it's too far away. You able to see that. You wouldn't able to see that.
00:55:36
Speaker
So it's a little bit. They could have just had it on the holo feed, you know, like. Yeah, yeah. There's like that just before that bit, we've got Ray's whole vision sequence. Oh, yes. Oh, my God. We can't skip by that.
00:55:49
Speaker
So good. We're not going to skip by that. But it's like, it's just gorgeous. It's such a nice, like, it's so trippy. I've watched it so many times. Yeah. Like I can't, I know they probably did a lot of green screening, but like it's so seamless. Yeah. And like the way the camera tumbles into the next bit and the next bit and the next bit and everything just dissolves and reforms somehow. It's one of the best sequences I've ever seen in a film. So good. Really, really clever.
00:56:17
Speaker
And we get the nostalgia of light the Empire Strikes Back corridor Luke was in But then that sort of dissolves into, like I presume, where Luke's Jedi Academy is. And yeah we have seen the Knights of Ren that we don't see an awful lot of. But um I feel like we're still going to see them.
00:56:37
Speaker
At some point. In future stuff. There's a lot of background stuff about them in the comics and a bit in the books and stuff. I think we all thought that the Acolyte TV show, because that was set 100 years before Phantom Menace, I think we thought we were going to get some of the like origins of that then.
00:56:53
Speaker
um And I think they were sowing a seed. I seems think I read something earlier today about that, in fact. Okay. By chance. And I think that it may we may get a bit more about the Knights of the Ren because they are really cool. like The story of how Kylo becomes the leader of them is amazing.
00:57:07
Speaker
But yeah, I'd like to see a bit more about them. So we get them in the vision. Yeah. We get Obi-Wan's voice. We get Obi-Wan's voice. Ray. Yeah. Which is really cool. Nice little Ewan yeah Amazing sound, amazing visuals. What a sequence.
00:57:24
Speaker
um And Daisy's reaction is pretty awesome as well. yeah I've noted that in this film, potentially for the first time, the force has a lot more sound. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think we really hear the Force in any of the previous ones. don't think so, no.
00:57:41
Speaker
Maybe in the prequels, possibly. A little bit, but not anything like we hear it now. Yeah, it's really established, that this kind of low rumble sound. Yeah. We hear it a lot with with Kylo as well. Whenever he's using the Force, you can hear it.
00:57:54
Speaker
Which i think like I think there was a nod to that in the prequels. Sorry. Oh, God, what's what? LAUGHTER There was a little nod to it, but there wasn't like a massive amount of sound.
00:58:07
Speaker
was just kind of done. And it wasn't as rumbly as it is now. Emphasized it. Yeah. It's very audible now. And then I noted that we have a first kind of lightsaber fight because it's between Finn and a stormtrooper. Yeah.
00:58:21
Speaker
dr but yeah Such a moment. Yeah, I love that. there's ah There's that amazing shot in that sequence where we see Po flying all over the place and it's one shot yeah and it's handheld and we're going past like all this action that's going on on the ground but every now and again we tilt up and we see Po take out another TIE fighter and then pans down and we see Finn again and then it goes up again and then we see...
00:58:48
Speaker
poe taking out some ground troopers and yeah and then finn at the end does his like that's one hell of a pilot yeah yeah bordering on annoyed for quite funny porting on annoying but but it's absolutely true i mean like it is i felt the oof of that shot um considering that that was shot in like north london somewhere i think yeah and like it's Yeah, somehow they've like put in all the background and yeah all of the ships and everything and all of the background troopers and a stunning, stunning sequence.
00:59:22
Speaker
yeah There's a couple of ah background characters in Mars. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's one there's a droid which I spent ages trying to find out because it's really difficult to explain to a search engine. LAUGHTER Is it the droid that tells the rebels where BB-8 is? No, that's he's like an undercover resistance droid. Okay. In the backstory, three po has set up like a resistance droid network around the galaxy. Oh, wow. Okay. And that droid is one of them. So he's radioing back to 3PO to tell him...
00:59:53
Speaker
Where BB-8 is? Yeah. Yeah. So he's a significant character because he's like offset with the woman in the black and white. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is supposed to be way of like reducing yourself being scanned. Okay. It's like, you know, like painting UV light on your number plate or whatever. It's that kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Not that can do that for kids.
01:00:12
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I like those two little side-by-side. One is reporting back to the First Order, one's reporting back to ah resistance to the Resistance. Now, there's a droid who we only see briefly like in a couple of shots, and he's he looks like anybody who's watched Ahsoka or the Clone Wars.
01:00:30
Speaker
There's a droid called Hu Yang. Okay. who is played by David Tennant in Ahsoka. um and He's very distinctive looking. He looks very ancient and he is in fact ancient. In the Star Wars timeline book, which tells you everything that's ever happened that we know about in the Star Wars galaxy, the very first entry is Hu Yang activates 25,000 years ago.
01:00:53
Speaker
like before the Battle of Yavin. So he's like this ancient droid. And this droid in Maz's castle looks a bit like him. He's got this kind of like weird, almost art deco, like look to the head of the droid.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah, I just had to look it up because it's really interesting looking. It just reminded me of Hugh Yang. cells Like, is that Hugh Yang? Surely not hanging out in Maz's castle, but you never know because Maz is into the force. Hugh Yang is a droid that teaches younglings how to make their lightsabers.
01:01:21
Speaker
um so he takes them on like um adventures to ilum where you get the kyber crystals and yeah and teaches them how to do it that's been his recent job i mean he's an ancient ancient droid 25 000 years old anyway this other droid isn't hu yang i guess m e eight d nine okay and used to be a protocol droid is is ancient yeah but maz has now got it being her enforcer droid ah there There's also a deleted Unkar Plutt scene where Unkar Plutt catches up with them because he wants the Millennium Falcon back. yeah And he comes into Maz's castle and Chewie rips his arm off.
01:02:00
Speaker
I think they filmed it. I think it is out there. it is out there somewhere. Yeah, it might be on Disney Plus if you into the deleted scenes. Nice. But again, one those ones that didn't really affect the story. Didn't really,
01:02:11
Speaker
It's just an Easter egg. Much as we like to see. Yeah, we want to see Chewie riffing off a cut flat side. Simon loved that. so so Ah, and then I had ah one of my other favourite lines was, get out of my head! Because we've got Rey having a little battle with Kylo in the... Oh, love that Get in the torture chair.
01:02:31
Speaker
Yeah. Return of the torture chair. Kylo taking his helmet off, though. Oh my God. It makes me laugh. It makes me laugh every time. Does it? Yeah. Cracks me up.
01:02:44
Speaker
Just like... I love it. I think it's cool. I mean, I can see why it's funny. But I just... I don't know if I think cool is the right word. But just like, I think it's sort of the fact that it surprised me. There's quite a lot of surprises in The Force Awakens. And I remember JJ saying he wanted some.
01:02:58
Speaker
One being that we find out that Kylo is son of Hanan Leia. Yeah. um But I was quite surprised that we saw his face so soon. Yeah. Again, I thought we wouldn't see that till like film two even. yeah There's a scene involving him, i think, in the next one that makes me laugh even more. so Yeah, yeah.
01:03:17
Speaker
um Actually, I've just got to shout out my favourite musical moment. Oh. Which is, it wasn't until I watched it the other day. Okay. And suddenly I was like, this is awesome. And it's the Resistance theme.
01:03:28
Speaker
Yeah. When they see the X-Wings coming across the lake. And you get that theme. It's so good. That is a good moment. It's so awe-inspiring. And it's so Star Wars. It's probably the most Star Wars-y of all Star Star Wars-y themes. Yeah. Yeah.
01:03:43
Speaker
And we have that whole like anticipation after the whole battle's taken place. We're jumping back a bit, but that's it. Yeah. yeah um We have the whole anticipation of Leia's in the ship.
01:03:54
Speaker
come have layers theme um the heartbreak Yeah. breaks. Yeah. My heart breaks. And I'll even let 3PO off his line. Yeah. You might be wondering about my arm.
01:04:08
Speaker
Yeah. Of which there's a whole comic to tell you why he's got red arm. I think he's funny. He is funny. I think we did, like, I preferred 3PO in the sequel trilogy generally. Yes. um Compared to the prequels.
01:04:22
Speaker
Yeah. so well He was annoying in the prequels. Yeah. Yeah. As far as Rise of Skywalker, I love 3PO, which we'll get We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. Yeah, that scene was was pretty intense, seeing Carrie. um I know Carrie was really nervous about coming back.
01:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, I've heard this as well. And that she was really on edge acting-wise and just lost her kind of mojo. But anyway, she nailed it. She's just so good. She's good. Yeah, she nailed it.
01:04:48
Speaker
When we're back at the resistance base and the briefing thing is going on, she's amazing when she's talking to Han and when she's talking to Poe. And Finn, when she's engaging with Finn about Star Color Base and stuff, she's just really intense and very Leia.
01:05:05
Speaker
Yeah. Really cool. We get to meet Snap Wexley then well. Who's Snap Wexley? He's one of the X-Wing characters, the one who'd been on a ah reconnaissance mission.
01:05:16
Speaker
Okay. He's in Heroes, the series as well. Yes, he is. Matt Parkman from Heroes. Yeah, that's why I want to call him Matt all the time. Okay, now know who he is. Yeah, me too, me too. Is he called Greg in real life?
01:05:26
Speaker
I have no idea what his name is. Sorry, actor. You're amazing. you in Heroes. Love you in this. love So Snap is one of the main characters in Guess What Book Trilogy. He's like the young...
01:05:41
Speaker
Annoying pilot in Teenager, in um well, wannabe pilot in Aftermath. okay Nora Wexley, it turns out, in the Aftermath trilogy, you find out she was in the Battle of Endor, she flying a Y-wing.
01:05:53
Speaker
And her son, Snap, well, he's actually called Temmin, um He and her are like the two main characters and they like gather this band of rebels around them in this fight to take out the remnants of the Empire.
01:06:07
Speaker
and So it's really nice that Snap, is you know he he continued to be he trained under Wedge um and became a pilot for the Resistance, one of Leia's recruits and stuff. It's really cool.
01:06:19
Speaker
We've got her daughter, Carrie Fisher's daughter in there as well, Billy Luke. Yeah. Yes. I love it. I love that she's in more as well. Like more and more is the trilogy goes on. Have you seen Scream Queens? No. Oh my God. Yes.
Casting Young Leia
01:06:33
Speaker
Okay. but but She is incredible. it's So the first season's great. The second one, not so good. But the first one, she's so good. she is so good. It's gory. I'll give you that.
01:06:45
Speaker
Okay. That's your warning. I love her. There's a big campaign to get her as young Leia, you know, because we're going have... Okay, yeah, yeah. without giving away any spoilers, we're going to have to have, like, going to have to come back to those characters, like the way the Mandoverse is going. Okay. Okay. What's going on with Ahsoka and everything, like, we're going to need those characters back. We're going to need right. And she's perfect. People were originally saying Millie, um... Millie Bobby Brown. Brown. Yeah. Because she looks like... And there's a great photo on Insta somewhere of Millie Bobby Brown and Sadie Sink from Stranger Things.
01:07:18
Speaker
Okay. Dressed up as Leia and Amidala, I think. Okay. Like, for Halloween, you know, and it's just like, oh, yeah. Okay, yeah, that works. You could be Leia. But really, it's got be Billy. It's got to be Billy. I think, yeah. Yeah.
01:07:31
Speaker
I love her. She's that. Billy or Bobby.
01:07:35
Speaker
Billy. Billy or Millie.
Star Wars Galaxy Lore
01:07:38
Speaker
Either way, it works. Okay, so we see BB-8 has got this thing that Poe gave him to look after, the map. yeah Surely the New Republic, and therefore the Resistance, have like maps of the Star Wars galaxy? you mean what is going on? To be fair...
01:07:58
Speaker
There are parts of the Star Wars galaxy called the Unknown Regions. Okay. Which I thought is where, well, it is. It's where at the end of the Aftermath Trilogy of Books, the Emperor's Contingency Plan, i.e. what's going to become the the First Order, go off there into the Unnew Regions to like hide and regroup and rebuild.
01:08:20
Speaker
Right. Right. and I also thought that the unknown regions, I think I'm getting it confused with wild space, which is another part. I think it's when you go beyond the galaxy, because that's where Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Chisset Ascendancy and everything else is based.
01:08:35
Speaker
and I think where we go in The Rise of Skywalker, where Exegol is where it's really difficult to navigate. yeah I don't know if that's wild space or the unknown regions. Okay. braman do your research next time um But yeah, i was just a little bit like, again, it's another little yeah tiny nitpick. Come on, nitpick. And also, fine come on, treasure hunt map, fine, kind of makes sense.
01:08:59
Speaker
But also, come on, R2.
01:09:03
Speaker
I did actually. The last thing I looked up before we spoke is like, what is it that causes R2 to wake up at the end? I know why he's shut down. He's kind of mourning Luke and Luke has also shut him down intentionally so that he can't be found traced.
01:09:17
Speaker
There are apparently theories that R2 has been programmed to detect if another force user comes nearby. as okay so Ray has just arrived at the base, which to me scans. I mean, I don't know how R2 can detect that, but maybe he can detect midichlorians. Yeah.
01:09:32
Speaker
But also... who who's got Luke's lightsaber at that point? Who brings that? Does that... Mavs gives it to Rey. To Rey. Yeah, but then Rey doesn't take it.
01:09:43
Speaker
so No. Oh, we don't see that, do we? No. Yes, we do. She gives it to Finn. She gives it to Finn. But then yeah I was wondering if it was something to do with the lightsaber getting close to our two. Could be. that' that's That's a really good theory.
01:09:56
Speaker
Yeah. I like that better than the rest of them. Amazing.
R2-D2's Awakening Theories
01:10:00
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, you're listening to Sisters of the Force. I present Sia... Who has made a throwaway comment that may be a good theory?
01:10:08
Speaker
Yeah, because Antti would 100% be able to like detect that in the proximity. He's got great sensors, as we know. Even running on sleep mode, he would pick that up. Yeah, that that's brilliant.
01:10:20
Speaker
That's made my day. But ah but then, i'm not to try and pick apart my own theory, but when does the lightsaber get to the base? We'd have to track it to watch it again. Yeah, we'll have to track it Yeah, it would have already have been there.
01:10:34
Speaker
Yeah. Because... Because it was with Finn. Yeah. Yeah. But i've heard I've read other things about R2's slow boot-up sequence. Okay. So maybe that kind of piques his interest a little bit. Yeah.
01:10:51
Speaker
Who knows? ah Anyway.
Humor and Interactions
01:10:55
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, so we're off on this mission yeah to take out Starkiller Base, which is quite funny. It's almost a wink to the audience of like, oh, yes, it's another big planet killer. We've just got to go and take it out. There's always a way.
01:11:09
Speaker
Fortunately, this time we've got Stormtrooper who knows how is what's going on. Except that he doesn't. Except that he doesn't. There's that one little bit when we are on Starkiller base.
01:11:20
Speaker
I think we're kind of flicking between again. yeah and And we've got Rey and Kylo. yeah And something happens. Oh, it's Rey's escape.
01:11:31
Speaker
So when Rey manages to escape and the Kylo does his... bitchy tantrum thing and we just get the shot of the two the two stormtroopers just like oh my god and they just turn around and walk away so funny The comedy in The Force Awakens is on point. Yeah, is good. There's some really great comedy. It's not overdone, but it's just, it's really, really funny. I nearly had another favourite line when they get there to go and rescue Ray, which was, oh, really? You're cold?
01:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Which is totally out of context because they've been having this conversation about the fort. That's not how the force works. And then Chewie's just moaning. It's great is comedy without a line almost because it's Chewie's.
01:12:16
Speaker
It's the fact that Chewie roared in that way. Yeah. That makes it funny that he's moaning. Yeah, we see while we're cutting back and forth, Rey, I feel that she goes beyond handrails.
01:12:30
Speaker
If you've just joined us on Sisters of the Force, we've been tracking the lack of handrails in the Star Wars universe, particularly in the Imperial um facilities such as the Death Star or, you know.
01:12:41
Speaker
Well, also on Naboo, we discovered. um Yeah. But certainly Starkiller, there are some... There are some safety rails. I did write that down. I did also write, and glad to see we still have minimal safety rails in Starkiller. But yeah, Ray just completely ignores the fact that there aren't any and climbs down yeah into the chasm and starts like opening weird drawer things, which is really weird. But yeah, there are a few because yeah in the original trilogy, that whole...
01:13:10
Speaker
ah Han Solo and Ben Solo yeah confrontation, there would have been no safety rails and there safety rails. There are safety rails all around, but not on the bridge. Not on the bridge, yeah.
01:13:21
Speaker
Which I don't mind from a cinematic point of view, it works. There's a brilliant teeny tiny Easter egg. um The first order of realise that they're being infiltrated by various people.
01:13:34
Speaker
yeah And there's like Hux is giving orders, I think. I can't remember the sequence it comes in, but there's a bit where we overhear some stormtroopers talking. And one of them says, ah we think they may be splitting up now, and which is a direct quote from...
01:13:49
Speaker
just before we see Ben Kenobi on the Death Star at one point when he's going to find, when he's going to deactivate the tractor beam. Okay. There's the exact line we see some stormtroopers running along saying, we think they may be splitting up now. Okay. Sorry, completely irrelevant. love it. It made me laugh.
01:14:08
Speaker
Yeah. It's almost like the same kind of shot as well because we see a little squad, like half squadron or whatever of storm trippers jogging along corridors. We also get the trash compactor callback.
Kylo Ren and Han Solo
01:14:22
Speaker
have you got a garbage chute yeah there is i love that there's a lot of funny stuff between finn and han where han's going like you know bring it down bring it down bring it down yeah it's getting really aggressive yeah so good we're nearly at my favorite piece of music though we'll go what is that it's the tension building when um han and chewie are out placing their explosives oh yeah there's some really really gorgeous little trills and the just some droney bits and yeah i need to check that out a bit more detail i was like oh yeah i like it i think i was getting over the fact of seeing chewy's hands yes like oh wait what
01:15:03
Speaker
Oh, this whole bit. i mean, the whole Kylo Han. Oh my gosh. The framing, the lighting. ah Adam Driver, like, oh, all over.
01:15:14
Speaker
He's great. He's so good. He's so good. He's so good. I think he's some of the best acting in all of Star Wars. Yeah. Like, he's just on the edge, like, in so many different ways. And we I still don't know what he was thinking, you know. No. Like, where did he, I think we know when he changed because the cinematography tells us. like Yeah, the soonest that lighting changes. They finish draining the sun. yeah light Everything goes red.
01:15:38
Speaker
So devastating. like Harrison Ford, when he calls Ben and we hear it echoing around, oh, just thinking about it now. like Even the first time was great, but having on a rewatch, it's even more impactful because you know what's coming.
01:15:52
Speaker
like yeah it The best thing about Star Wars is that kind of rewatchability where you're just looking for more in a scene. You're just trying to find out what's coming. Why did this happen? yeah I was utterly heartbroken. And i've my note I was heartbroken then and I still am.
01:16:10
Speaker
Yeah, I am so devastated. I'm not going to get over it. like I know a lot of the fandom menace, we might call them, who moan about Luke dying in The Last Jedi, spoiler alert.
01:16:23
Speaker
Again, it came out years ago. I have so much less of a problem with that. like yeah Luke devised his own kind of end in a way. And I like how he went out on his terms. Sure.
01:16:33
Speaker
This is... heartbreaking and I don't but again I don't blame the writers I think it was you know it was the right thing to do yeah I think we kind of had an idea because everyone knew that Harrison didn't really want to be Han Solo like beyond the first film um and not not that exactly but just like he had gone off in his other career you had like a whole career and uh I think we all knew that he's he would have been bargaining with Lucasfilm to say yeah I'll come back but but not for long but just for the one yeah yeah Although, to his credit, he then came back in Rise of Skywalker and did a little scene, yeah which is even more heartbreaking. We'll get to that. We'll get to that later.
01:17:14
Speaker
The cut to Leia sensing it happened. gosh. All of that.
Iconic Lightsaber Battle
01:17:19
Speaker
oh my God. It's awful. Yeah. It's awful. Whenever they're together, their whole banter...
01:17:26
Speaker
together is just lush and then like the kind of realization that you that's gone is yeah awful especially say like almost patching up you know yeah you kind of know they're not going to patch it up yeah just too many years have gone by and too many things too many things and she's done too many things but yeah it's pretty intense that whole very whole bit one of the best finales, which leads into this other amazing fight yeah um in the woods, which is like, again, another goosebump moment where Rey gets the lightsaber and we get the Diaseri theme like,
01:17:59
Speaker
Yeah. So good. Iconic. I love how Rey is using Palpatine style, which we talked about last episode. We talk about that, yeah. She's a bit stabby. She is very stabby and she's pretty wild, but so is Kylo. He's not trained. They made so many points throughout the film about how he's not trained, B, how powerful Wookiee Bowcasters are when you get hit by one. Yeah, sure.
Character Name Inspirations
01:18:29
Speaker
and see how she has skills. yeah I can't remember where we found that out, but there's a line somewhere earlier in the film where we get a sense that Rey has got much more to it.
01:18:42
Speaker
I mean, just seeing her fighting on Jakku with her staff like um and Finn watching and being like, oh, okay, she's awesome. yeah yeah but She's obviously tapped into the Force already. like yeah We mentioned earlier about the Falcon escape, yeah um like her reflexes and stuff.
01:19:00
Speaker
She's smashing it. Yeah. Yeah. I love the cinematography and all of that. And then we have the whole, they've managed to blow up Starkiller Base and then and the chasm just opens up between the two of them. Yeah, the wide shot of them on either side with their red and blue sabers. Yeah, literal chasm. Amazing. Great.
01:19:19
Speaker
Talking of blowing up, um yes there's a character called Eloasti who sadly gets killed. He's a pilot. He's one of the alien pilots who's like got little um tendrils. Oh, yeah. He's called Eloasti, which I kind of knew at the time was because JJ loves the Beastie Boys who had an album out in the 90s called Hello Nasty.
01:19:42
Speaker
So they just cut the H and the N off the two words and you Eloasti. Nice. But... But there's more. There's more. Go on. I'm sure big Star Wars fans listening are going to like, shut up, Bram, when we know this. I don't know this. His race is Abednido, which is a reference to a lyric in another Beastie Boys song, which I can't remember, possibly from the Sabotage album.
01:20:05
Speaker
And there's every character that we come across that's an Abednido. Yeah. Yeah. has a name derived from a Beastie Boys song or lyric. Incredible. So there's a resistance, um like, wannabe pilot, but he's mainly a mechanic who helps with the resistance ships. He's also an Abernido, presumably he knows LRSD.
01:20:24
Speaker
He's called Oddy Mover, which is from their song Body Movin' from the same album. There's this whole Beastie Boys thing thing. This whole species is linked to the Beastie Boys. I don't know why, because the species...
01:20:38
Speaker
It has nothing to do with it, really. I know. has nothing to do with Beastie Boys, but it's super fun. It's a good little Easter egg. I like it. I've heard Abernidos have become
Kylo Ren's Lightsaber Design
01:20:47
Speaker
quite popular. They've almost become like the Rodians of the sequel trilogy era. like A lot of the books and stuff that come out mention them. They've popped up a lot more now, which I like because we need more. you know I mentioned earlier at Mazda's Castle, we didn't get enough aliens that we know from Cantina. We've met before.
01:21:04
Speaker
Yeah. But Abernidos have kind of become one of those. We see them in various other places in the sequels, I think. Oh, I'll have to keep them track them. In fact, there's one there's one on Jakku.
01:21:17
Speaker
You know when Rey first goes to Nima Outpost? Yeah. We see this big alien carrying a load of stuff on its back, like luing away yeah from the outpost. yeah, He's like a big abanido. He doesn't look like aloaste or any of the others. He's like an exceptionally large one, but he's still got the little tendrils on either side of his mouth.
01:21:37
Speaker
ah Cool race. want to see more abanidos in live action. Nice. Yeah, sorry, that was... That was a good tangent. I enjoyed it. Completely sidebar. Nothing do with the story.
01:21:49
Speaker
um Yeah, going back to the the cinematography in that fight, that there's a shot with the sabers diagonally and they're like grappling with each other. other yeah It's really nicely framed. another They use lightsabers really well in yeah that whole sequence. yeah think i wanted to talk a tiny bit about controversial lightsaber shape for Kylo. Yeah, yeah.
01:22:12
Speaker
Isn't it really impractical to have two extra little bits that could really hurt you? Yeah, I guess in many ways. It's chaotic, yeah which I think is like, that's the point. yeah His lightsaber was originally ah straight one.
01:22:26
Speaker
yeah um And at some point, when I think when he joined the Knights of Ren... um or was it when he met Snoke? I don't know which came first, chicken or the egg. yeah he He bled the kyber because that's how you make a ah red lightsaber. Kyber isn't naturally red, okay i don't think. So any red lightsabers that Sith own,
01:22:46
Speaker
are bled. Right. um Which is where you do some terrible act with them. Yeah. And the force kind of changes the nature of the kyber and makes it go red, the crystalline side. So yeah when that happened, he also redesigned it and intentionally made it like really kind of shimmery and crackly. Yeah, because it's quite scrappy looking in comparison to the others. It's very rough. Yeah, I think he did that intentionally. think it wasn't like that. I think it was his original lightsaber that he had when he was training with Luke.
01:23:15
Speaker
yeah um But he not only bled it, but then he reconfigured the kind of electronics to make it crackly and put a cross guard control in it so that you get that thing. and it is like It's risky and it's chaotic.
01:23:28
Speaker
But I like the way they show him using it against Finn, like to cut into Finn's shoulder sort of thing. But yeah, brutal. Very brutal. I don't think I'd fancy one with a cross guard. it just seems like to slice your thumb off that's not wise. Yeah,
01:23:46
Speaker
but yeah But yeah, they get they get away. they They get picked up by Chewie. Again, really sad shot. You just about make up Chewie in the cockpit on his own. o flying the it' awful Flying the Falcon on his own oh after his little rage.
Chewbacca's Solo Flight
01:24:02
Speaker
And then we get that whole R2 powering up. Yeah. Which was one of my questions. Why does R2 power up when he does? We've already had that conversation. so of so yeah We have many theories many theories He does power up Maybe it's the combination of lightsaber and Rey Possibly to do with the piece The missing piece Being brought back as well Triggering his wake up Maybe he's then Anyway, he wakes up Somehow, Artie wakes up yeah some way archie wakes up um
01:24:36
Speaker
And then, yeah, it's like a long, like it's quite it's quite a long epilogue really for a yeah film that's kind of done, you know, yeah like the film's over. um But instead of having like a celebration like we have in previous Star Wars films, we get this little epilogue of- This walking.
Epilogue Reflections
01:24:51
Speaker
The journey. Yeah, the journey Acto. Some nice John Williams going on here as well. Right. nice little things a little epilogue theme it's just beautiful landscape as well it is I feel like we should have had some added afterwards porgs because there aren't any actual porgs we see some birds that presumably are actual birds from yeah yeah they look like seagulls where they shot it it's Ireland off the coast of Ireland it is an island yeah and yeah there's like whatever they are pot puffins or whatever which is what porgs are based on think based on yeah but yeah they could have CGI'd a few extra in for the like you Disney Plus edition yeah
01:25:28
Speaker
just to annoy just to annoy people yeah i love a porg myself fair enough as we'll find out next week yeah and mark hamill like camel he only gets like three or four shots but oh my gosh they're good shots he's great that was my last note he just doesn't do anything but like he does nothing in such a cool way yeah Like a lot of stuff goes over his face, yeah but he's very still in that moment. And I think it was a brilliant choice. Like, I mean, it's no no secret that he was a bit annoyed about all of that, I think. yeah But he he still obviously put everything he had into that.
01:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, and Ray's look as she holds out the lightsaber, that last wide shot, sort of a helicopter shot or whatever it maybe a drone. Maybe a drone again, yeah. It's such a cliffhanger.
01:26:19
Speaker
yeah Yeah, and we had to wait two years two years to find out what Luke was going to do. And oh boy, we have a lot to talk about there. ah Wow. This was a very thorough breakdown Force Awakens. This was a very thorough breakdown.
01:26:35
Speaker
I think I was worried that we wouldn't have as much to talk about because I'm not so familiar with the sequels purely because they've only been out for a shorter amount of time. yeah i I thought the same thing because I haven't seen these ones half as much. Yeah.
01:26:49
Speaker
Turns out we had a lot to talk about. We can still talk for a really long time. With any la luck, we are going to have an amazing special guest next week to talk about citing The Last
Podcast Wrap-Up and Next Steps
01:27:03
Speaker
Jedi. You'll have to come along and find out who she is. But she is amazing um and knows an awful lot about film.
01:27:10
Speaker
Incredible. I'm a little bit nervous. It's going be great. going to have a great time. But she's lush. Yeah, I can't wait. And I know she loves Star Wars so much. um If you haven't already done so, make sure you follow us on whatever podcast platform you're listening on.
01:27:26
Speaker
Yeah. Give us a little review. yeah Make sure you're getting all your notifications and stuff. I don't know how things work. What didn't what are notifications? No, you're absolutely right. They get a little notification to tell them.
01:27:39
Speaker
To tell them to download. Monday. Every Monday. Also, please answer the questions that we refuse to Google because
01:27:47
Speaker
we refuse to Google. And you can find us on Instagram and Facebook at Sisters of the Force Pod and on Blue Sky at Sisters of the Force and on YouTube at Sisters of the Force.
01:28:00
Speaker
Excellent. So you've got no excuse.
01:28:03
Speaker
I will see you next week. Next Monday. Until then. Bye for now. Bye. Bye.