Latest / Aggressive Negotiations: A Star Wars Podcast / Issue 325: Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part III

Transcript

Issue 325: Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part III · Aggressive Negotiations: A Star Wars Podcast

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Hello, then, welcome to the note polity. Hi, this is Nick
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Nastasu, story editor on Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Star Wars bad
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Batch, and you are listening to Aggressive Negotiations. Welcome to Aggressive Negotiations,
0:27
a Star Wars podcast coming at you from the path here on. Well,
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or can't tell you that because well we'd give it away, and the Empire
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is looking for us. But we're excited to be here on Rebel Radio.
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And I'm just one of your hosts, Matthew Rushing ann with me as he
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is every single week is Esteemed Escaped Jedi Master John Mills. Yes, yes,
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they have carved my name in several walls and unfortunately bathroom stalls all across
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Coruscant. So, you know, folks, let's strap in and let's have
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a good time as we track down another episode of the Obi Wan Kenobi series
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in our anniversary rewatch for this groundbreaking monumental Disney Plus series reuniting us with that
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Jedi Master in hiding from a long time ago in a galaxy far far and
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his nemesis, Darthader. Well, before we get into that, of course,
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you know, make sure you find us wherever you get your podcasts and
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subscribe so you'll get the episodes as soon as they drop. You can also
1:29
find us on social media at the Jutty Masters on Twitter and we've got the
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entire network on Twitter as well at Join nerd Party or of course on Instagram
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at the nerd Party, the Nerdparty dot com. You can also find us
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sure as well as help us out and I give us some star ratings and
1:49
reviews over an Apple podcast, Spotify, all the places that you get your
1:53
podcasts. If you can give us a rating and or a review, that
1:57
would really help out. And this week we decided we're, you know,
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hitting the midway point of the season and this is Part three, and we
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thought it would be kind of fun to switch things up and just do a
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commentary for this episode. And so like all of our commentary episodes, it
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should be hopefully entertaining. Well, it will be entertaining enough so you could
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listen to this even without watching the episode, but it's also the perfect companion
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to watching the episode as well. So we'll give you a countdown three to
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one play and then on play you want to hit play with us, and
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we are going to watch it on of course Disney Plus, and so there's
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going to be the recap and everything there, and so we'll be talking through
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that as well. So here, without further ado, as our countdown three,
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two one, lay all right, here we go, Here we go.
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So how excited were you Master Rushing knowing what we were coming up to
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here on the third episode, because we ended on one heck of a cliffhanger
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at the end of the second one. We had run across fake Jedi who
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was actually a good guy question Mark, and we saw drug dealers, we
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saw a captured princess, We saw a whole bunch of stuff last episode,
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including the revelation that Darth Vader was alive and Obi Wan didn't know. So
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how stoked were you for this one? I mean, coming into this episode,
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I was pretty excited for the fact that we might see more of Darth
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Vader. And you know, we knew that Vader was going to be a
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big part of this series because we knew that they had brought back Hayden Christensen
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to be playing Vader again once again in the Darth Vader suit, and so
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you wouldn't bring him back for just a minor role, and so the opportunity
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to be able to see him more I was a very exciting prospect, and
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so I couldn't wait, absolutely, you know, to see what they were
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going to do. Were you on the same boat there with that or how
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are you feeling coming into this third episode, especially since you know, I
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mean we've both been kind of up and down with the series so far.
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That last shot that they just showed in the recap of Anakin I'm sorry,
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Vader opening his eyes in the back to tank, feeling that connection with Kenobi.
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You know, it's moments like that that made me look forward to the
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show because I was always I felt like a lone voice in the wilderness for
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decades, saying Obi Wan and Vader must have met between seth and Star Wars,
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a new hope, sorry, old habits and everything, and it's like,
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so having it come on screen, I was like, yes, I
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couldn't. I was so happy that it was going to happen because I felt
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I want why, I felt vindicated. I felt like I was no longer
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the crazy person, and now suddenly this thing that I considered a given was
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going to become quote unquote Cannon so yeah, and as I love this beginning
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because I think, uh, you know, we we had that moment where
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obi Wan realizes, you know, that Anakin is alive and here to have
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this beginning where we're seeing him meditate, search the force, try and connect
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with Qui Gon and uh, you know, realize for sure, yes,
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not only is is Vader alive, but you know he's coming. And I
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think it's just such an effective scene here, especially um, you know,
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I love the shots of getting to see uh, you know, what Anakin
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has become, um, and to really give us a taste of what his
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life is like, which doesn't look great now. I think that there's also
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even that little tidbit of hearing Yoda's voice say, only pain will you find
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really bringing everything together. Seeing Anakin being put together as obi Wan is meditating,
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and it's even getting more detail on how the suit works and comes together
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here is interesting, Yes, because you know, honestly, I think that
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it leans into the idea that the suit was refined over time. Yes,
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that it was you know, this is the suit at this stage, and
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it does change over time, and so this lends the idea to it evolving
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because Anakin is I was just about to say that there's there's no way Anakin
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being encased in machinery wouldn't be tinkering with it and refining it himself, because
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it's exactly who he is and he really hasn't lost that. And yeah,
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just just great moments here, two of any And what I love about the
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opening as well, is that you feel throughout this episode, especially here in
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the beginning, obi Wan's loneliness, you know, his his sense of isolation.
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Quigan's not answering him, there's no one to help him, and you
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know, it's it's this episode that is going to be the one that begins
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to open up Obi Wan's eyes to the fact that there's more going on in
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the galaxy than he's known, because he's literally been on a backwater planet for
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like ten years with very little news and only seeing the you know, effects
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of what's happening to the empire there. And now you know, here you've
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got you know, Vader talking to the third Sister, who is presenting herself
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in a very favorable light to Vader, not only saying, hey, I
7:57
know where Kenobe is, but also you know, Grand Inquisitor and he's like,
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I don't care about the Grand Inquisitor, and it just lets you know
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how much Vader doesn't care about anybody under his command. All he cares about
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is getting what he wants. Well. I think there's also there's an interesting
8:16
juxtaposition with Vader being on Mustafar that I don't know if it's stumbled into by
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putting his castle on Moustafar, which we first see in Rogue one, obviously,
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but both he and obi Wan are in desolate, hot places. Neither
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one of them is living any place green or joyful or anything but harsh and
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desolate. And it's interesting because I hadn't really thought of it till this moment
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of how they're mirror They literally are mirror images of each other's torment. And
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then when you put that further in the context of where we know obi Wan's
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going to take it and where Vader is going to stay stuck with it,
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I think it's pretty interesting, right, It's an interesting layer to have on
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it well, And I think there's something really nice to hear about this scene
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as obi Wan is fixing her droid and giving her Lola back, and there's
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such a humanity here to what obi Wan is doing, you know, I
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think he's maybe realized he's been connecting with her very poorly, and so finding
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a way to make her journey a little bit easier. You know, you
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know, she is supposed to be ten. This kind of experience is way
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outside her wheelhouse as to what she's experienced, and so I really appreciate this
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little moment. And you know, it's funny. There are so many times
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in Star Wars when it comes to Obi Wan Kenobi that I've found that it
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really is about the smallest moments that let you know so much about this character.
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And I think that moment is one where you can almost sense that he
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is slowly coming out of his shell just a little bit here and becoming you
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know, slightly more shall we say, human, because he's been so closed
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off and isolated. Now let me offer a tiny bit of criticism. As
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we have landed here and we now see the droids at work. I understand
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we all love practical effects, and I love the suit for um, you
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know this droid here. I think it's very cool. Unfortunately, the movement
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is not droid like enough in that moment, and it is one of those
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things where I think it exposes how you know, sometimes what you ask for
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isn't isn't exactly what you should be getting. I know there are plenty of
11:00
people saying, are you kidding? That's an amazing it's an amazing suit,
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but they should have worked more with the actor inside it to make the motions
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jerky. Right, Yeah, I know that seems like a weirdly nitpicky thing,
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but it pulls me out of it something. No, my god,
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that looks like a guy I think, the exact same thing, you know.
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I really also like this part of the episode a lot because you know,
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Obi one who somebody who's traveled the galaxy, right, and he's seen
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so many worlds, and as he's talking delay here and saying, you know,
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before the Empire came, this world was beautiful. There were homes and
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fields, and she's like, but I thought the Empire was helping people,
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and you know, he's having to explain to her, well, yes,
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there are people like your father that are, but the majority are not.
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And right here, this is such a great moment of him seeing Anakin.
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Yes, yes, I think we all expected it to be the ghost of
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Qui Gon or like some vision of Qui Gon, but it's Anakin that he
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sees and I think that leans into where Lucas was playing around with the idea
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of where he was going to take it in the sequels of the Ghost of
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Anakin being distinct from Vader. So because remember from the pre production stuff there
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was the quote unquote ghost of Anakin stuff that was that was going to be
12:22
in there. So that feels like a very Lucas thing to like sort of
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screw with your perception of how things work. And yes, but at the
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same time it works also primarily as just of course that's what Obi Wan's going
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to see a mirage out there. And you also, what I think people
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also forget is that Yoda specifically says you'll see old friends long gone when you
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look through the force, So of course he's going to see Anakin standing there
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some some afterimage of him. Yes, you know, I love this uh
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inquisitorious castle in this you know, water planet. I think it's a really
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cool idea. Um. I think one of the minor criticism I think I
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have of this whole part of the storyline is that it should have been edited
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down and sped up. Um. I think we spend way too much time
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here that's not necessarily needed. And um I also think too. Again,
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the performance is better here from the third sister, but it's still coming off
13:33
wrong to me still at this point in the series, especially when you you
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know, she's had a conversation with Lord Vader, right, the epitome of
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Star Wars villains. So but otherwise, you know, I think the design
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work here is really great. Um. You know, I love this fact
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that they're under the ocean there their place, they're secluded, and uh,
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you know, I think, Um, I don't forgive me. I don't
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know which sister this is with them, but man, her design is fantastic.
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I agree. Um, dare I say I think that Reva should have
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had that design because it would have been more menacing. I think it would
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have aided things. You know. I'm just something additional to give her a
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more devilish look. Not no, I agree, even maybe a full thing,
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but like give her head tails or something like that. Yeah, because
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that's part of the thing that's fun, is the exotic look. Yeah,
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it's intriguing. Yeah. Well, see this scene too here right, whether
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they're launching the probes, you only needed the scene where the probes are in
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space and spreading out. You didn't need to spend the money on the cgi
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of the launching of the probes, Like, take that money and spend it
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somewhere else. We Conversely, I would say you could just show the probes
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launching and not follow them at the space. Well that too, I mean,
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so you can either way, you can, you can cut it in
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half. Now, obviously they're shooting, you know, in California, in
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California here, um planet California. But what is unfortunate to my eye is
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it accentuates the smallness of the actress playing Lea. Again, it's a great
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point. Yeah, it's it's difficult. I know people will probably think I'm
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harping on this, but I look at this, but like, you know,
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this shot here where she's in front, more camera work like this,
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because it deceives my eye and makes her look taller. So I wish they
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would have played with that more in terms of the staging and the frame.
15:48
And hey, we got Zach Braffe as an alien here in Star Wars now,
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so that's exciting that. You know, what did you think of them
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of the creature design there? It's not bad, but again I think it's
16:02
a place where you know, they go completely physical and I think it's a
16:10
place where I would have liked to have seen more cgi enhancement to the face
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to make it feel more natural, you know, instead of so stilted because
16:21
the face just doesn't have enough movement in it. It's it's an incredible I
16:25
mean, the fact that they can do this practically is amazing, right,
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But I still think that, you know, when we're creating an alien species,
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their facial expression shouldn't feel so wooden. I'll offer this that what's wooden
16:44
is the neck move that too. Yeah, it looks like somebody who's turning
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all of their shoulders around right. Yeah, to see. Now a lot
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of people might say, hey, we're harping on those those technical things.
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I think that's a good thing. By this point in the episode, We're
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not harping on stories so much this time, so I can work with this.
17:03
Oh yeah. This is why I'm more into this episode at this point
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is I'm like, you know, I can get past that. I've already
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had a great Vader moment. I've gotten to see him on Moustafar, and
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while I'm not in love with how all the inquisitoris, stuff looks like it's
17:18
going to go. It worked well enough. So I'm still very much into
17:25
this episode, you know, still going in. I like the stormtroopers coming
17:30
up. I love the idea of putting them in truck with Obi Wan.
17:40
This is a classic sort of thing of the refugees getting trapped in the bus
17:47
or the truck or the transport or what have you with the soldiers of the
17:51
regime, and I think it emphasizes how unnerving the stormtrooper helmet it's really are,
18:00
because it really does rob humanity and they're you can't tell what's behind that
18:07
man, and they do look menacing, you know. I also love this
18:14
too, is where Frek is a character who is in love with the empire.
18:18
You know, he thinks the empire is great, you know, and
18:22
then if everybody would just obey, then we find you know, he's he's
18:26
bought completely the propaganda of the empire. And so this whole scene though,
18:36
where they're talking to Obi Wan and uh, you know, she makes up
18:41
the story about her mother and then he accidentally calls her Leia, like this
18:47
whole scene, and then when he tells the story about you know, her
18:53
mother dying and how difficult it's been and how sometimes you know, he sees
19:00
he's her mother in her it's so well done. Again, I think this
19:04
is a place where, like you're saying, story wise, we're having a
19:07
moment here which allows you and McGregor to do what he does best, which
19:12
is to bring you in with his performance, and then as he tells this
19:18
story, you completely buy it because it is true. Right, he did
19:23
know her mother, she meant something to him, and she does act a
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lot like pad. May you know she has a lot of her in her,
19:33
the spunk, the drive, the impetuousness, and so I really appreciate,
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like you're saying, you got some technical things that we might be picking
19:45
out so far with the episode, but really this episode is kind of I
19:49
think, creating a lot of great story elements that you can really dig into.
19:56
And it's to me, I would say, it's too bad that it's
19:59
taken to this episode for me to really feel that so far. I agree.
20:07
I think that this so far has been I think it's in contention for
20:14
strongest scene in the series so far because I felt tension. I have and
20:18
I'm feeling that emotional tug right now of you again, Like you said,
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McGregor is just phenomenal. He's obi wan Kenobi. And I think that this
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moment between the two of them where they're really acting, gives this actress a
20:37
chance to show why he was kid exactly. And it's these moments that make
20:45
it work. And it's unfortunate because again, if they didn't have the clumsy
20:51
chases, if they didn't have the extended stuff that they didn't need to have
20:55
before, this is it. This is the meat on the boat. Yes,
20:57
this is what I'm looking for. And this, you know, flash
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is really my mother's shaw, my father's hands. This even echoes what talk
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I was gonna say that Yes, thank you so well done to allow us
21:11
to be able to have that connection. And the beauty here is that she
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says, I sometimes try to imagine my father, which means she doesn't have
21:19
to do that with her mother. And I think that's why she's so insistent
21:23
that you knew her right. There's something about her that has this connection with
21:29
her mother. She can't explain that she can feel with him. It's also
21:33
again it's through the force, you'll see old friends long gone. Leia.
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Of course, Leia has probably had flashes of her mom. She's Anakin's daughter.
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She's probably had visions of her mom that she just interpreted as memories of
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her. Yes, you know, one of the best parts about Frek is
21:51
that he has this weasel like look to him, and of course that's what
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he is, and so I think that's one of the things that does work
21:59
about the design here, because of course he betrays them to the Empire.
22:03
So and of course, if you don't want to look suspicious, don't suddenly
22:10
put your hood up. I mean, well you've ridden up without it on,
22:14
yeah, I mean nobody does that. Well, hey, as a
22:18
bald man, I would have been riding with the hood up the whole thing.
22:22
That's true. I mean you don't want you don't know what the SPF
22:26
of this sun is like, well, whatever it is in California, this
22:33
is true. This is true. I don't think it's as strong as where
22:37
I live, though, so you know, bring it. You know.
22:41
This is an interesting conundrum here though, because we've talked about different things like
22:45
the drinking laws and the shipping laws and the gun laws on different episodes.
22:49
OBI want's packing, right, This is a big galaxy, Like the stormtroopers
22:56
have to know that anybody could be packing when they run across him. That's
23:00
kind of a thing. You know, what's what's and of course you know
23:04
fan favorite probe droid design here. It's really interesting too because this is kind
23:07
of reminiscent of a comic scene. I think there's a comic cover art with
23:18
Obi Wan Kenobi there and you know he's he's being spied by a probe droid
23:23
in front of some wanted posters and looks very similar to that. So I
23:29
think the work that they did here was was great. I also really love
23:33
that they show you just how dangerous that gate is, that if you fall
23:37
into it, yeah, it'll cut you in half. And then they kind
23:41
of undo themselves in a moment as soon as this resolves. But well,
23:45
we'll get there. We'll get there, putting way in danger effective obi Wan
23:51
being the crack shot don't want to run through the gate. Oh my gosh,
23:53
how are we going to do? I like the fact that the control
24:00
is similar to the tractor. Yeah, that was great. I don't know
24:03
why they wouldn't have just run around to the other side, but hey,
24:06
you know, yeah, it's just me. It's very true. But the
24:08
thing is, even with that was cg like you could have been sitting there
24:11
in post and be like, that's ah, you don't listen. I know,
24:15
I know, I'm a Lucas fanboy. I get it. Lucas would
24:18
have inserted Rocks there, he said, you know that could have just walked
24:22
her. Yeah, exactly Rocks. Yes, I love this too. The
24:26
only down. I just gonna love this scene because you know, obi one
24:32
has talked about this idea that nobody's coming, nobody's gonna here to help them,
24:34
and then we finally meet the person who was meant to meet them,
24:38
and that there there are people out there that are here to help him.
24:44
And I love this actress. You know, she was in a Man of
24:48
Steel, she was in a Game of Thrones. Um. You know,
24:52
she's been a lot of things. She's a fantastic actress. No, not
24:56
Man of Steel, um, because that was the woman who's also in Daredevil.
25:00
So anyway, now I was gonna say a Man of Steel, I
25:03
didn't remember. But I love this display table that they have because it answers
25:10
we have screens like this, but it's still the art direction and set design.
25:17
It's still styled in Star Wars graphics sort of way, but adapted for
25:22
what we would expect. And I appreciate that. I even appreciate the fact
25:29
that the chair that's obviously Vader's chair, nobody's going to sit in that,
25:33
and that is you know, well, I mean either Grand Inquisitive chair.
25:37
Yeah, it's designed that is it's almost like the Granding whoever is Grand Inquisitor,
25:42
It's like them. It's almost like the chair of Peter. It's like,
25:45
okay, you know, I'm the representative of the church here right now,
25:48
and it looks like Vader's castle spot. Yes, I love I love
25:52
that design. You know. One of the things that I have to give
25:55
them, though, is that by being outside with this setup here is that
26:03
this town, all the movement we're seeing and everything, it just feels so
26:07
much more natural because people have the ability to just kind of walk here and
26:11
there. And I think they're doing a good job in this to create the
26:18
sense of a place where, you know, it's not an amazing place to
26:22
be and there, but there's a sense of freedom for people to be able
26:27
to go where they want to go and do their work. And so it
26:33
just as opposed to Dio, where I was having some problems with all of
26:37
that, I feel like this is just a little bit better. Well,
26:41
it feels like there's a reason for it to be a little bit more sparse.
26:45
Yes, great point, and I think that having it be you know,
26:51
tighter camera angles also because we know that we're seeing from around corners and
26:57
everything, and so things are a bit tighter, Like the camera work here
27:00
better because it feels like, Okay, there's just stuff around the corner I
27:03
can't quite see, and it keeps me focused on stuff and not paying attention
27:07
to Hey, is this a little too light? I mean, like this
27:11
shot of them walking across this looks fuller than anything, yes, on the
27:17
city planet, and that that's what's odd. But at the same time,
27:23
again it's singing praises of the episode. I like, seriously, by this
27:26
point, I really felt like, Okay, we've got our feet under us,
27:30
We're going along. By this point into the episode, I had also
27:36
said to myself, well, I guess we're just going to get that little
27:37
tease a vader at this point. We're not going to get anything else.
27:41
And I would go ahead and say I was happy enough with I was happy
27:45
enough with it. I was I said, okay, tease me, pull
27:48
me along, have me go. I love this idea of the underground here.
27:55
I think this is an effective design. I like the fact that the
28:00
rugs on the bottom look like little prayer mats. It evokes that idea that
28:03
you're hiding basically religious refugees, and I think that it is It's interesting that
28:11
they call it the Path. It feels appropriate from that Jedie sort of way.
28:21
Well, one of the things that I think is great about this too,
28:23
And you were mentioning just the design work here, and I think all
28:26
of that is fantastic, But I think what's selling the scene is the way
28:33
in which you know Obi Wan is being told this information and then you know
28:40
he's feeling the walls, he's seeing what's written there. He's realizing that friends
28:45
he thought long gone are actually still alive and they're doing something about what's going
28:52
on. And it's so interesting because his entire world that had been shattered,
29:00
he thought lost, was completely gone to realize that he's not the only one
29:03
left him and Yoda you know that that And not only that, but there
29:08
are other people here that are all around the galaxy that are willing to help
29:12
those in need. Jedi for sensitive children, people who need to get out.
29:17
I mean the whole thing here. I think is is just a great
29:21
scene. I I couldn't agree more. I think that this again, the
29:34
suit is great. I love this robot design. I think it's terrific.
29:41
I just think it's not like I it's not robot enough. But what I
29:48
love about the design is it's a little bit K two. Like you look
29:52
at the show like that, Yeah, and you look at the the the
29:55
arm joints and stuff like that. You can see again that idea of a
29:59
mass production galaxy where Okay, this type of joint works on a droid of
30:03
this size, Therefore we're going to have all of these things. I love
30:07
the fact that he has basically a small sledgehammer. Yes, well, and
30:14
I will give credit to this performer. I don't know if it's different,
30:18
but I do feel like the movement feels better in this scene because he's not
30:21
being able to act so cool, asked to move so much, but the
30:26
movements are more subtle and I like that. And I love that we know
30:33
that the robot is on our side, the droids on our side. They
30:37
don't know that, but his movements when you do know that, are suspicious
30:42
and it's just that. So it's a nice characterization. I like it a
30:45
lot. I think that the the most interesting thing here is this idea that
31:00
this underground railroad for Jedi existing in this way opens up so many possibilities for
31:07
other series or other shorts that they could do. And I loved the most
31:14
recent season of Star Wars Visions, the second season. I thought it was
31:18
more thematically cohesive. I really enjoyed it. And I loved Tales of the
31:23
Jedi. I mean, we all know, I just absolutely adored you adored
31:27
Tales of the Jedi as well. This scene where they're in here and they're
31:33
having this exchange, and we know the path is there, we know that
31:37
Quinlan was there. I wish that they would have the wherewithal to make not
31:45
just animated shorts, but lean into live actions. Oh that would be cool.
31:51
Yeah, have peripheral stuff that supports what we are seeing here. No,
31:56
I think that's seeing little tidnets. You know, we don't need a
32:00
whole scene. Yes, well, and like you're saying, you know,
32:04
the beauty of the scene is this character Tala has come to life in a
32:07
really beautiful way in the sense that she was somebody who's a part of the
32:12
Empire realized what it was and got out, and she is trying to make
32:16
up for those mistakes, like so many of the characters that we've seen,
32:21
and now the the thing we've all been waiting for, and that shadow stalking
32:31
across is amazing. I want to And I love how the inquisitors, except
32:39
kind of Riva, bow their heads when he walks by that respect. Yes,
32:45
I love the fact that the gloves we see the hand, the gloves
32:47
are designed right for early Vader and um, you know, the the nineteen
32:53
seventy seven Vader. And I love that this suit feels shiny like that nineteen
32:59
seventy seven Vader. And I love the fact that this is a shape I've
33:05
been terrified of since I was three years old. Yeah, and then I
33:09
got to know and I got to see the inside and right here it makes
33:15
him terrifying and absolutely absolutely it turns him into a monster again, I mean,
33:22
and recomplicates all of those feelings. I mean, he goes through snapping
33:28
necks and killing younglings again. So and I can't I can't love it enough.
33:35
I do have a question. It's a whole bunch of people he doesn't
33:37
even need to see, you know. He drags people out through the window.
33:40
I do have this question though for you, because I'm had a little
33:45
bit of a loss as to why Obi one is staying there so long.
33:52
It feels like the moment he realized Vader was there, they should have run
33:54
away. The adrenaline dump that happens when you're in a basically you can get
34:06
you know, you have the fight or flight instinct, you can get over.
34:09
With that adrenaline dump, people freeze and there's a God forbid. I
34:16
hope nobody ever would have to go through this, but there, I know
34:22
I've been in a moment where something fearful was happening and I I liked to
34:27
think that I would have reacted differently, but I was just frozen, you
34:30
know, to the ground because I and I eventually moved and everything like that.
34:36
But yeah, there's that time where you're like, you're even thinking of
34:38
yourself, why am I not moving? Why am I not moving? But
34:43
it you know, your body can freeze. Everything can just turn on that
34:46
dime. Well, and I do like to though that they do answer that
34:55
question in a way that obi One is thinking to himself, I need to
35:01
be the decoy so that Leah Leiah can get away, right and so he's
35:08
going to play that role here and which you know, creates this this terrifying
35:15
scene then of you know, him being hunted like a rat and absolutely,
35:22
you know, not up to this challenge. You know he is, he
35:28
is anything but up to this challenge. And unfortunately, I think that the
35:34
photography when we switch back here, it feels like they moved inside instead of
35:43
staying outside, Like that's what it feels like. But I'm willing to look
35:49
past it. I'm like, Okay, this is a moment I've been waiting
35:52
for. Vader has ignited his saber, he wants his revenge, and obi
35:58
Wan runs away. Yeah, and that shot Evader turning his lightsaber back off
36:05
and going back into the shadow is a really effective shot. Yeah, And
36:10
I agree with you too. I think this whole scene, some of the
36:15
camera work is is pretty good. And then I think some of the camera
36:20
work becomes a detriment. Many of the scenes during the upcoming battle where they
36:27
do a real wide shot are completely ineffective because with lightsaber battles, you want
36:34
to be close enough to be able to feel the action. Yeah. But
36:38
as song as we're talking about the photography super effective, that all you could
36:44
see was his chest plate. Yes, absolutely, walking in the shadow like
36:50
that's pretty cool, and I am what you made me. And we're going
36:54
to come back to that line talk talk about not taking responsibility for one's own
36:59
actions. But you know, but but in a few episodes, there's gonna
37:04
be an interesting parallel to that line. That's interesting, that shows that conflict
37:10
that exists. And Reeva, of course, just happens to notice the droid
37:21
at the right time and the tunnel cool. I like it, Like,
37:30
what's happening here? They're in the tunnel, She's sniffing them out. Okay,
37:36
I'm a little frustrated because I want to go back to Obi Wan Invader.
37:39
I'm like, what no, no, no, no, no,
37:42
you were giving me what I wanted. You're giving me what I wanted.
37:45
This is taking a little too long. I think they could have made this
37:49
faster. No, I agree with that, And you know, I think
37:54
a lot of this series in the end just comes down to some of the
37:58
editing choices and many places tightening things up would have been, you know,
38:02
the way to go. As George said, you know, faster, the
38:06
more intense. So I also love that moment because it reminds me of the
38:08
Empire strikes back where Vader comes out of nowhere, but this time it's to
38:13
Obi one instead of Luke. And just like, I love that he's batting
38:17
him around a little kid. He's just slamming him around. He's no challenge
38:22
to him at all. And you know, honestly, you know what,
38:25
it feels a little bit like it feels a little bit like Bane and Batman's
38:30
first fight in the Dark Knight. Oh my gosh, that's a great point.
38:32
Yeah, because Vader says, the years have made you weak. That's
38:36
just like, you know, uh piece has robbed you of your victory,
38:40
has defeated you. You know, I was born in the darkness more and
38:45
by. But but it is it's that sense of like the hero isn't supposed
38:50
to be losing this battle, and the hero is realizing, oh crap,
38:53
I'm not ready for this. This is not what I thought it was going
38:57
to be. No, that's I mean, I think that's a great point
39:00
because this series really does in many ways mirror the Dark Night Rises in the
39:07
sense of what where Obi Wan is at the beginning is the same kind of
39:12
place where Bruce is at the beginning, broken, battered, beaten and by
39:16
the end he's triumphant, you know, and so and that really matters.
39:23
Okay, two things here. One you reference Empire strikes Back and same sort
39:30
of thing. When Luke and Vader first start fighting, Vader is only using
39:32
one hand because he's just not challenged by Luke. He's just yep, swinging
39:37
around with one hand. But I also love in this fight, you know,
39:42
just a moment ago here, you know, Riva's you know, going
39:44
into the tunnel now and everything. But Vader used the thing that everybody loves
39:50
to make fun of in Revenge of the Sith, where he used that force
39:53
push as their sabers were clashing. And it's a move both of that obi
40:00
Wan taught and right, yes, and obi Wan has forgotten it and what
40:05
better way, and he uses obi Wan's own move against him but to affect
40:09
at this point, right, which further underscores how out of practice obi Wan.
40:15
No. I think that's a great point, um. And I think
40:17
the thing about this is is that this fight in many ways is just pulling
40:22
from a few different places to create the movements that are happening. But it's
40:30
not just you know, harkening back for that sake, But it's it's it's
40:34
building into the place where obi Wan is in the place where Vader is and
40:38
Invader here is at the top of his game and Obi Wan doesn't have any
40:44
game at this moment, you know, like he's he's done for. And
40:49
this is very clear in this scene where you know, Vader grabs him and
40:52
he's about to torture him, drag him through fire and make him feel you
40:58
know, a tenth of what he felt on Mustafar. Well, yeah,
41:04
I mean he was set on fire to the point that you know, I
41:10
mean, good grief. He should have died, and I love like we
41:15
you know, we talked about some of the stronger camera work. These shots
41:19
of Vader with the flames in front of him very wonderful and very evocative of
41:27
again that Empire Strikes back logo, the Vader in fire logo, right,
41:31
but just seeing that and that line, your pain has just begun. This
41:37
is the mustache twirling villain that inspired Lucas and the stuff that he watched of.
41:45
You know, it's sort of like what they made fun of with Um
41:52
with Doctor Evil, whereas I got a gun, Yeah, I just gonna
41:55
go, why just shoot him? It's like, that's not how you do
41:59
these things. And it's like it's it's the whole thing where like Vader,
42:02
Vader could have just ended this right now, and he chose not to right
42:10
And this is great, this is a great use of everything. But you
42:15
have to wonder. You have to wonder, couldn't Vader walk through the plane?
42:24
Established how powerful Vader was, Why wouldn't he have just he could have
42:30
just pushed the robot down. And it's you know, I don't buy any
42:35
explanation that's like, oh, he was conflicted. I think the only explanation
42:38
you can give is Vader's like, yeah, I owned him, I'll get
42:42
I'll get back to him. That's fine, you know, I think that's
42:45
a great way to put it. Um. I can absolutely see the Anakin
42:52
inside of him, the arrogant Anakin being like, yeah, I won this
42:58
round. It's going to be easy to find him again. Look what happened
43:00
to him. He's got nothing, He's got nothing, you know, Like,
43:05
so I by that and and again I think this is a place where
43:09
you know, we also see over and over again, right, it's the
43:15
overconfidence is your weakness and Anakin and as Vader at this moment is completely overconfident,
43:24
and unfortunately I have to ask how in the Bantha spit was Rieva able
43:31
to get like this is that violation of placement? This is that how did
43:39
she get there first? I don't know? So, okay, hey,
43:43
what a great cliffhanger. She's got her? Just stand like how you know,
43:52
Like it's one of those things. I'm sure you could draw me a
43:53
diagram and I'd piece it together. But in the context, my first thing
44:00
wasn't oh no, my first thing. My first reaction wasn't oh no,
44:02
she's got Leah Leah. My first reaction was how'd she get in front of
44:07
her? Yeah, That's exactly what I was like. It's just one of
44:12
those one of those classic moments of like, everything was so good. I
44:15
was on the side of this episode, and at the very last second it's
44:19
like, huh oh, okay, all right, I'll stick with it.
44:23
Yeah. And the hard thing is is that, you know, we obviously
44:25
know that there are other exits and entrances to this this this tunnel system,
44:32
because Tala obviously got out in a different place and then went and found where
44:37
obi Wan was. Right, so we get the feeling that there's probably different
44:40
places where this exits, but one percent agree with you that I thought exactly
44:46
the same thing, and it's very frustrating that we do end in that place
44:58
where you know, you're like, no, this, this doesn't make sense.
45:01
Like this, you needed to have shown her finding a map of the
45:09
system so that she could get there first. Just one insert shot of that
45:14
would have made complete sense. One shot where she goes in and she like
45:20
goes over and she she like feels over and she feels a panel and we
45:22
see that there's, you know, a tunnel loops around and you're like,
45:25
ah, okay, you'll buy it, you'll buy it. But again,
45:30
this more positive than negative in this episode. More positive than negative in this
45:36
episode, and I think a large part of it bring Invader in. Yeah,
45:42
I agree, huge, huge, huge plus. Instantly I'm all in
45:50
on this series again. You know, first two episodes we discussed already.
45:53
After this episode, I was like, Okay, our engines are up now,
46:00
now we're really going to hit it. Were you similarly super stoked going
46:05
into, you know, getting ready for episode four? I was definitely much
46:07
more comfortable with this episode, and I felt like that it had done a
46:15
better job and a lot of the places that I had been frustrated. You
46:21
know, I still think that the show is still struggling, I think production
46:30
value wise, but this one was better and so it left me hopeful,
46:35
that's for sure. And I'm definitely in a much better place with it.
46:39
And I think, you know, for me, this is a you know,
46:43
like a clear three point seven five out of five. You know,
46:47
it's I don't think it's quite a four, but like it's just it was,
46:52
you know, whereas the other episodes, I'm like at maybe a three.
46:57
So this has come very far from where that was. I think,
47:01
uh and uh, this is a solid for ye see, and I could
47:06
I could be generous be there too, So it's a much better. It's
47:09
not even generous. I get. I get Vader showing why he is,
47:15
like he's a monster. I get Vader looking like a complete bad mofo,
47:23
you know, kicking Obi Wan's butt all over the place. Not because I
47:27
hate obi Wan, but because the listen, the saber choreography was fantastic.
47:34
I thought it was great. I thought the fight choreography when when obi Wan
47:37
is against the guards at the gate and all of that good was enough for
47:42
me. To overlook you could have just walked around that gate, or that
47:45
guy in the robot suit wasn't completely convincing, or how the hell did Reva
47:49
get in front of her first? Like, those are little things where I'm
47:52
like, Ah, those are the type of tiny errors that I can forgive
47:57
when the rest of it is so good. Even the little bit of doing
48:01
something that I've wanted to hear for a very long time, of hearing Anakin's
48:07
human voice just a little out of sink with the Vader voice synthesizer that makes
48:15
the James Earl Jones earlier in the episode, when he gets really angry and
48:19
hearing like that little half second delay between the person inside the suit and how
48:24
the suit speaks for him. That's that's like a little thing I've I've wanted
48:30
to hear forever. I wanted to hear that. At the end of episode
48:34
three, That's like one of those things where it's like I would have loved
48:36
to hear like Anakin's voice just a quarter second out of sink with James Earl
48:39
Jones as at first hearing a catch up to him. Yeah. I think
48:43
another thing that really helps the episode is that the portrayal of Vader by Christiansen
48:51
in the suit is so good. The movement is perfect. And then of
48:57
course I would say the voice work that they did here, and I know
49:01
what they're doing, which is they're playing with a lot of voice synthesizing and
49:07
you know, deep fake voice, you know, I know, you know,
49:09
James Earl Jones did record things here, but what they're able to do
49:14
now this sounds even better than he did in Row one and he sounds like
49:21
episode exactly, which is exactly what you need. And so they did a
49:25
phenomenal job with that. So there's some great stuff here and I'm excited,
49:31
you know, to hit that fourth episode now and to see, you know,
49:36
what happens next. And I think, uh, you know, like
49:42
you this is definitely the place where this began to be more of what I
49:47
maybe hoped for, and it did leave me more hopeful the first time,
49:55
maybe gave me a new hope that this show might become what I But John,
50:01
if people want to catch up with you and talk some OBI one or
50:05
anything else, where would they find you, Well, gosh, look for
50:07
me online as Kessel Junkie k s s l j u n Kie safest to
50:13
look for me over on the Letterbox where I talk about movies and shows that
50:15
they consider movies and pull through on the database. And no matter how many
50:19
times you explain to me why that works that way, it doesn't make sense.
50:22
And you can find me co hosting a show here called house Lights on
50:28
the Nerd Party Network that I co host with Tristan Model and Darren Moser,
50:30
where we look at the work of directors through different phases. Blah blah blah.
50:35
Seriously, come on, I've talked about it enough. Go over and
50:37
listen to Houselights. Come on, I watched those movies for a reason.
50:40
And of course I appear sometimes as a guest seat over on The six or
50:46
two Club on TFM, which is a flagship show hosted by you, Matthew,
50:51
And we've got some great stuff over there on the TFM network, so
50:53
I hope you'll check that out. Of course, you can also find me
50:57
over there, not just on the six or two Club, but got literary
51:00
tracks, the Orb Warp, five, Saddle Up, the Artificial Tango,
51:06
all shows you can find over there. Social media, you can find me
51:08
under the name Mount Rushing zero two, Twitter, Instagram, Letterbox, Navro
51:13
and then you can also find me here on the network. I've got a
51:15
completed show with Dreya Kaufman. We talked about every single chapter of the Harry
51:20
Potter series, one chapter at a time. But you know, John,
51:23
I'm getting some flashes and remembrances of a meeting that we have at the Temple,
51:30
So I think it's time to close these negotiations. I have flashes through
51:36
the force of Bantha Fritters, Master Rushing. Negotiations are clothes. Join the
51:51
revolution, Join the Nerd Party.