Latest / Most Things Kenobi - A Star Wars Podcast / Episode 137: Revisiting "From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back" Short Stories
Transcript
- 0:00Hello there. Control your insolence and
- 0:03concentrate. It's time for most things
- 0:07Kenobi. Hi everyone.
- 0:20Welcome to another episode of Most Things Kenobi, a podcast
- 0:23about Obi Wan Kenobi and all things Star Wars.
- 0:25I'm your host, Lauren. And I'm your host Leanne.
- 0:31And this week we're doing some more book reviews.
- 0:33We're diving back into, from a certain point of view, Empire
- 0:37Strikes Back Edition, and we're going to talk about two more
- 0:40short stories. One is very short.
- 0:43Very short, it was only like 6 minutes.
- 0:44Long, yeah. And we're just going to dive
- 0:49back into some some stuff. I just want to say also, I have
- 0:53my heater going, my dishwasher going and my sump pump going off
- 0:57constantly because it's so wet here.
- 0:59So sorry for all the background noise.
- 1:02I know it's going to be, it's going to be there so.
- 1:05There's an odd comfort to your the pump that goes off all night
- 1:09when I sleep in your house. It's it was concerning when I
- 1:13first stayed with you. And then I realized what it was
- 1:16and I was like, oh, OK, that's fine.
- 1:18It's normal. I totally forgot that it's under
- 1:21this room and when you came and stayed we had the rainstorm and
- 1:24it was just going all night. I'm.
- 1:27Sorry. Now it's oddly comforting.
- 1:29It's like, oh, I'm at Lauren's place.
- 1:32We have. We had like 3 feet of snow and
- 1:36then torrential rain and it's been raining misting for like a
- 1:42week now. So all that snow is just a it's
- 1:45like a swimming pool in the backyard.
- 1:47That's gross. So yeah, the sump pump is just
- 1:49pumping it out so that it can come back into the crawl space
- 1:53and pump it out. It's just a it's going to be
- 1:56here till spring. So it's mud season here.
- 1:59It is, yeah. It's.
- 2:01Getting there came early this year.
- 2:03We're still frozen. We're still frozen.
- 2:06But mud season is coming. Yeah, part one.
- 2:10Part. Part.
- 2:11Two. All right.
- 2:17Well, the first of the two stories, This probably isn't
- 2:20going to be a very long episode, not as long as our other ones,
- 2:23but that's OK. Yeah.
- 2:26We we go as we go as the topic dictates.
- 2:30True. But like Lauren said, the second
- 2:35story was like 6 minutes long so.
- 2:38We'll speed through that one pretty quick.
- 2:41Yeah. Thank you again to our friend
- 2:44Kenobi Wolf for suggesting these stories and providing us with
- 2:49this audio book. We've we've really enjoyed
- 2:51coming back to it over and over. It's been fun to kind of dive
- 2:55into short stories as opposed to a long novel, because you and I
- 2:59just don't have time for that. No.
- 3:01And these are easy to digest no matter what they are.
- 3:05So it's it's kind of neat. I'll tell you what the first one
- 3:08that we're talking about is titled.
- 3:11But what Does he eat? And they mentioned one of my
- 3:15favorite Star Wars locations. Did you catch it?
- 3:19Which one? Kuat.
- 3:20Oh, Kuat. Yes.
- 3:21Yeah. I was like, Oh my God, it's like
- 3:24my random obscure, like shipping dock, Planet Ring place that I
- 3:31oddly like in the Galaxy of Star Wars.
- 3:34And there was mentioned. Yeah, I thought of you as soon
- 3:38as I as soon as I heard it. I thought that was really.
- 3:41That was a great reference. So this one is on cloud city
- 3:46that's been. Yes.
- 3:48And I didn't quite know where it was going.
- 3:51And I will say that this was not my favorite short story.
- 3:58I agree. Mostly because I didn't like the
- 4:01tone of the woman's voice narrating nothing against her,
- 4:06but it made the character seem really off putting.
- 4:09It just seemed really bitchy. Yeah, yeah.
- 4:15And I thought it was going to kind of like stop being that way
- 4:19and it didn't. I mean, OK, so So what it is, is
- 4:25it's the point of view of a cook or the the head chef?
- 4:30Like celebrity chef. Yes, like Galaxy Renown.
- 4:35So maybe she's bitchy. She's bitchy because she's like
- 4:39the female Gordon Ramsay, right? That's the.
- 4:41Yeah, yeah, I was thinking it's below her.
- 4:45Everything was below her. And don't you dare wake me up
- 4:47before my alarm. And we negotiated my hours,
- 4:50bitch, if I could negotiate my hours, I might also be a bitch.
- 4:55But I'm a bitch because I can't negotiate my hours.
- 4:59So it's a lose lose anyway. Anyhow, she kicked a Droid.
- 5:04And that's when I was like, OK, I don't like this woman.
- 5:06Not the droid's fault anyway. I'm not building the story up
- 5:14very well. So she's a celebrity chef that
- 5:18works for Lando, basically, and she gets called in earlier than
- 5:23she would like, even though it's probably the middle of the day.
- 5:27And he asks her to quote, make refreshments for some guests
- 5:33that he's trying to kind of not impress but like just.
- 5:39They're trying to keep up appearances.
- 5:41He's afraid because we come to learn.
- 5:43And we pretty much deduced early on that it's the banquet room
- 5:47where Vader is waiting when Han and Leia and everybody show up.
- 5:51Yeah. Yeah, so.
- 5:55But she doesn't know that. Oh, she she doesn't.
- 6:00I also I found this interesting. I had to look it up.
- 6:03So she's a Devaronian. Yes.
- 6:07And those are the characters that have like the.
- 6:11They're like the devil horns. They have the.
- 6:14Oh really? Yeah, 'cause I was like, oh, I I
- 6:17don't immediately place like her species.
- 6:19So I looked it up. I'm like, oh, you want that in
- 6:22the kitchen? So then I typed in female
- 6:26Deveronian. You want that in the kitchen?
- 6:31It's just like why they can hang like their washcloth, like their
- 6:35damp rag, you know, they always have like a rag over their
- 6:37shoulder. Yeah, yeah, put it.
- 6:40On one of the horns. But if you look up female
- 6:43Deveronians, they don't have those, so.
- 6:47They just have like if they describe it as having like skull
- 6:49bumps basically. So I don't know if they get them
- 6:52sawed down, I don't know. Or if it's like female deer,
- 6:56Deer have they they they have little bumps, but they don't
- 7:00turn into horns. Yeah, when the the sous chef is
- 7:05also the sous chef is an Argonaut, which Speaking of you
- 7:09want that in your kitchen. Do you want that in your
- 7:11kitchen? Although I I did have a soft
- 7:13spot for the sous chef because we come to find out that the
- 7:19sous chef has the idea to poison everybody.
- 7:24Yes. So my big complaint with the
- 7:27story is they spend all this time on stuff that's not
- 7:30necessary and not enough time on the substance of the story,
- 7:36which is this murder plot. Yes, yes.
- 7:39Which I was listening and just kind of like ma'am.
- 7:42And then they said that and I was like, well, now you have my
- 7:44attention. It made me think of the scene in
- 7:49Beth Revis's book about Jin. God, we are so tired.
- 7:57Yes, this is a mess already. You know that one about Jin?
- 8:02Yes, In Rebel Rising, where she's in the cell and her cell
- 8:06mate wants to plot to get away. And they can't.
- 8:10They just simply can't. So she, like, does the ultimate
- 8:14escape and throws herself off a Cliff.
- 8:18So I was thinking there's no way out for the for the There is no
- 8:22good ending here and it is probably a good thing they
- 8:26didn't decide to put poison in any of the food because like
- 8:30there were some rebels there, you know, So if they ate
- 8:32anything, right, they'd have gotten the whole crew.
- 8:36You've read my my mind. That's my exact thought as well.
- 8:41First of all, when have we ever seen Stormtroopers take off
- 8:45their helmets for refreshments? Like never.
- 8:48It's true. Like the whole.
- 8:50That's why I find, like, the whole premise not strong enough.
- 8:57I don't know, like, why would Lando want that?
- 9:01I guess to give up appearances. Wouldn't Vader be like, get this
- 9:04shit out of here? Like I didn't ask for
- 9:06refreshments I can't eat. Yeah, I would have just had like
- 9:10plastic fruit in a bowl, you know, that you put out circa
- 9:151986, like the fake fruit. Yes.
- 9:21Remember those like gelatinous, squishy plastics?
- 9:25I do. I feel like they were in every
- 9:28furniture store you'd go in. Yeah.
- 9:32Model homes. Yes, yes, yes.
- 9:36The height of luxury, but also when Vader invites Han and Leia
- 9:43into the dining room like he doesn't mean to actually eat.
- 9:47No, they're not. It's just a joke.
- 9:51It's a. It's like.
- 9:53A way to trap them. So she's dealing with meringue
- 9:57and all. There were a lot of planetary
- 10:00ingredients and I couldn't picture any of them because I
- 10:04didn't know what any of them were and I didn't feel like
- 10:07looking them up. There is a whole repository of
- 10:12different planetary foods on Wikipedia.
- 10:15I've looked it up. Is there?
- 10:16I've never looked at that. Drinks and food, anything that
- 10:21was mentioned in comics, seen on film, seen on screen, anything,
- 10:25it's it's just amazing. So I thought it was kind of cool
- 10:29that they like, pulled from their brains or from a list or
- 10:34just made shit up and that made the list.
- 10:36I have no idea. But like, it was an extensive
- 10:39list and it they lost me, 'cause I couldn't picture it.
- 10:41Part of the story is picturing it.
- 10:44Yeah, I do. Like I said, they I think they
- 10:46spent all this time on these details that don't matter.
- 10:50On her being a complete Dick. Absolutely.
- 10:55Like. Like it did that one anything to
- 10:57the story. No, I guess like, OK, so chefs,
- 11:01like head chefs have a reputation for being, like very
- 11:05firm in their beliefs that their decisions are the right.
- 11:08Decisions. Sure, yes.
- 11:10And they run their kitchen, you know, like a dictatorship.
- 11:13And I get that. I have a relative who used to
- 11:16work as a cook. And yes.
- 11:20Well, I just remember Anthony Bourdain's book.
- 11:22I read Anthony Bourdain's book and it sounded just like this.
- 11:26Yeah, so at least I get. It heck, you're right.
- 11:28But like the interesting part is the part where did I not suggest
- 11:34the sous chef suggest that they poison Vader?
- 11:37They could kill Vader with one taste of food.
- 11:40And the chef is like what if they make us taste it before
- 11:45they eat it? Yeah, that's a that was an old
- 11:48thing to do. Yeah, for sure.
- 11:51And then they think they just they just went back to making
- 11:54regular food and that was the end of the.
- 11:56Story Did anybody eat any of it? No, it was probably just sat
- 11:59there. Yeah, No.
- 12:02So it was the thing I found most interesting was the reference to
- 12:07Deveron, honestly, because she talks about a temple there.
- 12:12So I looked it up. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 12:14And it there was the Jedi Temple there, which I forgot.
- 12:17We actually do see it in Clone Wars for like 18 tiny second.
- 12:20It's where Savage of Press goes there and kills the Jedi Master
- 12:24and the Padawan that are there. Oh.
- 12:27Yeah, and they. They take control of the that
- 12:30temple and I guess it's built on like a force verse urgence or
- 12:33something like it. Like how the Jedi temple was
- 12:36built on this, this passionate Sith versions.
- 12:39I don't. Know Yes.
- 12:42So they. This one was built on like a
- 12:44force, like a not a Sith, you know, crematorium or whatever it
- 12:47was, but it was there for a long time.
- 12:53And then Savagio Press captured it during Clone Wars, and then
- 12:57the Empire bombed it during the reign of the Empire.
- 13:02So it is ruins that Luke Skywalker went to visit.
- 13:07That's cool. I think it was.
- 13:10I know he went there twice, and one time I can't remember if it
- 13:13was before Empire Strikes Back, but he went back after Return to
- 13:17the Jedi and like trained in the ruins and like felt the Force
- 13:23and all of that stuff. So I don't know if that's from a
- 13:25book or a comic or something, but it was on Wikipedia and I
- 13:28thought that was kind of cool. So I got.
- 13:30To like I love a good Jedi temple.
- 13:32Me. Too.
- 13:33I love the one in Lathal from Rebels.
- 13:36That one was cool. So cool.
- 13:38The cone that twists reveal the door.
- 13:41Yes, that was awesome. That was cool.
- 13:45Yep. The more I see of them, the the
- 13:47the better and better they get. I think they're really cool.
- 13:50Yeah, 'cause they're like kind of scary.
- 13:53Sometimes you can go in and have these crazy visions, 'cause
- 13:56they're built on like an energy field usually.
- 14:00I wonder who sensed the energy fields?
- 14:02Like could Jedi just sense them and they're like, you know what,
- 14:05right here, this is it. So I guess the question that
- 14:10begs to be answered is what does Vader eat?
- 14:14Does she even ask the question? I was waiting for like the title
- 14:18to be spoken and I don't think the exact words even happen?
- 14:23Or did I miss it? I'm not sure.
- 14:25Honestly, I would say I I think so, but I'm not positive.
- 14:29Now I'd have to go back and re listen.
- 14:32Well, honestly, I don't think Vader eats at all.
- 14:34I think he either gets tube fed when he's in the gel.
- 14:38What's that stuff called? Oh, the bacter.
- 14:41The Bacter, he's either got a tube hooked up and or they do
- 14:45those little nutrient bars or something.
- 14:47Maybe he has. Maybe he has an aromatherapy
- 14:52pot. No, that would gunk up his his
- 14:56respirator. So I think he just feeds off
- 14:59anger. Yeah, well, he probably, I mean,
- 15:03they could do like injections with nutrients.
- 15:06Oh, that's true. You know, I don't imagine he can
- 15:09eat very easily. No, no, that would.
- 15:14Oh, that's terrible actually. But also like he wouldn't take
- 15:17his helmet off in front of people to eat.
- 15:19So this whole idea of putting refreshments out in front of
- 15:23Darth Vader, like putting a thing in front of an evil person
- 15:26that they cannot have, would just make them angrier.
- 15:29That's provoking, yes. Yeah, exactly.
- 15:32I know. It's all about like the service
- 15:35aspect, like their guests. And Lando's got a knife up to
- 15:39his neck literally throughout this.
- 15:41I mean, not literally, but figuratively throughout this
- 15:44entire thing. And he just wants it to.
- 15:46He wants to come off as Lando comes off.
- 15:49Lavish. Right.
- 15:51Well, to do put together, he's got his shit together.
- 15:54Don't. Don't come crawling and looking
- 15:56through the books. Vader.
- 15:57While you're here, pay attention to the meringue.
- 16:00You know, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So.
- 16:03But I don't think Vader eats, which is really sad 'cause he
- 16:08brought Padme a cake once and now he can't have his cake or
- 16:13eat it too. This little space pizza box that
- 16:16he brought. Out.
- 16:17I love that. All right.
- 16:21Well, shall we move on to the next story?
- 16:24Yeah, please, because I don't have a fucking clue what went on
- 16:28in this story. None.
- 16:30I was confused from. I still don't know what it was
- 16:33about. I'm just going to be completely
- 16:35honest. So it's the last story in the
- 16:41whole book called The Wills Strike Back and I think it was
- 16:46read by Jonathan Davies and Mark Thompson who are who, you know,
- 16:51veteran Star Wars narrators. And Jonathan Davies was the
- 16:57Wills. I think they were both Wills,
- 16:59but he was like, you know how the crawl, the like, the whole
- 17:02stories are supposedly the Wills documentary documenting what
- 17:07happened. I guess I still think it's R2D2.
- 17:12Yeah, in my head, Canon. I kind of am just sticking with
- 17:15that idea anyway, because like, why the fuck would the Wills
- 17:19write everything down? They're like, they don't.
- 17:21They're not like corporeal. I don't understand.
- 17:23No, no, right. They don't write, they just
- 17:27float around. They float and retain things,
- 17:31speak in riddles. I.
- 17:32Don't. They are the repository.
- 17:34They're not writing anyway. I think they're basically just
- 17:38making fun of the crawl at the beginning of the movies because
- 17:42they switched tone like they switched tents.
- 17:46And this guy, this writer Tom Engelberger has written, he's
- 17:54like a a, not even young adult. He's like younger kids than
- 17:58that, an author for that. He's like a child writer and he
- 18:02wrote like the origami books. Have you seen those the Star
- 18:06Wars like origami, Yoda, Origami, Vader, whatever they
- 18:10are. So this last story is written
- 18:14like that. It's like like 4 kids it's
- 18:17childish on. Is that why?
- 18:21OK, I missed all of that. Yeah, I didn't know he was that
- 18:25writer until I looked it up specifically like, who is this
- 18:29guy? But it made sense once I I saw
- 18:32that I was like, ah, this tracks now because those books, I read
- 18:36them to my cousins when they were little kids, they were like
- 18:394. And they were not entertaining
- 18:42for an adult, but they were very entertaining to the kids.
- 18:45And that's kind of how I felt about this story.
- 18:50I spent the entire thing so confused.
- 18:54I get they were talking about the squirrel, but I love the
- 18:57scrolls. They're iconic.
- 18:59I don't. I do too.
- 19:01And he made fun of Luke, which I'm never really.
- 19:03I'm not a fan. Nope.
- 19:06Stay out of our camp. Like no thank you, but why was
- 19:13it at the end? Instead of at the beginning.
- 19:17Yeah, the beginning would have made way more sense, right?
- 19:19Because the scroll starts at the beginning, it could have set up,
- 19:24I don't know. Who wants to start a book like
- 19:27this? I don't know who would want to
- 19:30end a book like this. This was terrible.
- 19:32I I think it's terrible. I'm just trying not to mince
- 19:35words. It's terrible.
- 19:36But like, yeah, I don't know. I I just and like some of the
- 19:45references were really funny once you looked them up.
- 19:48Like if you know them. He was talking about Willrow
- 19:50Hood and how like you just see him run by in the background.
- 19:54That's the guy carrying the ice cream.
- 19:57Machine. Oh, that's great.
- 19:59City, Yeah, stupid. I have never know to go look
- 20:01this shit up or know it offhand. Right.
- 20:05It's just it's it's like a deep that's deep trivia.
- 20:10Crap, I failed. Well, 'cause people know that
- 20:13guy that, but I didn't. I didn't know his name.
- 20:16I know the guy and I know the ice cream maker.
- 20:19Exactly. That's all I know.
- 20:23So yeah, I mean, there's they were talking about how there was
- 20:27time to show Yoda making his root leaf Stew, but not some of
- 20:33the, like, more important plot stuff like the bounty hunter on
- 20:36ornamental, which, OK, so like, if you're a superstar wars nerd,
- 20:40like, you know, that was a short story that they wrote in the
- 20:4370s. And Corey Burton actually was
- 20:46the voice of Luke Skywalker in that audio book, like back in in
- 20:50the 80s. So the story has been told.
- 20:53So I don't know. I was just like, this is just
- 20:56unnecessary. All of this complaining.
- 21:00It's just totally unnecessary. I did appreciate the actors
- 21:05doing their best. Oh, sure.
- 21:08Yeah. I mean, yeah, I didn't get any
- 21:11of it. Did you laugh at the Star Trek
- 21:14reference though? I I.
- 21:15Did catch that one. I did catch that one.
- 21:18I did. I don't know if I laughed, but I
- 21:20didn't catch that one because I again, I was on a 10 second
- 21:23delay, just trying to keep up because when you don't know what
- 21:28I don't understand something. I'm trying to figure it out as
- 21:32the story or something is continuing and so I miss bits,
- 21:36yeah, but I did not miss the Star Trek reference.
- 21:40I just enjoyed his Captain Kirk impression that made me.
- 21:43Oh yeah, That was, yeah. So that's all I have to say.
- 21:51That's it. Those were the two stories this
- 21:53round. Like, like we said, they were
- 21:55short. Yeah, they they didn't have a
- 21:57lot of depth, which is fine, 'cause you.
- 22:00They don't have to be deep every time.
- 22:01We appreciate depth, but these are definitely different than
- 22:05the other ones we've done. But it just shows you the the
- 22:09varied amounts of storytelling that can take place from
- 22:14different points of view, I guess, even if you don't
- 22:17understand what the hell they're talking about.
- 22:22Well, and I also appreciate that there are some people who really
- 22:26like it when the a sci-fi writer takes time to talk about the
- 22:31food and the environment and all the stuff around.
- 22:34I'm not one of those people. I prefer you to get to the
- 22:37story, but I know there are people who love that, so I'm
- 22:41sure they're trying to cater to all kinds of taste.
- 22:46You know what popped up in my mind was eating at the
- 22:50restaurant that was on the Star the Star Cruiser, because they
- 22:55really put a lot of attention to detail and it was really good
- 23:01flavored like well put together flavors on the Star Cruiser.
- 23:06For for all that can be said about the stay at the Star
- 23:09Cruiser, the food was fantastic, you know, 8 out of 10 overall.
- 23:14And they really did try to make it look from a different Galaxy.
- 23:20And each planet had its own obvious detail to it, like its
- 23:25own unique thing. And that's cool.
- 23:28That story about the chef and her talking about the different
- 23:32ingredients and putting them together and this, that and the
- 23:34other, it totally took me back to the star cruiser because it
- 23:36just reminded me of like the different stuff they had set out
- 23:39and that were brought out to us. And it was, you know, it was
- 23:42cool. It harkened me back to that.
- 23:44It made me wonder if any of that was referencing either
- 23:49referencing the star cruiser or food that's at Disney.
- 23:52Or oh, totally. Vice versa where because the
- 23:56story exists now, they take that into the star cruiser and make
- 23:59food based on something that somebody wrote already.
- 24:03So. But nobody mentioned Cyril's
- 24:05cereal. And does that exist yet?
- 24:12Because it needs to be a thing. I I was just.
- 24:17I was in Batu in October for my 40th birthday trip and I didn't
- 24:23see any of Cyril's cereal, so maybe it's still.
- 24:27Coming and like Andor also brought us CAF like in a movie,
- 24:33in a show like coffee is a thing now, so sell that also.
- 24:39They had it on the star cruiser and it was called CAF, so I
- 24:41really appreciated that, yes. That's good.
- 24:43Yes, it was good. I think it's funny that they
- 24:48called TT but they had to change coffee to calf.
- 24:52I don't. Yeah, I don't it.
- 24:56Yep. Star Wars.
- 24:59Star Wars. Join us back here.
- 25:07Next week. We're going to take a turn from
- 25:10short stories to the music of Star Wars.
- 25:13And in fact, we, both of us, are going to choose at least two, if
- 25:16not three of our favorite musical score pieces throughout
- 25:23all of Star Wars media, all movies, all animations, all
- 25:27everything. And we're going to talk about
- 25:29the scenes that they're in, a little background on the the
- 25:32music making perhaps, and why we love it so much.
- 25:35Everybody knows that music and Star Wars, they're iconic
- 25:41together. So join us back here for a
- 25:43little icon talk. Thank you so much for joining us
- 25:48here on the Most Things Kenobi Podcast.
- 25:50We appreciate every single one of our patrons and are grateful
- 25:53for your support. If you'd like to support the
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