From Jar Jar To Mustafar: The Fandom of the Prequels

A galaxy doesn’t crumble in silence—it creaks through committee meetings, emergency powers, and one heartbreaking lightsaber duel over a river of fire. We dive back into the Star Wars prequels to unpack why these movies still hold us, from their operatic tragedy to the way they dared to show the Jedi as an institution with cracks.

We trace the arc from The Phantom Menace to Revenge of the Sith with a wide lens: the senate’s slow-motion failure, the Jedi Council’s rigid certainty, and Anakin’s slide from fear to fury. Along the way, we call out the real MVP—John Williams—whose Duel of the Fates and Battle of the Heroes elevate set pieces into myth. We also talk craft, from early CGI ambition and green screen downsides to fight choreography that still dazzles. If you ever side-eyed the dialogue, you’re not alone; we balance those stumbles with the worldbuilding wins that make the original trilogy feel richer in hindsight.

Character love runs deep here: Obi-Wan’s steady growth, Qui-Gon’s heretical wisdom, Dooku’s nuanced disillusionment, and yes, a defense of Jar Jar as both kid conduit and plot catalyst. Plus our favorite lines, fan-made gems (Weird Al forever), rapid-fire would-you-rathers, and a few spicy rankings that might shuffle your personal list.

Hit play for a thoughtful, lively tour of what the prequels got right, where they stumbled, and why they won’t let go. If this episode sparks a rewatch, tell us your top prequel moment and your trilogy ranking. Subscribe, share with a fellow Star Wars fan, and drop a quick review—your support powers our little nerdy spaceship.

Thanks so much for listening! We hope you will consider leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts!

You can also join our Fandom of Fans! Follow us on social media!

Threads

Instagram

YouTube

If you have ideas about future episodes or would like to join us as a guest, send us an email at fandomofpodcast@gmail.com!

Transcript

Catching Up And Setting The Stage

SPEAKER_05 0:00

All right, gentlemen. We are back for our Star Wars prequel episode. Nice. I think we're all excited for this one.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Yeah, for sure. Definitely happy to binge through them this week. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Yeah. No, the the fans have been clamoring for it, obviously. Like that is to come back to Star Wars. That is the stuff that we are the most well versed in, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

So I was gonna say you're you're the one on social seeing all the comments. Are they really clamoring or is it just you, Nick? Uh I guess it's mostly me. Okay. When was the last time we did an episode just the three of us?

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Um, man, it's been it's been a while.

SPEAKER_05 0:37

It would have been the I think it was the Lego episode. Yeah, must have been until my episode three or four or whatever. Like, yeah, yeah, something like that. Yes, we do not have a guest today for our non-Youtube uh audience. We don't have a guest, so it's just the three of us.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

We didn't want to give up the spotlight, honestly. That's the that's the bottom line, is that we really wanted all the time to talk about this subject. And um, I'm just excited that, like I said, last episode, we've been doing this for six months now. Yeah. And um, you know, I just appreciate that I've I've gotten to see you guys so regularly and um had the chance to talk about things that we are um just passionate about and learned about a few other fandoms from some friends, and just uh it's been really awesome. So I just thought it would be appropriate for us to take this time in this episode after half a year and take us back to the beginning, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:24

So yeah, I think the last six months we've seen each other the most, or more in the last six months than we have in the last years, maybe maybe ten years.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

So no, we yeah, that's that's the last thing I was thinking too. Like since college, we we we saw each other on the daily, but this is this is great. No, it's so awesome, and I'm so so thankful for the two of you guys and thankful for the time that we have to spend to each other or with each other.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Yeah, and same. And for those listening, that we were recording this like a couple days before Christmas. So yeah, like it's just a good time to reflect on the past year, and yeah, super thankful for you guys being there and uh for the fun that we've had. Yeah, definitely. Ditto.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Ditto goes all the way around. Well, what's everybody been up to the past uh I guess it's been really only about a week since we saw each other last, right? Because we were a little bit late recording the last episode.

SPEAKER_05 2:11

Yeah, we uh so we went and saw my parents over the weekend and my my two sisters and their families, and um it was an it was an awesome time, but uh my daughter now within one week went from sleeping in the car and doing great to just losing it. So we were uh we had a miserable drive back anyway. Uh our friend told us about the happy song. Have you guys heard about this? It's like a song that um has been studied by all these researchers at Harvard, and apparently it makes kids really calm. So we tested it tonight on the way back from small group, and she was very calm. Okay. We listened to it three times on the I need you to sing that for me, Michael. I don't know, is it copyright? Yeah, yeah. We'll get copyrighted. We'll get demonetized. Uh-huh. All the money we're making from this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:59

Ben, what about you? Uh, just a lot of Christmas prep, a lot of um gift buying and wrapping and um yeah. Making, right? Making, yes. Ooh, Santa Claus. Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

I can't talk about anything yet, but it's all good. What about you, Nick? Um, yeah, we just got back from seeing Santa Claus, so that was fun. The family outing to go there. It was fun. Um Easton, right? Easton, yeah. We went with um just everybody. It was, you know, my sister and her kid, and um, you know, my mom and dad. We were all there, took a big picture with Santa Claus, had to come back and do it a second time because you can imagine there's nine people in this picture. It was kind of hard to get everybody in the frame, so they ended up cutting people out of it, and so it was a whole debacle with the you need to post that on our social media because now that you've mentioned it, the fans want to see it.

SPEAKER_04 3:46

Oh, yeah, that's right. The fans don't want to see it. We keep referring. We appreciate you listeners, but uh we know how many of you there are.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Hey, I'm uh as we've said from the beginning, you know, I'm just thankful that anybody takes the time to listen to us ramble on about nonsense. So um it's been awesome. Yeah, but yeah, that's that's fun. That's what I was up to tonight. Um uh break started, so that's been nice. Yeah, yeah. It's gotta feel great. Got a nice uh amount of time off. But um yeah, before that it was just busyness, like the the busyness of the season and and all that stuff. And really, this past weekend, just kind of traveling all over the place. We went up and saw uh my sister-in-law lives in Mansfield, or where's yeah, Mansfield. Um and uh yeah, there was my niece's uh dance recital, which was fun. A lot of fun. Nice, but yeah, it's been it's been good, it's been enjoyable.

SPEAKER_04 4:36

A busy start to break, though, it sounds like yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Yes, um, not not a lot of slow time for sure. So but today wasn't too bad. We were mostly around the house.

SPEAKER_05 4:44

Good. Yeah, nice man.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Awesome.

SPEAKER_05 4:46

Well, hey, do you wanna hit the intro, Nick?

Why The Prequels Matter Now

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Let's do it. Hello and welcome to Fandom and Fandoms, the show where every single episode we dive into worlds that fans love. And today we are so excited because the three of us are gonna be talking about Star Wars yet again, and this time we're gonna focus on the prequels. So episodes one, two, and three of Star Wars, and we're just gonna have an awesome time.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Yeah, we were chatting right before this, and we don't really have a plan for this episode, so we might ramble on for an hour, part of two hours. We'll see when we stop. So we appreciate you listening no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

We'll give a little bit of background first. So, uh what what are we talking about here? So the prequels, episodes one, two, and three. When did they drop? What's uh you want to give us that, Michael? You're a producer.

SPEAKER_05 5:32

I guess I wrote it down, but no, it's all good. Yeah, so uh episode one, the Phantom Menace, TPM, as we call it, TPM. Somebody does. I've literally never referred to it as that. Have you? Oh really? Well, not in real life. Okay. In digital, in digital life, we have. Okay. Um well that came out in 1999. It was, you know, uh 15, 17 years after uh the sixth movie.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Well sounds about right, somewhere around that.

SPEAKER_05 5:58

Yeah, episode six, yeah. Yeah, episode six is what I meant, yeah. Um, and then uh Attack of the Clones debuted in 2002. I knew that fact before we started because I actually brought a Lego set. And for our YouTube watchers, this Lego set is from Attack of the Clones, uh, episode two, and it came out in April of 2002, and so I remembered okay, that's when the movie came out as well. So and then uh the third movie uh or the third movie in the in the prequel trul trilogy, um, Revenge of the Sith came out in 2005. The three of us went to the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith and watched it in theaters again, and it was amazing. Yeah, no, I felt like a kid again. I mean, it was I had so much fun doing that. We went to a late show and May? Uh, I think it was back in May, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

I see. So I love that that set that you got up there. And I'm also impressed that you remember uh dates of things based on Lego set releases. Exactly. Only a true fan. Yeah, Lego set releases. That's funny. Yeah. Looking at that up there, that doesn't look like the the true colors of like the what it looks like in the movie when you're looking at uh Attack of the Clones. What is that? That's the uh the changeling ship, right?

SPEAKER_04 7:03

Yeah, yes, yes, Zam Wessel Wessel. Yep, Zam Wessel, yep.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Oh, she is a mess. Look at you guys. I didn't I didn't know she had a name.

SPEAKER_04 7:11

Dude, during the prequels, that's one of the reasons why I'm excited to talk about it. During the prequels, when I got like a lot of books and stuff like that about you know Star Wars, because that's when they were starting to like re to produce all this stuff. And so yeah, I had like you know, like little guides to every movie and all the characters and stuff. Like, yeah, it's a good time.

SPEAKER_05 7:26

Yeah, and I will say, uh, I'm not gonna give the the price, but that Zam Wessel minifig is one of my most valuable minifigs. Really? It's a rare one. It was it was exclusive to the set, it was only produced once. So not that many Zam Wessel fans out there.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

I guess not. Or maybe they are, and that's why there are. Everybody wants it.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Well, and Nick, I think a b a big part of the colors being a little different is like back in the 90s, they weren't or two thousand early 2000s, they weren't making a ton of Lego colors at that time. I mean they were, but not at like today.

SPEAKER_05 7:56

Like oh really? I'm sure. Yeah, no, their color selection was way of scale, way I mean now it's you can get yeah, there's basically any color they can produce, but they didn't back then, so I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

Especially like these particular ones, like neon green and orange, they weren't using a ton.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

So we'll just put those on this set. That'd be have some to use up, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 8:18

Well, anyway, I know we like to kinda, you know, as far as the background of the movies goes, talk about our history with um, you know, whatever fandom we're talking about, so in particular the prequels. So yeah, why don't we kind of talk about, you know, Nick, if you want to start us off, what's your history with movies? You know, what do you remember about it, etc.?

Release Dates, Lego Lore, And Theater Memories

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I think I went into this a little bit in our in our initial Star Wars episode. The when episode one came out, I was not initially a huge fan. Um, I don't know why. I I I think it just took me uh an additional episode before I did get into it, but I do remember seeing so by the time that the third one, episode three, came out, um, I do remember seeing that one in theaters and being very excited when it did finally like drop on DVD. So, like over the course of um this trilogy is when I truly got into Star Wars. So it wasn't the initial one, but eventually I did like kind of you know, I went and I watched it and I did really dive into it. I had a a cousin, Chris, um, who was really into the Phantom Menace. He was a few years younger than me. Um, and I can remember him having like um I don't know if he had Lego sets or not. He had he had definitely toys from the Phantom Menace. Uh-huh. And um he really loved playing with it. And this was um, you know, also around the time that like I would spend a lot of time around family members and stuff like that, going into West Virginia, um, you know, seeing Chris, my cousin, then uh Jamar also. We we would play um he had the original Xbox and he had um I'm trying to remember the game that it was that we would play. Uh it was essentially like you you would battle it out as uh as Jedi. I'll have to look this up.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

I remember that one, and I'm blanking on the name of it too. Yeah, yeah, it was like I had it.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

If you go back and you look at it, it kind of it does hold up in terms of like gameplay for Star Wars, one of the better ones for sure. But um yeah, over over the course of time I really did come to appreciate Star Wars from this trilogy, and obviously I was of the right age, as all of us were let's see, so when the first one came out, I was what, eight, nine, and then when the last one came out, I was thirteen. So it was like right in that perfect age, and that's why the prequels have held up so much. Why we've got uh so many people our age that are prequel apologists, as I'm sure we'll get it. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

I was thinking about that as I was watching, was like, you know what? Like a lot of people hate on these, but I they're just so nostalgic for me.

SPEAKER_05 10:32

Well, I don't want to get too off you know our our topic here, but just you know, since you mentioned that, like I mean, are people coming around to them now? Like, are they as kind of quote unquote hated as they were when they first came out? I from my perspective, it seems like people are have a lot of nostalgia for the prequel trilogy now. And there's I don't see too much hate online at least.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

You get the the purists, I think it's not as cool to be like, oh, I hate the prequels anymore, unless you're of a certain age, then like yeah, they're gonna crap all over the the prequels. Yeah, for sure is, but like overall, I don't think I don't know, I mean, this is gonna sound dumb, but I think about like it's kind of like uh you know, like nickelback or creed. Like it comes back around. Like at first it was it was not cool. Like if you said, Oh yeah, I love nickelback or creed, people are like, you really? And like now, I'm not gonna lie to you, like Creed has come back in a huge way, and people are like, Yeah, I'm nostalgic for Creed. I'm gonna be into it. And that's huh. I think it's similar. I guess that, but I understand it. But it is I mean, yeah. That's uh yeah, that but um that's that's the way that I think about it. I guess that's the comparison that comes to my mind. Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 11:41

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

What about you, Michael? What's your what's your background here with the prequels?

SPEAKER_05 11:45

Yeah, definitely. So I I thought long and hard about this. I had to remember exactly all the details, but I didn't see episode one or two in theaters. Um the first time I saw episode two was actually in a Walmart. I was waiting for my parents, and they just had it playing on like all the screens, you know. It was like because I think it had just come out on DVD. So I watched like maybe 20 minutes of it then, and then I ended up, I think I just rented it and I watched it. Oh man, what a standing in Walmart watching a movie for 20 minutes crazy. Exactly. And then uh the third episode though, I did see in theaters. Uh similar to the original trilogy, though, I don't think I watched them in sequence. I think it was episode two, episode one, and then then the third episode. Yeah, I know. I don't know, I don't know what was going on. But I mean, I was I would have been eight years old when the first one came out, when episode one came out, and then uh let's see, 2002. Yeah, that would have put me at maybe like 11 and then uh like 14 when the last one came out. So I yeah, same, same as you, Nick. Like, yeah, just part of my childhood, you know. Once I started watching them, it became a big part of my childhood. And obviously, I've I've talked in previous episodes about how um having like the Lego sets and and things like that really like connected me to the you know uh those movies and just um so I I love the prequels, I always have watched them as an adult, and I'm sure we're gonna get into this. Um, the dialogue is terrible, and I just and it's so funny to me because like the actors are amazing, like Ewan McGregor. Yeah, I mean Natalie Portman has won an Oscar, right? So Natalie Portman has a a masterclass for acting, like out on the the masterclass site. Um Hayden Christensen, eh. But I mean you have these scribbled actors, and it just What happened? Yeah, yeah, we'll we'll talk about it. We're gonna get I'm sure we'll get into that. But anyway, so watching it as an adult is a little bit different experience, you know, because when you're a kid, you don't give a crap about the dialogue, you just care about the action and whatnot. So anyway, um love him as a kid, have always loved him as an adult. I was never uh a non-prequel lover. Um, so that's kind of my background. Ben, what about you? Honestly, same.

SPEAKER_04 13:51

Yeah, always have loved the prequels. I think, and again, like we've talked about it, it was what we grew up with. It was the first one that came out while we were alive. Yeah. And I mean, I saw, I'm pretty sure I saw episode five in theaters with my dad before these came out, but then episode one was like the first one I saw in theaters. And so again, like getting to go with my dad and like just getting, we were super into like collecting the action figures. Oh uh, the calm ones that they have. I think have we talked about these? I don't think so. Oh, okay. They had a little um so they released all these episode one figures with a little chip, and you'd buy this uh the telecom that like Qui-Gon Jin has in episode one, and you could hold the chip onto the telecom and it would play lines from the movie. Like whatever so whatever character you got, like you would get those lines. And so we were super into getting those. And so, like, yeah, that that was like big for me is like getting all those and collecting them. And you know, like your connection with Lego, like I mean, I was connected with Lego too, but like those especially were like, Oh yeah, I'm getting all these and like looking for special ones and new ones with my dad, like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Yeah, so they're still sitting around anywhere, Ben still. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Gosh, I'd love to see those.

SPEAKER_04 14:57

I would not be surprised my dad still had a couple in box still because he hates taking things out of the box, but we'll see. Man, that's cool. Yeah, nice. Yeah, so I mean, oh so what what do you guys feel like the difference is between the prequels and the original trilogy?

SPEAKER_02 15:15

I feel like there's an obvious answer here, right? I mean, it's it's gotta be the you know, the computer animations and stuff and things like that that were put into I mean later added into that that original trilogy. But I think even George Lucas kind of talked about like when he made the original trilogy, the technology was not there yet. That he would like he would have wanted to make them different, but there wasn't enough technology to make them the way that he wanted to. Whereas by the time this rolled out, you know, they there there was more of that ability to put in like all of these computer generated backgrounds and yeah, you know, all kinds of stuff that went into this for sure.

SPEAKER_04 15:52

So here's here comes the question then. Do you feel like he waited long enough to like do you do you feel like the technology was there for what he wanted, or do you feel like it was still was just a couple years away?

SPEAKER_02 16:03

I think they hold up pretty well. Like, I mean, when I go back and I watch them, I I think that they look good. Would they look better if they came out several years later? Sure they would. But like, man, especially I mean, by the time 2005 rolled around, you're talking about the you know, the revenge of the Sith and the the battle on the lava. I mean, that's peak. You know what I mean? Like, I I don't know that that it does get much better than that in terms of just computer animation.

Nostalgia Vs. Critique: Dialogue And Direction

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Yeah. See, I here, I was thinking about like, you know, the w the making of the Mandalorian and stuff like that. I don't know if you guys have watched how they film those, but they film those with like a video back screen instead of like a green screen. I can't remember specifically. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. I can't think what it's called. So, like instead of a green screen or a blue screen, they film in front of an actual like projection essentially of the backdrop. So it uh and I think that's why that's where my question came from is like a lot, like I feel like we've gotten back to like since we've been using those, like maybe it's feeling a little bit more real for the actors. Because I feel like a lot of what I heard about was like, you know, for the actors, like being on like a set of completely green screen and blue screens or whatever, like it was hard for them to feel like they're in the environment and like really get a sense for it. And so, like, you know, we're talking about the dialogue, but like some of the act acting, uh the acting and dialogue delivery, too, like maybe some of that was because of how much blue screen and green screen they had to use. And so, yeah, I don't know. I never thought of it that way.

SPEAKER_05 17:26

Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. I mean, I obviously I'm not an actor, but um, yeah, I can see how like the physical environment would yeah, play such a role. Um You're just talking about last episode award. Okay, I wanted to hang it up. Yeah, I was a really I was gonna bring the plaque. Dang it, I forgot. Next week, uh I was an actor. I was an actor, a good enough actor to win an award at one point. I'm not now. So that's hilarious. Yeah, that's funny. Well, okay, so speaking of production, speaking of George Lucas, let me ask you let me ask you guys this. Did George Lucas have too much creative freedom in the prequels?

SPEAKER_02 18:11

I think a lot of people would say yes. Um he so this was part of like my I don't know, my background knowledge into this is what watching some of the background about George Lucas and knowing that um he was not good at writing characters, writing dialogue and that sort of thing. I think he's good at uh at building the world, yeah, doing all of that stuff, and like has such a creative mind for that. But um I think that part of it, I mean, let's let's be fair, like the sometimes when you're into the like when you're that creative, you can be the the awkward type. And I think that George Lucas does fit into that category a little bit, you know what I mean? And so like I think that um thinking in terms of the dialogue and stuff like that and being able to write good characters that come across the way that he wants them to, he struggled with that. Um you know, in the in the original movies, the script was such a mess. Um like famously, yeah, um famously such a mess. Um and and they had to have other people come in to to do rewrites and to try to fix some of like just the the clunkiness of the dialogue. And this time it was like, well, now he's made so much money, they're like, ah hey, you know what? Like you you go ahead and you just kind of take full creative reins of this, and yeah, I you can feel it a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 19:30

I like the word clunky. Clunky is honestly the perfect way to describe it because again, I just I was watching Attack of the Clones earlier today, just kind of getting, you know, beefed up for the episode, and it just it feels so unnatural, a lot of the dialogue. And again, you're I mean, these actors are are amazing. Like it's not like they don't know how to deliver even like slightly off dialogue, like you know, but clunky, yeah, that's just the best word to describing.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

Okay, like so you're uh we were talking about dialogue and and dialogue. The line that always gives me is I hate the sand. Like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

Like, okay, but let me ask you this. So that line in particular, though, I've heard people say, Well, that's kind of just awkward flirting.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

Like when you're a young It was all awkward flirting. Like I I was that during that scene, I was physically cringing.

SPEAKER_05 20:22

The the funny part is I cringe, I cringe now as an adult. When I was a kid, I didn't know what was going on. Oh I was just kind of like, you know, I had no idea.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

I wasn't thinking about the action, really. It was so another funny story, because I also just recently watched as I was prepping for the episode too. I believe like the the line that it gives as the description for this episode is basically uh Padme and Anakin fall in love as tensions rise in the Republic or something like that. Something like that. There's the log line for the movie. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and I thought, well, is that really what the movie's mostly about? And then you go and you watch it and you're like, no, it kind of is. Like, I mean, there's a lot of like cut next to Anakin and Padme and everything that's going on with them. And every time it does, it's like, all right. Like, and I appreciate it. Like, I I I'm not gonna sit here and like say that Hayden Christensen is is bad or what like I I appreciate him so much, and I thought that he did a lot of of good work on those scenes, but man, they are a little bit awkward to watch.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

Yeah, to tie it back around. I mean, obviously, like this is the first time he's really like we've really worked. I mean, Han and Leia, yes, but I mean, like, to work like a bigger romantic plot into it, sure. And again, like with that creative freedom that George Lucas had, maybe we needed someone else to help bring that in because it is such a focal point, and like I understand it for sure being the like necessary uh like big plot line because like you know, that's how we get Luke and Leia. But do I have a spoiler alert?

SPEAKER_05 21:45

Nah, again, Roger, Roger, perfect spoiler alert. Oh gosh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I agree. It their relationship was definitely necessary. And actually, kind of going back to something you said, Nick, I think that George Lucas creates amazing characters. I love all the characters very much. Like, I think they're all like they all have so much potential, but again, when it's just going back to like the dialogue and the interactions, like it just it kind of it stunts them, you know. It stunts what the characters could be.

Character Deep Dive: Jar Jar To Dooku

SPEAKER_02 22:16

It was so good that they did get to explore it more, you know. I mean, like if you watch um, you know, Clone Wars, um it it's they get to explore some of the background of some of these characters that weren't really in the the uh trilogy that much, and get to it it you get that reach the richness of the backstory more in those things, oh yeah, even more so than you did in the the movies themselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

So like I mean, this is a good segue. Like what what were some of your guys' favorite characters from this trilogy? Oh, do you want your first?

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Do you want to go ahead? No, you go ahead. Oh, okay. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna make some some enemies here, I think. Okay. Um I I am I I'm gonna be a Jar Jar apologist as well today. Um because obviously I mean, like, I don't know. We've that has been a piece of um I I you know, I mean, when you do finally watch Phantom Menace and you're thinking about it from the eyes of a child, um which is what George Lucas wanted anyways like why was Jar Jar a character it was for the kids. Um so I it's hard not to look back at the prequels and go like man Jar Jar, like he is uh an iconic character and um you know kind of it kind of means something.

SPEAKER_05 23:30

I I You cannot deny that he's iconic. Oh no, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

You can say all you want and say that he's you know annoying, whatever.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

There's there's truth to those things, but like I mean the plot line of going from bumbling village outcast to literal senator pretty great.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

I didn't like I mean I was thinking a lot about this, and that's one of those those hot takes I would say from a lot of people that would, you know, just completely crap over the prequels and say that uh that Jar Jar is just absolutely terrible. And when I went back and I was watching uh Phantom Menace, I'm like, honestly, like I mean, his he does have an interesting storyline. He furthers the plot um as as things go along. Like, I I didn't find it to be like just a completely unnecessary, like, oh, if you took him out of the movie, all of a sudden it's like, oh, the movie is is so much better. It'd be like, no, well, he was an integral part of the movie. Yeah, he's a catalyst for a lot of yeah, the plot for where would Obi-Wan and Gui Gon be without him, honestly.

SPEAKER_05 24:25

Yeah. I this was a YouTube comment I read forever ago, and I'm sure it's a well-known, you know, take at this point, but um, I liked what you said about you know, this movie or these movies and some of the characters being four kids, and this comment I can't remember how it read exactly, but it's something to the effect of like I wanted the prequel trilogy to have aged and matured along with me because it was someone who had grown up as a kid watching the movies back in the 70s and 80s. Yeah. And then he came to the this YouTube comment or came to the realization that no, like the the prequel trilogy was how the original trilogy was, like made for kids and like supposed to be kind of you know, um exciting them and whatnot. And I feel like Jar Jar is the perfect example of that, you know. Absolutely. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

I like how his story has kind of like evolved too, you know, like that there's now this whole entire backdrop of like, well, what if he was actually like a Sith Lord the entire time?

SPEAKER_05 25:20

Have you guys seen uh Star Wars Rebuild the Galaxy? Not yet. No, I keep meaning to.

SPEAKER_04 25:24

No, I keep meaning to. Yeah, that's a that's a funny aspect.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

I love that they took that.

SPEAKER_05 25:29

Yeah, they took that fandom like idea. Well, Ben, uh, so yeah, what are some of your favorite characters from this?

SPEAKER_04 25:35

I mean, it's always been Obi-Wan for me. I I felt like I just related a lot to him as a kid for whatever reason. I a large part of that is we were talking about tie-ins a little bit in exploring backgrounds, is there was a series of books that I believe are called Jedi Apprentice that came out around the time of episode one, and they were a lot of them revolved around Obi-Wan's like early Padawan ship. That's cool. So before the before episode one, even so like some of the missions that he and Qui-Gon would go out on, and like again, like yeah, I read a lot of those, so like getting to know him as a character, and then like just watching him grow in from like being you know this borderline teenager in episode one to like a master in episodes two and three, like yeah, plus I mean, you and McGregor, amazing job. Um, I will I I mean, I I hate to stick stick on Jedi, but I also like I've come to really appreciate Quagan. Um yeah. I mean, again, like he's always been like a great actor, great Jedi, but like watching him this last time, like noticing how much like again, he he's the one who accepted Jar Jar, even though you and McGur's like, who the heck is this guy? Why are why is he hanging out with us? And then he like he's the one who brought Anakin along, like when everyone told him they sh he shouldn't. Yeah, yeah. So like again, like just seeing like how open and accepting he is and trying to like yeah, work with everything, like he's a huge part of episode one. I do love Gui Gon a lot.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

I mean, I it's hard for me. I was sitting here thinking, I was like, the the easier question, and I don't even know if it still would be easy, is like who do I not like from the the trilogy? And there's there's really not a lot, like I really do have such a a deep appreciation for for a lot of the I mean, especially the main characters. Um, but I mean I I do. I love um you know, I love Anakin's story over the course of time. I love that you kind of get to see things fall apart. Is the dialogue and stuff messy and um not so good? No, but I mean it the tragedy part does come through over the course of the entirety of the the prequel trilogy. And um, you know, I I think that there's a reason why even today, like I mean, they that they brought him back in Ahsoka, you know, and um it's because he is that character to everybody. Like if they were they could say, hey, you know, we're just gonna recast and we're gonna bring in this storyline, but they're like, no, it's it does mean something to the fans of you know the the original or the prequel trilogy um the that he was a part of uh anything that came afterwards. Um yeah, so I I don't know. I I there's not really a whole lot that stands out to me that I'm like, oh man, I absolutely hated that character or whatever. Yeah, um I I think that you know when you look at like General Grievous, like the fact that he's just kind of there and shows up and then uh not very rich in the story for him, but obviously that gets dived into in other parts of the the uh the whole entire storyline. Yeah, I don't know. You got uh you got favorites that stand out to you?

SPEAKER_05 28:29

You know, I so I always like to count Dooku. Well, first of all, I agree with everything you guys said. I'm like 100% on the same page with what you guys have talked about, but if you guys, and this we're going out outside of what we're talking about today today, but the Star Wars, um, it's a Disney Plus like short series that they've been doing, and it's like Tales of the Sith. So there was like Tales of the Jedi, there's Tales of the Sith. One of them was centered around Count Dooku and kind of how he turned from being a Jedi to um uh to being a Sith. And after I watched that and then watched Attack of the Clones again, I was like, wow, I this this is interesting. Like it that that extracurricular like you know, yeah content um actually gave him a lot more like just kind of richness and depth of character. So I really love Count Dooku. I also loved my Count Dooku minifig when I was growing up because he was the only minifig that had like a different shaped lightsaber. Oh yeah, it actually emulates his shape, the shape of his lightsaber, like curved lightsaber. I had the Count Dooku lightsaber when I was, I still have it, it's in it's in a box. Um the just the one of the plastic ones, the light up ones. I had one of those when I was a kid. So yeah, I I've always liked his character, but then again, like last I think it was last year, or maybe it was two years ago, that um Tales of the Sith came out. And um, yeah, after seeing that and like him as kind of like a young person, like um, yeah, it's really good. Yeah, it's really good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:55

Nice. Uh okay, so like here's a question coming up that like we were kind of talking about. Like, what other minor characters do you get like a little bit of that you wish we had more of? Whether or not like we did explore them afterwards in some other content, or I know my answer to this one too.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

You go first. I'll go first. I uh I always wanted more decks.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

I was thinking that too, yes. Obviously, he and Obi-Wan have history too, and I'm like, I want to know more about what I just that's like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

For whatever reason, I love that scene. That's probably one of my favorite scenes, actually.

SPEAKER_05 30:29

I feel like there could be some sort of like mafia family story and like Dex is you know involved in that.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

I was picturing like former well, yeah, maybe it's this too, but like former like soldier or like he's got like some some battle history for sure. Yeah, yeah.

Jedi, Politics, And Worldbuilding

SPEAKER_02 30:44

I yeah, I've always that would be the the the backstory that I would like to hear. There's there's certain backstories I'm like I didn't need in Star Wars, but that one I'm like I want to know, like I want about this diner that's like in the middle of Coruscant, that's like 50 style diner, like I don't know, that they just threw in there, and then like you know, Dex's background with Obi-Wan. Like, I I just I want to know more. I'm I'm intrigued. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_04 31:07

Oh man. Yeah, that is good. Ben, do you have one? Well, I mean, that was gonna be one. Um, we did we do learn a little bit more about some of the other Jedi on the council and some other things, but like you know, Plo Koon and Kiadi Mundi, like I'd love like some more just background on them. And like, and again, like I think we do explore it somewhere, but yeah, I didn't I haven't dove into that really, Michael.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

Yeah, yeah, honestly, nothing really comes to mind. I mean, it's interesting because I haven't watched through the Clone Wars completely yet, and so I think there is like um background story on some of the characters. Like I'm trying to think even with like Django Fett, they do explore his background, right? Like on Mandalore and how kind of he was a you know came to be with that.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

So there's a whole yeah, there's a whole part of his story that's that's in Clone Wars.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

Yeah, so I almost because it was kind of the first one I was thinking of, but then I was like, well, no, I actually think they do explore it a little bit. So like I could go watch it and then I would know back, you know, the backstory.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Same thing with like Darth Maul, too. He's another model, yeah. Exactly. You don't really get a whole lot of his story in the prequel trilogy, but if you go and you watch stuff that came afterwards, you do get a lot of things. Yeah, about Daphmir and all that. Yeah, exactly. It's really good. I mean, that's that's part of the reason why the people that are in charge of Star Wars now are because they did write just really good backstories and um, you know, filled in some of these blanks and got to play around within the world. There's there's so much of it. I mean, there is so, so much. Um, I know we're not talking necessarily about those extracurriculars, but they're during this time part of the timeline.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

So yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Yeah. Well, the other thing that like came to mind was, I mean, largely based off of what I have heard from many people is that the novelization of Revenge of the Sith is thought to be the best Star Wars book ever written. I don't know if you guys have heard that. Really?

SPEAKER_05 32:55

I don't think I've heard that, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Okay. If you go and you you just look into like uh, you know, the the top Star Wars novels, that is one that comes up repeatedly that people love it a whole lot. Um, they think that it really adds a richness to the story. Um I've started into it a little bit. I have never I had never read it before, and I didn't really ever think of I mean, I I'm not the type of person that reads novelizations of of movies very often, um, but it can't it's come across my feet a few times. I was like, I gotta at some point I gotta sit down and just like read the entire thing. Yeah um and and get it.

SPEAKER_05 33:26

They do add a lot, they do add way more, like yeah. Um I think I actually read the novelization of TPM when I was maybe in high school. He had he had just to justify it, yeah. Uh I think I did, and I remember there being just a ton more, you know, like content, and which is and the whole point of it, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:48

I mean that's why they do that. So yeah. No, those are that's that's really awesome. I love that. Let's um what about uh well oh here we go. Some some favorite lines. Yeah. Favorite lines from the movies. Give us give us something, Mike.

SPEAKER_04 34:01

Michael, hit the bottom left one for me.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

All right.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

You were the chosen one. It was said that you would destroy this and not join them. Bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

Yeah, that's a that's a big one for me. I think I when we watched it in theaters back in May, I think I did tear up in that scene. I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_04 34:24

It's so impactful, like knowing all of their the two of their history. And like I was what when I was re-watching, like uh in Attack of the Clones, he says, like uh Anakin says that you're the closest thing that I have to a father, and then it switches from that to like a brotherly relationship. And so again, like, yeah, just like the history of how close that they are and have been, and like, yeah, well, I gotta I gotta shout out John Williams too.

SPEAKER_05 34:47

I mean, he did not hold back any punches with the soundtracks for any of the movies, honestly. Um, I mean, there's like I've got them all on playlists. Um, I'm trying to think what that song is called exactly. Uh Anakin's Immolation, I believe. Ooh. By John Williams. That's what's playing in the background there. Yeah, yeah. So oh yeah, all right. I got a couple more here. Oh, do you? This is where the fun begins. It's a classic.

SPEAKER_04 35:11

I do love it. It's such a meme, but I still love it. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Those are those are I mean, those are the ones that like stand out a lot, right? Yeah, sure. When you do see um content and other things, it often is centered around really. I mean, those those are some of the moments for sure. Um I was I man, there was one that just like popped out of my brain. I just had to I lost it. Um, but uh oh really anything that like Yoda would would say in the like he had so many good lines. There were so many good Yoda moments from the the prequel trilogy. And when you look at like Yoda in the prequels versus like later on in the um, well, I guess really before or after, however you want to look at it, but in the original trilogy, he was kind of like I kind of just goofy, you know what I mean? Yeah, like it was they definitely started off pretty goofy, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:59

Well that's part of aging, right? Like at some point you just hit a point where like I don't care what people think about me. I'm just gonna be whoever the heck I want to be. But watching.

SPEAKER_05 36:06

Well, let's uh let's explore one of those Yoda moments, shall we? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

That's episode one, right? Yeah. No, two. That's episode two. Is that two? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:23

Oh no, it is. It is one. Yeah, yeah, it is one.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

He was asking, he was talking to to Anakin and he says you sense much fear in. Well, no, that was Mace Windu that said that.

SPEAKER_04 36:31

Yeah, but uh that's the same scene. Yes. Yeah, when when they're trying to decide if they're gonna take him on as a Padawan at all. Yeah, that's right.

unknown 36:37

Man.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

Look at that. Memories. Yeah. No, that oh see, that one brings up an interesting point of like one of the things that I like most about the prequels is exploring just some of the background of the Jedi in general. Because you know, in in the original trilogy, they're just like this mythical thing that like Luke is loosely associated with at first and starting to learn from Yoda about, but then like you you you get a lot of background here where you get to see the full like Jedi temple and council and like all these other like their see their role in society and what they actually were, as opposed to just like these mythical beings.

SPEAKER_05 37:14

It's kind of interesting how in in such a short time span the Jedi went from so much prominence in society to becoming a myth. I even think about um in A New Hope when one of the that's one of the imperial generals, I can't remember what his name is, but he he refers to it as that ancient religion to Darth Vader, you know. And it's like it was really only 20 years ago years ago. So it's kind of interesting how it how it faded so quickly. And again, I mean I'm sure a lot of that is due to the emperor or some propaganda for sure. Yeah, propaganda. Um, what is it called? Like uh media manipulation, you know. So it's it's it's just interesting.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

We haven't even gotten into Palpey's best lines there, you know. Palpy's. Oh, that's one that I didn't put in. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Yeah, that is there's another meme worthy.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Yeah, that's the for sure.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Um that does remind me this was the um this might go better in a later section, but I was it just brought to my mind a a fun fact that I do actually know about the um the series. But uh you guys know that the the episode this was at the beginning of uh of episode three when um Anakin and Obi-Wan are trying to go and rescue the Chancellor, and they get up to the very top and they finally run into to General Grievous. Uh-huh. And uh, you know, the the first thing that that Anakin says to him is, uh, oh, General Grievous, you're you're shorter than I imagined. Yeah. Or something like that. Yeah, it is. And they wrote that like that entire thing led to the fact that they had never met, so they made sure that in all of the Clone Wars episodes. Oh, that they still haven't met. He never sees General Grievous, they never actually run into one line because of that one line.

SPEAKER_05 39:05

Wow. I yeah, that is so funny. I mean that's kind of amazing, the consistency there.

SPEAKER_04 39:10

Like that's good for them.

SPEAKER_05 39:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:12

So, anyways, it just pumped into my mind that I was like, oh yeah, you got a fun fact.

Favorite Lines And John Williams’ Impact

SPEAKER_04 39:15

Is that whole thing just a callback to just uh lay saying to Luke? Aren't you a little short for Swarm True Stormtrooper? Probably. It's kind of like poetry, you know, it runs, as Lucas always said. Oh man. Yeah. Well, we could keep going, but let's take a little break and then we're gonna come back and talk about some kind of fan-made stuff because I know before we start recording that we've already brought up a couple things that the others don't know about. So we're gonna take a little break. We're gonna watch that stuff and and then we're gonna come back and talk about it. Sounds good. And we are back. Uh we are laughing. It's a great piece of music and love it. Probably one of the best anthems that we have in the whole trilogy. Absolutely. But um we're laughing because just before this, we watched a couple of fan-made videos, one of them being lyrics to Duel of the Fates, which starts with Corn on the Cob and Cola. Cola. Panda. Panda.

SPEAKER_05 40:23

Back Ammon.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

It's funny how uh simple that video is. Oh yeah. Got like probably millions of views, and like, oh, okay. Anybody could have put this together, but it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_05 40:34

Just for our YouTube, don't do this right now. Keep watching us. But when this episode is done, look up uh Duel the Fates Sink Along. I think that's the official title. Yeah. It is very funny. We were all we were all laughing over here.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

That is a classic. Yeah, just like you were saying, too. I mean, that is a just just known for being John Williams' like best piece that he created for this. I love the meme worthiness of it of like it's you know John Williams and the the prequel trilogy, and it's just him playing the piano and it's on fire. Like, just he's just kind of ugly. Have you seen that meme before? No. Oh, it's awesome. That's a good meme. But no, truly, I mean, that is such a such a powerful moment, is there coming around and seeing uh what it was it, Darthmall for the first time?

SPEAKER_04 41:18

Yep, yep. Hot take. Well, not the first time. First, uh yeah, because playing on sees him earlier. Yeah, yeah. First time they fight. Yes, yeah. But um, so do you guys feel like that's what's what's what's the best piece of Star Wars music? Oh man, that's so hard. We got the main theme, we got the Imperial March.

SPEAKER_05 41:37

Okay, I don't know if this is the best, but my I think my favorite is Yoda's theme. Or are you just talking about the prequel? No, no, any any, yeah. Yoda's theme. I I think it's that's what it's I think that's literally the title. Okay. Um I don't remember what that one is. I was thinking one of my favorites it's just called Yoda's theme. Oh, okay. It's from um episode five. It's from the four soundtrack. Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

I was gonna say one of one of my favorites is uh is definitely Ray's theme, actually.

SPEAKER_04 42:09

I really I love Ray's theme, yes. From the new the new trilogy, I also like the um Rise of the Resistance. Yeah, that's a good one. Okay, I don't know if I know that one as well. Uh yeah. Uh they play a lot with like meter, I feel like, and it's it's cool. Uh it's a good like anthemy sort of like March one. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

There's just so much good. I mean, oh yeah, as as we've talked about before, John Williams has been brought up more often in this podcast than like just about it.

SPEAKER_04 42:36

Is this becoming a John Williams podcast? Pretty often.

SPEAKER_05 42:38

Wait, I think you asked that last night.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

It could be yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh yeah, man. He he just the the music of Star Wars, actually, let's let's be real. I mean, I do believe that it has a large part of the responsibility of why um Star Wars is stuck around as long as it's like I mean I don't think that it would have. I'm imagining if like other music was present or somebody else had done it or whatever. Like I just I don't know. I don't know that it would stand the test of time as well.

SPEAKER_05 43:08

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Yeah, I I mean those themes are I mean, especially the you know, the Skywalker theme. Um is that what it's called, Skywalker? Yeah, I think so. Um so recognizable, so iconic, and it really does evoke so much emotion. I mean, a lot of the like a lot of my favorite scenes, you know, um, that I feel like are the most emotional, like have, you know, whether that's um yeah, just have that theme in the background. And so usually just a solemn French horn too. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

Yes, it hits. Yeah, it does.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Well, we watched another uh a couple other uh, you know, just fan-made uh created content stuff.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

I know the one that we that we watched that I picked, uh I don't know if you can call it fan-made because we're well, Weird Al, not officially part of the movie. So I'm I'm gonna call him a fan, but yeah, the Weird Owl uh a saga begins, I believe is what it's called, but I I've always known it as the Jedi song, but it's uh to the tune of American Pie, but with all lyrics pertaining to Phantom Menace.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

I laughed very hard. Yeah, that was very good. It was good for sure. I uh I was sitting there trying to figure out, and maybe the the fans of the show might know this. I don't know if like um because there's certain people that I know of as being like famously like they love Star Wars. I don't know about like if if that includes Weird Owl or not. I imagine it does if he made the the song about it, but I I was wondering that as we were watching, like is it was you know Weird Owl, like a huge Star Wars fan, and that's why he made that song. And I I don't know, maybe somebody else knows.

SPEAKER_04 44:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:37

Uh and then Nick, tell us about what you picked out. Yes, uh, an old uh what is it, a flash video, I believe is what they were. Um, back when those were popular, kind of similar to my my pick on the last one, the Star Wars gangster rap, but just uh it's stick wars, yeah, and it's stupid.

SPEAKER_05 44:54

Um I had I there are a few laughs for me. I think if I was watching this 15 years ago, I would have been on the floor.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

100% I would have been on the floor laughing. That's that's pretty much the way that I look at it. You know, when I was you know, when I was watching it and I was 11, 12 years old, it was it was funny, and it's still there's a few moments, but like uh definitely just kind of stands out as being the that was the time and it does stand out in my memory. I can remember going and finding those videos. I think there even is a second one. I don't remember. I wouldn't be surprised considering that one was basically episode two, right? So yeah, yeah, exactly. Um it was yeah, that that was one that stands out in my mind as being one of the first pieces of uh Star Wars content that I watched, in addition to the actual and the movies, but yeah, just fan-made content um for sure. And I'm sure there's lots of other things. I think there's been a couple things that came up throughout this episode already for uh fan-made content. Can you guys think of any others like off the top of your head? I know we're not prepared for this, but anything else that stand out as being like creator content that you guys appreciated?

Fan Creations: Memes, Parodies, And Edits

SPEAKER_04 46:01

I mean, was it did we talk about last time the the like overlay of like um during the face-off between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan and then like the flashbacks to yeah, we did talk about that, yes, because that's that's one that kind of ties in again. But yeah, uh again, just really brings everything full circle in terms of the whole story.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

For sure. Yeah, that's a good one for sure. Um I'm trying to think if there's anything that like stands out in my mind. There's not, I'm sure I might think of something later on in the episode, but nothing that comes up right away.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

Yeah, and we'll throw some links into our description for those if you guys are interested. And yeah, I'll check them out if you want.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

Uh well, how about uh how about this? Let's let's jump into some would you rather here. I did um a few things together. I'm not guaranteeing that they're all um the the greatest. I kind of threw it together last second. Um, but we'll we'll go through. Uh would you rather train as a Jedi under Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan Kenobi?

SPEAKER_05 47:02

Wow, that's that's that's actually a hard question. I'm gonna say I'm gonna say Obi-Wan Kenobi, actually. Yeah. I think I'd agree with that.

SPEAKER_04 47:11

I think Qui-Gon, you'll get a more traditional Jedi uh training, but you know, Obi-Wan, I think so. He's he seems old school, even though he's like a little bit more accepting, he seems just kind of like an old school mentor in general.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

I thought that Obi-Wan had more of the reputation for being like by the book, and Qui-Gon was the one that was like the the rogue, you know what I mean? Like he was in a I'm just gonna throw the rule book out the window.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

I don't I think you get some of the humor with Obi-Wan that you wouldn't get with Qui-Gon. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:39

Like I don't know, Obi-Wan feels pretty relatable, and maybe too because we know Obi-Wan throughout the entire series, whereas Qui-Gon we only know from the one movie. Yeah. Um, and so I feel more like uh familiar with Obi-Wan.

SPEAKER_04 47:54

Yeah. I I was just because I was thinking about like in uh episode two when they're chasing down the assassin and they get into the bar and uh Obi-Wan's like, I'll just go find him. What are you gonna be doing? I'm going for a drink. Yeah, just stuff like that. Like, yeah, like I I just feel like he I'd have more fun with Obi-Wan.

SPEAKER_02 48:10

See, I was I was gonna go Qui-Gon, I think. Really? But um actually that brings up another question. This isn't on my would you rather, but it made me think, you know, there's been a lot of like fan theories as it relates to like the reason that Anakin ended up the way that he did was because Qui-Gon died. And if Qui-Gon had survived, interesting, then the story would be completely different. That Anakin could have been a good guy at that point. Like that was the that was what he needed. Uh thoughts? We don't heard it before. Have you heard something?

SPEAKER_05 48:41

No, no, I've heard this, or I've heard at least similar things. Um, I don't know, because from my perspective, Obi-Wan does have such a good character. Like he has he has good character, like uh character qualities, and he loved Anakin. I mean, it wasn't like there was like I don't know, like neglect or animosity coming from Obi-Wan.

SPEAKER_02 49:03

So it's it's hard to learn from the idea, I believe, what I've heard as it's been spoken about this this I don't know, theory, I guess you could call it, is that Qui-Gon was that um you know, was the the father figure that Anakin needed. Yeah, whereas Obi-Wan is more of a brother and yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 49:22

I can see that.

SPEAKER_04 49:23

I mean it ultimately comes down to if you think about it, whether or not Qui-Gon would have been able to keep him and Padme separated and keep um Palpatine from getting his gaining influence on him. Yeah, yeah. Because those are like the two really big turning points. And yeah, that's questions we'll never really know the answer to. It's right, it's all nature versus nurture at this point. Like sure.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

Sure. How about another one? Um, would you rather fight Darth Maw or Count Dooku?

SPEAKER_04 49:53

Solo?

SPEAKER_02 49:54

Solo, yes. Not not as hot and solo. Well, yeah, good, yeah, good.

SPEAKER_05 50:00

Um I'm gonna say Count Dooku. I think Darth Maul just has like, I don't know, just a ferocity. Yeah. And he's scary.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Count Dooku is Darth Maul was terrible. Oh, yeah, no, absolutely. Count Dooku is fencing technique like master swordsman, whereas I feel like Maul is unpredictable, wild, and just all anger driven. Yes, so agreed, agreed. Yeah. That's fair.

SPEAKER_02 50:23

I yeah, I think I'd go Dooku as well. I for the very reasons that you guys said. Um let's see. Would you rather this one's kind of dumb? Um, would you rather sit through a full galactic senate session or spend all day in Watto's junk shop?

SPEAKER_05 50:43

Is Watto there? Yeah, that's that's a good question. Because it would be, I don't know, Watto's junk shop, that'd be kind of fun. Tinkering out with stuff, like looking around. But if Watta was there, I I'd want, I think I'd want to know.

SPEAKER_04 50:54

I don't know. If it's present-day me, I might actually be interested in sitting through the the Senate session just to see like what's going on and like learn more about all these galaxies we don't know anything about.

SPEAKER_05 51:04

Honestly, and or kind of made the Senate a little more fun, like interesting and intriguing, maybe it's a better word. So I could see that.

Would You Rather: Jedi Trials

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Yeah, yeah. I would I would probably agree. The the Galactic Senate session, I am I am fascinated by it. I know that was one of the things that was a big like part of the reason why people hated the prequels. Why does it spend so much time in government and the galactic trade agreements and all this stuff and taxation of trade routes? Yeah. What are we doing here?

SPEAKER_04 51:35

Holy cow, guys, are we about to be in Star Wars? Right. It could be. Because 2025 did start with a bunch of taxation on trade. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

You're not wrong. Yeah. Oh man. Um, yeah. I I but to me, so when I think about that, I really do I have an appreciation for it. I guess I I don't know. Is it crazy to me? Like the that I do like the fact that that's a part of the story and that it does make it a richer world. You can be like, okay, this is taking place in it. I almost feel like it makes it age better too. You can look at it and say, like, I kind of understand the politics of this. Yeah. I I get it a little bit. As a kid, you're not really thinking about politics. And it was like, you're thinking about Jar Jar, you know. But now when I look at him like I mean, I kind of get it.

SPEAKER_04 52:29

Yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting to see like just how the empire came to be rather than just like it always existing, and like a lot of it, like again, it doesn't start with just one always with just one person just like by brute force commanding a gigantic army. Like, there's a lot of things that build up to that. Yeah, it's a build-up too. So yeah, right. It's interesting to see that.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

Uh, would you rather pilot Anakin's pod racer or fly Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter?

SPEAKER_05 52:57

I'm gonna say Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter. Starfighter.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

You guys aren't Pod Racer fans here?

SPEAKER_05 53:02

Yeah, yeah, but I I do love, yeah, I do love the pod racing in his pod. But I think I again I can't believe it. It always goes back to Lego for me. It always goes back, guys. Listeners, this is this is my bottom line every time. My so another 2002 Lego set was OB1 Starfighter. Yeah, that's good. And again, like just that early nostalgia factor, and just you know, playing. It was one of my favorite sets, you know, playing with it all the time. Like I would put my eye right up to the window, you know, of the starfighter and like you know, move it around as if I was in there. So it's so funny because like my first answer was oh, Jet, you know, Obi Wan's Jedi Starfighter, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 53:43

But then I'm thinking, like, well, that's probably why. Was there not a pod racer Lego set?

SPEAKER_05 53:49

There was. I almost why didn't I have I think it might have been too expensive?

SPEAKER_04 53:53

It was it was pretty expensive because it came with subulbas as well. Yeah, really. I think it was too expensive, or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

But so this is more of a question. Oh, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04 54:02

Oh, I was gonna say for me, it's it's all about literally the pod racer is a piece of junk. It was literally, no offense to nine-year-old Anakin, yeah, but it was put together by a nine-year-old, and as opposed to a streamlined and professionally built Jedi Starfighter plus flying through space as opposed to just like the desert. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

This is more of a question for you, Ben than Michael, because I know you're not really gonna care about the, but you did see the announcement for the Star Wars racing game, right? I did, yes. Whoa. Yeah, I am so excited. I am excited for that. Oh man, I I can tell you right now, that is a game that I am very excited for, and I will be playing. I can um actually the the first is again taking us back to the beginning here of why I love Star Wars. Did you play the the pod racer game on Twitter?

SPEAKER_04 54:47

A little bit. I found it real hard.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

I I remember playing that one and loving the pod racer game.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

I I've always wanted them to come back and like do a remaster or something like that, some exciting like it just You're talking about the one that you had to actually control your right engine, your left engine, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Well, there there was I mean like if you played it in, you know, I know that they had like the versions that you had inside of Dave and Busters or those types of places, but they actually had just the the pod racing game or PC.

SPEAKER_04 55:15

Okay, maybe I didn't play that one. Yeah. Because I remember the one where you had to like control the left pod and the right pod, and like getting that whole steering thing down. I was my brain was not ready for that.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

It's uh yeah, no, it's man, uh that that definitely brings back some nostalgia right there for me, and I am very excited for when that game comes out. Um let's see, I know, let me see. I had a couple, a few others. Um would you rather witness the duel of the fates in person or the battle of Mustafar? You could have been there for either one of them. Just a few.

SPEAKER_04 55:50

Like, am I safe from lava and getting shot by a random droid?

SPEAKER_05 55:55

Right. Let's say no. Let's say you're just there. Okay. You're you're just a yeah, you're whatever, you're there. That does change my answer.

SPEAKER_04 56:04

That does change my answer. Ooh. Because I feel like Mustafar, I'm more likely to find be able to save myself as opposed to the chaos going on in Naboo. Well, although I guess I guess Qui-Gon and you know, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul are battling not like in the main battle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:21

I think it'd be more I I think, I mean, let's be real. My favorite, I mean, the top top battle for sure is Mustafar for me. I don't know if it's actually your top or not. Is that your guys', would you agree?

SPEAKER_05 56:32

I think it is. I think just from a production standpoint, from a choreography standpoint, I mean, it's extremely impressive. And you know, again, going back to like it all being digital on green screen, like you know, not being at a lot, you know, physical location, like that does detract a little bit. But at the same time, like I mean, yeah, and and the music too. Yeah. Um, I think it is called, is it called Battle of the Fates? I believe it's called Battle of the Fates by Jonathan. Because yeah, again, uh building on Duel of the Fates, yeah. I think it's Battle of the Fates. Um, so I I think Moose Far for me is probably my number one.

SPEAKER_02 57:06

I love that. I remember just loving it so much. Duel of the Fates is is so good too. I mean, it is a great, that's that's probably number two for me. Would you so you'd go the other way? I'd go the other way away.

SPEAKER_04 57:15

Just because uh again, I think it's cause like you know, watching the original trilogy, like the lights here battles are there, but they're like kind of slow and like just very basic, I'll say. And then just to see uh episode one that and that battle in theaters and just be like, Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:34

Here's here's another production, did you know? Fun fact right here. I just again they they come to me as I I didn't have them prep beforehand, but um you guys know that they did, so obviously, uh oh my gosh, why can't I think of the guy that played Darth Maul? Um I can think of Ray Park, yes, yep. And uh Obi-Wan, obviously. They you know they they practice that choreography for ages. Yeah, yeah. It's actually them. There's not stay, you know, there's not doubles or anything like that. They did do the battle themselves. Um, but not only that, they did it so fast that they had to slow it down. So like that famously. I had never heard that.

SPEAKER_04 58:11

I feel like I hear heard the swordsman that like trained Ewan McGregor was like he's he's like legitimately like a good fighter and could be like an actual swordsman. Like so yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:20

I think Ray Park, we'll have to look this up after. I think Ray Park was a stunt man who was just brought in to play Darth Maul.

SPEAKER_02 58:29

That does sound bad. Yeah, I think he was a stunt man originally, and then they eventually brought because well, wait a second, because he not you're saying that, maybe was he he was under the makeup too, right?

SPEAKER_04 58:38

Yes, remember he was but was he not the voice in the episode? No, I think he was the voice too. Okay, yeah, yeah. No, I thought I thought that was why he only had like two lines in general, because like I don't think he was the voice.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

Oh, really? Okay. Then he was the voice in the the Clone Wars show, I believe. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 58:56

Uh that's a different guy. I can't think of his.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

He was in Smallville for like three seasons. Ah man, I got my facts mixed up. I know that there is something interesting there with him, but I can't remember the thing.

SPEAKER_04 59:07

There's there's yeah, like some there's some weird backstory there, but um let's see.

SPEAKER_02 59:12

I think I might have a few others here that we could go with. Um would you rather be force sensitive during the clone wars or after the rise of the empire? Oh man. Because both are bad. I think that's both are bad, yeah. Both are real bad. Oh man. Force sensitive under the uh I feel like they killed a lot of those people after the rise of the empire for being like the they were seeking them out and actively just destroying them if they could not uh convince them to turn. And if you look at some of the the backstory that we've had since, like they were pretty good about hunting them down. That's worth it. Um I mean, I know you didn't play this. Fallen Order. Yeah, but Fallen Order I'll come straight.

SPEAKER_04 59:55

Michael, yeah, highly recommend if you ever get any system that can handle it. I think you would Love the heck out of it. My PS1 channel.

Ranking Trilogies And Hot Takes

SPEAKER_02 1:00:02

No, it could not, but it's they they and there's aspects of it. Oh man, what are they? The seventh sister, the ninth sister. Like they are in I'm trying to remember which shows they're in, but they're in a couple other things. But that was who they sent to go hunt down the uh you know the four sensitive people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

So Michael, like I uh we need to have instead of a movie watch party for you now, we need to have a game playing party. Just to we'll get you hooked on it. We'll just really sit here. Because again, the story is about a Jedi who uh he was a Padawan that survived Order 66. Okay. And like Calcastus? Yeah, Calcastus. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. And so yeah, he's been hiding out and like, yeah, so but you know, also learning to be a Jedi still at the same time, and so real interesting stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:46

Hmm. That's cool. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:47

It's a good story. I mean, it definitely adds a a certain richness to just I don't know, just that entire time period again. There, there's they've explored it so much and and added so much into just outside of the prequels themselves, but man, I I I I am hopeful that one day we'll get to see a live action calcastus. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:06

Well, I just wanted to quickly circle back to our our Darth Maul discussion. You guys are right, Ray Park was not the voice of Darth Maul in the Phantom Menace, it was uh Peter Sarah when it's okay. Oh yeah. However, however, in uh solo when Darth Maul appears, um he's voiced by Sam Whitwer. Sam Whitwer is the voice of Darth Maul in all the other animated stuff. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:30

Yeah, he was also Sam Whitwer was in the Force Unleashed games. You remember the Force Unleashed games? Yeah, yeah. He was um Starkiller is that shit. Oh, he was? Yeah. Oh, okay, cool. He's the main guy in those. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:40

Yeah. Um, all right, one more. Would you rather um this one's kind of dumb too? Uh would you rather wear full Jedi robes? And we'll just go forever, so we'll just make this like have to wear full Jedi robes forever or full Sith armor forever.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:01

Uh I think Jedi robes would be just generally because I like wearing a robe. Just you know, well, I I really don't. I I like the idea of it. Um we uh my wife and I stayed in a fancy hotel a couple years ago and they had these like really nice robes. Yeah, it was a whole thing. That that was really fun. Did you feel like a Jedi like wearing a robe?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:23

A little different, I think. Yeah, I think robes over armor for me. I would agree. Just because I mean, again, I I wanted so much when I was young to be a Jedi. So we all had just to live out that fantasy. Yeah, we all did.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:35

I did get a pretty cool, like uh um, I don't know, just a more cosplay kind of costume. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:42

Oh, yeah, because you're gonna for your like some of your teaching stuff, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

Uh no, it was actually so I I DJ'd a wedding on Halloween. Amazing. And I wanted a good costume to wear. So they were actually they it was an awesome wedding. They they were uh they had all their guests dress up. That's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. It was wild.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:59

So yeah, I got a legit um kind of I will yeah, Jedi Robes are up there for what I would spend money on in terms of like a real costume. Like I would go, I would if I were gonna get something, I would go full. Yeah, like yeah, get something. It's cool too.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

It was it's not really like when you get the the cosplay version because they're made in such a way, it's like strips essentially. I don't know if you've seen and it's kind of if you look at it, they're they're meant to I I know it's I can't remember exactly what it is. I don't know if they're meant to replicate samurai or or something like that, but that's the way that their outfits are if you go and you look that up. It's not you know, it's not like just one thing that you put on, it's like strips of the there's the shoulder strips that go on there, and then like the I don't know, the cumber bun. I don't know what you want to call it. That's essentially what it feels like that goes across. Yeah. Um, but yeah, that's cool stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:45

Yeah, yeah. Actually, those are good. Thanks for bringing those up. Yeah, I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

That's great.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:49

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:50

All right, we'll do. I was I was gonna say I got a rapid fire real fast for us. So we won't do any description on this. We'll just go back and forth here. I'll go with the the two of you guys. Um so this is just either or uh prequel lightsaber duels or original trilogy space battles. This just feels like more would you rather's this is back and forth, so either or quick answer.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:13

Uh original trilogy space battles. The other one's lightsaber duels.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:19

Prequel lightsaber duels or originals for me. Okay, okay. Uh Yoda's acrobatics or Palpatine's Lightning. Palpatine's Lightning. Acrobatics. We're the obvious year. Clone Troopers or Battle Droids. Clone Troopers. Clone Troopers. Yeah. Uh QuiGon survives or Padme survives. Dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:40

I'm going to say Padme survives. I'm going to say Qui-Gon survives.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:44

I I gotta say Padme. Yeah, yeah. Uh rewat excuse me, rewrite Anakin's arc or leave it as a tragedy.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:51

Leave it as a tragedy. Yeah. Leave it. We need it for building it. We already know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:57

All right, that was fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:00

Nice. I still remain that those are Woody Rathers, but I wanted to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

We weren't gonna go back and forth about it. Like I just wanted to get a rapid fire around. Maybe that's the better way to describe it. It was just gonna have to be rapid fire. Yeah. Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:15

Well, guys, we are just about out of time, but why don't we just kind of as a closing here, you know, where did the prequels rank among the the main nine? So we won't we won't go with the spin-offs, but just the main the three trilogies, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:27

So again, when I put this down, I was gonna ask you guys, do we want to rank trilogies or rank individual movies? Because I'd I'd have to think tough. Let's just do trilogy then.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

Because yeah.

unknown 1:05:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:39

Yeah, why don't you go first?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:40

Uh so you're saying like if I was just going like if I was ranking the the originals, the original trilogy, prequel, sequel. So how would I rank it? Um I think I would go, oh man, if if if it's as a whole, I know it's tough as a whole because there's kind of only one right answer.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:57

If it's as a whole. We can again we can do individuals. I just wasn't sure if that would take longer.

What’s Next In Star Wars And On The Show

SPEAKER_02 1:06:01

I so I would go with I think I'd have to go prequels, then originals, then sequels. I I just feel like I'd have to. Unexpected, but yeah. Um I I do now if we're talking about my my ultimate ranking and everything, I've I've put a lot of thought into like how I would rank the movies, and I need to like get the we should have actually brought in the lists and been like, all right, hey, let's get the the full ranking down. But obviously, uh, you know, Revenge of the Sith is is at the top for me. Like I love that one. I would say probably more than than any of the others. Like if I'm ranking it, it's it's number one for me. And then I love um, you know, then it'd go into a a uh originals because I I just I love the Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, sure. Um so that's my top up there. And then from there it kind of goes into some there's there's a little bit more, like it gets trickier at that point. And because of that, the prequels like having that top movie, and I don't think I'd go to one or two being until like a little bit later on. I think I gotta give it a little bit more, you know, like it's got a little bit more.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:06

It has more weight to it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:08

Yeah, exactly. And kind of like you guys said before, like the story, the the the originals aren't even as good without the backstory, I don't think. I don't think if I'm watching them just by themselves, I appreciate the the originals because of the the richness of the backstory that's that's a hot take right there.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:28

Yeah, is it I think that's a hot take. Yeah, I mean like I think a lot of people just stand alone the originals.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:33

Yeah, because four, five, and six lasted for 20 years on their own. So uh yeah. But I mean, no, not not not entirely hot, we'll say. Lukewarm? Warm take. Yeah, it's a warm take. I just don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:45

I mean, like, because when you're looking at it, lukewarm. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:50

I just don't think, I mean, when you really look at it, it would they have been able to stand. I I don't know. I mean, would people still be talking about the originals today if it if they had not came along and made more of them?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:05

I think I think so. You think so? I think they were groundbreaking in so many other ways that we didn't need all the other stuff. Because again, like like a lot of people would question why George Lucas started with episodes four, five, and six and never finished anything, but yeah, uh I think that they were groundbreaking enough in and in enough ways that like especially like I know cinematography, like episode five is talked about like as one of the best like cinematography like pieces ever put together, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:33

Um well where what about you guys? So I I've shared my my hot take, I guess. What's where where are you guys at? Is there only one correct answer? Are you guys going with the other one? What's how are you gonna rank the trilogies?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:45

I thought there was only one correct answer. I would say originals, prequels, sequels for me. Uh and I but to be honest with you, I think I'm in a similar camp as far as some of the prequel movies would would make it into rankings like mixed into the originals. You know, if I'm like listening to my top five, for example, like Attack of the Clones is up there. Um I think I think Revenge of the Seth would be up there too. So yeah, it's it's yeah, a fuller list might be better. But I think just yeah, originals for me, like um, yeah. I think they're just just as a whole, I think I think I would rank them both the prequels. And then obviously the sequels are we'll talk about those sometime.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:24

Yeah, we'll get there eventually.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:26

I I'd like to I'd have love for them as well. Yeah. But different. It's different, different love. I think I'm on the fence. I could go either way with with the original or the prequel being top the top tier for me. And the I'm gonna say original just because I kind of rank so I was just sitting here thinking about individual movies, and I'm gonna go five, four, one, three, two, six, seven, eight, nine. Um, and we can break that down slower. Honestly, that's really close. That's really close to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:54

Yeah, and five, four, what was it?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:56

Five, four, one, three, two, six, seven, eight, nine. One only breeds three just because I'm it's nostalgic for me. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

But yeah, like I think six, seven, eight, nine all the way at the bus. So you're interested. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:07

I like like again, like six a lot, but I just in terms of like story and everything like that, like I there's a lot of um. Interesting. I don't know. And maybe that's my hot take. But so because I have five, five, and four as number the top two, I think I have to go original trilogy. The best one, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:24

Okay, okay. That makes sense. That's fair. Yeah. So I I was surprised that three was as low as it was, I guess. That was the that was surprised.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:31

I would have switched one and three. Again, it's if one it wasn't so nostalgic for me. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:35

One higher than three. Yeah, that's what I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:37

Yeah, that's that's a bit of a hot tip. That is a hot tip. See, we are getting there.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:40

Do you have have you thought about yours? Where so what let's just go top three? Or if you've got the the entire list, you what's your Yeah, I mean, I could probably give the entire list.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:49

I think uh five, I'm gonna say um five, six, two, three, four, six, seven, eight. I'm sorry, uh seven, eight, nine. So can we all just agree seven, eight, nine are at the bottom, though?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:07

Like I so I again here I go with my with my unpopular opinions. I would definitely say eight for me is is bottom. Um, but I really do, I I love, I mean The Force Awakens, I loved the Force Awakens a lot. Um just had his 10-year anniversary. Yeah. That's crazy. It's already been 10 years. Uh so that one for me would go a little bit like I don't know if it's if it's all the way up at the top, but it's not at the very bottom for me, at least. Like it's at least a mid tier for me on the list. And you you ranked two pretty high. I would say two for me is is closer to the bottom.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:45

Um I think two for me is really similar to Ben with episode one. It's there's a very strong nostalgia factor. Yeah. Um just yeah. So that's why it's up there for me.

Closing Thoughts And Holiday Sign-Off

SPEAKER_04 1:11:55

But nice. Well, I mean, to kind of like we usually end it with like a what's next in the the fandom. I have you guys seen everything that's been coming out about the starfighter um movie? I have not seen a single thing. Oh, wow. Okay. With Ryan Gosling? Maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:14

Oh, okay. Ryan Gosling. Yeah. I'll have to go and look it up after this.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:17

I'm I'm I'm interested. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:19

Like uh, yeah, it's gonna be a standalone and like I can't even keep track of like the projects that are still alive and which have been canceled.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:28

This is a whole topic. They they have announced yeah, I think literally like two dozen projects, not necessarily films, but like various projects.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:38

Kill the next sequel trilogy. Is that dead or is it alive?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:41

I think it's it's indefinitely on hold. Yeah, the ray, the Ray trilogy, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:46

I mean, I she plays a role in it for sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:47

Yeah, I think that's indefinitely on hold.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:49

Yeah. There's yeah, there's and there's a lot. I wasn't Taika YTT directing a Star Wars movie, too.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:54

Whatever director was hottest that month, they they announced a movie with them.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:59

I'm serious. Like, go back and look.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:00

But I will say the Starfighter one, like, at least it has like they're in production. Okay, okay. I think they're in principal photography, so like it's being made, and like it'd be dumb for them to pull the plug now. But and especially again bringing on someone like Ryan Gosling, like one of the biggest celebrities. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:16

Interesting. That one I don't know how I feel about that. I'll have to go and watch the whatever they've got. Do they have a trailer for it?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:22

I can't remember if there's just like a brief teaser, but I I've mostly seen like production photos, is what I've seen.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:28

I know you cool. You guys heard about the cancelled like Knights of Ren thing that they wanted to that there's been a push to try to bring back to life. Yeah. Is that what do you guys think about that?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:38

Where's your I to be honest with you, I would be in favor of them bringing back Adam Driver to do something like that. I think that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:46

I think he was one of the highlights of the the sequel trilogy.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:49

Yeah, I think so too. Um, I didn't used to think that, but re-watching him like in the last year or two, I've I've appreciated him more. But I would be into that. But again, it's just like they've announced so much, and it's like I feel like I'm kind of jaded now where it's like I see a new announcement, I'm like Yeah, until there's a trailer, like I'm not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:07

Until there's a trailer, I'm yeah, I'm I'm yeah. Yeah, I don't I'm I'm kind of right there with you because I I can't even remember everything that they have set out there to say that this is happening. But the games, I would say I'm I'm really excited. So I already brought up the the pod racer or just the Star Wars racing game that's coming out, that's gonna be awesome. And the uh what was the other thing?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:26

There's an old republic one that they're gonna branch into. And there's also one called, I want to say it's either called Eclipse or like Black Sun or something like that. That's uh another standalone, like I can't even remember when on the timeline it takes place, but they that was a big one they announced like two years ago that again haven't heard much from since, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:44

And they're still do, I believe they are putting out another Fallen Order.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:49

Yeah, they're supposed to, it's supposed to be a trilogy, so there will be the third one.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:52

And I'll be excited to play that when I do. Absolutely. I love playing both of those games. So those are I would say that's more what I'm excited for in the the fandom more than anything is the games. Um but yeah, well, let's talk about uh what's what's up next for the the show here. We got we're we're coming up on the end of the year, uh gonna start fresh in January. Um so my entire family, this is just to kind of preface this, is going to Disney uh beginning of the year. Um and the reason I bring that up is because my sister-in-law is a big fan of Disney parks. So our next episode, we are actually gonna focus in on just Disney parks in general. Um, she uh so I know that her focal point's definitely gonna be, you know, Disney World in Florida. Yeah. Um but I'm sure there'll be other things that that come up in this conversation. But that's gonna be like the the focal point for sure, is gonna be on Disney World and those four parks there. So I'm excited to talk with her about it. She's gonna be a lot of fun. Alexa, uh, she's gonna come on and talk to us about it, and um, yeah, then we're gonna go to Disney and she'll be able to show off all of her knowledge to me about everything she knows about the parks. You can test her on it, yep. Exactly. But no, I'm I'm really excited for that. And um, yeah, I'm just it I am so glad that we got to have another Star Wars episode. Yeah, guys, this is great. Before the world ends, yeah. We will definitely revisit again just to talk the the sequel trilogy. Yes, and then I'll feel like we'll need a like spin-off form like our like a spin off. Yeah, for sure. Maybe talk one specifically about the all the series because we there is so much to dive into. Like we have not really, I mean, the TV shows and stuff like that. We haven't really dove into that at all. It's come up along the way, but you know, we could talk Mandalorian, Ahsoka, uh the the hot takes on um uh what's the what's the one that everybody hates that just came out? The Acolyte. The Acolyte. Um but yeah, no, I I I can't wait to come back and revisit Star Wars again with you guys before too much longer. So takes more months. Exactly. That's the plan. It's already on the calendar. Yeah. All right. Thank you guys so much for listening. Um, I I always like to put this reminder out there. If you've stayed this long, uh, you know, give us that that rating and review. Um, it definitely is gonna help us out. I know I mentioned it in the in the outro part, but we appreciate that, and we appreciate anybody that's taking the time to interact with us on social media, um, put things out there. I'm trying to be better about like bringing in those conversation pieces whenever we can in the episode. So I I enjoy interacting with you guys and thanks for taking the part the time to not only listen but to interact.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:26

So yeah. And Merry Christmas, everybody. This will be after Christmas when you guys watch it or listen, but um still Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Yeah, Merry Christmas, everyone.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:38

That's a wrap on this episode of Phantom of Fandoms. If you loved it, hit that follow button at FOF.pod on Instagram and threads, and leave us a quick review wherever you're listening to this podcast. It's like fuel for our little nerdy spaceship. Got a fandom you want us to tackle? Shoot us a DM. Until next time, stay curious, stay passionate, and keep repping what you love.