Last Jedi Minute 48: Bonsai Tree

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Date

April 7th, 2021

Summary

Guest commentator Ken Plume is Ahch-to school for his first lesson of Jedi training!

Guests

Ken Plume

Notes

Film

• Starts with Rey saying she thinks the Caretakers don't like her, and ends with Luke saying that every word in her sentence was wrong.

Podcast

• In the Original Trilogy, Luke didn't get a lot of the punch lines (callback to Luke and Han's comedy routine); he was normally the straight man.
  • Listener project? "Return of the Jedi was filmed before a live studio audience".
• Obi-Wan and Yoda got way more jokey when they went into exile.
  • The Force makes you serious, the Force is no fun.
  • Obi-Wan and Yoda being stuck talking to Qui-Gon because he's a Force ghost. Referenced: Taken.
    • Being a Force ghost is like being in a cult or part of a pyramid scheme. Mentioned: the Sears portrait studio picture of the Skywalker family.
• Mentioned: Toad from American Graffiti.
• If Luke hadn't refused to train Rey right away, this minute is where their part of the story would start.
• Pete's opinion is that some of the main criticisms of Rise of Skywalker are that it feels manic; it's too jam-packed full because it has too much work to do to end the trilogy and if there was a movie X to take some of the load off, it might have been better.
• Why didn't Force ghost Luke train Rey in TROS instead of Leia?
  • The idea that Force ghosts have to swim everywhere.
• The Sacred Mosaic and the "Prime Jedi".
  • Pete's definition of "bringing balance to the Force".
    • It's a dynamic equilibrium, like trimming a bonsai tree on a helicopter.
• Is Kylo Ren that big of a threat? What about the rest of the First Order?
  • Referenced: Agatha Harkness (Marvel character), The Godfather.
  • Rey doesn't have the whole story. So it makes sense that she doesn't know what the Force really is all about. She can only speak from her limited experience.
• Teaching the Force the way that public schools teach sex ed, with Luke as the grumpy gym teacher who has to show the video tape.
• How long different parts of the movie take.
  • Just like in Empire, how much Jedi training is there time for?
  • Picking up exactly where TFA leaves off really locks in the time-line of this movie.
• Plugs for SWM on social media.
  • We now have a Tiktok.

Meta Minute

• 33:04 podcast episode length.
• Cold open: 8-DAY-GREEDO call. Caller complains that they never put any of his 8-DAY-GREEDO calls on the show. Ironic.
• Pete didn't end up buying Kenplumedotcomnot.fun.

Quotes

• Pete: "Luke Skywalker without the Force" is Mark Hamill.
• Alex: (as Alec Guinness) I'm too old—I'm too dead for this sort of thing.

Links

Audio only

https://www.starwarsminute.com/2021/04/07/last-jedi-minute-48-bonsai-tree

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11qPP6d5VvI

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