Empire Minute 63: Yoda's Funhouse

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Date

April 9th, 2014

Guests

Mike Dawson

Notes

Film

• Starts with Luke putting down Yoda in his backpack near the spooky cave tree thing; ends with Luke going in to the spooky cave tree thing with his weapons.

Podcast

• Did Yoda make Luke stop at the cave or did he just stop there by coincidence?
  • Luke's jacket is already there so perhaps they started the circuit there.
  • Yoda probably told R2 to put Luke's jacket there while they were out training.
  • Or Yoda told R2 to turn on the evil cave - "You might have to jiggle the handle a bit but you'll get it."
• Luke puts on his jacket while he's all sweaty - this can't be pleasant. He doesn't even have a t-shirt on.
• Luke's backpack is made out of Gundark skin.
• Yoda is very creepy when he tells Luke that this is a tree of death and evil and that he has to go in.
  • Reminds the hosts of Sallah in Indiana Jones - "Asps - very dangerous - you go first."

The Evil Cave

• Is the cave really evil or is this just Yoda making it seem evil?
  • Without knowing EU, this seems like a test created for Luke by Yoda. Or "Yoda's funhouse".
  • It is a very serious test for a student's first day.
• According to EU:
  • The cave is an actual evil cave - known as the "Cave of Evil" - that is right next to Yoda's house.
  • It is a true domain of evil.
  • It is the thing that Dagobah is most famous for in the Star Wars universe.
    • If you go to Dagobah for one day then you have to see the evil cave and buy a "I survived the evil cave" t-shirt.
    • The cave has an excellent Visitor Center with animatronic Sith at the entrance and everything.
    • It's like the best tourist place in a small town that no-one ever goes to.
    • This is actually the rainy / slow season on Dagobah. It s usually really nice there.
    • If you go one mile in any direction then there is a beautiful city with nice hotels that Luke and Yoda could have stayed in.
    • If Luke comes back in summer then it will be nice and sunny and warm.
• Luke takes his weapons because he doesn't trust Yoda yet. This is why he fails the test.
  • Luke seems to fail virtually every test.
  • <From Mike> Adults don't like to fail so they don't try anything new; kids don't mind failing and therefore try everything.
  • If Alex failed Yoda's test he'd say "This is stupid; what's the easy way again?".
  • In a complicated EU story Luke goes back to the cave later to try and pass the test.
  • The cave is to be discussed more in tomorrow's podcast episode.
• Luke's gun belt / holster is very dangly and floppy.
  • Although he puts it on like an expert as he looks over his shoulder. He obviously practiced this in his room in front of the mirror lots of times.
• A sound spooks Luke. What is it?
• R2 is taping all of this action. He has this AV feature and is creating a clip show that could be the "episode 7" movie.
  • Also, Yoda uses the tape to review the day's training with Luke.
  • Mike practices two things in the mirror at home - impersonations and putting on his gun belt / holster.
  • The hosts will need to improve their impersonations before Yoda appears on the podcast.
• The cave ties into the "mysticism and magic of The Force" stuff that Pete doesn't like.
  • The cave as Yoda's funhouse is fine; having it as an actual mystical place is not.
• Again, the cave is to be discussed more in tomorrow's podcast episode.
• Support the Show - Twitter, Facebook, 8-DAY-GREEDO.

Meta Minute

• 13:53 podcast episode length.
• Cold-open: Ad-read - Amazon; starwarsminute.com/amazon.

Quotes

• Mike: It's nice to be here on a Wednesday morning.
• Mike: Luke is like "shut up puppet!"
• Pete: <Terrible "old lady" Yoda impersonation.>

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2014/04/09/empire-minute-63-yodas-funhouse/

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