Empire Minute 73: Lozenge After Lozenge

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Date

April 23rd, 2014

Summary

Quietly Yoda turns toward the X-wing fighter. With his eyes closed and his head bowed, he raises his arm and points at the ship.

Guests

Stuart Wellington

Notes

Film

• Starts with Yoda gently lowering the X-wing after levitating it.
• Ends with Captain Needa crashing to his knees after apologizing to Vader for losing the Falcon.

Podcast

• Yoda is using The Force like playing an instrument or conducting an orchestra. His hands are out and he's just waving them around calmly.
  • Comparing The Force to music is a cool way to look at it.
  • This is another signposts for the upcoming Star Wars musical.
• More whinging from Luke - couldn't Yoda have cleaned the X-wing?
• Luke touches the nose of the X-wing to make sure that it's not a hologram.
  • Luke's face could have been on the X-wing like Thomas the Tank Engine.
  • This whole sequence actually occurred back in the magic tree - it's more failure by Luke.
  • R2 sounds excited because they can finally get out of here.
• In The Clone Wars cartoon Anakin totally understands R2 speaking his language (but see below).
  • Maybe Luke does understand R2 - it' s a genetic / Force thing.
  • This might be Luke's Jedi super-power as revealed by the blood test.
  • Each blood test provides scores on the various Jedi powers - Luke is a "7" on levitating.
• Yoda gives a satisfied grunt after lowering the X-wing - "Oh yeah; I've still got it".
  • Just off-screen, there is a big quarry full of large rocks and smashed spaceships. Yoda has been playing smash-up derbies with spaceships in the sky.
• Luke totally walks into Yoda's burn with his line "I don't believe it".
  • Who spoke next or was there just an awkward silence?
  • Luke and R2 are actually just reading each other's body language and sounds - they're not actually talking and are like an old married couple.
  • (The hosts briefly mention that The Force is like a positive visualization technique.)
  • Following Yoda's line the movie should have cut to Luke saying "Oh, I get it now".
  • Or, Pete suggests that:
    • The movie should have cut straight to the Imperial scene as it does.
    • It should then have cut back to Luke a few minutes later saying "Oh, NOW I get it!".
    • And then cut back to the Imperial scene.
• R2 is just complaining that Luke still hasn't got it even after all the training.
• The movie cuts from Yoda in the green swamp to the cold vacuum of space and a group of tightly defined spaceships.
• The shuttle does not look like a normal imperial shuttle - apparently it's a rare TIE-shuttle.
• The shuttle is Captain Needa's and he is travelling to the Executor (Star Destroyer) in it to apologize to Vader.
  • Needa's fall is a great shot / sequence in the movie.
  • This should have been a much longer scene as Needa falls from a great height - like the top of the tractor beam tower.
  • It actually wasn't the fall that killed him; he chokes to death just before he hits the ground and is then slowly lowered down by Vader.
  • Or Pete suggests that Vader makes him fall from a great height, catches him by the throat just before he hits the ground and then chokes him to death.
  • Alex says that with that kind of thinking Pete would make a great Sith.
  • Pete reminds Alex that they have already been revealed to be undercover Imperial officers.
  • Needa was actually being choked from the second he got on to the shuttle.
  • He should have just stayed where he was. Plus he was eating lozenge after lozenge to try and clear his throat.
  • Needa was in charge of tracking down the Falcon on the Avenger (Star Destroyer) after being the closest to the space slug.
  • He called Piett as soon as they saw the Falcon but then lost them as seen in the movie.
  • He should have waited to call Piett and this is "Imperial Officer 101" - don't open your mouth until the job is done.

 Needa factoids from Pete:
  His first name is Lorth.
  (Lorth Needa sounds like someone saying Darth Vader with a mouthful of lozenges).
  On Wookiepedia <on the Legends tab> there is disambiguation for:
  - Lorth's cousin Virar.
  - Oola impersonator Dame Needa.
  (Alex asks is the impersonator a male impersonating Oola or an Oola-impersonating Needa?) <Note - It's the latter.>
  In ROTS the spaceship that corners General Grievous's spaceship when Obi-wan and Anakin are rescuing Palpatine
  is captained by Needa. This is his Top Gun / Maverick moment.

• There should have been more original trilogy Star Wars characters in the Prequels.
  • For example, Anakin should have introduced his best friend George Ozzel - "He's kind of clumsy and stupid, but I like him".
  • It turns out that Anakin was always bullying George by choking him a little bit.
  • There are not enough throwbacks in Star Wars and this is to be addressed in Episode VII or the special editions of the Prequels. (Note - this was significantly addressed in Episode VII and Rogue One.)
  • The son of Lorth may appear in Episode 7.
  • In 30 years A New Hope will have twenty new characters CGI'd into it.
  • Star Wars will then have to start dealing with the time travel paradox.
  • Eventually all of these new scenes will take over the movie and there will be nothing left of the original.
  • The hot actors of the day will be cut in on a regular basis, for example:
    • Benedict Cumberbatch as Obi-Wan.
    • The guy from Avatar <Sam Worthington> as someone else (as his human self, NOT as the blue character from Avatar).
• The actor that played Needa had uncredited roles in two Bond movies:
  • A Vulcan bomber crewman in Thunderball.
  • A man in punt from From Russia with Love. This sounds like a Star Wars character - "Manin Punt from Malastare".
  • He has appeared in a number of stage plays and single episodes of various British TV shows.
  • Is he now on the Star Wars circuit? If so then in every photograph he is being choked by the other people.
• More Needa in tomorrow's podcast episode; Needa in memoriam; needa another minute to talk about him!
• Support the Show - Twitter; Facebook; 8-DAY-GREEDO.

Meta Minute

• 17:50 podcast episode length.
• Somewhere it is a sunny Wednesday morning.
• Needa's shuttle is a TIE/sh VIP shuttle.

• In a deleted scene from Revenge of the Sith, it is revealed that Anakin has an astro droid translator, and when it breaks he can no longer understand Artoo.

Quotes

• Alex: <As Luke looking at the X-wing> All my tapes are ruined!
• Pete: <Also as Luke> If I cut this [the nose of the X-wing] off am I going to see my face?
• Stuart: <As Luke to R2> I know dude; it's totally crazy!
• Pete: I have some data on Needa. Stuart: Good, I needa some data.
• Pete: <As the actor that played Lorth Needa signing an autograph> "To PTR, love Lorth".

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2014/04/23/empire-minute-73-lozenge-after-lozenge/

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