Last Jedi Minute 31: The Lumpiness of the Raddus

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Date

March 15th, 2021

Summary

Guest commenters Joe Dator & Suzen Tekla Kruglnska are here and General Organa is totally blown away!

Guests

Joe Dator and Suzen Tekla Kruglnska

Notes

Film

  • Starts with Kylo Ren and his TIE fighter buddies zooming by. Ends with Hux asking "What is the point of all of this???" (roll credits).
  • The ship is rattled (and there is a camera shake) as the TIEs go by.
  • This is the minute where Leia (and presumably the rest of the command crew and Admiral Ackbar) is blown out into space.

Podcast

  • Plug for the Comedy Film Funnel.
  • You can't argue with a fact (i.e. they are objective, not subjective), and you can't agree or disagree with a question. Referenced: so-called alternative facts and the difference between facts and opinions.
  • The filmmakers have made it clear that they don't really care about real physics (which is important in good Sci-fi), but luckily Star Wars is space fantasy so it isn't as big of a deal. Mentioned: 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • Suzen loves the lumpiness of the Raddus.
    • Mon Calamari ships: given that they were created by fish people, are they built underwater?
      • Spaceships designed by other creatures, for example, cats.
  • The mother-son drama.
    • This is unusual in Star Wars.
  • The older personas of our main heroes from the Original Trilogy.
  • The Quick Cuts between Kylo and Leia in this minute parallel the end of The Empire Strikes Back with Luke and Vader.
  • Leia and Kylo's psychic connection: does only happen when they are physically near each other? Maybe it depends on the magnitude of the emotions being conveyed.
    • Compare this to Vader sensing Obi-Wan on the Death Star.
  • Referenced: Luke didn't blow up the Death Star. Although Leia and Kylo are connected, Leia does not make him take his finger off the trigger, he decides to do that himself.
  • It's good filmmaking that the relief of the tension of him not killing her is immediately undercut by his two TIE fighter buddies just blowing them up anyway.
  • Extensive discussion of the shot of Leia being sucked out into space.
    • It's very engaging and unflinching.
    • The weird meta-level knowledge that we had when seeing this that, shortly after the filming and before the release, that Carrie Fisher actually did pass away. We really thought this was the end for her because we couldn't possibly guess what they were going to do next.
  • Should Leia have died here?
    • Compare to, in the first Star Wars, Obi-Wan was originally supposed to not die on the Death Star and go back to the Rebel base, but he had nothing to do until they decided to kill him off. Does Leia have enough to do in this movie and the next one?
      • Could she have played the Holdo role? No, it's not believable that Poe would ever mutiny against her.
  • The intention was that The Force Awakens would be Han's movie, this movie would be Luke's movie, and they really wanted the next one to be Leia's.
    • They could have edited Leia out of the movie, but nothing about the way this movie was made went the way we thought it would, subverting our expectations.
  • A lot of "criticism" of modern films is that "this isn't exactly like [some other movie]", or "this is what I expected".
  • The feminist overtones that Leia is also strong with the Force and we get to see her use her powers here.
  • The culture shock of Star Wars. No matter how weird things get, there are some things that translate, for example the red button means "fire". So we can follow the story and stay engaged. Making things look just familiar enough that you get the idea.
  • The lipstick problem in this movie.
  • More Leia action tomorrow.

Meta Minute

  • 33:30 podcast episode length.
  • The word that Alex is looking for is "buzzing". Another notable example of this is in Top Gun when Maverick buzzes the tower.
  • In the Clone Wars Cartoon, the feline Zygerrian race is introduced. Their former empire was built on trafficking slaves, and they enslaved many species including humans. No word on whether they had any avian or murine slaves, but it's not out of the realm of possibility as Wookieepedia lists several examples of sentient bird-like and rodent-like species.

Quotes

  • Joe ...we'll be seeping comedy to you very soon.
  • Pete: If this were real <pause> this might be a problem.
  • Pete: "Tiny Snippet", the bounty hunter.
  • Pete: Let's just start each movie with a funeral.
  • Pete: I'd pay 20 bucks just to have somebody throw me... go down to the Home Depot parking lot.
  • Pete: (as an old timey newsreel announcer) Will there be a fight on Star Wars Minute?? Tune in to tomorrow!

Links

Audio only
https://www.starwarsminute.com/2021/03/15/last-jedi-minute-31-the-lumpiness-of-the-raddus/
Video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DVmAYEyfwUA

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