Last Jedi Minute 37: The Jar Jar Maneuver

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Date

March 23rd, 2021

Summary

Holdo takes command but guest commentators Connor Ratliff, Griffin Newman & Patrick Cotnoir are still nunb from the news about Leia!

Guests

Connor Ratliff, Griffin Newman, and Patrick Cotnoir

Notes

Film

  • Starts with Larma D'Acy saying it's clear who should take Leia's place in the lead, and ends with the briefing breaking up amidst the grumbles of the crew.

Podcast

  • Griffin and Patrick are from a lot of cancelled projects (and the George Lucas talk show, not yet canceled). Connor is from a lot of currently in production projects.

Controversial thing about one of our favorite aliens:

Hey Nien, you okay buddy? Is there something wrong with your head?
  • Nien Nunb's head is way too big.
    • The perils of aging?
    • Is he a juicing? We should test him for Sullustan growth hormone.
    • He (the character) has had some work done.
  • He got "Disneyfied": his eyes are larger and more cute.
  • Mentioned: Mike Quinn's appearance on the George Lucas talk show.
  • Both Admiral Ackbar and Doctor Evazan and Ponda Baba have bigger heads as well.
  • Is this the influence of big Funko?
  • Griffin's side tangent story about working on "The Tick" and the problems getting the costume and the mechanical antennae to work right.
  • But the characters would look a little different as time has passed. Compare to the original puppet Yoda in The Phantom Menace.


Other notes

  • Admiral Ackbar send-off, or lack thereof. He's clearly more important to us the fans than he is in the universe.
    • In context, he's just another casualty of this war.
    • Nobody in Star Wars watches Family Guy.
    • Cut Admiral Ackbar death scene.
  • The decision to not have Lando be the DJ character and do the "can we trust him, can't we trust him" thing again. It saves him for the next movie, and it's better to introduce a new character for this role.
    • But would Holdo's sacrifice be more meaningful if it was done by someone we already knew and loved?
  • The point of the Holdo character is "who is this woman who is keeping Poe from being awesome", but then he learns to respect her and it wouldn't work with someone like Ackbar because he has seniority with the fans, and the audience would obviously side with him over Poe.

Connor's proposal that would fix all of our problems
(not just with this movie but all the problems in our lives):

  • What if instead of the Holdo maneuver it was the Jar Jar maneuver? Referenced: Laura Roslin, education secretary, from "Battlestar Galactica".
    • Except it wouldn't be a heroic act, it would be an accident, kind of like his "heroism" at the Battle of Naboo.
  • Whatever larger arc George Lucas had planned for Jar Jar was canceled due to bad fan reception; what if he had a heroic death?
    • All the Prequel plot threads are basically wrapped up at the end of Episode 3 and any characters who are still alive survive because they show up in Episode 4 except for Jar Jar.
    • Jar Jar should have his own redeeming "Mandalorian series" moment. Or his Logan (which Alex saw and thinks was pretty good).
  • Pete's theory that you should invest heavily in Jar Jar.
  • The generational differences between people who were young when the Prequels came out, and people who were older.
  • Public domain Jar Jar.

More notes

  • According to the commentary, director Rian Johnson intentionally added in different Resistance generals who gave off a completely different vibe than the "old white guy" vibe from the Original Trilogy.
    • The fan complaint that Admiral Holdo does not seem "admiralish" and doesn't demand your respect as an audience member was a conscious choice. It's a feature, not a bug.
      • The fact that she is very different, not just from the other male commanding officers but also from the other two females we've seen in command is intentional and designed to throw you off.
    • Critics of these movies tend to pick and choose where they lose their suspension of disbelief.
  • More Holdo chat the rest of the week.
  • Follow SWM and our guests on Twitter:

Meta Minute

  • 31:34 podcast episode length.
  • According to Cambridge dictionary, to 'bigfoot' someone is "to get much more attention than something or someone, or to take control of a situation instead of someone else, because of being very strong, powerful, or important"[1].
  • Both Alex and Pete go for the "It is a period of civil war" joke at the same time.
  • Admiral Ackbar had just 14 lines of dialog in ROTJ (totaling 209 words), and only 3:30 across all of his appearances. By contrast, Holdo's briefing here in this minute is 78 words long, but she gets in another 70 words speaking to Poe in the following minute.

Quotes

  • Griffin: I'm doing some light "Nien toggling" here.
  • Pete: Mickey Mouse for Jar Jar. That's fair.
  • Pete: (paraphrasing the people who would rather have Ackbar than Laura Dern) Yeah let's take lines away from that Academy award-winning actress and give them to a puppet.

Link

Audio only
https://www.starwarsminute.com/2021/03/23/last-jedi-minute-37-the-jar-jar-maneuver/
Video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=d4nh64aItR0

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