Last Jedi Minute 51: The Seaweed Hole

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Date

April 12th, 2021

Summary

Ralph Attanasia proves himself to be the kind of guest commentator we knead to talk about Rey being whisked away by the dark side!

Guests

Ralph Attanasia

Notes

Film

  • Starts with Rey saying "...that same force" and ends with Luke saying "You went straight..."

Podcast

  • Ralph has a very complicated relationship with this movie:
Hermit Luke is some of his favorite stuff about the movie.
In some ways this movie is his favorite of the Sequel Trilogy movies. It has some very mature ideas that are also in line with Ralph's personal philosophy and politics.
The Original Trilogy was steeped in the classic dualism: light and dark, but in the Prequels it works less well because the Dark Side is fueled by many things that aren't inherently bad like extreme emotion (which would include things like extreme joy and attachment to people).
 It makes the Jedi feel very gray, but like in a careless way. It seems like the filmmakers had a limited understanding of what made Star Wars good.
 This movie acknowledges that balance is necessary and not in the way that Anakin was prophesied to bring balance to the Force. 
  • Pete's definition of "balancing" the Force.
  • "To say that if the Jedi die, the Light dies is vanity".
    • In some ways this parallels Martin Luther breaking from the Catholic Church where the Catholic Church thought it had a monopoly on salvation.
  • Yoda as the high school bully and Luke as the nerd being picked on by Yoda.
  • The Prequels introduced midi-chlorians and Return of the Jedi gave us the idea that the Force was all about bloodlines, then TFA and TLJ opened it back up again.
    • The Force belongs to everybody and even "Rey from nowhere" can learn the Force. Mentioned: Shaolin Soccer and Kung-Fu Hustle .
    • Ralph thought this is where the saga was going, but no.
      • There's no reason why everybody shouldn't be able to tap into the Force.
  • John Williams is earning his pay this minute.
  • Rey is called to the dark, to the seaweed hole.
  • On this island, the Jedi are represented by a tree and the Sith by a [very wet] hole.
    • Phallic and yonic symbols.
    • Mentioned: the magic tree and an the evil cave at Yoda's house.
      • Balance, and building Jedi temples on top of ruined Sith temples.
  • Anakin and Luke had years of training before they were tempted by the Dark Side, but went there immediately. This means Luke must be a terrible Jedi teacher.
    • He's not the best but he is the only one.
  • John Williams praise
  • The physical reality of the seaweed hole.
  • The reverse shot of water in-soaking Rey. Callback to the Native Tatooiner shaking his gaffi stick in Star Wars.
    • The cave hallucination in Empire also stretched the visual language of Star Wars.
    • But what is up with the water?
    • The visual trick played by the trailer that makes Rey look like a giant for a second there.
      • Referenced: the "Bigger Luke" theory.
  • There are very few giant characters in Star Wars.
  • Luke's lightsaber being like a bad penny that always turns up. Mentioned: all the other people who the lightsaber belonged to.
    • Referenced: Dothraki (Game of Thrones) [Petronaki] Arena.
  • Ralph is okay with Luke not wanting the lightsaber, but the way he throws it back is [ma]clunk[e]y and it speaks to the film's tonal inconsistency.
    • Rian Johnson goes all in on the jokes and not all of them land.
    • Thematically it's a great addition to the Skywalker/Star Wars saga, but as a piece of entertainment, it can be frustratingly disjointed.
    • We all love the Luke-Rey-Snoke stuff, but then we cut back to Canto Bight.
      • It's not that we don't like it, it's that we don't like it in this movie; it feels more "Return of the Jedi".
  • This episode of the show was great for clearing the air about thoughts surrounding this movie, we'll get deeper into the actual minutes tomorrow.
  • Mentioned: "You Can't Do That on Television".
  • Plug for the Patreon.

Meta Minute

  • 29:02 podcast episode length.
  • Prior to now, Ralph's most recent appearance was on SWM:WE in November of 2020. His latest appearance on the main show was for The Force Awakens Minute.
    • The baking puns in the episode summary are a reference to Ralph's job as a bakery sculptor.
  • Alex is wearing a Greedo print shirt that was featured during SWM:WE episode 98.
  • The Bendu was voiced by Tom Baker who is most famous for playing the 4th Doctor on "Doctor Who".
    • Although his height is not stated anywhere in Wookieepedia (we checked), using this image of Kanan and Ezra with the Bendu on Atollon, we can estimate that he must have been somewhere between 4.5 and 6.5 m (~13–21 ft) at the top of his head, although he does kind of hunch over and if he were to stand with better posture he might be another 4 or 5 feet taller.

Quotes

  • Ralph: <angrily> I'm just going to red lightsaber some [S-wing] right now!
  • Pete: Famous Original Rey's cave hallucination. Ralph: <in awe> Wow, good joke. Pete's a [pizza] real joker.

Links

Audio only
http://www.starwarsminute.com/2021/04/12/last-jedi-minute-51-the-seaweed-hole
Video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6ldi6wHl0VI

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