Empire Minute 119: Hando

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Date

June 26th, 2014

Summary

Lando sits in the pilot's seat as he talks into the comlink. Chewie busily throws a variety of switches in preparation for takeoff.

Guests

Chris Eliopoulos

Notes

Film

• Starts with Darth Vader glumly walking around after losing the Millennium Falcon after it jumps to lightspeed; ends with Luke telling Chewbacca that they'll be waiting for their signal once they find Han Solo and THAT bounty hunter.

Podcast

• Piett lives, although they're all scared to Death - except for the one guy on his iPad in the background who checks out Vader's butt as he walks by.
• What is that guy doing on his iPad?
  • Trying to beat his high score.
  • He's got a crush on Vader, so he was looking at pictures of himself in a bathing suit hoping that Vader would notice.
  • Texting with his friend about Vader and what to do.
  • Writing love messages about Vader.
• We finally get to see the rebel fleet at the rendezvous point - as mentioned many years ago.
• There were late scene changes to this minute - extra spaceships were added shortly after the movie was released. This means that this movie was the very first "special edition" and this causes a major problem for Pete - he only likes the original versions of the movies. Does this mean that the podcast has to start The Empire Strikes Back from the beginning?
• The first Y-wing of the movie at the 119 minute mark. Y-wings are also at the end of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. Y-wings are like dessert; they always appear at the end of the movies.
• Showing a fleet of spaceships was inspired by Battlestar Galactica.
• The Falcon is docked to another spaceship via "the Lando tube". Shouldn't a freighter have a better way of docking than via a narrow tube? It looks very flimsy and awkward.
• Can the medical frigate land anywhere? Maybe on/in water somehow.
• Referenced: Single White Female.
  • Lando raids Han's closet for clothes, and starts calling Leia "princess" and saying it wasn't his fault. He wants to be Han.
  • Lando is trying to create a new persona for himself - this is Hando.
  • Eventually he'll just start calling himself Han and everyone will forget about the real Han Solo.
• Alex has a theory about Lando's clothes in honor of Songe Riddle (see ESB 102).
  • All the main characters in Star Wars wear white (good) or black (bad).
  • Han Solo wears black AND white because we're not sure (at the beginning at least) if he's a good guy or not.
  • Lando is now wearing black AND white because we're not sure of his good guy / bad guy status.
• The rebels replaced Han and accepted Lando almost immediately. What would have happened if Han died?
• Even when Luke is wearing black in Return of the Jedi he has a white t-shirt on underneath - so he's still a good guy.
• Luke has just got to the first rendezvous point and is now talking about the next rendezvous point, He is the "boy who called rendezvous point".
• This is also the second time that he's been in the hospital in the movie. He's not a very good Jedi and has frequent visitor points with 2-1B.
• Luke pronounces Tatooine in a strange way. Something like tah-tuh-eene.

ExpandChris's The Empire Strikes Back memories.

 He was 12 years old when he saw it for the first time and was therefore 9 years old when he saw A New Hope.
 The perfect Star Wars age - prefect for all Lucas / Spielberg movies.
 He was dying to see the movie but, like most Star Wars fans, he had no friends so he had to wait until his father would take him.
 His sister went to see it first with her friends.
 He was standing in the drive way when she came back from the movie.
 She ran up and said <sic> "Oh my god, oh my god, Darth Vader is Luke's father and he cuts his hand off" and then ran inside.
 He was left standing there with a toy in his hand staring off into the distance in total disbelief.
 Because of this, when he finally went to see the movie he was a nervous wreck for the whole time.
 He was denying that Vader was Luke's father.
 He literally jumped out of his seat when the music started at the beginning of the movie.
 He therefore didn't really enjoy it the first time and had to go and see it again (and again and again).
 Seeing the movie with your own father makes you look at him differently.
 Chris would walk around with his hands under his armpits "just in case".
 Alex points out that it is strange that everyone focuses on the father aspect rather than the "cutting off his son's hand" aspect.
 Luke's hand being cut off was a very different scene for a movie of the time.
 Alex asks was it better that his sister spoiled it or would the shock have been better?
 Chris says it definitely would have been better NOT to have it spoiled.
 He was worried about Luke losing his hand in every scene of the movie.

• Support the Show.

Meta Minute

• 21:43 podcast episode length.
• Cold-open: Support the Show; starwarsminute.com/donate.
• Good luck spelling Eliopoulos.
• The iPad guy who checks out Vader's butt is named Chief Retwin, which is a Lucasian anagram.
• Chris has officially done work for Lucasfilm - various comics.
• Thanks to, and from, Chris for the episode.

Quotes

• Pete: <In a cool Lando voice> Remember that time we blew up The Death Star?
• Pete: <During the outro as Alex says "...here on the..."> 8-DAY-GREEDO.

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2014/06/26/empire-minute-119-hando/

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