Ben Adams, Matthew Belinkie, Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather continue to overthink Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. They turn their attention to extra-narrative concerns, focusing on the consequential initial shots in Star Wars films, problems of interstellar distance and communication, Rogue One‘s commentary on our own world, and how well fans are actually served by fan service.
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Please reference Goldeneye as much as possible. That holds weight with me; not only for the video game, but for the first time I saw Sean Bean betray someone and die in a film. He would later do the same thing in Fellowship of the Rings as Boromir, which is also referenced in this film.
One random thing I was thinking about while watching this movie was the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam (MSG) and its universe, which had some interesting parallels. Prior to Gundam, giant robot anime were focused on stories about exceptional or unique robots who fought to save the world against evil, akin to a super hero story. That genre is called “Super Robot” now, stuff like Mazinger, Getter, etc. MSG was the first “Real Robot” series, which treated the giant robots as tools of war, with needs like ammunition and maintenance and characters who were soldiers. Rogue One is in a similar vein breaking away from the more simplistic morality of the numbered Star Wars movies.
Granted, it’s a bit of a stretch, but given the influence of Japanese media on Star Wars that was mentioned it wouldn’t be shocking to me if somebody on the production team was aware of this (especially with Gareth Edwards having directed Godzilla).
“He doesn’t like you!”
“Sorry”
“I don’t like you either! You watch yourself, we’re wanted men! I have the death sentence on 12 systems!”
“I’ll be careful.”
“You’ll be dead!”
“This little one’s not worth the trouble.”
“EEEEAAAAHHHHH!”
Best Star Wars quote ever! (Anytime someone says they don’t like something, jump in with ‘I don’t like you either…’)
Ponda Baba’s having a hell of a week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qc6zfoxlJU
And because the Empire doesn’t invest in a social safety net, the poor guy now is out of work and without any disability benefits.
It’s okay, Bob Goldstein’s on the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXkxrb7fj3Q
Hi Matt,
I finally decided to comment about something I have been meaning to say for years… yes, years…. Matthew, please stop repeating yourself.
I don’t write this in a mean way, as an insult, I know it’s a vocal tic, but it is something you should work on because it’s driving me and many others batshit crazy.
A typical example of your speech across like this: “The reason that the drape is purple… [rushing through it, then a pause as you think]… the reason the drape is purple… [slower, allowing more time for you to think]… a purple drape is like the purple people eater, you know the…[continues speaking]”
It’s not just an occasional event, it’s a fundamental rhetorical tactic. It happens most often in response to a question, when put in the spotlight. i.e. “Why are spiderman’s webs so sticky Matt?” A: “Spiderman’s webs… Spiderman’s webs are sticky… they are sticky because… Spiderman’s webs are sticky because [insert masterbation joke] ” etc. It sounds like I’m overdoing it, but I’m really not. Grab any podcast, tally up the repetitions & repeats, and you will be shocked at the totals.
The solution, of course, is NOT to speak before you have an idea of what you want to say. Do not repeat words to give yourself time to think. It’s perfectly fine, in fact intensely less annoying to pause, say “hmmmm good question” and carefully formulate something sensible before speaking. I don’t mean the entire sentence, just a bit of time to get your bearings. I honestly think that inserting pauses will actually increase the speed of your speech: repeating so much slows everything down amazingly. You are not doing yourself or anyone else any favors.
These repetitions also increase when you get excited. When you are excited and on the spot — that’s a freakshow of horror. I have heard you repeat the same sentence, verbatim, 3 times, and stutter out a few additional repeated words before saying something new.
Don’t throat-clear by throwing meaningless words at us. We heard the question. We know the subject. We don’t need to hear it 2-4 more times. Just a head’s up.
It’s really a shocking issue. Once you start to get bothered by it, it nearly renders the podcast unlisteneable. And I know I’m not the only one.
Anyway, yeah. Plus I thought it was a bit weasilly how nobody really wanted to “criticize” Rogue One, i.e. talk about its manifest weaknesses. Sure there were some? Any? At all? Taking pop culture seriously doesn’t mean holding back your punches does it?
Take care, sorry for the lecture, it’s just causing my ears to bleed.
I believe repeating the same question over and over again is called Jack Bauering, but only if you ask the question louder the second time around