Episode 98: Star Wars (part 2)

This week, Fable and the Verbivore follow up our Skywalker saga episode with a more general discussion of the Star Wars universe, creators, and storytelling.

As with any of our conversations, we acknowledge that our viewpoint is far from definitive and reflects our own preconceptions, emotional baggage, and preferences. Also, Spoiler Alert for the Skywalker saga and Rogue One.

We start off by breaking free the constructs of the Sith Vs. the Jedi conflict from the concept of the balance between the Light and Dark sides of the force. They’re not really the same thing and the stories are not necessarily a good Vs. evil parallel. In fact, the Jedi are described many times in the prequels as blind and stuck in the old ways. The point being that the history of the Jedi is complicated and nuanced, which we feel adds a lot of dimension and drama to the different beliefs and experiences of the force wielders within the stories.

In this episode, we touch on the importance of subtext in dialogue, how intriguing setups also need satisfying endings, and how by having characters redefine concepts across the stories we get a more layered view of this world. We believe that the best thing about Star Wars is it means so many different things to each individual person and there is never one absolute right explanation - which means we each leave it taking away something unique.

We also talk about what characters we’d like to see more of, what stories we hope are explored in the future, and touch briefly on new additions to the cannon such as The Mandalorian as well as the upcoming Cassian Andor and Ahsoka TV series on Disney Plus.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our adventure into the world of Star Wars and may the force by with you. Always!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Fable mentioned the hero’s journey as part of this episode. Here’s a good description from Reedsy:

The Verbivore consulted many resources while prepping for this episode, including the following:

The Verbivore references that the Jedi peacekeepers appear to be stagnating in the prequels and stuck in their rules to the point that they’re losing touch with the force. There are several lines that allude to their blindness and growing weakness, but the major one is where Mace Windu states in “Attack of the Clones” that their connection with the force is waning.

The Verbivore references the 1970s Star Wars Christmas Special. If you haven’t seen it, we definitely don’t recommend that you do. That’s time you can never get back. :-) But, what we do recommend is the 2020 Lego Star Wars Holiday Special on Disney Plus. https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/lego-star-wars-holiday-special/22xf1U47vVe0

The Verbivore mentions that she thinks that at the end of The Rise of Skywalker Rey’s yellow lightsaber and her overall path in the force could point to her being more like a Gray Jedi. Here is a Wookiepedia article on some of what that could mean:

Movies Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Bethany Stedman