Tag Darth Vader
Catching Up With The Mandalorian – “Chapter 7: The Reckoning”
SERIES: The Mandalorian
EPISODE: S1:E7 – “Chapter 7: The Reckoning”
STARRING: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog, Nick Nolte (voice)
WRITER: Jon Favreau
DIRECTOR: Deborah Chow
PREMIERE DATE: December 18, 2019
SYNOPSIS: The Mandalorian recruits help to take down his former client.
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By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
The objective in this episode is to neutralize Mando’s former client, played by Werner Herzog, thus ensuring the safety of the child. Herzog’s character is only known as “the client.” He gets no name, no backstory details, nothin’. That’s not to say we need a lot in that sense for this character. He shows up, serves his purpose, and exits at the natural time. The fact that (and the way that) Werner Herzog plays him is enough to make him memorable. It would just be nice to have something to call him other than “the client.”
Even years later, I can’t decide if it’s a little too convenient that the people Mando recruits for the mission just happen to be the ones he’s recently met during the events of the show. Obviously I get it in the sense that they’re telling a story, and it might be a little late in the season to be introducing new allies. It just feels a little, well…convenient. You’d think he’d have some other contacts or comrades, not unlike the lot we met in “The Prisoner.”
After picking up Cara Dune, they travel to Arvala-7 to meet with Kuiil. When he sees the child, Kuiil remarks, “It hasn’t grown much.” How much time has passed since the last time these two saw each other? A few months, maybe? How much did Kuiil expect the kid to have grown?
We see Kuiil has repurposed IG-11 as a sort of butler/protector. It definitely makes sense that someone as small as Kuiil would want a guardian of sorts. He’s apparently very resourceful, but doesn’t seem like a fighter.
Mando and Cara pass time aboard the ship by arm-wrestling. Even with a Force-powered little goblin on my side, I don’t think you could pay me to wrestle Gina Carano. I base that purely on the size of her arms compared to mine…
Nice little monologue by Werner Herzog’s character about what life was like under Imperial rule as opposed to what things have been like since “the revolution.” Great insight into his character, his privilege, and his justification for the horrors of the Empire.
We meet Moff Gideon in this episode, played by Giancarlo Esposito. I mention this in a future review, but I’ll say it here too: Moff Gideon really wants to be Darth Vader. He’s got the black armor, the cape, his own personal TIE fighter. I wouldn’t be shocked to see he had a black helmet laying around somewhere.
In our final shot of the episode, we see that the speeder bike troopers have killed Kuiil and taken the child. Kind of a shame to see Kuiil go. But like the client, he arrived and left the story very naturally, and was memorable in his own right. I couldn’t have asked for much more from him.
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George Lucas on Star Wars: The Old Man and the Machine
***Think what you will about George Lucas, but in terms of Star Wars, it can all be traced back to him. That’s why I always find it so interesting to listen to him talk about it. His creative process, the reason certain decisions were made, and how these movies became the pop cultural staples they are. This space is dedicated to just that. This is “George Lucas on Star Wars.”***
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By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
The Scene: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader prepare to duel with lightsabers aboard the Death Star.
George Lucas Says (Via The Birth of the Lightsaber featurette): “In the beginning, the first film, Episode IV, it was a fight between a very old man and a man who was only partially a man, mostly a mechanical being. So it really wasn’t much of a sword fight at all. … As we went on, we wanted to have the lightsaber fights become faster and more intense as Luke became more proficient in the art of sword fighting.”
I Say: I’ve heard George talk about this a number of times over the years. It works fine as an in-story explanation of why there are no acrobatics or fancy sword fighting moves in A New Hope. But if Star Wars had been made in the prequel era, i.e. the late ’90s and early 2000s, you’ve got to know that Obi-Wan would have been doing all sorts of wild stunts. Remember that Count Dooku, who can’t be that far removed from Obi-Wan in terms of age, does a somersault off a balcony in Revenge of the Sith for no apparent reason.
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
George Lucas on Star Wars: General Grievous and Darth Vader
***Think what you will about George Lucas, but in terms of Star Wars, it can all be traced back to him. That’s why I always find it so interesting to listen to him talk about it. His creative process, the reason certain decisions were made, and how these movies became the pop cultural staples they are. This space is dedicated to just that. This is “George Lucas on Star Wars.”***
***New around here? Check out Primary Ignition‘s “George Lucas on Star Wars” archive!***
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
The Scene: General Grievous, leader of the Separatist droid army, enters the film.
George Lucas Says (via the Revenge of the Sith commentary track): “With General Grievous, I wanted somebody who was reminiscent … of what Anakin is going to become, which is a half-man, half-robot. In this case, Grievous is sort of 20 percent alien, 80 percent robot. … It echoes what is about to occur with Anakin, as a part machine, part life form.”
I say: George Lucas does love his echoes, doesn’t he? I remember thinking this idea of Grievous sort of foreshadowing what happens to Anakin when he becomes Darth Vader was pretty cool. If nothing else, it shows that Darth Sidious’ forces had become somewhat proficient in creating cyborgs out of critically wounded beings. So, in a way, Grievous also lays the groundwork for Anakin’s transformation later in the film.
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Toy Chest Theater: Darth Vader by Tanner Scott Mielken
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
So would this be…an inverted parody?
More than three decades after its release, Spaceballs remains the definitive Star Wars parody. Frankly, it’s not even a close race. Most of us who’ve seen the movie no doubt recall the moment when Colonel Sandurz (played by George Wyner) walks in on Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) playing with his dolls. Personally, I’d call them action figures. But that’s neither here nor there…
In this image, Tanner Scott Mielken takes that scene from a Spaceballs and flips it on its head, using the character that’s actually being parodied to parody that parody. Make sense?
It doesn’t hurt that it’s funny just to see Darth Vader playing with dolls. So even if you haven’t seen Spaceballs, it works.
Incidentally, if you haven’t seen Spaceballs then run, do not walk, and find it. I’ll even help you: You can stream it for free on YouTube.
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
George Lucas on Star Wars: Reading Emotion into a Robot
***Think what you will about George Lucas, but in terms of Star Wars, it can all be traced back to him. That’s why I always find it so interesting to listen to him talk about it. His creative process, the reason certain decisions were made, and how these movies became the pop cultural staples they are. This space is dedicated to just that. This is “George Lucas on Star Wars.”***
***New around here? Check out Primary Ignition‘s “George Lucas on Star Wars” archive!***
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
The Scene: C-3PO enters the film alongside R2-D2.
George Lucas Says: “One of the very difficult things about creating Threepio is that I needed to create a face that was absolutely neutral, that I could then read into whatever emotion it was that was being put forth in the scene. I had a sculptress come in and do a series of heads to to get to a head that was absolutely neutral and had no emotion on it whatsoever. I wanted all the reactions to be from the environment and the story around it so that if he was happy you would read happiness into his face. If he was sad you would read sadness into his face, and it wouldn’t be distorted at all by the physical configuration of his face.”
I Say: The whole “read emotion into the face” principle doesn’t just apply to Threepio. It also applies to Darth Vader. Case in point: The moments prior to Vader’s unmasking in Return of the Jedi, as he’s telling Luke he wants to “look on you with my own eyes.” We’re reading things like love and compassion into Vader’s mask, which is a stark contrast to what we’ve read into it previously.
To an extent, it also applies to R2-D2 and other robot characters. I suppose that’s what happens when your robots have so many feelings…
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
Epic Covers: Star Wars: Darth Vader #28 by Rahzzah
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
They’ve been doing a long-term storyline in Star Wars: Darth Vader where Vader teams up with one of Padme’s former handmaidens, Sabe. While I can’t say I’ve been following along, this cover for today’s issue by Rahzzah caught my attention. The Emperor tends to have that effect, doesn’t he?
This cover has a lot going for it. The blocking is wonderful, placing Palpatine behind Sabe with his hand on her shoulder, like he’s a vampire or some undead creature reaching for her. The detailed fashion in which Rahzzah renders his face certainly accentuates that idea. Along those same lines, Sabe looks just like Natalie Portman. That might actually be the one thing I dislike about the image, as Sabe was played by Keira Knightley in The Phantom Menace. Do they not have the rights to her likeness?
Then you have the obvious color contrast between the two characters. Palpatine is in black, while Sabe is all in white. Good and evil, etc. The red background also gives the image a certain intensity. Of course, it helps that red is synonymous with the Sith in Star Wars.
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George Lucas on Star Wars: The Rule of Two
***Think what you will about George Lucas, but in terms of Star Wars, it can all be traced back to him. That’s why I always find it so interesting to listen to him talk about it. His creative process, the reason certain decisions were made, and how these movies became the pop cultural staples they are. This space is dedicated to just that. This is “George Lucas on Star Wars.”***
***New around here? Check out Primary Ignition‘s “George Lucas on Star Wars” archive!***
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
The Scene: Count Dooku asks the captured Obi-Wan Kenobi to join him against Darth Sidious. Obi-Wan refuses.
George Lucas Says (via the Attack of the Clones commentary track): “I was able to get in this little thing of, you put two Sith together, and they try to get others to join them to get rid of the other Sith. So Dooku’s ambition here is really to get rid of Darth Sidious, and he’s trying to get Obi-Wan’s assistance in that. … So that he and Obi-Wan can overthrow Sidious and take over. And it’s exactly the same scene as when Darth Vader does it with Luke to try and get rid of Sidious [in The Empire Strikes Back]. So whenever you get too many people together with these Sith Lords, they all gang up and they all try to get rid of the strongest one. … So the one facet of the Sith reality is that they’re constantly plotting against each other, and therefore there can’t be more than two of them at any time.”
I Say: One of the recurring elements in Star Wars is greed and a lust for power. It’s most plainly on display with the Sith’s “Rule of Two.” Whether you’re talking about Sidious and Dooku, the Emperor and Vader, or Snoke and Kylo Ren in the later films, you always have two individuals who are so hungry for power that their partnership is inevitably doomed from the start. I’ve always felt there’s a truth to this notion as far as the nature of evil is concerned. No matter how long you can make it lasts, it’s destined for self destruction.
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
George Lucas on Star Wars: Threepio’s Humanity vs. Vader’s Humanity
***Think what you will about George Lucas, but in terms of Star Wars, it can all be traced back to him. That’s why I always find it so interesting to listen to him talk about it. His creative process, the reason certain decisions were made, and how these movies became the pop cultural staples they are. This space is dedicated to just that. This is “George Lucas on Star Wars.”***
***New around here? Check out Primary Ignition‘s “George Lucas on Star Wars” archive!***
By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder
The Scene: After a sarcastic interaction with Han Solo, C-3PO says, “Sometimes I just don’t understand human behavior!”
George Lucas Says (via the “Characters of Star Wars” featurette): “Part of the fun of Threepio is he has no soul. He is programmed to think a particular way and be compassionate, but he doesn’t really know what that means. And sometimes he gets frustrated and sometimes he has very human-like qualities, but they don’t have a central place where he can think independently. Darth Vader, on the other hand, as he becomes more mechanical, he loses more and more of his ability to even think like a human.”
I Say: The notion that Vader is losing his ability to even think like a human being is compelling. In contrast, Threepio is, in many ways, trying to discover his own humanity. There’s an interesting dichotomy there when you consider that Darth Vader built C-3PO. As the movies go on, the human being starts to become less human and more robotic, while the robot starts to gain his humanity.
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
The Essential Clone Wars: “The Gathering”
***I must confess that, despite being a huge Star Wars geek, I have yet to see the landmark Clone Wars animated show in its entirety. I’m aiming to rectify that to a large extent here, as we look at pivotal episodes of the series in, “The Essential Clone Wars.”
SERIES: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
EPISODE: S5:E6 – “The Gathering”
WITH THE VOICE TALENTS OF: Olivia Hack, Jeff Fischer, Greg Cipes, Georgina Cordova, Dee Bradley Baker
WRITER: Christian Taylor
DIRECTOR: Kyle Dunlevy
PREMIERE DATE: November 3, 2012
SYNOPSIS: A group of Younglings travel to Ilum for a Jedi rite of passage.
***New around here? Check out our Star Wars review archive!***
I was immediately disappointed when I realized the dialogue for Gungi, the young wookiee, consisted of recycled Chewbacca noises. I understand it was probably cheaper than hiring an actor to come in to grunt and growl. But at the same time, they had both Dee Bradley Baker and Tom Kane in the cast for this episode. You’re tellin’ me neither of them could fire off a decent wookiee noise? I don’t buy it.
On the subject of voice actors, I was pleasantly surprised to see Greg Cipes on the credits as the voice of Zatt. Cipes also provided the voice of Michelangelo in Nickelodeon’s 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. When you know its him, and listen intently, you can hear Mikey in Zatt’s voice.
From a writing standpoint, I can appreciate the whole “Gathering” ritual. But part of me does wish it wasn’t centered around lightsabers. The Jedi are more than just superheroes with laser swords, and there’s so much emphasis on lightsabers already. It might have been nice for them to think a little bit outside the box here.
Question: As he’s the head teacher for the Younglings, not to mention the grand master of the Jedi Order, does Yoda have to be present at all these Gathering events? If so, that seems like the kind of thing he should have pawned off on somebody else. Especially during a time of war.
This episode takes on a much different tone when you consider that most, if not all these kids were likely murdered during the events of Revenge of the Sith. Possibly by Darth Vader himself. Kind of a downer, huh?
Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.
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