Give Me Those Star Wars 9: The Universe Not Taken

Ryan Daly welcomes Angela Drew to debate whether advancing the Star Wars saga 30 years for THE FORCE AWAKENS was the right call, or if Lucasfilm should have kept the focus on young Luke, Leia, and Han. Also, do reports of significant reshoots spell doom for ROGUE ONE?

  • Introduction begins at 0:00:40
  • Star Wars Current Events (potential spoilers) begins at 0:03:50
  • The Force Awakens vs. the Expanded Universe begins at 0:10:34
  • Galactic Questionnaire with Angela Drew begins at 0:41:39

Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com.

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Music: "Star Wars Main Theme" and “End Title” by The Evil Genius Orchestra (with Ryan and Shag).

Thanks for listening, and May the Force Be With You!

7 responses to “Give Me Those Star Wars 9: The Universe Not Taken

  1. OMG How come we have never from Angela before now?!?!?!?! She was totally awesome!!! Wrong most of the time but awesome 😛 joking, joking. I think Angela is making comparisons between Force Awakens and the whole of the original trilogy like you said Ryan. If you look at A New Hope next to Force Awakens you have no greater understanding of what the jedi order or what the Republic were then you do about the New Republic or Luke’s failed attempt at restarting the Jedi Order. In A New Hope Obi-wan gives his little speech to Luke at his house and then Tarkin tells us the Republic has been swept away and that’s about it.

    I really liked Angela’s thoughts on Leah story. I don’t agree with Ryan that Leia’s story was done at the end of Jedi. The story is totally fixated on Luke’s journey of discovering who he is and coming to terms with Vader being his father. There is nothing told from Leia’s perspective. The most shocking revelation the movie gives you is that Luke is her brother and it just leaves it there. Not until you get to those novels and thank you Angela, I had totally forgotten but the Noghri. This is a brilliant telling of Leia having to come to terms with the fact that Vader was her father as well and that she is a SKYWALKER! She is able to use the force as well. Something which the cinematic universe has now locked us into a version of Leia where it APPEARS has chosen not to try and learn the ways of the force with no explanation as to why.

    Which leads into the main topic of this ep. Whether jumping so far forward in “time” was the right move. Before listening to this ep I hadn’t really considered it. But after listening to Angela, I’m on her side. There is so much that’s happened between Jedi and Force Awakens and we won’t see any of it, unless like Ryan said we get ep 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 LOL so hard at that comment. I think this was done so we could have characters like Rey, not knowing who she is or where she fits in. But it leaves the same size holes that A New Hope did in where did these characters come from and how did they get there, another reason why so many people were annoyed and claiming Force Awakens was A New Hope 2.0. I want to see Luke trying to restart the Order, I want to see why Leia decided not to train to be a Jedi (probably to remain in a more political role considering the power vaccuum left by the empire but that could have been her dark side struggle gaahh lost opportunities), the rebuilding of the republic. But all in all I guess these points could be covered in eps 8 and 9.

    A truly great ep Ryan and Angela cant come back soon enough. But is it a concedence that the first female guest is also the first guest to go outside the bounds of the questionnaire?? No Angela you can’t have the Endor speeder-bikes because they weren’t an option!! There I said it, let slip the dogs of war!!

  2. Finally…another F&W host gets his …opinions busted on air by his significant other. I no longer feel alone.

    Seriously, I smell a Super Mates/Give Me Those Star Wars Couples Night episode on the horizon. We’ll bring the dip. You guys bring the chips.

    Angela was a real hoot, and despite my disagreeing with much of what she said, I can definitely see where she is coming from. Put me in the camp that thinks that the original film didn’t give us any more back story or character depth than Force Awakens. I think the sequels, and especially the years of other media (comics, novels, etc) have had a cumulative effect on the original film (okay, let’s call it A New Hope) that makes us often think there is more there on screen than there really is.

    I wouldn’t mind seeing some flashbacks to the time inbetween Jedi and TFA, but with Disney’s patented deaging abilities seen in Ant-Man and Civil War, there’s really no need to recast, despite the eerie resemblance between Hamill and Stan. Although, I could go for a Luke movie WITH Stan for sure. I’d rather see that than the Han flick. And that’s because I DO agree with Angela on Luke. He’s my favorite character too. See, you’re not alone.

    Chris

  3. Uh, Ryan, you are probably going to be in Dutch with the wife: the show listing says the questionnaire with Mike Gillis appears at 0:41:39, not Angela. Better correct that before she spots it.

    I hate to tell you; but, I’m pretty much with Angela on Force Awakens. Leaving aside the complete rehash of the plot of Star Wars, I didn’t really feel like I got to know the new characters. Also, I would have liked to have seen something like the Thrawn Trilogy. I’ve always argued that destroying the second Death Star wouldn’t bring an end to the Empire. Sure, the Emperor is gone, and a significant portion of the Imperial fleet. however, there is no way the number of ships we saw was everything. You couldn’t control the galaxy with a fleet that small. There had to be other forces. We saw in Tarkin that the regional governors had tremendous power. We’d see battles between them, for control of the Empire. We’d see the Rebels push their advantage. That was at the heart of the Thrawn stories. The Rebels retook Coruscant and controlled the central; but, Thrawn controlled a significant portion of territory and was making life hell for the New Republic.

    I do want new characters; but, i also want to see the originals finish their personal stories. That’s what got me to pick up Zahn’s book, when I first saw Heir to the Empire in a bookstore (in hardcover, upon release). Apart from Splinter of the Mind’s Eye and the last of the Han Solo boooks, I hadn’t picked up the previous Star Wars novels (not counting the film novelizations). I stopped reading the Marvel comic after issue 50. It was spinning its wheels until Jedi; then, it had nowhere to go. Zahn gave me the feeling that I had been missing, since Archie Goodwin gave up writing the Star Wars comics. It had the characters, it had new threats, it had great military battles. Subsequent books didn’t, so I stopped reading the new novels. Zahn was the only author I felt understood what made the films great, while adding something new. I was curious about the Mike Stackpole Rogue Squadron books, as I knew his writing from military reference books. I ought to pick some of those up.

    I hope the reshoots on Rogue Squadron are in service to making the best film. I like the idea of this far more than JJ Abrams retreading Star Wars. i wanted to see the Rebel military forces in action, without Luke. These guys had victories or else Vader wouldn’t have been chasing after them. That’s what I want to see. My hope is that they took cues from the great commando films of the 60s, like Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare. Star Wars did and it helps keep the tension up, allows for action; but, also some good drama. Nobody makes military films like that anymore, so sci-fi is one of the few genres that can depict that mix of drama and action, with that heroic feel; unless Marvel wisens up and does Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos (though I doubt you can make it work, after CA First Avenger made so many changes to the Howlers) or WB decides to do a Losers movie, based on the original comic, not that later thing. (Sgt Rock has to be done as serious drama).

    Meanwhile, to pull cranky old man on this, you guys had it so lucky to be able to see the Star Wars trilogy in one go or whenever you wanted on vhs or dvd. It was a loooooooooonnnnnnnggggg wait for Empire, with only Marvel and Alan Dean Foster to feed our hunger (we don’t speak of the Holiday Special). Then, it was even longer to find out what happens to Han (which pretty much killed the comic’s momentum). Why do you think we went to the theater so much to see them? I wasn’t as lucky as my cousin, who had a video disc (this was before even laser disc) player, and could watch Star Wars over and over again (though you had to flip the disc over, halfway through the movie). When I was in college, they would have marathon showings of all three films (and Jedi was only a couple of years old), on the campus film circuit. Those were big events.

    Anyway, enjoyed the episode and loved hearing Angela.

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