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May 9, 2023 • 13 mins

Ming Na Wen's Fennec Shand is a Star Wars fan favorite bounty hunter and assassin. We uncover some of her past.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm welcome to Stephan never told any prediction of iHeart Radio,
and welcome to another sub sub sub sub sub.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Segment of fictional women around the world.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Leave. There will be two for me this month, because
that is our May tradition.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
This is the May tradition.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
It is, and yes, we are talking about a Star
Wars character. Today is May the fourth, as we record it.
I've been having the time of my life. Unfortunately though
I actually, I mean unfortunately, I actually have a job,
so I can't just read fan fiction and buy all

(00:52):
the stuff I don't need that's on sale today as
I my heart's desires.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
But just bust Christina's ear drums.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
All right, These people are like, are you celebrating? And
I was like, I mean I would, but I got
this job.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'd be talking about Star Wars on Yes, I love
my job.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Please, but it has been hard. It's been temptation all day,
all day, Yes, all day. I woke up early. I've
already watched one of the movies. Oh wow, oh for tonight, okay,
oh yeah, because we're going to see Empire Strikes Back
in theaters tonight. I may or May not have already
watched The Fire Strikes back today. I've got a system,
I've got a plan. So today we're talking about Finnic

(01:38):
shand standard disclaimer about canon. This one's actually not as
complicated because she's a newer character. But Star Wars canon
is messy. It's gone through several revisions, it's gone through
several red cons, which I realized. I use that word
a lot, and I don't explain it. It's it's basically
when people go back and change a storyline to make

(01:58):
it make sense, they retroactive change.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
And also there will be spoilers for I guess.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
The Mandalarian bad Batch and the Book of Boba Fett,
which I mentioned recently. I was going to talk about
a show I didn't like.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
This is it.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
I really did not like. I really really didn't. I'm
like underplaying how much I didn't like it. And it
is pretty rare for me to dislike something in the
Star Wars universe as much as I disliked it. Because
I have a pretty forgiving limit. I will defend things
I don't even like that much, but I'll be like, okay,
but once you pass it, you passed it, and this

(02:37):
one did me. I was literally like a show somebody
made too specifically piss me off. However, it has nothing
to do with Finnick, who I think is one of
the best parts of the show, if not the best
part of the show. And if you liked it, no
judgment at all from me, for real, I just want
to put that up.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I like there was a lot of people just not
liking it.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, but I feel like so love Ooba Fed exactly,
and I feel like that was more.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I feel like the issue of one of the big things.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
When I tell people that I didn't like it, they
always bring up certain things.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
I'm like, that had nothing to do with it.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
They're always like that guy who did the spin, and
I'm like, no, people do ridiculous spins in Star Wars
all the time.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I don't care about that.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
But I do think because that character, and I've been
pretty open about it, I never really got why people
loved him so much, but I was I was gonna
be open minded for the show, and I was excited
about like the actor, but he was never my character.
But dudes, especially, I'll say, really loved him. I think
it was a costuming thing, but whatever, I think the

(03:48):
toy was really cool. Yeah, as an outsider looking in,
I was like, why he's barely in this?

Speaker 1 (03:54):
I'm very confused about him and as a character, yes, exactly.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
So I think a lot of people were angry because
they really loved that character and then like he's not
in almost two episodes. I don't know, I get it.
But also I think there's a kind of level of
fan toxicity that is not what I'm talking about when
I say I don't like it, but I think is

(04:19):
what a lot of people were talking about.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yes, Jesse, to be clear, Jesse, to be clear, But
I did.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I loved Finnick in it, and I do love Ming
Nowen and Mark Hamill geeking out over each other.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I think that's very cute. Yeah, I love En so much.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes, yes, so yeah. Finnick Shand is portrayed by mingnaw
Win and is a human woman master assassin slash mercenary
slash bounty hunter. I love how to specify human. It
sounds so weird. But in the Star Wars universe, yeah,
she is primarily a sniper, but in general I went
with her. She was first introduced in season one, episode

(04:57):
five of The Mandalorian in twenty nineteen and would go
on to appear in the second season in the Book
of Boba Fet and in The Bad Batch. Her name
is based on the Finnic fox, which thrives in the desert,
so during the reign of the Galactic Empire, she worked
for some of the most dangerous and powerful crime syndicates.

(05:20):
She worked her way up the ranks and earned a
name for herself as a ruthless and skilled mercenary. Because
of this, she was given a lot of the most
lucrative and difficult bounties. One of her first was hunting
down the Clone Omega from The Bad Batch, who tried
to get her to join the Bad Batch before realizing

(05:42):
who shand was and why she was there. Finnick did
say that was the best offer she'd gotten a long time.
This led her to fight it out with cad Bane,
another bounty hunter who I hate, I despise, and now
I think because the cowboy hat is loosely based on
day Floy.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
You really do hate that character, like you yell at
the TV. I hate him. So when he showed up,
when he showed up mad, you were so mad. I
was furious.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
It was like one of the last dominoes of like, Okay, this.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Is sad I forgot because every time he popped w
we just get angrier.

Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, I really don't like him. I really don't like him. Again,
apologies to anyone who does. I'm not here to I'm
just saying, oh, my own opinion, and that is it.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
I will not bother you about yours. I'm funny.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
She Finnick ultimately did not succeed, but it didn't knock
her down, and she worked for other big criminal syndicates
like the Huts. When the empire and therefore most of
her employers fell, she was forced to go on the run.
She had to take less than reputable bounties where she could,
and of course she ended up on tat To Wound

(06:58):
because that's where everyone is up and is now hunted
by bounty hunters, including Din Dejarn aka the Mandalorian, who
had heard of her and hesitated on chasing after her
because he knew how deadly she was, and a new
bee named Toro Kalakan. So basically, this Toro guy was like,
who helped me out? I want to get this phoenix

(07:19):
shand and Din dejarn was like, you were new to
the game if you're going after finish, shand she put
up a really good fight because they did end up
working together Dinn and Toro, but they eventually overpowered her.
Shand attempted to convince Kalakan to turn on Dajarn, but
he shut her and left her to die, citing her

(07:40):
own advice that you can't trust anyone. After being left
for dead, she was rescued by Boba Fett, a process
that involved a lot of cybernetics. Now indebted to Boba Fett,
she joined him as his partner in crime in his
quest to become the Dimo basically the king of Tattooine
or the Mayor of Tattooine, it depends on your politics. Okay, yeah, yeah.

(08:03):
Together they go to tithe Them in search of FET's armor.
The Mandalorian had come into possession of the armor on Tatooine,
and they make a deal that they would help Mando
get his foundling Grogu back after he'd been captured by
Imperial remnants led by Moth Gideon in return for the armor.

(08:23):
Because if you have not watching, the Mandalorian armour is
very very important. Although oh gosh, people fight about whether
or not Papa Fet is Mandalorian, but it was his
father's armor and it was important to him.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
So once session was successful, Bennick and Fet returned to
Tatooine and they take control of Job of the Hut's
former palace by killing Bid Fortuna, who's in return of
the Jedi. Vet tells Finnik that he intends to rule
with respect, to which Fenix says, sometimes fear is a
sure bit and it isn't smooth sailing at all. There

(08:58):
are a lot of folks trying to fill the vacuum
left by Jaba Antike power for themselves. A Finic and
Fet attempt to make alliances, but many of their allies
are killed by a rival group. A Finnic proved herself
time and time again to be a powerful ally in
hand to hand combat, weaponry and strategy, though she was
generally much more suspicious than Fet, Like she's always saying

(09:20):
things like the only person you can trust as yourself
is constantly playing on the fact that you can't trust others,
and yeah, that is something that did almost get her
killed that one time. Fet and her sort of balance
each other out in that way. I guess she was
pretty convincing in swaying people to serve their cause to
whe they're through words or resources or exchanges. They gather

(09:43):
their allies and go to war with the Pike Syndicates,
and with the help of pinch hitters like Mando and Grogu,
they succeed.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
And I guess Vet is ruler. I don't know that's
what it looked like.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
I so I feel like he's only for that one area,
which seems like a lot to just rule at one
part of.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
But whatever.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Well, they go on this mission to Blackspire Outpost take
out any stragglers of the syndicate.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
And yes, Blackspire Outposts.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Being Disney World essentially where you go and I think
you can see Finix Shand and Boba Fett as character
encounters there. But yes, they go there and they find
more people to join them. Though her debt to Fete
was a long repaid, she decided to stick with him.

(10:46):
I wanted to put this note about the now Win
stunt doubles because I found a lot of stuff about
that about that. So she has two There's Laura and
Mary Kim, who does several Star Wars characters, actually not
just Phinick shand and then there's ming Cho and here's
a quote about her, and I had an incredible stunt
double ming Cho. She's a WU shoe master and I've

(11:07):
been with her for over ten years now and she's
been my trainer, my confidant, my ballbuster. I love her
to death and definitely, you know, she's my incredible mentor
my sense So I just love that. And then this
is a snippet from an interview from like a preview
of an interview that she did for Star Wars dot Com.
I think and that the snippet said about mcnowen. She

(11:31):
talks about seeing Luke Skywalker on the big screen and
identifying with him, her and Dave Filoni being from the
same town and going to the same high school, which
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Interesting.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yes, And I found a really interesting article about the trope,
about the trope of a man literally fixing a woman,
like molding her out of clay or what have you,
and how Finnick's story subverts that in a lot of
ways because she's not portrayed as a sex doll, which
is usually what they're doing, and she wears combat friendly,
useful attire. She isn't romantically involved with Fet, I'll put

(12:05):
yet in here, but that didn't seem like it was gonna.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Happen, and that'd be weird. No, it would be, but
you never know.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
And Fet saved her because he respected her skills and
wanted her help, so kind of it was interesting.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
It was an interesting article about that.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
And then I will say with this character, and with
a lot of the newer women characters especially that have
been introduced, it was a lot written about the importance
of costuming in terms of you know, this is actually
like a useful an outfit you would wear if you
were a bounty hunter as opposed to like the sexy
whatever not useful thing. Yes, yeah, so I think that

(12:43):
that is really interesting and people love this costume. There
was a lot of breakdowns about the costume. So yes,
very cool, very cool, and I'm sure Finnik will be around.
We'll see what happens, what happens next, what she gets
into next. But for now, that is the end of
this fictional.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Women around the World. But if you have any.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Suggestions for other people we should highlight, please let us know.
You can email us a Stepani your mom stuff at
iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on Twitter at
mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at Stuffman
Never Told You. You can also find us on YouTube,
and we have a book you can pre order at
stuff you should read books dot com. Thanks as always
to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and

(13:25):
our contributor Joey. Thank y'all, yes, and thanks to you
for listening. Stefan Never Told You is projection of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
out the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or where you
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