Star Wars: The Force Awakens with Demi Adejuyigbe

The Force is strong with Jamie and Caitlin as they chat about Star Wars: The Force Awakens with special guest Demi Adejuyigbe!

(This episode contains spoilers)

For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast. 

Follow @electrolemon on Twitter! While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @hamburgerphone

 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the beck Dol Cast, the questions asked if movies
have women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends
and husbands, or do they have individualism the patriarchy zef
invest start changing it with the beck Del Cast. Hello
and welcome to the Bectel Cast. My name is Caitlin,
my name is Jamie, and we are here to talk
about the portrayal of women in movie as we do

(00:23):
every single every se damn week week. You're welcome every
single listeners. I today have the second day, second episode
in a row. I've elected to go for a Mike's
Harder Blood Orange. It's my new flavor. It's alcoholic tank.
Would you call it your flavor? It? I would never
say that, but as all the Mike's products are, it

(00:45):
is very bad. It's bad for you. When you tell
people you drink it, they think that you are a kidding.
So crack open on Mike's Harder Blood Orange today and
embarrass yourself in front of your friends and colleagues. Yes, yeah,
welcome to the Becktel Cast. Yeah we um if you
are like Bechtel, what could that ever be on earth? Well,
we borrowed from the Bechtel test, which is a test

(01:07):
that you apply to movies or shows or whatever, anything
with characters. Yeah, and it requires that two female characters
have names, talk to each other, and their conversation cannot
be about a man too much to ask most of
the time. Do you want to demo it really quick?
I'd love to. Okay, so we're two female characters. Hey, Jamie, Hi, Caitlin,

(01:32):
I have a question for you. Oh for sure. I
love answering questions. Yeah, great, I love asking them. Um,
have you ever seen Star Wars A New Hope episode four? Um? No,
I haven't seen that movie. I haven't seen it before.
That's interesting because we actually we did an episode about
it about a year. Yeah, that's wild. And you, if
I recall correctly, I was also very late for that.

(01:54):
You were extremely late. Yes, it was forty five minutes late,
and I had not watched the movie. Yeah, and I'm
just finding this out. So can I just say, Caitlin,
here's a character who I'm always rooting for. I love
so much. I'm sorry, and I know. I also didn't
want the Matrix and I still haven't watch The Matrix.

(02:16):
And I would encourage our listeners to go back to
those revisit those episodes and really just see a woman
at the end of her roope grasp when he gets stress,
desperately trying to participate in the conversation. Well, the funniest
thing about the Star Wars episode that you did not
watch the movie for is that you reference Princess Leiah
in a number of other episodes that we've done as

(02:38):
if like, Wow, it's just like Princess Leiah. I was
listening to what you were saying about her. She sounds
like a I mean, well, now I've seen this movie
for real, have seen the movie we're talking about today,
and she seems great. She seems great. It seems like
there's a lot of fan service done. But but I
can't be sure. Sure, we cannot be sure. Maybe one

(02:59):
day you'll go back and I'll break the Bechdel test
now to say that Harrison Ford is our worst actor,
the world's worst actor. Disagree and oh he's bad, He's
he's not great in this movie. But the name of
movie Harrison Ford is like, Wow, what a good actor.
Not just like maybe he's not versatile, maybe he only

(03:22):
plays of himself. When he's doing that, he's doing a
great job. God, he's always manipulating a woman into making
out with him, and he's bad at that. I do
want to mention um when we get into the discussion. Okay, well,
some of that conversation pass the Bechdel tests, so I
feel good about that until I had to really abuse

(03:42):
Harrison Ford. Well, without much further ado, I think we
should introduce our wonderful guests. You know him from Gilmore Guys.
He's written for the good Place. DEMI did we be
thank you so much for being here having me. Oh
my god, we're so excited. I'm excited too. I want
to make so many Star Wars. I love this franchise.

(04:07):
That is my favorite one. So tell us about your
history with this. We're talking about the Force Awakens episodes seven.
It's been several of the y and you haven't seen
a single one except for this one, not a one. Question.
How many Star Wars movies do you think they have?
There's been eight? Is eight? Correct? Well, there's also a

(04:28):
Rogue one, which is a Star Wars, a Star Wars stories,
a Star Wars movie, but it doesn't count. It's it's
in the universe, it's it's cannon. It counts. It's like
the Tokyo drift of the franchise. It's oh see, now
we're talking a language I can speake now, okay if
it's a Tokyo okay, if that makes sense. But there's
also the Star Wars Christmas Special. I'm not sure how

(04:49):
much that counts. And there's an Ewok movie. There's like
the Great Ewok Adventure for I feel like I would
like that ans fun. I'm a big fan of e
walks and I'm a big fan of two. Now is
that polarizing? Wait, people do not really like walks. People
don't like e walks, but I think they're fine. Yeah.

(05:12):
But I'm also the one who has taken a liking
to minions, mostly because people hate minions and I'm just like,
they're fine, and then by people being like I hate them, Like, actually,
I love them. Now there's an active resistance. Sure, he
speaking of the resistance. Yeah, let's bring it back to
Star Minions are fine, there's nothing wrong with them. I agree.
My history with the Force Awakens funny enough. I feel

(05:34):
like this is like me throwing stones and glass houses,
because up until the Force Awagons came out, I had
not seen any of the Star Wars movies. Except four,
Episode three, which I only saw in feeders because everyone
was like very excited about it and I was like thirteen.
I was like, fine, I'll see what this is all about.
And I was like, yeah, I had a pretty good time.
I don't know, and then I just didn't see any
of them until for The Force Awakens humble brag. I

(05:56):
was invited to go to the premier. I was like, well,
everyone I know is going to kick my ass if
I don't see the other Star Wars movies first. So
I like buckled down and had a marathon of the
original trilogy and then I really liked it. I was like, oh,
this is a cool universe. I'm very excited. And then
I saw The Force Awakens and I was like, it's
really fun. Then I went to see it again on
Opening Night with my friends and that was the last

(06:17):
time I've seen it up until two days ago, and
I really like The Force Awakens. I like this entire
universe me to this is well, Caitlin, this is your
favorite besides Back to the Future or in terms of franchises, Yeah,
I'm a you know, back to the Future in Indiana
Jones a Star Wars classics. Those are my faith. I

(06:39):
like a series of unfortunate events. I like doubt. That's like,
that's my favorite movie. Yeah, like thirty times I've seen
so many times. Isn't the last line of that movie?
I have doubt? Follow Comma, I have such doubt. Cut
to credits. It's the greatest movie of all time. It's

(06:59):
an actor's film. It's a tone poem. There's a lot
of horny depth in Doubt. I saw this movie this morning.
I thought it was a fun romp. I enjoyed it.
I grew up. My brother and my mom were very
into Star Wars when I was growing up, and it
was like their bonding thing, and so I knew that

(07:19):
I didn't like sci fi that much, and so I
was like, oh, well, that's their thing, so I'm just
gonna let them do that. And then my dad and
I would watch Peewee's Playhouse, and that was the division
of the home, because you've got your Star Wars half
of the family, You've got your Peewee's Playhouse half of
the family. And so I know, I never I've heard
a lot of Star Wars talk. I'm able to recognize

(07:42):
a lot. I do think I saw half of the
third movie now. I think I did see half of
it in theaters, but we did leave because my grandfather
fell asleep and some people were concerned that he had
passed away. I feel like I might have told you
this story before. I don't think so I haven't. I
have not seen I don't remember anything. I know even

(08:04):
McGregor's in it, and that he has a line that
he yells. So I have such doubt and all even
McGregor reboot of Doubt that I would past. I've seen
Doubt thirty times, and then I've also seen several high

(08:25):
school productions of Doubt. What I seek them out because
it's too heavy for high school to be performing, and
absolutely they fumble it every single time. I love high
school productions of Doubt. Their wild doubt exists before the movie.
Pills are winning play. Okay, I thought that you've just
seen a ton of like high school or since like
two thousan plays of Doubt. They're super into it. I

(08:50):
feel bad for old people and that you, the older
you get, you can't fall asleep anywhere without people being
worried about you. That's unfortunate. Yeah, let's bring it back
to Star Wars. The Love to Tell you, unlike all
the freaking posers in this room. I'm sorry. I'm a
Star Wars fan through and through. I saw the original

(09:14):
trilogy as a kid many times. I actually grew up
watching a TV edit of Return the Jedi that we
taped off of TV, and it's actually a much better
movie than the theatrical version of Return of the Jedi.
Its shorter, it's shorter, and they just like they cut
out some like stupid stuff that doesn't need to happen,
and it like makes for because people are like Return

(09:35):
to Jedi stupid because of all the Ewoks and they're
just like little. They have like a big Teddy Bear
party at the end. It's cute. I've only seen picks.
They're very cute. So people like generally I think, don't
like Return to Jedi that much, but it's always been
my favorite because I grew up seeing this like much
more streamlined, better cut of the movie that I didn't
realize wasn't the actual cut of the movie until I

(09:56):
got it on DVD. I was like, Oh, what's this?
All this extra ship that is um So yeah, I
you know, I grew up with Star Wars. I saw
The Force Awakens on opening night, I was decided premiere,
though didn't go to the premier. I guess maybe I'm opposed.

(10:17):
And I have also seen The Last Jedi, which I
don't want to get into except to say that it
does pass the Becto test on more than one occasion,
which I was very pleasantly about. Yes, got it, that's
the new one. But we're here to talk about the
Force Awakens, so I will do the recap. So in
the scrolling opening crawl, the part with the score and

(10:41):
the words on the screen book, the book, the book
of the movie, yes, the reading parts, we learned that
Luke Skywalker has vanished, and the First Order is like
this new Empire, so that they're the new bad guys
and they're very bad. And Lea a k. General Organa

(11:01):
is the leader of the Resistance, which is basically the
Rebels from the original trilogy. Okay, so there's this guy
po Dammeron and he's like here's He's like, I've got
this flash drive, so unreal, everyone's a whole body panic.
He's like, I have this flash drive and on the
flash drive contains information about where Luke Skywalker is and

(11:25):
then he gives it to his droid, this little B
B eight unit. Very cute. Oh that's another polarizing character, right,
people are like bb it's annoying. I don't think so.
Queer eye queer eyes absolutely, Yeah, no, I think people
generally like B B A But I might be wrong.
It's weird. I had some friends that were making fun

(11:45):
of B B eight around the time of this. Yeah,
you bad friends, They've got to go. I feel like
it's weird. Like people are always like I love the droids,
even more of the droids, and then if it's like
an alien, they're like, no, stop that, what's the difference? Right?
So cute, very cute. Indeed. So B B eight runs

(12:06):
off with this flash drive and they're on this planet
Jack who and Kyla Wren shows up a k diet
Darth Vader and he's like, where's Skywalker? I want to
find him too, because he wus to kill him? Is
Adam God baffling? Baffling that he's in these movies? Yes?
Got so Kylo Reren captures po Dammer in. Meanwhile, there's

(12:28):
this stormtrooper f hot hot, very hot, and he's like,
I don't really like being a stormtrooper, Like this isn't
for me, yeah, and then he takes off his helmet
and you're like, oh hot, Yeah, now I'm invested, right.
So then we meet Ray Daisy Ridley's character. She's a

(12:49):
freelance scafvenger on Jack Who and Jack Who is a
very gross stand planet that no one likes, and she's
lonely and she doesn't have a family. She's sad. But
then she comes across the B eight She's like, oh wow,
who are you? And then they like, first she's like,
let's not hang out, but then she's like, let's hang out.
They become friends. They do like that bb. It is

(13:10):
just sort of this adorable thing that we are for
sure going to put onto a backpack at some point.
Who people just say exposition to. She's like if there's
that whole part where she's like, my family is not
here anyways, what are you? I'd like a lunch box
with you on it. Like there's She's just like saying
exactly who she is to someone who cannot respond, which

(13:32):
I think is a great way to reveal like what
needs to be expository dialogue in a way that's like
fun for the whole family. Yeah, and a lot of
their conversations is just like repeating what Beate said. It's
just like, you have a flash drive, all right. I
like that. That's one of the ways they choose to
modernize the Star Wars universe is like we have flash drives. Now,

(13:54):
we're no no more floppy disks, and I been an episode.
Now I'm just gonna be like, give me your iPad. Yeah,
there's going to be some really creative product placement. Let's
get in the self driving Millennium Falcon the next plin.
Oh yeah, subscribed them on Snapchat. He's so cute hot,

(14:19):
okay real. So meanwhile, so Kylo Ren has captured Damer. Agree,
all right, we have to we have to just say it.
We for some hot for most not hot. So he
like forced tortures Po Dammer in trying to find out
where this information about where Luke Skywalker is and he

(14:40):
figures out that this b B eight has it, so
he's like, okay, I'm gonna go get it. But then
F seven breaks Po out of like whatever ship they're on,
and he's like, let's escape. I'm helping you. Have a
great scene between the two of them. It's charged thousand ships. Man,

(15:00):
it was I keep thinking you're saying like this and sorry,
I just I'm sick. But I also cannot articulate words.
They also just chose like two letters that sound like
another thing. It's their fault. It is their fault. Okay,
let us write Star Wars, please do a good job. Well,
he's about to not be called that anymore because Poe

(15:22):
is like, I'm going to call you Finn. So now
he's Finn. Another great moment where he's like he okay,
you can call me whatever you want. Yeah, he's like
a stormtrooper this whole time, but now I suddenly have
a personality. Ever Oscar Isaac tells you your name is
is probably your name from then on, definitely. So they
escape from the First Order, but they crash land on

(15:44):
Jack who and maybe Poe dies, We're not sure. And
then right Finn thanks, po dies, and then he encounters
Ray and b B eight and he lies to her
and he's like, yeah, I'm a member of the resistance.
Stormtroopers show up. They start shooting. Then they find Millennium Falcon,
so they go off on that. They encounter Han, Solo
and Chewy and everyone's very excited. It was a big

(16:06):
applause moment, and I could, I could, like, in the
back of my head, here a bunch of losers applauding
when stupid Harrison Ford and is dumb. He literally he
practically pauses for He's like, it's the trailer moment. Yeah, right,
an same thing when you see the Millennium Falcon for
the first time. It's just anything that was like that's
from the old movie. That was like, yeah, there's a

(16:29):
lot of little fans. I mean, and I there's I
truly could not identify them all. But anytime there was
a needless pause, it's like, oh, that's probably relevant to people,
and the score gets all like bright for a sudden right, right,
But it was so exciting to see in the theaters.
Has not hot. Harrison Ford used to be hot. Harrison
Ford is what I call legacy hot, and that he

(16:50):
used to be hot so much so that now it's
just kind of like yeah, yeah, yeah. He still carries
himself as if he's hot, yes, which goes a long way, right,
Like he is acting as if he's extremely hot, which
is maybe his greatest role that he's hot. Just going
back to what you said about how he's not a

(17:10):
good actor, I don't know if I agree, but I
will say he clearly gave up, like somewhere around the
nineties trying to be good at acting, and now it's
just kind of like everyone's just like, well, it's Harrison Ford,
so we don't have to think about it, right. He's
so bankable that, yeah, people just throw him in his
movies and then he'll like, he'll give it. But he's
just kind of interesting that it's like most actors his age,

(17:32):
because he's got to be in his early seventies now
that most actors his age would be at this point
being like, oh, I better win a good award before
I die, And that doesn't seem to be on his list. No,
he is trying to leave every franchise he's ever done.
He's trying to constantly crash every like a plane every
month or and then also he's high every time he acts,

(17:54):
so it's just like, yeah, he's a little mess. He
doesn't He has gone a record of saying like he
does not like Star Wars, he doesn't think it's very cool.
Well it shows sure, and then I also think he's
he is not happy about like more Indiana Jones movies happen.
He thought he phoned it in for the fourth one over.

(18:14):
Yeah right, I mean, then you had another mistake. That
movie was the first date I went on ever. Was
that Indiana Jones movie. Oh God, it's so bad. I'd
like to hold that movie personally accountable for the failure
of that high school relationship. One of my first dates
was to National Treasure to Book of Secrets, also didn't last.

(18:35):
It makes a difference. It makes a difference. You gotta
pick a good movie. Okay, So the rest of the
Force Awakens is basically Han Solo and Ray are now friends,
and he's like, maybe do you want a job, and
she's like, I don't know. I don't know about this
whole thing. She touches a lightsaber, she freaks out about it.
There's a character named Mas and she's like, the fourth

(18:57):
is so weird? What a weird to be like Lupita,
the most beautiful woman currently living. We're going to make
you until a little aliens that. How do you like it? Right?
She nails it. She does old voice very well too. Yeah,
I had to check. It's also like a very I
feel like more so in the Last Jedi, which I

(19:18):
don't want to spoil, but like it's a very old
Nigerian woman voice, and I just in the back of
my head like, that's my aunt's that's It's great. Yeah.
So she's like, wow, here's a lightsaber. And then Ray
gets captured by Kylo Wren because he figures out that
she has seen the map that shows where Luke Skywalker is.
So he's like, I'm gonna take you. I'm gonna capture you.

(19:39):
And then Finn and Han Solo and Chrui go and
then they're like, oh, but there's this whole planet destroyer.
It's like a death Star, but even worse. It starts
blowing up all the resistance planets or whatever. And then
they're like, we gotta stop this, we gotta blow this up.
And then there's this final showdown between Finn is there,
but it's mostly between Ray and Tylo Wren, and she's like, wow,

(20:01):
I'm actually getting pretty good this forced thing. And then also,
how hard is it to beat Adam Driver in a fight.
Anyone in this room could easily take Adam Driver down
in forty five seconds. I mean, but Kylo Wren is
a character issues a huge daddy issues and really crazy

(20:26):
daddy issues that he explains in monologue frequently, especially including
one time to his father just before yeah, because it's
revealed that Kylo Wren is han Solo and la Organa's
son because I used to I guess be married and
then they had a baby and then they're like, actually,
whenever our son Ben ben Wren or be Solo Ben

(20:50):
Solo Benzelo, he goes on to be a Jedi. Tub
he goes and tries to be a Jedi and then
he turns bad. I guess it breaks up Leiah and
Hansela's marriage. So that's yeah. So then they blow up
the big planet destroyer planet and at the very end

(21:10):
they figure out where Luke Skywalker is because our two
D two is like in a coma or whatever, and
he's like, actually, I'm awake now, and then they matched
the maps together they figure out where Luke is. Ray
and Chewy go to the planet that he's on and
she's like, here, here's your lightsaber, and then smash cut
to black. That's the end of the movie. Fun movie,

(21:32):
A fun movie. I think so too. That was my review.
Thank you for that analysis. Adam Driver is a scab.
I don't like him. I think I like him in
this franchise. Although I remember in the theater the first
moment where he takes off his helmet, there was a
lot of giggling. Was same, You're expecting to move like

(21:55):
all scarred or something, but he was just yeah. And
then it's just this child that like seen on HBO
before it is shaking his head such disappointment. Aristotle is
literally in love with Adam Driver. I like helping. I
like Adam Driver as an actor, and I feel like
everything I see him and I'm like, okay, you you
got some stuff. But like just the moment of having

(22:17):
this like very deep voice, like evil force, take off
a helmet, it's just like this like angry looking high schooler.
It's just kind of like, oh oh yeah, like oh
was he just caught masturbating to anime on free WiFi.
That's why he's so very much. He hates dad so
much he cut off the WiFi. My my brother texted
me maybe a month ago, Adam Driver Bus Driver movie

(22:40):
dot dot Dot enjoyed against all odds. Adam Driver plays
a bus driver in the movie and apparently it's fine.
I did not. Yeah, it's fine, it's fine. I can't
call it bad, but I can't call it much. There's
listen that Adam Driver in a nutshell see an all
Adam Driver reboot of Speed in which he is the

(23:01):
bus driver, he is whatever other characters are in that movie. Yeah,
I want to see him playing Kiano on him as
Sandra Bullock. If Adam Driver ever dared to be in
a theatrical adaptation of Doubt, I would pick it. Get
him out of doubt. He doesn't belong in doubt. So

(23:22):
what you're saying is you have doubt about his ability.
I have such such doubt, such doubt. All this conversation
has not passed the bats in a good many minutes. Um, okay,
So I just want to start out by saying this
movie much like the original trilogy of Start. I mean,
I don't know episodes one, two, or three fun those movies,
I don't care, But of episodes four or five and six,

(23:43):
similar to them, Force Awakens is sort of an ensemble cast.
But you can argue that Luke Skywalker is the main
character of the original trilogy. Here in the Force Awakens
we have Ray is the main character, so we have
a female protagonist. Still, ensemble casts are still lots of
you know, Finns right up there among the main care
there's po Dammeron's pretty important. You know, You've got all
these other people. But Ray is the protagonist of the story.

(24:06):
So we get a female protagonist in a Star Wars
movie and she's great. Yeah, we I mean with Rogue one,
we swear to get too. In like such a small
span of time, have you guys already talked about the
original trilogy? I know you said you talked about we
did an episode on a New Hope. How did that unfair?
Because not what I mean. They're like, there's Aunt Brew

(24:26):
who gets murdered almost instantly, and then there's Princess Leah,
who we said was a strong character who makes active
choices and does things in the movie, but she has
no plot, fox her over at every turn and get there,
no amen to talk to. She's captive immediately yea, yeah, yeah, yeah,
she needs to be rescued. All this stuff. So this
movie fares much better compared to the original trilogy in

(24:50):
terms of a female character doing things, influencing the plot,
and having it be her story, like her journey largely. Um,
there's subplots that focus around other characters. But and as
we see not to spoil anything for the last Jedi,
but like it's a continuation of sort of her journey
of like her force powers and honing them and whatnot.

(25:10):
So yeah, it was so exciting for me to see
this movie for the first time and be like, holy
fucking ship. We have a female protag in a Star
Wars movie, and she is so good at what she does.
She's okay, so she's doesn't have a family. She's on
this planet Jeck who she's scavenging stuff. But she somehow
also knows how to speak B B eights Droid language.

(25:31):
Constantly confused about how what language be be it is
speaking how literally everyone he meets can understand it, communicate clearly.
Problem Finn cannot, but yeah, somehow can because Finn only
speaks Star It's unclear although everyone speaks English, everyone speaks

(25:52):
in Yeah. Yeah, I would like to argue there's all
this question about who is Ray, who are her parents?
Did Ada? I'm gonna go ahead and say that I
think that C three p O is raised father because
he was an interpreter. He speaks so many languages, and
she does too. She understands, she knows how to speak Wookie.

(26:12):
She speaks with another alien on Jack who she understands
B B eight. Somehow I think that she is part
droid and that Po is her father. When C three
Po makes love, Oh heaven. This goes back into a

(26:33):
previous discussion we've had about when beetlejuice makes love, no discussion.
Juice for sure comes scabs, But but are they wet
or dry? Is the question? Dry? Dr about this? So wait?

(26:53):
Interesting because I would say, like a wet deck of
cards being flipped would be the sound I have to
go home deck of cards if you put if you
dunked a deck of playing cards into a bucket of
water and then shuffled them, that would be the sound
three bolts? Does he come? Bolts? Yeah? Sure, anything to

(27:18):
move this conversation. I don't think three po comes. How
does he get how does he get someone pregnant? Look?
He comes in binary code somehow like a print out, Yeah,
like receipt. Basically it's like wherever his genitals are, because

(27:40):
there's also nothing there right Like I feel like we
would not just like the Matrix that other movie that
you didn't see, although I will say I don't think
you're missing much with the Matrix. Was my impression, does
the matrix pass test um? Kind of that was a
sort of pet Yeah, it was like a just barely

(28:02):
kind of thing. But anyway, okay, so I want to
start by talking about the scene where she and Finn
first and counter each other on Jack who. Here's what happens.
Ray gets attacked by these two guys who are trying
to steal B B eight because they're like, he's a drawing,
He's worth so many portions of muffin, blueberry muffins or

(28:22):
whatever they're currently muffins. I hope this entire COMMUNI is
based on Often I don't think they say they just
say quarter portions, right, But then you see her like
empty that little packet into like a little dish of
water and then it like bakes into muffins. Honestly super cool,
And I was like, how they That was a part
where I was generally like, whoa, this is a wondrous world.

(28:46):
I'm just saying that was the part where I was like,
holy shit, I know, it's amazing. I love how people
talk about Jack Coo in this movie of like every
time she's like I have to get home, they're like,
but it sucks. It's just like aliens giving out pieces
of muffin. Why would you ever come back to his
space Florida? Oh yeah, it's like every time they're like,

(29:08):
but I'm from there, They're like, forget it, You're you left,
you don't go back. Okay. So these two guys are
trying to steal B B eight back from Ray and
she fights them off, She beats them up. She doesn't
need to be saved. She like holds her own. Then
Finn like sees this happening, and then he spots b
B eight because po dammon, had just been like, I've
got a droid. It's white and orange, is one of

(29:29):
a kind. And he's like, hey, that's the droid they're
looking for. And then which if you'd ever seen a
Star Wars movie, you would realize that that was a
great reference. But you had a magnet something, Yeah, we
had a refrigerator magnet that said that in my house. Cute. Okay.
There's like a little misunderstanding about like, oh did Finn
steal pose jacket? What happened? But then they clear up

(29:51):
this misunderstanding. Really titanic reference a jacket stealing a plot
point of can we trust this person? You stole? A jacket.
DiCaprio steals a jacket and Titanic, can we trust him?
Why do you look confused? What do you? Because I
saw Titanic one time and I think two one, and
all I remember is the scene where ship captain jumps

(30:13):
off and then hits his head and does a bunch
of flips. That's an iconic scene. That's one of the
most iconic scenes. I was on the verge of Tears
and that happened, and I'm just like, oh, I'm laughing now.
I mean, it's not E. J. Smith the captain, it's
just a random guy. But yeah, that does. Yeah, Okay, again,
I saw it once. It was three hours. I was nine.
You'll have to take our word for it. For sure.

(30:33):
He steals a jacket, and that's supposed to be like,
can we trust Leon, added DiCaprio. He stole a jacket,
I believe it. Yeah, and Finn, and in both cases
you can trust him. He just happened to take a jacket. Yeah, absolutely,
he was cold. So okay, So Ray goes after Finn
and she's just like, what the fuck? And then the
stormtroopers show up. Finn grabs raised hand and then they

(30:56):
start running and she's just like, what are you doing?
Why are you grabbing my hand? And I would like
to say that I don't think that he would have
done that if she were not a woman, if sheely
a man, he would have never liked grabbed her hand
and like run off. They would have been like, come
with me, do that right? And I wish that he had.
I wouldn't just stand with Jon again and Oscar Isaac

(31:17):
holding hands. That's a horny thing. The most screen cap
scene and fifteen. So then they start running off. Fans
like come on home, we got to move. And then
she's like I know how to run with that. You
holding my hand, so she is like, don't touch me.
I can do this on my own. I love that
in the theaters just because it was like it was

(31:38):
such a weird thing to see him grab her hand
and then for her to immediately be like I don't
need this and then like sort of run a little
bit ahead of him. I was like that just such
a good character development because I mean't know him stranger
that yeah, And we see in movies so often where
that does happen, where a guy grabs a girl's hand
and they have to run off, and she does not
protest because she doesn't have a character probably, or my

(32:01):
favorite agregeous example, Brendan Fraser lunges three at you through
a cage and starts making out with you, and you
fall in love with him instantly. I haven't even seen
the mom me and I know he's feral in a
cage and makes Rachel White's fall in love with him instantly.
That's the Brendan Fraser touch. Yeah, So they're running away,

(32:24):
they take cover for a second, and then they have
to run again because he hears something and then he
grabs her hand again. She's like, stop taking my hand,
so she keeps protesting, and then explosion happens and he
gets knocked out, and then she shakes him awake, and
then he immediately says, are you okay? And she's just like, yeah,
I'm sucking okay, bitch, like you're the one who passed out.
But again, I don't think he would have asked her that.

(32:46):
If she was a man, he would have been like,
let's go right. So then they start running again and
she's like, we gotta go to this ship, like you said.
It's worth noting that she's running ahead of him. So
she never needs at him to grab her and pull
her along. She's a faster runner. She's in the lead
for so much of this movie, and he's the one
who would like had to escape his own sort of

(33:09):
capture and was worried for so much and then find
this Woman's like, I have to save her, and she's like, good, yeah.
I mean, the one point of leverage he has over
her is that lie that falls apart halfway through the movie,
that he's a member of the resistance, right right. I
think that's the one thing he has. But that and
kind of falls apart in the middle of the movie anyways,

(33:30):
and he never really he doesn't use it to manipulate
her in in a in a in an evil way,
like in a in a nefarious way. I would say,
he's never like, oh, you shouldn't fall in love with
me because I'm a handsome resistance He's like, but he's
lying hard enough that Harrison Ford has to be like,
you're lying, bit, and that's not good. That's not a

(33:52):
good precedent. If Harrison Ford has to say you're doing
something wrong. Okay, I'm high, so I shouldn't know my
lines are being fed to me through an earpiece. No,
he's not Johnny dead because it's an alcoholic fucking mess.
Why this is depcast? Okay, So she's like, we gotta

(34:14):
outrun them, and he's like we can't. She's like, we
can't not quadrumper. And then he's like, we need a
pilot and she's like, we've got one. He's like you,
he assumes that she's not a pilot, probably because she's
a woman. I'm gonna make the guess that happens a
couple of times. I mean that happens when they encounter
Han solo two, where she has to keep reminding people
as You're like, no, I am a pilot, and even then,

(34:35):
and I think that this is like kind of a
common experience of you know, she keeps telling people I'm
a pilot, and I feel like with most male characters,
and this happens in comedy all the fucking time too.
It's like where people won't be like, oh, wow, you
really are a pilot until they've already seen you do
it successfully, Whereas with male characters, it's like, I'm a
pilot and they're like, oh great. Perfect. Every day, every

(34:58):
time I see a woman to stand up, I'm always
surprise that they're also a pilot. Yeah, yeah, actually I
can't watch me do a Type five and then let
me fly your plane. I've been like standing in a
circle at like a comedy venue with several men and
have like a guy approach us and ask every single
person in the circle except for me if they are comics.

(35:18):
And none of the guys that they asked were comics,
and I was the only comic in the bunch. But
because they're just like, well you have comic right, kill
them all. I guess all the guys who I was
standing with, who I'm friends with, none of them were like, no,
we're not comics. But she is so funk all of
those people. It's it's weird that they had to ask
every single person before, Like I feel like, if you
get like two in you probably probably not comics circle

(35:40):
at all. But I wasn't gonna be like I didn't comedian.
That was like, that was one of the parts of
this movie where I was like, oh, yeah, I feel
I feel that. But where it's like you have to
tell someone that this is your job, but they still
don't believe you until they see you do it. And
she has to do that a couple of times, and
whether or not it's a gender thing doesn't get explicitly
common died on, but I feel like it's safe to assume.

(36:02):
I feel like just that it happened. Yeah, And I
think the fact that it wasn't explicitly mentioned as a
gender thing is one of the strengths of this movie
because I think if they had, then you just lose
so many of the people who don't want to learn
the lesson explicitly, like all the guys who are like, oh,
they're trying to push it in my face. But like,
if you don't do that, then you can't really claim
that they're trying to. It's like, if they don't mention
that she's a woman, then you are just taking this

(36:24):
on yourself and you're complaining about something that you had
to interpret. So I like it it was sort of unspoken. Same, Yeah, definitely.
And then they bore the Millennium falcon and immediately Ray
is like the gunner positions down there, so she like
kind of like tells him what to do. He just
goes and does it, and then she gets in the
cockpit and having never flown this same before, I don't

(36:45):
know how she knows how to be a pilot. But
I don't even question. I'm like, yeah, she's of course,
guess yeah. Plus, I mean she's a scavenger. She like
she goes into all these like Empire ships that like
crashed on Jack Who And like so I'm like, okay,
she probably knows ship apparatus because she scavenges that ship
all the time. But somehow she knows how to be
a pilot, and she's very good at it. She doesn't

(37:06):
all by herself, doesn't need a co pilot. And then
they escape the stormtroopers and then they fly off, and
then the scene immediately follows that after they've escaped, she
and Finn meat in the middle somewhere and they're like, Wow,
good job. That was amazing. You did a great job too.
You totally me And that was so great for me
to see because I feel like so often in movies

(37:26):
you'd see a guy being like, well, I guess you
did okay, okay, yeah, yeah right right, Like Finn and
Ray have such team vibes throughout this movie that it's
it's it's great. It's the opposite of Harrison Ford's don't
get cocky in the original y. Yeah, they're immediately just
like you were great, you did that. Yeah, it's such
a nice moment. They like each other. Yeah, this is

(37:49):
great because yeah, like usually you'd see either the guy
be like that wasn't that hard? I could have done that,
or the guy to a woman him seeing that, and
then he'd be like, oh, I'm so horny. Now she
can do on a horribone er. So the fact that that, yeah,
they're like, wow, the woman did a thing, and and
now I must now I had to put my face

(38:09):
on her face. Nothing turns me on more than seeing
a woman do something I thought only men could. Yeah,
So the fact that neither of those reactions happened from
Finn was refreshing and I really liked it. Well, neither
of those reactions happened for a little bit from Finn.
It takes a bit, Yeah, it takes a bit, but
I kind of like seeing him in crisis a little bit.

(38:30):
And Han Solo is, thank god, is not in it
so much that we have to deal with it plot wise.
But when the scene where Han Solo is offering Ray
a job, is you see I mean, because he's not
a feminist icon, let's say, and you see sort of
him struggling with like, you know, any time that he

(38:50):
compliments her, it's backed by an insult of like, well,
I'm not gonna pay you enough, which is like, well,
she's a woman, of course you're not there. There's well
I'll be like, RUI likes you, so I guess I
can keep you around. When it's clearly like an example
of him unable to express himself because he's a man.
He cannot be caught saying that a woman is capable, right,

(39:12):
he can't be on record. If he was better at
expressing his emotions, like Kylo run might not exist. So true,
he could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. He's
just like, hey, I'm proud of you. I love you,
and you are my son. Yeah, this whole movie is
Hans fault. God, it was a nightmare. I love you,
I love my wife. We did a great job raising you.
I cherish her input into your life. And and none

(39:36):
of this. He's just a nice boy. I didn't driver
good of a space accountant, but instead we get a
fun movie. Oh and then okay, so right after Ray
and Finn have their little great job, then something like
poisonous guests start sleeking in the Millennium Falcon and then
like Ray just like jumps at it immediately. She's like

(39:57):
she knows exactly what to do. She's like, hand me
that fucking wrench, handing the screwdriver. He doesn't really know
what he's doing. He doesn't know tools. This is all
to say, this whole long sequence is something we haven't
seen before in a Star Wars movie. I mean maybe
it's in the prequels. Who gives a ship I don't know,
but just a competent woman who is driving the narrative,

(40:19):
making choices and like being better than everyone else at
what they're doing was just like so fucking and and
kind of like you're saying to me, it's like a
lot of attention isn't called to like, whoa look at
this woman did it? Because that is like a weird
thing that happens in movies a lot have like I've
never seen a girl do this thing before, and it's like,
you know what they're going for, but it is kind

(40:39):
of a dated, weird approach to it. I'm also so
glad they didn't do that thing. We're like Ray like
successfully maneuvers and she's just like what I grew up
with four Brothers. It's like that so frustrating and from
moment one when Ray is on screen, because I watched
the first thing she appears in a couple of times
and there's like, I don't think any dialogue in it

(41:01):
when we first see her, but like she's just like
even the ways she's framed by the movie is she's
framed like a protagonist and like a hero and not
like how a woman would normally be framed in any
sort of action movie, which I thought was so great
and I watched it a couple of times. I'm like, oh,
we're just seeing a straight shot of the main character
of the movie, which shouldn't seem like a big deal,

(41:23):
but it was nice to see just her being framed
like a hero and not like although a thing happens.
And I don't know if this was intentional or not,
but the first time you see her on screen, you
don't know the gender of this person because they're like
in a big mask and goggles and you can't see
her face or anything like that. And this happens sometimes
in movies where like a lot a lot of mask removals. Yeah,

(41:44):
and it'll be like, in fact, it happens in Return
of the Jedi and Jabs Palace whenever Leiah is the
person who comes in and he's like trying to negotiate
for Hanselo's life. She's got a thermal detonator and it's
a whole thing. And then later she takes off the
mask and it's late and we're like, holy food. But
it happens a lot where someone you would probably assume
to be a male character is in a mask or

(42:06):
they've got like a helmet on or something like that,
and then they take it off and surprise, it's a woman.
And it's meant to be this, like, well, reveal the
thing that you sat was a man is actually a woman.
And I don't, like I said, I don't know if
that's intentional in this movie or not, but it's sort
of it happens. It for sure happens. So like I said,
it wasn't like I'm just kidding it's a woman. I

(42:28):
don't know that. I mean, obviously I know literally next
to nothing about this franchise, but just given the fact
that we get a kind of similar shot of fucking
Adam Driver in the same I don't know, it might
not be like a meant to be like a well,
I feel like because it happens before any sort of
major action, it was just kind of like, here's an

(42:50):
introduction to who this person is. But if it was
like we see her in a fight and then you're
most the mask, then I'd be like okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
The context is important for that, yeah, because often when
it happens in movies when it's like very annoying is
they'll take off the helmet and then she's got this
long flowing hair that she whips around and then she's
like it was me all along, boys, and it's just

(43:11):
like really agregious and stupid. It's like the you know
in Little Rascals when she takes off her helmet and
it's like Reba or whatever, like my hero was a girl,
right exactly, I need to have it's Reba. It's always
and I'm always surprised. I love Reba. Remember when Kyler

(43:33):
Ren took off the mask and it was okay. So
there's a few more scenes I want to talk about,
starting with the scene where they have met Han Solo
and Chewy and there's these like wrath cars running around
and Han Solo's ship and what they're like these big
monster creatures. Okay, scary guys. Yeah, they've got like tentacles

(43:55):
and stuff. Yeah, And Finn gets grabbed by one of
them and like carried off and then Ray ends up
having to save him. So it's the reverse of what
we often see of a man having to save a woman.
But she like does this whole thing where she's like
looking at these monitors, she like figures out when the
exact moment is to shut the doors to like sever
the tentacles that the rath tire is holding Finn with, right,

(44:17):
and then he's like, wow, the door did you see that?
And she's like, yeah, that was lucky. So I didn't
feel the need to gloat about it and be like,
yeah that was me. So I just like that you
saw a woman having to save a man. I also
love that at no point does it feel like you go, like, what,
how did she know how to do this? It's like
she's been on her own for so long you could
understand that, like she's had to survive and learn how

(44:38):
to do things. She's probably like brilliant person, so all
of the development skills that she goes, like the things
that she does to save other people in this movie,
and like the action she takes never feel like when
Luke Skywalker was just a farm boy and like suddenly
she's like, I'm going to be a warrior now. It's like, well,
she's been on her own for so long and straight
up like defending herself from like scavengers and like saving

(44:58):
people in the desert, Like it makes sense that she
could be like I'm going to chop off that. Yeah, totally.
And then in the next scene, Han and Ray are
trying to escape in the Millennium Falcon and they're like
having trouble getting the Millennium Falcon started. There's like beeping
and like she keeps being like, no, it's this thing.
The compressor hit that switch, did it? And then like

(45:19):
at one point she pulls out this like mechanical thing.
She pulls out a thing and then she's like I
bypass the compressor and he's just like, okay, I liked
that because she was so that was like one of
the few months where like, oh she was so stuked
right down. Everyone's just like, um what again. It's it's

(45:39):
showing you that she knows her ship, she's kind of
better than everyone and what she's doing and just like
it is so competent, because again, you don't see like
if a woman's doing machinery things in movies, like she
can't do anything. And but maybe it's also that thing
that annoys me, where like a woman is good at
fixing a car, but that never I feel like that

(46:00):
doesn't apply to this movie at least, Yeah, she knows.
I mean like there aren't any of those like cheesy
lines of like a female character justifying why she would
know how to fix a car because her daddy was
a mechanic or something. So he just raised me like one,
like a little like it was just yeah, where that's

(46:21):
just an element of the story that exists, and it
isn't because often when we see it and it's really
stupid like it is and Transformers, for example, it's a
skill that's like somehow sexualized. They're like, look at how
hot I look when I bend over the hood of
this car and reach into the thing exactly. But for Ray,
it's just like she just knows how to do that

(46:41):
because that's her character and it works. So there's that. Now, Uh, sorry,
I've got an agenda. You're so prepared. I all my
notes are. I just keep writing a name of actor hot?
Is there anyone in this movie that isn't hot? Though
personal taste and driver not a hot pretty much everyone

(47:04):
else hot, And I include Andy Serkus Andy Circus hot
as smoke or just Andy Circus as Andy Serkus. Andy
Circus as a person is amazing. A Circus is SnO,
I'll take it, okay, why not? You can tell there's
some hotness there. There's some hotness. Yeah, he's got an attitude. No,
he's a brooder used to be hot. I think he's

(47:26):
definitely Yeah, before he got whatever, like weird scarred down
the front. I want to see a young photo smoke,
young smoke, like, oh, it's Paul Newman. Give us a
young Snoke series. So the next thing I wanted to
talk about is when Kylo Ren captures Ray, presumably she

(47:47):
would need to be saved. However, what's different about this
is that in so many movies you see when like
a bad guy captures a woman, it's because she needs
to be used as bait so that the mail he
he can come and save her, or it's like we're
taking this woman that you love to hurt you or
something like that. But this is about her value and

(48:10):
her abilities and also her knowledge where at first when
that happened, I was like, Oh, it's maybe, but it's
not really a DAMSELI kind of yeah, because she has
to bail a million people out through the course of
this movie. And then yeah, she's being I mean, she's captured,
but she but she's captured because of her and not
because of her value as it pertains to another mail Exactly. Yeah,

(48:32):
she's captured because she has the information that he needs,
not because she's going to be used as bait. You
can capture people, you just have to respect their abilities, exactly.
And granted Finn and Hanselo and Chewy go to save her,
but like you said, she's never damseled. She never has
to be like picked up and carried away or anything

(48:55):
like that. She doesn't need to be physically saved because
the first thing she does is like stop Kylo Wren
from like getting the information he needs. She like totally resists,
and then she uses the force to make a stormtrooper
like release her from the shackles that she's in. A
stormtrooper that I might add is hot because it's Daniel Creis.
It is Daniel Craig. What. Yeah, he has like a
little cameo. He's just in a Stormtrooper o. That's so weird,

(49:21):
that's very key. Did he just ask? I think so?
I think. I think the story was they were shooting
Bond nearby and they just like, do you want to
have a cameo, And of course he's going to say yes.
It's everyone's dream. It's so exciting for him. And then
the new one, Prince Harry and Prince someone else, William
I think our Stormtroopers, and so was Tom Hardy. So weird.

(49:43):
I saw Joseph Gordon Levitt in the credits. I don't
know what he does, but he's something I don't know.
And then Nigel god Rich, who is a producer it
does all like the radio albums, is also in the
Force Awakens. It's just like anyone who's like British and
nearby for Melina should be and what should I bet
he is And he's too humble, he's so humble. Yeah,

(50:04):
it was just a pleasure to be a part of it.
The star of British, the star of Chewing Gum, whose name, Yeah,
she's good. She's got a little cameo that's very exciting anyway. Okay,
so yeah, she makes Daniel Craig Untire and then give
her his weapon. She's like, drop your gun and he
just does it because she's so good at the force already.
And then she like sneaks her way around the base

(50:26):
and then eventually when like Finn finds her, she was fine.
She didn't need to be like grabbed and saved away.
She was already pretty much basically all she needed was
a ride home. She's more found than rescued, exactly. Yeah, totally. Yeah.
At one point they even just like look out a
window and she's like scaling a wall. She's she's good.

(50:47):
I love that. And then that is followed by the
lightsaber battle at the end between Ray and Kylo Wren
and she gets knocked out early on, and then Finn
fights with the lightsaber for a few minutes, but then
he gets injured and almost dies, and then Ray's like,
actually it's finishes. This was the most cathartic thing to

(51:07):
see in the theater both times, Like the moment where
like Kylo Ren is trying to grab the lights having
flies back and she catches it. Everyone just went fucking
crazy and I just felt like the adrenaline like, yes,
this is why we wanted, so I love it, and
it's like another cool team moment where they did it together.
It's good. Not that she even needed his help, but no,

(51:31):
but they did it together. I know. I feel like
Finn's ark for this entire movie is him trying to
be like, I gotta save her, and it's her being like,
thank you, but I really can do this myself, which
is is nice. And they still do work together a
lot of the time. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So those are
the main things I wanted to talk about that Star Ray,

(51:52):
But we've got other female characters in this movie as well.
Unlike the original trilogy, when there's pretty much just Princess Leiah,
she makes she's really a smurfetted Yeah, so Lea's in this.
She is General Organa. Now she's leading the resistance. She's
so fucking good at job. And then we've got mas Kannada.

(52:13):
She's the lipido character who's like, oh, here's a lightsaber
the force cold place, you've got pace. What else does
she say? Can you read Moby Dick in quick? Yeah?

(52:34):
So she gives exposition largely, and then she's just basically like, hey,
Han Solo, quit fucking running away from this fight, you
stupid coward, Go talk to Leia figure it out about
your son. She's basically just a therapist. I don't know. Yes,
I don't know what her role is in. She's the
most recent movie. But it's funny because I feel like

(52:55):
this happens with We've seen this a few times with
like older female characters who are in the movie for
a little bit of just like, this is another female
character for our like younger protagonist to interact with that imparts,
you know, just as is like, hey, you've got this,
and then you know it's like okay, and then we

(53:16):
can move forward. It's it's I don't know, yeah, I
mean she doesn't do that much, but the fact that
she like her Yeah, she's pretty fun too. I feel
like a little personality there's she's got that one line
where when Han comes in where she's like, where's my
boyfriend to talk about? Do you think they have been

(53:36):
flirting for a thousand years? Absolutely unreal. She's a business owner,
so it's true. I wrote I wrote down small business
as in she owns a small business or she owns
a business and it is small a little bit of both.
You get the best of about there. Wait, is that
like Kantina Hers, I think so yeah, okay, I wasn't

(53:58):
sure exactly what her. She's a clean business owner, but
she is a small business owner. The other main female
character is Captain Pasma, So we get a lady villain
and she's like pretty badass. She's a leader of some sort.
You know that because her things shiny and no one
else's costumes Shinese the coolest design of any of the villains.

(54:21):
I wish we got more of her, though the same
it might not make much sense for her character to
be in the story more, but I don't know. I
just I feel like it was a look. It's such
a look, it's such a I want more, like well
developed lady villains. That sounds like weird, but it's just
like I feel like you get so many villains where

(54:42):
it's they have good development, but at the end of it,
their motivation is just like I'm angry, and it's like
I want more than that, but I also want I
feel like so many times in movies their version of
being progressive, it's just like, well, if we make the
lady the hero, then that's good. But it's like you
can make a woman of villain just do it well,
and I wish that there were more of those anyway, Yeah,
I agree, it's interesting and there was like that brief trend.

(55:05):
I think that probably Wicked would be the first huge,
huge example of it of famous female villains going back
and sort of revising it to humanize and like, like,
Wicked is all about humanizing a female villain, which is
and that's been done a number of times since it
was like that weird Angelina Jolie Maleficent movie of like,

(55:26):
you can't just have a hard female bad villain. It's like,
but here's the here's why she's actually very feminine and
gentle and soft in the world made her this way?
I don't I don't have a conclusive thought on that.
But are they Why can't she just be my? Can't

(55:47):
she just be mean? I don't know if I don't
know if I want there to be an equal number
of humanizing male villains or if I just want to
just let a villain be bad. I don't know which
which side of that spectrum I phone. I think it's
more fun to kind of the be bad. Maybe I
don't need to know about like when their heart was
broken in college? Wicked? Is that how wicked goes. Yeah,

(56:10):
it's goes like, well, she she had a friendship, and
then she had a boyfriend and then and then now
she's mean. I do like when a villain is like
when they're reasoning for being evil, it's understandable, but you
still are like, but you are definitely the villain. But yeah,
the world did not force you to do this, and
you are choosing to do this, like when it's a

(56:30):
villain where they're like, oh, I'm doing this because this
company wronged me, and I'm actually trying to be the
good guy. It's just I have to kill a bunch
of people in the process. Then it's like, okay, well,
I know you want to do a good thing, but
you are evil, so you're bad. But you're bad. Look
at your outfit. You're bad. There's a skull on it.
And unfortunately we don't get that much backstory for Fasmus,
so we don't really know. But but the point remains

(56:52):
that the movie was like, hey, let's put more female
characters in it than just one. So the fact that
you do see a female villain at all, and then
that even in like the original trilogy, any scenes where
there's like just extras running around or like the people
in like the rebel bases, they're almost all populated by men,
and in this movie, I feel like it's still pretty

(57:12):
male heavy, but you see more sprinkles of women. There's
there's like whenever they go to Mases Cantina where there's
a werewolf, I don't know, there's like a wolfman, I
don't know. I loved it. But the world is the
world of Star Wars is so populated by these insane
creatures that you will only see for one second, thinking

(57:33):
about the production designer being like, yeah, we'll make a
werewolf fan for a background, yeah, and then it'll be
on screen first. I love that though, and in twenty
years from now there will be a series of young
adult novels about that character who's on screen for one second.
Extended universes are fun, yeah, But like in that scene,
so people are still looking for a B B eight
and there's like this evil lady who's got crazy I

(57:53):
make up and I love it. Droid is over easy
here possibly my favorite look of the whole movie. She yeah,
she's her name, I don't know she ever one line unreal.
She's like lounging on the giant, a big fat alien,
and that gets off to deliver a very hot line,
and she's got this crazy look. You're just like, wait, what,

(58:14):
who's that? She's No one in the world looks like her. No,
I don't think other women in the universe are wearing makeup.
She looks like she's yeah, she's Mark Jacob's mom, Like,
she's like, what did you Why are you humping this?
She's not humping him, but she's lounging on a wet
looking alien. So yeah, Basically, my point is just that,

(58:36):
unlike the Star Wars movies were used to seeing, this
galaxy has more than one woman in it, as you
might imagine any galaxy would have her to exists, right, Frankly,
who knows? Maybe so many of these alien species are
a sexual and they just reproduced by like cutting off
their arm and then suddenly as a new person, or
the C three po theory of printing out a binary

(58:57):
receipt and then just feeding it to someone. I don't know. Well,
because most of the main characters we see in these
Star Wars movies are humans who presumably procreate in a
sexual way. Yeah, you would think there'll be more women around.
I mean you'd think because they're so hot, right right,
they're procreators for sure. Yeah. Again, you know, it's not

(59:19):
like a perfect split of men and women that you
see on screen, but it does better than the original trilogy. Certainly,
this b B eight definitively a boy. Big question I
had just b B eight identifies female. This movie is
a masterpiece. Who passes the has four million times? We'd

(59:42):
probably say he at some point. I'm just gonna I
think they do use he pronouns, but I'm not sure.
But what if they're wrong and B B eight isn't
able to tell. What if they're miss gendering b B
A Oh, and she's just too nice to say anything.
Oh my god, what if in the next one, whenever
the next this one comes out, we find out the
baby has been being miss gender And that's a major

(01:00:03):
plot point when you're subtle. Are you looking it up?
I actually I liked it up. In the Star Wars wiki,
Wookie Pidia says gender masculine programming. That does that doesn't
answer the question why would they? Why why would masculine
vibe does not? Does that mean that she can be

(01:00:24):
reprogrammed to have feminine programming? But Why would there need
to be feminine or masculine programming for a droid? Why
would be What about B B A does WOOKI PDA
think reads masculine? A lot of bias going on here.
I feel like it's like when you set up like
your Google Home and it's like what kind of voice

(01:00:44):
do you want? Or like Siri when it's like you
want a man voice or you want a woman's voice? Yeah,
who do you want? On you? What to do? I
like the theory that B B A is a queer icon. Yeah,
I think it's for sure queer. I want to meet
B B It's boyfriend, yeah, or girlfriend, We don't know.
Maybe it's very private, very private, yeah, bb it is

(01:01:07):
giving a lot of information, but not like sharing. You know. Well,
maybe it's information they because I'm going to use that
they pronounced ray, will be like where are you from?
And they will say classified. That's their right classified. Yeah. Anyway,
I think that that was a big That was a

(01:01:29):
big when we talked about the Becktel test, like this
movie could pass the Becktel test maybe fifty times. If
B B A identifies we don't know, we don't know,
we don't know, and you know what it's not our
business to ask. Yeah, that's true. They'll tell us when
they're ready, that's true. So I think the last queer.
The last thing I want to say about this movie

(01:01:50):
is great that we get a female protagonist who's driving
this story, very competent, very good at what she does.
We're never if she is captured, it's because she's the
one who has the information that's needed, not because she's
going to be used as bait or something like that.
Of the other female characters we see not minding them
get that much screen time, Like Leia doesn't get a

(01:02:11):
ton and it's usually her talking to fucking Han Solo
and he's all like, well, that's all like fan service though, right, Yeah,
for the most yeah, I mean she's like kind of
delivering some exhiposition and stuff like that. Um, so she
is not a hugely active character in this story, but
that's kind that she's there and in charge of the

(01:02:32):
whole resistance, right it is. I mean it also, it's
a definite choice, and this could go into like behind
the scenes stuff that I would not be aware of,
but it was a definite choice to make Han Solo
the main character to bring back versus you know, Han
Solo and Lea both take a prominent role in this movie,

(01:02:52):
but Han Solo we see a lot more. He does
a lot more, and that felt like a choice. And
I don't know if that was like a story choice
or just like a Carrie Fisher wasn't feeling it choice.
I don't know. I feel like it was partially because
in the original series he's so much more active and
she is like a royalty and like a leader. So
they're probably just like, what are the parallels of that?

(01:03:12):
What if he's still active and she's like leading the
resistance now? But also well, his reveal in the Force
awakens whenever they're like, I don't remember this character here.
He is popping out into this wedding kaying is like
this big, like you said, like a big exciting moment.
Everyone's clapping in the theater. Her reveal, which happens a
few scenes later, gets like immediately interrupted because C three

(01:03:36):
pos like, hey it's me, you remember me, here's my
red arm. So I feel like she doesn't even get
like that. She gets like a disservice by like her reveal,
which isn't very exciting because she's just sort of like
slowly walking out into the grass from a ship and
then gets immediately interrupted. So I hadn't thought about that.
It was still really exciting to see her, but true,

(01:03:57):
it's also like on the heels of his introduction, at
which point you're like, oh, yeah, she'll probably be back
to right Yeah. Um, does anyone have any final thoughts
about the Force awakens Bechtel wise? Uh, the Mas Kanada
scene is like entirely two women talking, although I guess
they do sort of turn it into a conversation about
Luke at one point, But okay, yeah, do you have

(01:04:20):
how much do you have it passing? Because I had
it passing from what I knows at least two times
between Ray and Mas that scene where she's afraid because
lightsaber and the force. It's about Han and Luke up
until a point, and then it passes. It passes in
like the second half of that conversation. I am prepared

(01:04:41):
to argue that pretty much the whole conversation passes, and
although both mentioned my name, but their conversation is not
really about them. So it's basically Ray has her whole
like force vision whenever she touches Luke's lightsaber, and then
she freaks out, and she's like, okay, well of conpecual manature.

(01:05:02):
And then massa that lightsabers Luke's and his father's before him.
Now it calls to you. So those people get mentioned,
but that's still not what the conversation is about. It's
about the force calling to her and the lightsaber itself
and not really. And then she's like, I have to
get back to Jack. Who and she says Han told me,
but then he doesn't. Again, it's not about Han. They're

(01:05:23):
not talking about any other movie, any other franchise though
that wouldn't fly. I don't think, I mean and and
And that's not to say this conversation doesn't pass the
actual test, because it does, but it doesn't for a while.
I mean, I don't know. I think if we're naming
male characters by name and saying literally the word fathers,
we're talking about men. We are Here's a logistical question.

(01:05:46):
Would a conversation pass the Bechdel test if it was
like two women talking about what they did that day
and then they were like, and then I drove Dave's
car to blah blah blah. The way we have interred
and there's like a bunch of permutations, but we have
it just being two lines of dialogue exchanged between women
where a man isn't mentioned at all. So this conversation

(01:06:09):
does pass because there are multiple times where two lines
of dialogue or exchanged without mentioning a man. I don't know,
I feel like saying Han and Luke and Father's is
not passing the battle nest see. I don't know, I
feel like I mean, I don't know if we've talked
about this before, but the context of the conversation is
not about those characters. They get mentioned, but they're not

(01:06:30):
specifically talking about Luke and Luke's ship in life and
all that stuff, nor are they talking about Han. They
get mentioned, but it's almost in passing, right. The rest
of the conversation definitely passes without any men being mentioned,
because Ray's like, I gotta get back to Jack who
And She's just like, dear child, I see it in
your eyes. You already know the truth. Remember, whoever you're
waiting for is not They're not coming back. The belonging

(01:06:54):
you seek is not behind you, it's ahead of you.
You know. I know the forest did it and then
raised like I've never She's like taking my favorite, my
favorite line that I could deeply relate to. I'm never
touching that thing again. I don't want any part of
this exits, just like we've all been there. Yeah. Again,

(01:07:17):
the conversation is more about her figuring out if this
forcing is something that she wants to pursue. And wild
men do get mentioned, That's not really what their conversation
is about. I'm happy to disagree on it for for me,
mentioning men doesn't pass. But I understand what you're saying.

(01:07:39):
Yeah right, well, well discoorse discourse alert. Did you said
there were it passes at two moments? What was the other? Uh?
There was like one exchange when they're in the same
scene with Han and Finn where they exchange literally two lines,
like it's two lines what fight the only fight and

(01:08:02):
they are speaking to each other directly. That's Leah and Leah,
no mas and okay, okay, So that those were the
two between those characters that I noticed, and I think
I missed that one. But speaking of Ray and Leah,
they do interact, but their interactions however, passed the back
to tests because of the first time Leah and Ray
just hug right after Han Solo dies and they don't do,

(01:08:24):
not exchange any words. And then at the end of
the movie, whenever Ray is about to go off and
find Luke Skywalker, Leia says, may the Force be with you.
Ray just sort of looks at her and nods and
then turns around. So I know an opportunity was so
it was right there. Those moments are so painful. It's like,
say anything. It's like the crazy not to bring it

(01:08:46):
back to Spider Man, to my favorite movie, but like
that scene where it's so good Alfa Melina shines, but
there that scene was like Aunt May and Mary Jane
are in the same scene the whole time, and they're
saying vague stuff but they're not saying it to each other.
Or there's a scene where un May is like, all right,
go make some food, which is already like Luf and

(01:09:08):
then Chris and does nods and then slowly backs out
of this scene without saying anything. You're just like why
it could have frustrating. Indeed, Yeah, this scene wasn't that bad.
I do wish there were more, because there's opportunities for
because there are more women now in this movie, for
more women to interact. But it does happen. So seldom

(01:09:30):
in this movie, Like it would be so easy for
Lay to kind of take ray On as a like
I'm going to mentor you and like I've been there before,
like you know, I mean, it's like just any significant
interaction where I wouldn't even I mean, I'm sure from
a Star Wars perspective, this would be an issue. But
even if like Leia didn't like ray Or like took
issue with her in some way, that could be something

(01:09:53):
to talk about where it's like not every time two
female characters are on screen together. They don't have to
be supporting each other. They don't have to be like
we're allies and we're gonna take them down. You know
where I love two female characters in conflict, just like
male characters and conflict have been every movie ever uptil recently.

(01:10:14):
But it's yeah, but they just don't get to do
there's no interaction really, but hey, what are you gonna do?
It's a movie, but that's no, that's the point of
the show, the show. What are you gonna do? Cutting
Star Wars breaks, they get no brakes, can't change the industry. Well,
and that'll be a rap on. My dream is for

(01:10:39):
everyone to know about this podcast, including like all the
big wigs in Hollywood, and then for them to be like,
for sure they're gonna know about us, and then they're
going to be like, wow, we've got to change this
movie because the way it is now, the Bechtel cast
would tear it apart. We'll take them down. I mean,
I feel like the Bechtel test is famous enough that
there's really no excuse. It's true. Just have two women

(01:11:01):
in a diner say, get me more more coffee. Marge,
shut thing, Liz did it high five point. It's very
easy to do. It takes but not even I mean,
most of what we talk about is how active the
female characters are in the story, how important they are
to the story, all that stuff like, I mean, you
should be better than that, but I'm just like better

(01:11:21):
than just the exchange. But it seems like a very
easy thing for totally. Yeah, most movies still don't bother anyway. Hey,
let's write the movie on our nipple scale. Okay, so
we have a scale of zero to five nipples on
which we rate the movie's portrayal of women and how
good or bad it does. I'm going to give it three.

(01:11:43):
I think I was going over three Yeah, cool, cool, cool, Yeah,
three nipples because it does much better than the previous
Star Wars movies. Wow, we now have a female protagonist
in this one. She has a little queer friend in
b B eight and it's and it's great. And more
people of color in this movie than we see in

(01:12:04):
Star Wars movies, which have been very historically white. Infinitely,
Oh my god. So yeah, three nipples. We've got a
female character who's leading the story. She's the main character.
She's doing a bunch of stuff. She's very good at
her job, and she is never damseled or objectified or
anything like that. But because there are still not as

(01:12:25):
many female characters as there could be or should be,
it doesn't get a higher scored than three nipples. I'm
going to give my nipples. It's gonna be. This is hard.
There's so many hot people I want to give nipple,
you give you give away even Yeah, I know. So
Kleen has three nipples today, who is she going to

(01:12:47):
give them to? Okay, I'm going to give one to
Finn cool, Yeah, hot hot nipple one two Ray, and
I'm going to give the third nipple too a porg
who we don't see in this movie, the Invisible Pork,
the Invisible porg that sounds like a really dystopian novel,

(01:13:10):
The Invisible pork. You might see one like fluttering around
in the background on the Jedi planet that Luke is
on at the very end. Who hard to say. By
the time they released, like the trilogy, Box said, there
will be like cg porks added to every sting exactly.
So I'm yeah, this is for the poor that will
retroactively be put into the force awakens. One of my
nipples goes to that pork. What's a pork? A pork

(01:13:33):
is a imagine if a rodent were a bird. Okay,
I like that's a pork. I think I like it? Right?
Is that a pretty good chicken meets a penguin? But
I like you, But they don't. But they can fly.
But their faces I can't tell whoa I love the pork,
but they don't have they don't have beaks or bird faces.

(01:13:54):
They have like kind of face kind of handstry faces. Yeah,
like over a little rabbit face sort of thing anywhere.
They're cute and I love porks. Okay, I'm on board
for porks. I'm gonna give it three nipples as well
as an objective don't give a funk about Star Wars
party Like Ray is awesome, there's no I mean, she's

(01:14:14):
the best there in. This world is still not realistically
populated with women in order for any universe to subsist
so in that way, and it's just frustrating to see
where in the original trilogy, as I understand it right
because because I do not know, have not seen it,
Princess Leiah is the female character where we're given a

(01:14:38):
lot of tertiary female characters in this series in addition
to our female protagonists, but they're still not given I
don't know they're for me, they're not doing enough, and
they're also the main thing is like they're not talking
to each other. And there's at least thirty to fifty
tiny scenes in this movie where men are talking to

(01:14:58):
each other. It's it should be that hard to get
two women in the same scene. Always frustrating. Three nippies
giving one to a little b B eight Uh, And
we don't know, we don't know what the story is there.
I look forward to the confessional to the medium dot
com pie is coming out from B B eight. I
can't wait for the b bight spin off movie written

(01:15:22):
entirely in deep give us the twenty two minute B
eight short before the movies. These fuck Frozen and that's
stupid ass all off short. Anyway, I have seen the
movie before. I have never seen a movie. I was like,
can I just say that there is worse seeing Lady Bird?
And I didn't like it? Why is everyone like Lady

(01:15:44):
Birds so much? It's really good. She's a whiner. She's
going to calm down a lot of people. Wine. All right,
I'm gonna say that there is one other notable female
character in the original trilogy who I think appears for
the first time in Empire Strikes Back. Her name is
Mom Mathma, but she has like two lines of dialogue
and then you pretty much to see her again. I

(01:16:04):
think she's in the Rogue one too. Yeah, Rugue one
Tokyo drift, rug one ruin. And I'll give my second
nippy to Daniel Craig because I didn't know he needed one.
That was fun, And then I'll give my my final
nipple to Mars great, wonderful cool. I'm also gonna give
it three nips, and I'm giving one nipple to Ray

(01:16:26):
because she she does so much in this movie, and
I feel like as much as I appreciated it all
three times that I've seen it, like, I feel like
I'm discussing it now. I'm just like, yeah, holy sh it.
They did a great job with her. And then those
rain two nips are going to b B eight excellent,
BB it's got three nips. Well, what are they going
to do? They need them? We don't know. It's going
to storm in his little compartment that Oh yeah, he's

(01:16:49):
got a lighter in there, he's got a flash drive.
Hold her gendering b im sorry they day to day. Well,
if Poe says he, I feel like it's safe for
us to say he, although a pole is an ally
to all, so I guess. I guess if Poe says he,
then they seemed pretty close, and B B A would
not have been so torn up at the thought of

(01:17:11):
no more Poe if Poe had been constantly miss John
constantly missed gendering him so we might have to let
that drap. BB eight possibly not a feminist icon but
still a queer. Also could be trans mail robot. We
don't know. There's so many stories untold in regards to BB,

(01:17:32):
so I'll do you have something you want to say?
He is male designing process. They were planning on female
changed Who gave that note? Was it? J? J abrams
Worth saying that this movie was written and directed? Oh yeah,
J J abrams I think not feminist icon Sure, Why

(01:17:53):
couldn't a woman help write this? Hey? This was our
The Force Awakens episode? I like this. This Star Wars
looks fun. It is. You should watch the new one.
I think you'd like it. Yeah, I don't have to.
I mean, at this point, I can just skip the
old ones. Right. If I enjoyed this one, I'll enjoy
the next. I'm gonna be honest, Yes, Yeah, You're going

(01:18:15):
to get a lot of angry tweets about that, but
I'm going to say, yeah, if you enjoyed this one,
just keep going forward, all right. Yeah, I don't think
you need to go back and rewatch. All right, I'll
se past in the past in it and the old
ones now, but the one for okay, No, I won't
get more screen time for b A. There's just a
lot of porks. I'll say that, a lot of I

(01:18:36):
want to get it. I want to get a B
B eight lunchbox that was what I was thinking, and
I was like, I know this is what the movie
wants me to be thinking, is how can I get
merchandise with This is a tiny thing on it, but
I want one. I saw a child with a B
B eight suitcase and I was like, good, um, dummy,
thank you so much for being thank you for having
me so much fun. I really enjoyed. Right, Well, where

(01:18:57):
can people find you online or follow your things? Or
you can follow me at electro Lemon And I've just
started a new podcast called punch Up the Jam. It's
a music podcast where we make fun of music and
then rewrite the music so well. You can check that
out at punch Up the Jam dot com. Amazing. Hey,
you can follow the becktel Cast on Twitter, Instagram. You

(01:19:18):
can go to our website backtel cast dot com. Hey.
Another great thing you could do is to rate and
review us on iTunes. That helps us out with like
people you know, finding out about us. Also, go to
our Patreon and subscribe to it. It's five dollars a
month and you get to bonus episodes and it helps
us out with our production costs and it helps you
out with just getting more Bechtel Cast. Yeah, We've got
a lot of fun stuff on there totally, and maybe

(01:19:40):
the Force be with us all, God bless us, everyone
all right. Talked to by