Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have been teasing this interview throughout the show. I'm
very excited. In fact, let's let count Dook who say
the words I'm looking quote to this. I have indeed
been looking forward to this. I've seen him at a
couple of fan expo denvers this summer and last summer.
He is all over the place online, especially YouTube, where
(00:20):
he has the single largest YouTube channel with over three
point three million subscribers. He's been at this on YouTube
since twenty sixteen. He is Star Wars Theory joining me
live from Canada over the US airwaves. Sarah, Welcome to
American radio, and it's good to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good to be here. Thank you so much for the invite.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's great to have you here, brother, I appreciate it.
Talk to me for a moment about how you got
started in YouTube and even tracing back a little bit,
how Star Wars became such a big deal for you
as a person, and that you were like, you know what,
I'm going to start something on a channel.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And it became what it became.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, it never really started out that way, kind of
as life would have it. But for me, like many
others back in the nineties, my parents introduced me to
Star Wars, and I was in love right away, you know,
from the age of five or six, back in ninety
five or ninety six, and I'm dating myself here, but
it was just a beautiful story that meant a lot
to me. And I got to connect with my parents
(01:30):
and some other friends and then online friends as well,
and over the years just found myself engulfed in the
love of Star Wars, in this universe that George Lucas created.
And so, you know, flash forward to twenty sixteen, where
the new Star Wars movies were coming out from Disney,
(01:50):
and I had a theory and I created a channel
called Star Wars Theory and I made one video on
my phone just for fun.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I remember I had a pretty bad que at home.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And I was just kind of bored. I'm like, well,
I kind of have this idea, and I figured I
just put it out there into the ether and forgot
about it for three weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Checked back and.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
There were a few hundred views and some comments, and
I thought it was amazing and I was able to
connect with other Star Wars fans around the world, and
so I just kept going from there, and well, nine
years later, here we are one.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Of the story short absolutely, and you and I were
the same age and where we were about the same
age when we both were introduced to Star Wars and
fell in love with it, and there's just something so
special about the story. And you talk about this a lot,
especially in the context of Disney purchasing Star Wars over
ten years ago or was it twenty twelve, twenty thirteen
(02:41):
thereabouts and twenty twelve, how important the storytelling of Star
Wars really is. That it is about the story which
in your mind, and I tend to agree Disney has
largely forgotten as it's overseen. Lucasfilm talk to us a
bit about the story dynamic in Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, the story dynamic is very simple.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It's something that George Lucas created because he just wanted
to see this story play out. And it's a space
opera mainly about family dramas. If you think about it,
you know, you have Luke, you have his father, Vader Anakin,
and then you got a sister and then everything else
that ties in there as well. But it's mainly just
about the hero's journey and that's really what George wanted
(03:26):
to tell, which was a farm boy who didn't know
where he belonged. And George says that his favorite scene
in all of Star Wars was when Luke was looking
out to the Twin Suns and wondering where his next
journey was going to be.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Where does he belong? What is his path? What is
his destiny?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And eventually over the trilogy, he finds that path and
he fails a few times along the way, and that's
very realistic to life and storytelling in general, and that's
one reason why it resonated so well with so many
of us. And I feel like today's storytelling through Disney,
they forgot in that way and they're over complicating it
(04:02):
and they're just need to make it a little more
simple to what George had it as as, which was
just telling the hero's journey.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Now there are some listening who might go.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
But George Lucas also had the prequel trilogy, and you
and I love the prequel trilogy, A Rod behind the Glass,
same thing. He's also a prequel trilogy fan. And the
three of us grew up in that era when they
came out as kids and teenagers.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So what is your take on the prequel.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Hate that I think is kind of turning away, at
least in so far as you have the younger generation
at the time that is up and coming now in
age is changing the narrative and showing a lot more
love towards the prequels and towards hating Christiansen who played
Anakin Skywalker, and you and McGregor who played Obi Wan,
Kenoby and the rest.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You know what, we're all aging now.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So the kids that grew up with Jar Jar, you know,
we're now in our thirties and we're now writing the articles.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We're now in charge of the narrative.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And it's nice to see because those films I feel like, Wow,
they may not be for everybody, and that's totally fine.
They still were part of George's story and ultimately they
were how George originally thought of Star Wars, which was
the fight between.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Anakin and Obi Wan.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
It's just he didn't have the money nor the technology
to be able to.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Create that scene.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
So I think the prequel trilogy, while it is quite
different from the originals, offers a complete different stylistic approach
to Star Wars and really the overall themes of Anakin Skywalker,
which we didn't get to dive into too much. With
the original trilogy, I think Vader got maybe ten or
fifteen minutes of screen time in the entire original trilogy,
(05:45):
whereas in the prequels you get to see Anakin as
a boy and going through the different beats of his
life with what he went through and why he turned
out the way he did from all the neglect and
pressure that was on him.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Star Wars our guest, he has the largest YouTube channel
for Star Wars content. Just search Star Wars Theory and
it'll come up right there. I want to ask you
one more thing regarding prequels because there is a lot
of criticism and I guess really this goes back even
to the original trilogy of the acting, and there's especially
(06:19):
Hayden Christiansen and how he is in the second and
third episodes of Star Wars. How do you view the acting,
because I think most people haven't heard your take, especially
on Hayden Christiansen as Anakin Skywalker.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So I created this video several years ago, five years
ago or so. It has a few million views now
and it's titled why Hayden Christensen played Anakin perfectly. I
will prove it to you, and it's quite a long video.
It goes through all of the reasons why he actually
played him quite well and why he actually seems so
monotone on purpose, and this was actually by design. So
(06:57):
when I met Hayden, he actually thanked me for that
video personally, because it really did expose all of the
truths as to his acting and why so many people
say it was so monotone. So George wanted him to
speak like this because it's supposed to be exactly how
Vader's cadence is later on. So the reason Anakin, for example,
is supposed to say yes, my master, is because Vader
(07:21):
says it that way too. He's a very pressured, confused boy.
The child was a slave and then lost his mother,
and the Jedi said, don't worry about it. Essentially, and
I'm running through about, you know, twenty years of his life.
And he was also known as the poster boy of
the Clone Wars. He was extremely powerful, extremely gifted. They
(07:44):
called him the Chosen One, yet they denied him all
of the abilities and the respect that he should have
been given. And so this really put a lot of
pressure on him. And whenever he had questions or doubts
from the attachments that he originally had as a slave,
which no other Jedi grew up with. They kind of
just ignored it and said, well, just deal with it.
(08:04):
And so eventually this pressure really started to build over him,
and he broke once he found that father figure, that
uncle figure in Palpatine. And so the way Hayden was
acting was to really show that he can't show emotion,
because that is what the Jedi really tried to instill
within him, that he is very volatile, very emotional.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
But he can't show any of that.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So I feel like once people see that video, they'll
kind of understand a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It definitely gives a lot of context and understanding into
what was going on there for George Lucas as a
director and hating Christiansen as an actor against Star Wars theory.
Our guests, let's fast forward now to the Disney era
of Star Wars. And as you look at this and
we talked about story and how you feel that the
(08:56):
storytelling focus has been deemphasized, I want to ask you
why you think Disney has approached Star Wars in the
way they have. I mean, to an extent, they have
certainly gone in a direction that is more political, one
might say woke focused on things like DEI or gender ideology.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And so forth.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Do you think that they've gone too far into politics
because they have an agenda there, or they've lost touch
with where the core fandom is at. How do you
view sort of the motivations behind some of what Disney
has done since they bought Star Wars for what four
billion dollars from George.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Lucas, Yeah, four billion dollars in some stock options. I
believe not a bad deal for George, but I wish
you would have held on to it. And originally when
he signed the agreement with Bob Iger, which is all
written in Bob Biger's book, CEO of Disney closed down
Disney Parks and all that, and yeah, Bob Biger owns Disney.
(09:54):
And you know, George gave his treatment for the sequel
trilogy and the direction he wanted everything to go. Disney
decided to do something completely the other way. And while
Star Wars, Star Wars has always been political inside itself,
in the world of Star Wars, there isn't any real
world politics in terms of today's politics, you know, politics
(10:16):
that aren't timeless. Everything in Star Wars is timeless. For example,
is the good guy versus the big bad guy. You know,
it's the massive empire versus the little rebels, and that
is supposed to be a timeless sort of feat whereas
today Disney has really radicalized, it divided the fandom and
(10:38):
really turned it super political in today's world, which I
don't think will last as long as you know, George's
timeless stories of just you know, the big guy versus
a little guy.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Kind of thing. I don't know why they've done that.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It's unfortunate, but I hope that they go back to
the storytelling ways and just focus on the hero's journey.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It is interesting to see these moments.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I don't really want to get so much into politics,
except in so far as a massive corporation where you
have the CEO of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy the number of
years back saying the force is female and making it
and I think you do as well. That women are
and always have been such an integral part of Star Wars,
but and the fandom. My fiance is a massive Star
(11:25):
Wars fan. It's one of the things that we love
and share and have in common. And yet that doesn't
mean that you should go into as some of the
shows have done some of these things with such a
focus that's much more on, Like even in the sequel
trilogy with the character of Ray I'm not even going
to say the last name they gave her at the
edge of the third movie in that but where they
(11:47):
didn't develop certain aspects of the character because they were
more focused on emphasizing the gender.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And I just don't get that. I don't get that either,
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
And George said this better than any of us just
a few years ago at an interview, and you can
find this on YouTube as well. Just type in George
Lucas talks about girls or women in Star Wars and
he says, you know, it's ludicrous that people say that.
You know, I didn't put women in power in Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
He said.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
The original trilogy is the main character is mainly Leah.
I mean, she's the one who's leading the whole thing.
She's in charge of the rebellion, this dopey boy Luke
and then this jerk Han solo essentially, and she's the
only one with the brains. And he says, and I
think he's nodding in my opinion towards what Disney's done
or what storytelling today is doing.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You can't just have a woman in a movie or
in Star Wars and automatically she is everything.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
She is super powerful.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
You can't just put a woman in soup pants and
all of a sudden she is the most powerful being
in the story. Women have brains, they can be ladies,
they can wear dresses, they can do all of these
things that they've done traditionally over years. But they can
also be extremely powerful in their own way. They can
be extremely intelligent. There's so much more to a woman
(13:06):
than just their gender and throwing them into a story
and expecting them to be the hero. And George said
it perfectly, and I fully believe that when you articulate
a character, male or female, perfectly, and you give them
the hero's journey of trial and error, you will have
an audience that is in love with that character.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Whether they are.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Black, white man, woman, alien, robot, it doesn't matter. If
you're able to resonate with that character and that growth,
then you're going to have a successful ip. And unfortunately
that I don't think that's being done today. I want
to shift gears here in a second Star Wars theory.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But first, what Star Wars projects, just real quickly that
Disney has put out do you think have been either
top notch or that you've really enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I've really enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So for the Disney ones, I really enjoyed Tales of
the Jedi. It was an animated film, animated show which
focused on Douku's younger years. I thought that was really
well done. I really enjoyed Mandalorian season one and two.
However they lost me on to the third one. Besides that,
I don't think they've done the best that they could
at all, and I'm hoping that they will definitely take
(14:19):
a page from George's books going forwards.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
How about Rogue one? And I know you did like
the last six episodes of and Or right.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I did enjoy Rogue one, But when it comes to
Star Wars, I truly do believe that what makes it
extremely exciting is, of course, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
The good storytelling.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
You have to have that, but it's the force, it's lightsabers,
it's action. So you know, all the other ones are
cool and all like Rogue one and all that great story,
great acting, and or great acting, great story, great dialogue,
but when it comes to the heart of it, I
want to see the Jedi. I want to see the Sith.
I want to see lightsabers, I want to see the Force.
(14:58):
And that to me is one thing that makes Star
Wars very special. Otherwise it's just a space show, but
done differently than the Actolyte. But we'll leave that there.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I do want to talk to you Star Wars theory
in our remaining minutes about two quick things.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
One is new media.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So I think that when talk radio came to the
fore in the late nineteen eighties here in the USA,
especially with Rush Limbaugh, that was more political and conservative talk,
that was one of the early forms of new media
in the sense that people could access something differently from
the mainstream or the major TV or cable news outlets
(15:33):
and what have you, and gave a voice to something
different and in fact, for so many years Rush Limbaugh's
show broadcast right here on KOA. Well, now we have
the rise of YouTube and podcasts and so many other
mediums that are really changing the game, both in terms
of commentary, interviews and discussions about things, but also in
(15:53):
terms of video content and fan fictions, where you have
amazing video those of shows and movies that fans create themselves.
You yourself have a project in the works that's a
sequel to your first piece of content that you did
called Vader. Talk to us about why you view new
(16:14):
media and its influence now.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Uh, well, I mean YouTube and the Internet today it's
completely changed and you can have a ten year old
that makes the story on his phone.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know, it's stop action toys. Uh, stop stop motion toys, and.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It's it's quite revolutionary because you can have anyone now
be a director or exercise that and then get real
time feedback from their audience.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So with YouTube, I mean, you could put up a fan.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Film and get so many people seeing it and giving
you feedback and telling you, hey, like I love this
or you know, you should change that, and you might
have the next Spielberg from that.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You never know.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
So I think today's world, especially with the advancement of AI,
I mean, if you look at YouTube now, there is
so much going on with fan films, and most of
these guys are just teenagers. They're just knowing how to
use the system, this new technology of how to do
prompts and make images and then turn it into some
sort of animation, and quite frankly, it's looking really good,
(17:24):
really really good, and you can see the comments underneath.
It doesn't matter what Disney creates anymore, it doesn't matter
what studio is creat anymore. AI is here and now
it's in the hands of the fans, and so regardless
what you think about it, some of the stuff is
actually more entertaining than what's in theaters today.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
There are some fascinating examples, and maybe we'll have a
minute where we can get back to AI, but since
we're almost out of time, I want to talk with
you about one other thing that you have done in
the past couple of years Star Wars theory, and that's
what you call theory sabers. So if you go to
like fan x Denver in the summer, you will see
a number of different lightsaber stores, saber shops that get
(18:07):
their booths and they're selling their lightsabers. And this year,
for the first time, you had your own for theory
sabers with some really unique lines of lightsabers, including one
by the creator of the lightsaber, the original designer, Roger Christian,
and another with the guy Nick Gillard, who was the
choreographer for all of the Lightsaber fights in the prequel
(18:29):
trilogy of episode one through three. You've partnered with him
on that too, So talk to us a bit about
sabers and theory sabers.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, I mean, yeah, I mean it's first of all,
it's been a huge honor to be able to work
with Roger Christian and Nick Gillard. And we're headed to
San Antonio next week for Space con to do to
do that convention, and we're bringing Nick out with us,
which is going to be the first time that he
gets to meet fans, and we have a saber coming
out with him as well. But it's been it's been
a really amazing journey. I have to say, you know,
(19:02):
I was reviewing so many companies sabers for years and
eventually I started my own company after doing the due
diligence that I needed to do to make something that
was worthy of putting my brand on it. And it's
been a real great experience so far. I've really loved
going out to conventions, meeting you, meeting so many other
people and just seeing what we can do in the
(19:24):
saber community and in that world and what we can
offer has been really fulfilling for me in so many
ways so, and it all goes back to, you know,
paying for the fan film, which is I'm very excited for.
It should be out in the next few months. Here
that's Vader Part two. Vader Part two. The first one
got over thirty million views and the second one is
(19:45):
well on the way.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's going to be amazing if you're.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Looking for unique and fun Christmas gifts as the holidays
come near.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
What's the way?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The website's theoryesabers dot com Correct theoriesabers dot com.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yes, we have, in my opinion, the best on the market,
and this comes from a fan who has reviewed pretty
much everyone out there. We have exclusives nobody else has,
and like I said, and we're endorsed by Roger Christian,
the creator himself that worked with George beautiful.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Thank the maker. Right may be with you, Star Wars Theory.
We're out of time, but I hope you'll come back
down the line. Brother, I'd love to.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
It's always a pleasure speaking with you, and I hope
you have a great day and may the Force be
with you all.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Thank you all right back at you once again.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Star Wars Theory, purveyor of the largest Star Wars YouTube
channel with over three point three million subscribers, joining us
here on KOA
We have been teasing this interview throughout the show. I'm
very excited. In fact, let's let count Dook who say
the words I'm looking quote to this. I have indeed
been looking forward to this. I've seen him at a
couple of fan expo denvers this summer and last summer.
He is all over the place online, especially YouTube, where
(00:20):
he has the single largest YouTube channel with over three
point three million subscribers. He's been at this on YouTube
since twenty sixteen. He is Star Wars Theory joining me
live from Canada over the US airwaves. Sarah, Welcome to
American radio, and it's good to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Good to be here. Thank you so much for the invite.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's great to have you here, brother, I appreciate it.
Talk to me for a moment about how you got
started in YouTube and even tracing back a little bit,
how Star Wars became such a big deal for you
as a person, and that you were like, you know what,
I'm going to start something on a channel.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
And it became what it became.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Well, it never really started out that way, kind of
as life would have it. But for me, like many
others back in the nineties, my parents introduced me to
Star Wars, and I was in love right away, you know,
from the age of five or six, back in ninety
five or ninety six, and I'm dating myself here, but
it was just a beautiful story that meant a lot
to me. And I got to connect with my parents
(01:30):
and some other friends and then online friends as well,
and over the years just found myself engulfed in the
love of Star Wars, in this universe that George Lucas created.
And so, you know, flash forward to twenty sixteen, where
the new Star Wars movies were coming out from Disney,
(01:50):
and I had a theory and I created a channel
called Star Wars Theory and I made one video on
my phone just for fun.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I remember I had a pretty bad que at home.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And I was just kind of bored. I'm like, well,
I kind of have this idea, and I figured I
just put it out there into the ether and forgot
about it for three weeks.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Checked back and.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
There were a few hundred views and some comments, and
I thought it was amazing and I was able to
connect with other Star Wars fans around the world, and
so I just kept going from there, and well, nine
years later, here we are one.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Of the story short absolutely, and you and I were
the same age and where we were about the same
age when we both were introduced to Star Wars and
fell in love with it, and there's just something so
special about the story. And you talk about this a lot,
especially in the context of Disney purchasing Star Wars over
ten years ago or was it twenty twelve, twenty thirteen
(02:41):
thereabouts and twenty twelve, how important the storytelling of Star
Wars really is. That it is about the story which
in your mind, and I tend to agree Disney has
largely forgotten as it's overseen. Lucasfilm talk to us a
bit about the story dynamic in Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, the story dynamic is very simple.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
It's something that George Lucas created because he just wanted
to see this story play out. And it's a space
opera mainly about family dramas. If you think about it,
you know, you have Luke, you have his father, Vader Anakin,
and then you got a sister and then everything else
that ties in there as well. But it's mainly just
about the hero's journey and that's really what George wanted
(03:26):
to tell, which was a farm boy who didn't know
where he belonged. And George says that his favorite scene
in all of Star Wars was when Luke was looking
out to the Twin Suns and wondering where his next
journey was going to be.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Where does he belong? What is his path? What is
his destiny?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
And eventually over the trilogy, he finds that path and
he fails a few times along the way, and that's
very realistic to life and storytelling in general, and that's
one reason why it resonated so well with so many
of us. And I feel like today's storytelling through Disney,
they forgot in that way and they're over complicating it
(04:02):
and they're just need to make it a little more
simple to what George had it as as, which was
just telling the hero's journey.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Now there are some listening who might go.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
But George Lucas also had the prequel trilogy, and you
and I love the prequel trilogy, A Rod behind the Glass,
same thing. He's also a prequel trilogy fan. And the
three of us grew up in that era when they
came out as kids and teenagers.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So what is your take on the prequel.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Hate that I think is kind of turning away, at
least in so far as you have the younger generation
at the time that is up and coming now in
age is changing the narrative and showing a lot more
love towards the prequels and towards hating Christiansen who played
Anakin Skywalker, and you and McGregor who played Obi Wan,
Kenoby and the rest.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
You know what, we're all aging now.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So the kids that grew up with Jar Jar, you know,
we're now in our thirties and we're now writing the articles.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We're now in charge of the narrative.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And it's nice to see because those films I feel like, Wow,
they may not be for everybody, and that's totally fine.
They still were part of George's story and ultimately they
were how George originally thought of Star Wars, which was
the fight between.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Anakin and Obi Wan.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
It's just he didn't have the money nor the technology
to be able to.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Create that scene.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
So I think the prequel trilogy, while it is quite
different from the originals, offers a complete different stylistic approach
to Star Wars and really the overall themes of Anakin Skywalker,
which we didn't get to dive into too much. With
the original trilogy, I think Vader got maybe ten or
fifteen minutes of screen time in the entire original trilogy,
(05:45):
whereas in the prequels you get to see Anakin as
a boy and going through the different beats of his
life with what he went through and why he turned
out the way he did from all the neglect and
pressure that was on him.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Star Wars our guest, he has the largest YouTube channel
for Star Wars content. Just search Star Wars Theory and
it'll come up right there. I want to ask you
one more thing regarding prequels because there is a lot
of criticism and I guess really this goes back even
to the original trilogy of the acting, and there's especially
(06:19):
Hayden Christiansen and how he is in the second and
third episodes of Star Wars. How do you view the acting,
because I think most people haven't heard your take, especially
on Hayden Christiansen as Anakin Skywalker.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So I created this video several years ago, five years
ago or so. It has a few million views now
and it's titled why Hayden Christensen played Anakin perfectly. I
will prove it to you, and it's quite a long video.
It goes through all of the reasons why he actually
played him quite well and why he actually seems so
monotone on purpose, and this was actually by design. So
(06:57):
when I met Hayden, he actually thanked me for that
video personally, because it really did expose all of the
truths as to his acting and why so many people
say it was so monotone. So George wanted him to
speak like this because it's supposed to be exactly how
Vader's cadence is later on. So the reason Anakin, for example,
is supposed to say yes, my master, is because Vader
(07:21):
says it that way too. He's a very pressured, confused boy.
The child was a slave and then lost his mother,
and the Jedi said, don't worry about it. Essentially, and
I'm running through about, you know, twenty years of his life.
And he was also known as the poster boy of
the Clone Wars. He was extremely powerful, extremely gifted. They
(07:44):
called him the Chosen One, yet they denied him all
of the abilities and the respect that he should have
been given. And so this really put a lot of
pressure on him. And whenever he had questions or doubts
from the attachments that he originally had as a slave,
which no other Jedi grew up with. They kind of
just ignored it and said, well, just deal with it.
(08:04):
And so eventually this pressure really started to build over him,
and he broke once he found that father figure, that
uncle figure in Palpatine. And so the way Hayden was
acting was to really show that he can't show emotion,
because that is what the Jedi really tried to instill
within him, that he is very volatile, very emotional.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
But he can't show any of that.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
So I feel like once people see that video, they'll
kind of understand a little bit.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It definitely gives a lot of context and understanding into
what was going on there for George Lucas as a
director and hating Christiansen as an actor against Star Wars theory.
Our guests, let's fast forward now to the Disney era
of Star Wars. And as you look at this and
we talked about story and how you feel that the
(08:56):
storytelling focus has been deemphasized, I want to ask you
why you think Disney has approached Star Wars in the
way they have. I mean, to an extent, they have
certainly gone in a direction that is more political, one
might say woke focused on things like DEI or gender ideology.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
And so forth.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Do you think that they've gone too far into politics
because they have an agenda there, or they've lost touch
with where the core fandom is at. How do you
view sort of the motivations behind some of what Disney
has done since they bought Star Wars for what four
billion dollars from George.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Lucas, Yeah, four billion dollars in some stock options. I
believe not a bad deal for George, but I wish
you would have held on to it. And originally when
he signed the agreement with Bob Iger, which is all
written in Bob Biger's book, CEO of Disney closed down
Disney Parks and all that, and yeah, Bob Biger owns Disney.
(09:54):
And you know, George gave his treatment for the sequel
trilogy and the direction he wanted everything to go. Disney
decided to do something completely the other way. And while
Star Wars, Star Wars has always been political inside itself,
in the world of Star Wars, there isn't any real
world politics in terms of today's politics, you know, politics
(10:16):
that aren't timeless. Everything in Star Wars is timeless. For example,
is the good guy versus the big bad guy. You know,
it's the massive empire versus the little rebels, and that
is supposed to be a timeless sort of feat whereas
today Disney has really radicalized, it divided the fandom and
(10:38):
really turned it super political in today's world, which I
don't think will last as long as you know, George's
timeless stories of just you know, the big guy versus
a little guy.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Kind of thing. I don't know why they've done that.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It's unfortunate, but I hope that they go back to
the storytelling ways and just focus on the hero's journey.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It is interesting to see these moments.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I don't really want to get so much into politics,
except in so far as a massive corporation where you
have the CEO of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy the number of
years back saying the force is female and making it
and I think you do as well. That women are
and always have been such an integral part of Star Wars,
but and the fandom. My fiance is a massive Star
(11:25):
Wars fan. It's one of the things that we love
and share and have in common. And yet that doesn't
mean that you should go into as some of the
shows have done some of these things with such a
focus that's much more on, Like even in the sequel
trilogy with the character of Ray I'm not even going
to say the last name they gave her at the
edge of the third movie in that but where they
(11:47):
didn't develop certain aspects of the character because they were
more focused on emphasizing the gender.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And I just don't get that. I don't get that either,
you know.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
And George said this better than any of us just
a few years ago at an interview, and you can
find this on YouTube as well. Just type in George
Lucas talks about girls or women in Star Wars and
he says, you know, it's ludicrous that people say that.
You know, I didn't put women in power in Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
He said.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
The original trilogy is the main character is mainly Leah.
I mean, she's the one who's leading the whole thing.
She's in charge of the rebellion, this dopey boy Luke
and then this jerk Han solo essentially, and she's the
only one with the brains. And he says, and I
think he's nodding in my opinion towards what Disney's done
or what storytelling today is doing.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
That.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You can't just have a woman in a movie or
in Star Wars and automatically she is everything.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
She is super powerful.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
You can't just put a woman in soup pants and
all of a sudden she is the most powerful being
in the story. Women have brains, they can be ladies,
they can wear dresses, they can do all of these
things that they've done traditionally over years. But they can
also be extremely powerful in their own way. They can
be extremely intelligent. There's so much more to a woman
(13:06):
than just their gender and throwing them into a story
and expecting them to be the hero. And George said
it perfectly, and I fully believe that when you articulate
a character, male or female, perfectly, and you give them
the hero's journey of trial and error, you will have
an audience that is in love with that character.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Whether they are.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Black, white man, woman, alien, robot, it doesn't matter. If
you're able to resonate with that character and that growth,
then you're going to have a successful ip. And unfortunately
that I don't think that's being done today. I want
to shift gears here in a second Star Wars theory.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
But first, what Star Wars projects, just real quickly that
Disney has put out do you think have been either
top notch or that you've really enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I've really enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So for the Disney ones, I really enjoyed Tales of
the Jedi. It was an animated film, animated show which
focused on Douku's younger years. I thought that was really
well done. I really enjoyed Mandalorian season one and two.
However they lost me on to the third one. Besides that,
I don't think they've done the best that they could
at all, and I'm hoping that they will definitely take
(14:19):
a page from George's books going forwards.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
How about Rogue one? And I know you did like
the last six episodes of and Or right.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I did enjoy Rogue one, But when it comes to
Star Wars, I truly do believe that what makes it
extremely exciting is, of course, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
The good storytelling.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
You have to have that, but it's the force, it's lightsabers,
it's action. So you know, all the other ones are
cool and all like Rogue one and all that great story,
great acting, and or great acting, great story, great dialogue,
but when it comes to the heart of it, I
want to see the Jedi. I want to see the Sith.
I want to see lightsabers, I want to see the Force.
(14:58):
And that to me is one thing that makes Star
Wars very special. Otherwise it's just a space show, but
done differently than the Actolyte. But we'll leave that there.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I do want to talk to you Star Wars theory
in our remaining minutes about two quick things.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
One is new media.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So I think that when talk radio came to the
fore in the late nineteen eighties here in the USA,
especially with Rush Limbaugh, that was more political and conservative talk,
that was one of the early forms of new media
in the sense that people could access something differently from
the mainstream or the major TV or cable news outlets
(15:33):
and what have you, and gave a voice to something
different and in fact, for so many years Rush Limbaugh's
show broadcast right here on KOA. Well, now we have
the rise of YouTube and podcasts and so many other
mediums that are really changing the game, both in terms
of commentary, interviews and discussions about things, but also in
(15:53):
terms of video content and fan fictions, where you have
amazing video those of shows and movies that fans create themselves.
You yourself have a project in the works that's a
sequel to your first piece of content that you did
called Vader. Talk to us about why you view new
(16:14):
media and its influence now.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Uh, well, I mean YouTube and the Internet today it's
completely changed and you can have a ten year old
that makes the story on his phone.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
You know, it's stop action toys. Uh, stop stop motion toys, and.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It's it's quite revolutionary because you can have anyone now
be a director or exercise that and then get real
time feedback from their audience.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
So with YouTube, I mean, you could put up a fan.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Film and get so many people seeing it and giving
you feedback and telling you, hey, like I love this
or you know, you should change that, and you might
have the next Spielberg from that.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You never know.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
So I think today's world, especially with the advancement of AI,
I mean, if you look at YouTube now, there is
so much going on with fan films, and most of
these guys are just teenagers. They're just knowing how to
use the system, this new technology of how to do
prompts and make images and then turn it into some
sort of animation, and quite frankly, it's looking really good,
(17:24):
really really good, and you can see the comments underneath.
It doesn't matter what Disney creates anymore, it doesn't matter
what studio is creat anymore. AI is here and now
it's in the hands of the fans, and so regardless
what you think about it, some of the stuff is
actually more entertaining than what's in theaters today.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
There are some fascinating examples, and maybe we'll have a
minute where we can get back to AI, but since
we're almost out of time, I want to talk with
you about one other thing that you have done in
the past couple of years Star Wars theory, and that's
what you call theory sabers. So if you go to
like fan x Denver in the summer, you will see
a number of different lightsaber stores, saber shops that get
(18:07):
their booths and they're selling their lightsabers. And this year,
for the first time, you had your own for theory
sabers with some really unique lines of lightsabers, including one
by the creator of the lightsaber, the original designer, Roger Christian,
and another with the guy Nick Gillard, who was the
choreographer for all of the Lightsaber fights in the prequel
(18:29):
trilogy of episode one through three. You've partnered with him
on that too, So talk to us a bit about
sabers and theory sabers.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, I mean, yeah, I mean it's first of all,
it's been a huge honor to be able to work
with Roger Christian and Nick Gillard. And we're headed to
San Antonio next week for Space con to do to
do that convention, and we're bringing Nick out with us,
which is going to be the first time that he
gets to meet fans, and we have a saber coming
out with him as well. But it's been it's been
a really amazing journey. I have to say, you know,
(19:02):
I was reviewing so many companies sabers for years and
eventually I started my own company after doing the due
diligence that I needed to do to make something that
was worthy of putting my brand on it. And it's
been a real great experience so far. I've really loved
going out to conventions, meeting you, meeting so many other
people and just seeing what we can do in the
(19:24):
saber community and in that world and what we can
offer has been really fulfilling for me in so many
ways so, and it all goes back to, you know,
paying for the fan film, which is I'm very excited for.
It should be out in the next few months. Here
that's Vader Part two. Vader Part two. The first one
got over thirty million views and the second one is
(19:45):
well on the way.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's going to be amazing if you're.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Looking for unique and fun Christmas gifts as the holidays
come near.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
What's the way?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
The website's theoryesabers dot com Correct theoriesabers dot com.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yes, we have, in my opinion, the best on the market,
and this comes from a fan who has reviewed pretty
much everyone out there. We have exclusives nobody else has,
and like I said, and we're endorsed by Roger Christian,
the creator himself that worked with George beautiful.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Thank the maker. Right may be with you, Star Wars Theory.
We're out of time, but I hope you'll come back
down the line. Brother, I'd love to.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
It's always a pleasure speaking with you, and I hope
you have a great day and may the Force be
with you all.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Thank you all right back at you once again.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Star Wars Theory, purveyor of the largest Star Wars YouTube
channel with over three point three million subscribers, joining us
here on KOA
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com