A Geek History of Time - Episode 272 - Why Obi Wan Can Only Move Diagonally Part II
Episode Date: July 12, 2024...
Transcript
Discussion (0)
See, people when they click on this, they'll see the title, so they'll be like, poor Ed.
What does that even fucking mean?
However, because it's England, that's largely ignored and unstudied.
I really wished for the sake of my sense of moral righteousness that I could get away
with saying no.
He had a goddamn ancestral home and a noble title until Germany became a republic.
You know, none of this highfalutin, you know, critical role stuff. a noble title until Germany became a republic. So they chewed through my favorite shit. No,
I'm not helping them. Make sense. Also trade wins are a thing. Ha ha, just serious.
Like, no, he really has a mad on him.
Yeah, we'll go upon a tangent.
As we keep doing.
Like, yeah, this is how we fill time.
Yeah. This is a Geek History of Time.
Where we connect nerdery to the real world.
My name is Ed Blaylock.
I'm a world history and English teacher at the sixth grade level here in Northern California.
And I just recently had to start up my lawnmower for the first time in longer than I'd like
to say. And my backyard had gotten
so bad that I started mowing it with the lawnmower. And I had to stop and get out the weed eater in in order to cut down the heavier, more more stalk like vegetation.
Because I would mow for about eight feet and the mower would choke.
So yeah, this is what I brought on myself when I said,
you know what, I want to have a backyard when we buy a house. And I have reminded myself repeatedly, I chose this. I chose this. I
chose this as I'm pushing the mower through the triffid-like weeds in my backyard. So that has been my own being
hoist on my own batard for the last week or so. How about you?
Well, I'm Damian Harmony. I am a US history teacher at the high
school level here in Northern California. And recently I kind of set my kids up for what I hoped would be success.
And it worked.
I was talking to my daughter and I said, you know, it's real easy to live by your ethics
when your belly's already full
which is the thing that people have told me before and
Yeah, her immediate response was
That sounds like a really good argument for making sure everybody has enough food to eat
Because then you can have a society that lives by their ethics
Yes You get it right you you figured it the fuck out. Yes, you just like, Yes, you get it. Right. You you figured it the fuck out. Yes.
No, like, you know, yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's the equivalent to you know, there's no atheist in
foxholes. I'm like, that's a great argument against foxholes. That's Yeah. Yeah. Um, I,
you know, if we don't put people in situations where they have to, you know, pray for their Yeah. Yeah.
If we don't put people in situations where they have to, you know, pray for their lives,
they'd be free not to have to worry about that. Right. Yeah. Right. So. Yeah.
Like, you know, speaking as a believer, like,
people shouldn't have to feel that way. Like, you know, I don't, I don't want anybody to be a believer because they're scared.
That's not like, yeah.
It remains a refrain of mine that you and several of my other non theist friends are some of the best Christians I know.
Several of my other non theist friends are some of the best Christians. I know
Like
To you and a couple of other people be like them be almost more like them all yeah Yeah, I need you all
to look at the world more like them because
because I've read the book see
and and what he told us to do looks and sounds a lot more like that than you so
mm-hmm yeah so ah and speaking of that yes we're continuing my analysis of Kenobi through the lens of
Catholicism.
And at the end of our last episode, we had just gotten through talking about the way
the theme of moral duty shows up through Kenobi's character and then very notably Owen Lars in the very first
episode. And of course there are plenty of other moments where that theme shows up, but
those are the most clear kind of obvious ones. And at the end of the episode, you had said that you were
interested in seeing how I reconcile this lens with the, as you put it, the
character of Kenobi's trauma. Right. Because as you said, that's almost as
much more of a character in the show
than Kenobi himself. Yes.
And I think where I'm probably going to do the best job of that is when I talk
about the, the themes of forgiveness and redemption.
Okay. Within the show sure
so Catholicism along with Judaism is famous for guilt like everybody talks
about Catholic guilt it's a phrase for a reason yeah it's a fundamental part of
Catholic teaching that we're all flawed I mentioned this in the last episode
like we're all gonna make mistakes we're all gonna screw up and we're all flawed. I mentioned this in the last episode. We're all
going to make mistakes. We're all going to screw up and we're going to do it constantly. We are all
sinners because the way God wants us to behave, the way God, the people God wants us to be
Are
People who emulate him and he's perfect
We're not
Sure, so so just like the very nature of human existence means
we're gonna fuck up, okay, and
We are always going to have that as part of our existence and it is through God's grace
That we can overcome our flawed nature
to end up sharing eternity with him because
the basic idea
Whatever Catholic you ask mm-hmm about okay, so what is what does it mean to go to heaven?
The teaching of the church is that in the end, heaven is residing with God, being in
the presence of God.
Right.
And beyond that, the details are all very fuzzy, which is remarkably different from, say, the
Romans idea of the afterlife, or the Greeks, or the Celts, or Pure Land Buddhism, just
to name a few, or Islam, notably.
The Quran very specifically says, no, this is what paradise is going to look like.
Right. In Christianity and Catholicism, it's well,
you're going to reside forever with God. You're going to be in the presence of God.
What is that going to look like? Well, we don't know. We,
we can't know it's ineffable. It's kind of one of the mysteries of the faith. So
in order to get there, right, we need to have God's grace. We
need to be forgiven by God for the mistakes that we make. Now
importantly, in Catholicism, there's also emphasis on doing
works. We have to do good works. We have to help other people
We have to act in a way that is compassionate. We have to
We have to walk the walk
There is no sola gracia for us. Okay, that's happy fluffy Protestant crap
There ain't no predestination in the Pope's house. You need to do your chores
Okay, okay
But you can't ever do enough to be worthy of salvation
You still need God's grace to get there
Okay, it's complicated
one way of thinking of it is
Doing works is a way of reaching up to take God's outstretched hand.
In grading terms, it's kind of like, I can fudge some things if you at least turn in
something to show me you care. And within Catholicism, this has been analyzed and argued
over for literally centuries, millennia, in fact, and I'm oversimplifying
it massively. But that's a rough analogy. And my godmother doesn't listen to the podcast.
So I can get away with that. Sure. Sure. Yeah. So, you know, and that's, and that's kind
of the way that I explained it when, when I was teaching the Reformation. That was kind
of the way I explained it to students was,
okay, so according to Catholic teaching, you got to do works and you never know.
And like the medieval church was really good about keeping everybody in a constant state of,
you have no idea what the state of your soul really is. And you have no idea of knowing,
you know, whether you're going to actually make it into
heaven or like whatever, because you've got to do the works and God's going to, God's
going to reach down, but you've got to do the works and you know, you can grease the
wheels and you know, reach a little bit farther there by buying an indulgence, right? And
you know, all of that corrupt shit that happened in the
medieval church.
But you can also see how they would get there if it's not just by the grace.
Yeah.
And, I mean, you can also see how the Reformation happens. They're like, look, if it's his grace,
then fucking none of this other stuff matters because his grace
is the key point yes and the rest of it's just performative and look how it can be corrupted
yeah and and martin luther the comparison i make is martin luther looked at that and went no no
we're we and and you got to understand luther's writing and really understand this. Luther really, really stressed.
We're fucking worms.
There is no way we can ever approach God.
Like Luther, Luther had issues.
Like he, he carried, he carried a lot going on, um, in his, in his head, but it
was where we're, we're, we're infinitely lowly. We are infinitely flawed.
There's no way that any amount of works we can do, none of it matters. It is solely through
the grace of God. God, if you believe, if you of that. And so we need, we need to understand
the, the Catholic view of redemption and works here. So the character I first want to talk
about is Haja Estri. Haja shows up very early in the series as a con man and he is playing up the role of
being a Jedi and hiding and we see him usher a family who the child is is force sensitive
or is being hunted or whatever he shuffles them off and we see him accept air quotes, you know all of the mother's money
for for getting them away from
authority right and
Obi-Wan sees this and immediately like pulls apart all of his Jedi tricks as
Like you've got magnets here and you're doing this with a right right that the other thing right which by the way is
taking from the Django Fett season's graphic novel, where he has
a sit-down meeting with Count Dooku, who's posing as Sifo-Dyas, Lord Tyrannus, or who's
as Lord Tyrannus. Um, and I think there's some, some reference to Sifo-Dyas, but, uh, he's
sitting down with them and this is when they're bargaining for Django to, to
allow himself to be cloned and Django sits down and he's like, you know, and, and,
and basically, um, Dooku has his lightsaber in front of Jango,
and Jango has his blasters, his West stars,
in front of Dooku, out of each other's reach.
I'm holding your weapon,
you're holding my weapons right here, right?
Okay, all right.
And at one point, toward the end of the meeting,
they both reach for their weapons.
Dooku has the force, so he pulls it right to him.
Well, Jango also yanks his weapons right toward him.
And Duku's like, I didn't notice you were sensitive.
And he's like, magnets.
And he's got him dead to rights.
Just like this cool thing.
And what's cool is they do a flashback
to when Duku was still a Jedi and he led
an attack against these Concord Dawn Mandalorians.
And Jango I think was like a junior member and like he took over after the leader got
killed and he said their Jedi switched to ballistics and they immediately start fucking
rocketing the hell out of the Jedi. And the Jedi are like trying back the Rockets, but they're not doing very well, you know, and and it's just as wonderful
Like just move counter move move counter move but back to your thing. I think they were pulling from that
Because that's the only thing yeah you
pre canon So but before the great schism the EU
that is now called legends that was the only thing that mentioned that in any
way so so again Disney doing what I love which is to grab from the good stuff. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Definitely, very much.
So now Hajja, like they move away from Hajja
and then Hajja shows back up on Jabeam.
And he winds up, essentially,
he becomes part of this, this rebel cell.
He's, he's part of this group of refugees and he winds up kind of taking over or
helping Leia do her part to help them all escape.
Right.
And by the end of the series, he's the one that Obi-Wan turns to
and trusts enough to say,
you need to be the one to get her back to her family.
She's with you and he's the one who has the,
Haja that is, is the one who has the emotional intelligence
to tell Obi-Wan, look, she needs a minute,
you gotta leave her alone.
Right.
You know, she needs some space
Well, cuz if there's one thing that Haja can do it's read people
Yes, and frankly very much you can do that better than any Jedi can because he lives in the real world
Yes, he's not relying on the force to do it and
So in this moment where Obi-Wan tells him I'm leaving her with you
You have to get her back to Alderaan. You have to get her back to her family
He expects to die facing Vader on the planet. Yes
and
Haja in this moment shows
It's suicide by cop
Yeah Oh, it's suicide by cop Yeah
I mean, yeah, yeah
we're gonna get into his
I
hesitate to quite fully agree with that because his motivations aren't like he's not seeking his death, but
He's fully expect these
Well, no, he's not, but anyway.
Yeah, it's like saying like, you know,
I wasn't trying to get pregnant.
I just didn't use a condom.
It's like, okay, fair.
All right.
Like he pulled the goalie, you know?
Yeah, okay.
But in this moment, where Obi-Wan
is expecting to sacrifice himself
to, you know, allow
everybody else to get away, Haja shows very strong parallels to St. Dismas, who is widely
recognized as the first saint.
He is known as the church as the good thief.
He is the criminal who expressed his faith in Christ as they were executed together. Oh
Okay, so as they're as they're on the cross one of the one of the execute one of the people being executed
mocks
Christ
Says, you know if you really are the son of God
Do something right? Why are you with me? Yeah and
Dismas rebukes the other criminal and
Says
I'm trying to remember the exact quote but says remember me when you come into your kingdom
and
Jesus tells him verily you will be there with me
and
So we know this is this is doctrine here. A saint is someone
who we know is in heaven. Okay. We know Dismas is in heaven because Jesus told him he was
going to be. And so Dismas is the first saint and he is the patron saint of reformed criminals
and a whole lot of other stuff related to that. And so he's this, he's
this important figure within, within the church. And so Haja has this arc of redemption. He
goes from con man to the person that Obi-Wan trusts to leave Leia with in this moment.
So now, Obi-Wan, and this is where we're going to start talking about his trauma. Obi-Wan
carries a mountain of guilt on his shoulders at the start of the series. Yes, he does. He is, as we've as we talked about in the last episode, he
is this haggard, sunken eyed, just completely shattered shell of a man. Right. He has the
guilt of having as far as he knows, killed his best friend. Now he believes that he had
to do it, but it haunts him. He has survivor's guilt because he saw the Jedi Order, which had been his family in the
center of his life, destroyed and its members murdered.
And here he is.
He has guilt over his failures.
He failed as a teacher because of Anakin's fall.
He failed as a master of the order for not having seen Palpatine for what he was, right?
He failed as a friend to Anakin. Yeah failed as a friend to Padme
You know, he he he failed everyone he failed himself, right? Mm-hmm
and failed everyone. He failed himself, right? And he's, it's like all of this is, is weighing
on him. He's living a kind of penance. Okay. Anthony went into the desert to eliminate
distractions and dedicate himself to contemplation. Obi-Wan is in the desert. because he's he's fleeing he's hiding and he's punishing himself, right?
Through isolation and hard labor, which is interesting because the force wasn't going to punish him
Yeah. Yeah, there's no there's no retribution involved right in in the force
He's he's but he is punishing himself. So this is a very very very Christian and I
think very Catholic
Overlay because this is a story being told by Westerners. Uh-huh
Not not Asians not right people with Buddhism as their background. This is a story being told by people coming from
Yeah, for lack of a better word the Jio Christian cultural tradition, right?
Which like that's a whole separate debate about the validity of saying that but like having Christianity as the pattern on the wallpaper
Mm-hmm. That's that's what's going on here. Well, let me ask you this then yeah in so doing and
Given that
By doing so he he he removes himself from the force in many ways. He separates himself
Yes, of course. He turns away from the force. Yes. He no longer has access to it really
By doing this right
Like his abilities are literally rusty as fuck
you know like there's that scene in the alleyway by doing this the force wasn't going to punish him
he is now removing himself from the force's presence per your definition last episode
presence per your definition last episode is he not sinning? Would a Catholic punishing themselves not be taking on the role of God and therefore
sinning by removing him from the equation, rejecting his grace given that's a given and that is where the sin of despair
mm-hmm becomes a thing. Dispair is considered a sin if you give up hoping
if you give up trying despair is essentially and again this is painting
with a very broad brush and simplifying but my godmother doesn't listen to the podcast. I'm a simple man
Despair is the ultimate sin of omission
Okay
And and he is he is in a pit of despair
He is choosing to separate himself from
the spiritual from the divine, from the force,
from in a Catholic lens, God. And you can, it is important within Catholicism to take
responsibility for what you have done. And when we've talked about, you know, how apology
works and how reconciliation works,
you have to take ownership of what you've done. You have to feel remorse and you have
to do what you can to make it right. Right. If you wallow in your guilt, rather than confessing
and doing what you need to do, you are perpetuating that state of separation from God
Okay, so yes, so the short answer your question is yes, but that's the okay complete version of it, okay
And He is he is doing this
this out of a streak of self-flagellation. Like, you know, there's the practical issue of staying hidden from the Empire, but he's very clearly beating himself up over it. You
know, he's hiding out of shame as much as he's hiding to protect Luke.
And he starts out the series using this hidden protector job as an excuse to watch over Luke in a way that's clearly not healthy. Right.
Like, he doesn't really know Luke, but he's been enough of a presence that Owen is telling him to fuck off right before the Inquisitors show up.
Right?
Yeah, there's, well...
So he brought Luke to them.
Yes.
And there didn't seem to be much of an agreement that has withstood the test of time.
And also it's been nine years.
So it's like, look, we get it.
You brought him to us.
He is Ken.
We're taking care of him.
We got this.
It's a little weird that you're still stepping around,
staying around.
It's kind of like if you save someone's life
and you don't leave them alone afterwards.
It's got that kind of vibe.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know?
And.
You show up, you know, at their kid's prom
to keep their kids safe. And you're just like you know, at their kids from. To keep their kids safe.
And he's like, what the fuck?
So there's that. Who are you again?
Yeah. Right.
So so he's trying to use this role
to maintain an emotional connection to his friends, Anakin and Padme.
But he's trying to justify it as necessary to Owen.
Right. And and to himself
When he meets Leia when he finally finds her when he meets lady's traveling with her
She forces him to bring the objects of his guilt out into the light of day. Mm-hmm
because
He hasn't actually like spent any time talking to Luke like we get the sense that he's been you know
Hovering on the edges and but he has never actually like gotten to know Luke right?
He can't not talk to Leia because they're traveling together and he's you know trying to get her home and
Pardon me and it's Leia. Mm-hmm
Right, so of course she's gonna be like, you know poking holes in all of his bullshit, right? Yeah and
And I mean she's doing that to a royal society on Alderaan
Yeah, like she starts out like she every pair of pants she owns a sassy like right
It's just the material
He sees both of her parents in her and
He has to talk about them
Because he's carrying all of this in
Himself and he's trying not to
Like he can't let the cat out of the bag, right?
But all of this he's been carrying this knotted up inside of him and he finally
like it bubbles up like without without being able to
Stop himself
you know and
even McGregor, in my opinion, does an amazing job of showing
us Obi-Wan's internal thought process while verbally leaving volumes unsaid. Like we can
we can see like you can you can you can hear in your head what he's thinking while he's saying what's actually coming out of his mouth.
Yes.
And he, like I mentioned in the last episode, when we're talking about moral duty, by shepherding her he also winds up becoming a
Shepherd to all of these other folks who are trying to escape from the Empire off of Jibin
Yeah, he was a business it it reminds me of the the old
It's an aphorism. I don't know the word for it. It's saying
He who saves a life saves the world entire
Yes
Very much. Yeah
So and
Because once he decides to act once he decides to go forward
He's back to Jediing
He's back to Jediing. Yeah.
Whether he wants to or not, whether he has the trappings of it or not, whether he has
the institutional backing or not, he's back to Jediing.
Yes, very much. Um, as, as he, as he faces these external threats, at the same time, he is facing the
things that he did and the things that he failed to do. And by taking on the responsibility and by stepping up,
like you said, by choosing to act, he gets closer and closer to oneness, reconnection to the force.
oneness reconnection to the force. So that that state of sin is, is, is being alleviated over time at the very least. Yeah. And, um, at the culmination of the series, he makes
the decision to face Vader. Okay. He has by this time figured out that Vader is Anakin and
He is placed in that, you know Paladin hero position of
I Have to sacrifice myself to save these other people, right? Okay, and
The duel starts with him saying,
I will do what I must.
And now this ties into the theme of duty
that I've already talked about.
But here for me, there's also the important element
that he has stopped running away from his guilt.
He is literally facing it head-on and take
ownership yeah now while we're on the subject of that I just want to say
Anakin Skywalker mm-hmm is a past master of talking big and not backing it up I see you have grown stronger but the weakness remains that
is why you will always lose bro how many like last time how many you got left
like have you noticed that Obi-Wan Kenobi is the limb cutter like yeah first
battle he knocked a guy's bottom limbs off
then he like he tabled the both of them in the cartoon like they both left with more limbs missing
then he goes and takes on a guy who they constructed more limbs on and he took out all of those and then
And then yeah, Anakin only has three organic limbs. Those are all forfeit
Like yeah, yeah
Bro, so so
Yeah, so Vader's Vader's Vader's big line here is right after we saw we want to literally school him in the flashbacks, right?
Like like in the flashbacks practicing he beat him right like when by the way when Anakin was clearly the more talented
Yeah But not the better trained which yeah was you was calling the question like Obi-Wan as a trainer then but but honestly
Anakin relied only on talent
But honestly, Anakin relied only on talent, whereas Obi-Wan could only rely on technique.
Coming back to what I said in last episode
about how he was the most middle,
he was the Nova of Jedi.
He was the most average.
He was the rich rider of the Jedi.
He was the most average, the most mid,
the most mediocre of Jedi.
And because of that, he had to be really good at everything.
Yeah.
Whereas Anakin just was a natural, you know.
Yeah, so he didn't have to work so hard.
Obi-Wan is the wizard with a 14 intelligence.
Yeah.
Anakin is the sorcerer with an 18 charisma.
Charisma, yeah, that's actually a really good analogy
So actually Anakin is the warlock with a 20 charisma. Let's be real cuz he has a patron deity
He has he has he has a yeah, yeah sugar daddy. Yeah, so we want beat the brakes off of him on Mustafar. Yep
And moments before this Kenobi smashes his rebreather,
nearly decapitates him, and drops a whole volcanic debris
field on his ass.
Yeah.
Like, I have more to say about Anakin Vader in a second.
But I just, I got it.
I got it in this moment where I talk about, you know,
the beginning of the duel.
Like, and this
is why you always lose bro.
Really?
Like, so, so I will, I will bruise your fists with my head.
So hard.
So badly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Not even break your hand on my head.
No, I will bruise your knuckles like really
so Vader spits the word master at him after burying him alive and
Obi-Wan has the moral climax of his arc. Mm-hmm. He hears Anakin's voice
He confronts his failures, right?
as I mentioned above, he sees. Yes, he says, I'm sorry, I'm about to quote it. Okay. And then as I mentioned above, he sees
Luke and Leia and he surges out of the pit. There's some amazingly on the nose imagery
here about purgatory, by the way. Like this, this is is literally like it's right there
Before rallying and like I said just beating the absolute crap out of Vader just like oh, hey
You've got this pant line your chest. That's how you breathe
I'm gonna fuck that up right out the gate right mm-hmm and
Then comes the moment that inspired me
to work on this episode.
Obi-Wan does a brilliant Oberhal
and just leaves Vader's helmet wide open.
Yes.
And is for the first time confronted
by the sight of his friend's face again.
Disfigured and twisted.
Anakin. Anakin is gone. I'm sorry, Anakin, for all of it.
I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. Right.
You didn't kill Anakin Skywalker.
I did.
The same way I will destroy you.
Then my friend is truly dead.
I am not your failure, Obi-Wan.
I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. kill Anakin Skywalker I did the same way I will destroy you then my friend is
truly dead mm-hmm goodbye Darth and by the way the note he puts on the word
Darth yeah he's it's it oh it's so perfect yeah
Obi-Wan Turns and walks away
Right like total confidence in your capability to defend yourself against this guy
like yeah You got nothing just
Yeah, which and one has walked away from him multiple times now
Yeah, leaving him scarred largely in the same part of his head
Yeah, it's an interesting parallel there yeah
and Darth Vader
Crippled by the damage to his cybernetic parts is too badly weakened to pursue right and he falls to his knees
screaming in impotent hatred and rage yes
Obi-Wan faced his guilt
Apologized and received a kind of atonement
The other cheek you don't get more Catholic yeah
Yeah, it's true
Yeah, yeah
You you don't get any more Catholic than that structure.
Yeah, yeah.
He walks away.
He is redeemed.
He confessed.
He apologized like
Dude,
meanwhile
Vader is
entirely consumed by his own pain
and hatred
He's been obsessed with finding and killing Kenobi all this time now. He has failed
and rather than learning anything or
growing or forgiving
He is tripling down on his own hurt
Yeah, cuz that's all he's got
yeah in one line he absolves Kenobi and clutches his own damnation with both hands. Neither which are his.
Yeah, well, yes.
I mean, I say that kind of lightly though, because there is some identity politics going on there if you start to say that some of these prosthetic hands aren't their own hands
So I do want that to you know, I don't mean that truly
Because for all intents and purposes those are Vader's hands. Yeah, but yeah
Yeah, but he he is he is
Cling to
His own damnation, right? Yeah. Yeah
and
now in in my notes here I
Want can I have a break in for just a second there? Yeah. Yeah in
Shadow of the Empire shadows of the Empire which also not canon anymore, right?
but they have taken several parts of that and brought it into the movies. But in
Shadows of the Empire, at the beginning of it,
Vader is meditating. He's meditating, he's trying to breathe on his own that's the whole point of this
meditation and he's meditating upon his hatred of Obi-Wan now this was written
before the prequel trilogy this was written before any canonized version of
what actually happened between Obi-Wan okay, right before we actually have a visual of Mustafar. So
Talk about prescient but yeah, he's meditating upon the betrayal of obi-wan upon how much he
hates obi-wan and about how angry he is that he is trapped in this box of a body now and all of that
and that gives him enough dark side points essentially gives
him enough dark side to be able to breathe on his own and what happens afterward is the
funniest fucking thing to me and it's also very tragic because he's actually able to
take multiple breaths on his own without the aid of the respirator. So he's turned off the respirator
He's fueled the rage into the power needed to expand and contract those lungs for the first time and forever
He's overjoyed at the freedom of it and at the relief of it and at that that just the
thing that we take for granted of it and
Because he's overjoyed that chases away all of the heart the hate and
He starts coughing and wheezing and has to turn on the machine
Yeah, it's it's just a self-defeating thing
And so yeah, it just reminds me of what you said
Like he is tripling down and holding on to his hate
with both hands, holding onto his hurt with both hands.
Speaking of trauma as a central character.
You move, oh, yeah.
And of course the other character whose trauma
we need to talk about is Reva, third sister.
Is Riva third sister. So Riva
It's it's one of one of the great again great acting moments in a series that's full of them is
When you know Kenobi and Riva face off and he says you don't really want me
Right you want him. Right. You're you're using me to get him.
This is in the tunnels where the ship's trying to escape.
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
And and she has been nothing but.
Barely contained fury.
Right.
Like, like, yeah, people were criticizing.
I remember reading articles where folks were like, you know, this is such a one note character.
It's like, you don't get it.
Yeah.
Like watching it.
I'm like, no, no, that's the point.
Mm hmm.
She is.
That is that is the only thing she has left. Mm-hmm, you know
and and that's so perfect like within the milieu of
Star Wars that's so perfect
For someone who is an acolyte of the dark side. It's like of course, that's all they're gonna have. Mm-hmm
What like the dark side is like of course that's all they're gonna have. Mm-hmm. What like the dark side
Requires you to be one note like that
Yeah, because because again the moment you feel anything else
You're you're not gonna change the works anymore. Yeah, you know
And we wind up, you know, we find out that she was
a youngling and she witnessed Anakin Skywalker, who she knows Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker.
She witnessed him show up and they thought he was going to save them. And she watched him murder all of her friends and
all of her, all of her brothers and sisters basically, because of the way the Jedi operated.
Right.
And he thought he'd killed her, but you know, she survived. And so she has been carrying that trauma for a decade. And, you know, she
sees Leia and Kenobi because she doesn't understand who Leia is in relation to Skywalker, but she knows that
somehow the child is going to be important because that's going to bring out Kenobi.
And when we get Kenobi, Vader is going to show up personally because this is his white
whale.
And they have that moment and
Then she and Vader have their moment
And where we actually see Vader? Yeah, where we actually see Vader live up to the hype for you know a minute. Yeah
And he is go ahead. He he dominates everyone except for Ben Kenobi
Yeah, he kills fucking everyone like it also in the comics like he take there's like seven Jedi
Who trap him with the promise that Kenobi will be there again no longer cannon, but it was in the Marvel comics and he like
no longer canon, but it was in the Marvel comics. And he like, literally, I think it's like,
his own robotic hand gets cut off
while it's holding onto a knife.
He uses the force to drive that through the last person.
Like, he box up all seven of them, you know?
Like, just, and it's just like, wow,
all he lost was a replaceable hand like yeah
You know and that's that's when he gets wounded like
So he it is only
Obi-wan who's able to stop him ever
Yeah, this is one his one. It's his great white whale. Yeah, you know, yeah
Yeah But yeah yeah he he destroys a third sister and
just i mean utterly dominates her like it is not even a contest it's not even a fight she thinks
she has a chance and then she's left with just impotent rage yeah and again again. Yeah, but in rage is a recurring theme here
and
She is however again
Thematically appropriately Vader doesn't actually kill her outright
right and
She survives and again finds the comlink where Obi-Wan basically says you
know I've got a I've got to face him I'm probably not gonna make it out whatever
you do look after the boy or words that I don't remember the quotes I didn't
write the quote down in my notes but words to that effect is she figures out aha right the boy
And so she heads to Tatooine
And Owen's like are you fucking kidding me yeah?
Yeah
We're gonna get to that in a second with with another another theme I want to touch on, but she bad knees in the star Wars universe.
So yeah, that's, that is one.
So, um, she goes back, um, fights her way past Owen and Baru and chases Luke into the hills. And we see her stagger
back to the moisture farm with Luke in her arms. And she's sobbing. Right? Just sobbing all of that anger is gone yeah all of that anger has has become sorrow
and loss and survivors guilt and all of the feelings that she was using the rage
right to hide from right yeah we realized that Luke is alive because she couldn't do it
She couldn't follow through with her vengeance and kill him
She turned back at the last moment for the whole series the whole series up to this point from the moment
We saw her on screen. She's been
delivering rage
Just a blazing red star of absolute pure fury.
Oh yeah.
But now in the aftermath of facing the horror of doing what Vader did, she can weep.
Right.
And by this time Kenobi has arrived because he figured out what was going on and hustled his ass back, right?
And she tells him I couldn't do it right. I failed them
He killed them all and I couldn't do it
Kenobi you haven't failed them
By showing mercy you have given them peace. You have honored them. Have I become him? No, you have chosen not to. Who you become now, that is up to you.
Taking out her lightsaber, she drops it on the ground. He helps her up to her feet.
His line, now you're free.
We both are.
Obi Wan is Saint Peter again here.
OK, he has been redeemed, he has been forgiven. And in this moment, he is giving absolution to Riva. Obi-Wan is St. Peter again here.
He has been redeemed.
He has been forgiven.
And in this moment, he is giving absolution to Riva.
You are the rock on which I will build my church.
What I don't remember the exact quote, but what you forgive on earth shall be forgiven
in heaven it's it's the it is it is the
quintessential explanation for the idea of apostolic succession and okay, and you know the Petrine, you know
The descendants quote unquote descendants of st. Peter being the head of the church. Well and Jesus making a pun
Well, yes. Yeah, that's most important point critically important point yes um
and in this same moment this is this also puns are the foundation of the
church part of it yeah the cornerstone if you will oh fuck you don't bring up
the cornerstone don't you goddamn dare? Oh
If I could dig up that Confederate son of a bitch
Sorry, sorry forgiveness
Mean to spark your hatred of Andrew Stevens. I was just saying like a cornerstone because Peter's name Yeah, is the rock and yeah, yeah
cornerstone because Peter's name is the rock and
Yeah
But but so so a founding piece of the church yes is a pun is a pun yes, yep
So God's grace is upon us
Now now you're you're you're starting to piss me off. Like go and put no more.
So, but, but what I actually have here in my notes is that in this moment between Obi-Wan and Reva go and sin no more is the obvious Biblical
illusion.
Now because some spiritual truths are universal, there's a lot of Buddhism that could be invoked
here as well.
There's also a parallel here, by the way.
She drops her lightsaber and she couldn't do it Yeah, she's dressed all in black
Yep, Luke when he's on the Death Star
That's all my dad's hand for like the 14th fucking time. I swear to God
You know, it's like they're not even screwed on like
It's a breakaway. Yeah, you know
Yeah breakaway fuses. It's fine. Um, but like he cuts off his dad's hand. And then the emperor comes down. He's like, Oh, good, which I think if the emperor hadn't said anything, Luke might have gone further. But hubris. But the emperor says good now you're mine. And he's like, No, and he throws his lightsaber and says you failed
You failed. Yeah, I'm a Jedi like my father before me which
Father's a fucking failure of a Jedi, but but you know, but you know, we didn't know that yet
But he throws his lightsaber and says you failed
Reva drops her lightsaber and says you failed. Reva drops her lightsaber and says I failed.
Mmm. Yeah, I just I love the there's there's a parallel there, but it's it's
she's coming at it from a place of weakness and
and a feeling of the ultimate like abandonment and anguish he's coming of it at it from a place of enlightenment and he is finally graduated
Like for him, it's enlightenment. Yeah her it's much despair. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and she's miss reading it
Whereas he's nailing it. Yeah, so very interestingly she has all her parts
He doesn't at that point to yes looks down at his hand and looks at his dad's breast
He's like oh, hey, I was just like me
Yeah, yeah
so
So go for it said no more. Yeah, and and
This is reconciliation being given to Riva mm-hmm
And this is reconciliation being given to Riva. This time the contrast with Vader is directly called out.
She has chosen to turn away from her rage and pain.
She reached that moral event horizon and she she turned back.
She is free.
Vader has continued to damn himself. Yes. With his own hurt and his own shame.
Yes. And he remains a prisoner in his crippled cybernetic body being carried back aboard
his ship by a disgusted high inquisitor. Right. That that moment when they when they pick him up
and look on the high inquisitor's face, it's just like, you know, if your boss could breathe right
now, you'd be fucked. Like, oh, but but it's so it's so telling. Like, there there is so much of
Like there, there is so much of the whole ethos of the empire tied up in that, that whole moment.
Right.
But you know, Reva has, has faced her trauma.
It's less a sense of failure because she was a child like she doesn't write her her failure
To her is right there in front of her. It's that moment right there
She hasn't been carrying failure. She's been carrying
loss
yeah, and betrayal and
And trauma. No, yeah. Yeah, just just a heap of trauma. Yeah and
Her response to it
in the end was still
compassion
Mm-hmm, or or at least
Was bulking at that more limit horizon
Do you think some of that is also because?
She was raised with Jedi values whereas Anakin came late and was separated from his mother I
think I think there's I think there's something to that yeah, you know she had the
six seven years of
Working group yeah, but the indoctrination of detachment which made her healthy enough to handle watching a
Genocide happen and only carry that rage for 20 years whereas he
little later and so he carried it to 50.
I think-
It doesn't bode well for the Jedi as an institution,
but like-
Not at all.
She at least, she could still find that seat of compassion,
whereas-
The core of who she was had been built around
a different set of experiences.
Well, Anakin, I mean, what did they say to him when he was first in the Jedi
temple? I sense much fear in you.
Yeah.
He was the core of him was always fear.
In fact, it's one of producer George's favorite moments in the book.
The novelization of episode one says that
The the fear in him at the thought of losing his mother would would cause the courage in him to
To flitter away like a leaf that had been previously like pinned to a post in the well
And it's I mean he is a an engine
And it's I mean he is a an engine
Built on fear. Yeah, like and and so, you know and Yoda said fear leads to anger anger leads to hate He leads to suffering. I mean he basically told him hey, dude. Here's what your next 50 is gonna be like. Yeah
whereas Revo was raised with
the Jedi concept of compassion which as I'm gonna
have all the problems in the world with it but but she can still turn to that
yeah Obi-Wan still turns to that yeah Anakin can never turn to that because he
never had that as a core value he had fear as a core value. He had fear as a core value. Fear and attachment. I think you're right.
Their traumas are different as a result. Yeah, well, because Anakin was coming from a place of
trauma from the very beginning. Right. well, and his traumas, honestly,
were already done by the time he lost his braid.
Yeah.
Like his mom's death was the final trauma for him.
He was forever on the, and prior to that,
the trauma was losing his mom too.
Like, Padme dying, he didn't know. on the like and and prior to that all the you know the trauma was losing his mom to like
Pod may dying he didn't know
Yeah, that wasn't a trauma from losing the Obi-Wan wasn't a trauma for him because he was already deep into his anger and hate
Yeah, you know yeah, and I was stopped with mom dying. Yeah, and he he never
Stopped with mom dying. Yeah, and he he never
He never faced that wound
Cuz there's also the fear of facing your trauma. Yes, like there's there's the fear of
That loss in the first place and then there's the fear of that's gonna hurt. Yeah the emotional wince
yeah, I don't I don't want to I don't want to deal with that
and like we've all been in those positions where it's like I I have a choice of
Facing the fear or sorrow or loss or whatever I'm dealing with or I can get pissed off, right?
And being angry makes me feel strong.
It makes me feel powerful. It makes me feel like I'm doing something somehow even when I'm not quicker,
more seductive. Yeah, precisely. It's easier.
It doesn't hurt the same way. Right.
It externalizes the hurt. Yeah. So anyway,
you know, and, and so we have all of those traumas and the responses
to those traumas, you know, some, some of them or other people just clutch them tighter
You know
So now
That we've talked about redemption and all of that I want to talk about family, okay
So All of that I want to talk about family, okay? so
Hold on a sec here
Has entered Star Wars oh
God
so
Real quick quote here the first and fundamental structure for human ecology is the family in which man receives
his first formative ideas about truth and goodness and learns what it means to love
and to be loved.
And this is what it actually means to be a person.
This is a quote from Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Centesimus Annus.
So, Catholic teaching places the family at the center of human life.
Parents play a crucial role in the development of a child's conscience.
While the church recognizes the validity and merit of those called to solitary life,
Church recognizes the validity and merit of those called to solitary life. The default state of adulthood in Catholic doctrine involves marriage and parenthood unless one is called
to a monastic life or being a priest. In circumstances of infertility, adoption was traditionally
strongly encouraged and still is. And that brings us back around to Owen and Beru Lars
Okay
Okay for those unfamiliar with the relationship involved here quick recap
Anakin Skywalker's mother shma shma
Mary shmeat married Cleague Lars
Now Cleague Lars had a son already Owen who became Anakin's stepbrother
Yes, when the Republic fell and Anakin became Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, not knowing that Anakin had
become Darth Vader, took the Sith Lord's newborn son back to Tatooine, left the child in the
care of Owen and his wife, Beru.
Owen and Beru had only met Owen's stepbrother very briefly when Anakin came to Tatooine to rescue
Shmi from captivity by the Tuskens. Right.
They had no meaningful relationship with him. No, he stole the droid. Yeah. Yeah
Certainly had no relationship to this haggard hunted Kenobi fellow who showed up with a baby in tow and said hey
He's your nephew. He needs a home, right? Right. There's
like and and the time that when they saw Anakin
Like we don't know if they knew that he had just like completely myrtle aided an entire tribe of Tuscans
That's true. We don't he talks about that in the garage with yeah
I may and she has no problem with it for some reason she was
Yeah, we can yeah
Like in the moral bankruptcy involved in that a whole exchange I know
Thank you
Like George what yeah what buddy okay your arm buddy
My brother in hot rods what like, you know, right?
But yeah, they don't know
Although in fairness, they would have been raised with Klee
pointing out that like, you know, because I think he even said something about the Tuscans
and how they're animals and they're terrible.
So even if he had come back with like Tuscan blood
on his hands, they would have been like,
all right, fine, fuck.
Yeah, all right, cool.
But nevertheless, it would have been
a little bit disturbing, like you killed,
how many of them? of them. Yeah, like
You know
You do you think they would have asked though?
Like did you do that before or after you found your mom?
Like do you think they would have asked because I don't think they would have I think okay
I think the Tuscan Raiders were background enough menace
They were objectified
Dehumanized and okay by enough by moisture evaporator community.
Community. Yeah. All right. Fair enough.
Because like 30 of us went out and only four of us came back and I lost my leg.
Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah. Good point. Nevertheless, like Anakin was like radiating negative waves.
Oh my God.
Yeah, like the whole time.
Yeah.
So like even if you're not force sensitive, like somebody's somebody's giving off that kind of radiation.
Right.
You know, so.
So like the exposure they did have to Owen's stepbrother was not
Like great, right?
But they stepped up
They adopted Luke
They never had any biological children of their own
Right now how much of that is intentional on their part? We don't know
But I think it's an important point
on their part, we don't know. But I think it's an important point.
Anakin having been conceived through the will of the Force
is a point I haven't touched on
mostly because I'm focusing on the Kenobi series,
but there's an interesting way
in which the chosen one status
of the immaculately conceived Anakin
kind of gets transferred to his son Luke.
And Owen Lars is very much a St. Joseph kind of gets transferred to his son Luke. Yeah.
And Owen Lars is very much a St. Joseph kind of figure.
Now because of the way this story gets told,
Beru shares this role.
But sadly we see less of her on screen,
which is a damn shame.
Right.
Now Luke grows up knowing them as uncle and aunt.
There is clearly some level of emotional remove
Involved in no one's feelings for the boy
He doesn't ever make a statement claiming Luke as a son
Right, but from the moment we see Owen on screen in the series
He's deeply protective of Luke even from a man who delivered Luke into his care
And I another another quote here, I want you to stay away
from him. We don't need anything from you, Ben. Obi-Wan. It's just a toy. It's a lot
more than that. There's more to life than your farm. Oh, and he needs to see that there's
a whole galaxy out there. I'm asking you to leave us alone and I mean it
Is he okay?
You don't care if he's okay. You care if he's showing
He's my responsibility out. I am his uncle
We talked about this when the time comes. He must be trained and
And here is where Owen Lawrence commits murder
Like you trained his father
Anaconda is dead Ben and I won't let you make the same mistake twice
So leave him on the farm with his family where he belongs
This isn't a man who's watching a child out of a sense of obligation
This is a man who loves a child as his own. Yeah
I'm an Obi-Wan Stan
As anybody who's listened to us already knows and even here I was siding with Owen
Okay, you can be an Obi-Wan Stan and recognize that Owen is is the real shit. Yeah like yeah
Owen is is the real shit. Yeah like yeah
At this point Ben doesn't see Luke as Luke
He sees him as Anakin's son the son of the best friend who fell and betrayed him and the order they both served
And who he carries all that guilt about failing
Owen is wrong when he says you care if he's showing
Because Ben's care is rooted in not having processed that trauma
Right and Luke is a tangible connection to it. It's still selfish and
Owen is a hundred percent right for telling Ben to fuck off, right? Mm-hmm
In the series finale, we've already talked about this Riva's Savander intercepts a message. Obi-Wan attends for Bail Organa, right?
Owen and Beru figure out that she's on the planet that she's asking about Luke and this is before Obi-Wan can reach them
right Without any hesitation without any second-guessing without anything but raw parental protective instinct. Yeah. They protect Luke.
Owen knows exactly who Reva is. He's seen her up close. He knows and presumably
Baru knows too that they're massively outclassed. And this is where Baru gets a wonderful moment
that makes her lack of screen time. So disappointing to me. Owen sensibly is like, no, we got it. We got to run. We
got to flee. We got to find, we got to find somebody else. We got to get help. We got
to do whatever. And Baruch calls bullshit. Uh, Owen says, you know, Ben's gone and Baruch
looks at him and says, and whose fault is that? Like, yeah, like I love this woman yeah
She's the one who says we've got to do it ourselves
We can't put anybody else in danger and she's the one who breaks open the clover
Yeah opens up the closet starts breaking out the blaster rifles. Mm-hmm, right?
From there they both fight tooth and nail to defend Luke.
Yes.
I think fully expecting not to make it.
Yeah.
There's not a moment's consideration of flight from that point forward.
Once once Beru calls him out on it he He's like okay. No you're right and literal tooth and nail like
Like physically I am going to block you with my body
Mm-hmm kind of kind of fighting. Yeah, even if it only slows you down. Yeah
Don't care. Yeah Wolverine. Honey badger all the way right? Yep
This whole last episode like so many moments in this
episode just left me a complete wreck sure like emotionally I was fucked up
the emotionality of their defensive Luke so close to the catharsis of Obi-Wan's
fight with Vader like my chest hurt like it, oh my God. There was just so much.
Yeah. And, you know, in the end, they, you know, they fail, but they are right up to
the point of sacrificing themselves to buy him time, right? Right.
Yeah, they they have they also have a plan ahead of time of how he can escape.
Yeah. And he knows it.
They drilled this. Yes. So.
So the Lars family, the Lars's are like absolutely a peak example of what you would look for
in an adopted family.
Right there.
Now the organas
Get very little time on screen right which sucks
But they're also in a different way a perfect Catholic example of adoptive parenthood
Leia knows she's not their biological child, but in every way she is still fully their
daughter.
And their interactions with her show that she is treasured.
She has both of her biological parents in her, as Obi-Wan points out, and that makes
her a massive challenge at times yes But even when she drives them mad
The organ is remonstrate with her
gently and they teach her lovingly and gently and
like
The the Queen Breha
Breho Organa
Clearly like knows her daughter's tricks and is exasperated.
But she never snaps.
She never shouts.
Right.
It's always look, you have a responsibility.
I love the line.
Just don't make anybody cry this time like I understand that I have a
very intelligent willful child mm-hmm but I love my child right and I'm going
to do everything I can to teach her and mold her in a way that respects our family's role and traditions,
which is like so Catholic, right?
But also I'm going to be respectful of her.
There's also a tacit, you're not wrong aspect to,
don't make anybody cry this time.
There is a, I get that you see the bullshit
that we have to do.
I'm not asking you to believe it.
I'm just asking you to find your place within it.
Like there's this, like, I don't want you to change
who you are, I just want you to make your own life
a little easier.
So, you know, nothing you've done has been wrong.
Right.
Yeah, but.
Right, not to make people cry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Jimmy Smith as Bail Organa is like dad goals. Oh yeah, yeah And Jimmy Smith says Bail Organa mm-hmm is like dad goals. Oh, yeah solidly he is he is
Clearly so proud of Leia. Mm-hmm, and he speaks to her with such respect
It's it's oh my god. Yeah
and and so
You know when when Lea goes missing, he is Smith's does an amazing job of expressing just how panicked and how how? utterly
shaken to his core he is and the
emotional desperation he has of no no dude
You're the guy
You you I need you right?
Cuz you're the one I know can do it you need to go find her and you need to get her home
She is my daughter
Mm-hmm like
And so, you know there is
This this is a
In an excellent
Example like I said, of when all of these folks, in both of these cases,
the Organas and the Larss are both thrust into the position of parenthood.
And they adopt the role, again a choice right neither one of them has to
do this and they both take these children in and these children become And I think in analysis of the original trilogy, we don't, we don't see any of that relation.
Like we don't see the organas at all.
And the only part of Luke's relationship to the Lars is that we see is him being,
is Luke being a whiny teenager who wants to go goof off and his, and his uncle, dad,
telling him, no, you got chores to do. Right. Right. But here we, we see that, no, no, there is
see that no, no, there is deep parental love. Yes. Involved in this. Yes. And yeah, that's, and that's the third, that's the
Catholic ideal. Yeah, that is that is ultimately the Catholic
ideal of what that relationship should be in two very different
ways because of the circumstances that each of them face within the series.
So yeah, that's it. That's the, what do we call it? The three legs of the stool. Yes. Yeah.
No, that's, I mean, you know, as we looked at and or through a Marxist lens, we could have looked at it
through a destiny lens as well.
We looked at the Mandalorian through the distributist lens.
We could have looked at it through any number of other lenses as well, up to and including,
you know, just adoptive parent lens.
Yeah, just on that just adoptive parent lens. You know, could have just done that.
Or patriarchal lens, like, you know, that kind of thing.
And we looked at the book of Boba Fett
through the libertarian lens,
and I think that's the only lens we could have.
But.
Yeah, matter of who.
And in fact, well.
But, and then this one, through a Catholic lens, absolutely.
I definitely see how it twigged for you.
And I think that there, I could have looked at, honestly, could have looked at Boba Fett,
Book of Boba Fett through the existentialist lens, could have looked at and it would not
improve it um, but uh, but we could absolutely look through this
Through kirkigaard's existentialism if you want to keep it religious. Yeah
Because he has duty to the force, you know and that kind of thing or you could look at it through
camu and and Sartre and
Say look you have a
You are abandoned you are anguishing and you are in despair now choose
and
You could you could straight-up look at obi-wan that way at Riva that way at Owen and
Beru that way you could look at all three of them through that lens
But you know, it's it's what I love about
The enduring mythos of Star Wars is that it is so archetypical it is so universal
It is such that you could
look
at them through all these lenses
and get a different kind of thing through each one.
And yet it'll still speak to the same universal truth.
And I think that's why I like Star Wars so much.
And that's why I think it's more powerful
in some levels than sci-fi
or maybe it just it's not appropriate to call it sci-fi because
it gets at
Truths of humanity whereas sci-fi gets at truths of society
I think I think there is something about the mysticism that is baked into the universe
of Star Wars that makes it a more fertile universe for questions of spirituality.
Yep. It would be very hard to have
this kind of arc in the Federation.
Yeah, I mean, they kind of try it with Picard
and they kind of try it with the Bajorans
in Deep Space Nine, but you're right, it has a ceiling.
Whereas this has depths and heights that you can never stop addressing because it gets
at the root, I think, ultimately of the human experience Which which is just why are we here?
Why do bad things happen and what happens when we die like those questions, right?
Yeah, where's star trek kind of concerned star trek to you know to draw the the the obvious
Oh, this is the sci-fi one, right?
star trek
And I love star trek, you you know I'm one of those people
that we know yeah I love both um and Star Trek absolutely asks us questions
about who we are as a society yeah Star Trek because of because of where
Roddenberry was coming from Star Trek is utopian Star Trek and Star Trek is utopian. Star Trek is rooted in, like you said,
it's rooted in questions of society.
Right, not humanity.
And not individual experience or individual humanity
or certain individual spirit.
You know?
Yeah.
And like, I could turn around and I could analyze this whole story again through through a Buddhist lens.
Yeah.
And the themes from a Buddhist point of view would be very different Sure
But the fact that for example
Darth Vader
is a prisoner of his own trauma
and a prisoner of his own choice
to cling to it
You know
there is no idea of
redemption in Buddhism
Right
But the idea of redemption in Buddhism.
Right.
But the idea of freeing oneself spiritually is the core.
That's the goal.
And Darth Vader is a prisoner.
A physical embodiment of that.
Yeah.
Yeah. You know, so yeah you know so yeah no this is
this is I think this is one of the strengths of the Star Wars milieu
definitely yeah so yeah I fully agree with you well thank you for that well. Yeah, yeah, it was it was
I've had this in my head for a long time, so it felt very good to get it out
You know having a place to let this rant go
That's been has been good so
Yeah, that's I mean I've already talked about what I gleaned from it. Yeah, so
What are you reading?
well
Totally unrelated to what we're what we've been talking about but I very highly recommend to everybody
servants a to everybody. Servants, a downstairs history of Britain from the 19th century to modern
times by Lucy Lethbridge is a fascinating social study of how the culture of servants
and people having an entire household full of people whose whole job was doing servant
work and middle-class households having a maid until, you know, the 40s.
And the ways that evolved and the ways that changed and how that worked.
And it's absolutely, it is a way more interesting read
than it sounds. It's fascinating. Highly recommended. How about you?
I'm going to I think I recommended this before but I'm going to recommend two books. The
first one the novelization of Star Wars Episode three for Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover.
It does this great thing about narrating the...
It's novelization of the book, right?
Or of the movie.
So all the dialogue is pretty much as you remember from the movie.
But it does this great thing of when you know, it's
like, this is what it's like to be Anakin Skywalker. Right now.
This is what it's like to be Obi Wan Kenobi right now. And it
gets into their internal monologue and and their internal
life. I love it. And the next one I want to recommend is
actually called Dark Lord. And it's it's shortly thereafter
and it is by
Oh, that's James Luceno
and
It also gets into the psychology of and again, this is when it was all EU and it was canon
It's no longer canon. These are all just legends
but this kind of stuff is drawn on both of these are drawn on heavily for the characterization of
Anakin
Vader
Okay, so both of these books are just phenomenal. So that's that's what I will recommend
Alright, awesome
Anywhere
people can find you? Not at present, no. How about you? August 2nd and September 6th
I will be at Comedy Spot at 9 p.m. with capital punishment per the usual. Bring
12 bucks, come check it out. If you can't make it down there go to the website for
the Comedy Spot and stream it for six bucks so you
know watch it in the comfort of your own home and I've been told many times that
it translates quite well on to screen also yeah check that out and and that's
true anywhere and the cool thing is if you by the way 9 p.m. Civic Standard Time so if
you're over on the East Coast you're like man fuck that that's okay
nag the tickets anyway and stream it when you want to there you go that's
where it's at so nice yeah anyway cool well forek History of Time, I'm Damian Harmony.
And I'm Ed Blalock, and until next time, keep rolling 20s.