In this episode of the podcast, we tackle the huge question: What is Star Wars? In order to do this, we assembled a panel of previous guests, so join us in welcoming John Whittemore, Jack Adrien and Josh Bernhard back to the show! This is a great and super fun episode that covers all aspects of Star Wars and more.
If you are interested in more Star Wars after listening to this episode, you should check out Trash Compactor: A Star Wars Podcast hosted by Josh Bernhard. https://www.trashcompod.com/
If you enjoy this episode, please like, share and subscribe to the podcast. You can reach us at Secretoriginsmc@gmail.com and visit the Facebook group, The Secret Origins of Mint Condition. We are also on Instagram @secretoriginsmc.
00:00 James opens the episode by introducing our panel of guests and our topic: “What is Star Wars?" We kick things off with Jack weighing in first, talking about how Star Wars is a pastiche of influences George Lucas has named.
5:11 Josh weighs in with his thoughts, picking up where Jack left off: you can slide any genre into the Star Wars universe to make new stories and that it is the first piece of postmodern storytelling.
24: James poses the following question: if you take away the mythology we have known so far, do you still have Star Wars going forward? John weighs in first on this question
28:40 Josh weighs in about needing the old mythology to have new Star Wars while adding that Star Wars is more of a cinematic experience for him.
37:33 Jack makes the point that part of George Lucas' influence in making SW was the Vietnam War, that the original SW had a very simple story line and that SW seems not want to take the SW universe into an uncomfortable place, trying to make something that everyone will like instead of just telling a great story.
52:36 Josh speaks about how the prequels posit a falling democracy, what makes people do unthinkable things, and how he can see the message of those movies more clearly today. This leads to a discussion of the movies and shows depicting life under the Empire and how the Empire hates aliens.
1:08:53 James asks what would be considered “bad Star Wars." This leads to a discussion about the prequels and the notion that collaboration is the key to making good Star Wars.
1:21:22 Jack gives his thoughts about what is “Bad Star Wars." He agrees that George Lucas should have encouraged and accepted more input to the prequels while Jack and Chris disagree over the quality of “Rebels."
1:35:42 We give recommendations for the audience and wrap up the show in a humorous way.
