ForceCast.net: Listener Mailbag: July 3, 2012

Listener Mailbag: July 3, 2012

Posted by Eric on June 29, 2012 at 02:00 PM CST

This week in the mailbag: A fan discovers a vintage Star Wars pseudo-reference, John Belushi meets Return of the Jedi, a memory of sneaking into Star Wars showings, and more.

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Millennium Falcon Reference on the Atari 2600?

Hey Jason & Jimmy,

Not sure if you want to include this in your "Star Wars in Pop Culture" segment, or maybe a "Jimmy Mac Investigative Report", but I'msending you a scan from a game cartridge that was made for the old Atari 2600 gaming system, called "Star Voyager". It had nothing to do with Star Wars, but as a kid (yes, I'm dating myself with this testimony), it was a lot of fun. It wasn't until today, while perusing the net for vintage gaming sites to see if anyone payed homage to the venerable Atari gaming system (as it turns out, there are plenty), I happened to see this cartridge scan for "Star Voyager", AND TO MY SURPRISE!.....well, if you see for yourself, I really don't think I have to tell you what I think it looks like. In fact, I don't see how ANY dedicated Star Wars fan wouldn't catch this.

The most disturbing thing about all of this, is that I have been a Star Wars fan all my life, and held a special place in my heart for the "fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy," but as much as I played this game in the early 80's, while at the same time playing with my Kenner Millennium Falcon, I had NEVER noticed the similarities until just 15 minutes before sending you this e-mail!

Keep up the great work! I love the show!

Chris Vondenstein

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Some wild speculation about The Clone Wars Season 5 and beyond

Hey Jimmy and Jason,

Long-time listener and some-time responder here, just thought I'd report in with some Clone Wars speculations (premonitions?) I've been thinking about lately, and and to start off I want to cite a few of the hints Dave Filoni dropped recently: That everything is about to change forever for Ahsoka, and that we're going to see Asajj team up with somebody more interesting than Obi-Wan.

Dismemberment is a running theme throughout the Star Wars saga; both Skywalkers get their arms chopped off, Maul gets cut in half, plus numerous instances besides. But we have yet to see a similarly epochal instance of dismemberment on the Clone Wars show itself. My first prediction is that we will see Ahsoka's head-tails get sliced off in some engagement versus the dark side, or maybe even Pre Viszla. This clearly might represent the sort of trauma that Dave has foreshadowed, as well as serving a practical purpose for the animators; we know Togruta head-tails can grow to be quite large and cumbersome as they get older, and Ahsoka ought to remain acrobatic in combat without all that stuff getting in the way.

Now let's say Ahsoka is so traumatized from this event that she possibly withdraws from the Jedi Order, or elsehow finds herself on the outside and isolated. Who better to fall in with at that point than the similarly disposed Asaajj Ventress? And besides, what cooler image is there than a pair of lightsaber-weilding ladies, the former apprentices of Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku no less, carving their way across the galaxy together? They would make the perfect good-cop/bad-cop style duo, or in this case a Jedi-babe/Sith-chick duo.

Now if you'll allow me to reach even further into the stratosphere for my last prediction, although I agree that the sixth season might be the last year for The Clone Wars, I don't think that will be the end of animated Star Wars adventures. After all, after you get such an incredible production team together for TCW that only gets better at what they do every year, just what should they work on next? I foresee another new show (apart from Seth Green's Detours or the live action "Underworld"/1313), a spin-off/continuation that could be called Star Wars: Dark Times or something to that effect, that would fill in the blanks between Episodes III and IV. And since it makes no marketing sense whatsoever to kill off a female character before she can be legally considered sexy (come one, we're all thinking it), who better to be the star of the show than an older and more mature Ahsoka Tano? Or maybe Assaaj or Boba Fett could join the action, or heck even Chewie since we don't know what he's up to nowadays; now I'm getting pretty far out there, but hey, I'm feeling especially prophetic this evening.

And while I'm being thorough here, I might as well mention there are plenty of blanks to fill in between Episodes I and II as well: I'm still unclear on the whole Syfo-Dias thing for example. Can you say flashback episode?

Just food for thought.

May the Force be with you,
"Darth" Will Smith in CA

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John Belushi In Star Wars? Some Cool "What If..." Art

Dear ForceCast,

While listening to the show on Friday via the ForceCast app, I too wondered what character John Belushi would be in Star Wars. This is a quick sketch showing who he could've played. I listen almost every week to the ForceCast. You guys make me feel proud to be a Star Wars fan. Hope you enjoy the pic and "May the Force be with you."

William Hyde

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Remembering Your First Star Wars Experience

Hey Jason and Jimmy,

I listened to your newest episode today at work. I'm a letter carrier and you guys keep me entertained as I walk my long, lonely route. My patrons think I am the happiest mailman around because when I am listening to you guys I am usually laughing and or smiling the entire time. This episode was no different! OMG the whole Suck Lord thing had me in stitches!

Anyway, the reason I am writing is about my first experience watching Star Wars. I am gonna date myself here a bit but here we go anyway. I was thirteen back in May of '77. It wasn't the X-wings that blew me away, at least not initially. It was the opening sequence of the movie where the enormous Star Destroyer Devastator was chasing the Tantive IV. I was hooked from that moment on. My friend and I were so hooked we devised a scheme to see the movie just about every weekend for three months. Our scheme was simple, one would pay the other would wait outside the back of the theater. The emergency door would open and we were both in! Pretty high tech, huh? Hey! We were thirteen! That was some James Bond stuff to us. Turned out the theater manager knew my parents somehow. My friend and I had to pay something like $30 dollars each. It was well worth the money.

Thirty five years later I still get goose bumps seeing that Devastator chasing the Tantive IV. I have a two year old grandson now and I can't wait to see his reaction at that opening sequence. Not to mention the surprise of, "Luke! I am your father!" Star Wars fandom will live on!

Keep up the great work guys and may the Force be with you!

Don White
Erie, Pa

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Insight Into Jimmy's Question About Luke From the ROTJ Commentary

Hi Jason and Jimmy. Love the show, it's a perfect way to really get a Star Wars fix. Also really love the commentaries on the OT, it's always cool to hear fans' perspective on our favorite saga. Anyhow I was recently listening to your commentary on ROTJ and Jimmy was wondering when it was exactly that Luke sensed "good" in Vader. He had suggested it was when he and Vader telepathically linked at the end of Empire, which could very well be correct. However this is an issue that I have had discussions about and thought I would offer what insight I could if you would like to hear it.

Firstly, I would say that Luke sensing good in Vader was not something that he immediately recognized as just that. I believe that somewhere during their duel on Cloud City that Luke could feel beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vader was holding back for whatever reason. Remember that Luke could feel the Force at this point but could not control it and therefore may not have been able to correctly pinpoint someone's emotions or motives through the Force. Luke was almost certainly confused by this, after all he had dealt the Empire a crushing blow be destroying the Death Star and would certainly be dispatched quickly by Vader if they ever met (Luke of course being unaware of Vader and Palpatine's plot to turn him to the Dark Side).

That being said, when Vader reveals to Luke that he is indeed his father and Luke does indeed know it to be true, I believe that after the battle -- and after he had some time to process what had just happened -- he recognized that the reason he felt Vader holding back is that he was in fact his son and could not bring himself to destroy him, therefore sensing the good in Vader resulting in Anakin not being completely destroyed. This comes back a bit later in Jedi, when Luke tells Vader, "You couldn't bring yourself to destroy me before and I don't believe you'll kill me now." Also, after reading Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, when Obi-Wan communes with Qui-Gon at the end, he tells Obi-Wan that Vader wouldn't dare go back to Tatooine for fear of reawakening Anakin.

After reading that book I began to look at Vader quite differently as if he were a living cage of evil holding Anakin inside. Because of this, when he reveals to Luke that he is his father, I see that as Vader goading Luke to the dark side, but also a hidden part of Anakin crying out to Luke for help, saying, "Help me, you're my only hope" (no pun intended). That also could have been a glimmer of light that Luke felt as goodness. So in closing, I believe that for Luke it was a slow realization that we don't see on film and not an instant moment that we see in the trilogy. Tell me what you think.

Keep up the great work guys!!!!!

Mike

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Star Wars Day at Dodger Stadium

Hey Jason and Jimmy,

This is Josh from Southern California. I've been a big fan of show from the old days when Pete was around (man, I miss that guy). Anyway, I went to Dodger Stadium this past Monday to watch my hometown Reds thump LA. I was representing Southern Ohio loud and proud. To my pleasant surprise, it was Star Wars day at the park with a full garrison of 501st proudly positioned behind home plate. Fellow nerd Chris Hardwick threw out the first pitch, and was there to pump up his epic Course of Force lightsaber relay from LA to San Diego. Hopefully, some ForceCast faithful will make it to this wonderful event.

Photo courtesy of LA Dodgers on Facebook
This was a really great night down at the ballpark and everyone was certainly feeling the presence of the force. None was better then when some fellow nerds in the row behind me offered up some great Wars commentary after the Dodger's starting pitcher surrendered the game winning runs: "You've failed me for the last time, Billingsley."

All in all, there's nothing better than Star Wars coupled with a great night of Baseball and a Reds win. Thanks guys for all you do for the Star Wars community.

P.S. Sorry Jason, but once again it looks like the Browns are the Kitsters of the AFC North. At least you and I can unite to defeat the Dark Side. (I mean the Steeler's, of course.)

Thanks,

Joshua Prichard

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Thanks to all of this week's mailbag contributors! Keep your emails coming to forcecast@forcecast.net.

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