ForceCast.net: Listener Mailbag: October 20, 2012

Listener Mailbag: October 20, 2012

Posted by Eric on October 20, 2012 at 01:00 PM CST

In this edition of the mailbag: globe-trotting with The ForceCast, The Clone Wars Season 5 premiere, Jedi Council member casting, and more.

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Gallia, Robes, and Premiere Episodes: Three Points on "A War on Two Fronts"

1. Adi Gallia can be spotted sitting at the Jedi Council, alive and well. If the series is progressing on a linear timeline, as it has for the past season and a half, that means that "Revival" was intended to air at a later date and was pulled to the front of the season (which explains why "Revival" felt like an action-packed "end-of-the-season" episode). So, the events of "A War on Two Fronts" take place before the events of "Revival."

2. JEDI ROBES!!! I'm very excited about this. Up until now, loose clothing has been somewhat of a rarity on The Clone Wars. During the video commentary for season one's "Cloak of Darkness", Dave Filoni discussed how robes are more expensive/difficult to animate, so most outfits are generally made skin tight; that's why Luminara's outfit is not the flowing cloak that we see in the movies. But now, we're five seasons in, and this episode brought us legitimate Jedi robes in action! This wardrobe addition gave Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka a look of Jedi authenticity, and after seeing them, I couldn't concentrate on any other part of the episode for the next several minutes.

3. Random factoid: I believe this is the first season premiere that was not two episodes:

- Season 1: "Ambush" and "Rising Malevolence"
- Season 2: "Holocron Heist" and "Cargo of Doom"
- Season 3: "Clone Cadets" and "ARC Troopers"
- Season 4 "Water War" and "Gungan Attack"

Thanks,

Jake from Virginia

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Taking The ForceCast Around the World

Dear Jason and Jimmy,

James Ackland here. I'm from New Zealand but currently in Sydney, Australia. I just watched the preview of "When the Galaxy Listens." Sheldon has written the love letter I wish I could have done. You must be so proud! He has managed to really cut to the chase about WHY you two ring each other each week and discuss what you do. It's about The Wars and welcoming the citizens and denizens of our own personal mega-cantina! It's a celebration each and every week!

I started listening to the ForceCast after moving away from home for the first lengthy time in 2007. I moved to Nepal to work in a garden for a U.N. program in The Middle Of Nowhere! Each week I'd cycle to my nearest town that had the Internet to download the ForceCast and listen to it in chunks until the next episode.

After Nepal, I moved to London, where I found myself a bit stuck financially. Even then I could go to a cafe and at least have you guys there to listen to. It was very, VERY good medicine.

I was luck enough to catch Return of the Jedi in the cinema when I was very very young. My only memory is of a red(pink?) and green lightsaber. Which makes me smile. After that it was PURE Star Wars for the next decade. Even during the Dark times I found new ways to appreciate and collect. There was no downtime for someone who didn't have every figure. I simply had the Force -- or the Force was with me, I hope -- and it continues.

This last April I lost my mother to complications with cancer. She was a driving force for my passions. She made me my very own Darth Vader costume and mended my Kenner Vader cape when it ripped at the armpits!! She was a collector of varied things and it was something we had in common and she fed my collecting with her enthusiasm. I miss her.

Each and every week I check in with you guys and get the dose that I just can't get with the people around me. Most of my Star Wars crew are now scattered to the farthest reaches of the world and I'm glad that I can at least mull over the discussions that arise during the Weekly ForceCasts and Roundtables.

I just want to thank you for being there, being here... being anywhere.

James

Here's me and the one.. the only... Billy Dee!!

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Some Thoughts on TCW: "Revival"

Dear ForceCast,

Hi. I just listened to your Roundtable on Revival and I have to say, I'm impressed. You guys did a great job at covering the episode, and I have lots if reactions to the roundtable:
Firstly, I have some information about the death of Adi Gallia. While I understand your point about Even Piell's death being completely unpredictable because he already had a death, this case was different and I'll tell you why. Not only was Gallia's death unsurprising but even highly predictable, since the whole reason why they put her in the episode was clearly to kill her off for retconning purposes, resulting in her having almost no personality throughout the episode and being a throwaway character. Now, you might ask why I say this? Because, that very Republic comic that your audience mentioned has become continuity hell ever since the Nightsister Trilogy, because Ventress is seen in the comic as working for Dooku, and the comic can't have taken place before the series, because later in it she is betrayed by Dooku, presumed dead, and decides to abandon the war completely. Therefore, instead of even attempting to retcon this issue, the Clone Wars wisely decided to say that this comic never happened and give Gallia a new death. Ironically, the reason why she was featured so prominently in her Clone Wars introduction in the season 2 episode "Grievous Intrigue" was because a lot of the audience "knew" at the time that she would later die at his hand.

Moving on, I was shocked that you guys didn't discuss this, especially since Dave Filoni told you guys to look for this, but did you catch Maul's one attachment? It's subtle but there, and I got it on my first viewing. It's Savage. Maul doesn't like to admit it, but their relationship goes a little bit beyond master and apprentice. It's present in Maul's reaction to Savage's entire freaking arm off, the way he cries out for his brother, and it�s there when he is in the ship as it�s about to crash, when he is pleading with Savage to follow him to the pod. At the time, Savage was showing some serious un-Sith-like weakness when he was about to surrender to his pain and had given up all hope. ANY OTHER SITH WOULD HAVE LEFT HIM AND DEEMED HIM WEAK AND UNWORTHY PF APPRENTICESHIP IN THIS SITUATION. Maul does not. Also, Maul actually addresses him as "brother" in this scene, which actually became quite uncommon after their duel in the InterGalactic Banking Clan warehouse. Therefore, I think it's safe to say that Savage is Maul's one vulnerability and that he cares about him at least a bit more than, say, Dooku cared about Ventress, which he saw as an instrument that represents nothing but time and effort invested on his part. I think it likely that we see more of this attachment play out later on in the season.

I absolutely loved Hondo in this episode, and he been given such better dialogue than usual in this episode. Also, I just want to say that the speaker on your roundtable who brought up Aurra Sing was actually on to something without realizing it that has everything to do with what you were talking about. You see, he dated Sing, a very untrustworthy and dangerous person, but then they broke up. However, she came back, and he decides to let her stay, but still warns the Jedi of her when they come to investigate, solidifying his neutrality. This, just like his acceptance of his betrayers back into his ranks, shows that he is very practical in nature as well as that he was willing to play with fire by associating with people who would betray him in a heartbeat if it benefitted them. It was a great character study.

Finally, I actually wasn't worried at all about Hondo in this episode for the same reason why I won't be during the upcoming Onderon Arc. We knew that he would sirvive because he was in the very first season five trailer, and now we know that he's gonna survive in those episodes because they were supposed to air first. You see, if they killed him off in the Onderon Arc and went with their original plan to have Revival later on, then we would have a glaring continuity issue. Therefore, everybody in both of the two episodes cannot be killed off, with one exception, which is Adi Gallia, who was in the background of A War on Two Fronts. But let's not get into that.

All in all, a great start to the season and a great roundtable to go with it. So sorry I couldn't make it to the roundtable, but at least I got to see Jimmy get his tats. Can't wait until the next ACTUAL Weekly ForceCast. Seriously! Where are you guys! I need my fix!!!!!!!!! Don't stop ForceCasting!

May the Force be with you,
Max

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Thoughts on Tarkin

Hey guys, welcome back and congrats to Jason and the family!

I really enjoyed the discussion about whether Tarkin knew about Vader's identity. I think now that we have six movies to draw from, as well as the TV series, it's safe to say that Tarkin does in fact know that Vader is also Anakin Skywalker. But I don't think this would have been the case when Star Wars originally came out in 1977. In J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Empire Strikes Back" its mentioned that the whole father/son plot came about after Episode 4, that is, Lucas came up with the idea of Anakin/Vader while writing Empire, not Episode 4.

With this in mind, Tarkin wouldn't have known because if you look at Episode 4 as a movie on it's own (as it was before the sequels and prequels), Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were two separate people. Owen's fear is that Luke is going to run off and become a Jedi "like his father." When Tarkin says to Vader that he is "the last of their religion" he is referring to the fact that Vader killed Anakin (betrayed and murdered) and hunted down the Jedi.

In the grand scheme of things we have to make Tarkin's comments fit into the rest of the saga, which, really, is a helluva lot more fun than my original point.

That's the great thing about Star Wars though, isn't it?

Mike MacDonald
Belle River, ON

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Like Father, Like Son: Anakin and Luke

Hello,

My name's Jake. I'm 24 and a big fan. I discovered The ForceCast about a month or so ago, and I've been playing a lot of catch up on your podcasts. I love Them. Sometimes, as I listen, I just want to pour out my opinions and ask questions, but I often give into my laziness to pick up my laptop and write. A month before I discovered The ForceCast, I fell neck deep into The Clone Wars. I've listened to The Clone Wars Roundtables for Seasons 2, 3, and 4 since discovering The ForceCast, along with your regular weekly shows. It's not about just watching Star Wars; it's about understanding it. That's what defines a fan, in my opinion.

Why am I writing? Oh, that's right...

I don't know if this was ever discussed, but Anakin's facial scars need no answer besides this one: "Like father, like son."

Consider this: Mark Hamill's accident did change the shape of his face, in a way that's almost hard to notice, but it's a scar nonetheless. Reading around the web, I read that the wampa attack in the beginning of Empire was put in or modified to reflect the scar on Luke's face (yes, this is just a rumor). Luke then goes on to champion the Rebellion.

While we don't know exactly how Anakin got his scar, maybe it's just there solely to represent the "like father, like son" dynamic. They both lost their right hands, they were both superior pilots, and although they did go separate paths, in the end they were both on the Light Side of the Force -- and they both have scars.

Re-reading this email, I realize that this revelation is not of much significance, but it's still worth mentioning. I'm going to assume the relationship between Luke's and Anakin's scars has been recognized before. I just figured that, while developing Anakin's Clone Wars character, in both film and animation, they must have seriously considered creating a character that would fit the image of Luke.

Thank you,
Jake from Naperville

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Adi Gallia or Stass Allie?

Greetings,

On the last Roundtable there was some discussion about Adi Gallia and Stass Allie and how they came to be separate characters. This is what I think might have happened.

I think that when GL wrote the script for Episode II he naturally thought that some of the same characters who had been on the Jedi Council in Episode I would be returning, and he told the various production departments (wardrobe, design, make-up) that those characters would be needed so that they could include them in their preparations for the new film. In the same way, he told everyone that Yarael Poof and Yaddle would not be returning.

The film was being made in Australia, for the most part, and it was not practical to get the same actors back again for such minor roles. The U.K. actors who played members of the Council in Episode I may not even have been approached about returning. From the beginning, the filmmakers probably knew that they could use footage from Episode I for the Council chamber scenes in Episode II � which is why the names of those U.K. actors from Episode I are in the credits for Episode II even though they did not work on the film.

But I suppose that those Jedi were still scheduled to appear in the scenes on Geonosis and the production still had roles for characters like Adi Gallia and Eeth Koth. If GL did not create any different looking characters to fill those roles then he must have wanted to persist with the same Council members from Episode I. I think he probably told the casting department to recast the roles and thought he would decide what to do later. That being the case, I�m not sure how seriously they considered the idea that these were the same characters. GL may not always worry about such details, but perhaps even he didn't think that they were going to be the same characters if he gave his team the OK to recast the roles � and with such different looking actors.

On a practical level it wouldn't really work � characters like Adi Gallia and Eeth Koth aren�t very visible in Episodes I and II and a lot of viewers don't even know who they are, so it wouldn't bother them if they looked different in the next film. But if they�re too different, Star Wars books and other media couldn't use pictures of the Episode II characters and claim they were the same as in Episode I. And so the Episode II characters were renamed as Stass Allie (for Adi Gallia), Agen Kolar (for Eeth Koth), and Sar Labooda (for Depa Billaba).

I think it�s just the case that when GL discussed what characters he wanted in Episode II, he included those Jedi Council members, yet they were never going to get the same actors and so the roles were recast. Considering that they seemingly didn't try to get look-alikes, I believe that GL and his team knew that they were ultimately going to become different characters even though whilst shooting they were still known as �Adi Gallia� and �Eeth Koth� for production purposes.

Interestingly, you can see that in Episode III Stass Allie is played by yet another actress in her death scene. And despite looking different from Episode II Stass Allie, the characters are still supposed to be the same and have not been changed as happened with Adi Gallia/Stass Allie. I suppose that in this case, GL did specifically write that scene as being Stass's death and so kept it that way despite the difference in appearance. He may have thought it was more important to persist with that character whom fans knew from Episode II rather than create yet another one.

Yours sincerely,

Benjamin

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"The ForceCast is Definitely Back!"

I wanted to send a quick note and thank both of you for what you do.

I did attend Celebration this year and I was overwhelmed. What a week. From meeting Dave Filoni, to all the panels, to watching The ForceCast live, it was something to behold.

I had told my wife the other day, I felt like I was having a Star Wars letdown since the show. You guys had been on a hiatus with the baby and the recorded shows, so nothing new to grab my attention. But then the October 12th podcast came out and I was grabbed again. My routine is to cut the grass and listen to the latest ForceCast. I have to tell you, you guys were on your game. From the interview with Dave Collins, to the discussion of Sam's email, it simply reminded me of what I love about the podcast and Star Wars in general. Jimmy's reaction to James Earl Jones' breathing while playing Darth Vader was priceless. This is why we love you guys and the show. It is the passion and the understanding of the universe that keeps us fans tuning in.

With that being said, the lull is over. The Clone Wars are back, the Roundtable is back, and The ForceCast is DEFINITELY back. Keep up the great work and May the Force be with you, always!

Robb Wolf

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A Petition For The Clone Wars "Young Jedi" Arc

Hey Jason and Jimmy Mac,

Being unable to attend Celebration VI this year, I relied greatly on your in-depth coverage of the event, which left me grateful to you guys and what you do for us fans, and envious of what everyone got to experience there.

But that envy grew exponentially when I heard about the �Calling all Kids� screening of �Young Jedi�. From your discussion with David Collins on last week�s ForceCast, it sounds like Young Jedi has the potential of being a great spin off from The Clone Wars that explores events and topics that have yet to be seen.

So to help express fan interest in making this see the light of day in some form, I�ve created a Facebook fan page to allow fans to �Like� and comment on their desire to make this happen:

http://www.facebook.com/WeWantTheCloneWarsYoungJedi

I fully understand the influence the ForceCast can have, and I would love it if you could get the word out. I know that this is something you both would like to see happen as well.

Thanks for all the time and effort you put into each ForceCast. You guys rock!

Jared Adams

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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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