Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
Fandom of Fandoms is a podcast that dives into the worlds that fans love most — from galaxies far, far away to magical schools, epic quests, and everything in between. Each episode spotlights a different fandom, exploring its history, what makes it special, and why people are so passionate about it. We’ll chat with real fans, share wild stories, and invite you to geek out with us, one fandom at a time.
Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
May the Fandom Be With You: Three Guys Talk Star Wars
We dive into the beloved original Star Wars trilogy, exploring what made these revolutionary films so special and why they continue to resonate with fans decades later. The practical effects, character arcs, and iconic moments from A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi still hold up remarkably well today.
In this episode, we will cover:
• Our first memories of Star Wars and how they shaped our early connections to the franchise
• The revolutionary special effects
• Favorite characters from the original trilogy and how our preferences changed over time
• Unpopular opinions
• Most quotable lines
• Standout fan-created content
• Behind-the-scenes lore about how the famous "I am your father" twist was kept secret
Join us next episode as we explore Bluey, followed by future deep dives into Lego and Dungeons & Dragons.
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If you have ideas about future episodes or would like to join us as a guest, send us an email at fandomofpodcast@gmail.com!
Well, we are here for the first episode, and this is super exciting. I can't wait to get to talk about Star Wars with you guys tonight, yeah.
Nick:I mean for real.
Nick:And yeah, we've been recording here for the past 10 minutes and clearly like didn't get very far yet.
Ben:We did super well yes.
Nick:The blooper reel, like I said, is going to be great.
Nick:Yeah, it's fine, but anyways let's just you know what.
Nick:That's good enough. We'll just go ahead and cue that intro music.
Ben:All right
Nick:, welcome to Fandom of Fandoms, the show where we dive into the worlds that fans love most. I'm Nick. This is my co-host, ben, and our producer, michael, and we are here in every episode. We're going to be exploring a new universe and meeting the who love it and celebrating their passion and what brings everybody together.
Michael:So thanks for hanging out with us. Let's go ahead and dive in. All right, that was beautiful. I love that I was talking over the, the music.
Nick:It is nice.
Nick:It kind of goes with my
Michael:gives you the energy to like you know
Nick:that's djing too like I always feel awkward when I'm talking over silence yeah, no, it's weird, we've got to have something.
Ben:Should we just have music this whole time?
Nick:Well, let's do that Something in the background. Yeah, right.
Michael:Although
Nick:the ambiance,
Michael:there is some music we could have.
Nick:It's all there.
Michael:Cue the cantina music.
Ben:Oh gosh, are we?
Ben:starting with that.
Nick:Always,
Michael:let's throw it in there
Nick:it's where the, where the show starts.
Michael:There we go yeah, all right, now we're cooking
Nick:we're in the mood now to talk about
Michael:yeah, exactly that.
Ben:Bass is impressive. I don't know what's that, but all right.
Nick:Well, let's go ahead and just kind of dive into things. So obviously we're talking about star wars and we are focusing on the original trilogy today, um, so just a quick synopsis in case anybody is living under a rock and doesn't know the original Star Wars trilogy what that is.
Ben:I've talked to plenty of people who don't, and that's okay.
Nick:I'm okay with that. It has been out for a while, though, so 50 years.
Nick:I don't feel like I'm giving away any spoilers or anything like that. You've had plenty of time to watch it if you haven't watched it yet. But obviously we're talking about A New Hope, which came out in 1977, and Empire Strikes Back, which came out in 1980, and Return of the Jedi, which was released in 1983. So that's kind of the gist of the movies themselves and what we're going to really focus our time on. And I guess, Michael, what was the reason that we decided that we were just going to focus on that trilogy?
Michael:You know, honestly, our time on and um, You know, honestly, there is I I feel safe saying there's an unlimited amount of star wars content out, there it's. And when I say unlimited, it would reasonably take someone I mean decades to go through all of it.
Ben:well, and even, oh, even, oh, go on.
Michael:I was going to say, if we're talking, you know, sequels, prequels, extended universe, animated live-action TV shows, I mean it just.
Nick:Books,
Michael:comics, games.
Ben:I mean honestly, like you brought us some of this, even getting into fan-made stuff, because there's so much of that. Like which again?
Ben:we can have a whole episode.
Nick:Well, there's people that like, just do podcasts about star wars.
Nick:That's just their entire thing. That's all they talk about all the time. So, like we're shoot, we're just dipping our toe in the water here and we've got a million fandoms to cover, so we've got so much more material to go after, right, yeah, but I think that we can all kind of agree. Historically, you know, what made the just the trilogy so special is it was revolutionary. We know that the special effects in the trilogy were cutting edge in 1977 and there were literal companies that were created as a result of this and are alive today Industrial.
Michael:Light and magic, that's them Pixar.
Ben:They had a huge part in it too. I went back and I was re rewatching the original trilogy this weekend and the effects are still like they hold up. Yeah, sure, again, we'll get into some hot takes later. I'll cover that, never mind the CGI.
Nick:Yeah, we'll get there, yes, exactly.
Ben:But no, like all the practical effects they super hold up, like you can notice, like some green screen stuff occasionally. But, I mean the puppetry, the ships themselves, like all the scenery, like it's very, very good still.
Michael:Absolutely, yeah, extremely impressive.
Nick:Yeah, is it fair to say, I mean, like we're not talking about, like this wasn't what created fandoms, right, like I mean gonna try to say like star wars is like the original fandom.
Nick:that can't that's not true.
Ben:Well, I mean yeah, because I mean, martin, you probably know marvel's been around longer.
Ben:Dc's been around longer than star wars, like I mean plenty of other things, and I mean this star wars itself was just born from the love for like kind of space operas. And, um, from what I read, george lucas like wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie but then that was bought out by another company so he couldn't do it and so he started to make his own. So again, this alone was born kind of out of just that love for the epic space operas in general.
Michael:My entire childhood I thought that Flash Gordon what George Lucas was inspired by. I thought it was Flash from the DC and I was like I can't believe he's that old. I thought Superman was Flash from the DC and I was like I can't believe he's that old, like I thought Superman was the OG.
Nick:And then I came to learn later on that it was just a had absolutely nothing to do with it. I've never actually seen Flash Gordon, but I've heard I have it on DVD. I have like five episodes on.
Ben:DVD and for a project, or we'll watch them at some point you get to be the expert for that one, because I don't know of any other experts, so obviously, we, we know it's not the birth like it's not like the original fandom or anything like that, but why is it the birth of fandom, of fandoms like?
Nick:that's got to be something we should probably talk about right now. Like why, why specifically are we starting with? This one is our first episode I mean for us in specific.
Ben:I think it's one of the like most common things we have to talk about and always comes up, and we talk often about getting together and watching a trilogy or like whenever something new comes out, it's one of the first things that the three of us talk about.
Ben:So that's definitely one of them, and I think I mean we can get into this a little bit. But like yeah, like speaking for me at least, it was one of the first things that I remember like franchise, wise, like just being like all in on, like yeah, pretty early yeah, same here.
Michael:Yeah, I agree, it's been a a really strong connection point between the three of us specifically and I think it I'm glad we're starting with star wars. I forget who I was talking to about this, but they were saying like, oh, aren't you gonna save the big you know like topic for later on? And I was like no, we want to start off with something that, like, a lot of people resonate with and love. Don't be too niche. Yeah, you want to start off too niche. Yeah, that's, that's, that's a good point no, that's a, that's absolutely.
Nick:I. I agree exactly with what you guys are saying. But what's kind of funny, when we I was thinking about this just the other day like when we like when we first got to know each other in college, like that was kind of a dry time for star wars, there wasn't a whole lot going on in that particular time period oh goodness, yeah I got dropped off there um but yeah, it was it like.
Nick:Obviously, like we're between, because what was it uh? The revenge of the Sith? That was 2005, 2005, yeah, and then they didn't do uh, shoot, what was it uh?
Michael:the force awakens force awakens what 20? 2014, 2015 no, no, it was after that. The force awakens was December 18th 2015, 15, okay, okay. So there you go.
Nick:So, like we when we first met, we would have met during what was, or 2011. Somewhere, around there, yeah, so this was the time we actually got to be friends and everything. So it's really been kind of over the course of time, I would say, especially as I know we're not going to get into the new trilogy today, but that was kind of, as we were getting out of college and everything, those movies were coming out and we had a chance to talk over those things and kind of bond over them post-college.
Nick:I guess, like in college, there were plenty of things that we bonded in over in college, but like post-college, I would say, like it's fair to say, we have bonded over star Wars content in the past 10 years.
Michael:Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, on that note, why don't we get a little personal here? Sure, and I want to ask you guys, why did Star Wars matter to you? So you know, childhood, young, adulthood, whatever. Why Star Wars. What did you resonate with? Why did you love it? This segment is titled this is the way we got into Star Wars. I love it.
Ben:That's a great segment title too, right, although it has nothing to do with the original show. That's true.
Michael:We should have saved that one. Oh well, We'll use it again.
Ben:I mean I'll say I was thinking about this as we were getting ready for this this weekend and one of the first memories of Star Wars.
Michael:I have say I was thinking about this as we were getting ready for this this weekend and one of the first like memories of Star Wars I have is do you guys know micro machines?
Ben:I don't think so, honestly. Okay, like this was a childhood thing for me. Think of Hot Wheels, but like half that scale, so like you know, cars and everything else that were like maybe an inch long. My dad had a collection of Star Wars fighters and other vehicles, micro machines, so again like this big, smaller than hot wheels, and that was always like. I have a very distinct memory of the shoebox that he kept them all in and sitting in front of the tv as a child.
Ben:I wish I could say how old, but I have no idea, but like sitting in front of the tv with those ships and just like playing with them while the movies were on and just like that connection of like one of the big reasons that Star Wars took off was the merchandising and like yeah, even to this day. Like yeah, it's, it's everywhere and so, yeah, just that connection of like I can play with these things and, like, use my own imagination and connect with what I'm actually seeing so that was definitely one of the first big things for me.
Nick:Was your dad a big Star Wars fan? Oh yeah, Did he introduce you to it? Yeah, 100% Nice.
Ben:Probably the first Star Wars movie that I saw was Empire Strikes Back in theaters, really.
Nick:They re-released it at some point while I was there, no kidding, and my dad took me to go see it.
Ben:So yeah, that had to be the first star wars movies I saw on the big screen yeah, that's amazing.
Michael:Wow, michael, what about you? What was? Yeah, it's so for me. Um, so, my family wasn't into star wars. I, I discovered it. I was the you know, the person in the family that brought it um that.
Nick:That that tracks honestly my michael's the discoverer of cool things. He'll turn me on. 20 years later I discovered it yeah, so for me.
Michael:I remember I was in the library we were living in Portland, indiana, at the time and I saw A New Hope on VHS and it was just an image of Darth Vader and I wish I'd need to pull up that image that was on the cover of the VHS and I was like man, this is so cool, this looks amazing. So I rented it from the library and watched A New Hope and immediately fell in love, like resonating with the characters. Like I was kind of a lonely kid growing up, you know, kind of a little bit isolated, so for me, like I just immediately was sucked into it. What's funny is I actually watched them out of order, by accident. I thought that Return of the Jedi came after A New Hope, so I watched that next and I was so confused and I was like what Darth Vader is his?
Michael:dad, I was totally lost, and then I watched Empire Strikes Back, and then it all came together, so I watched them out of order. Sadly, that was also our first spoiler alert Again we need to say spoiler alert, but okay how about before a spoiler alert.
Ben:We hit one of our cool effects again. We got some good ones.
Nick:I put it in here, so we do we do have to use all of our effects at some point you know we gotta find a way to work them in.
Nick:Yeah, um no for me. Uh, so my dad definitely like introduced me to star wars, but I wouldn't say that he was a fan of it either. So I can remember my dad had a friend that we'd go see sometimes and he had the original trilogy on VHS and had a few of the merchandise things kind of laying around whatever like toys, and so when we were there hanging out I can remember watching clips, you know, parts of star wars usually wasn't there the entire time. My attention span at that point wasn't quite high enough to watch entire movies. Um, so I I did see, like you know, parts of the movie at an early age. Um, my first experience with it in the movie theater wasn't definitely not even until after. I don't even think it was phantom menace, which obviously came out when I was a kid, like that was. At that point I was still kind of like I like, is star wars really cool to be into, like, if you like, star wars I'm just kind of a nerd, like you know what, like I don't know.
Nick:I just it didn't really hit me at that point. It wasn't until a little bit later in that, uh, you know the, the prequel trilogy, that like I really, um, I guess, dove into it head first and I might get into this uh a little bit more in one of our next segments here. But like that's kind of like where it's. I guess you know that's a good segue. Now I think about it, um, just kind of like, uh, I'm skipping a little bit, but like what made it stick with me?
Nick:okay, um so um, eventually, like as I got older, it was the kind of like the I guess my first dive into was some of the first viral content that ever went out. So, um, we were talking about this just before this podcast started and you guys both said that you had never heard of the star wars gangster rap. And here's, here's a little clip of it for our audience and maybe it might be a reminder of some of you, some of our listeners. So that was kind of like it. I can remember like seeing the video as a kid, you know, when flash player stuff was like huge, yeah yeah, um you know, you had the jib jab stuff and like this is the the birthplace of like that.
Nick:That first immediate like viral videos and stuff like that were starting to come up and coming, um, but uh, yeah, the, so just to, we're gonna mention this. I better at least like credit the people. The song was by this group, they're called bent frame and it was animated by thomas lee. It was originally released in 2000 but it it didn't, I don't think, really pick up steam until the internet was around for a little bit longer. So by that point I was a teenager and this goofy, funny Star Wars video it just stuck with me.
Ben:I know all the lyrics to this song we're going to have to later on after this episode you guys are going to have to yeah the video and experience it episode promo and make you get to reenact it.
Michael:I'll say I'm really into this, yeah, I would love to.
Ben:I love it you did just say you do all the lyrics, so I I I believe I do yes I believe I do.
Nick:Um, no, but it eventually, like they, they did different iterations of it and like I think that the original, like animation, was kind of not so good, but then it came out and was re-released there I am tapping the table. You can't hear it, can't you? But it debuted the kind of the special edition is what they called it. It was at the 2004 official Star Wars fan film awards and it took off from there and got like 20 million views eventually and was one of those first original star wars like viral videos actually, not even star wars viral videos, an original viral video. Wow, so impressive. But that was kind of like what got it stick with me eventually and like why it's still. As I got older, I was still into wanting to watch star wars really you gave into being a nerd I, I did, I guess that's one way to look at it.
Ben:Some of us were born into it and just stayed with it. Yeah, yeah, exactly uh ben, what was your?
Michael:who was your favorite original trilogy character as a kid versus now?
Ben:as a kid it had to be luke. I mean again like he's, you know, the the focal point and again just the idea of being a jed and he's the real, only Jedi you experience, short of Obi-Wan and Yoda a little bit. But again, seeing, just I mean obviously having a lightsaber is really cool and for me especially too, just the clear defined good versus evil and you see some of that struggle in Luke, but very much so he's very much again like good side of the force and just, yeah, that definitely like character wise was probably who I tied with, I mean obviously lots of other cool characters. Um, the other thing for me and then I was going to talk about was the music, because again I was a so like anytime that we got to play some of that stuff in, like you know, middle school, high school band like man that was pretty sweet and yeah, so yeah.
Ben:Shout out to John Williams like probably the greatest movie composer of all time we were in John Williams' the man.
Nick:Yeah, John Williams' the man Shout out to that video.
Ben:We need to look that up and give them proper credit. But yeah, john williams the man, I thought about bringing it up more, but it does talk about you know jurassic park and like all this other stuff, it's everything man's in there and like, yeah, but again john williams, just just amazing stuff that I think really contributed to what made star wars so special so music as a character, I mean I think that's fair honestly, like I mean the music is a character in this trilogy well, yeah, and I mean for me like yeah, john williams is kind of like the master throughout this of using motifs and themes for each character and to bring yeah some of those ideas back in and that's something that I think.
Ben:I mean I'm no expert in, uh, musical compositions, but like probably one of the first times we've experienced that in cinematic history yeah, oh yeah, 100.
Michael:Yeah, nick, what about you uh favorite character as a kid versus now?
Nick:I, you know it's probably the same, I mean as far as like loot goes, because I mean, as a kid, I think you're just like obsessed with oh, who's the main character and the, the guy that's going to take out the bad guy, and stuff like that, um, but uh, as time on, it's definitely Han Solo now.
Ben:Like I mean.
Nick:I love just the rogue aspect of him and he's just, he's got an interesting character arc. I mean it's I don't know. I love Han Solo and you guys know I guess I'll go ahead and share here. We got unpopular opinions. This is not related to the original trilogy, but solo, most underrated star wars movie in existence, just so I'm just going to throw that out there. And it's because it enriches that overall story and makes you appreciate at least for me I appreciate han solo so much more after watching it that's.
Michael:That is an unpopular opinion it is yeah no, that's awesome.
Michael:I'd say for myself. Yeah, luke Skywalker favorite character as a kid um, I think I always viewed him as kind of like a lonely, lost, you know kind of like in his own world fantasizing type guy. And that was just me as a kid, yeah. So I resonated with that and then I had we'll probably get into this in another episode I had many Luke Skywalker Lego minifigs and for me there's some sort of intrinsic link between Lego Star Wars and the Star Wars franchise, like my love of that growing up One kind of informs the other, and my Luke Skywalker minifigs were always my favorite, those ones I always played with. And so, yeah, I think Luke Skywalker even now is still my favorite.
Nick:Sticking with it. There we go, I like it, yeah, anyway.
Michael:Well, nick, you brought up a good hot take. Yes, still my favorite Sticking with it.
Nick:I like it, nick, you brought up a good hot, take unpopular opinion.
Michael:Ben, do you have any unpopular opinions about?
Ben:the original trilogy we talked a little bit about the CGI, which I don't think is a hot take, unpopular opinion, but I will say that's one that's changed for me over time.
Ben:I remember when they first released all the CGI added in, I was like, oh man, say, that's one. That's changed for me over time, as I remember when they first released, like all the cgi added in, I was like, oh man, that's so cool, like adding in these extra creatures and stuff like that. But then again, like re-watching it the past couple, two times, three times, however long, like I'm just like man, it feels a little out of place now and it just feels unnecessary and a little bit of just kind of showing off at the time, I know, but again like I kind of wish it was still the original version, but um, well, that was the reason that they even added it in.
Nick:Anyways I mean like it was george lucas like he wanted more of that stuff, but like the tech, the technology just wasn't there for like most of it was puppetry and things like that for the weird creatures.
Nick:So he's like I want, you know he wanted more. You know like give me more creatures and so putting it in there. I don't even know when it was originally done. We could look, we could probably look into that. But like there's been several iterations obviously of that CGI put in and even as it was added in, it's still like CGI still wasn't great at that point.
Michael:Yeah, I mean that was like late 90s maybe, and it was good for the time, absolutely.
Ben:But like, looking back at it now, you're like it feels out of place and like, yeah, okay, other real hot take. I don't care about Boba Fett. I feel like he's such a popular character and, yeah, he's got his own series. Now, well did? I don't think it's continuing. I know I think it's cancelled but it was really the Mandalorian but it rolled into Boba Fett. But no, like, again. Like he's a character, like sure he's got a cool jet pack, but like again he's got before the original cuts.
Ben:What like five minutes of screen time tops one line that's like a really truly an unpopular opinion either because, that was the whole time, like lots of people complained.
Nick:It's like dude, like you've got this really cool looking character, wow, and he does like two things in all of the, the entire series yeah, but I guess I guess for me like, especially just like growing up and like seeing the boba fett merchandise- everyone was like why do we care so much about this character? Like I don't know fair yeah michael, what's, what's your hot take, you got any any unpopular opinions hot takes.
Michael:To be honest with you, I'm a normie. I just I don't think I have a single opinion that would be countercultural in the fandom. I'm pretty good with the flow.
Nick:See, that's hard to say that you're a normie, because I feel like it's a very divided fan group too like it is, I would say it's divided.
Michael:It's definitely divided divided now, I guess in the context of all the content that's out there, I would say the original trilogy. I mean not much division at all. You might have, like, some fringe groups that you know don't like well. So well, sorry, go ahead oh no, I was.
Nick:I was just gonna to bring this up there too. Well, this is going to come up, I think, in a little bit, because we're talking about the best movies in the trilogy and stuff like that. But I guess what I was going to bring up is this is I have heard people express some pretty like um, especially people that were alive when it was the original star wars and then the sequel came out, and then they there were people that were trashing the sequel at that time. So it's not even like the divisiveness of the fandom has been a new thing. That's come along. It's always existed.
Nick:I mean since the dawn of the creation of Star Wars there it's been there. It's just funny to think about it. It's only intensified as more and more of that content has come out.
Ben:I mean, I think that's just funny to think about it.
Nick:It's only intensified as more and more of that content has come out.
Ben:I think that's just part of the nature of fandoms in general, which we will probably explore throughout the course of this whole endeavor. There's going to be controversial opinions in all of it. I can't think of a fandom that's truly 100% united on everything. We'll try to figure that out maybe.
Michael:Yeah, we're very passionate. It comes out Ben. What is the, in your opinion, the most quotable line from the original trilogy?
Ben:I mean, it's got to be Luke. You are my father, or wow?
Nick:that's completely wrong. Cut that. Please cut that. Luke, you are my father that's good.
Michael:You talking about Jada for the, for the actual normies out there the daughter of Luke Skywalker.
Nick:Here we go. We're going to get in that rabbit hole there that's legend series, right, okay?
Ben:Mara Jade's his wife.
Nick:I was like wait, who's Jada are we going to?
Michael:take that again. We're not going to cut any of this. This is great.
Nick:This is going in. This is funny. We're going to explode. That's part of it, my lack of hey misspeaking. It's a part of doing a podcast You're going to mess up from time to time?
Ben:Why did you have to ask me first? Michael, I get it?
Nick:No, and obviously it's no. I am your father, we were just thinking about it. It's the most misquoted, anyway.
Ben:So you messing it up was actually quite on the nose. People are really going to relate to that Great, wonderful oh man.
Nick:Wow, I mean for me it's got to be. Yoda right it's like do or do not. There is no try. Do we have it do or do not. There is no try. Ah, man, it's like uh, words to live by for sure. Um, no, that's definitely that's gotta be my favorite. Or uh, oh man, when. When han turns around and he's talking to towie, and what does he say? He goes oh my gosh, it's after after Leia roasts him.
Ben:Laugh it up. There it is, you had it ready to go. Yeah, that's a great one, too Nice.
Nick:Chewing him up on the sound effects.
Ben:Yeah, yeah, no, those are great ones. I mean, one of the other ones that I probably use regularly is I have a bad feeling about this? Yes, obviously yeah.
Michael:And I think I think that's made it into every single, not every, not every, all the TV shows yeah. I think every single movie someone has said that line. Yeah, they've put that in. It's similar to the uh, the sound effect of the guy screaming and falling.
Ben:Oh, oh gosh, which we need to load that on there, wilhelm, I think it's the Wilhelm scream. Yeah, it's famous in movies.
Nick:I think that has been in all the Star.
Ben:Wars too. That one has as well.
Nick:Even in the new ones too?
Ben:Did we know if that originated in Star?
Nick:Wars, it did.
Ben:Let me look it up. We got a producer for this as a producer.
Michael:I get to look up the Wilhelm scream. I don't think it was.
Nick:I'm pretty sure it was previous to Star Wars, but I could be wrong. I'm pretty certain, though. All right.
Michael:Let's see here. I'll let him. Oh, I was wrong. The Wilhelm scream originated in the 1951 Warner Brothers film Distant Drums.
Ben:Okay, Never heard of it.
Michael:And it's lived on. My guess is a Western it is lived on.
Nick:My guess is a western it is lived on I don't know. Those are some good quotable lines. That one was yours, the Wilhelm scream.
Ben:No, no, Michael uses that every day when I get to work.
Michael:I make that noise. So my most quotable line in life is when Uncle Owen calls to Luke, you know, says Luke, luke. And the reason is I have an inordinate amount of Lukes in my life that I see on a regular basis and we have a neighbor, luke. My wife and I will walk over to their house and him and his wife. We're really good friends and when we get out in front of the door I like to call out Luke, Luke. So I'm actually quoting, you know, in real life Do the Lukes know that.
Michael:Oh, he does.
Nick:I've talked to him about that. I was going to say I don't know if it was only in your mind or if they were in on the joke as well.
Michael:It's probably still only in my mind, because no one would remember that, but anyway, oh man, yeah, that's my most quotable line.
Nick:So we're in this. I didn't think we said what we're kind of in right now. We're talking about top moments within the series and some of the favorites. So let moments within the series and like some of the favorites so, um, let's, let's talk about, like, underappreciated things.
Michael:So underappreciated characters are a character that you did not come to appreciate until future viewings. This is a tough one for me because I'm trying to keep all my answers strictly in the context of the original trilogy yeah but for this answer I must branch out a little bit. Okay, mon mothma, okay is. Has as a character I've come to appreciate tremendously because of the andor tv series her character a lot more I, I'm telling, I'm blown away by her character, just um the sacrifice you know the just intensity of her struggle coming up through the rebellion I didn't really put much thought into her, honestly, like she just kind of shows up in the movie and there's no backstory to her whatsoever.
Michael:There's none at all yeah, she's, she's in the two, the two moving, the uh, a new hope, and her and the jedi. And yeah, no backstory, you know, no character development at all. But then to see her come up at an Andor and I know that her character was in some of the animated series.
Nick:Oh, I didn't know that.
Michael:Yeah, rebels, and I think maybe even the Clone Wars too.
Nick:Okay.
Michael:And she made, she's made appearances in Mandalorian and Soka show and you know. But but her actual, you know, exploration of her character is it was pretty much only in the Endor series, but I have a totally newfound respect and admiration for her character.
Ben:So that was again. I hate to branch out of your discussion, but it's kind of informed that that's part of what is going to give you that new appreciation right.
Nick:When they created the new content. That's kind of the purpose of it, right, you appreciate some of these characters and that's really a lot of them that have gotten like their backstories built out. I kind of already shared mine because it's definitely han solo, like the, the story, his, his entire character arc has been drawn out over the course of time in the, the future. You know the, the sequel trilogy and solo and all of that and I shoot, I would, I would like more content with solo. So that's the, that's my like. I said I'm I'm pushing for that sign, my petition.
Michael:I want more han solo content you know disney plus they're gonna listen to this podcast oh my gosh.
Ben:And they're gonna say we have that guy, he knows what he's talking about it's out of that or they're gonna tell us that we need to cut this whole episode, for whatever reason, sound effects or whatever else it might be, let's see.
Ben:For me the easy one is Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's such a small part, he's the catalyst for a lot of things, but again for the prequel trilogy his character I love so much. But that's an easy one. The other one that this last watch through that I just came to appreciate is C-3PO and I think, kind of growing up he's just kind of like annoying.
Nick:The comic relief. He's like a little bit of a comic relief, yeah.
Ben:But he's such like a linchpin for translation and just like adding to like oh yeah, we can have all these different languages. Maybe this is more production standpoint or anything like that, but it allowed the place like this, these are real people, real things. That like we needed a translator, we needed. Like that it allowed george lucas to come up with all these languages and sounds and be like, oh, that's an actual language and we need some reason that, like, we can understand it as opposed to just throwing up subtitles or just like in general, like I mean having everyone speak english that is.
Nick:Yeah, I mean, that is clever. I've never really thought about it from that perspective, like. But that is that's.
Ben:That's definitely interesting but we do know that wiser than you, so that's right. Yeah, you've got more years on.
Nick:No, that's funny uh, no, I uh, but I guess what I was just thinking is we know that c-3po and r2d2 are obviously the real heroes of the story, like luke skywalker, one like no man here heroes of the entire trilogy or of the entire series c-3po and r2d2, for sure it also has the first line, from what I remember.
Michael:Yeah and wow you're. I think you're right about that. I never realized that.
Ben:Yeah, it's again a weird character to choose, but yeah, he's the actual leading man honestly, yeah, oh man well, why don't we uh, let's segue into some and and this.
Michael:This might be for the diehards out there, but why don't we segue into some fan favorites here? Um, I've got a couple nick, I think you've got a couple. Yeah, um, nick, let's start with you. What are some some fan favorites that you have out there?
Nick:Content created by fans is what I'm trying to say.
Nick:No, I appreciate you throwing that out there. Yeah, that's what our we're going to have this segment ideally for all of our episodes trying to like shout out to fan-created content, and it doesn't necessarily even have to be like social media or videos I've got a couple of them that are in here that we've seen that people make or whatever like just the chance for us to shout out some of the cool things that we appreciate. And so mine, for sure, is the sorry. I just lost my spot in the notes there. Oh no, that's yours Sorry. Well, I guess I'll bring it up here. It's because I had it listed in a different place, but it's the Vader and Obi-Wan's recreated duel.
Michael:Yes.
Nick:In. Sorry I have it up here. Oh, I had it earlier, so it's created by FX it In Post. They posted it on YouTube. The actual title of the video is SC-38 Reimagined and it's just the scene of Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi having their lightsaber duel. Because we know that, like in, the original, like it just wasn't.
Nick:Yeah, yeah, it's lackluster, like um, you know, so that's definitely like. Uh, I think I had it up here under my favorite lightsaber battle, even though it's not, I guess, technically canon in some ways, but like to me in my head, this is what I'm picturing like well, the battle is canon.
Michael:Now how that's played out is up for debate.
Nick:But but yeah, that's definitely if you've never watched that video before, and I think all three of us have seen it, but I watched it about, uh, three hours ago I did.
Michael:I was like, yeah, I gotta watch this again because it is so good.
Nick:Yes, for sure, and I think yours is kind of in that that same vein, right like where yes, so so one I had, uh is there's.
Michael:So the the person that created this, the channel is uh shahan reviews, and it is obi-wan kenobi, remembering scenes from revenge of the sith as he's talking about his father. So you know when he's saying you know, your dad was a great warrior and you know, etc. Etc.
Michael:Um, good friend you know things like that, and then it's cutting back to these scenes from revenge of the sith, and the score that's playing is, you know, kind of like a sad, like you know, violent score, um, which, yeah, that could be replaced with something else, but it's powerful, I'm like yeah this is really emotional because it
Michael:is especially now as an adult like, I think, as a kid, I didn't appreciate the emotion in. Revenge of the Sith as much as I do now. So yeah, that was impactful for me. Maybe we should link all these in the show notes or something.
Nick:We'll put those in the show notes, for sure.
Ben:Ben, did you have?
Nick:something you want to shout out here, for fan-made content, for me.
Ben:I just discovered her recently and I sent her to you and you said you saw her recently too. Oh yeah, I can't remember.
Nick:I'm blanking on her name out was it like dolores?
Ben:I can't remember imperial hr, so it's this woman who dresses up in an imperial officer uniform and acts like hr and goes around at like cons and it's like she records herself like going up to characters and like she went up to like um the mandalorian, like and was like. Excuse me, sir, like you can't bring your child to work or something like that stuff like that, where she's just like handing out citations to people that is incredible.
Ben:There was also like some, a series of stormtroopers who had full armor except for their chest plates, so their chests were just like exposed and she's like this isn't standard uniform.
Nick:You need to make sure that you're wearing the right thing, like so like again.
Ben:Like just like the again, like embracing all the other fans out there and like using that, just like make, just like some fun stuff. And, yeah, again, like you don't the things you don't think about like to make the empire run and, just like the, all the imperial officers and like the machine, that that is like, yeah, just thinking about, like, oh, there's someone, someone out there is in hr like yeah, yeah, that's kind of how I felt about andor honestly yes, I agree yes it felt like like the office for yeah, yeah
Michael:well, nick, I see, so we have video going yeah, so our you know. Hopefully our youtube viewers will. We'll see what I'm referencing, but I see you're wearing a t-shirt that, uh, is pretty cool.
Nick:You want to explain that to us?
Michael:absolutely, uh, so I'm referencing, but I see you're wearing a t-shirt. That, uh, is pretty cool, yeah absolutely uh.
Nick:So I'm sure some people have heard about t fury before. They do like the t-shirt battles. Every single every day there's a new one, um, and so I actually got this one a while back. It's it has it says sonic wars on it. I thought it was a nice little crossover you know we're doing star wars. I'm like you know what we could do. A Sonic episode later in the series too, and I just realized I never even put my jacket back on from earlier, so we've got to restart this whole thing.
Michael:We've got to completely re-record everything.
Nick:But this is. My sister just brought this back from Disney World for me.
Ben:It is a sweet jacket. It is sick. I don't know that I would wear it, but it's sweet.
Nick:Hey, that's fair, that's fair. But yeah, Empire Strikes Back, which is it's even got the little thing on the side there.
Michael:I didn't see the patch.
Ben:Yeah, 45 years because, that's where we're at now which is crazy.
Nick:Yeah, empire Strikes Back. My favorite of the, the original trilogy, which I think is a good segue here. Are we all going to agree that that's the best of the original trilogy, or are you guys going to disagree with me right now from?
Michael:ages, uh, 12 to 30. I think I, that's so specific. Yeah, uh, it wasn't until recently. So until recently, uh, return of the jedi was my favorite of the original trilogy. I would have said that's number one, um, but I think, uh, so my wife and I have gotten really into film critics on youtube and just trying to analyze movies more, and it's been really enjoyable, um, and I think since doing that, I've, I've now, I think I've turned and I now believe that and now you're in the best, yeah you're in the majority.
Nick:I think that's the correct camp to be in, honestly, but yeah empire for sure love it. I mean just for hoth alone. Like I mean I just love the entire series of things that happen on hoth and it's a cool place to have this wild battle take place.
Ben:And yeah, man, just I love it. I mean, for me it's the expansion of the force lore and the introduction of yoda and just the whole training, like that whole thing, just that too super interesting to me and again like one of the things that I think kind of like bought me into star wars a little bit is just like this whole jedi way, and just learning more about that was so intriguing.
Michael:And of course you have the. Can you hit my spoiler alert, which?
Ben:one's our spoiler alert. Well, just choose one, just make up a sound effect for it.
Nick:Make one with your mouth, babe. Spoiler alert.
Michael:Put me on the spot again, vader does reveal himself to be Luke's father.
Ben:Wait, you sure it's not the other way around? No wait a second.
Nick:No no no, I am sure.
Michael:And it's interesting because from a production standpoint that was rewritten. So the original script that was I don't know what they said. I think in the original script I've heard that George Lucas wrote that Obi--wan killed luke's dad. That was what he originally said yeah, yeah. And then luke says no, you know, he's, yeah, he's.
Nick:Shocked by that this brings us into a nice little little segment here. You guys know I mean I host trivia, you know, so I like, I like looking for these little tidbits of information. So that was kind of what you're talking about right now. Is they hid that information? First of all, it was. It was so hush-hush and I know that Mark Hamill has talked about it before in interviews and things like that that they kept it under wraps and he thought it was weird and didn't really understand. And I don't think people realize just how under wraps it was. So David Prowse, who is the body of Darth Vader, didn't know, like they specifically didn't tell him, and I believe it was because he had a reputation for having a big mouth.
Ben:He was gonna go.
Michael:They were already he was gonna tell people tom holland so that was why so they.
Nick:That's the reason why, like it got put into the scripts originally that way and they only told I think they only told mark hamill, and I don't even remember who else but mark hamill was one of the only people, james Earl Jones, james.
Nick:Earl. Jones yeah, that knew that information. It's just a fascinating piece there. And I even heard that David Prowse didn't know until it was released. I was listening to a podcast and reading something recently and saw it and he was like what? I would have done that completely differently. I would have done something different with. I would have, you know, done something different with the, the movement of darth vader yeah, oh my gosh I just think that's a really, really just a funny piece of star wars trivia yeah, that brings up an interesting point.
Ben:You think he would like add a. Would have added more like empathy to like his physical acting in that instance?
Michael:yeah, I don't know but oh sorry, I was gonna say his lack of empathy, though like adds to what darth vader was at that point. I think darth vader, now that we've gotten the sequel or the prequels, is a much more you know, uh holistic character you know, he's not just pure evil, which is what he was in a new hope, especially he's a little more three-dimensional now or whatever. So I don't know. That's a good question. I mean yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Nick:You guys got any good piece of Star Wars did-you-know trivia that you just like. Maybe not a lot like. Not a lot of people know, I guess.
Ben:Nothing immediately comes to mind. No, no, nothing comes to mind for me. You're the trivia host. I guess I just I've really been into.
Nick:That's been a part of like what I've been listening to lately with like podcasts and things making of movies, and I've listened to a couple different ones on the making of star wars and so, like that was just one of the things that stood out to me. I'm like that's really really funny. So, yeah, we're, uh, I guess we're. We're kind of on, we're getting close to the end here, right? Yeah, I'll let Mike introduce the next segment here and we're going to bring this to a close in a couple minutes.
Michael:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so as far as the next segment goes. So why don't we talk about what's next for the podcast? Yeah, let's kind of dive into you. You know the direction that we're heading. Obviously, we're starting with this massive topic, um, that we think a lot of people are, you know, love and resonate with. But where are we going to go from here?
Ben:yeah, so we're going to start actually like having one of the three of us be the experts and coming in and introducing us or expanding our knowledge of a particular fandom, and I think nick's gonna go first and I'm gonna jump in on that too because this kind of is a good place for us to say like what, what are we gonna have this show be in the future?
Nick:because the the goal is is we want to have. We. I mean, if you're in the video here and I'm gonna try and show this, we've got the microphone set up already for a guest and the goal is to bring people in. I mean, that's, that's what we want to do. We want to have good conversation with people. We want to talk about what their passions are and have them share those out.
Ben:I want someone else to screw up key lines Exactly. I'm not the only idiot.
Nick:This is going to be viral later.
Ben:Yeah, it is Please, please, please, don't clip that.
Nick:It's whatever AI tells me to clip, that's going to be great. No guy tells me to clip. That's gonna be great, exactly no, but that's that's the goal right of the show.
Nick:Um, so that kind of brings us into like what the plan is, where we're going to, each of us is going to act as the guest. So this time, like there really wasn't a guest, like we're just each kind of sharing perspectives and things like that. But next time, um, next episode, we'll be talking about bluey, as I've kind of shared in that teaser trailer as well, and you guys will kind of get to interview me and I'm going to share out some of the things I've already been planning out with my wife and like talking about things that I want to want to talk about and share with you guys.
Nick:I've got some pretty fun like pieces of lore and um things I'm just really excited to talk about wow, there's bluey lore you have no idea there's some crazy people out there and I was always well, I'll get into it later, but I was kind of in the mindset like there's adult bluey fans that are doing all this stuff and I'm like I don't know come on, man like and I'm like I don't know. I'm gonna be making content that's a lot of bluey related content outside of like this episode.
Ben:But like you know, I'm, I'm in, I'm like I'm full blown, like I'm a bluey fan, so I'm excited to share that piece of things with you I'm excited because, like that's like again for starting us off at least like it's a fandom that I know very little about and so I'm like enlighten me please I know I got, I know it has such a huge following and it just not being in that sphere, that realm, I just yeah, so I'm excited to hear about it for sure awesome, yeah, and then, yeah, I know, uh, michael, you already shared that you're going to be talking about Lego and that sort of thing.
Nick:How's the? What are you looking forward to Like? Have you found, I guess? Give us a preview of what you would like to talk about? Are you got anything? Yeah, are you going to save it all? I'll save most of it.
Michael:I mean, yeah, I'm going to you know fun facts and what I love about it. You know how I got into it, all that good stuff, what, what, how it is now because it's a big hobby of mine, you know, as an adult. Um, so I'll, I'll get into that stuff and I will talk more about star wars and star wars, lego, um, so yeah, I'm excited as well for that and then ben what are you going to talk?
Ben:about yeah, so mentioned in the teaser as well but dungeons and dragons for me, and secretly, I'm going to turn this into a live play actual play podcast and say roll for initiative, play with me, I have plans.
Michael:We're gonna figure something out a little 10 minute campaign. It would make.
Nick:It would make for good content. I remember when um, who was didn't like steven colbert do something, where he did like a quick little play with somebody he did with Critical Role.
Ben:We can dive into that a little bit, but yeah, with Critical Role he did a one shot for. Red Nose Day. Yeah, that's funny man, all right.
Nick:Well, that's kind of. I mean, that's the end. Is there anything that we've we've left off here? I don't really think there is.
Michael:We're going to go ahead and now go into. Yeah, let's kind of dive in there. That's a wrap on this episode of Fandom of Fandoms. If you loved it, hit that follow button at fofpod, on Instagram and threads and leave us a quick review. Wherever you're listening to this podcast, it's like fuel for our little nerdy spaceship. Got a fandom you want us to tackle? Shoot us a DM. Until next time, stay curious, stay passionate and keep repping what you love.
