This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work
at MJMunoz.com. Welcome to my fully operational Star Wars podcast. I'm going to do a mini
episode where I reintroduce myself to the Star Wars fandom and reintroduce myself to
Star Wars in some way, shape or form. So I am one of those people who has sort of dipped
out of Disney Star Wars. No, I don't demand that Kathleen Kennedy be fired. I wouldn't
be surprised if she was at some point for a lack of competency. However, I don't think
she's destroying Star Wars. And even if she is, I know that as a rebel and as an independent
actor, I have the ability to just remove myself from Star Wars and reject what they try to
give me and support the things that I like because I like them not as a protest against
some lady. And whether that be some lady or some man, whether that be Bob Iger or was
it Pearlman or Pearl Mother, I don't know who these people are. They don't matter to
me as far as this is concerned. What matters to me is the story of Star Wars. And I don't
care that Mark Hamill has his crazy views and I don't care that, you know, whatever.
I'm in this for the story. I'm in it a little bit for George Lucas or at least George Lucas's
perspective of wanting to make stories for 12 year olds or I hope the 12 year old and
all of us that talk about basic morals and life lessons and, you know, a good mythology
based in psychology so that it will have a deep effect on the minds of the children,
which I guess, to break political for a little bit, I guess if George Lucas was always a
Democrat or maybe some sort of regressive, then in today's political landscape it makes
sense that he was going after the hearts and minds of children back then. But I believe
that what Lucas implanted or indoctrinated or whatever kids with at that time was good.
And you know, the concept of being selfless and having bravery and courage and determination
to do hard things and help people in need, those are all good things. And I'm happy for
children to have those things inculcated in them by structures of the culture and whatnot.
Even, well, yeah, I'm happy with those things, but this other stuff, not so much. So anyway,
if you can't stand listening to me because of that, controversy will take, then I guess
goodbye. And if you don't mind, great. And if you think I'm going to be, you know, voting
for Trump and throwing red meat out there for people, I'm not going to. I will try to
keep this as apolitical as possible and just talk about the things that I enjoy and like
in the movies, in the books, in the comics, in the games, in whatever Star Wars story
I want to talk about based on the fact that it's a story and how I am affected by it as
a story or as an audience member, you know, enjoying the story or not, you know, because
sometimes I don't enjoy Star Wars things and I'm willing to say that. So yeah, I, I'm so
off of stuff with Star Wars today that while I watched Mando one and two in the book of
both of that, I did not watch Obi-Wan Kenobi. I don't know if they had another Star Wars
show besides that. I watched the first season, but not the second season of the bad batch.
I don't really care about the bad batch. I like Clone Wars. I like colonies work on that
a lot. But I don't know, some of the bad batches rubbed me the wrong way. And I thought, why
don't we just get more Clone Wars? Why are we getting this instead? And well, I like
the clones, especially because of episodes like rookies, which I believe that was the
very first episode with, with Yoda in it. And you know, some rookie storm troopers are
rather clone troopers, which was fabulous. And anyway, not to get off too much on the
tangent, I'm trying to keep this short. I have a very selective enjoyment of things
from Star Wars, but the things that I like in it, I like a lot. And I like basically
the six main movies, the core movies, the movies and the other ones. I liked solo. Okay.
Rogue One was all right. Was there another one? No, there's 11 movies total. The Clone
Wars movie was decent. Not amazing, but decent. I actually took my wife to go see that with
me, which is kind of funny. It was that long ago and we were young enough and just married
and just about to get married. And she actually went with me to go see that. So that was fun.
And then we ended up watching Clone Wars with most of, yeah, pretty much all Clone Wars with
a kid or two along the way. So I'm a huge Clone Wars fan and I don't know. There's a
lot of interesting stuff in Star Wars that I like. I read all of Star Wars legacy, which
is with Luke Skywalker's great grandson, I believe, and his interesting journey in that
galaxy far, far away. I read like the first, the first three omnibuses of Kotor, Knights
of the Old Republic. I really liked the game. I liked John Jackson Miller a lot, but the
art in that at some point got hideous and I didn't want to read it anymore. And yeah,
that was, so that was not something I forced myself to do. Although I might at some point,
because I'd really like to know that whole story and I don't want to read a wiki. I just,
I'd rather experience the story for myself. So honestly, being a big Clone Wars fan, well,
sorry, one more thing. I really love John Jackson Miller's Kenobi book. It's an amazing
book as well as the New Dawn. And I don't think when I had fully operational running
before that I did a lot of books and I have been listening to the EU books in my spare
time and absolutely, well, I've been enjoying them. I haven't been absolutely loving all
of them, but I've been enjoying them all a lot. And I like the interconnected universe
that existed in those books and how they force themselves to all have a conversation with
each other and deal with each other. And I think that's a great thing. And I want a interconnected
Star Wars universe where the things that happen in one story actually affect the things
in another story and where it all matters. And that's what I thought we were getting
when I cheerfully, when I gleefully cheered for the destruction, the shutting down of
the EU, because I thought Disney was actually going to take care of Star Wars and I don't
think they really have. I don't think they really have. Anyway, so what's my point? Oh,
Ahsoka's coming up. I really like Clone Wars. I really, Rebels was okay. Clone Wars is a
far superior show. Rebels is okay. It has some decent things in it, but it's not as
strong as Clone Wars for several reasons. One, I can't believe they didn't just give
it the budget, which I think it should have had, but that's neither here nor there. The
story was still pretty strong, pretty interesting overall. I just don't like some of the things
that happen in it based on the fact that it's new canon and they're going forward and making
shifts and changes that I don't really agree with 100%. So that's a little unfortunate.
And Rebels is marred a little bit by some weird things and it being, I think, pushed
at a younger audience as opposed to trying to grow up with the audience that was with
it because it was, what, four seasons and it didn't really feel like it grew up gradually,
whereas Clone Wars did, especially with Ahsoka. I think season three is when they have the
big shift. She gets her model changed. It's a couple of years into the Clone Wars. She
gets the newer model. Anakin gets the newer model. Everybody gets newer models, I think,
in that season and it's really good. That one has the Mortis arc, which is crazy and
fabulous and wonderful and weird and there's a lot of good stuff in there. But I'm definitely
a fan of Ahsoka's character arc and her story and I like everything that has gone into it
pretty much. The E.K. Johnston book was okay. I liked it overall, but there was just some
weird stuff in it. And I'm interested to see, you know, I loved seeing Rosario D'Aston playing
her portraying Ahsoka, bringing the character to life to the, you know, the small screen,
to the TV show screen in, what was she in? She was in Mando and show up in Bookable,
I don't remember. I kind of think yes, but I don't actually remember that. Anyway, but
I'm definitely interested in seeing her, you know, show up in Ahsoka, which is also, you
know, the next season of Rebels, it seems. And I want to talk about that show as it's
coming out, even though I skipped out on Mando season three. I'll get back to that at some
other point. But for now, I'm going to softly relaunch myself back into that universe and
I'm going to watch and talk about shortly the first six Star Wars movies. And then I
will, I'll get all those episodes released in time to catch up with Ahsoka and, or not
to catch up, but to follow along with Ahsoka as it's going episode by episode. And I'm
honestly looking forward to that. Why am I not catching up on Rebels and Clone Wars and
all that stuff? Cause it's been a long time since I've actually sat down and just enjoyed
one of the, you know, Star Wars or, you know, Skywalker saga movies. And I'd like to do
that again, cause I love Luke, I love Anakin. They're my main focus and they're my favorite
characters in Star Wars. And like I said, I'd like to spend a little more time with
them. So I'm going to do that in the run up to Ahsoka because it takes place in the context
of, you know, the war against the empire has been won by the rebellion. And now we're in
the aftermath, you know, sort of in the Mando time period, but also sort of not in the Mando
time period. So, uh, yeah, that's what I'm thinking to do. That's what my plan is to
do. And I will get those episodes made and then start releasing them. At some point,
you'll be able to find links to them everywhere on mgwunios.com. You'll be able to find links
to them on mgwunios.com and I will make the podcast feed official like I have with all
the other podcasts that I have going over on my website as well. And yeah, I think that's
pretty much all I have to say for this introductory episode. Hopefully I gave you a good feel
of who I am and what kind of my taste is in Star Wars and what I think about it. And if
you want to follow along with me in, you know, the Ahsoka discussion, but also get my perspective
on that might be actually a good idea. Get my perspective on the main movies to see how
that all gels together and works together. And I invite you to check out the following
episodes, which should be coming out pretty quickly after this one. So anyway, until next
time folks, take care. This is MJ signing out. Oh, also you can expect the episodes
to be like less than 30 more than 10 minutes and less than 30 minutes. That's, that's the
plan because I'm doing a lot writing and other podcasts and living a life. So I hope you
enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback
you might have there. You can find all of my analysis, art and fiction. I cover books,
anime, and more. Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as
well. This has been a story over everything production.