Star Wars just changed forever..

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]There's a real question of how Star Wars got degraded over time, especially when it was bought by Disney. I'm going to ask you a sincere question, and I want you to answer me in the comments down below. Sincerely, like, when was the last time the Empire really scared you?

[00:00:15]You know, not just impressed you, not made you think, "Oh man, these stormtroopers look fresh and clean."

[00:00:20]Legitimately scared you like it was supposed to from the original trilogy, the way it did when you were a kid. like star destroyers being so big in comparison to Tanti 4. That's a direct symbolical thing that you witness and you understand immediately. Vader coming out and presenting himself for the first time surrounded by stormtroopers who blast their way through that shows you exactly who the Empire is. There's no need for dialogue or there's no need to actually go further to understand that this is a terrifyingly bad occupying force. But at some point, and I'm not exactly sure when, the empire just stopped being threatening. It became just a backdrop. It became merchandising. It became a meme, basically. But consider what has happened in the last 3 years. Two shows.

[00:01:11]Yeah, exactly. Just two shows were needed to show you what the Empire really is underneath all those memes and all those stupid jokes about the Empire.

[00:01:22]Andor and Mole Shadowlord told you exactly what the Empire is that we actually forgot. Let's not forget George Lucas himself talking about the creator himself who did all of this. He grew up in a very different time. Something that perhaps we're living through right now with the world changing and everything.

[00:01:41]We are witnessing a changing in the force, a changing in the world. George Lucas lived through that. And in 1977 when he first presented Star Wars, the Empire was a backdrop to fascism. The uniforms of the Imperials were modeled after those guys. You know which guys I'm talking about because yeah, I'm going to get demonetized. The ranks, the salutes, I mean the architecture, everything was of that period of time when we aren't supposed to talk about it. So it worked. It worked perfectly.

[00:02:12]The messaging was there. But then something happened even for George Lucas. something that he didn't predict.

[00:02:18]Nobody predicted. The Empire became the most successful merchandising vehicle in the history of pop culture. There have been Lego Stormtroopers. There have been Stormtrooper mugs, Stormtrooper phone cases. And early when the ringtones were a thing, TIE fighter sounds were the rage. So, we even hear at sporting events the Imperial March being played.

[00:02:39]And when something becomes that amount of fun for kids, when you can buy a tiny plastic version of that terrifying thing in the toy store, it just stops being scary. And I think the first time it happened, and I think the first semblance of it was actually with the Ewoks. It wasn't as bad as it is today, but Ewoks were the sort of thing that kind of gave Star Wars that kitty feel kind of for the first time. But it wasn't anything what what we saw later on. The first instance I think when Star Wars stopped becoming that scary, stopped being that type of a scary underneath. It was always joyful and it was always inspired and with hope even the original trilogy. But the first time we saw it in a different light was during the prequel era because in the prequels there is no Stormtroopers.

[00:03:34]There are no Empire and fascists over and bad guys. There are droids. There's a bunch of droids that get sliced up by the Jedi and they aren't a threat at all. If you look at the prequels, Qui-Gon and the Phantom Menace just slices through together with Obi-Wan.

[00:03:51]those Trade Federation droids that seem like made out of butter, the Attack of the Clones and then Revenge of the Sith just amplify all that the Jedi can just slice through thousands and thousands of these things and they're not going to be really in trouble anymore. And this went on and on until Disney bought it. So when Disney bought it, it was even worse, I think, in my opinion because first of all, Star Wars Rebels, as great of a series as it was, you need to go check it out because the comparison between the Clone Wars series and the Rebel series is in Rebels, nobody gets killed really. Even Stormtroopers who get shot, you don't see them get shot.

[00:04:29]You don't see anybody getting sliced or killed. It all happens offcreen. And that's the nerfing that Disney imposed on Star Wars in the first round until now. You see Devon Aara literally slice and kill even at times close to decapitate Stormtroopers with her lightsaber. There's some shots in the first episodes. And what can we say about uh Andor? So Tony Gilroy is the one who put the Empire back in the map.

[00:05:00]The Andor series undid decades and decades of damage. It showed you that the Empire from the inside. It didn't show Vader show up to choke someone, not an Imperial officer sneering at a hero.

[00:05:13]Andor showed you the minations. It showed you the ISB, the data analysts, the mid-level enforcers who aren't monsters, who are in fact people just doing their jobs. And they really believed at what the Empire is doing. We all saw the horrifying prospect, for example, of the prison of Nircana 5.

[00:05:32]like it showed you that it's all just procedure and these things can happen in real life and do happen in real life.

[00:05:40]This is what makes the Empire scary. It isn't a figment of your imagination.

[00:05:45]Even back in the original trilogy in A New Hope and an Empire Strikes Back when the Empire was really dreadful and scary, it was because it was real. It could happen to you to in the real world. When the machine is turned against you, there is no stopping it.

[00:06:01]And that's a scary prospect. And if we take a slice from Andor and put it into Shadow Lord, the first instance I realized that these two series are working together to bring back the scary empire was specifically in episode 4 when Two Boots calls in the Empire against Maul. Something that Brander Lawson really was scared of and warned two boots about. The show does something with that moment that most Star Wars material never really attempt. It makes you feel the impact of that decision.

[00:06:36]They don't take it lightly that a star destroyer comes out of hyperspace and reigns over Janx. You feel the tension there. The show doesn't cut away from it. It doesn't rush past what the Empire is doing. It lets you process it. It sits there. a city planet suddenly reduced to nothing underneath a machine built to crush resistance at galactic scale. Because in the end, what you realize is when the Empire is competent, that's when it's at its peak, not when it's being incompetent for the sake of humor or the main character. They cut off our hero's exit. The inquisitors are very competent and lead them like mice to outside the city lines where of course we realize Vader is waiting. This is what the Empire is. It's a it's a sophisticated machine that toys with you till the end till it grabs you and kills you. I mean let's just set aside the fact of you know the Empire and Vader.

[00:07:39]Did you realize the Inquisitors are completely back? This time around when people mention the Inquisitors, you have to get scared for the main characters.

[00:07:50]They aren't just cannon foder anymore for, you know, the main character to just dump through or plow through. You actually need to be scared because the characters are going to be in a tough position going up against, you know, just Merrick, how scary and how competent he was. He he don't forget before that last finale, Marrick fought against Maul and Devon Azara both in that train sequence. So he's not an incompetent Inquisitor that's just going to get killed away. And now put in the crow as well, the 11th brother. Not only is the Empire back, the Inquisitorious is back. Vader is back. This show really signaled to all the fans what Dave Fona is planning. Dave really hit it out of the park this one. Dave and Sam Witworth and Brad Ralph, they all came together to show you that Star Wars is back. We just perhaps need to wait a little bit long for more projects. But Disney is no longer able to wishy-wash Star Wars. And I'm really glad for that, especially in this moment in time where we're living in this world. We need to show that scary is not a funny thing. Scary needs to scare you for real. If you guys made it so far, uh hopefully I didn't rant too much, but if you like what I said, be sure to hit the subscribe button, like this video. We're going to do a lot more of these and I'll catch you next