Star Wars Theory

**Star Wars Theory**, often called **Theory** for short, is a YouTuber who talks about *Star Wars*

He now hosts the podcast *Star Grift* with MauLer

## History

#### Foreshadowing

At the end of Drinker's review of Season 2 of *Mandalorian*, Drinker played the clip of Star Wars Theory tearing up at Luke's arrival alongside a clip of EFAP laughing at the same scene, concluding that he could not really fault either reaction because it was simultaneously the first time in a long time that Luke has been shown saving the day in his prime after a trilogy that wasted him, but also a blatant act of desperation from Disney trying to course-correct

### On the Frenchness of *Andor*

Fresh off the tail of having checked out fan response to the declining state of the MCU, MauLer, Rags, and Fringy turned their attention to a the *Star Wars* side of the equation with a similarly premised video from Star Wars Theory in EFAP 256. Theory expressed that he had reached a breaking point with *Star Wars*, though he conceded Disney had put out some good products like seasons 1 and 2 of *Mandalorian*, *Tales of the Jedi*, *Clone Wars* Season 7, hesitantly *Rebels*, and all but the last two episodes of *Ahsoka*, making a point of all of it having been helmed by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, whic prompted MauLer to point out those two were responsible for plenty of the bad products too. Theory wondered why *Kenobi*, which he considered the most important show, had a lower budget than every other Disney+ *Star Wars* show and even Marvel's *She-Hulk*, Fringy objecting that the budgets allotted to Marvel shows would have no bearing on *Star Wars* shows, and MauLer drawing it back to the broader point of the budget not even being the issue with *Kenobi*, since a hypothetical season of just Obi-Wan in the desert could have been great. Oddly enough, Theory himself seemed to agree with this, switching gears to saying the bad scripts, not the budget, are the biggest issue, even noting that fan-made films that cost a lot less to make have turned out better. Despite this, he continued to refer to Kenobi's $90 million dollar budget as "pennies," and contrasted it against the $250 million given to *Andor*, which he considered great, but for French hat-wearing wine and cheese-consuming mustache-twiddling Renaissance Era film students. He also brought up the quote from *Andor* showrunner Tony Gilroy saying he forgot he was working on a *Star Wars* show half the time, to which MauLer added the context that he was saying he was so engrossed in the story he forgot it was part of a bigger IP and just did what he felt naturally would come next. MauLer figured the issue he took with *Andor* was that it didn't fit the typical description of good and bad *Star Wars* shows and had to be begrudgingly acknowledged when he'd rather talk about everything else. Theory asked if he was the only one trying to fight for *Star Wars* to be good, something MauLer found odd since he had previously talked to Jeremy from Geeks + Gamers who has a similar stance on *Star Wars*. At this point Fringy recalled that *Andor* had both more and longer episodes than Kenobi, and ended up calculating that *Andor*'s 474 minutes of screentime were given $527,526 per minute while Kenobi's 222 minutes were given $405,405 per minute, so *Kenobi* was given 5/6 the budget of *Andor* per minute. Theory then likened *Andor* to *Blade Runner*, raising the question of both how they were similar and why that was a bad thing, and then made the even odder claim that *The Last Jedi* was similarly a bad Luke Skywalker story but technically a good movie. MauLer was left curious as to what exactly he took issue with since the showrunners of the shows he considered good were being given more control, and the main thing referenced as a negative was *Kenobi*'s budget, but he could relate to the overall frustration, and saw this as well as the previous videos on the MCU as indicative of a new era, where people who used to like these IPs are starting to sense a change in their direction and trying to articulate what that is

### First Contact

Star Wars Theory put out an open invite on Twitter shortly after for anyone who disagrees with him to join him onstream, and MauLer happily obliged (with Nerdrotic chiming in to support). After explaining that he did not have a face, MauLer asked Theory if he considered Luke's appearance in Season 2 of *Mandalorian* to be the best moment Disney had put out, to which Theory answered that while it was cathartic he could get Jedi swinging lightsabers from any Star Wars fanfilm, and would instead choose *Tales of the Jedi* as the best thing Disney had put out, with Season 7 of *Clone Wars* and *Rogue One* as contenders. Theory explained that for a long time he wanted to avoid coming across as a hater, but simultaneously did not want to be a shill, and so felt caught in the middle of two extremes, and MauLer could relate to his constantly being clipped for fuel for other people to hate him, being able to imagine he would get it both from people who find him too harsh and not harsh enough to *Star Wars*. He considered Filoni and Favreau the best options *Star Wars* had at the moment, explaining that he was grading Disney *Star Wars* content on a curve compared to other worse Disney *Star Wars* content, likening it to being stranded in a desert and being offered a morsel of food. He went on that his frustration with *Andor* came from wishing that the same care that was put into had also been put into the stories of other classic *Star Wars* characters, to which MauLer compared *Andor* to a hotel with a pool in the desert analogy, and figured that the best strat would be to push for Tony Gilroy to get more work on *Star Wars* shows that include those classic characters. When Theory agreed that *Andor* had added to the *Star Wars* lore in a positive way rather than detract from it, MauLer asked if that would not then mean Filoni has done more damage to *Star Wars*, but Theory felt it was unfair to phrase it that way since Gilroy was 1 for 1 whereas Filoni has taken on more projects and more ambitious projects. MauLer cited Gilroy having used his freetime during COVID lockdowns to redraft his script as evidence of him having a good work ethic, contrasting him against creators like *Alien*'s Ridley Scott and *Terminator*'s James Cameron who seemed to have lost whatever touch made the originals great. He asked how many Ls Filoni would need to produce for Theory to feel similarly about him, to which Theory answered Filoni had done a lot he likes so it would take a lot of Ls to counterbalance it. When MauLer asked what Theory meant when he said *The Last Jedi* was a good movie in spite of being a bad *Star Wars* movie, he answered that he just thought the production was good. The two were also able to find common ground on *Andor* picking up when it got to the prison episodes and *Ahsoka*'s zombie Stormtroopers being stupid, and Theory concluded he and MauLer seemed to 90% agree with each other, with MauLer adding he had had a very different idea of what his stance was before talking to him, and both of them could relate to the telephone game of rumors that spread about each other. MauLer did remain confused by Theory considering $90 million "pennies," though Theory agreed that it was the script that mattered most, and just saw *Kenobi*'s comparatively lower budget than *Andor* as indicative of where Disney's priorities lay.

MauLer expressed that he didn't want to take up any more of Theory and his guests' time, so naturally he ended up staying for another hour

## Quotes

* "People that don't like me already don't like me, people that love me already love me"
 "Oh we're the other people, we don't really feel a huge amount about you and we're willing to hear you out... we're the unicorns"
 - Star Wars Theory & MauLer, EFAP 256
* "You not only give a crap script, you get people that don't know what the hell they're doing when it comes to writing the stories and the characters that George built and created, you regress them, you focus on Reva, you make chasing Leia literally like the most impossible thing, to find a 9-year-old, or a 10-year-old"
 "Where was- start the video *here*"
 - Theory & MauLer, EFAP 256
* "which yes, *Andor* is a great show for everyone who attended film school and wants to eat their cheese with a French hat, so they can twiddle their mustache at the same time and talk about the Renaissance Era and how great things were back then while they sip on their wine from 1922" - EFAP 256
* "You get someone competent, who knows the characters and respects the characters. You get John Favreau and Dav-"
 "No, no, no! No-o! It's so funny, he had me in the first half, I was about to say he's right!"
 - Theory & MauLer
* "but then they wanna give *She-Hulk* the most money, cuz it's with CGI?"
 "... that would be a reason"
 - Theory & MauLer
* "That's an interesting theory" "A Star Wars Theory!" - Fringy & MauLer, EFAP 256
* "Do you have a face?"
 "No"
 - Theory and MauLer, in their first meeting
* "You said earlier, I dunno if it- cuz I remember seeing it in the clip as well that, you consider TLJ a bad *Star Wars* film but a good film. I was curious to pick at that, what do you consider good about it?"
 "... the budget? The score, the uh... cinematography"
 "[laughs] You know what I agree with you on that one"
 - MauLer & Theory
* "[in a Rian Johnson impression] 'Y'know I think a film where half the audience really hates it and half the audience really loves it, that to me is... that's a really good film'"
 "I feel like you never hear that from someone who made a film that everyone loved. Like, nobody says like, 'Man I wish more people hated my movie'"
 - Theory & MauLer