Episode 878: Your Cootie Level Is Off the Charts

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Matt Belinkie, Mark Lee, and Matt Wrather overthink Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on the occasion of its 20th anniversary theatrical re-release. Opinions are mixed on how well it holds up, but not surprisingly, everyone agrees that Ian McDiarmid absolutely killed it as Emperor Palpatine. Everyone else still suffers from the stilted writing, but the action, especially in a 4DX theater with moving seats and spraying water, remains highly entertaining, although admittedly pitched at a 10 year old boy’s level of interests.

The panel digs deep into Anakin’s turn to the dark side, the nature of evil, and the extent to which the story of a democracy’s fall resonates in 2025. Naturally, Andor works its way into the conversation: yes, the galaxy is big enough to have stories centered on both space wizards and everyday people, and the differences in storytelling are dramatically different.

No younglings were harmed in the production of this podcast.

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Further Reading

• Reddit post regarding the late rewrites/reshoots that built out Anakin’s fall to the dark side over concern for Padmé
• The Overview: The (Original) Star Wars Trilogy, with a bonus podcast on the Prequel Trilogy. These were all recorded prior to the release of the Sequel Trilogy.