Hoth Takes: A Star Wars Podcast Hoth Takes: A Star Wars Podcast

Three episodes in, The Acolyte is taking Star Wars in a bold new direction with fresh characters and a disturbing but thought-provoking premise. Join Eric, Grace, and Haley as we break down the complicated relationships between the main characters, debate the portrayal of an exiled witch coven, and try to predict where the show is heading. Grace is on a social media break, so it’s up to Eric and Haley to fill her in on the awful online discourse. And you won’t believe how long it takes Haley to bring up her newest space-food obsession.

What’s it like being in love with a huge Star Wars nerd? To celebrate our fiftieth episode, we’re talking about the role that Star Wars plays in our personal lives, and we’re joined by three special guests: our partners. From first dates and pandemic TV marathons to naming cars and doing bad impressions, our significant others pull back the curtain on how our love of Star Wars manifests beyond the microphones of Hoth Takes. Plus, we ask our partners about galactic conspiracy theories and their best TV show pitches, and one of them asks a divisive question.

Disney is following Tales of the Jedi with Tales of the Empire, opening up new opportunities for Tales anthologies focused on other corners of the galaxy. Given the recent focus on the dark side, we decided to pitch our best ideas for anthologies about our favorite overlooked villains. But what starts as an episode about a future Tales anthology quickly snowballs into a brainstorming session about much wackier concepts — and eventually, we come up with a Star Wars TV show so perfect that it genuinely annoys us that it will never exist.

With the upcoming Star Wars TV show The Acolyte in the news recently, Eric and Grace sit down to discuss their hopes and expectations for the franchise’s first mystery thriller. We talk about the storytelling potential of a wide-open time period, the challenges of humanizing villains without glorifying them, and whether and how Disney will use the show to plant the seeds of the prequels. Plus, inspired by The Acolyte’s mature tone, we have a mini-debate about whether there’s room in Star Wars for stories that cross two very big lines.

For as long as the stars have been warring, they’ve also been loving. So why has the Disney era of Star Wars had noticeably fewer romances, including multiple frustrating missed opportunities in the sequel trilogy? To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we’re diving into the topic of romance in Star Wars. We explore the challenges of writing romantic relationships, the factors that might be discouraging Disney from emphasizing love stories, and how Star Wars has succeeded and failed at romance, from Hera and Kanan’s heartwarming bond to Anakin and Padme’s toxic codependency to Rose and Finn’s weird surprise kiss. Plus, in a conversation that reveals a lot about ourselves, we each pick the Star Wars character we’d most like to marry.

You can tell a lot about a person’s Star Wars fandom by what they put on a top-five list. In this episode, Eric, Grace, and Haley share, explain, and defend their five favorite examples of various Star Wars themes, debating the best criteria to use and the most controversial omissions from each other’s lists. As we discuss the reasons for certain inclusions and exclusions, we revisit memories from our own journeys with Star Wars, from childhood wonder at a senatorial outfit to adult awe at a special space food. You might be able to predict some of our list-making choices, but we guarantee you’re in for a few surprises.