WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: The Miraluka of "Star Wars"

0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.120
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:12.600
<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is The

0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.360
<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:19.880
<v Speaker 2>Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.000
<v Speaker 2>I've covered a number of Star Wars species and creatures

0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.400
<v Speaker 2>in the past on The Monster Fact, and since we're

0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.319
<v Speaker 2>celebrating Star Wars Week here, I have won more for you,

0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:37.680
<v Speaker 2>a force sensitive humanoid species known as the mirror Luca.

0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.680
<v Speaker 2>The mirror Luca have existed in Star Wars comics and

0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.600
<v Speaker 2>novels for decades at this point, with specific examples falling

0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.720
<v Speaker 2>into canon or extended universe status, but we're not going

0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.400
<v Speaker 2>to get too wrapped up in this division. The mirror

0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.040
<v Speaker 2>Luca look like typical humans, except they have no eyes

0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.640
<v Speaker 2>and generally keep their vestigial eye socket it's covered with

0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.080
<v Speaker 2>a blindfold. While other species in the Star Wars galaxy

0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.399
<v Speaker 2>possess only varied levels of connection to the force, the

0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:10.760
<v Speaker 2>Meriluka all possess enough force to manifest a kind of

0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.959
<v Speaker 2>force sight, an ability to sense their surroundings via forced

0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.880
<v Speaker 2>sensitivity in a way that makes up for their lack

0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.600
<v Speaker 2>of visual sense. Organs. This of course, plays on a

0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.720
<v Speaker 2>long standing Star Wars trope in which a forced sensitive

0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.960
<v Speaker 2>individual trains with a blindfold or some sort of blindfold

0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.720
<v Speaker 2>like device on so that they can better trust their

0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.920
<v Speaker 2>innate force sense of their surroundings. We see Luke do

0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.399
<v Speaker 2>this in the original nineteen seventy seven film. In Star

0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:43.560
<v Speaker 2>Wars Rebels, the Jedi Canonjaris sustains a blinding injury and

0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.160
<v Speaker 2>is forced to depend on his forced senses in this way.

0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.720
<v Speaker 2>And if you like me, played the video game Star

0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:53.320
<v Speaker 2>Wars Jedi Night Dark Forces two back in oh nineteen

0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:57.840
<v Speaker 2>ninety seven, you'll remember the game's chief antagonist, the Dark

0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.400
<v Speaker 2>Jedi Jerrik, played by christ Her name was also blind.

0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.960
<v Speaker 2>Subsequent Star Wars media retcon Jerrik to be both an

0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:10.480
<v Speaker 2>Imperial inquisitor and a member of the Mira Luca species.

0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.399
<v Speaker 2>Christopher name, by the way, has come up on Weird

0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.080
<v Speaker 2>House Cinema before, as he played Johnny Alucard in the

0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:22.640
<v Speaker 2>Hammer horror film Dracula AD nineteen seventy two, opposite Christopher Lee,

0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:27.280
<v Speaker 2>who of course has his own Star Wars heritage. But

0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:30.680
<v Speaker 2>I found this idea quite fascinating. The humanoids of the

0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:35.639
<v Speaker 2>Mirror Luca home world benefiting from species wide force sensitivity,

0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:40.119
<v Speaker 2>might have evolved to depend on the force as their

0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:45.000
<v Speaker 2>primary sense. To the degree that their eyes atrophy away

0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.200
<v Speaker 2>like some manner of organisms adapted for life in say

0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.400
<v Speaker 2>deep caves or the deep ocean, or something exposed to

0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:57.160
<v Speaker 2>the presumably much stronger sensory input of for sight, their

0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.880
<v Speaker 2>brains came to depend on it as the prime sense

0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.800
<v Speaker 2>to form a mental model of the surrounding world. Now

0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:07.800
<v Speaker 2>we don't quite have a parallel for this in the

0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.919
<v Speaker 2>natural world, but I was reminded of the common rat.

0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.440
<v Speaker 2>A rat's eye sight is quite poor, but makes up

0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:19.119
<v Speaker 2>for it with suburb hearing, scent, and touch via their

0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.519
<v Speaker 2>whisker sense, which I am tempted to compare it to foresight.

0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.760
<v Speaker 2>In this scenario, rats excel at life and artificial human

0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.880
<v Speaker 2>constructions such as the interiors of walls or say in

0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.000
<v Speaker 2>the sewer, as well as all sorts of naturally occurring

0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:37.200
<v Speaker 2>spaces like this, and to navigate these environments, these little mazes,

0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.440
<v Speaker 2>they depend in large part on high resolution sensory maps,

0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.800
<v Speaker 2>which they generate in their heads via constant sweeps of

0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:51.040
<v Speaker 2>their delicate whiskers. They can also detect slight changes in

0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.200
<v Speaker 2>air currents with their whiskers. Our perception of reality is

0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:58.880
<v Speaker 2>based on the mental models we form based on input

0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.200
<v Speaker 2>from our senses. Animals with different levels of sensory details,

0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.520
<v Speaker 2>such as stronger hearing or weaker sight, or different cognitive abilities,

0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.520
<v Speaker 2>they essentially occupy a different sensory world. So it's a

0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.560
<v Speaker 2>fascinating exercise to imagine what our own lives would be

0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.839
<v Speaker 2>like with any of these sensory knobs adjusted even a

0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:22.920
<v Speaker 2>little bit, or indeed an entirely new sensory input, perhaps

0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:28.200
<v Speaker 2>based on the mysterious force added to the equation. Tune

0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.880
<v Speaker 2>in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact,

0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.040
<v Speaker 2>or Animalius to Pendium each week. As always, you can

0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:36.960
<v Speaker 2>email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind

0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:46.440
<v Speaker 2>dot com.

0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.520
<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.400
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.320
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,