Random Star Wars Thoughts

[Totenkindly]

I'll get around to watching episode 4 and 5 of the Acolyte soon, but I just wanted to express my opinion that I don't like the Rule of Two (the idea that there can only be two Sith as a time). I think it's limiting and not really relevant to how evil seems to operate. The idea is that Sith can barely work together because they'll always try to overthrow or dispose of the other one for more power, so the most we can have is 2 (even though everyone always has secret apprentices on the side, which makes the concept even dumber because nobody can stick to it).

I agree. It seems like another Lucas bit of craziness to me, like midicholorians. Like, the Rule of Two is interesting, but then it should also be officially baked in that no one follows it and is constantly training others... so it could be amusing for all the people vying for Slot #2 to be fighting for that opening. (This is actually what happens in SWTOR for the Sith Juggernaut class story, you're constantly competing against your classmates for awhile to become Baras' apprentice.) But that's no different than in a corporate setting where people are vying for that sweet VP spot on the board, right?

It's basically an idea that doesn't really reflect how things work in reality, but Lucas and his sycophants liked to shoehorn it in.

If there is an attrition rate, it's mostly because Sith are notorious for wiping out their competition. And there's a sense of pride, I suppose, over even if you are to be killed by your apprentice, you were able to empower your underlying enough so that they could become a stronger sith than you. Proud Mama/Papa syndrome?

Think of totalitarian regimes, though. They never could have arisen without people working together. Perhaps there might be jockeying for power and fighting to sit at the Big Dog's table, but to some extent there is working together to achieve an individual goal. The individual desire for power can be tempered by a shared hate or fear. I think having that in these stories would be more interesting, intimidating, and realistic.

It's a problem with certain portrayals of evil, and it shows up in alignment-style RPGs too. Like, just because you are Evil doesn't mean you are stupid or DON'T have some admirable goals. My lich was pragmatic evil, she actually valued learning for its own sake, her cult centers were storehouses of information and intelligence was an important asset, and she could work with people who didn't share her values if it ultimately served her own interests and/or a COMMON interest (like a danger that affected everyone).

The Jedi have rigid philosophy as well, and in fact I have to laugh about this in regards to Episode 5 (big spoiler):

Yord obeys Sol in fleeing the combat to take Osha to safety, because he was TOLD to do so by his master. ("A padawan always obeys.") Osha though wears him down over time and convinces him to take her back to the battle to help Sol and Jacki... and this actually is a pretty reasonable and heroic choice to make, strategically he should have done it.... whereupon he promptly is killed, thus punished for his disobedience. LOL.

 

[The Cat]

I'm just so danged happy to hear other people say it. It needs to be said.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'm just so danged happy to hear other people say it. It needs to be said.

The idea for the Sith in my sequel trilogy (a story which might not fit into three parts to be told well), was that that you had Darth Cadeus and then 13 disciples. Darth Cadeus had hoped to find a worthy true apprentice from the ranks of the disciples, but none of them meet his standards, which would play an important role in part two. The acolytes aren't constantly plotting to kill each other but there is rivalry for this spot. They are brothers and sisters united in hatred, of Jedi, of the Republic, etc. etc., and so they will more often than not work with each other rather than trying to undermine each other.

With Darth Caedus you could play up the idea of lineage (given that Cadeus is the son of Han and Leia) vs. "nobody", which was an interesting idea teased in the canon ST that of course had to be scrapped.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Sorry to be negative, but i really hated E4 of The Acolyte. I don't even feel like listing all the ways i hated this episode.

The main one, though, is (1) having characters completely change their minds / course of action seemingly just to follow the plot they already had planned and (2) dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. Can't ANYONE on their writing staff actually write even HALF-realistic dialogue? There are so many shows on TV, and even the average ones have better dialogue than than this series. It's like they hired a Star Wars fan club to write and showrun this, without them having actual credentials or something. I know the runner has only written sparingly (she's more of a director?) and the best thing she worked on was Russian Doll. But I don't even want to WATCH that show after watching four episodes of The Acolyte. Like, at best, the dialogue is infodump material, and at worst it's a bunch of people saying clumsy things to each other in ways that aren't even directed well.

(The guy who plays Sol, for example, was great in Squid Game; he must have been well-directed; I know he learned English for this show, but his delivery is so flat and he doesn't seem to have been given any emotional direction for his lines, aside from "DON'T SHOW ANY EMOTION BECAUSE YOU ARE A JEDI." And he's actually one of the BEST on this show, sigh. Carrie Anne Moss actually lucked out, having her participation cut way short after the opening to E1; run, Carrie, run!)

There are other issues. Like, these people don't really think about how to position their characters in the scene. At least twice Osha has been caught WAY out in front of everyone -- she's the only non-Jedi -- while the rest of them stand in the back without trying to reposition anyone. In the first encounter, after about a 10-15 second staredown, the monster that OSHA pissed off flies right by her to convenient attack Sol 20 feet beyond her who has his lightsaber -- no, it should have swooped in on Osha and gutted her / carried her away. This happens again when the Sith lands 20 feet away from Osha and she just stands there while all the Jedi in the background pull their sabers and wait a d the Sith slowly walks forward. This is so asinine. At LEAST get someone who has played TTRPGs on your stage crew, they can tell you what needs to happen.

With Disney on MCU Phase 4+ and everything since TROS for Star Wars, I feel like I'm watching people with little skill or experience with show-making trying to make shows. WTF, Disney? You have multiple BILLION-DOLLAR franchises here and where on earth are you hiring these people from? What are their credentials? Why aren't you paying top-dollar for experienced people to create these stories and worlds for you? I think Tony Gilroy has been the only really experienced guy who has made them a show (and then maybe Faloni) and it really really shows.

I didn't care for it either. There was very little that grabbed me, and I felt robbed and cheated of something cool yet again. I didn't care too much about the story in this and it seemed oddly paced. Like, why did they not just go to the Wookiee Jedi's planet. Why did they go back to the temple, and then decide they needed to go back out? Couldn't they have had reinforcements sent? I think it helped to kill all the tension because it felt like nothing was urgent.

The strongest moments in the episode are the ones that deal with the connection between Mae and Osha, IMO. There are not enough of them. I kinda liked the planet but it's a TV show, not a theme park, as I said earlier. Furthermore, why do the Jedi need a tracker rodent-person? Can't they sense all this stuff? Something I've noticed about Star Wars is that it's extremely inconsistent about the capability of the Jedi to "sense" things. In the OT, they're doing it all the time; Vader can sense Kenob on the Death Star; Vader can just tell Luke is strong with the Force. It's a strong element of the other two movies, as well. Then, in the other trilogies, this seems kinda nerfed.

I'm certain you disagree with me about this, but I was really excited by this Wookiee Jedi character, and extremely annoyed by what happened in this episode. I was really pumped to see him in action, and I was robbed of this. That pissed me off. I would also have liked to have learned what he was doing on that planet and why he had gone into hiding. I like to think of him doing some Radagast the Brown type stuff, but I guess we'll never know.

 

[Totenkindly]

I didn't care for it either. There was very little that grabbed me, and I felt robbed and cheated of something cool yet again. I didn't care too much about the story in this and it seemed oddly paced. Like, why did they not just go to the Wookiee Jedi's planet. Why did they go back to the temple, and then decide they needed to go back out? Couldn't they have had reinforcements sent? I think it helped to kill all the tension because it felt like nothing was urgent.

Yeah, this kind of thing is what I mean when I bring up "story development" issues. There's no drive/energy to the story line and the audience is left asking why characters are handling things the way they are because it often makes no sense.

The strongest moments in the episode are the ones that deal with the connection between Mae and Osha, IMO. There are not enough of them. I kinda liked the planet but it's a TV show, not a theme park, as I said earlier. Furthermore, why do the Jedi need a tracker rodent-person? Can't they sense all this stuff? Something I've noticed about Star Wars is that it's extremely inconsistent about the capability of the Jedi to "sense" things. In the OT, they're doing it all the time; Vader can sense Kenob on the Death Star; Vader can just tell Luke is strong with the Force. It's a strong element of the other two movies, as well. Then, in the other trilogies, this seems kinda nerfed.

I can't tell what is going on with the Jedi. There's a lot of stuff like this. I mention something that happens at the end of episode 5 that the Jedi we are used to would immediately have recognized. Just a lot of inconsistency without explanation.

 

[The Cat]

They rely on the special effects and willingness of the audience to throw themselves into the roles, so they don't actually write full characters with logical arcs. They treat almost everyone like an npc with no direction.

 

[Totenkindly]

This kind of stupidity is why I hate Star Wars fandom. Please don't encourage Disney+ with this kind of garbage that makes nothing matter. (spoiler: refers to recent character death)

Is THE ACOLYTE’s Padawan Jecki Actually Dead? Maybe Not, According to High Republic Books

The Acolyte seemingly shows the demise of Padawan Jecki, but is she really dead? Maybe not, according to High Republic books and Star Wars history.

www.yahoo.com

 

[The Cat]

This kind of stupidity is why I hate Star Wars fandom. Please don't encourage Disney+ with this kind of garbage that makes nothing matter. (spoiler: refers to recent character death)

Is THE ACOLYTE’s Padawan Jecki Actually Dead? Maybe Not, According to High Republic Books

The Acolyte seemingly shows the demise of Padawan Jecki, but is she really dead? Maybe not, according to High Republic books and Star Wars history.

www.yahoo.com

Eventually they're gonna reveal alderaan was never actually blown up, it was concealed by a secret enclave of jedi who escaped order 66 which never actually happened because a lot of the clones were peoples favorite clone wars characters and they would never allow themselves to be genetically engineered with brainwashing to turn against their jedi allies. So yeah, Alderaan is gonna be fine.

We can't have sad meaningful tradgedies. This is Star Wars. Pew Pew Laser Sword Laser Sword. Happily ever after, when you wish upon the force, you can change your history's coarse. Anything your heart desires, we'll retcon for you....

We're one dart throw away from Jedi Jiminy Cricket and Emperor Mickey.

 

[Totenkindly]

Eventually they're gonna reveal alderaan was never actually blown up, it was concealed by a secret enclave of jedi who escaped order 66 which never actually happened because a lot of the clones were peoples favorite clone wars characters and they would never allow themselves to be genetically engineered with brainwashing to turn against their jedi allies. So yeah, Alderaan is gonna be fine.

But yeah. Don't put anything past these hacks.

We can't have sad meaningful tradgedies. This is Star Wars. Pew Pew Laser Sword Laser Sword. Happily ever after, when you wish upon the force, you can change your history's coarse. Anything your heart desires, we'll retcon for you.... We're one dart throw away from Jedi Jiminy Cricket and Emperor Mickey.

And Darth Goofy?

 

[The Cat]

View attachment 30969

But yeah. Don't put anything past these hacks.



And Darth Goofy?

View attachment 30970

I wish we had a cry like face lol because im laughing but im also crying inside lol darth goofy. That brings shame to both Darth Vader and Goofy. My dog deserves better after bringing us all Goof Troop and The Goofy Movies. Darth Vader....kinda had this coming.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I can't wait to watch the latest episode and weigh in on it. I'm very sore about episode 4.

Why does Disney Star Wars love to tease me about stuff like that? They like to give you a taste of something epic, and then pull back from it in an annoying way. See also the space battle at the end of Rise of Skywalker (but, hey, I got to see horses gallop on a Star Destroyer, like that's something I always wanted to see). They have the budget and technology for this stuff; I don't get it at all.

 

[Totenkindly]

I can't wait to watch the latest episode and weigh in on it. I'm very sore about episode 4.

I hope you enjoy at least some of Episode 5. Parts of it were good enough I might actually rewatch it. (high praise from me)

 

[The Cat]

I can't wait to watch the latest episode and weigh in on it. I'm very sore about episode 4.

Why does Disney Star Wars love to tease me about stuff like that? They like to give you a taste of something epic, and then pull back from it in an annoying way. See also the space battle at the end of Rise of Skywalker (but, hey, I got to see horses gallop on a Star Destroyer, like that's something I always wanted to see). They have the budget and technology for this stuff; I don't get it at all.

Because they're trying to addict you to their product. Give you a taste of what you could get if you keep shelling out your money and investing in their over budgett shells of entertainment. We used to have only Stepford Wives, now we can have Disney Adults. You would enjoy all of this so much more if you would just get comfortable with the idea of being a happy drone. Don't you want to be Mickey's good boy? What they're doing isnt so much offering quality entertainment as much as it's selling you entertainment "protection." It is what your boy Big Pussy would call: "A scam." If media is a lifetime movie, Disney is the rich handsome man who sweeps you off your feet at the begininng of the movie. By the time the credits roll he'll have forced himself on you, beat you like youre rented, give you cancer and steal your children and stuck with a rushed ending that feels hollow and dispite all the suffering of the protagonist throughout...feels unearned. It's only a matter of time before the cgi ai ghost of Donald Pleasance fights Darth Myers in the school house to save Rogu from discovering he's the secret child of Darth Myers, then the Mandalorian gets a really weird fifth season.

 

[The Cat]

That being said. It can still be a lot of fun as long as you can enjoy it for what it is. Content that exists with a star wars aesthetic.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

The opening to this was kind of dumb. There's a melee with the unnamed Sith. Are the jedi just walking into his blade, or am I imagining that? I'm reminded of that ridiculous scene in The Happening where the guy climbs into the farm equipment, turns it on, and calmly lies down in its path so that it can be in exactly the right place to be ground into puree.

Peepers (little tree frogs with distinctive noises) exist in Star Wars. That's exciting!

Geez Pixie Jedi, don't stare at your destroyed lightsaber for 30 seconds while you're in combat, especially if you have another one you can use.

The first half just had many dumb moments like this (except for the peepers, I was being serious with that). I was going to make a crack about the revelation that Jason from The Good Place was the Sith, but I actually thought he did a decent job at playing an entirely different kind of character. I speculated that maybe he was the Sith in a previous episode, but dismissed it because it was Jason. Tonight, he reminded me, in the end, just a little, of a legends Sith called Exar Xun, which worked.

Once the Sith is unmasked, in fact, the episode gets better. I liked the trick by Osha to subdue the Sith by using the flashlight function on her droid to attract the giant pillbugs.

It's confirmed that we don't have the full story about everything that happened in the past with these characters. What did Master Sol do? What happened to the rest of the Nightsisters? What does Mae know that we aren't privy to? These kinds of questions moved the story forwards and might guide the future interactions of the characters in interesting ways.

Speaking, of I heard of character deaths, but I was relived that nobody was killed that I cared about or found interesting. I don't mind if I don't see Yord or Pixie Jedi again.
[/spoiler[

 

[Totenkindly]

I'm glad you liked part of it. I liked Osha's trick too, and it was kind of set up a bit at least rather than out of the blue.

I actually did like Jecki (Dafne Keen) a lot, out of all the characters, and I was worried for her. I thought she did awesome.

I thought Manny Jacinto was far more interesting this episode than he was in earlier episodes. He did really well compared with what I've seen of him previously and he did almost all of his own fighting.

I still have questions about what actually happened when the coven was killed and what Sol's part in that was. I don't think that was Mae, and they did not die of fire. But I'm not sure this particular series is brave enough to do something interesting.

 

[The Cat]

This is what I want from Star Wars.
These stories.
make movies and shows about this stuff.​

 

[Totenkindly]

The Acolyte S1E6 -- nothing much happens, mostly a lot of talking.

However, you get a flip situation where Osha is talking to Qimir and Mae is talking to Sol.

I still laughed at a lot of dumb stuff this episode.

Or that the Jedi know that Sol's team was entirely massacred but only send 2-3 Jedi out (one Jedi, a few apprentices) to investigate although they have NO information about happened. Like, Sol's team just got slaughtered with a lot more Jedi -- what are you DOING?

Interesting that Sol straps Mae down to talk to her, while Qimir pretty much leaves himself completely vulnerable to Osha and doesn't restrict her in any way.

Osha is very easy to read. Her body language (and I don't know if they meant it to scan that way) pretty much says she's not going to attack Qimir. When he comes naked on the shore, despite her having a lightsaber, she keeps backing up without thinking about it. Even when he tries to provoke her, she's not holding her body in a way that indicates she'll try to kill him. Again, not sure whether this was on purpose, but he didn't even need the Force to gauge her.

Interesting that Qimir can't even see out of his helmet. He totally just has to feel everything happening around him -- and killed so many Jedi.

I really hate the Disney trope of a stupid little alien creature race that shows up for each series. Here we get little elephant-trunk birds. Just rolling my eyes. Marketing! Collect that cash!

A whole episode where nothing was revealed -- it ends on the cliffhanger of Sol saying to Mae, "I guess I should tell you what happened." Click.

The tracker is annoying and dumb.

The directing is not good in this episode. FOr example, the scene where Sol goes off by himself and stares dramatically into space while thinking -- an actor suitable for this could have evoked a lot with just their face, but that's not his actor and they should have not forced him to try. If you're GOING to, then you need to support his performance with MUSIC and with CAMERA angles ... something dynamic and interesting.... and there was NO music and NO change of camera POV. It's just horrendous.

Same way with again some comments in the script, I just roll my eyes at the empty dialogue. I recall right now that one near the end, where the Jedi tells her padawan, "Let's get back to the ship" and they turn away from the bodies to hurry away. And then as an afterthought she says, "We must prepare the bodies for burial." But... you're leaving the bodies behind! If you were going back to get help, the line should have been, "We must take the bodies back for burial, let's go ask for help." It's like they aren't staging the dialogue with the action.

THe best parts of the episodes were easily the bits with Osha and Qimir -- and then the Jedi inspecting the island. One of the few cool things in this episode -- they find Jecki and Yord's bodies one by one, with their eyes blankly open. Creepy.

 

[Totenkindly]

The Acolyte S1E7 -- Welp, Force fans, in this episode we see what actually happened 16 years ago, and totally as predicted....

...The Jedi fucked everything up.

The only "good guys" were essentially Mother Aniseya (who was fighting to release Osha out of love rather than control) and Master Indara (who kept cautioning prudence and not interfering where at all possible).

It's mostly Sol's fault for sticking his nose in where it didn't belong. Indara cautions him repeatedly that he is driven not by what Osha needs but by what he wants, yet he keeps meddling and eventually ends up triggering a terrible conflict especially after the Council radios back and insists on not interfering with the Coven. He's also the first one to kill, as he loses his nerve and stabs Mother Aniseya when she does a witch thing he doesn't understand... and although he tries to then rein in the violence, it's too late.

The Wookie gets involved but is taken over by the coven, almost killing Sol and Torbin before Indara shows up and breaks him free... which somehow kills everyone in the coven. [That seems stupid, but whatever.] At that point, Sol tries to save by Mae and Osha, but they're on a collapsing bridge, he can't hold up both sides perpetually, and ends up dropping Mae in to the pit so he can focus on saving Osha. Damn, dude.

At that point, they just have Osha to show for what happened, and Sol is prepared to turn himself in to the Council for judgment, but Indara decides for them that they will just tell a partial truth to everyone including Osha -- "Mae started a fire...." -- and kind of blame the loss of the Coven on her. Indara has the motivation of not ruining Osha's life further, and they all think Mae is dead anyway, but it's another big lie when Sol is really to blame for everything that happened.

Fucking Jedi.

But I'm slightly impressed they allowed that kind of criticism of the Jedi. So that's nice.

I wasn't really impressed with the writing or direction. There's a fight. The direction was okay. There's only one or two moments I thought were cool and staged well. But it's like the writers have a tin ear for dialogue. There's no real natural pacing to it or ability to really feel it. I do like Lee Jung-Jae as an actor and I'm impressed that he put forth a lot of effort to learn English (or at least memorize his lines in English), but I don't feel like his performance is nearly as good as it might have been with someone who actually is more fluent with the language. And he's such a central character.

I got tired of Sol climbing the outside of the coven tower, it got kind of silly.

Edit: After realizing who directed this episode (Kogonada), I should probably qualify my assessment of him. I don't feel like this particular Star Wars episode was directed well (although I don't think the dialogue was stellar either), but he did direct the film "After Yang" that was actually on my 2021-22 best films list. I guess maybe he's better suited for different material and needs better scripters.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Star Wars Book Cover Brings Back an Equine EU Favorite

God bless you, Hohass Ekwesh, you majestic being.

gizmodo.com

I know what people are thinking and I won't hear of it. Those Wraith Squadron books were great.

Ackbar was a fish, so why not a horse?