Random Star Wars Thoughts

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I mean it’s all been a giant toy commercial since 1977, to be fair.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I could see that. I lost interest after Attack of the Clones. Disney basically wants to capitalize on the Star Wars name so ehh. I could not follow the first movie with Kylo Ren... Just felt too disjointed.

Thing was, I actually thought they were doing a decent job until this movie . We'd gotten two "ok" movies and two great movies; which was a record I was happy with. But the degree to which they fucked up the last film burned through a lot of the goodwill they'd earned. That movie seemed like it was written by someone who never even saw the OT.

"A Jedi's weapon deserves more respect."

Yes, that's why Yoda reprimanded Luke for trying to bring weapons into the cave in Dagobah, because the most important part of being a Jedi is a lightsaber (which had been previously used to massacre children, but I know J.J wanted to avoid acknowledging anything from those films) . We see the same thing in Jedi when Luke discards his lightsaber when facing the Emperor. The lightsabers look cool, yes, but in the OT the point is made that being a Jedi is about more than that. In the PT I think we're supposed to think that the Jedi of that time have lost sight of what being a Jedi is about, which is why we get statements like "This weapon is your life." (It's not done all that well, but I'm of the opinion that was the intention.) The ironic thing is despite the insistence of J.J on avoiding anything that even slightly resembles the prequels, the Jedi philosophy in ROS is much more like those of the PT Jedi than the OT Jedi.

Also Johnson apparently showed J.J has script for TLJ and asked him if he would change anything, and he said no. When he got called back to do the third one, he proceeded to shit all over Johnson's film. Major dick move if you ask me.

To me it seems like Johnson was actually interested in collaborating with the other directors (I wouldn't be surprised that he did indeed collaborate with Treverrow a great deal based on what I know about Duel of The Fates) and Abrams had no interest in doing so.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Johnson was left with a lot of loose plot threads and zero prior character development. TLJ ranks pretty low for me and could have been edited much better, but I don’t fault him for the sequel trilogy being shit. I really didn’t care for TLJ but I think he’d have made a better film if JJ had left him somewhere to go with it all.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

You know those story games where one person writes a sentence and then the next person has to continue the story with the next sentence? Johnson had the unfortunate job of picking up from a 12 year old fanboy.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Johnson was left with a lot of loose plot threads and zero prior character development. TLJ ranks pretty low for me and could have been edited much better, but I don’t fault him for the sequel trilogy being shit.

Rey was apparently originally supposed to be a descendant of Kenobi. I suspect that wasn't something J.J mentioned to Johnson. Then when he's asked back to the third film, he decides to ignore what Johnson did, but not even in favor of the original idea, but something dumber. I don't like Rey being a Kenobi, either, but it's less pointless than her being a Palpatine turns out to be. It's an idea that doesn't even work within the context of the individual film.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

You know those story games where one person writes a sentence and then the next person has to continue the story with the next sentence? Johnson had the unfortunate job of picking up from a 12 year old fanboy.

Yeah... and then when it's his turn, J.J comes around and acts like he forgot he was playing a game with someone else.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Rey was apparently originally supposed to be a descendant of Kenobi. I suspect that wasn't something J.J mentioned to Johnson. Then when he's asked back to the third film, he decides to ignore what Johnson did, but not even in favor of the original idea, but something dumber. I don't like Rey being a Kenobi, either, but it's less pointless than her being a Palpatine turns out to be. It's an idea that doesn't even work within the context of the individual film.

I think being a niece or cousin of Kenobi would have been cool when it became obvious they were trying to build up some connection between Rey and the past. Of all the possible connections they could do, I thought making her a Skywalker would be the laziest and stupidest. Making her a Palpatine was ok but still felt pretty predictable and lazy

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Also, unlike Palpatine, Kenobi has actually been romantically linked already with someone in the canon, so the granddaughter thing is less "left field."

the sister of the woman in the new Mandalorian episode.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I think being a niece or cousin of Kenobi would have been cool when it became obvious they were trying to build up some connection between Rey and the past. Of all the possible connections they could do, I thought making her a Skywalker would be the laziest and stupidest. Making her a Palpatine was ok but still felt pretty predictable and lazy

Rey Skywalker is worse than Rey Palpatine. The convoluted stuff they'd have to go through to not make Luke or Leia deadbeat parents (assuming they would even bother with such a thing) would be awful.

We already know Palpatine is a dick, so it's not inconceivable to imagine that he would be a dick towards his granddaughter.

 

[Tilt]

You know it's gone downhill when you can't even follow the basic plotline and have to make guesses at the director's motivations.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Before prequels I always imagined Jedi as a loose and decentralized religion sort of like Buddhism today. So you would have some stricter sects against any sort of procreation or familial relationships but then there might also be more liberal reformist sects

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[Totenkindly]

These videos got annoying to watch. I don't even mean to be down on this guy, it's just the films got so bad that the badwill I was feeling is now transferring to people who just talk about the films at length, even if just to criticize them.

I thought I might be prepared to rewatch TROS again (a year later) but i dunno, peeps, I just dunno... It was such a bad viewing experience for me, I'm still like, I can't do this... It's like getting another root canal when the memory of the old one is still in the front of one's mind.


Also all that badwill over not really having a writer's room or any sort of editorial process ahead of time, at least if you look at the finished product. This would be like us spending millions to develop a software package without having P&A, not talking to any users ahead of time, and not even really looking to see what features were in the last version and just building a new piece of software on the fly without doing much validation and certainly no regression testing....

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

why do we need a cassian andor movie? he was cool in rogue one, but like others already pointed out, we already know how his story ends. and I think he had a decent arc, as good as they could do in a large ensemble movie. i'd much rather have a Kenobi series set during the dark times, as I find it hard to believe he spent all of 19 years just twiddling his thumbs in his hut on Tatooine.

it's also an odd choice, he wasn't really a fan favorite. again, nothing against the character or the actor, but I haven't once seen anyone clamoring for a spinoff. this is the sort of thing that would work for a prequel comic series, or even a prequel video game where you get to play as him doing rebel spy type missions. not a movie or show. yawn.

if any characters from rogue one deserve a spin off, it would be the dynamic duo, chirrut imwe and baze malbus. I feel like they have a great story to tell. but even that seems redundant.

Disney be like, 'which film was both financially successful and universally loved? k, find a way to spin off from that, that's what the fans will eat up'

 

[Totenkindly]

why do we need a cassian andor movie? he was cool in rogue one, but like others already pointed out, we already know how his story ends. and I think he had a decent arc, as good as they could do in a large ensemble movie. i'd much rather have a Kenobi series set during the dark times, as I find it hard to believe he spent all of 19 years just twiddling his thumbs in his hut on Tatooine.

It's not a movie. It's a TV series, 12 episodes for Season 1 I think...

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

It's not a movie. It's a TV series, 12 episodes for Season 1 I think...

ugh, even worse. I think it would be better realized as a video game or comic book

the best media in the Disney era, aside from rogue one, has been jedi fallen order and some of the comics. JFO had an awesome story, awesome characters, awesome settings, and tied in nicely with other media set during the dark times, while also feeling like a solid standalone story

 

[Totenkindly]

if any characters from rogue one deserve a spin off, it would be the dynamic duo, chirrut imwe and baze malbus. I feel like they have a great story to tell. but even that seems redundant.

Yeah, I think that would have been more interesting, and I also think it fits their brand better (that relationship was a bit more easy-going, lots of room for humor, etc) ... but as I noted, it would have to be done in a unique way that would give the story its own voice versus merely just trying to dupe Rogue One -- like, BCS pulled it off but had to become "its own show" and not just riding on the goodwill of BB.

Such creativity doesn't really seem to be in stock for Disney, based on all their other rip-off animated properties to live-action conversions and what they have done with prior SW films. I'm still kinda shocked at how half-assed Mulan was, after all the up-talk.

Some of it is the staff they choose (showrunners and/or directors). I've got the same qualms about other properties elsewhere -- like, we're about to see whether CBS Access screwed up by putting Josh Boone (Fault in Your Stars, New Mutants) in charge of Stephen King's "The Stand." I am perpetually surprised at the people they end up handing the reins to, for some of these projects.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Visually it looks kinda cool though. Can't be as awful as Rise of Skywalker, that's for sure. Admittedly the bar is pretty low, but don't do any cocktease space battles and it will be an improvement.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I am perpetually surprised at the people they end up handing the reins to, for some of these projects.

seems like an example of 'failing upwards'. Without knowing much about these people, I have to wonder if more often than not, it's just a case of them knowing the right people, networking, wanking and flattering the right suits. I am convinced this largely why JJ is still handed top tier projects.

 

[Mad Hatter]

To me, Star Wars is basically the old trilogy plus TIE fighter and Battlefront for PC (plus Empire at War and Rebellion, if I'm generous). I can't take anyone seriously who consideres it more than sometimes highly entertaining trash.