Is Star Wars "Better Than It's Ever Been"? — Page 3

moviefreakedmind said:

I think that the legacy of Star Wars has been largely destroyed by all the prequels and sequels.

That’s ridiculous.

Personally, I’d have to say the best it’s been was either the early 80s or early 90s.

In the early 80s, there was magic in watching the original movies in theaters or catching them on HBO at friends’ houses (we didn’t have cable until the late 80s), or whichever of the three major networks might have been airing them on their movie night. And, obviously, the action figures were fun.

In the early 90s, we had access to the original films on tape, LucasArts games, Dark Horse comics, the novels. None of the supplemental content from that time period was better than the films, to me, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not all of it, but much of it.

My interest in Star Wars the brand (not the original movies or those characters) diminished greatly since the Special Editions. From that point on, just about every film iteration, for various reasons, has seemed, to me, like a betrayal of what came before.

I’ve enjoyed some of the supplemental content over the past decade or two, like the better seasons of Clone Wars, a handful of episodes of Rebels, some of the games, some of the comics. But I’ve been burned too many times with the films. I’ll rewatch the Despecialized originals a million times, and they still maintain their magic for me, but Disney/Lucasfilm is going to have to do some serious soul-searching and make significant changes if they want my money in the future.

punchbandit said:

Disney/Lucasfilm is going to have to do some serious soul-searching

LOL. Disney is but one head of the Hollywood Hydra, and the Hollywood Hydra has no soul.

Stotchy said:

Can’t agree at all. To me the best time for the series was the 90s, before TPM was released.

Why?

You had the OT on video in their original forms and at a good standard for VHS at the time. You could watch them whenever you wanted.

The Thrawn Trilogy of books were released, expanding the story beyond ROTJ.

You had wonderful and original Star Wars games being produced directly by LucasArts - Dark Forces, Rebel Assault, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, X-Wing Alliance, Shadows of the Empire, Rogue Squadron, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 to name a few.

Star Wars didn’t saturate the market and fans only understood the Star Wars brand to represent QUALITY! So every time a new piece of content was released you were excited and it lived up to your expectations.

Then the 97SEs were released and even though some of the changes sucked, you could watch the OT at the cinema again!

Then it went downhill from when TPM was released. Star Wars merch saturated the market, the prequels sucked, LucasArts outsourced all their game development resulting in a massive drop in quality (with the exception of KOTOR and KOTOR2) and there were just too many crappy books being written with pretty much all content outside of the new films being focused on the PT and not the OT. Then Disney bought Star Wars and frankly they have just provided more sub par content at an exhaustive rate of release.

I will caveat this by saying that I really love Star Wars Rebels. But that’s it.

I understand people’s love for the time when the OT was first released in cinemas (I was a bit young to experience it). But during the 80s, the films were literally the only Star Wars content available.

The 90s ruled for Star Wars.

I have to agree with most of this. Yes, not anything was great, even in the 90’s, but it were a few missteps that always happen. Altogether, it was a wonder ful era. And lets not Forget the bold Dark Horse Comics, that didn’t cling on the OT characters too much, but expanded the universe in every direction, both timeline and story wise. I was especially excited about the antology movies, because Dark Horse showed already that SW stories beyond the movies work greatly.

If you mostly only care about movies, like me, the 90s were terrible.

TV’s Frink said:

If you mostly only care about movies, like me, the 90s were terrible.

A lot of the EU content from then is probably trash too.

DominicCobb said:

TV’s Frink said:

If you mostly only care about movies, like me, the 90s were terrible.

A lot of the EU content from then is probably trash too.

Well it’s EU, so a lot of it is almost certainly trash. There’s probably some good stuff too but meh.

Only the novels were mostly trash. The comics were mostly good.

But they were comics, so

The Original Trilogy is still tops, but this is a really great time to be a Star Wars fan as well. We live in a world now with smartphones and instant streaming of content. The current output isn’t excessive, it’s just keeping up with modern expectations. I think it’s great. A little something for everyone. I love it all so far. Lots to look forward to. A live action series, more Clone Wars, new Resistance, Episode IX, and trilogies from Rian Johnson and the Game of Thrones producers. Yep, great time to be a Star Wars fan!

Possessed said:

But they were comics, so

They’re automatically great, yes.

That’s what what I miss the most about the old EU. Regardless of the varying degrees of quality in terms of storytelling and writing Lucas gave free reign to write about whatever they wanted to write, wether it was within the OT timeline, the distant past or the distant future, and we could even get stories set during the OT timeline that were taking part far away from the main events of the OT. Now like posted previously, under the Disney the expanded storylines are all about exploring every last minute detail of the adventures of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and Vader during the OT, from Leia carefully braiding her hair in her spare time to Luke’s weekend off after the battle of Yavin. Come ON Disney! You have an entire Galaxy’s worth of storylines of thousands upon thousands of generations.

moviefreakedmind said:

Why?

I also should’ve added the Special Editions to the destruction of the Star Wars legacy.

Just chiming in…The legacy would be the OT? right?

I love the OT but it is not without some glaring problems for me. It has flaws, errors, groan worthy scenes etc. BUT, I still love it.

On the whole the addition of the prequels and sequels has kept the franchise alive beyond most expectations if there were none. I am not a fan of the prequels but I acknowledge their place in the canon. I’ve enjoyed the sequels much more and think they are a better reflection of the OT in terms of the philosophy and tone.

I guess my confusion with your statement is why more SW is a bad thing necessarily? I get why this would not include the term “under any circumstances” but that hasn’t been the case thankfully.

fmalover said:

That’s what what I miss the most about the old EU. Regardless of the varying degrees of quality in terms of storytelling and writing Lucas gave free reign to write about whatever they wanted to write, wether it was within the OT timeline, the distant past or the distant future, and we could even get stories set during the OT timeline that were taking part far away from the main events of the OT. Now like posted previously, under the Disney the expanded storylines are all about exploring every last minute detail of the adventures of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie and Vader during the OT, from Leia carefully braiding her hair in her spare time to Luke’s weekend off after the battle of Yavin. Come ON Disney! You have an entire Galaxy’s worth of storylines of thousands upon thousands of generations.

That is coming down the pike as they say. The obvious answer for you is that Disney needed a segway into new episodes of movies without the OT trio.

Is Star Wars Better than its ever been? Sorry no. The best it has ever been is the period from 1977 to 1983. Clearly the golden age.

moviefreakedmind said:

To put it simply I think that Star Wars used to be special and now it isn’t.

This.

I’d rather have more content than less.

Back then I had three movies.

Now I have seven.

Now wins.

And I’m not sorry.

TV’s Frink said:

I’d rather have more content than less.

Sometimes less is more.

Back then I had three movies.

Now I have seven.

Back then Star Wars movies were special, now they are not.

7?

Ot 3 + pt 3 + st 2 = 8 add in Rogue 1 and Solo and you get 10.

Now wins.

in your opinion.

And I’m not sorry.

In my opinion, now loses. I’m am not sorry either.

moviefreakedmind said:

TV’s Frink said:

I’d rather have more content than less.

Depends on the content.

No, because I just ignore what I don’t like or don’t care about. See the animated shows, for example.

Back then I had three movies.

Now you don’t even have those, just illegal bootlegs of them.

Now I have seven.

Actually you have ten and several different versions of most of them along with cartoons and shows and books and TV and other stuff.

I’m talking my canon. I have seven movies. And Harmy’s versions are enough for me. Illegal or not.

Now wins.

Not for me it doesn’t.

Now wins for me. Hope this clarifies things.

And I’m not sorry.

That goes without saying. Why would you be sorry about that?

I was teasing. Warbler said “sorry no” in his response right above mine.

I believe this answers Warbler’s follow-up post as well. If not, oh well. I’m not sorry :p

TV’s Frink said:
I’m not sorry :p

Yes, we know.

Warbler said:

TV’s Frink said:
I’m not sorry :p

Yes, we know.

Well that was my point, we knew it when you said it.