logo Sign In

Unpopular Opinion Thread — Page 4

Author
Time

NFBisms said:

My hot take is that Ezra Bridger is a great character; my boy, I love him.

I love Ezra too. I never minded him at all seasons 1 and 2 like some people, but I think the incredibly emotional decision he had to make and his sacrifice to liberate his home planet in the Rebels finale will strengthen his character even more going forward.

He’s like Ahsoka, Dave Filoni and his band of writers wrote both Ahsoka and Ezra as young characters who actually act their age and are in some ways annoying, but who mature and become better people as their stories progressed.

“Remember, the Force will be with you. Always.”

Author
Time

StarkillerAG said:
So you’re saying something like the original Star Trek? I’m not really sure if that would be a good idea. I tend to find television formulas to be tiring, especially when they’re of the “threat of the week” variety.

Firefly or Cowboy Bebop if anything, although those might be big asks quality wise. Which is essentially my point; I’m disappointed that Star Wars isn’t allowed to go there (those comparisons aren’t even that amazing) because SW “pulpy fun” and “it’s perfect for what it is.” Idk. Why can’t this Star Wars show be written as well?

I’m not even thinking about it in terms of a hard P&F formula. Like, literally, every episode could be different. In the same way we got a western in Chapter 9 and shades of jidaigeki in Chapter Whatever The One Ahsoka Was In, this show could have adopted a different style and structure every vignette. All these announced spin offs could have just existed as their own episodes within this show. Maybe then they wouldn’t have felt like half-baked teases or backdoor pilots.

Episodic != formulaic. At least, it doesn’t have to.

jedi_bendu said:
I love Ezra too. I never minded him at all seasons 1 and 2 like some people, but I think the incredibly emotional decision he had to make and his sacrifice to liberate his home planet in the Rebels finale will strengthen his character even more going forward.

He’s like Ahsoka, Dave Filoni and his band of writers wrote both Ahsoka and Ezra as young characters who actually act their age and are in some ways annoying, but who mature and become better people as their stories progressed.

I genuinely don’t get what’s so bad about Ezra. He has a pretty well-realized arc. It’s inoffensively solid.

No, more than that, I honestly think he has the most developed and nuanced journey from normal person to Jedi of the entire franchise. And he’s still pretty characteristically doofy after it all, unlike Luke who becomes this zen monk figure out of almost nowhere. He’s by far the most human Jedi we’ve had. I think he’s a good character.

That said, I’m ready to turn on him the minute Filoni decides to milk him as hard as he milked Ahsoka.

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

Author
Time

The thing that will always infuriate me about Ezra is how over the course of the first two seasons of Rebels they strongly hinted at Ezra falling to the dark side, particularly in the season two finale, and then they completely drop that storyline after the premier of season three.

Author
Time

DuracellEnergizer said:

OT, PT, & ST fanboys hold at least one trait in common — a penchant for excusing the flaws in their favoured trilogy.

While fervently attacking comparable flaws in everything else.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

The ongoing piling of RETroactiv CONtinuity by the Special Editions, PT, ST and any Star Wars TV series, did more damage to the OUT than George Lucas’ refusal to release the Theatrical Cuts.

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook

Author
Time

Haarspalter said:

The ongoing piling of RETroactiv CONtinuity by the Special Editions, PT, ST and any Star Wars TV series, did more damage to the OUT than George Lucas’ refusal to release the Theatrical Cuts.

I don’t know if that’s an unpopular opinion, it’s pretty common to complain about retcons in Star Wars.

Which leads me to my next unpopular opinion: Retcons aren’t actually as bad as people make them out to be. When done poorly, they can just seem shoehorned and forced. But when done well, they can actually enhance the work they’re retconning.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Author
Time

I was surprised to find out Ezra receives so much hate. He’s a kid, and a charismatic kid at that. He’s not the best character in Rebels, but that’s because Rebels has some phenomenal characters. I honestly don’t get the hate.

Author
Time

NFBisms said:

See, I’m of a completely different mind about it. I think the show could’ve just not had a story.

Grogu and Din traveling to different pockets of the galaxy doing random stuff and growing together along the way, would have been better than what we got IMO. The little adventures they did have ended up being so half baked and bare bones because of the obligation to get somewhere. It only got in the way of fleshing out how interesting the vignettes could be.

It’s not sidetracking if there is no track, and it leaves you with an entire galaxy as a canvas to explore. Din and Grogu just along for the ride. I genuinely think the show would have been better served focusing less on those two and more on the “guest world” or character of an episode. Make it the Cobb Vanth Show, Greef Carga Show, Egg Lady Show, or Mayfeld Show for the episode(s) they’re in. Flesh those characters and their dilemmas out - invest us in them more than the Mando and Baby Yoda. The duo then comes out of an episode having learned or changed by interacting with them.

As it was, it felt like we were just passing through sidequests to exchange favors. But I’d rather we took on the perspective of those being passed by. It’s not like Din and Grogu wouldn’t be in every episode for us to gather an identifiable thread.

The issue for me is that it ended up being very middle of the road, and not in a good way. They didn’t go all in into “big story split into parts”, but didn’t go all in in the “adventure of the week with Mando & the Child” either, so particularly for this Season 2, we ended up with a lot of story crammed into a few episodes.

Author
Time

My biggest problems with the sequels are the lack of explanations for things, the lack of lore. Why we had a not empire who basically were the empire, not sith who were sith, and a not rebellion who were the rebellion.
The total lack of connective tissue between Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. Who and why were the first order, what happened to the republic, the jedi. Nothing was explained. They dropped us into the sequels without any explanation as to what had happened in 30 years. Luke had a redemptive arc but we never saw his fall. We also never got to see Han and Leia happy as a family, the republic restored or Luke teaching anyone.

Author
Time

Had Rogue One and Solo swapped release dates, popular opinion would be inverted as well.

Rogue One is incredibly overrated – it’s not a bad movie by any means, but it gets too much credit for fan service elements and a). rode the wave of euphoria generated by TFA from 2015-2017, and b) had a primetime Christmas release with no rival blockbusters.

Solo is incredibly underrated – it’s not amazing by any means, but it gets too much hate for fan service elements and was severely harmed by a). the terrible marketing, b). the terrible release date right after Infinity War, and c). the lack of overall enthusiasm towards Star Wars at the time.

In practice, both are around equal. Decent adventures that rely too heavily on fan-service and OT tie-ins, but due to differing release dates one’s gotten overwhelming praise and the other forgotten about entirely.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

Author
Time

They’re both distinctly below average, but I agree entirely about the release date problem.

Author
Time

Omni said:

I was surprised to find out Ezra receives so much hate. He’s a kid, and a charismatic kid at that. He’s not the best character in Rebels, but that’s because Rebels has some phenomenal characters. I honestly don’t get the hate.

Yeah, I kind of wish that the last time we saw Ezra, he wasn’t adamantly proclaiming himself to be a Jedi.
As Kansan is recovering from his blindness, Ezra could’ve been the one learning from the Bendu, and we could see him leaning more into his special force ability of being able to bond with animals. He’s still a Jedi, or Jedi-like, but since he didn’t grow up in the order, and is being trained by someone who was essentially a padawan, Ezra kind of does his own thing. It would’ve given Ezra a different flavor of Force user, and made him more distinct from other post-Order 66 Jedi like Luke and Cal Kestis. I mean, this isn’t far from what we got, but I guess I would’ve liked it if they leaned into it even more.

I mean, when you have people like Kanan, Ahsoka, Maul, and the Bendu as teachers, you’re perspective on the Force is gonna be different than you’re typical Jedi. I hope when we see Ezra again after all these years, we see that he is a very different kind of Jedi than we expect.

Author
Time

Maybe because its a Han Solo movie and he is the most bland and uninteresting character in the whole picture, the least dynamic.

I almost feel bad for Alden he was never going to be able to replace Harrison.

Author
Time

OutboundFlight said:

Rogue One is incredibly overrated – it’s not a bad movie by any means, but it gets too much credit for fan service elements and a). rode the wave of euphoria generated by TFA from 2015-2017, and b) had a primetime Christmas release with no rival blockbusters.

It’s funny…I hated TFA, but loved Rogue One. It didn’t feel fan-servicey to me at all, because the fan-service elements made sense in the context of the movie.

I enjoyed the Solo movie overall, but some things felt a bit forced. I liked it better than anything in the ST though.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Basically without the 5 min of Darth Vader, nobody would have cared about Rogue One.

Author
Time

Darth Vader and Tarkin should not be in Rogue One and the Death Star should be rumoured and not been seen.

Author
Time

Perturbator said:

Rogue One is in theme and execution the best SW film from start to finish despite relying on A New Hope to fully work in concept.

Author
Time

Mocata said:

Darth Vader and Tarkin should not be in Rogue One and the Death Star should be rumoured and not been seen.

Would’ve preferred this actually to help it be even more of a stand-alone although those elements are personally enjoyable…especially all the Vader stuff.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Mandalorian Season 2 was a flatly acted sloppily choreographed and poorly executed mess of a weekly commercial for future spin-offs which only managed to shrink & dilute, rather than expand & enrich, its galaxy far, far away.

Author
Time

Geez, I don’t know how you can simultaneously consider Rogue One the best Star Wars thing ever, while also considering Mando season 2 the worst Star Wars thing ever. I thought they were very similar, and from what I’ve seen there is heavy overlap between the fans of both.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Opinions don’t have to make sense. I do love most of season 1 of Mando. My film edit of that season kills off Gideon in the Tie fighter crash, so no need for a second season for me since that’s a good enough closure 😉

Author
Time
 (Edited)

StarkillerAG said:

Geez, I don’t know how you can simultaneously consider Rogue One the best Star Wars thing ever, while also considering Mando season 2 the worst Star Wars thing ever. I thought they were very similar, and from what I’ve seen there is heavy overlap between the fans of both.

For one thing, the dialogue in Rogue One is at least more naturalistic than the shallow pulp exchanges of Mando. The characters discuss ideas, thoughts, and emote complex feelings. There’s an actual attempt at interpersonal and ideological drama. It may be what gives Rogue One its “boring” wrap, but I think Mando is so completely in the opposite direction (save for bits of Chapter 15) wherein every other character either exposits plot or one lines their way through paper thin Rule Of Cool sequences.

Not similar at all IMO. Fundamentally different approaches to storytelling. Mando relies on the shape of a story with us having to assume at least half the substantive story beats, whereas Rogue One (perhaps to the detriment of broadly entertaining pacing) fills out the more minute details of its story elements. Mando is dumb, Rogue One thinks it’s smarter than it is.

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

Author
Time

I like Rogue One but telling the story of how the rebels came into possession of the stolen plans is completely unnecessary, the crawl for Star Wars 77 does it well enough. Also all the characters die, its almost impossible to genuinely care about their fate, its a one and done film. I like the characters but they are surface level archetypes at best.

I wasn’t expecting much and it is Star Warsy enough, probably the closest looking thing to real Star Wars since Empire Strikes back in the design esthetic of a real and gritty used universe. Vader going all prequely at the end kind of ruins the start of the original film though.