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Star Wars coming to Blu Ray (UPDATE: August 30 2011, No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!) — Page 301

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Those twitter comments...Wow...

Yet more proof that even the lowly mortals of OT.com are more professional by far than the folks at Lucasfilm...

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TV's Frink said:



Mr. Bungle said:


Johnboy3434 said:


SilverWook said:
On the flip side of the same coin, wasn't she also posting tweets that could be interpreted as baiting angry fanboys?


Perhaps, but I can't help but side with her when she tirades about the ridiculousness of the phrase "raped my childhood". While you could argue about whether or not the phrase is technically correct, the inescapable fact is that the word "rape" has heavy baggage tacked onto it. To use it in reference to something as trivial as a movie is nothing short of irresponsible.


Meh. When I was growing up, I recall Celtics' radio announcer Johnny Most screaming "Bird was raped!", implying that Larry Bird was fouled and there was no call. Was I supposed to take that literally?

Is the phrase "my childhood was raped" too much? Of course. But does it really belittle people who have been raped? Was someone who was raped actually offended by a geek saying "George Lucas raped my childhood"? There's sensitivity, and then there's needless sensitivity.




Have you ever been raped?  Do you know anyone who has been raped?  If not, then you have no way to know the answer to your questions.


For the record, yes.

Is rape technically correct to use in association with all of Lucas' fiddling? Yes, I believe so, though not necessarily the first definition of rape.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rape
"an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside."

He has certainly raped the franchise. Did he rape my childhood? No, he made it great to be a Star Wars obsessed child in the '80s who had other things on his mind (like being abused as a child by sexual rape) to try and forget about. And that, dear readers, is my strongest emotional attachment to the OT in a nutshell. That is why I care so much about the OT - it got me through a shitty piece of my life. That is why I genuinely get saddened at an OT that is dead, Lucas prodding its corpse with every release, he is prodding my comfort blanket in a very personal way whether he knows it or not. The OT is dead, I have mourned, and moved on. Time really does heal all wounds, if you can survive them, and if the scars don't get too sensitive. That's why I shed a tear at the "it gets better" campaign, because even though I'm straight, I can relate to the struggle of highly charged bottled emotions - it really does get better. [/PSA]

Psychology and marketing technique are very much related. When someone says "Lucas raped my childhood" I know instantly what that means, even if the semantics could be argued about endlessly. For the Lucas brand to be associated with rape must drive their PR guys nuts, which puts a wry smile on my face.

I don't find the term offensive now. Back when I was 10, I think it would just make me feel awkward.

Anyway, enough about me .... !

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Asaki said:

Mr. Bungle said:

She is captured on film forever as a big blueberry alien.

You forget, this is Star Wars we're talking about. Nothing is "forever".

I thought Star Wars was forever? But at least she's not captured on film, she's just ones and zeros.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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So the Blu-Ray has broken all kinds of records, which means George will continue to ignore us.

 

... Can I buy the set for the special features now?

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The BluRay increased in price by £20 on amazon.co.uk over the last few days.

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TheoOdo said:

Those twitter comments...Wow...

Yet more proof that even the lowly mortals of OT.com are more professional by far than the folks at Lucasfilm...

 My concern is that people like that guy she argued with are what lucasfilm thinks WE are all like.

Most of us here don't feel the need to be violent (sarcastic maybe) or abusive or confrontational to Lucas and his offspring, we just want the movies. I feel like these people might be ruining it for all of us.

If you feel like everyone is attacking you and demanding the original versions, are you going to give it to them, or fight back?

Now if everybody stays polite and says please over and over again, are you more likely to consider it?

I'm still of the mind that these original versions will not see a proper release in George's lifetime, but it doesn't hurt our chances to be nice about it.

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 (Edited)

If the person who she responded to her hadn't posted in that manner somebody else would have.

There are millions of people to some degree obsessed with these movies so inevitably someone will post something like that.

There is only one George and only one Katie Lucas.

If they frame their actions based on inevitable and predictable responses nothing we can do will change their minds.

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I just found this blog entry I wrote 7 years ago:

Monday, 20 September 2004
Q: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?

LUCAS: Not really. The movies are what the movies are. ... The thing about science-fiction fans and "Star Wars" fans is they're very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I'm making the movies, so I should have it my way.

(from CNN.com)

This is like George Lucas grabbing our VHS copies of the original trilogy and beating us with them, screaming "Mine!" like some flannelled 6-year old. Come on George. He says that the original trilogy we grew up with was incomplete and that he's "sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it."

Can I love a movie series and hate the person who made it, especially the way he treats it now? I grew up with these films, all I ask for it a decent transfer of what I was perfectly happy with literally my entire life. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what he's trying to do with Special Edition and the DVD Specialer Edition, I just want a choice.

*gets off of soapbox*
I forgot I got riled up back then too.

Star Wars Revisited Wordpress

Star Wars Visual Comparisons WordPress

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TV's Frink said:

Mr. Bungle said:

TV's Frink said:

Mr. Bungle said:

Johnboy3434 said:

SilverWook said:

On the flip side of the same coin, wasn't she also posting tweets that could be interpreted as baiting angry fanboys?

Perhaps, but I can't help but side with her when she tirades about the ridiculousness of the phrase "raped my childhood". While you could argue about whether or not the phrase is technically correct, the inescapable fact is that the word "rape" has heavy baggage tacked onto it. To use it in reference to something as trivial as a movie is nothing short of irresponsible.

Meh. When I was growing up, I recall Celtics' radio announcer Johnny Most screaming "Bird was raped!", implying that Larry Bird was fouled and there was no call. Was I supposed to take that literally?

Is the phrase "my childhood was raped" too much? Of course. But does it really belittle people who have been raped? Was someone who was raped actually offended by a geek saying "George Lucas raped my childhood"? There's sensitivity, and then there's needless sensitivity.

 

Have you ever been raped?  Do you know anyone who has been raped?  If not, then you have no way to know the answer to your questions.

They were rhetorical questions.

Thanks for either missing or ignoring the point completely.

What Miker71 said.

Anyway, "this bickering is pointless!"

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Bingowings said: I defend that choice of words even if I wouldn't use them myself.

Bingowings has the right of it, in my opinion.  I cringe when I read the phrase and really wish people wouldn't use it, but the fact remains that it is being used properly and not necessarily with any sexual overtones.

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I dunno.  While I personally would never have been that rude if I were actually trying to communicate with her, the 'hypocritical, insufferable cunt' remark made me laugh quite a bit, because it's not so far from the truth.

The 'raped my childhood' type of comments are a pretty poor choice of words, of course, but it does seem like the defenders are the ones who are actually using them the most.

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I think the term entered usage with the intent of being sensational.

To say that it's not sensational sort of defeats the point of using it in the first place.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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 (Edited)

Adium said:

Looks like that boycott called by hardcore fans didn’t amount to much. Nor were buyers perturbed by some very controversial changes in the 9-disc Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga with 40 hours of extras. Instead, the Complete Saga on Blu-ray release broke global sales records with 1 million units sold and $84 million filling cash registers. It quickly becomes the #1 pre-order and #1 catalog title since the launch of the high-definition format. Needless to say, Lucasfilm Ltd and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment are high-fiving today’s announcement that Star Wars is the bestselling catalog Blu-ray Disc of all time, including 515,000 units sold in North America in its first week alone. This worldwide consumer spend included $38 million in North America – unprecedented for a 9-disc Blu-ray collection at a premium price:

 

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/star-wars-complete-saga-on-blu-ray-breaks-global-sales-records/

 

I, for one, am SHOCKED.

I haven't seen any totals yet, but I bet Gears of War 3 totally walks all over this sales figure.

The first week it will sell a million units or so in NA and make probably around $200M+ in sales.  And they're selling only to people that have xbox 360s, so the potential market is much smaller to boot.

SW BD seems like a fairly modest succes in comparison. 

EDIT: Spoke too soon.  Looks like GoW3 sold 1.3 M copies in the past 3 days.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Mr. Bungle said:

 

Meh. When I was growing up, I recall Celtics' radio announcer Johnny Most screaming "Bird was raped!", implying that Larry Bird was fouled and there was no call. Was I supposed to take that literally?

Is the phrase "my childhood was raped" too much? Of course. But does it really belittle people who have been raped? Was someone who was raped actually offended by a geek saying "George Lucas raped my childhood"? There's sensitivity, and then there's needless sensitivity. And it doesn't have to have sexual connotation.

I'm glad a 1960s basketball announcer is your touchpoint for decent behavior.

 As a victim of sexual abuse and a former rape councelor, then YES, it makes my fucking skin crawl to hear that bullshit.

I'm glad that what you personally are not sensitive about is needless.

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hairy_hen said:

I dunno.  While I personally would never have been that rude if I were actually trying to communicate with her, the 'hypocritical, insufferable cunt' remark made me laugh quite a bit, because it's not so far from the truth.

The 'raped my childhood' type of comments are a pretty poor choice of words, of course, but it does seem like the defenders are the ones who are actually using them the most.

I agree that it's a poor choice. And while I'm not defending its usage, I'm not offended by it, either. As for Ms. Lucas, this is the same woman whom on her Twitter account says she "embraces vulgarity" (or something to that extent). Not that people should stoop to her level, but during this whole episode, she's proven herself to be a bona fide hypocritical blueberry alien.

I've also said this before: you can find much, MUCH worse said about Lucas if you go to any Star Wars/Lucas-related talkback on aintitcool.com. 

 

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I'd wager most consumers aren't even aware of any controversy. Not everyone is as plugged into things as we are. The situation would be the same no matter what movie was involved.

Whether or not most viewers of the Blu Rays notice things have been changed again, only time will tell.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

I'd wager most consumers aren't even aware of any controversy. Not everyone is as plugged into things as we are. The situation would be the same no matter what movie was involved.

Whether or not most viewers of the Blu Rays notice things have been changed again, only time will tell.

I'm going to hazzard a guess that 50% of the people that bought them won't even watch them.  They will put them on the shelf, and feel good that they've "archived" some of the most enjoyable, well made and popular movies ever made.

Then they'll go see Transformers 4.

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!

 

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Mr. Bungle said:

hairy_hen said:

I dunno.  While I personally would never have been that rude if I were actually trying to communicate with her, the 'hypocritical, insufferable cunt' remark made me laugh quite a bit, because it's not so far from the truth.

The 'raped my childhood' type of comments are a pretty poor choice of words, of course, but it does seem like the defenders are the ones who are actually using them the most.

I agree that it's a poor choice. And while I'm not defending its usage, I'm not offended by it, either.

Just because you aren't offended by something doesn't mean it isn't offensive.

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hairy_hen said:

I dunno.  While I personally would never have been that rude if I were actually trying to communicate with her, the 'hypocritical, insufferable cunt' remark made me laugh quite a bit, because it's not so far from the truth.

I actually got a bigger kick out of her response to that :-D  I don't envy the position she's in, nor do I think she should be subject to the "wrath" from fans for her father's choices.  That said, I do think her responses should be a little tamer as she's representing LFL, but "still, she's got a lot of spirit"

 

 

“Yes, it speaks of the trinity; casting light at the sun with its wandering eye”

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xhonzi said:I haven't seen any totals yet, but I bet Gears of War 3 totally walks all over this sales figure.

The first week it will sell a million units or so in NA and make probably around $200M+ in sales.  And they're selling only to people that have xbox 360s, so the potential market is much smaller to boot.

SW BD seems like a fairly modest succes in comparison. 

EDIT: Spoke too soon.  Looks like GoW3 sold 1.3 M copies in the past 3 days.

 Based on the sample size of my household, Gears 3 is outselling the Star Wars blu-rays 1-0.

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TV's Frink said:

Mr. Bungle said:

hairy_hen said:

I dunno.  While I personally would never have been that rude if I were actually trying to communicate with her, the 'hypocritical, insufferable cunt' remark made me laugh quite a bit, because it's not so far from the truth.

The 'raped my childhood' type of comments are a pretty poor choice of words, of course, but it does seem like the defenders are the ones who are actually using them the most.

I agree that it's a poor choice. And while I'm not defending its usage, I'm not offended by it, either.

Just because you aren't offended by something doesn't mean it isn't offensive.

 Well, it does mean it isn't offensive to the person who isn't offended.

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SilverWook said:

I'd wager most consumers aren't even aware of any controversy. Not everyone is as plugged into things as we are. The situation would be the same no matter what movie was involved.

Whether or not most viewers of the Blu Rays notice things have been changed again, only time will tell.

A few months ago I was visiting with my parents, and they asked me if I was excited about the Star Wars movies coming to BD. I said I wasn't really interested since the original theatrical versions weren't included. My own father (who's heard me rant about Star Wars for years) had no idea what I was talking about. A coworker, who claims to be a big Star Wars fan, didn't know about the issue either.

I'd wager that most casual fans of Star Wars don't really know about the changes and the controversy. Sad.

You know of the rebellion against the Empire?

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It's safe to say most of us weren't kids when George Lucas started messing with Star Wars. I didn't really know much about the Special Editions until High School, and I was a Star Wars since I was 7. I kept to my CBS Fox trilogy and any other release was pointless to me until the DVD's came out. It was at that moment I realized, "This doesn't look right."

In the end, I didn't become disappointed with George Lucas until I became a video quality whore as a teenager, and got the 2004 box set.

I partially blame this site for pouring salt into my already gaping wound, but at the same time it made me aware to just how much had been messed with. I knew about the Ewok celebration, Hayden Ghost, and Mos Eisley crap, but it was the little things that made me even madder.

I am usually a fan of enhancements. Count me as one who thought the Blade Runner Director's Cut was amazing. It just felt unnecessary in Star Wars. If they had fixed blatant issues like garbage mattes, missing lasers, poorly rotoscoped sabers, I wouldn't have minded. Instead they opted to change things that were perfectly fine instead of the poorly done things.

Then George messes with the editing of Star Wars, which was what saved it from being just another crappy sci fi film. It's like he forgets that it was the editing that made his shitfest of a film, a contemporary classic. Now we have Jabba plopped in and CGI that distracts from the focus of each scene. The Dewback outside the cantina just roars for attention.

 

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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Erikstormtrooper said:

SilverWook said:

I'd wager most consumers aren't even aware of any controversy. Not everyone is as plugged into things as we are. The situation would be the same no matter what movie was involved.

Whether or not most viewers of the Blu Rays notice things have been changed again, only time will tell.

A few months ago I was visiting with my parents, and they asked me if I was excited about the Star Wars movies coming to BD. I said I wasn't really interested since the original theatrical versions weren't included. My own father (who's heard me rant about Star Wars for years) had no idea what I was talking about. A coworker, who claims to be a big Star Wars fan, didn't know about the issue either.

I'd wager that most casual fans of Star Wars don't really know about the changes and the controversy. Sad.

And I think that's what Mr Lucas is counting on. The sheep don't care. Not offense to your folks, of course. ;)

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Jaskoen said:

xhonzi said:I haven't seen any totals yet, but I bet Gears of War 3 totally walks all over this sales figure.

The first week it will sell a million units or so in NA and make probably around $200M+ in sales.  And they're selling only to people that have xbox 360s, so the potential market is much smaller to boot.

SW BD seems like a fairly modest succes in comparison. 

EDIT: Spoke too soon.  Looks like GoW3 sold 1.3 M copies in the past 3 days.

 Based on the sample size of my household, Gears 3 is outselling the Star Wars blu-rays 1-0.

Wow, that's like 10000000% percent!

IT'S MY TRILOGY, AND I WANT IT NOW!

"[George Lucas] rebooted the franchise in 1997 without telling anyone." -skyjedi2005

"Yeah, well, George says a lot of things..." a young 1997 xhonzi on RASSM

"They're my movies." -George Lucas. 19 people won oscars for their work on Star Wars (1977) and George Lucas wasn't one of them.

Rewrite the Prequels!