Anchorhead

https://youtu.be/YOhjC6rLu58

I understand people trying to at least cover their costs on a project, but I’d agree that the price is Very high. High res pics of all the original toys To show the detail of the sculpts would be interesting, but even then $300 would be asking an awful lot.

For perspective (to me at least), this is worth what it costs. An outstanding presentation and a fascinating look at the birth of the franchise.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/star-wars-art-ralph-mcquarrie/1122622031

I second Jason’s welcome to the board. We can always use another passioned and reasoned voice. That’s an excellent piece you wrote in 2011. Like a great many of us here, you are fighting the good fight.

Nice moment for a nurse in San Diego. https://youtu.be/BCRnYGIEJlw

oojason said:
Great idea for a thread, Vin 👍
 

I agree. 👍

Looking at this discussion, I’d forgotten some of these and would like to occasionally send links to some of them.

That’s very Lucas to have the Spinner come in and make unnecessary twirls before landing. They should have gone full knock-off and worked in an Atari logo and a street-crossing signal repeating; "don’t walk, don’t walk, don’t walk…cross now, cross now, cross now". This billboard in the background would have completed the look; https://youtu.be/ZZ17UsZ0DEQ

I suspect we have a dedicated thread somewhere back when it was current, so I won’t derail this one too much further. I’ve made it through season one. I’ll say this: with God as my witness (and that carries some weight coming from a Sicilian Catholic), I really enjoyed this. I’m unwashed in the Prequel story and characters, save for the very well known, so there were some areas where I was lost. Nothing that Google and Wookiepedia weren’t able to clear up.

A quick sort of ranking: The Hidden Enemy was my favorite episode. I dug the sort of who dunnit vibe and the more cerebral aspects away from heated battles. Likewise for most of the episodes where the clones are the focus of the story. I find all that very interesting. Again, not having seen them in the films, I didn’t have to reconcile their portrayal with anything pre-existing.

To that end, As discussed earlier, I didn’t dislike any of the characters and think all are much better served than the film versions (I’ve seen only clips of the films, but have always thought they were terribly written, directed, and acted).

That’s not the case with Clone Wars. I’d also like to take this moment to mention I was wrong on my early assessment that the show is a ” visual-first, story-second style of storytelling“. That may have been true for the first couple of episodes, but there is significant story now that it’s going.

Last but by no means least; Ahsoka just about makes the entire show. Her story feels like a major artery running through and connecting everything. If this is where she was introduced, it was a master stroke. Starting season two in a few hours. I may or may not add much to this beyond favorite episodes or arcs.

Tyrphanax said:

Glad to see you’re enjoying The Clone Wars, Anchorhead. Hopefully you’ll consider Rebels afterwards as it also contains some of the best Star Wars since 1980 (Or 77 in your case).

I will for sure.

LeperMessiah117 said:
Honestly, watching that episode almost made me forget how much I despise that character. So, props to Dave Filoni, director Justin Ridge & writer Julie Siege for making me hate him a bit less.

Yes! That’s it exactly. He was a character in the episode, not the thing that made want to walk out of the theater.

LeperMessiah117 said:

Jar-Jar can be every bit as annoying in this show as in EP I. However, season 1, episode 12 shows the character at his least annoying and most competent, so I’d say that one is probably worth watching.

I just looked through an episode guide. That’s the episode I was referencing. He was tolerable. I think the animation helps too. He doesn’t look so idiotic. Like you said, he’s also not shown as a complete idiot.

A thought as I work my way through the series - and I don’t want to make too big a deal of this: I Am Digging This! And no, that’s not the wine talking.
😉

I have a bit of a prequel cringe every other episode or so, but nothing that has diminished how interesting and engaging this is. As I said earlier, I made the decision to make peace with that and just watch & enjoy. This is much deeper than what I vaguely remember from Phantom. The voice acting is considerably better than the Lucas films. Hats off to all who voiced the characters.

I will say at the outset: It was primarily the animation that drew me in, but I’m finding myself quite interested in the characters and storylines. I did skip episode 8 because I saw in the info paragraph that is was a Jar Jar episode. Sorry, I’m just not there yet.

That would be a few episodes later when he’s a peripheral comic relief character. To be clear, he’s still childish relief, but he was somehow less offensive than the idiotic portrayal in Phantom. I think it was the voice actor or the writing. Probably both. Plus he was used sparingly.

It’s also much more adult than I expected. There is some brutal and decidedly violent killing. No blood, but the tone and execution leave little to the imagination.

As I approach the end of the first season, I’ll say this: Clone Wars has been an extremely unexpected but pleasant surprise. I think I have four episodes to go on seasone one. I should finish up late tonight.

Tobar said:

Looking forward to it but I have a suggestion. I highly recommend watching it in chronological order instead of the original airing order. George Lucas was heavily involved with the first half of the series and he had a habit of telling the stories out of order. So watching it in airing order can be really confusing because one week someone will have died and then the next they’re just fine. It’s really odd.

Also, the first season is really rough. They hadn’t figured out what the tone should be and leaned heavily in a childish direction. With the chronological order you get some decent later season episodes dispersed between the early ones and it really helps with the tone.

Here’s a link to the chronological order list.

No doubt, there are some childish directions. Good news if they pull away from that. More good news, looking at your chronological list, it looks like the first four aired episodes (all I’ve watched so far) are sequential so I have minimal catching up to do. I started at Ambush, season one, episode one.

My preface and thoughts at the start;

As some of you may or may not know, I’m unfamiliar with all things Prequel. I saw Phantom Menace in the theater in '99, thought it was stupid, and jumped from the franchise. I remember almost nothing from it. I never saw the second two prequel films, nor have I seen anything from the vulgar SEs of the Original Trilogy, save for a few screencaps. After decades of hearing Lucas belch easily provable lies, I just couldn’t take any more of his inability to write or direct. Boundless universe - one small story.

I took the advice of a friend and started The Clone Wars animated series. To be sure, it is rife with Lucas and the Prequels. I knew that going in. He really is a one-note writer. The names may be the most telling of his juvenile mind; Grevious, Tyranus, and Sidious are the bad guys and their ship is the Malevolence ? Honestly, what’s next? - General Infectious and Lord Famine striking from their base on Pandemica to fight the rebels?

“Jesus, George, it’s a wonder Star Wars was ever born”

Vitriol out of the way. There is no shortage of members on our board who love the series and recommend it. I’ve resisted for obvious reasons. So here I am several years later, jumping in. My friend, as well as two co-worker Star Wars nerds kept telling me how great this final season is. That piqued my interest and I decided to make peace with the Prequelness. Being unfamiliar with the Prequels, there are a fair number of characters I don’t know. I recognize a few (e.g., the droid made out of bone and the woman with the long neck). I’m assuming the steampunk character is from the films also. I’ll get it as I go.

I’ve watched the first four episodes and I’m not hating it. As assumed, it’s VERY Prequel, but I can see the appeal. The animation is interesting and the characters are for the most part engaging. This seems like much more the way Lucas should have continued the franchise. This perfectly fits his visual-first, story-second style of storytelling. I’m assuming there will be plenty of twirling colors and rolling ships as we go. He always had people battling with light sabers with the ridiculous behind-the-back twirling. Honestly, those battles would be over the moment an opponent put their arm behind their back to do some sort of elbow twist and spin.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5f/05/02/5f05024b95954b52400137476ff20c44.gif

I can see myself completing the entire series because I’m genuinely curious about the characters and story. I’ll probably watch one on my lunch break in just a few minutes, as well as a couple more late tonight. They’re short episodes and not terribly deep. Just the sort of thing to watch before falling asleep. Even though that may sound like a slight, I don’t mean it as one. I just mean that they’re easily digestible as a way to decompress at the end of the day. Very much like Beware The Batman, which I also love and own all the episodes.

• edit -

Funny that the soldiers on the remote base have some Vargas girls on the wall. 😉

Decided to start the series from the beginning. Four episodes in. Preface and review tomorrow.
No, my account hasn’t been hacked. 😉

Civilians’ daily lives and thoughts feature prominently in The Mandalorian.

Man, I would love it if Leslye Headland was working on a series that included Enfys Nest, particularly if they could get Erin Kellyman to reprise the role. Considering what a mess the Solo film was, I suspect we may never see her again otherwise. She’s the only reason I ever watch it and I skip/FF through most of it just to watch her scenes and a few others.

Waititi doing anything for them is almost certainly a win. Both of these are good news and a sign that Disney may focusing on moving Star Wars to the small screen. No complaints here.

V.I.N.Cent said:

I really hope we get to see more of the SWU as it was with Solo; more of a fledgling Rebellion, crime syndicates, Enfys Nest…

Short of an anthology film dealing with her directly, it’s likely our only chance to ever see her again since the film did so poorly. To me, she was the best part of the film.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/the-mandalorian-season-3-in-the-works-disney-plus-1234586103/

oojason said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m1IX0k7Dak - at the IGN youtube channel : starts at 26m 45s into the video.
 

Should be fun - and a chance for people to ask about the re-shoots, deleted scenes, was/is there a ‘Director’s Cut’, will there ever be a decent length documentary about the making of the film, etc? - and maybe even get an answer…
 

I sure hope that’s available after the fact (about to head out on a motorcycle ride). I would be interested to hear what went on in the reshoots. For the record, I love the film and have no problem with what we got. The ending/plans transmission/etc works for me just fine.

I suppose I’m more interested only because it’s been so guarded. They’ve been more open with the behind the scenes disaster that was Solo.

Broom Kid said:

…KEEP HER HIDDEN entirely, and never show her beyond that one glimpse from the back.

That’s how I wish they would have handled it in the film. When I was in the theater the first time, I thought that might be how they were about to handle it. I was sorry they showed her face and had her speak. Totally unnecessary.

Sir, that’s as concise an article of the history as I’ve ever seen. It also thoroughly explains the dead end still confronting us all these decades later. Outstanding work! I’ve long since given up on the idea of ever watching Star Wars again because of the sad state it’s in. However, discussions such as yours always give me a glimmer of hope that somehow someone who can make the difference will see the plea and act on it. Fingers crossed your piece pushes us across the finish line. I’ll be sending this link out to a great many people.

Density said:

George didn’t gaslight us like that.

Lucas has been gaslighting the fan base for 40 years. Nine films, six films, twelve films, never about Vader, always about Vader, Vader not the father, Vader always the father, Han shot in self defense, Leia was always the sister, “what I’d always planned”, “I just didn’t have the technology in 1980/1977/1983”, The Original Vision, commissioned two authors to each write a second film, the 1977 negatives are gone forever, films should never be altered, the director can alter, etc, etc, etc.

He built the franchise off of gaslighting the fan base and his constant lying created the fracturing that led to things like this very community.

There could be ten previous stories if you wanted. Lucas adding numbers after the fact was just the beginning of his now decades-long tampering and gaslighting.

ZigZig said:

Thanks to the whole team of admins and moderators!

Man, the same goes for the community here. 18 months ago we were faced with shuttering the entire ordeal. Behind the scenes we were scrambling to come up with ways to continue: Portage to another format and server, start over somewhere else, keep it all as a static archive and just link back to it from wherever we landed, etc.

All our years of discussion, preservation, and fighting the good fight were on the brink of becoming a read-only archive of 16 years of Star Wars fandom. Jay gave us several months to formulate a plan and was very involved and willing to help with whatever we chose.

Faced with extinction and a scattering of long time friends and fellow members, you guys stepped up to the plate and swung hard. As of today, we are funded for the next three years.

Consider a glass raised to you all. 🍷

StarkillerAG said:

Interesting article. Kind of ironic that Lucas didn’t think Darth Vader was a good villain, and now Vader is one of the most iconic villains in film history. Hindsight is 20/20.

Weird, considering he had the entire Original VisionⓇ planned out in the early 1970s and how it was all about the grand saga of the rise & fall of Vader.

Oh wait. He’s a liar. Easily proven many times over.