Mocata

“The finger thing means the taxes!”

I get that the whole plot is simply a way for Palpatine to move from Senator to Chancellor or whatever the ranks were, but I was never clear on what the overall scheme was. Back in the day someone gave me a bootleg of the film on video because you had to wait a long time to see a movie again (remember that?) and that must have been when I first thought about it. After the WOW of the spectacle, pod races, etc, was gone I couldn’t summarise it.

The irony is that in the sequel trilogy a serious flaw is that way it’s all so small. There are no space politics, no big picture ideas. In SW you don’t need to understand because they just talk about an evil empire, and that’s a straightforward concept. But having both governments and resistance forces? What? Anything that the franchise does next needs to strike a proper balance on this.

I don’t think AI responses count as Random Thoughts, though the answers may be been data scraped from the thoughts of others on a site such as this.

Anyway, I was thinking about how most people say the Leia twin sister plot is a bad idea. But what I would say is the best scene, Luke giving in to anger, is based on it. I’m not sure you can you have one without the other… unless Vader saying ‘You have a sister,’ is referring to someone we meet in a sequel.

That’s pushing it. But he was still my favourite, which is my point. Darth Maul was always going to sell toys based on the look alone.

Oh jeez it could have been the start of Young Palpatine Origins or something… ew.

Netflix for a while (and perhaps even now) had this rule of two seasons and cancel if something didn’t work out. I wonder in this case if the numbers were really that low? Does LFL have like low server space or something? But I suspect we will never know why they made such a big deal about a movie line-up that included Rogue Squadron… and then kept firing people. Such a waste of the IP.

They still haven’t got the X-wing engine turbines to be all the same length, what the hell.

I’m thinking of the bounty hunters line up.

Fan_edit_fan said:
Why would they admit public failure so often and officially?

That is the real mystery of the Sith.

This is a huge tangent but yes the problem is they’re old and drunk and don’t have good memories outside of Star Trek trivia. Even if they did remember why bother bringing it up? Does a deleted scene even count? They don’t care any neither does anyone else. Which goes for most SW fans these days.

Bringing is neatly back on topic, why should I care? I’m never going to watch a new SW project unless it’s genuinely ‘good’, or to put it another way gets universal acclaim.

Disney never had a spine to start with and it doesn’t care about these current day ethical quandaries and diversity inclusions. People like to argue over it but it’s not true. This is a soul-less corporation that was about to tell some guy his wife dying in their park recently was her fault because she signed a D+ user agreement. They just want money, and they thought these projects were a way to make it. When the viewers and subs take a hit then we see shows getting cancelled (or removed). That’s all there is to it; numbers in a share holder meeting and money spent versus money earned.

Rule of Cool applies to a lot of SW characters though, a lot who never speak or in some cases never even move.

Yeah they can’t run because there’s no set.

BedeHistory731 said:

My favorite RLM Star Wars video is the Darth Vader suit one, which sums up so many “lore” channels that just read Fandom wikis for 30 minutes. It’s so hard to read “EmPalSuRecon Center” and “vitapaste” with a straight face.

That is very funny because it’s mostly just reading the wiki.

God I hate the Romeo and Juliet angle, he didn’t even get it right! It would make way more sense for the wealthy Amidala’s to look down on the poor former slave, and have drama as a result. Jedi teachings suddenly being monastic is just too weird and creeps into too many other aspects of the story.

That would make sense but Disney probably don’t want to splinter the material and suggest only one part of it is the “real” one and therefore the one to buy into. Which of course is what we have anyway now with the trilogies existing in detached bubbles. George didn’t take enough care and neither did the current studio suits. Other books and comics by their nature will never be taken as part of the proper series whatever they do, that’s just how extra material is viewed in any franchise.

NFBisms said:

and we’re back, love it when things are just lucky

Excuse me?

The problems they have at LFL now are probably the same ones they used to have. It’s all so insular and self contained so nobody speaks up. In late 1990s George did all this garbage and everyone was too afraid to tell him. And anyway, it’s probably okay because it’s Star Wars and it can’t fail. In the Disney era they’re all busy patting each other on the back for their efforts, and even it they know it’s bad that’s okay because Star Wars can’t fail. Andor probably succeeded by pure luck because after Mando they threw a net out and picked five or six shows with different genre ideas, and somehow one was good.

Skeleton Crew is the latest example. It looks kinda weird and mediocre and it’s been made by two guys coasting along thanks to IP success. But I feel like maybe this is the end of things as they have been; I can’t see audiences caring as much now. I can see people getting fired but maybe that’s what is necessary. The current era needs to end and is unlikely to be sustainable.

I feel like there are some other threads around that had information on this. Though perhaps it was through comics depicting war against Mandalore or ancient Sith or whatever. Unless by “supposed to” do you mean old George ideas?

You should fix that and watch a fanedit.

fmalover said:

There’s this very famous press conference Anthony Mackie gave at the London Film and Comic Con in October 2017 where he said “They make movies for specific audiences as opposed to just making good movies”.

I think we can adapt this to the current state of Star Wars and say they tell stories for specific audiences as opposed to just telling good stories.

Movies should be made because someone had a good idea or a good story, not to please some imagined demographic. That’s how you get TROS.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter remastered is now out, though I’m not sure if it’s worth the current price. Previously the old PS2 version was just ported to PS4 so better controls and resolution might be good. Only thing is I don’t remember it being that great in the first place when it released.

Meanwhile Star Wars: Jedi - Survivor is coming to last gen consoles. Will this even be playable considering complaints about performance on current hardware? Fallen Order had issues that were never fixed so I’m unclear what they’re doing with this one (besides trying to boost sales).

Kellythatsit said:

Key example: Solo.
The movie was perfectly fine. Did it set the world on fire? No. Were there other key issues that also effected it’s performance? Absolutely. But don’t set up an ongoing story and then abandon it because “shit happens”. Learn the right lessons and fix the errors. Make the next one a banger. Ensure the next in the Solo series is unmissable.

Solo was deeply average but nothing to get irate about. The problem is that within the movie are tell-tale signs of people not understanding what works and what doesn’t; i.e. the infamous Solo name scene, awkward retcons and humour, the dumb fanservice ending. There are other aspects which mean it fails more than it succeeds, however it’s hardly the worst project around. I’d say the hit and miss rate was fifty-fifty overall.

The serious issue seems to be that as time has gone by anyone with half a brain has left or been pushed aside so now it’s ninety percent stuff that doesn’t work. Either as a result of writers and showrunners failing upwards or some other factor. Outside Andor most characters seem to be written as idiots and things like pacing and suspense no longer exist. It’s like they’re making this latest stuff with their eyes closed and have no powers of judgment.

As I recently saw Funko toys (from the Obi-wan series) gathering dust in a local store I’m inclined to agree. However, I still think that a classic space opera style tone should be the priority. It can be gritty without being miserable, and fun without being juvenile. You know… like Star Wars.

theprequelsrule said:

I am curious if there will ever come a point where the entire franchise gets a reboot. I couldn’t imagine such a thing a decade ago, but now…?

Is Star Wars still considered “too big” to do this? Too successful? Or is it a case of waiting for Lucas to die before such an idea could be entertained, morbid as that thought is?

It doesn’t need a reboot; the universe they have is big enough. They just have to focus on good stories and good characterisation. Time, place, tone, etc. can be anything. Problem is existing characters, Jedi vs Blah, and Galactic Civil War stuff keeps being the focus.

I only came to this realization after not really feeling the subsequent releases (Mando, Ahsoka, Acolyte), but also not really feeling any kind of desire to “fix” them like I would. I wasn’t even disappointed. They just weren’t for me.

I wish I could say the same, but when the mistakes are so rudimentary I constantly feel like they should and could be fixed… in pre or post-production. Like anyone with half a brain see what’s wrong when the blunders are so obvious and these things could be solved so that all the shows are good but they never are. They can be good and still not for everyone, instead of just being a mess.