TCM showed THX-1138 the other day. I’m really looking forward to finally seeing it in a few days as I DVR’d it! They’ve been showing quite a few classics lately like Woman of the Year, Solaris, and 2001. I’m looking forward to the upcoming showings of 8 1/2 and the TV movie version of Fanny and Alexander. I am only disappointed I missed La Strada.
I just received a PS4 as a gift as part of a Black Friday deal on Sony’s official website! Super excited as I was able to get five games. I picked up Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, Spider-Man, and Gran Turismo: Sport!
I’m probably in the minority here but I actually prefer this to what we got completely. It feels like a natural progression from the Original Trilogy. I especially love the underworld and crime syndicates trying to undermine the New Republic to gain control. I was a bit unsure about Darth Maul at first but I like it a lot the more I think about it as he’s no longer a Sith. It doesn’t undermine Anakin’s legacy but adds to it with having Leia be the “Chosen One” elected Supreme Chancellor. I don’t think he meant it literally but it makes sense that Anakin’s children and grandchildren are the ones to restore the New Republic. It calls back beautifully to Padme in The Phantom Menace giving away democracy to Palpatine and ends with her daughter being elected where she was wrong. Plus Luke rebuilds the Jedi Order!
I’m very curious how the grandchildren and Whills figured into the story. At the very least it seems to be implied we have Luke training his niece and his nephew being corrupted to join Darth Talon and Darth Maul’s Sith Crime Syndicate. As well as the Whills would’ve at least seemed to have given us answers to Anakin’s origins as George talked to StarWars.com about.
So all and all, I prefer this story. It respects what came before while giving us something new and exciting with crime syndicates and the Whills.
Greetings all! It’s been awhile. Further details of George’s Sequels leaked from the upcoming book “The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005”.
Here George gives a greater context to the story of the trilogy he wanted to tell beyond what we’ve heard with regards to the Whills, Luke being in exile to find his spark again in Episode VII, and the son of Han and Leia falling to the Dark Side.
THE CHOSEN ONE
George Lucas: When writing the movies, I tried to make sure that aliens and droids got killed, but not people.
Paul Duncan: A lot of stormtroopers died.
George Lucas: That’s right, but you didn’t know they were people. We did kill three humans and that was unfortunate. I was always bothered by it.
Paul Duncan: When was that?
George Lucas: On the Death Star, when Han and Luke go into the prison with Chewie to rescue Leia, they shoot three Imperial guys. The guards drew their guns and fired first, but it’s still a shame.
Paul Duncan: Really?
George Lucas: Yeah, we very consciously didn’t kill very many humans in those movies.
Paul Duncan: What about the stormtroopers? They look robotic, but they’re not.
George Lucas: How do you know what they are?
Paul Duncan: Did you have a different idea of what they were?
George Lucas: Yeah, they started out as clones. Once all the clones were killed, the Empire picked up recruits, like militia.
They fought, but they weren’t very good at what they did.
Paul Duncan: That’s why they kept missing.
George Lucas: That’s why they kept missing. Then after the Rebels won, there were no more stormtroopers in my version of the third trilogy.
I had planned for the first trilogy to be about the father, the second trilogy to be about the son, and the third trilogy to be about the daughter and the grandchildren.
Episode VII, VIII, and IX would take ideas from what happened after the Iraq War. “Okay, you fought the war, you killed everybody, now what are you going to do?” Rebuilding afterwards is harder than starting a rebellion or fighting the war. When you win the war and you disband the opposing army, what do they do? The stormtroopers would be like Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist fighters that joined ISIS and kept on fighting. The stormtroopers refuse to give up when the Republic win.
They want to be stormtroopers forever, so they go to a far corner of the galaxy, start their own country and their own rebellion.
There’s a power vacuum so gangsters, like the Hutts, are taking advantage of the situation, and there is chaos. The key person is Darth Maul, who had been resurrected in The Clone Wars cartoons—he brings all the gangs together.
Paul Duncan: Was Darth Maul the main villain?
George Lucas: Yeah, but he’s very old, and we have two versions of him. One is with a set of cybernetic legs like a spider, and then later on he has metal legs and he was a little bit bigger, more of a superhero. We did all this in the animated series, he was in a bunch of episodes.
Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.
The movies are about how Leia—I mean, who else is going to be the leader?—is trying to build the Republic. They still have the apparatus of the Republic but they have to get it under control from the gangsters. That was the main story.
It starts out a few years after Return of the Jedi and we establish pretty quickly that there’s this underworld, there are these offshoot stormtroopers who started their own planets, and that Luke is trying to restart the Jedi. He puts the word out, so out of 100,000 Jedi, maybe 50 or 100 are left. The Jedi have to grow again from scratch, so Luke has to find two- and three-year-olds, and train them. It’ll be 20 years before you have a new generation of Jedi.
By the end of the trilogy Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One.
I’ll miss our chats on the football thread and seeing you around the boards, oojason! I’m sorry to hear about these experiences. I hope you’ll come back one day. May the Force be with you. Always.
Right now, Chrissie Hynde. 🤘🏻
The Prequels. They feel like Star Wars more than the Sequels ever will. The Sequels are a doughnut nicely glazed on the surface but hardly any taste after you eat more of it. The Prequels have originality, interesting ideas and themes, incredible music, buckets of imagination, subtle and tonal dialogue, inventive sound design, parallels without copy and paste, and most of all a story to tell that’s important. There’s so many layers and new things to discover each viewing. There’s flaws but like the Original Trilogy they’re small and nitpicks compared to the Sequels.
The Sequels are good for being inclusive at least. I’ll give them that. There’s some good things in there and they’re entertaining for the most part but I find that to be only if you don’t see them as a continuation of the first six films and what George started.
That video link left me feeling somewhat Blue… (bad puns ahoy - sorry. Definitely NSFW! 😉)
I was hoping Chelsea’d have to persevere with Kepa for the season - though fair play to you guys for getting some quality transfers in. From a Red point of view I hope it takes a long time for them to gel… 😁
Albion should bean interesting game for you on Saturday. They’ll likely keep it tight and not come out to play unless on the counter-attack - see how you try and break down a packed defence…
That ‘Sunderland Til I Die’ series is well worth checking out (subtitles may be required; sorry any Mackems reading this) - hard to imagine a professional club ran like it was in the documentary - and that the club also allowed it to air. I really hope they do a third series of it.
Haha, quite clever! The bad that it’s good! Just don’t be red when we win at Anfield. Haha
Yes, for sure. I was hoping Kepa would be the answer but he just doesn’t seem to have the mental make up of a Premier League player. Perhaps he can play in the lower cup rounds to gain confidence though. Suppose time will tell. Haha, thank you! I do think it’ll take awhile but I’m confident that it won’t be too long either. We just need to get healthy and everyone to play together. 😊 Liverpool did good bringing Thiago Alcantar in. I think he’ll be a solid addition in helping you try to repeat.
It should be interesting for sure! Plus Conor Gallagher is on loan at Albion. It should be interesting to see how he does against his future teammates if he plays.
Arsenal should be an interesting game too. It will really show I think if they’re serious about turning the corner (That could be a bad pun too! 😁) or are still the same ole Gooners.
Definitely will have to try watching with subtitles. I really feel for Sunderland fans though. Their fall in such a short amount of time is heartbreaking in a lot of ways. Especially even further when you consider Newcastle may have new ownership soon that looks like they want to compete for Top 6 in the top tier. Ouch! At least they could be getting new ownership too. I hope for their sake it’s someone respectable.
The score for Empire is probably my favorite now. I love Yoda’s theme and the magic tree.
I could just listen to the score and imagine the movie.
Excellent choice. I’d lean The Phantom Menace as my favourite of the soundtracks but I do think The Empire Strikes Back is second in my rankings. Anakin is Free, Swim to Otah Gunga, Anakin and Group to Courscant, and Watto’s Deal/Shimi and Qui-Gon’s Talk are all amazing to me. There’s something very medieval and innocent about the soundtrack.
I haven’t seen the doc on Leeds yet - though the one on Spurs was quite entertaining. The doc on Sunderland was quite an illuminating watch too.
Chelsea, eh? The Dark Side… j/k 😃
Should be a good season for you guys if it all clicks together - that gk situation could be problematic unless you can get someone in. Do you guys have to sell (Kepa?) before buying - or is there a little still left in the bank?
Should be a good game on the 20th 😃
I never saw you replied! My apologies for not getting back to you.
I’ve not seen the Spurs or Sunderland ones. I’ll have to check them out for sure. There’s some great classic football documentaries on YouTube too. I particularly love this one. There’s a tad bit of bias I’m sure.
Haha, yes the Dark Side! We have cookies. 😁
There’s still a little in the bank as the signing of Edouard Mendy from France is said to be happening today as he passed his physical yesterday. Petr Cech rates him highly. So hopefully he can bring prose back to our goalkeepering. We desperately needed it. I do feel for Kepa but we should never have played low ball with Alisson.
Yes, yes. Congrats on the win! We’ll just win at Ainfield. 😁
Happy with our win versus Barnsley!
DS II does make sense from an in-universe standpoint, it’s just incredibly lazy out-of-universe.
Absolutely. At least it makes sense within universe unlike Starkiller Base.
Here’s a rundown on the similarities between Duel of the Fates and The Rise of Skywalker.
https://screenrant.com/star-wars-9-rise-skywalker-duel-fates-script-story-similarities/
Chewie receiving the medal and superweapon Star Destroyers were all present.
I legit don’t remember those being in DotF, but I’ll take your word for it.
As a sidenote, one thing that’s starting to bother me more and more is how Return of the Jedi has the Death Star II and in the very next film we see yet another Death Star in Starkiller Base. This is so jarring especially if you’re watching the films in sequence order. Do we really need back to back films with a Death Star?
People bitched about Starkiller Base, but DSII is no better. ANH should’ve been the end of it.
And I’ll have to take the word for it of a reviewer I trust on YouTube. Haha.
I really have no problem with Death Star II as it plays into the story in luring the Rebels out of hiding once and for all. Palpatine’s overconfidence was his weakness. Although I can understand why some don’t like it.
My (Current) Top 15 of the PT and OT:
Binary Sunset.
“I am a Jedi like my father before me.” Really all of the scenes with Luke and Anakin/Vader in Return of the Jedi.
Anakin leaving home.
Qui-Gon and Anakin discussing Anakin’s dreams.
Yoda’s teachings in both Attack of the Clones and The Empire Strikes Back.
The Immolation Scene.
The lead up to and the Podrace itself.
The Trench Run.
The Sail Barge.
“Anakin. Don’t try to grow up too fast.”
Duel of the Fates.
Rogue Two rescuing Luke and Han.
“Obi-Wan, promise me you will train the boy.”
Luke and Leia’s swing across on the Death Star.
Order 66.
but 3 different writers without a plan?
Five, actually. TFA has three credited writers and RoS has two, although Abrams is one of each. For comparison the OT had three and the PT had two, and all the of the first six films at least gave Lucas a story by credit, so there was guiding vision. RoS gives that credit to DotF’s writers (for some reason), so if you count those the ST has a whopping seven different writers, only one of which appeared for more than one entry (Abrams). Compare that to the PT being almost singlehandedly written by Lucas (with help on AotC) and the difference is night and day. The PT knew what story it wanted to tell and the ST didn’t. Hell, the ST even had a different producer each on top of Kennedy and Abrams (the latter only for the ones he directed).
The reason the writers of Duel of the Fates received a writer’s credit is because a fair few ideas like Chewie receiving the medal and superweapon Star Destroyers were all present. It’s part of WGA rules.
It speaks to a problem with J.J.'s films, he incorporates ideas without thinking of the context of said ideas and the ramifications they’ll have on the story he’s telling. It’s why in retrospect I find the starting points of the Original Trilogy trio so jarring as they’re in pretty much the same starting points in A New Hope. It’s just there to evoke feelings and nostalgia. Nothing more.
As a sidenote, one thing that’s starting to bother me more and more is how Return of the Jedi has the Death Star II and in the very next film we see yet another Death Star in Starkiller Base. This is so jarring especially if you’re watching the films in sequence order. Do we really need back to back films with a Death Star?
I have very mixed feelings about Solo. Some of the ideas are really good and enjoyable like the dynamic between Han and Qi’ra and the reveal of who Enfys Nest really is but the execution of other ideas is its downfall like it feeling like a checklist on Han’s backstory in the Original Trilogy.
The main problem for me however is I don’t like how it feels very modern and topical. Star Wars has always been timeless in its approach to the stories themselves.
All and all it’s okay I guess.
It begins with Disney as it’s very clear in retrospect there was no plan for the trilogy apart from playing to our nostalgia while regressing the accomplishments of the older characters. Even George said as much in the now infamous Charlie Rose interview. I also remember a post on Reddit about the whole situation post release and how one main point was the individual mentioning J.J. and Rian not liking each other. This had been said before by individuals with Collider but it’s becoming more and more true. Like the information about how John and other members of the cast preferred working with J.J. to Rian. The more information that comes to light, the more I see credence to all of this coming from the top at Disney. It was there decision afterall to throw out George’s story treatments and J.J. and company were part of this decision by the way Bob Iger disclosed things in his book.
I think The Rise of Skywalker is a result of both J.J. and corporate meddling.
Look at how much the film actively tries to retcon The Last Jedi.
Look at how Daisy confessed they weren’t sure what they were going to do about Rey’s lineage even during filming.
Look at Kathleen Kennedy’s comments to Rolling Stone before release.
“Well, I wouldn’t say you ever get to a point where you just go, “That’s it.” It’s a constantly evolving process. I mean, there’s still little things that we’re trying to get exactly right, right now. You never stop the storytelling iterations that go on in making these movies. But we know what these previous eight movies are. We know what that story is. So in this movie, we’re taking all of what’s come before, and we’re trying to find a satisfying conclusion. And I think we have, and that’s something that we can only depend on our instincts to arrive at, whether or not we have. And then we have what I would call the family and friends that you pull in and you show things to when you try to get some kind of feedback, and make sure that you’re making sense and that you’re delivering on the things that you intend. That’s something that we’re still talking about right now.”
And finally look at Ben Burtt’s comments about being kept out of The Last Jedi.
"I don’t know if there’s bad blood. I was just never consulted or hired to do any of them. No one’s ever told me why. No, I was told–on the new regime, I was just told, ‘Just stay in your room and make sounds and just send stuff to us. We’ll decide what to do.’ "
“It wasn’t always easy working with George, but at least it was one voice. And you could get his attention and have your say and present something and get a yes or a no. But it was just one person you had to get past. Not banks of different people who want to have a say.”
It’s all a result of too many people trying to have a say and no longer there being a singular vision but a committee trying to please everyone without understanding context of themes and ideas they’re trying to incorporate into their stories.
I hate that I never saw TPM in 3D when it was in theaters. I wish they went ahead and released them all in 3D. I wonder how much of the work they completed? Just imagine the trench run in 3D!
I believe Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were finished as I remember hearing about them being shown at Celebration in 2015. I can’t say for the Original Trilogy though.
The trailer is here!
I think this is worth posting here.
The 20th Anniversary Panel from Celebration last year.
Super hyped and ready for football! Really excited for this season as we (Chelsea) signed some great players in Ben Chilwell, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, and Thiago Silva. I think we’re all around looking very promising and upwards with current youngsters like Mason Mount rounding out the lineup. We just need to find a long term solution at Goalkeeper and Centre Back. I’m thinking though Silva will be a stop gap until we go after bringing Declan Rice back to the Bridge next year. Not sure what we’ll do at Goalkeeper long term but hopefully we find something!
Our women’s side also looks even more ready to push for Champion’s League!
As a sidenote I was watching the Amazon football documentary about Leeds called Take Us Home and even as a Chelsea fan who is supposed to hate them can’t help but have some respect and be interested to see how they do in their return to the top flight.
Has anyone else seen any of the documentary?
Come on you Blues!
Nelli Fomin, the amazing costume designer of Andrei Tarkovsky’s films Mirror, Stalker, and Solaris.
https://unikino.ru/nelly-fomina-rip/
May she rest in peace. ❤
My first Star Wars video game was The Phantom Menace for PS1. Lots of great memories playing it and watching the Duel of the Fates music video over and over … and over.
I equally remember playing the arcade version of Podracer at Chuck E. Cheese. So much fun! Haha
I remember playing Battlefront, Battlefront 2, The Force Unleashed, Revenge of the Sith (GPA and PS2) and the Lego games too.
Earlier this year I bought The Complete Saga for 360 to mainly help me reconcile and seperate The Rise of Skywalker and Sequel Trilogy from George’s six films. Not only did that happen (well getting there) but I’ve found myself having a lot of fun playing it. It has child like innocence to it and I enjoy that comfort it brings me.
jedi_bendu, my apologies for the delay in answering you. It’s my pleasure. I agree. I’d really love to see the full saga with just his music and the visual imagination. It would be such a fun and emotional experience I think.
It’s so weird seeing Star Wars without music and Ben Burtt’s sound design. They really are just as instrumental to the films as George’s visual storytelling.
I was actually going to make a thread for it once I came back from my break. I’m really intrigued and excited about Dune. I’ve not read the book or seen any of the adaptations so it should be interesting to dive in with this as my entry point. I’m intrigued by Denis Villeneuve calling it “Star Wars for adults”, which makes sense as I know George was influenced by the novel. Denis is one of the best directors working today and I really admire how he has an admiration for Andrei Tarkovsky. I consider him to be my favourite filmmaker not named George Lucas. So I’m cautiously optimistic this could end up being a really fun experience!
This is one of my favourite videos on YouTube. It really shows just how instrumental the music is to Star Wars.