act on instinct

DominicCobb said:

act on instinct said:

StarkillerAG said:

I think the definition of the Star Wars saga depends on which trilogies you include.

If you only include the OT, it’s the story of Luke Skywalker. We watch as he goes though the hero’s journey, in the style of classic mythology.

If you add the prequels, it becomes the story of Anakin Skywalker. We watch as he rises, falls, and rises again, in the style of a classic tragedy.

If you add the sequels, it becomes the story of the Skywalker family. We watch as they go through their lives, ending with someone who isn’t part of the family taking their name.

One of these things is not like the others…

StarkillerAG said:

Yeah, the definition gets a lot looser once George stops being the showrunner. The first six movies were under one single vision, but now it’s basically a free for all.

I don’t think so, if we’re all being honest it became the story of the Skywalker family when the PT was added. Just because George retroactively said it was the story of Anakin doesn’t make it true, obviously the OT isn’t Anakin’s story and TPM barely is either.

No that’s ridiculous to say it was never the story of the Skywalker family before the PT, Luke goes with Ben as a mentor because he knew his father, he wants to live up to his father, not just be a Jedi because he’s all invested in the creed or even aware of them. What about Darth Vader being the father in the second movie? how early did George’s mind have to be set to qualify exactly?

Besides the reason I said one is not like the others and what I believe StarkillerAG was implying has more to do with the progression from retelling classic mythology to classic tragedy where by the third it’s not so anchored in intention (which also isn’t to say the individual movies are without theme).

StarkillerAG said:

I think the definition of the Star Wars saga depends on which trilogies you include.

If you only include the OT, it’s the story of Luke Skywalker. We watch as he goes though the hero’s journey, in the style of classic mythology.

If you add the prequels, it becomes the story of Anakin Skywalker. We watch as he rises, falls, and rises again, in the style of a classic tragedy.

If you add the sequels, it becomes the story of the Skywalker family. We watch as they go through their lives, ending with someone who isn’t part of the family taking their name.

One of these things is not like the others…

I guess the question then is how will he talk about it? In light of criticisms leveled against TFA he seemed to concede a little and acknowledged the ways it was a copy of ANH, though I don’t see him doing the same for TROS being so messy, it’s not as direct of a point. Maybe one day he’ll say he regrets not going in with a stronger plan for the trilogy from the beginning, or admit the whole dagger quest was lazy overall, maybe he’ll talk about the Kylo footage that never made it to the theatrical version, but there won’t be a tell-all book about it anytime soon.

It feels like the use of props like the wayfinder and the dagger made a real shorthand to trim down TROS to the barest essentials, it’s almost like they threw their hands up on the organic resolution and just went with what was simple to follow, with whatever was left on the cutting room floor still leading to the same place but less shallow on the details behind those individual pieces.

Hal 9000 said:

If you like JJ better, RJ’s chapter is gonna stand out as the spoiled meat in the sandwhich. And if you like RJ, JJ seems like he slapped pop tarts on either side of roast beef.

Late to the party but I love this analogy.

I think the greater plot in television really was a gradual change of the format over time, when people could miss
a week of their favorite show and have to hope for a rerun to catch up the plots couldn’t be so interconnected, now everything is binging so it makes more sense to have these season to series long plot threads like in Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. But I am with NFBisms that one format isn’t inherently better than another, just different styles. Breaking Bad would have been lesser if it was flavor of the week episodes and villains, likewise Seinfeld, SNL, or The Honeymooners would be weakened if they had to take their more sketch vaudeville approach and expand those situations into some larger ongoing narrative, if either format switched places you would lose a major part of what they are.

BB-Rey said:

George Lucas is the most underrated and underappreciated filmmaker of our time. You can truly watch his films without sound and still understand the emotional context of the scene and piece together what’s going on with visuals alone. Not many filmmakers can do that. I also think despite what is said by some he did have a story to tell with the Prequels and it wasn’t just about telling the same story all over again or pushing the technology forward but about teaching us important ethical issues yet in a way that resonated with children. He always planned it this way as he saw the Prequels as the more social trilogy. I equally think his dialogue is very unique and like that of cinema of old. I’d rather have a vast imaginative clutter on screen with a million things going on like the streets of Mos Espa for re-watch value than nothing going on like Jakku in The Force Awakens. I appreciate his imagination and wanting to make each era of Star Wars different and unique. I’d rather see the Whills and Midi-Chlorians over the Disney Sequel Trilogy any day! Not to mention he gets too much flack for changing his mind. Every creative person is like that!

And unrelated to George and Star Wars I’d say Frasier is superior to Seinfeld, Friends, and other sitcoms of its time.

Preaaach!

It’s about family.

In these times I’m happy to listen to MV talk about this stuff endlessly, way into the shop talk on restoration as a whole, plus it was really nice to see him talking about legacy at all as the vimeo uploads are from a few years ago now.

Red Tails had exciting action and didn’t deserve to get shit on, everyone had a hate boner for anything touched by George and he was just trying to give a role model to kids, in general I think Lucas is misunderstood a lot this way where he’ll make a movie for young children and get trashed by a young adult audience it wasn’t made for.

Thanks again for putting all of this together ZkinandBonez, so many of these I’ve never seen before and they’re real gems, especially the actors working together and with Lucas are so endearing makes you feel part of it.

Yeah my feelings are it isn’t so simple as one botched opportunity, more the dam busting after a series of unchecked cracks that started to add up over time. One of the bigger complaints about TROS is the breakneck pacing, but consider all the elements unresolved from the previous two IX now had to juggle or otherwise ignore like the Knights of Ren. All while trying to balance an appropriate ending to the trilogy, the saga, and being its own movie. So for me while it’s not blameless and I do think TROS took the lazy way out, it’s a tricky situation and some of it lands on time wasted not establishing more prior when there was time to spare. “We’ll figure it out later”, then all of the sudden we’re at the finale and later became too late.

The more I dwell on it the less I blame this movie for its shortcomings, I feel like I can’t lay all the criticism on IX’s shoulders given the tight spot it was in. Had there been a through line things would be different, but especially in hindsight I got issues with the whole trilogy and TROS inherited some of that baggage, forcing it to be worse than it would have been with a cleaner structure underneath to support it.

Mark Hamill really goes through the full range of emotions in the trilogy more than any other character. James Earl Jones is not far behind with his operatic line delivery but like Anthony Daniels they’re both limited in the face, instead supported through iconic costume design. Hamill just gives so much energy and takes the role so seriously it elevates everything around him, even when he has no other human cast to work with for long stretches.

DuracellEnergizer said:
king capitalism.

If Master Duracell caught me doing this he’d be very grumpy.

The man who started it all turns 76 today!

Share some Lucas fun facts, pictures, or videos if you’d like, but most importantly wish George a happy birthday!

Broom Kid said:

They didn’t have any faith in figuring out how to incorporate past heroes into a generational conclusion so they just sidestepped the whole thing, and it wound up completely unsatisfying.

Arguably this problem plagues the entire trilogy, only the buck stops here.

SWOTFAN25 said:

This was truly a special Star Wars experience for me. I’m part of the clone wars generation of star wars fans. I saw the original animated film in theaters on my 8th birthday. That was my first star wars film on the big-screen. I’m so incredibly proud of this show. It was utterly spectacular. This series has done the prequel films so much justice I cannot even explain. I showed my brother the entire series this month and we finished it off by marathoning the last 4 episodes. The loveable characters become so deep and grow so much throughout the show, and to see the finale was something truly unprecendented. I couldn’t believe the depth of storytelling, the amazing sense of dread, and how much it all felt like a film. Thank you George, and thank you Dave Filoni.

After all the years of people loathing the prequels, this show solidifies for me that those stories deserve respect. This is timeless, and required viewing for any star wars fan.

This was the comment I was looking/hoping for after just having watched the final 4 episodes having not grown up with the show at all or really the prequels. I still didn’t have the true emotional reaction fans will in terms of characters like Rex and Ahsoka, but I followed along just fine. I’ve also learned to love Revenge of the Sith enough to respect it and the prequel era as it was interpreted. Truly must be validating for prequel fans to see such specific references given that really make the finale a RotS companion piece and for it to be so respected in that way. In a way the quality of the finale and its link to those events are really inviting fans to revisit now with a new perspective which was exactly what Filoni had in mind.

The finale being contrived is its own issue, had the story not written itself into such a mess it still should have been about the new main characters and not the old, which would just be unfair and unsatisfying in its own way.

I think the purpose of not doing that was specifically to keep agency with the main protagonists, just like how Luke doesn’t actually swoop in to save the day as to not overshadow the new characters we’re meant to be following this trilogy.

It’s more that the story boxed itself into that corner to begin with, not that the character should have chosen another option in the story as it exists now, it’s the story itself that took a shallow path.

SWOTFAN25 said:

What does this story have to offer me as a human being?

This is what gets me the most, so vitally important, these deeper morals are what give the stories their true meaning and purpose, to be reduced to any other popcorn blockbuster ending sells the saga short. Lucas did a lot of confounding things, but he always understood it was deeper than that.

ray_afraid said:

So many of those Hoth pics look like personal photos by random Rebels. I love it!
The one of the squadron with the laser turret looks like an official squadron group photo with the Sergeant off to the left. Could be framed with a plaque: Squadron 138 - North Ridge

I’d never seen or heard of R2 washing the X-Wing! I really wish that was in the film.

Was about to leave this same comment! The outside Hoth photos look like actual war photography! Some great wallpapers here.

Could you link to a specific scene you have in mind?