jedi_bendu

A lot of my favourite Star Wars lines are about the Force.

“My ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us… luminous beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the force around you: between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere… yes, even between the land and the ship.” - Yoda, TESB

“Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force.” - Yoda, ROTS

“The island. Life. Death, and decay… that feeds new life. Warmth, cold, peace, violence… balance. An energy. A Force… and inside me, that same Force” - Rey, TLJ

And if I may expand it beyond just the movies…

“It matters which side we choose. Even if there will never be more light than darkness. Even if there can be no more joy in the galaxy than there is pain. For every action we undertake, for every word we speak, for every life we touch - it matters. I don’t turn towards the light because it means someday I’ll ‘win’ some sort of cosmic game. I turn towards it because it is the light.” - Qui-gon, Master and Apprentice

“The Jedi teach that life doesn’t cease at death, but merely changes form in the Force. Your parents are alive inside you, Ezra. They will be… always.” - Kanan, Rebels s2 ep10

Obviously I have more, but these are just ones focused on one theme for now.

Omni said:

It seems that Marcia Lucas has some strong feelings about the ST.

I have a lot of respect for Marcia for marvellously editing my favourite Star Wars film, and arguably rescuing it from being a badly executed movie. I also have a lot of criticisms of the sequel trilogy myself. That said, I think these are some of the most idiotic things you could criticise the trilogy for.

She seems angry that Han and Luke died in the movies. Not even the way in which they died, but the fact that they died at all. And that their deaths mean that the writers “don’t get the magic of Star Wars”. So what, beloved characters should have unlimited shelf lives? The “rhyme or reason” to those deaths is that they serve the story, particularly so with Han. Surely she must have known that Harrison Ford, for example, wouldn’t have returned to Star Wars unless he knew his character would have a meaningful death? He’d been advocating that since the making of Return of the Jedi.

As for the classic complaint about Rey (who she bitterly describes as “this female”) and her abilities, Lucas asks where she got her Jedi powers. I believe the answer she’s looking for is: the Force. I guess she means training, but it’s not exactly well articulated. As for how we don’t know “who she is”, if Marcia Lucas actually watched the films she was bemoaning, she’d know that Rey’s heritage is actually revealed in the third film. Again, that is a story direction that can be criticised, but that’s not what Marcia is taking issue with.

It’s like she grabbed a bunch of common sequel complaints off the internet and very badly put them in her own words.

JadedSkywalker said:

I mean its a sequel to Revenge of the Sith. It even has Jimmy Smits and prequel Mon Mothma Genevieve O’Reilly.

I like to think of the film as a great bridge between prequels and the OT. I always had a hard time reconciling the different aesthetics and Rogue One helped me a lot.

We also got some cover reveals! https://www.starwars.com/news/the-fallen-star-and-other-book-covers-revealed-on-the-star-wars-the-high-republic-show

I’m still not quite sure what to think about The Fallen Star’s cover. My first reaction was to be very impressed, but now it’s not a surprise revelation anymore it looks almost like a digital mockup awaiting detail for some reason. Perhaps some reflection on the characters’ eyes might have helped.

Servii said:

JJ Abrams even wanted the movie to end with Luke surrounded by floating rocks, to wow the audience by showing off how powerful Luke was.

I’m sure this would have been a cool shot. But now I’m really doubting JJ Abrams. This sounds like Luke would still have been connected to the Force when Rey finds him (which, to be fair, is maybe why they scrapped it). So Luke would have been on that island, ready and waiting to join the fight for… what? We know from TESB he can sense when Han and Leia are in pain or danger, so I hate the idea of him being able to sense that but not doing anything about it. He needed to have cut himself off from the Force, so the Force couldn’t influence his resolve as much.

People talk about Luke wanting to remain on the island as a ‘subversion of expectations’. But I always wonder why that wasn’t the expectation. In TFA, Han said that when one Jedi student destroyed Luke’s new Jedi order, “Luke felt responsible”… he just walked away from everything." Luke is on the island for a reason and Rian Johnson just had the task of explaining that as best he could. It’s beginning to sound like JJ and maybe Lawrence Kasdan were ok with Luke’s exile just being a set up for the sake of an interesting story structure, without any explanation or logic.

JadedSkywalker said:

It is worth reading. It isn’t the best work nor the worst. And it isn’t KJA’s worst. I think the consensus is that is Darksaber. As for Dark Empire i also recommend Dark Empire II, and completely don’t recommend Empire’s End. Its only important to know how the Dark Empire Saga ends, but its terrible.

Thanks for the help, I’ll be looking into those.

Just watched the first episode of new BBC thriller Vigil, absolutely gripping. Do yourself a favour and watch it! If you live anywhere outside of the UK you’ll have to get a VPN I believe.

Alright, thanks. I’m trying to read the books that tell the most important stories after ROTJ, so I’ve re-read the Thrawn trilogy and am currently reading Dark Empire. I assumed the Jedi Academy trilogy would be important to show the formation of Luke’s new jedi order but I could be wrong. Worth reading do you think?

Someone has asked a variation of this in the past, but just for clarification: can I read I, Jedi as a substitute for the Jedi Academy trilogy, since I’ve heard it kind of revisits the same story?

I mean yeah, I can’t disagree that in the majority of episodes have happy endings for the Rebels, but it’s not like they have any setbacks. The Grand Inquisitor is pretty effective at hunting down and overpowering Kanan and Ezra in season 1; Vader expertly manipulates them into stealing a tracked shuttle and then destroying most of Phoenix Squadron; Ezra nearly gets everyone killed in Steps into Shadow and has to deal with his failures; Thrawn discovers the identity of Kallus despite his best efforts and uses Kallus to track them to Atollon and destroy most of their ships; the Rebel Alliance have a squadron of x-wings attack the Tie Defender factory and the entire squadron is destroyed. The show had setbacks for the main characters, it just knew when best to place them.

Sure, for a series set in the “dark times” as Obi-wan calls them, there are a lot of happy endings. But as Dave Filoni said Star Wars is meant to inspire a good feeling. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m not going to talk about Rebels any more though, we’re been sidetracking this thread for a while now…

I’m reading Dune for the first time to prepare for the film’s release in October.

fmalover said:

On that note, that’s one of my many gripes with Star Wars Rebels. Every episode ends in mission accomplished with no casualties for the rebels, thus making the victories of the OT a lot less impactful.

I’d guess you’re against the show existing at all then. You can’t exactly tell a story about the gradual formation of the Rebel Alliance by showing them getting crushed and defeated at every turn. There were always going to be small victories, the events of the OT and Rogue One are just the first major victories.

Atom-88 said:

The Rise of Skywalker - Rey isn’t a Palpatine and she’s doesn’t refer to herself as a Skywalker either. Plus Leia doesn’t train Rey.

Out of curiosity, what do you dislike about Leia training Rey? That’s actually one of the few parts of that movie I like.

I agree with the issues. Most of all I’m wondering how the hell did the Empire track the Tantive IV? It was concealed within the hull of the Raddus so I don’t see how they could have put a device on it, and hyperspace tracking doesn’t canonically exist until TLJ. If the Raddus beamed a transmission to the ship, which was elsewhere, that could be feasibly tracked. Hell, you’d even still have the beloved Vader-murdering-rebels scene as he attempts to prevent the plans being transmitted.

Although I agree with NevararGreat in that I don’t think the ending inconsistencies make Rogue One a bad prequel overall. And I’ve never found a problem ignoring it.

Anakin Starkiller said:

I just played Settlers of Catan and for the entire 2-3 hour game, I was able to build exactly one road. That’s it.

Was it a nice road though?

JadedSkywalker said:

Probably just get both of the High Republic series, but i’m leaning toward the one with Yoda. Which interestingly enough isn’t Marvel it is IDW right?

Yeah, that’s right. Pretty sure most of IDW’s Star Wars comics are one-issue stories so this is one of the rare occasions they’ve done a multi-issue story, and it’s worked really well. It being IDW means it’s harder for me to get here in the UK unfortunately, but it’s always worth the effort.

Rodney-2187 said:

Not to be a downer, but have they changed the Lego stormtrooper helmet again? It looks different and I don’t like it as much.

JadedSkywalker said:

How many High Republic comics are there. I think i’d enjoy a comic more than a novel because Star Wars is so visual.

There are two series - the main ‘High Republic’ comics by Cavan Scott and the ‘High Republic Adventures’ comics by Daniel Jose Older. I do think that the HR project has done best in novels, but the comic runs are good as well. The main comic follow a master and padawan - Sskeer, a Trandoshan Jedi veering dangerously close to the dark side in grief, and Keeve, his devoted but self-doubtful apprentice - taking part in a joint Jedi and Hutt effort to combat the Drengir, plant-like monsters threatening worlds in the Galactic Frontier. The High Republic Adventures comics are about a force-sensitive girl from a Jedi-hating homeworld who joins a group of Jedi padawans under the mentorship of Yoda, while her best friend sides with the Nihil, the main antagonists of the era.

Although the HRA comics are perhaps targeted at a slightly younger age group, I think they’re my personal favourite of the two. But the main comic series ties in with the main novels more.

Is there anything you recommend i’m a big original Marvel Star Wars and Dark Horse comics legends person. I’ve read the Darth Vader book and original aphra run. I’ve read all the main star wars books up to the pre empire strikes back. But only 1 of the post empire books.

I was going to recommend Skywalker Strikes but it sounds like you’ve already read that! For all I ramble on about comics I haven’t actually read that many - I’ve read Skywalker Strikes and the first two volumes from the Vader series in 2015, as well as some Aphra comics, plus bits and pieces from other comic series. I can recommend what I know is popular - ‘Kanan: The Last Padawan’ and ‘Son of Dathomir’ tie in with Rebels and Clone Wars respectively and they’re meant to be very good. All three main Vader comic series are acclaimed - it sounds like you’ve read one, maybe the Kieron Gillen 2015 one (which is what I’ve read as well) but there’s also Charles Soule’s Vader series from 2017, which takes place after Revenge of the Sith and the current Greg Pak series which is post Empire.

Haven’t read the new boba fett stuff i’m kind of afraid to i loved the old stuff.

If you’re interested in more comics featuring the OT protagonists I think I would recommend War of the Bounty Hunters. I was expecting it to be a Shadows of the Empire reboot in some way but it does feel very different. That’s a whole other matter to get your head around though because it’s a crossover event with different comic series, but if you just wanted to get the one-shot comic (War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha #1) and the five issues of the miniseries which are still being released, I think you’d get away with knowing the essentials of the story.

Sorry for such a massive post! But I hope it helps.

fmalover said:

I don’t know about having an outline for the entire ST from the start. Remember the OT was pretty much done on the fly, and Christopher Nolan revealed that his Dark Knight trilogy was done one step at a time, as they had no idea where the story would go after Batman Begins.

I think this shows that series of movies/episodes that aren’t planned from the start can work. However if you have a general story outline before you start out, it can make for a more rewarding viewing experience if you set things up and plant the seeds for story directions early on, and you’re less likely to go wrong.

I’m very excited for Star Wars Visions this month, and I’m sure The Book of Boba Fett will be great, but I remember thinking at Disney’s Investor Day presentation that for the foreseeable future we’re mostly looking at a bunch of character-name-title shows or spinoff series from The Mandalorian. With Mando season 2 and The Bad Batch season 1, it seems to me that Lucasfilm are currently relying on special character appearances and fan-service to win back approval from the fandom after the sequels’ mostly negative reception. In fact, many speculate that we’re building up to some kind of adaption of the original Thrawn trilogy - like how many view the sequels, a rehash of a story we’ve had before. After the great ending of Rebels, I wanted a follow-up more surprising and creative than that. If this really is the direction Star Wars is going, I’m sure it will appeal to many and I don’t want to shame anyone for that or anything, but it’s not quite what I was hoping for.

Instead, I’ve found exactly what I’m after in the world of Star Wars publishing. Something I’ve always loved about being a fan of this franchise is that the movies are only the tip of the iceberg, and right now, the good stuff is in books and comics. On some level it’s always been that way, but what I’m really loving right now is how ambitious everything is.

From 'Inside the Magic’s article: ‘New Era of ‘Star Wars’ is “Untethered” and “Unchained”’ by Rebekah Barton
https://insidethemagic.net/2021/01/new-era-of-star-wars-rwb1/

The High Republic — which will last for years in Marvel Cinematic Universe-like phases — is said to be an “interconnected mega story.” During yesterday’s panel, Lucasfilm Publishing creative director Michael Siglain shared:

“Phase I runs through 2021 into 2022. I’m not going to tell you how far it goes into ’22, but I can say that there will be a steady stream of books, comics, and magazines coming your way on a monthly basis, which is really exciting. When we talk about this being a multi-year initiative, that is true. We are absolutely playing the long game here.”

I don’t think we’ve ever got this level of planning and author collaboration from Star Wars before, not even in the Shadows of the Empire project. The High Republic authors are acclaimed fan-favourites who are not only close colleagues but friends, and the meticulous planning of the High Republic story is exactly what so many people wanted out of the sequel trilogy. There are so many loveable characters already, and it’s a sometimes-optimistic sometimes-dark vision of the galaxy at this never-before-explored period.

Next up, Charles Soule - the writer who kicked off a new era with Light of the Jedi and who was already beloved for his comic runs such as Poe Dameron and Darth Vader (2017) - made a massive pitch to Lucasfilm last year and they let him run with it. Now we not only have Qi’ra - a character whose cliffhanger ending in Solo desperately needed a follow-up, in my view - making appearances in the War of the Bounty Hunters comics, we have a Qi’ra TRILOGY on the horizon!

I love unlikely teamups or characters from different eras being thrown into a story together - it’s why I love The Mandalorian chapter 15, and it’s why I love War of the Bounty Hunters now. We have classic characters like Luke, Leia, and Vader thrown in with new favourites like Doctor Aphra and Sana Starros, as well as Ochi of Bestoon whose development provides interesting expansion to The Rise of Skywalker. With Vader, Palpatine, Qi’ra, Luke, Leia, Aphra, Deathstick and the Knights of Ren, Crimson Reign looks to be no different.

From marvel.com article “Darth Vader, Qi’ra, and More Brace Themselves for a Galaxy-Shattering Saga in New ‘Star Wars: Crimson Reign’ Connecting Cover”

“While Qi’ra plays a huge part in WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS, that event is really a Boba Fett story,” Soule told IGN. “I have a bigger story I’m going to tell with Qi’ra and Crimson Dawn, and it’s all connected to the reasons she kicked things off in WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS in the first place. You’ll learn more about that in the closing pages of WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS #5, out in October, and I think fans have no idea how exciting and new this story will feel.”

Star Wars publishing has always been great at expanding on or enhancing the films and series. I’m thinking of how I can watch the first act of Return of the Jedi with Steve Perry’s Shadows of the Empire novel in mind, or how the conversation in Empire between Vader and Palpatine has so much more subtext thanks to a moment in the 2015 Vader comic series, or how we even got great books like Bloodline and Resistance Reborn out of the sequel era. But like with the post-Endor and NJO era, or the Old Republic era, books and comics are once again coming into their own to map out fantastic new tales of their own making. If things continue in this way for the foreseeable future, we will be in a new golden age of creative visions for the Star Wars galaxy.

Of course this post is an invitation for discussion, but it’s also a plea to those who haven’t dived into the High Republic era yet, or to those who have never really bothered with comics or books. Perhaps you’ve been put off by the amount of noise out there from people searching for anything to latch onto and complain about, even if they haven’t read that thing themselves. Usually it’s complaints about diversity from those masking their intolerance as valid criticism, and the wonderful authors we now have writing stuff for us don’t deserve to have their work dragged down by that. Please, try out these new stories to see what you think and give your support to the initiatives which deserve it. Novels and comic books deserve no less respect as storytelling mediums than movies and TV shows. Now more than ever, they’re proving that.

thebluefrog said:

The disjointed nature of the three films proves they needed ONE director and ONE writer for all 3.

I actually disagree with this. The original trilogy had different directors and writers too - Lucas, then Kershner then Marquand for directing, and while Lucas wrote Star Wars alone, TESB was the work of Kasdan and Leigh Brackett then it was back to George again. What the OT lacked which the sequels had was an overarching vision, in this case the vision of George Lucas.

As I said in my original post here, I see why the decision was made - Disney wanted to replicate the production model of the originals and let each new writer/director build off the work of the last. But I agree it didn’t work out this time, and in any case a series of stories that is planned out from the start is much more rewarding to watch or read than one that’s winging it. I would have preferred a general story outline for all three films before TFA started production, then have new directors on each film to each bring their own visual flair to the story. The sequels’ main problems don’t lie with their direction, it’s their writing.

I was an avid sequel defender until The Rise of Skywalker came out, but since then my opinion of them has become more negative.

There are people who love The Force Awakens but thought TLJ took the trilogy off the rails, and some - like me, for a while - loved the first two but thought TROS was a terrible end to the trilogy, particularly what had been set up in TLJ. I now believe this trilogy was somewhat doomed from the start. TFA doesn’t take any logical next story step, it attempts to recreate the original trilogy for a new generation. Fair enough, especially after prequel backlash, and Disney attempted to recreate the production of the original movies somewhat by not planning an overarching story and let each new director build off the work of the last. But while I find The Force Awakens enjoyable and well-made, it sets the trilogy on a path to just repeating the story of the OT.

With The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson tried very hard to get the story off those rails, but The Rise of Skywalker wastes no time in putting it right back on them. For example, in TLJ Rian wanted Kylo to murder Snoke, his master in the dark-side, to let him progress in an interesting direction and remove the familiar master-apprentice dynamic. The opening of TROS shows him discovering Palpatine and receiving orders once again. In TLJ Rey finds out she was never loved by her parents, and she’s forced to accept that heritage isn’t the reason she finds herself at the centre of the story. In TROS, well, suddenly heritage is important again. While the prequel movies may be flawed in execution, they were never as inconsistent as this. I also find the First Order as villains disappointing and unoriginal, I find a lack of resolution to Finn’s arc in TROS disappointing, and to me Palpatine’s depiction in TROS is, while disturbing, moronic.

There are, however, many great elements in the sequels. I love Kylo Ren in TFA and TLJ. I mostly love Luke’s arc in TLJ and enjoy his relationship with Rey. I find the Force bond concept for Rey and Kylo really interesting and creative. The sequels gave us familiar icons of the franchise but with state-of-the-art visual and sound effects - I’m still blown away by the sounds of Kylo’s lightsaber and the ending lightsaber duel in TFA - and brought back puppetry work for characters like Yoda and Babu Frik. Most of all, watching TFA in the cinema in 2015 was such an amazing experience for me on a personal level: the 501st legion were there dressed as stormtroopers, imperial officers etc, the excitement for the movie was palpable, I had front row seats and it was actually my first time seeing a Star Wars movie in the cinema. If I ever meet JJ Abrams that will be the first thing I thank him for (and I won’t bring up The Rise of Skywalker…)

It’s also touching to see, despite much negative reception, how many fans online unashamedly love all three movies and now are expressing that love more and more.

Bibbenboober said:

For some reason, people are having mixed feelings about this. I find that funny, considering the large impact Japanese media has had on the franchise.

Yeah I’ve noticed a lot of people unaware of the Eastern influences behind Star Wars right from the start, and complaining about the addition of samurai figures and the anime style. For me, anime is a fantastic art style which is usually used badly. That doesn’t mean Visions is going to suffer because of it.

Mine have fluctuated a bit I think, I’ve become less keen on the sequels over time. I’ve also become less keen on The Mandalorian season 2 so that’s dragged the show down a little in my rankings.

Movies:

• Star Wars
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Return of the Jedi
• Rogue One
• Solo
• Revenge of the Sith
• The Force Awakens
• The Last Jedi
• The Phantom Menace
• Attack of the Clones
• The Clone Wars
• The Rise of Skywalker

Series:

• Rebels
• The Clone Wars (2008-2020)
• The Mandalorian
• The Bad Batch (s1 at least)

Still haven’t finished watching Clone Wars (2003), Resistance, or Droids.

I know we haven’t seen anything from The Book of Boba Fett just yet, but ‘Visions’ looks to me like it may end up being the best piece of onscreen Star Wars media this year. It’s already obvious the creatives have been exactly that - creative as hell and simply running wild with their ideas. I’m really looking forward to watching the shorts on September 22nd.

(I say best piece of “onscreen” star wars media because we’ve already got a couple of all-time highs with Star Wars: the High Republic this year. This is just a reminder to check them out!)