Prime Clone
Super Freak
The PT showed how to be subtly diverse: strong female characters, a range of races and accents, but it didn't feel forced or in-your-face.
All of that, but most insidious of all is the way corporations co-opt, pervert, and trivialize things that matter (like actual Feminism) into a series of focus-group checkboxes that are something worse than pandering, IMO -- they're lies. Dirty, shallow, cynical lies.
I'm fine with representation. But how about an actual story first?
To be fair, The High Republic is supposed to be the Jedi at their height, so that explains all the "decked out" outfits and robes. Rumor has it there's a love triangle too, between blondie, Jedi Jesus and the other white guy. I suppose there's an emphasis on over individualism with every Jedi being a sort of Knight with their own hilts and saber and customized clothes, which will blow up in their faces and explain why they're so disengaged from the material world in the PT. Which is fine and all, but instead of Luke learning from their mistakes like in the EU, he just gives up and becomes a hermit. And you know what? Fine, I could live with that if TLJ was the KotOR II of the ST and basically said "**** the Sith edgelords and **** the robotic Jedi too" and found a middle way or something, with Kylo becoming a Darth Krayt like guy, and Rey and Luke rebuilding an Order akin to Luke's EU one. But nope, they had to **** that one up too. They had chance after chance to get fix things, but they just kept digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole... Would you look at that, I'm starting to defend TLJ over TRoS. Christ...
Doctor Who has slumped to its lowest ratings since the programme was revived in 2005, according to new viewing figures.
The final episode of the 12th series of the BBC's sci-fi show attracted a TV audience of just 4.6 million.
[...]Just look at the difference of Mandalorian (in general since I think Filoni needs an editor) and the ST scripts. A clear difference between caring about what you are doing, and just doing a job. [...]
Well, narratively speaking, in general, I'd say TLJ at least TRIES to have a compelling arc with Luke - always thought, for instance, that it's interesting that Rey brings up the fact that Kylo did, in fact, fail Luke; much like Anakin failed Obi-Wan. Only Luke kept his word to his mentors and the principles of being a Jedi.
Where TROS as far as I can tell just tries to stuff as much STUFF in as it can - dunno, so Disney can sell lava lights later that look like Wayfinders - and while TLJ had stupid stuff in the script, TROS seemed like it had stupid stuff from beginning to end - like the notorious "they fly now" and the death fakeouts. It's like a 12 year old fan fic writer came up with the script.
So HR is gonna stuff as much DIVERSITY into this show as it can. Sort of like, oh, I dunno, the latest Dr. Who....
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/doctor-who-series-12-ratings-low-a4382666.html
Where TROS as far as I can tell just tries to stuff as much STUFF in as it can - dunno, so Disney can sell lava lights later that look like Wayfinders .
like the notorious "they fly now" and the death fakeouts.
I've said as much several times, but if I'm going to make an honest argument, I have to admit that calling out who "cares" and who does not, is at the end of the day, mere speculation.
There are rabid fans on this board that "care" demonstrably more than I do, and they make deeply questionable calls about Star Wars every day.
I think what can be *observed* vs. speculation is more relevant:
- Star Wars was never written particularly well. Beneath the surface it has no great depth or internal consistency.
- Everything after the OT is an imitation of that first phenomenon to one degree or another, with wildly varying results.
- As an entertainment property, it's generally repetitive due in part to conservative studios and in part to conservative fans.
Damned if they do, damned if they don't? To a degree, yes. But they don't have much of a foundation to build on. I don't mean 'content' -- there's plenty of that. I mean content creators hungry for profit and legions of obsessed fans who don't want it to ever end, have been building on a shaky foundation for years.
I just think (and there are legions of people ready to disagree with me of course) that after the epic scale of the Original Trilogy, there were 2 interesting places to go (and I don't want to open up the tired old can of worms as to what was done well and what was not):
- The Prequel Era
- Smaller stories in settings at a remove from the 'saga' such as it is.
My biggest problem with High Republic anything is that I just don't care. The more complicated Star Wars and the Force become, the less interesting they are.
They jumped the shark with all the Saturday Morning cartoon mysticism years ago anyway.
Mandalorian is very entertaining, but more than half of it isn't particularly good in terms of both acting and writing. It's an expensive cartoon. Had they stuck to the tight confines of a 'long gunslinger'/Lone Wolf and Cub vibe, it could have been more interesting. But that's no longer an option.
I understand these are not popular opinions, but nonetheless, some things are better off having a beginning and an end, without being endlessly interconnected and drawn out in all conceivable directions just for the sake of 'more' -- but this is not the culture we live in, so I'll just ignore the rest and stop writing screeds against it.
[...]But I do think CARING about the property you are writing about matters. Because someone who cares is more likely to immerse themselves BEFORE they get to work writing. Spend a lot of time with either comics/books about the character, read fan boards, get a real feel for what a character would or wouldn't do; and if they change, why would that happen. They also would try to avoid plotlines that had happened before.[...]
I'm all too aware of the fact you can't please everyone, but one example of someone who obviously cares is Filoni.
He gave us Space Whales, Loth Wolves (or whatever they were), the World Between Worlds, and a crap ton of other deeply questionable content.
It matters, as you say, but that doesn't guarantee either vision or execution. Lucas had the vision, he lost the plot (at times literally) on execution.
Vision and execution aren't unique pitfalls, of course, they're the reason most entertainment is forgettable even if it's a fun diversion.
I think Star Wars isn't getting any better for adults, it will likely always be fun for kids, and there's no use wishing they'll rein anything in; their approach seems to be Massively Interconnected with ever more Complications for the sake of the Lore.
There's a huge audience for that, so it's not like they're complete idiots, missteps and artistic mishaps aside.
I'm all too aware of the fact you can't please everyone, but one example of someone who obviously cares is Filoni.
He gave us Space Whales, Loth Wolves (or whatever they were), the World Between Worlds, and a crap ton of other deeply questionable content.
It matters, as you say, but that doesn't guarantee either vision or execution. Lucas had the vision, he lost the plot (at times literally) on execution.
Vision and execution aren't unique pitfalls, of course, they're the reason most entertainment is forgettable even if it's a fun diversion.
I think Star Wars isn't getting any better for adults, it will likely always be fun for kids, and there's no use wishing they'll rein anything in; their approach seems to be Massively Interconnected with ever more Complications for the sake of the Lore.
There's a huge audience for that, so it's not like they're complete idiots, missteps and artistic mishaps aside.
Just have to accept that the corporate machine is at work and just take what you like, dump the rest. I don't even care for the Mando show, but it brought a smile to my face with Dark Troopers and Luke being the Luke he is supposed to be. Lucas didn't even do a good job since the Special Editions, so who can we trust to take the reins anyway? With Feige doing a Star Wars film, perhaps I can get that post-ROTJ Master Jedi Luke with Sebastian Stan that should happen.
Wait a min...
This is just a bunch of books and comics??
This will not be an animated or Live action show??
Who the **** cares????
This will die a quiet death.
If it doesnt then everyone should be ready for a true KK takeover because it will be what the younger generation apparently wants.
I easily ignored all the EU stuff when that was out there I can easily ignore this.
Hopefully that acolyte show gets shelved and never see the light of day. Wouldn't make sense to make a show tied to it if this high republic crap fizzles and fades away.
Just like the Rian Johnson trilogy that was guaranteed to be happening. Both Kennedy and Johnson said so!!! And now seems to be words that will never be spoken of again...
Word is that as of WW1984 Jenkins has Disney's attention and has earned herself some oversight.
Good.
But it really has struck me just how okay I'd be if no new SW movies or TV shows came out, ever. Sure there are some things I'm looking forward to but really at this point is there anything that *any* fan needs? Major characters that the PT ruined like Vader and Fett got cool redemption moments (RO and RR's Mando episode), for people who hated ST Luke they got to have their redemption moment in Mando, we got an awesome modern take on OT era war (RO), a fun heist adventure that shockingly didn't ruin Han Solo, an entire new trilogy with the sequels, and two good to great episodes of Mando featuring Ahsoka, Bo Katan, Dark Troopers, a Krayt Dragon and a ton of other cool stuff from past EU or concept art.
Having the last SW live-action content ever ending with the elevator doors closing in front of Luke, R2, and Grogu and then Fett sitting on Jabba's throne with his woman are about as good of a send off as we're likely to ever see. I'd be more than satisfied if they just closed the book on all things SW (yeah right, lol) and focused on tie-in merch from all those eras instead from here on out.
And of course I realize that the SW juggernaut will just keep chugging along for years, possibly decades on end but I guess my point is that even if *everything* sucks from here on out, no big. We *all* have our perfect jumping off point already.
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