Star Wars Saga (OT/PT/ST) Discussion Thread

[jaztermareal]

Could I name the 7 exec producers on The Acolyte instead?

What are we talking about tools or tools?

 

[wormlander]

Could I name the 7 exec producers on The Acolyte instead?

Please don't... I'm told that's the witch chant that brings about the second season of the show...

 

[jye4ever]

Target has both Mando S1-S2 steelbooks for $86.15 and that includes tax and shipping!

 

[MeatHookGekko]

Why, why, why, with so many fails and millions at stake, do you perversely refuse to tell a good story FIRST, and STOP with the incessant messaging? The PT may have gotten blasted at the time; but there were real arcs there. A careful depiction of how Palpatine was able to position himself as the ultimate power. Anakin had a real arc as he struggled with his failings, leading to his fall. How Obi-wan ended up in exile. It's mythic.

As far as I can determine, Hollywood started hiring younger writers because they were cheaper; whole teams of them, and nobody writing the checks has the stones to say enough because they're afraid of Twitter. The millions, billions of losses from what could have been is staggering. This new crop of writers, far as I can tell, for the most part are horrible. More interested in agendas and "diversity" than attending creative writing classes, if they ever did.

What gets produced and made is a function of what gets financed. There are a lot of talented people in the industry, a lot of good story ideas and concepts out there, but if they never get an opportunity, then all you get is more of the same. Who gets hired and who gets into influential positions is often dependent on one's social circle/professional internal network in the industry. This is a place where it helps to have friends. People want to work with those they know, they trust, they have some history with them and have shown some kind of record in terms of their reliability or ability to "deliver results"

There are some issues I see as pertinent here, but again, I am not the be all/end all to this discussion.

1) There is a clear growing separation between College Educated VS Non College Educated in this country. Also the ideological standpoints of Men Vs Women, but more critically, Young Men Vs Young Women. Also a large share of the Star Wars fandom is male, and guys are typically socialized through their workplace/career, because it is so defining in America, i.e. a man's "value" to our society is based on his earning power and status from his career and his title from that career. As modern workplaces, particularly corporate entities, become more brutal "grey zones" where men have to tread lightly as everything is seen as offensive, racist, bigoted or misogynistic, it becomes more reactionary when those exhausting purity tests are thrown at them in their leisure time. A majority of the US adult population is not college educated. But if you fail to appeal to these demographics, then you aren't going to have widespread success financially with a lot of projects. It would simply help to have more creatives in the industry, who are in influential positions, to have a "working class aesthetic" to them. The majority of working class adults cannot afford to go to a Star Wars hotel and cosplay the intricacies of song and dance and trade blockades. However if that Star Wars hotel was an escape room system, where people spent four hours solving puzzles for 4 hours, then there were light Stormtrooper battles, Tie Fighter dogfights, light saber fights around them, that would be fun. More working class people get that. They just want to swing a lightsaber. A bunch of overeducated women from the same ideological spin might not see that as marketable. That's part of the matrix here - People often make what they want to see themselves. What they want to experience themselves. At some point, you start to lose the ability to touch grass when the biggest decision makers no longer clean their own toilets. They never drive themselves anymore. They don't have to clip coupons nor sit in commute traffic all day. They don't have to wait for things to go on sale and stock up on weekly specials.

2) The Last Kingdom, it's ENTIRE series run, cost about the same or slightly less than the pilot episode of Rings Of Power. That's it. Literally an entire series vs one episode, albeit a historically expensive show and cost per episode. Based on regulation and "carve outs", it would help to start filming more series deep outside the United States. When you are operating with a much smaller budget, you force more creativity by necessity, and you allow high level creatives to get more actual creative freedom.

3) There are contractual "no go zones" within the Star Wars universe. There are subject matter, characters, concepts, etc, etc, that are walled off, by contract, based on the deal made by Lucas and Disney. That's part of the limitations in play in terms of other stories that would be interesting but are not made. Personally I find Lucas, at this point, to be exhausting. Lots of people are quietly just waiting him for him to die. That's a sad state of affairs, but he's just pretty salty about selling his baby to someone else who everyone knew at the time would turn his lore into a factory pumping out energy drinks. This is not an excuse for bad writing, bad stories, ham fisted narratives, etc, etc, but Lucas is also holding the entire franchise hostage too. He's in the Al Davis zone right now, his legacy is simply just better off if he dropped dead. That's not fun to say, it's not fun to hear, but it's a sticking point that can't be ignored any longer.

4) People here, this place skews male, and likely the demographic range is 40-60 now, not everyone, but a lot of the people here left. Also less likely to be married or have kids. This kind of legacy message board system is not obsolete, but it's definitely dated to the past. It's a filter point for a certain type of collector and demographic. No one wants to hear this, but you all here, the way the current Star Wars universe is slated, are not the target demographic anymore. If you pay attention to what's going on with K-12 education, public schools, you'll get a better viewpoint, IMHO, of clear policy and cultural trends, that begin to skew on what expectations will be for mass entertainment. People here are old enough to have a contrast point to the original Holy Trilogy. A lot of younger people do not. This is all they know. The common argument made is this demographic here will watch the shows anyway and buy the product anyway.

How many people here are unhappy about the current slate of Star Wars movies, TV shows and clear themes, but rush off to preorder the next Star Wars Hot Toys figure? Or buy up some Black Series figures from a Target? If you keep buying the product, you aren't voting with your feet and you aren't voting with your wallet. Your "approval" comes from your wallet. No matter what you say with your mouth or what you type. No one wants to hear that, but it's true. If you say you hate the Acolyte, but you have 10 Star Wars Hot Toys sets on preorder, then someone like Kathleen Kennedy is literally laughing in your face right now.

5) A lot of the independent media is still beholden to the "algorithms" to the major platforms in place. In order to optimize those metrics, and to try to make a full time living as a pundit, they have to game the subject matter, titles, thumbnails, etc, etc all towards a very binary situation. I.E. Everything in Star Wars is bad versus The Force Is Female. There's not a lot of nuance left in the middle. But there are more casual viewers out there, in the Star Wars fandom, than in the hard core fandom. Want an example? If you just went by the internet and the fandom, Joss Whedon's Serenity was going to be a groundbreaking financial juggernaut and make hundreds of millions of dollars. And, to be fair, the "Browncoats" out there back then, the Whedon loyalists, really did everything possible to form a grassroots informal campaign to make the film a success. It raked in something like 39 million on a budget of 20 million. It sounds big, but sometimes it's not.

Again, no matter what you say with your mouth or type, any of you, if you are still buying Star Wars product, you are endorsing what Star Wars has become in current times. Kathleen Kennedy can look at your preorder list, call you a sucker and then spit in your face.

So for the SSF Staff here currently, ( or the CF Staff now I suppose), the lack of nuance has an impact here too. There is no longer SSC doing Spooktacular like before, nor on this board, nor doing the massive giveaways and contests that used to support this community, not like in the past. Now the goodwill here has to be driven by actual content. The further this place moves from real nuance, the more some people will just get up and leave. Once you start losing the small subset that creates any kind of content, then you lose the basis for anyone purchasing a CF Supporting Membership in the first place. There's a ratio of people who are registered versus not. Then there is a ratio of people who actually post out of those who are registered. Then there is a ratio of actual nuance from those that post. So ironically, this place itself carries some of the complications of the overall Star Wars franchise itself.

There isn't a ton of nuance in what is being released through current Star Wars right now. That's true.

But a lot of times, there isn't much nuance here either. And, over time, outside of Star Wars, it's going to kill this community.

Look at your preorder list right now. Inventory what you've bought while Kathleen Kennedy has been in charge. That's what is true.

 

[Prime Clone]

And I saw a social post proclaiming this the best expression in SW, and maybe movie history:

(With these a close second, obvs...)

 

[Khev]

 

[Asta]

Between the devil and deep blue sea...

 

[Felinx]

View attachment 708668

 

[Wor-Gar]

And I saw a social post proclaiming this the best expression in SW, and maybe movie history:

(With these a close second, obvs...)

There are also people who have Jedi weddings.


What is it Loki says about all the people kneeling...? This is your natural state...?

 

[Felinx]

There are also people who have Jedi weddings.


What is it Loki says about all the people kneeling...? This is your natural state...?

Certainly is. As natural as a phone in the hand and a finger on a like button.

 

[Khev]

 

[Khev]

 

[Wor-Gar]

Is that NOT so Disney...? Reaping the obedient.

If you go to the "where are my Acolyte toys" thread, you can see them live in their natural environment.

 

[Khev]

 

[Wor-Gar]

I was scrolling channels and saw the The Force Awakens is on FX yet again -- seems to be on every week -- and it hit me that I haven't watched it in years, and have absolutely no desire to sit thru it again. It gives me nothing. Even the PT I would at least put on in the background. I don't want to even hear TFA.

The First Disney SW... the one that started it all... ultimately leading to The Acolyte.

You can milk a cow to death.

 

[BACON!]

I find the transition of Force-related stories to now witchcraft-related stories very interesting

 

[Wor-Gar]

Ben Kenobi is a witch.

New SE change #47: Owen: That witch is just a crazy old man.

 

[JohnnyStarTrek]

I was scrolling channels and saw the The Force Awakens is on FX yet again -- seems to be on every week -- and it hit me that I haven't watched it in years, and have absolutely no desire to sit thru it again. It gives me nothing. Even the PT I would at least put on in the background. I don't want to even hear TFA.

The First Disney SW... the one that started it all... ultimately leading to The Acolyte.

You can milk a cow to death.

The completist in me bought the sequel trilogy DVD's....
I can't imagine why I would EVER choose to watch any of those movies over the OT or PT films. Should probably get rid of them!

 

[Wor-Gar]

I bought TFA also, hype generated purchase... but I do not own the other STs. Last Star Wars blueray I bought was Rogue One.

 

[a-dev]

I was scrolling channels and saw the The Force Awakens is on FX yet again -- seems to be on every week -- and it hit me that I haven't watched it in years, and have absolutely no desire to sit thru it again. It gives me nothing. Even the PT I would at least put on in the background. I don't want to even hear TFA.

The First Disney SW... the one that started it all... ultimately leading to The Acolyte.

You can milk a cow to death.

True. With the prequels down through the years I've been hit with an occasional curiosity to see if they are as crap as I remember them in my head - yeah they are - but hey at least there has been that curiosity and perhaps a hope that I'll view them differently with the passage of time.

With the sequels there's nothing. I feel no inspiration to go near them again. They added absolutely nothing that was worth seeing the heroes of my childhood be broken down and killed off.