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Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
I'm shocked nobody has a rainbow lightsaber yet. Its truly comical how bad it is.

Give them time. We’ll see it. Good old Kathleen is all about inclusion. There will be a race of creatures or something, who are all transgender as well. Hollywood is on a mission to out woke each other. And there is none higher, or who has deeper pockets, than Disney.

I wish someone else wold have bought it from Lucas, and made it all R material, or at least PG-13. But no one was going to pay that kind of money but Disney. You can discern how Disney will do Star Wars by looking at Marvel films. They reduce those films to the lowest common denominator on purpose. The greater audience, more butts in seats. And so the story is basic, with little intelligence, so they can throw up the subtitles and sell it in China, Asia at large, the world.

Someone will have to come along, and make new sci-fi with adults in mind. Good luck to them. We live in safe space world now. The 70’s were a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, where people took chances, and pushed buttons. Those film makers were not afraid to go their own way. Today’s society is sheep mentality, get them all to go the same way.

What I really want is a break from anything to do with the original trilogy, the prequels and the garbage Disney trilogy.
I want a movie or series set in the Old Republic era. There's so much potential there. Its a waste of the entire Star Wars universe to keep rehashing stories that revolve around the same characters we've seen for over forty years.

Has anyone read the Star Wars, Ronin book?

I’m trying to figure out who is the female voice that is talking to him. I thought at first it was his droid, but the droid is referred to as a “he or him”.

The fans making stories in their basements and garages with pocket change for budgets are making better Star Wars stories than anything owing from the dumpster fire known as Disney.

Check out I.M.P.S. And bucketheads. There’s others but those two will get you started

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Originally posted by Prefontaine:
I wish someone else wold have bought it from Lucas, and made it all R material, or at least PG-13.
...
Someone will have to come along, and make new sci-fi with adults in mind.

I was surprised how dark & serious Obi-Wan Kenobi was. It was like the Star Wars version of Taken or The Man from Nowhere.

It has a lot of parts I liked, and I think Ewan McGregor and the 10 y/o Leia actress shine in it; however, the overall story messes w/ Star Wars' continuity and creates new plot holes. For instance, in Ep 4 'A New Hope', when see Leia's holographic plea, "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope," she speaks as if they've never met before. The new series completely screws w/ that, so that Leia's distress message makes a lot less sense.

There are a lot more plot holes, but that was the one that stuck out most when I saw them meet for the first time.

Were't Timothy Zahn's books officially licensed material? I thought they were very good - did they just decide to cast that all out? Grand Admiral Thrawn and his story would have been cool...

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Originally posted by Dzozer:
Were't Timothy Zahn's books officially licensed material? I thought they were very good - did they just decide to cast that all out? Grand Admiral Thrawn and his story would have been cool...

...they are excellent, and what they should have made into VII, VIII and IX. Thrawn was a great villain. Cold, calculating and ruthless.

I think Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie I've seen though its likely because its a SW version of the dirty dozen. It gave us scary Vader back after the prequels. Mandalorian is a great show. I was listening to a podcast that was discussing the franchise and I think, like most people, they like the original three but got sick of the rest. A great point they brought up was that it would be great for the SW universe to be done with the skywalkers and tell some stories in a very interesting universe without wrapping them into everything. Its like they cant help themselves.

That's probably why Rogue One and The Mandalorian did so well. There are few, if any, established characters from the main storyline movies and this allows the audience to view the universe with fresh eyes. Book of Boba Fett fell flat because we went into it expecting him to be this badass bounty hunter even though he just stood around in Empire Strikes Back was a bit of a joke in Return of the Jedi. Nostalgia has a way of twisting things to make the past seem better than it actually was.

Rouge One and Mando showed life outside Jedi/Sith. And was able to establish new story lines without really screwing with the established universe. Plus they created new stories in the sandbox that are good.

Solo was pushed out when most people had a foul taste from The Last Jedi (TLJ). It suffered both from being an Origin Story that had to check boxes and people still mad about TLJ. Solo got interesting towards the end, and was hoping to see more about Solo's life as a smuggler. Other than dumping Jaba's cargo when being pursued by imperials, there was a lot of room to explore Solo, Qui'ra, and Darth Maul. And a smart director would just skip Jaba's cargo and let the statement stand.

Boba Fett was just off. If they explained him from going from being a hired gun to deciding being they guy in charge wanting 'family' is better would have helped. And made the final duel with Cad Bane more interesting as Boba rejecting the life Cad raised him in.

My big gripe with the last few series is they are laying the ground work for Palpatine's re-appearance in Ep9. Fuzzy memory, and it has been 30 years since I read Heir to the Empire, but wasn't cloning Force sensitive people a plot point? But I think and have read in a few places that it Palpy's/Darth Plagious plan for cheating death is clones. But Disney really needs to run far and fast from the sequels, and if the dumped those three in the trash and started again I seriously doubt they would here any complaints.

Rogue One’s pacing was its strength. There are a ton of plot conveniences and amazing luck instances.

I stand by my review of Solo.

Mandalorian is great story telling.

Just saw a YouTube video that Favreau is looking to leave Star Wars. He is so pissed at Kennedy and her leadership that he is looking to bail. The animosity between the two is so bad they can't even be in the same zoom call. And all the things we hated about Book of Fett is because of Kennedy. The good news is Favreau was busy with Ahsoka so that should be in good hands.

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Originally posted by IrishWind:
Just saw a YouTube video that Favreau is looking to leave Star Wars. He is so pissed at Kennedy and her leadership that he is looking to bail. The animosity between the two is so bad they can't even be in the same zoom call. And all the things we hated about Book of Fett is because of Kennedy. The good news is Favreau was busy with Ahsoka so that should be in good hands.

If him and Filoni bail, its all over. Losing him alone will be bad, but hopefully Filoni can still salvage some of it.

But Disney choosing to keep her on this long tells you where the corporate direction is headed. I am a Star Wars nerd, but if Filoni goes, that is truly well and good the end.

Kathleen will get fired, and this ESG bullshit will be over once they’ve had enough with not making enough money. That’s all Disney cares about is money, nothing else. We are already seeing platforms and companies reverse this ESG bullshit. Disney needs something massive to happen to change the course of this ship. Maybe Jon leaving will facilitate that.

Disney board gave CEO Chapek a 3-yr extension and then went out and fired the Chairman of Disney Entertainment and it's Chief Communications Offier. With Chapek having the confidence of the board, he's in a good position to initiate the dominos falling towards Kennedy, forcing her to see the writing on-the-wall and start her exit strategy as gracefully as possible. Will it be too late to prevent Faverau from departing, remains to be seen, there' A LOT of house cleaning that needs to happen over at LucasFilm.

One report is that Disney is planning to use Favreau leaving as the trigger needed to fire Kennedy. I really hope Disney just takes the threat alone as the reason and can her. Especially if the rumor is true and Favreau is being courted by the DCU. If he goes, the MCU is also going to take a hit too.

quote:

Originally posted by IrishWind:
One report is that Disney is planning to use Favreau leaving as the trigger needed to fire Kennedy. I really hope Disney just takes the threat alone as the reason and can her. Especially if the rumor is true and Favreau is being courted by the DCU. If he goes, the MCU is also going to take a hit too.

Feige's time at the head of Marvel may be sun-setting in the next couple of years. He's already salty due to the events that surrounded the Scarlet Johansen/Black Widow lawsuit not to mention, the general public is showing all the signs of 'super-hero burnout' as this next batch of Marvel movies/shows is uninspiring.

Can't see Faverau following Gunn to DC, Gunn's made some questionable moves in the past, and Faverau is much more considered and measured in his career progression. He's invested quite a bit with his Disney work, he has a lot of allies (and enemies) who are old guard Disney that's not pleased with Kennedy and her 'tribe' of followers. Chapek has his work cut out and he has to do it strategically, when he canned Peter Rice, Disney stock took quite a bruising.

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Originally posted by corsair:
Feige's time at the head of Marvel may be sun-setting in the next couple of years. He's already salty due to the events that surrounded the Scarlet Johansen/Black Widow lawsuit not to mention, the general public is showing all the signs of 'super-hero burnout' as this next batch of Marvel movies/shows is uninspiring.

Had to google and read up on that lawsuit. Knew nothing about it. The way I read it ScarJo was to receive some bonus type money in theatrical release if it hit certain metrics. Streaming it from the rip screwed that and she wanted her $. Handbags ensued between Disney and the actress. She d’d up with her team and lawyers, Disney caved and paid. Interesting. A big chunk of her pay for the film had to be based on theatrical release for her to go that far. I don’t think highly of Disney as they are pond scum to me so I’m gonna go with the actress on that.

As far as burnout, ironically the two worst films ever released in the MCU for sales in 2nd week of release was this latest Thor and ironically, Black Widow. The last Dr. Strange was similar in that the 2nd week, box offices sales plummeted. Due to all the marketing money Disney spends the break even amount for Thor is $650 million. The numbers will come out tomorrow for the weekend and 3 week total but not looking good and not what Disney expected. So that’s 2 films b2b that are failing their own expectations and projections. So burnout is here and to me, long overdue. Either make compelling stories and films or just quit making them.

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Either make compelling stories and films or just quit making them.

This is the reason these new shows are tanking, IMO. It has NOTHING to do with 'burnout' - Star Wars has been a major cultural phenomenon for decades, and will continue to be so. This 'burnout' thing is just an excuse the studio/Disney came up with to explain why people don't like their crap shows. I don't hear ANY fans talking of 'burnout.'

The Mandalorian is an entirely new character, with an entirely new look at the SW universe. It was really well done, and as a result, has great reviews. Solo, Book of Boba Fett, and Obi Wan took beloved characters, and did absolutely diddly squat with them.

Solo told a story nobody wanted or needed to see. Oh, cute - his last name was given because he was alone. Wow. Oh, his iconic blaster - some guy just threw it at him. He had a love interest before Leia? Nobody cares. He funded the start of the Rebellion? *yawn*

Boba Fett (IMO) started out good, but just went to crap. He was a gangster who didn't want to do gangster stuff. Every 10 minutes, Fennec wanted to kill somebody who showed blatant disrespect, but Fett refused, hoping for a 'kindler, gentler' approach to crime-lording. He hired the skittles vespa gang; probably the WORST thing to hit Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks. They had an amazing Wookie bounty hunter character that ended up doing nothing. They took one of the most bad-ass characters in all of Trek and castrated him. In Empire Strikes Back, Fett argued with Vader face to face, and Vader agreed to his terms (if Solo died, he would be financially compensated). Here, he became a useless weak pansy, who almost certainly will be killed off and replaced by Fennec (Ming Na Wei's character) or anybody else with real backbone.

The Obi Wan series? Worse than the other two examples I cited. Messes with established continuity; relies 200% on 'nostalgia' and has a crap story, with practically no redeeming qualities. Nobody needed to see 10-yr old Anakin; we certainly didn't need to see 10-yr old Leia, who will need to go through massive PTSD therapy to get over her kidnapping ordeal.

Really, Disney needs to let go of the past and DO SOMETHING NEW. People love these old characters, (Vader, Obi Wan, Solo, Fett, Leia, etc), so they think if they just do prequels and keep dragging the same old characters out people will flock to their shows. Perhaps they are afraid of something new, fearing nobody will watch the shows if we don't recognize anyone from the previous movies. Well, disney, TRY US! You saw how great the fan support for Mando was. Heck, you paused the entire Fett show for 2 entire Mandalorian episodes since the story was stagnating so much. Capitalize on what made that show so good - original characters, good writing, good character development, GOOD STORIES.

But, no, we now have to sit through ANOTHER show about ANOTHER dead character (Cassian Andor). Let's see how THIS ONE messes up continuity for Rogue One. Let's see them drag Vader into this one, too, while they are at it. Oh, maybe an Admiral Akbar or Mon Mothma origin story thrown in there for good measure (insert puke emoji here). . .

Star Trek has been making the same mistakes. The JJtrek movies were blatant remakes with the beloved Original Series characters (the first one was fairly decent, and the sequels got progressively worse). Disco and Strange New Worlds are prequels with new actors playing established characters ("Spock," "Pike," "Uhura," etc), but at least they took Disco into the future to tell new stories we haven't seen before. SNW is actually pretty good, though they still wrote themselves into a corner in that we KNOW the future for many of the characters. Sure, try to make me anxious and concerned for the safety of a character I KNOW lives on another 150+ years). At least they are doing new stuff, such as with Lower Decks (that is basically South Park Trek) and Picard (which sucks for entirely different reasons).