@Th3solution Yeah, despite not being a fantasy fan, I figured that The Rings of Power would steer clear of any mature material, and that it'd draw comparison with the gratuitous Game of Thrones on that specific point (positively or negatively, depending on the outlet... well, let's be honest, most critics and vocal viewers will probably see it as a negative nowadays).
I think you're right, when you're creating an entirely separate fictional universe, I think it's borderline essential to set your own language laws and then stick to 'em. Assuming that Cyberpunk 2077 takes place on Earth, it sounds like it's been pretty smart about the whole thing, guesstimating the future like that, but you're also right to highlight that it takes a careful balance, because you've still got to speak to a contemporary audience. Too many clever colloquialisms and you'll lose everybody.
@Th3solution@LN78 There was, and still is, some minor controversy surrounding one of Captain Panaka's lines in The Phantom Menace, when he exclaims that "If they can't get the shield generator fixed, we'll be sitting ducks!" Apparently, ducks aren't allowed to exist in the Star Wars universe, undermining the entire idiom. In more recent years, the line has become a favourite of the r/prequelmemes creators, and gained enough attention so that subsequent Star Wars content has gone out of its way to make characters say "we'll be sitting womp rats" or some other in-universe variation of the phrase.
Regardless, we can assume that there are ducks on Naboo. Perhaps they quack in French.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Holy hell, The Clone Wars abruptly became an utterly brilliant show. It was always several great episodes interspersed with fluff but the last few arcs in season 5 were all some of the best Star Wars content I’ve seen. I really like how this all serves to contextualise Anakin’s fall in RotS as well, it makes a lot more sense now we’ve seen essentially why he’s passed up for Jedi Master. Although I’m not entirely sure how there’s going to be a season 6 and 7 after that ending!
Hey @RogerRoger, sorry about just vanishing earlier this year, had a lot going on at the time, didn't think to just post in the vacation thread!
And wanted to say thanks for mentioning me when Kenobi was on, and for asking how I was, I appreciate that! And yeah, I did watch it!
If you're interested, I've got my very late thoughts;
In general, it was a very mixed bag! Ewan and Hayden stepped into their role perfectly, but there were some strange story choices. A lot of what happened felt like it was for the sake of it really? Like it was filler and didn't progress the plot. But I'm sure we all know the negatives now, so I'll focus on the positives;
The clone wars opening was awesome and unexpected
I loved the last episode (well, the Kenobi and Vader side), the Rebels reference with the half mask was very, very well done!
Vader's presence, brutality and generally being OP.
The opening episode which felt the biggest character focus on Kenobi, really felt the damage the war had done to him.
So yeah, some other cool bits here and there but those are the standouts for me! I watched a review on YouTube and he summed it up well; he felt that the Inquisitors and Kenobi would've been better as two separate series. Kenobi I wanted to be a real deep dive into his character as opposed to what we got. And a focused Inquisitor series would be really interesting!
What were your thoughts?
I've watched the first episode of Andor, plan on catching up this week!
"Andor" continues to impress in every department. If it carries on being this good I might end up recommending it to friends of mine who don't like "Star Wars" at all.
Andor is all a SW series should've been, it's just very good in every aspect so far.
I have not seen any of The Clone Wars but other than that it's easily the best Star Wars has been since at least Rogue One.
@nessisonett I'm so, so pleased that you stuck with The Clone Wars long enough to discover its greatness, and that you enjoyed those last couple of arcs so much! They really are the peak of the show's potential, although there are still two not-quite-as-brilliant-but-still-brilliant arcs in Season Six, and Season Seven delivers in ways I never expected it to.
As much as I'd urge you to break for Rebels after Season Six, and watch everything in release order rather than timeline order, I wouldn't blame you for surging ahead (if you haven't already) and seeing how it all shakes out. Darn it, you've got me wanting to re-watch the whole lot again!
Hope you're feeling much better by the time you read this, by the way.
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@NedStarksGhost No apology necessary, am just pleased to see you back! Hope you were a good kind of busy, and that life's been treating you well.
Am grateful for your opinion of Obi-Wan, which we seem to share. Last month I was laid up for a couple weeks and so re-watched both The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan, and definitely felt that the former was more cohesive, focused, and therefore effective as a complete story (even though it's also a small, entangled part of a much larger, yet-to-be-resolved story, whereas Obi-Wan was apparently supposed to be its own self-contained thing). I agree with you that seeing Ewan and Hayden back was never anything short of a treat, and that there was plenty of greatness about the show, in all of its aspects, but I also unfortunately agree that it ultimately got itself lost along the way.
I don't know if you've seen the original writer's comments about when it used to be a spin-off movie, and what got added and taken away in the process of somebody else coming in and adapting it for television, but it's an interesting and rich premise. I'm not usually one to dream about roads not travelled, but I think I would've much preferred its original incarnation!
Despite being underwhelmed by it, I really hope they commission another season, and try to explore some of that lost potential. After all, it was lovely to spend time with those characters every week!
Yeah, it's gonna feel like wall-to-wall Star Wars for a while now, I reckon! Have you seen all the trailers for all the upcoming shows and seasons? Andor is obviously underway, but then Tales of the Jedi, The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian and Ahsoka are all coming pretty soon, and they've got to fit Jedi: Survivor in there somewhere, too! We're gonna be well-fed fans, that's for sure!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
For the record, and in the interests of honesty, I feel like I owe Andor a semi-apology for singling out its use of colourful language. Whilst I still do reckon it crossed a line by using two of the Big Four words, I'd completely forgotten about this moment from The Book of Boba Fett...
...until I randomly stumbled across that GIF earlier. It's entirely likely that my subconscious buried it as an example, in an effort to protect one of my favourite characters and actors. Or perhaps it just wasn't all that jarring, because it fits Temuera Morrison's portrayal of Boba (to the point where it almost feels like an ad-lib, provided the executive overlords at Disney allow for such rampant creative freedom on set).
At any rate, there it is. Now I won't randomly wake up at 0200 hrs. feeling guilty (about this, anyway).
***
Today's instalment of Andor was pretty good for an episode about nothing. I'm much more invested in the bureaucratic nitty-gritty side of things, though. It's fascinating stuff for a nerd like me, and reckon I would've preferred it if the entire episode was devoted to that material, before returning to Andor's familiar "peasants in the woods" routine next week, but that's a personal preference, and none of what we got was bad, no matter how finely it'd been chopped in the edit. Can't wait to see more prim and proper senators panicking through forced smiles. I think that's what'll keep me invested.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger How was it an "episode about nothing"? It introduced the new motley crew (and their scheme), the main villain of the piece, Skarsgaard's double life and some wonderful new designs (I loved Mon Mothma's apartment and especially her limo) as well as (as you pointed out) showing for the first time the actual machinations of Imperial bureaucracy - all with lashings of really (I thought) plum, prickly dialogue. It was fantastic! I have to think that if I was Ewan McGregor I'd be mighty cheesed off right now. Judging by the reviews, it looks like him and his crucially important legacy character got fobbed off with the b-team whilst all the actual talent was working on "Andor"!
@RogerRoger thank you, I'm glad to be back online!
Yep sounds like our views are pretty much the same on Kenobi! I haven't seen the comments from the writer for the movie, I'm going to have a look into it. I'd imagine it was a bit character study.
I have indeed watched all the trailers that have come out! Tales of the Jedi is going to be a real treat, seeing young Dooku and Qui-Gon. And obviously cannot wait for Bad Batch, as we discussed at the time; we both just loved every second of it. It really is going to be awesome having all this content, and I hope the stories are good ones that feel the need to be told.
And of course Jedi: Survivor, I am so excited for that!
I've yet to watch episode 4 of Andor, so I will come back with my comments on that! But I have to say I absolutely loved 1-3. It feels like a real gritty war time story, I love how everything feels lived in. Diego Luna just kills it as Cassian. What is great is the that despite knowing his fate there's tension! Very excited to see how this series goes, I loved Cassian in Rogue One, and was very excited when they announced Andor.
@LN78 I think it's more that Andor is being made by the same crew as Rogue One, using the same locations and talent, so it feels even more like a movie that's been savagely sliced and diced into episodes, made by an entirely separate production house in an entirely separate country.
I re-watched the first three episodes yesterday and they really are a complete package, with a beginning, middle and end hung from some rather beautiful context. In the wake of that, I got to today's episode and felt underserved, as though I were being forced to press pause halfway through a Blu-Ray when the credits rolled. It'll be interesting to see whether the rest of the season can be divided up into these two-to-three episode chunks. I'm sensing that it will and hurrah, that'll make the finished product spectacular, but it also makes watching it weekly frustrating, and occasionally boring.
(At this point, I wrote out a lengthy prediction for the next two episodes, but thankfully blinked and realised how arrogant I sounded, so deleted it.)
Please believe me, I'm genuinely thrilled that you're enjoying something Star Wars again, after so many years of not, and I do think that Andor is great, and not just because I'm a massive fanboy who'd watch paint dry provided said paint was on a TIE Fighter. These are just my gut reactions, which will likely change over time, like most of my other reactions do.
As I say, I can't wait to have that finished season at my fingertips, and to know where it's all headed.
***
@NedStarksGhost There were some other elements which would've been brilliant to see, but that made sense to trim. For example, from what I understand...
...his sidekick for the opening of the movie was supposed to be an old, beat-up Commander Cody, played by Temuera Morrison, and they were gonna do a lot of post-war emotional unpacking together before Obi-Wan needed to leave Tatooine, at which point Cody would've promised to keep an eye on Luke and done so successfully, fending off the Inquisitors at the end (and maybe sacrificing himself in the process, to atone for Order 66). Naturally, I would sell half my internal organs to see that version, but I understand how they simply couldn't make that, what with The Book of Boba Fett just finishing production and Star Wars needing to be bigger than one single actor.
Am excited for Tales of the Jedi but even moreso for The Bad Batch (which we were supposed to be getting already, so the slight delay stung for a bit; thank goodness Tales will be around to tide us over 'til the New Year)! It's gonna be so wizard!
Real glad you're enjoying Andor thusfar, too! It's great that Star Wars is big enough to support all these different kinds of stories, with different tones and styles, and yes, Diego Luna is superb!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger As of now I'm just going to be grateful if one episode gives me enough incentive to watch the next. So far so good - perhaps being "undeserved" is a good thing in this context? If you're bored (I have no idea why, but then it's such a subjective complaint) then you could always wait until the season is complete and binge the whole lot, I guess. I've done that before, even waiting for physical releases in a few instances!
@LN78 I appreciate the tip, but I've sold far too much of my soul to the franchise to allow its new content to pass me by. That and, again, I really do like the show, and am most certainly not bored by many of its concepts and characters, which is why I'll continue to boot up Disney+ at 8am every Wednesday! Perhaps I'm being a little harsh, and using such critical phrases only in comparison to other Star Wars shows which I've had a stronger personal and emotional connection to. And yeah, perhaps earlier today, I foolishly got myself hyped for a solid hour of Coruscant intrigue. I need my smart uniforms and shiny floors! Less of this ragtag woodfolk nonsense, please and thank you!
I will say that, despite the comments from the writer suggesting that Andor would purposefully avoid fan service, there was a treasure trove of recognisable lore behind most of those artefacts! What I wouldn't give to wander around that set for a while!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger I suspected that the showroom might be full of deepcut Easter Eggs for the hardcore faithful - those I have absolutely no problem with - I think what the writer was referring to was probably the kind of simplistic and patronising key jangling that the "Rogue One" movie (which I'm not a big fan of) got a lot of stick for - "oh look it's the 'you'll be dead' guy from the Mos Eisley Cantina" or the obviously tacked on (but much beloved) Vader massacre sequence from near the end of the film. Like I mentioned, I really liked the new Coruscant interiors but I find myself less concerned with the environments and more with the characters. The scene between Mon Mothma and her husband was so great - it established his personality, their interpersonal dynamic, their societal status and the state of their relationship in a realistic way (using the pithy dialogue that I highlighted earlier) and in a relatively brief amount of screen time. More of this, please and thank-you.
@RogerRoger oh wow, I read your spoiler section. That stings, that's the version I want!
I have finally caught up on Andor after recovering from a virus; and my god I love this show so much. It feels so adult and real. The writing is brilliant. Progresses the plot and explains things like we are adults.
The world building is excellent. Love seeing early days empire! And a shout-out has to go to Stellan Skarsgard, he has been phenomenal.
With 8 episodes left, they are really building up this story; in particular Cassian's arc. I think we could be in for a 10/10 show personally. I love this.
@RogerRoger thanks, me too, on both accounts! I've just read your thoughts on the last episode, and it's interesting. I know what you mean about the pressing pause comment! The setup for the next plotline is so well done it just felt gutting that it came to an end.
It's almost like the show would do well with releasing 3 episodes every 2 weeks instead; if each quarter is similar to the opening 3 episodes. what do you think?
@NedStarksGhost Definitely agree. I could be proven wrong at any moment, of course; there might suddenly be an episode which changes everything, but I get the impression that the whole thing's gonna be easy to retrospectively break up into arcs or narrative chunks. It's certainly how I'll be re-watching it in future, if it comes to pass. It's the slowest-paced Star Wars story we've ever seen, I think, so giving us more of it less often would allow us to absorb it more effectively.
But, like I say, I could be proven wrong at any moment. I'm certainly looking forward to this heist, and what it may entail, as the plan sounds like it could be both thrilling and spectacular!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
To be fair, Andor is right around the corner, which might explain why that trailer hasn't even breached two million views yet, when this...
...has reached three million, and this...
...has reached three and a half. Funnily enough, those totals reflect the ranking of my own hype!
It's also been confirmed that the second season of The Bad Batch has been delayed. It'll now be getting underway on January 4, 2023. This'll give it a clear run for fifteen weeks, which probably means we'll be seeing The Mandalorian return on May the Fourth.
It's a great time to be a Star Wars fan!
Last I checked The Mandalorian: Season 3 is still due for a vague February 2023 release window.
I could see them airing both The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian at the same time.
Also excited for Tales of the Jedi, will be awesome to see animated Ashoka again.
During my sabbatical, I watched almost all of season 7 of the Clone Wars and also rewatched The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones in their lovely 4K versions. The Clone Wars’ final season is a noticeable uptick in quality due to the years that passed and them having a specific plan to finish off the story. I really liked The Bad Batch from their introduction too so I’m definitely going to check out that show.
The Phantom Menace is a movie I have very mixed feelings about. Even as a kid I knew it was crap mixed with nuggets of gold and I would probably say that having watched the incredibly bland sequel movies, the prequels resonate with me more. I’d probably now describe it as unrefined gold mixed with nuggets of crap. Qui-Gon is even better than I remember and I forgot how much it was his movie rather than Obi-Wan’s. Natalie Portman does a great job as well. Unfortunately, Anakin is just rubbish. And there’s Jar-Jar to which I just have nothing else to add that hasn’t already been said. The soundtrack, subtle hints towards Vader and Darth Maul make up for those two though. A messy movie but one that I’d happily watch again over the sequels.
Attack of the Clones is an odd movie about nothing. It looks bloody good in 4K though! Kamino especially is glorious and I do appreciate the diversity of planets which is similar to how The Empire Strikes Back increased the scope of the universe. I forgot how little the Clones were in it though, literally about five minutes. The Anakin and Padmé stuff is less romantic and more a bit creepy too. Plus it really is about nothing. Stuff just happens without a clear direction. Definitely glad The Clone Wars fills in the gaps! At least the arena scene is brilliant.
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