Lets talk all things Star Wars

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I will agree with the "relic hunters" being a cool idea. A few old EU novels had Luke looking for Jedi relics, but they never explored it to the extent I would have liked. If they hadn't destroyed Luke, that would have been a great movie where he had his new Jedi out trying to recover Jedi artifacts and then they would have some rival faction trying to stop them or get them first.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I will agree with the "relic hunters" being a cool idea. A few old EU novels had Luke looking for Jedi relics, but they never explored it to the extent I would have liked. If they hadn't destroyed Luke, that would have been a great movie where he had his new Jedi out trying to recover Jedi artifacts and then they would have some rival faction trying to stop them or get them first.

Cool relics like Ancient Sith Daggers shaped like the shattered remains of the Death Star II that one can use to find “the rich stuff” just like One-Eyed Willie’s Coin from The Goonies…

 

[ID10T]

Yeaaah. The dagger bugs me.

It magically points to the wreckage? Didn’t the dagger pre date the second Death Star? It pre-days Rae, so how could it have been constructed?

I think it should have referenced a natural feature such as a mountain or something. At the right time (cue Indy music) one of the suns shines between rocks and illuminated something…

I dunno but referencing the wreckage seems silly to me.

 

[Joek3rr]

Yeaaah. The dagger bugs me.

It magically points to the wreckage? Didn’t the dagger pre date the second Death Star? It pre-days Rae, so how could it have been constructed?

I think it should have referenced a natural feature such as a mountain or something. At the right time (cue Indy music) one of the suns shines between rocks and illuminated something…

I dunno but referencing the wreckage seems silly to me.

I think maybe the blade was modified afterward.

I seem to recall in the BTS stuff seeing some other items they were exploring, that I thought looked cooler than the dagger. But I think JJ wanted a kinda of dagger motif for the Sith Eternal. You have the TIE Dagger and the new Sith logo. And then the Star Destroyers have red paint on the edges, which was supposed to evoke blood on a blade.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

The Ancient Sith Dagger was the least of the stupid concepts presented in ROS…the creators truly outdid themselves and rose to the challenge with that particular project.

 

[ID10T]

The fact it’s a dagger doesn’t bother me. ALLEY nailed my point. It couldn’t work because the DS probably wasn’t built yet when the blade was made. That’s the point.

Get it? Dagger - point. Ha!

 

[blewis17]

The Ancient Sith Dagger was the least of the stupid concepts presented in ROS…the creators truly outdid themselves and rose to the challenge with that particular project.

View attachment 1706631

I just... how do they... I mean, why would anyone...

How does this GET PAST intelligent minds involved in production?! There MUST be a few, right?

JJ: A Sith dagger, that contains the map legend for one of two Wayfinders, and corresponds to location aboard the wreckage of the Death Star II

Production Team Member: Wayfinder? What's a Way... oh, do you mean Sith Holocron?

JJ: Read my lips... W.A.Y.F.I.N.D.E.R. Because it helps you FIND the WAY.

PTM: Do you mean like the Mandalorian cult, who always drones: "This is the Way" ?

JJ: What? No. Is that one of Favreau's stupid ideas?

PTM. Not Sure. But back to the point... How would a dagger be constructed to line up with the tower on the Death Star II wreckage? The wreckage is located in a violent ocean, and over time the tower or any of the surrounding debris is certain to shift in position or collapse, making the dagger useless, so...

JJ: Look, this is not up for TheRPF debate, OK? Go tell the Prop Master to make me a sextant out of a Sith-y looking dagger.

PTM: Well technically, a sextant aligns with certain heavenly bodies to determine latitude and longitude.

JJ: I don't know how I can make this any more simple for you. We need an ancient Sith dagger, used by the Emperor's assassin Ochi to kill the Emperor's first successful clone "son" who happens to look nothing like Sheev Palpatine but was supposed be possessed by the Emperor's spirit, but was not Force sensitive and somehow fell in love and had a daughter named Rey because Palpatine initially decided not to kill him, but the son still (maybe? possibly?) had buckets of Midichlorians and passed a ton of them to his daughter, who was placed into hiding and did not know that her parents were eventually killed by Ochi, and she grew up to be stronger than most of the Jedi that ever existed even though she had no formal training only a few quick lessons by Darth Vader's daughter who was never "technically" a Jedi herself even though she had constructed her own lightsaber and trained with her twin brother but quit at the end and never accepted the Jedi knighthood, and Vader's daughter knew that the force sensitive daughter was a Palpatine all along but never told her because that worked so well when Vader's daughter's adopted parents hid it from her and when Obi-Wan hid her twin brother's parentage from him, but eventually she winds up on a desert planet only a short distance away from Ochi's remains in a subterranean cavern, and finds the dagger and travels to one of the moons in the Endor system but not the same moon where the Death Star II shield generator was located, this is another moon with large oceans and the whole system has hyperspace "holes" that are unstable and so the Death Star II wreckage got pulled into these holes and scattered around different places, and a big intact chunk with both the Superlaser generator and the Emperor's observation tower survived despite being ground zero to a massive nuclear explosion, well this intact chunk landed in this turbulent ocean and so Ochi or someone else stood at a very specific but unmarked spot near the shore and carved/modified the Sith dagger to point to the observation tower, where the second of two Wayfinders is located. Got it?

PTM: I've got a bad feeling about this.

 

[Joek3rr]

I just... how do they.. I mean, why would anyone...

How does this GET PAST intelligent minds involved in production?! There MUST be a few, right?

JJ: A Sith dagger, that contains the map legend for one of two Wayfinders, and corresponds to location aboard the wreckage of the Death Star II

Production Team Member: Wayfinder? What's a Way... oh, do you mean Sith Holocron?

JJ: Read my lips... W.A.Y.F.I.N.D.E.R. Because it helps you FIND the WAY.

PTM: Do you mean like the Mandalorian cult, who always drones: "This is the Way" ?

JJ: What? No. Is that one of Favreau's stupid ideas?

PTM. Not Sure. But back to the point... How would a dagger be constructed to line up with the tower on the Death Star II wreckage? The wreckage is located in a violent ocean, and over time the tower or any of the surrounding debris is certain to shift in position or collapse, making the dagger useless, so...

JJ: Look, this is not up for TheRPF debate, OK? Go tell the Prop Master to make me a sextant out of a Sith-y looking dagger.

PTM: Well technically, a sextant aligns with certain heavenly bodies to determine latitude and longitude.

JJ: I don't know how I can make this any more simple for you. We need an ancient Sith dagger, used by the Emperor's assassin Ochi to kill the Emperor's first successful clone "son" who happens to look nothing like Sheev Palpatine but was supposed be possessed by the Emperor's spirit, but somehow fell in love and had a daughter named Rey before the Emperor could possess him, but the son's midiclorians were so high that he passed a ton of them to his daughter, who was placed into hiding and did not know that her parent's were eventually killed by Ochi, and she grew up to be stronger than every Jedi that ever existed even though she had no formal training only a few quick lessons by Darth Vader's daughter who was never "technically" a Jedi herself even though she had constructed her own lightsaber and trained with her twin brother but quit at the end and never accepted the Jedi knighthood, and Vader's daughter knew that the force sensitive daughter was a Palpatine all along but never told her because that worked so well when Vader's daughter's adopted parents hid it from her and when Obi-Wan hid her twin brother's parentage from him, but eventually she winds up on a desert planet only a short distance away from Ochi's remains in a subterranean cavern, and finds the dagger and travels to one of the moons in the Endor system but not the same moon where the Death Star II shield generator was located, this is another moon with large oceans and the whole system has hyperspace "holes" that are unstable and so the Death Star II wreckage got pulled into these holes and scattered around different places, and a big intact chunk with both the Superlaser generator and the Emperor's observation tower survived despite being ground zero to a massive nuclear explosion, well this intact chunk landed in this turbulent ocean and so Ochi or someone else stood at a very specific but unmarked spot near the shore and carved/modified the Sith dagger to point to the observation tower, where the second of two Wayfinders is located. Got it?

PTM: I've got a bad feeling about this.

Minor correction. Palpatine's clone son wasn't Force sensitive. But anywho.... Moving on....

I thought the better explanation for the debris landing on another moon, would have been that the explosion of DS2 caused rifts in hyperspace. But it still very contrived.

And anyways it would have made more sense to have the dagger or some other device just give a general direction. Like just use the inscription to get them there. The Emperor's throne, and Sith holocron.... I mean wayfinder.... Would have certainly had very strong dark side aura that could have been felt, and followed.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Guys you missed the point, Rey touched it, so it just works. She touches Luke's lightsaber, boom instant Jedi Knight. She touches that dagger and that thing happens. (no idea, refuse to watch it)

 

[Jaitea]

I think the best way to view the Disney Sequels now is by this quote by Steve Coogan

J

 

[Captain Dunsel]

‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: What has gone wrong for the studio behind ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’—and how Disney’s Bob Iger can salvage his $4 billion investment

"Dial of Destiny" is one of the most expensive films ever made and initial reviews suggest it could bomb big at the box office, meaning the match made in heaven risks becoming an albatross around Disney’s neck.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[ID10T]

Can’t read it- I’m not a subscriber to Fortune magazine. Believe it or not.

 

[Psab keel]

The way Lucasfilm has been mismanaged under Disney's ownership will be studied for decades.

 

[blewis17]

The way Lucasfilm has been mismanaged under Disney's ownership will be studied for decades.

Playing devil's advocate here... I'm NOT sure it's purely Disney to blame here. Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney in 2012 for USD $4.05 billion. Remember, Lucasfilm's reputation was superseded by Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but they ALSO were responsible for some less than stellar critical and box office performers.

1979 More American Graffiti
1983 Twice Upon a Time
1986 Howard the Duck
1986 Labyrinth
1988 Willow
1988 Tucker: The Man and His Dream
1994 Radioland Murders
2012 Double Victory: the Tuskegee Airmen at War
2012 Red Tails
1992-1996 Young Indiana Jones (two incarnations)
1999-2005 The Prequel Trilogy
2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I'm not saying that some of these weren't good, and I'm not saying some of these weren't successful. And many of us here have a soft spot for them. But Lucasfilm wasn't pumping out its best on a steady basis, even BEFORE Disney acquired them.

 

[blewis17]

Minor correction. Palpatine's clone son wasn't Force sensitive. But anywho.... Moving on....

Thanks for the correction, edited in my original post.

But I think my point is made. While the retro-specto-scope gives us 20/20 vision of what COULD or SHOULD been done, you were able to briefly pull together more cogent, coherent elements that would have fit better with the overall story and not insult the audience.

At the end of the day, it's space fantasy. Each of the the PT movies made over USD $1 billion (TFA made over $2 billion). So to the Excel number crunchers, the films were successful.

...and I still liked Solo...

 

[Psab keel]

Lucas himself wasn't perfect but he didn't sully his own brand by oversaturating the market or tearing down his audience the way Lucasfilm has since 2015. The semantics of whether it's KKs fault or Disney skirts the point entirely. Since the acquisition there has been more controversy and ill will than there ever has been in the 50+ years of Lucasfilm's history.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Can’t read it- I’m not a subscriber to Fortune magazine. Believe it or not.

Paywall removed, here:

‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: What has gone wrong for the studio behind ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’—and how Disney’s Bob Iger can salvage his $4 billion investment

"Dial of Destiny" is one of the most expensive films ever made and initial reviews suggest it could bomb big at the box office, meaning the match made in heaven risks becoming an albatross around Disney’s neck.

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

‘The Force has left Lucasfilm’: What has gone wrong for the studio behind ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’—and how Disney’s Bob Iger can salvage his $4 billion investment

"Dial of Destiny" is one of the most expensive films ever made and initial reviews suggest it could bomb big at the box office, meaning the match made in heaven risks becoming an albatross around Disney’s neck.

finance.yahoo.com

“The Force has left Lucasfilms,” said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity firm Patriarch Organization, in an interview. “That emotional connection it enjoyed with fans has been damaged.”

Spot on!!!

 

[HeartBlade]

Of course. It's not celebrating war as much as it is acknowledging the necessity of it. If all else fails, you have to do what you have to do. That's true of just about any hero story that involves action. However, saying Star Wars is anti-war is akin to saying a Batman movie is "anti-punching bad guys in the face". It might just be a matter of semantics but, when I hear "anti-war" I think of someone not wanting war even if necessary or justified- i.e., pacifism. I imagine instead of assaulting the Death Star, the Rebels flew in circles around it with picket signs hanging off of their X-Wings lol.

I agree with this sentiment too.

While neither Star Wars nor Lord of the Rings advocate for war or are pro-war (PT has Qui Gon trying to svoid aggression saying he cant fight a war for Padme and the Council are clearly saddened that the clone wars have begun while OT has horror elements of war like the ewoks seeing their dead peers); I wouldnt say they are anti-war in that they refuse war. They are dragged into it and will fight because its necessary but arnt loving and embracing it. Hence why Yoda holds the sentiment that wars dont make one great. While its a theme, its not a central focus in either story imo.

But yikes, that storyboard looks like a group project for a middle school English class that didnt watch the movies and had to whip something up for the teacher in the last 10 minutes.

No main character? Maybe they mistook Lucas’ comment that “Star Wars is actually Anakin’s story” but Luke was the clear protagonist of OT and while less clear, I think Obi Wan was the protagonist and “main character” for PT with Anakin as a constant in the story.

Kind of sad that the story-board doesnt have anything about the hero’s journey, flash gordon or fantasy as a basis given that these are arguably the fundamental building blocks of star wars.

Also weird to put in “weird monsters” when very few show up in ST.

 

[Joek3rr]

(So, I wrote this whole thing up, a little while ago. I have been sitting on it trying to decide if I should post it or not.)

As you guys know I used to be a huge TCW fan. I loved the show. But as late, I found my distaste for the show growing and growing. And I thought I'd write down, and share some of my thoughts.

(But first, a little forewarning, this is going to be long, and probably a bit ranty. Sorry.)

A bit of background, might be needed first. I was a kid when the Prequels were coming out. But very importantly (for this topic.) I experienced the original Clone Wars. I remember seeing the books and comics, and the toys that came from the Clone Wars Multi-media project. I played the games at a friend's house. I read the Republic Commando books. I thought Genndy's micro series was the coolest thing ever. And ARC troopers were freaking awesome!

But by 2008, my intense Star Wars fandom was starting to wane. After all, being a Star Wars fanatic won't get you a girlfriend, I thought.... The last major Star Wars project that really had my interest (until The Force Awakens), was The Force Unleashed project. I listened to the music, I read the book, I day dreamed over the toys. But without a console or a computer to play it on. I never really got to get into as much as I wanted. And then there was TCW. I remember being mildly excited to see a new Star Wars project. Though I hated the 3D animation. But I never got to see the film or the show. So TCW just kinda passed me by.

It wouldn't be until after the big sale, and TCW's streaming on Netflix would I finally get a chance to watch it. Though it took me two tries. My first time, I gave up half way through season 1. Went back later for a second try, and finally made to season 2. At which point I was hooked. It was awesome and seemed to, at a glance fit okay with everything else.... Oh man had I forgotten my EU lore....

But then, last year, as some of you know already. I kinda "divorced" myself from the new continuity. Which at the time I was pretty thoroughly into. After all I saw it as the legitimate true "canon." (What the heck was I drinking??) The catalyst for this change, was a simple picture that showed the two entirely separate Clone Wars projects. As I looked at it, a wave of nostalgia came over me, as I remembered the old continuity. And the Clone Wars that grew up with. At that moment I made the decision to return back to the EU and start reading some of the stuff I missed out on last time.

But as I returned to the EU, something became very very apparent. TCW (2008) does not fit in the EU. Heck it kinda doesn't fit all that well with the films either. But, for all intents on purposes, TCW basically erased the old Clone Wars project. From an entirely different timeline of events. To drastically different characterizations. To the dead characters not being dead, and the alive characters being killed off before they were supposed to have died.... It was a mess. And while there have been some amazing attempts, both official, and fan made, to rectify TCW with the EU. I find it just doesn't work for me.

Which brings me to now. This year, is the 20th anniversary of the Clone Wars Multi-media project. And what have we gotten to celebrate? Hasbro and LEGO are have to decided celebrate the 20th with figures and sets inspired entirely by.... TCW.... Not the original Clone Wars, who's 20th anniversary it actually is. But TCW!

Now credit where credit is due. Hasbro has given us a few figures loosely inspired by the 2003 show. Specifically for Lucasfilm's 50th. But they tend to come off as cheap, half hearted attempts. Captain Fordo, who unceremoniously gets simply called "ARC Trooper Commander" or "ARC Trooper Captain", Has 'an okay' 3.75 figures. But his 6 inch version is a travesty. Ad it's just a repaint of an ARC trooper from TCW! And other figures from the line-up weren't horrible. Though they were all just repaints. And Aayla Secura isn't wearing the correct outfit.

Then there was Hasbro's Gaming Greats. Where they released the whole of Delta Squad from Republic Commando. Cool right? Until you they were just repaints of Hunter from The Bad Batch. And worse didn't bother to use the correct markings from the game. Instead they were painted how they appeared in, you guessed it, TCW....

It's really frustrating. I really used to like TCW. But I continually find myself preferring the old Clone Wars, over TCW. And it's incredibly irritating how it has basically erased, and replaced the original Clone Wars. To the point where they can't even put out some toys for it's 20th Anniversary.