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Who doesn't love Muppets? :lol:

I'll never intentionally try to get banned here because I love this community and the amazing friends I've made here, but there are times when I'll post a thought and I just imagine the Mods waiting.....

thor-hammer.gif
 
I found this recap to be extremely helpful regarding Ashsoka’s (and related characters) past…
So I forgot about this video, and then just remembered. So I watched it....and wow. Really only knowing mainly about the movies and just a little here and there type stuff, I'll be honest. The whole Clone Wars stuff sounded completely lame and just pure stupid. I almost just wanted to stop watching, but forced myself to finish. Space whales that create light speed???? How dumb can this possibly get?
Back years ago I had heard they were bringing Darth Maul back, saying he survived. I was never a fan of that, and I hold to that. Keeping him alive waters down that whole battle in Episode I.
I guess the way a lot of people really hated the midichlorians and how that changed the whole view on the force. Or even telling more about Boba Fett's past, taking away the mystery waters down his character.
It looked like there was some cool stuff and characters of course, but just way to much dumb stuff in the way. By watching that 30 min break down of the story, I really do not think I could get through the Clone War stuff.
I'll just stick with the 6 movies as the true canon, and everything else as some other alternate universe. But not like Mavel's multiverse stuff, where they can interact with each other. I never cared for that type stuff either.
 
The clips I've seen are painfully bad. Like my brain shuts off trying to watch because it feels so hollow, but people assume I have to like anything with that logo on it because I'm a fan. Having to explain to people where my interest lies (in casual conversation) is a chore because they assume if it's Star Wars, I must like it. So I try and avoid the subject because it's not worth getting into, or changing the subject to something more interesting. Fandom today is essentially brand loyalty and I'm not loyal to any brand. I got over that as a teenager. I just enjoy great fiction. It's really as simple as that.

I tried watching CW because people rave about it but I could barely get through an episode because the writing bored me. Rebels didn't hold any appeal either and this show is Filoni’s CW 3.0. It's all lore and iconography in place of story. The problem with Star Wars is that no one seems capable of committing to endings. No one dies that doesn't get resurrected. No one gets mortally wounded that doesn't survive. Everyone is related to a Skywalker or knew one personally and they retread the same events only to change the context and meaning of those events in the process, which robs it of any agency whatsoever. The same plots. The same themes, both narratively, musically, and visually.

For a series that prides itself on being infinitely vast, the amount of repetition is staggering. The same characters show up or need to in order to maintain the audience's interest. Notice how viewership spikes when Anakin or Luke show up? The reason for that is because those stories are the most interesting and the best developed ones in the series. Getting a glimpse of them brings on "the feels" and thats all it takes to make some people happy. It takes more than recognition to tell a story. Far more. But they rely on the central characters to maintain long term interest, often using them to prop up the new characters who are barely fleshed out.

I've come to realize that most SW fans are obsessed with the trappings and the story is secondary. It doesn't matter to them if continuity is broken, or if the same characters show up endlessly, despite their stories being long over. As long as it's got a recognizable element it's "good." In almost 50 years no one has been able to venture outside the known enough to revolutionize the franchise in a way that truly brings it out of its complacency. It's just continuation after continuation.

So I checked out a long time ago. I'm aware of the broad strokes of the series but I can't get into plot specifics because I don't have enough motivation to bother watching hours of this stuff. I'm only here because of my love for those original stories and to hang out with the friends I've made here. Maybe build some cool stuff along the way and outdo myself with each build, both in terms of accuracy and challenging myself creatively.

Despite what some think, my identity isn't wrapped up in Star Wars. It's a part of my life and work, but being the "Star Wars guy" within social circles is almost an annoyance because it's always around. It's like I can't get away from the association with brand loyalists. I'm not about that.
 
The clips I've seen are painfully bad. Like my brain shuts off trying to watch because it feels so hollow, but people assume I have to like anything with that logo on it because I'm a fan. Having to explain to people where my interest lies (in casual conversation) is a chore because they assume if it's Star Wars, I must like it. So I try and avoid the subject because it's not worth getting into, or changing the subject to something more interesting. Fandom today is essentially brand loyalty and I'm not loyal to any brand. I got over that as a teenager. I just enjoy great fiction. It's really as simple as that.

I tried watching CW because people rave about it but I could barely get through an episode because the writing bored me. Rebels didn't hold any appeal either and this show is Filoni’s CW 3.0. It's all lore and iconography in place of story. The problem with Star Wars is that no one seems capable of committing to endings. No one dies that doesn't get resurrected. No one gets mortally wounded that doesn't survive. Everyone is related to a Skywalker or knew one personally and they retread the same events only to change the context and meaning of those events in the process, which robs it of any agency whatsoever. The same plots. The same themes, both narratively, musically, and visually.

For a series that prides itself on being infinitely vast, the amount of repetition is staggering. The same characters show up or need to in order to maintain the audience's interest. Notice how viewership spikes when Anakin or Luke show up? The reason for that is because those stories are the most interesting and the best developed ones in the series. Getting a glimpse of them brings on "the feels" and thats all it takes to make some people happy. It takes more than recognition to tell a story. Far more. But they rely on the central characters to maintain long term interest, often using them to prop up the new characters who are barely fleshed out.

I've come to realize that most SW fans are obsessed with the trappings and the story is secondary. It doesn't matter to them if continuity is broken, or if the same characters show up endlessly, despite their stories being long over. As long as it's got a recognizable element it's "good." In almost 50 years no one has been able to venture outside the known enough to revolutionize the franchise in a way that truly brings it out of its complacency. It's just continuation after continuation.

So I checked out a long time ago. I'm aware of the broad strokes of the series but I can't get into plot specifics because I don't have enough motivation to bother watching hours of this stuff. I'm only here because of my love for those original stories and to hang out with the friends I've made here. Maybe build some cool stuff along the way and outdo myself with each build, both in terms of accuracy and challenging myself creatively.

Despite what some think, my identity isn't wrapped up in Star Wars. It's a part of my life and work, but being the "Star Wars guy" within social circles is almost an annoyance because it's always around. It's like I can't get away from the association with brand loyalists. I'm not about that.


For me, it’s really simple. STAR WARS is the artistic expression of a single filmmaker and his collaborators. His six films ARE the story. ARE the art. Everything else is ancillary and tangential, but enjoyable (or not) to varying degrees.

So, STAR WARS ended on May 19, 2005. I never warmed to TCW, since it began retconning things from the start, and felt completely redundant. We’d already had the real-time (and far superior) Clone Wars Multimedia Project from 2002-2005.


And now they’re deperately playing to nostalgia (after burning through OT nostalgia) by milking both the PT and TCW. Plus letting Baloney Filoni get to have his way with the lore however he wants. Predictable and sad.
 
In talking with certain people, it's become evident to me, that for them Star Wars has only ever been about the trappings. The parts rather than the whole. I liken it to a well cooked meal. A great cook can take the simplest items and use them to make something delicious and that's entirely based on the skill/ knowledge of the chef. The reason I started eating the food is because it was cooked well and seasoned just right. The problem is that a lot of people like eating the raw ingredients and don't understand why they get food poisoning. They're just happy to be seated at the table, despite feeling nauseous the entire time. For them, eating raw chicken is better than going hungry.

Keep in mind, any digs I make are at the chef. Not the guests. I don't understand why eating raw food would be appealing, but it's their choice and if they're happy, by all means eat up. For me, I know a good meal when I eat it and I'm just as happy to eat elsewhere when the chef sucks at his/ her job.
 
Psab keel I do feel a bit insulted by that chef comparison. You may not realize it, but you are digging at the guests, suggesting we prefer nausea. As someone who likes Clone Wars, Rebels and Ahsoka, I don't feel like I'm getting "food poisoning" at all. It seems very gatekeep-ish to associate nausea and food poisoning with what is simply a different preference. It's like saying "only traditional Star Wars is healthy. The rest is poison if not prepared the way I say it should be."

You might consider your analogy more along the lines of having a new chef with different sensibilities, throwing in a bunch of new ingredients in ways that only some people like. Some people prefer the greatest hits. I think Favreau's "Chef" movie is a great analogy for this, as I think it was an allegory for his Iron Man 2 experience. So if you can call me nauseous and food poisoned, I can call you Dustin Hoffman. :D
 
In talking with certain people, it's become evident to me, that for them Star Wars has only ever been about the trappings. The parts rather than the whole. I liken it to a well cooked meal. A great cook can take the simplest items and use them to make something delicious and that's entirely based on the skill/ knowledge of the chef. The reason I started eating the food is because it was cooked well and seasoned just right. The problem is that a lot of people like eating the raw ingredients and don't understand why they get food poisoning. They're just happy to be seated at the table, despite feeling nauseous the entire time. For them, eating raw chicken is better than going hungry.

Keep in mind, any digs I make are at the chef. Not the guests. I don't understand why eating raw food would be appealing, but it's their choice and if they're happy, by all means eat up. For me, I know a good meal when I eat it and I'm just as happy to eat elsewhere when the chef sucks at his/ her job.

Something else that should be very simple, yet so many have difficulties with: STAR WARS was expressly designed to convey traditional morals, meanings, and messages to a young audience. In a “here’s how people should conduct themselves in a civilized society” way, rather than the agendas and propaganda which The Mouse now pumps out.

And yet a good percentage of the audience only sees the surface level of flashy effects and spaceships and lightsabers.

Or, at worst, they get the WRONG things out of it, like “fighting is bad and Jedi are nonviolent, because Luke threw down his saber in ROTJ”, and “the Jedi are the bad guys because the Empire came to power on their watch”.
 
Or, at worst, they get the WRONG things out of it, like “fighting is bad and Jedi are nonviolent, because Luke threw down his saber in ROTJ”, and “the Jedi are the bad guys because the Empire came to power on their watch”.

I do think that people should be permitted to take what they want from a piece of entertainment without being called wrong. That's the beauty of sci-fi in its purest form: it sets up a straw man argument about someone else so that people can have healthy discourse about humanity.
 
I do think that people should be permitted to take what they want from a piece of entertainment without being called wrong. That's the beauty of sci-fi in its purest form: it sets up a straw man argument about someone else so that people can have healthy discourse about humanity.

Every good film is a message in a bottle. But not everyone receives it.

There’s a difference between getting different talking points from a piece of media to discuss and debate, and getting completely the wrong and/or opposite messages out of it, ones which were absolutely never intended by the artist.

See also: Insipid fan-theories which have absolutely nothing to do with the filmmakers’ intent, and are just fans projecting and/or writing they story they WANT to see. “The Empire was right”, “Darth Jar Jar”, etc.


STAR TREK used to tell people TO think, by showing different points of view on allegorical social problems. Now, it just tells people WHAT to think.

And STAR WARS told a traditional morality tale which affirmed basic human virtues and morals, like family, friendship, individualism, and compassion. Now, it pushes the propaganda of a megacorporation and its political allies.


These powerful storytelling tools created by talented people have been misappropriated by corporations and untalented hacks. And the results speak for themselves. Division, discord, and cratering profits and viewership.
 
Gregatron I don't disagree really with any of your points about the content itself. It has suffered. And agreed, the facts in the toy aisle do speak for themselves. Where I take issue is that your words seem to also pass judgment on the people who take the "opposite messages" willingly, and make it their own. At the end of the day for me, it doesn't matter what the original intent was; what matters is what I take from it. Don't call me wrong or "food poisoned" about it (I know, that was psab keel); that's gatekeeping.

The last several posts have been harsh judgments of the current state of Star Wars and its makers. Fair enough; I respect those opinions, and agree with some of them. But in the last couple of posts, I feel some of you are judging ME based upon how I choose to see it.

I would respectfully ask that you direct your opinions and judgments back to the subject, and not the people who disagree.

Thank you.
 
Psab keel I do feel a bit insulted by that chef comparison. You may not realize it, but you are digging at the guests, suggesting we prefer nausea. As someone who likes Clone Wars, Rebels and Ahsoka, I don't feel like I'm getting "food poisoning" at all. It seems very gatekeep-ish to associate nausea and food poisoning with what is simply a different preference. It's like saying "only traditional Star Wars is healthy. The rest is poison if not prepared the way I say it should be."

You might consider your analogy more along the lines of having a new chef with different sensibilities, throwing in a bunch of new ingredients in ways that only some people like. Some people prefer the greatest hits. I think Favreau's "Chef" movie is a great analogy for this, as I think it was an allegory for his Iron Man 2 experience. So if you can call me nauseous and food poisoned, I can call you Dustin Hoffman. :D

Keep in mind, any digs I make are at the chef. Not the guests. I don't understand why eating raw food would be appealing, but it's their choice and if they're happy, by all means eat up. For me, I know a good meal when I eat it and I'm just as happy to eat elsewhere when the chef sucks at his/ her job.

I haven't seen Chef, so I can't speak directly to that analogy, but I can infer your meaning.

Gatekeeping would be me preventing you from watching Ashoka. Nothing I say is stopping you from watching it. I've never hidden my preferences with any of you here, so this shouldn't come as a surprise that I dislike certain content. Expressing frustration over not understanding the appeal is nothing new for me. I'll never understand, and perhaps that's my fault for engaging when I know it's never going to click for me. I'm just stating my opinion that I don't understand why fans enjoy Filoni/ or Disney Star Wars. You're not wrong for liking it. I don't understand it, but it doesn't make you wrong. I can agree to disagree.

Perhaps my metaphor was hyperbolic and came across as snobbish. I apologize.

My issue is with Lucasfilm since 2012. Always has been.
 
I haven't seen Chef, so I can't speak directly to that analogy, but I can infer your meaning.

Gatekeeping would be me preventing you from watching Ashoka. Nothing I say is stopping you from watching it. I've never hidden my preferences with any of you here, so this shouldn't come as a surprise that I dislike certain content. Expressing frustration over not understanding the appeal is nothing new for me. I'll never understand, and perhaps that's my fault for engaging when I know it's never going to click for me. I'm just stating my opinion that I don't understand why fans enjoy Filoni/ or Disney Star Wars. You're not wrong for liking it. I don't understand it, but it doesn't make you wrong. I can agree to disagree.

Perhaps my metaphor was hyperbolic and came across as snobbish. I apologize.

My issue is with Lucasfilm since 2012. Always has been.

Fair points, all, thank you. I think what I meant about gatekeeping (while your definition is technically correct), is the more perceived definition where people feel like they are blocked/ostracized/insulted if they like/dislike certain aspects that the majority likes/dislikes.

I realized I also fell into the trap of name-calling in that respect. No one here is a gatekeeper. I'm hoping we don't go there, and I apologize for raising hackles too. :)
 
And for anyone who hasn't watched "Chef", it is a wonderful movie, and I highly recommend it. When viewed as Favreau's Iron Man 2 experience with studio meddling and his search for independence afterward, it does seem to touch base on him finding his "purpose" with The Mandalorian (season 3 notwithstanding). So it is related to this thread!

(But that is my own interpretation...it's not implicit in the movie at all.) :)
 
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