Lets talk all things Star Wars

See, I disagree to an extent. I don't think George's recollections or even his draft scripts really matter for purposes of future storytelling. They can act as points of inspiration, and you can refer back to them to get a sense of "What's this moment here actually mean?" but unless they actually made it to the screen, the elaborate backstory created by....whomever...doesn't really matter, especially if it's just "Hey George, what was your creative process?"

Like, if you have a novel that is supposed to take place between X and Y years, and your subsequent story takes place Z years later, ok, fine, you probably want to at least try not to directly contradict the novel. So if the novel shows [character] dying, and your story requires them to be alive, you need to either change the character, or figure out why they didn't really die and work that into your story....if you actually care (you may not, because your attitude may be "Who really reads the novels? I'm not letting that slow me down.").

By contrast, if you're telling a story and it violates some thing that George said once in an interview from 1998 about how he thought the Force worked...well...who gives a s*** what he said? I mean, sure, include it if you want, but you're definitely not beholden to George's periodic musings. They bear zero weight on the stories you're trying to tell. That's what I'm getting about "they don't matter."

I look at it this way. George's attitudes and musings and stuff are interesting in an academic sense. Like, "How'd we get here?" and "What was your process?" and stuff like that. But George's attitudes aren't holy writ, and just because George thought X doesn't mean that (1) X is a good idea, or (2) X should have any bearing on the current story.
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I don't rank George's earliest ideas the highest. Nor do I put equal weight on them all. I just mean the OT period ranks above the rest of the franchise for the most part, and the main consistent strokes are the most important stuff.


Suppose some author/screenwriter wants to run with the idea that Vader secretly wanted Luke to succeed in the ANH trench battle. Vader wanted the Death Star to get destroyed while he was in his fighter. Hey, it would get rid of many other Empire officials and help consolidate his power, wouldn't it? He already cautioned against "getting to proud of this technological terror" earlier in the movie, didn't he?

No, I'm not on board with that. It just wasn't the creative intent in the late 1970s and it changes some very important character stuff. I don't care if you can find a clip of George saying it once during an interview in 1975, or a line on a notepad he wrote back then - the totality of the creative info from that time paints a different picture.



I am not swayed by appeals that "we can write a good story today if we run with this bit." It recently became useful for the 'Terminator' franchise to whack a certain existing character. They made a whole movie (in fact, an attempted reboot) out of it. But that conflicted with the larger structure of the franchise. You may want to enlarge a bathroom in your house, but you still shouldn't knock out a loadbearing wall to do it.
 
There was an inherent problem with making this a 'franchise' built into the OT. George based every character on an archetype that has spanned storytelling for centuries & had each of those characters involved in the archetypical 'Hero's Journey'. That, IMO, told the story of STAR WARS.

Since then, while making SW a franchise & setting it in the same universe, almost EVERY CHARACTER that one could come up with, even a wholly original one, will still fall into one of the previous archetypes, & therefore be considered a lesser version of an OT character.

A friend & I were talking a couple days ago about fandoms in general & I had a thought...

What if everyone could agree that 'STAR WARS' was simply the story told in the OT, including & ESPECIALLY the creators. All the other stories could then be told in their own way, in the same universe, but without having to follow a 'formula' & hopefully be free from the 'NOT MY STAR WARS' fans who are valid in their opinion.

If we could take it like the Tolkien 'verse, many were first exposed to it with the LOTR films. Now it's understood that The Hobbit & The Simirillian are in that world, & can be loosely connected, but they're still taken as individual stories. I know that's not the best example because that was mostly coming from one author, but I meant it more as a concept.

I hope that makes sense.
 
CT1138 said:
At the same time, these are all things that the majority of the fandom wanted. They wanted to know what Boba was up to post-RotJ. The fandom wanted the Ahsoka/Sabine duo show where they're searching for Thrawn and Ezra. They wanted Ewan McGregor back as Obi-Wan. The fandom also wanted to see TCW finished out, and got that.

The fandom vocally shows support for these things, but then complains when they get them.
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Well if they would just do what we want there wouldn't be a problem! :lol:
 
CT1138 said:
Funny enough, Leia ended up running black ops missions for the Rebellion, while Luke piddled around a dirt farm with his head in the stars.
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Mixed feelings...merit and fault.

Exactly, Luke came from nothing, a farmer in the middle of nowhere vs. Leia who grew up the daughter of a well to do Senator who was a leader/founder of the rebellion. Of course Leia was running black ops missions, she had great guidance. Luke had Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Owen who outwardly discouraged Luke from being anything more than a farmer. Lukes appeal was that he was basically a nobody, no formal training in heroics, yet still did great things with his life. That potential which Obi-Wan saw was always there. Leia could've been a great Jedi in the OT had that occurred but I have doubts she'd have been able to redeem Anakin. Luke had a massive advantage there, no real father and a longing to have one. Leia ended up being more of a diplomat than a Jedi. So in those senses Yoda was very off.
 
It's impossible to please everyone through every piece of content. Even here we all have such varied ideas and opinions about what could, would and should be done. Imagine trying to write a SW show or film that just RPF members would love...good luck.

IMO it's foolish to try to reconcile that by making all content mass appeal. I assume most of the new films and shows will be more of the same but perhaps they might benefit from changing their approach. Although the Visions show seems to be not my cup of tea (that multi blade lightsaber umbrella/staff is absolutely ridiculous), it is different from the usual SW fair and I give them credit for trying something new.
 
A movie or series of movies can be cultural milestones without constant reinvention. When something is timeless it means that it speaks to the human condition. In that way it lives forever because it speaks to people no matter what time they live in. Fans want to immortalize this movie series by seeing it constantly "fixed" or continued.

Do fans really want Star Wars to live forever? Life has meaning in part because it's brief. Stories are the same. I'd much rather it mean something than have it live on in medioctrity. I really don't understand the obsession with wanting more.

I think what we really crave is the way it inspires us. It was meant to be a vehicle to drive young people to go after something meaningful. Instead it's bred a generation people who think it's the end itself rather than the means. Has Star Wars inspired you to do something or go after something in the last few years, other than to consume more of it? Because if all it's doing is driving your thirst to consume, then it's no longer art.
 
Psab keel said:
A movie or series of movies can be cultural milestones without constant reinvention. When something is timeless it means that it speaks to the human condition. In that way it lives forever because it speaks to people no matter what time they live in. Fans want to immortalize this movie series by seeing it constantly "fixed" or continued.

Do fans really want Star Wars to live forever? Life has meaning in part because it's brief. Stories are the same. I'd much rather it mean something than have it live on in medioctrity. I really don't understand the obsession with wanting more.

I think what we really crave is the way it inspires us. It was meant to be a vehicle to drive young people to go after something meaningful. Instead it's bred a generation people who think it's the end itself rather than the means. Has Star Wars inspired you to do something or go after something in the last few years, other than to consume more of it? Because if all it's doing is driving your thirst to consume, then it's no longer art.
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Bigdaddy said:
I was only half joking, I've heard of the WBW and wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it was trotted out to engage in some lazy story telling.
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I’m very anti WBW.. even though it brought back my favorite character it truly wasn’t needed to bring her back..
 

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