Films and TV (Untagged spoilers)

Sinekein wrote:I finally went on to finish the first season of The Mandalorian. It's not that I did not like the first one, but it felt really episodic so it had not grabbed me yet. Each episode looked like it was paying a homage to some classic movie tropes - the Seven Samurai episode, the caper episode, the duel episode, etc.

It kept being good until episode 7, but the last two were the ones that finally hooked me. More accurately, it's the eighth one that did the trick, as it was spectacularly better than what came before from beginning to end. The pre-title sequence was glorious, the acting was great, the dialogues were great, the directing was great - everything was excellent.

So I hope season 2 stays the way season 1 ends. Not that one random, homage episode once in a while is bad, but I don't think it should make up the bulk of the story.

Well, Season 2 over and it indeed was better than the first if only because the main story arc is more prominently displayed, which helps the various episodes feel more cohesive. Better pacing too, and once again a fantastic finale, although I wish one major plot point was solved before the credits rolled - the one about a weapon.

This shows reminded me of SW8 in how well it sets the stage for its great action sequences, because 8 did the opposite of that. I still absolutely think that the new trilogy's issues have next to nothing to do with Rey and the "agenda" she supposedly brings with her, and everything with how weak they are storytelling-wise. In 8 they crammed I don't know how many plot twists within two hours and a half, which made every new one feel weaker than the previous, while here, the buildup towards the final action sequence is absolutely perfect. You know that something is going to happen, the music tells you so, the plans tell you so...but still it feels awesome.

Maybe the NT's biggest problem is that they did not know whether they had to be respectful of the codes (7) or innovative (8) which makes the whole feel like an incoherent mess. The Mandalorian is just filled to the brim with homages to the SW canon and to movie codes in general, but it understands all of those so well that it works. In itself it has very little in the way or originality, but when you master your craft to that degree, it does not matter.

Now, this was the first show in line, several more have been announced. I think that the writers will need to take some risks going forward because as good as Mandalorian was, you can't build a universe on nostalgia alone, you need to bring something more - but if they are all as well-made as this one their lack of audacity should be forgiven for a while.

Postby **Mazder** » December 30th, 2020, 1:14 pm

Sinekein wrote:Well, Season 2 over and it indeed was better than the first if only because the main story arc is more prominently displayed, which helps the various episodes feel more cohesive. Better pacing too, and once again a fantastic finale, although I wish one major plot point was solved before the credits rolled - the one about a weapon.

This shows reminded me of SW8 in how well it sets the stage for its great action sequences, because 8 did the opposite of that. I still absolutely think that the new trilogy's issues have next to nothing to do with Rey and the "agenda" she supposedly brings with her, and everything with how weak they are storytelling-wise. In 8 they crammed I don't know how many plot twists within two hours and a half, which made every new one feel weaker than the previous, while here, the buildup towards the final action sequence is absolutely perfect. You know that something is going to happen, the music tells you so, the plans tell you so...but still it feels awesome.

Maybe the NT's biggest problem is that they did not know whether they had to be respectful of the codes (7) or innovative (8) which makes the whole feel like an incoherent mess. The Mandalorian is just filled to the brim with homages to the SW canon and to movie codes in general, but it understands all of those so well that it works. In itself it has very little in the way or originality, but when you master your craft to that degree, it does not matter.

Now, this was the first show in line, several more have been announced. I think that the writers will need to take some risks going forward because as good as Mandalorian was, you can't build a universe on nostalgia alone, you need to bring something more - but if they are all as well-made as this one their lack of audacity should be forgiven for a while.

Gonna spoiler this, just in case;

► Show Spoiler

Postby **Alienmorph** » December 30th, 2020, 2:03 pm

Well, the reception of the second season of the Mandalorian, especially the last episode and the one with Ahsoka have really shown a lot of the faults of the Sequel Trilogy, and also that so long as new characters are well made and old ones are treated with a modicum of respect a lot of the so called "toxic fans" all of a sudden disappear. Not all of them, Star Wars had rabbid fans long before social media blood sports were a thing, but a lot of the b.s. narratives surrounding the reception the Sequel got proven wrong by this show. And apparently the people within Lucasfilm who are loyal to K. Kennedy and her "vision" for the IP aren't really happy about it. Hopefully that doesn't cause more drama and more "subverting of expectations", but... yeah...

Me personally, I'm just happy to see some good Star Wars stuff first and foremost, tho I'd definately rooting for the "let's dismiss the Sequels as a just a possible future and not THE future of Star Wars" option.

Postby **TTTX** » December 30th, 2020, 2:24 pm

Alienmorph wrote:Well, the reception of the second season of the Mandalorian, especially the last episode and the one with Ahsoka have really shown a lot of the faults of the Sequel Trilogy, and also that so long as new characters are well made and old ones are treated with a modicum of respect a lot of the so called "toxic fans" all of a sudden disappear. Not all of them, Star Wars had rabbid fans long before social media blood sports were a thing, but a lot of the b.s. narratives surrounding the reception the Sequel got proven wrong by this show. And apparently the people within Lucasfilm who are loyal to K. Kennedy and her "vision" for the IP aren't really happy about it. Hopefully that doesn't cause more drama and more "subverting of expectations", but... yeah...

Me personally, I'm just happy to see some good Star Wars stuff first and foremost, tho I'd definately rooting for the "let's dismiss the Sequels as a just a possible future and not THE future of Star Wars" option.

yeah let's not forget the bullying of the child actor that played Anakin (he was basically bullied out of being an actor) and the guy who played Jar Jar in Phantom Menace. Toxic fans can be a problem, however calling everyone who disagree with you a toxic fan or worse doesn't make anyone looking better.

well if the rumors are to be believed the KK loyalists are trying to plan to release novels and such to bring Luke back to he was reduced to in TLJ. Assuming that's true, it means the civil war is far from over.

Postby **Alienmorph** » December 30th, 2020, 2:35 pm

Oh noes, not novels! Not the things they already enstablish it's okay to ignore when they took over and collectively shrugged off as non-canon all the old EU novels lol

Idiots, had they focused on creating stuff rather than demolishing what they were handled now we wouldn't be having this conversation.

And yeah, what happened to the Phantom Menace crew, especially Jake Lloyid and the guy playing Jar-Jar in particular (his name is a bit of a mouthful, sorry I can't recall it on the spot) was absolutely despicable. Never understood why people think it's okay to shit on an actor for the faults of a character, but then again I like to believe I'm a functional person, so maybe that's why I don't get it.

Postby **TTTX** » December 30th, 2020, 3:52 pm

Alienmorph wrote:Oh noes, not novels! Not the things they already enstablish it's okay to ignore when they took over and collectively shrugged off as non-canon all the old EU novels lol

Idiots, had they focused on creating stuff rather than demolishing what they were handled now we wouldn't be having this conversation.

And yeah, what happened to the Phantom Menace crew, especially Jake Lloyid and the guy playing Jar-Jar in particular (his name is a bit of a mouthful, sorry I can't recall it on the spot) was absolutely despicable. Never understood why people think it's okay to shit on an actor for the faults of a character, but then again I like to believe I'm a functional person, so maybe that's why I don't get it.

Let's be honest it's the only weapon they have at this point.

Well in their own minds their new characters (like Rey) can't shine if they are being outshined by the old characters so they have to destroy them or do something like what happened with the new She-ra, where someone takes the skin of an old property and put that skin on their own OC to get their own show some people like that or well some people don't (I haven't watched the old or newer show so I can't comment on how true it is, however the main creator have come out and said she doesn't care for the old show so take that for what you will).

I don't get it either, then again people can also go ape shit when people are cast in certain roles, like Ben as Batman in BVS but he turned out fine at least giving the materiel, but both Man or Steel and BVS suffered from the same problem Zack isn't a good writer and 2 he doesn't understand the characters like at all, after all he likes watchmen simple because it has sex and violence in it and he said wanted Batman to be rape in prison stuff like that which says a lot about the kind of guy from a creative prespective.

Postby **Sinekein** » December 30th, 2020, 3:56 pm

Mazder wrote:But I will say that the sequel trilogy could have been great with the cast and characters and the problems solely lie with directors and writers.

...

I am just honestly preferring anything Dave Filoni does/is connected to in a controlling role as he seems to be doing well with Star Wars.[/spoil]

That sums up my opinion quite well. The main issue with the new trilogy is that it lacked creative freedom, there were so many people who decided that this or that should be crammed into the story that the end result suffered a lot.

However, when you let someone do his thing, you're not guaranteed to get a hit but at least you give him the time to reach the point s/he wants. TCW was not 100% great from end to end but it did some things wonderfully (like Ahsoka's character development).

In all honesty, I think Rian Johnson could actually make a great Star Wars movie...but it would have to be his story, not the one everyone expects him to tell. He is great at playing with expectations as long as he's in control of the story - it does not work when he's doing that with something he obviously hasn't written himself. Give him some side material to have fun with, like Marvel did when they handed James Gunn the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Alienmorph wrote:Well, the reception of the second season of the Mandalorian, especially the last episode and the one with Ahsoka have really shown a lot of the faults of the Sequel Trilogy, and also that so long as new characters are well made and old ones are treated with a modicum of respect a lot of the so called "toxic fans" all of a sudden disappear.

Maybe I'm old, but I remember Ahsoka being treated like shit like Rey when she first appeared. It's funny to see that now she is the standard-bearer for characters with amazing story arcs in the Star Wars universe considering what initial opinions on her were.

I would also say that The Mandalorian showed way more than "a modicum" of respect towards old characters. Luke and Ahsoka got great scenes, but those were fan wet dreams that ran almost entirely on nostalgia fuel, way closer to worship than respect. And it's fine, honestly, because the NT mostly failed to do the same. But even if there is a ton of SW content, there's only so much you can do by playing with nostalgia, at some point you need to bring something new. Mandalorian has done that really carefully, hopefully the next shows are a bit more audacious.

In that regard I have more hope for Boba's. I will love to see the Ahsoka one (especially since contrary to what I've read online, I really liked how she looked and had no issue with her makeup), but it is really likely to go hard into "let's please Thrawn fans" mode - and considering how difficult to please they are, I doubt the writers will be super bold.

Postby **Alienmorph** » December 30th, 2020, 4:37 pm

I would actually compare Ahsoka a lot more to Luke, as in they both started out as a bit of unlikeable brats, except that initial phase for Ahsoka was stretched over the first season and a half of the second Clone Wars show, plus folks were pretty hostile at the idea of Anakin Skywalker having a padawan whos story ran completely parallel and offscreen from the main series. But she definately got better and better over time, and she's a pretty good example of how a good writer can turn around even bad/flawed characters.

Also yes, I'm pretty curious to see what they'll do with the Boba Fett show. It has the potential to be very fun if they go full on gangester wars but with Hutts and mandalorians and all kinds of freaky aliens. Plus they've got the OG Mulan watching Boba's back, that's pretty neat.

Postby **TTTX** » December 30th, 2020, 5:02 pm

Alienmorph wrote:Also yes, I'm pretty curious to see what they'll do with the Boba Fett show. It has the potential to be very fun if they go full on gangester wars but with Hutts and mandalorians and all kinds of freaky aliens. Plus they've got the OG Mulan watching Boba's back, that's pretty neat.

I wouldn't be surprise if it turns out Boba Fett had a daughter at one point and she is either working for the villain or is the villain because he abandon her or something like that and she dies and leaves her own daughter behind who he then takes care of.

I think something similar happened in legends if I read the wiki right and well their are somewhat taking from legends so it wouldn't to far fetched, I think.

Postby **Mazder** » December 30th, 2020, 5:39 pm

Sinekein wrote:That sums up my opinion quite well. The main issue with the new trilogy is that it lacked creative freedom, there were so many people who decided that this or that should be crammed into the story that the end result suffered a lot.

However, when you let someone do his thing, you're not guaranteed to get a hit but at least you give him the time to reach the point s/he wants. TCW was not 100% great from end to end but it did some things wonderfully (like Ahsoka's character development).

In all honesty, I think Rian Johnson could actually make a great Star Wars movie...but it would have to be his story, not the one everyone expects him to tell. He is great at playing with expectations as long as he's in control of the story - it does not work when he's doing that with something he obviously hasn't written himself. Give him some side material to have fun with, like Marvel did when they handed James Gunn the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Yes, he works because you let him build.
Ahsoka being one of the fan favourites is a testament to how Filoni's team plays you like a damn fiddle and you LOVE IT!
And, yeah, Ahsoka's character development is 100% a growth and the only, ONLY downside I can give the live action version is the costume difficulties, which are understandable. That and the jarring effect of not hearing the animated voice.

Honestly, I'd like to see him write a side story film or series, just to see what people see in his directing style. Because TLJ really left a sour taste in my mouth after it essentially just shat on a lot of lore. Yeah TroS did it too but it was kinda just left with a dead puppy and told to make a family pet out of it. Kinda hard to do, even if they, y'know, tried.

Sinekein wrote:Maybe I'm old, but I remember Ahsoka being treated like shit like Rey when she first appeared. It's funny to see that now she is the standard-bearer for characters with amazing story arcs in the Star Wars universe considering what initial opinions on her were.

I would also say that The Mandalorian showed way more than "a modicum" of respect towards old characters. Luke and Ahsoka got great scenes, but those were fan wet dreams that ran almost entirely on nostalgia fuel, way closer to worship than respect. And it's fine, honestly, because the NT mostly failed to do the same. But even if there is a ton of SW content, there's only so much you can do by playing with nostalgia, at some point you need to bring something new. Mandalorian has done that really carefully, hopefully the next shows are a bit more audacious.

In that regard I have more hope for Boba's. I will love to see the Ahsoka one (especially since contrary to what I've read online, I really liked how she looked and had no issue with her makeup), but it is really likely to go hard into "let's please Thrawn fans" mode - and considering how difficult to please they are, I doubt the writers will be super bold.

Oh Ahsoka was absolutely destroyed by fans when she first came onto the scene.

For me it's kinda like seeing someone just reverse age. It's weird.
This is where she was;

And this is where she is.

It's just kinda odd to have one form and then the other.
And I get it, the fight scenes would not have been as possible if we had the original look but then I look at the droids in the exact same scenes she's in and I just gotta wonder why they couldn't have entertained the idea, but also I then remember they probably used most of their CGI budget on de-aged Mark Hamill. And, yes, it's him in the scene apparently.

Postby **Alienmorph** » December 30th, 2020, 5:48 pm

TTTX wrote:I wouldn't be surprise if it turns out Boba Fett had a daughter at one point and she is either working for the villain or is the villain because he abandon her or something like that and she dies and leaves her own daughter behind who he then takes care of.

I think something similar happened in legends if I read the wiki right and well their are somewhat taking from legends so it wouldn't to far fetched, I think.

I'd also be curious to see more of the Hutts, it's been ages since we had a new Hutt character, and I would imagine calling dibs on Jabba's old territory would be tempting for a few of them. Granted making a new full size slug mobster would be expensive, but not over Disney's paygrade, even now.

Postby **Dragaros** » January 1st, 2021, 1:54 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY6L7o-R3FU

Postby **Dragaros** » January 1st, 2021, 1:55 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L70JQtxW5rU

Postby **Dragaros** » January 1st, 2021, 1:55 am

Postby **Dragaros** » January 1st, 2021, 1:55 am

Thomas the Tank Engine is getting a gritty reboot...? WTF?

Postby **Dragaros** » January 1st, 2021, 1:55 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDtgEwoUUes

What a backlog of films in the bag for 2021: Dune, The King's Man, No Time To Die, Godzilla vs Kong, Top Gun: Maverick, Mission Impossible 7, Fast and the Furious 9, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Halloween Kills, Matrix 4, Candyman, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals, Space Jam 2, Uncharted, The Suicide Squad, A Quiet Place 2, Mortal Kombat, Morbius, Venom 2, the upcoming Tom Holland Spider-Man 3... and a bunch more I can't remember at the moment.

Postby **Sinekein** » January 1st, 2021, 10:49 am

Alienmorph wrote:I'd also be curious to see more of the Hutts, it's been ages since we had a new Hutt character, and I would imagine calling dibs on Jabba's old territory would be tempting for a few of them. Granted making a new full size slug mobster would be expensive, but not over Disney's paygrade, even now.

It's almost a guarantee we will see at least one Hutt trying to reclaim Jabba's turf. It's likely a Bib Fortuna would just act like he is a placeholder with no real ambition so the Hutts wouldn't care about him, but Boba? Probably not.

Mazder wrote:It's just kinda odd to have one form and then the other.

And I get it, the fight scenes would not have been as possible if we had the original look but then I look at the droids in the exact same scenes she's in and I just gotta wonder why they couldn't have entertained the idea, but also I then remember they probably used most of their CGI budget on de-aged Mark Hamill. And, yes, it's him in the scene apparently.

Ahsoka in The Mandalorian was probably some kind of test to see how well the character could work in live action. Filoni and Favreau got a ton of creative freedom, but I doubt an astronomical "Lekku CGI" (or whatever the name is for Togruta) bill would have made Disney happy.

Since her new show has been highlighted, it's likely they are working hard to find ways to improve them because it will be a real focus of the show, not some side content for one episode. Some TV series can have utterly brilliant CGI despite being in a budget - I dare people to watch Orphan Black and find out, when several clones are on screen, which one is played by Tatiana Maslany, and which one is played by a body double with her face superimposed.

And OB probably had a fraction of the budget Ahsoka will have.

------

Totally unrelated but Pixar's Soul is utterly brilliant and was the perfect "last movie of 2020" because it is really hopeful (despite its theme). It also hit way closer to home than Inside Out (which I also adore) because the themes are much more universal. It's melancholic, but in a way that makes you feel warm inside.

It's also something no other studio could ever dream of making, which proves that Pixar still has "that spark" others are lacking (even if some of them are quality too).

Postby **Alienmorph** » January 1st, 2021, 2:00 pm

Sinekein wrote:It's almost a guarantee we will see at least one Hutt trying to reclaim Jabba's turf. It's likely a Bib Fortuna would just act like he is a placeholder with no real ambition so the Hutts wouldn't care about him, but Boba? Probably not.

That's my thinking too. Either Bib was able to hold Jabba's turf for a bit because he was the "chamberlain" of the big slug, but a random mandalorian bounty hunter showing up like he owns the place? That's not gonna stick.

Also, come to think of it, what ever happened to Jabba's son?

Postby **TTTX** » January 1st, 2021, 3:26 pm

Alienmorph wrote:Also, come to think of it, what ever happened to Jabba's son?

We don't know, what has happened to him.

We haven't seen him since the The Clone Wars movie I think.

Postby **Sinekein** » January 1st, 2021, 7:33 pm

IIRC Hutts age very slowly so he's probably still a kid at that point. Jabba was an adult at 604, so I doubt his son would go from baby in TCW - when Ahsoka is 14 - to adult in the Mandalorian.

Postby **TheodoricFriede** » January 3rd, 2021, 2:45 am

For a brief beautiful moment, The Mandalorian was Star Wars. And I could honestly say I was a fan of Star Wars...

And then it just became the port that launch the new Star Wars cinematic universe and I am soooooooooooo out.

Postby **Alienmorph** » January 3rd, 2021, 5:56 am

I can very much understand that sentiment. But there's just too much money to be made with good Star Wars content... and the were gonna try to pull the whole cinematic universe trick no matter what, becase it worked out too well with Marvel for the Mouse to not try to double down.

Doesn't change the fact that we got something that felt like live action Star Wars for the first time since the buyout tho. It's a small victory, but one we didn't have up 'till a few weeks ago.

Postby **Alienmorph** » January 3rd, 2021, 12:01 pm

Just finished to watch Alien Worlds on Netflix. It's not... bad. But it's not great either. The footage of the titular alien worlds is really well made and while there isn't anything too unique in terms of creature design, thei're all pretty interesting and relatively plausible. Too bad there's like 5 minutes of speculative aliens per episode, and everything else is "But on Earth... " aaaand cut to some very basic bitch explanations of the kind of basic concepts anyone who's interested in speculative evolution and biology would already know...

Watch it if you have a casual interest on the subject, if not, just go look for a compilation video of the alien worlds footage on YT and save youreself some time.

Also the final episode makes a whole plead about using the Arecibo telescope to try and contact aliens near-full time. Which considering that the thing now has fallen apart, makes it a very sad note to end...

Postby **magnuskn** » January 3rd, 2021, 1:20 pm

As long as the actual material is good (which it definitely was, IMO), I don't care if they launch new series off it. At least that makes it at least feasible that they'd decanonize the shit sequel trilogy one day.

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:34 pm

So I finally got around to watching Soul, Birds of Prey, and Wonder Woman '84.

Soul was very enjoyable. A lot of heart, a lot of creativity, beautiful animation, the jokes landed, well handed mature themes, nice music, and likable characters. I feel like they could have gone further on pulling on the emotional strings of the narrative and character arcs though; this feels like a story that should have made me cry(in a good way), but it never did. Not the top tier of Pixar movies, but still very good. Very much recommended.

Birds of Prey was terrible, and an insult to all the characters present therein, but especially to Cassandra Cain. (And as a huge Cass fan, that really cuts deep.) No wonder there were so many memes saying the Sonic movie was better all those months ago.

WW84 was a big disappointment for me, I'm sad to say. I really enjoyed the first WW film, and I wanted to enjoy this, but I could not. While better than Birds of Prey, that's not saying much. A bitter blunder of a film. Also, Cheetah feels like she was wasted here.

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:34 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KykWHFc1yx8

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:34 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHuXKguRsSo

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:35 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3pA8rKAYek

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:35 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUL0xwEbkJs

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:35 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf6IM7jBryM

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:35 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjLnk8YriCQ

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:35 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MPiRAJu1J8

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:36 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj8pnPdYwWw

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:36 pm

https://twitter.com/waxworkrecords/stat ... 5443178499

Postby **Dragaros** » January 5th, 2021, 5:36 pm

Postby **Alienmorph** » January 5th, 2021, 6:25 pm

And apparently now Kathy Kennedy is freaking out and trying to get Jhon Favreau fired, so she's the only cock in the Star Wars chicken coop again. lol good luck with that... the producer that destroyed Star Wars vs the guy who kickstarted the MCU? Yeah, if she somehow pulls is off, she won't be able to brag about it for long.

Postby **TTTX** » January 5th, 2021, 6:56 pm

Alienmorph wrote:And apparently now Kathy Kennedy is freaking out and trying to get Jhon Favreau fired, so she's the only cock in the Star Wars chicken coop again. lol good luck with that... the producer that destroyed Star Wars vs the guy who kickstarted the MCU? Yeah, if she somehow pulls is off, she won't be able to brag about it for long.

Well we haven't heard her contract being renewed so it's not like she will stay with the company for long (even if it gets renewed she has pretty much lost all her power to do anything and Disney really need the money and extreme bad political crap for brownie points that makes next to no money isn't going to cut it) and she is getting up there in years.

Postby **Alienmorph** » January 5th, 2021, 7:12 pm

Well originally she was supposed to leave at the first opportunity, after the Rise of Skywalker final debacle, but with half of Hollywood going down in flames because of the pandemic, she's reportedly going to try to remain onboard and have things done her way for as long as possible. I wouldn't bet on her succeeding, since even her latest project, the High Republic cross-media retcon seems likely to be a dead on arrival thing. But she's still a powerful woman working in Hollywood, so she probably have some strings left to pull, unless the Big Mouse gets really mad.

Postby **FrozenShadow** » January 6th, 2021, 4:22 pm

Alienmorph wrote:And apparently now Kathy Kennedy is freaking out and trying to get Jhon Favreau fired, so she's the only cock in the Star Wars chicken coop again. lol good luck with that... the producer that destroyed Star Wars vs the guy who kickstarted the MCU? Yeah, if she somehow pulls is off, she won't be able to brag about it for long.

Yeah, Favreu not only started the whole billion dollar MCU franchise, but he is also part of a duo that made Star Wars profitable again (Just look at the Baby Yoda (grogu) popularity and toy sells and now Luke Skywalker figure sells, not to mention Disney+ subscriber increase).

And considering the huge financial problems that Covid had caused to Disney as a whole, they absolutely can't afford to let KK stay in power or lose someone like John Favreu.

Postby **Sinekein** » January 6th, 2021, 6:28 pm

I looked into this feud. It mostly makes sense, the original source seems to be a Disney insider. But almost all content is posted just by one youtube channel who seems to have dozens of videos of the topic, and is (from the little I watched, I am not that interested into Disney's inner debates) always mentioning "leaks" that only he knows about. I really wish I had other ways to learn about this that this Youtuber that seems to have a vested interest in milking that topic until it's dry - it's literally most of his content at this moment.

Postby **Alienmorph** » January 6th, 2021, 6:38 pm

There's a few people on YT milking this situation, that's pretty clear, yes. But some of the people reporting on it have proven to have reliable sources multiple times, and there really seems to be a major disconnect in tone and ways of telling a story if you compare, say the Sequels to the last season of Clone Wars and the Mandalorian, and we know they were handled by a whole lot of different teams. So, news outlets biases aside, it still seems at least like a plausible scenario.

Postby **Sinekein** » January 7th, 2021, 12:38 pm

Yeah, but what bothers me is that, whether true or false, it just basically screwed over that other TV show The Acolyte.

It might be horrible, it might be good, it might be average, no one knows yet but with it being branded as "KENNEDY'S PERSONAL POWER TRIP" it is highly unlikely that it will be fairly evaluated. All those who buy the Favreau v Kennedy civil war will watch it with a negative mindset and will look for every single possible flaw that will fit that narrative.

All that because of behind-closed-doors rumors some Youtubers are milking for views. And it's a shame because on paper it sounds more interesting than the one about a bunch of clone troopers, universe-wise.

Postby **TTTX** » January 7th, 2021, 1:03 pm

Sinekein wrote:Yeah, but what bothers me is that, whether true or false, it just basically screwed over that other TV show The Acolyte.

It might be horrible, it might be good, it might be average, no one knows yet but with it being branded as "KENNEDY'S PERSONAL POWER TRIP" it is highly unlikely that it will be fairly evaluated. All those who buy the Favreau v Kennedy civil war will watch it with a negative mindset and will look for every single possible flaw that will fit that narrative.

All that because of behind-closed-doors rumors some Youtubers are milking for views. And it's a shame because on paper it sounds more interesting than the one about a bunch of clone troopers, universe-wise.

it depends on the people KK hired, you can have the most interesting premise in the world, but execution can really bring it down and let's be honest KK isn't a great creative mind, the only reason she even runs Lucas film right now is basically because well George gave her the job because I imagine he expected her to well protect his ideas (as we know he did make a outline for the new trilogy, but that got thrown out with her approval), which she didn't, in fact it seemed like she either went out of her way to destroy the old SW characters or she is just an incompetent who can't do anything without with a creative mind doing her work for her and I don't know which is worse.

Postby **Sinekein** » January 7th, 2021, 1:43 pm

You can hire the best people in the business and end up with crap, or something utterly forgettable. And you can also have people with bad reputations doing something good. Point is, you can't know in advance.

But if half the viewers watch this show with a knife between their teeth looking for every opportunity to ruin it, it won't matter. Even if it's good, the slightest mistake will be vilified to the extreme.

What bothers me is that it's pitting Favreau v Kennedy and, how to put it...if it was Dave Filoni, I would understand why people are so attached to his independence because he is passionnate and original, but Favreau is ~~not~~ a great writer. He is great a creating successful universes, and he is superb when it comes to regularly producing decent-to-good stuff, but he's lauded as if the MCU was the greatest thing ever and I really don't think it is. Its success ratio is roughly one really good movie for 3+ mediocre/forgettable ones with enough quips to make people forget that they already saw the same movie five times already. His last four movies as a director were Cowboys v Aliens, Chef, Jungle Book and Lion King. I have not seen Chef, but I think there is more originality in one Quentin Tarantino's fart than there are in the other three put together.

If Star Wars fans are satisfied by it and do everything in their power for him to become the new person in charge, boy howdy. We will get clones of The Mandalorian, pun intended, until the end of times.

Who is online