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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
The last one isn’t helped by my distaste for jazz music. I appreciate it’s quite big in Japan, but it’s just discordant noise over discordant visuals.

I do like jazz music in general, but the juxtaposition of free style jazz music with the violent imagery was a very bad idea. It would be like putting the heavy bass music of an action scene in a quiet romance movie or replace the fantastic soundtrack of the Village Bride/ Lost Ones (to remain on Visions) with some heavy metal music. It just doesn't fit.

^^^^ Never saw Gundam: Thunderbolt

Did someone say Gundam: Thunderbolt?!




Especially now that the manga has concluded to have a rather great ending, I'm more miffed than ever that Hathway has taken priority over further animation of Thunderbolt's story.

Forgot to review the rest of these last week. Overall I can't say anything other than the first one hit the highs of Vision 1 for me. They felt more like full episode constructions rather than the OVA shoot the moon madness of the originals. Trigger being so restrained was definitely a disappointment, though I did definitely enjoy the characters and story, it felt very safe.

That might be my overall complaint. The middle 5 episodes are all good, solid, fun episodes with characters I enjoyed and want to see more of, but I probably won't get a chance to so they just kind of are what they are even if they are solid entertainment.

The two at the beginning and end stand out a bit for me. Payback is the standout for me. It's just really good all around. Four Wings would fall into my complaints with the rest if it didn't go wild and silly at the end to make itself memorable. Bird of Paradise was interesting and I do think I would have liked it as the finale.

So that leaves BLACK which hasn't been well received here and while I didn't particularly hate it, as a big fan of this kind of thing I wouldn't say I loved it either. Usually these kind of things build to something or go weird places and change up the music and tone and pacing to make it more of a ride. This one is just kind of 13 minutes of the same themes looping over and over and never takes you anywhere you don't see from the beginning. Its neat, but could have been about half as long and moved up to episode 6 or so as a palette cleanser instead of the finale.

So there’s a new Star Wars pooter game coming “Fall of the Old Republic”.

Since Disney wiped the old EU slate clean, I don’t think it’s been massively clear if that applied to that specific era. We’ve had the odd tease here and there if memory serves, but it’s not an era I’ve any real knowledge of.

Anyone informed enough to tell us what this game might mean for the Old Republic era tales?

It's not a direct sequel to KotOR, but is being made by the same director. I expect they'll aim for a similar vibe while leaving the original characters in the background.

Official Star Wars FB Feed wrote: As Kathleen Kennedy steps down from Lucasfilm leadership to return to producing, Dave Filoni will lead the studio as President and Chief Creative Officer alongside Lynwen Brennan as Co-President. http://lucas.film/6003C0u6F

I await the Weirdo Basement Dwellers Hot Takes.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Official Star Wars FB Feed wrote: As Kathleen Kennedy steps down from Lucasfilm leadership to return to producing, Dave Filoni will lead the studio as President and Chief Creative Officer alongside Lynwen Brennan as Co-President. http://lucas.film/6003C0u6F

I await the Weirdo Basement Dwellers Hot Takes.

We're all weirdos on this forum, and I own a basement, so I'll be your Huckleberry.

1. Kennedy should've been gone like 10 years ago. So powerful that she could only be replaced my two people(see #4)

2. Filoni is the industry safe choice but generally makes puerile content.

3. No clue who Lynwen is, what she's been involved in, what she stands for, what she intends to do, but I hate her already.

4. Are we back to the Rule of Two now? I thought we were in the Power of Many era?

Filoni seems to understand the setting though.

Clone Wars has its moments, sure. I’m a bit forgiving there as it is fundamentally a kids show aiming at a pretty wide age range. But my god it still has some of the best moments. It also did some necessary heavy lifting the prequel movies desperately needed.

Rebels. Again has its moments, but overall felt more focussed and refined. Probably because we’re dealing with a smaller cast and a generally more focussed tale (Phoenix Cell, rather than an entire side’s military)

Resistance I’ll admit I’ve only had the one watch through of. Wasn’t a fan of the art style (far too bright and garish) but I recall it as otherwise cromulent.

The live action stuff has varied. But he’s only been directly involved in Mando (excellent) Ahsoka (love it) Boba Fett (has some cool stuff, but is the sum of its parts) and Skellington Crew (second only to Andor, arguably more accessible for its lighter tone)

So I’d say he’s a safe pair of hands. I can’t find much information at all about Lynwen Brennan. She has a wiki, but no credits on it. IMDB shows credits for Visual Effects on Battleship (which had solid effects) some MCU and Crystal Skull.

Hopefully this at least leads to a more stable slate going forward. Lucasfilm as a whole needs to stop announcing stuff that never comes to fruition. I get it’s far from uncommon for projects to come to nowt in media, and for varying reasons. But when you announce then remove, when others play their cards closer to their chest, it can feel like you’ve no overall plan.

Kennedy supported Andor being made. Filoni apparently isn't keen on that sort of take on Star Wars. I think ultimately it will be a step away from the sort of thing I would want to want.

Andor is superb, but his story in particular is of course done.

Any “in the same vein” series would inevitably draw comparisons. Which given just how damned good Andor is? May be a hurdle.

But I do think the structure can be adopted. Each season of Andor was what, three or four stories woven as a larger narrative. That approach I definitely want more of - and whilst tonally different? Is something we see in Clone Wars in particular. Indeed across its seasons we see Secondary and Tertiary characters return with their own Further Adventures Of.

I do hope Filoni takes a wider view. It’s definitely a good thing that he is a Man With A Plan. Only time will tell if he’s open to letting other creatives interpret said plan in a collaborative way.

Because I don’t think there’s much dispute that the two shows which pushed what Star Wars can be (Andor and Skellington Crew) are well regarded. Not just as Star Wars, but as their own thing too.

Season 1 was much more of a focused story, I feel, building to that moment he is on Luthen's ship again. It was, in the end, Andor's origin story as a revolutionary. There are distinct sections of that, each showing him learning or revealing that next piece of himself that forges him into a revolutionary soldier, both physically and mentally, but also philosophically.

Season 2 was more split into the mini-stories covering the days/weeks in which decades happen in each of the years the series covered. Still building towards the finale, and the inevitable conclusion of Rogue One, but isn't so much Andor's story this time round. He is already fully formed as a revolutionary, he does not need to evolve any more for the fight. So it is instead the wider picture of the fight itself evolving, and his role in that.

It also explored why and how the wider Rebellion grew.

We see Mon Mothma in a sort of bubble. Not exactly one of her own making, but one which still limits her.

We see Luthen take major risks, and possibly going too far in areas.

And it feeds into Rebels, in terms of cells having concerns about the approach and actions of others, which up to Rogue One/A New Hope sees them too divided to form a credible threat.

Andor’s personal journey serves to illustrate how others likely signed up. The Heist he gets away with. Then he’s given effectively life/death (depending on how you look at it) sentence not only for something trivial, but something he objectively didn’t do, on the flimsiest of evidence.

And for me? That’s what really made it work. Andor we know has a certain destiny, but he still serves in the first season particularly as an Every Man. Like his planet Ferrix? If he’d just been left alone? He wouldn’t have gotten involved.

I really like Filoni's work in general though I do fear he leans way too much into Star Wars Street. Curious to see where this goes.

I couldn't see him green lighting something like a series akin to Tour of Duty with an Imperial army outfit fighting rebels. Or anything from the fascist empires point of view. By all means make it increasingly obvious the guys in charge are evvvilll, but plenty of parallels to draw to common human experience and have decision points for surviving characters to desert, join the rebellion, or I guess get ultimately reconditioned into the stormtrooper core.

That’s not far off the plot of Bad Batch though. Especially for Crosshair.

Perhaps but that was done in a cuddle Star Wars style, jedi and all, not really the Andor style of ordinary guys.

 LunarSol wrote:
I really like Filoni's work in general though I do fear he leans way too much into Star Wars Street. Curious to see where this goes.

This times a 1000

Serious question?

What are folk meaning with “Star Wars Street”.

I’ve not encountered that before, but assume it’s a play on Sesame Street. Just not sure in what way.

Genuinely just looking to understand

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Serious question?

What are folk meaning with “Star Wars Street”.

I’ve not encountered that before, but assume it’s a play on Sesame Street. Just not sure in what way.

Genuinely just looking to understand

Basically the tendency for stories to link back to a small set of characters and places. The most notorious of this is just how much happens on Tantooine, which for a planet whose most important feature is the lack of importance, is a regular destination that nearly every character has visited once or twice. It just makes the galaxy smaller rather than letting us explore its endless potential.

Ah cool, thank you

Dave Feloni also just has a tendency to do memberberries as time has gone on. Remember Cade Bane? Feloni members. Remember <obscure character>? Feloni members. Remember Season 1 of The Mandalorian, which was great because of how fresh and new it all was? Paradoxically, Feloni has completely forgotten how to do that.

I'd agree he's not bad exactly, but he's become increasingly so safe it's boring. It just kind of sucks that most often the riskiest things they try with Star Wars are put in the hands of incompetents who promptly screw it up, so the studio just runs back to Feloni asking him to make something safe that'll generate revenue.

Feloni's trick is "Hey! Remember the cartoons? Weren't they great? Here's a live action version!" Who then turn out to be pants.

Perhaps if his first new product has lightsabre duels where people actually die or have limbs lopped off then I might be a convert.

Thing there? Is right now we don’t know who pulled which lever.

Clone Wars has some horrific deaths in it. Including Anakin pressing his lightsaber to someone’s back then igniting it at least once.

Sure, there’s no gore or blood really. But outside of Ponda Baba’s emergency Armectomy from Dr Kenobi? I don’t think we see blood anywhere else? Or particularly detailed wounds in general.

Rebels has a summary execution via decapitation of two Imperial Officers. OK, the actual beheading is just off screen. Because hey, it is a Kid’s Show. But you see the lead up, and hear the sound of lightsaber through flesh, and an ominous double thump.

Skellington Crew sees some poor sod get an eye shot out (which they tank like an absolute boss) in the opening moments.

So I don’t agree Filoni is soft in that regard.

His work on Clone Wars and Rebels in particular are absolute proof he knows how to stick to a narrative plan. Which, when we consider how disjointed the sequels felt? Is something Star Wars desperately needs.

As I said above. I hope he has the sense to allow non-tonally-standard shows like Andor and Skellington Crew to fill in parts of his overall vision. But I’m confident he has, or will have, a grand narrative he wants to see realised.

This will be a day long remembered.

It has seen the end of Kennedy. It will soon see the end of the Rebellion against watchable Star Wars movies ...

So, to be clear, Feloni is hardly the worst offender here. Lucas himself made a mess of things when Episode 1 hit up Tatooine and made C3PO Anakin's hobby kit. The EU was absolutely flooded with Jawas and Sandpeople and Ewoks in places they probably shouldn't be.

Feloni is actually very good at creating new characters and memorable places. Ahsoka, the Night Sisters, the Spectres, Baylon Skoll, Din, Bo, etc are all great additions. I think that's part of what makes things stand out so much when they need to leave a message with C3PO or stop by Tantooine to replace their iconic ship with an N-1.

Oddly, I think part of it is a result of writing his own bubbles that make them feel out of place when they crossover with the wider universe. Perhaps its just how these moments are presented that makes it more irksome, but something about them feels more out of place to me.

Honest question? Is the Feloni spelling deliberate? Like mine of Skellington.

Because Y’know, it then reads as an amusing one.

Really not fussed either way, genuinely curious.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Honest question? Is the Feloni spelling deliberate? Like mine of Skellington.

Because Y’know, it then reads as an amusing one.

Really not fussed either way, genuinely curious.

Not from me. I always forget how its spelled and just copy the post above me.

Feloni gets a lot of credit for pulling things into the main continuity that existed in Legends.

The Mandalorians (beyond Jango being sort of there), the Tie Defender, Thrawn (though there is apparently contention on if Timothy Zahn was involved, the internet says yes and no), Maul being brought back and given a cool ex-Sith storyline.

The problem now is that the "Hey, look at this thing" which was actually cool, is now his own creations or stories, which are decisively less cool for those of us who obviously already knew what those things were and less like a respectful nod to what came before.

The "Tales Of" series is probably the worst offender because it's pretty much just "Dave Filoni's Clone Wars Roundup".

I mean, for Ahsoka I agree. But then, that’s essentially a direct continuation of Rebels.

Her not showing up when Luke is trying to build a new Jedi Order would be….a bit weird. At least after we know she survived the events of Rebels and indeed the entire Galactic Civil War.

In terms of Mando trying to find a Jedi to train Grogu? It’s not like there were a plethora of candidates at that point in the setting. No. It’s not simply Luke or Ahsoka. But with Kanan dying in Rebels, and Ezra being gone, assumed by many dead? I don’t think there are any other named candidates.

And so, whilst there’s nothing stopping a new character being created for that role? You still need to flesh them out.

And outside of the Ahsoka series? It’s pretty much just been straight forward cameos. Which help to draw the whole narrative together as a single galaxy.

He’s also done more than….pretty much anyone, to expand the setting beyond the same handful of planets.