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[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
I think they could’ve leaned more into Boba deciding to break the cycle.
It is touched on in the show, yes. But kinda glossed over. He’s not going to be the ruthless overlord, but a protector. Tattooine has not formal police force, so he’ll be that force.
Tribute is then arguably closer to tax. A way not to line some fat git’s pockets to stop him burning down your business, but to collectively fund some kind of justice system.
One of my main issues is the weird juxtaposition between the original teaser (the one no-one expected) where he and Shand just cut through Fortuna’s goons. And them suddenly being a bit more softly softly.
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It's a victim of Disney pushing the streaming platform strategy and needing to churn out content in volume. This was originally a film script that was part of the planned line of "A Star Wars Story" films that got shelved when Solo didn't land. It just doesn't have enough story to fill out a TV show and what story they have is stretched so thin you can clearly see the long stretches of nothing (and two episodes of the Mandalorian) shoved in to fill time. It's one of the worst examples of quantity over quality from the Disney+ era that likewise derailed the MCU.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
Watching Kenobi again. Still enjoy this show.
But it’s also got me thinking about what appeals so much to me about the stories set between Episodes III and IV.
Specifically, it’s getting to see just how The Empire secured its stranglehold on the galaxy. It didn’t go from Democracy straight to Fascism. Sure, it was always pretty authoritarian, and the groundwork for that being “necessary” was of course the Clone Wars. Where the Republic was edged ever further away from a rational, functioning democracy to the point where “to be strong we must give Palpatine lots of power”.
But even then? There was a careful escalation. Likely very important in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars, as there were a lot of capital scale warships from both sides. If you pushed too quick, too soon, any opposition could go a-plundering and end up with a sizeable fleet fairly quickly.
Instead the escalation is Frog In Water. Slowly turning up the heat with the final notch being Deathstar, and the ability to obliterate any given troublesome planet. By which point it was, theoretically, implausible for anyone to stand against you given the threatened consequence.
And that of course was the absolute zenith of The Empire. After it dissolved the Senate and destroyed Alderran, the mask was off. Only for its best toy to be taken away immediately after, and with it its ultimate sanction.
It was also one hell of a bloody nose. Absolute, irrefutable truth that Resistance Isn’t Futile. That you aren’t invincible. That even a handful of warriors in the right place at the right time can defy you and your best laid plans. And with more folk than ever seeing it for what it truly was, and so joining the Rebellion? It never truly recovered.
Bloody good fun!
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BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
"Vulkan: There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age." "Ferrus: Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?" "Vulkan: I do not understand the question."
– A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs
First few episodes of Maul are good. Kind of nice seeing a Star Wars show with a different vibe, new characters and a different sort of conflict. Here's hoping it doesn't become another Star Wars Street show and Maul actually does crimes and gak unlike that other 'crime lord' show they tried a few years back XD
LunarSol wrote: Maul seems pretty good. Feels very much like the sequel to something I didn't watch though. Enjoying it overall, even if I'm not the biggest Maul fan.
Is it still a kids show like rebels?
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
"Vulkan: There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age." "Ferrus: Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?" "Vulkan: I do not understand the question."
– A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs
LunarSol wrote: Maul seems pretty good. Feels very much like the sequel to something I didn't watch though. Enjoying it overall, even if I'm not the biggest Maul fan.
Is it still a kids show like rebels?
It's a little edgier but still very much a kids show. Same animation studio that's done all the SW stuff. Probably mostly in line with the Tales of stuff. Maul kills but it always cuts away to a decidedly PG-13 angle.
LunarSol wrote: Maul seems pretty good. Feels very much like the sequel to something I didn't watch though. Enjoying it overall, even if I'm not the biggest Maul fan.
Is it still a kids show like rebels?
It's a little edgier but still very much a kids show. Same animation studio that's done all the SW stuff. Probably mostly in line with the Tales of stuff. Maul kills but it always cuts away to a decidedly PG-13 angle.
Thank you.
Some people were making out to be something different. Glad I checked. I don't want to go in with different expectations.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/04/09 19:13:43
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
"Vulkan: There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age." "Ferrus: Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?" "Vulkan: I do not understand the question."
– A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs
I'd say the tone of Maul more closely matches the finale season of Clone Wars (where he last appeared chronologically before this show) than Rebels. More serious. Still family friendly in that it avoids graphic non-fantastical violence most of the time and harsh language or anything sexual, but it's less restrained in having serious stakes and risks of death or injury or emotional damage.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/04/09 21:33:36
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
Episodes 3 & 4 are really cool.
For those bored of Maul? You could always tell yourself the story is about Random Other Sith Lord? Because if “not Maul again” is why you’re not watching, whilst entirely fair enough, the story here is an interesting one.
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LunarSol wrote: Definitely more interested in the story with the latest episodes. Just imagine if Book of Boba was this interesting.
Or Andor.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/04/14 16:27:49
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
"Vulkan: There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age." "Ferrus: Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?" "Vulkan: I do not understand the question."
– A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
Rewatched Phantom Menace before watching Maul Shadow Lord (which so far is really good).
Phantom Menace, was not. I understand the scorn the Disney films have gotten but I do not get the sudden nostalgia for Lucas' prequel films. Without Dave Filoni's Clone Wars they would be irredeemable. And Phantom Menace is the worst of the lot.
The flaws are well known and we've had 25 years to talk about intergalactic currency trading, midiclorines and Jar Jar Binks so I want to add something new.
One thing that got me in the rewatch was that the humans of Naboo are clearly settler-colonists driving the Gungan's into the swamps and the seas. It gives their gorgeous cities and palaces a creepy new light. And the fact that peaceful-looking Naboo has an intricate system of decoy queens and keeps some blasters hidden in the throne implies that quite a few Queens have been knocked off over the years. Gungans seem obvious culprits.
With Darth Sideous in the shadows this could be an interesting angle, he may have engineered this conflict as part of some plan within plans. Maybe the Gungans were framed. Maybe Maul's been busy stirring up paranoia. Maybe Naboo isn't as nice a place as it seems.
So Boss Nass (the big toad dude) ending the film holding up a trophy and yelling PEACE! and Naboo getting a Gungan senator might be a lot more significant than they seemed.
Shmi's Skywalker's birth can also be seen in new light after Rise of Skywalker (don't hate me!). I always liked Dark Horse's Dark Empire comic and thought it was the best Return of the Jedi Sequel (I hated Heir to Empire) so for me Palaptine clones and reincarnation were always a natural development. So maybe he was planting seeds around the galaxy for years (nothing gross, cloning and IVF are things you know) in backwater planets no one cares about. Maybe a retcon too far? Better than a virgin birth...
It would also close the plot hole of how did Darth Maul find Padme (assuming no one responded to the transmission). Palaptine knew because he keeps tabs on his experiments. Or maybe he just bugged the ship.
The fact that the Gungans have a large land based standing army and are clearly amphibian also leads into the idea of them being driven into the depths a long time past.
I get the feeling that like a lot of SW, its not that this lore was never considered; it fails because its just never shown. The original 3 films got away with this because we didn't know anything else at the time. The more films they release with that similar pattern the more the holes appear because now we do know a lot more and we ask questions as viewers that the films can't fill in (or do so poorly).
Pretty sure the SW Galactic Battlegrounds game dips into the whole idea of the Gungans being driven away by the Naboo and its talked about in some lore/coffeebook art books here and there.
My impression is that at the time of Phantom Menace the two factions are essentially at the end of a really long cold war situation. The geographic separation allowing each to flourish in their own way; but both still very much aware the other is around and thus having to keep a standing army. The fact that its been such a long period of time and that the Naboo have the surface I think led them to weakening their armed forces. With how quick the Droids took over you get the impression that whilst the Naboo had an army, it wasn't a culture built around war nor holding a huge standing army (it feels more ceremonial but that might be a by product of is basically only seeing royalty and the royal city during the film*)
So yes I agree the Peace at the end is a huge thing for both factions as they leave a cold war period and black market trade between the two and enter a more open peaceful relationship.
I think it gets overlooked purely because of Jar Jar being a comic relief character on the extreme.
I've debated in the past that he should have been a progressive "end cold war" politician driven out because of his pushes toward uniting the two factions whilst the Royalty of both were stuck in the "old ways". Meanwhile, at least the Gungans, were building an army to one day retake the surface whilst the Naboo were steadily moving away to intergalactic trade.
Thus giving a reason why Jar Jar would be exiled but not killed by his own people (could even make him minor royalty); and why the Gungans would have a large enough standing army to take on the Droids.
I even theorized that one neat way to give Naboo as a planet agency in the senate later (esp the Gungans) since its basically a backwater world. Would have been to have had the Gungan Shields be a revolution. A quietly developed tech that beats out so many others and thus becomes a key part of uniting the two factions as the Naboo provide the opportunity for the tech to be sold and shipped on the galactic level (also leaves a super cool dark tone for Return of the Jedi to have the Death Star shielded by a super-gungan sheild)
*certainly the Trade Federation landed a stupidly massive armed force on the planet so there might well have been a much grander standing army which was simply overwhelmed to the point of instant surrender.
Keeping in mind that the end-fight is just 1 trade vessel and a holding army not the full blockade of the vast majority of the TF's might we see at the start of the film.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2026/04/19 10:07:34
I don't have enough power on my phone (it's only at 92%) to go on my Kamino Saber Dart Rant.
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
"Vulkan: There will be no Rad or Phosphex in my legion. We shall fight wars humanely. Some things should be left in the dark age." "Ferrus: Oh cool, when are you going to stop burning people to death?" "Vulkan: I do not understand the question."
– A conversation between the X and XVIII Primarchs
It occurs to me the Tuskan Raiders/Sand People are similar. Clearly they're meant to be 'savage injuns' but if they're the indigenous people of Tattooine things take on a different light.
[DCM]
Chief Deputy Sub Assistant Trainee Squig Handling Intern
If we look to the weapons and technology used by the Gungan army? It may be the Naboo had denied them “proper” weapons.
I mean, cultural weapons are a thing in Star Wars (Gaffi Sticks, Lightsabers, Bowcasters to name but three) that’s true.
But blasters and formal field artillery are far from rare or unaffordable. And we know from seeing their city that Gungans aren’t some primitive also-rans, nor presumably short of a bob or two to buy “proper” weapons.
If we’re right about the Naboo being colonisers that’ve driven the Gungans out? I can definitely see “and you’re not allowed actual weapons, because we say so”.
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