[Cause]

I thought it looked cool, and since the only weight of a lightsaber is the handle its not necessarily a problem. Though the two blades are aligned so it has no greater cutting power in such an orientation, it would just drain the battery twice as fast but no one has ever reloaded their light sabre so who cares. It seemed like a cool way to have a sword staff combo, although Ventres's two separate sabres that can join in the middle is probably the superior idea. We also need to ask if a staff sabre would ever be better than two sword sabres?

Anyway the only real problem I see in the new sabre is that it kind creates an on rail bind of another sabre down to chop your hand off. Although excepting kylo rens sword with a cross guard that's a problem that every sabre has.

[QuickTidal]

So the TROS poster was made by photographing a fucking TOY of the Emperor. That's why the top image of him looks so hinky.

 TROS poster.jpg (72.6K)
Number of downloads: 0

My gods, I'd say I that I expected so much more out of a multi-billion $ company on the swan song film of their mismanaged trilogy for the poster...but honestly, considering they 100% straight up STOLE the SOLO poster designs from Sony music compilations (which was way worse and way more obviously stolen)

 solo posters.png (248.72K)
Number of downloads: 0

Sufficed to say, fuck the Lucasfilm Marketing Department for being lazy thief fucking hacks.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 28 August 2019 - 12:55 PM

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

BfuckinK, on 04 September 2019 - 07:14 PM, said:

I hope one day to see a choreographed out the ass turned up to fucking 11 dual lightdagger wielding motherfucker going all stabby stabby on some other motherfuckers one fucking day in one of these fucking movies.

Hear me out...

Three words:
Jedi.
Serial.
Killer.

[worry]

Not while Disney owns it, I'd wager. Maybe I'm wrong, since I was surprised to see heads (or more likely just helmets) on pikes in the Mandalorian trailer, but Disney+ has already pre-cancelled a show for going too dark. And they have a strict No Rated R rule for anything appearing on Disney+, which every single Star Wars thing is bound to be.

[Morgoth]

Maybe the success of Deadpool have opened their eyes to the money to be found in r-rated projects.

[Traveller]

Well presumably Disney plus will be streaming Rebels and Clone Wars?

There are some nice cold murders and beheadings right there.

[Abyss]

I've seen toddler backyard plays with better choreo.

Clone Wars and Rebels did get nicely dark late in their respective runs, but a handy thing about lasers and zap swords for Disney is the near complete lack of blood. It's easy enough for the parent to say the dead guy is 'just sleeping'. Rebellion's abbreviated run is a pretty good indicator that dropping the violence and plot too far down to the kiddie level doesn't fly unless you're going full Lego.

I was under the impression Mandy is being marketed as an adult (or at least 'older audience') series.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 06 September 2019 - 02:16 PM, said:

I've seen toddler backyard plays with better choreo.

In fact, this is the exact Obi-Wan VS Maul duel choreo from TPM done very badly and repeated with a few flourishes over and over. This is not fencing. They just are Ross and Monica doing "the routine"...LOL

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 06 September 2019 - 03:30 PM, said:

Abyss, on 06 September 2019 - 02:16 PM, said:

I've seen toddler backyard plays with better choreo.

In fact, this is the exact Obi-Wan VS Maul duel choreo from TPM done very badly and repeated with a few flourishes over and over. This is not fencing. They just are Ross and Monica doing "the routine"...LOL

Star for the Friends ref.
What's painful are the points where one of them completes a 'strike' and stalls in mid air waiting for the parry.

And i ack there is no good reason for it, but the two color two-sider bugs me.

[Abyss]

I figured this was intermission filler or an opening act.

[Tsundoku]

Abyss, on 06 September 2019 - 02:16 PM, said:

I was under the impression Mandy is being marketed as an adult (or at least 'older audience') series.

Oh Mandy well,
you came and you gave without taking,
but I sent you away.
Oh, Mandy well,
you kissed me and stopped me from shaking,
and I need you today. Oh, Mandy!

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 06 September 2019 - 06:19 PM

[QuickTidal]

Disney CEO Bob Iger's memoir has dropped some SW bombshells and ruined an entire cottage industry of Sequel Trilogy Believers theories. Note, some of this may get into the weeds, so stick with it only if you care.

Back when Disney shareholders were being sold the idea that The House of Mouse was going to buy Lucasfilm from George Lucas he said this (on a shareholders earnings call):

What we're buying is – along with the overall company – is a pretty extensive and detailed treatment for what would be the next three movies, the trilogy. We're going to release the first of those three in 2015 and then the expectation is that we'll release numbers two and three, which will be numbers eight and nine of the overall franchise, probably on a cadence of every other year and then go from there. But we've got a lengthy treatment that comes with this that we feel really good about and the film is in what I'll call early-stage development right now.

But the book reveals that this was a ruse/half-truth he told them to sell them on the buyout and not stymieing the deal as Lucas was reluctant to let go without some form over overseeing (he was upselling those outlines while knowing he wasn't about to use them):

I also knew we couldn’t spend this money and do what George wanted, and that saying that to him would put the whole deal at risk. That is exactly what happened. We agreed to a price quickly, but then we negotiated back and forth for several months over what his role would be. It was difficult for him to cede control of the ongoing Star Wars saga, and it made no sense for us not to have it. We went over and over the same ground—George saying he couldn’t just hand over his legacy, me saying we couldn’t buy it and not control it—and twice walked away from the table and called the deal off. (We walked the first time and George walked the second.)
At some point in the process, George told me that he had completed outlines for three new movies. He agreed to send us three copies of the outlines: one for me; one for Alan Braverman; and one for Alan Horn, who’d just been hired to run our studio. Alan Horn and I read George’s outlines and decided we needed to buy them, though we made clear in the purchase agreement that we would not be contractually obligated to adhere to the plot lines he’d laid out.
It was an upcoming change in capital gains laws that eventually salvaged the negotiations. If we didn’t close the deal by the end of 2012, George, who owned Lucasfilm outright, would take a roughly $500 million hit on the sale. If he was going to sell to us, there was some financial urgency to come to an agreement quickly. He knew that I was going to stand firm on the question of creative control, but it wasn’t an easy thing for him to accept. And so he reluctantly agreed to be available to consult with us at our request. I promised that we would be open to his ideas (this was not a hard promise to make; of course we would be open to George Lucas’s ideas), but like the outlines, we would be under no obligation.

So there it is in plain black and white that not only did Disney discard the outlines George drew up, but lied/fudged the facts about it to make sure not to rock the already rocky "Lucasfilm deal" boat. And that's fine. I get where Iger was coming from...why would Disney buy Lucasfilm without a certain level of freedom from oversight of its creator. It should be CLEARLY noted that George was not out of his gourd to ask for this...since this type of deal is EXACTLY the one that Pixar got when Apple and Jobs sold to Disney...Iger just played hardball and refused George the same deal...a deal which it needs to also be noted was Iger's FIRST accomplishment when he boarded Disney as CEO in 2006 in turning around the Disney brand (which had been flagging under Eisner)

He also made him sign a non-disparagement clause:

 Non-dis.jpg (71.06K)
Number of downloads: 0

Which I mean...for anyone who ever tried to peddle the whole "The people associated with Disney Star Wars films have no real problem with them" bent on this...this proves that out as nonsense since I 100% guarantee if George had this clause in his contract for the sale, then you can bet your bottom dollar that all the actors and crew did too. Which is likely why Hamill expressed his discontent initially and loudly, and then not only had to reframe that, and walk it back a bit, but was forced onto an apology tour with Rian and Ram too...


And the book finally goes into what George actually thought when he was shown TFA before it came out:

Just prior to the global release, Kathy screened The Force Awakens for George. He didn’t hide his disappointment. “There’s nothing new,” he said. In each of the films in the original trilogy, it was important to him to present new worlds, new stories, new characters, and new technologies. In this one, he said, “There weren’t enough visual or technical leaps forward.” He wasn’t wrong, but he also wasn’t appreciating the pressure we were under to give ardent fans a film that felt quintessentially Star Wars. We’d intentionally created a world that was visually and tonally connected to the earlier films, to not stray too far from what people loved and expected, and George was criticizing us for the very thing we were trying to do.
EDIT to add: Iger says this with a straight face while the fact that TFA was super fast tracked beyond the writers and creatives comfort levels to get it out soon after the sale as it could be...rushing caused a lot of the ST issues (not the least of which was JJ and Rian not collaborating on the story/plans)...as did JJ's clear desire to remake ANH.

TL;DR: So anyone trying to sell the nugget that the ST is somehow what George had always intended with the continuation of the story? Not accurate. In fact he feels betrayed.

Oh, and in before someone comments on the news report from a few months back when Lucas was discussing what he'd have like to have explored in the Sequels where he mentioned dipping keeping into the Force and Midichlorians and such (imagine S6 Yoda's journey in TCW with those force beings) for a deeper dive...as that is one aspect of what might have been explored, and is certainly not what the core of the movies would have been about. The media took that comment and ran with it as if it was that if Lucas had his way with the Sequels they'd have been Star Wars: Adventures in the Midichlorian Realms....instead of what he meant which was probably more along the lines of: The Thrawn Trilogy (reimagined) that ALSO deep dove into the Force.

Lastly, and somewhat unrelated. The theory that Galaxy's Edge Disney park is not flailing and doing poorly...which Disney have been peddling for months...is now revealed as BS as one of the main people involved in it has been sacrificed (I say this as I don't think this failure is at all her fault) to the Disney gods after a now admittedly poor or at least unhealthy Park Numbers game. What blows my mind is how this would/could have been a knock it out of the park success if they'd not constrained it to ST- canon stuff ONLY. No OT or PT stuff at all...not even Vader FFS, or Han on the Falcon (though they are apparently replacing Kylo [the only ST character we know who actually appears there] to be replaced with Vader now). The idea that they could make a success of a huge Disney Park that depended on nothing from the 40+ years of fandom to sell it...but the weak Vader Fanboy Ren and some New Canon plots...and one ride...is laughable. Anyways, expect the OT and PT material and aspects to move into the park to save it from its current doldrums, because it cannot exist as it is and expect to make the money it requires to stay/get solvent. Catherine Powell leaving is evidence enough of that.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 24 September 2019 - 05:27 PM

[the broken]

Why release this now? It's just an obstacle for TROS now.

[QuickTidal]

Tie-in bullshit to the Disney park of the same name,

[Tavvar]

I just started listening to the Thrawn Trilogy again on Audidble, it is *so* much better than the Sequal Trilogy movies. I've enjoyed the new movies, but they've got nothing on the storytelling of Thrawn, KOTOR, the X-Wing books, etc, so I'm still disappointed. I'll watch IX, and I'm hoping the newer stuff will be better now that they have time to plan the story going forward. But I'm not hopeful...

The New Republic vs Imperial Remnant was so much more interesting than Resistance (stupid name) vs First Order.

[QuickTidal]

In today's issue of "I told you so":

Rian Johnson - who has been replying for more than two years now that his SW trilogy is happening; like seriously, he said something as recently as a few months ago that it was still on the cards - has been (behind the scenes according to the same Disney insider who blew the whistle on Galaxy's Edge underperformance and ITS behind the scenes struggles with management) told by Disney Legal that he is no longer allowed to straight up answer/say that his trilogy is still happening...

As such, when asked yesterday about it...this was the answer he gave:

“We’ll see, I’ll be thrilled if it happens.”

AKA It’s not happening, and Disney has told him he can’t keep saying it will/is happening. (<-----I would wager this is a mandate that came down from Shareholders....because they worried about the money involved in this guy continuing to divide audiences as he so likes to do...with TROS around the corner, and a bunch of other SW stuff in the offing...you can't have the guy who tarnished the brand talking about a further three films)

I have been saying this pretty much since early 2018...this fabled trilogy (which up till now only he and his producer buddy talked about; Lucasfilm only ever spoke about it before TLJ came out and never since) of his was not happening after TLJ made the waves it did with audiences. Disney does not bet on divided films in their franchises. My bet was that there would be no "announcement" of him not being on it anymore...that it would just "quietly" go away...which it would seem it is doing.

Also reported was the behind the scenes stuff that led us to this:

JJ created a broad map for the ST, though he left a great deal of wiggle room for subsequent directors. Per Kathleen Kennedy and Kiri Hart, however, Rian Johnson was allowed to jettison all of JJ's outline and completely write his own script without regard to the original binding narrative. Colin Trevorrow objected to this, as well as the removal of Luke Skywalker from his finale, and after many protests to stick with JJ's original script... he was canned. JJ was brought back in out of sheer panic as the firing of Trevorrow and Iger and Horn's first negative response to their views of TLJ came rather close to each other (<----this is huge, the CEO of Disney AND the head of Disney Film didn't like TLJ). Subsequent changes to JJ's reviesed Ep 9 script occured this past January and again in May after directives were given from the top to "fix" Luke Skywalker in Ep 9. This has resulted in reshoots all the way until September with post-production going until at least late October. This movie will be right down to the wire.
Rian Johnson wrote the script before the first viewings of TFA, which is part of the reason the films feel so disconnected. Palpatine was always intended to return (<---this is interesting and it bothers me that this thread was not tweaked as planned in VIII because it would not seem so out of left field in TROS as it does), but with no reference to such a thing in TLJ, the script for 9 has been written to feel as a standalone. Unfortunately, my best intel on the movie is that it may be a cluster with so many late changes and JJ isn't a lot of fun to be around at the moment. Leia was always supposed to be the star of the ST, and certain lead individuals at Lucasfilm have had a palpable disdain for Luke. When Carrie passed away, they had no idea about what to do and so deference was given to Rian to make the call. He kept his script as-was, and here we are.

[Slow Ben]

What a clusterfuck.

And it makes me sad.

[Silencer]

Yeah, it saddens me deeply that the tiny minority of haters managed to make such a stink, the entire franchise is being damaged and perfectly good extra films are being scared out of production, and were so aggressive they made it seem like the majority opinion because no-one who liked the film even feels like they can say that any more.

If only the EU fanboys and people with oddly inconsistent images of Luke Skywalker didn't divide the fanbase, we could've had so much more fun! Now there are alleged "fans" of Star Wars gleefully "I told you so"-ing over the alleged failure of the third film and scrapping of other material?!

I mean, seriously, the fuck happened, guys?

[polishgenius]

Fucking stupid. JJ Abrams makes a boring half-arsed reboot, gets another go. Weiss and Benioff totally fuck up the ending of their other big franchise, get three movies, Johnson makes a great movie, gets the boot.

[QuickTidal]

Silencer, on 10 October 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

Yeah, it saddens me deeply that the tiny minority of haters managed to make such a stink, the entire franchise is being damaged and perfectly good extra films are being scared out of production, and were so aggressive they made it seem like the majority opinion because no-one who liked the film even feels like they can say that any more.

Division is division. You think that Disney (a multi-billion $ corporation) is somehow making massive franchise judgements based off "the tiny minority of haters"? That's not a remotely feasible thing. No one at the shareholder level is sitting there going "Man, that small group of people really hate this last flick, we should entirely change our output to appease them!"....they are going "That was divisive...it's probably smart to take a look at what we are doing and change some things to make it more universally enjoyed"

You're also inclined to add in Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Film head Alan Horn (both men with stellar resumes of work and quality) into your little "minority of haters" group for not liking TLJ...which is weird.

This whole enterprise has been mismanaged from the get-go. Iger himself stated this in his last earnings call and even took the blame.

TLJ reaction was the canary in the coal mine moment...then SOLO flopping was the first wakeup call, Galaxy's Edge being mismanaged from the ground up not doing well was the REAL wakeup call that triggered ALL of this. Disney cares WAY more about its parks than it does about box office. And when GE failed to deliver the numbers and praise it sought (remembering that TFA had yet to come out when GE was for planned), they knew that they had issues.

But listen to yourself. The klaxon call is what? A tiny minority of fans have allegedly caused enough of a ruckus that Disney changed their overall plans? That they boycotted SOLO in massive numbers? Which is it man? Come on, it can't be both.

Or is it probably safer and saner to go with the mismanagement of the whole thing and a readjustment after $$$ numbers simply didn't add up?

Of the 10 SW films, 4 of which have been released under Disney I have liked-to-loved NINE of them. I am curious how TROS ends this mess of a trilogy, but not excited. I don't like the new expanded book content (I've tried them), and I have no interest in Galaxy's Edge as it currently exists...but I AM super excited for The Clone Wars S7, and BEYOND hyped for Favreau's The MANDALORIAN. I'm also into seeing what the Ewan McGregor OBI-WAN show is al about as he's my fave character.

And let's be clear, THE MANDALORIAN and OBI-WAN shows would not exist if the old plan of periphery Star Wars story movies were still in he pipeline. So this course correct is a great thing as far as I'm concerned. MANDO also gives us our first Lucasfilm female directors, so that's awesome too. So the idea that the old plan was solid is silly....they were going to make a Tatooine-is-the-charatcer movie FFS!

Silencer, on 10 October 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

If only the EU fanboys and people with oddly inconsistent images of Luke Skywalker

Yes, because THAT's the only problem with the film we didn't like.

Silencer, on 10 October 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

didn't divide the fanbase, we could've had so much more fun!

Again putting WAY too much stock into what a group of people who didn't like the film could cause a massive corporation to do.

Silencer, on 10 October 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

Now there are alleged "fans" of Star Wars

I could do without the scare quotes to be honest. I can still be a fan and dislike ONE of NINE entires in the franchise can I not?

Silencer, on 10 October 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

gleefully "I told you so"-ing over the alleged failure of the third film and scrapping of other material?!

Who said anything about the failure of the third film? I may not be interested in it much, but its not going to fail...it might flag a bit with disinterest...but it's not remotely going to fail like SOLO did.

The scrapped things "Tatooine movie, Boba Fett movie, RJ trilogy ect."...are not worth losing sleep over dropping off the schedule...when in their place we are getting a Jon Favreau (the dude who made Iron Man and essentially helped the MCU get born) TV show (filled with writing, directing, and acting talent), an Obi-Wan tv show with Ewan McGregor, a great looking post-Order 66 video game (FALLEN ORDER), A Kevin "MCU" Feige movie, A Cassian Andor tv series (I've hear this replaces what WAS going to be a SOLO tv show that continued on from the film), The finale season of a beloved tv show that was cut short before it was meant to end (The Clone Wars), A series of films by Benioff & Weiss (though I wonder if this is still happening after GOT S8 debacle), An entirely new era of comics led by a fan fave writer (Charles Soule) who made THE most successful Marvel-SW comic title of the whole expanded universe,

Silencer, on 10 October 2019 - 02:52 PM, said:

I mean, seriously, the fuck happened, guys?

Lucasfilm tried to get in front of the fact that Iger, Horn and others inside Disney saw and didn't like TLJ (so they were worried about it's reveal by audiences) and came out swinging and blaming fans for not liking their content...that's what happened.

Let's also remember that the demographic that SW SHOULD feed....kids...is not being fed, or they simply don't care about SW. They care about Fortnite, or Apex Legends, or The MCU....Star Wars is a distant 5th to them. I think that was a huge wakeup call to the powers that be. They thought "Star Wars = Print Money"...but it's not that any longer.

But I'm not concerned, because for the first time since 2017 I have a LOT of faith in the franchise going forward. Lots of cool stuff on the horizon beyond this last movie of the ST.

Lastly, my 'I told You So' was intended to solely be about RJ's trilogy not happening, which I said would be the case a long time ago because Disney Shareholders don't like divisive products (full stop, no matter if you liked TLJ or didn't). And it was divisive. I was dragged pretty hard for vocally hating TLJ, but I've always been pretty sure that how TLJ was received, and the subsequent media blowup about it would 100% doom RJ's trilogy.

Which is fine actually. He went off and made KNIVES OUT, which is getting decent praise and audiences seemed to enjoy it. Good for him.

polishgenius, on 10 October 2019 - 04:29 PM, said:

Fucking stupid. JJ Abrams makes a boring half-arsed reboot, gets another go.

Johnson makes a great movie, gets the boot.

Wait...hang on...How is TLJ NOT ALSO a half-arsed reboot too?

Escape from Rebel Base (TESB)
Chase fleet through space (TESB)
Jedi hopeful going to train with reluctant Jedi Master (TESB)
Battle on bare plains of a white surfaced world with Imperial Walkers (TESB)
Get help from nefarious, roguish dude who betrays them (TESB)
Throne Room scene with big bad using little bad to convince Jedi hero to join him (ROTJ)

He may have rearranged the cutlery and China on the table, but TLJ is TESB Remixed with ROTJ.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 10 October 2019 - 04:43 PM