[TV] The Mandalorian (*Spoilers*)

[Sorensen]

People did. People were complaining about how kiddy Resistance was and Filoni had lost his mojo or whatever.

But, if you can get through the early episodes, Resistance is actually pretty good.

Naw some of resistance was fine but it wasn't nearly as good as rebels or clone wars.

I didn't feel like it was a reflection on filoni though

[Valkyrst]

-snip-

She's an easy target, basically. 'Hollywood libwal!' My personal opinion on the sequel trilogy is also that it was always going to be a poisoned chalice, short of something absolutely brilliant. I was always more in favour of Lucas putting his foot down and saying, 'no, they all lived happily ever after' and then moving on to a different era. It would prevent any kind of additional outrage from fans who were already burnt by the prequels.

[Lothaeryn]

Naw some of resistance was fine but it wasn't nearly as good as rebels or clone wars.

I didn't feel like it was a reflection on filoni though

I always felt Resistance was a show that higher ups 'enforced' their vision for a Star Wars kids show, and Filoni simply worked around the restrictions they put in place.

Its nowhere near a great series, but it had a few moments that can be memorable.

[PACOX]

I always felt Resistance was a show that higher ups 'enforced' their vision for a Star Wars kids show, and Filoni simply worked around the restrictions they put in place.

Its nowhere near a great series, but it had a few moments that can be memorable.

It seems like Disney just wasn't ready for the sequel era because all their stuff pertaining to the other eras is amazing. I haven't heard bad stuff about High Republic.

[Fabinas]

The issue with Kennedy is that she didn't have someone reign in on the sequels to insure one story.

Also, the issue is she decided to inject the whole feminist "Force is Female" attitude in the sequels, causing a backlash.

Part of the backlash is, of course, male toxicity in Star Wars fandom, but, judging from myself, is also that some part of the fans didn't want the sequels being used as a vehicle for blatant "woke" advertising.

[Darththeo]

Also, the issue is she decided to inject the whole feminist "Force is Female" attitude in the sequels, causing a backlash.

Part of the backlash is, of course, male toxicity in Star Wars fandom, but, judging from myself, is also that some part of the fans didn't want the sequels being used as a vehicle for blatant "woke" advertising.

Honestly, I always felt the backlash against "The Force is female" was overblown. The Force is a life force and life/nature is often described as female. And they wanted to make girls interested in Star Wars because for some reason they thought girls/women weren't interested in Star Wars.

It was bad marketing, but it wasn't woke advertising. Woke is thrown around too often to me that it has literally lost all meaning to me.

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I always felt Resistance was a show that higher ups 'enforced' their vision for a Star Wars kids show, and Filoni simply worked around the restrictions they put in place.

Its nowhere near a great series, but it had a few moments that can be memorable.

Tam's entire storyline from the end of season 1 through season 2 is amazing.

It is no Rebels or Clone Wars, but it isn't as bad as people thing.

[Valkyrst]

Also, the issue is she decided to inject the whole feminist "Force is Female" attitude in the sequels, causing a backlash.

I know your second statement addresses the toxicity in the fandom, but I just want to focus on this particular bit. There was no 'Force is Female' feminist attitude in the sequels. That entire 'OMG SHE SAID THE FORCE IS FEMALE' thing was manufactured outrage. Here's the lowdown on that.

Nike’s Spring 2017 Campaign “The Force is Female” celebrates all #GirlBosses , the new campaign focuses on 6 women who have paved their own way and are inspiring their communities. We love that brands are celebrating women and highlighting their strengths and fearlessness.

It literally has nothing to do with Disney or Star Wars. It's a Nike campaign launched in 2017. Kathleen Kennedy once wore a t-shirt saying 'the force is female' to the Archer Film Festival, to show support for...women. That's it. It's not some scheme to make Star Wars a female propaganda machine.



I just find it incredibly tragic that people - men or women - get so bent out of shape regarding such insanely innocuous stuff.

This is my basic take on the Disney Star Wars era.

They've made mistakes regarding the films, big ones. The sequel trilogy to me was an unmitigated disaster. But it wasn't due to shoe horned identity politics like the alt-right entertainment fanbase would have you believe. It was simpler...bad decision making. To quote everyone's favourite Sith, they had a lack of vision. It then cascaded downwards, which is only natural given the scale of the project. On a technical filmmaking level there's nothing wrong with the films. The acting is acceptable, the visuals are stunning if unimaginative and the individuals involved fulfilled their mandate.

But the story was so fucking bad. Like holy shit, it was bad. I don't even know where to start, and I don't want to. It hurts!

The failure wasn't driven by identity politics no matter how much some fucksticks from the 'Fandom Menace' (lamest name ever) would have you believe. Making Rey or Phasma or Holdo or Rose a boy wouldn't have changed squat. I mean Jyn was a girl, and Rogue One despite a lack of ambition in the final act (reverted to standard Star Wars 'we have to blow up something' climax), still fucking rocked so damn hard.

Like with any enterprise involving so many different and passionate stakeholders, there's a lot of uncertainty as to what might work. It can take a while to get a sense of direction. People forget the insane amount of missteps at Lucasfilm before Disney turned up to make the sequel trilogy.

- I mean fuck, I loved Return of the Jedi as a kid but if that movie released in today's day and age as a 'third film in a trilogy', it would get lambasted for Ewoks, 2nd Death Star and recycled VFX. It's insane how it had worse visuals than a New Hope despite having a bigger budget.

- Then you had those random animated films in the 80s.

- Then you had all the fucking godawful books full of Gary Stews/Mary Sues. Some of them were good, but the bulk were trash compactor level shit. People can feel free to disagree with me, but I'm a huge Star Wars fan and regret getting my Dad to waste countless amounts of excess baggage on carrying those books and comics home for me during trips for work, all the while knowing it was really just a glorified sojourn to Barnes & Noble.

- Let's not forget the games. Episode 1 on PC/PSO/Dreamcast. Episode 2 on GBA. Jedi Power Battles was sick as fuck, but Maul with a single bladed lightsaber on PSOne? I went apeshit. Star Wars Demolition. Star Wars Super Bombad Racing. Masters of Teras Kasi (this one deserved a punch in the face to whomever thought of it). Yoda Adventures. Obi Wan GBA. Force Unleashed 2. Like, people talk about Disney being money hungry, the Lucas Empire was a cash grabbing monolith. They'd release anything that they could on multimedia knowing full well that people would lap it up.

And this isn't the first huge company to have a rocky period. If today's generation lived through Apple in the 80s/Early 90s, they'd have a coronary. The company was a massive joke, releasing bloated software, hardware that was unrealistically priced (to put it lightly) and obsolete at the same time. Point is, company's go through turmoil. And the knee jerk reaction in today's age is to say 'nyaaah libwal/nyaaah conservative'. Not really. It's just bad decisions oftentimes. Yes, the captain of the ship is ultimately accountable, but maybe see how it goes before screaming 'mutiny'?

The Mandalorian is doing fine because shock, they've trusted the creators after putting the right ones in charge. Everything comes together and work continues. But the same goes for Rebels, and to a lesser extend Resistance. Hell, even the comics over at Marvel, the reused art assets aside, don't seem to have created too much consternation amongst fans. The games over at EA, discounting the developer's greed when it comes to MTX on BF2, have done respectably well. The novels have been the novels. Some are fun companion bits, some are dogshit fan fiction. It's all just par for the course, really. The hope is that there will be more great content than meh content, but no one can predict how that rolls out, not even Yoda.

When you look under the hood, it's business as usual. Nothing has fundamentally changed, except there are people out there who feel that every god damn thing needs to be politicised, and then have the cheek to project that notion of 'gosh darn woke politics' onto the people they're trying to 'cancel'. Which is just really ironic. Please note, this isn't some fanboy defence of Kathleen Kennedy, she's not family to me that I'd walk over coals for her. I'm just not naive enough to think she's some antichrist figure. Same way that the song 'George Lucas Raped Our Childhood' was a bit much.

It's funny, that was pre-Disney. Because that's the ugly truth. Star Wars has always been a bit fucking amazing and a bit fucking shit at the same time. It's not new. People just have a bigger platform to whine about it today. And that's fine, just don't fall for every single grift out there.

[Sorensen]

It seems like Disney just wasn't ready for the sequel era because all their stuff pertaining to the other eras is amazing. I haven't heard bad stuff about High Republic.

It's almost like they planned in advance for high republic.

I don't think they should have done sequel trilogy without planning but I think they learned their lesson.

[Valkyrst]

It's almost like they planned in advance for high republic.

I don't think they should have done sequel trilogy without planning but I think they learned their lesson.

Honestly, any company that wants to see how to plan any kind of content rollout needs to go spend some time with Marvel Studios.

Even if the films aren't people's cup of tea, their project planning is absolutely outstanding.

[rhorle]

Honestly, any company that wants to see how to plan any kind of content rollout needs to go spend some time with Marvel Studios.

Even if the films aren't people's cup of tea, their project planning is absolutely outstanding.

To be fair though early Marvel was a train wreck and I remember reading that the early Ironman movies nearly ended the entire chain of movies. Pretty much the same thing with Star Wars. The problem though is they screwed up the big stuff instead of building on something new and having a rocky start. But the current plans seem to be focused on on the right direction.

[Lothaeryn]

Tam's entire storyline from the end of season 1 through season 2 is amazing.

It is no Rebels or Clone Wars, but it isn't as bad as people thing.

Tamra's arc was a rare one for Star Wars, having someone question the morality of both sides is almost never explored in the franchise and it was a good test of character for her and the crew. It, and captain Doza's background are my two favorite parts of Resistance, because it humanizes people that otherwise get killed without a second notice in other parts of Star Wars.

not every imperial was a heartless monster, some people really tried to do good despite the evil their superiors were doing; and Resistance goes into depth with that.

[Valkyrst]

To be fair though early Marvel was a train wreck and I remember reading that the early Ironman movies nearly ended the entire chain of movies. Pretty much the same thing with Star Wars. The problem though is they screwed up the big stuff instead of building on something new and having a rocky start. But the current plans seem to be focused on on the right direction.

Nothing of the sort re Marvel. The early Iron Man films made a ton of money and had they not, then the universe would’ve had issues.

[rhorle]

Nothing of the sort re Marvel. The early Iron Man films made a ton of money and had they not, then the universe would’ve had issues.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/20/...n-feige-disney

This is what I was talking about.

[PACOX]

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...1#post52831408
-snip-

Great writeup.

[Valkyrst]

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/20/...n-feige-disney

This is what I was talking about.

I know, but that's why I said the films might not be everyone's cup of tea. Really, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and the first two Thor films were very dull and procedural, as were both Ant-Man films and Captain Marvel, but they've either facilitated more films via financial success or formed part of a bigger world. So they've achieved a goal, which is good. Hopefully Lucasfilm have taken on board the same learning. I'm sure they have.

Great writeup.

Thanks, dude.

[Hansworst]

So anyone playing Shadowlands? There is a Mandalorian reference in Ardenweald. Escorting a very familiar looking "crib" in a quest called: This is the way

[Valkyrst]

So anyone playing Shadowlands? There is a Mandalorian reference in Ardenweald. Escorting a very familiar looking "crib" in a quest called: This is the way

Sidenote, maybe it's just because of how feverishly hidden references get covered by all the pop culture clickbait websites nowadays, but I'm tired of seeing such references. Back in the day, they used to be rare as balls across games/comics/films/whatnot, but now it just seems like obligatory fan service. It's like no matter whether you're making a game or novel or comic or movie or song or fucking pasta even, you gotta insert them 'easter eggs' to keep the uber nerds coming back for more. I'm probably old and cynical, but I liked it better when these things weren't so saturated. But I suppose that's the state of the world now, and I'm its obligatory Dutch Vanderlinde. I don't want it gosh darn be this way. Holy shit. I'm a boomer.

[Daedius]

Last episode ending, army of cloned Vaders?

[Skulltaker]

Last episode ending, army of cloned Vaders?

As someone pointed out they loke like Phase I Dark Troopers. I confused them, because I was only familiar with the Phase III design.

[Winter Blossom]

So anyone playing Shadowlands? There is a Mandalorian reference in Ardenweald. Escorting a very familiar looking "crib" in a quest called: This is the way

It’s not called that. The quest is called Soothing Song... and the crib is being pushed by an NPC.

“This is the Way” is the name of the storyline, consisting of 7 quests.