Star Wars 7 shit talk

Picked up the first of the "Shattered Empire" comics series, released last week, which begins concurrent with and right after the end of Return of the Jedi. There is a husband/wife couple who get biz-zay -- thoroughly and completely -- during the Endor celebration, named Shara Bey and Kes Dameron. Oscar Isacc's character in The Force Awakens is named Poe Dameron, so I assume there's some connection.

Meanwhile, standalone movie Rogue One filming in London, TMZ has photos of some kind of crash site w/stormtrooper bodies around it: http://www.tmz.com/2015/09/15/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-set-photos/

All the new Marvel Star Wars comix are pretty good, including Leia, Lando, Darth Vader and Star Wars

The other day I was in Target, and virtually everything in the store made a Star Wars noise, from the automatic front doors (you use the force to open them, says a sign, har har) to the apple bin, which triggered a nearby wookie growl.

xp the Vader comic is the best of the bunch for me. I want those two psycho droids to get their own series after this.

Max von Sydow “will portray a village elder on the desert planet of Jakku who plays a vital role in the quest to find the missing Luke Skywalker,” reports the Guardian‘s Ben Child. “His name? Lor San Tekka.”

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/25/max-von-sydow-plays-lor-san-tekka-star-wars-force-awakens

Still from the set

http://i62.tinypic.com/2dh79ms.jpg

is lor san tekka a reference to something, that seems like a funny way to reveal the name otherwise

The other day I was in Target, and virtually everything in the store made a Star Wars noise, from the automatic front doors (you use the force to open them, says a sign, har har) to the apple bin, which triggered a nearby wookie growl.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, September 21, 2015 9:58 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ugh, I really fucking hate the way Disney is playing the marketing of this. I was at a Mets game a few weeks ago and there was so much Star Wars bullshit it was ridiculous, scattered throughout the entire game in between play.

Like they're kind of starting to kill off in advance any goodwill they had earned from me by trying to correct past star wars wrongs.

the youtube ads w dads talking to their toddlers about star wars are the worst

He's a village elder, probably wise and ascetic and whatnot, maybe it's supposed to resemble Lore Sans Tech.

xp yeah those too -- it was almost like by advertising to me this bad approximation of how I feel about star wars it made me just want to feel less that way

"lor san tekka" is an anagram for Okra Anklets, feel like this is a clue.

i'm enthused about SW because my four year old is excited about it, but he's learning about it in a vacuum and the context is preschool conversations. i've heard a lot about how "luth skywalker" and "dark mater" are battling the bad guys.

"who's the bad guy?"

"BATMAN"

this is precisely why disney purchased star wars... new generations to inculcate. (grown) fanboys are not the primary audience.

I have to say though that as a parent of a 10 month old son I'm pleased that he might come of age in an era when Star Wars is the massive pop culture juggernaut for kids to obsess over instead of shit like Transformers or a bunch of Marvel characters I never really cared about.

cosine

I think any childhood that doesn't involve both trying to lift things with your mind AND making "ch ch ch ch" sounds while pretending to turn into a car is an impoverished one.

instead of shit like Transformers or a bunch of Marvel characters

I don't really get how SW is superior to these other garbage franchises

they all seem equally banal and vapid to me, it's not like one reinforces values the other doesn't or teach children anything valuable, they're just money making vehicles featuring explosions

More toys.

You're totally not wrong, these are just my personal biases here. Never cared about comic books for some reason but loved the shit out of Star Wars when I was growing up.

My main beef with Transformers is that when I was a kid I thought they were really stupid because why in the world would alien robots need to turn into cars? And why were a gun and a walkman the same size as jet planes? The scale was way off and the premise was stupid and seemed to defy the laws of physics.

unlike everything in Star Wars, which totally does not defy the laws of physics ever

I know this is kind of corny but I actually think the original Star Wars trilogy introduces some pretty high-minded concepts about morality, mindfulness, spirituality, etc. in a way that a young audience can grasp. I think this is something that gives it a little bit of an edge over Transformers.

care to elaborate? Ethical or political subtext of og trilogy eludes me. I guess the rebels don't blow up a planet (they do blow up an entire space station of comparable size)

not a lot of non-humans in the empire

"Fear is the mind-killer." - Yoda

seedy gambler/rogue guy ends up fighting for a cause, showing that the lines between bad/good and criminal/law-abiding aren't necessarily directly related
acknowledgment of non-corporeal "force" that binds all things in the galaxy
repeated plot point that rebels with a strong ideology can fight against the tyranny of a militaristic state
responsibility to others / self-sacrifice (obi wan's moment of peace when he allows himself to be struck down rather than fighting to the death)

lol Old Lunch

but yeah, the fear -> anger -> hate progression is definitely a spiritual maxim

rebels with a strong ideology

what ideology

seedy gambler/rogue guy ends up fighting for a cause, showing that the lines between bad/good and criminal/law-abiding aren't necessarily directly related
this is such a standard trope of genre fiction (take yr pick of genres) idk if it's really a credit or unique in any way

acknowledgment of non-corporeal "force" that binds all things in the galaxy which is also evil depending on which side of it you're on!

responsibility to others / self-sacrifice (obi wan's moment of peace when he allows himself to be struck down rather than fighting to the death) could be argued that obi-wan does it just so he can become even more powerful/live forever as a magical ghost = self-interest

Ultimately the thing that really sets apart Star Wars (the original trilogy) from stuff like Transformers and Marvel is that it has far superior set design, which may seem a minor thing for some people, but makes a world of difference to me personally.

yeah dude I didn't say they weren't incredibly standard and I'm sure over the course of all of the Transformers episodes those points were hit but as a whole Star Wars is a pretty simplified movie structure that has all these things

Ethical or political subtext of og trilogy eludes me.

responding to that, not "what does SW have that nothing else has"

Power of hate to consume a person (and the strength of the temptation to hate and the benefit of resisting that temptation), self-development through meditation, etc., IDK I thought this shit was kind of obvious so I don't know why I'm explaining it to someone who is challopping/being obtuse/trolling

when obi-wan says he will become more powerful when he is dead he is referring to radicalizing luke, not special ghost powers, imo

they even treated some dumb forest teddy bears as equals, which ended up benefiting them

ok lol

Power of hate to consume a person (and the strength of the temptation to hate and the benefit of resisting that temptation), self-development through meditation, etc.

yeah these are cool I guess

I mean it's not Gandhi but it seems a cut above the typical sci-fi/action children's movie.

how different people treat droids is pretty integral

yeah it's not the deepest thing in the world but like all the stuff about the force in Empire is way more thought-provoking (even just on an imagination level) (but also on an ethical level) than most movies I got into as a kid. Just the idea that Yoda is very strenuously trying to keep Luke from doing what seems to him and to the audience like obviously the heroic thing to do - - - in fact that this kind of zealous, well-intentioned action is what defines the "dark side" that claimed his father... that's super cool. I also, and this is less directly about ethics, but while the Force has been banalized by the prequels and spinoffs, there's still something wonderful about Yoda's new age presentation of it. I mean I wasn't seeing a lot of stuff at age 10 where someone says "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship." That's great! Like you leave the theater with something kind of weird to ponder, and not just CGI exploding at your face.

the rebels obviously have incredible patience and some sort of workplace inclusion policy, only possible explanation for why c3po is kept around

btw the empire has much better style and iconography, as fascists often do

Ultimately the thing that really sets apart Star Wars (the original trilogy) from stuff like Transformers and Marvel is that it has far superior set design, which may seem a minor thing for some people, but makes a world of difference to me personally.

― silverfish, Friday, October 2, 2015 1:10 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is otm. not really into the antiseptic paramilitary world of marvel movies, the good bits of thor aside (and probably guardians of the galaxy, which i didn't see, also aside). have never gotten bored of looking at or listening to star wars (exceptions, finally ruined by commercial ubiquity: never need to hear a lightsaber again, or r2d2) even tho i have gotten bored of thinking about it.

"luminous beings are we, not this crude matter" will be the absolute last line in star wars i come to feel superior to

and the little illustrative pinch he takes of luke!

Yoda being mischievous is sorely missed in the dumb prequels. He can be funny!

it was an ok twist to have him actually be strong in combat but only as a counterpoint to "Wars not make one great"

"Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is!"