Eh, I don't think the series will go down THAT road.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 27 February 2024 03:53 (six months ago) link
It will be intersting to see fan reaction to this perspective. It seems like a lot of people despised the Karen Traviss Mandalorian-centric novels for having the audacity to paint the Jedi in a less than glowing light (P.S. they are good novels).
― Great-Tasting Burger Perceptions (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 February 2024 12:24 (six months ago) link
Anyway I have an idea for Disney if they're concerned about making enough money via streaming
https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-chilean-beer-ads-cerveza-cristal-lucasfilm-1851306714
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 5 March 2024 02:14 (six months ago) link
Bad Batch continues damn well -- meantime per a Lucasfilm announcement, trailer for The Acolyte appears tomorrow, start date June 4. And teaser image:
https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_1315/cb014d4428d432be199cc155676cd78c.jpg
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 March 2024 01:18 (six months ago) link
that's quite striking
― Roz, Tuesday, 19 March 2024 01:58 (six months ago) link
I feel like BB is punching above the episodic-but-serial weight but the episode payoffs are still “but we’re getting there!” and too much deep lore for what is really a cartoon family show. idk, maybe this is what kids do now
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 03:26 (six months ago) link
they’re doing “but maybe we need the dark” across media in books and comics as well, now, btw. the book/comics arc has alluded to Yoda talking to a fallen Jedi about how to defeat a weapon the republic’s enemy is using that basically eats jedi
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 03:28 (six months ago) link
also we found out Luke’s lightsaber crystal was forced back to the light from the sith. seems a bit obvious
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Tuesday, 19 March 2024 03:29 (six months ago) link
And here we go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtytYWhg2mc
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 March 2024 18:12 (six months ago) link
Couple of good interviews with Headland here:
https://collider.com/the-acolyte-season-2-plans/
https://collider.com/the-acolyte-series-vernestra-rwoh-explained/
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 March 2024 18:23 (six months ago) link
Meantime -- Bad Batch remains really solid this season, last couple of episodes hitting more of those darker tones pretty well (the Tantiss lab set one, eesh).
And speaking of darker things -- arriving in a month!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SIST9t72kY
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 April 2024 19:33 (five months ago) link
The Bad Batch is plodding along too slowly imo - said the same re Ahsoka (tho tbh also with Andor at first but that paid off big time). The dark tonal shifts are interesting (the poor Camino scientist must be the most depressed-sounding animation character ever, understandably) but this isn't rubbing off on the story much. Wouldn't it be more exciting and cogent for example if the Emperor had witnessed Omega's escape from the base and so there was more pressure around the crew lying low trying to work out what to do next? Mebbe. Not seen the latest ep tho.
― nashwan, Thursday, 4 April 2024 20:15 (five months ago) link
Well that's the thing, pressure has, how to put it, ramped up as of yesterday's episodes (it was a two-drop day).
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 April 2024 20:17 (five months ago) link
I love everything about Bad Batch. I think its pace is just right and I really enjoy the occasional slow, quiet (and sad!) episodes like at the beginning of the season and this week.
My only two gripes is that for a cartoon, sometimes it's just *too* dark. Why?? And it's hard to believe there's just a few episodes left of the entire series, as I feel like they are only just beginning to reveal where Omega's story will go.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 4 April 2024 23:45 (five months ago) link
Well it may be the end of the Batch but maybe not for Omega...we'll see!
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 5 April 2024 00:54 (five months ago) link
True, although Omega without the rest of the crew is… less appealing
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 5 April 2024 02:20 (five months ago) link
Uncle Squad
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Friday, 5 April 2024 15:54 (five months ago) link
GREAT episode yesterday -- and we get the Zillo Beast again!
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 25 April 2024 19:16 (four months ago) link
My kids leapt out of their seat at that reveal.Coincidentally they’ve been rewatching Clone Wars with me (my first time), and we got to the episode where that plot element first appeared and they talked about utilizing it for cloning experiments… and according to my kids that never really came back around in the CW series so it’s pretty great to see it drop here.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 26 April 2024 01:26 (four months ago) link
And so The Bad Batch has wrapped up. I thought it was a good ending (a double ending, really) -- part of me had always hoped since they found that one isolated refuge that they'd end up there and just be able to live, and so it proved, and the final beat was a nice way to give a real sense that they actually DID find it, or most of them. If Omega shows up at some future point in something, I'd be all for it; Michelle Ang did a great job throughout.
One near-headcanon bit for me -- I was semi-convinced that the CX operative who found said refuge a while back, leading to Omega's recapture, might well have been a fully brainwashed/reprogrammed Tech, somehow, or perhaps a clone made from him or the like. So the fact that said operative wasn't and is now iced like the rest of Project Necromancer I really appreciated as a final beat, and similarly that Tech really is gone. Kinda rare in this universe, sometimes!
Anyway roll on Tales of the Empire this weekend and then a month to go to The Acolyte.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 May 2024 20:17 (four months ago) link
Yes, great episode. Still feel like this show probably could have gone at least one more season but this was a satisfying wrap to the season and the coda was a nice touch to give it a bit more finality, for at least some of the characters.Ned, my kids were also convinced that there was going to be a Tech reveal, and I’m so glad there wasn’t. It would have nullified how well done season 2 was. I’m glad they allowed that plot to stand.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Friday, 3 May 2024 01:50 (four months ago) link
I really think it's remarkable that of the four major animated series under Filoni's care, three of them are top-notch fantastic both as entertaining TV and building up the universe. (Resistance absolutely has its moments but felt more like a random obligation for the sequel trilogy.) Much as I appreciate him doing more on the live action side too, I absolutely hope there's more to come from him and the wider animation team; he pretty clearly is the major creative voice post-Lucas.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 3 May 2024 15:14 (four months ago) link
Happy Star Wars day!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Day#History
The first recorded reference of the phrase being used was on May 4, 1979, the day after Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Her political party, the Conservatives, placed a congratulatory advertisement in the Evening News saying "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations."
― StanM, Saturday, 4 May 2024 10:10 (four months ago) link
i fucking knew it
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 4 May 2024 10:30 (four months ago) link
Roffle.
Speaking of dark sides:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tzur6JrUEA
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 4 May 2024 16:11 (four months ago) link
Tales From the Empire was a nice little fillip -- especially liked the arc of Barriss Offee given her path in Clone Wars, it was a good way to show where it all led; the Elspeth arc had its good points too and I did like how it touched on everything from Mandalorian to Ahsoka to even a little bit of Andor, in its own way.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 6 May 2024 18:27 (four months ago) link
Meantime…well then:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O77VTIAYGVA
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 7 May 2024 02:02 (four months ago) link
Watching ESB for the millionth time and it is so frustrating that they keep rudely interrupting the ending luke / darth sequences with cloud city pew pew shootouts
― calstars, Monday, 3 June 2024 00:33 (three months ago) link
Also who waxes the floors of the Death Star? So shiny
On the other hand, Vader's helmet covered in greasy smears in some shots! (In Episode IV at least)
― completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 3 June 2024 08:25 (three months ago) link
Have free preview tix to see first two EPS of Acolyte on big screen tonight.
Guess we'll see if it good
― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Monday, 3 June 2024 22:40 (three months ago) link
Nicely done. (I suppose I could have gone for that around here but I'm happy to wait to catch 'em tomorrow night at home.)
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 3 June 2024 22:41 (three months ago) link
So far I like! Star Wars as a wuxia by way of stuff like Five Deadly Venoms
I don't think I'll know how much I like it until ep 3 or 4
― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 4 June 2024 00:36 (three months ago) link
Yeah those first two episodes were solid -- I appreciate that it didn't quite go for the tone I expected from the trailer, it had all sorts of approaches going on. Also, I figured that there was some sort of initial twist or something that the trailers weren't showing but I wasn't expecting the twin twist, which hoary as a device as it is is still pretty fun, as well as making the logo of the series suddenly more understandable -- and I further appreciate that there's still more that clearly hasn't been shown yet, and I'm really suspecting that there's some further deep 'gotcha' that's going to emerge.
Also, Manny Jacinto as a dirtbag is just good casting, really.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 June 2024 02:59 (three months ago) link
I had low expectations for this but thought the first two episodes were pretty good!
didn’t mind the early twist of killing off Carrie Ann Moss but do wish we had gotten at least one extra episode with her, I just love how she moves, she should have been cast as a Jedi years ago
― Roz, Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:03 (three months ago) link
I suspect we're getting more of her in flashback scenes -- IIRC the trailers showed one with her already and there are definitely others, the Jedi master who offed himself in the second episode is clearly the kid in the one trailer whose eyes go black.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:16 (three months ago) link
definitely feel like this is a less adult, more family friendly show, compared to things like Andor, but one with a sufficiently dark storyline that is exploring a part of Star Wars history previously only explored in the EU or comics, so I'm here for it.
― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:26 (three months ago) link
Yeah in a weird way this feels like it could be a good setup (in terms of 'feel' rather than directly) for what Skeleton Crew is supposed to be.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:37 (three months ago) link
is this cool for a seven year old? my son has been plowing through the series, plus any cartoons that are available. he walks around whistling the theme song all day it's super annoying
― Heez, Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:44 (three months ago) link
xpost wait JALEEL WHITE is in Skeleton Crew?
ARE WE GETTING SPACE URKEL?
― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:44 (three months ago) link
Heez - I think so? all deaths are relatively bloodless (so far), much like the OG series, a few intense scenes of a character's homeland burning, but seems pretty tame compared to like Andor. also gets going relatively quickly, with an intense opening fight sequence in the pilot.
― Iacocca Cola (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:45 (three months ago) link
xpost Character name is Spurkel
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:54 (three months ago) link
thanks xp. i just went on the assumption that since i watched these as a kid that it would be fine. he fast fwds a bunch of scary stuff
― Heez, Wednesday, 5 June 2024 15:56 (three months ago) link
https://media.wired.com/photos/59325f7d58b0d64bb35d130c/master/pass/o-STAR-WARS-facebook.jpg
Did I do that?
― A So-Called Pulitzer price winner (President Keyes), Wednesday, 5 June 2024 16:13 (three months ago) link
I like how they’re obfuscating a thing that happened in the purpose of revealing the truth of what happened years ago to kick off the events that led to this plot, but the plot is a little loosey-goosey so far and doesn’t know if it’s developing characters or teasing exposition and ends up falling a little short on both. The addition of “bit there’s THIS GUY” at the end of the first seemed like a clumsy course correctionYou know I love these little jedi/sithy tales, though
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Thursday, 6 June 2024 02:32 (three months ago) link
The Jedi are sooooo boring! Obi Wan was kind of cool in the first film and Yoda was ok but that was plenty. All the ones we have met since then have been snoozefests.
Having said that I watched both eps of this happily enough - whereas I didn't get more than 1 ep into the Ahsoka one.
― Cognosc in Tyrol (emsworth), Thursday, 6 June 2024 04:54 (three months ago) link
every single Jedi who gets more than two minutes of screen time has beef with the order, is portrayed as a foot soldier or apologist of the order, or gets just flat-out eliminated in all the media, really. it’s a franchise that pays a lot of lip service to the nobility and neutrality of these warrior monks but that’s a pretty surface reading
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Thursday, 6 June 2024 05:12 (three months ago) link
This was fun and easy-to-follow without being simpleminded like Mandalorian can be. I don't really know my Star Wars or High Republic lore -- I haven't even seen the JJ trilogy! -- you could have told me this was set in the present and I would've been none the wiser.
I don't think the lead actor (Osha/Mae) is very good at her line readings, but it's not getting in the way of anything. I don't think they did her any favours putting her next to Carrie-Anne Moss's great cameo in the first scene.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 6 June 2024 11:27 (three months ago) link
But this feels miles better already than Mando/Boba/Ahsohka. Andor, which I'm starting to think is one of the greatest TV shows of the 2000s (and I'm not a Star Wars fan) is a whole other thing.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 6 June 2024 11:29 (three months ago) link
Did we all watch the same thing? i thought this looked fine but was clunky as all get out. Liked the kung fu elements but that's about it. The end of episode 2 felt very Krofft Super Stars/ Far Out Space Nuts.
― completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 6 June 2024 11:58 (three months ago) link