Star Wars: The Disney+ Empire Strikes Again and Again and...

True, although Omega without the rest of the crew is… less appealing

Uncle Squad

GREAT episode yesterday -- and we get the Zillo Beast again!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

i fucking knew it

Roffle.

Speaking of dark sides:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tzur6JrUEA

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.

Meantime…well then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O77VTIAYGVA

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

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)

Have free preview tix to see first two EPS of Acolyte on big screen tonight.

Guess we'll see if it good

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.)

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

xpost wait JALEEL WHITE is in Skeleton Crew?

ARE WE GETTING SPACE URKEL?

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.

xpost Character name is Spurkel

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

https://media.wired.com/photos/59325f7d58b0d64bb35d130c/master/pass/o-STAR-WARS-facebook.jpg

Did I do that?

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 correction

You know I love these little jedi/sithy tales, though

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I was originally not interested in watching this at all but once I saw that Leslye Hedland directed and looked at some of the cast I got kinda intrigued

I have to say I liked these first two episodes. Story is nice & contained & has enough tension & intrigue to keep me interested, characters are well defined but also fairly simply-drawn on the surface. no one stands around giving boring exposition-dumps & i don’t have to care about a fuckin magic sword or a trade embargo or a bunch of THINGS.

of all the spinoffs i preferred 1st season Mando or the Andor series … this doesn’t have quite the same level of uniqueness stamped on it yet but at least it’s not trying to make me watch a cartoon no-one cares about except Reddit nerds.

so yeah, i’m down for this so far.
:D

Huh. Not sure how I felt about that one

I rather liked it! I appreciate that we still clearly don't have the full story. I mean my running assumption here is that those four Jedi did a bunch of fucking war crimes and all.

That's the only way I'll come out happy with it in the end tbh.

I texted my friend JEDI ARE COLONIZERS during the ep

lol that’s exactly what I thought while watching it as well and I’m very much on board with that

I struggled more with the execution of some scenes and the abruptness of the ending. what I did like was the clear depiction that the Jedi were lying that they thought the planet was uninhabited, showing Sol clearly tracking the sisters in the woods, as well as the depiction of non-Jedi interpretations of the Force, which felt very similar to themes explored in Last Jedi

the 'power of 1, 2, many' melody was hilariously weak

the lyrics makes it a decent addition to the diarrhea song genre, however

Yea I have no idea why they'd throw something so low effort into the episode

almost like it slid right out of them with little resistance from the typical gatekeepers

Interesting...

https://gizmodo.com/the-acolyte-star-wars-power-of-two-music-1851542440