The Official Star Wars Thread!

[FrancesScott]

... that'll teach me to type on my phone without my glasses.

Of red, or white? Or did you get the sparkling out?

 

[CyranoJ]

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but the lightsaber fight in Phantom Menace is one of the great martial arts cinematic scenes of all time.

When those laser walls come down, and Darth Maul's adrenaline is up to his mouth and he's pacing back and forth while Obi Wan kneels and meditates ... total shivers.

Even the worst of Star Wars films or shows usually has one or two bright spots like this. The lightsaber battle in The Phantom Menace is one of those for sure, a genuinely revolutionary action set-piece in an otherwise mediocre-at-best film.

This can even be said of The Rise of Skywalker. Chaotic mess though it was, it did produce a scene with some of the most memorable audio editing I've ever experienced in a movie, where the heroes have gone down to a planet that's under Imperial interdiction. You get a vivid sense of how terrifying the walkers are as they hammer through a city and smash things to rubble. Unwatchable film otherwise... but a standout scene, you have to give it to them.

 

[FrancesScott]

I'm going to be the pedant who points out that it's actually Qui-Gon who is kneeling and meditating

I’m going to point out the truly immense personal growth associated with me NOT pointing that out…

 

[FrancesScott]

Even the worst of Star Wars films or shows usually has one or two bright spots like this. The lightsaber battle in The Phantom Menace is one of those for sure, a genuinely revolutionary action set-piece in an otherwise mediocre-at-best film.

This can even be said of The Rise of Skywalker. Chaotic mess though it was, it did produce a scene with some of the most memorable audio editing I've ever experienced in a movie, where the heroes have gone down to a planet that's under Imperial interdiction. You get a vivid sense of how terrifying the walkers are as they hammer through a city and smash things to rubble. Unwatchable film otherwise... but a standout scene, you have to give it to them.

I agree much of it is unwatchable, but I enjoyed “I am all the Jedi,” as illogical as what went before was.

 

[TheLobster]

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but the lightsaber fight in Phantom Menace is one of the great martial arts cinematic scenes of all time.

It’s one of the only two good things that came from that movie.

The other one is, of course, pod racing. No, not in the movie itself; there was a tie-in game released at the same time called Star Wars Episode 1 Racer which expanded the sequence in the movie into an entire racing game. It’s stupidly fun because the pods go crazy fast and have no friction, and it’s kind of unique since those kind of games usually focuses on realism.

I haven’t played KOTOR but this one and Fallen Order are easily my two favorite SW games.

 

[Britva415]

I hear Andor is dope but I think I need a few more years to detox from Rise of Skywalker before I'm ready to engage with that one like it deserves.

Maybe Andor is exactly what's called for. No Jedi or Sith in sight. I don't think that waiting would change whether/how you would appreciate Andor.

 

[Bamagan]

Somehow, a Star Wars thread returned.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Somehow, a Star Wars thread returned.

The Rise of Author's Hangout.

 

[Bamagan]

The Rise of Author's Hangout.

Only an editor deals in absolutes!

 

[SimonDoom]

Somehow, a Star Wars thread returned.

It's a great excuse to drink, so there's that.

 

[Nynah]

Maybe Andor is exactly what's called for. No Jedi or Sith in sight. I don't think that waiting would change whether/how you would appreciate Andor.

I agree. Andor is easily one of the best scripted shows to come out in the past few years, period. It takes place well before Rise of Skywalker and the writing and direction are leagues ahead of that film. If you're even a casual Star Wars fan, you'll appreciate just how well done Andor is. Can't recommend it enough.

Somehow, a Star Wars thread returned.

Making an actor as good as Oscar Isaac say that dreadful line was a tragedy among many in RoS.

 

[NuclearFairy]

What, no one is talking about E.T.?

My greatest star wars memory though is from shortly after my uncles brought home the first of the edited films and tried to watch it with my grandma in the room. She was a huge star wars fan so she spent the entire first half hour complaining about everything. So my uncle gave me the signal to ask for nilk (which is how I used to mispronounce milk) and while she was distracted coaching me through speaking properly before she'd get me the milk they switched out vhs' and muted and fast forwarded to the proper time. It was kinda hilarious watching them move so fast behind her while trying to be quite, and then while she was getting me the milk they slipped me a dollar.

But other than thinking of my memories about the experience around watching the movies, I don't really have any strong views of them. They all had their moments, even Jar Jar's pratfalls were funny to a little kid. So while adults may not like him, and therefore taught their kids to hate him, even he had his place.

 

[Britva415]

It takes place well before Rise of Skywalker

It takes place before A New Hope and before Rogue One.

Cassian Andor was a spy who was a character in Rogue One, so, the Andor series is about his backstory becoming a spy for the Rebellion

 

[designatedvictim]

there are more than a few hardcore fans who are willing to get angry when someone steps on their toes. *Chuckles at Wanda*

Oh, my! I guess OHW should stay away from my most recent.

My characters had a Star Wars Movie Marathon and... observations were made.

I'll also pass on KOtOR, because I'm not a gamer. I couldn't even survive X-Wing.

 

[CyranoJ]

If kids were really into Jar-Jar, I doubt their parents' attitudes would deter them. How many of them would have retained that fondness into adulthood I don't know. Although I think a lot of fandom is trying to be more careful about how we convey those opinions after we heard the story of Ahmed Best.

(Another little bright spot in a Star Wars product I'm only so-so about: Ahmed Best as a Jedi in the kick-off to The Mandalorians' third season got a really amazing scene, and I was happy for him. Although for my money the third season of that show is where its quality started to fall off.)

 

[SimonDoom]

Agreed with most of that except that I think The Last Jedi was substantially better than either of the other sequel movies. That of course doesn't mean it's perfect -- and specifically the Very Slow Space Chase it revolves around is something you really have to squint at -- but it at least had some creative ambition and made interesting (albeit flawed) choices.

In a lot of Star Wars media, there's often a lot of good ideas on paper that just don't wind up translating to the screen; that's definitely the story of the prequels. Usually because the creative team couldn't quite decide on which direction to go with the finished product.

My unasked-for take on the Sequel Trilogy (spoilers alert):

Force Awakens was OK, but not very original, as it's a retread of the very first Star Wars movie (I still have trouble calling it A New Hope). It introduces 4 potentially interesting new characters, all played by capable actors. Unfortunately, it does not develop them as it should. The idea of Rey, at the start, as a kind of reverse-gendered Luke reboot is an excellent idea, and Daisy Ridley is very appealing and up to the task, but Rey ends up being a classic boring Mary Sue. Her defeat of Kylo Ren in combat at the end of the movie is totally wrong from the point of view of creating a satisfying heroic arc for the trilogy and her character. Still, the last scene with Rey meeting Luke was intriguing and there was the sense that maybe, maybe, the trilogy's next two installments could fulfill the glimmers of promise of installment 1.

Alas, no. Last Jedi was a total and complete narrative mess. I get that Johnson was trying to upend the Star Wars "canon" and forge a new path. Fine. But it was a terrible path. I hated, loathed, and despised the disrespectful way he handled Luke's character. I hated Leia in space. I hated how it squandered the development of Finn, who was played by a fine and charismatic actor, John Boyega. I hated Laura Dern with pink hair. I hated how quickly Snoke was disposed of. The one, tiny inkling of promise was the potentially interesting relationship between Rey and Kylo. It was the one thing that might have made the whole damn thing interesting. And the movie fell through on that too. We're left with levitating rocks. Rey is the female Jonathon Livingston Seagull. "There are no limits, Fletcher." Yuck. Ick. My God it was bad.

Then The Rise of Skywalker proved it's possible to make an even worse Star Wars movie than Last Jedi, a thing I didn't think was possible, and I'd already sat through and loathed Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. I sat through TROS much as the audience did in the "Springtime for Hitler" scene in the film The Producers: mouth agape, thinking, "It can't REALLY be this bad, can it?" But it was. All possibility of reaching a satisfying story arc for any character was abandoned. Hey, Palpatine's back, and somehow he's amassed an enormous armada, and all this time nobody's noticed. Ridiculous. Kylo died, which I guess was merciful. The movie left me wishing someone had been more merciful to me for having watched it.

 

[NuclearFairy]

If kids were really into Jar-Jar, I doubt their parents' attitudes would deter them. How many of them would have retained that fondness into adulthood I don't know. Although I think a lot of fandom is trying to be more careful about how we convey those opinions after we heard the story of Ahmed Best.

I think you're underestimating the impressionability of children. I remember enjoying Jar-Jar when I first watched him as a child, as did my brothers, and my mom being oddly silent during his scenes. And then my mom giving my uncles death glares when they tried to talk about it with us after church the next day. They dropped the Jar-Jar topic in favor of talking about the pod race. And then after we went to school and my brothers talked with their friends who had also rented or bought the movie for the weekend, they suddenly hated him.

I still think he's funny, but then my lack of friends who had a television, and my mom not allowing the other adults in my life to poison something I enjoyed allowed me to form my own opinion. Not even my brothers had that luxury.

 

[CyranoJ]

And then after we went to school and my brothers talked with their friends who had also rented or bought the movie for the weekend, they suddenly hated him.

See, if their peers hated Jar-Jar I can totally see that influencing them. One's parents not sharing one's enthusiasm for a cartoony sci-fi movie is a totally different thing. My old man had a genial contempt for Star Wars in general and everything connected with it, for example: anytime my siblings and I talked about it (especially as we grew into our teens) he would quote that verse from Corinthians at us about becoming a man and putting aside childish things[1]. Never slowed us down in the slightest.

[1] To be clear, he wasn't nearly as much of a humorless dick as this makes him sound. He just had definite ideas about what was "kid's stuff" and what wasn't.

I still think he's funny, but then my lack of friends who had a television, and my mom not allowing the other adults in my life to poison something I enjoyed allowed me to form my own opinion. Not even my brothers had that luxury.

Did you ever work out why your mom had that reaction, out of curiosity?

 

[NuclearFairy]

See, if their peers hated Jar-Jar I can totally see that influencing them. One's parents not sharing one's enthusiasm for a cartoony sci-fi movie is a totally different thing. My old man had a genial contempt for Star Wars in general and everything connected with it, for example: anytime my siblings and I talked about it (especially as we grew into our teens) he would quote that verse from Corinthians at us about becoming a man and putting aside childish things[1]. Never slowed us down in the slightest.

It might've been different if your dad had liked star wars but hated one specific aspect of it. As was the case for my brothers' friends when my mom got them to spell out exactly what their friends had said about it.

Did you ever work out why your mom had that reaction, out of curiosity?

Which part?

The not poisoning part? My uncles had already accidentally gotten us to hate several cartoons that we used to love, and so she was overly paranoid about anything anyone saying influencing how we view the world.

Or the being oddly silent part? She felt that Jar Jar was a horrible waste of space that kept the movie from living up to its full potential and should've at the very least have been portrayed as a competent if otherwise clumsy person. But we were all laughing so she kept quiet.

 

[CyranoJ]

It might've been different if your dad had liked star wars but hated one specific aspect of it.

Possibly? Parents who would admit to nerdy interests were a rarity in my dad's generation, so there is that.

Or the being oddly silent part? She felt that Jar Jar was a horrible waste of space that kept the movie from living up to its full potential and should've at the very least have been portrayed as a competent if otherwise clumsy person. But we were all laughing so she kept quiet.

Honestly: pretty much my reaction to Jar Jar too, back in the day. Still can't sit through scenes with him. But it was obvious both then and now that I wasn't the target audience for that character, I'm glad kids got some enjoyment out of him.

 

[Areala-chan]

I am an unapologetic cheerleader for The Phantom Menace. I was an adult when I saw it in the theater, and had an absolutely delightful time.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Star Wars has been one of the great joys and utter disappointments in my life as a fan of great stories.

 

[StillStunned]

Nobody hates Star Wars more than the Star Wars fandom.

 

[TheLobster]

Nobody hates Star Wars more than the Star Wars fandom.

They were told to let the hate flow through them and they listened.

 

[StillStunned]

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