Category Archives: Opinion

‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ and Fandom

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Via Comicbook.com:

The release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi caused a great imbalance in Star Wars fandom. In fact, some fans are so disappointed in the film that they are calling for it to be stricken from canon.

“Canon” is a particularly appropriate term here. Star Wars fandom has reached the point where many fans treat the movies like sacred texts. They study them like disciples of numerology, seeing patterns everywhere. They shave off rough edges to force the story into the mold of the hero’s journey or ring theory.

In the time between the release of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Star Wars made the next step: prophecy. Fans started to believe that they could use the patterns they observed in the past to predict what was to come. They examined the apocryphal expanded universe of old for hints. They even broke down extratextual materials, like posters and standees, searching for signs.

Is it any wonder then so many have recoiled at Rian Johnson’s message, which asserts that there are no patterns? There is no prophecy. Star Wars is not a math problem that can be definitively solved. It’s art, and art changes and evolves over time.

The best example of this is the gray Jedi theories and the first time Luke sees Rey use the Force. The concept of a gray Jedi comes from the old EU. As pertains to Luke Skywalker, it mixed into the plot of the Dark Empire graphic novels. Luke would pursue true balance in the Force by mastering the light side and the dark side.

That this theory became so pervasive shows how fans have bought into Lucasfilm marketing. The light side/dark side gimmick is big for selling toys. But the Force doesn’t work like a video game morality meter, not even the one in Knights of the Old Republic.

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Star Wars Rivals

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Via anroidpolice.com:

Now that Disney owns the Star Wars franchise, I am wholeheartedly expecting them to release as many games, toys, mugs, pizza cutters, and door mats branded with the license as humanly possible. Frankly, Disney would be an idiot not to cash in on Star Wars’ mainstream and cult followings. That is why it is no surprise to see the beta release of Star Wars: Rivals on the Play Store. It is also no surprise to see that it is a free-to-play corridor shooter rife with poor controls, repetitive levels, and loot crates that are explicitly tied to plenty of in-app purchases.

I would like to briefly mention that Star Wars: Rivals is currently a soft-launch title. Due to its unavailability in my region, I have sideloaded the APK in order to test the gameplay. There may be a few more adjustments to the game before it officially launches, so please take that into consideration when reading this hands-on.

When I first saw the Play Store listing for Star Wars: Rivals I thought to myself that “this is refreshing, we now have a Star Wars game on Android that actually looks like a game.” Sadly it seems that I was sorely mistaken. While at a quick glance it may appear that Star Wars: Rivals could contain some fun mechanics, in reality, it is just another dumbed-down grind fest focused on hero collection.

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20 Ridiculous (??) Moments In Star Wars

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Via Whatculture.com:

Extremely beloved though the Star Wars franchise is by viewers young and old, all but the most hardcore apologists have to admit that it’s had its share of bizarre, laughable and straight-up baffling moments.

Over the last four decades, George Lucas’ juggernaut sci-fi blockbuster franchise has alternately stoked the audience’s imagination and made them wonder quite what the Hell the guy’s smoking. For every “I am your father” moment, there’s a dreadful clunker of dialogue or a tone-deaf scene that just doesn’t play right.

Some of these moments, admittedly, are ridiculous for the better, leaning into the inherent absurdity of the space opera saga, and as such fans wouldn’t dare wish them gone. Others, more often than not from the prequels? Not so much.

For better or for worse, though, these moments are Star Wars, and it’s hard to get into a discussion about the franchise without at least a few of them coming up…

5 Theories On The Best Order To Watch The Star Wars Movies

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Via Mentalfloss.com:

The Star Wars saga is 40 years old, and doesn’t show any signs of stopping. With the eighth entry in the series, The Last Jedi, slated to hit theaters later this year (and more Star Wars movies every year until forever), it’s easy to only be interested in what’s next. But newbies have to start somewhere, which begs the question: What’s the best order to watch the Star Wars movies?

In case you need a super fan’s take on some options, here are five ways to consider watching the saga.

1. EPISODE ORDER

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VIII

Perhaps the least favorite order among most Star Wars fans is the go-to sequence for the guy who started it all. “Start with one. That’s the way to do it right: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,” George Lucas told Vulture in 2015. “That’s the way they’re supposed to be done.”

Well, just because that’s the way it’s supposedly supposed to be done doesn’t mean you should do it that way. If you start with Episode I, Vader’s big I-am-your-father reveal in The Empire Strikes Back (arguably one of the biggest twists in movie history) turns out to be old news. The prequel plotlines assume everyone knows that Anakin turns into Darth Vader, so it’s one big anticlimax. On top of that, you have to slog through the prequels before you get to the real good stuff. But if you’re still into what Lucas has to say, then give the chronological order a whirl.

2. THE ROGUE ONE ORDER

R1, IV, V, I, II, III, VI, VII

Now that the saga is spinning off into a handful of different one-offs and character-based prequels, any particular order to watch the Star Wars movies will eventually be entirely subjective. But since Rogue One is so closely tied to the primary saga’s Death Star story, Reddit threads and Star Wars fan sites have declared it the best way to initially dive into the multifaceted universe regardless of any future standalone movies. Plus, if you use the Rogue One Order and take a quick post-Empire pause to flashback to The Phantom Menace, it keeps the Skywalker lineage surprises—with Vader and Leia—intact.

3. THE TIME MACHINE ORDER

IV*, V*, VI*, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX

This one is for diehards only, mostly because it’s basically impossible to replicate.

Now-out-of-print theatrical cuts of the Original Trilogy haven’t been re-released since 2006, and Disney hasn’t made any indication that they’ll see the light of day going forward. But if you get your hands on something like the Despecialized Editions—painstaking bootleg reconstructions of the original films—the so-called Time Machine Order puts you back as a viewer in 1977 to discover the magic all over again.

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GROWING UP WITH STAR WARS IN 1977 CHANGED MY LIFE

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Via Nerdist.com:

I can’t remember a time in my life when Star Wars wasn’t in it. And with good reason: I became cognizant right at the moment when Star Wars had seemingly taken over the world. When the original movie opened on May 25th, 1977, I was a month shy of turning 3 years old. They say your first lasting memories are formed at around age 3, and my earliest memories are Star Wars. Not the movie, which I probably didn’t see until I was about 4 years old, but the hype, merchandising, and overwhelming pop culture presence that became fundamental to Star Wars fandom.

My earliest memory (besides being pushed into the deep end of a swimming pool by my older brothers before I could swim) was seeing the trailer for Star Wars for the first time. My older brothers had actually gone to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind in one of the neighboring screens in our local, now long gone movie theater, back when a movie house had maybe two screens at most. Deciding I was too young for Star Wars, my grandmother took me to the screen next door, which was showing The Jungle Book. But when Darth Vader appeared in the trailer, I lost my mind with fear. To me, he was terror personified, and my grandmother had to take me out into the lobby, screaming and crying. Within a year though, I’d have my own Darth Vader action figure. We all would.

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A STAR WARS STORY WE WANT: BOUNTY HUNTERS

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Via Ign.com:

Boba Fett isn’t the only interesting bounty hunter in the galaxy (but he’s done some stuff).

The words bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe tend to be synonymous with one character: Boba Fett. The character and his memorable armor have appeal, to be sure, but he’s not the only being for hire in the galaxy. Droids, aliens, and humanoids have all taken credits for hunting down individuals from the heart of the Empire to the Outer Rim. They often fend for themselves in order to make the maximum amount of profit, but sometimes they team up Ocean’s 11 style when the job calls for different talents and specialties… and also has a gigantic enough payout that it’s still sizable when it’s split multiple ways. That last part is key.

In the Star Wars movies, we’ve spent time around the Fetts, Zam Wesell, and 4-LOM to name a few. The animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars introduced the likes of the stylish hat-wearing Cad Bane and Sugi. Dengar keeps appearing in stories in the current storytelling universe for some reason. But in the days of the Expanded Universe/Legends books and comics, the plots mostly focused on the bounty hunters we met in the original trilogy.

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11 Underrated Star Wars Characters That Deserve Their Own Movie

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Via Nme.com:

There are a lot more spinoffs coming and these are the legendary characters we think deserve their own movie.

Star Wars spinoffs we know about so far have included a direct prequel to the original trilogy, Rogue One, and next summer’s Young Han Solo film. But Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm (which produces Star Wars) has recently discussed further spinoff films, teasing that Star Wars fans are “as much masters of this franchise as we are.” Leaks recently emerged about a Boba Fett film and an Obi Wan Kenobi film, but Kennedy added: “Theories that emerge are sometimes new ideas for us that we hear, read and pay attention to.” So here’s a few suggestions for Lucasfilm of the greatest spinoff ideas they might not have considered…

1. Kit Fisto

Who he is: Originally designed as a new Sith lord, Fisto was instead a tentacle-headed Jedi Master, of the waterfaring Nautolan species, and was seen in Attack of The Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith (in which he is killed by the Emperor).

What we’d see: The early years of this underused fan-favourite, who is as effective above sea level as below it. And hopefully some better prosthetics than we saw in Attack of the Clones.

Why it’d be great: You’d get cool action in sea environments – which we’ve not really seen much of in Star Wars movies so far. And because Fisto is a cheerful Jedi with a good sense of humour, you’d get none of that po-faced light-side/dark-side chat.

Likelihood: 4/10. Unless Disney could haul in a big-name actor to play Kit, they’d be unlikely to sell a huge movie on an obscure aquatic Jedi.

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All of Marvel’s Star Wars Comics, Ranked

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Via iO9.com:

It’s been two years since Marvel regained the rights to make Star Wars comics, and since then the publisher has released a ton of comics, both ongoing and miniseries. Want some recommendations on what’s out there? We’ve ranked them all, from the must-reads to the ones you should avoid like they were old Jar Jar Binks.

[A note going in: There’s a brand new Darth Maul comic but since only a single issue has been released, I’m not including it. The first issue is pretty intriguing, though, so if you like Maul, check it out! Also excluded are two one-shot comics: Vader Down, a solo tie-in to an event in the Darth Vader and Star Wars series (although it was very good), and C-3PO, which told the story of how the droid got his red arm in The Force Awakens (it was weirdly okay!).

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Are There Any Continuity Errors Between Rogue One and Episode IV?

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Via Slate.com:

This question originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

Answer by Rob Fletcher, Star Wars geek:

Episode IV definitely suggests the Death Star was only just operational and had never been fired in anger before. Rogue One gets around this by having the first two firings use a “single reactor ignition” low-power mode, and the destruction of Jedha the subject of an Imperial coverup so that when Tarkin describes the destruction of Alderaan as an “effective demonstration,” it’s because that is the first time the Empire is publicly acknowledging the Death Star’s existence.

That initially seems to fly, but why is there an about-face on the policy of secrecy? Vader says the Death Star project is suspect because of the risk of Galen Erso having sabotaged it and tasks Krennic with disproving that. Krennic promptly dies in a major battle in which the Rebel Alliance escapes with a copy of the Death Star plans but then the Empire decides to go public with the Death Star anyway?

Mon Mothma’s presence (as well as confusing half the audience about which Death Star we’re talking about) seems odd given that she then disappears for two movies. Why wasn’t she on Yavin 4 during the battle? Why was she nowhere to be seen on Hoth? It’s possible to craft a retcon of course but I’m slightly surprised the movie didn’t try to explain her later absence.

What are Leia and the Tantive IV doing at the battle of Scarif? Earlier Bail Organa had said he was sending her to contact Obi-Wan. She wasn’t supposed to be the getaway driver for the theft of the plans. Why take a high-value undercover member of the Alliance and a diplomatic vessel used for covert operations into a fleet engagement?

Why is Vader alone when he tries to breach the Tantive IV? Where is his boarding party? Why does he then send regular troops to do the same job when they catch up with Leia’s ship over Tatooine?