Huh? He doesn't look a thing like this: https://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/R1-series_astromech_droid Bucket has pieces that I recognize from R2-type droids -- the eyepiece, the legs, the overall garbage-can shape of the body -- but it's as if the outer shell has been stripped away, leaving just the framework.
That's not the best example. The overexposure of the Dragons TV material probably contributed to the sequel not doing as well. The third that is about to come out barely got greenlit and is going to be the end of the road.
Bucket's designation is R1-J5 https://www.starwars.com/databank/bucket-r1-j5 I'm just going with what they provide.
Maybe Bucket had a head casing, like the one on the wiki page, that was fubar'd and Yaeger probably replaced it with the KFC bucket helmet
That has nothing to do with the specific question being addressed here, which is whether there's a "point" in doing a TV series tie-in that remains in the past of an ongoing film franchise rather than staying up to date with its present. That's something that a number of different franchises have done, and one obvious reason to do it -- of which Dragons is simply one example -- is that you can't really tell stories set between parts 2 & 3 if you don't yet know how the status quo will be changed in part 3. That principle has nothing to do with popularity or success, merely with storytelling logic. Even if the TV shows did affect the performance of the movie sequel, they clearly didn't affect its content, since there's no indication in the second film that its makers were even aware of the TV series. That's the way movie tie-ins usually work, with the exception of current Star Wars -- the movies do their own independent thing, ignoring other branches (like how the MCU movies ignore Agents of SHIELD), and the other branches like TV shows or comics or novels just have to try to thread their stories in between the movie stories and create the illusion that they fit together. It's a very one-sided relationship. And that's why so many tie-ins lag behind the chronology of the movies they tie into. It's easier to avoid contradictions that way.
I think it's safe to assume that the four or five digit alphanumeric droid names are just meant to be an easy to remember and reference segment of a much-much-much longer serial designation. So don't take those first two letters to necessarily indicate the model number. As for the R-series astromechs: that thing from ANH being an R1 never made any sense to me; it's a fundamentally different design. Of course that's not to say that another corporation can't call it's reactor droids "R1", or it's a *very* old design from the same company and they just recycled the name. There's only so many letters in the alphabet after all and there's doubtless millions of droid models produced over the course of the millennia, so there's bound to be double-ups. Plus, most designations are probably just short form nicknames of the actual model.
I'm not asking about the numbers, though -- I just used "R2 unit" as a reference to the particular shape and structure of droid that I'm talking about, because "astromech" is too generalized. What I'm saying is that Bucket looks to me like what you'd get if you stripped away most of R2-D2's outer shell and left only the essential pieces and enough framework to hold it together. It looks like Bucket used to be a more complete droid of the familiar domed-cylinder astromech design, but is now stripped down to just a bare skeleton. I'm asking if others interpret his design in the same way.
The Triple Dark aired last night. The third episode overall. Someone wrote (I thought in this thread but evidently not) somewhere that Kaz is supposed to be bumbling and clumsy on land - but once he is in the cockpit and flying something, then you can see he has real skill. I hope this show finds a way to get Kaz into the cockpit of something soon. We also need more baddies: more First Order and pirates, please.
The episode is fun in a Voltron Legendary Defender kinda way. A bit too childish. The animation is excellent though and keeps me engaged. The anime style really fits Star Wars. Star Trek should do this
I keep hearing people say this show has an anime style, but I don't see it. What characteristics does it have in common with anime (aside from following anime's lead in embracing cel-shaded CGI)?
What? I don't see any resemblance in either story or character design. Are you talking about ship/tech design or something?
Ships and tech are straight out of Cowboy Bebop. Kaz is a dumbed down version of Ed and BB is Ein. Jet and Yaeger are reminiscent. Animation style is very similar. I see it everywhere and I love it. Works really well.
Whaaaaaaa?????? They have nothing in common. Ed was a computer hacker, a glorious eccentric, and a girl. I don't see that at all. Anime like Bebop tends to have relatively limited animation, a lot of stillness and economical, staccato motion. The Resistance characters are constantly moving and bouncing around in the same annoying, Disneyish way as the Star Wars Rebels characters did.
No, I'm not looking for exactness, I'm saying I don't see how it's even in the same ballpark. I mean, I can easily see the similarities between, say, Firefly and Cowboy Bebop. That's a no-brainer, despite the obvious differences that also exist (e.g. live-action vs. animation). And I can see how, say, the work of Genndy Tartakovsky or Glen Murakami or Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra is influenced by anime. There are differences, but the similarities are evident. But here, I don't even see a remote resemblance to Bebop or any other anime aside from the ship designs. I wish that Resistance were more anime-influenced. It would be a much less ugly show if it were -- if it used the richer, subtler color shadings of anime instead of the garish, overbright colors it has, and if it had the restrained motion of anime instead of the spastic bounciness that Disney 3D-animated shows seem to favor. Anime-styled cel-shaded CG, like that in the Godzilla anime trilogy or Batman Ninja, is a lot better-looking than this.
Yet another show whose design and animation were far better than Resistance. I guess there's a similarity in the target age level and the amount of humor, but at least A:TLA's characters were actually likeable, something I can't yet say about Kaz.