Spoilers 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' series [Spoiler Discussion]
- Thread starter Reverend
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I don't think that's a fair characterization of the PT at all. While there occasionally ideas that seem unnecessary, like making C3P0 built by Anakin, the entire trilogy as a whole is quite different from the OT and definitely stakes its own territory (for better and for worse.)
George clearly had a story he wanted to tell. You can debate whether or not it was "necessary" or even a good idea to tell Darth Vader's backstory.
But I can't agree with the assessment that it was "fan service", certainly not in the way later properties like "Force Awakens" shamelessly are, which is chock-a-block with recycling of concepts, references and callbacks.
I kind of wish this whole project had been done as a feature film. With a feature film budget. There are some scenes that just look and feel a little too much like TV to me. But, seeing as how the whole "A Star Wars Story" thing fizzled out, and the focus for new on-screen Star Wars stuff is streaming TV, I guess the movie route wasn't a viable option.
This episode had some good stuff: Making Reva's backstory and motives clearer. The juxtaposition of younger Ani and Obi's practice duel with their cat-and-mouse in the present day (I do wish they had made more effort to make Hayden Christensen look younger), cool lightsaber stuff at the end.
Kor
This episode had some good stuff: Making Reva's backstory and motives clearer. The juxtaposition of younger Ani and Obi's practice duel with their cat-and-mouse in the present day (I do wish they had made more effort to make Hayden Christensen look younger), cool lightsaber stuff at the end.
Kor
It wasn't all fan service but it was built with that attitude in mind. To me, the PT is the height of unnecessary in terms of Star Wars stortyelling. It adds little, and takes away much from the OT. It connects characters who genuinely do not have any reason to have that connection, i.e. R2-D2 and Padme, 3PO as you note, Yoda and Chewbacca, off the top of my head.
Now, to the PT's credit, and a place that it does better than the ST, is that it expands a little bit of the world of Star Wars, and utilizing some different locations to decent effect.
I'm also not saying it is exactly the same style of fan service as current outputs. I'm saying the seeds were put out there by the PT with the small universe connections, and with how it framed different parts of the story. The Clone Wars went further, and ST still further and now we arrive at fans wanting the smaller universe over a good story.
It made the SW seem small when too many main characters all had some pre-OT connection. It was fine for Bail to know Obi-Wan and Yoda (considering the role they take on at the end of ROTS), but the connections you mention were ridiculous and did not serve the story at all.
One of the worst PT mistakes was the creation of Midichlorians when SW never need some grade-school "biological" reason for connection to/use of the Force, which the OT developed in a very different, intentionally spiritual way. That, and for all of the attention Midichlorians was paid in TPM, its never mentioned again in the PT, and obviously never in its "future"--the OT.
Then again, I recall fans also arguing how unnecessary Rogue One was since the heart of the film was covered in the opening crawl of Star Wars, and in the decades after that film, no one needed any connections made / characters explored who were faceless--as they needed to be.
That said, I would be shocked if Disney creates a series or movies about the equally faceless Bothan spies (who Palpatine allowed to learn the location of the 2nd Death Star) because...why not? Its continuing the tradition of scraping the bottom of the fan-service/nostalgia barrel to make something out of what was once minor and/or insignificant.
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I don't see the harm in doing so. If fans truly detest it that much then it would be advisable to not engage fully with the material.
Personally, what Star Wars has always been about is looking at the big evil organization vs. the much smaller people, meaning that a story about the Bothan spies going against the Empire is right in tone and spirit with the original Star Wars as a veiled Vietnam analogy.
Save for Palaptine's talks with Anakin in ROTS.
Ah, that's right, but even with that reference, for something draped in importance from its treatment in TPM, for no Jedi to ever mention it again made the idea seem like a fly-by-night / take-it-or-leave it item, especially since Lucas did not go back as shove it into the OT.
Lucas was wounded quite deeply by the reaction to TPM and he took that quite to heart it seems, with the downgrading of Jar-Jar Binks in AOTC, and the near removal of the midiclorians aside from brief mentions. I'm not surprised he avoided it because the backlash was quite fierce and didn't work the way he hoped it would.
I’m liking it.
Also, I don’t agree about your assessment of Star Wars: by now is a universe and you can set any kind of story in it. Just like the mandalorian has done, bringing on screen western stories. Could they have been done in another setting with just a minor rewrite? Sure, but we like to build and expand imaginary universes, it’s fun and a way to forget ours for a few hours.
I always find escapism entertainment fascinating. Like, I enjoy participating in the world but I don't forget my world because of it. If anything, it makes me more reflective on problems, drawing upon inspiration of the strength of the protagonists, and finding some measure of similitude in personal struggle to aid in my efforts.
Now, video games, that's full escapism. Same with novels. TV shows and films are less so.
It's a weird relationship I have with escapist entertainment. I don't like as much as when I was younger.
Now, video games, that's full escapism. Same with novels. TV shows and films are less so.
It's a weird relationship I have with escapist entertainment. I don't like as much as when I was younger.
It's not particularly spiritual when Force potential can be passed down automatically in a genetic family bloodline as ROTJ made explicit. Force use has always had some kind of biological connection, going back to Lucas' early notes in the 1970s. ( It's implicit in TESB, which goes out of its way to emphasize Luke's importance. Why this kid, as opposed to any other disgruntled young person mad at the Empire? ) It only makes sense that there would have to be some kind of biological connection as limiting factor, because you need some way to explain why the bulk of the galactic population isn't out there running around doing the space wizard thing. Are trillions of sapient beings simply not spiritual enough?
I never understood midichlorians as a conduit to the force, or the actual consciousness behind the force.
More like a correlated phenomenon.
A single celled organism that is sensitive to the force just like other beings, but they coalesce where the force is strongest, so happen to live inside Jedi in large quantities. Like moths toward light.
More like a correlated phenomenon.
A single celled organism that is sensitive to the force just like other beings, but they coalesce where the force is strongest, so happen to live inside Jedi in large quantities. Like moths toward light.
for me that’s the aftermath, mostly.
no difference for me, a good concept is a good concept no matter the medium.
Tomato, tomato, honestly.
To each their own. A video game involves choice. A show does not.
depends on the videogame. I don’t play the modern stuff at all and the few things I still (very rarely) play these days have a fixed storyline or almost.
Ok, but the game doesn't just play itself...you still choose how to participate? Right?
He still acted out the scenes, I assume for his body double to watch and imitate.
Which was a totally necessary thing!
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