My biggest problem with small-world syndrome is currently with Star Trek Online. They have tied most of the ancient empires together (the "Conspiracy" bluegills are connected to the "Silent Enemy" beings who are also connected to the the "Schisms" aliens and all who work for the Iconians. And then making some connections between the Dominion and Hur'q.
Poll "Small Universe Syndrome" - Yay Or Nay?
- Thread starter wayoung
- Start date
Exactly, what did they do to raise the ire of the First Order??
Everything about those movies had things happen just because, rather than any logical reasoning in following on from ROTJ. It felt like they were happening in a void, the motivations being mostly absent. Even the OT had a bit of political backbone to it to help explain what was going on. It's why I say it feels like the characters don't really know why they're fighting, other than being told to fight.I don't really find it bothers me in games, particularly if it's an MMO, because inherently, they'll always try to find connections, and none of it is canon anyway.
I've been watching Curb Your Enthusiasm and that's an example of a show that goes way overboard with small universe syndrome.
Every week of his life, some person he accidentally offended just happens to crop up at the exact worst time.
Every week of his life, some person he accidentally offended just happens to crop up at the exact worst time.
The Prequels already turned the fandom off to big battles between opposing armies or fleets, and when they gave us alien enemies all they got in return were "Yeesh, these aliens sure look stupid. Nothing like those cool Imperial Officers. What a dumb bunch. And robot soldiers, what a dumb idea."
So making the First Order be Invaders from outside the Galaxy = Out of the Question.
Still no. The problem comes from a lack of investment on either side of the conflict, not due to battles or aliens.
I much prefer the novelization version personally, where the bluegills were related to the Trill and evolved from symbionts that got warped after they were radically altered (unsuccessfully) to preserve a Trill colony.
The battles and aliens not being "Traditional Star Wars", however, didn't help.
Hard agree there. I found it hard to be invested in any of them. I actually would have been interested in hearing what happened to the galaxy after the Republic's victory, and what happened with the Imperial forces leading up to the First Order. Anything really, to give a little background and the sense of time passing and to give viewers a sense of what they're fighting for. There was almost nothing said about the previous era or what happened since. It was just kind of there.
And as somebody said and I agree with them, and I paraphrase: "You shouldn't need to buy a $30 book to understand the backstory of a movie." There should have been at least some explanation of the origins of the First Order because the way it's just there less than three decades after the Battle of Endor and about all we know is from the Sequel Trilogy opening crawls and that Ben Solo joined it to become Kylo Ren is just laziness. Few people are asking for a damn Tolstoy novel of backstory but to provide that little was just bad writing.
Felt the same way about the PT. I read a lot of books.
How and when were they supposed to give us such a huge infodump without completely killing the momentum of the film?
And "As you know" explanations are terrible.
Other films do it. Nobody wanted a huge infodump but we knew the Empire replaced the Old Republic within the adult lifetime of Obi-Wan and that the tyranny was so recent that the Emperor didn't even bother to abolish the Senate until Episode IV. You don't need a biography of the First Order but about 90 seconds or so giving the audience the backstory would have been nice. The OT did it. The PT didn't skimp on details however small most of the time. But this series of films did and it was worse off for the lack of context.
I'm particularly annoyed at the trend of leaving essential backstory to books. I mean, I get it, and in certain cases it can work. But not when a franchise is already so dense, and not when a franchise hasn't had a theatrical followup in decades. It kind of leaves everyone hanging as to the state of the Galaxy. And all it would have taken is a few lines of dialogue to fix.
I don't think the star crawls were meant for exposition, merely vague status updates between movies. They weren't meant for last-minute info bombs like in the last movie. They were basically the Galaxy's Twitter feeds.
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Yep. No momentum hurt. Look how much backstory Khan tells the audience after capturing Chekov and Terrell in TWOK. For those who hadn't seen "Space Seed(TOS)" or those who'd forgotten the details over time those few lines of dialogue about the Botany Bay, the 1990s and the Enterprise having found them in cryogenic suspension was enough to fill everybody in and tell us what we needed to know.
I think LFL learned the wrong lessons from the PT.
Yeah, that's a great example! I admittedly hadn't seen Space Seed before seeing WoK, but I was clued in enough to know there was history. And they key is history. If you make it interesting enough, you can build on it, and entertain both crowds without losing anybody. Win/Win?
Khan takes roughly 30 seconds if that long to retell the backstory from "Space Seed(TOS)," Chekov mentions Khan tried to steal the Enterprise and murder Kirk and that tells us all we need to know to set up the revenge story. It's economical, it's just enough information to get the audience up to speed and then isn't rehashed ad nauseam throughout the rest of the film.
Beautiful. More films should follow that example.
Beautiful. More films should follow that example.
If only they would be inspired rather than copying.
Khan took 30 seconds to explain one episode, that's a whole nother thing from telling us the details of the New Republic, it's lack of a major military response to the First Order, the origins of the First Order, where they got their support from, why there isn't a big Jedi Order led by Luke, why Leia isn't the Chancellor of the New Republic and Han not it's Supreme Military Leader like all the Fan-Fics say they should be, etc.
All ANH told us is "20 years ago there was beautiful Republic defended by Jedi Knights. Then this Emperor guys somehow killed most of the Jedi and took over the Republic somehow" but because ANH was the first movie that's all we needed to know because there was nothing else.
TFA had 30 years that the audience demanded be covered in its entirety.
It can be done and done right. They just chose not to do it, and that's lazy.
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