@fac well I'm glad you changed your mind!
I completely forgot about that Underworld show. I even sorta tried, as hard as I was able anyway, to get a writing job on that because I traced six degrees to Lucas at the time, but my writing samples only made it a couple degrees. So maybe I blocked it out heh.
I wonder if any of those concepts were recycled or repurposed on Mandalorian.
5 - While not defending the true bigots and "anti-woke" crowd, I do think some of the fan backlash is due to how media and PR departments cover entertainment - they often focus so much on the casting and inclusiveness in the stories they write to promote the shows and make (in my opinion) somewhat grandiose comments on the societal impact of such things (for what is really mostly mindless entertainment) that a cynical person might wonder how calculated their inclusiveness is and how much is genuine. In Star Wars the shows themselves seem to not make a big deal about this stuff in the storytelling - no one is going "I can't believe a young woman of color can be a Jedi" nor is it a plot point in the show - but when the media coverage around it makes it a talking point, it sort of bleeds into the show from the audience side so it gets noticed. Basically, it isn't that they might be making a point, it is that they tell everyone they are making a point so you end up noticing it in an inorganic way that places context on the story from outside the story. I kind of resent that media coverage as it pushes the "real world" into Star Wars where I don't think it naturally fits. Not sure if that makes sense.
Nope, it makes sense and you're right. Corporations have caught on that identity is one of, if not the number one trigger for most folks out there today. It gets corporations money, it gets the internet clicks, it gets politicians votes. Identity is a booming business. And feel free to call me one of those cynical people you refer to, because I will wager that it is VERY calculated on the part of media. It ruffles feathers, it gets attention, it turns people against each other (creating a "good guy/bad guy" situation which the media loves to report on), it makes money. Calculated, indeed.
A few more minor things -
I like the Midichlorians concept - otherwise no good reason why Luke and Leia and then Leia's children would be powerful force users if no biological component to pass down - either everyone can do it if you get the right training, or you need to be predisposed somehow. I actually think if they ever wanted to explore this (and maybe they have somewhere) the idea that the Jedi went to being attachment-less was to not have Jedi producing powerful Jedi spawn, like the breeding program of the Beni Gesserit in Dune.
Star Wars has never really addressed things like where the "humans" came from I don't think - every other species has a home planet, but are the humans on Alderaan the same as the humans on Tatooine as on Correlia as on Naboo? Always been curious about that.
Are Wookies physically unable to speak/pronounce Galactic Standard? Chewy was with Han a long time and never seemed to muster a "Hi" so it seemed like it was his choice and Han understood him obviously, but Han never tried to speak Wookie...mention this given the Wookie Jedi.
I admit, I was also slightly annoyed with the "murdered last night" line in The Acolyte as that sentence makes no sense in a society that consists of hundreds of planets, all of whom are presumably partially at night and at day all the time, let alone different lengths of days. I get they don't want to get into that, but you can make the same point in a more sci-fi-esque way like "would have had to cover 6 parsecs to commit the murder and return" that shows it might not have been possible. A similar line that bugged me was someone saying they "needed the paycheck". Star Wars works better when it avoids those sorts of lines that sound like an Earth saying I feel.
I did read that some of the concepts about Underworld may have been repurposed in The Mandalorian, although Underworld as to be set between RotS and ANH I think so likely not directly pulled.
@fac,
That's a good argument for midi-chlorians, but I don't think I'll ever be on board with them as intended. I feel the attempt to quantify it just demystified something I think should have stayed mystic. I appreciate that it was a scene written to demonstrate to the audience how they know that Anakin is stronger in the force than anybody else, but it left me with more questions than it answered.
I've a head-canon that says midi-chlorians are microscopic life forms that thrive on the force and their presence is the sign of powerful force ability rather than the cause of it. Like how anti-bodies are used to detect the presence of an illness.
Now, Rogue One goes kind of the other way and leans into the idea of the Will of the Force influencing events for some larger plan, and I'm not crazy about that either (I think it removes agency from the characters), so maybe I'm just being stubborn.
And I think my only beef with "murdered last night" was that that feels like a very short amount of time to find Osha. It set up this conflict in my head that they knew exactly where she was well enough to find her on a ship in the middle of space in, like, eight hours, but not well enough to know where she'd been eight hours prior. That could be me just over-thinking what I thought was going to be a murder mystery, but it felt poorly set up.
I completely forgot about that Underworld show. I even sorta tried, as hard as I was able anyway, to get a writing job on that because I traced six degrees to Lucas at the time, but my writing samples only made it a couple degrees. So maybe I blocked it out heh.
I would like to hear more about this.
@fletch This was... 2007 or so? I had just finished two years at a screenwriting school and thought I was hot shit, then I found out my stepbrother-in-law's brother's wife, who is a dentist, knew another dentist, whose patient was a lawyer who worked with George Lucas. I gave a couple of thriller/noirish scripts I had written to my stepbrother-in-law's brother along with a letter to Mr. Lucas inviting him to lunch to discuss Underworld, but it never got beyond the second dentist.
I've never trusted dentists since. 😀
@fac I get all those points, and makes sense. yeah, some expressions like Panaka saying "sitting ducks" etc can be a little jarring for those immersed in the world. I tend to not pay attention to stuff like that so much until someone points it out, heh.
@fletch I hadn't thought of it that way, where the Jedi keep tabs on drop outs but not enough to know she wasn't killing someone before that.
But I find it fascinating how this show changes what it's about kinda every episode.
I gave a couple of thriller/noirish scripts
I thought that was a 'no Irish' script and thought "that's really specific."
I used to want to be a screenwriter. I learned I don't have the business drive to push myself out there so now I just do it as a hobby.
My point is, I would never even have tried to forward a message through two dentists and a lawyer, so good on you for even trying.
I did meet Ben Affleck once when I was in the Navy. You know, the guy who started Project: Greenlight? And I was absolutely kicking myself for not having any of my scripts on hand to at least try.
@fletch that's hilarious... And took me way too long to figure out where the miscommunication was heh. I saw your response in an alert, without what you quoted, and couldn't remember where I mentioned anything Irish.
Thank you..I was way cockier then, but I'm still putting my self out there in a slight way. I have no marketing skills or no how, or even desire, so I'm just doing the writing part as well, but switched to novels. But yeah, I get kicking yourself on the Affleck thing. I used to have a friend who got his script read by Affleck around 2001 but that was as far as it went too.
I'm glad you're still writing though. Even if neither of us ever really go anywhere because of it, it's still worth devoting ourselves to it. I actually have quit writing several times but it's never taken. I'm compelled to do it, and the lockdown really kicked me into high gear again since I had little else to do heh. And I've done a novel or two every year since. Each with much Irish.
but feeling it's trash because all planets follow the same cycle etc just seems disingenuous to me.
I think this is referencing my comment, and I'd appreciate you not putting words in my mouth if so. The *entirety* of my complaint is that Yord's 'last night' comment makes this giant-ass galaxy feel small, which I don't like. That's it, that was the one sole issue I had against the first two episodes. Please respect *my* opinions enough to represent them accurately.
I am interested to see if we get a bit of Rashomon style storytelling to see these events from Mae's perspective as it seems unlikely she is the true architect of destruction of her coven.I am guessing Koril is probably responsible, but i am interested.
Yeah, that shot of all the women dead in the room just can't be all from smoke inhalation. Anybody know if Koril was one of the bodies?
New concepts in a new era is a huge selling point of the show to me.
THIS we can agree upon most heartily.
I think I was just broadly summarizing the general complaints, not trying to disrespect your opinion.
@ru1977 Very interesting you tried to get involved with Underworld. I am sure that was a tough job to get. I wouldn't be surprised if Andor, Mando, BoBF, or Obi-Wan has utilized some concepts or basic plots.
@fletch I understand it does "demystify" the Force a bit, but it solved some major issues with Anakin - why did the Jedi go against their own rules to train him given his age, why did they know he was so special, how can they justify pulling kids from their families anyway? And then later the implication that the Sith are willing to manipulate the midichlorians to create and/or extend life unnaturally - something maybe the Jedi learned in the past and then abandoned.
I also don't like the idea that the Force is a sentient, deity like thing that might "choose" to create Anakin - which I gather is a theory out there (I am firmly in the Sith did it to create a super-Sith). The Force works best as something that is part of the universe and can be accessed for good or ill purposes. Your concept about antibodies could mean that maybe Jedi training creates more midichlorians - the better you train, the more they thrive. That would make some sense actually. If they live off of the Force, then using the Force feeds them, and in turn expands the Force user's access to the power via more of them in the person, and so on, and it becomes a symbiotic relationship...
Lots of fair and thought provoking points snipped so I can get to this:
I mean, The Acolyte totally did a midichlorian count. We'll never be free of that fucking horseshit. We just have to hope, like in The Acolyte, they kind of hand-wave it away a bit.
It's obvious this is a thing Disney Star Wars intends to keep - the most recent season of the Bad Batch spent numerous episodes focused entirely on the Empire having a secret science base for the study of midichlorian counts of specific subjects, so not a concept they plan to abandon.
So, who thinks...
Latest Post: GI Joe Classified Series Our newest member: Williamsoibe Recent Posts Unread Posts
