The more I learn about these things the more I am convinced in every part of the business all the wrong people are in charge. Nobody running a studio cares about story anymore. It's always been about the money, but there was at least a sense of pride about the craft in decades past. We may never get that back again.
Sadly, Disney Star Wars is exhibit A. How you could create three sequel movies without an overall plan/story is just mind-boggling to me. Really bums me out how they fumbled what should have been a huge success.
The more I learn about these things the more I am convinced in every part of the business all the wrong people are in charge. Nobody running a studio cares about story anymore. It's always been about the money, but there was at least a sense of pride about the craft in decades past. We may never get that back again.
Sadly, Disney Star Wars is exhibit A. How you could create three sequel movies without an overall plan/story is just mind-boggling to me. Really bums me out how they fumbled what should have been a huge success.
Right. I get they were in a hurry to make some investment back, but ...well, now here we are. Sometimes it's nice to let creatives do their thing. Then again, it feels like Star Wars shouldn't venture too far into creativity either.
So sorry for your predicament, @docsilence. It's one that I'm unfortunately familiar with here in NY. I live in a relatively small building- only a few units, but our front door is all glass and see-through, and one of the units is a business, so our front door has to stay unlocked during business hours, and man, I never realized how many people out there are totally cool just waltzing in to someone else's building and seeing a package they see sitting on the stairs. My landlord is too cheap to do anything about it either. That's assuming it even gets delivered here- sometimes if the door is locked, they'll deliver things to the building next door, and they'll mysteriously disappear from there.
Figures and cats are two of my favorite things, and having things stolen from both at once makes me mad. I hope the shmuck who stole your stuff has cats in need too, or at least donated it (or let Momaw chow down, at least). If anyone came between my darling kitty and his treats, they'd have to catch these hands! I hope you're able to get it all sorted out soon!
Like you said, Ru, I do think studios are a bit too quick to want to make their money back (and then some) nowadays. Which is understandable- if I spent hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd want to know it's safe too. But I've seen many posts online the last few days or so that I agree with- it feels like shows aren't able to take their time and find their stride anymore. They have to be mind-bogglingly good from the get-go, or else they risk cancellation (and sometimes even if they are good, they still get cancelled). We wouldn't have so many of the hit TV shows we've had if they weren't given a chance. Think of something like The Office- a pretty rocky season 1, which was tonally unlike any of the other seasons. But the network gave it a chance, and it slowly built its audience and became the smash hit it still is after all these years. It feels like shows aren't able to naturally build to things- they have to be interesting and action-packed and all that every single episode, which can often feel forced, not to mention is just difficult to maintain. I wonder how much of it is ironically the audience's fault to begin with- all the toxic hate aside, I feel like our dwindling attention spans are really hurting what TV can be. Nowadays it feels like people's critical thinking skills are lower than ever, and we need things explained to us in black and white terms. There's not as much nuance, or discussion. Which is why something like The Incident in the Acolyte felt so interesting (at least to me)- say what you want about the details, but it at least spurred interesting discussion again, which I feel like Star Wars has been missing recently. We're just always told who's good and who's bad and there's little, if any, room for argument. But blurring the lines made it feel interesting again, and I would've loved to have seen more of that in season 2. I often wonder how much of this supposed "bad" or "lazy" writing that so many complain about is because the viewers don't actually allow it to be "good".
But I digress. I'm getting up on my cranky old man soapbox again and yelling at clouds. To keep things somewhat on topic- has anyone actually come across Jecki in stores yet? I've seen a few folks online that have her (and granted, I don't know where they live), but I haven't actually seen her in stores yet. I saw she popped up for shipping on GameStop, but I'm trying to be patient so I can get her from Amazon at that lower price.
There wasn't very much creative about the sequel trilogy. It's still so depressing how they screwed that up so badly with all they had to work with.
Spotted a big pallet display with the Acolyte figures at Walmart yesterday. Contemplated picking up Sol but it has become very tough for me to drop $24.99 on a new figure unless it's something I really want (which I guess in a way is a good thing). He's joining the list of potential price-drop pickups. He did look nice, though.
Disney is right there with Netflix in terms of making the cash grab decision vs. investing in the story. Fun fact: if they CONTINUED the Daredevil series from Netflix, the crew gets their fourth year/season. But a REBOOT with Born Again starts the clock all over again.
Once you know about the three year rule a lot of stuff starts making sense - shows getting reboots, spinoffs... like I love the new interview with the Vampire show, which just announced its third and final season, and it's doing well enough that I would put a cash money bet down we'll see a spinoff instead of a fourth season. I'm still mad about American Gods leaving someone strapped to a tree and never coming back.
On a lighter (or darker?) note, I realize I have the most depressing action figure shelf ever: there's a section of "characters I love I am positive I'll never see again." Baylan Skoll is hanging out with Sol is hanging out with Marrok is hanging out with Ki-Adi-Mundi...
@joshsquash729 Yeah, the Office is a great example. Some shows are fantastic right off the bat, but a lot (even dramas) have to take a little bit to find their stride. And I tend to take 'bad' or 'lazy writing' complaints as usually meaning 'it didn't go where I expected it to'. And I've been guilty of not enjoying plenty of things because I was clinging too hard to the expectations I brought with me. I get that. With second viewings, sometimes, those things grow on me when I understand what the people behind it were going for. Sometimes not, in which case it's not for me. I'm still okay with those things existing though since I can choose to watch other things.
@grumpymatt you're right, it's definitely difficult to think about the ST without falling into a 'they should have/could have' spiral. I still think all the immediately after ROTJ stuff would have been really interesting. I never read the Aftermath stuff but that feels like something worth exploring, but please without deepfake trio. Lastly, yeah, the price tag really helps cultivate discipline.
@docsilence Wait, the third season of IWTV is its final too?! That's discouraging, but I guess part of me isn't too surprised since a lot of the second book would require period sets and costumes. I assume a lot of that will get massively truncated. And that show's something that would make total sense to 'spinoff' every two or three seasons since that's how long it will/should take them to adapt a book.
And hey, you'll probably see Ki Adi again when he appears in the Old Republic movie, revealing he's a couple thousand years old in Phantom Menace.
I was referring to buying sdcc stuff after the show. I have the receipts to show the shipping costs.
I still stick to my statement earlier somewhere. Acolyte was fine. It wasn't great. It wasn't bad. It was fine. Idc about another season, but it could be cool to see what happens with Darth Smiley. Him and Jecki were the standouts. I doubt the petition going around will do anything to have Disney bring it back though. I'll buy the figures I like on sale or clearance or discount. And not even worry about the rest. Probably get all the Jedi anyway just to add some lightsabers to the shelf, since we're sorely lacking a bunch of the prequel Jedi everyone actually want. We have gotten more recently sure, but we're still missing a nice chunk that would fill me with glee if they made them. Luminara, Shaak Ti, Bultar Swan, Saesee Tiin, Bariss Offee, Adi Galia, Yaddle, Quinlan Vos, Eeth Koth, Agen Kolar, Depa Billaba, Roron Corrob, Voolvif Mon, Pablo Jill, Foul Moudama, and Even Piel . And a couple blink and you'll miss them like the Nikto and Rodain (don't remember their names) and Coleman Trebor. They have cool ass designs. Very toyetic.
I think they should just continue the story of Plageuis. Get a different writer and showrunner than what they had with Acolyte and just cover Plagueis about 15 years out from EPI. Show him with Palpatine as an apprentice and show him teaching and telling Palpatine stories of how he (Plagueis) learned the secrets he has about cloning and manipulating life and death, and in those stories, you could also explain what happened to Qimir and Osha.
I like to think Plagueis experimented on Qimir, Osha, and Mae at some point. perhaps even killing them in the process.
Also, I need all those Jedi you just mentioned Trunks3540. I would buy those up in an instant.
@ru1977 Yeah, they said in the announcement it's the final season. I no longer expect anything to go more than three anymore unless it's INSANELY popular, or maybe on HBO.
@trunks3540 - that is a heck of a list. I'd preorder every single one of the. Voolvif Mon, man, I'd pay premium for him. One of my favorite figures from the old Star Wars Miniatures war game.
I have them all in small scale. Granted some are better then others when it comes to posability and such, since alot of them were when AotC came out and they were doing half statue figures. But they were still fun background Jedi for the display. I'm sure a few of them wouldn't sell as well nowadays with the price point and all that, but I would buy them all. And honestly, I'm sure I missed a couple, so I'd even buy the ones I missed. The PT and CW are a gold mine Hasbro hasn't tapped into. I doubt they read this, but if they do, hey Hasbro, PT/CW Jedi, it's like printing money. Get on it.
Kinda regret preordering the Acolyte figure from Amazon. So many weird delays. I'm just waiting on Yord and the poor guy just got another delay notification. Reckon if I see him elsewhere I'll scoop him up. I'm collecting Acolyte figures out of righteous indignation at this point.
@trunks3540 I feel like, and I have no evidence to back it up, Prequel Jedi just sell well effortlessly, every time. We never see them stagnate anywhere and they're not super easy to find later. I wonder why they don't just like, drop a council member on us every six months or so. I know the head sculpts cost money, but I don't think many of us would complain if they stuck Eeth Koth and Saesee Tiin on mostly the same body parts in different shades, right?
It was reported that Disney has removed all Acolyte merchandise from their stores and online. I don't know if were going to get Darth Smiley now or not.
Geeze they went hard if that's true. I didn't think it was that bad. Fuckin Disney overreacting again.
Alot of them would require some new parts. I don't think there could be a ton of reuse between all of them. But if they fudge it a bit they could maybe make some parts work for other characters like Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar. Maybe Deppa under the big ass robe could be Adi Galias body as well, maybe even reuse parts from Indara or something. But I have a feeling one of the biggest reasons alot haven't been done are because of how much tooling would be needed. And a council member evey 6 months wouldn't get us the rest, not to mention it would still take like 4 years to get them all that we don't have. And that's just one version of the council. It changes with every movie.
Shop Disney still has Acolyte clothing so it's not ALL Acolyte merch.
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