Star Wars Discussion Thread v. Rise of Skywalker / Mandalorian (merged)

[gmillerdrake]

Anyone watch The Bad Batch premier? Nice first episode. I'm interested to see where this goes in an otherwise unexplored time period of Star Wars history.

Yup... diggin it.  jingle.son and I watched the 4-episode run that introduced them in the Clone Wars S7.  Digging this very much.  We hadn't watched Rebels, so the 'reveal' wasn't terribly impactful to us - we wouldn't have known anything different if jingle.son hadn't been doing some background reading/research.

I'm sure the arc will (at least for a few episodes) focus on getting that inhibitor out of Crosshairs.  Very curious to see what Omega brings to the table.

Yeah. Good episode. I can’t imagine this won’t be a good series.

[lordxizor]

Honestly, I'm more interested in cameos and tie-ns to the larger Star Wars universe than I am in the Batch Batch characters themselves.

[lordxizor]

A few random Star Wars thoughts:

The Bad Batch is just ok through 3 episodes. It's cool to see Tarkin and some of the early empire stuff, but the lead characters aren't doing a whole lot for me.

I rewatched the last four episodes of The Clone Wars. Damn, those are good. As a movie, it would definitely be in the top half of all Star Wars movies.

I would love to see a D+ series of Maul being a badass gangster. It could tie into the Solo movie and wrap up that story.

[jingle.boy]

Yeah, bad batch Ep3 was ok, but kinda bland. Nothing wrong with it, and I guess it advanced the storylines.

[kaos2900]

Sounds like Rangers of the New Republic is getting canned. Book of Boba Fett (December) and Ahoska are moving forward and are part of the same time line as the mandalorian and all will come together in the end. I'm assuming that will be around the search for Ezra and Thrawn's story.

[jingle.boy]

I thought The Bad Batch was a much more entertaining episode last night.  I'm still really not sure what the overall arc is supposed to be about, or what it's leading to, but jingle.son and I are still digging it.

[gmillerdrake]

I thought The Bad Batch was a much more entertaining episode last night.  I'm still really not sure what the overall arc is supposed to be about, or what it's leading to, but jingle.son and I are still digging it.

I’m two behind. Gotta knock those out.

I did see they made Dave Filoni an Executive Creative Director at Lucasfilm. So that’s good news.

[lordxizor]

Star Wars: Visions first look

https://youtu.be/b9Gr9gKFxpE

I'm not an anime fan, but this looks cool. I think it's a great idea to let creative people come up with unique Star Wars stories in their own style.

[PetFish]

Visions looks so cool!  Reminds me of The Animatrix with in-universe stories being told by different creators.

I always find that when artists don't have their creativity handcuffed by the powers behind the Star Wars IP then things can be amazing.  All too often stuff is made to "fit" the classic saga format and although it works I'm always feeling like there's so much more cool stuff to see and do.

Examples would be this (Visions), the original Clone Wars series (pre-2005), new Clone Wars cartoons, and various video games.

I really hate seeing Jedi/Sith concentrating so hard to do simple stuff (eg Yoda vs Dooku when Dooku drops some ceiling pebbles/machinery on Yoda and he must throw up both hands to stop them, AT MOST it should have been a flick of the wrist while maintaining steely eye contact with Dooku) or other dumb shit like "Master Obiwan seeing me Force lift this kiwi-pear over to you would make him grumpy".  WTF?

Seeing Sidious toss senate boxes at Yoda was great and what I always hope to see but then seeing Yoda having to tryhard to throw one back at him was lame.  Wait, lemme spin this first for no reason then push it at you, I'm not telegraphing it or anything.

Do I want a Jedi/Sith to Force-crash a Star Destroyer?  Hell no.  But when Obiwan has Buzzdroids on his little spaceship why can't he, or Anakin, just Force-push them off?  Why be so helpless in this situation?

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Not really into anime but this is a fresh idea and a nice way to bring new creative ideas for the SW universe.

[gmillerdrake]

I’m not sure what to think about Bad Batch. It wasn’t ‘bad’ per say but I honestly don’t know what the point of the show is? It’s not really adding anything to the lore or back story, we did get a couple glimpses of some characters that were young at the time…..but there was no drastic reveal or tie in to the main universe.

While this is fine and not necessary…..I just found the story to be a bit rudimentary, especially on the heels of such a good run by Filoni. S2 is green lit so I guess we will see where this goes.

[lordxizor]

I’m not sure what to think about Bad Batch. It wasn’t ‘bad’ per say but I honestly don’t know what the point of the show is? It’s not really adding anything to the lore or back story, we did get a couple glimpses of some characters that were young at the time…..but there was no drastic reveal or tie in to the main universe.

While this is fine and not necessary…..I just found the story to be a bit rudimentary, especially on the heels of such a good run by Filoni. S2 is green lit so I guess we will see where this goes.

I enjoyed the backstory of the transition from the Old Republic to the Empire. I agree that it kind of felt like an unnecessary show. I didn't find the main characters to be all that compelling. But I'll continue watching as I do all things Star Wars.

[gmillerdrake]

I’m not sure what to think about Bad Batch. It wasn’t ‘bad’ per say but I honestly don’t know what the point of the show is? It’s not really adding anything to the lore or back story, we did get a couple glimpses of some characters that were young at the time…..but there was no drastic reveal or tie in to the main universe.

While this is fine and not necessary…..I just found the story to be a bit rudimentary, especially on the heels of such a good run by Filoni. S2 is green lit so I guess we will see where this goes.

I enjoyed the backstory of the transition from the Old Republic to the Empire. I agree that it kind of felt like an unnecessary show. I didn't find the main characters to be all that compelling. But I'll continue watching as I do all things Star Wars.

Yeah....that was interesting to see. I know that Clone Wars took a couple seasons to really get going and I have to think that with Filoni behind this all that there is some sort of 'pay off' or point to the series other than just having another SW show. Or, maybe Disney just said....we need some content for Disney +, make it happen?

Compelling is a good word to use there and I agree.....the main characters and their story arc in S1 just didn't grab me at all. I'm just kind of indifferent on the whole season. I didn't hate it but I also didn't find it to be 'must see' ala the Mandalorian or the late season Clone War episodes.

[jingle.boy]

The first 1/2 of the season was pretty dry.  The 2nd half I enjoyed much more.  I appreciated the finale, but wasn't wow'd by it.  I think it's pretty good way of setting up the re-cloning that we started to see in Mandalorian, and ultimately could tie into the resurrection of Palpatine - all while giving some rearview glimpses at some characters from Rebels (or so I'm told, since I never watched that - yet).  I'm fully anticipating some major payoff about Omega... like, she's got some midichlorians in her or something.  There's got to be something special about her.

[axeman90210]

I threw in the towel partway through Bad Batch. It was fine but it was just kind of... there. I felt like I was watching it out of obligation.

[gmillerdrake]

The first 1/2 of the season was pretty dry.  The 2nd half I enjoyed much more.  I appreciated the finale, but wasn't wow'd by it.  I think it's pretty good way of setting up the re-cloning that we started to see in Mandalorian, and ultimately could tie into the resurrection of Palpatine - all while giving some rearview glimpses at some characters from Rebels (or so I'm told, since I never watched that - yet).  I'm fully anticipating some major payoff about Omega... like, she's got some midichlorians in her or something.  There's got to be something special about her.

Yeah. There’s something still not said about Omega that will probably be pretty important. The cameos from a young Kanan and Hera were pretty neat also.

It’s not quite as big a chore as Clone Wars……but Rebels is worth the watch. It doesn’t take long at all for it to get to it and stays pretty solid all the way through. With the tie ins and the Ahsoka series basically being based around the ending of Rebels…..I’d recommend it.

[Cool Chris]

So I was gifted some Thrawn novels, and saw these are newer ones. I do not know anything of the SW Legends (or whatever they are calling it now) world. If I jump in to these novels will it be a detriment to me not having read previous stories with Thrawn?

[Grappler]

So I was gifted some Thrawn novels, and saw these are newer ones. I do not know anything of the SW Legends (or whatever they are calling it now) world. If I jump in to these novels will it be a detriment to me not having read previous stories with Thrawn?

No, not really.  If it's Thrawn / Thrawn: Alliances / Thrawn: Treason, then the books are prequels to the original Timothy Zahn trilogy (Heir to the Empire) from the 90's.  This new trilogy explains how Thrawn rose through the ranks of the Empire and became a Grand Admiral.  I enjoyed them, and I've never seen one episode of the Star Wars cartoon series.

[Cool Chris]

Cool, thanks. It is from the series Thrawn Ascendancy, which apparently precedes other stories. I have a thing about reading novels out of published order, and didn't want to dive in to something that I might not fully appreciate without having read previous novels.

[Kotowboy]

So I just watched the KENOBI trailer - and RedLetterMedia are bang on - Star Wars cannot do anything new.

This new trailer is Darth Vader ! Death Star ! Stormtroopers ! Tie Fighters ! Darth Maul !

HEY REMEMBER EPISODE 4 !!!

Are Disney so far in the hole with Lucasfilm that they have to resort to basically making Star Wars The Greatest Hits ?

It looks nice though obviously. That should be a given these days. If the Prequels looked like this theyd actually be watchable.

[jingle.boy]

Kenobi trailer???

[faizoff]

Probably one of those conceptual fan-made trailers. There's a bunch of them out there.

[jingle.boy]

Probably one of those conceptual fan-made trailers. There's a bunch of them out there.

That's kinda what I figured.

[Kotowboy]

It couldnt have been fan made as it had new footage of Ewen as Obi Wan. But I don't watch The Mandalorian so I dunno if it was cobbled together.

If it was fan - made it was well done but OVER done on the fan service.

I don't know where they'd get new footage of Ewen as Obi though. Maybe from another film with him in the desert in a robe ? Official teasers ?

Dunno.

[jingle.boy]

Link?

[faizoff]

There is no official trailer from the series, as far as I know they're still shooting and it's in production.

[Kotowboy]

Yeah I just checked and it was fan made. But it didn't say so in the title and the YouTube channel had a √ next to it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OYDt2dV6-o

Also I don't pay attention to SW so i've no idea

I did think the fan service was a LITTLE overboard 

[jingle.boy]

Just a few of obvious clues...

1 - posted in May.  Were they even filming in May?  I don't remember. 
2 - no one here or elsewhere was talking about it?  You can be damned sure when anything new drops, people talk about it.
3 - 25% of the reactions are 
4 - clips from existing movies were used (Star Wars and other).

[gmillerdrake]

All the desert scenes are from when he played Jesus in the movie 'The Last Days in the Desert'   I thought that clip you provided screamed fan made pretty clearly but it was cut together pretty good.

[Kotowboy]

Yeah I should have been a little suspicious when it was overboard fan servicey - but that's what I expect from SW these days.

[lonestar]

Just watched the first Star Wars Visions episode. I mean, I know pretty much dick about anime, but that was really fucking good.

[The Letter M]

As a fan of SW and anime in general, I *loved* Visions. Call me Alderaan because I've been blown away.

My favorite episodes were The Duel, The Ninth Jedi, and The Twins (but I love almost everything Studio Trigger produces). Also really liked The Elder (the other Trigger produced short) and Tattooine Rhapsody, but every episode offered something fun and unique.

I really hope a 2nd season is greenlit and they revisit some of these studios and stories, especially since some of them are left with open-ended plots or even cliffhangers!

-Marc.

[jingle.boy]

Oh shit, didn’t realize it was out
Oh shit, didn’t realize it was the entire season that was out!
Oh shit, didn’t realize they were only 15-ish minutes each!!,

Will be binge watching his weekend.

[hefdaddy42]

I will always love Star Wars, but I have no love for anime.

So I hope you will all enjoy this to the fullest.  But I'm out.

[gmillerdrake]

Oh shit, didn’t realize it was out
Oh shit, didn’t realize it was the entire season that was out!
Oh shit, didn’t realize they were only 15-ish minutes each!!,

Will be binge watching his weekend.

Ditto