Julius

Another episode of Mando S3 down, somehow just three more to go already! I had a lot of fun with this episode, stronger than last week for me, for sure, and probably one of the stronger episodes of the season, though, to be fair, only the first and fourth episodes for me have felt weaker than the others. I've said it before, but I don't think it's a coincidence that the shorter episodes typically seem to be on the weaker side compared to the longer episodes, because it makes sense, doesn't it? There wasn't enough there for them to flesh out into a longer episode beyond the absolute bare minimum of what they wanted to achieve in an episode, whereas these longer episodes by comparison really feel like they're better paced (because they can breathe, and actually have more directions that they've been fleshed out and so can go in). Anyways, looking forward to next week's episode before Celebration! Now that it's finished, I think I'll finally get started on The Bad Batch

April monthly games:

The themed Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED is now available to register interest for: For anyone interested think the dock is probably my favourite part of the whole look!

Yeah, totally get that, because the exploration and atmosphere in BotW were the highest points of the game for me too. It's such a difficult line to draw on what should and shouldn't be shown in marketing a game like this - a sequel to a game reusing it's open world to some degree - but personally I'd rather they show too little when it comes to exploration rather than too much. For me, this showing has started to put to rest two of my greatest fears coming into TotK from BotW, and that's whether or not Nintendo would actually do something about weapon durability (they have, in a wacky and wonderful way that only they could) and just how well this game would run assuming seamless transition from the sky islands to the ground and vice versa (which I think is a test it passes with flying colours). I'll honestly be shocked if we don't have another video similar to this by the start of the last week of April, and I'll similarly be shocked if dungeons are in the game and aren't at the very least verbally confirmed by the time the game releases. I mean, the inclusion of dungeons and puzzles is pretty much exactly the sort of thing that you talk about on the back of the box! The fact that they didn't focus on the spiral-emitting rock things when we saw one on our way up to the falling debris that Aonuma used Recall on, and which many assume are going to be this game's alternative to the Shrines in BotW, I think is a good sign that dungeons are in; those feel like things you talk about bundled together. And surely we'll see or hear about them before reviews are up, which would absolutely talk about them whether included or not, right? I guess we'll just need to wait and see! I do think this (showing off the new mechanics) was the logical place to start with ramping up the marketing campaign, because they're probably going to be present in everything else shown from this point on, and so won't need to be explained in detail every time now that they've been shown off. And I'd much rather have 10 minutes focusing on this, then another 10 minutes focusing on shrines/dungeons, etc., and a further 10 minutes on generally exploring the world rather than them dumping one 30 minute long video, especially seeing as the reason they seem to be doing this is to hold things back. Think I'm otherwise at the same point at you - don't feel a need necessarily to watch everything shown, but I do want to see more to have other questions answered. As for Zelda, if she's playable, I do hope that's something they keep on the down low and don't really market the game with. Think it'll be a much more popular example of getting to play as another character that wasn't revealed before the fact, that's for sure... Lastly: anyone else getting the feeling we're going to get our Great Plateau equivalent on one of these sky islands to start out? The way the ones demo'd today were crafted definitely gave me tutorial level vibes. Oh, and a second lastly, actually: can we just acknowledge the genius of the game's originality in its mechanics and how that is going to spread like wildfire and make it such an obvious viral hit online? Nintendo have done such a great job this generation of making shareable moments that are built into their game's mechanics and experiences, which is an incredibly potent marketing tool that we don't get to see many others put to good use (because, well, no-one seems to put out as consistently deep games mechanically as Nintendo). Yeah I'm a little hyped just six and a half weeks to go!

A heads-up for anyone who hasn't been able to get a physical pre-order in for the Pixel Remaster Collection, there are now waiting lists available to sign up to via the Square Enix Store (link is UK) to receive an email when copies are available. I've put my email down for a physical copy of the Switch version Whether that means more stock at launch is unclear, because apparently an email went out in error earlier today advising that payments would be taken 31st March, which has since apparently been corrected to 31st May.

Yeah, absolutely agree. The fact that we've now got a much greater variety of enemies to face and further variety to their arsenal really makes it feel like Fuse is going to see a lot of use and not just be throwaway. Myself and @bob, the soothsayers of N-E In all seriousness though, while COVID isn't necessarily an excuse, at a guess it would have noticeably impacted 2 of the 6 years this has been in development for, and the middle 2 at that. I think it's more likely a case of goalposts shifting as a result of COVID (take COVID out of the equation and I'd argue that 4 years is still a huge chunk of time to be working on a sequel!) than it is something going horribly wrong, or maybe they had some ideas for DLC as we know, but they weren't enough for a full game, so further brainstorming was needed? Genuine question: is there anything this game could do to convince you that it needed as much time in development as it's had? And anything, at this point, that could get you inside and actually enjoying the game? Without changing it into a fundamentally different game I know you weren't the biggest fan of BotW, which is why I'm curious Thanks for this! I knew Ultrahand was ringing a bell! Love it

And here it is: Just started watching, but hnnnnnnnng, that music! Gimme that erhu And from the very top, Aonuma confirms: development is complete! Some impressions: • didn't really think about it before, but the only 30s illustrated that we're going to be looking up at the sky a fair bit. Curious to see how, if in any way, this might have impacted some of their design decisions. • Recall is something we've already seen a fair bit of, but I was really impressed by the seamless transition from the ground to the sky islands and how there wasn't really any evident chugging. • Fuse is genius, and such a Nintendo way to effectively get around the weapon breaking concern many had, including myself. Makes so many more materials more immediately useful, really looking forward to seeing the combinations available, and hopefully the unique weapon combos people manage to come up with! • Ultrahand is awesome too, I was worried about how the mechanisms connecting to world objects might work, but it looks so...seamless. • Ascend looks awesome too, being able to freely phase through mountain ceilings is going to be great for when it's raining and climbing isn't as manageable! • wow, getting knocked off the sky islands is really harsh if you just fall back down to the ground level! I wonder if there'll be an item or outfit that might help you get back up? Overall: exactly the showing I was looking for. The new abilities look hype as hell, it was all very much to the point, and I absolutely cannot wait to try them out! In addition, the limited edition Tears of the Kingdom OLED model which was floating around a few months ago has now been confirmed to be real, and launches 28th April. In addition, a themed Pro Controller and carrying case have also been announced for launch 5th May. Quite like the look of the OLED model, but not a fan of the black bezels of the main unit and the black Joy-Con Grip, when everything is accented in white. Might be in for the carrying case and Pro Controller, though...and finally get my anniversary Zelda Joy-Cons out for the first time to play Tears of the Kingdom

This could probably also go in the PC thread, but given what it entails, I think it can also go here: the Dolphin emulator is coming to Steam in Q2 2023! Super exciting! I'm not sure if Nintendo would have much of a leg to stand on in trying to take this down, but it'll be interesting to following in the coming weeks and months as we wait for it to launch. The GameCube has a whole bunch of games I've wanted to check out for a good while, but picking them up physically is prohibitively expensive these days, so maybe this will be the way I finally get to check out games like Path of Radiance and The Thousand Year Door!

Hell yeah, that panel should be awesome!! Hoping for some good reveals and talking points, you and your nephew should have a blast It's looking unlikely at this point, but if that does happen, you'll be my first port of call In hindsight - and I don't know if this would have helped or hindered my chances, because we have no real insight into how the lottery works - we ordered three tickets and one of us dropped out a couple of months ago (so it's just one of those three being returned), but surely I could have entered three (or even four) people into the lottery, because it didn't seem to be linked to actual ticket purchases? Again, don't know if it would have helped or hindered, but could've been a way to have a spare or two potentially Awesome, and yeah, got in for 17:00 - 17:30 on the Friday just fine Was definitely a bit of a mad scramble in the 10 minutes leading up to the reservation queue going live and quickly figuring out which actual slots I'd be free for depending on panel times, which is why I went for Friday evening. Absolutely abysmal messaging though, totally agreed. I had three devices open and got through on two of them just 30 seconds or so apart, after booking mine I quickly added the same slot for my friend and it wouldn't process (so fully booked I gathered), so he'll be going 17:30 - 18:00 instead. Shouldn't really impact his purchasing ability (and from what yourself and others have said, it's not impossible to get in at another time just by lining up) but just splits us up for no real good reason Going back to avoiding panels and queue times when organising a slot, though, that struck me as really poor planning: having Lightspeed Lane reservations up before we even know what panels we've got into? Seen countless posts on Reddit and in the Discord about how people won't be turning up to their reservation because they got a panel lottery win! No email, no update on Showclix arrived about 30 minutes ago Yeah it's crazy, 4 Days were £200 a pop, selling it back to them fetched £165 at the time I applied to sell it back (because you can't if there's no demand, and the price itself is based on some supply and demand calculation) but then, at the time, they were marking them up for some £230+, so a tidy little profit for them. Surely that balances out though, so why not just refund what people actually paid? Not to bash the organisation of the event too hard, because I'm sure it'll be a lovely time regardless, but as someone who takes on the role of organiser in my group (and all the anxiety that comes with that): wth ReedPop and co.!

So I got an email earlier to say we got Galaxy Stage for Villains of the Sequels, which is pretty cool! Shame it's not Celebration Stage, but eh, probably being streamed at Celebration exclusively and surrounded by fans is nothing to complain about looked around and the general consensus at the time was that that was the only panel that had been sent out, so either they were going one at a time or in batches. I then saw advice similar to yours and headed to Growtix, and refreshed for a good half hour or so before the next batch came through...which I guess was everything all at once! We got into the Celebration Stage for the Lucasfilm Showcase! Which is obviously super exciting and I'm very pleased with of all the morning panels that's the one I least wanted to queue up for, not just because of how long the line would likely be (seen something circulating that we'll be turned away lining up before 08:00 on ExCel grounds, so naturally I guess a line is going to form just off it), but more so because I wouldn't have had a chance to get my bearings at Celebration yet. So yeah, well chuffed, will be trying to show up a bit earlier just to get a good seat! That's all for me, but I'm more than happy with my lottery winnings, the Lucasfilm Showcase was the one for me and Villains of the Sequels (even if streamed) should be good fun. Part of me wanted to experience lining up for a big panel or two, so I guess that's what I'll be doing to see if I can get into Ashoka or Obi-Wan (other than entering the draw the morning of, if that still ends up being a thing), other than following your earlier advice to see if anyone puts their spots up for grabs! A little nervous about potentially lining up for Obi-Wan as it starts at 13:30 and Villains ends at 12:00, so we'll see what happens How did things go on your end with the lottery? Did you have any luck with the Lightspeed Lane reservations for the Celebration store? And lastly, out of curiosity: have you received or had any updates on your tickets yet? I'm still waiting on mine for now, won't let nerves kick in unless they're still not here by the weekend! I'm having to exchange one of our tickets through Lyte for someone who isn't able to make it (by the way, for trying to cut out scalpers, Lyte's purchasing and reselling prices are awfully scalper-like), but obviously can't process that until I actually receive the tickets, so it looks like it's been a bit of a mess, because whoever is buying is waiting on a ticket from someone who hasn't received theirs

Calling it now: we haven't seen gameplay because the game is actually a first-person shooter, that's why it's taken six years! Little do those poor Koroks know that they're about to fall victim to Link's war crimes...

That's 15:00 tomorrow for us UK-based folks. Yep, definitely the time for this, and definitely excited! Just some six and a half weeks to go and I feel like we know virtually nothing about the game, and while that makes me a little nervous (because, c'mon, very companies go the route of showing too little unfortunately!), I'm sure it's for great reason. Absolutely cannot wait to get lost in Hyrule once again really curious to see what they've chosen to show in what I imagine will be a highly curated 10 minute segment. Got to imagine it's some confirmation of dungeons, probably putting a name to whatever the shrine alternatives have ended up being, and maybe talking about some differences in the world, as well as Link's new abilities? Also, anyone want to put odds on people coming out of this showing and complaining that it doesn't look like it's had six years of work put into it? And then odds on those odds for those people being the ones that didn't enjoy BotW in the first place?

Those heathens and their damn UTC - adding funds worked at 00:15 on the spot! Anyways, Wii U games list purchased, so that's me done: Wii U eShop The Swapper Nano Assault Neo Year Walk NES Remix 2 Tengami Chasing Aurora Pullblox World VC Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land Golden Sun: The Lost Age Advance Wars Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Skies Some of those VC games will probably be coming to NSO at some point, but again, it's Nintendo: it's worth exercising reasonable doubt and just picking them up to me. Advance Wars has really nice pixel art which I'd rather experience over the remake as someone that hans't played the GBA games before, and well, Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Skies just seemed smart because while the first game has come to NSO's N64 offering, I can definitely see there being some more obstacles getting in the way of SotS coming to Switch (it's not impossible, just seems unlikely). Oh, and the physical version goes for a fortune now, so there's that! Anyways, totally didn't have me stressing there for a moment Nintendo

So, I've been trying to add funds for the last 20 minutes and yeah, it's a no-go. Still getting the error message about potentially exceeding the limit, so Wii U games aren't getting purchased as of this moment. Why would that be, I wonder? Why would I have waited over 24 hours but still not be able to add funds? Any guesses? Because I have one. It's because they didn't account for Daylight Savings starting in some territories today and are probably running their servers on UTC, meaning that to the eShop right now it's 22:57 rather than 23:57. Now to just hope that they're at least consistently inept and I'm good to wait another 18 minutes or however long to actually add funds and get those last few games, instead of actually shutting them down at midnight (which I would have to doubt is the case, considering the time in other territories right now, but you never know with Nintendo)... Damn it Doug Bowser, I want you to take my money, why are you making this so hard?!

Honestly, that nearly got cut, but I looked at the gameplay again and it just looks so sneakily charming that I had to get it! Thanks for the heads-up, but just gave it a go and still no such luck unfortunately! Oh well, alarm is set for tonight so I'll be ready Don't remind them! Also, fantastic list of games there, definitely a few I had to make the hard decision of cutting from my own list! Now just got to try to resist the urge to add more funds to get some of the games I ended up cutting...

Here's the environments trailer from PAX East: And more importantly, here's the Live Letter-like panel in full: Yes, You Can Pet the Torgal. I've had a quick scan through the panel, but honestly, it goes pretty in-depth! We'll be getting more news on the RPG elements in April following the focus on combat we had a few weeks ago, and to be honest, I'm not sure I need to see much more or if I'll even watch this panel in full; they've got nothing else to sell me on. I have so much respect for Yoshi-P and CBUIII's transparency, I've tuned in to a few of the XIV Live Letters over the years and they always do such a terrific and charming job of so clearly communicating with their audience. There really aren't many studios like that in the industry, so kudos to them on that front Anyways, loading times are super fast, music hits hard, the sprites in the save data screens are adorable, the Eikon fights look like actual boss fights (with different mechanics used in different fights), the world map looks FREAKING AWESOME with it's miniature styling, and yes, you can pet the Torgle, so... . . . GOTY?

Right then, been a minute since I posted in this thread but I'm back to talk about how I trimmed and trimmed and trimmed my list down..and still ended up trying to exceed the eShop added funds cap that I didn't know existed, meaning that while my 3DS purchasing may be completed, my Wii U purchasing is not I'm actually going to have to wait until 23:15 tomorrow to add my final eShop code funds, so uhhhhhh let's hope I don't forget to get around to that! Anyways, here's what I landed on adding to my 3DS (in addition to previous eShop purchases): 3DS eShop BOXBOY! BOXBOXBOY! BYE-BYE BOXBOY! Pullblox Fallblox Fullblox Liberation Maiden HarmoKnight Pocket Card Jockey Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale Weapon Shop de Omasse The Starship Damrey Nintendo Pocket Football Club Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword The Legend of Kusakari Nano Assault EX Siesta Fiesta Wakedas Noitu Love: Devolution Tokyo Crash Mobs Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure The Legend of Dark Witch The Legend of Dark Witch 2 The Legend of Dark Witch 3: Wisdom and Lunacy Virtual Console 3D Gunstar Heroes (not technically VC I don't think, but...shush) Pokémon Crystal The Mysterious Murasame Castle Catrap Defenders of Oasis Shining Force: Sword of Hayja Legend of the River King Legend of the River King 2 Pokemon Trading Card Game Harvest Moon GBC Mole Mania Dragon Crystal In the end a much, much, much leaner list of games than I originally planned for (see my earlier post for how stupid the original plan was), but with a stupid amount of games already on my shelf and some trips planned for this year, I thought it best to go a little nuts...but not actually nuts with it. Still, glad I've picked up a bunch of games, and limiting myself to a certain budget really helped to trim the fat on my list: rather than going for just Virtual Console titles to fill up the good ol' reliable microSD (plus the recent NSO announcements around GB and GBA games meant more cutting just seemed wise, though Pokémon TCG seems like it belongs on a dedicated handheld which is why it's still made it to this point ); I really ended up questioning what I was looking for, digging a little deeper to find some games I'd never heard of and quite fancied the looks of, and ended up with a variety of games that I'm really excited to try out over the coming years (and on a couple of long flights I would guess in the coming months!)! I'll be back tomorrow or Monday for my short but sweet list of Wii U pick-ups once the 24 hour cooldown on adding eShop funds to my account is up

Oh yeah, you're not wrong, and honestly the special is fantastic and well worth checking out ASAP. We're nearly there, just one more fourth and final part to this final season... . . . right? Yep, they should do! Dub releases I've founded to be much more inconsistent since the whole COVID thing (which I guess makes sense), there are only two episodes left to be released as dubs and they're normally weekly releases, so even if they're delayed for whatever reason, I've got to imagine they should be out by the end of April

uhhhhhh, would now be a bad time to point out that the English dub for MHA won't be completed for another week or two? Only reason I know is I've been waiting on it (like you, for MHA I prefer the dub, mainly down to Sabat's All-Might); might not be a problem if you don't get through shows voraciously, but thought it was worth pointing out in case you do and then need to wait for the other episodes to release. Similarly, for AoT, not sure where you've got to with S4/The Final Season, but if you're up-to-date besides the most recent release, that release wasn't for a full season, just two episodes stretched into a nearly hour-long special. I'm going to stop myself because I sound like a right spoilsport, but enjoy them either way! AoT's most recent special was awesome (also totally agree on a lot of your points about Crunchyroll, and find it very funny that it and Funimation have very unique issues that the other doesn't. I'm still confused about why they haven't pulled everything from Funimation yet and thrown it all on CR, considering it's all owned by Sony now, but eh )

More Ranking of Kings, this time in Gaiden Collection form (so not S2...yet) with The Treasure Test of Courage: Man RoK S1 was awesome, hope this is a good stand-in while we continue to wait for S2!

Game Boy poster set is available: Yep, they look lovely

Just finished this week's episode of Mando S3... Anyways, solid episode, even if it's probably the weakest of the season so far for me. I don't need every episode to be the same length, but going from nearly an hour episode last week to just a half hour episode this week really emphasised this episode's pacing feeling a bit hectic by comparison – I don't think there's been an episode on the 30 - 35 minutes range of live-action Star Wars that I've really loved so far (could be forgetting one I guess), and I really do think that's down to how those episodes end up feeling a bit clunky in terms of pacing because of potential cutting room floor casualties. Oh well, again, still solid – looking forward to next week's episode!

Yeah, the thing is for me that the leaks never actually blow up from SWC...which just makes it all the more perplexing. I guess my issue is that they're prioritising showing the trailer/whatever to such an extreme minority of a paying crowd – is it for Celebration, or is it just something for the lucky few who get into the room one way or another? And yeah I agree with you that it would probably leak more widely if shown on the convention floor, but at the same time, given that the leaks don't really blow up outside of the hardcore crowd (compared to, say, Marvel leaks from D23 or the like years prior) and are shut down pretty quickly...is a factor of 10 really all that's standing between it being shown to everyone in attendance vs just those in the room? There's also an angle to this where, to some extent, you could argue the leaks only happen in the first place because they go to such lengths to limit its audience, which is hilarious because they also don't take phones/cameras off people like they used to, so...it's a tool to sell Celebration's hype and atmosphere, right? But then only a select few at Celebration get to experience it anyways? Yeah it's just one of those where I put my hands up and shrug, I think it's a terrible decision from both a fan and business perspective, but wcyd I absolutely agree, I can't think of many Star Wars fans (apart from an extreme minority) who would want things to stay exclusive and have other fans miss out. Heck, for the bigger panels with bigger reveals, they've cut away when showing footage before, so just not showing it altogether seems...odd, but okay, maybe you have a potential issue if tech plays up and you can't cut away. So why not just upload a VOD after the fact with stuff edited out or, even better, show it in the inevitable downtime during Celebration where we're normally listening to Augie's Great Municipal Band or Ewok Celebration. And yeah I get the rewarding convention-goers point, but when not everyone can get in - which is fine because it's impractical to expect that - it really seems like a false promise of sorts? Like "hey, come to SWC next year and you can be one of these lucky people watching exclusive stuff! ...if you win the lottery or get in line super early T's & C's may apply don't @ us", it just feels like mixed messaging I guess is my issue with it. What I will say too is that I'm kind of baffled that they aren't figuring out some way to tie it into Disney+. How about a £30 stream pass for SWC that gives you complete access like the good old days, with interviews and then being able to show the full panels? If there's something Disney likes more than keeping things on the DL it's certainly more money in its pockets! Yep, that's honestly the be-all and end-all of it for me. It kind of blows my mind that we're once again a few weeks out and have *zero idea* how things are going down, just like last year...which means it will probably turn out exactly like last year. And to be clear, like I said before, I do think it 100% makes sense to have a lottery system logistically. I think it's expecting too much of the systems in place to do things a different way (much less with organisers that aren't known for being great at organising), much more so in London with a smaller convention space compared to Anaheim, or heck even Orlando looked massive by comparison. I will say though, I do wish it was tweaked just a little so that more people got to experience at least one of the major panels, vs what I read a lot about last year where some lucky people got into multiple lotto panels and others got into zero. I don't think there's a perfect scenario, in London at least, where everyone could get into at least one major panel, but yeah, just spread the love of Celebration a little I guess? That print is absolutely wonderful, will definitely be keeping an eye out for prints like these! Hopefully they turn up this year and have updated it with Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn instead The Daniels are fantastic (as was EEAAO) so I'm super excited to see what they do with Skeleton Crew! It's funny, growing up, I never got the argument for representation so much, but in the last few years, seeing more Asian stuff break out into the mainstream has been such a weird confidence booster – I never had this stuff growing up (when there were Asians they weren't typically portraying a flattering image), and it feels like the wheels are starting to slowly turn on it going somewhere. Which is all to say that I'm really surprised given just how deeply entrenched in Asian religions/ways of life the Jedi and Force are that we haven't had a (new) Asian Jedi (or honestly just a new major Asian protag/antag), but I'm sure we'll get there. Slowly, very slowly, but surely, we'll get there. It's such a weird one, I do kind of expect them to just not show anything publicly here in terms of a trailer and just drop one a month or so before Ashoka releases, based purely on how late in the day they like to share things publicly with Disney+ being their main focus these days. Would love to be wrong so I can watch it back a dozen times, though... Yeah, I am a bit worried about some characters ending up being watered down versions of their animated selves to be honest, so I definitely share some of your concern. With Filoni being the main and leading voice on Ashoka I really do hope he can translate those characters well to live-action, but at the same time, it's kind of his moment to prove things with his first real hack and slash at truly owning something in the live-action realm. Fingers crossed. I feel like there's a lot more than just the next part of the Rebels story riding on Ashoka being received well with Dave at the helm, so really hope it turns out well!

Sooooooooo Venom's voice actor for Spider-Man 2, Tony Todd, has just potentially revealed on Twitter that the game is landing in September: (cue the people saying Sony aren't scared of Starfield, when really we all know there's a good chance of another delay )

This is the part which really confuses me, and irked me just as much last year for those that attended as I'm sure it will this year if it repeats. The rooms have limited capacity and as far as conventions go, Celebration isn't exactly a cheap event to attend just in terms of ticket price (much less the transport, accomodation, etc.); off the top of my head, I can only imagine things like SDCC and NYCC maybe being pricier? To some extent I can understand not wanting to stream things to YouTube/etc. directly, especially if it's rough work which is more of a "this is the direction we're heading in and it's an early look for you guys attending, but we're not comfortable releasing this to the general public just yet" and comes out more as a preview than anything, but trailers are another thing entirely for me, and I can only think of one so far that was Celebration exclusive and made sense to not share (the Rogue One 15 second or whatever tease at SWC 2015). I can't wait for SWC but I just know it's going to be gutting when I inevitably can't get into the Lucasfilm or Ahsoka panel and miss a trailer or something that everyone will be talking about...and will almost certainly leak anyways! That's the bit that really puzzles me: you have to know that someone in the crowd is going to leak this stuff, so is this really the way you want people to get their first look? Where I really draw a hard line as a fan though is not being able to watch the panel itself and get some insight into whatever's going on with the creative process. To this day I still occasionally return to some SWC panels of old just because of the vibe and what's discussed, and it's really rare that we do get that insight into the creative process, even if they have finally taken the steps to have docuseries follow their major Disney+ releases. It's just such a shame I think: there should be things exclusive to the event itself (for me prior to COVID the idea of just being surrounded by that many Star Wars fans would have been reward enough!), but it practically adds two additional layers in the form of a paywall (to attend) and a lotto (to actually get into a high value panel), which just unnecessarily splits up the fanbase Anyways, mini rant over. I can't wait to attend and just be surrounded by Star Wars-loving folks but I wish we'd go back to the pre-COVID type of Celebration. Ah that'll be exciting! Yeah I'm sure I'll probably spend more on the show floor (trying to talk myself down from picking up a lightsaber, if I can find one...) but will definitely one to pick up some commemorative items I'll be honest, I'm nervous about getting film news, maybe just because it's been so long since we've had some? Plus we had all those collaborations just get very publicly canned, it felt like they were clearing the board as if to say "don't expect much at this Celebration" in terms of film news. On top of that actually, I remember there was a snippet from an interview somewhere last week where Lindelof kind of (really) heavily implied that he might be walking away from his Star Wars project, saying something to the effect of "I love Star Wars, but if a project can't be great, it shouldn't exist". So yeah, I'm honestly not sure what to expect in terms of film news? The fact that they're calling it the Lucasfilm Showcase again makes me think we're getting another Indy trailer or maybe even an extended preview for attendees, and maybe something else? Is it time for The Land Before Time to makes its triumphant return? It's funny how the necessary success of Disney+ has flipped the narrative and I'm much more confident about getting some news of some of the series in the works, like Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte. Oh man, I am *very* hopeful for The Acolyte Yeah, I think Ahsoka is going to go all out, because we're going to be fast approaching it's release I feel and it should be pretty deep in post- (probably releasing some time in Q3 if things go smoothly?). Ezra I do think gets brought out on stage here, and so in turn I think it's probably a trailer (publicly released I'm not so sure based on how they've done things with Mando, so looking forward to the leaks!) and a preview showing a little of his involvement to get people talking and (re)watching Rebels ahead of Ahsoka releasing. Sabine I agree they've nailed, there was a vibe to Natasha Liu Bordizzo last year where she kind of just seems like a badass anyways so I'm confident that's good casting. Yeah, Ahsoka is still a weird one for me, I thought Rosario Dawson did a fine job, but it does still rub me the wrong way a little that Ashley wasn't considered, and maybe even more so that Rosario didn't reach out to her to discuss the character/etc. Hopefully they've met up since! Well, sounds like I need to catch up! haven't watched any of S2 yet but the animated series (and, after last week's episode of Mando, possibly just anything Filoni is involved with) generally spin off a little in S3 or S4 to show new perspectives (which for me is when the shows really start to get good), and I do think The Bad Batch always seemed much more focused on following, well, The Batch, rather than showing other perspectives (obviously haven't watched S2 yet so idk, maybe they've dived into that a little already?). I might need to start catching up tonight so I'm caught up ahead of the finale next week