Julius

An empty stage...which is grey, meaning we're going to be diving into the ambiguity between the light and dark of the Force, and also: space whales Think we can also deduct that a temp or PA or someone probably spent 5+ minutes trying to balance Filoni's cowboy hat on the corner of that there director's chair for this photo

Ahsoka production kicking off today! Super busy month so far, loving it

For those like myself who didn't catch the Avatar trailer yet:

So I haven't seen Multiverse of Madness yet, and while I'm still planning to, just wanted to chime in as I've been feeling the same. While I've enjoyed Phase Four so far, it's definitely been with me taking a step back and just viewing these as nothing more than popcorn flicks, and nothing has been at the spectacular "YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS!" level to me so far outside of the second half of No Way Home. Everything I've watched so far of Phase Four has felt like a prologue to me: we're getting new sets of characters introduced (Shang-Chi, Moon Knight, The Eternals) while we're checking back in on the goings-on of already established heroes or getting their stories bookended (Black Widow, Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Falcon & The Winter Soldier, and Thor is definitely giving me that vibe from it's trailer), and cool, they're ramping things up in terms of content (number of character and number of shows), but there hasn't really been a ramp up in terms of obstacles to overcome because it's basically been a check-in/introduction exercise. Because of this, we've ended up with five films and four shows (I still need to get back to What If? and Moon Knight, but I wasn't particularly feeling either) with, like you say, very little in the way of connective tissue. Compare this to Phase One, where we only had five films before the first Avengers movie - heck, there were only four between Avengers and Age of Ultron! - and you really start to get the feeling that they've gone for quantity over quality. Before going to watch Multiverse of Madness I want to watch What If?, but it's genuinely starting to feel like homework; I remember coming out of Black Widow and my friends who hadn't seen Falcon & The Winter Soldier being absolutely lost in the post-credits scene. While I thought it was clear from film titles (Multiverse of Madness) and the events of Loki and No Way Home, despite all touching on the multiverse, they don't really seem like they're connecting much (in No Way Home it's only a factor because of Peter not shutting up, it's not like there's some overarching threat present), and I don't think an introduction of a multiverse necessarily grants higher stakes, because that also comes with the burden of doing something with those other realities. It gets very messy very quickly, and I dread to think what exactly their plan is for an Avengers film with something like the multiverse at stake. We'll see what happens, I guess - I think it's obvious they've got a plan, but they're being extremely coy to the point that I question if quality is being sacrificed. The MCU will make bank regardless, but it's a growing sentiment that I'm seeing - it's definitely how I felt after Endgame - that there's just a bit too much which is saying too little in their films right now. I'll probably catch Multiverse of Madness one of the coming weekends and look forward to discussing that film once I do, but I didn't feel like it was worth rushing out to, and I've honestly felt like this through much of Phase Four so far (again, bar No Way Home).

Just finished rewatching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, a film I haven't seen since I was a little kid. The entire film is great (and it's really funny going back to it after playing Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 and going "oh, so this is where that almost exact same shot/location is from"), but that final 30 minutes are just absolute cinematic perfection: the tension built within the meticulously selected dialogue contrasted against the powerful moments of silence, where Ennio Morricone's score takes centre stage and sweeps you away, is just pure bliss. So good that once credits rolled, I had to rewind 30 minutes to just go through that ending again.

Please, please, please don't be a 4 player mode or an error (which...urgh, it probably is). The fact that it's only been announced as being 2 player previously has been something which has annoyed me and my friends and has made us collectively less likely to pick the game up at launch. Hopefully we'll find out what's up next month at Not-E3

David Cameron intensifies

In fairness, that would mean the game is pretty much complete (just not in those exact words), though that's something we kind of new anyways: it has been in the final phases/polishing phase for nearly half a year now (at the start of October the main scenario was complete and they were focusing on polishing the models). Now, just how much polishing they're doing is another question entirely - Yoshi-P cares a lot about nailing these things We'll know what's going on next time we see it. It's been under wraps for over a year and a half now, they've said before that when it does come back that they want a relatively short lead time to release, and we're expecting something within the next six weeks (by the end of spring). I think it would be silly for them to release it in Q4 of this year as things stand, what with Forspoken being right at the end of October, so I don't expect it to land until Q1 of next year. At this point, I'm genuinely more interested in seeing where it lands rather than knowing the date and being excited for that. The one thing that I know for certain: the next six weeks are going to be looooooong

Game is pretty much complete and the trailer is ready to go, let's goooooooooo Soon™. Very Soon™.

I think having to pull yourself out of the fight to realise what's stake and see the subtext is what makes it stronger than the other duels in the prequels for me, as it's more along the lines of what we got in the original trilogy in that way. Anakin loses what he needs most at the end of this duel - he needs a father figure, more than anything, which through his entire interaction with Qui-Gon is clearly the direction their relationship was going. There's just that added layer of depth, which, personally, I love when it comes to storytelling; it's a classic "show don't tell", but also, "please just look a little closer." Absolutely agree, think that's a wonderful duel, both in its brevity and it's obvious reverence for the massive influence samurai films had on George/Star Wars. Despite its brevity, that duel still manages to have so much additional subtext too, such as Obi-Wan changing his form from Ewan's in the prequels to Sir Alec Guinness's in A New Hope, or the fact that Maul straight up attempts to use the same move on Obi-Wan here as he did Qui-Gon in TPM (uppercut to the chin with the hilt of his lightsaber, which left Qui-Gon open to being speared through, whereas Kenobi slices through when it's attempted) -- both videos below are linked to specific moments I'm talking about. It's completely overlooked by most, but a similar thing also happens in the final duel of Revenge of the Sith. "It's over Anakin! I have the high ground!" has been meme'd to death - and out of context, I do think it's a funny line - but Obi-Wan is very explicitly warning Anakin here that he knows exactly what he's going to do here. Hell, he even straight up says "Don't try it." But why? Because he's done what Anakin is about to do himself once before, in TPM. Here, Maul is the one who has the high ground, and Obi-Wan jumps up and flips over him midair, catching Maul off guard before he divorces Maul's torso from his legs. Now compare this to Obi-Wan and Anakin's duel on Mustafar. "It's over Anakin! I have the high ground!", "You underestimate my power", "Don't try it"... ...and Anakin jumps up, flips over Obi-Wan's head like Obi-Wan did to Maul, but then Obi-Wan slices overhead and the duel is over. Say what you will about the length of the fight, it's really intelligent set piece storytelling which, let's be honest, goes above and beyond what is needed here: Obi-Wan totally could have just sliced Anakin up in a pretty boring way. The decision to purposefully handle the scene like this adds subtext to their relationship and to their characters - Obi-Wan knows that Anakin is as brash as he was in TPM (if not more so), and so can predict that he would attempt something like this. That it happens not once but twice (vs Anakin in ROTS and vs Maul in Rebels), and both based on his encounter with Maul, speaks volumes about the character of Obi-Wan. Losing his master absolutely haunted him - of course he's going to tear apart every moment in his head thinking what could have been done differently by his master for him to survive, and likewise, he would have realised how lucky he was that Maul was overconfident when in a winning position, and so learns to keep his cool. I actually think it's this duel in TPM which informs so much of Obi-Wan's character: he goes from being pretty brash in TPM to being much wiser by AOTC. Not to mention, too, that he was never anywhere near as great a swordsman as Anakin, or even Maul - so it's natural that his duelling style became increasingly defensive and calculated. Generally, I think the best moments in the prequels are where there's very little going on in terms of dialogue and more what is being presented on the screen. George always had that, though -- I mean just look at Luke staring off into the binary sunset in ANH. I don't think it goes anywhere near improving the films as much as I would like it to, but I do think it's things like this which are often overlooked. Unfortunately, I really do think they were. I think it's absolutely awesome that girls have a female lead to more directly relate to (I don't think Padmé was that for my generation, or at least as much as she could have been, because there's just that not much to latch onto), but I do just think there are times in the sequels where I question if certain scenes would have been handled the same way if the lead had been a male. The scene in particular which always comes to mind is when Finn and Rey are on Jakku and are fired upon by those TIEs and running through the market, Finn grabs Rey's hand to help her as they're running and she straight up says "Let go of me! ... I know how to run without you holding my hand!" It can be explained away by her solitary upbringing and independence, but it's one of those moments where I don't think you'd get the same if a male character were in her role (and, in fairness, they wouldn't hold hands to begin with I feel if the genders were reversed). Not as egregious as that all-female scene in Endgame (there was a similar and better scene in Infinity War), but I remember it taking me out of the movie a bit whenever I watched it. This is the same company that hired a black man to be one of the leads and then removed him from marketing in China, though, as well as the kiss between two women at the end of ROTS, so you know Yeah, unfortunately that's the case for pretty much every Star Wars soundtrack out there, and the current "remastered" releases of the original trilogy soundtracks are no exception. The most notable track missing from those that comes to mind immediately is Funeral Pyre for a Jedi from ROTJ (ironically, it's the alternate and unused version of this which is plastered over trailers/video game endings/etc.). While I didn't listen to the TROS soundtrack too many times, the thing that struck me immediately is that so much of the music on the soundtrack itself isn't in the movie at all...which I think is heresy, considering it will most likely be the final Star Wars score completely worked on by John Williams. As for locating the particular use of the Resistance theme on the soundtrack, I probably won't be of much help not having watched the film for so long, but have you seen if you can find it in the For Your Consideration soundtrack for the film? These are soundtracks put together specifically for Oscars consideration, and often include extra tracks not featured on the official OST, so you might have some luck locating it there. If you haven't had any luck by the time I get to TROS, I'll be sure to track it down Bit of a side note, as I don't think I've been as clear as I need to be on this before: I do love the score to the sequels, and I think it has some amazing original stuff in there -- March of the Resistance, Rey's Theme, Kylo's Theme, Rose's Theme, a lot of it is wonderful. It's just one of those where I (admittedly unfairly) compare it to the prequels, which just have layer upon layer of musical subtext which the sequel score generally lacks. As I have said before, though, I do think it depends a bit too much on returning themes and cues from the original trilogy which can make it feel like it's more derivative than it is. Look, I love John Williams and his music to pieces, and obviously Star Wars is the absolute pinnacle of his music for me, but for me I think the prequels is where Williams basically said "okay, this is where I prove that I'm a musical genius." I'll try to cover some of the highlights of it when I get around to rewatching the films and listening to the scores, but the guy went beyond the realm of stupid talent for me when I gained a better understanding of the genius that he'd put into those scores, and so the sequel soundtracks were always going to have a tough time by comparison.

Hoo boy: this is another deal the FTC are taking a look at. Doubt it will have any surprising outcome, but it's going to be a long year of deals being followed by outcry being followed by probes. Oh well, at least we have Not-E3 to look forward to

Summer Game Fest Live is taking place on Thursday 9th June at 19:00 BST, and will be shown at some IMAX screens across the US (and so will The Game Awards in December). Non-E3 slowly building up. Just...please, no Gearbox

Review scores all over the shop:

Cool, thanks. I probably should've figured as much.

Just seen a line floating around that I just had to share...

Haha no worries, as soon as I started reading your response I knew I should have been a bit more clear and can definitely see why you might have thought I was talking about the prequels and while I generally though the lightsaber duels in the sequels were lacking by comparison, I don't disagree with some of your points, and I think it made sense to go back to the heft and reality of some of the original trilogy duel moments with the sequels like they did. My favourite lightsaber duel moment in the sequels might be when Rey is backed against a corner, like an animal that's been hunted, but then becomes the hunter: the way that she's almost circling Kylo and toying with him once she gains confidence and feels like she's gaining the upper hand might be one of my favourite Daisy Ridley acting moments in the sequel trilogy. I think for me it's not so much that the story is based on the lightsaber duels, but that it's just so informative about the relationship between the characters duelling without having to say much if anything. Luke's overconfidence in TESB against Vader after being warned by Yoda that he's being an idiot and that it's a trap is both informed by the story up to that point and is clear in how he duels; counter to that, in ROTJ Luke acts like he has everything under control through much of the film (the plan to rescue Han at the start of the film and then the plan to bring his father back to the light) and yet in the end is easily toyed with and manipulated into flying off the handle, beating down his father to the point of submission, and giving into the darkness that's inherently (and unfortunately) human -- his only true moment of maturity in the entire duel is arguably the decision to throw away the lightsaber at the end. You're right though, they both have things that they do that the others don't, I just think for me for a lightsaber duel to be more meaningful that there has to be a bit more thought behind it from a storytelling perspective than "well, I guess they duel now?". I don't have much of a problem with Obi-Wan vs Anakin on Mustafar being as long as it is because there's something at stake and it makes sense why the fight is so long and so grueling at times, but personally in terms of storytelling I think the best in the films post-OT is that duel on Naboo, there's just so much more going on from a narrative perspective - the title of the music used literally stating that the fate of the galaxy and this young boy, believe to be the Chosen One, is what is at stake! - that I thought was lacking a bit in the sequels. I guess the way I'd put it is that I think they lack the subtlety and depth of some of the other duels in that way: the sequels are very overt in what they are trying to say pretty much all of the time, and that carries over to their duels. I don't think there's a problem with that, and I don't think that's the case all of the time (again: Rey going from hunted to hunter), and I don't think there's a problem with like that at all, I just personally love when a scene or a duel has more going on than meets the eye. Total aside: I remember when Star Wars Oxygen covered Revenge of the Sith, and David Collins was talking about how some pompous art connoisseur or whatever basically said Revenge of the Sith's final duel is one of the greatest pieces of modern art ever made. And I mean, if you think about it, while I wouldn't go that far with it, she has a point: everything from the combination of miniatures, to CG, to the long and choreographed duel, to the fact that these two brothers are practically fighting in hell...I can totally see why a pompous art connoisseur might feel that way. Re: Rey having a flat character arc, all of your points are ones I've recognised and thought about, I think my stumbling block with her personally is that while her arc tries to be one of identity, that's a lot of where her challenges lie. Thinking about it I guess she is a cool inverse of Luke (stuck in her past where he was always stuck in the future, very powerful whereas Luke needs to learn a whole lot), but it feels flat to me in that while she does make progress with her identity, she doesn't really make too many wrong decisions regarding her identity (at times, like in TLJ, it seems like she's about to...and then doesn't). It has admittedly been a while since I've seen the sequels though, so once I rewatch them - and especially given the gap - I'm sure I'll have a better idea of where I stand. And to be clear I am a big fan of her issue with identity, I just think it needed to be challenged more and for her to make wrong decisions around it more to push it further -- for me, at least. It's not that he doesn't go anywhere, but flat arc or not, I think Rey's arc at best is pretty simple and overt, which I think gives a greater space for more complex work with Kylo in doing something we haven't really seen before. He's my favourite part of the sequels by a long shot - because, unfortunately, he's the character I identify most with in the entire saga; same goes for Zuko in The Last Airbender - I just think they needed to do anything with him but have him be the redeemed martyr like Vader, as I think it just retreads over some threads we've already seen before in the Saga about redemption, where something new and more important could be told to the audience: that there are repercussions for your actions, even if in the end you do make the right choice (for me, this would have been him surviving but getting a melancholic rather than a happy ending and being exiled). Carrie's passing definitely had an impact, though, you're right. Yeah, absolutely, and given the MCU's success and that it was acquired and put under the Disney banner, you'd think they would have known better. That's the thing for me with the sequels that's different to how I see it when compared to the prequels: with the prequels, I see great ideas with poorly executed scenes, whereas with the sequels, I see great scenes well executed but lacking an overarching purpose or idea. Kind of makes it funny that they're either side of the original trilogy, which most in the community would agree is the most consistent and achieves a balance somewhere between the two I actually think The Force Awakens being as rock solid as it was is what didn't help and only set TLJ and TROS up for further backlash, in that it was rushed out and not only were they handsomely rewarded financially despite that, playing it safe got everyone going "Hell yes, Star Wars is BACK". I really enjoy moments of both, but in TLJ's case, I can totally see why some people got whiplash as we went from "Here you go, Star Wars is back!" to the most purposefully subversive film in the Saga. TROS for me just landed flat at the time as I think ROTS did a better job of feeling like a true finale to the series, and it was the sourest of notes for them to wrap the Saga up on from my perspective. I'm really excited to rewatch The Force Awakens, certain scenes of The Last Jedi, and bits and pieces of The Rise of Skywalker. I'm curious to see how my perspective has changed, if it has at all. Actually, might as well post this for posterity now, this is how I'd rank the films having been away from them for so long: No particular order in those lines by the way I'll post an updated one after I've rewatched them, but I'm curious how you would rank them? (TierMaker here) Absolutely, I think the final official trailer for The Force Awakens might be my favourite movie trailer ever. I watched it hundreds of times, I watched it on every device imaginable to see it in different ways...gah, while the second teaser trailer dropped during Celebration that year was definitely magical, nothing will ever get me more than: Poe screams into a fade of Starkiller Base firing it's laser Han Solo and the Princess kicks in, the first bit of Stat Wars music in the trailer, as we get sweeping shots of the Jakku chase "There were stories about what happened..." "It's true..." Cut to the gang with Han in the Falcon ...all of it" T H I S C H R I S T M A S Percussion slamming down with the nostalgia of a thousand suns in the Force theme timed with flashes of the Knights of Ren Just...hnnnnnng, just watching it now still gets me all these years later -- still remember YouTube crashing on me for a split second after it went up! The others are fantastic too, but man, those 20-30 seconds of that trailer get me. Also, shout out to the international trailers for TFA, which were also stupidly excellent. Gah, okay, I'm watching the trailers again before I hop into these films, it's definitely getting me hyped And yeah, for me I thought today's trailer was fine, but it was kind of in line with the other Disney+ trailers so far (bar maybe The Clone Wars S7 for me) where they've all only really been fine. Well, that and the first trailer probably being my favourite outside of the sequels, just for the shots used and the music specifically (I said I'd cry if we got Duel of the Fates or Battle of the Heroes, and we got both!). I don't really know what could get me as hyped as that in terms of new original stuff from Star Wars, though, when it comes to trailers? Maybe when they eventually tackle the Old Republic stuff? Yeah, this is why I'm really curious about where I'll stand on it, and it's the soundtrack I've dug into the least too (I listened to TFA's and TLJ's hundreds of times) so I'm looking forward to really giving it a proper listen. I thought the story was about as basic and macguffin-y as it could be in my only watches so far back when it released, and poorly executed on top of that, and on top of that, again, just felt like it didn't go as far as it could have (in fairness, I think the MCU ending the Infinity Saga as strongly as it did with Endgame that same year definitely made so much of TROS feel lackluster by comparison). And too many lines made me cringe too -- talking about Endgame, "I am all the Jedi" after having "And I...am...Iron Man" just...gah. It's very frustrating! And yet the pacing was absolutely the worst part. I think Rogue One has pretty much the same problem in its first 5-10 minutes, but it then calms down, whereas to quote myself about TROS back after my first watch: Man, reading back through that post, while for now I still agree with a lot of it, I was absolutely brutal. This killed me: Not in the slightest! It's always fun to talk Star Wars with you, and more important than I think "agree to disagree" can sometimes be - not just in Star Wars, but in day-to-day life - I think any opportunity to learn from others with different perspectives is both challenging (in that you have to come to terms that maybe you're wrong about something or trying to understand someone else's opinions) and rewarding (see: last set of brackets ). So long as no-one is getting hurt by those perspectives (in which case shut them down faster than the Death Star eviscerated Alderaan), I think people miss out on a whole lot of the human experience by not seeking those other perspectives out.

Madrid have their own Remontada. The beautiful game. Hilariously all have 14 on their shirts, as if they've already won it -- the absolute disrespect I'd be worried if I were a Liverpool fan. On paper really you should wipe the floor with them, but the momentum is with them and the luck of the competition is clearly on their side, and Madrid is basically the underdog here (weirdly). They won't have the Bernabeu like they've had in all of these second legs, but having seen this side score so late on in the knockouts three second legs in a row this season, that's going to have a potentially huge psychological impact on Liverpool players once the game reaches the 80th, 85th, 90th minute. While I can see the logic, I think it applies to any team but Madrid in the CL knockouts this season, especially in the Bernabeu where their fans are *loud* and they've luckily managed to have all of their second legs in the knockout stage in the UCL at home. They scored after the 70th minute at home in the second leg to PSG and us to turn the tie on its head - the writing was on the wall that something could be coming, and if it came that City would end up overwhelmed, as other teams were before them. Impossible to predict it being as late as it was, mind you! Think it was also really clear a few times tonight that City need a top class striker, there were just too many times where there was no-one in the box when crosses were made, and Grealish had several chances to kill off the tie that a more potent goalscorer should be putting away. Roll on the final this has been my favourite CL in years

Subs are everything. Ancelotti took the bigger risk and Pep is definitely regretting taking off De Bruyne. Nuts. Scary part of all of this is that this is a Madrid who haven't spent a penny in years and could go nuts in the summer.

Champions League nights were always the special ones for me to watch growing up, and when I couldn't watch them, I used to follow the BBC scroll. This is making me feel like a high school kid again. Love it. Absolutely loved the knockout rounds this season, away goals going away has been everything Also can we talk about the irony that Ronaldo and Zidane leaving was supposed to be the end of Madrid...for a while? And now here many of those same players are potentially going to presented with a chance to potentially draw level with Ronaldo on number of CL wins. I'm sure he'll be fuming

Well, here we go. Extra time. Definitely crazy. I actually said to my friend that once they started subbing their core off (Kroos, Modric, Casemiro) that something nuts would probably happen to balance it out, because then they'd be without their veteran trio in extra time; equivalent exchange and all that I'm very curious to see how their midfield manages the game, but it just makes them very unpredictable. Camavinga coming on is what injected life into them against us. Shades of Ferguson's better United sides with this team where they don't play a certain system, they just play the occasion and get the result. If I were a Liverpool fan right now I think I'd much, much rather take City than Madrid in the final, the competition just seems to be going their way like it did when we won it for the first time and overcame stupid odds. EDIT: I can't believe Benzema is about to score this penalty

Holy crap, Madrid and Rodrygo with the plot armour!

Activision and Bobby Kotick don't look to be in the clear just yet (thank the gaming gods): Awesome. Was worried this would let up with the sale.

Woah. Here's 1 hour of footage from Arkane's cancelled Half-Life game courtesy of NoClip: Always love stuff like this!

In fairness, I thought it was lacking in comparison to the original trilogy, not the prequels, but probably should have made that more clear in my post it's not really just the choreography of those duels that I have a problem with, but a whole host of things, the main one being that if you take the lightsaber duels in the OT in a vacuum, there's still a story being told -- you see the development of Vader and Luke across the films in their duels. In the sequels? You don't really get that, but it's not helped by the lack of lightsabers clashing in TLJ and Rey's arc kind of being flat, which you can gather from her duels with Ben in TFA and TROS. Also, to be clear, it's fine that her arc is flat, but the reason you would want to do that is to then do more complex things with Kylo's arc, which they didn't really do Re: the prequels, I've always been fine with them being overly choreographed, but I've always had an explanation for that in my head in the same way I did for the issue people have with midichlorians (which is that the entire point of the things is to show the scientific extrapolation of faith and to boil a concept like the Force down into has repercussions on said faith). My thought process has always been that this is the Jedi Order at the peak of its powers, and that duels in those times - especially the duel with Maul on Naboo in TPM - are basically a chess match and a ritualistic dance rolled in one; the duel on Naboo is, basically, the most highly produced opera. They're predicting and reacting to each other's movements while incorporating their learned and preferred forms of lightsaber combat. Can totally appreciate that's not for everyone, though, but it was entrancing as one of the kids who grew up on the prequels Yeah, I think that's totally fair. I definitely got caught up in the hype of the sequels and dove in fully into forums and discussed almost every possibility with anyone I could find willing to listen, but the lack of a cohesive vision for the sequels as a whole meant that - and I do firmly believe this - there is a much stronger sequel story out there on forums, and in videos, etc. Doesn't help at all that they had the wrong talent at times telling the story (Chris Terrio...really?), and above all else and maybe most importantly, they were also rushed out thanks to Iger, which I'll never forgive. I think a sequel trilogy under Lucasfilm as it is now, which is much more willing to pool ideas together and have a back-and-forth with creatives, would be much stronger. In George's absence it absolutely blows my mind that Filoni wasn't part of those initial discussions of what should be done with regards to the story of the sequel trilogy after they threw away George's treatments. My ultimate issue with the sequels is that, for me, they are often too derivative (structurally, narratively, and, at times, musically too) of the original trilogy - again, I've said this before, but it feels like they were Star Wars films inspired by Star Wars films, more than they were inspired by the things that inspired Star Wars (which is something Mando nails) - and lack the same purposeful storytelling of the original trilogy and, yes, at times, even the prequel trilogy (which loops back around to lack of planning and so on). I think in the long run, they lack the timelessness of the original trilogy and the ideas - but not the execution - of the prequel trilogy. This is all a very long way of me saying, that in the case of the sequels, given where I was in my life (a teenager) and my strong affinity for Star Wars and storytelling, I think it's only natural that I kind of thought about the possibilities a lot - for the first time in my life, I had everyone and their mother talking about Star Wars, and I had the time to talk about it with them! Being older and a bit more mature now I'm looking forward to going back to those films and really coming to terms with my thoughts on them, because as much as I think they're a mess, I think there are also some absolutely masterful moments. Plus, I've never felt the hype for anything like I have The Force Awakens, and I am not kidding when I say that I would wake up in the middle of the night to catch trailers as they dropped during Monday Night Football, would walk to college with my phone in my hand watching the trailer or listening to its music, and so on. That film delivered and I think was a solid opener to a trilogy, and I think it's the strongest of the three. TFA will always hold a very special place in my heart, as will TLJ, but to a lesser extent. TROS...not so much. I've talked before about what I hoped a Kenobi show would be (introspective and almost entirely on his head and on Tatooine), but being older and more mature, once we got the concept art I made peace with the fact that they went in a pretty drastically different direction, and yeah, other than watching the trailer a bunch and guessing what things or shots mean, I'm kind of past predicting it all, and I'm ready to just take it all on as it is. I think for me, though, it's very difficult to completely shed expectations, even on a first watch. I'm obsessed with storytelling and how stories are told - be it film, TV, games, books, or heck even music - and while I prefer to figure things out like my thoughts and break things down further on repeat watches, sometimes I can't turn off the analytical part of my mind which is picking up on a lot of cues hinting at things, the editing, the framing, etc. That's not to say that I'm doing this all the time (my mind turns off when I'm in a cinema most of the time, and no offence to the MCU, but I don't think about it too hard when I'm watching those films). Case in point though: I watched an anime film the other day called Paprika - which is wild and absolutely amazing, would highly recommend - and while the story, writing, and characters were all great, most of the time my jaw was on the floor just admiring the editing and framing of the film. That's just how I am sometimes other times I'm going "well damn this writing is gooooooood", or in the case of watching Christopher Nolan films at home, "WHO THE HELL SOUND MIXED THIS CRAP?!" Looks like an astromech head met a V-Wing and a Buzzdroid in an alley, I dig it! Kind of reminds me of R4 a little bit. Would love something at some point to make fun of Obi-Wan completely forgetting about his trusty prequel companion

Yves: