The Star Wars Thread

[Ronnie]

9 minutes ago, Julius said:

I think it must've been Bloodlines rather than the Aftermath Trilogy then, but the galactic capital actually rotates between member worlds (we don't know exactly how long for, but I feel like it's fair to assume that there have been a few rotations by the time TFA comes around). At this point I think Chandrila is the galactic capital (which I'm sure we'll see at some point?), but I feel Coruscant still holds a lot of weight just in terms of the number of politicians who would surely still there, things like the Tribunal, the number of Imperials and facilities located there, etc. 

Good call, I'd forgotten that it moves around. And yeah it makes sense That Coruscant is important, I guess I just wanted a bit of sequel stuff that's all. I did like the little mention of the Alliance fleet being decommissioned. A Mon Monthma order I believe.

11 minutes ago, Julius said:

But yeah, agree, though I think what the shows have more space to do than the films ever will is just show the grey areas, and that no one side is ever going to be right or perfect. Better than the Nazi-like Empire? Yeah, probably. But there are monsters and malicious motives on every side of a conflict, and it's always nice to see that explored more! 

The Last Jedi dabbled in the grey areas with the arms dealer supplying the First Order and the Resistance, but yeah, tv series will have a lot more time to get into that grey area. The scene at the end with the mind flayer was incredibly unsettling. Nice guy Mon Cala telling Pershing not to worry etc while cheery music plays . Really great stuff. Pershing did a brilliant job, for someone who could have just been a background extra in a couple of S1 scenes. Looking forward to seeing Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's character at some point too.

16 minutes ago, Julius said:

Also just because Thrawn doesn't really have a reason to go after Bo in such a personal manner as destroying her home (also would seem a bit out of character for him), whereas I feel the Remnant kind of owe her some payback after everything that happened with Gideon.

That's very true actually, it seemed a very personal attack, in the same way that Elia going after Pershing felt personal too. Bit of Gideon payback from behind a jail cell?

Only reason I thought of Thrawn was because there was a line about that many TIES seems a bigger deal than just some local warlord.

17 minutes ago, Julius said:

Would love to be wrong and have it be Thrawn though, and even if this wasn't him, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him by the end of the season. More than any other show in recent memory Mando reeeeeeeeally stresses a plot point and then gets right to it within the space of an episode or two, leaving us twiddling our thumbs over what the rest of the season might be about, so I don't think it's a crazy idea to have things escalate to the point of his return by the end of this season at all! 

Should know a lot more by Celebration, with a few more episodes and also an Ahsoka trailer. Be interesting to see if this crossover event thing that Kathleen Kennedy announced a few years ago is still happening. Gotta imagine it is with how inter-connected they're making the Mandoverse.

21 minutes ago, Julius said:

Similar to what I'd like to see with Rogue One and Tarkin, though, I do kind of wish they'd be open to cleaning things up after the fact

Yeah that would be great, I think it'll happen and they'll redo that Luke scene at the end of S2 for instance. It didn't look bad, just not as good as the deep fake in Boba Fett.

I watched yesterday's ep on my laptop and the CG looked much better. Streaming can definitely struggle at times when there's a lot of data to get across.

And most importantly out of the whole episode... i've a serious craving for those yellow biscuits now.

[Ronnie]

Heads up @Julius

I'm sure you've applied for the Celebration lottery for the four big panels by now, but it seems they've quietly added a fifth. The 'look back at Kenobi' one, just in case you want to apply for that. Might help with under the counter panel ticket trading if you get into Kenobi but would prefer another one?

PS: Bad Batch 2x13, another quality (beautiful looking) ep  I adore this show.

Edited March 17 by Ronnie

[Julius]

On 3/17/2023 at 11:34 PM, Ronnie said:

Heads up @Julius

I'm sure you've applied for the Celebration lottery for the four big panels by now, but it seems they've quietly added a fifth. The 'look back at Kenobi' one, just in case you want to apply for that. Might help with under the counter panel ticket trading if you get into Kenobi but would prefer another one?

Thanks for the heads-up! Spotted it the other day when trying to figure out if I'd applied for everything (I had, but the email confirmation for the lottery for some took a while to come through), got to imagine that's the lottery panel with best odds to get into because I think its addition will have flown under the radar for some. I'm surprised it wasn't put down as a lottery panel originally, to be honest, so I'm glad it has been – I'm kind of shocked Andor hasn't got the same treatment too, to be honest. Out of the lottery panels I think Kenobi is slap bang in the middle for me in terms of priority (behind Lucasfilm and Ashoka, ahead of Bad Batch and Sequel Villains), so I'm curious to see how it all plays out! 

Now just nervously waiting for the passes to arrive (any day now hopefully, I've seen others start to get theirs over the last week!), starting to plan what I need to take, and waiting for the Store/Funko Pop reservations drop and hopefully getting some luck with those (I'm not a Funko guy but my sister's boyfriend is, so hopefully I can nab him one of the exclusives?). 

Going to be a manic couple of weeks – excited but very nervous! 

[Ronnie]

4 hours ago, Julius said:

Thanks for the heads-up! Spotted it the other day when trying to figure out if I'd applied for everything (I had, but the email confirmation for the lottery for some took a while to come through), got to imagine that's the lottery panel with best odds to get into because I think its addition will have flown under the radar for some. I'm surprised it wasn't put down as a lottery panel originally, to be honest, so I'm glad it has been – I'm kind of shocked Andor hasn't got the same treatment too, to be honest. Out of the lottery panels I think Kenobi is slap bang in the middle for me in terms of priority (behind Lucasfilm and Ashoka, ahead of Bad Batch and Sequel Villains), so I'm curious to see how it all plays out! 

Now just nervously waiting for the passes to arrive (any day now hopefully, I've seen others start to get theirs over the last week!), starting to plan what I need to take, and waiting for the Store/Funko Pop reservations drop and hopefully getting some luck with those (I'm not a Funko guy but my sister's boyfriend is, so hopefully I can nab him one of the exclusives?). 

Going to be a manic couple of weeks – excited but very nervous! 

The badge art is lovely this year. Last year was a bit meh, especially the 4 Day Adult one, I've no idea what they were thinking when they picked that design! Not got mine yet, not even shipped yet.

I would go in with lower expectations with the lottery, I know a ton of people who had no success in Anaheim and the rooms had far more seats than the Excel, so we'll see. You're right though Kenobi should hopefully be a bit better odds since it was quietly added. 

The Celebration store was a funny one last year, everyone kept saying it was a nightmare to get into but they must have meant early in the day cause I just wandered in around 4 or 5pm a couple days in after about 2 minutes of queueing. Sure the daily pins I wanted were sold out by then but 95% of the store was still in stock.

Portable power bank for your phone would be very useful if your phone battery is getting on. Some kind of poster tube/protectors too if they give any out at panels, though they sold those right next to where you pick them up. Comfortable shoes. If you want any autographs they have a bunch of prints and you pick which one you want signed, or bring your own. If they do the daily panel reservations, as many phones as you have like we talked about. Make sure to stop off at the droid room too. Snacks and drinks for the queuing. They revealed the Celebration live stage guest times, or at least a chunk of them, so have a look and maybe see who you'd like to listen to. They didn't do that last year and I randomly walked up to the stage seconds before Doug Chiang was brought out. Result!

[Julius]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

The badge art is lovely this year. Last year was a bit meh, especially the 4 Day Adult one, I've no idea what they were thinking when they picked that design! Not got mine yet, not even shipped yet.

They've really gone with some great designs this year, love the little speeder bike for the 40th anniversary of ROTJ too, neat little touch! 

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I would go in with lower expectations with the lottery, I know a ton of people who had no success in Anaheim and the rooms had far more seats than the Excel, so we'll see. You're right though Kenobi should hopefully be a bit better odds since it was quietly added. 

Yeah, like I've said before, my expectations aren't particularly high when it comes to the lottery (such a shame that it comes down to a lotto system in the first place, even if it's functional for the logistics of an event of this size). I'll keep an eye out for alternative ways to get in, or line up, but I'd like to get into one of them through the lottery. 

Never tell me the odds, but yeah, they ain't going to be great! And that's alright, if I can find *some* way into just one of my top three priority lotto panels I'll see it as a success, but I'm probably collectively more excited for the Live Stage, some of the BTS panels, checking out the Store and just being surrounded by Star Wars fans for a change (and checking out a bunch of restaurants otherwise ).

I just hope that things turn out better than they did last year in terms of getting trailers outside of the Stages (and I just mean being shown elsewhere for people attending, not even necessarily released online), but either way, I'm super excited 

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

The Celebration store was a funny one last year, everyone kept saying it was a nightmare to get into but they must have meant early in the day cause I just wandered in around 4 or 5pm a couple days in after about 2 minutes of queueing. Sure the daily pins I wanted were sold out by then but 95% of the store was still in stock.

Yeah, worst case I'm hoping things die down later afternoon and I can sneak in to pick up a few things. No idea what I'm looking out for at the Store and I'll try to not go *too* crazy, but as someone not too interested in the pins, hopefully if I can't get in with the reservation lotto I get a good chance to look around anyways. 

Can imagine the Funko stuff being in crazy demand though so definitely hoping the Force is with me on that front 

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Portable power bank for your phone would be very useful if your phone battery is getting on. Some kind of poster tube/protectors too if they give any out at panels, though they sold those right next to where you pick them up. Comfortable shoes. If you want any autographs they have a bunch of prints and you pick which one you want signed, or bring your own. If they do the daily panel reservations, as many phones as you have like we talked about. Make sure to stop off at the droid room too. Snacks and drinks for the queuing. They revealed the Celebration live stage guest times, or at least a chunk of them, so have a look and maybe see who you'd like to listen to. They didn't do that last year and I randomly walked up to the stage seconds before Doug Chiang was brought out. Result!

Some excellent tips – appreciate them! I'll add them to my notes 

(totally not freaking out about how unprepared I am or anything!)

[Ronnie]

13 minutes ago, Julius said:

if I can find *some* way into just one of my top three priority lotto panels I'll see it as a success

There should be a standby queue so worst case scenario you'll just have to get there super early and wait in line.

Not expecting any of them to be live-streamed though, not even to convention-goers which is such a massive shame. 

They should probably be announcing the store products any day now. I'd suggest you'll definitely find better uses for your money on the show floor itself tbh, but the main store is still good for some SWC branded stuff and a few other bits.

In terms of what we actually see, I'm getting hyped for that opening Showcase. I definitely think it's time for film news. Even if it's still 2+ years out, a teaser logo, a timeframe, a director and a lead would be great.

Ahsoka panel, gotta imagine they'll bring out live action Ezra on stage. Sabine I get the impression they've nailed, but Ezra is such a big character I'm a little scared. Now I know what all the Ahsoka fans felt like before Rosario Dawson was announced ha.

Last week's ep of Bad Batch centred on something that hinted at an endgame for the series/characters. It has me a little terrified S2 might be the last. Probably not, but still... I guess we'll find out soon.

Edited March 21 by Ronnie

[Julius]

11 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Not expecting any of them to be live-streamed though, not even to convention-goers which is such a massive shame. 

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. 

12 hours ago, Ronnie said:

They should probably be announcing the store products any day now. I'd suggest you'll definitely find better uses for your money on the show floor itself tbh, but the main store is still good for some SWC branded stuff and a few other bits.

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 

12 hours ago, Ronnie said:

In terms of what we actually see, I'm getting hyped for that opening Showcase. I definitely think it's time for film news. Even if it's still 2+ years out, a teaser logo, a timeframe, a director and a lead would be great.

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 

12 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Ahsoka panel, gotta imagine they'll bring out live action Ezra on stage. Sabine I get the impression they've nailed, but Ezra is such a big character I'm a little scared. Now I know what all the Ahsoka fans felt like before Rosario Dawson was announced ha.

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! 

12 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Last week's ep of Bad Batch centred on something that hinted at an endgame for the series/characters. It has me a little terrified S2 might be the last. Probably not, but still... I guess we'll find out soon.

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 

[Ronnie]

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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? 

Tbf, yes the Mando/Ahsoka footage leaked from last year but most of it seemed to be taken down pretty quick, a couple vids of half the screen were on reddit in terrible quality but otherwise it's actually quite hard to find a good copy nowadays. Playing devil's advocate if you show thousands of people on the whole convention floor there's a lot greater chance the footage will get spread around. But I totally get what you're saying, it's pretty bad.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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. 

Now that I'm 100% on board with you. I don't think it's been 100% confirmed no panels at all will be streamed, so wait and see, but yeah. The panels that don't necessarily share any big news, just put them up ffs. Even if they wait until after the show or something. We'll see, but yeah. They might argue they want to reward convention goers but if you asked anyone there whether they minded the panels being streamed I think most would say they would love them to be.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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 

The lotto makes sense I think. Tbh I'd rather that than queue 4 or 5 hours beforehand. I actually think the panel stuff is organised well given the difficult situation of literally everyone wanting to get into the big ones, it's just Lucasfilm's handling of people outside the rooms (and at home) that stings.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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

This was my favourite purchase from Anaheim, a massive print of this beauty, signed by the artist. It was like £100 but worth it. Even with Pearce Brosnan as Thrawn lol

Spoiler

 

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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". 

It's funny you say that because that's exactly what happened, this morning reports saying Lindelof and his co-writer have left the 2024 project back in mid Feb. Siiiiiiigh. Apparently the production timeline is set to be the same, and LF got someone else in already, but yeah. I thought his interview comments you mention sounded really strange. Now we know why. I still think we'll see some film news at Celebration but it's so frustrating to say the least.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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? 

I reckon... Ahsoka trailer, Skeleton Crew trailer, maybe a new series announcement, film news and an Indy trailer.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

Oh man, I am *very* hopeful for The Acolyte 

Yeah should be good. Seems to have been in production a while, might be another Andor on our hands. Also, apparently the directors behind Everything Everywhere All At Once are set to direct at least one ep of Skeleton Crew, so that's exciting. Edit: just been confirmed from the horse's mouth

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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!)

Be interesting if with two, presumably big, eps of Mando still to release, they'll want to pull focus away from that with a publicly released Ahsoka trailer. I could see them waiting until after the last ep of Mando before putting it online, but we'll see.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

where she kind of just seems like a badass anyways so I'm confident that's good casting. 

Yeah exactly. Fingers crossed, but it seems like great casting. I just hope the on-screen portrayals of the characters are right. Both her and Ezra are big personalities, I hope they don't try and tone those down and make it stiff and stoic.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

Hopefully they've met up since! 

Yeah they have, Ashley was invited on set for the Ahsoka show.

41 minutes ago, Julius said:

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?). 

S1 was very cameo/legacy character-heavy (Kanan, Cut Lawquane, Trace and Rafa, Rex, Fennic Shand, Cad Bane, Hera, Chopper, Bib Fortuna etc) and it kind of wound me up, S2 has much less of that and it's more focused on the Batch themselves. It hasn't branched out into the wider galaxy quite as much as you might like/be expecting, but I think that's to come in the future. I don't actually think this is the last season, but still hoping they confirm it soon. Resistance only lasted two years but they announced S2 would be its last before it aired, so hopefully that's a good sign here.

Yes definitely catch up. It would have just finished by the time Celebration starts, so will be quite a talking point I imagine. Three of the opening four eps are a little meh, but it gets brilliant after that. 

Edited March 21 by Ronnie

[Julius]

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Tbf, yes the Mando/Ahsoka footage leaked from last year but most of it seemed to be taken down pretty quick, a couple vids of half the screen were on reddit in terrible quality but otherwise it's actually quite hard to find a good copy nowadays. Playing devil's advocate if you show thousands of people on the whole convention floor there's a lot greater chance the footage will get spread around. But I totally get what you're saying, it's pretty bad. 

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 

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Now that I'm 100% on board with you. I don't think it's been 100% confirmed no panels at all will be streamed, so wait and see, but yeah. The panels that don't necessarily share any big news, just put them up ffs. Even if they wait until after the show or something. We'll see, but yeah. They might argue they want to reward convention goers but if you asked anyone there whether they minded the panels being streamed I think most would say they would love them to be.

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! 

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

The lotto makes sense I think. Tbh I'd rather that than queue 4 or 5 hours beforehand. I actually think the panel stuff is organised well given the difficult situation of literally everyone wanting to get into the big ones, it's just Lucasfilm's handling of people outside the rooms (and at home) that stings.

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? 

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

This was my favourite purchase from Anaheim, a massive print of this beauty, signed by the artist. It was like £100 but worth it. Even with Pearce Brosnan as Thrawn lol

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 

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Yeah should be good. Seems to have been in production a while, might be another Andor on our hands. Also, apparently the directors behind Everything Everywhere All At Once are set to direct at least one ep of Skeleton Crew, so that's exciting. Edit: just been confirmed from the horse's mouth

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. 

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Be interesting if with two, presumably big, eps of Mando still to release, they'll want to pull focus away from that with a publicly released Ahsoka trailer. I could see them waiting until after the last ep of Mando before putting it online, but we'll see.

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... 

8 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Yeah exactly. Fingers crossed, but it seems like great casting. I just hope the on-screen portrayals of the characters are right. Both her and Ezra are big personalities, I hope they don't try and tone those down and make it stiff and stoic.

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! 

[Julius]

Just finished this week's episode of Mando S3...

Spoiler

• haha man I know Grogu is just taking after Yoda with the acrobatics but I can't imagine everyone being happy about that. Seeing him with a dart launcher was hilarious though 

• after the earlier episode when something dangerous comes out of the water and wrecks shop, you'd think they'd put up red flags along the shoreline 

• MORE CORUSCANT BAYBEEEEE LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO

• Ahmed Best saved Grogu AND they canonised his character Kelleren from Jedi Temple Challenge? Well I'll be! Curious how his friends are from Naboo, I don't know if that's just a nod to him having played Jar Jar or, what would be one hell of a twist, if Jar Jar is his friend and was trying to save some Jedi. Imagine the hysteria if Jar Jar started The Path? (which I would be all for!)

• some of the clones looked great, but some of the others (especially in the shadows as they were chasing the pair to the speeder) looked real odd – wonder if some of these were CG again? 

• oh man, V-Wings, LAATs, give 'em all to me. Real shame that a longer chase was seemingly cut based on the concept art (with the Venator-class and more V-Wings)

• I was laughing my ass off when I realised Paz still took his heavy weaponry with him as they were climbing up to the nest, I can imagine how the conversation to convince him to take it off and they'd get there faster would've gone 

• dragon bird thing was ugly, but it's kids were adorable. Glad we'll hopefully get to see more of them! 

• man, yeah, Bo really secretly has a point to prove with how much she overdid things in this episode (being the only one smart enough to get her ship instead of chasing by jet pack, aggressively going for the kid, etc.), and then trying to reveal that she'd seen the Mythosaur. Hmm. 

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! 

[bob]

Do you guys want to thread rip all this StarWarsCon chat into a different thread? Or even just PM each other? I came in here to read Mando reactions, and can't find them amongst all the Conchat.

[Ronnie]

8 hours ago, bob said:

I came in here to read Mando reactions, and can't find them amongst all the Conchat.

Here's a tip, the posts that talk about Mando start with:

On 02/03/2023 at 12:33 AM, Ronnie said:

Chapter 17. Definitely a prologue of sorts.

On 01/03/2023 at 9:57 PM, Julius said:

Just got finished S3 E1 of The Mandalorian, or Chapter 17 – The Apostate. Here are some random and not really cohesive thoughts

On 08/03/2023 at 10:06 PM, Julius said:

Just finished E2 S3 of Mando...

On 15/03/2023 at 11:03 PM, Julius said:

Earlier this evening I watched Mando S3 E3...

On 16/03/2023 at 2:07 AM, Ronnie said:

Wow, a ton to unpack with Chapter 19.

on the previous page and this one.

[Ronnie]

Chapter 20 of Mando... have to say I wasn't a massive fan of this one. Carl Weathers directed my least favourite of S2 and I get the feeling it'll be the same in S3. It wasn't bad by any means and re-watches definitely helped a bit.

Spoiler

I get that Grogu's rescuing from the Jedi temple is important to people (though I'm not entirely sure why the details matter so much), but I'd have shortened that sequence. It was lovely to see Ahmed Best in another Star Wars though and look awesome at the same time. Loved his lightsaber fighting style.

I love Paz Vizla's armour, the character himself is cool in general. I figured they might be setting him up as more of an antagonist role, but after this ep maybe not? Same with the armourer actually.

Baby dragons were cute, so were the rock crabs at the start. 

And as usual, Mandos on this show completely incapable of saying "isn't" or "didn't" or "aren't" instead of "is not", "did not" and "are not" continue to wind me up. 

Love how episodic the series continues to be, each one a mini adventure. Big fan.

Probably a 6.5/10 for me. It was enjoyable, but definitely my least favourite of the season so far. Seems to be getting good reviews online though, so what do I know.

21 hours ago, Julius said:

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)

Chapter 2 is one of my favourites and I think that's the shortest episode of the whole series. But yeah fair enough, 40+ mins for most would be good.

Edited Thursday at 12:58 PM by Ronnie

[Ronnie]

On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

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'd be really curious to hear their actual reasoning on the decision, but obviously that's unlikely to happen. Businesses just seem obsessed with controlling the messaging these days, so it's just an extension of that I guess. The funnyt hing is all the footage they showed last year of Mando and Ahsoka looked polished and ready for broadcast, it wasn't rough looking at all. (like that first footage of Mando they ever showed to the public apparently was)

On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

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! 

That'd be a great idea! Sign me up. Even if it's just the major panels, kind of like a pay-per-view type thing.

On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

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? 

Yeah giving most people a minimum of 1 and maybe a maximum of 2 to spread things around would be ideal, though I imagine the numbers would still come up short there, especially in London with much smaller rooms.

On 21/03/2023 at 9:54 PM, Julius said:

Yeah, I am a bit worried about some characters ending up being watered down versions of their animated selves to be honest

All the Mandos in Mando are so stoic and stiff it'd be great to have Sabine have a bit more personality. Same with Ezra of course. I get that time would have passed obviously, but still. Fingers crossed.

[Ronnie]

Any luck in the panel lottery @Julius? Be sure to check https://register.growtix.com/entry/event/hgjert5131_nn4_5g and register/sign in, very occasionally you get successful there but without an email.

[Julius]

35 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Any luck in the panel lottery @Julius? Be sure to check https://register.growtix.com/entry/event/hgjert5131_nn4_5g and register/sign in, very occasionally you get successful there but without an email.

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 

Edited 7 hours ago by Julius

[Ronnie]

Fantastic, congrats! You should def be chuffed with that. As usual there are reports of people getting into 3 or 4 and even more getting into 0, so two out of 5 is a great return. Of the two you got, the Showcase is definitely the one you'll want to be in the Celebration stage for, and it's a great way of kicking off Celebration. I got into one panel, the Bad Batch one on the Celebration stage, for me and my nephew, the exact same one I got into in Anaheim  a little disappointed I didn't get a second as well (Showcase or Ahsoka) but never mind. I'm loving the series so much so it'll be great. Still holding out hope of blagging my way into another one, constantly checking Facebook/eBay. If god forbid you have any last minute cancellations in your group I would selflessly take a QR code off your hands for a decent fee btw  tbh, I think I might just try queueing up in the standby line at 8. 

And yeah got a Store reservation easily enough (despite their terrible messaging in terms of number of people per order allowed). How about you? 

50 minutes ago, Julius said:

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 

Just head straight there I'd suggest.

50 minutes ago, Julius said:

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!

Got an email today saying they'd been shipped, about time! You'll be alright. They sent international tickets first I believe. UK ones last. Ah that's annoying re: Lyte, you're right, very scalper like prices. And they aren't exactly cheap to begin with!

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Ronnie