Ronnie Posted February 22, 2023 Posted February 22, 2023 22 minutes ago, bob said: I think you have your maths wrong there, unless i'm older than I thought. D'oh, 20 years for ROTS!
Ronnie Posted February 28, 2023 Posted February 28, 2023 One more sleep till Mando season 3. If I didn't have covid atm I'd be jumping up and down with excitement. It's been a little over 2 years since the end of S2 but it genuinely feels like way longer. You still need to give Andor and Bad Batch a watch @Julius? So much good stuff. 1
Julius Posted February 28, 2023 Author Posted February 28, 2023 35 minutes ago, Ronnie said: One more sleep till Mando season 3. If I didn't have covid atm I'd be jumping up and down with excitement. It's been a little over 2 years since the end of S2 but it genuinely feels like way longer. Hope you take it easy and feel better! But yeah, it definitely feels like it's been much longer. It's been an odd two years for Star Wars, not in terms of quality, but how their conveyer belt of final products has been a bit stop-start, which has definitely resulted in some odd gaps here and there, or then feeling like we're getting a lot all at once. Disney+ has boomed in the meantime while Netflix has started to wane, too, so even just in that space things feel super different. The last 3 years in general feel like they've simultaneously been a month and a decade, too, so there's that I'm of course super excited for Mando S3, but a little nervous, just because I feel like more than the past two seasons, we're going into this kind of expecting big, bombastic, overarching and epic stuff. It'll be cool, don't get me wrong, but I hope there's still time for quieter episodes and moments in amongst all this...and that people don't project too hard if it's not as big and bombastic as it's looked in its marketing. 40 minutes ago, Ronnie said: You still need to give Andor and Bad Batch a watch @Julius? Yep, I think I need to prep myself a bit of a roadmap up to Celebration to catch up on everything, and revisit everything too! In terms of what I need to catch up on, there's Andor (which I can't believe I've managed to stave off until now!), The Bad Batch, Tales of the Jedi and I'm going to restart Visions (got a few eps in when it released but was just bad timing and I never got back to it). Elsewhere, I think revisiting all the films is a must, and I'll probably throw in my favourite arcs and episodes from The Clone Wars and Rebels on top of that, too. I replayed Fallen Order last year so I think I'm all good on that front, and maybe if I have time I'll rewatch some of my favourite episodes of Mando and Book of Boba Fett, too. And maybe skip around Kenobi a little bit, or watch it before Revenge of the Sith so I can at least hear the music I want before moving on from prequelish stuff A lot to watch and do in general, March should be a busy one as the prep for Celebration starts! Would appreciate any tips you have to share on stuff to bring and the like 1
Ronnie Posted February 28, 2023 Posted February 28, 2023 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Julius said: I'm of course super excited for Mando S3, but a little nervous, just because I feel like more than the past two seasons, we're going into this kind of expecting big, bombastic, overarching and epic stuff. It'll be cool, don't get me wrong, but I hope there's still time for quieter episodes and moments in amongst all this...and that people don't project too hard if it's not as big and bombastic as it's looked in its marketing. Definitely. Some of my fav episodes of the first two seasons have been the quieter ones. Hopefully they'll strike a good balance. Rebels started off a bit quieter but then got epic by the end and it worked. I think my main hope is that the series stays episodic and doesn't turn into 1 big story where each episode bleeds into the next. But hey, open mind and all, let's see what happens... 17 minutes ago, Julius said: Yep, I think I need to prep myself a bit of a roadmap up to Celebration to catch up on everything, and revisit everything too! Make sure you don't burn yourself out ha! I think at the very least you should watch Andor before going into Celebration. That's going to be a big talking point I think. I'm really loving the Bad Batch too so that's another recommendation. 17 minutes ago, Julius said: Would appreciate any tips you have to share on stuff to bring and the like Will def share tips as we get closer no problem. Only 5 weeks to go! Edited February 28, 2023 by Ronnie 1
Julius Posted March 1, 2023 Author Posted March 1, 2023 (edited) Just got finished S3 E1 of The Mandalorian, or Chapter 17 – The Apostate. Here are some random and not really cohesive thoughts in a spoiler tag Spoiler • man, I'm going to be honest, I was a bit lost at the start during the initiation ceremony for that kid. With everyone keeping their helmets on and not having revisited the earlier seasons in a hot minute, I thought we were watching Mando's initiation. Obviously that completely got snapped in half when he turned up in his N-1, thank goodness • no Ludwig Görannson? No problem! I thought Shirley did really well The Book of Boba Fett and thought he really hit the ground running here with Mando S3 – in particular, I loved the dogfight action music (thank the Force that more than one composer realises that a fast-paced action scene doesn't need to call for frantic music!), the little something something we get when Grogu is looking out at the purrgil when in hyperspace, the little bit of music we get as the Mandalorian castle comes into view, and what I hope turns out to be Bo's theme, which sounded very foreboding as she gave Mando an earful. • speaking of the dogfight scene, I thought it was brilliant. Felt short and snappy, didn't overstay it's welcome at all, and also felt fresh with how Mando picked them off. • chuckled to myself that the first few notes of the motif we hear when the main pirate ship sails (heh) into view sounded more evocative of the Imperial March than most of what we got for Vader in Obi-Wan I'm sure I'll get over it...some day space pirate prosthetics also looked fantastic I thought! • a bit out of order here, but the return to Navarro was fun. Crazy how quickly that place has changed, but hey, it's Star Wars, I'll allow it. Loved Mando doing his best impression of Boba in Jabba's Palace as he watches on while Greef confronts the pirates, Grogu spinning in the chair (I mean c'mon, we'd all do it too if we could!), Grogu grabbing and hugging the Anzellan - honestly everything with the Anzellans, from Greef translating when it wasn't at all needed, to just the way they acted around each other (easily one of the few bright lights in IX for me) - and loooooooved the demented stutter they added to IG-11 as he was reverted back to his old assassin droid programming, really gave off that unstoppable and terrifying Terminator vibe! Oh and how can I forget those droids carrying the ends of HIGH Magistrate Greef's robes • the short time we got with the purrgil gave me chills! A definite hint at what I'm sure is to come in terms of Ahsoka! And I think that's all I really have to say that belongs in spoiler tags? Overall, while solid, this episode felt more like a prologue and something of bit of a soft reset in some ways following The Book of Boba Fett and the climax of S2, and yeah, it was a total bummer to have it load up and see that it was only 37 minutes long...but Mando is back, and that's something I'm happy about looking forward to next week's episode! Edited March 1, 2023 by Julius 1
Ronnie Posted March 2, 2023 Posted March 2, 2023 Chapter 17. Definitely a prologue of sorts. I loved it and was on the edge of my seat the whole time but my only negative is it was a little all over the place and a lot less focused than previous episodes have been, but as a sort of resetting of the board then fair enough. Spoiler The tease of the Purrgil in hyperspace had my JAW. ON THE. FLOOR. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, those crazy bastards Beautifully realised too. The perfect tease for what's presumably to come either in this series or Ahsoka. I'm the same as you @Julius in that I thought that was Mando's initiation too. I think that was probably the point. Great hero reveal when he comes in to save the day. Space battle was a little too frantic and shaky-cam for my taste but there were still some cool moments. Loved how they showed Mando picking the ships off one by one. The pirate capital ship looked awesome too, as did the pirate captain! Don't think I recognise the species but I'm sure it's been around somewhere before. Bo Katan was great. As was the castle. And everything on Nevarro. Did NOT expect IG-11 to potentially come back. Did they stop motion the anzellans? Because it really really looked like it, and not in a particularly great way lol. Overall though, that was a ton of fun which is what I look for in the Mandoverse Just sneaking an 8/10 for me. 1
Julius Posted March 7, 2023 Author Posted March 7, 2023 (edited) Schedule for Celebration is coming through... Hopefully got news on the lottery in the next week or two? Also, I think there was a rumour a few weeks back now about how nothing would be streamed from Celebration this year. While it would suck if that were the case, honestly, considering how it was handled *at the event itself* for some major panels... I don't even know what to hope for at this point just hope that, whatever they decide to do, they communicate it much more clearly this time around. Last year was a mess! Edited March 8, 2023 by Julius 1
Ronnie Posted March 8, 2023 Posted March 8, 2023 Panel schedule looks great. A strangely short day on Friday, but otherwise lots to look forward to. I'd maybe say even better than the Anaheim line-up? For me, the Studio Showcase + the Ahsoka, 'Making of Andor' and the Doug Chiang panels are top of my list. My nephew will definitely want to the Clone Wars anniversary panel. And I'll try and sneak into the Bad Batch and Visual Effects of Andor ones too. And maybe Kenobi, and the ROTJ anniversary, and and... Shame no gaming or music panels, I'd have thought the latter would be a given. If it's anything like last year, they'll do a lottery for the first panel of each day well in advance and then on the day you use the app to book a spot in all the others. The more devices you have to hand the better for the latter btw, as your place in the queue is randomly assigned on each device you use. 1
Julius Posted March 8, 2023 Author Posted March 8, 2023 (edited) Hoo boy, looks like Kevin Feige's and Patty Jenkins' films have been shelved: Earliest we have a Star Wars film slot scheduled in for right now is 2025, and unless that's Taika's film, I have my doubts we'll actually get it. That would be nearly six years without a new Star Wars film releasing after The Rise of Skywalker, which...yikes. Shame because the pieces of the puzzle seem to have been finally slotting into place the last few years for shows on Disney+, but hey, we also don't know too much about most of these projects (well, apart from Jenkins', and I'm sure that one will sting for a while), so it's not hard to let go. At this rate, I'm starting to think it's more likely we get a feature-length "episode" to cap off the storylines of Mando et al (akin to Siege of Mandalore, even if that got cut up into pieces) before we get to the next Star Wars film. 8 hours ago, Ronnie said: A strangely short day on Friday, but otherwise lots to look forward to. ... Shame no gaming or music panels, I'd have thought the latter would be a given. If it's anything like previous years, I think these will be the major ones organised by LFL, but I'm sure the schedule will fill up nicely in the next few weeks – this should just be the first batch, because like you say, it's definitely light on the ground in spots. A gaming panel would be neat, especially with E3 quickly going the way of the dodo and this being the last year of EA's exclusivity deal. Given that Survivor got delayed from mid-March to the end of April, I can't help but wonder if they might stick some kiosks up for people to demo the game? As for music, I'm really crossing my fingers hard for a David W. Collins panel unwrapping a bit of one of the OSTs – maybe going back to finish Rogue One, which he never got to do as Oxygen stopped before they could round it off? Or heck, would love to hear his thoughts on TLJ's or TROS's OSTs, even if I don't think he's the biggest fan of the direction they took, there's a *lot* to unwrap in those soundtracks. Despite it being finished for years, Star Wars Oxygen is by far and away my favourite Star Wars podcast that I've listened to, so yeah, here's hoping! 8 hours ago, Ronnie said: For me, the Studio Showcase + the Ahsoka, 'Making of Andor' and the Doug Chiang panels are top of my list. My nephew will definitely want to the Clone Wars anniversary panel. And I'll try and sneak into the Bad Batch and Visual Effects of Andor ones too. And maybe Kenobi, and the ROTJ anniversary, and and... Yeah, put me down for a bit of everything too Obviously want to get into the main day opening events: the Studio Showcase (really hope that if we can't they show everything there to the people outside the main stage!), Ahsoka, and The Bad Batch. Then there's just the short matter of the Clone Wars and ROTJ anniversary panels, Making of Andor (started Ep 1 the other day and loved it!), Concept Artists of ILM, Creature Cantina, Villains of the Sequels (a shame Adam Driver will probably never turn up to one of these again ), VFX of Andor, and a Look Back at Obi-Wan (yeah I wasn't the biggest fan of the show and even less so it's soundtrack, but given that I couldn't justify the kind of absurd prices to get a photo op with Ewan and Hayden, I'd want to attend just to see them in-person ). So, uh, yeah, just like 80% of what they've announced, please and thank you 8 hours ago, Ronnie said: If it's anything like last year, they'll do a lottery for the first panel of each day well in advance and then on the day you use the app to book a spot in all the others. The more devices you have to hand the better for the latter btw, as your place in the queue is randomly assigned on each device you use. Ah, that's good to know! Keep the tips coming and I'm kind of glad I didn't throw away my old phone now, guess that'll be in the rotation to try to book some spots! EDIT: find it really funny that Witwer isn't attending the animation game night, because he wipes the floor when it comes to Star Wars trivia and just realised in the list of presenters for the Live Stage – no Andi Gutierrez?! Gutting, Andi was always great with Anthony (and yes I miss the Star Wars Show) Edited March 8, 2023 by Julius
Ronnie Posted March 8, 2023 Posted March 8, 2023 34 minutes ago, Julius said: Earliest we have a Star Wars film slot scheduled in for right now is 2025, and unless that's Taika's film, I have my doubts we'll actually get it. That would be nearly six years without a new Star Wars film releasing after The Rise of Skywalker, which...yikes. Six years without a film I actually see as a good thing tbh. Gives time for anticipation to build again. Yes it's been a bit of a mess with projects announced/rumoured then shelved etc, but at least they're taking their time and trying to do it right. Rumours of the Damon Lindelof project potentially filming any day now would suggest we might get an announcement at Celebration. I am however gutted that Patty Jenkins' film didn't work out. That was my dream Star Wars film. It's been slim pickings for starfighter pilot stuff since TROS. 39 minutes ago, Julius said: A gaming panel would be neat, especially with E3 quickly going the way of the dodo and this being the last year of EA's exclusivity deal. Given that Survivor got delayed from mid-March to the end of April, I can't help but wonder if they might stick some kiosks up for people to demo the game? The livestream is sponsored by Survivor, so if nothing else we should get plenty of clips of it! I'd be surprised if they add more panels, seeing as they called this the full line-up but you never know. I think the ILM one was added quite late in the day last year. With only 3 on Friday it definitely feels a bit light, but otherwise I'm happy. I want to go to nearly all of the Lucasfilm ones! 41 minutes ago, Julius said: (started Ep 1 the other day and loved it!) Nice. I meant to put in my post above you should have started it now haha. Get your thoughts up on the rest of the eps if you've time, really curious. 43 minutes ago, Julius said: and I'm kind of glad I didn't throw away my old phone now, guess that'll be in the rotation to try to book some spots! Yep bring lots of phones! I only had one in Anaheim and my random spot in the queue was terrible the first three days, took an hour or two to get in. On the last day I was into booking that day's panels in 3 or 4 mins. And like I mentioned last year I was only successful with the lottery at getting into the Bad Batch panel, missed out on the other 3, so I had a look in the various Facebook groups and eBay for people looking to get rid of their tickets. Picked up the LF Showcase and Mando+ there. A little surprised Villains of the Sequels seems to be the main panel for Sunday, not complaining, good to see sequel love, but I'd have thought the Kenobi panel would have fit in better there. 46 minutes ago, Julius said: no Andi Gutierrez First thing I noticed too. Gutted. She works so well with Anthony. Baver is pretty good at least.
Julius Posted March 8, 2023 Author Posted March 8, 2023 6 hours ago, Ronnie said: Six years without a film I actually see as a good thing tbh. Gives time for anticipation to build again. Yes it's been a bit of a mess with projects announced/rumoured then shelved etc, but at least they're taking their time and trying to do it right. Rumours of the Damon Lindelof project potentially filming any day now would suggest we might get an announcement at Celebration. I am however gutted that Patty Jenkins' film didn't work out. That was my dream Star Wars film. It's been slim pickings for starfighter pilot stuff since TROS. See, I agree, in that I like the anticipation and build-up to getting more films...yet at the same time, I know there'll be plenty of reasons for delays/cancellations, but it definitely makes Lucasfilm look somewhat incompetent that so many films and creative partnerships have been announced and then shelves. To be clear, I don't think it's anything to worry about (especially in an age when Star Wars is somewhat thriving on a streaming platform, and even more so when there's so much else vying for our attention!), but if you told me 10 (and a bit) years when Disney picked up Lucasfilm that they'd only release 5 films in an annual flurry before going cold again, 13 year me would've laughed at the irony of Star Wars films coming back and then going quietly back into the night so soon even more so when only one of those five projects had a smooth production to boot! Would've made a great set of Making Of books (and maybe a 'How Not To Make' for the cancelled projects), but yeah, Disney chose to save face instead and not deliver the goods on that front Knew you'd be gutted about Jenkins' film, to be honest that being the only one we really knew anything solid about makes it hurt a fair bit, and like you said, it's been slim pickings on the starfighter dogfight front for a while now. Here's hoping someone else picks it up down the line in some form or another! 6 hours ago, Ronnie said: I'd be surprised if they add more panels, seeing as they called this the full line-up but you never know. I think the ILM one was added quite late in the day last year. With only 3 on Friday it definitely feels a bit light, but otherwise I'm happy. I want to go to nearly all of the Lucasfilm ones! They added a few panels after the initial tweet (the ROTJ one and the Andor ones weren't up initially), so here's hoping! And yeah same for me for the Lucasfilm ones! 6 hours ago, Ronnie said: Nice. I meant to put in my post above you should have started it now haha. Get your thoughts up on the rest of the eps if you've time, really curious Yeah, spent this morning realising it's about four weeks away and so I've outlined my plans for what I'm watching and listening to over the course of the next month, which will be interesting! And I'll try my best, but if it's anything like my Bloodborne updates... ehhhhhhhh, could take a minute 6 hours ago, Ronnie said: Yep bring lots of phones! I only had one in Anaheim and my random spot in the queue was terrible the first three days, took an hour or two to get in. On the last day I was into booking that day's panels in 3 or 4 mins. And like I mentioned last year I was only successful with the lottery at getting into the Bad Batch panel, missed out on the other 3, so I had a look in the various Facebook groups and eBay for people looking to get rid of their tickets. Picked up the LF Showcase and Mando+ there. A little surprised Villains of the Sequels seems to be the main panel for Sunday, not complaining, good to see sequel love, but I'd have thought the Kenobi panel would have fit in better there. I'll need to get my friend who's tagging along to bring any of his spare phones too by the sound of things! And yeah, will definitely need to keep my eyes peeled for tickets to anything I don't manage to get into. Trying to keep my expectations in check, so worse comes to worse it's just a weekend surrounded by Star Wars fans, which will be fun because I've not been in a huge crowd consistently since COVID kicked off a few years ago, much less a Star Wars one! (closest I've got to that is probably one of the midnight releases, but everyone tended to keep to themselves then) Honestly, a bit surprised Domhnall Gleeson isn't attending. I can get it in Adam Driver's case - he just seems to hate attention, and I'd be the same away too - but Gleeson has attended a fair bit before in press junkets and the like before, and in terms of time on-screen, he's probably what, the antagonist with the second most minutes drummed up in the sequels behind Kylo? Could just be busy ofc, but very curious love that Andy Serkis will finally get to see some love though! 6 hours ago, Ronnie said: First thing I noticed too. Gutted. She works so well with Anthony. Baver is pretty good at least. Yeah, Kristin was excellent last year I thought! But like you say, the chemistry Andi and Carboni have built up over the years, honestly it's just unmatched
Julius Posted March 8, 2023 Author Posted March 8, 2023 Just finished E2 S3 of Mando... Spoiler • hot damn we going straight into a pod race, and the Boonta Eve no less! Crazy how much the energy around the prequels has changed to see a snippet of a pod race in live-action again. • music was wonderful throughout this episode, again. Shirley's kind of nailing it. Really hope we get a complete OST by the time the season finishes, so much I want to dig into! • Mando went on again about how "a Mandalorian should be able to navigate the stars" and all that nonsense, so I'm here thinking hey, sure, they're teasing a plot point for a future episode. Haha nope, try 15 minutes later! • oh man Sundari in live-action, just hnnnnnng • the Sundari sewers in live-action, double hnnnnnnnng • am I hearing things or is Grogu like snarling and sounding pretty guttural? Curious to see how his voice turns out if he can speak by the end of the show • haha Bo being like "y'know, I knew a few Jedi". Pffft, Bo you knew your sister's lover and little else, and you didn't exactly get on with him either • I don't know if I'm crazy and just not remembering TCW fully (it's been a minute), but that might be the first time we've heard anything about Bo's and Satine's father? Huh. • and then we get another Mando the Great namedrop, second time in the show. We better get Old Republic era at some point! • that cyborg dude with the kind-of crab droid was freaky as hell. Like if Randall from Monsters Inc kicked the bucket and was stitched back together. Swear I heard Grievous' cough in the sound mix there, too. • absolute chills when Din starts to recite the creed and step into the Living Waters. • and yeah, hot damn, boys we saw a Mythosaur. Awesome. That cut away has me foaming at the mouth for more! Great episode (again), maybe a bit stronger than last week's for me just considering how much I feel the story progressed this week compared to last. Roll on next Wednesday I guess! 1
Ronnie Posted March 9, 2023 Posted March 9, 2023 (edited) Chapter 18. Wow, that was one hell of an episode! Spoiler It's funny how expectation doesn't line up with reality, I think most people expected to see Din visit the mines and living waters this season and maybe even see a Mythosaur... but not in episode two!! I figured this would be a side-quest to find the IG part and we'd revisit the Mandalore plot in the following chapter, but no straight there. This is where streaming tech is showing it's limitations I think, with the dark setting and high amount of detail, it was tough to get a clear image a lot of the time. Looking forward to acquiring a 4K copy to enjoy it properly cause it looked like a beautiful episode. Bo was great. Hilarious when R5 shook his head when Din told him to go up ahead. The creepy monster was just that, creepy af! Din still struggling a bit with the darksaber. Loved the local monsters, you can tell they're just dudes in prosthetics, and it's all the more charming for it. @Julius you might need to educate me here... Is "the creed" something all Mandalorians take? Where do the Children of the Watch come in, what do they do differently, apart from the helmet rule. Was that an original rule for all Mandos, or just them? Another 8/10 for me. Loved it. What's really exciting is I've no clue where the rest of this season is going to go. The trailer showed a bit of a city planet (Hosnian Prime?) and we're back on Nevarro and Kalevala at some point but otherwise we've already seen most of what the trailers showed. Edited March 9, 2023 by Ronnie 1
Julius Posted March 9, 2023 Author Posted March 9, 2023 @Ronnie regarding your questions, based on my own knowledge and a bit of digging around... Spoiler So, the Creed and The Way of Mandalore, the way I view it and the way I think the show has tried to put it (but through a lens which I think has made it a little muddled – the lens of a cult in the form of the Children of the Watch) is basically that it's a religious affirmation from a religious path and way of life: The Way of Mandalore. It's interesting you ask if it's something that all Mandalorians take, because up to this point it seemed like the show had done a great job of very clearly drawing a line around the Children of the Watch and implying that they are the only ones who took the Creed; as far as I'm aware, Bo mentioning that she went through it is the first time we've heard of anyone else taking the Creed. What makes this even more interesting is, well, what happens in this episode: Bo shares that she went through it - basically as a ritual and a rite of passage, but nothing more - which I suppose might make sense as a member of House Kryze. The way she tosses away The Way of Mandalore, and the idea of Manda'lor the Great taming a Mythosaur because, well, they're just a myth, but then comes to some sort of understanding of the Creed (for lack of a better term) when she shares her past with Mando and he comes to understand her better before having the myth shattered before her eyes with a very real Mythosaur is genius (eyes opened on both fronts) and I think sets things up very interestingly from this point. As for the Children of the Watch, coupled with talking about the Creed and The Way of Mandalore, I think the easiest way to make it analogous to the real world: • the Creed is a verse - an affirmation - passed down, in say, Judaism. I mention that because the rite of passage (such as the one used by the Children of the Watch) immediately brings to mind, for me, the concept of the Bar Mitzvah: what might just be an ancient and kind of worthless rite of passage for Bo Katan of House Kryze could be a very modern day extreme indoctrination into a cult for Foundlings. Honestly, the similarities to Judaism at points probably shouldn't be too surprising given who the lead talents and producers are for the show that something like that might bleed over from their own experiences; I know plenty of religions have rites of passage, but like, yeah, it's kind of on the nose I feel here. • The Way of Mandalore could be considered a somewhat extreme and very traditional branch of a religion, which would be considered dated by "today's" (well, Mando S3's present's) standards (I think Bo said so herself at one point?). • as for the Children of the Watch, they've basically latched onto the fundamentals of The Way of The Mandalore, but in a very traditional - and so a somewhat dated and, perhaps, extreme - sense. It's something I haven't really thought about since we had the Death Watch reveal in S1, but trying to find what I could turned up something interesting which brought it back to mind: in French, the Children of the Watch are literally referred to as Les Héritiers de la Death Watch, or The Heirs of Death Watch. Which, well, is what they are. Basically: imagine a bunch of children radicalised by an extreme branch of a religious warring faction from birth to wear a helmet and believe in the old, extreme, and traditional ways of their kind. Now, we saw Death Watch members - plenty of them, Bo included - not wearing their helmets during TCW, so what gives? Well...what better way to indoctrinate loyalty and subservience into your successors than to effectively brainwash them, and rid them of most of their individual identity and emotion (a helmet masks many things)? Especially considering how things turned out for Death Watch in the end, I think what might have happened is with Death Watch proper all but wiped out (a lot of them tied to Houses of Mandalore or the Empire by the time of Rebels), the remnants of the Children of the Watch - the next generation of Death Watch - lack direction. So they spin their wheels on what they do know - The Way of The Mandalore - and continue to take it to an extreme, perhaps beyond it's original purpose relevant to their cause. When you consider the Children of the Watch an extreme offshoot of an already extreme group in the form of Death Watch, too, it's no surprise given Bo's previous role in the group that she kind of shuts down as much talk of it as she can. Or to quote Pre Vizsla and how he introduces Death Watch, which I think helps clearly define their goals as well as the (likely original) goals of the Children of the Watch: We are the Death Watch, descendants of the true warrior faith all Mandalorians once knew. Now my people are living in exile because we will not abandon our heritage. Our people were warriors. Strong. Feared! Now they're ruled by the New Mandalorians who think that being a pacifist is a good thing. They've given away our honor and tradition for peace. Duchess Satine and her corrupt leadership are crushing our souls, destroying our identity. That is our struggle. Honestly, it's kind of crazy thinking about it just how close the Children of the Watch come to being a parallel for real world religious extremists. Star Wars had never been one to shy away from religious and historical matters, but they did shy away from it a bit after the Disney buyout. But yeah, those are my 2 AM ramblings, we'll see if they still make sense when I wake up and read it all back in the morning, but hopefully some of my points have come across and I've maybe taken a very roundabout way of trying to answer those questions 1
Ronnie Posted March 9, 2023 Posted March 9, 2023 Thank you for the 2AM ramblings! Very useful and interesting. I thought I had it all worked out but then this latest episode just confused me a bit about the shared principles of the Children of the Watch and the rest of the Mandalorians. Like you say I think I was just surprised Bo said she took the Creed. The Children of the Watch being an extreme offshoot of an already extremist group make sense. And it's testament to how good that ending was that you're desperate to know what Bo thinks about the Mythosaur being real. 18 hours ago, Julius said: but it definitely makes Lucasfilm look somewhat incompetent that so many films and creative partnerships have been announced and then shelves. You're probably right but I imagine it's a similar amount to most distributors, but just a lot more high profile because it's Star Wars and so a lot more in the news than most other companies. Star Trek 4 for instance has had about a dozen directors and writers over the last 5 or 6 years. The MCU wasn't all smooth sailing at the start, but I imagine Lucasfilm will be much better going forward for the experience. 18 hours ago, Julius said: Knew you'd be gutted about Jenkins' film, to be honest that being the only one we really knew anything solid about makes it hurt a fair bit, and like you said, it's been slim pickings on the starfighter dogfight front for a while now. Here's hoping someone else picks it up down the line in some form or another! Especially as Top Gun Maverick doing so well proved a relatively niche sounding idea like a pilot film could have worked. Oh well, like you say maybe we'll get something like that eventually. It's just frustrating with Rangers of the New Republic also shelved. Can't catch a break! 18 hours ago, Julius said: Trying to keep my expectations in check, so worse comes to worse it's just a weekend surrounded by Star Wars fans, which will be fun because I've not been in a huge crowd consistently since COVID kicked off a few years ago, much less a Star Wars one! (closest I've got to that is probably one of the midnight releases, but everyone tended to keep to themselves then) Tons of people mentioned they didn't get anything in the lottery last year so going in with reduced expectations is probably a good thing. I'm determined to get into that Ahsoka panel though one way or the other. Live action Ezra reveal?
Ronnie Posted March 10, 2023 Posted March 10, 2023 Quote “I’m really pleased that the support that I’m getting from the content creators of the company is significant and real, and it comes in the form of reducing the expense per content, whether it’s a TV series or a film, where costs have just skyrocketed in a huge way and not a supportable way in my opinion. They all agree to that, understanding how much volume we need, reducing how much we make. So it’s how much we spend on what we make and how much we make.” “Star Wars, we made three what we called saga films, which is obviously the successors to George Lucas’ first six. They did very well at the box office — tremendously well as a matter of fact. We’ve made two so-called stand-alones in Rogue One and Solo. Rogue One did quite well, Solo was a little disappointing to us. It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so we decided to pull back a bit. We still are developing Star Wars films. We’re going to make sure that when we make one, that it’s the right one, so we are being very careful there.” Some interesting comments from Iger when asked about their theatrical release plans. I’m glad they’re taking their time with the next big film but at the same time I hope he realises it wasn’t just release timing that screwed Solo but the total lack of marketing till 3 months before. Obviously they go hand in hand but still. At least he admitted the blame. (And Marvel slowing down is long overdue imo too.)
Julius Posted March 12, 2023 Author Posted March 12, 2023 Just finished Episode 6 of Andor, so here are some scattered thoughts from the first half of S1: Spoiler • sets, costumes, shooting on location - perfect. There's a cohesion to the physicality of everything in the show which was never present in Kenobi. Absolutely the right choice. • so much Coruscant, hnnnnnnnng. • ISB stuff and internal office politics with all the white and grey coats, hnnnnnnnng. • all the Easter eggs in the antiques shop – the whip and stones from Indy (?!), Starkiller's armour, the Mando armour, the holocrons, and so much more. • speaking of Easter eggs, so many subtle ones in here, exactly how I like it – things don't stop so that everyone's attention is on them. Casual mentions of the Rakata, moving materials to Scarif, the infantries on Mimban, mentions of places like Hosnian Prime and Jakku (and again, so much more!)...it just makes the galaxy feel so much more connected! • music by Nicholas Brittle has been on point throughout. • love love love the first few episodes and how they seamlessly weaved between "present day" and the flashbacks. It felt like a visual representation of a great book's use of interstitials, and just flowed so perfectly, with each one informing the following scene. It allows for this snowball effect of investment in characters and relationships, as well as in the stakes of what's happening. • The Eye was awesome. Meteor shower meets the Northern Lights? Yes please! That NEEDS to be made part of a ride, it was absolutely gorgeous to watch. • love how early on there's talk about the Empire getting fat and satisfied and we have not one but two characters who are in high ranked positions struggling with their literal weight as a result. • not really surprised by how things turned out for the team in Ep 6, the bright-eyed kid was always going to end up dead (didn't expect it to be as brutal and accidental as it was, mind you), and the other deaths and twists were kind of expected I feel. Yet it still delivered plenty of tension in getting there, and that for me is much more important than characters being killed off. The heist in its entirety was excellent, and I'm glad they really took their time in setting it up and pulling it off. • love the physical miniature they made rather than using a holomap to talk about their plans, felt like a callback to the miniature days of the prequels (we haven't had nearly enough environmental miniatures since then!). Killed me to see them burn it, though! Look, I love a lot of what we've got with Mando, but if Andor continues on this trajectory, it's hard to imagine it not being my favourite live-action Star Wars show to date. I have no idea where it's going to go, but I just binged five episodes back-to-back, which I sometimes struggle to do even with shows I love (perhaps especially so). It feels like it's deep diving in on certain aspects of Star Wars we simply haven't seen enough of so far, and pulling it off with aplomb. Can't wait to see how it all plays out! 1
Ronnie Posted March 12, 2023 Posted March 12, 2023 Damn you @Julius you just made me to put on 'a quick scene' from Ep 6. Ended up re-watching the whole second half of it. 8 hours ago, Julius said: Look, I love a lot of what we've got with Mando, but if Andor continues on this trajectory, it's hard to imagine it not being my favourite live-action Star Wars show to date. It's an outstanding series. Worth all the great reviews it got and then some. Incredibly well written and directed, beautiful set locations with stellar performances. The pacing is great too, structured in three-episode arcs, where the first two do the heavy lifting and make you care for the pay off in the third. If anything it elevates Mando for me, when you sit through 12 episodes of Andor with it's bleaker, more down to earth tone, it's refreshing to have a tonal shift to the more fun, pulpy side of Star Wars that Mando provides. We're eating well atm! Tony Gilroy was right, he didn't fill the series with in your face fan service, but it was great work from his team and Lucasfilm in general putting in tons of subtle background stuff that doesn't necessarily impact the story but is the icing on the cake. And btw, this week's Bad Batch is similarly outstanding, one of the best of the whole series. Season 2 has been brilliant, let me know what you think when you get to it. The first couple of eps are strangely average, but there are some real gems after that.
Julius Posted March 13, 2023 Author Posted March 13, 2023 (edited) Just finished Andor, and yep, it just got better and better. Spoiler • haha wow they really went all-in on the THX 1138 with Narkina 5, huh? Loved it • loved everything about Narkina 5. Show did a great job of getting you attached to these characters, loved Andy Serkis as Kino in particular (oh man the tragic irony of him not being able to swim had me screaming at the TV for someone to accidentally knock him in!), his speech in Ep 10 got me all teary eyed, and I was hyped and hoping for the prisoners to pull through. That final top-down shot of them swimming away from the prison was absolutely beautiful. • too many other great performances to highlight, but other acting shoutouts: Cassian himself, Diego Luna, was very subtle but purposeful with his physicality in Rogue One and it carried on here; Stellan Skargård as Luthen gave what genuinely might be my favourite performance of his in just about anything; Genevieve O'Reilly killed it as Mon Mothma (which, you know, kind of expected!); but my absolute favourite character and performance in Andor has to be Denise Gough as Dedra Meero, to say she killed it is an understatement – she quite comfortably stands alongside some of the best Imperial performances we've had over the last decade, and I think a genuine argument could be made that she overshadows the others, too. There's just this slight level of being unhinged to her otherwise extremely calculated character which makes her impossible to stop watching. • oh my gosh, I knew it was Yularen from the moment they started trying to not show his face and build up too his reveal, and it gave me chills! Hell yeah! • Nicholas Brittle killed it with the OST. Some might be expecting me to complain about the lack of the Imperial March booming over everything with the Empire, but I was more than happy with what we got, because this didn't need the Imperial March in the same way Kenobi did (actually, part of the melody of the Imperial theme in this sounds suspiciously similar to the theme we got in Kenobi, so there you go). Oh and I nearly forgot to mention the opening theme being updated every episode – yeah I see what you're doing Brittle, and I appreciate it! • Luthen's tractor beam standoff was awesome • that Niamos track though! • final episode felt it delivered on everything The Book of Boba Fett's finale wanted to be: recurring characters of all sorts being taken out or taking a stand after a wonderfully powerful speech (when the town starts to march on the Imperials... hnnnnnnnng, the music!), and just felt like a huge amount of payoff in exactly the way it needed to be carried out. • okay so maybe the *only* thing I didn't like about the show was the post-credits scene of the final ep. When they showed the parts built by the prisoners being attached to something I was like "oh, wait, are they building machines to make droids maybe, and hint at K2?" but as soon as they started pulling out and we got a rushed shot of the Death Star...eh. Okay so there's a level of irony to Cassian being such a big component in physically building the Death Star (alongside the rest of the prisoners), and then going on to be so instrumental in its destruction, but...eh. It just felt kind of unnecessary? And even taking my feelings about that out of it, the shots in the scene itself felt incredibly rushed, which was pretty bizarre! Also, I'm sure it's totally a coincidence - there are only so many musical notes and so many ways to rearrange and resolve them - but I knew the main melody of the Andor theme sounded familiar (to the point that I hummed along and knew where it was going after hearing it the first time): it's a dead ringer for the Final Fantasy IV Main Theme! (maybe not the best example, there's a moment on Aldhani with a tracking shot of a speeder bike where it sounds much closer but I haven't been able to pinpoint it in the OST just yet) Anyways, yeah, in case it wasn't obvious enough after salvaging what he could of Rogue One, Tony Gilroy and their team are absolutely the real deal when it comes to Star Wars. Damn near perfect first season of Andor as far as I'm concerned. Second season will have a lot to live up to, and I hope doesn't thread the needle through to the story of Rogue One too closely (to avoid the potential of cameos and Easter eggs galore). Right, what to watch next in preparation for Celebration...probably Visions and Tales of the Jedi? Edited March 15, 2023 by Julius
bob Posted March 14, 2023 Posted March 14, 2023 9 hours ago, Julius said: Just finished Andor, and yep, it just got better and better. Andor S1 - scattered thoughts on Ep 7 to Ep 12 (Reveal hidden contents) • haha wow they really went all-in on the THX 1138 with Narkina 5, huh? Loved it • loved everything about Narkina 5. Show did a great job of getting you attached to these characters, loved Andy Serkis as Kino in particular (oh man the tragic irony of him not being able to swim had me screaming at the TV for someone to accidentally knock him in!), his speech in Ep 10 got me all teary eyed, and I was hyped and hoping for the prisoners to pull through. That final top-down shot of them swimming away from the prison was absolutely beautiful. • too many other great performances to highlight, but other acting shoutouts: Cassian himself, Diego Luna, was very subtle but purposeful with his physicality in Rogue One and it carried on here; Stellan Skargård as Luthen gave what genuinely might be my favourite performance of his in just about anything; Genevieve O'Reilly killed it as Mon Mothma (which, you know, kind of expected!); but my absolute favourite character and performance in Andor has to be Denise Gough as Dedra Meero, to say she killed it is an understatement – she quite comfortably stands alongside some of the best Imperial performances we've had over the last decade, and I think a genuine argument could be made that she overshadows the others, too. There's just this slight level of being unhinged to her otherwise extremely calculated character which makes her impossible to stop watching. • oh my gosh, I knew it was Yularen from the moment they started trying to not show his face and build up too his reveal, and it gave me chills! Hell yeah! • Nicholas Brittle killed it with the OST. Some might be expecting me to complain about the lack of the Imperial March booming over everything with the Empire, but I was more than happy with what we got, because this didn't need the Imperial March in the same way Kenobi did (actually, part of the melody of the Imperial theme in this sounds suspiciously similar to the theme we got in Kenobi, so there you go). Oh and I nearly forgot to mention the opening theme being updated every episode – yeah I see what you're doing Brittle, and I appreciate it! • final episode felt it delivered on everything The Book of Boba Fett's finale wanted to be: recurring characters of all sorts being taken out or taking a stand after a wonderfully powerful speech (when the town starts to march on the Imperials... hnnnnnnnng, the music!), and just felt like a huge amount of payoff in exactly the way it needed to be carried out. • okay so maybe the *only* thing I didn't like about the show was the post-credits scene of the final ep. When they showed the parts built by the prisoners being attached to something I was like "oh, wait, are they building machines to make droids maybe, and hint at K2?" but as soon as they started pulling out and we got a rushed shot of the Death Star...eh. Okay so there's a level of irony to Cassian being such a big component in physically building the Death Star (alongside the rest of the prisoners), and then going on to be so instrumental in its destruction, but...eh. It just felt kind of unnecessary? And even taking my feelings about that out of it, the shots in the scene itself felt incredibly rushed, which was pretty bizarre! Also, I'm sure it's totally a coincidence - there are only so many musical notes and so many ways to rearrange and resolve them - but I knew the main melody of the Andor theme sounded familiar (to the point that I hummed along and knew where it was going after hearing it the first time): it's a dead ringer for the Final Fantasy IV Main Theme! (maybe not the best example, there's a moment on Aldhani with a tracking shot of a speeder bike where it sounds much closer but I haven't been able to pinpoint it in the OST just yet) Anyways, yeah, in case it wasn't obvious enough after salvaging what he could of Rogue One, Tony Gilroy and their team are absolutely the real deal when it comes to Star Wars. Damn near perfect first season of Andor as far as I'm concerned. Second season will have a lot to live up to, and I hope doesn't thread the needle through to the story of Rogue One too closely (to avoid the potential of cameos and Easter eggs galore). Right, what to watch next in preparation for Celebration...probably Visions and Tales of the Jedi? I didn't realise there was a post-credits scene until I read this, so i just went back and watched it. Does seem a bit pointless that they were using slaves to build those bits, when clearly droids could make them anyway.
Julius Posted March 15, 2023 Author Posted March 15, 2023 Earlier this evening I watched Mando S3 E3... Spoiler • love that Bo is hiding the fact the she saw the Mythosaur. Have a hunch that's going to come into play... • bad ass starfighter dogfight (again!!), loved Shirley's score here. Bo's trick to take out the last TIE was awesome. N-1 vs TIE Interceptor is the stuff I'd dream about as a kid when playing with my models! • Grogu trying to say "This is The Way"¡! Adorable • hnnnnnnnng more Coruscant let's goooooooooooo • immediately recognised the Opera House from III because of course I did LET'S DOUBLE GOOOOOOOOOOO • I find that with Filoni his shows normally come into their own in Season 3 or 4, when we tend to start following tangential characters more often, and think we've finally started to see that a bit here (Mando isn't just his ofc, but I've kind of been expecting this to turn out to be the case in S3 or S4 for a while now). Love how much Pershing we got and how much time we spent on Coruscant – actually makes me wonder if this is a particular thread they carried over from the binned Rangers show? Feel like that would make a lot of sense. Felt very Andor funnily enough, much more so than the rest of Mando has so far (not a bad thing, I love some variety!). • you can hear the Resistance Theme in Monument Plaza! • also, Monument Plaza looks like yet another McQuarrie piece brought to life...because it kind of is! • and Umate peak! Oh man prequel/TCW lovers be eating goooooooooooooood (yeah I know Umate is older than prequels/TCW stuff, but we got it in TCW with the good Duchess iirc) • we kind of got "come to the Dark Side we have cookies" and I laughed super hard when I realised • also saying "it's a trap" to a Mon Cal hahahaha • the mind flayer being used after seeing a similar form of torture in Andor really upped the ante, so glad I watched that this past week before this episode. Love how "in the hands of the right people" the mind flayer still has a setting to get turned up to 11, though. That and the dehumanising of the Amnesty people through being letters and numbers (I wanted to say that maybe it was like witness protection but, well, Pershing basically gives a Ted Talk so I doubt that's it) shows that just because things change, well, doesn't mean things really change. • man, Elia was perfectly cast and portrayed in this episode, huh? I felt like I knew a twist was coming and yet there was still a nice twist on the twist. I did audibly go "oh you bxtch" when she turned Pershing in after leading him down that path. • in a few minds about where they're going in Elia – either she's just a crazy bxtch who maybe loves to torture people and has found a way to do so through the NR, or she's shutting Pershing up about what he knows about the Imperial Remnant. I mean, why not both? It could be both! • we get the male choral throat singers back at various points in this episode, mostly around the cloning. Almost definitely a nod to Snoke's Theme (which in turn is a nod to the OG Opera House music in III): Gee willickers I wonder what they're hinting at • Paz visibly seething about Bo lmao • curious to see where Bo is going after keeping her helmet on all episode, not talking about the Mythosaur, saying "This is The Way" and then joining the Children of the Watch (if only for now). Got to be a move to position herself into power over some more Mandalorians, surely – doubt she's a true believer? Even if what she's witnessed with Mando kind of screams the prophecy being right in some form. I'm thinking they'll get around a Mando vs Bo fight in favour of her trumping the Darksaber with "well I found a Mythosaur" or something like that. Fantastic episode, again. Really made the decision to premiere with only one episode a little confounding with how much stronger I feel the second and third episodes have been. And so the wait begins for next week's episode!
Ronnie Posted March 16, 2023 Posted March 16, 2023 Wow, a ton to unpack with Chapter 19. Loads of fun and even for a relatively quieter episode, there was so much going on. Spoiler Biggest surprise was the positioning of the New Republic as 'more of the same' as the Empire, definitely wasn't expecting that, even though I suppose you could argue it's only in the Amnesty programme side of things, for now. Disappointed the planet wasn't Hosnian Prime though. I was convinced it would be. Maybe that's a little closer to Force Awakens that it becomes the NR capital but just from a lore POV I feel like we've seen so much of Coruscant, would it have hurt to flesh out HP? Dogfight at the start was amazing, beautiful visuals and some cool manoeuvres. Definitely hinting at a larger Imperial threat on the horizon. Whole Dr Pershing storline was great, they really took the time to flesh things out. His apartment looked similar to Cyril's mum's place in Andor. This whole episode felt a lot more like Andor actually. Loved hearing the Resistance theme as diegetic. Similar to the Imperial March being used in Solo. A few negatives, the first two episodes didn't have much of this but Ep 3 was a return to the occasional clunkiness the series can be known for and definitely stiff dialogue which drives me crazy. On the plus side, both Pershing and Elia gave good performances. Also a couple of the CG shots looked rough, especially around the Star Destroyer scene. Again on the plus side there was so much visuals effects in this episode happy to excuse a couple dodgy shots. Definitely an episode I'll need to re-watch a few times to really get to grips with, but for now I'd give it a 7/10. Hugely enjoyable though and really intriguing where they go from here.
Julius Posted March 16, 2023 Author Posted March 16, 2023 @Ronnie regarding that planet... Spoiler Like you say, with Hosnian Prime not becoming the New Republic capital until further down the road, I don't think it would make much sense for it to appear here over Coruscant. While we've got a fair chunk of Coruscant over the years, off the top of my head I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've seen it in Mando's "present day" (and so it's first appearance chronologically since the end of ROTJ thanks to the SE), and given the scale of the planet and its importance in the Empire and early days of the New Republic - pretty sure we'll see Gideon held here for his appearance with the War Tribunal...if he doesn't make it out first - the more Coruscant we get for me the better. I'm all for branching out to new planets, but Hosnian Prime doesn't make much sense to include here other than to remind us that there's another city planet out there (and let's not forget the confusion after TFA over whether or not we'd just witnessed the destruction of Coruscant). I'll be honest, it was one of those planets that I felt existed just for the sake of not going back to older planets, but that's besides the point. I also loved seeing a vibrant and colourful Coruscant again after how grey and dreary it (rightly) was in Andor. More importantly though, I think there are practical reasons to use Coruscant from a production perspective. There are heaps upon heaps of unused ideas for the planet in concept art, areas which have appeared in animation but haven't in live-action (so would feel fresh to most of Mando's audience), and similarly it's probably one of the planets with the most reference points throughout the entire Star Wars chronology to go back to. Heck, I'm pretty sure they might have actually reused a shot or two from ROTS in establishing the Opera House (just recoloured) to cut a couple of corners – which is funny considering this is Disney and Lucasfilm, but hey, I say fair enough! Agree with a lot of what you say though – not a flawless episode in that it's a little clunky at times and the CGI isn't always there. Unfortunately I think that's just down to the tight schedules they work to these days normally meaning these projects have less time in post-, something I was starting to make peace with...until Andor showed that some projects do get the time and budget to go above and beyond the bar that Mando has set in that regard. A bit ironic I think that driving The Volume forwards has almost, at times, felt a bit limiting in achieving their creative vision. 1
Ronnie Posted March 16, 2023 Posted March 16, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Julius said: Like you say, with Hosnian Prime not becoming the New Republic capital until further down the road, I don't think it would make much sense for it to appear here over Coruscant. Fair enough, I've not read books like Bloodlines that probably cover the timing, I was under the impression that no date had been set when they moved there, but could be wrong. I think it would help flesh out the destruction in The Force Awakens though, the same way all the stuff on Alderaan lately has fleshed out what happened in A New Hope. I know that was more of a personal loss to Leia, but still. 1 hour ago, Julius said: While we've got a fair chunk of Coruscant over the years, off the top of my head I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've seen it in Mando's "present day" Oh yeah for sure, I was probably being a bit unfair. It's amazing seeing it in its post-Empire days. It's quite bold of them to paint a less than ideal picture of the New Republic, but I suppose in the books and canon the new government was struggling around this point so maybe that's just showing that on screen. 1 hour ago, Julius said: pretty sure we'll see Gideon held here for his appearance with the War Tribunal Very intrigued what his part in the story will be. I suspect that squadron of TIEs belongs to Thrawn and he might be the big reveal at the end of the season, but who knows. I watched that starfighter battle again on my laptop in better quality and it really is fantastic. 1 hour ago, Julius said: More importantly though, I think there are practical reasons to use Coruscant from a production perspective. There are heaps upon heaps of unused ideas for the planet in concept art, areas which have appeared in animation but haven't in live-action (so would feel fresh to most of Mando's audience), and similarly it's probably one of the planets with the most reference points throughout the entire Star Wars chronology to go back to. Heck, I'm pretty sure they might have actually reused a shot or two from ROTS in establishing the Opera House (just recoloured) to cut a couple of corners – which is funny considering this is Disney and Lucasfilm, but hey, I say fair enough! That's a good point. I imagine they splashed a lot of the season's budget on this episode already so to have to build a new cityscape etc might not have been practical. 1 hour ago, Julius said: Unfortunately I think that's just down to the tight schedules they work to these days normally meaning these projects have less time in post-, something I was starting to make peace with...until Andor showed that some projects do get the time and budget to go above and beyond the bar that Mando has set in that regard. Yeah it's basically a choice between: - Mandoverse: 1 ish year production but with lots of Volume use and a bit ropey CG at times - Andor: 2 year production but with more on location shooting I think Mando uses the Volume really well tbf (unlike say, Kenobi), and the episode looked amazing overall. Just some clunkiness with the direction and dialogue for me, but hey ho. Already dreading designing the infographic for this ep haha, but in a good way. Edited March 16, 2023 by Ronnie
Julius Posted March 16, 2023 Author Posted March 16, 2023 3 minutes ago, Ronnie said: Fair enough, I've not read books like Bloodlines that probably cover the timing, I was under the impression that no date had been set when they moved there, but could be wrong. I think it would help flesh out the destruction in The Force Awakens though, the same way all the stuff on Alderaan lately has fleshed out what happened in A New Hope. I know that was more of a personal loss to Leia, but still. 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. But I do totally agree, and I'm sure we'll get more on Hosnian Prime at some point...I'm just not sure when that will be. Maybe when we start to hit post-sequels stuff we could see flashbacks/prologues taking place on Hosnian Prime? 8 minutes ago, Ronnie said: Oh yeah for sure, I was probably being a bit unfair. It's amazing seeing it in its post-Empire days. It's quite bold of them to paint a less than ideal picture of the New Republic, but I suppose in the books and canon the new government was struggling around this point so maybe that's just showing that on screen. The whole Disarmament Act probably didn't help them in the slightest. Silly politicians 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! 11 minutes ago, Ronnie said: Very intrigued what his part in the story will be. I suspect that squadron of TIEs belongs to Thrawn and he might be the big reveal at the end of the season, but who knows. I watched that starfighter battle again on my laptop in better quality and it really is fantastic. The only reason I hesitate to think that it's Thrawn is that I feel they might have hinted a bit more definitively that it was him through the use of Defenders over Interceptors, so I'd probably lean towards it being another part of the Imperial Remnant...for now. 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. Do find it funny that it took them this long considering Mando found her so easily, so she's probably somewhere in the Galactic Pages 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! And also yeah the dogfight was spectacular, feel like they've kind of been killing is this season with the amount and quality of them we're getting. Keep it coming! 17 minutes ago, Ronnie said: Yeah it's basically a choice between: - Mandoverse: 1 ish year production but with lots of Volume use and a bit ropey CG at times - Andor: 2 year production but with more on location shooting I think Mando uses the Volume really well tbf (unlike say, Kenobi), and the episode looked amazing overall. Just some clunkiness with the direction and dialogue for me, but hey ho. Oh yeah, exactly. It's a trade-off that they think is worth it, and I think at least one of the shows has to carry the mantle as spearheading the tech, and I do think it has to be Mando, because they continue to want to push the tech into the mainstream. For me I think it's a trade-off that's fine because it keeps the shows coming at a steady clip, and I'll take that over perfection. 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 – I only learned recently that it's something that happens with some major anime Blu-ray releases where they clearly had to rush to meet a deadline, but it just helps the content hold up that much better. Especially seeing as Disney seem to have given up on physical releases for TV shows for some dastardly reason (still no complete box set for Rebels, really?) I'd love if they would just continue to brush things up. Talking about The Volume, what I do find a bit funny is that The Batman probably has the best use of the tech because I had absolutely no idea it was used until well after seeing that film! And yeah, I also think Mando uses it really well, a lot of the time by having smaller spaces but then just filling them to the brim with things to look around at that makes it feel like less of a set. Kenobi I think felt so empty by contrast because, well, the environments in The Volume often were so empty – be it a cave, a small forested area, or an Imperial office or ISD bridge. It made sense that these places were empty, but it also just allows your eye to drift too much from details to the vague edges of the screen because there's not all that much going on. 1
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