Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

Post by Sparky Prime »

Binge watched all of Obi-Wan last night... It had some flaws, but for the most part, I thought it was pretty good.

Pros-
Spoiler
-Nice to see a Clone Trooper make an appearance. Sad to see what's apparently become of them since they got replaced by the Storm Troopers but nice to see it acknowledged.
- liked that Obi-Wan is out of practice and takes a while to shake off the rust. Although, you'd think if he still intends to train Luke at some point that he'd be keeping up on his own skills...
-I really liked Obi-Wan's reaction to learning Darth Vader is still alive. I also liked that he talks to Qui-Gon from time to time... Although I was hoping for more than it being one sided...
-Surprised to see how early Vader and Obi-Wan encounter each other. I liked that Obi-Wan knows he's no match for Vader and tried to run.
-Good attention to detail with the flashback duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan. It's clear it takes place sometime prior to Attack of the Clones given Anakin has his Padawan braid, and Obi-Wan his older lightsaber hilt. I also liked how they juxtapose that duel with the two trying to out strategize each other because they're aware of each others approach to a fight.
-The second Vader/Obi-Wan fight was really good. Really liked the damaged Vader helmet scene and the mix of Hayden Christensen's voice with James Earl Jones as he's still speaking somewhat through the voice processor.
-Owen and Beru can kick ass.
-Qui-Gon shows up as a Force Ghost! Again, kinda hoped for a bit more in this aspect, but it's nice to see the special training Yoda told Obi-Wan about to learn to commune with him at the end of Revenge of the Sith has paid off.
Cons-
Spoiler
-Vader's line in A New Hope that last time he saw Obi-Wan he was 'the learner but now he's the Master' doesn't make much sense anymore... Anakin was nearly a Jedi Master in Revenge of the Sith. Isn't he a Master by this point 10 years later? If not, what changes in another 9 years?
-Why didn't Vader put the fire out (again) when Tala Durith reignited it? Why did he just let the loader droid take Obi Wan away?
-How does Reva get to the end of the safe house tunnel ahead of Leia?
-What's the point of the frozen (dead?) Jedi in the Inquisitor's base? They never explain what that's all about. And if they're keeping all their victims like that, why'd they string up Nari's body back on Tatooine?
-How did the Grand Inquisitor survive being stabbed by a lightsaber? How did Reva survive two? Not to mention, she also survived it as a Youngling?
-Why do they leave Reva alive anyway? Isn't the Empire trying to eliminate every errant Force Sensitive person?
-How did Reva get back to Tatooine so quickly after she was "left in the gutter" by Vader and the Grand Inquisitor? And why did she immediately realize the child Bail Organa mentions is with Owen? She only sees a fragmented part of the message.
-So what becomes of Reva after she chooses not to become like Vader?
-Vader gives up the search for Obi-Wan simply because the Emperor asks him if he's letting his feelings affect him? That's too easy, and doesn't fit with the Empires objectives to eliminate the remaining Jedi.
-It's a little weak that they imply the reason Leia's message to Obi-Wan in A New Hope is simply because he tells her to keep it secret.
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andersonh1
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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Sparky Prime wrote: Mon Jul 04, 2022 5:57 pmVader's line in A New Hope that last time he saw Obi-Wan he was 'the learner but now he's the Master' doesn't make much sense anymore... Anakin was nearly a Jedi Master in Revenge of the Sith. Isn't he a Master by this point 10 years later? If not, what changes in another 9 years?
I think the line is meant to refer to Vader surpassing Kenobi in skill and power rather than to the old Jedi ranking system. The point of the flashback to Anakin's days as Padawan was used to show that his thinking had not advanced beyond his student days, which is one reason Kenobi was able to correctly predict how Vader would react on several occasions.

On the other hand, I saw a meme the other day with an illustration featuring Vader and an Imperial officer in the old Jedi council chamber from one of the Marvel Star Wars comics, with the comic text replaced and Vader declaring "as the sole surviving member of the council, I unanimously award myself the rank of Master." :lol: So maybe he did that after his fight with Kenobi. :mrgreen:
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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andersonh1 wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 6:51 amI think the line is meant to refer to Vader surpassing Kenobi in skill and power rather than to the old Jedi ranking system. The point of the flashback to Anakin's days as Padawan was used to show that his thinking had not advanced beyond his student days, which is one reason Kenobi was able to correctly predict how Vader would react on several occasions.
I think the flashback was to show that these two know how to read each other and their different approaches to a fight. This is how Vader knew Obi-Wan would give him the opportunity to face him, as well as Obi-Wan knowing Vader would go after him as opposed to the group of people. Both of them are shown predicting each others moves during that entire sequence. I'd also argue, Anakin and Obi-Wan were already evenly matching in power and skill during their duel on Mustafar. If Anakin hadn't foolishly attacked when Obi-Wan had the high ground... Vader, in large part, is shown to have the advantage over Obi-Wan in this series.
On the other hand, I saw a meme the other day with an illustration featuring Vader and an Imperial officer in the old Jedi council chamber from one of the Marvel Star Wars comics, with the comic text replaced and Vader declaring "as the sole surviving member of the council, I unanimously award myself the rank of Master." :lol: So maybe he did that after his fight with Kenobi. :mrgreen:
I mean, that works too. :lol:
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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Andor - I've only watched episode 1 and part of episode 2 so far. It's... fine? Not bad, but not compelling either. It's something I'm curious enough about that I will watch it all at some point, but it has not made itself "can't wait to watch it" viewing (contrast this with The Mandalorian, which I could not wait to see week after week). They're trying very hard to be as un-Star Wars as possible with the storytelling and the music, and the fact that the Empire hasn't shown up yet in the first few episodes. I honestly question whether there was any demand at all for more stories about Cassian Andor, a character no one was clamoring to see again. It's a very odd choice to base a series around him, and at the very least, no one should be surprised that viewership is lower than other streaming Star Wars shows.
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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andersonh1 wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 5:15 pm Andor - I've only watched episode 1 and part of episode 2 so far. It's... fine? Not bad, but not compelling either.
I watched the first episode.... a month ago and haven't gotten around to watching any more of it thus far. Like you said, I thought the first episode was fine, but not exactly compelling so I haven't been all that interested in going back and watching more of it. I've seen some people say that it starts to pick up around episode 4. But... I'm not sure this series was really necessary. I mean, the most interesting stuff I've seen people talking about has to do with other characters, not Cassian Andor.
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andersonh1
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

Post by andersonh1 »

Andor - episodes 2 and 3 - it takes a while to get there, but episode 3 brings everything to a head quite nicely, explaining what Cassian has been doing and why, and seeing an attempt to recruit him for what is presumably the early days of the rebellion. I can see why they released the first three episodes at once, because it takes that long to really get past all the hinting to somewhere concrete. They really are going for as non Star Wars a tone as possible in terms of storytelling style, some stronger than usual profanity, and the incidental music. If it didn't have the branding, you'd barely know it was set in that universe.

I'm in it for more at this point, it has me interested, but I can see why some people haven't stuck with it.
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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Andor's been amazing, every episode is a great length yet still could have been longer, every storyline crystalizes the point of what drives various denizens of that universe to rebel, every ending makes me sad to learn that this show was originally going to be 5 seasons but is now just 2. It loves the universe that the original Star Wars created and it loves living within that universe, the one where THX-1138 gave way to A New Hope, not the one that was made by producers who wouldn't tell George Lucas "no" or a computer farm in Disney's basement.
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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JediTricks wrote: Sun Nov 06, 2022 10:04 am Andor's been amazing, every episode is a great length yet still could have been longer, every storyline crystalizes the point of what drives various denizens of that universe to rebel, every ending makes me sad to learn that this show was originally going to be 5 seasons but is now just 2. It loves the universe that the original Star Wars created and it loves living within that universe, the one where THX-1138 gave way to A New Hope, not the one that was made by producers who wouldn't tell George Lucas "no" or a computer farm in Disney's basement.
I've finished episode 6, and Andor is definitely a show that gets better as it goes along. There's a pattern so far of two slow buildup episodes followed by a third action episode, often very tense. The heist of the Imperial payroll vault makes for a great episode, and finally seeing some familiar Star Wars sights such as TIE Fighter pilots and the Imperial Senate helps immensely to make this feel more like a Star Wars production. I'm glad I stuck with this, it's to the point where I really want to know what happens next, which was not necessarily the case with episodes 1 and 2.
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

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For my tastes, Andor's best when it's character drama, and this show has plenty of it. All of the action is driven by the drama which helps, and the action doesn't outstay its welcome as in this week's episode, it didn't fetishize action, it got to a scene and made a fantastic little meal out of it but got out of there leaving you excited instead of bored. So many action-driven shows either can't afford a lot of action (most anything on The CW) or fill a lot of time with action for action's sake, and I appreciate that the show almost nobody expected to be anything at all turns out to know how to do action and drama better than anything in that lane this year.
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andersonh1
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Re: Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

Post by andersonh1 »

JediTricks wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 10:24 am For my tastes, Andor's best when it's character drama, and this show has plenty of it. All of the action is driven by the drama which helps, and the action doesn't outstay its welcome as in this week's episode, it didn't fetishize action, it got to a scene and made a fantastic little meal out of it but got out of there leaving you excited instead of bored. So many action-driven shows either can't afford a lot of action (most anything on The CW) or fill a lot of time with action for action's sake, and I appreciate that the show almost nobody expected to be anything at all turns out to know how to do action and drama better than anything in that lane this year.
I have to agree. The show has earned just about every action sequence we see. I've finished episode 11, so only one more to go. The prison arc was very strong, and so were all the related plots. Everything on this show really works to create a real sense that danger is everywhere. Good to see Saw Garerra turn up and Luthen's escape from the Imperial ship was exactly the type of action sequence you describe: not action for the sake of it, but something that grows out of the situation and tells us more about Luthen as a character, and it doesn't outstay its welcome. Andy Serkis was great, nice to see him in live action. I hate to see the season end after one more episode, it's been far better than I expected it to be.
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