Star Wars Black Series

Agreed. JJ is notorious for that; he's an idea guy, but not necessarily an implementation guy. I'm biased, because I too am a Last Jedi apologist. Even I'll admit that, yes, Rian didn't necessarily continue a lot of the story beats in the ways that many expected, but that's why I liked it. After the safety of TFA, Last Jedi felt fresh and interesting. Like you said, he took what would've genuinely tripped a lot of people up- the dangling threads left by JJ- and found ways to take a new spin on it all. Love it or hate it, it was a chance. And it felt like, at least to me, that he had the courtesy to leave more of a road map (at least more than JJ) on some of the possible ways you could take the story from there. Which, obviously, were not in the least bit taken. It was a sheer cliff face to climb, and they looked at the rappelling gear Rian left and said "Fuck it, let's take a snow-mobile up this bitch!" And we got what we got.

But I'd also argue that Force Awakens didn't necessarily flesh out a lot of the characters either- Poe disappears for 2/3 of the film. Phasma and Hux were.... there. Leia is a glorified cameo. To be fair, it was Rey, Finn, and Han's movie, and they had some decent development, along with Kylo, who had some good potential, but I also don't think it's as necessarily chock full of character as some folks would like to believe. Yes, it was the first movie of a trilogy, which gives it some leeway, but still. Again- not that Rian took things in the obvious directions, especially regarding Finn, but it still worked (I think) to further his arc of seeing the true corruption of the First Order. Not to mention, the payoff, as imperfect as it was, that Duel of the Fates gave him with the Stormtrooper Rebellion, would've been so much more satisfying than the (lack of) payoff in TROS.

Anyway. I should stop. I'll forever be mad at what transpired.
 
Alt said:
I don't know who is at fault in this scheme, but to not have a concrete plan for a trilogy after that spend is arrogant as only that amount of money can be.
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Right? Then you look at something like Andor, which, while yes, it was heavily truncated down from the original 4-5 year story that Tony was hoping for, but he knew the story and where it was going and the necessary character beats, so that even if we lost out on a lot of the fleshing out, we got the good meaty bits. When you know your story and characters inside and out, it doesn't matter what you're thrown, you can pivot and make the best of it.
 
Alt said:
I don't know who is at fault in this scheme, but to not have a concrete plan for a trilogy after that spend is arrogant as only that amount of money can be.
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I lay the biggest fault with the dude first in line. If you don't set your collaborators up for success you can't expect them to perform to their best. If Force Awakens had ended three minutes earlier Last Jedi would have likely been a better film.
joshsquash729 said:
I'd also argue that Force Awakens didn't necessarily flesh out a lot of the characters either- Poe disappears for 2/3 of the film. Phasma and Hux were.... there. Leia is a glorified cameo. To be fair, it was Rey, Finn, and Han's movie, and they had some decent development, along with Kylo, who had some good potential, but I also don't think it's as necessarily chock full of character as some folks would like to believe. Yes, it was the first movie of a trilogy, which gives it some leeway, but still.
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I agree. It's a fine introduction to a lot of characters, but doesn't leverage that much. Hot take, I think that's largely because it felt the need to give screentime to the old crew. I think the worst moments of TFA are when Han is on screen. Outside of nostalgia, he just halts everyone's plot when we're just getting into them.

AceofKnaves said:
I’ll just always be grateful that Johnson stayed firm with Luke’s commitment to non-violence. Truly paid off the throwing away of the lightsaber rather than killing his father in Return of the Jedi.
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Definitely. Folks who wanted Luke to be a big dick swinging badass (including Hammil, to some degree) kind of miss the point of the end of RotJ.
 
To course correct the thread, do we think there might be a surprise under that non robbed guard's mask? I hope so.
 
JakeEkiss said:
To course correct the thread, do we think there might be a surprise under that non robbed guard's mask? I hope so.
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I'd wondered that too. They seem to have taken care not to show the back of the non-robed guard's head. And the black line under his mask is interesting- don't know if that's just the color scheme (could be- it seems to maybe be his collar, vs. a mask line), or something more. The mask feels long enough like it could hide a new animated headsculpt. Wouldn't surprise me either way, honestly.
 
Sometimes I feel like Dr. Manhattan sitting alone on Mars because of my love for the Sequel Trilogy and my disdain for the Prequels. Especially these days when Prequel nostalgia is in full swing and hatred of the Sequels is widespread. But I've been relatively alone on fandom hills before, so it's no big deal. Hell, I love Solo and The Marvels and Quantumania, I'm used to not having barely anyone to geek out over stuff with. I loved Mando & Grogu and I'm sure I'll love Supergirl when I get a chance to see it, if history is any indication RE: consensus = thing bad, but me think thing great.

I don't have a huge Black Series collection, but if Hasbro goes back and makes actually great figures of the Sequel characters like they have been lately for the OT, PT and Expanded Universe stuff, I'll start collecting in earnest. I need a great Finn and Poe especially, as the TROS Rey is pretty good.
 
nik said:
Sometimes I feel like Dr. Manhattan sitting alone on Mars because of my love for the Sequel Trilogy and my disdain for the Prequels. Especially these days when Prequel nostalgia is in full swing and hatred of the Sequels is widespread. But I've been relatively alone on fandom hills before, so it's no big deal. Hell, I love Solo and The Marvels and Quantumania, I'm used to not having barely anyone to geek out over stuff with. I loved Mando & Grogu and I'm sure I'll love Supergirl when I get a chance to see it, if history is any indication RE: consensus = thing bad, but me think thing great.

I don't have a huge Black Series collection, but if Hasbro goes back and makes actually great figures of the Sequel characters like they have been lately for the OT, PT and Expanded Universe stuff, I'll start collecting in earnest. I need a great Finn and Poe especially, as the TROS Rey is pretty good.
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Nah, nothing to ever feel bad for. Star Wars fans are uniquely toxic and have a way of making you feel bad for liking the series in general, let alone anything more specific. The discourse can be acknowledged, but don't ever take it to heart. I love Solo too, and all the people telling me not to are never gonna change my mind. Better to be alone on a happy hill than immersed in a busy sea of toxicity.

I was surprised they didn't give us any redos for the 10th anniversary of Force Awakens. Heck, we even got (slightly) better redos of the Rogue One crew. I'm sure it'll happen eventually, but Hasbro keeps missing the perfect opportunities for a lot of these things to happen.
 
JakeEkiss said:
I lay the biggest fault with the dude first in line. If you don't set your collaborators up for success you can't expect them to perform to their best. If Force Awakens had ended three minutes earlier Last Jedi would have likely been a better film.
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I get it, but I think they should have locked it all in from the jump. Or at least had tighter reins. Is that Kennedy? I genuinely do not know.
 
Alt said:
I get it, but I think they should have locked it all in from the jump. Or at least had tighter reins. Is that Kennedy? I genuinely do not know.
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Kennedy is approving things, but it's Abrams job to actually complete the film he's on. Disney I'm sure was putting fire under everyone's ass to move shit along faster (in fact, we know that's true with the initial writer, who asked for more time and didn't get it). Kathleen was president of Lucasfilm, but ultimately Disney were the ones with the purse strings and time tables everyone needed to meet.

I also give Kathleen a LOT of leeway because I think she was absolutely left to take the hits for things I don't think she was directly responsible for, and that most of the people who criticize her seem to forget that she produced half their goddamn childhood. I've literally seen a dude claim her job was to get Spielberg coffee on his movies and I'm like, bro...
 
I think we've had the finger pointed at just about everyone at this point, and I don't know if anyone has really taken credit for it. I think it's a joint effort, really. Did someone try and speak up and say "Hey guys, what the heck is the plan here?" Yeah, probably. But it also feels like, at least partially, one of those situations where everyone just kind of assumed someone else would do something about it eventually and just never did. It also feels like, if someone did step up and try and take the reins, the moment they got a whiff of the fans not liking the decisions, they scurried back into their hole.

A shame too, because nik has a point- the Sequels are, at least currently, arguably the ones with the worst figures. There's plenty to go back and redo from the prequels and OT, but at least a lot of the heavy hitters have gotten many of the new upgrades, whereas, other than perhaps Rey and Kylo, who got TROS figures and oddly Hux (who got that Galaxy's Edge pack), most of the main sequel trilogy figures are working with decade old paint, articulation, etc.
 
nik said:
Sometimes I feel like Dr. Manhattan sitting alone on Mars because of my love for the Sequel Trilogy and my disdain for the Prequels.
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You are not alone!!! Rise of Skywalker is not good, but other than that . . .


nik said:
I love Solo and The Marvels and Quantumania
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Yep! Those are all fun and I dig them!!
 
I definitely want that Temple Guard 2 Pack. Which is crazy, because I already have 3 of the regular Temple Guard. But that non cloaked version looks awesome, and you can always use more of any Temple Guards. If I can I'll get two of them.
 
Alt said:
I get it, but I think they should have locked it all in from the jump. Or at least had tighter reins. Is that Kennedy? I genuinely do not know.
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Disney, Lucas Film, Kennedy, JJ, who really knows. Probably a combination of them all. Regardless, it's ridiculous that most of us on this forum can see the need to have a firm story path set before any movie should have been made. The amount of arrogance or just plain stupidity shown throughout the creation and execution of the Sequel Trilogy is mind boggling. Such a missed opportunity to make something great.
 
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