Star Wars: The Disney+ Empire Strikes Again and Again and...

agree with everything Nhex said

i'm still stuck on what the hell ezra and thrawn did for the 10 years they were stranded - they did separate immediately, or did they try to kill each other several times or...?

cause it doesn't make a lot of sense for ezra to not be doing anything while thrawn was working with the nightsisters and building his army. not that i need them to go into detail or anything, just one or two lines of explanation would've been nice

there were a lot of moments in ahsoka that were like that. i get that star wars has never been particularly character-driven but these new shows really do often feel like people moving from place to place and doing things just because the plot says so, or so they can be all like "LOOK AT THIS COOL THING/REFERENCE/FIGHT SCENE". I really like the cast too, so it's a bummer that the character with the most energy and personality on the show so far is robot David Tennant.

like that short scene between Huyang and Ezra was nice, would've appreciated a bit more of that

Ezra was clearly just hanging out with the dandy turtles, living his best life

I appreciated that! The Ahsoka/Anakin force dream episode was kind of all over the place, but the key question was really "What does it mean to be a jedi?" and she grew up where it purely meant being a warrior. Being an itinerant jedi and just hanging with the turtles and helping them out would definitely be jedi stuff

Sabine: I am finally on Peridea, where Ezra here has been trapped with a crazed monomaniac, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who'd like nothing more than to see Ezra dead. Tell us, how have you managed to stay alive all this time, Ezra?
Ezra: I like turtles.

TBF the animal force bonding thing is actually a key character trait for him going back to Rebels! it actually did make sense in a way, though i too hunger for details about what happened in those ten years which will probably be covered in some novel i'll never read

Real damn shame here:

https://gizmodo.com/shawna-trpcic-costume-designer-obituary-star-wars-1850909531

Basically all the Filoni/Filoni-adjacent TV series' work is her and her team. I know a couple of people who worked with her and my impression is she was truly great.

Meantime:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUs57-Cz2Pg

(Am I seeing a screening of this a week from Monday? Oh you bet I am!)

but will they be screening the actual special?

Fun fact: I watched the holiday special at my grandmother's house when it aired, I was a few months shy of 4 years old, but already a huge star wars fan. The recollection of it lingered at the edge of my memory for many years, as something that I only half believed was real. Later during my college years, a friend had a VHS copy that I watched, and I was amazed to learn that those hazy memories were indeed something that happened and not just a weird fever dream.

Hahah Moodles that was very much me in ways. I was seven when it aired, so a little more conscious about it and definitely did watch it. But soon after it must have slipped my memory, and, believe it or not, it was while I was watching coverage of Clinton winning his first term back in 1992 and eating a celebratory pizza that somehow I found myself going for the first time ever "Wait...god wasn't there a Star Wars holiday special? There WAS, wasn't there, and I know I saw it. Why have I never heard about it again?" Forever grateful to the freaks with early VCRs who captured it for the ages.

When one of those Ewoks live-action specials aired, I watched it (as a little kid) and thought it was the first episode of a series. So every night, for the next few weeks, I would check for the 2nd episode, thinking – "Maybe it was Tuesday night... maybe it was WEDNESDAY night...," before finally giving up.

(little did I know, I only had to wait ~37 yrs to be sick of Star Wars series.)

Do you mean one of the two made for TV Ewok movies?

Yes... pretty sure it would have been the second one (Battle for Endor).

Both Ewok movies are unwatchable

Yeah, we had a VHS tape of Caravan of Courage, so I watched that a ton as a 9-10 year old, but I only saw the second once so have much fuzzier memories of that one, mainly just centered around Wilford Brimley.

Actually, now that I look at the Wikipedia pages, it was more likely that first one (in 1984). I didn't know there were two until more recently.

Anyway, wasn't trying to call you out, just started wondering if I memoryholed a short-lived live action show too.. lol

I have a deep, misguided nostalgia for Battle for Endor and Wilford Brimley. Definitely too afraid to go back and watch those movies now

I watched the ewok adventure far too many times as a young kid, we taped it when it aired.

New VF interview with Filoni and Dawson about Ahsoka as well as Dave's promotion:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/11/star-wars-ahsoka-dave-filoni

Heading to the big screen, ol' Mando and the kid:

https://www.starwars.com/news/the-mandalorian-and-grogu

Sez Ahsoka season 2 is in development as well, so how intertwined they'll yet be...we'll see.

Catchy title

Much A Din About Nothin'

I would love for Ahsoka and Mandalorian shows to intertwine. Would really like to see Thrawn developed into a more central major villain. Mando needs a major shake-up.

I like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wB5NfBKSjw

And back with three episodes of Bad Batch and it remains solidly entertaining. And then some: I thought the first episode in particular is one of the best things in the whole animated cycle in general.

Loved the first episode. The quiet tone was perfectly done. Haven’t watched the other two yet.

Relevant interesting convo on nostalgia and what gets degraded when IP holders continually sell you the same franchise shit forever https://techwontsave.us/episode/208_how_foreverism_degrades_our_culture_w_grafton_tanner

Looking forward to this series more and more, as well as the larger conversations it's opening. (I will say that I always thought it was pretty clear in the prequel trilogy that the fact that the Jedi were hidebound elitists was the whole point.)

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-acolyte-disney-amandla-stenberg-jedi-bad-guys-1851288054

I don’t like this idea, it sounds like a Twitter meme come to life, but whatever.

(And it was definitely clear in the PT that the Jedi Counsel f’d up by being too detached and slow-moving, etc.)

they were like that because they’d become aloof and resigned to their position for like the 1001st time!

kind of a political Lucas thing, the protectors of the galaxy become protectors of the status quo and are slow to notice it

it’s funny that every extended universe does this thing and the movies constantly allude to it and we’re all like “they are the guardians of what is right”

I also feel like SW characters have been “morally ambiguous” since the first film, and the line between light & dark was always shown to be thin. Behind that, the “Jedi are really the bad guys!” thing feels like some Clerks sh1t…

Eh, I don't think the series will go down THAT road.

It will be intersting to see fan reaction to this perspective. It seems like a lot of people despised the Karen Traviss Mandalorian-centric novels for having the audacity to paint the Jedi in a less than glowing light (P.S. they are good novels).

Anyway I have an idea for Disney if they're concerned about making enough money via streaming

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-chilean-beer-ads-cerveza-cristal-lucasfilm-1851306714

Bad Batch continues damn well -- meantime per a Lucasfilm announcement, trailer for The Acolyte appears tomorrow, start date June 4. And teaser image:

https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_1315/cb014d4428d432be199cc155676cd78c.jpg

that's quite striking

I feel like BB is punching above the episodic-but-serial weight but the episode payoffs are still “but we’re getting there!” and too much deep lore for what is really a cartoon family show. idk, maybe this is what kids do now

they’re doing “but maybe we need the dark” across media in books and comics as well, now, btw. the book/comics arc has alluded to Yoda talking to a fallen Jedi about how to defeat a weapon the republic’s enemy is using that basically eats jedi

also we found out Luke’s lightsaber crystal was forced back to the light from the sith. seems a bit obvious

And here we go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtytYWhg2mc

Couple of good interviews with Headland here:

https://collider.com/the-acolyte-season-2-plans/

https://collider.com/the-acolyte-series-vernestra-rwoh-explained/

Meantime -- Bad Batch remains really solid this season, last couple of episodes hitting more of those darker tones pretty well (the Tantiss lab set one, eesh).

And speaking of darker things -- arriving in a month!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SIST9t72kY

The Bad Batch is plodding along too slowly imo - said the same re Ahsoka (tho tbh also with Andor at first but that paid off big time). The dark tonal shifts are interesting (the poor Camino scientist must be the most depressed-sounding animation character ever, understandably) but this isn't rubbing off on the story much. Wouldn't it be more exciting and cogent for example if the Emperor had witnessed Omega's escape from the base and so there was more pressure around the crew lying low trying to work out what to do next? Mebbe. Not seen the latest ep tho.

Well that's the thing, pressure has, how to put it, ramped up as of yesterday's episodes (it was a two-drop day).