💾 Archived View for auragem.letz.dev › ~clseibold › 20240608.gmi captured on 2024-06-16 at 12:46:02. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
NOTE: If you are one of those toxic Star Wars fans who hates on everything the writers and artists do just because they work for Disney, or because they're black or support LGBTQ+ people, then this article is not for you. There's valid criticism, and then there's political propaganda and bandwagon hate. The prequels added a many great elements to the world and set up some of the best Star Wars content that exists, and merely needed tweaks and scene cuts to become really good, which you can get with a lot of fan edits. The sequels were mired with the chaos of changing directors and writers, but every artist that put work into those movies deserves credit for doing their best with what they had, and I think there's a lot of great things in the sequels even if they aren't perfect. Disney doesn't make the art, the artists and actors make the art, and they deserve credit for the passion and hard work they put into it. It doesn't matter that all management wants is money, because the artists are the ones creating the art, not management.
Back when the sequel trilogy was released, I was one of the many people that jumped on the hate bandwagon. Now that I have rewatched them and thought about them again, almost all of the storyline criticisms against the sequels are just really dumb. Most of the critiques that I personally have deal with the infuriating misplacement of jokes in TFA, and the weird lens focus shifting, also in TFA. Other than that, the storyline is actually pretty good and makes sense.
TFA was clearly intended to be a parallelism to the very first Star Wars movie (which wasn't perfect itself!), and this is a storytelling technique used through tons of literature, especially Hebrew literature. I believe this was done to setup the next movies, and it's also consistent with what happens in real history when a revolution leads to another corrupt government, or fighting between two different government systems.
When we first see Rey, she already knows how to pilot, just like with Anakin in the prequels, just like with Luke in the original trilogy. Throughout most of TFA, Rey is very bad with the guns and the lightsaber. She taps into the force later when she is on the starkiller base, and near the end again when she has her fight with Kylo Ren. Interestingly, it is only after she closes her eyes to tap into the Force that she becomes decent with the lightsaber, after much failing beforehand. Other than those two instances, which are well explained in the last movie, she isn't even remotely "overpowered" beyond what would be expected given the information we learn about her.
TLJ was criticized for a mischaracterization of Luke, but imo, these critics don't know much of the original trilogy very well. In the very first Star Wars movie, Luke was extremely whiny and constantly doubted Han Solo and Obi-Wan. In The Empire Strikes Back he meets Yoda and goes through a little bit of training where he is pretty quick to give up (see the scene where he tries to lift the ship out of the water). To say that Luke would never give up on the Jedi is plain false. To say that Luke would never become depressed is plain false. To expect someone to remain confident, happy, and motivated after raising a whole new set of Jedi that are then killed by one of your own students, who happens to be the son of your best friend and sister, is just plain stupid. Like, of course he would give up and become depressed and never want to deal with anything ever again. This is not just consistent with his character in the original trilogy, it's consistent with basic psychology in general. Adding this storyline to Luke's character arc was not only praised by George Lucas, who created Luke to begin with, it also adds depth to his character, whereas these critics clearly want a one-dimensional Luke.
The only criticism I could actually see myself in TLJ is that Luke would never think of killing someone just because he seen a little darkness. Luke in the original trilogy was always hopeful of the goodness of people. However, I don't think this is as big of a problem as people make it out to be. In TLJ he says he only considered it very briefly and then stopped himself, but Kylo ended up waking up and seeing it in what was probably those 5 seconds or so that Luke had his lightsaber out. I think ultimately what the movie was showing is a new dynamic, a fight between seeing the good in people and the reality of people turning bad. Just like in the original trilogy, he chose to see the good, but only after an initial and brief questioning within himself. It just turned out that this happened at the wrong time. I'm not going to say it fits perfectly with the character established in the original trilogy, but I think it adds more depth to Luke, at the very least.
The biggest problem with the sequel trilogy is there was no bridge between ROTJ and TFA, so you get thrown into another new Resistance and an Empire wannabe, the First Order. You aren't told what the heck happened to make the First Order come to be, which just led to confusion and thinking that they're trying to recreate all of the OT storyline. All of this information was in the books, but it needed to be in the movie itself! Either they needed to show what happened, or do a slightly better job of explaining what happened that led to the First Order. What happened is in fact very logical, and very consistent with what usually happens in the real world after revolutions, but they needed to show it in the movie. To me, this doesn't make the sequel storyline bad, it just makes it *incomplete* unless you read the books.
The sequels, just like the prequels *and* the original trilogy, just need a few tweaks and then they become very good. Fortunately, we have fan edits for this very reason :D
The prequel trilogy of course isn't perfect, but it set up some of the things I most loved in the Star Wars galaxy: the Jedi, the Clone Wars, a larger emphasis on politics and mysticism, how a Republic falls, and how people like Count Dooku and Anakin Skywalker end up going to the dark side. The Clone Wars 2008 TV Series adds necessary context to the prequel series as a whole, even if there's a lot of filler episodes in it. The Mortis and The Cosmic Force episodes are some of my favorite TCW episodes *because* of their mystical content. Tales of the Jedi adds even more context, showing how it was that Count Dooku fell to the dark side, and gives us a picture of the failings of the Republic from the perspective of those outside the center.
The prequel movies obviously needed tweaks, with some cringy lines cut, but aside from that, it is a great story that especially applies to the real world. We got prequel Obi-Wan and prequel Yoda, we got complicated politics, we got morally gray areas, especially within the Jedi, we got Qui-Gon, the padawan of Count Dooku, and we got a much darker and much more sophisticated Palpatine that manipulates the Independent Systems and the Republic into wars to justify both sides' views of each other. The way the whole story plays out is just excellent. Also, Anakin's character, his relationship with Padme, and his relationship with the Jedi and Palpatine become much more fleshed out in TCW. Any fan of Star Wars should have watched TCW for that very reason.
I have always preferred the imperfect prequels to the more-perfect original trilogy because of the more complex storyline that the prequels created, and the larger focus on ethics and mysticism. However, I'm most excited for the High Republic Era, as well as seeing more of how the Republic started to fall after the end of the High Republic era.
I started following The High Republic when The Light of the Jedi first came out in 2021. This was during Phase I of the releases of the books and comics. The High Republic is one of my favorite eras, second to The Fall of the Republic (the Prequel era), because it focuses on the Jedi at their highest point.
I have watched the first two episodes of The Acolyte on the day they came out, and they were great. I'm excited to continue the journey every week. In the meantime, I'm already starting my Star Trek journey.
I've unfortunately heard that while The Acolyte had a great viewership number, it's getting a bunch of review-bombs on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. It's unfortunate that Star Wars still has a racist, homophobic, and extremely toxic fanbase. Hopefully people don't take the review bombs seriously, including Disney, because the episodes that I watched were great. Star Wars' fanbase is as toxic as usual...
Here are the fan edits that I recommend:
All of these stick close to pretty much all of the canon, but make small changes to the films and episodes that fix pacing, character development, and continuity. The Final Cut Original Trilogy takes half from the original Theatrical Release and half from the newest BlueRay editions, combining important scenes from both while keeping everything in UHD. In Hal9000's The Phantom Menace fan edit (called "Cloak of Deception"), the Jar Jar Binks scenes get trimmed to make Jar Jar appear more competant, which fixes pretty much all of the problems I had with this first movie. I believe it does cut the mention of midi-chlorians, which I don't like personally, especially now that midi-chlorians has an even bigger appearance in the Canon (i.e., TCW, the Bad Batch Season 3, Rebels, the Mandalorian, and the High Republic: Trial of Shadows), but it's still a good fan edit.
Midi-chlorians are based on mitochondria, which were believed to be separate organisms originally, so the criticism that midi-chlorians are dumb is like saying mitochondria are dumb, imo. For those who don't want reality in their fantasy, or the physical in their metaphysical, most fantasy has some reality that relates the story to our real lives, and religions *have* real-world aspects to them. Religions and spiritualities are not all-spiritual, and the physical and metaphysical interact with each other. Trying to separate the two creates a false dichotomy similar to the dangers of gnosticism. I'm with George Lucas on this, I think midi-chlorians are a fine addition.
I don't think it's productive to force changes to the basic makeup of a story on to someone else's art. I take George Lucas' story for what it is and try to figure out *why* it is the way it is, what it means, what it says, the different meanings that I can get out of it, and how it relates to my life, just like I do with poetry, music, and literature. I can use his story for the basis of my own story, and I can fit into the holes of his story what I want, but I shouldn't try to change the makeup, the plain text, of his story. That's just not part of what it means to analyze art.
I decided to start my Star Trek journey yesterday. I tried watching The Cage (the original pilot, remastered) on paramount+ about a year or so ago and just couldn't get into it, but I tried again, and this time I liked it so much better. Not sure what changed, perhaps just my mood for a slower show or something, idk. I'm excited to continue with TOS.
What led me to try this out again was that I watched about half of the first episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and found it really great, and so I stopped in the middle of it to start TOS so that I have the full context of the franchise's beginnings. TOS is definitely a bit harder to watch because the visuals are so dated, but some of the storylines in the first 4 episodes are actually pretty good. It also helps that the actors that play Kirk and Chris Pike are very good looking, lol.
I am taking this series a bit slower than how I usually watch shows, but apparently this is how a lot of fans watch TOS as well.
I wanted to give a special shoutout to Chronologically Lost, which got me into Fan Edits in the first place!
It should be noted that JJ. Abrams didn't actually write or direct much of Lost at all. He was on only like 6 episodes in total. So if you are hesitant about Lost because of Abrams' involvement, don't be. It's great and most of the story and work should be credited to the genius of Lindeloff, Carlton Cuse, Adam Horowitz, and Edward Kitsis. JJ Abrams gets credit on every episode only because he created the overall idea of the show, not because he was involved in every episode, let alone 95% of the episodes.
Just go into it knowing that the series focuses on religion and mysticism, how to tell the difference between reality, mysticism, and manipulation, and be prepared for 1. an overarching metaphor, and 2. the ineffableness and unanswerableness that is reality. If you go into it knowing all of that, then you will hopefully love *ALL* of the seasons of lost, and the ending, as much as I do. Just like in religion, you have to be comfortable with not knowing all of the answers. Also, no, the characters aren't dead the entire time on the island - that's a complete misreading of the final season of Lost.
For those who have already seen the show, I highly recommend Chronologically Lost, which offers a really unique look on Lost. One of the best things that I love about this fan edit is rather than focusing on the character and theme oriented viewing of the original, you focus more on the complexity of the timeline and overlapping events. It honestly shows how well done and cohesive all of Lost is. The show also starts in an unexpected place, at an episode that a lot of people hated because it was in the last season (iirc), yet an episode I *love* because it really sets up the world of Lost and gives us the metaphor of the entire show very explicitly.
Lastly, I know that some people view the show as anti-religious, but this makes no sense to me. The show is NOT anti-religious, it is *religious*. In fact, I would say it's very explicitly *pluralist*, in that it portrays all religions as valid in some way. Watch out for the tons and tons of religious symbols throughout the whole show - you will see Jewish texts, qur'ans, bibles. They will have very obvious and not so obvious references to Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. I think the final episode really cements the pluralist view of the show. The show is also not anti-mystical either, it is mystical. It delves into the dynamics of mysticism vs. manipulation, offers a critique on bad religion and bad mysticism, and you are led to believe certain things incorrectly throughout the series, but in the end you get an answer that is *for* a certain type of mysticism in general.
Pluto.tv and Plex both have a bunch of free live online tv stations as well as on-demand content. Vudu (now called Fandango At Home) now has free on-demand content as well. There is also Amazon's Freevee for mobile phones and streaming devices (i.e., Roku, Google TV, Android TV, and Fire TV).
Pluto has free streaming for some Star Trek and Stargate/SG-1 stuff, both on-demand and live TV. Plex and Pluto also have Farscape for free on-demand.
As for paid streaming: You can get Star Wars on Disney Plus, Lost is now on Netflix again, as well as Hulu/Disney+, and all of the Star Trek content is on both Paramount+ and HBO Max. Amazon Prime has SG-1, and MGM+/EPIX have the original Stargate movie, as well as another of my favorite shows, called "From". Don't ask me why Amazon Studios decided to launch MGM+ after buying out MGM instead of just adding all of MGM's stuff to Amazon Prime Video, but I think it's even more stupid than Disney buying out Hulu and keeping that as a separate service for Disney owned channels that don't use the Disney name (i.e., ABC and Freeform/Family; Disney is finally starting to merge the two services now, thankfully).
Classic Doctor Who is on BritBox and a Plex live tv station called "Classic Doctor Who" and on Pluto as "BBC Doctor Who Classic". Doctor Who 2005 is on HBO Max and BritBox. Doctor Who 2023/2024 is on Disney+.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is on Plex on-demand for free.
Marvel is on Disney+, of course.
Now, about CW and DC... CW was a partnership between CBS and WB, and it replaced the WB and UPN networks from WB and CBS respectively, and all of the shows from WB and UPN were moved to the CW.
DC is owned by WB, which is now called WarnerBros Discovery after WB acquired Discovery Channel. CBS is now called Paramount Global. WB also bought Hbo and launched a service called HBO Max, which was rebranded MAX.
After the creation of CW, WB and CBS both started making shows under the CW name, including the DC Arrowverse, the 100, and the teen drama shows CW got its reputation for - the Originals, Vampire Diaries, Legacies, and Riverdale. So, at this time we have DC split up between WarnerMedia/WarnerBros and CW - the DC movies were under WB/HBO Max, and the DC Shows were mostly under CW.
At the end of 2022, however, Nextstar bought out the CW, and all of the DC shows, including Arrowverse, were moved to MAX (formerly HBO Max). CW, under Nextstar, then cancelled almost all of its shows from the WB+CBS era, including all of DC's Arrowverse, Stargirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Walker (just this year), the Charmed reboot, 4400, Dynasty, Black Lightening, Naomi, Batwoman, Legacies, Roswell, In the Dark, Pandora, and various other shows.
The Arrowverse shows were the *only* superhero shows that I actually liked because they were about human heros with real human relationships and real human problems. They were dramas with some action. I could relate to the people, *and* it added in some cool scifi elements and other cool geeky things, like the multiverse, crossovers, time travel, parallel timelines, etc. The DC movies never had these interesting bits like this, they were too much about action and horror and inhuman superheros, and they had almost none of the geeky comic stuff like crossovers and time travel and the multiverse. I don't care for the Marvel movies, except Spiderman, for the exact same reasons that I don't care for the DC movies. The Arrowverse Shows were more my style.
Nextstar has now publicized that they plan on refocusing the CW on news, sports, reality tv, and licensing out international media, mainly because all of these are low-cost. Gone are the days and potential of at least decent CW dramas. Because of this, I'm boycotting CW, along with the Crime Family Network below, because I want it to die a horrible death under Nextstar, lol.
I'm explicitly leaving out Tubi.tv and Fox because I have been boycotting Fox Corporation and News Corp for many years now, and Tubi is now owned by the Murdoch crime family. Note that 20th/21st Century Fox (and Touchstone), which is now named 20th Century Studios, was bought by Disney a while ago, so this only applies to Fox News, Fox Entertainment, News Corporation, and other such things, not 20th/21st Century Studios/Fox. While I'm against large monopolies, I am for the destruction of horrible companies like Fox News and News Corp, so that takes precedent even if it means Disney gets even bigger, because Fox Corporation does significantly more harm than Disney has ever done (even though that Ancient Aliens crap is still airing on History Channel, which still pisses me off after years and years of hearing about this idiotic show from family members that actually believe it).
To the Murdochs, you won't see this, but just in case you do: You can sue me like you did with Crikey all you want, I don't give a crap. I'll call you what you are, pieces of crap who should not be owning any companies, let alone news companies. Your crime family can go to hell for all I care.