Star Wars Megathread

[celedhring]

No, I think Boba Fett was pretty well slagged from all angles. There's very little redeeming about the series at all.

Yeah, I kept hoping it would get better but it's just bad. I suppose the two backdoor Mando S3 episodes are ok (although I didn't like the Luke scenes at all).

[Habbaku]

The Mandalorian season 2.5 first episode (with the building of his new ship and the fight scene in the butcher's) is the best part of the season. 

It's like the showrunner of Boba realized that they had a trashfire on their hands.

[garbon]

I think the prequels have been elevated a fair bit by having their stories expanded by the Clone Wars show.

I suspect that's the case - and I haven't watched to Clone Wars show, so it hasn't affected my impression.

IMO, the prequels were grating pretty much every minute due to bad direction (I don't believe it was bad acting, because many of those actors are known to be excellent). That makes them pretty much unwatchable for me. Maybe from an overall "advancing the plot of the franchise" point of view they were "better", but I'm unable to get through to that.

Conversely the sequels were competently executed (which makes them massively more enjoyable than the prequels for me), and I thought the Kylo Ren - Rey connection thing was interesting. Palpatine coming back and mostly negating Anakin's sacrifice didn't bother me, but fair play if you found it awful.x

I mean, all six films had their fair share of dumb-ass Star Wars elements, but for me quality of direction (and thus quality of acting) makes all the difference.

I watched the clone wars and I thought it made the prequels look just as bad.

[Sophie Scholl]

The prequels seems to have a much better focus and a consistent story in mind from start to finish. Alas, they also had Lucas' direction, script, and obsession with the latest tech. Those parts were bad at the time and have only gotten worse with age looking back. The sequel trilogy had great acting, some fantastic moments in the scripts, yet were disjointed, lacked a cohesive narrative throughout, and also suffered from some dreadful "Somehow, Palpatine has returned" choices in their stories. Neither will ever hold a candle to the original trilogy and both are deeply flawed, but I'm not sure either is unwatchably bad. They just aren't good. They do make for some mindless enjoyment on occasion though. I'd say the sequel trilogy is still above the prequel trilogy for me ultimately.

[Syt]

Poor B2.

[Habbaku]

After the most recent ep., I'm like 50/50 on Luthen being former Jedi, or at least one who's sealed himself off to the Force. I think we saw his lightsaber and didn't realize it. I also think a couple of characters (at least Cinta) have been cryptically suggestive in their language about knowing he is/was one.

Should be a very wild finale, either way. 54 minutes!

[celedhring]

After the most recent ep., I'm like 50/50 on Luthen being former Jedi, or at least one who's sealed himself off to the Force. I think we saw his lightsaber and didn't realize it. I also think a couple of characters (at least Cinta) have been cryptically suggestive in their language about knowing he is/was one.

Should be a very wild finale, either way. 54 minutes!

Yeah, I started suspecting he had at least a connection to the Jedi the moment he gave that Kyber crystal to Cassian.

[Syt]

What are the bets on Vel offering to marry into the shady money guy's family? 

[celedhring]

What are the bets on Vel offering to marry into the shady money guy's family? 

I love that we are having an Old Money vs New Money story arc in Star Wars 

[Solmyr]

After the most recent ep., I'm like 50/50 on Luthen being former Jedi, or at least one who's sealed himself off to the Force. I think we saw his lightsaber and didn't realize it. I also think a couple of characters (at least Cinta) have been cryptically suggestive in their language about knowing he is/was one.

Didn't realize it? I thought it was pretty obviously a lightsaber the way he commented on it.

[celedhring]

I also think this show is far more successful than The Last Jedi (which remains my least disliked post-1983 saga film despite its multiple flaws) in questioning the traditional Star Wars epic narratives. I.e., I "loved" the attention they are paying to Bix succumbing to torture and giving up Cassian, and how emotionally scarred she is about that experience - as opposed to Leia shrugging off Vader's torture in Ep4 (which they directly call back to), and how nearly every single character fails at remaining "pure" during the struggle.

[Syt]

I'm not sure a former Jedi could run an upscale antiques shop that caters to the rich and famous in the middle of Coruscant unmolested.

What I could see, though, is that Luthen was closely connected to the Jedi and perhaps (naively?) aided in or profited from their downfall, which is why he has a whole bunch of artifacts (Jedi Temple Guard mask, holocrons, ... ), and now trying to atone for his mistake.

[celedhring]

I'm not sure a former Jedi could run an upscale antiques shop that caters to the rich and famous in the middle of Coruscant unmolested.

What I could see, though, is that Luthen was closely connected to the Jedi and perhaps (naively?) aided in or profited from their downfall, which is why he has a whole bunch of artifacts (Jedi Temple Guard mask, holocrons, ... ), and now trying to atone for his mistake.

This was my personal theory, that the kyber crystal belonged to a Jedi he was attached to, and that some artifacts he has can be traced to them. But I admit that last episode they highlighted his "staff" so much that it makes me doubt.

Also I loved the "release kinetic projectiles that are naturally drawn to tractor beam emitters" tactic he used in last episode. And I swear I had seen that in some old EU book or comic. Does it ring a bell to you, Syt?

[Syt]

I never stayed up to date with the old EU so can't tell Most commenters I saw called it "something new" and I think Star Wars Explained would have recalled something like this, but it's of course possible.

Agreed on the lightsaber - but it could also be a keepsake, not his own.

[Habbaku]

After the most recent ep., I'm like 50/50 on Luthen being former Jedi, or at least one who's sealed himself off to the Force. I think we saw his lightsaber and didn't realize it. I also think a couple of characters (at least Cinta) have been cryptically suggestive in their language about knowing he is/was one.

Didn't realize it? I thought it was pretty obviously a lightsaber the way he commented on it.

What I mean is it wasn't heavy-handed. Any other SW show would have had a close-up shot of it, Luthen looking paranoid at it, no one noticing, and then Saw's guards wondering what's inside it for the next 30 seconds before randomly cutting back to them not caring or Luthen having to chop his way through them all just to speak to Saw.