Star Wars Megathread

[Malthus]

AFAIK Disney has had trouble getting back the online rights for a lot of their stuff (Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars) in many countries, so it has held on launching Disney+ until they can get most of their content back. For example in Spain most of Disney stuff is on Netflix, and the deal expires some time in 2020.

Yeah, I figured there was some contractual reasons for some of the disconnect. But some decisions are just inexplicable.

For example - the Disney show Star vs. The Forces of Evil had different distribution dates on Disney's TV channels in the US and Canada; it showed up months later in Canada. Naturally, every fan in Canada simply pirated the US version, easily obtainable online. Now I don't know the corporate set-up, but is seems odd to have different dates on channels owned by the same corporation as the content provider in two neighbouring nations. Perhaps there is some contractual reason for it. 

[The Minsky Moment]

AFAIK Disney has had trouble getting back the online rights for a lot of their stuff (Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars) in many countries, so it has held on launching Disney+ until they can get most of their content back. For example in Spain most of Disney stuff is on Netflix, and the deal expires some time in 2020.

I believe the Netflix deal was global - on the US site some of the content has a "coming soon" in 2020. 
Differing rights periods can contribute to these differences but staggered international releases are also driven by marketing plans. 
The studios and content holders know it may increase piracy but figure the marketing benefits offset that.

[Barrister]

Couldn't find an appropriate thread, so thought I'd start a new one. Besides we have Episode 9 coming soon.

We had this one: http://languish.org/forums/index.php/topic,13608.0.html

Mods feel free to merge this thread with the other one.

[celedhring]

Ep 2 of The Mandalorian is good too. Also super-short - clocks in at 30 minutes.

Liked that [spoiler]the first third of it is essentially silent, and that he gets his ass kicked more than once. The baby being force sensitive was captain obvious, and I hope there's a better story to him than being some sort of Yoda clone/family[/spoiler].

The pace isn't the quickest - which I'm fine with - but combined with the short episodes and short episode count makes me think there won't be much plot twists and turns in this.

[Syt]

Liked Ep. 2.

[spoiler]I agree that it was nice that the first 10 minutes had no spoken English. I also liked how the ambush was hinted at by shadows in the corner of the screen, or reflections moving on his helmet. Really nicely done.

Fucking Jawas, man. But: disintegrations I guess that's why there's specifications that proof of the kill is required on bounties.

The climb up the sandcrawler gave me painful flashbacks to Super Star Wars on SNES. (Though the mountain scrape seemed inspired by Indiana Joned and the Last Crusade.) And I also like that Mando isn't an all powerful killing machine but gets taken down a notch. After the triumphant badassery of last episode it puts things back into perspective. IIRC it was hinted in the Mandalorian Enclave that he's not super experienced just yet? And the warrior with the baby invites comparisons to Lone Wolf and Cub.[/spoiler]

Due to the short length of the episodes it feels like there's no padding or "fat" yet, and it moves pretty fast. Actually, since the first episode was directed by Dave Filoni I keep thinking this feels like a live action version of the animated series (in a good way), going back to the old matinee serials of the 30s and 40s style. Clone Wars was the most obvious about it, with the excited opening narration (which also mimicked the crawl text from the movies) and then dropping the audience in the middle of things.

[Syt]

It kinda makes me want to install SWTOR and play the Bounty Hunter story.

[FunkMonk]

I am pretty jaded by anything Star Wars. The new movies suck ass and the video games haven't been good for like 15 years.

After watching the first two episodes of The Mandalorian, I'm all in again. 

[viper37]

I am pretty jaded by anything Star Wars. The new movies suck ass and the video games haven't been good for like 15 years.

After watching the first two episodes of The Mandalorian, I'm all in again. 

Fallen Order looks promising

[Syt]

Episode 3, then.

The first episode that I would rate as "good" instead of "great", possibly because the arc was fairly predictable (except the finale to some extent).

That said, [spoiler]the joint Mandalorian attack rescuing The Mandalorian made me squee. We saw this kind of stuff in Clone Wars and Rebels, but this is the first time in a live action show. Much appreciated.

So, it's kind of clear that The Client is after the baby's genetic material. Someone pointed out that the Doctor has a Kaminoan symbol on his sleeve, so that would support that. So are they trying to clone Force users? Or isolate the genes that make one more receptive to the Force/Midichlorians? Maybe they try to extract midichlorians?[/spoiler]

Couple questions regarding canon continuity. It's stated that Mandalorians never remove their helmets (I don't think this is a spoiler). But in Clone Wars and Rebels we saw them constantly without helmets - including the traditionalists, like the Nightwatch. Then again, Mandalorians have been known to be rather splintered, so this group might just have a different code. Or maybe they're just cosplayers who keep their helmets on so people don't realize they're actually a bunch of Gungans.

Also, in terms of canon continuity, what is [spoiler]"The Great Purge"? We of course know Order 66, but that dealt with the Jedi. Mandalorians were still around in the Imperial Era, as seen in Rebels, and were officially allied with the Empire under Clan Saxon, providing them with special forces (until Bo-Katan Kryze took over, but we don't know much about what happened afterwards, i.e. during Episodes IV-VI of the movies, I think. They also had their beskar armor at the time, and there was a weapon specifically built to exploit that fact. I guess the Purge could refer to the anti-Imperial clans of Mandalore, but even of those there were still significant enough numbers to take over Mandalore during Rebels.

Of course it could be that there actually was a major purge at the time the Empire rose, and that some houses rebuilt (like Wren, Saxon, Viszla, etc.) to what they were a few years ago while others, like the one in the show, went completely old school, kind of like a more fundamentalist Nightwatch.[/spoiler]

Considering how carefully the new canon is generally constructed and makes sure that all puzzle pieces from novels, comics, games, shows and movies fit together, I'm curious how this will be resolved.

[Syt]

Thinking more about it, [spoiler]The Purge might have been part of the Contingency: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Contingency

It could also tie in with Episode IX coming out in December which (together with some materials like novels etc.) has hinted at a plan set up by Palpatine in some form (hidden fleet etc.).[/spoiler]

[celedhring]

Yeah, this is the first episode that was merely "good", as in, it was well done but very by-the-book. Liked the bits of Mandalorian lore though, probably my favorite part of the episode (and I'm not a lore fiend like Syt  ).

[celedhring]

Incidentally, I love how many Spanish media are running reviews of this despite the fact there's no way they have watched it legally 

[Sheilbh]

I haven't seen it yet, but think it's already worth however much money they spent for this interview with Werner Herzog:

More Star Wars with Werner Herzog please:

The faith in their little green God was not strong enough.

That was the judgment of Werner Herzog, the imperious German filmmaker turned galactic space villain turned Baby Yoda fan club president, when he saw The Mandalorian creator and showrunner Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni removing the miniature creature from set during one of his scenes with the being.

They were preparing to shoot a blank slate of the sequence as a backup in case they decided during postproduction that the puppet wasn't convincing enough and a digital version had to be substituted.

Herzog, known for films about pushing the limits of human ability and endurance, could not hide his contempt.

"You are cowards," he declared. "Leave it."

[FunkMonk]

The man speaks what my heart feels.

[Syt]

With the latest Rise of Skywalker trailer I'm expecting Anakin to make an appearance in the movie.

Reasoning:
- They keep talking of "Skywalker", but never specify which one.
- Hayden Christensen and Ian McDiarmid made the rounds this year, attending various conventions, charities etc. together, and we know Palpatine will be part of the movie, somehow.

I also kind of expect The Mandalorian to tie into the movie somehow. Its final episodes air around the time of the movie's launch (18th and 25th December).

Also, [spoiler]Kid Green[/spoiler] is said to be [spoiler]about 50 years old. I looked up when the series takes place: 9 years after the Battle of Yavin according to Wookieepedia. So I checked what happened 50 years earlier ... Anakin Skywalker was born ... dun dun dun! Of course there's long been theories that Palpatine "created" Anakin, and I think one of the comics had a vision (not flashback) to that effect[/spoiler], but you know. All speculation.

It all might not have anything to do with each other, though.