The Nerf-Herders' Rest...(Or...It's A Trap!!...), A Star Wars discussion thread... Options

[McBadgere]

Here's the place to discuss anything to do with the Star Wars phenomenon...Whether it's the films, tv, books or even the soundtrack record... ...


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As all Star Wars discussions always end up as a heated debate...I thought a couple of rules may be in order...Well, I say rules, I mean polite guidelines really...

1. No Blasters!!...

2. No Droids!! (Bots )...

3. The person posting above or below you has as much right to their opinion - and their own love of whichever part of Star Wars - as you do...Be respectful of that...

4. Pointless slagging off is discouraged...If you don't like something, fine, that's to be expected...But please try to qualify your not liking with a half-decent reason...Answers like "Because he/she/they suck/It sucks" or that something is completely pointless because it is...Are not really decent reasons...

5. Remember that joy you had the first time you watched some Star Wars thing?...Just remember that there's a generational thing going on here...I remember when the original one came out and loved it...My kids love the newer trilogy...Others love the Clone Wars cartoons...There will be people joining at some point that will have fallen in love the new J.J. Abrams ones, them being the first ones they see...

It's all about being respectful is all... ...

Ta...



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As you were...I think we were debating the changing of the EU by Disney... ...

[SubRosa]

I can see where some people would consider it Western Animation (though aren't most Western Animation shows like the Simpsons actually made in Korea?). It is made for an American audience, the original spoken language is English rather than Japanese, and the characters do not have the big huge eyes and small mouths so common in anime.

I still think of it as anime because it is animated, and is chock full of ridiculously over the top anime-style action: gravity defying leaps, super speed, and the like. Plus of course the show is at least partly made in Asia. It is cgi-driven rather than hand-drawn, but a lot of anime these days is either partly or fully cgi as well, so I do not think that means much either way.

On the topic of the tone of the original 3 movies vs. the following stuff from the European Union, I can see McB's point. The original saga has a very simple story of good vs. evil, with very black and white morality, and of course the good guys win without having to compromise their beliefs along the way (though Yoda tries to get Luke to do that in the second movie of course, but it does not work and he goes into the trap anyway).

I think that simplicity is a big reason for the first movie's success. It came out a few years after Vietnam, and that moral simplicity was a welcome change after years of gut-wrenching ambiguity in RL. I am sure the EU writers are trying to interject more realism into the setting by creating moral ambiguity. After all Real Life is not so cut and dried as things are in the original Star Wars film. Is that better or worse? I suppose it is a matter of opinion. It depends on what you are looking for in Star Wars.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 16 2014, 10:18 PM

[McBadgere]

On the topic of the tone of the original 3 movies vs. the following stuff from the European Union, I can see McB's point. The original saga has a very simple story of good vs. evil, with very black and white morality, and of course the good guys win without having to compromise their beliefs along the way (though Yoda tries to get Luke to do that in the second movie of course, but it does not work and he goes into the trap anyway).

I think that simplicity is a big reason for the first movie's success. It came out a few years after Vietnam, and that moral simplicity was a welcome change after years of gut-wrenching ambiguity in RL. I am sure the EU writers are trying to interject more realism into the setting by creating moral ambiguity. After all Real Life is not so cut and dried as things are in the original Star Wars film. Is that better or worse? I suppose it is a matter of opinion. It depends on what you are looking for in Star Wars.

Good point...That is one thing I absolutely loved about the Bantam series of novels...These were the ones that I bought without even looking at the back cover sometimes... ...I knew that I was going to get a damned good action packed excellent story (in the majority of cases) in which the Heroes™ win and all is well...If a secondary character bought it, well...That is to be expected...But the Heroes™ will emerge unscathed to fight another day...

The X-Wing novels were the exception to this...Where the majority of characters - Wedge Antillies aside - could just be bumped off with no warning...And that was also fine...It was a shame in some cases...But they were fighter pilots, it happened...

But for the main sequence of novels it was Han. Luke, Leia, the kids, Chewie, Lando etc...And we could be happy in the knowledge that they may get their arses handed to them at some point, but we knew all would be well in the end...

Unfortunately...For some reason, it was decided that a little more gritty reality had to be injected into our escapist fantasies...And right from the very first novel I bought of the New Jedi Order storyline, I knew I was in trouble with SW...I had very little interest in the series at all...And it wasn't until the later novels that I actually got any real enjoyment...Sure, it had Aaron Allston's excellent pair that is 100% responsible for my obsession with -Boy names now...Michael Stackpole's were good and it was the books that introduced me to Greg Keyes...But, like I said on the Everything Thread...There was just far too much darkness in the storyline for me...

In the end even Lucasbooks had to admit they had gone too far with it...

I've never gotten back to the previous level of excitement about any of the later novels...As I always figured there'd be something else to bite me just around the corner...

Aaaand I got it with Jacen Solo...Megalomania?...Yup...Force manipulation of your cousin's (Ben Skywalker, Luke's son) brain?...Oh yeah...Killing Mara Jade, Ben's mother and Luke's wife, because she's figured you out?...Oh yeah...That was soooo great, right there...

And then one novelists complete disrespect of what another's been building to throughout the series?...Including two books you've already done, Denning?... ...

*Sigh*...

There is a place for Black & White in these novels...I am NOT opposed to shades of grey, despite what people think...I know I'm all for the good and all that...But I just think that when something is as obviously straightforward as Star Wars is on screen, in terms of Good™ Vs Evil™, then pushing it into adult pseudo-reality fiction is just too much...

It's a shame, I really did love them for a good while...

So now I obsessively buy novels about Space Marines shooting the crap out of each other and Daemons... ...Much more straightforward... ...You know what you're going to get, and they don't disappoint...



EDITIO!!!...

I couldn't even play Force Unleashed, it would just crash right after starting. From what I read pretty much everywhere, this was a common problem and you belong to some 1% club if you ever get to run even once. Oh well, I got it for like 7 bucks, so...

That's just weird...I never had any problem at all with it loading...Was the problem only the PC versions?...I'm PS3 is all...McBoy played it fairly recently - on the newer one we had to buy after the original one (the one I played it on) got the yellow ring of death - and did excellently himself...I'm pretty sure he was most of the way through before he got distracted...Which means it must have been half decent...He has a habit of jumping games... ...

This post has been edited by McBadgere: May 17 2014, 04:55 AM