Star Wars: High Republic

[Prime Clone]

The PT showed how to be subtly diverse: strong female characters, a range of races and accents, but it didn't feel forced or in-your-face.

 

[Victοr]

Nobody would mind if it was actual diversity. It's a big galaxy. Why are we not getting more Aliens as MCs? Fine, you want a human-centric story. Why is it always just some vaguely black girl with an afro? I'm not seeing any Asians. Seriously, for a property inspired by Samurai films, I'm not seeing any Samurai-Jedi. I'm not seeing any Latinos. I'm not seeing any MENAs. Nope, just another "YAAAAAS KWEEEEN SLAAAAAAY" teen black girl. But oh wait, this has a sidecut afro! Seriously, does this girl wake up everyday, and before she does her duties as a defender of the galaxy, she straightens her hair to make it look like that?

****, at least give her some dreadlocks. Something that fits with the aesthetic. Are we going to see the Clones with an Undercut at some point? Or are we going to get a Windu prequel with him rocking a huge 70s 'fro? Hell, why don't we have any Windu stories? There's a Legends/EU book IIRC, and that's it. The point is, some things fit in a property, and some things don't.

But again, look throughout the new designs and "diversity" just means a few token aliens, the self-insert white woman, some black teen girls to "get the youth" and a few "cis" (I still don't know what that means) white males. How is that going to reach a wider demographic? If you're going to use the "representation matters" argument, then I'm assuming all the Latino, MENA and Asian kids are going to want a character that looks like them, not just another teen black girl. Are teen black girls such a HUUUUUGE demographic that they need to hog the spotlight?

Marvel has put out a huge bunch of "diverse" characters since 2015. You know who was the only one I liked? Robbie Reyes. I didn't even notice or care that he was a Latino. I see a cool as Hell design with a great artist on board and I put that thing on my pull list. I was a big enough GR fan to go "not muh" because of the car and the lack of Johnny/Danny, but I didn't really stay mad because of the extremely good design. Seriously, look at this guy:

This design is pure comic book cocaine. And he was a proper character. He had flaws and struggles to go alongside a cool design. And what did Marvel do? They dropped Moore off the art so people dropped the book. Then they put him in AoS and stripped him of all the cool stuff about him. Now he's running around the Avengers, involved in Aaron's nonsense, and being a butt-monkey. When he should've had a videogame and an anime already.

Bottom line is, they don't care about diversity. They care about checkboxes. Diversity is a lesbian, a trans and a black teen girl. Sometimes it's a combination for maximum woke points. It's not even about money. Latinos are a bigger demographic in the US. And overseas there are so many different people that to just sell them a black girl over a white one makes little sense. If they cared, they'd have had actual diversity. But they don't.

I remember a time when Prince Of Persia and Lara Croft were gaming icons, but apparently everything was just "bland" back then. Thank God the brave corporate yaaass queens have come to offer the entire world the diversity of the strnk teen grrrrl...

I'll say one good thing; I like the robes. And the token white woman Master has a pretty cool design. Like a Jedi Zelda.

 

[Sassafras]

All of that, but most insidious of all is the way corporations co-opt, pervert, and trivialize things that matter (like actual Feminism) into a series of focus-group checkboxes that are something worse than pandering, IMO -- they're lies. Dirty, shallow, cynical lies.

I'm fine with representation. But how about an actual story first?

*Gloomily* IMO that's a cr@p shoot these days. I sort of folded inward when Feige thought it was just great to hire writers who thought it'd be just great to lamely piggyback and b@st@rdize TWS/Nicky Fury (IMO one of the greatest comic based films ever done). That Hollywood likes to hire independent writers because they're cheaper - and they are writers who may or may not have any knowledge or care about their subjects.

Just look at the difference of Mandalorian (in general since I think Filoni needs an editor) and the ST scripts. A clear difference between caring about what you are doing, and just doing a job.

So, yeah, IMO High Republic COULD in theory be great, even with a forced cast diversity lineup. IF you have truly talented directors, and writers on hand. Like Black Panther IMO had some real problems with logic as a narrative goes, but a talented, committed, charismatic cast and director sold it.

Based on the YT footage of the writers, and the already Mary Sue descriptions, I see no hope here. &^%$ why don't they just do a live action Rebels?

And just sayin' - since I appreciate costumes, sets, etc. - stop with the shaved head BS unless you are gonna whip out your knife or disposable Bic and dry shave. SW got it right IMO - wrinkled clothes, simple hair styles, plain robes for the Jedi, lots of dust. Mando out in the desert healing his own arm and covered in dry muck.

No-one going on a mission is gonna be bogged down with a spa kit.

 

[Victοr]

To be fair, The High Republic is supposed to be the Jedi at their height, so that explains all the "decked out" outfits and robes. Rumor has it there's a love triangle too, between blondie, Jedi Jesus and the other white guy. I suppose there's an emphasis on over individualism with every Jedi being a sort of Knight with their own hilts and saber and customized clothes, which will blow up in their faces and explain why they're so disengaged from the material world in the PT. Which is fine and all, but instead of Luke learning from their mistakes like in the EU, he just gives up and becomes a hermit. And you know what? Fine, I could live with that if TLJ was the KotOR II of the ST and basically said "**** the Sith edgelords and **** the robotic Jedi too" and found a middle way or something, with Kylo becoming a Darth Krayt like guy, and Rey and Luke rebuilding an Order akin to Luke's EU one. But nope, they had to **** that one up too. They had chance after chance to get fix things, but they just kept digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole... Would you look at that, I'm starting to defend TLJ over TRoS. Christ...

 

[Sassafras]

To be fair, The High Republic is supposed to be the Jedi at their height, so that explains all the "decked out" outfits and robes. Rumor has it there's a love triangle too, between blondie, Jedi Jesus and the other white guy. I suppose there's an emphasis on over individualism with every Jedi being a sort of Knight with their own hilts and saber and customized clothes, which will blow up in their faces and explain why they're so disengaged from the material world in the PT. Which is fine and all, but instead of Luke learning from their mistakes like in the EU, he just gives up and becomes a hermit. And you know what? Fine, I could live with that if TLJ was the KotOR II of the ST and basically said "**** the Sith edgelords and **** the robotic Jedi too" and found a middle way or something, with Kylo becoming a Darth Krayt like guy, and Rey and Luke rebuilding an Order akin to Luke's EU one. But nope, they had to **** that one up too. They had chance after chance to get fix things, but they just kept digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole... Would you look at that, I'm starting to defend TLJ over TRoS. Christ...

Well, narratively speaking, in general, I'd say TLJ at least TRIES to have a compelling arc with Luke - always thought, for instance, that it's interesting that Rey brings up the fact that Kylo did, in fact, fail Luke; much like Anakin failed Obi-Wan. Only Luke kept his word to his mentors and the principles of being a Jedi.

Where TROS as far as I can tell just tries to stuff as much STUFF in as it can - dunno, so Disney can sell lava lights later that look like Wayfinders - and while TLJ had stupid stuff in the script, TROS seemed like it had stupid stuff from beginning to end - like the notorious "they fly now" and the death fakeouts. It's like a 12 year old fan fic writer came up with the script.

So HR is gonna stuff as much DIVERSITY into this show as it can. Sort of like, oh, I dunno, the latest Dr. Who....

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/doctor-who-series-12-ratings-low-a4382666.html

Doctor Who has slumped to its lowest ratings since the programme was revived in 2005, according to new viewing figures.

The final episode of the 12th series of the BBC's sci-fi show attracted a TV audience of just 4.6 million.

 

[ZE_501]

[...]Just look at the difference of Mandalorian (in general since I think Filoni needs an editor) and the ST scripts. A clear difference between caring about what you are doing, and just doing a job. [...]

I've said as much several times, but if I'm going to make an honest argument, I have to admit that calling out who "cares" and who does not, is at the end of the day, mere speculation.

There are rabid fans on this board that "care" demonstrably more than I do, and they make deeply questionable calls about Star Wars every day.

I think what can be *observed* vs. speculation is more relevant:

• Star Wars was never written particularly well. Beneath the surface it has no great depth or internal consistency.
• Everything after the OT is an imitation of that first phenomenon to one degree or another, with wildly varying results.
• As an entertainment property, it's generally repetitive due in part to conservative studios and in part to conservative fans.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't? To a degree, yes. But they don't have much of a foundation to build on. I don't mean 'content' -- there's plenty of that. I mean content creators hungry for profit and legions of obsessed fans who don't want it to ever end, have been building on a shaky foundation for years.

I just think (and there are legions of people ready to disagree with me of course) that after the epic scale of the Original Trilogy, there were 2 interesting places to go (and I don't want to open up the tired old can of worms as to what was done well and what was not):

• The Prequel Era
• Smaller stories in settings at a remove from the 'saga' such as it is.

My biggest problem with High Republic anything is that I just don't care. The more complicated Star Wars and the Force become, the less interesting they are.

They jumped the shark with all the Saturday Morning cartoon mysticism years ago anyway.

Mandalorian is very entertaining, but more than half of it isn't particularly good in terms of both acting and writing. It's an expensive cartoon. Had they stuck to the tight confines of a 'long gunslinger'/Lone Wolf and Cub vibe, it could have been more interesting. But that's no longer an option.

I understand these are not popular opinions, but nonetheless, some things are better off having a beginning and an end, without being endlessly interconnected and drawn out in all conceivable directions just for the sake of 'more' -- but this is not the culture we live in, so I'll just ignore the rest and stop writing screeds against it.

 

[Victοr]

Well, narratively speaking, in general, I'd say TLJ at least TRIES to have a compelling arc with Luke - always thought, for instance, that it's interesting that Rey brings up the fact that Kylo did, in fact, fail Luke; much like Anakin failed Obi-Wan. Only Luke kept his word to his mentors and the principles of being a Jedi.

Where TROS as far as I can tell just tries to stuff as much STUFF in as it can - dunno, so Disney can sell lava lights later that look like Wayfinders - and while TLJ had stupid stuff in the script, TROS seemed like it had stupid stuff from beginning to end - like the notorious "they fly now" and the death fakeouts. It's like a 12 year old fan fic writer came up with the script.

So HR is gonna stuff as much DIVERSITY into this show as it can. Sort of like, oh, I dunno, the latest Dr. Who....

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/doctor-who-series-12-ratings-low-a4382666.html

As time goes on I'm coming to appreciate TLJ a tad because it had some kinda "good" ideas and pretty great cinematography. TRoS was just so safe, so bland, so... boring, yet with such an unsatisfying ending to the Saga, that it somehow makes me see it as worse than the film that essentialy created those problems in the first place. Although it could be said that that falls on TFA, so...

I barely made it through Capaldi's last season and in my headcanon the show ended there. He refused to regenerate and that was that. The whole "go woke go broke" thing isn't exclusive to DW, it's everywhere. But hey, if they want to drive their properties into the ground, screw it, let them. Pick and choose what you like and put a stop somewhere. It's all made up anyhow.

 

[JAWS]

Where TROS as far as I can tell just tries to stuff as much STUFF in as it can - dunno, so Disney can sell lava lights later that look like Wayfinders .

TROS has just as much going on as ROTJ.... I mean ROTJ was packed to the gills also

Now dont get me wrong.. TROS jumps around a lot more in the beginning . Much more then any other SW movie. Its very jarring. Still feels jarring and I have seen it a bunch of times. I think it slows down and finds it footing after the first 45 though.

TROS
Find the wayfinder
The Emperor is Back
Find the stupid Dagger
Find the 2nd Wayfinder
Rey is the Emperor Grandaugher
Rescue Chewie
Kylo turns good
Rey confronts the Empeoror
Space Battle

ROTJ
2nd death star
Rescue Han (With the craziest most convoluted rescue plan ever)
Death of Yoda
Reveal of the Emperor
Revel of Lukes Sister
Ewok stuff - I only include this because it takes so damn long
Endor battle
Luke confronts Vader and Emperor
Space battle



Personally I thought both films felt rushed. I also thought parts of ROTS felt rushed.. That seems to be the SW way with the last film of the trilogy.

like the notorious "they fly now" and the death fakeouts.

I will never understand the distain for the "they Fly now' line.. I didnt like it when it was the preview scene they released but in context to the rest of the scene its really not tat big a deal

As for Fake out deaths.. How do people feel about the LOTR movies..

That is the King of the Fake out death scenes.. I think Frodo himself has like 23.

 

[Wor-Gar]

High Republic is the perfect title for a reboot of Cheech and Chong.

 

[Prime Clone]

The #1 of the comic series has 100,000 preorders and another 100,000 shipping to stores. But a lot of that could be the #1 factor.

 

[Sassafras]

I've said as much several times, but if I'm going to make an honest argument, I have to admit that calling out who "cares" and who does not, is at the end of the day, mere speculation.

There are rabid fans on this board that "care" demonstrably more than I do, and they make deeply questionable calls about Star Wars every day.

I think what can be *observed* vs. speculation is more relevant:

• Star Wars was never written particularly well. Beneath the surface it has no great depth or internal consistency.
• Everything after the OT is an imitation of that first phenomenon to one degree or another, with wildly varying results.
• As an entertainment property, it's generally repetitive due in part to conservative studios and in part to conservative fans.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't? To a degree, yes. But they don't have much of a foundation to build on. I don't mean 'content' -- there's plenty of that. I mean content creators hungry for profit and legions of obsessed fans who don't want it to ever end, have been building on a shaky foundation for years.

I just think (and there are legions of people ready to disagree with me of course) that after the epic scale of the Original Trilogy, there were 2 interesting places to go (and I don't want to open up the tired old can of worms as to what was done well and what was not):

• The Prequel Era
• Smaller stories in settings at a remove from the 'saga' such as it is.

My biggest problem with High Republic anything is that I just don't care. The more complicated Star Wars and the Force become, the less interesting they are.

They jumped the shark with all the Saturday Morning cartoon mysticism years ago anyway.

Mandalorian is very entertaining, but more than half of it isn't particularly good in terms of both acting and writing. It's an expensive cartoon. Had they stuck to the tight confines of a 'long gunslinger'/Lone Wolf and Cub vibe, it could have been more interesting. But that's no longer an option.

I understand these are not popular opinions, but nonetheless, some things are better off having a beginning and an end, without being endlessly interconnected and drawn out in all conceivable directions just for the sake of 'more' -- but this is not the culture we live in, so I'll just ignore the rest and stop writing screeds against it.

To be fair, my interest in Mandalorian was mild until the first few minutes in. Srsly I was just waiting for the Marvel shows, which hopefully would make better use of a group of some of my favorite characters than IW/EG.

And sure, SW writing in general at times can be pretty pedestrian "I've got a bad feeling about this" and the "let's ignore the fact that Leia never knew her real mother" *cough*. And I skip over the Mando S2 Ahsoka episode - a lot of that has to do with the script.

So - well, yeah.

But I do think CARING about the property you are writing about matters. Because someone who cares is more likely to immerse themselves BEFORE they get to work writing. Spend a lot of time with either comics/books about the character, read fan boards, get a real feel for what a character would or wouldn't do; and if they change, why would that happen. They also would try to avoid plotlines that had happened before.

Remains to be seen what HR writers/directors are gonna do, tho to me the show already sounds suspiciously YA Mary-Sue-ish.

 

[ZE_501]

[...]But I do think CARING about the property you are writing about matters. Because someone who cares is more likely to immerse themselves BEFORE they get to work writing. Spend a lot of time with either comics/books about the character, read fan boards, get a real feel for what a character would or wouldn't do; and if they change, why would that happen. They also would try to avoid plotlines that had happened before.[...]

I'm all too aware of the fact you can't please everyone, but one example of someone who obviously cares is Filoni.

He gave us Space Whales, Loth Wolves (or whatever they were), the World Between Worlds, and a crap ton of other deeply questionable content.

It matters, as you say, but that doesn't guarantee either vision or execution. Lucas had the vision, he lost the plot (at times literally) on execution.

Vision and execution aren't unique pitfalls, of course, they're the reason most entertainment is forgettable even if it's a fun diversion.

I think Star Wars isn't getting any better for adults, it will likely always be fun for kids, and there's no use wishing they'll rein anything in; their approach seems to be Massively Interconnected with ever more Complications for the sake of the Lore.

There's a huge audience for that, so it's not like they're complete idiots, missteps and artistic mishaps aside.

 

[matticus]

I'm all too aware of the fact you can't please everyone, but one example of someone who obviously cares is Filoni.

He gave us Space Whales, Loth Wolves (or whatever they were), the World Between Worlds, and a crap ton of other deeply questionable content.

It matters, as you say, but that doesn't guarantee either vision or execution. Lucas had the vision, he lost the plot (at times literally) on execution.

Vision and execution aren't unique pitfalls, of course, they're the reason most entertainment is forgettable even if it's a fun diversion.

I think Star Wars isn't getting any better for adults, it will likely always be fun for kids, and there's no use wishing they'll rein anything in; their approach seems to be Massively Interconnected with ever more Complications for the sake of the Lore.

There's a huge audience for that, so it's not like they're complete idiots, missteps and artistic mishaps aside.

Seems like everyone loves Filoni, but I never have. I watched Clone Wars and Rebels, just desperate for new SW material. None of it was really special. First Season of Clone Wars was the best and it went downhill from there. The Clone cash cow went far and still does. Rebels was just as plain and desolate as the Sequel Trilogy. There has been no evolution nor world building. Heroic fantasy sci-fi that peels away at the story, not some spaghetti tossing at the wall.

Just have to accept that the corporate machine is at work and just take what you like, dump the rest. I don't even care for the Mando show, but it brought a smile to my face with Dark Troopers and Luke being the Luke he is supposed to be. Lucas didn't even do a good job since the Special Editions, so who can we trust to take the reins anyway? With Feige doing a Star Wars film, perhaps I can get that post-ROTJ Master Jedi Luke with Sebastian Stan that should happen.

 

[Sassafras]

I'm all too aware of the fact you can't please everyone, but one example of someone who obviously cares is Filoni.

He gave us Space Whales, Loth Wolves (or whatever they were), the World Between Worlds, and a crap ton of other deeply questionable content.

It matters, as you say, but that doesn't guarantee either vision or execution. Lucas had the vision, he lost the plot (at times literally) on execution.

Vision and execution aren't unique pitfalls, of course, they're the reason most entertainment is forgettable even if it's a fun diversion.

I think Star Wars isn't getting any better for adults, it will likely always be fun for kids, and there's no use wishing they'll rein anything in; their approach seems to be Massively Interconnected with ever more Complications for the sake of the Lore.

There's a huge audience for that, so it's not like they're complete idiots, missteps and artistic mishaps aside.

Well, with Mando I'd hoped...but, yeah. Looks like Disney tripled down - guess Disney is rabid to make up for their lost theme park income with licensing deals. OK, I'll concede - both Lucas and Filoni lose their minds, frequently, IMO. Thing is tho, they do so much that fires my imagination that it's like this amazing meal, that just has some stuff on the plate u push aside.

Yeah, if it weren't for those squalling, sticky, small versions of humanity I could have a TRUE depiction of the Galaxy, awash with the greenish-brown fluids of aliens that Mando blasted. None of this family friendly/we need to sell toy licenses cr@p. Make Predator and Alien look rated G in comparison.

Just have to accept that the corporate machine is at work and just take what you like, dump the rest. I don't even care for the Mando show, but it brought a smile to my face with Dark Troopers and Luke being the Luke he is supposed to be. Lucas didn't even do a good job since the Special Editions, so who can we trust to take the reins anyway? With Feige doing a Star Wars film, perhaps I can get that post-ROTJ Master Jedi Luke with Sebastian Stan that should happen.

IMO Stan should have been brought in with Mandalorian...but that's that. Feige's another one who done an awesome job - but - I can't get around the handling of Captain Marvel.

 

[JAWS]

Wait a min...

This is just a bunch of books and comics??

This will not be an animated or Live action show??



Who the **** cares????


This will die a quiet death.


If it doesnt then everyone should be ready for a true KK takeover because it will be what the younger generation apparently wants.


I easily ignored all the EU stuff when that was out there I can easily ignore this.

 

[Khev]

Wait a min...

This is just a bunch of books and comics??

This will not be an animated or Live action show??



Who the **** cares????


This will die a quiet death.


If it doesnt then everyone should be ready for a true KK takeover because it will be what the younger generation apparently wants.


I easily ignored all the EU stuff when that was out there I can easily ignore this.

"The Acolyte" will be a live-action Disney+ show supposedly set "in the final days of the High Republic." I don't know if that means it will feature any of those cake eating body conscious progressive Jedi specifically pictured in the comics and novels though, lol.

 

[loki2371]

Hopefully that acolyte show gets shelved and never see the light of day. Wouldn't make sense to make a show tied to it if this high republic crap fizzles and fades away.

Just like the Rian Johnson trilogy that was guaranteed to be happening. Both Kennedy and Johnson said so!!! And now seems to be words that will never be spoken of again...

 

[TurdFurgusonsHat]

Hopefully that acolyte show gets shelved and never see the light of day. Wouldn't make sense to make a show tied to it if this high republic crap fizzles and fades away.

Just like the Rian Johnson trilogy that was guaranteed to be happening. Both Kennedy and Johnson said so!!! And now seems to be words that will never be spoken of again...

Word is that as of WW1984 Jenkins has Disney's attention and has earned herself some oversight. I'm really only interested in the Favreau/Filoni stuff but now also potentially whatever Feige has going on. And still some hope for Kenobi if Deborah Chow is in charge.

 

[Khev]

Word is that as of WW1984 Jenkins has Disney's attention and has earned herself some oversight.

Good.

But it really has struck me just how okay I'd be if no new SW movies or TV shows came out, ever. Sure there are some things I'm looking forward to but really at this point is there anything that *any* fan needs? Major characters that the PT ruined like Vader and Fett got cool redemption moments (RO and RR's Mando episode), for people who hated ST Luke they got to have their redemption moment in Mando, we got an awesome modern take on OT era war (RO), a fun heist adventure that shockingly didn't ruin Han Solo, an entire new trilogy with the sequels, and two good to great seasons of Mando featuring Ahsoka, Bo Katan, Dark Troopers, a Krayt Dragon and a ton of other cool stuff from past EU or concept art.

Having the last SW live-action content ever ending with the elevator doors closing in front of Luke, R2, and Grogu and then Fett sitting on Jabba's throne with his woman are about as good of a send off as we're likely to ever see. I'd be more than satisfied if they just closed the book on all things SW (yeah right, lol) and focused on tie-in merch from all those eras instead from here on out.

And of course I realize that the SW juggernaut will just keep chugging along for years, possibly decades on end but I guess my point is that even if *everything* sucks from here on out, no big. We *all* have our perfect jumping off point already.

 

[TurdFurgusonsHat]

Good.

But it really has struck me just how okay I'd be if no new SW movies or TV shows came out, ever. Sure there are some things I'm looking forward to but really at this point is there anything that *any* fan needs? Major characters that the PT ruined like Vader and Fett got cool redemption moments (RO and RR's Mando episode), for people who hated ST Luke they got to have their redemption moment in Mando, we got an awesome modern take on OT era war (RO), a fun heist adventure that shockingly didn't ruin Han Solo, an entire new trilogy with the sequels, and two good to great episodes of Mando featuring Ahsoka, Bo Katan, Dark Troopers, a Krayt Dragon and a ton of other cool stuff from past EU or concept art.

Having the last SW live-action content ever ending with the elevator doors closing in front of Luke, R2, and Grogu and then Fett sitting on Jabba's throne with his woman are about as good of a send off as we're likely to ever see. I'd be more than satisfied if they just closed the book on all things SW (yeah right, lol) and focused on tie-in merch from all those eras instead from here on out.

And of course I realize that the SW juggernaut will just keep chugging along for years, possibly decades on end but I guess my point is that even if *everything* sucks from here on out, no big. We *all* have our perfect jumping off point already.

I definitely agree that it could all end and I would be happy now. For me Mandalorian Season Two wraps up the OT almost perfectly. I feel like I have seen what I wanted/needed to see and can just imagine the rest as I did with my Kenner toys. I'll always be grateful to Favreau for this. And I'm desperate for more Hot Toys figures of characters from the first two Mandalorian seasons.

But I'll still tune in on what's to come. Who knows, maybe it will be good. But if not I'll just ignore it. I am definitely curious to see some struggle for Mandalore stuff. I just can't imagine them being able to again achieve the magic of the season two finale.