ALL ENCOMPASSING STAR WARS THREAD

[Zimbra]

I think "nerds are shitty and toxic" is a sufficient answer without trying to bring foreign plots into it.

[Beech27]

Today's ink blot test:

But! It's down relative to TFA.

But! Physical media sells less well in general now, and TFA had more special editions and novelty in its favor.

[Dolfan in NYC]

3 hours ago, Matt D said:

I honestly starting to think that some of the TLJ hatred is part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

"Never ascribe to malice, that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor

[Craig H]

10 minutes ago, Beech27 said:

Today's ink blot test:

But! It's down relative to TFA.

But! Physical media sells less well in general now, and TFA had more special editions and novelty in its favor.

This is exactly why I hope Disney doesn't make any knee jerk reactions to a small, really, really small and vocal minority and they don't fuck up Episode 9.

Then again, they responded to a small, vocal minority who believes in a hollywood pedophile sex slavery ring enough to fire James Gunn.

[John from Cincinnati]

On the other hand, Steve Bannon has for years openly seen toxic, angry nerds as a useful weapon. At this point, if I see too much griping about cultural issues in massive nerd drama, my bullshit detector goes off and I start to wonder about who's fanning those flames. 

Weaponized nerd rage. I feel like I'm living in science fiction. 

[Matt D]

6 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

On the other hand, Steve Bannon has for years openly seen toxic, angry nerds as a useful weapon. At this point, if I see too much griping about cultural issues in massive nerd drama, my bullshit detector goes off and I start to wonder about who's fanning those flames. 

Weaponized nerd rage. I feel like I'm living in science fiction. 

I was half kidding, but only half, because it feels a lot like a lot of the other things we've seen out of the foreign social media troll factories that have been revealed this year.

[Craig H]

19 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

On the other hand, Steve Bannon has for years openly seen toxic, angry nerds as a useful weapon. At this point, if I see too much griping about cultural issues in massive nerd drama, my bullshit detector goes off and I start to wonder about who's fanning those flames. 

Weaponized nerd rage. I feel like I'm living in science fiction. 

No, I think you're right. It's so easy to divide people, so why not divide them over this shit as well. I certainly thought about this being the result of troll factories or 4chan/8chan. It certainly passes the sniff test with how ridiculous it is. To many of us, hell, probably all of us, we can look at this garbage like trying to start a re-make TLJ movement complete with shitty logo and see that this is too ridiculous to believe unless you're a rube so of course a bunch of people would fall for it and let it divide them. That's been the M.O. for troll factories and 4chan/8chan for awhile now.

It's fucking weird that we live in the greatest age of information where nearly all information, accurate information is available from the palm of your hand and yet so many fall for the trap.

[AxB]

Last Jedi DVD release date: 23 Mar 2018

Thor Ragnarok DVD release date: 6 Mar 2018

Black Panther DVD release date: 15 May 2018

So basically, it's outsold Thor, whilst having had an extra eight weeks on release to outsell Black Panther. Shouldn't you really wait until the end of the year to tell us that actually Infinity War sold more than any of them? And that nobody paid for a copy of Solo: A Star Wars story, thus undercutting any Lucasfilm triumphalism?

[Beech27]

Sure. That's basically why I called the post an ink blot test; or maybe it's Schrodinger's movie franchise, both alive and dead, because Rian denied us access to JJ's mystery boxes.

Fwiw, TLJ and Black Panther have already swamped Age of Ultron's physical media sales, so I don't think it's a given that Infinity War will outsell either of them. And hell, though Solo doubtlessly underperformed, it still outgrossed its reported budget by 100 million already.

All of which is to say... I don't know, exactly. Talking about corporate profits is a bit depressing, ultimately, but it's all profitable thus far. 

So, here's a thing: I've read the two Thrawn novels, and--though the names are different--it really does look like the EU is setting up another warlike alien race from *waves hands* way over there that might get around to trying to conquer the galaxy when its narratively convenient. This was probably inevitable, insofar as threats must escalate in franchises--so you go from a force that wants to control the galaxy to one that basically just wants to kill everyone in it--but I'm not terribly interested in it. I think Star Wars would benefit from more intimate stakes, for the near future, but that was probably never gonna happen.

 

[Raziel]

Well I mean, Ezra and Thrawn went... somewhere, at the end of Rebels, with Asoka and Sabine looking for Ezra at least, so that's something set up way down the line for next trilogy perhaps, or whatever the next TV/cartoon ends up being.

[Beech27]

3 hours ago, Raziel said:

Well I mean, Ezra and Thrawn went... somewhere, at the end of Rebels, with Asoka and Sabine looking for Ezra at least, so that's something set up way down the line for next trilogy perhaps, or whatever the next TV/cartoon ends up being.

Yeah. I just mean we have a name and encounters now. It's pretty explicit. (My initial post didn't really convey that...)

[Eivion]

I've only read the mini-series comic based on the first Thrawn novel, but I suspect whatever Thrawn is setting up will just be for the books.

On 9/12/2018 at 8:52 AM, Beech27 said:

So, here's a thing: I've read the two Thrawn novels, and--though the names are different--it really does look like the EU is setting up another warlike alien race from *waves hands* way over there that might get around to trying to conquer the galaxy when its narratively convenient. This was probably inevitable, insofar as threats must escalate in franchises--so you go from a force that wants to control the galaxy to one that basically just wants to kill everyone in it--but I'm not terribly interested in it. I think Star Wars would benefit from more intimate stakes, for the near future, but that was probably never gonna happen.

What is this warlike race that is in the waiting? I assume its not the Chiss you're thinking of.

[Beech27]

13 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I've only read the mini-series comic based on the first Thrawn novel, but I suspect whatever Thrawn is setting up will just be for the books.

What is this warlike race that is in the waiting? I assume its not the Chiss you're thinking of.

Spoiler

Nope. It’s the Grysks, very similar to the Yuuzhan Vong, only without biotech.

 

[TheVileOne]

On 9/6/2018 at 7:38 AM, Craig H said:

No, I think you're right. It's so easy to divide people, so why not divide them over this shit as well. I certainly thought about this being the result of troll factories or 4chan/8chan. It certainly passes the sniff test with how ridiculous it is. To many of us, hell, probably all of us, we can look at this garbage like trying to start a re-make TLJ movement complete with shitty logo and see that this is too ridiculous to believe unless you're a rube so of course a bunch of people would fall for it and let it divide them. That's been the M.O. for troll factories and 4chan/8chan for awhile now.

It's fucking weird that we live in the greatest age of information where nearly all information, accurate information is available from the palm of your hand and yet so many fall for the trap.

Dumb, unreasonable outrage mobs aren't isolated to nerdy geeks or the 4chan crowd. So I can't agree with any of this.

[Eivion]

11 hours ago, Beech27 said:

  Hide contents

Nope. It’s the Grysks, very similar to the Yuuzhan Vong, only without biotech.

 

Spoiler

Kind of surprising they didn't just using the Yuuzhan Vong. Don't know too much about them, but it seems a bit wasteful to use an entirely new race instead of just altering the Vong a bit.

 

[John from Cincinnati]

On 9/13/2018 at 4:09 PM, TheVileOne said:

Dumb, unreasonable outrage mobs aren't isolated to nerdy geeks or the 4chan crowd. So I can't agree with any of this.

Dumb, unreasonable outrage mobs are as old as recorded history. The ability to mobilize one from a distance in a highly targeted, calculated manner is at an all-time high. 

You’re free to gleen from that what you will. Not enjoying the movie isn’t a crime. Though the strength of the movement and specificity of the criticism does warrant some thought. 

[MonteCarl]

Man, fuck the haters. Solo is a damn good movie

[TheVileOne]

3 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

Dumb, unreasonable outrage mobs are as old as recorded history. The ability to mobilize one from a distance in a highly targeted, calculated manner is at an all-time high. 

You’re free to gleen from that what you will. Not enjoying the movie isn’t a crime. Though the strength of the movement and specificity of the criticism does warrant some thought. 

I mean if you're suggesting to take away social media rights...I'm on board with that. Anything to get rid of Facebook and Twitter. And Instagram and Snap Chat.

[Travis Sheldon]

On 9/14/2018 at 10:50 PM, TheVileOne said:

I mean if you're suggesting to take away social media rights...I'm on board with that. Anything to get rid of Facebook and Twitter. And Instagram and Snap Chat.

Or you could just delete and never use them.

[Bustronaut]

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Insta all have redeeming values, Reddit does not.  Reddit is also the only one of those things that intrudes on discussions outside of their own platform.

[AxB]

24 minutes ago, Travis Sheldon said:

Or you could just delete and never use them.

Or you could have never been on them in the first place, like the really smart people weren't.

Alternatively, delete your account and then insist you never had one. Then reinstate it as a Dixie Carter creeper account when you think nobody's watching

[Craig H]

7 minutes ago, AxB said:

Or you could have never been on them in the first place, like the really smart people weren't.

Alternatively, delete your account and then insist you never had one. Then reinstate it as a Dixie Carter creeper account when you think nobody's watching

And make sure you name yourself the nickname you constantly used when referring to the Bulls former HC.

[RIPPA]

To the surprise of no one - Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that an annual Star Wars movie is over.

Quote

“I made the timing decision, and as I look back, I think the mistake that I made — I take the blame — was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not gonna make films. We are just at the point where we’re gonna start making decisions about what comes next after [Episode IX]. But I think we’re gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing. And the buck stops here on that.”

 

[Bustronaut]

Perhaps with a longer lead time they can get away from unused McQuarrie/others pre-production sketches as design ideas for the new movies.  It was a cost/time saving measure on the first Abrams movie, but they've continued it going forward and it shows they're basically trying to squeeze as much money out of it as possible.

[Victator]

Hopefully this does not kill the Boba Fett movie. But its the right decision to slow down.