The Mandalorian

[Threash]

I was pretty happy they brought back Boba Fett and cleaned up some loose ends with his backstory.

Cept how Jango's completely different armor turned into Boba's...

[Hammond]

I was pretty happy they brought back Boba Fett and cleaned up some loose ends with his backstory.

Cept how Jango's completely different armor turned into Boba's...

It cleaned up some of the loose ends not all of them. There are so many inconsistency's and obvious plot holes / mistakes in the movies that is impractical to fix everything.

[Threash]

So we got Mando, Boba, Fennec, Cara and they are going to get Mayfeld, that's five. Who's going to round out the seven?

[Khaldun]

Yeah, like, the homages here are sometimes just this side of a bit too rip-offy, maybe.

It's gotta be someone we've seen on the show or an Easter Egg person. That group is sort of missing the young gun but the only real young gun we've seen so far on the show died and he was an asshole anyway.

If they're coming at Moff Gideon, I think Bo Katan has to come back in the mix--she wants that Darksaber.

That's six.

So...what might be fun is if they set off with six and the seventh character is the Force user summoned for the Child who joins them by surprise after they've set off. No guarantee it has to be a Jedi...If they're rescuing good characters from the wreckage of the old EU, maybe it's time for a version of Mara Jade to show up. Or they could undo Asajj Ventress' death, since it happened in a comic.

[Threash]

I was thinking Olyphant's character, or Ahsoka. Would be kinda weird for Bo Katan to come alone instead of with a crew.

[eldaec]

Could just as likely be that he made no contact.  Or a dark side contact.  I am not brushed up enough on CW and Rebels stuff to even know who all is out there, but it seems likely it would be from either of those.

Asajj would still be out there, for example.  I think.

I like the idea of a dark side person answering.

If nothing else it get us over the problem of how you keep Baby Yoda in the show.

[Khaldun]

Yeah--like, if a patently unsuitable person shows up, Mando is not going to just hand the Child over.

[Abagadro]

Isn't good ol' Sheev still around?  SW9 was so stupid it literally shut my brain down so I'm not sure of the timelines on when he was allegedly resurrected or cloned or whatever.

[Khaldun]

Well, we don't know, because of aforementioned stupidity. Like, we don't even know if it is: "when I die, activate a clone, and I upload my current thoughts to it each day", "when I die, activate a clone, and it might not have any of my recent experiences or memories", "when I die, because of the teachings of Darth Plagueis the Wise, I turn into an evil Force Ghost and I can send my spirit to my clone tanks on the Evil Sith Planet only I'm kind stuck there for good because my clones are made of crumbly evil cheese unless I can find a Jedi healer good thing I planned that yeah?", "actually I just possessed Nub-Nub on board the Millennium Falcon and while you were all communing with Ewoks I stole a ship and went to Sithworld". Or whatever.

But considering that Sheev's survival seemed like a total surprise to pretty much everybody, seems like they really can't have him show up even in Voldemort back-of-the-head-under-a-turban fashion.

I suppose if they don't want a Jedi at all in the Magnificent Seven, Chewbacca might be a viable Easter Egg character to show up, he'd kind of fit the ethos.

[Hawkbit]

They can do whatever, but the rough lore around Sheev post-RotJ is that his consciousness travelled to his clones on the Sith planet but the clones were not ready for the "power" Sheev contained. Which is why at the end of SW9 he looked more like an undead creature - his clone was all jacked up. Per the wiki, anyways.

[Velorath]

That Jedi: Fallen Order game is canon so they could have one of the Jedi from there show up. I'm mostly kidding, but only because those characters weren't created by Filoni so I doubt he'd bother bringing them in.

[Riggswolfe]

That Jedi: Fallen Order game is canon so they could have one of the Jedi from there show up. I'm mostly kidding, but only because those characters weren't created by Filoni so I doubt he'd bother bringing them in.

Yeah he never bothers bringing in characters he didn't create. For sure, he'd never bring in a character like Thrawn that was created by a sci-fi author.

[eldaec]

That would be as ridiculous as giving Maul a prominent role in Clone Wars and Rebels.

[Threash]

If someone shows up (and someone should, it would be dumb if all that happened for nothing) then it has to be someone who can die on the rescue or someone evil so Mando can go "yeah no, I'm keeping him". Finding a proper Jedi would basically end the show.

[Khaldun]

I do think they're working up to a third season where Mando rejects the creed--his confusion over Bo-Katan's group and the revelation that he's basically an orphan raised by a religious cult is a slow-burn thing that has to eventually blow up. Plus it has to feel even for the showrunners that they're leaving money on the table with a popular, charismatic lead actor who never gets seen. So maybe that also will be part of whomever shows up to round out the Magnificent Seven.

[Velorath]

Given that Ewan was on set and in costume at one point doing screen test stuff for the Obi-Wan series, I would think his Force ghost could possibly show up here, but then I have no idea why that would require travel time.

[Velorath]

That would be as ridiculous as giving Maul a prominent role in Clone Wars and Rebels.

I mean yeah, that was pretty ridiculous.

[Abagadro]

Heh, Disney just announced like 10 new Star Wars projects including 2 spin offs TV series from this timeline: Ashoka and Rangers of the Republic.

[Teleku]

To be fair, this IS a potentially very interesting period to focus on.  After several decades straight of galactic war, you have peace but a weak central government and high anarchy.  It's basically post Civil War American West in every way.  Which I guess means this is Star Wars doing Firefly, but that's not a bad thing.  At least, it's a way better take to focus on than anything else they've done for years now.  They can do a lot with this period and all the various factions/characters that can be involved with this time, than trying to do anything near the latest trilogy....

Latest episode was good!  The whole helmet thing was a bit contrived and I wish the writers had put more effort into making the situation happen in a more natural manner, but whatever.

I was literally laughing hysterically when the 'sound bomb' cameo happened.   

[Hawkbit]

Apparently Hayden Christensen is attached to the Kenobi show and is expected to be Vader of some sort.

[Threash]

Another great episode. It was a nice touch humanizing the stormtroopers, and then slaughtering them any way. Also loved seeing the Rogue One shore troopers and tank drivers.

[Khaldun]

I would bet fair odds that not all those shows get made, but still. I'm kind of surprised Kathleen Kennedy is still apparently in charge, also.

I don't know how they're gonna put Kenobi and Vader in the same thing but it might explain why Obi-Wan is completely certain that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker when they meet on the Death Star and describes Vader as the person who murdered Anakin and the Jedi when he's talking to Luke in ANH (whereas Ashoka isn't certain in Rebels, at least at first). But on the other hand, Vader talks on meeting Kenobi as if it's the first time he's seen him since Mustafar, so...

[MediumHigh]

I would bet fair odds that not all those shows get made, but still. I'm kind of surprised Kathleen Kennedy is still apparently in charge, also.

I don't know how they're gonna put Kenobi and Vader in the same thing but it might explain why Obi-Wan is completely certain that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker when they meet on the Death Star and describes Vader as the person who murdered Anakin and the Jedi when he's talking to Luke in ANH (whereas Ashoka isn't certain in Rebels, at least at first). But on the other hand, Vader talks on meeting Kenobi as if it's the first time he's seen him since Mustafar, so...

I think their doing parallel storytelling where its the Obi-Wan settling into his role as protector of Luke/Still available for the rebel alliance vs Darth Vaders rise to power from broken quadrapledric to the number 1 threat in the galaxy.

[Velorath]

I would bet fair odds that not all those shows get made, but still. I'm kind of surprised Kathleen Kennedy is still apparently in charge, also.

Despite being an easy target for fanboys raging over the sequel trilogy, she's had one of the most successful runs of all-time as a film producer going back to E.T. so I can see why they haven't gotten rid of her. Also, if she gets blame for the failures, she should likewise get some of the credit for the successes like Mandalorian.

[eldaec]

Not to mention Rogue 1, more clone wars, Rebels, basically everything that JJA was not involved with.

[MediumHigh]

I mean she is an easy target because she put herself front and center as executive producer of the new trilogy. And when it became extremely obvious that even George Lucas could have done a better job she publically started calling fans trolls. The clone wars and rebels are Dave Flionis baby and Rouge One was a happy accident and the writing staff was let go once that movie was made.

[eldaec]

She didn't really.

She got an exec producer credit, but an exec producer isn't a thing.

It does appear to be her fault that JJA was hired and her fault for not seeing that star wars needs overall creative oversight, but that isn't what she gets shit for. She gets shit because people are shit and the internet picked her fairly arbitrarily.

[MediumHigh]

Revisionist history being what is, the existence of vitriol spewing man babies don't negate the fact that she very much treated the new trilogy like her baby and didn't make any positive decisions that prevented said baby from underperforming with fans or financially. Such was her fuck up that disney halted any new movies in order to stem the bleeding. Normally no one cares or knows who the executive producer actually is so the fact that fans even know her full name tells me enough.

[Trippy]

Executive Producer is certainly a thing but they (usually) only indirectly influence on what a movie ultimately becomes.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-an-executive-producer-whats-the-difference-between-an-executive-producer-and-producer#what-is-an-executive-producer

[Velorath]

She's technically President of Lucasfilm so I'm not going to act like she doesn't have any blame for how the sequels turned out, but sometimes people fuck up. In this case it was fucking up something real big that a lot of people are maybe a little too heavily invested in, but I think if you look at what she's done over the years that maybe she gets at least a little bit of leeway and a chance to course correct. Lucas fucked up 3 Star Wars movies also and a lot of the same people complaining about Kennedy are saying they should have used Lucas' crazy fecal scrawlings for the sequels.

[Khaldun]

I think you can see her as fairly responsible for the sequel fuckup. She was the key player in deciding that they didn't need to decide, if you know what I mean--if the Lucasarts subfamily of Disney doesn't have a Feige and a Feige-like plan, that's her fault. I think you can see the flailing around for directors as part of that failure--it was driven by looking for talent without having a plan in terms of sensibility, narrative, outlook, etc. I think you could almost see her as the Yeltsin of Star Wars, e.g., the old regime was overthrown, she was in a position to joyfully plan shit without Lucas shaking his idiotic wattle at her, but there wasn't any real tradition of thinking without George about what Star Wars could be, so they invited anybody they could see into the regime. Some good outcomes, some bad outcomes. Now they need a steady hand. Hopefully not a Putin steady hand.

[Teleku]

And then suddenly Senator Palpatine takes control of Disney.  Damn he's good at this!

[HaemishM]

Kennedy got much of the vitriol of fans because she very clearly set out to add more female leads and "strong female characters" to Star Wars, and the Internet incel crowd lost their fucking shit. Then she decided to hire JJ Abrams for Force Awakens without 1) having him write a clear outline for what followed his movie and/or have him actually write and direct all 3. She clearly signed off on Last Jedi which whether you liked it or not, stands out like a turd in a punch bowl in so many ways compared to both the movies before and after it. To my mind, it isn't that Johnson's vision couldn't have been successful - it's that it needed to fit with part of a larger arc and it just didn't. Kennedy bringing JJA back in for Rise of Skywalker just compounded the issues because he essentially wanted to forget Last Jedi and continue where he left off in Force Awakens, which required him to cram 2 movies worth of shit into 1, and most of the ideas in it were just either bad, stupid or badly executed.

Kennedy's problem seems to be more that she CAN go heavy-handed and micro-manage-y on a movie (see Solo and to some extent Rogue One) but when she really needs to, like the sequel trilogy, she either didn't micro-manage enough or she did and her decisions were really fucking bad.

Hell, though I like a lot of what's on that Star Wars slate, I can't look at it and think there's any real strategy to it other than "They like Mandolorian and are praising Jon Favreau, quick HIRE ALL THE SUPERHERO CREATIVES AND THROW THEM AT STAR WARS!" Which means some of the projects will be good, but overall it's going to feel like being shot in the face with a Star Wars loaded shotgun rather than a cohesive narrative universe.

Also, this episode was really good and it's exactly the kind of content I want from Star Wars.

[Velorath]

I think you can see her as fairly responsible for the sequel fuckup. She was the key player in deciding that they didn't need to decide, if you know what I mean--if the Lucasarts subfamily of Disney doesn't have a Feige and a Feige-like plan, that's her fault. I think you can see the flailing around for directors as part of that failure--it was driven by looking for talent without having a plan in terms of sensibility, narrative, outlook, etc. I think you could almost see her as the Yeltsin of Star Wars, e.g., the old regime was overthrown, she was in a position to joyfully plan shit without Lucas shaking his idiotic wattle at her, but there wasn't any real tradition of thinking without George about what Star Wars could be, so they invited anybody they could see into the regime. Some good outcomes, some bad outcomes. Now they need a steady hand. Hopefully not a Putin steady hand.

I'm sure there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff we'll never know the full extent of. Kennedy being made Lucasfilm President was apparently one of the provisions Lucas required for selling Lucasfilm to Disney, but I'd be surprised if Disney didn't require the quick turnaround for getting the sequels out. She's also not a writer or director so I could see her not being a micromanager on the project. People will point out the Feige isn't a writer or director either but for fuck's sake not everyone can be Feige and even he was involved in quite a few bad pre-MCU Marvel movies.

I'm not a huge fan of Abrams but I can understand the perspective where bringing him might have seemed like good business sense. On paper, the guy is a highly successful writer/director/producer, and really that first movie isn't the problem. It's not fantastic, but, it's the fumbled handoff to Rian Johnson is where things just completely fell apart and in such a way that made it almost completely impossible to recover for the third movie. Was Kennedy aware that Johnson's approach was going to be throwing out a bunch of the hooks that Abrams set up? I don't know, but again I can see where hiring him also seemed like a good idea (and he went on to make a pretty damn good movie right after with Knives Out).

If it were anything other than Star Wars there wouldn't be nearly the amount of vitriol. Most people couldn't tell you who was an executive producer on any given movie.

[eldaec]

Fiege was also involved in Thor 2, avengers 2, iron man 2&3 etc.

He's clearly done a good job, but sometimes people talk about the MCU like it is 20 back to back home runs.