General grievances (random fan rants)

This is as Anti-Prequel as it gets
www.space.com/star-wars-movies-ranked-worst-to-best

stampidhd280pro
Another crap video about fixing the Prequels
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRzGXeMzT7M

And this?
Vader Rising and Nooo scream, fixed (1080 HD) - YouTube

Did you read the Description of the video saying that he removed references to Padme's death because it Created a Plot Hole between ROTS and TESB/ROTJ?

What Plot Hole?!

LOL. Pat pimping Pat. To be fair, this is a pretty, well... cool song.

Onto my playlist it goes. 

Okay, just to be clear, the post is simply a question followed by a graphic that is as follows:

The question:

What's your answer?

The graphic:

Vertical strip, bisected horizontally in the middle.

Top half (black text on a white background, all in uppercase):

Why are you still supporting a franchise that abandoned you, actively hates you, and hit its peak 43 years ago?

Bottom half:

Image of Shrek pointing, the character's face concealed with an overlaid graphic that reads "Star Wars Fans". Then, at the very bottom, captioned text that reads, "Good question."

Admittedly, it would have been simpler for me to copy the full image into here, instead of typing all that shit, but perhaps some people don't want to have contentious troll memes hitting them in the face if/when they click into this thread and peruse it.

So, my thoughts, want them, do you?

First of all, if Star Wars hit its peak 43 years ago, that would mean it's all been downhill since... *furiously punches buttons on calculator* ...1981?!

I'm guessing the meme is already a year old and "43 years ago" is referring to 1980 -- the year that TESB came out. 

*yawn*

If that's what those folk want to believe, then more power to 'em. Nobody can deny that TESB is a pretty darn special film. But as a PT/SW Saga fan, I'm not completely riding that train. That said, I can kinda see where the meme is coming from. Since the days of TESB, especially looking at where we are today, there has been a slide in quality and a marked reduction in all-around Star Warsiness. It's barely the same cinematic universe anymore. The whole texture of the franchise -- and a franchise, alas, it is -- is wildly different.

As for the franchise abandoning and/or actively hating its fans? Well, that's a bit melodramatic. Franchises naturally evolve and move on. Unfortunately, Star Wars is such a commercial monstrosity now, and so darn corporate, I can't sit here with a straight face and reject the meme wholesale, even on this point. Storytelling imperatives have clearly changed and been in a state of flux since Lucas sold to Disney.

There was something much more special about Star Wars before. It had The Maker's imprimatur. It was colourful. It was spicy. It was majestic. It was lyrical. It was fun. It was good. Now, unfortunately, it's a desiccated husk. Less is more. Every new bit of streaming content only muddies and saps the specialness that Star Wars used to have. Death by a thousand TV shows. 

Because, yes, I'm one of those annoying people that says... actually, I'm just annoying. I'm one of those people that says Star Wars can only spread its wings and truly take flight on the silver screen. Epic happenings on an epic canvas. That's always been Star Wars to me. Look at that damn logo. Let it dazzle you. And never fail to be startled by the epic blast of accompanying trumpets. The series title literally tells you what this is: HUGENESS IN SPACE. But now what is it? Purple-haired people walking around a polystyrene marketplace. YouTube trailer muzak. Darth Vader with a weirdly-processed voice and a shiny helmet. Fan fiction. And if you don't like it, you're racist against unicorns. This ain't the Star Wars I used to know.

Anyway, to be fair, these responses are pretty lit:


Bonus post from this dude/duderino:


Proof positive that genuine PT and GL fans are out there.

Ah! I guess this is a close cousin of your last Reddit post you placed in here the other week. Let's take a little look.

Unfortunately, we hit a snag right away, as it looks like the topic starter's opening post has been removed:


A reply of theirs is still showing, however:


What's interesting is they've received quite a lot of hate in the comments -- almost every reply is hostile to their contention.

Here is the first set of replies (or the first few from the first reply tree):


More replies:


My, my -- how the tables have turned. Ten years ago, TESB was "obviously" the best of the Saga, and if you argued otherwise, you were clearly an idiot, a contrarian, or one of those pathetic "prequel apologists". Now, it seems, daring to suggest that TESB was the high point of the franchise is grounds for being spoken to the way prequel fans used to be addressed: with condescension and contempt, biting snark and bitter rejection. 

Also, everyone seems to be contriving to miss the OP's point (although, again, the actual contents of the opening post have been deleted), just like in the days of old. I suppose he may have been suggesting that TESB was both a daring end and the most polished of the OT, and therefore, a nice place to leave Star Wars, before people starting debating whether Lucas cut corners in ROTJ, followed by the furore surrounding the Special Editions and then the prequels (never mind the sequels). 

And yeah, on that level, I see their point. It would have been an interesting place to leave the Saga: in a state of "suspended animation", kind of in media res, the way it began. On the other hand, I also understand the disbelieving tone of the replies, because a) leaving the Saga unresolved like that was never the intention behind TESB, and b) it absolutely became a bigger and more legendary franchise after the completion of the OT and the announcement of the PT. 

I guess the topic starter is flirting with some kind of hyper-purist perspective that was once in vogue; or, at least, was once fashionable with regard to that particular film and the implicit notion that Lucas ruined his creation thereafter. But in every other way, their take falls down, and the show of intense resistance in the comments is a curious measure of where the general fan attitude now sits in a "Disney Star Wars" world. 

That person is an idiot.

Succinct, when my mind I put to it, can I be.

The answer to why Obi-Wan and Yoda go into hiding, partially, is lurking in their text. Here it is:


Boom de gasser. There it is.

"...the most dangerous force (and Force User) in the galaxy next to Palpatine..."

Right. Before Yoda lays the smackdown on Palpatine in ROTS, in the Senate chamber, Palpatine actually warns him, "Your arrogance blinds you, Master Yoda. Now you will experience the full power of the Dark Side" -- which he does, in battling Sidious, nearly losing his own soul in the process. That's what leads Yoda to confide to Bail, "Into exile, I must go. Failed, I have." Yoda, humbled in defeat, realises his folly. Open confrontation is not the answer. He can't "force" an outcome. He must retreat, bide his time, have patience, trust in the Force. Indeed, the Dagobah "cave" sequence with Luke is the very test that Yoda fails (and which Luke also fails) in his confrontation with Palpatine. His world, of course, was decimated, he wanted some vengeance on Palpatine (disguised as heroic self-sacrifice), and he sought out the very confrontation that meant he'd already lost. 

Here's a quote from Laozi, the putative founder of Taoism, that sums the situation up:


Tactical retreat is only seen as cowardice by fanatics with an impaired understanding of life. 

Yoda and Obi-Wan were not merely licking their wounds, but working to greater ends.