I think that some take issue with the idea of a sci-fi slingshot specifically, not a more child-appropriate weapon in general.

It's a cliche: Bart Simpson, Dennis the Menace, The Little Rascals, Huck Finn

I think that is why it was chosen... to tie Ezra into that archetype (Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Okay. I am going to posit that you would see him as "standard child protagonist" no matter what they did, unless they did something really counter-productive (such as having him overtly kill people). He is a child. What is this list of "standard" traits child protagonists are given and which of them fall out naturally from the character being a child - most I should think.

...

That kind of supports my belief that you're seeing what you expect to see rather than what is there. I don't get the feeling that he's going to go Full Annie at any point. I find the whole thing pretty UN-schmaltzy, tbh.

Eh. I wouldn't say that I'm seeing something that isn't there. I think it's more that I just find the character irritating in the same way I find many childish cartoon characters annoying (while others I have no problem with), and I'm having difficulty expressing why this is the case other than simply that I don't like him. This is because it's not just him I don't like; it's a whole category of these sort of characters that just feel, to me, to be overplaying the "I'm a kid" card. It's not so much that they're doing things that are childish so much as it is that there's so much childish packed into the scenes that it feels overwhelming to me. I feel that the choice of a slingshot is just one of several small contributing factors to that feeling I get that he, like many other child protagonists, is overwhelmingly childlike. I just picked it out individually because they made up a whole new weapon to make it happen (which is not to say that making up weapons is bad or anything. I really like the spinning lightsaber thing and am excited to see how the blaster/lightsaber combo works out).

It's very possible that I just don't like characters in 22-minute kids' shows. They have to pack all of the character interactions into a short time slot. It's hard to explain. I'm not looking to hate the kid, and I really like the show overall thus far. I just find him irritating because he comes off as unnaturally childish to me for whatever reasons, valid or invalid. This is a sentiment shared by several other people I know and many others I've found on the internet (which I'm not bringing up to say it's a valid complaint; I'm just not the only one here). And again, I'm not saying that it's bad. I think it's perfect for what they're doing. I want the show to succeed.

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Never tell me the odds.

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Never tell me the odds.

Negative. Negative. It didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface.

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Never tell me the odds.

Negative. Negative. It didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface.

Said that, she did.

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Never tell me the odds.

Negative. Negative. It didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface.

Said that, she did.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

So far, i'm loving the show. It's charming and entertaining in equal measure.

The rule of two only applies to a Sith Lord and his Apprentice. The Inquisitor is not Sith; he was merely trained by one. They pull this trick all the time to make the rule of two still a thing but allow for all sorts of dark-side Force-users to be running around during the period. Personally, I'm fine with it because I've never thought the rule of two has made a **** bit of sense.

I thought the rule of two was a pretty good one, as a concept. The Sith are always striving after more power, so "cooperation" would be difficult. And it served them well while they slowly took control of industry and banking. Of course, once Palpatine made his power play by starting the Clone Wars, loose ends will develop, and pretty soon you have Maul declaring that he is the "true" Sith (...a notion of which he was soon violently disabused... ) and all kinds of Sithy types running around like crows at a battle.

So I wouldn't exactly call it "pulling a trick", more than an acknowledgement that the Rule of Two is only a philosophy, and "rules are made to be broken". It's really more "realistic" than assuming all these Sith wannabes can maintain such a severe level of discipline once the Game of Thrones, Star Wars Edition, is afoot.

I agree with the general philosophy of a Sith wanting to limit their possible rivals. I just think that it shouldn't have been presented in so many sources as a hard and fast rule when they break it every 5 minutes.

Though you did just give me a decent idea. I may run a Star Wars campaign that runs through some Game of Thrones material and see if my players notice where I lifted the storyline from.

I don't see a problem with the Sith making a bunch of tools that they use and throw away. You notice how quick they are to throw them away when they get too powerful? And that is what I see they train a dark sider use them as a tool then when they get too powerful they tend to kill them. The better ones get away and become loose ends that can be a problem.

Okay. I am going to posit that you would see him as "standard child protagonist" no matter what they did, unless they did something really counter-productive (such as having him overtly kill people). He is a child. What is this list of "standard" traits child protagonists are given and which of them fall out naturally from the character being a child - most I should think.

...

That kind of supports my belief that you're seeing what you expect to see rather than what is there. I don't get the feeling that he's going to go Full Annie at any point. I find the whole thing pretty UN-schmaltzy, tbh.

Eh. I wouldn't say that I'm seeing something that isn't there. I think it's more that I just find the character irritating in the same way I find many childish cartoon characters annoying (while others I have no problem with), and I'm having difficulty expressing why this is the case other than simply that I don't like him. This is because it's not just him I don't like; it's a whole category of these sort of characters that just feel, to me, to be overplaying the "I'm a kid" card. It's not so much that they're doing things that are childish so much as it is that there's so much childish packed into the scenes that it feels overwhelming to me. I feel that the choice of a slingshot is just one of several small contributing factors to that feeling I get that he, like many other child protagonists, is overwhelmingly childlike. I just picked it out individually because they made up a whole new weapon to make it happen (which is not to say that making up weapons is bad or anything. I really like the spinning lightsaber thing and am excited to see how the blaster/lightsaber combo works out).

It's very possible that I just don't like characters in 22-minute kids' shows. They have to pack all of the character interactions into a short time slot. It's hard to explain. I'm not looking to hate the kid, and I really like the show overall thus far. I just find him irritating because he comes off as unnaturally childish to me for whatever reasons, valid or invalid. This is a sentiment shared by several other people I know and many others I've found on the internet (which I'm not bringing up to say it's a valid complaint; I'm just not the only one here). And again, I'm not saying that it's bad. I think it's perfect for what they're doing. I want the show to succeed.

Fair enough, I guess. I don't see it myself but then this is the only "Kid's Show" that I watch so I don't really see anything in there that stands out. They seem to be treating him pretty realistically to me. Agree to disagree. Apologies if the tone in my last email was a bit strong.

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Argh! Tell me about it. Of five players, three of them all independently said the following with minor variations: "Wait - there's an entire race famous for being spies?" 0.o

Because being infamous as spies is exactly what you need when you're conducting espionage. :/

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Never tell me the odds.

Negative. Negative. It didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface.

(Star Wars loves its archetypes).

Many Bothans died to bring us this information.

Never tell me the odds.

Negative. Negative. It didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface.

Things said in the bedroom

I do find Ezra to be grating much of the time. I understand that it's a kid's show but a sling-shot...seriously? At least give him a blaster. I really hope before the show is 1/3 finished that he gets a proper lightsaber and can ditch that thing for the most part.

According to the weapons and equipment guide for the show, Ezra gets a hybrid blaster pistol/lightsaber weapon system, much like Zeb's Bo-rifle, later in the series. The guide has artwork on the cover showing Ezra using it in saber mode.

Later in the series means before the end of season one, so it's not going to be a very long process.

Yeah. Since they only have Kanan's saber to train with, it would make sense for Ezra to get his own saber as soon as possible to make training easier.

I was curious on how they were going to combine a pistol and saber so I googled "Ezra's Lightsaber" and found some pictures of the toy that Target is selling:

The blaster pistol is in the upper part of the hand guard and, game wise, is probably a hold out blaster pistol or possibly a light blaster pistol.

Because being infamous as spies is exactly what you need when you're conducting espionage. :/

James Bond would disagree with you!

Because the Hutts are famous for being crime lords. Or the Correllians for pilots. Lots of races or cultures are famous for certain things.

Beside seeming a little weird i think that Ezra's saber is hard to put away. Where do you keep it? in an holster, or hung to your belt? Not easy to hide, and draws attention.

Because being infamous as spies is exactly what you need when you're conducting espionage. :/

James Bond would disagree with you!

James Bond's priority is getting laid, not completing his mission. He knows that the villain will always catch him and tell him what he needs to know sooner or later. So he just goes round doing his Dangerous Secret Agent schtick wherever there are women in expensive dresses, mission be damned.

Beside seeming a little weird i think that Ezra's saber is hard to put away. Where do you keep it? in an holster, or hung to your belt? Not easy to hide, and draws attention.

I am reminded of the Sword-Chucks from the old 8-bit theatre comic.

"How does he hold them?" -- Black Mage.

I don't think it would be very easy to show them using a blaster set to stun, actually. It's a Star Wars cartoon and thus already low on Tarantino blood fountains and graphic burns resulting from getting shot. Generally people just fall down instead. Thus there isn't a great deal of differentiation between the effects of people shooting to kill and shooting to stun. Is every scene to show groaning storm troopers survived? You can visually distinguish the effects somewhat like they did with the expanding circles in TCW, but only serious students of the setting will pick that up. Everyone else will see him using a GUN. Which we all take to be a device used for killing. In order to avoid that you need to make the weapon visually distinct. Say, like a catapult.

And of course immediately after posting all that explanation about why we can't and wont see such a thing, an episode airs that has Ezra knocking someone unconscious with a blaster on stun. Shows how much I know!

I really like that they kept the ring effect from TCW, fwiw.

I don't think it would be very easy to show them using a blaster set to stun, actually. It's a Star Wars cartoon and thus already low on Tarantino blood fountains and graphic burns resulting from getting shot. Generally people just fall down instead. Thus there isn't a great deal of differentiation between the effects of people shooting to kill and shooting to stun. Is every scene to show groaning storm troopers survived? You can visually distinguish the effects somewhat like they did with the expanding circles in TCW, but only serious students of the setting will pick that up. Everyone else will see him using a GUN. Which we all take to be a device used for killing. In order to avoid that you need to make the weapon visually distinct. Say, like a catapult.

And of course immediately after posting all that explanation about why we can't and wont see such a thing, an episode airs that has Ezra knocking someone unconscious with a blaster on stun. Shows how much I know!

I really like that they kept the ring effect from TCW, fwiw.

The ring effect actually comes from Episode 4 A New Hope.

I don't think it would be very easy to show them using a blaster set to stun, actually. It's a Star Wars cartoon and thus already low on Tarantino blood fountains and graphic burns resulting from getting shot. Generally people just fall down instead. Thus there isn't a great deal of differentiation between the effects of people shooting to kill and shooting to stun. Is every scene to show groaning storm troopers survived? You can visually distinguish the effects somewhat like they did with the expanding circles in TCW, but only serious students of the setting will pick that up. Everyone else will see him using a GUN. Which we all take to be a device used for killing. In order to avoid that you need to make the weapon visually distinct. Say, like a catapult.

And of course immediately after posting all that explanation about why we can't and wont see such a thing, an episode airs that has Ezra knocking someone unconscious with a blaster on stun. Shows how much I know!

I really like that they kept the ring effect from TCW, fwiw.

The ring effect actually comes from Episode 4 A New Hope.

This is true. It's like 6 minutes in when the stormtroopers shoot Leia.

I don't think it would be very easy to show them using a blaster set to stun, actually. It's a Star Wars cartoon and thus already low on Tarantino blood fountains and graphic burns resulting from getting shot. Generally people just fall down instead. Thus there isn't a great deal of differentiation between the effects of people shooting to kill and shooting to stun. Is every scene to show groaning storm troopers survived? You can visually distinguish the effects somewhat like they did with the expanding circles in TCW, but only serious students of the setting will pick that up. Everyone else will see him using a GUN. Which we all take to be a device used for killing. In order to avoid that you need to make the weapon visually distinct. Say, like a catapult.

And of course immediately after posting all that explanation about why we can't and wont see such a thing, an episode airs that has Ezra knocking someone unconscious with a blaster on stun. Shows how much I know!

I really like that they kept the ring effect from TCW, fwiw.

The ring effect actually comes from Episode 4 A New Hope.

This is true. It's like 6 minutes in when the stormtroopers shoot Leia.

Huh! I genuinely hadn't noticed that. Is it something added in one of the re-releases?

Really good episode, btw. There's something really creepy about seeing kids being trained to be part of the Empire's military. (or any military, really). And I can see that Filoni decided not to waste the khyber crystal idea from those unfinished TCW episodes.

Huh! I genuinely hadn't noticed that. Is it something added in one of the re-releases?

I do believe it was always that way. Definitely was in the 1995 VHS tapes (last version before Special Editions started popping up).

Although this is the SPOILER THREAD and massively indicated as such, I've so far assumed this means things that have already aired, not leaked information and upcoming things from the future future. It's great to have a free space where people who've viewed the episodes can talk about it without having to put everything in spoiler blocks. But some people are starting to post things about who will appear what will happen in episodes that aren't even out yet. That's a level beyond again. There are three levels of spoiler as far as I can see:

Level 1: Spoiler free. No talk about the episode details or anything that isn't common knowledge / would spoil things for those who haven't seen the episodes.

Level 2: Episode Spoilers. Discussion about the episodes we've just watched. E.g. "I loved it when Hera showed up with all the giant mantas to rescue them."

Level 3: Season Spoilers. Things that could spoil episodes not yet aired. E.g. "I've got hold of casting information and Vader is going to make a surprise appearance in the finalé." or "When Hera dies later in the season..." (N.b. I MADE THOSE UP. THEY ARE BOTHS EXAMPLES ONLY.)

I have been assuming we're at Level 2. That this is an ongoing post-episode discussion thread. It's good to have such a thread, imo - the alternative is to have separate threads for each episode and that limits ongoing side-discussions like the ones we have been having. And it clutters the forum. But I'm spoiler-phobic about things I haven't seen, yet. What I've been doing is reading through this thread but if there's a new episode airing I stop looking at this thread until I have watched it. If I'm behind on episodes I stay out until I have caught up. I imagine others have been doing the same.

So I'm posting all this to try and see what works for everyone. We could do per-Episode threads so no-one is at risk of having their fun spoiled: you read it after you've seen the episode. Or we could just make this thread a free for all - but then I'll be nervous of reading through it even though I've seen all aired episodes, as will those like me. Or we could spoiler block the really future stuff - Hera dies / Ezra turns out to be Leia's son / Etc. I like this one - just for the big stuff. We could avoid Season Spoilers altogether but that's not fair on those who don't care about them and this IS the spoiler thread.

I hope that makes sense to people. If it's just me, then I'll just stay out of this thread. I'm hoping it works for other people too. One last thing I'll do (or whoever happens to do it), is post a big marker when an episode is starting to be discussed. The episodes air on different dates in different places so this will help people who think they've seen all the episodes so far from blundering into a discussion of ones they haven't. So...

We have started discussing Episode 4 - "Breaking Ranks".

Huh! I genuinely hadn't noticed that. Is it something added in one of the re-releases?

I do believe it was always that way. Definitely was in the 1995 VHS tapes (last version before Special Editions started popping up).

Interesting. I had no idea so much had been worked out so long ago. I thought it was a later expand the setting sort of thing.