Mandalorian - Spoilers inside, don't read until watched

By Varlie, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Fun rant. It holds no merit though seeing how Disney‘s marketing department doesn’t factor into what the contents of canon of Lucasfilm materials are. The story group does that.

10 hours ago, Eoen said:

Those books are canon.

Exactly the point.

They are canon. As would the episodes, had they been produced. And there would have been contradictions between them.

2 hours ago, DanteRotterdam said:

Fun rant. It holds no merit though seeing how Disney‘s marketing department doesn’t factor into what the contents of canon of Lucasfilm materials are. The story group does that.

Considering how much of SW has always been about selling toys, it's hilarious to rage against Disney only being in it for the money.

33 minutes ago, Stan Fresh said:

Considering how much of SW has always been about selling toys, it's hilarious to rage against Disney only being in it for the money.

Oh, I bet it was the same thing when The Empire Strikes Back came out and the hardcore fans were all "Kenner ruined it all!", because that would totally excuse our current toxic culture.

Didn't you know, it's the new 'cool' thing to rage about Disney being... checks notes ... a company with a fiduciary duty to make money!

Also, it's possible for something to both be meant to make money AND ALSO be something that's recognized as a culturally significant property, and I'm pretty sure Disney knows that about Star Wars.

And, yeah, having worked with the story group, they are actually a lot more on top of things than the public perceives, it's just the films - and slowly, TV shows - have always, and will continue to, hold precedence over anything else.

An example, there was a particular thing that the designers wanted to do in SWTOR that had to be approved by the story group, and they denied it because it had never appeared in SW before, or was mentioned, but now that it has been, they could implement it, because there is a screen reference to it. (Helmets also couldn't cover Lekku or montrals for Twi'leks and Togruta because they're iconic and contain vital organs that neither species would want to mess with, ect.)

Like the MCU, SW is actually heavily curated, it's just SW is taking slightly longer than the MCU to let it be shown publicly. It's partly why the shows for Marvel are being consolidated to Disney+, and the Kevin Feige being promoted to full creative control over everything, so he can curate the TV division better and weave it into the movies.

All of this is also why SWTOR is the only concurrent property that is explicitly NOT canon, it just makes too much money for EA and the license for them to shut it down.

Edited by StarkJunior

Yeah, I never understood the whole “it is all about the money now” reasoning. Especially considering that Lucas got paid 4 billion dollars for it....

8 minutes ago, DanteRotterdam said:

Yeah, I never understood the whole “it is all about the money now” reasoning. Especially considering that Lucas got paid 4 billion dollars for it....

There are plenty of real, actual problematic things to yell about when it comes to Disney - and any corporation, for that matter - but it supposedly 'ruining' a franchise that has largely always been about things it continues to be about - out of universe and in - is not one of them.

Speaking generally here, also, not directing this at anyone in particular.

Edited by StarkJunior
5 hours ago, StarkJunior said:

Didn't you know, it's the new 'cool' thing to rage about Disney being... checks notes ... a company with a fiduciary duty to make money!

Also, it's possible for something to both be meant to make money AND ALSO be something that's recognized as a culturally significant property, and I'm pretty sure Disney knows that about Star Wars.

And, yeah, having worked with the story group, they are actually a lot more on top of things than the public perceives, it's just the films - and slowly, TV shows - have always, and will continue to, hold precedence over anything else.

An example, there was a particular thing that the designers wanted to do in SWTOR that had to be approved by the story group, and they denied it because it had never appeared in SW before, or was mentioned, but now that it has been, they could implement it, because there is a screen reference to it. (Helmets also couldn't cover Lekku or montrals for Twi'leks and Togruta because they're iconic and contain vital organs that neither species would want to mess with, ect.)

Like the MCU, SW is actually heavily curated, it's just SW is taking slightly longer than the MCU to let it be shown publicly. It's partly why the shows for Marvel are being consolidated to Disney+, and the Kevin Feige being promoted to full creative control over everything, so he can curate the TV division better and weave it into the movies.

All of this is also why SWTOR is the only concurrent property that is explicitly NOT canon, it just makes too much money for EA and the license for them to shut it down.

That is just crazy talk ;)

1 hour ago, Daeglan said:

That is just crazy talk ;)

Also, the thing they couldn't do was a bathroom joke because toilets don't exist in Star Wars - until The Mandalorian , lol.

We're (yet again) a little off topic but I'd like to add that I think Disney has really done great things in their embrace and development of Lucas Story group and making sure cross-media connectivity and canonicity. The payoff is much greater for SW fans by developing and adhering to a cohesive set of stories and media that are now known as "Canon". This has breathed life into the SW universe and made it what I love today. Some alternatives that could have been:

1. Nothing - no new content - just the legends and fan fiction to live by. Including 17 ways to steal the plans to the Death Star, with the impetus of the fandom to pretend they all weave together somehow.

2. Another corporation buys SW and badly mismanages SW with no interest in connectivity of characters or stories, or perhaps with just movies in mind and everything else would just be glorified (licensed) fan fiction; which is sort of what we had with Fox and LFL pre-2014.

3. George Lucas could have kept SW and given us a Sequel trilogy that explores the science behind midichlorians.

Anyways, just my perspective. Everyone is entitled to there own point of view, of course.

43 minutes ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

2. Another corporation buys SW and badly mismanages SW with no interest in connectivity of characters or stories, or perhaps with just movies in mind and everything else would just be glorified (licensed) fan fiction; which is sort of what we had with Fox and LFL pre-2014.

SOooo... the DC method...

On 1/4/2020 at 3:50 PM, DanteRotterdam said:

Same here. And Season One proved to be a slog to get through as well. Fortunately it really picked up after that.

Yeah, no kidding. I have a couple of days before my D+ subscription lapses, so I've been watching bits and pieces of Clone Wars, following late game story arcs (like Death Watch -> Maul comes back -> Maul and Death Watch, etc, etc) before I finally said "Eh, f it" and started from episode 1. Holy cow the first season is CRAZY rough. The animation isn't nearly as good, the patter between Ahsoka and Anakin really grates, and I'm not fond of the out-of-order story telling. All of this got smoothed out down the road, Ahsoka is now one of my favorite characters and so on, but it was quite an awakening coming in from the later work and Rebels.

Just now, Desslok said:

Yeah, no kidding. I have a couple of days before my D+ subscription lapses, so I've been watching bits and pieces of Clone Wars, following late game story arcs (like Death Watch -> Maul comes back -> Maul and Death Watch, etc, etc) before I finally said "Eh, f it" and started from episode 1. Holy cow the first season is CRAZY rough. The animation isn't nearly as good, the patter between Ahsoka and Anakin really grates, and I'm not fond of the out-of-order story telling. All of this got smoothed out down the road, Ahsoka is now one of my favorite characters and so on, but it was quite an awakening coming in from the later work and Rebels.

The clones were always great, though! :)

8 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

SOooo... the DC method...

Warner Brothers has been DC’s parent company since the 70s, through a variety of ups and downs in comics continuity and film quality.

2 minutes ago, Nytwyng said:

Warner Brothers has been DC’s parent company since the 70s, through a variety of ups and downs in comics continuity and film quality.

and they have never had a cohesive story outside the comics. Sadly. they had a false start with Batman Begins...

28 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

and they have never had a cohesive story outside the comics. Sadly. they had a false start with Batman Begins...

Bruce Timm would like a word with you. 😜

6 minutes ago, Nytwyng said:

Bruce Timm would like a word with you. 😜

Points to the Travesty of Batman vs. Superman

9 minutes ago, Daeglan said:

Points to the Travesty of Batman vs. Superman

...which wasn’t part of Tim’s cohesive animated DC Universe that spanned 4 tv series, 3 movies (one released theatrically), and 13 years. So...okay?

This may be the farthest off-topic we've gotten so far! We're in an entirely different universe! :D

25 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

This may be the farthest off-topic we've gotten so far! We're in an entirely different universe! :D

If you are gonna go off topic may as well go as far as possible

5 hours ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

3. George Lucas could have kept SW and given us a Sequel trilogy that explores the science behind midichlorians.

I will always be thankful to Disney for saving us from that fate. It would've been the worst possible fate for Star Wars. My headcanon can handle the prequels, but Midichlorians: The Movie would have been a bridge too far.

In my head cannon: midichlorians are just parasites (or commensalists at best) that grow in the presence of the force but have to relationship to ones abilities to use the force. So maybe a good metric at times but not always. But I’d rather never hear about them again

I actually kinda like the idea of midichlorians as mitochondria. Kinda interesting, and a neat way to tie the scientific into the mystical side of the force.

3 minutes ago, VadersMarchKazoo said:

In my head cannon: midichlorians are just parasites (or commensalists at best) that grow in the presence of the force but have to relationship to ones abilities to use the force. So maybe a good metric at times but not always. But I’d rather never hear about them again

Similar to my interpretation: they’re drawn to the Force, so the “brighter” the connection to the Force, the more there would be. It allows for the blood test to be an effective means of determining Force potential, but doesn’t require their presence to tap into that potential.

8 hours ago, StarkJunior said:

Also, the thing they couldn't do was a bathroom joke because toilets don't exist in Star Wars - until The Mandalorian , lol.

Actually, there was a bathroom joke in Rebels. In Double Agent Droid Wedge makes the term "refresher" canon.