1 minute ago, AceSolo5 said:

Haha... very true, I'm used to pain, suffering & disappointment when supporting a team 🤣 This year though... This year!!!

That's what they all say... (including me )

Gotten soo close a couple times recently, but not quite.

Jets, probably gonna be a while though.

57 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Jets, probably gonna be a while though.

I’m more of a Sharks guy, myself. 😜

5 hours ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

O h yeah... every 4 years I try to give soccer another shot ('cause isn't the most popular sport in the world?) and watch the world cup, but then I see all the flopping and whinging and remember why I don't really like it.

It's really interesting that you're from the UK and like NFL!

Yeah... "proper" football has become a totally different game over the last few years, it used to be a contact sport but now it's ridiculous! I can't stand the blatant cheating & attempts to get people sent off, it's ruined!

I started watching the NFL highlights over here just for something different & found myself hooked on it! It's a great spectacle, it's brutal & the athleticism is pretty outstanding. Love the tactical side as well, I remember staying up for the Pats v Rams Superbowl & whilst it wasn't the best game you could appreciate the Pats tactics, Belichick new what he had to do to stop the Rams playing & he certainly did that. Disappointing though as I'll generally supported anyone who's playing the Pats 😁

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

That's what they all say... (including me )

Gotten soo close a couple times recently, but not quite.

Jets, probably gonna be a while though.

More than likely it will... But there's always hope!! And isn't the Jets winning the Superbowl built on hope?? Wait, no... That's Rebellion!! Always get those mixed up 😁

3 minutes ago, AceSolo5 said:

I started watching the NFL highlights over here just for something different & found myself hooked on it! It's a great spectacle, it's brutal & the athleticism is pretty outstanding. Love the tactical side as well,

Absolutely!

4 minutes ago, AceSolo5 said:

I remember staying up for the Pats v Rams Superbowl & whilst it wasn't the best game you could appreciate the Pats tactics, Belichick new what he had to do to stop the Rams playing & he certainly did that. Disappointing though as I'll generally supported anyone who's playing the Pats 😁

Indeed. Given what happened to the Saints in the NFC championship game, I was in the unenviable situation of wanting both teams to lose with a 0-0 tie.

11 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

It's got the best of soccer and some elements of American football (and even basketball, strangely enough).

Oh, absolutely! I almost described it as having elements of basketball in a previous reply. The really high scores and subsequent highlights. The athleticism and acrobatic leaping. Even the players bodies are more like NBA players, taller, slimmer, but I would say AFL players run a lot more (depending on position) and so are probably a bit fitter. We now have ONE player from the US. He's the tallest player in the AFL and plays for the Magpies so they call him "American Pie". And wouldn't you know it, he played basketball in college. I feel like I even read that Jordan once said the sport he would best be suited for (apart from basketball) would have been Aussie rules. That being said, you do get a lot of short fast guys too. Great game. It's supposedly related to Gaelic football from Ireland and once in a while they have an "International" match between Ireland and Australia, playing a game that is a mix between both. It's pretty wild and fun and no one seems to know the rules! (Kind of like how we do SW RPGs!).

9 hours ago, AceSolo5 said:

I'm used to pain, suffering & disappointment when supporting a team 🤣 This year though... This year!!!

Ah, the long suffering optimist. That's how I felt after each of the prequels... well, that was pretty awful, but I'm sure the next one will be great!!

11 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Their heads are HUGE compared to the rest of them, you'd think they just fall over or have really bad neck problems. I accepted it for the cartoon, stylized and all, but seeing it in live action (well, realistic CGI) was a bit odd.

It can be one of those things from the movies that fans are left with trying to explain... Here is my attempt: Maybe the loth-cat has a lot of gas in its head, making it light (sort of like those stupid Toydarians, with the fat bodies and tiny physics defying wings). OR, maybe it has really light bones? 🙂

Yeah, the Mortis arc is one of the few arcs I haven't seen yet. Thanks for the warning. I've read that before somewhere though, so no problem. Seemed like one of the sillier CW arcs, but once again, I should watch it first before I label it dumb (but it does seem dumb-- why do we have to explain the force in such depth. It used to be so mysterious...)

1 minute ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

Yeah, the Mortis arc is one of the few arcs I haven't seen yet. Thanks for the warning. I've read that before somewhere though, so no problem. Seemed like one of the sillier CW arcs, but once again, I should watch it first before I label it dumb (but it does seem dumb-- why do we have to explain the force in such depth. It used to be so mysterious...)

I understand your point, and it's a common complaint, but I love that arc. That sort of story (sort of Twilight Zone-y "dreamspace") appeals to me, and I really like how it ties so much of the story together, especially for Anakin.

18 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

but I love that arc. T

Fair enough. I'll watch it. I wasn't so into the one where Yoda met all those force beings with the weird masks either. But I'll watch it.

So what arcs did you NOT like? (anyone can answer).

I didn't like the Zygerrian slavers arc. Oh, I have watched the one with the "Shark looking species" yet either, but that also looks pretty silly.

Rebels did have some silly episodes but so did Clone Wars.

1 minute ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

Fair enough. I'll watch it. I wasn't so into the one where Yoda met all those force beings with the weird masks either. But I'll watch it.

So what arcs did you NOT like? (anyone can answer).

I didn't like the Zygerrian slavers arc. Oh, I have watched the one with the "Shark looking species" yet either, but that also looks pretty silly.

Rebels did have some silly episodes but so did Clone Wars.

I actually liked both of those. The Mon Cal arc is pretty good.

There really aren't any I dislike. There are some I'm fairly apathetic towards, but closest I get to disapproval would be the arc with R3-S6 (Downfall of a Droid) in season 1 and the arc with the Martez sisters in season 7. I liked pretty much the entirety of The Clone Wars.

That doesn't mean they were all good , but it means I liked them. A lot of the earlier ones were a bit rough.

42 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

the arc with the Martez sisters

Yeah, wasn't a fan of that one.

I finally got around to finishing SW:R, seasons 3 & 4 on binge watch over lock down.. I enjoyed most of the series but there were some stinkers. I enjoyed the change in Hondo from CW to Rebels - the voice actor must have thought 'I'm getting PAID for this!!!'

I've now started CW again as I only got to Season 3 originally, just finishing season 1. IMO, they (Disney) would be onto a good thing if they got the writers for both series together if they weren't the same already as I stop the credits and put the next episode on. The YouTube vid of the team for the High Republic didn't do anything for me. The wipeboard board with the three columns threw up a few alarm bells.

My gaming group all agree they (Disney) should get the writers in, then say - watch CW, Rebels, 123456 R1 and READ ALL THESE BOOKS for splat - d6, d20 and the FFG stuff. Then watch 789 as that is also canon... I'm not expecting, going forward, anything pre-Disney buy out in any new stuff but a knowledge of the love and attention to detail would be a good starting point.

Mando is good starting point, there were some filler episodes but there was enough tips of the hat to cowboys and Indians in space that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Tbh seen as I live and work in the real world in the education sector I'd like 'not real world stuff' in my entertainment. if I want real world in my entertainment I put on the news, Panorama, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament or read the Essays on the Al-Jazheera website. i want entertainment, not box ticking agendas. I can see why the agendas are put in - higher viewing figures means more 'likes', means more merch sales probably and keeps everyone happy. And by everyone I mean the Board of Directors. I don't think anything has been so divisive as new Trek and Wars since we've had so many writers, reboots, different universes etc. I see Star Wars now as an IP that is not aimed at me anymore. I can see why people like the new trilogy and I do say to fans 'Fine I respect your likings', but I get annoyed when they don't respect my dislike of the new trilogy by saying 'What's not to like?' It's a new fan's world now, I had my time with 456123 (R1 even though it's new canon) I'm not holding my breath for Mando 2 tbh.

Thank God for Edge core 😄

Just read this: "We can 100% say that the next Star Wars animated series features The Bad Batch as the main leads. It’ll take place after “The Siege of Mandalore” and Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker, and Echo will all be back." hmm. I don't know if that rumor is true or not but it doesn't sound that exciting... but I could be wrong. I was hoping for something completely different.

8 minutes ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

Just read this: "We can 100% say that the next Star Wars animated series features The Bad Batch as the main leads. It’ll take place after “The Siege of Mandalore” and Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker, and Echo will all be back." hmm. I don't know if that rumor is true or not but it doesn't sound that exciting... but I could be wrong. I was hoping for something completely different.

Cool, yes. Am I dubious?

Are Mandos awesome?

Yes, the answer is yes. If you said no, then shame on you.

It reminds me a bit of the Republic Commando books (Hmm... I wonder why they're similarities... Gee, I can't figure it) with how they transitioned to Imperial Commandos after Order 66. This would certainly be interesting, but I have a policy of ignoring leaks. (unless it's the hangar's roof. Then FIX IT NOW! I don't want puddles in my cockpit. Though on the other hand... It would discourage those cats who have a mind to settle down in there.)

4 hours ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

"We can 100% say that the next Star Wars animated series features The Bad Batch as the main leads. It’ll take place after “The Siege of Mandalore” and Hunter, Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker, and Echo will all be back."

Depends if there's any character arc. If it's just one fetch quest after another, no thanks (though I'd probably watch it for the visuals). Making a series about the Bad Batch sounds like an executive decision, not a creative one.

I just finished torturing myself and watching Resistance all the way through. It's frickin' awesomely sad. It's sad because the main characters are total dufuses with dialog that threatens to melt my brain, and they don't really have a full arc. It actually hurts to listen to them. It's worse than E2, and that's saying something.

But it's awesome because all the secondary characters have normal dialog and have pretty decent arcs, the settings are cool, and the animation is actually really good once you get past the weird 2D lighting. The last episode with turbo lasers hitting the ocean is kind of terrifying. There's some pretty good idea mining to be had for GMs if only the main characters would STFU.

3 minutes ago, whafrog said:

Depends if there's any character arc. If it's just one fetch quest after another, no thanks (though I'd probably watch it for the visuals). Making a series about the Bad Batch sounds like an executive decision, not a creative one.

I just finished torturing myself and watching Resistance all the way through. It's frickin' awesomely sad. It's sad because the main characters are total dufuses with dialog that threatens to melt my brain, and they don't really have a full arc. It actually hurts to listen to them. It's worse than E2, and that's saying something.

But it's awesome because all the secondary characters have normal dialog and have pretty decent arcs, the settings are cool, and the animation is actually really good once you get past the weird 2D lighting. The last episode with turbo lasers hitting the ocean is kind of terrifying. There's some pretty good idea mining to be had for GMs if only the main characters would STFU.

On the topic of Resistance, oh yes indeedy dandy. My feelings exactly (except that I never did like the animation).

I like "monster of the week" style adventures (I was kinda hoping The Mandalorian would be one), with the caveat that it should have a heavy focus on characters and some sort of overarching story, though not one that has to be ever present.

As for the Bad Batch, there's a lot of potential there for something really great. Now, there's also a lot of potential for characters that fall flat upon further examination, but I'd be interested to see how it goes. One of my favorite quotes is something I quoted about 20 minutes ago in a different thread, but here it is again. "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations." The clones in The Clone Wars were absolutely fantastic. Yet, they all looked the same and were voice by the same man. These limitations unleashed the creativity of the writers, who now had to make each clone different and interesting so they didn't get tiresome and samey. They had to give them each their own unique personality and character without the benefit of being distinguished by different appearances and voices (though they did have armor and Dee Bradley Baker's vocal tricks).
With the Bad Batch, I'd be concerned that they fall into the trap of the characters being already different, so not feeling like they need to be especially creative with the character progression.

On 6/21/2020 at 2:14 AM, whafrog said:

There's some pretty good idea mining to be had for GMs if only the main characters would STFU.

Yeah, there were some cool planets, fun Sith temple thing, interesting aliens... I really liked the huge moving base idea. I thought season two was going to be so good, they were finally mobile and off the boring water planet... but nah... disappointing.

I liked the old CW era droids episode. I liked the cameos... it just sorta fizzled though. I kept thinking, ok, this is going to be like Rebels and start out kinda dumb and then slowly improve... but it just stayed dumb and then ended. Whatever. I wasn't that invested in it.

I would like to see more from the ST era though. Lots of cool designs and interesting looking characters in the background just waiting to be fleshed out. I mean, that's all we had in the OT, we've just had 40+ years to imagine and create back stories from every weird alien that had 3 seconds of screen time.

On 6/20/2020 at 7:14 PM, whafrog said:

I just finished torturing myself and watching Resistance all the way through. It's frickin' awesomely sad. It's sad because the main characters are total dufuses with dialog that threatens to melt my brain, and they don't really have a full arc. It actually hurts to listen to them. It's worse than E2, and that's saying something.

Totally agree with this whafrog!

I wanted to like it & granted it did have some cool locations, but it just left me cold. Not watched the second series as that's not available (on Disney+) in the UK yet... I'll probably watch it but I won't be expecting much.

Oh and... Neeku, the Nikto Mechanic??? Could a character be any more annoying??? Possibly even more annoying that Jar Jar Binks... Words fail me 😶

Second season is a bit better, at least in terms of locations and secondary characters. I did like Tam's arc, that's what primarily kept me going.

Edit: actually it's kind of funny, Hux makes an appearance, and he's almost as much of a dufus as the main characters...which I think just *might* have been a subtle dig at the sad quality of the ST...

9 hours ago, whafrog said:

I did like Tam's arc, that's what primarily kept me going.

Hmm, I didn't much like her arc. I just didn't see how she could have so easily joined the FO and then pretty easily left it as well. That's fine though.

It would have been so cool to have seen the Colossus in the background at that battle over Exegol in the end of TRoS... missed opportunity. Unless it was there and I just didn't see it. But I do like the idea of a massive moving space village, on the run, traipsing through unknown worlds, with shady contacts and dubious citizens of varying degrees of loyalty... on paper.

12 hours ago, AceSolo5 said:

Neeku, the Nikto Mechanic??? Could a character be any more annoying???

You're right. I would have preferred more Jar Jar. Even my kids kind of got embarrassed looks when he would speak. If he was written for the kids, they failed there. But Kaz is totally annoying too! Who hates Ezra?! Ezra is awesome (maybe slightly annoying at the beginning... sure). Compare him to Kaz...

I kinda liked that big crazy bounty hunter, umm, I think he was Iktotchi... He'd be fun to see in a live action cameo... like the Mandalorian... I guess he'd be 15 or 20 years younger... no biggie.

8 hours ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

It would have been so cool to have seen the Colossus in the background at that battle over Exegol in the end of TRoS... missed opportunity. Unless it was there and I just didn't see it.

No Colossus, but they did create assets for the Fireball and one of the other fighters (Jaeger’s or Torra’s, I think), so those are supposedly in there...somewhere. The novelization added some comm chatter with some of the fleet checking in, and Kaz and Jaeger were included there.

I agree about the missed opportunity. There was a chance for that to be the movie’s “Portals” scene in the big “Skywalker Saga” wrap-up, simply by including that sort of comm chatter and more clearly spotlighting ships like the Ghost, Fireball, or Colossus in the battle. Honestly, listening to the audiobook of the novelization, that scene packed more punch for me with those elements added than it did seeing it on screen without them. (That wasn’t helped, either, by having part of that fleet reveal shown in promotional materials.)

9 hours ago, Mandalore of the Rings said:

Who hates Ezra?! Ezra is awesome (maybe slightly annoying at the beginning... sure).

*raises aileron flaps in absence of hand*

I never liked Ezra. I only "hated" him in season one, but he never sat right with me. Kaz is way worse though. Seriously, how can you be even a halfway decent pilot when you trip over your own feet every other step?

16 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Seriously, how can you be even a halfway decent pilot when you trip over your own feet every other step?

How does someone with a stutter sing?

The rhythm of the music can allow them to overcome the stutter.

Similarly, I don’t find the idea that Kaz might be far more comfortable and competent in a cockpit than in his own skin unbelievable.

Was he annoying? Far more often than not. But his piloting skill in contrast to his casual clumsiness is probably his most believable trait.

I'm not sure what I'd like to see in another cartoon. Probably something in the post RotJ era.

Maybe the crew of a tramp freighter trying to eke a living while avoiding gangsters and evil organizations...

...oh. wait. That's Firefly. 😏

31 minutes ago, salamar_dree said:

I'm not sure what I'd like to see in another cartoon. Probably something in the post RotJ era.

Maybe the crew of a tramp freighter trying to eke a living while avoiding gangsters and evil organizations...

...oh. wait. That's Firefly. 😏

But then again, Firefly is probably owes a lot to somebody's old WEG D6 Star Wars Tramp Freighter campaign.