16 Comments
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Paul Riddell's avatar

Good to see you back, kemo sabe. With the current Kurosawa riches on Tubi this month, I've been thinking about you a lot.

Jeff K's avatar

Oh nice. I’m going to have to check that out.

NJ's avatar

Speaking of kids turned adults revisiting episode 1, watched Phantom Menace with Elwood the other night (Shout out to LEGO Star Wars Droid Tales and Rebuild the Galaxy for making him suddenly all-in on Star Wars), and I found myself feeling like the real problem with it all was never Lloyd or Jar Jar, but Qui-Gonn. No wonder Obi-Wan never mentioned him to Luke.

Jeff K's avatar

What’s your beef with Qui-Gonn? I’m curious if it’s the same as mine.

NJ's avatar

Everything? I feel hyper sensitive to all dialogue/plot devices and what they're subconsciously "teaching" the four year old soaking it all in. After watching Empire the night before, I had high expectations after Yoda absolutely destroys whiny Luke and his little tantrums with every other line. Qui-Gonn meanwhile is just the absolutely worst about basically everything. I found it difficult to tell if the writing was meant to highlight the weird irony of Jedi child kidnapping behind a backdrop of ignoring the immorality of just letting slavers slave.

What really did me in on this particular viewing though was him asking Jar Jar if he was a sentient being capable of speech and five minutes later lecturing Boss Nass about his species' religious life debt rules. I get that it's canon now, but in a vacuum, right after he's Jedi mind tricked a head-of-state, he conveniently knows the religious customs of an isolationist culture that seem awfully similar to a different species' unique and well-known customs (while also not knowing their weird for boat?!?).

I'm just glad that Rebuild the Galaxy gives Jar Jar the arc that he deserved.

Jeff K's avatar

Some of that could just be the classic George Lucas writing. But I do tend to agree.

Qui-Gon - “The Jedi are guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy.”

Also Qui-Gon - “Slaves? Well, I guess I can free one of them through a convoluted gambling scheme where I selectively decide when I can use the Force and just abandon his mother leading to the downfall of the Republic.”

NJ's avatar

I had really forgotten just how convoluted the gambling scheme was. Lol.

Meanwhile, I'm still reeling from having to spend a half hour at bedtime a few weeks ago explaining DNA because I needed to clarify Jango's relationship to Boba "Alpha" Fett only for what I remembered as the most kid-friendly installment to hit me with the one-two punch of gambling and slavery.

Jeff K's avatar

Yeah, Qui-Gon's scheme makes the "Han Solo Rescue Plan" in ROTJ look well thought out and rational. Well, maybe I shouldn't go that far. But Star Wars does love itself an overly complicated plan.

Recognizing Patterns's avatar

Vector Prime... *shudder*

Jeff K's avatar

When I decided to read NJO, I went up to Half Price Books and bought the first 6 books or so. The clerk checking me out says “you know they drop a moon on Chewie, right?” No, I didn’t. Thanks.

I did know that they offed Chewie, but didn’t know the details. I guess he (rightly) figured after 25 years, the statute of limitations for spoilers has run.

Eric Pierce's avatar

Love Filoni's enthusiasm, don't love where his involvement took The Mandalorian. That said, I don't really expect any changes at Lucasfilm. He seemed to have Kennedy's ear. Should be a smooth transition.

Jeff K's avatar

Yeah, I don’t think we’ll see a ton of change at Lucasfilm. Especially not right away.

Christopher Wilbur's avatar

Looking at that highlighted page, I wanted to add a fact (actually, my vague memory) in defense of R.A. Salvatore: whoever at Del Rey Books wanted to bring back some fear and drama back into the story, so they decided to kill off a main character. They first suggested Luke but George wouldn't allow it. Then they asked about Chewie and he said it was ok. So, Mr. Salvatore was instructed to kill Chewie with George Lucas' approval. I didn't read these books, by the way. It's funny that the now-canon sequel trilogy did the opposite of what Lucas allowed.

Christopher Wilbur's avatar

Now that I think about it, I probably read about that in Star Wars Insider magazine.

Neural Foundry's avatar

The boogeyman analogy is perfect - every franchise needs someone to blame when things dont go as planned. What really caught my attention was the Andor discussion tho. I remember watching it in 2022 and thinking how diffrent it felt from typical Star Wars, almost like a John le Carré novel got dropped into the galaxy. That gritty approach worked because it trusted the audinece to handle complexity without lightsabers as a crutch.

Jeff K's avatar

Spot on. You know, I have long thought that le Carre had to be an influence on Gilroy. You had things like Lucen’s trade craft and clandestine cells. And in le Carre’s world, things are messy. Like with the Maya Pei Brigade arguming among themselves or the Ghorman Front not being nearly as good as they think they are. It’s not James Bond.