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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

PT Should we petition for more Prequel Era content from Disney?

Discussion in 'Prequel Trilogy' started by Jesta', Jan 30, 2017.

  1. Jesta'

    Jesta' Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 25, 2017
    In the context of intentionally ignoring the events during the PT time period, yea, I'd agree with that.
     
  2. Qui-Riv-Brid

    Qui-Riv-Brid Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 18, 2013
    The only way to find out what the Jedi Order were about is to watch I-III and TCW.

    So like so many things the events TFA steer you to the entire saga not simply the 3 OT movies.

    Which is the whole intent of the way they work these things.
     
  3. Cryogenic

    Cryogenic Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2005

    Yes. The PT is more "exposition-based" than the OT. One could actually interpret it as a form of recursive footnotes to the OT; with ROTS being the footnotes to the OT as a whole, then AOTC as the footnotes to both ROTS and the OT, and finally, TPM as the footnotes to AOTC, ROTS, and the OT. It's as if Star Wars were (or is) performing itself, or elaborating on itself, ornately, in reverse.

    Another advantage the PT has over the OT is a technical one. Lucas had to rein himself in to begin with and could barely do a tenth of what he envisioned. These technical limitations are both trivial and vast. Consider, for example, the fact that curved ships (which reflect more light) were generally regarded as a "no-no" in the OT, due to difficulties with the bluescreen process and bluespill.

    But, basically, as you intimate, in leaving himself with so much more to show at a future date, including the "nitty gritty" of the world, Lucas allowed the PT to have its own language and impact, with respect to the OT, and to other films, period. The Aristotelian/Galenic scope of the PT, like a series of subtle arguments or theses come to life, is hugely impressive, in my opinion. ​
     
  4. Cedric T Sealion

    Cedric T Sealion Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 2014
    Stunning pedantry. Yes, Rogue One is a prequel. But when people refer to the prequel era, it's a fairly safe assumption they are talking about the prequel trilogy era. If someone was talking about the sequel era, you wouldn't think they were talking about Empire and Jedi, you would know that they were talking about episodes 7-9. Christ on a bike!
     
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  5. Qui-Riv-Brid

    Qui-Riv-Brid Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 18, 2013
    The first part. Not the second.

    Which R1 is directly a part of. Then there is the larger SW saga era which starts with I-VI and the TCW before all the new canon.

    Lucas' Star War is the basis from which everything else in being built upon which is evident in TFA, R1 and all the rest of the new canon.
     
  6. Cedric T Sealion

    Cedric T Sealion Jedi Knight star 1

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    Jul 19, 2014
    Rogue One does not take place during the prequel trilogy era. The prequel trilogy era starts with The Phantom Menace and ends with Revenge of the Sith.
     
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  7. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Pre TPM- Republic era
    TPM to ROTS-Prequel era
    AOTC to ROTS- Clone Wars era
    Or Rise of the Empire era overall
    ROTS to ANH- The Dark Times
    ANH to ROTJ-OT, Rebellion era, or Galactic Civil War (might bump to Rogue One or Rebels)
    Rotj to TFA-New Republic era,
    Bloodlines to E9-Resistance vs First Order era.
     
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  8. Cryogenic

    Cryogenic Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2005


    This is accurate as R1 looked very dark at my cinema.
     
  9. Subtext Mining

    Subtext Mining Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2016
    Read Darth Plagueis. If you haven't already. Quite an excellent book.

    Cloak of Deception, as well.
     
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  10. B99

    B99 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 10, 2014
    I Don't see any reason to petition.. Disney is not anti prequel... That being said.... I would really love more content in that era. I do think after the Han Solo movie we need to get out of the OT or III-IV timeline little bit more.. Just think we need to give it time.. Who knows what the third anthology film will be... And we could get PT content in Battlefront II !
     
  11. Wrenegade

    Wrenegade Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 8, 2015
    No they aren't.

    The amount of references was more than enough given the fact that the films took place 50+ years ago in-universe.

    That was an EA decision, not a Disney one. And by the way, "Disney" doesn't make any of these decisions, Lucasfilm does. Yes, Disney owns the company, but with Lucasfilm, much like with Marvel, they seem to have the policy of "So long as you remain profitable, we won't butt in." And that's undebatable fact.

    There were MANY factors that went into that, none of which were your conspiracy theory about them trying to suppress half of the franchise they spent $4.2 Billion to buy. The Clone Wars was aired on Cartoon Network, and they were unable to come to an agreement with them about future distribution of the franchise. Additionally, TCW was exceptionally expensive to produce, which they were able to get away with it at the time because the show was the only thing the company was pouring money into for the most part. But now with the various new movies, in just didn't make financial sense. Now you could argue that they could have made a new show in the Prequel era as opposed to making Rebels. Well for one thing, I imagine they wanted to move forward into a different era as opposed to staying in the same place, and the fact of the matter is that the Prequel era was simply far larger in scale, and therefore way more expensive to animate that a Dark Times era show set on backwater planets. To be clear, I agree that it sucks that the show got cancelled, but I'm not under the impression that it's part of some huge conspiracy.

    Canon or not, the PT era has been "showered" with content since the early 2000s, so it only makes logical sense to balance it out a bit. I firmly believe that once the ST is done, the balance of content will shift largely in that era's favor, and the PT and OT will have the remaining amount of content equally divided between them.

    Well, for the reasons stated above, I don't really agree with your narrative of Disney/LucasFilm suppressing the era, but even if I did agree, I'd still say no. A small group of people sign g an online petition would do nothing to change the actions of a massive company.
     
  12. B99

    B99 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 10, 2014
    Rogue One though!!
     
  13. cbwhu

    cbwhu Jedi Knight star 1

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    Mar 10, 2016
    1) The PT is less popular with the general public
    3) the PT is further away in time than the OT in new films so makes sense it would feature less
    2) the PT already has more hours of coverage than any other era (something like 50 hours inc films and TCW)
     
  14. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    1) Its not actually. It's 50/50 in the US, more prequel heavy internationally.
    2) Doesn't mean we can't have content in the PT era or even before.
    3) Yeah if you don't count the countless books/comics/games in both Legends and new canon set during the OT or Dark Times era. And also TV shows: Droids, Ewoks and Rebels.
     
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  15. darkspine10

    darkspine10 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Dec 7, 2014
    Assuming 20 minutes is the length of an episode:

    The Clone Wars, with the movie, and 8 story reels comes to 2660 minutes, while the 2003 Clone Wars was 129 minutes.

    Rebels currently runs to 1040 minutes. Droids ran to 280 minutes, and Ewoks ran to 700 minutes, plus the live action Ewok movies which adds another 191 minutes. That's 2211 minutes.

    That's just the tv shows though, the PT movies run to 415 minutes, the OT to 376, the Holiday Special is 98 minutes with TFA and R1 clearly falling into the OT aesthetic, adding another 269 minutes.

    So in total, PT content runs to 3204 minutes, and OT content runs to 2954 minutes.

    With the Han Solo movie, the continuing Rebels, and the probably OT aesthetic The Last Jedi, all future tv and film Star Wars projects are OT, with no tv PT content since 2014's The Bad Batch.

    This also doesn't take into account the number of books, comics and video games in each era.
     
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  16. L110

    L110 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 26, 2014
    Of course, the main reason why Episodes I, II and III are more "exposition-based" is simply due to the fact that they are the first act of the story and a first act is always primarily about exposition and seting up what the story is about. They set up not only what´s going to happen later on in IV, V and VI but were also (along with IV-VI) supposed be a set up for Episodes VII, VIII and IX. Well, you know, the ones which Lucas was developing and which got thrown into a garbage can by Horn, Iger and Kennedy.
     
  17. L110

    L110 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 26, 2014
    No it isn´t. Ask Pablo Hidalgo. I-III are just as popular with the general public as IV-VI.
     
  18. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Droids, and Rebels should fall into its own category. Dark Times, since they fall between the PT and the OT. Though with Rebels, you could make the case for PT (since you make the case for OT), because PT characters, planets, droids, etc show up.
    Never mind that Ewoks, Droids, the Holiday Special were made more than 30 years ago.
    The Holiday Special was shown what? Once on TV? And have to find bootleg copies on line?
    Ewoks and Droids had a limited episode DVD release back in 04 but nothing since.
    The micro-series, TCW and Rebels would be more on the mind of viewers today imo.
     
  19. Cryogenic

    Cryogenic Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2005

    That's true. And yet, in many respects, they are a full story in and of themselves. Arguably -- though not to completely defend Disney -- Lucas never really had as much confidence or interest in the sequel trilogy. He said, while the PT was under construction, at least he would get those movies complete, as it obviously meant a lot to him. While making ROTS, he also placed emphasis on Star Wars being a single "twelve-hour" movie; with ROTS being that final missing piece. He also declared to Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" that "There is no Episode Seven"; that the story starts with Vader coming through the door (or Anakin running into the junk shop) and ends with his death. I don't think this was a marketing or a PR thing. I think he really felt that he finished the story he wanted to tell. I also think he seriously wanted everyone to open themselves up to the possibility of looking at it as one giant piece. Truly, in many ways, space opera.

    The Star Wars saga, as Lucas constructed it, is essentially a three-act story. Watched in "story" order, Episodes I and II are the exposition, Episode III is when things turn wrong (the real "drama" episode), and Episodes IV, V, and VI are the recovery/restitution phase. Obviously, this is only one reading; but the patterning works. In another reading, perhaps Episode I is the exposition, and Episodes II and III are a dramatic pair (double trouble; the middle act; where things get weird: THE CLONE WARS), and Episodes IV, V, and VI are, once more, the resolution phase. Yet another reading might place Episode I as an overture, Episodes I and II as two or even three acts (AOTC could be seen as "Act I" = blue/coldness; "Act II" = orange/fury; with the changeover happening as Anakin decides to break his Jedi mandate and leave Naboo/paradise and go to Tatooine/the underworld; paralleled by Obi-Wan leaving Kamino and pursuing Jango for Geonosis), and the OT installments following on as fable-like epilogue. Many more combinations are possible. The OT might be watched first as "Act I" or an overture; with the PT installments then playing as one act each. Or the OT could be watched first, followed by watching the PT backwards as a set of ever-more-abstract footnotes, as I suggested above. There are a multitude of structures to see within the main structure. They're all there when you study the crystal a certain way.

    Incidentally, I sort of see TFA as a mixture of an epilogue to the main saga and a bridging movie; or some kind of addendum or codex; or maybe a macroquel. Maybe, in fact, a satire of sorts, that just so happens to "shock" you with a dark climax, and then an inversion of the way ROTJ (or the main saga) ends. Instead of a group of people, including Luke, looking happy/overjoyed in a warm tree village, it's two people, one being an older Luke, looking sadly at one another on a cold mountaintop. The final helicopter shot then signifies the saga "sliding off" into paths and tangents unknown.

    But the twelve-hour movie thing is what really grips me. On a standard watch, there are obviously twelve hour markings. And Lucas' first film, "THX-1138", could be read as indicating a time: twenty-two minutes to midnight. A time that sort of points to the last part of ROTS, if watched as the concluding installment (production/temporal order). It could also point to AOTC, which was released, of course, in 2002 ("22"). Another allusion to the end being the most significant or mind-expanding part is found in the "Indiana Jones" series (obviously a sort of Star Wars offshoot/sly companion piece or almanac), with Henry Jones Sr., Indy's dad, remarking, "What happens at eleven o'clock?"

    There are very clear allusions to time in Star Wars. Every movie opens with the words "A long time ago". Time and structure are very important properties of the artwork. A sequel trilogy, by its very nature, is sort of an affront to that complete-by-itself construction of the main saga. Maybe like some cockpit (Millennium Falcon) placed to one side, coming off (but still attached to) the main body. I dunno. I just don't think the sequel trilogy is expressly needed. Not if you keep the twelve-hour movie concept in mind. It's there, it's adding on, but it's sort of extraneous. Like this sentence.
     
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  20. Jesta'

    Jesta' Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 25, 2017
    I agree Droids and Ewoks should be in their own category. Holiday special doesn't count. But Rebels in another category other than the OT?!? We might as well count Clone Wars in it's own category.
    Thanks for the list dude! Glad we can see the numbers now. Regardless if it hurts my argument it's good to see the facts!
     
  21. Qui-Riv-Brid

    Qui-Riv-Brid Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 18, 2013
    I agree that is also pendantically correct but then it doesn't either take place in the original trilogy era which starts with A New Hope and ends with Return of the Jedi.

    Rogue One, Rebels and Han Solo therefore take place in what is obviously a crossover era of of both trilogies

    Then we have the various books and comics that can take place in either of those defined eras or between them or like the Darth Vader and Star Wars comic which take place right after ANH but bring in the PT era to the core of the story.

    Which is what happens in TFA and the ST which brings in both the PT and OT era influences.

    I like your breakdowns.

    I think of TPM as the Prologue ie introductory, AOTC as a Prelude ie Preceding events like a musical overture and then ROTS is the main chorus (literally with Battle of the Heroes) of the 3 main musical themes AOTC doesn't use the chorus that TPM and ROTS do.

    Yes TFA is an epilogue of sorts. Part coda that ties off the loose ends of ROTJ (ie what happened afterwards) while setting up the new pieces to follow in VIII and IX.

    In that way it's aptly enough a combination of TPM and ANH in that it's both starting something and also continuing something.
     
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  22. Jesta'

    Jesta' Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 25, 2017
    That's like saying the new Darth Maul comic isn't set during the PT because it's before TPM... I fail to see the logic.
     
  23. Daxon101

    Daxon101 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 7, 2016
    I think after episode 7 there was this idea that Disney were ignoring the prequels because there was nothing prequel-esk in it but really what was there to include from the prequels? its 50 years after Episode 3 right? Obviously the elder characters of the OT are in this because they are still alive and its a kinda pass the torch type deal but really there is nothing prequel-esk to hold on too for the new trilogy beyond a couple of nods and the prequels place within canon.

    I think over time we will get more prequel stuff in these films since i thought Vader's castle being on mustafar was a nice touch.
     
  24. Jesta'

    Jesta' Jedi Knight star 3

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    Jan 25, 2017
    The flashback scene for one, we could of seen Anakin duel Obi Wan. Anyway, Jar Jar Abrams went as far to remove as many minor hints to the PT, here is an excerpt from a Rolling Stone article "Abrams, fresh from his speech about the importance of details, sits at the center of the editing room. They begin by reviewing a shot shown in the trailer, where dozens of flags appear on a castle that belongs to Maz Kanata, a mysterious little goggle-wearing creature, played by Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) via motion-capture and CGI. The flags are designed to drive superfans nuts with references to the earlier movies, but Abrams tells Guyett that too many of them allude to the first of Lucas’ prequels"
     
  25. Force Smuggler

    Force Smuggler Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    If it is set in a certain era, it is that era with ties to the greater SW universe imo.
    The characters from TPM aren't brought into the OT as they were in TPM.
    Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, Yoda etc, grew in the intervening 32 years.
    The Clone Wars, Empire, Dark Times, Rebellion, etc. all influenced their lives. They aren't the same person they were back then. Completely different.