Lit "Superman" Luke of the EU

Regarding the issue of China-it seems Disney is in a bit of a conundrum in this regard. The OT doesn't have the same cultural and nostalgic sway in China as it does in the US(the films weren't even released in the PRC at the time of their western release) but also Disney is looking at China as a big market.

So Disney engaged in quite a bit of intensive marketing and seemingly to no avail-at least in China.

 

Hero was once the highest-grossing film in China. Y'know, the one about how Imperialism is the way forward.

I don't think Star Wars really has the same appeal.

 

It doesn't-and that does present a problem. Star Wars is very much a western franchise embedded in western ideas(from a particular period in western history) and is most well known and popular in the western world.

And yet China is a big market and Hollywood has been looking to tap that market for years.

It may come to pass that's what popular in the west is not popular in China and vice versa. Thus causing a major headache for international entertainment conglomerates like Disney.

 

Daisy Ridley is a great actress, but it does feel like they could have cast a Chinese lead to appeal to China if it was already known Rey wasn't related to a previous character.

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While I'm all for diversity, I feel like pandering to the rascist attitudes of an audience for monetary gain is odious.

That's not to say she couldn't be Asian. Just not for that reason.

 

I don't think Disney should at all cast people based off of racial appeal. That's just wrong. I remember Marvel whitewashed a Tibetan character in Dr Strange as not to offend Chinese audiences. Where are their morals?

 

Some brands work, some don't. The Fast and the Furious franchise performs superbly over there, as do Transformers and the Marvel films.

Was it not to offend Chinese audiences? I'm not saying it's not, I just don't recall reading that. Conversely they changed the gender of the role and got one of the premier actresses of her generation to play the part so... not a total loss.

 

One of the writers said it, then said it was his opinion and not Marvel's.

 

Kathleen Kennedy said Rey and Finn could have been cast by actors of any race, that Daisy and John were just the best of all those who came to the auditions.

 

They are outstanding actors. My issues with 7 and 8 aside, I always feel we are getting fine performances from these two, and Oscar Isaac.

 

I'm honestly not sold on Daisy Ridley. She isn't that good of an actress at least in my personal opinion.

 

Do you feel this way about her other non-SW works too? It's possible she's been hobbled by JJ and Rian's dialogue

 

The only other thing I saw her in was the Orient Express-and I didn't think her performance was particularly strong in that either.

 

In what EU stories is Luke most li a Jesus or redeemer type figure?

 

Except the MCU (even Captain America), the Fast and Furious franchise and Transformers are popular in China and these franchises originate in America. SW missed out multiple opportunities it had to gain a foothold there. Arguably the most recent one was the lack of any presence in the late 00s when ROTS had finished and where these franchises were able to build their fanbases in China (or revival them arguably with TFs).

 

Yeah, I don't fully understand why, when so much of the polling seemed to indicate that Chinese audiences were "lost"? Like, why not do a big theatrical push of the original movies there?

 

Tibet is a third rail to China; Beijing doesn't like it when there's (alleged) support in Western media for Tibetan independence (i.e., showing Tibetans as standing on their own).

The Ancient One in Strange was undeniably whitewashing, albeit not (AFAI can tell) intended to be racist. Still a fail on the MCU's part (not to take away from Tilda Swinton's performance - I thought she was excellent, but would've been a better Umar, with the role/backstory adjusted to fit a positive mentorship role and having someone else play the Ancient One).

AFA Luke ... one of the few things TLJ got right, IMHO, was preserving Luke's attempts to be compassionate.

There's any number of fan theories on what was going on with Legends Luke by the time of Crucible, each as about as equally valid as any other (he's secretly White Eyes, he's C'baoth pulling a Force-illusion, he never rose from bending the knee to Palpatine in Dark Empire, etc.) Entire threads have been launched, floated, sank, and rose again on the question of what was so messed up with Farmboy, so I won't rehash them.

But TLJ Luke? Points for trying to reach out to his nephew; minuses for not hanging in there and fighting alongside the Resistance.

 

He didn't reach out to his nephew though. Taunting him through a Force Illusion doesn't count.

I miss Grand Master Skywalker from the EU. He was everything a Jedi Grand Master should have been. Wise, powerful, compassionate and extremely determined. Everything Canon Luke is not.

I believed in Luke Skywalker.

 

He was motivated by a want to help him prior to that, before realising that he can't be the one to help him.

I haven't read the old EU after ROTJ, but I recall people describing a Luke far less in character than anything in TLJ.

 

It depends on what you look at:

Bantam / DHC: Luke as a far more forgiving and compassionate character.
NJO: Oddly inactive for much of it, but doesn't lose the compassion.
Denningverse - 2004-2012: Source of the bulk of the damage to the character.

 

So TLJ Luke is mostly similar to NJO Luke?

 

Fighting in VP, DT, SBS, EL, DW, FH, TUF,
Talking with the government in many books,
Helping coordinate the Great River,
Leading the Jedi etc.
More than he did in TLJ.

 

Yeah but TLJ takes place over a couple days at most, while it was the beginning of the war. Prior to that the conflict was relatively small scale from what we know.

 

Yah, Luke isn't hiding out from a war, that just sorta happened. It's his great shame his failure with Ben is what drove him away. It seems by the time Ben went and killed all of Luke's students, the First Order weren't a known to the galaxy at large thing (Bloodline literally nobody knows about the FO the entire time aside from baddies keeping it on the DL). It's personal reasons why Luke leaves, not galaxy.

 

Yeah, I tend to mostly be just fine with Luke all the way through the end of the NJO. It's the post-NJO where he kind of goes off the rails.

In other words, same as my opinion of the old EU in general.