Solo Complaints/Criticisms of Solo

No parody, I still hope to get the Spin off:
Rebellion of the Robosexuals - A Star Wars Story

And to get some hundred more people flooding Youtube with angry living room production rant channels

 

Viva la Social Justice Droid!

 

It’s kind of incredible how they packed so many unflattering SJW stereotypes into one character. She derails conversations with call-outs. She’s a sex nerd. Her friends humor her to her face and then eye-roll behind her back. Her “activism” is regarded as childish and laughable. She has androgynous characteristics. When she finally gets blown up it’s because she’s pontificating when she should be paying attention to her surroundings.

 

It's funny because the only people who use SJW unironically are dreadful.

 

I hate people who have empathy for other people!

 

I know right? Wanting people to be treated equally and fairly? LLLAAAAMMMEEE.

 

Is that what it means? I don't think so.

 

That there's Boba Fett-looking dude on the left that probably isn't Boba Fett.

 

The Darth Maul scene was pointless. It added nothing but confusion and Maul's fate was already shown in Rebels. The only way I could see it making sense was if the Obi-Wan movie was going to be him taking down Crimson Dawn and mending the old wound: but again that was squandered on a cartoon almost no one saw.

 

It was better to have cheesy stuff like Maul returning from the dead on a cartoon that few people watched, IMO. If they were going to jump that shark, better to do it while nobody was watching.

Ironically, many of the casual fans who saw the Maul reveal in Solo didn't even notice that he was supposed to be dead, as they were already watching a prequel and the timing/order of events is confusing.

Bringing dead characters back to life just indicates that SW is trash, IMO. When you care about your characters and your audience you don't pull stunts like that.

 

Han Solo is supposed to be dead too, whats your point?!. Even Kenobi was killed in ANH, if he showed up in a prequel cameo your logic would indicate the audience would be confused too. If anything or anyone was gonna confuse(or rather help turn off ) the audience it would be the title fan favorite character who was recently rather unceremoniously killed off in live action event movie like TFA back in 2015 . SOLO is set after the TPM and before ANH, I doubt people were confused cause the timeline was pretty clear and they made sure to make Maul looked more matured and scarred and carrying a new lightsaber .

Maul being there in the background adds a certain menace and gravity to the storyline and connects the cinematic movies. Maul is a very important and fan favorite character, and future will have a lot in store for Maul despite Filoni's and partners ego and stupid lack of vision on Rebels. I find it interesting that Maul is connected to Han Solo and his past and to Qi'ra, like all these characters are part of the same spider's web.

The only problem with the SW movies is that that they're deliberately not set up like MCU and lead up to something in a cohesive storyline , and even some of their films are prequels and are not all set up as sequels. They just do a better job overall, and hopefully Lucasfilm is learning - another reason probably why Maul was brought in instead of dropping in some random no-name old evil Hume Cronyn looking guy with key for hand as the big bad reveal of SOLO.

And am sure only a few people watched TCW,lol. TCW was just as important as the movies, Lucas was directly involved despite the medium. I don't think Filoni is a great storyteller or anything, but TCW was Lucas' direct extension of Star Wars.

 

Han Solo wasn't returned from the dead, so you really did miss my point.

Casual fans and movie fans don't watch the cartoons, read the comics and books, etc. They don't care to, and that's perfectly normal. TCW had 1-3 million regular viewers, Rebels had around 500,000. TLJ is the 11th highest grossing film of all time, millions of people watched it without any knowledge of Darth Maul's time spent as a robot spider or his discovery by his long lost brother, or of him taking over the Boba Fett planet, or having a black coloured laser sword, or being killed by Obi Wan Kenobi on Tatooine, etc, etc. Granted, Solo failed to connect with the millions of casual fans who supported TFA, RO, and TLJ, so it's lucky that this shamefully pungeant slice of SW cheese wasn't widely consumed.

The lack of contrived inter-weaved storytelling is not "the only problem" with the SW movies. I'd call the lack of shameless cross marketing like the SWEU of old a bonus.

 

My opinion of this has always been: Why make a big point out of everything being canon if you don't make good on that? In Solo, they made good on that. Even if it wasn't handled the best, it still shows something conceptually that I find really exciting as a fan.

 

Why make everything canon at all? Who benefits? What's the artistic merit?

I like some of the 1/2-Maul stories as fun and silly stories, but when I want something more serious from my Star Wars I'd like the option to bring back dead characters removed. No 'Boba Fett escaped' BS, no spider-Mauls, no plucking people from time. The old EU messed up everything because every bad artistic decision poisoned everything else.

 

I do. I really enjoy it. I like having the possibility to see characters from different media interacting with each other, with a chance for them to make it to the big screen. Seeing the Ghost in R1 and Maul in Solo was really cool, and I felt like it tied everything together showing that everything actually inhabits the same universe.

 

Maybe those callback moments would still work if they referred to things not necessarily carved in stone...? There needs to be a path out of bad continuity like Spidermaul.

Marvel and DC's periodic resetting of continuity wipes away the stink of bad ideas, SW has only really ever had one such event (which Spidermaul inexplicably survived) and it's much easier to enjoy characters like Luke and Leia again. Leia has her claws back, and Luke didn't fall in love with a ship's computer who used to be a magic Jedi who magic body-swapped with a minor character and then lost her connection to the force and oh my god I'm not even making this up, and I've not even touched on Luke and Mara's nauseating time together. I'm delighted that ST era Luke doesn't have decades of deteriorating narrative quality weighing him down.

I worry that Maul and the World Between Worlds and other time travel stuff in the comics is just too wacky and will need to be ...walked away from before too long if we're going to avoid the Disney Era repeating the mistakes of the EU era.

 

Maul was never confirmed dead nor even visibly "dead" on camera, what the characters and what some audience members presume is not the same thing, Lucas eventually sided with the fans that presumed he was still alive(which would not be unlike Boba Fett who is a better comparison). Maul did not return from the dead either, that would mean he was officially confirmed dead and came back to life somehow(which so far he has not but I would not put it past him).

Presumed being dead by some, and obviously being confirmed dead are not the same sorta things.

Presumed dead, but very much alive(in film):



Visibly dead and confirmed dead(in film):

 

Well actually. George Lucas said this when asked about Darth Maul's end in 1999.

I would say that is more confirmation of real death than Snoke has had.

 

@Vorax
There's not that big a difference between exhibits A and B. You're just assuming Snoke's dead because you saw his lifeless-looking body, and so did Hux and Kylo. You could easily find your expectations subverted if Snoke returns with a repulsorlift cummerbund and holographic legs.

 

LOL repulsorlift cummerbund, which I assume is referring to Maw from Dark Forces 2. Crying with laughter here.

 

It's the idea of having holographic vanity legs that makes me laugh. He could just be hovering there talking with his legs dancing.

 

^ Am sure Kylo and Hux along with general people in the audience and even the director just assumed Snoke was taking a nap - probably what normal people call a dirt nap. But am sure to posters like you when he returns in the film, everything wont be confusing to the audience or Star Wars. Am sure Ronin appearing in Captain Marvel drove everyone into mass confusion, and with Red Skull in Infinity War people must have stormed out've the theater as it was too hard to process. Somehow fiction and fantasy means reality too I suppose.



Maul is alive as he fell, and was never dead on camera. Kenobi presumed he died as he stood there. Unlike Snoke who is confirmed dead by Kylo and Hux . Do you understand the difference?!

Lucas eventually went that Maul was indeed alive and surived Naboo(and he had plans on confirming Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc and it was Lucas who came up with the idea for the Clone Emperor for Dark Empire), its not rocket science, try and keep up.

And many fans back in 1999 believed Maul could have survived and was alive and would return in the 2nd movie and then even the 3rd. Do you think fan theories about say a Snoke surviving on somehow are something new to Star Wars movies and fandom?! You could go back earlier with Fett's return(and the [Clone] Emperor) Or even Maw from 1997's Jedi Knight game.

Maw:



Back in the 90's it was nothing out've the ordinary for Dark Siders to return or survive on for thousands of years, example is Exar Kun in spirit. Sith ghosts/spirits were a thing(as was cloning).

 

Maw was planned to be cut in half and then come back in that one story. This is fine.
Exar Kun was introduced already as a spirit, already dead. This is fine.

Darth Maul was planned to be cut in half to highlight the fact that he wasn't coming back, the trilogy ended with him still being dead. This is fine.
Maul returning in TCW and then appearing in SOLO was a retcon that is confusing to a casual movies only watching fan . This is bad.

The Emperor and Boba Fett returned in a comic set after the movies were finished. This is ok, not great, but doesn't effect the watching of the movies.

Snoke returning in episode 9 wouldn't really be a retcon beause the ST has been an unplanned mess and there is nothing already written continuing from TLJ with Snoke factually really dead. So Snoke is free to come back (with a good explanation) in EpIX in a similar way to the Emperor or Cronal in old EU.

 

@Vorax
Please don't worry about my little old head following your complicated argument. I think I get it, I just disagree with your logic, which I think only works backwards from your conclusions.

Maul is seen killed, then described as dead, just like Snoke:

 

The return of Maul is the only complaint I have for Solo. As Jon Kasdan admitted, it is fair to feel that this return was a cheap stunt. It would have been so much better to see Jabba as the Godfather of the crime syndicate... or even Bib Fortuna speaking for Jabba.
Howard's explanation doesn't make any sense: "Jabba was on the list, but they kind of knew they didn't want to go that way because it would be sort of funny, and maybe a little bit too much like sequel-baiting."
I mean, what could be more sequel baiting than the return of Maul ?