A/V Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Theme Park - Disney Expansion in Anaheim & Orlando!

I've now made it my life goal to notify Aphra every time I'm at a theme park and she's not.


Missa ab iPhona mea est.

 

I. I've still been to to Harry Potter land!

II. I read the first thirty pages of the first book before going bc my baby cousin threatened me if I didn't read them before I went.

III. I didn't specify which theme parks I'd mention!


Missa ab iPhona mea est.

 

Hardly a bizarre choice- the original ride had a clear story presented primarily through a short film (and pre-recorded dialogue/video during the pre-show). It was basically a mini-movie with fancy moving seats (it's D-Box with hydraulics and some coplayers ).

The only real reason people thought it shouldn't have been included into continuity was because of the Death Star III. But now we have Starkiller Base, so a third Death Star doesn't seem like a big deal anymore (not that it ever really should have been, once the unique Habitation Sphere retcon was accepted).

The new ride is, admittedly, somewhat difficult to fit into continuity (mostly due to the inclusion of Battle of Hoth and, to a much lesser extent, the Battle of Coruscant), even though there's pretty interesting story potential waiting to be turned into a short story or single novel. Even so, it's unlikely the effort will be made since the NU is less auto-inclusive than the EU was.

Even so, I suspect these new rides/area will become more of a source of canon information (names, places, general events, etc) but not actual canon stories, given how they've operated so far.

 

I don't understand how having a clear story is anywhere near the same thing as fitting into continuity. The Infinities comics had "clear stories." There are more problems than that.

And the new Star Tours more problematic still. It's a relief that rides can just be rides now.

 

It's really only the Backlot area and car stunt show that's shutdown- Hollywood Studios still has its main 5 attractions (Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollercoaster, Star Tours, Toy Story & The Muppets)- and all but one of those are attractions you tend to go on multiple times. The Indy stunt show hasn't been shut down yet either, I think (though that's not something you really revisit often).

That's about on par, or better, for major theme park attraction counts, It's higher than Epcot (though Epcot is more of an experience, full-day thing than a set of rides), Animal Kingdom (though obviously the wildlife are the main stars), Islands of Adventure and equal to the pre-Fantasyland expansion Magic Kingdom.

I don't think one has to worry about Disney being competitive- between the Star Wars, Toy Story & Avatar expansions, there's going to be plenty new to do at their parks in 2-4 years.

That said, it's been so long since I've been to Universal Studios (I'm guessing at least 13 years) that I'm looking forward to hitting that park again if simply for the fact that they've gotten rid of almost every ride that was there the last time I went and replaced it with something else. I think only Twister, T2-3D & ET might still be there but old Kong, Earthquake, Jaws, BTTF, etc are all gone.

And when I do go I'll probably check out the Potter area at Islands (I don't really care about HP so it's more of a curiosity) and see how it compares to The Lost Continent it replaced, though, really, an IOA visit would really be about Spider-Man, JP & the Hulk coaster.

And, of course, I'm dying for that Nintendo park...

Well, I specified the story thing because there are some who have the bizarre dismissive attitude that something couldn't be canon "just because it's a ride" even though we're talking about a simulator-based short film and not the teacups.

It's one of the those things where the medium of the story had a unreasonable bias against it for some reason, despite the facts.

M

Not Hoth, "Gamma Base". It would have been a good retcon (and a chance to distinguish Gamma from Echo as a snow planet much like Jakku & Tatooine as a desert planet) but ST2 has pretty clearly labeled it Hoth so you really can't work around that. It's the only part of ST2 that can't fit into continuity relatively easily.

The Coruscant one is an easy fit- it could be a Lords of the Sith type scenario or a war games/historical recreation event hijacked by Rebels (either as an attack or a chaotic distraction to other events on Coruscant).

 

I just think the above is an exact example of why it's a problem. It's not that it's an inferior medium, it's that the story in the ride is clearly intending to show what it shows.

An attempt to fit it into continuity results in a distortion of the story for a goal that doesn't actually have to do with the ride experience.


Missa ab iPhona mea est.

 

Well, again, I freely admit ST2 is problematic- but the continuity issues of ST2 do not apply to ST1. There is no Hoth or Coruscant issue as we clearly have a unique set of events set after ROTJ involving a distinctly different Death Star and set of characters. So holding "it's a ride" against ST1 was always nonsense.

However, ST2 is a different story- but not because it's a ride but rather that it's only intending to revisit the films (like Battlefront).

But, while I wouldn't advocate ST2 itself being brought into canon as a whole, I still believe there's enough storytelling potential in there to base, but not directly adapt, a story on ST2.

Like, you have the crawl's prelude with Captain Antilles & the droids, you have two Rebel spies being chased by Vader who split up into different Starspeeders (either to try to escape or because they need to go to two different destinations or both). One of the spies ends up with the speeder with the droids. One speeder is found by Vader but escapes, the other speeder trails the Falcon.

One speeder heads towards the outer rim to Tatooine, the other core bound to Kashyyk. After getting a message from Ackbar, the first speeder goes from Tatooine to Geonosis (we know they're close) and ends up with the Rebel fleet. The second one jumps from Kashyyk to Coruscant (or Naboo, though honestly "Cham Chaos Over Coruscant" works cleaner and is much more interesting than "more Trade Federation on Naboo") after getting a message from Leia, uses droid fighter chaos to slip past Imperials and reach destination.

That skips the problematic Hoth & Jakku (& Naboo) segments and Yoda/BB-8 holos and leaves you with the solid basis for a written story.

 

I mean if they want to do an in-continuity tie in comic or short story like video games used to do, that's different. Like you say, it could just come up with a variation of the story paths that makes sense.

And it would actually be an interesting story if the protags ended up being a random civilian family and NOT the Rebel spy. That'd make it an interesting story worth telling: innocents caught in the line of fire etc.


Missa ab iPhona mea est.

 

It depends on how large of a story was being written- a full novel probably could have supported POV protags of the spies, the civvies & the droids. And spreading events across 5+ locations (with presumably more linking material inbetween) would give plenty of opportunity to explore them all.