Speculation What would you be annoyed at if Disney removed?

The PT contradicts the OT in many ways - thanks to the wonderful reimaginings of George Lucas.
Anakin Skywalker - one huge contradiction from old man to rebellious stroppy young adult who suddenly changes from a well spoken English 60 something to a 23 year old Canadian in 23 year old gap (timeline). New story or not - one of the biggest jokes of the franchise. How? It's ridiculous.

The Force. An invisible energy field that only few people could harness that didn't need explaining that you had to have cooties to use. Microscopic lifeforms... Pffffft.

"There is more, it won't be easy for you to hear..." but i've got to run to work...

 

Exactly - Star Wars is/was Science Fantasy. Not Science Fiction. Things do not need explaining.

The same with Yoda. He can lift an X-Wing out of a swamp because he is the most powerful Jedi of them all. He can truly harness the Force. That was magical. His description in ESB of the force is touching and strong. It still amazes me... Then only to be told in the prequels that a Jedi can only be more powerful by a cell count (ala Anakin/TPM) - it defeats the fun, fairy tale aspect of it. Suddenly Jedi are microbiologists and the magic disappears quicker than a dance footed Jedi pulling off crappy sword play in a Theed power/reactor station. So to be all powerful, you need a lot of bacteria? That makes Anakin special because he has a cell count over 20,000? Only as "Special" as Christensen's performance.

 

fuzzbox77 and anakinfansince1983
Truthfully, the only point I hear "contradiction" at is with Anakin becoming Canadian from his previous portrayal as English. The rest is only that it does not gel with many popular fan sentiments at the time, not anything actually presented in the movies. Your examples seem to be about how subjects are portrayed to the fans.

 

The original post was pretty limited in its direction for this thread, but I don't think it was intended to just list examples where the PT contradicted the OT. That in and of itself isn't even on-topic in an E7 forum.

 

I'd be annoyed if the sheer enormity of the galaxy-wide struggle for power, control, and peace across the PT and OT were removed (I guess ignored is a better word). It's not like everything would have just been fine and dandy after the Celebration scene in ROTJ. There are ramifications from a war of that magnitude that would still be felt pretty strongly 30 years later.

 

I would be annoyed if Episode VII didn't have the same kind of fun, goofy energy that ANH had. It just felt like a good old-fashioned space adventure, and I want that kind of feeling in these new films. Since there isn't required backstory (i.e. the Prequels) to have to cover, hopefully that will help in this process. I'd rather not see moody Star Wars that delves too much into the recent (and vastly overdone) film tropes of the human condition/psyche and the endless gritty reboots of everything under the sun, even if they weren't "tough" to begin with. I don't need grit, just adventure and enough one-liners and cool SW stuff to make it fun.

 

Gunny, if you say that, then they will copy ANH. I'm pretty sick and tired of constant "nods" to ANH or the OT in general. I would like them to experiment and try out something new.

 

Although it was more of an homage to Spielberg and especially Close Encounters/E.T. I think JJ's Super 8 gives me hope on this front. One of the closest feelings to the magic I felt as a kid, that I've had in the cinema in recent years...

 

I honestly can't think of anything that would annoy me if it was absent. The only elements that pop into my head are iconic Star Wars things that are extremely unlikely to be left out (the main theme, the opening text crawl, the pan down to a big planet or ship, wipes, our heroes (in this case I'm guessing we will be getting all of the originals to some degree Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Threepio and Artoo?, the Force, blasters, lightsabres, the Falcon and X-Wings).

Edit: As I'm new to this forum, I've re-read the above about 5 times now to see if it fits in with the NSA rules. I'm hoping that it all fits into speculation based purely upon the fact that this is a sequel trilogy set after ROTJ. The only thing that made me twitch was the character names, again based on assumption as no(?) casting has been officially announced. Is that OK?

 

KeithyT : Yup, you're OK there.

BTW, welcome to the boards.

 

Right, but recently I see people fall back on ANH, whether it's for nostalgia or writer's block. Maybe Rebels is a mix of both.

I hope Episode VII is fresh and inventive.

 

I agree. ANH is my favorite movie, out of all movies, but I don't want to see them just try to recreate it in the ST. Rebels too, but I care less in that case. SW movies can be "fresh and inventive" while still feeling like SW.

 

I'm glad that you brought that up because I believe "while still feeling like SW" creates conflict when writing new stories. Writers might think "Okay, how do I make this like ANH, but not exactly ANH." From what I've been seeing, it seems like they rely on ANH (or the OT in general) to draw in fan interest and create that nostalgia. Episode VII presents a good opportunity to move away from the OT and create something brand new. It will still be Star Wars at the end of the day, of course, but it will stand by itself and have its own identity.

tl;dr: Throw away that crutch.

 

Yeah, I should clarify that I didn't mean it could be fresh and feel just like ANH specifically... note that I said "SW". I think the PT movies feel like SW too. So in short, I agree with you... the ST can and should have its own identity while still feeling like SW. That should not really be a stretch, either... the PT and the OT have different identities and feelings to them, while still feeling like SW. And really, each individual film has its own feeling and identity, even though it fits into one of two trilogies and one six-part saga too.

 

Yeah, I saw that. However, imo, when people think about Star Wars, their mind might think of lightsabers, The Force, the big three, or even ANH in general. There are of course exceptions, such as PT fans, but official Star Wars material these days (visually, you know what I mean ) use the OT as a crutch to sell their new SW product. All of these "nods" to the OT tend to get rather old and the OT's shine quickly fades.

I appreciate what Lucas did for the PT. He tried to blend what worked in the past with new material. Given the new technology used as well, such as CGI, it certainly stood by itself. The artwork and aesthetics were definitely reminiscent of the OT too. I wouldn't mind seeing that in the ST, but I hope their mindset doesn't stick with "hmm does this match the OT?"

 

Han. I'd be annoyed if they removed Han.

 

I'd be annoyed if they ignored the information given in the PT (since the more I read about it the more I'm seeing Ep VII as just a homage to the OT)
If they backtrack information there (especially Midi-chlorians, Anakin's story etc) I'll be annoyed

 

Do you think they could justify this by the fact that Luke was not from the PT era. Meaning he did not receive his training, knowledge from the Jedi (Qui-Gonn, Obi- Wan, Mace Windu, Yoda) at the height of their PT powers. He sort of received a brief, filterered down(?) introduction to it all from Obi-Wan and Yoda. He might not therefore necessarily pass on the PT type skills, speed, and knowledge. Or do we assume that his time between ESB and ROTJ when he constructed his own lightsabre and completed his training and study on his own, fills any gaps he might have had.

Of course my ramblings will all become moot once the first new Jedi in Episode VII starts somersaulting madly around like Yoda in AOTC haha!

 

Well, since Yoda knew Luke was going to have to teach other Jedi, he probably gave Luke instruction in everything, even if we don't see it demonstrated on-screen... now maybe that could be a good, fan-approved spin-off: the parts of Yoda teaching Luke the Jedi path that we don't see on-screen.

 

What would I be annoyed if Disney removed? The passion put into every frame of film, and the layered visual story that coincides with and explores the surface-level stuff. The mythological, religious, political, and historic roots translated in such a way that they blend together seamlessly to create that feeling that only a Star Wars film can achieve. The western/samurai/fantasy motifs dressed up in the guise of a science-fiction world. The sense of wonder and awe that captured all of us in the first place.

You guys can say what you want about J.J. Abrams. Call him a hack, say he disrespected Star Trek, complain about the "mystery box" and the lens flares and whatever else you want to complain about, but I honestly respect the guy and sincerely believe that he can honor what Lucas has done while putting his own stamp on it as well. The only real problem that I potentially foresee is the film's very existence. If ever there was a movie that didn't need a sequel, it would be Return of the Jedi. But hey, this is happening and I can't stop that so I might as well be excited... and I am immensely. Why focus on the bad when there is so much potential good?

"You can't stop change, any more than you can stop the suns from setting."

 

/\ This!!!!

I think this is what will be the biggest obstacle to making the ST good.