Star Wars: The Disney+ Empire Strikes Again and Again and...

Thought this was out today but two episodes land Friday instead

was hoping for andor to be about the wookiee planet

got a prequel prequel instead

You don't like it, there's the (An)door

Right, Obi-Wan then.

not really a spoiler but just wanted to note that this show’s opening scene was extremely unfortunate, given recent events :/

Quite, but here we are, sadly.

But phew...hell of a start overall, those two episodes. And canny bastards they got where nearly all of the trailer scenes were from these two episodes.

And of course the one character there wasn't a hint of at all.

And in terms of the featured cast...how you say, a guy known for other things a little more than acting, though obviously has done some acting already. I literally went "Wait is THAT...?!"

Also while we're at it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUGFFxIFym4

@ned i lol’d and i want that action figure

Especially if they make a variant with his more well known persona, only substituting a strapped-on lightsaber for a sock.

(And seeing the name in the familiar end credits font/backdrop absolutely did my brain in.)

Also lol i thought the same thing re: action playset

yeah man that was a NO WAY moment

Hahah.

"So you want to join our jizz band."

"Well, duh."

That Andor trailer, BTW, looks pretty fucking amazing. The building out of the Star Wars universe step by step keeps being interesting to me. (Also in how things can start to interconnect: the start of the first Obi-Wan episode also had me going "Hmm and elsewhere in the same building at the same time a little green alien kid is watching his protectors die...")

Worth noting in light of The Acolyte apparently being the first filmed version of the High Republic years that the next publishing initiative announced will be about a hundred years before said time in turn.

Anyway, Obi-Wan and the big character reveal we didn't know about beforehand: awesome. She is GOOD. What a smart way to bring the character back. (Even if, as others have noted, that kinda makes her later holographic message to the titular character seem a little stilted...)

also if she hung out w him so much back in the day as a kid… how come when she’s grown she only talks to him as her dad’s war buddy? 🤔

I dug it, but that chase scene in the forest was the cheesiest thing.

xpost Exactly my implication, you see. :-D

Hey if you're being chased in a forest by a rock star, is it cheese or their latest video?

i wish they had released that 5 minute recap theatrically back in the day, sparing me the disappointment of three entire prequels

It was interesting seeing all that with wholly new not-John Williams music over it that also worked. It really changed the emphasis of a lot of it!

I think 'us' as older fans coming to terms with how a younger generation has had the prequels, and then the Clone Wars et al as further supplements, as part and parcel of the whole story in their experience really is kinda key. A 51 year old like me just experienced what 'Star Wars' is supposed to be in a much different fashion.

much better less boring fashion
the younger generation can keep their galactic taxation sagas imo

McGregor the only good thing about this for me. That precocious little kid and her awkward line readings? The unfunny Kumail Nanjani? Flea? No thanks. Pretty bad, I thought.

*Nanjiani

Also SW takes place in the batteries not included universe, apparently

Is Lola a flying Sony Discman?

lol how was I thinking “hey, I recognize that guy!“ the whole time and not recognizing Flea

That was me too

and yes my teen son knows the prequels much better than he knows eps 4-6 and is super stoked for this, for him mcgregor is the real obiwan

is this Hong Kong planet the place OW was buzzing around with Anakin at the start of episode 2?

if i goes on Wookiepedia I'll be up all night

ep 1 a mixed bag for me, the lead bad guy was menacing enough, the kid made it pretty hard to watch, obi-wan actually a pretty boring character? probably a nil-all draw i guess, will invest in ep 2 (who am i kidding, if I watched the boba fett show i will watch anything with the SW logo)

also was bracing for vader’s “noooooo” in the recap- disappointed it was omitted- is this revisionism?

obi-wan actually a pretty boring character?

well he’s being played by ewan mcgregor so

recognised Flea Immediately. Have his memoir around somewhere, not read it yet.

Was trying to think how long ago the prequels were since this was set 10 years after. & how things tie in with other SW spinoffs timeline.
So this is handy
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/36i8r0q3ewr5zkj4359q8robq1shgpz.png

well would be if that was one image like I thought it was.
THis bit helps too
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/0ayy0y5cyjxha21r87de535covb3jui.png

gonna keep watching obvs, but this show is pretty bad imo

Think the kid is doing the best she could, but in true SW tradition, her lines feel like they were written by people who have never met an actual child before.

Kumail Nanjaini v distracting and not in a good way - he's one of those actors where I can't really see him as any other character but himself. took me right out. and it's never quite explained why his character suddenly decided to help obi-wan? i mean he says why, but they never gave us an actual reason to trust him so it was like... huh??

also if the inquisitors can just read minds, why even bother threatening people to give up the location of jedis?

and yeah the chase sequences were hilarious - again, I have a feeling no one on the set has ever worked with children before, because those scenes where Leia's being chased by an adult that's pretending very hard they can't catch up with her just looked soooo goofy lol

the good: McGregor (pretty much carrying this whole thing) and Flea (RIP). Jimmy Smits/Bail Organa = only good dad in the galaxy.

Reva and the other Inquisitors are also being saddled with bad dialogue but overall, ok. I'm assuming the Grand Inquisitor isn't actually dead - seems like a waste to cast Rupert Friend and not utilise his action skills

oooh the one actor I didn’t recognise: Benny Safdie as the other Jedi o_O

great, now I’m wishing the Safdies had their own Star Wars show lol

and it's never quite explained why his character suddenly decided to help obi-wan?

this worked for me, seemed clear nanjaini's character is not a garden-variety hive-of-scum-and-villainy criminal but a weirdo jedi stan who never thought he'd encounter the real mccoy/gregor

>also if the inquisitors can just read minds, why even bother threatening people to give up the location of jedis?

To terrorize the non-knowers, probably. Same reason copspeak exists

Meantime from Celebration

This one is my favorite pic.twitter.com/OcS1QRruoW

— dodge🧡 (@dodgerroo) May 27, 2022

lol thats p good

There’s nothing quite as sad and hilarious as middle aged men complaining about dialog and logic in a Star Wars movie. Like, did you even see the first trilogy? The dialog is corny af and forced and riddled with terrible acting. The worst thing about Star Wars is easily Star Wars fans. I saw both episodes. There was pew pew and space ships. It was entertaining.

Like, did you even see the first trilogy? The dialog is corny af and forced and riddled with terrible acting.

This is absolutely true but that doesn't make it unreasonable to want something made in 2022 to be better! Sitcoms in 1977 sucked too and if they launched a new half-hour show set in the Extended WKRP Universe I would expect the acting and writing to be held to a higher standard than the original.

I mean....the difference between asking someone and extracting info = one is easy and one is work. doesn't seem that much of a stretch.

having to extract info from someone while there's a Jedi in the same room also gives the Jedi an advantage because you're distracted

My kid pointed out that when Third Sister was interrogating Owen, the other Inquisitors were right nearby, which meant she couldn't get away with Jedi-prying stuff out of his mind.

mind-extracting seems to be a new Force skill because the Force has just been code for "LOL MAGIC" since 1977

Talk about a forced confession har har

I skipped Boba Fett because I heard it was awful. Was it? This looks more promising.

would take a vision quest to know for sure, but we're out of nose lizards.

The Batch: still Bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JX5OW8cOec

Sitcoms in 1977 sucked too and if they launched a new half-hour show set in the Extended WKRP Universe I would expect the acting and writing to be held to a higher standard than the original.

Network sitcoms today are many times worse than WKRP though.