So....The Mandalorian

[Filthy Jawa]

The Ahsoka casting seems like something that pops up in the season finale.

A reveal like that as a season-ending cliffhanger makes sense, but only for people who have watched the cartoons. If they're trying not to alienate those who haven't, they can't make Ahsoka a stunning reveal. Also if she was only a surprise in the final chapter, I might think they'd keep it under wraps and not let us know about the casting now.

 

Who knows though? Maybe she only pops in for one episode. Hopefully not. I wonder if we'll see the death of Ahsoka in this series. Perhaps she sacrifices herself to save the child.

[Zathras]

I remember there being debates during the run of Rebels that people were convinced she would die, and it seemed she did for a while. The rationale was that she couldn't also be alive but absent when Luke emerged in ANH. Now that we know she survives through ROTJ and is now alive in the Mandalorian era, there really isn't a reason to kill Ahsoka, at this point.

[Lord Darth Hunter]

Knowing her story - Anakin's padawan who worked closely with he and Obi Wan through the Clone Wars, survived Order 66, played a major role in starting the Rebellion, discovered Anakin is Vader - makes it very odd that she is nowhere to be found as the Civil War rages on to defeat the Empire and only reappears once it's over. I am convinced if Lucas still owned the franchise he would add her somewhere in the OT in another re-release, such as the Alliance briefing scene in ROTJ, just to retcon this issue.

[Zathras]

It feels odd because (IMHO) she is a retcon character. Now, it all depends on the writing of course (plausibility), but just because Ahsoka was not in the OT, doesn't mean she wasn't doing something important during that time. Or, maybe she did just walk away. Luke did.

[Filthy Jawa]

there really isn't a reason to kill Ahsoka, at this point.

Except it does tend to be a thing in Star Wars for a force-wielding hero to die as a sacrifice to save the next generation force-wielding hero.

[Filthy Jawa]

Or, maybe she did just walk away. Luke did.

She went looking for Ezra, who was apparently doing something super-duper important. A clever(?) out by the writers to explain why she wasn't around - she was on a secret critical Force mission bigger than anything us simpletons watching the main story could comprehend.

[Zathras]

 

there really isn't a reason to kill Ahsoka, at this point.

Except it does tend to be a thing in Star Wars for a force-wielding hero to die as a sacrifice to save the next generation force-wielding hero.

 

True, and that is definitely possible, but I would be surprised it happens under Filoni's watch, though. She's his creation. If he were to kill her off, he's had chances to do so before, and didn't.

[Kyrian]

I think if Filoni is involved in bringing her back, he may end up bringing back Ezra with a surprise cameo, considering what she's supposed to be doing during the OT.

 

On another note, is anyone seeing a parallel with the KOTOR backstories? Revan and Malak disappear off for a few years after saving the Republic to go hunt down some unknown evil in the Unknown Regions and come back as full-fledged Sith Lords with an army and almost bring the Republic to its knees before the events of the first game, and then after KOTOR, Revan goes off to find this evil again and disappears, meaning The Exile ends up going to look for Revan after the events of TSL play out (and then we get the events detailed in the books and later in the TOR MMORPG). Sounds very much like inspiration for Ahsoka's journey to find Ezra, and makes me wonder if we won't see something similar happen.

 

Man, the sequel trilogy could have been amazing if it had turned out Snoke was Ezra. So much wasted potential for story telling if they'd bothered talking to Filoni.

[The Choc]

Thinking like that just makes no sense to me. I mean a reveal that Snoke is Ezra is something that what? Maybe 5% of the audience would know or care about? The vast majority of the movie audience would have no idea if he was revealed to be Ezra. He'd literally have to explain who that was on screen. It would basically be a reveal to pat a certain set of fans on the back and reward/validate the fact that they watched Rebels.

 

Even worse though, the reveal would have meant nearly nothing to Rey. If he had gone on some villain monologue "I was discovered by a Jedi who surivived Order 66 and he trained me....". Why would this affect Rey? Why would it matter? What would it affect at all? The answer is nothing.

 

I mean I really like Rebels, so I have zero problems with the show and Im not meaning to put it down. Basing a reveal in one of the movies on a friggin cartoon character is insane though.

[Kyrian]

It would have been better than Snoke's entire backstory basically being, oh he was a puppet clone because two different directors had two different visions and we can't really reconcile the two so here's a random tank full of Snoke Replacement Parts and Palpatine doing a ventriloquist act.

[The Choc]

It would have been better than Snoke's entire backstory basically being, oh he was a puppet clone because two different directors had two different visions and we can't really reconcile the two so here's a random tank full of Snoke Replacement Parts and Palpatine doing a ventriloquist act.

Oh well I agree I mean him being somehow made and puppeted by the Emperor was moronic, anything woulda been better than that. But I mean if we are gonna just throw ideas out there and say they are better than what the concocted for Rise of Skywalker we'd be doing that all day.

[Kyrian]

It's less a point about how moronic the explanation we got was, and more a point about how the big movies ignoring the expanded universe, both Legends and current, is disrespectful to their work, and that fans really do appreciate it when there is crossover. Filoni is good at bringing Legends EU back in to canon, and whilst he has his flaws with the way he's written some of the stories, it was the later stories where Filoni had more control and where Lucas stepped back that were the best seasons of The Clone Wars, and Rebels is arguably even better in some ways. Whilst Snoke being Ezra is, being perfectly honest, dumb and makes no sense, it definitely would have been a bit more satisfying than just, lol sock puppet.

 

It's one thing I've always hated about how the franchise was handled, even when The Bearded One was in charge, just how badly the EU is treated, as though it's a separate universe from what happens in the movies. Bring those universes together more and it would work so much better, especially if there's one overarching vision instead of just trying to milk that sweet fanboy dollah.

[The Choc]

Im as big a Star Wars fan as there could be and I really dislike crossing over of that kind. Personally I think trying to make everything so part of one universe or inter connected is a huge mistake and becomes burdensome to the the story telling. Even simple things like easter eggs I think are 90% of the time a complete waste of time and effort and the fact that they are even spending any of their time thinking of ways to include stupid little things from earlier movies or tv shows or whatever is just a complete waste of thought.

 

Even a character like Lando, who is an important character in the OT, its a complete waste of time and energy to include him in the ST. He feels so forced into the movie when he shows up at that crazy festival. He shouldn't have been there at all. If someone had along the lines come up with a great idea to include him then thats great, but he didn't have to be there. They never should have thought "damn I gotta get Lando into this thing.

 

And that point goes double for any character from a TV show or book. It's difficult enough to tell a story from start to finish that works and is good. It becomes more difficult when it then has to ft into a three movie trilogy and yet again more difficult when it that trilogy has to be part of a trilogy or trilogies. Then you want to on top of all that have to work in characters and events from other story telling mediums? It's insane.

 

I think this is a major part of why I like TLJ so much. Johnson was just so unconcerned with this kind of nonsense. No room for Lando? He's not there. No obvious role for Knights of Ren? See ya. Snokes backstory? Who the F cares! And whats great is that despite this he actually has what for me is easily the best use of nostalgia and OT imagery in the Disney era movies when R2 plays the message for Luke. Its great cause its not there just to be there, its actually important to the movie.

[Filthy Jawa]

I think more to the point, EU (old or new) goes one way. The movies are the main stories and the novels, video games, comics, tv shows, build from there - not the other way around.

 

In other words, you might say these supplemental materials expand the universe created by the movies.

[Kyrian]

I'm genuinely curious as to what the ratio is of SW fans that do like to see Easter eggs and crossovers compared to those that don't.

 

Also, your point about having to work in characters and events from other mediums is frankly not relevant. It's not about saying you must include them, it's about having little nods or mentions, which can totally be done without compromising the story. It's like saying that having events or mentions of things from our own histories should never be included in any contemporary story. How many books, movies, TV series have you seen that never once mention things have never happened "on screen"? Little references, like calling someone as bad as Hitler - he's not a character at all in that particular story, but we as the viewer/reader know about who he is and why that's relevant, and so having a Mandalorian character call someone as evil as Demagol would have the same effect, but with an in-universe style. It's not forcing it as much as increasing the immersion, and it's one thing the sequels did badly was destroying that sense of immersion with stupid attempts at humour, like Poe trying to crack a joke at Kylo Ren at the beginning of TFA, or Snoke tossing around Hux at the beginning of TLJ (then again, that whole thing between Hux and Poe was just awful). Plus, you can be respectful to the EU without having to "force" in characters. I agree that Lando appearing at that festival was a bit like, eh? Bit too convenient..., and if I'm being honest, it's something most of the Legends EU suffers from. Every single bloody book or comic is about another adventure involving the OT heroes, which must have been mentally and physically exhausting for the poor sods. Some of the best books in the EU were the ones that didn't include them at all, like the early Republic Commando books, or the X-Wing series (the Wraith Squadron books were excellent).

 

Nods and Easter eggs aren't a waste of time, either. You'll struggle to find any movie that doesn't have some kind of Easter egg or homage or reference in it to another piece of work - it's a sign of respect if nothing else, and that's definitely something I felt was lacking in the ST. I think even JJ was aware of it, which is why RoS has the scene where Luke catches his lightsaber when Rey tries to throw it in the fire.

[The Choc]

A nod or homage is different than an easter egg. Those are great. In AOTC when Anakin is trying to infiltrate the Tusken camp alot of the shots are directly taken from The Searchers. There is a difference between being influenced by and honoring a movie and say like in Rogue One where they run into the 2 guys from Mos Eisley for no apparent reason other than to say "hey its the 2 guys from the other movie."

[Kyrian]

I didn't like that either, it felt very unnecessary and raised too many questions about how they got from Jedha to Tatooine given that both were under close Imperial occupation. A better Easter egg would be the Jedi voices at the end of RoS, or the Outrider taking off from Mos Eisley in ANH post-SE, or the use of the Wilhelm scream.

[The Choc]

If some people like easter eggs and little nods to the past and interconnected universes thats fine. They aren't wrong. I just don't need any of that. I feel like alot of movies nowadays are almost 2 hour trailers for other movies further down the line. On the other side so much of pop culture is just pointless nostalgia. I remember in the wake of TFA a good friend of mine and I were talking about the movie. We both loved it. I remember though what he loves was seeing Vaders helmet, hearing Obi Wan and Yodas voice. Stuff like that. WHereas I was like "the saber flying into Reys hands, Rey looking at the old lady scrub the part."

[Guest]

I personally think that it depends on how its done. I consider an Easter Egg to be something thats really hard to see, but is meaningful to some number of fans. A cameo isnt an Easter Egg, but a character in the background that never gets a full view is.

 

A non-Star Wars example of a really good Easter Egg is Rapunzel showing up in Frozen. Most people are never going to notice it, but its a cool little nod to the people who do notice.

[Zathras]

I agree with Fozzy. A good example of an Easter egg in Star Wars, is the Ghost in Rogue 1.

[The Choc]

Stuff like that doesnt bother me, but it doesn't do anything for me either. Just a complete waste of effort.

[Zathras]

That example didn't do anything for me, either. Just a good example of what an Easter egg is, and they don't bother me.

 

Really, my interest in Star Wars since TROS has plummeted, anyway. I'm mildly interested in Mandalorian and TCW final season at this point, and I have zero interest in any future movies.

[The Choc]

I hear ya, ROS took it out of me. I actually watched it today since its on Disney+ and man it just isn't any good. I really can't even enjoy it for the fun and action because I don't even find that any good. None of it feels important to the plot. Its just like "oh the good guys are here and the bad guys found out, good guys escape and go to next planet. Bad guys find them again and show up". None of it feels important. The only thing I can say I do enjoy about the movie is some of the interaction between the characters.

[Zathras]

This conversation is worthy of its own thread.

[Tank]

Sidebar-- there's a making of miniseries for the Mando on Disney+ now that showcases a lot of the amazing tech they used. That spirit of using SW to push new filmmaking tech is strong.