Is it Still Fun to be an Online Star Wars Fan? The Road to The Rise of Skywalker

*This will be a two-part series. The first details my thoughts on Lucas and the Fandom as the Sequel Trilogy was made. The second part I go on record with how I think Rise of Skywalker will change the online fandom world. 


Part 1: Lucas in the Shadows


“You know the prequels are bad movies, right?” 


My friend looks over at me as we get ready to play another round of Street Fighter Turbo. (Or something. I can’t quite recall because it doesn’t matter. My friend, who we shall call Morpheus to protect his identity, always kicks my butt at fighting games.) I have always been a prequel apologist. I have never not liked a Star Wars movie. Sure, there are cringe-worthy moments, and some Star Wars movies have more of them than others. But they are all DUMB. 


Isn’t that why we love them? 


No, there’s something more than Ewoks, and Wookies, and Gungans (Oh my) that makes these films endearing to millions. It’s because they successfully dig deep into a core mythology of humanity felt deep within every soul. This mythology brings with it certain expectations depending on our age. When George Lucas says the films are aimed at twelve-year olds, it’s not because the themes and motifs are immature. (Or because a ten-year-old gets to “accidentally” blow up a warship.) It’s because it is within this age group that this type of mythology matters the most. To the rest of us, we are supposed to let go of our hardened adult mannerisms and return to that age to re-learn the key lessons. Some of us are better at doing so than others.

I shrug. “They have their moments.”


“No,” My friend says, grinning. “Come on. Admit it. They’re pretty bad.”


I shrug, not really admitting anything, but I let him take my knowing smile for what he will.

This is a short conversation I recall before The Force Awakens came out. Everyone (including the Disney led Lucasfilm, unfortunately) was still kind of worried about a “repeat of the prequels” in those days. Half a decade later, and prequel memes dominate the internet—certainly more than any meme from the original trilogy. The prequels have suddenly become this revered and treasured event. We’ve forgotten how we as fans treated Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best, and George Lucas himself. We psychologically scarred all three. Hayden Christianson decided to leave acting, and Lucas would eventually sell his franchise . . . 


And then history sort of repeated itself, but for much different reasons. This time, Lucasfilm could anticipate how the old generations of fans might react compared to the new if there were things they didn’t like about the new trilogy. And therein is the common misconception with how the sequel trilogy got made.


Hot Take: Lucas didn’t sell his franchise for money, or because he was tired of Star Wars and trusted it to a family friendly company. He sold it to finish his story while being shielded from the onslaught should the final three films not be well received. 


As an author, it baffles me sometimes that people think Lucas didn’t put exact story conditions into the contract of the sale. This is a man who went back and forth at least three times on how much of his story he could finish. Three times he said “No More Star Wars.” And three times he changed his mind and it returned anyway. What is more, it is easily forgotten his grand vision always included nine films (1). 


Now all of this is speculation based on what I would want, placing myself in Lucas’ shoes, but keep in mind most of the actual contract between Lucas and Disney has been kept a closely guarded secret. The move to finish his story free of repercussions had drawbacks. 

•         He would have to give over an extreme amount of creative control, as his core outline probably had to be very general.
•       He wouldn’t be able to take credit for things if they went well. At least not until all three were done. (More on this later) 
•       He was able to place long-time Lucasfilm veteran Kathleen Kennedy in charge, and had a say in choosing the directors. (We know this because the way JJ Abrams was approached and hired is very detailed.) However, history would show that the Disney owned Lucasfilm could still rearrange those directors as they saw fit.  

These drawbacks would eventually lead to Lucas feeling betrayed with The Force Awakens. (And it is very important to point out it was only with The Force Awakens). Disney’s CEO Bob Iger would later express regrets in his book, “The Ride of a Lifetime”: (2) over making Lucas feel this way. The betrayal was because the Disney led Lucasfilm decided to:

•       Cut important political moments (entire essays and videos can be done on this).
•     Structure the film in such a way as to make it nearly beat-for-beat like the original Star Wars movie (Titled: A New Hope)
•      Use nostalgic ships like the M. Falcon and X-wings rather than brand new ones.

And yet, the core story remained intact. How do I know this? Because it was easy to reference in two books. “The Art of Star Wars: Force Awakens” and “The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” (3) (4)

Unfortunately, the internet in general took the comments out of context, and for people who hang on every word from Lucas or pine for every scrap of information on Star Wars, when The Last Jedi failed to please them, these comments became ammunition. 

Suddenly, a story with a clear plan seemed like a story where everyone was just winging it. It didn’t help when Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) was replaced by J.J. Abrams for the final instalment in the Sequel Trilogy. To fans in which The Last Jedi made feel jaded, this and many other factors were a sign of a lack of communication between Disney leadership and its directors. However, Lucas always remained in the shadows, consulting on everything. 

And then there were the spin off movies – “Rogue One and Solo” (Both subtitled “A Star Wars Story). These were generally a very messy filming affair. Why? Because Lucas didn’t leave any conditions for them. There was no outline, and it was the first time anything like them had ever been attempted. These two films require their own essay, but they added to the appearance of disorganization. 

Mark Hamill added fuel to the fire by publicly sharing his initial doubts and reactions to the story. Having met Mr. Hamill and person, I can tell you he wears all his emotions on his sleeve and he doesn’t mince words. But again, words were taken out of context. Nobody cared (especially those who felt rage at Episode 8) how he came to appreciate the direction his character took, only that he fundamentally disagreed at first. 

And so, a conflict that started brewing with The Force Awakens ignited into a full-blown online war after The Last Jedi divided the fanbase. It wasn’t a fan war that lasted a month or two after Episode 8. Oh no. It rages still. Anyone posting a video or article about Star Wars does so at extreme peril. Many I am sure, sought to gain fame or notoriety off of this war. One prime example is the leaks. The war is so hot, that leaked script information making its way onto the internet is thrown in the face of any unwary YouTube user who watches a lot of Star Wars content. Usually, the leaks are pointed at with the words “Disaster” in the title. 

All of this goes on with fans forgetting how Lucasfilm deliberately leaked critical information in the original trilogy. Darth Vader was to tell Luke “Obi Wan killed your father.” 

Only a select few knew the true line, “I am your father.” Not even Mark Hamill. Not until it was time to film the scene. The setting, situation, set up, result of the duel . . . all of that was leaked truthfully. And fans that loved spoilers ate it up. This was in a time when there was no internet. But now . . . the Disney owned Lucasfilm must be even more wary. Yet, I do not put it past them to be any less successful with their information warfare, because there is a man in the shadows who knows better. This ain’t his first rodeo folks, and he has placed his faith in people who are really good at managing the secrets. (Some of the same people who kept Baby Yoda a secret) 

It hasn’t been fun the last two years to be a Star Wars fan on the internet. But there is hope. The Rise of Skywalker, the Monomyth of Joseph Campbell . . . and George Lucas. 

References

1. “The Making of Return of the Jedi” (1983) Hosted by Carrie Fisher

2. Iger, Bob. “The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company”

3. Szostak, Phil “The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015)

4. Szostak, Phil “The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017)

Go to Part 2

Travis' Top Ten Movies of "All Time" - #9 Goonies

Here is another film that scared the bejesus out of me as a kid in places. Perhaps I am starting a theme as to what stuck with me growing up. It became the quintessential representation of what a middle grade adventure could be, before we even had anything defined as middle grade.


There was the mob, pirates gold, a weird . . . monster guy who might represent a lot of different things about love and friendship, and the pure spirit of adventure we all tend to forget about when we move out of our childhoods.


And of course, we can't leave out the truffle shuffle.


Like Never Ending Story, Goonies is a classic I have enjoyed passing down to my kids and it deserves its spot on this list.

Travis' Top Ten Movies of "All Time" - #10 The Never Ending Story

I got roped-in to doing a chain-post event. I know, I got distracted by the Holidays and such and didn't finish my Netflix animation series. That series will resume soon.


Still, this discussion of my top ten favorite movies of "all time" could be a good way to give this blog another jump start. I figure, if I am going to work at such things on Facebook I might as well give maximum effort.


The original post is copied and pasted below. However, I won't be following its commandments closely. Obviously, I WILL briefly explain my choices. Also, my picks are ranked in order.

THE FACEBOOK CHAIN POST

"I have been nominated to post my favorite 10 films of all time over the next ten days. I must post one-sheet (movies poster) for each of my choices No explaination is needed regarding the choices and I must nominate someone each day to do the same."

#10: THE NEVERENDING STORY 

Many of you will agree this is a good movie with a lot of nostalgic value, but you may scratch your head as to why it makes my top ten. It doesn't really age all that well, and

First, a bit of a disclaimer. I did my best to choose films that were films first, rather than books made into movies. Widely known books made into film like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harry Potter, and the Lord of the Rings got bumped down when I tried to come up with my final ten.

THE NEVERENDING STORY was a book by German author Michael Ende, yet it was obscure enough that most people don't even know it was a novel. (Hell, I didn't. I had to google the fact). 

I had to pick one film that traumatized me as I kid. There were moments in this film that to this day, haunt my dreams. Swamp of Sadness anyone?

Something about this quiet fantasy manages to speak to the ancient mythological soul within each of us. There is a hero's journey, a battle of God's and a motif of what it means to keep a live imagination. If this were a list of films that effected me most during childhood, this one would be somewhere near the top three. But there are other contenders . . .

The Dragon Prince (Part I of Netflix Cartoon Blog Series)

Netflix has an obvious algorithm where as soon as I fire it up, it presents me with a trailer now for a new show, and several suggestions for shows I might like based on my watch history. This form of low-key artificial intelligence works, because I probably would not have caught wind of The Dragon Prince otherwise.

Despite being done by the creators of the much-acclaimed Avatar, the Last Airbender, I really haven’t seen a lot of hype for this show yet. Perhaps it has been overshadowed by the release of the second round of Netflix super hero shows, or maybe the news of a live action Avatar has more people excited. (Or wary, depending on if you saw M. Night Shyamalan’s version.)

The Dragon Prince is fantastic, and deserves a lot more attention. It’s the perfect example of how streaming services have brought back meaningful storytelling to TV animation and children’s programing. Even though the world building and plot borrows a bit from Airbender, (The six natural types of magic based on elemental forces such as the ocean, sky, sun, moon, stars, and earth are very similar to the four elements of Avatar) the story feels like a well thought out game of Dungeons and Dragons.

The adventure centers around a mid-level elf rogue (or thief), a level one mage (or wizard), and a level one human with an animal companion who might be similar to a druid – but instead serves as the sort of “hobbit” of the main trio.

So, what makes a story full of classic fantasy archetypes so good in this case?

When you break the story down, its just about an evil warlock who betrayed the king sending his minions (a dark mage and a cocky warrior) after a trio of young heroes trying to return a magical dragon egg to the nation from which it was stolen.

The secret to a fresh, new story is in the execution. The show takes its time to set up this classic “return the magic thing to the far away place” by spending about half of the first 9 episodes showing how the primary antagonist was once a good man with good intentions. It establishes family dynamics between Callum (the bumbling mage), Ezran (our pre-teen hobbit animal whisperer) and their father, the king. For Callum, the king is actually his stepfather—a backstory not yet fully developed. The family relations of all the main human characters make the audience care and relate more, and give the story a deeper sense of heart.

On the other side of the equation is Rayla and her family of moon elves. Rayla is sure to be a fan favorite of this first season, if not for her competency but for her character arc. Suffice to say she comes the farthest in the first season because of the life or death choices she is faced with. Her journey of befriending former enemies in hopes of stopping an all-out magical war touches on a lot of themes important for children growing up in today’s landscape.

It's only the first season of what I hope will be at least six considering the “chapters” seem to deal with the different sources of magic. (This first one being the moon).  It’s the type of story that can send children the important message of how they have the power to be better than the adults who went before them. Showing a youth through myth and fairytale how their love and determination can heal a wounded world is a theme in Avatar, in Star Wars, and so many other great stories. And I think it's why stories like this will resonate with children into adulthood.  

How Netflix and other Streaming Services have Revived the Age of The Action Cartoon (Introduction)

Howdy Dreamlanders.

This week I’ll be starting a new series reviewing the surge in Netflix original animation, and how it has grown into a new golden age for the action cartoon. I’ll be going over five different shows that have reminded us how good storytelling and great animation can be even more profitable in the long run than selling toys. The goal is a bi-weekly blog. So far, I am doing good once a week but I endeavor to get my thoughts out more often in more bite-sized morsels. As an introduction, let’s review some of the good action cartoons that never saw completion because they didn’t sell the right number of toys.

He Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002)

The original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was made to sell toys. Following the success of Kenner’s Star Wars line, toy companies scrambled to compete by making their own action figures. In the case of He-Man, and to a certain extent Transformers and GI Joe, toy companies made the action figures first without ever really giving them a story. He-Man originally came with a mini-comic, until in 1983 an animated show was launched by Funmation. When enthusiasm for the toys wore off, so did the original show in 1986.

It wasn’t until 2002 that a truly successful reboot was launched. The show was well received, and deepened the lore with a gripping story while still adding classic characters. Unfortunately, just as the show was about to introduce She-Ra and Hordak (A bigger villain than Skeletor) the show was canceled. There just wasn’t enough of a toy market. There are rumors that the upcoming She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, set for a November release, might be a sequel to this series. It would make sense, but the animation style is very different, so it remains to be seen how connected to this story the new She-Ra will be.

Teen Titans (2003-2006)

Even though it lasted six seasons, this one is important for how it should have gotten a final season, but instead the award winning show was replaced by a less mature version. A similar fate awaited Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but that had more to do with the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, rather than any strange decision based on demographics. While there's nothing wrong with cartoons built strictly on humor and aimed at younger audiences, the transition to something like Teen Titans Go was a shock to many fans who grew up with the original. The end of this series marks a trend in cartoons where cable cartoon channels gave up on the formula of building an action cartoon to sell toys and instead chose to rely on humor alone. In turn, ground breaking animation styles like Teen Titans or Avatar: The Last Airbender also got kicked to the curb. Worse yet, for the next decade or so we began to move away from cartoons with gripping story lines filled with morals and lessons for kids. 

Young Justice (2010 – ???)

 Another award-winning show that fell victim to being too good. Families would watch this show together, and yet the toy market suffered. Like Teen Titans before it, it fell victim of a trend that showed cartoon channel executives that the way to go was more Sponge-Bob like cartoons, or cartoons that seemed like Sponge Bob but were smart in a subtle way, like Gravity Falls. Still, a great story in the making was left on a cliffhanger. Yet the onset of streaming television has brought this one back, and the new DC streaming service will see this as one of its primary shows. 

There are more canceled cartoons worth mentioning that followed the same path, but over the next couple of weeks I will be covering the triumphant return of the action cartoon, and how streaming services have found a way to make these excellent types of shows lucrative again. See you all next time, Dreamlanders. In part one we will be covering one of Netflix’s newer properties – The Dragon Prince. 

Go to Part I The Dragon Prince

Team Four Star is BACK - And They Did it Their Way

The following is a fan-based PARODY. Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, and Dragonball Super are all owned by Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha, and Akira Toriyama. 

Please support the official release. 

Fans of Team Four Star know this intro well. Many an unscrupulous copy cat has tried to get it right. Its ironic, in a way, how many fans of their show have built youtube channels just by reacting to their videos, or compiling some of the greatest and most quotable moments from a monster youtube giant that just started out as a little project for fun. 

In fact, the now all-too-familiar intro used to have the words "non-profit" fan based parody. Some low key recording equipment and a free video editor is all it took to launch a legendary internet series. And now they get to do this for a living.  The main cast includes:

• KaiserNeko (Scott Frerichs)
• Lanipator (Nick Landis)
• Takahata101 (Curtis Arnott)
• MasakoX (Lawrence Simpson)
• Antfish (Anthony Sardinha)
• hbi2k (Ben Creighton)
• Megami33 (Corinne Sudberg)
• LordMoonstone (Kirran Somerlade)
• AinTunez (Cliff Weinstein)
• GanXingba (Marc Soskin)
• MasterWuggles (Grant Smith)

The story of these young voice actors begins ten years ago. That's long enough to create their own nostalgia and reboot their own franchise if they wanted.  For a few years, few people even knew their real names. Some of them tried to get started with Abridged Series like Naruto Abridged or Yugi-Oh Abridged, and though I was a fan of those as well, they sort of fizzled out compared the the juggernaut Dragon Ball Z Abridged became. 

I'm not blogging to tell their story. They are open about it on their website and on their own wiki. 

I'm blogging to gush about how glad I am to have them back. 

Its been an honor for me to have been with them since that very first episode ten years ago. In the Air Force while deployed we would quote some of their funniest moments while on mission to pass the long hours on station with an E-3 AWACS. In spring of 2012 I got to meet most of the main cast at a comic con in Dallas, and it was strange to have them sign part of my Assassins Creed costume, but its all I had. That was the release of the epic finale where Goku goes Super Saiyan. It was their first truly serious moment sandwiched between their hilarious comedic approach to the series. 

Their episodes have always been something to look forward to - made by people with humble backgrounds like me. Meeting them was like meeting the new neighbor in the house or apartment next door more than meeting some giant TV or movie celebrity. And I think that is part of the draw of them and their show. They serve to remind us that all you have to do is find what you love, find what you are good at, put the two together and you can make that your dream. Dreams of this nature often have the ability to come true - and thus define not just the American Dream, but the Human one. 

And then they were gone. For a full year. Some of us wondered what we would do. Other fans began to believe they might be done with their beloved series once they did come back with a finale. There might have been a brief time were it might have been the end.  But it wasn't.

 Three weeks ago they returned with part 1 of 3 of their 60th episode. My short and simple review is their return was triumphant. I am linking that particular episode in this post. But if you have never seen the series before, I recommend starting from the beginning. It will be a better binge-watching experience than most things on Netflix. The good news to us fans is they have announced they intend to keep going. 

But I want to hear from you all, fellow fans of Team Four Star. What have been some of your favorite moments in the series, and have you met any of the super talented voice actors? 

Did you get into Dragon Ball Z because of them, and were you a kid when they started?

Just as Team Four Star has returned, so have I to blogging. So I hope you will stick around and look forward to my weekly posts! Lets all EAT THAT HORSE!


DBZ Abridged Episode 60 Part 1