San Diego Comic-Con 2015 has come and gone and it has been amazing… for the most part. Clone Corridor was started in April of this year not long after the end of SWC: Anaheim and, partly, as a consequence of the attitude at SWC: Anaheim. The first post posted to this website was ‘The Risk of Ignoring the Prequels’, a post I wrote in the middle of the night while slightly mad, much like this one right now. Like everyone else I was ecstatic about the upcoming film and the newly released teaser trailer, but I was also curious as to why not a single interview about The Force Awakens could be had without unnecessary emphasis on “original” and “practical” effects and lack of CGI. Now I am in the exact same position, only a little wiser and a little sadder.
What I’ve come to think, and what I’ve been arguing for the last few weeks, has been basically confirmed this weekend. Because as a Prequel-fan, this Comic-Con held a bitter realization. That realization is that the current marketing and PR strategy for The Force Awakens is to subtly, or not so subtly, bash the Prequels in order to get Star Wars naysayers and critics on the side of the new film and new trilogy. It is the only feasible reason I can come up with for why the writer, director and president of Lucasfilm would continuously give fans the impression that a good 50% of their canon can be ignored, if not ridiculed. Apart from the fact that I feel this will end up being bad for business in the future, it is currently bad for the fandom because it plays into a perception of the Star Wars fandom which is incorrect.
The popular opinion that has been growing over the last few years is that everyone thinks the Prequel Trilogy is terrible. Bring up Star Wars with anyone who isn’t a fan and they’ll assume that you hate them. As I argued in my post after Anaheim, there is absolutely nothing wrong with disliking the Prequels. It is everyone’s right to like and dislike, hate even if you must, any movie, book, TV show etc. of their choosing. There is something wrong, however, with attacking those who disagree with you. There is nothing wrong with preferring one thing over the other and saying so. There is something wrong with tearing one thing down to the ground in order to make your own thing seem better. There is also something wrong with belittling and ignoring a large part of your fandom in favour of a small minority of fans that spews vitriol as if they were being paid for it. And this hate isn’t just directed at the films, the cast or George Lucas. No, it hits the Prequel-fans just as hard, if not worse, as those in charge. Liking the Prequels and, heaven forbid, not hating Jar Jar Binks is close to a capital offense and will get you treated accordingly, especially online. I have already seen plenty of fans say their goodbyes to the fandom over the hate they’re receiving and on top of that there are all the fans like me who are simply incredibly saddened by seeing some of their favourite films bashed. I myself have been regarded with pity and shut out of conversations after arguing that there is more to Jar Jar than people initially think. It’s not fun, it’s terrible. Because other Star Wars fans should be the ones who understand your passion, the ones who can listen to you blab on about it forever. They shouldn’t be the ones sending you hate-mail at 2 o’clock in the morning because you said The Revenge of the Sith is one of your favourite movies ever.
I wasn’t the only one, by far, who noticed the constant disparaging remarks towards the Prequels during SDCC, which skilfully always fall just short of actually calling them out. Some took it relatively humorously:
while others highlighted the damage that these remarks can do to fans:
I’m far from thinking that this alienation that is occurring is done on purpose. I think it’s not at all Disney’s and Lucasfilm’s intention to drive fans away or cause any of them unhappiness. As I’ve said above, I think it’s simply a marketing strategy, but it’s one which could go severely awry upon the release of The Force Awakens.
Aside from saddening Prequel-fans, Disney and Lucasfilm are also setting themselves up for potentially disappointing the OT fans who are currently loving the whole “practical effects” sale talk. When BB-8 rolled out on stage at Anaheim I screamed out loud because it was amazing to see this prop actually moving. But, as was argued by Rogue 47 in his post ‘Practical and CGI…what does that even mean?’, anyone who thinks that the BB-8 we saw in the teaser trailers so far is the one that they showed us is severely mistaken. There is no way that model could go that fast or operate that smoothly, so of course he is enhanced if not wholly created through special effects in the final footage. And here is where we get to the subtly of what has been said, officially. Everything that is being said about the practical effects has been to please fans, has been to get them excited and to make them forget about what some think were terrible effects in the PT. But every time there has been added sentences that of course there are special effects and that the practical effects were mainly there to give the actors a physical space and props to act in and with. Star Wars is set in space and as such there is no way around creating the Galaxy exactly the same way they did in the Prequels (and the Originals I may add): through green screens and CGI. By over-emphasizing the old school way in which The Force Awakens is being made, Disney and Lucasfilm are in danger of creating a second rift within the fandom, namely of those who utterly dislike the Sequel Trilogy while loving either the OT or all six films. And this rift won’t rear its head straight after release, oh no. Because initial reviews for the PT were good, better than for the OT. The change of heart towards the PT has been growing steadily until it was accepted by popular culture as fact and so it might again with the Sequels. A merchandise can’t survive if it keeps cutting itself into different parts and neither can a fandom.
Another, more scary, answer to the question posed in the title is that those currently in charge of Disney and Lucasfilm actually actively dislike the Prequels and that this is what we have to look forward to as Prequels-fans for the rest of their run. Although I can hardly imagine it, it would be soul-crushing if true. The Prequels and the stories told in them are crucial to the complexity and depth of Star Wars and to think that those in charge of it are casually dismissing that is slightly terrifying. But looking at the quality of footage that we’ve seen so far and how much it thematically and visually links up with the Prequels, this seems very unlike hence my conviction that it is all for marketing purposes.
It is a bitter pill to swallow that something you love and hold dear is being sacrificed in order to please a minor part of the fandom. Fan-service can go too far, especially if the idea of what fans want is being skewed by what popular culture holds true. Because not every single Star Wars fan is out to burn and destroy every single copy of the PT. Not every Star Wars fan hates them. A lot of us love The Phantom Menace, The Attack of the Clones and The Revenge of the Sith just as much as the Original Trilogy. For many fans, especially the “younger ones”, the PT was their way into the Star Wars fandom. It was how they discovered Star Wars, how they made it something that was theirs as well as their parents’. What gives me hope are those currently actively working on projects in the Prequel era, whether it’s Star Wars: Rebels or novels such as Dark Disciple by Christie Golden. The whole Prequel era is still drawing in new fans and they will be who keep the fandom alive and going strong in the next decades.
This post isn’t meant to be about praising the Prequels into heaven and tearing those who are critical of them to the ground. That is as far away from my intention as possible. What I do want this post to be about is the need for some self-reflection as a fandom. The Prequels are a part of Star Wars as much as the Originals are. They are canon and therefore fact. Rather than argue about how stupid some of us are for loving them, why can’t we have actual interesting debates about the story-lines, about the continuity of the themes throughout the six films, about how the difference in look makes total sense, story-wise. Star Wars is so rich and has so much to offer that it is simply a waste of time to try and teach each other how to be “true fans”. There is no one way of liking something and if we want to remain an inclusive and friendly group of fans, there needs to some changes. And this is where we come back to those in charge. If the people at the top keep it up with the comments about the Prequels, or more accurately, with the deafening lack of actual comments about the Prequels, they will only increase the rift between fans. George Lucas was always a defender of his Prequels, calmly proclaiming them to be canon and to be as he wants them to be. With him no longer at the helm, one can only hope that his mantle will be picked up by someone else. Although I have someone in mind, *cough*Dave Filoni*cough*, it should really be everyone who gets in on it. J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy should know they are addressing all the fans, not just the negative sourpusses who hate everything that came after 1983.
Like everything else, Star Wars and its fandom have their flaws but that is also what makes them beautiful. We at Clone Corridor will continue to defend, analyse and love the Prequels as much as the Originals and will do the same for the Sequels once they come out. We hope everyone else will as well.
May the Force be with us all.
Clone Corridor 
Thanks for your excellent article. It’s right on. I have wanted to look forward to the new Star Wars movie but even as a fan of all the films it’s been half-hearted at best. The disengaging attitude from the Prequel Trilogy has left me feeling a bit alienated and taken some of the joy out of being a fan of Star Wars. I don’t think this is intentional with Disney or Lucasfilm but it could have unintended consequences.
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I really hope you continue to look forward to TFA because it’s so exciting that we finally get new films! I totally understand the feeling of alienation though, it’s something I’ve clearly felt myself as well. As fans of the whole saga (which most of us are) we should try to not let those unintended consequences affect us because the tide will definitely turn and we don’t want to be the haters one day! Thanks for commenting 🙂
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Not only are they milking the “practical effects” cow to death, they still haven’t given us any clues as to the most important part of the film: the story.
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I think you’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to the reason why there is so much talk about the practical effects. They want the story to remain a surprise, something which I think is commendable, but it doesn’t leave a lot to talk about! Thanks for commenting 🙂
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This is EXACTLY why I think they are drumming the same song of ‘practicaI effects’ over and over – It’s something to talk about whiIe keeping the story under tight wraps. HeII, other than the originaI foIks, we don’t even now the surnames of two of the three Ieads! I’m hoping that it’s because they want it to be magic, and NOT for nefarious reasons…
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The reason I am so actively against them now has everything to do with their marketing tactics. I never doubted prequel bashing was part of the strategy. They axed The Clone Wars in mid production first, I took it as a warning sign. So is pretending the Expanded Universe never counted, even though Lucas Licensing let out plenty of quotes (easily still found) to the contrary. (And by the way, some of the stories based on the prequels are awesome).
I think it is very twisted people in charge to do this. They didn’t need to bash the prequels …it just alienates fans of the prequels. They also didn’t need to bash and discontinue the Expanded Universe…it just alienates fans of the Expanded Universe – which included books, comics and games from all eras. The new Battlefront game was supposed to include those clone wars era campaigns and Disney axed them. It’s not like parallel universes are uncommon in sci fi. They could have kept everyone happy…or at least content.
What kind of marketing strategy intentionally alienates 2/3 of the audience? Not a very smart one, in my opinion. Why lose ANY of those profits? It makes no sense.
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In retrospect to this post, I maybe should’ve emphasized more that I don’t believe it is the intention of those in charge to alienate any fans. I think they’re desperate to keep any plot twists etc. under wraps in an industry that is no longer as secretive as it was when ESB was made. By not revealing anything, they have to hammer on about what they can tell us. Although I believe there were good reasons behind change the EU, those fans who are used to being a minority within their own fandom have felt attacked in the last few months and this is definitely not a good thing! Thanks for commenting 🙂
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Sorry, but the PT fans aren’t 2/3rds of the audience. It’s likely the other way around. I don’t love the PT and I don’t despise it either. The majority of the EU fans are likely mostly planted in the OT camp since they were the ones that kept it going after the OT and before there was a new PT on the horizon………the vast majority of those stories were/are OT-based.
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Reblogged this on Stephanie and commented:
Thank you! That was very well said.
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Great article. Each individual prequel used more practical effects than the entire original trilogy combined, so it’s fairly silly if nothing else to point to a three minute reel of practical effects in the new movies and assume it says anything meaningful about the amount of CGI being used. The emphasis on “practical effects” as basically the only thing we know about the film so far is both boringly repetitive and disheartening. As a fan of all six films, I wish they wouldn’t subtly disparage movies that I love when there’s really no need to do so.
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I agree there is no need to disparage the PT in the run-up to the release of TFA. As Rogue 47 argues though, it is natural that the links to the tone and style of the OT would be emphasized since the Sequels follow from those. If the tone could change a bit it would be great, but I think by now we’re all simply desperate for more information about TFA! Thanks for commenting 🙂
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I think you’re being a tad oversensitive, because it isn’t just the Star Wars prequels that get criticised for an overreliance on CGI, but modern blockbuster filmmaking generally – see this video for example:
Rightly or wrongly, using practical effects is often used in marketing a way of signalling serious craftsmanship in filmmaking – recently Mad Max Fury Road did the same thing, and Christopher Nolan also makes a big thing about using practical effects as much as possible, with promotional featurettes about The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Interstellar all playing that aspect up. Of course you can’t make a space opera without CGI, but CGI is most effective and believable when it enhances and extends real sets and environments, rather than creating them wholesale.
In terms of Star Wars specifically, the emphasis on practical effects is part of the invocation of nostalgia more broadly, and with nostalgia being a key component of the marketing of the new movie, then it makes sense to go back to the original source. I don’t think that’s intended as a disparagement of the prequels, but as a pragmatic recognition that they aren’t held with the same near universal acclaim and affection as the original trilogy does.
Finally, it’s not just a minority fan opinion that the prequels aren’t as good as the originals, but a widely held assumption and perception among the general public. That may well be an unfair perception, but you can’t blame Disney and Lucasfilm for aiming to win over people who didn’t like (or have been taught to dislike) the prequels by leaning more heavily on the links to the originals.
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This post was definitely written from an emotional point of view, something which may not have been the wisest. I absolutely agree that there is a major resurgence in the popularity of practical effects, something which, as Rogue 47 argued, goes back to a sense of craftsmanship and dedication, rather than “hate” on special effects. This post is, however, an example of the response that some of these comments can trigger. I am a major Star Wars fan and cannot wait to to see The Force Awakens, so I am clearly not someone who has to be won over. As such, I will wait out this marketing strategy while focusing on the brilliant work being created by JJ, Dave Filoni and many more! Thanks for commenting 🙂
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You don’t need to defend or modify – it’s real and it’s rampaging. I was told that there had been a ban on all prequel art etc by a SW artist back in May. So not only is this real, it’s “official” and it’s 1984 George Orwell tactic of saying things over and over to make it true – when it’s NOT.
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“It’s not really anti-prequel talking points but I hate the prequels and so did everybody else!” You all say the same thing.
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It’s becoming a trend to bash the prequels.
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Reblogged this on Kate's Place, Reborn and commented:
Yes to all this, let’s please stop acting like Mark Hamill’s hand was actually cut off in Empire Strikes Back or some such noise.
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Not really wise to try to make your argument from such an emotional point of view. It makes your article read like you’re trying to say, “No guys, everything is good! It’s all good! Love everything!” When it’s perfectly fine for a fandom as large as Star Wars has to have different groups within it. For anything that has been around as long as Star Wars has, it’s going to happen. Original Trilogy fans, PT fans, animated series (pick one or all) fans, action figure fans… You see where that’s headed. With so many, there’s no way to make them all come together. You’re also greatly overestimating how many people in the fandom think that the PT were amazing films. Most of us like them, but lots recognize they were far from great, and far from the level of the OT.
That doesn’t discount their place in the canon. They’re official Star Wars films. You can’t get more canon than them. I think it’s more a of a reactionary defense from PT fans to think that comments made at the SDCC panel were a passive-aggressive attack on the PT.
Taking this down to the level of film-making the article is about in it’s majority, older Star Wars fans were delighted to see a more practical approach taken to TFA because it brings back the engaging effect the visuals had on original audiences. By relying heavier on practical effects no one’s saying the PT should be expunged from history and forgotten, they’re simply increasing the engaging effect of a “lived in” future that Star Wars brought to movies. Audiences aren’t stupid. Sure digital effects are getting better and better (and to me the PT hasn’t started to show it’s age) but there’s a greater sense of reality when Luke interacts with a puppet Yoda on Dagobah then when Mace Windu discusses the Sith with a CGI Yoda.
Part of being involved in fandom is recognizing the weaknesses in your particular favorite part, it also helps knowing when and how to disassociate one part from another. No one can take the PT away from Star Wars canon. Doing that would automatically take TFA and it’s sequels away too. But you have to recognize where they are weak, and they are weak in many places, but that doesn’t make them less a part of Star Wars. They are essential to the storytelling as a whole.
The reason OT fans shun the PT isn’t because they are new, it’s not even because of the use of CGI. There are lot of other reasons (weak acting for major characters for a start, convoluted plot for a second) why OT fans dislike the PT, and those reasons put most fans off of anything related to that era. When the major tent pole for your area of fandom is not as well executed as it deserved to be it’s going to gain negativity about the rest, but the next time an OT fan bashes the PT instead of getting defensive just bring up the wacky Christmas special or those Ewok movies. Not everything is perfect and it’s only natural to speak out about things you don’t like. It’s also perfectly natural to feel like criticism toward something you like is an attack even if it isn’t.
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“And now I’m going to tell you what to think and say. Oh and everybody still hates the prequels including me!”
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Exactly. He makes his statement like it is canon. And please, Julie, don’t backtrack. What you originally wrote is true and it continues. By the way, if some of those who criticize the plot of the prequels as being “convoluted”, why don’t you read up on some history just to simplify it to your standard of understanding?
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I agree, nothing is perfect, and it’s a wise perspective to have to know why people dislike the things you like and be able to discuss them in a calm and constructive manner. The issue I think for some of us prequel appreciators (like LazyPadawan before me) is that we’ve spent many years seeing the negative claims become the majority and it can be very tiring on one’s self-control. I know I’ve been having a fair share of moments of letting the practical effect emphasis in the Episode 7 PR get to me on a personal level.
Bringing up LazyPadawan again, I also suspect that all the years of defending something that’s always getting criticism is making some of us a bit hair-triggered towards anything less than neutral on the prequels, as the other comment to your post might indicate. You make even one mention on how the prequels are imperfect and some folks will think you’re trying to either lead to or imply regardless that they’re bad movies, and they instinctively react negatively to the whole things. This and some of the fear-mongering about collective agendas on Lucasfilm’s part to shove aside prequel-era media to cater to Original Trilogy fans and the nostalgia for the old era serves to only further frustrate folks.
I think what needs to happens is that some point during the future of Star Wars, the franchise should dedicate a fair portion to storytelling in the prequel era once more. Whether than entails reviving The Clone Wars, bringing back Ewan McGregor for a Kenobi Anthology film, or a dedicated series of comics, novels or games, I’m sure that could help matters. But they best know how to make everyone happy, I know a recent LEGO Star Wars cartoon is getting some prequel-appreciator flack for playing the “The Trade Federation politics were BO-RING!” card in their jokey retelling of the saga.
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I would love more prequel stories, history, …but mostly respect.
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The Prequels are great movies and on the same level as the Originals.
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[“Finally, it’s not just a minority fan opinion that the prequels aren’t as good as the originals, but a widely held assumption and perception among the general public. “]
It’s an assumption that is not completely true. But the media refuses to acknowledge this. If the prequels weren’t that good, all three films should have bombed at the box office. All three were major box office hits. The Internet is filled with sites about the Prequel Trilogy or all of the six films that were released by Lucas. God only knows the amount of Anakin/Padme sites I’ve come across.
And this marketing strategy is inadvertently pissing off a lot of PT and Saga fans. Are Disney and Lucas Films aware of this?
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[“This post was definitely written from an emotional point of view, something which may not have been the wisest.”]
I see nothing wrong with this article. So what if it’s emotional? This isn’t a newspaper article. This article is an opinion offered by a fan. What did you expect?
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I’m just saying that an emotional response isn’t always the best way to analyze a situation, just like judging the quality of a movie by how much money it makes at the box office.
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People just need to grow up a little, really. Sure you can find plenty of articles critical of the Prequels, so? If you were a Star Wars fan between 1977 and 1999 you could find plenty of articles from Star Wars fans deploring the disgrace that was ‘Return of the Jedi’ … So? The press in its reviews of ‘Empire Strikes Back’ back in 1980 actually tore it to pieces in their reviews giving it pretty much the same flak as the Prequels would get twenty years later … So?
We have had a whole section of my generation waste their lives and our time as never-ending whiners about ‘who shot first’, about ‘why furry Ewoks’ and so on. Do we really want to add to that now a section of the Prequel Generation that whines about how their favourite films aren’t appreciated enough?
Don’t get me wrong, I have no lover for the prequel-bashing morons you can find on the Internet. But the Internet is simply a place with lots of morons & trolls and we are not going to change that. And of course the prequel-bashing ones will always try to frame every uttering from Lucasfilm (or from anyone else actually) as vindicating their way of seeing things. All you achieve, unfortunately, by complaining about the alleged ‘prequel-bashing’ by Lucasfilm itself is that you publicly subscribe to the framing the real prequel-bashers are engaging in. Once you engage those within their framing of things, you have already lost the argument.
Finally, if JJ feels there was to much of a reliance on CGI in the Prequels then he is not necessarily ‘bashing the prequels’. He is expressing how he wants to balance things differently, which he is perfectly entitled to as he is the person making the movie. However viewing that only within the frame of whether or not it is ‘bashing the prequels’ is not only ‘giving in to the narrative of the actual prequel bashers’ but it is also simply missing what the filmmaker of the new star wars movie is trying to say. All it really means if he says he wants a better balance between CGI and practical effects is this: The Force Awakens will be visually more attractive then StarTrek: Into Darkness … and that can only ne a good thing.
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Finally, a FAN wrote an article on the internet that voiced what I have felt (and been attacked) for over 15 years, and that is…being a fan of BOTH the original Star Wars movies and the Prequels. Fracturing the fan base is MORE than a “bad idea” or a “marketing strategy”. It will affect half the fan base (who go see these films and pay for tickets) with the up-coming J.J. Abram’s attempt. I have decided NOT to see these up-coming films due to the “foul stench” I have received on the internet regarding truly enjoying and admiring the Prequels…and yes, my favorite movie ever is Revenge of the Sith. The sheer hatred of these so called fans, has wrecked any interest in the new films. I certainly have no faith in Mr. Abrams’s attempt just because he has has prior success at these type of films. I believe that all those haters out there won’t be satisfied with the attempt either, they’ve had far too long to feed their dissatisfaction with the prequels. Thank you for your insightful article and most of all…..THANK YOU for enjoying the prequels as I did. NEVER will I forget seeing Attack of the Clones and Hayden Christensen on that big screen…he was and is an amazing actor, and at the time, barely nineteen.
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I think, in the end, it is up to the fanbase whether it fractures or not. All fans have to deal with canon-truths and marketing strategies they don’t agree with or don’t like. Although the current TFA press is leaving a bad taste in the mouth of many PT-fans, I think it would be terrible to let that, and the accompanying continuous avalanche of hate from certain PT-haters, influence how much we love our Star Wars saga. There are bound to be people who will be disappointed with the TFA and many of them will be those who were disappointed in the PT as well. But as a Star Wars-fan this time is too exciting to walk away from. The bad things are majorly outweighed by all the positive and exciting things coming out of in the next years. I do hope you will go to see TFA because it is as much as part of SW as the PT and OT are. Thanks for commenting 🙂
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Why can’t someone simply express their feelings, opinions about a situation, a feeling or several films on their own blog without being lectured on how he or she should react?
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I’ll agree that the worst thing someone who loves Star Wars could do right now is let the media, and especially what they read online influence the way they feel about Star Wars. If it gets you down then just ignore that chatter and focus on the trailers and pure media dealing with the characters and story rather than what online haters think.
Fracturing of a fan base is going to happen. You’ll never get all they fans to all love the same things, it’s an impossible task, and as long as people like different aspects of the same thing they’ll argue it online, that’s the nature of the internet. It’s up to each of us to ignore baseless hate directed towards things we love and try to focus on what we do love.
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To all OT/PT/EU fans/haters or whatever you classify yourself as.
Suppose you were someone who does NOT read the plethora or fora where obsessed fans battle of who said what, and why which word is bashing or praising which part of the favourite films. Suppose you are someone who doesn’t even know, or care, who Kathleen Kennedy is and who knows JJ basically because of the mildly entertaining StarTrek: Into Darkness … and who believes “Jar Jar Abrams” is a comical thing to say.
Just imagine you are that person and you watch the SDCC 2015 Star Wars reel. Then I guess all you will think is: “Gosh, these people are really dedicated and working hard to make the Star Wars universe feel as real as the Middle Earth of Lord of the Rings.” Shouldn’t that be just fine for us? … Especially knowing that the majority of the millions that will view the reel online have no interest whatsoever in the fuming and vitriolic discussion of ‘fans’ who seem more obsessed with their feelings about other people’s feelings and whether other people’s feelings are sufficiently respectful about their feelings?
Take an inwards view from outside your fan-box. Don’t let it get to the point where that majority of ‘outside others’ might be tempted to think: “I don’t want to be in the same cinema as these nutters!”
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That’s a good point and actually a good thing if most fans don’t read these constant negative fan comments on a regular basis. I hope it’s true so they can enjoy another Star Wars trilogy and when the time comes, I probably will too.
I’m not the kind of Star Wars fan that is into the minutia of canon and extended universe or games. It was a family tradition with us to get together to watch a favorite movie franchise and continuing story.
BUT…I have a fansite so it’s not something I can avoid when looking for news and updates. The constant bashing gets to be a bit much at times but I try not to let it be the focus and for the most part I’m able to do that.
But I have noticed this attitude of seeming to put some distance between the prequels and the rest of the franchise for over a year now coming from TPTB. I didn’t worry about it coming from fans who dislike the prequels. Vocal fans are expected, but when it comes from the creators, it just gives a stamp of approval and support to that ongoing criticism. Not to mention giving the impression that all their ideas are going to be utilized somehow. Yes, I know and probably you know too that is an unreasonble expectation but if you know fandoms, that’s the way it goes.
Like my friend Karen posted on my Facebook recently: The Star Wars Prequels are part of the entire franchise whether anyone likes it or not. There are six movies and they are all canon.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if the TPTB stood behind the whole franchise like that and then added that the new movies will be part of the franchise, part of tradition and canon too but will do it’s own thing and hopefully feel fresh and new and yet familiar.
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I am that fan. I stay far away from forums, I basically only know something about George Lucas, and soooort of know who Kennedy is. And Abrams, of course. But all the other names have me completely clueless, and I have no idea who is who. The only Star Wars sites I follow are prequels-only (because I can’t stand the hate in the rest).
BUT I know that I can’t go on a single YouTube video about Star Wars, or a single ANYTHING about Star Wars, without facing enormous prequel bashing. Pure, unadulterated hatred for three _movies_ that ended a decade ago. Movies that I happen to love and take very personally. They’re at least as dear to me as the OT is to the “purists”, and seeing them getting so much – completely undeserved (and often very ignorance-based) – hate is frustrating and makes me sad. I know it’s made several people shy away from Star Wars completely, they just can’t take it anymore. And I can sympathize, a lot of the time.
So here we have a new trilogy coming, I’m cautiously excited, but all I see is a complete disregard of half of the saga. It’s almost as if they’re setting it up so that when Lucas is gone, they can un-canonize the prequels, and remake them. I doubt that will happen (as I believe a lot of the hate will have died down by then, with a lot of new kids having grown up with the PT, and a lot of the OT-purists being very old by then), but it is a scary thought that haunts me a bit.
I don’t much care what the “IhavenoideaIjustwanttowatchanewStarWarsmovie” think about what’s going on, I and many others SEE the constant prequel-bashing between the lines (and sometimes not-so-between the lines at all) from the makers of the new films. It’s definitely there, and it’s on purpose. And that is incredibly frustrating and disappointing.
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Really interesting discussion going on here, all of this speaks to me. I genuinely would wish that everybody would embrace PT and OT for what they are, period. I mean of course there is a time to analyze and critique but that´s overdone now. It is really JJ Abrams + crews task to make that reflection and take the best out of it. Today we should embrace and enjoy the entire saga with all the flaws and blessings really and not spread unnecessary negativity. As much as I understand the Marketing strategy they are using in promoting TFA they took it a little too far with “We truly are out in a desert, a real desert”! It was misleading and indeed unnecessary to say. With all these great new Material coming up, I like to follow Star Wars news and discussions on Social Media frequently. And to be honest I can´t hear the Prequels-bashing anymore which happens ALL THE FU***** TIME. It really is annoying as hell cause I want to enjoy ALL of it and it is just a big turn off. I mean I´m not kidding when I say my favorite movies are Phantom Menace and Empire Strikes Back and my least favorite are Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Nevertheless I hold Hayden Christensen as one fine actor who does not deserve any hate. In fact, all the actors should get a warm welcoming at Star Wars celebrations and at any other Star Wars panel. Star Wars is One Canon, One Universe like our own with Good, Bad and all shades of Gray. So people stay on the light side! Well, at least on the gray! I BEG YOU 😉
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[“Just imagine you are that person and you watch the SDCC 2015 Star Wars reel. Then I guess all you will think is: “Gosh, these people are really dedicated and working hard to make the Star Wars universe feel as real as the Middle Earth of Lord of the Rings.” Shouldn’t that be just fine for us? … Especially knowing that the majority of the millions that will view the reel online have no interest whatsoever in the fuming and vitriolic discussion of ‘fans’ who seem more obsessed with their feelings about other people’s feelings and whether other people’s feelings are sufficiently respectful about their feelings?”]
Then you’re one of those people. Why do you expect everyone to feel the same as you? I’ve had to put up with the Prequel Trilogy bashing for years. I didn’t mind if these fans didn’t like the 1999-2005 movies. They’re entitled to their opinion. But it became a problem when they attacked those fans (of which I am one) who did.
If people want to criticize how Disney and Kennedy are marketing “The Force Awakens”, they’re entitled to do so. I really wish some fans would stop lecturing them on how they’re supposed to react. If you want something to complain about, how about complaining about those movies you didn’t like, or complaining about those fans who are willing to attack those who do not share their views?
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