ThaOGDreamWeaver

Spoilers from this week:

Side note: sad news today that the one, the only, the mighty James Earl Jones has officially retired from voice acting... in person. At 91, his last official project was Obi-Wan - which used a baseline performance from him and was then reconstructed by the clever clever Ukrainians at Respeecher. (Thought: wonder who else's voice they could reconstruct? Hmmm...) He has granted his permission for his voice archive to be used for future Lucasfilm projects, as it can be put together over any other actor's base performance. Maybe even Rob Paulsen's. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the NARF... So you might be hearing him in future games and themes - just in bits.

Also, just for @Techwright: don't think they have the chopsticks. But:

Without too many spoilers here: yes, slow burn for Eps 1 and 2. But that fight sequence in Ep 3? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??? About Ep 2: And Ep 3: Pretty happy with it so far. Also might follow the standard D+ thing of Episode 4 as when things kick off properly, and when we get taken from a backwater scrapyard to the dark, festering heart of the Empire. Unless we flip to Mon Mothma's side of the story and set her up. It'd be disappointing if we didn't get at least some Cassian:Impossible action on Wednesday. One other thing - there has been fair warning that there will be multiple time jumps in this show, as it needs to cover Cassian's life and adventures for the five years prior to Rogue One. Originally it was going to be one year per season, but Lucasfilm now want to wrap it in two.

Look, you try living across this many timelines and narrative pathings and see if you remember everything. Just buying birthday presents gives me a headache and risks divergent rifting. This is all because Brian Cox microwaved fish at CERN while the LHC was turned on...

That's lore I didn't know about lifespans. Learn new nerdery every day... ...that said, two things. 1) When last seen, Ezra and Thrawn were seen jumping to warp with a pod of hyperdimensional space squid. Exactly where (and when) they've been is potentially up for grabs. 2) The logo for Ahsoka looks very much like the World Between Worlds from the final episodes of Rebels. And much like The Map from Time Bandits, which it resembles, or CS Lewis's Wood Between The Worlds from the Narnia prequel Magician's Nephew, which Filoni and Lucas borrowed from thematically, it allowed limited travel in both space and time. (Have I mentioned I hate time travel? I hate time travel.) So what shape Thrawn is in - or even what point in his life we run into him, or he runs into himself - may not be set in stone. Thrawn may not be fully familiar with how it works, but every evil genius always wants that Undo button. Or better yet: Emperor Thrawn might be an even more formidable opponent than Palpatine himself.

So, the 3-ep launch drop has landed today. I've only managed to get through Ep1, but good stuff so far:

Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation

Beethoven's 5th Symphony - Trombone Champ

Batman '66 Theme - Neal Hefti (feat. RemixManiacs) See also: 360° version!

Secret Invasion has attracted some Proper Acting Names, so hopefully that means a pretty serious script. Particularly happy to see my hometown girl Liv Colman showing up. She's got form in the spy genre opposite Hiddlestone and a gleefully evil Hugh Laurie in The Night Manager (if you've not seen it, please go look it up). Mando: yes, still looks fantastic and can't second guess which way it's going to go, though getting stuck in the middle of both factions and a bunch of ex-Imperials is pretty likely. Ahsoka: if we've found Ezra... where's Thrawn? I have no Bothan spies on this, but there have been no leaks. Big Bad Blue is a big role so maybe they've snagged someone big. Willow: yes, Warwick can act, also ran a UK gameshow (Tenable) and has done an awful lot of voice acting (he's Rukh in Rebels). He famously got so hacked off with being a (quote) novelty act (unquote) on agency books that he set up his own for short and extra-tall actors: unfortunately, Willow Management seems to have folded at some point in 2019.

Bard / Skirmisher. Guess slightly more metal than folk. Never sure about these surveys, but... ...yeah, that tracks 😁

Chris Joss - Tune Down

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Thunder Road (Live @ Hammersmith Apollo, 1975)

She certainly had a line in deadpan humour, and was very relaxed about this sort of thing. According to legend, one of the few unlucky ones - a US Army Lieutenant - started pushing for attention of a pretty young ATS motorpool mechanic (repeated demands for names, contacts, kisses, Win At All Costs, I'm sure many of you know the drill.) ATS 2nd Subaltern Liz Windsor was having none of it, and promptly changed his wheelnuts. While said GI was nursing hurt pride (amongst other things), unbeknownst to our heroic young mechanic word got around. The unfortunate Lt was reassigned very far away from cushty office duties, though being from a DC family, unlikely anywhere lethal.

With respect to m'learned coll, I'd say it's almost the other way round. Saw/Forrest seems reserved, weary, strategic, yet idealistic. Luther/Stellan is pi**ed. In pain of some kind... visible grief? Rage snapping through barely-controlled visage. Likely this is about something personal. Assuming that's Luther's Wacky Races lightsaber-ship in the final trailer, he's also clearly a dangerous man, and there are one or two comments about if he's keeping it together. That makes him interesting plotwise: a loose cannon in a ring of spies - will provide plenty of push and adrenaline, but also increases the risk of costly screwups.

Anakin/Vader survived being flame-grilled, but never lost consciousness or awareness. The ultimate arbiters, of course, are the writers, but Mace is unlikely to be in top shape. BTW, I regret to report one other casualty. Rogue Squadron had already been removed from the 2023 production schedule - apparently Patty Jenkins had some major scheduling issues and DC were being a pain in the ass about WW3 contract options. However, it's now been removed from the 2023 release schedule and may be entirely canned. Honestly, given the way things are going, Rogue Squadron might be better off as an Andor-style longform series for D+. Think Space:Above And Beyond, except they'd have to find a replacement for Sgt. Bougus (aka Gunny Hartman.) Given Hamill took on that role in Knightfall and god knows how many Wing Commander/Star Citizen games...that'd be fun.

As m'learned coll says, habeas corpus applies to writing too... ...though he did get maced by Palpatine, then thrown out a windu. Force users can survive even grievous injuries if they're determined or angry enough (cf Anakin and Reva). But they're not immortals. Mace got a full dark lightning strike from Palpatine - not toying with him, as he did later with Luke - then an epic Force push. If he stayed conscious after that, he's then gotta figure out a way to featherfall through a multilayered city, get himself Bacta'd up. Then survive Order 66. Then vanish. ... Piece of cake.

That sounds like Kenobi S2. Ben is now fully confident in his abilities again, somewhat absolved of his guilt, and aware that the boy doesn't need him as much. (Having thought on't, I'd argue Reva's sudden change of heart was partly her traumatic memories, and partly a direct intervention by The Force itself - or maybe Qui-Gon who's been hanging around waiting for Ben to sort himself out?) So he can do more for people again. Do a bit of quiet Jedi stuff on the side off-world. Quietly let people know he's around. And if the Empire DID pick up on it, well... the greater the legend is that Obi-Wan is alive, and anywhere else except a backwater desert planet... Similarly, Sam has definitely/repeatedly expressed interest in coming back. It'd be quite interesting to have him embittered and angry, falling into the dark side even as he took merciless revenge on the Empire. It's not always about sides. It's about what you do, and who you become doing it. Which is kinda where Andor's going. Regarding powers: same thing with Gandalf (or other magic users when I was running MERP campaigns). Magic used unsubtly attracts attention. Gandalf veiled his epic power under the guise of a jolly old nutter who told stories, did small tricks and made really good fireworks.

I think that deserves a thread on its own. Sometimes, it's someone wanting to have another try, a different or bigger take on a tale, or a new chapter that fills in the gaps. As long as it tells a new story, I'm good with that. But a lot of the time, yes. Yes it is. Taking chances is risky: and even with the improved maths of your own streaming platform, a dud will cost you more than money. I think Andor qualifies for the first one, since they're all new characters bar three (Cassian, Mon and Saw), in a situation and a time we know very little about... and a style of story we've not really seen before in SW (gritty spy thriller). Almost wholly new tale within a universe we know, which saves on a lot of worldbuilding - goddess knows, sci-fi directors don't always know when to get on with it - and gets you right into the meat of a story. I dig. The Haunted Mansion reboot is probably also fair enough because the first try wasn't very good, so that story deserves to be done better. But the grim, relentless determination Disney has to live-action every. single. toon. they've. ever. made... does bother me. A lot. Even the stellar cast they put into Dumbo didn't make that one fly. I'm not gonna be seeing Little Mermaid again, though Halle is going to nail it. Guillermo del Toro is not tempting me to Pinocchio. Sorry, G. And at this rate they'll need to dig up Song Of The South.

By Grabthar's Hammer and the Sons of Warvan, yes. Ours is the old Latin version: Noli Sinere Spurios Te Opprimere*, which later appeared on... British Coins. Neat. Speaking of which, I've been thinking about this more and added another one. The mighty wizard Terry of Pratchett said: Find the story, Granny Weatherwax always said. The world was full of story shapes. If you let them, they controlled you. But if you studied them, found out about them... you could use them, and change them. Understanding that everyone is the hero of their own story in their heads (or, rarely, the villain) is a very handy way of looking at how you relate to people, what you can say and do to help them and/or change your minds in your favour: by using story beats, tropes and cues they recognise. Not overtly most of the time. It can even work on yourself. A little headology goes a long way... *Don't let the b****rds grind you down.

I enjoyed it as a fun popcorn flick...

No major annos on day 3 unless you're into the parks and cruise lines, which will have much more new stuff including new Avengers, Frozen, Moana and Princess & The Frog stuff. But there is this little curiosity... ..and here's the EPK. There's at least one very familiar voice in there... and one hell of a theme tune.

Sammy Burdson - News Background

Herbie Hancock - Heartbeat