this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Star Wars

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 50 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

Huh… I thought it was pretty interesting. Kinda bummed.

Also, kung fu + force powers is fantastic for fight scenes, so I hope they use that stuff more in other shows/movies.

Edit: the anti-woke review bombing crap that people apparently got up to seems to have played a role in the decision (reading between the lines), which is pretty shitty.

E2: instead of just downvoting, I’m interested to hear what people so strongly disliked about it.

[–] andrew_s@piefed.social 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The 'anti-woke' stuff is so frustrating. As soon as some youtube grifter labels something as 'woke' and their followers start review bombing, it frames all subsequent criticism of a thing: Mainstream outlets are wary of the association, so are kinder to a show that it deserves (which then brings their credibility into question for some people); Star Wars nerds who like anything in the universe start dismissing valid criticism because they assume it's been made in bad faith (because 'anti-woke' sorts don't always make themselves so obvious and do highjack legitimate concerns); and anyone trying to genuinely point out faults has to preface everything with where they're coming from (which can get tedious if nothing else).

Anyway: I don't have particularly strong opinions about the show but what I disliked about it was that it reminded me of 'Secret Invasion' and what I saw of 'Echo': it suggests that Disney don't want to do the traditional 'Andor' style of making television, and instead keep with the process of: write + shoot + re-write + reshoot ... This rarely works, and ends up with a show that has inconsistent characters ('Yord' changes personality about 5 times), inconsistent quality (since sets used for reshoots are typically smaller and less dressed), and inconsistent tone (people liked episode 5, but I'd argue that neck-snaps are too violent compared to the vibe of other episodes, which often seemed aimed at young children).

Also, there needs to be a moratorium of any characters saying they have a 'bad feeling about this' (if anyone says anything like this is S2 of Andor I'll be devasted)

[–] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I hope you didn’t just jinx Andor S2.

[–] andrew_s@piefed.social 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They'll be something terrible in it I'm sure. Some awful reddit theory (a character we've already met is Cass's sister, B2 becomes K2) or some cringey bit of fan-service. Disney have had too long to find a way to meddle with it (I don't even think the post-credits scene in S1 was the writers idea, and suspect it was thrown together when the show was airing to pacify the people who need everything explained and want everything in SW to be reference to itself (even when such things call the timeline into question))

[–] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago

I didn’t mind the last scene. Showing the slave labor behind the building of the empire’s mega weapons is kinda interesting and makes their struggle in the prison factory even more futile feeling.

That said, I’m also worried that the writers and directors of the first season are gonna have a harder time working without D+ meddling.

Crossing my fingers in the mean time.

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In terms of dislike Ryan George does a good job, https://youtu.be/PqwEE6G6zaU

But in more detail there are a lot of decisions made by characters that are fun in the moment, but don't really make sense.

The twins are angry at Sol because he killed their mother, but Sol doesn't clarify that she was turning into a shadow monster?

Osha was a bad Jedi, fell out of the order, but then switches to dark side real quick and kills Sol.

We have to leave your sister behind and mind wipe her because there is no room in the ship? Also the mind wipe is clearly just a "we need a reason to stretch the story" move and if they had made a season 2 would have been undone quickly.

Why did the beaver man mess with the ship? He stopped Sol, but was also an ally?

I'm sure there are more but in general this show just didn't really tell a story I'm interested in.

Don't get me wrong it has some great things I want to know more about. The era of Star Wars is fun to explore and new. Space witches and how they compare (or are?) to the night sisters and their magic/force use. Possessing a Jedi. New Dark side users and origins.

The interesting story to me was/is Qimir, so I hope we can pick that character up again.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Sol doesn't clarify that she was turning into a shadow monster?

He realized that was wrong as soon as he killed her. Maybe he could've explained why he thought that, but it would've come across as making excuses. The rest I don't disagree with.

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He could have explained it still and it would have been fine if Osha just doesn't accept it, but you should at least get the truth out there & make sure your communication is clear.

In fact having her deny it may have been more interesting. Have it clearly show how revenge or hate were clouding her mind from logic and understanding.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 4 points 3 months ago

I mean he knew she wasn't turning into a shadow monster. He reacted because he thought she was killing Mae, and he could've said that, but it wouldn't make it any better because he was arrogant and fearful of any use of the force outside of the Jedi way. That's not any kind of exoneration even if he had explained it.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why was he wrong though? She's either mind controlling or killing someone by going all evil shadow like that. Her doing that is totally a justifiable reason to react the way he did. Especially since she already mentally assaulted the padawan in their first meeting.

[–] MagicShel@programming.dev 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It's been a minute since I've watched it, but as I recall she was just teleporting or something. The dark shadows were just a visual to get there. They telegraphed this a short while earlier. I guess I have to rewatch it since it's in question, but at the time of watching it I felt it was clear that's exactly what was going on.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago

The only other person we see go all shadows is the horn lady, and then wookie jedi starts attacking.

[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.world 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I agree. I frankly think the show was quite bad in terms of tone, cinematography, and unfortunately acting. It all felt kinda cheap and poorly planned to me. I say this as someone has genuinely enjoyed all of the other Star Wars shows (yep, even Obi-Wan). But I also found it interesting and really enjoyed the fight scenes and the new yet familiar setting. Regardless of my opinion of the technical side of the production, I absolutely would have watched another season to see where the story was headed.

[–] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Agreed. Just like so many other franchise series right now, that includes, Star Wars (case in point, Acolyte), Star Trek (Picard series, except the last season maaaybe) and the Marvel universe (Secret Wars anyone?), it started strong in the first few episodes. Then after we get to the half time in the season it drops off hard and we see weird resolutions to plot points or parts of the plot do not get any meaningful explanation or ending.

I am sad to see Acolyte might have been cancelled for "woke agenda reviews" when it should have been cancelled for bad writing.

[–] MrJameGumb@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

I watched all of it and as some others have said I think there was a great story in there somewhere but it was just buried under a mountain of bad writing, crappy gimmicks, and terrible continuity.

I enjoyed elements of the story enough that I was willing to give a second season a chance, but I'm honestly not surprised it was cancelled.

The anti-woke stuff was shitty and definitely didn't help but I don't think that alone would have caused Disney to cancel a series if they really believed it could be successful

[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

To echo @gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works again, the downvotes came on so fast for what was just two random people’s earnest opinions. Tell everyone what you think about the show, let’s talk! I know I shouldn’t take the votes personally, but it doesn’t feel great when it’s just my honest opinion about a tv show.

[–] medcur@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

My opinions on it are the storytelling was terrible, Sol (and a lot of the other characters but especially Sol) was uninteresting with not great acting, the two flashback episodes were unnecessary, one of the reasons for the massacre on Brendok being a Jedi was homesick was awful, Yoda's appearance in the finale seemed liked a cynical move to try to get a second season, I thought the final episode made The Stranger look weak and undermined him a bit, I would have preferred Osha killed Mae when she was passed the lightsabre, and it was just dull overall. Episode 5, however, was absolutely fantastic and there were glimpses of other great things. The potential for season 2 to be really good was there but the potential for season 1 to be good was also there but wasn't delivered so I had no faith the 2nd season would either.

I am a huge Star Wars fan, I really enjoyed Boba Fett, Obi Wan, and the other series but Acolyte was more of a burden to watch. I watched it all because because I'm a huge Star Wars fan and I wanted it to be good, it just wasn't. I would have loved to see more of The Stranger and Darth Plagueis though.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago

Blaming the anti-woke crowd is just cover for how crap the series was. It was a terribly written series where character's motivation was whatever the plot demanded at the time. The story clearly had a goal it wanted to achieve and showed something completely different to their narrative several times. Throughout the series, but particularly episode 5, characters teleport as necessary for plot/action scenes. It's now cannon that you can seduce people to the Dark side with that dick...