Monday, November 27, 2017

EB06: Star Wars 1) Ranking the movies, and what's still Star Wars Canon


We are big Star Wars nerds on this podcast. But who isn't?

We wanted to commemorate the launch of Episode VIII: The Last Jedi with a few episodes leading up to December 15, so, without further ado, here they are.

This is the first of five Star Wars episodes, and we wanted to kick it off right. We talk about what might make us such fans. Without diving too far into the rabbit whole of what makes human psychology work at all, we guess it might have something to do with how it unlocks our imaginations, both our own imaginations and that of any child who has ever stepped into a theater and wondered just what it might be like to swing a real lightsaber through the air.

Then we rank the episodes. Spoiler alert, here are Justin's rankings -- Dustin's are very similar:
  1. Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
  2. Episode VII: The Force Awakens
  3. Episode IV: A New Hope
  4. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
  5. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
  6. Ep 3
  7. Ep 2
  8. Ep 1
Then we discussed what George Lucas did with the Star Wars canon through the 80s, 90s and up to his sale to Disney and how he kept a tight leash on it. What's canon? Wikipedia says canon refers to the concept of "the conceptual material accepted as 'official' in a fictional universe's fan base." So -- yeah, it's important to us Star Wars nerds.

In the 90s, Lucas let out the leash a bit, by having Timothy Zahn write the first official novel since the canon was on lock down. Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, launched to positive reviews and breathed life into a relatively stagnant franchise. This new line of story telling turned into what we assume was a money making machine for Lucas, which helped him fund the creation of the prequels (blech).

So we then presume that after every parsec of the Star Wars universe was written about and Lucas had nowhere to go, he did the only thing he could do: sell it to someone who was ballsy enough to wipe out the thousands of pages of extended canon universe:Disney (Star Wars sold for more than $4B, by the way). Now, to that day, the all those stories in the extended universe were canon, which Star Wars nerds throughout the land held as sacred as the Bible.

Today, Disney is cashing in on the ability to turn a blank slate into a blank check by re-writing each minute of the Star Wars universe starting with the minute the second Death Star blew up--which they literally did by selling the "Shattered Empire" comic series and the "Aftermath" book trilogy.

While Disney is filling up this new blank slate with money-making materials (many of which I am happily throwing my money at), they are indeed keeping an equally, if not tighter, leash on the creation of new story lines through a story group much a modern-day Jedi council telling each author who has the right to become Star Wars story telling Jedi Master--Anakin still does not have that right. It’s clear Disney is being very strategic with their baby and, I think, ensuring they maximize the return on their investment.

In fact, supporting this theory, it's widely known that Disney has fired several directors from the Star Wars movies (we're not even halfway done with this new trilogy), and hired trustworthy Hollywood mainstays like Ron Howard or Star Wars' own J.J. Abrams to fill their place.

We discuss whether or not this is purely money driven or if it's in the best interest of the fans. Of course we'll leave the final decision up to you.

Check out some of the materials we mentioned below. Enlightened Bros uses affiliate links and may get a small portion of a commission if items are purchased.

-Justin



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