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:: An ongoing episodic story of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts ::
FAQs
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| May 2026 |
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New movie 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' is released !
31st May 2026 |
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In late May, the new movie 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' was released !
Ahead of its debut, I, like many others, was concerned that either people wouldn't know its backstory and struggle, and/or the end result would just feel like an extended episode(s) from its TV format. Would it be too 'lightweight' and slim, would it have enough gravitas or significance, especially within the exisitng lore and timeframe ? I guess the 'problem', that we all saw coming two years ago, is that Jon Favreau has to cater for the SW fan, the Mando fan, the general audience, and the newbie who only vaguely knows about Star Wars (and "baby Yoda"). And to that extent, well done to him for producing this. But as with other Disney productions, I'd argue that one should always aim for the fan first and foremost as the primary audience member - anyone else, with minimal prior knowledge, can 'slot in' behind and pick up what they need to know as they go along. Please note, I had made a point of watching the finale of Mando S3 a few hours before viewing the movie, which 'informed' my appreciation of the movie, specifically Grogu's Force abilities. I had also watched four YouTube video reviews following my viewing, and they were all pretty much saying the same thing to varying degrees of criticism. An astute one was commenting on where SW is in the public perception of SW as an intellectual property today. Low, according to him.
The movie is fun, it's entertaining. It's mostly engaging. But it's SAFE. Was that deliberate ? By LFL and/or Disney ? Did the latter, particularly, want to play it safe ahead of STARFIGHTER, especially if that will be more daring in its originality, and any other movie release they may have planned ? I can't see LFL playing it overly safe following the reaction to the ST. Was it simply down to Jon Favreau, unable to write more than an engaging, fun, exciting... but vacuous story ?
The credit titles over the film, after the 'opening sequence', really threw me. I know GL had political/union issues with being allowed to open ANH without any credits, but he held his ground... and it worked and it gave SW a very specific identity. So I wonder why Favreau opted to allow for these very jarring titles.
The exposition title was useful and necessary, but personally I now have no idea where exactly this show / movie fits in with the overall timeframe : "after the Empire" can be a big sweep of time, and I recall Mando S1 being "about five years after ROTJ" ? My naive and futile hope going in was that, since they all share the same timeframe, we'd see - or at least get a reference to - Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, even Ahsoka. I appreciate this whole set up is "side story" and "stand alone adventure" and "outer rim", but giving us a timeframe with some anchors in it, and even a reference to the greater danger - more than just "some Imperial warlords" - I was hoping for a reference to Thrawn or the First Order or Starkiller Base or Snoke or cloning.... something, anything to tie it in to the ST on the back of the OT. As a very small pedantic moan, there was some unnecessary text, or incorrect text, in the exposition title, something along the lines of "ex-Imperial Warlords" - not only does the colloquial prefix "ex" feel wrong and out of place here, but they are not "ex" Imperial Warlords, they are current Imperial Warlords ! Otherwise, if they had truly given up their loyalty, where is the threat ?
The opening ice planet sequence - some say Hoth, I hope it wasn't - I might purchase the Visual Dictionary to find out (!) - was great fun... except for the bipedal walker running down hill - I know I'm a stickler for in-fiction logic, but I was just waiting for that thing to topple over. Or for Djin - or Grogu - righting it or stabilising it when it did topple over ! And, to a degree, seeing Djin - apparently unnamed throughout the movie ??! - being so capable just meant that I was sort of questioning his ineptitude later on. Likewise, and having just re-watched the last episode of Mando S3 (and seeing Grogu Force-deflect a huge ship-to-ground explosion), I was thinking that Grogu would now be far more adept in the Force... ultimately meaning that he's too invincible for the purposes of the story - meaning, that in the context of Mando S3, Grogu could bend his little finger and all his enemies would collapse at his feet. The trials, indeed, of making one's hero(es) and villain(s) invincible !
The Republic base was obviously a carry-through from Mando S3, and felt a bit 'small', but was more than sufficient for the story. I did not like the fact that - ta da ! - Djin now has a Razor Crest again... so convenient to the story (from Imperial storage no less ??!)... and likewise, how Djin conveniently picks up his S1 rifle. The movie pretty much puts Djin back to where he was at the end of S1 ??! Was there a plot specific reason why he needed the Razor Crest ? Ahh, it's to house a Hutt ! But then why give a bounty hunter an N1 starfighter in the TV series ?? The new audience wouldn't know any different ; the SW fan would understand the 'echo' but perhaps, like me, question the logic of it. The silhouette of ship and rifle by the end of the movie seemed to be somewhat indulgent and lazy, unnecessarily recreating an image from three TV seasons ago.
I LOVED the world-building.... Hutts, lore, Nal Hutta... but I just wanted MORE. I was expecting to see Hutts slithering everywhere, not just one or two oddly tucked away in the hallway alcoves. And similarly, I was unsure if this was the 'capital city' equivalent, or just the Twins' provincial palace. If the former - and I fear that this might be the case - then I'd be wanting to see lots of Hutts doing Hutt things in their Hutt capital on their Hutt homeworld ! It is so refreshing , as a fan and as a viewer, to see a non-humanoid sentient and significant species. In TPM we met Toydarians and Dugs, and in ROTJ it was a Hutt - wonderful ! No bipedal humanoid actors involved ! This is what lifts SW high above the likes of Star Trek (or, more accurately, my memory of Star Trek from 30 years ago). A humanoid alien with two arms and two legs and a funny looking face is... in effect, a human. Oh, and notwithstanding Han's jibe to Jabba in ANH, why is Rotta calling himself a "man" ??! He's a Hutt ! Which also leads me on to the Huttese. When they first spoke and there were subtitles, I nearly whooped with joy. And then they switched to english. Argh ! I know they had a lot of dialogue, but COME ON ! GL did it with subtitles and "talk droids", and even inference of Wookeese. It's not that difficult. My younger son said he had had difficulty at times understanding the english - I pointed out to him how the brain picks up on the formation of the human mouth around vocal sounds, whereas an alien's slit mouth is not going to give those visual clues.
It was frustrating that the action had to jump away from the Hutt world, and wasn't elsewhere on the planet or seemingly on a local moon. Shakari - or Shakira as my mind immediately set it (!) - was interesting, but too american (chicago) / earth-like to my eye (much like the suburbs in SKELETON CREW). The Martin Scorsese scenes were fun... but sort of too Marty. The fact that Djin was defeated, after his earlier exploits was, I concede, necessary... but it is frustrating when you seem to have this walking arsenal get 'tripped up' - as Moff Gideon in S3 says, "take away the trinkets, and a Mandalorian is nothing". The dejarik gladiator scene was fun, as well as being an obvious homage to the holo-chess in ANH, and very Lucas-like ; as was the chase scene afterwards. I was surprised by how much I bought into a muscular Hutt. Of course, we've had 50 years of 'knowing' Hutts are fat and lazy and greedy for power and food, and thus, as an affluent crime boss, exploiting others as foot soldiers and servants. Back in the early 80s, I was aware - from the ROTJ novel I guess - that Jabba (ie, Hutts) would hunt and kill Jedi, and so from that moment on I had always wondered what a fighting Hutt would look like - not necessarily muscular, but using his brute size and body shape (and possibly thick leathery blaster-proof skin - Jabba was not afraid of hosting an armed audience, after all) to his advantage. So it was a genuine delight to see Rotta fight, and later the Twins too.
I genuinely can't decide how I feel about Rotta's "I don't want to be my father" vibe. It's certainly an interesting take. But I just can't see beyond the generic Hutt personality, that we've seen time and time again, essentially through the Clone Wars series. I'd get it if Rotta presented himself as a 'changed man' (sorry, Hutt), and then used it to hoodwink our heroes for his own gain, even it wasn't entirely nefarious. It felt as if Favreau wanted to say, "look how LOVE changes someone, even a Hutt" - which I guess is perfectly fine and admirable, but just didn't feel right. I kept expecting Rotta to try and carry out his own double cross at some point later. And it felt as if there needed to be a more explicit parallel between Jabba/Rotta and Djin/Grogu, as if the core theme to this movie was actually father-son dynamics, but perhaps that's just me needing the clarification.
I LOVED the so-called easter eggs - I can't recall them all now... the obvious one is the Ralph McQuarrie Dagobah-set Dragon Snake. It did seem odd to have the (?)Ammani hunters (from ROTJ) in the pit pool AND the swamp. It seemed to make more sense to only have them as hunter-seekers in the swamp later. The fisherman scene also felt a bit convoluted (did we need Grogu to steal the fish ? Could he have just eaten berries and frogs ? Could Grogu have stumbled upon the fisherman just after the henchman / Embo had explained Djin had been poisoned ? And, more importantly, did the (magically appearing) lantern, that Grogu used in his mud den, come from the fisherman ?). The mud den recalled Yoda's home, and one wonders if this was a Yoda-species thing. The joke about it being too small for Djin worked once... but not three times. Even though Djin had been poisoned - and I think the Twins possibly gave a short timeframe for it to take effect - there didn't seem to be much jeopardy.
The gun-runner's crashed ship seemed to have a lot of jungle growth over it in apparently a short time. And, personally, I needed a bit of connective backstory to explain how the Twins had intercepted the ship to re-capture Rotta. Which, also, makes me wonder why the Twins couldn't have killed or abducted Rotta (from Shakari) previously ?
Embo the Kyuzo bounty hunter - I hardly recall him from the CW series - was perhaps the most fearsome and interesting character in the whole movie. Made me think of the coolly mysterious Boba Fett of the 80s. And again, seeing Djin's prowess earlier, made me question the hero's abilities when they fought.
The blue pill snack... made me think of viagra !!!
The Tippett droids felt a bit awkward. Stop-motion may be nostalgic, and may be limited now to representing clunky droids ; but their appearance was brief and didn't seem to be too much of a threat.
The tiny Anzellan ship was a great visual joke.... but, me being me, I needed to see huge lightspeed-capable engine thrusters. There's no way that tiny ship can go to hyperspace.... TIE fighters can't, and they'd be a similar size. Presumably , the smallest hyperdrive capable engine thruster is found on an X-Wing or an A-Wing ? Hmmm.
The inclusion of Zeb from REBELS (and Mando S3) was odd... and sadly inconsequential. Was he a Chewbacca or was he a Lando or was he a Nein Nunb ?
It was convenient - and made me think it was an awkward quick finish for the movie - for the Coyne, captured Warlord / gangster, to have told the New Republic "everything" - this, if any where, would have been the perfect time to mention Thrawn or Palpatine or clones or First Order. it did seem, at first, that Coyne was the villain of the piece , and then, deliberately or otherwise, suddenly he was not. I couldn't tell if he was still an Imperial warlord, or if he had lost that exalted position, and was now 'just' a 'boxing' manager, or had his feet in both camps, and was working his underworld connections in favour of aiding his glorious Empire.... now that might have been a worthy subplot !
So a fun movie, but hardly any substance or significance or drama or character arc. Mando starts out as a walking arsenal, trips over a few times, ends up being a walking arsenal. Grogu starts out as a sidekick with (immense) magical abilities and ends up as a sidekick with (immense) magical abilities. A You-Tuber described it as a CG and puppetry monster movie, with the majority of dramatic characters under masks, and I wouldn't disagree. I'm aware that Djin is unmasked only relatively briefly. And I do wonder if he had had more time unmasked, perhaps by his own choice, that might have generated more empathy with the character (from the audience), and even moved his own character arc further along ? Personally, I'll always relate to a character more if I can see them emote. But that's not to say a masked character - like Vader - can't act, but it requires a lot of physicality to convey the emotion.
I'd always want as HIGH a bar as possible from the creatives going in. As I say, I feel such projects should cater for the die hard fan, and in doing so, by default that will make the product entertaining at the very least for the average viewer. This could have been a deep dive into Hutt lore, we could have had a stronger analysis of the Djin/Grogu dynamic (ie, faults and strengths ; perhaps some less implicit parallels with Jabba/Rotta and the two heroes) ; pushed the Imperial threat more, as well as the general slip to lawlessness (post Imperial Empire) as exemplified by the likes of Hutts and Ammani and Embo ; used the Republic a bit more, perhaps in providing the overall setting of the timeframe (even the general viewer would have appreciated a reference - verbal or visual - to Leia or Mothma or Ackbar, even to Luke).
My older son and his friend both felt it was a fun movie, but very much an enlarged TV show and not a movie of consequence. There are probably other critiques but I've forgotten them now (!).
I do intend to see it again, but in a few weeks time.
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At the end of May, we heard the sad news of the passing of Marcia Lucas at the age of 80. George's first wife, and instrumental film editor, who helped re-shape the original 'Star Wars' movie into an even tighter, more thrilling, experience than it already was.
After marrying George Lucas in 1969, she worked as an editor on several of his early films, including THX 1138 and American Graffiti - earning an Oscar nomination for the latter. "I love film editing," she once told a reporter, according to Lucasfilm. "I have an innate ability to take good material and make it better, and to take bad material and make it fair." Along with Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch, she would go on to win the Oscar for Star Wars in 1978.
As reported by the BBC News website, George Lucas credited her with helping make sense of the vast amount of footage filmed for the climactic Death Star battle sequence : "It was extremely complex and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that," he told Rolling Stone shortly after the film's release. "Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight, and we were trying to do that."
Fan site SWNN noted :
One of her most famous contributions to the franchise was the editing on the Battle of Yavin sequence, which initially did not have the sense of urgency that it needed to work. In particular, there was nothing in the film that they had shot indicating that the Death Star was only a few minutes away from obliterating the Rebel Alliance base on Yavin IV. By then, the main editors of the film (Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew) had already finished their work on the film with no room to return.
Taking it upon herself to spruce up the climactic sequence of the film, she made the editing decision to have the Death Star close in on the moon without shooting any additional footage. She accomplished this by using voice-overs that counted down to the Death Star entering firing range, calling for digital editing for various display screens for both the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire. Repurposing footage that otherwise would have been unused, they were able to transform the sequence into a race against time as seconds counted.
Marcia Lucas also made some additional suggestions for how the story of the original film should play out, with her criticisms being one that George would take to heart. For instance, she suggested that, to provide more gravitas for Luke’s journey as a hero, Obi-Wan should need to sacrifice his life on the Death Star to ensure that he and his friends could escape. George Lucas later reflected that her suggestion worked because it would deny Luke an active mentor figure in the third act of the film and place greater emphasis on Darth Vader as his archnemesis in two further stories, helping sell the threat of the Dark Side of the Force and its impact on both Luke and his father.
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| As I did with the progression of the Virtual Edition Episode X, I will post below sections of the prose for Episode XI as I draft it.... here, Leia Solo is revealed to have been meditating on the Falcon all this time, and seer-projecting herself to wherever she needed to be. Now, aware of her husband's drama, she exfiltrates the Falcon out of the gateway moon of Bastion and races down to the Imperial Planet to intercept Jayvis and then on to Han....
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The interior of the Millennium Falcon was cool and dimly lit on standby power. The boarding ramp hatch had been closed and locked ever since Han and Chewie had exited the ship to make their way from the Bastion moon down to Imperias.
Inside the crew dormer cabin, lying under a shabby worn blanket, lay Leia Solo. Her brown eyes fluttered open and her hands, resting on top of the sheet above her belly, gently spasmed as muscles twitched her fingers alongside her returning consciousness.
She eased herself into a sitting position on the padded bunk, and swung her feet over the edge. She blinked a few times, and then reached over to the glass of water that Han had left for her in the recess. She sipped, and the liquid re-generated her lips and tongue and throat.
The Falcon was a familiar space and a safe space. She had accompanied her husband on numerous journeys, all beginning with that fateful escape from the first Death Star, marking her final ever departure from her beloved Alderaan system. The ship held a signature, and very masculine, smell of oil and sweat... and she loved it. And she loved the captain who piloted the vessel.
On increasing occasions she would retreat to the Falcon to meditate. Since she could project her seer-self to almost anywhere she required within the immediate present time frame, she could be ‘present’ for any function, be it at the Principalle Jedi Temple or the Executive buildings adjoining the Senate or on a distant world helping to seek out new Force-adepts. Not that the Temple was vulnerable, but more that no one, save for a very select few, would expect her to be physically on board the ship. Such isolation gave her a sense of control, as well as peace, sensations that she felt were urgently required now that she was seer-journeying more and more, and concurrently too.
Leia eased herself to her feet, and steadied her balance. It had been a while since she had last physically moved.
Han. Chewie. Jayvis. Luke. Alana.
She moved across the cabin, and reached for the door controls. The door slid open, and she stepped out into the ring corridor. Another flick of a switch, and the passage way lights illuminated. She made her way forward through the ship, traversing the passenger cabin at the front, and then arcing around towards the boarding hatch. Before reaching it, she turned left, and made her way along the corridor that culminated at the cockpit.
Familiarity allowed her to turn on the lighting and begin the engine activation sequence on the back wall, before she eased herself forward and into the captain’s chair. She ran her fingers deftly over the instrument panel, and the Falcon began to whine in keen response.
The Falcon’s load of cargo containers had been removed whilst the ship had been parked, so Leia had a clear view ahead and to the side.
Utilising the Force to flick more switches whilst she drew on levers and pressed more buttons, the Falcon began to slowly rise.
The general comm pinged with a universal hail and a confused human voice : Freighter D-3-7 Oxen, what are you doing ? You aren’t scheduled to leave yet, and you haven’t been cleared to do so anyway ?!
Leia reached over and nonchalantly deactivated the comm switch.
With a look of intense concentration on her face, she leaned into the steering yoke, and the Falcon dipped sideways as it arced away from the landing platform.
Inside the cockpit, Leia regarded the all-encompassing view of the Imperial Planet. She closed her eyes, reached over to the Lightspeed throttle levers, and pushed them forward. The visage of the world ahead of her blurred sharply, and then, just as quickly as she had initiated the super-acceleration, Leia drew back the levers, and clear blue sky decorated with white cumulus cloud became her new view : there was a reason why Han was wary of lightspeed hyper-skips, but Han was no Grand Master Jedi with the finesse of the Force at his side, and nor was he focused with intense razor-sharp concentration for saving the life of a loved one.
High in the stratosphere, the freighter popped into view, followed soon after by a massive sonic boom. The ship angled sharply, its hull plates glowing red at the edges, and orange contrails drawing out behind it, and then it dropped heavily towards the planet’s surface.
Another resounding sonic boom marked another hyper-skip, and the Falcon roared through the blue sky above Imperiant City. Inside the cockpit, eyes closed allowing for the full undistracted flow of the Force, Leia sensed where Jayvis’ shuttle was and made a bee-line to intercept it.
The saucer-shaped ship ripped between skyscrapers and factories, retail outlets and domestic residentials. The propulsion of its blue-white engines were magically enhanced by the Cosmic Energy known as the Force.
The presence of the intruder was soon noted, and four TIE fighters were rising to begin pursuit. Their twin-ion engines screamed as they accelerated at full speed to catch up with the trespasser.
Within moments, through the cockpit window Leia could see four paired red dots skimming and jinking across the rooftops, and a pair of blue dots just ahead of them also acrobatically diving and weaving. A flash of green and an explosion of roofing materials indicated the pursuers were opening fire.
Leia reached for the automated ventral cannon controls, and activated the gun. A targetting screen began to appear on the main scope at the centre of the dashboard.
Near the cockpit on the underside and just aft of the starboard mandible, a plating hatch slid back, and the small but powerfully enhanced Blas-Tech AX-108 cannon descended.
The last two TIE fighters were now larger and clearer. A clicking sounded from the targeting computer, and a red square appeared over one of them. The image froze, and then, from inside the cockpit, Leia saw several pulses of red gunfire lash out from under her, and smash into the TIE fighter just ahead. As the smaller ship exploded, Leia saw that the targeting computer was already shifting on to the next fighter.
The pair of red exhaust vents danced left and right in a vain attempt to avoid the freighter’s cannon, but to no avail, and another burst of red gunfire drowned out the Imperial fighter.
The Falcon raced between the two dwindling fireballs and was soon upon the next two TIE fighters. The freighter simply smashed into the one on the left, clipping it and sending it spiralling to the rooftops. It overtook the lead fighter, and bore down on the shuttle.
Inside, Leia raised her right hand to the side and used the Force to flick the switches on the co-pilot’s wall that would energise the tractor-
grippers on the forward mandibles. With an alarm sounding that warned against the use of the freight-loaders at high speed, Leia could see a web of blue energy begin to crackle around the leading portion of the two forward arms.
She reached over to the communications panel, and turned a dial, then stabbed a switch. At the same time, the Force adjusted the acceleration levers to reduce the ship’s velocity.
“Jayvis !” she called out. “This Is Amidala, friend of General Hux. I am behind you with a tractor beam. Be ready to cut your engines on my mark !”
The communicator clicked as Jayvis responded.
“Understood, Amidala,” returned his tinny voice.
“Three – two – one – mark !”
Several levers and switches across the Falcon’s instrument panels shifted, and the thrum of the engines dropped to a lower pitch as the ship decelerated.
Ahead, the boxy workforce shuttle also decelerated, and then juddered briefly as the larger freighter’s tractor beam took hold. The space between the two ships began to slowly close, all the while hovering in mid air on repulsors.
The one remaining TIE fighter splattered a fusillade of green laserfire across the armoured plating of the Falcon, and then shot overhead, immediately beginning a wide arc to bring it around on another attack run.
The other four TIE fighters had also caught up with the commotion, and splayed a wave of green laserfire towards the Falcon from behind.
The ventral cannon swung around, and returned its own red fire, and the TIEs, not expecting the freighter to have teeth, dived in pairs to either side.
The shuttle gently bumped up against the Falcon’s mandibles.
“Hold on tight,” called out Leia across the intercom. “We’re going for a ride !”
More levers moved, and the blue-white engines at the aft of the ship blazed into life again. As the Falcon and its new cargo pushed forward, the underside cannon swung back around and fired towards the TIE fighter to the front. It caught one of its wings, which exploded, and the main body of the TIE spun off to the side.
The two pairs of new arrivals were now swinging back around to attack from the sides, but the Falcon was already accelerating away from the scene. As the four TIEs dropped into a pursuit formation, another sonic boom marked the disappearance of the freighter to lightspeed.
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| Nathaniel Reed, 31st May 2026 |
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