{"id":18289,"date":"2016-01-11T00:10:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T05:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=18289"},"modified":"2016-04-22T12:53:08","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T16:53:08","slug":"5-controversial-star-wars-developments-we-dont-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/11\/5-controversial-star-wars-developments-we-dont-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Controversial \u201cStar Wars\u201d Developments We Don\u2019t Hate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Masters-of-Teras-Kai\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For years I wrote off “Star Wars” as another typical classic film I had zero interest in watching until 1998 when sheer boredom gave way to curiosity. Managing to borrow the original trilogy on VHS from my aunt, I watched it in one entire sitting and loved every minute of it. Since then it’s been a very hectic relationship with the series packed with a lot of love, and a lot of bile. In 2015 “Star Wars Rebels<\/a>” made me realize I still love the series after a self inflicted hiatus, and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens<\/a>” finally confirmed I wasn’t quite ready to abandon this series just yet. Like any other “Star Wars” geek I have controversial ideas about the series I love and hate, and these are five of the controversial aspects from the whole shebang I don’t hate.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"jango\"<\/a><\/p>\n

5. Jango Fett<\/strong>
\nLet\u2019s face it: a lot of the prequels were nothing but pandering and lame nostalgia that had no bearing to the narrative at hand. Did we really have to have Artoo and C3P0 in the prequels? Did we really need to see Yoda use a lightsaber? In either case, while including Jango Fett was just an excuse to appeal to the Boba Fett fans, Jango is not a bad character when you get down to it. He kind of looks like a Power Ranger, but he\u2019s deadly, every bit at ruthless and merciless as Boba was, and he\u2019s an ace shot to boot. He also manages to fight a Jedi without spiraling out of control screaming like a punk. Fett had the honor of being decapitated during battle by a Jedi master.<\/p>\n

\"SW96\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4. 1996 Star Wars Special Edition<\/strong>
\nIf Disney opted not to release the original editions and asked fans to choose one of the many special editions, I\u2019d choose the 1996 versions. It has the least amount of damage, improves on some bits here and there, and is the most subtle change Lucas inflicted on the trilogy. I didn\u2019t get in to \u201cStar Wars\u201d until 1998, and before then I was shocked at how much people loved \u201cStar Wars.\u201d I fondly recall buying a big bag of Doritos plastered with \u201cStar Wars\u201d logos, and collecting a hologram pog of the main character Luke Sky\u2014something. When I was given the VHS trilogy for my birthday in 1997, it\u2019s what hooked me in to the series and never let go. I owned the gold VHS box set for years, and still have it in my collection somewhere. I watched it every weekend for a whole year, and enjoy the smaller changes, as well as the more interesting new sequences like the CGI scene of the X-Wing armada approaching the Death Star. I want the original editions on Blu-Ray, but I don\u2019t hate the 1996 editions, either. And sorry, but I much prefer the new closing song to “Return of the Jedi” over the Ewok celebratory song from the original film.<\/p>\n

\"General<\/a><\/p>\n

3. The whole General Grievous Thing<\/strong>
\nYou may know him as the CGI lame spider-Robot with the spinning lightsabers in all four hands who was beaten easier than a cub scout at recess, but Grievous actually had a better shelf life in the mid-quel \u201cThe Clone Wars.\u201d Before \u201cRevenge of the Sith<\/a>,\u201d Genndy Tartakovsky brought us in to the middle of the mythical Clone Wars where Anakin and Obi-Wan fought alongside each other. During the limited series, he introduced Grievous. Grievous is an imposing horrifying precursor to Darth Vader who kidnaps Palpatine and chases Obi-Wan and Mace Windu halfway across the city to reclaim him. Not only is Grievous fast, imposing, and relentless, but he\u2019s an amazing warrior with the lightsaber. When a group of master jedis are forced to confront Grievous, he completely murders the entire group single handedly and shows off his four arms for the first time. He also shows he\u2019s capable of holding another lightsaber with his foot, and is just a sick villain until the very end. It\u2019s a shame Lucas didn\u2019t know how to handle him and treated him so shoddily because Grievous is a cool villain; an unnecessary one, but a cool one.<\/p>\n

\"EU\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Eliminating the Extended Universe<\/strong>
\n\u201cGet over yourself, man.\u201d<\/em> Hey, hate me all you want, but I\u2019m glad it\u2019s no longer relevant. Mara Jade. Jacen Solo. Jaina Solo, Admiral Thrawn. The Jedi Academy. Exar Kun. I\u2019m glad it\u2019s all gone, gone, and completely defunct. When Disney bought Star Wars and all of its properties, they gave us the major announcement that the Extended Universe (aka the EU) would not be referenced in the new movies, and that the Extended Universe isn\u2019t considered canon anymore. I cheered. I am so glad that the EU is no longer bearing any relevance to the new series, because it\u2019s all so convoluted and boring.<\/p>\n

I bought the \u201cStar Wars Encyclopedia\u201d back in the early aughts and did significant research and just can\u2019t quite comprehend why so many people love the EU. I couldn\u2019t connect with the novels, or the comics from Dark Horse, and couldn\u2019t muster up enthusiasm for this large mythology that felt so detached from the original trilogy. I\u2019m glad Disney is taking bits from the EU that doesn\u2019t suck and using them for the new films. It\u2019s like Disney is stripping a clunky old vehicle and using the working parts for a more simple and streamlined machine that works for everyone.<\/p>\n

\"Tesera-Kasi\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Masters of Teras Kasi<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m subscribed to a lot of game channels on Youtube, and \u201cMasters of Teras Kasi\u201d is almost universally reviled as one of the worst \u201cStar Wars\u201d games of all time. Truthfully, I don\u2019t hate it. I won\u2019t defend it as a great game, but I fondly remember playing the demo for it when I got the first Playstation years ago and replayed the demo a billion times. It\u2019s just a fighting game when you get down to it. It\u2019s another mediocre fighting game, which is sad because with the \u201cStar Wars\u201d Universe at one\u2019s fingertips, \u201cMasters of Teras Kasi\u201d should have been an amazing fighting game that utilized the universe.<\/p>\n

It should have opened the door for a large series of \u201cStar Wars\u201d fighters that would have changed the way we look at the Lucas film series. Instead of giving us the best of \u201cStar Wars\u201d it feels like they just settled on the bare minimum and put it on shelves. The fighter is tough to control, the movements lack fluidity, the combos and moves are tough to master, and in the end it\u2019s really just a button masher. But doggone it, I don\u2019t hate the game, sue me. I like the animation, and the atmosphere, and the concept. Boba Fett fighting Luke Skywalker? Love it. Darth Vader fighting Chewbacca? Love it. I don\u2019t disagree that \u201cMasters of Teras Kasi\u201d isn\u2019t a good game, but I see it more as a giant missed opportunity rather than an awful game, when all is said and done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years I wrote off “Star Wars” as another typical classic film I had zero interest in watching until 1998 when sheer boredom gave way to curiosity. Managing to borrow the original trilogy on VHS from my aunt, I watched it in one entire sitting and loved every minute of it. Since then it’s been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[58,64,290,349,401,737,906,980],"class_list":["post-18289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-list-junkies","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-disney","tag-fantasy","tag-george-lucas","tag-nostalgia","tag-science-fiction","tag-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18289"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20493,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18289\/revisions\/20493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}