Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One

[MysteriousSir]

Is there any way this movie is actually going to have a good plot after that trailer?

Obviously it isn't going to reveal much of it, it was just a teaser. But the Force Awakens trailer was simply intriguing. This was painfully, painfully generic. The forced, cheesy line about rebellion needed to be not in the script at all, and the fact that it made it into the trailer is beyond ridiculous. Rey was a strong female character, but this just looks like a duller clone of Katniss.

Surely with all the interesting stuff in the Star Wars universe they could have given us a more original protagonist and a better story than this appears to be.

[Seltz]

Is there any way this movie is actually going to have a good plot after that trailer?

Obviously it isn't going to reveal much of it, it was just a teaser. But the Force Awakens trailer was simply intriguing. This was painfully, painfully generic. The forced, cheesy line about rebellion needed to be not in the script at all, and the fact that it made it into the trailer is beyond ridiculous. Rey was a strong female character, but this just looks like a duller clone of Katniss.

Surely with all the interesting stuff in the Star Wars universe they could have given us a more original protagonist and a better story than this appears to be.

it won't be. the mouse will remind you that the only quality you see in their star wars works is there to coax people with standards to see it because it will have competently choreographed action and good cg. they know they can't let their toy-selling cash cow get too hard to understand, so they took their masculine-written main character and swapped the pronouns because kids don't care if femininity is treated as an accessory instead of something special, interesting, or a source of pride.

they took what is supposed to be a terrible, galaxy-wide civil war that claimed trillions of lives and destroyed entire planets and turned it into some nonsensical social obstructionism where you "just rebel". i've always liked gareth edwards as a director, but it's obvious that all movies supervised by disney will have to hit certain arbitrary overtones that nobody wants in star wars.

i almost feel bad for buying licensed star wars LEGO, but it's not like anything else i buy won't have money going to an equally terrible corporation. even if there was, they'd have to really screw up to make stuff like this not eye-catching.

[Venkefedo]

so they took their masculine-written main character and swapped the pronouns because kids don't care if femininity is treated as an accessory instead of something special, interesting, or a source of pride.

...was there some story I missed or forgot where it was ever confirmed that the lead for Rogue One was originally set to be a man instead of a woman? The only role I recall hearing that about was Captain Phasma, who did so little in TFA that it really didn't matter one way or another.

[Forresto]

DISCLAIMER: I am looking forward to Rogue One a LOT, the following is just my opinion on Jyn Erso.

Let's be real Jyn Erso does not look like she's going to be an interesting character BASED off of the teaser trailer they have released. She feels generic because I think it's on purpose. She's like Luke Skywalker or Commander Shepherd in Mass Effect, she's a point of entry character in a universe full of crazy stuff. Her character is supposed to be bland so that a wide range of people watching the movie can find a way of relating to her in an otherwise unrelatable situation.

The reason her character bothers me though isn't because she's a female, I love that they're diversifying. In fact i'm annoyed yet again the strong lead female protagonist is white and not Black, Asian, Latino, or even white from a culture different then the US or England. It's because like Divergent, 50 Shades of Gray, Maze Runner, even the Hunger Games to a point, and so many others they do the same thing with the female protagonist. Strong, independent, rebellious, goes against the system but with a laid back demeanor. To me that's fake diversity. Look Hollywood does the same thing with male characters as well but here's the difference. There are so many male protagonists that there are enough interesting ones to counteract the slew of generic ones. That's not the same for female characters, the weight of having just another generic female character is much heavier. At a certain point she becomes less of a character and more of a caricature.

This could all turn out to be unfounded and Jyn Erso in fact becomes one of the most interesting characters in Star Wars, if that's so i'll recant what I said above in a heartbeat.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Forresto

[CMP]

So...

We're determining all of this based on one trailer?

[Forresto]

So...

We're determining all of this based on one trailer?

It's partly because it's Disney AND Star Wars so the potential of a very archetypal character is much higher. Disney had less a hand in the Force Awakens I don't know their involvement in this. Like I said it's just my opinion based off a single trailer. I'm not saying that will be the result and i'm admitting I could be completely wrong. I hope i'm wrong.

[Venkefedo]

In fact i'm annoyed yet again the strong lead female protagonist is white and not Black, Asian, Latino, or even white from a culture different then the US or England.

...this could be rendered moot if she turns out to be Rey's mom. If she's unrelated, tho, then yeah, I'm right there with you. I think the other new female leads in VIII aren't quite so white (Laura Dern aside)

So...

We're determining all of this based on one trailer?

Of course! It's the internet. If you're not automatically pessimistic from a teaser that shows a lot without telling you much, you're doing it wrong.

[Forresto]

...this could be rendered moot if she turns out to be Rey's mom. If she's unrelated, tho, then yeah, I'm right there with you. I think the other new female leads in VIII aren't quite so white (Laura Dern aside)

Of course! It's the internet. If you're not automatically pessimistic from a teaser that shows a lot without telling you much, you're doing it wrong.

I could totally understand it then if they were setting that up for her to be Rey's mom. Casting range could be a little limited in that case.

I guess this is a testament to how exciting it that a new Star Wars movie is coming out.

[Schneeds]

The reason her character bothers me though isn't because she's a female, I love that they're diversifying. In fact i'm annoyed yet again the strong lead female protagonist is white and not Black, Asian, Latino, or even white from a culture different then the US or England. It's because like Divergent, 50 Shades of Gray, Maze Runner, even the Hunger Games to a point, and so many others they do the same thing with the female protagonist. Strong, independent, rebellious, goes against the system but with a laid back demeanor. To me that's fake diversity. Look Hollywood does the same thing with male characters as well but here's the difference. There are so many male protagonists that there are enough interesting ones to counteract the slew of generic ones. That's not the same for female characters, the weight of having just another generic female character is much heavier. At a certain point she becomes less of a character and more of a caricature.

I'd prefer they simply picked the best actor for the role irrespective of what gender/race they are, but maybe I'm just old-fashioned like that.

[Alpinemaps]

So...

We're determining all of this based on one trailer?

Hi. Must be your first day on the Internet, welcome aboard! ;)

In all seriousness, I'm shaking my head at the negativity based on one trailer. But, whatever. I've got better things to do than be disappointed/whatever from a 1:30 movie trailer. *I* was exctied by it, I'm looking forward to it, I'm happy to have more Star Wars, and I'm sure it will be fine.

[Seltz]

...was there some story I missed or forgot where it was ever confirmed that the lead for Rogue One was originally set to be a man instead of a woman? The only role I recall hearing that about was Captain Phasma, who did so little in TFA that it really didn't matter one way or another.

no

no, it's just that everything rey did had no bearing on any divergence from a male lifestyle or any specific male or female experience or *anything at all* that could be considered exclusive to a female character. you could seriously swap boyega with her and have the same story with pronouns swapped. disney admits that a female protagonist has bearing in a truly artistic story, but taking such a risk in attempting to be objectively respectable as a sci-fi work will be a shady bet for all their investors. RO has the same "hey look it's a girl, we're feminist now ok hehe" feeling to it. again, no recognition of female lifestyle that is shared with life in reality. boyega's character has the expectation to be a strong, stoic, unfeeling strongman, like 90% of males in reality, but rey has none of that. despite living on an impoverished slave planet, she is PERFECTLY kept and astoundingly beautiful. wouldn't an orphaned, neglected, seasoned warrior woman of an outer rim planet look out of place in a fancy photoshoot? not in disney's star wars, at least.

[i'm done ranting about the new star wars btw, no further posts will be on this subject as it's completely divorced from the thread topic. legos from here on out.]

[Artizan]

if anyone hasn't seen these yet, they were posted online months ago, the new trooper helmet designs:

[Forresto]

I don't know if i'm sold on these designs yet. On one hand they're still cool on the other it's like why not just use ESB and ROTJ style ones? They're kindle cool in the sense they appear to be a merging of the ones from Rebels and the ones in ESB which adds to the whole evolution of design. That aspect I really like.

The real question is, does their design diverge enough to warrant another Lego Set?

[Venkefedo]

if anyone hasn't seen these yet, they were posted online months ago, the new trooper helmet designs:

Not all the new helmet designs, tho! The tank trooper's helmet looks to be new, tho it has a big "visor" piece like the Scarab Trooper's helmet there, with the flared, rounded bottom part like a regular stormie helmet.

As for the new AT-ATs, well... it's a galactic Empire! There are probably several different models in service across the galaxy, assigned to various locations. What Vader's troops used in ESB might be the run-of-the-mill style AT-ATs, while these in Rogue One could be advanced prototypes or, indeed, an iteration between the older McQuarrie-style walkers in Rebels and the later ESB models. Maybe some sectors get better equipment than others.