read part I, part II and part III of this article series, if you want.

In this article I keep chain smoking the SWU properties as you are figuring out how this is relevant to you.

live action tv shows

The Mandalorian (2019 – ): “The one”. Put Disney+ on the map. One of the two most appreciated Disney SWU properties, the other one being Rogue One. The reason why I got into SWU: To understand the timeline and where its story stands in the bigger picture.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022): Wasn’t fond of SWU when I watched it. Might need a re-watch, but it was mediocre. Nice first episodes though: Always good to see how the fellow Jedi hanging post-Order 66. Action had logic failures though, and that ruins some for you. See article part II.

The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022): I don’t know why such an irrelevant character who dies in a situation comedy scene in the original trilogy should matter and get his own show, in which he apparently didn’t die. I guess this happens when IPs live long enough for fans to dig hell-deep and hold on to every little piece of material they were ever served with. Result is that Boba is made more significant with the inclusion of Jango in the prequels, or some joke like Captain Phasma is getting expanded with novel and video game appearances.
This show is better than many screen material though.

read part I and part II of this article series, if you want.

In this article I am going to chain smoke the SWU properties and you are going to read the haze coming out of my mouth.

prequel trilogy

A naive Canadian boy and a gullible Scottish guy are leading this. They are good though. Especially the Scottish one.
There is Natalie Portman of age 18 who doesn’t have to cut school to be on Letterman’s anymore.
There is Liam Neeson after saving many Jews from the fascists, and before saving his own daughter from the Albanian mafia, not able to save himself from Darth Maul.
3D CGI is not as blasphemous to me as it is to some folk, but the technology was obviously not matured enough, and it does look bad compared to the hand crafted models of the original trilogy.
Jar Jar’s alleged “comedy” is as annoying as it has been mocked.

Though we have to give it to George Lucas when it comes to the story. Here we have the origin story of the ultimate villain of the original trilogy, who is also family with the leading role heroic siblings. It’s such a hard task to put all these pieces together in a logical and believable manner. What does it take to convert “the Chosen One”, the best of them Jedi all, to the killing machine Sith Lord the whole world watched on the screen two decades ago? What kind of tragedy, what a genius work of constant manipulation should take place so that this extreme twist of morality happens and everybody watching is still on-board with the idea? In my opinion: He pulled it off just fine. (unlike HBO, whose Mother of Dragons snapped out of the blue)

read part I of this article series, if you want.

the past is annihilated and the future is not safe

Expanded Universe was a total of half a thousand novels, a lot of comics and some video games of the Star Wars Universe published since 1977. Along with the original and the prequel trilogies, this made up the Star Wars canon. Disney in 2014 declared all EU to be Legends now, and the material to be produced from then on to be the Canon. This move invalidated 37 years of accumulated lore over night. I can’t begin to imagine what this meant for the highly invested fans of the time. After decades-long immersion, reflection, and comprehension over innumerous dynamics, characters, storylines… all was made available to be overruled within 40 minutes of airtime. Murders your Gods, murders your prophets, and suggests that they still co-exist as Legends. What a consolation prize.

The most nerve racking thing about this is the cheap motivation behind it. It is advertised as “creative freedom” without the restrictions of the past, but I think we can all agree that it is an easy way to mass produce the new properties at a higher rate, without requiring the writers to get accustomed/comply with the canon for consistency’s sake.

As a newcomer to SWU, personally I could bear with scrapped old material. But the 2014-onward canon is inconsistent too, only within the 10 years it had to be. And that is just another level of deep in the shit.

Trilogies, stand-alone movies, novels, comics, seasons of series… an investment of years, a test of patience, a roller coaster of frustrations. That’s what it took to get me there: To make every major character, event, timeline in the Star Wars franchise relevant to the memory of a layman who didn’t know anything about it before 2017. Before that, I’d heard the name Obi Wan (my mother used to call me that), and I knew there was a guy in black suit, who was father to some main boy. I’m still quite the anti-fan about this whole thing, but there were some highlights that kept the journey bearable and going for me, and there are definitely some complains to rant about. Join me in a series of painfully long articles, because you have nothing better to do with your life.

disclaimer before the geeks get agitated: there is probably no one on earth who actually “finished” SWU with all its canon+legends material. the amount of material I claim as the finishing point is the one I feel saturated with.

Western is a theme that is well-received and popularized in old school European comics; in Hollywood cinema until 1960s; and again in European cinema in the decade that follows. In the medium of video games, however, there have only been a few representatives of the thematic genre, such as Call of Juarez (FPS, 2006) and Desperados (one of the few examples of “Real Time Tactics” genre, 2001). So when Rockstar Games published Red Dead Redemption in 2010, it was already destined to be something unmatched in one way or another.

It was also one of the things I had in mind when I bought my second-hand XBOX 360 as a student in Italy: to play the game which was only released to the then-one-previous generation of consoles. As usual I couldn’t find the time to play it then and there. Later on, moving between 3 countries during and after the studies, not travelling for 2 years due to covid-19, taking the time to hone my “driving skills” which are still non-existent; it was only in January 2023 that I could drive back to Ravenna, where I left my XBOX four and half years ago and bring it back home with me. After spending 50+ hours and reaching to a 99.9% (unfortunately glitched) completion with it, this is me talking about how RDR1 feels 13 years after its release.

Adele’s most recent (2021) hit has the drum kicked in (literally as it’s only the bass drum, with the exception that it’s actually from a drum machine) halfway starting with the second verse and played subtly by the song’s producer and co-writer Greg Kurstin. Nevertheless, it changes the rest of the game. I put on this song in my car, which has decent bass capabilities, and gladly embrace what is coming at me.

For more, I suggest “I Drink Wine” from the same record.

Only a band like Soundgarden, having an abundance of talent, could afford waiting the living-metronome of a man called Matt Cameron aside for quarter-way through a song. Only for him to then make a big entrance with the crash cymbal.

Pearl Jam nowadays is doing the same when it comes to their same year (1994) hit “Better Man” although it was recorded with their original drummer Dave Abbruzzese back then, however, the late start of instruments doesn’t put the spotlight specifically on the drums for me.

While at it, it’s relevant to mention that 4th of July is not really about America’s independence day but more about being f*cked up on ac*d somewhere in the vicinity of 4th of July, with Chris Cornell’s words.

I was hesitant if this one could be considered as a “late” entrance, or rather just the end of the intro. For a band that doesn’t have any of your good old usual song structures, though, it sounds like the start of the 1st chorus. In kind-of-a-hit song, for “a band that doesn’t have hit songs” with the words of Buzz Osborne. At the end, I’m just glad I could add something from a band that had 2 drummers for a decade. And a band that has Sabbath-like drumming: precisely aimed on the target, with every hit making perfect sense, for the slow, heavy grind I ever long for. Even the 15 seconds long solo drum outro is worth it.

I’d call this not only one of the most effective but also the most efficient uses of drums, played by Franz di Cioccio. The drums hint their presence in the first chorus where Lucio Battisti’s co-writer “Mogol” (Giulio Rapetti) dares death for the first time. As they get ready to push the boundries for a second time with a second chorus that is unconventionally different than the first, the drums accelerate again and gain a full pattern, after the moans of Battisti which are almost not singing but perfect acting. With lyrics that are strong enough to cause heartache, speaking about lack of “emozioni”.

Extras: “Avrai” by Claudio Baglioni and “Un amore grande” by Peppino Gagliardi are also examples of late drum entrances and great songs, as we are speaking of Italian pop.

A classic that everyone knows, therefore, needs no words. I love the tom hits as if he wants to break through a door with sound waves. You can feel it in the air.