I don't hate the prequels. I hate Nazis, and rapists. But I don't hate the prequels. Hating films is stupid. Mocking them when they suck balls, though...
And don't ignore the point that, despite the Kaminoans pivotal role in the trilogy's story, there's not much to them. And pivotal doesn't equate to worthwhile---if it did, then yeah, Dexter Jettser would be worthwhile. The only interesting thing about them is that they made the clones. Once that mystery was solved, wrap it up, call it a day for Kamino. Given that there's an entire galaxy to explore in the new canon, we don't need to keep revisiting the same places and things all the time. The Kaminoans are cloners, they made the clones. That's it. The Ewoks are bears, they're adorable savages, that's it. We don't need follow up material on the Ewoks. Or Kamino.
If under Disney they're gonna expand the galaxy anew, let's see some new worlds and races with new stories.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
Been mocking them for over a decade now, getting a bit old.
And I addressed that point in my response to queeq, there is a lot more too them than there is to Dexter Jettser, who is like one guy, we are taking an entire civilisation who played an infinitely more pivotal role than he did, and are the only known cloners currently in Canon.
I can understand why you'd rather see new material, but the problem I find with fashioning a new world/species etc. for a story and then casting it aside when it's serve its purpose (which is too often done) , is that said addition to canon remains shallow and forgettable.
You talk of Ewok's being of no interest, and yet if Tatooine had never been revisited after it served it's story purposes, it would never have become interesting. Because who cares about Jawas and Tusken Raiders?
Likewise nobody would've have cared about Dantooine or Sullust, who were nothing but throwaway names in the Original Trilogy, if they hadn't been expanded upon. It gives them continuity and it gives them depth, and if the plethora of seemingly minor plot points in the Star Wars universe had never been revisited we'd be dealing with a very superficial galaxy.
Heck let's look at some more relevant examples, like half the new planets that appeared in TFA, bar Jakku I can't even remember their names can you? But who cares right? They served their narrative purpose, I'm happy to forget about them.
And frankly it goes to show that writing off anything as trivial, simple and uninteresting is to have a lack of imagination. Even Dexter Jettser could be made into a compelling character if say, he turns out to be a retired bounty hunter with a history of four armed badassery.
(Which btw is a story I would read. )
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Last edited by Beniboybling on Feb 22nd, 2016 at 10:44 AM
Beni, Dexter being a former 4 armed bounty hunter, could totally get into that. But yeah, I agree. The expansion of the SWU in Legends, made it all the more interesting, rather then just throwing stuff away as for the most part, you could find info and stuff on just about everything.
Sure there were a few things not explained, but you pretty much had everything else. So I hope the new canon does the same.
It's not only that Kamino was a highly advanced civilization of cloners, when they programmed Order 66 into the clones, they had to have known what they were doing. Otherwise, they'd have been unable to make the programming in the clones. If that's the case, they knew that they were paving the way for the eradication of the galaxy's peace keepers, but they went with lining their wallets.
Uh-oh, we're getting into block posts now, this doesn't look promising. Imma split it up a bit.
EDIT: I type how I speak, which is why this is so long. I don't speak in quotation blocks though, so bear with me.
And yet we keep doing it. Their awfulness has some staying power.
Again, pivotal, but not much else. Dex was pivotal.
The Kaminoans are one-shot plot devices. There's a mystery at first about finding them, but that's a Sith mystery, and it gets solved (kinda). Once they're found, they're open books. "We're cloners, we made clones for the Republic at the behest of the Jedi. Hello there Jedi, come look at your army. Here's the bounty hunter training them, here's where he lives. Go take your army. Bye."
It's not like the Kaminoans are shown to be a small part of a larger world. Like say, a back alley criminal ring. A secret society. A cult of techno-fascists. They're not obscure or secretive, which makes their role straight forward and easily used up. Dex says they keep to themselves, but once Obi-Wan find them, they're open books. Welcome to our world, we make clones, here's your clones, here's who hired us. No mystery. No enigma. Nothing tantalizingly obscure or hidden. Just flat out, nothing-more-or-less plot device. Not a second of their screen time suggested that there is anything more to them than what is presented. Which is a failing on the film's part. And I can't stand to see the new canon do as the old did and waste time and effort in the EU making up for the PTs lack of substance.
If you start off shallow and forgettable, you're already doing something wrong.
I'm not in favour of just casting something aside. Don't misread me. I'm in favour of letting simple, one-off, plot devices that didn't have any depth or character or personality in the first place, stay where they are. I'm totally cool with Kamino getting a blurb in an encyclopedia, or being a map setting like in Battlefront 2 (which also expanded upon its position under the Empire, fortuitously). Small, little mini stuff like that is fine. It hand-holds the character/world/item into a larger universe (the Star Wars franchise as a whole) without wasting too much time and effort bringing substance and weight to something that never had it (and, strictly in Kamino's sense for AotC, never really needed it). I want the stuff that felt like it really meant something--to the main characters, to the audience (emotionally, not 10-year old "aw so cool"y)--to get the expansion treatment.
Like, I am NOT in favour of Slave I getting that treatment, no matter how cool it looked or how important it was for Boba Fett to drive it around advancing the plot. Or the Millennium Falcon. I know these are objects, not people, but they're far more memorable than the Kaminoans.
Not me. I am f*cking sick of Tatooine. It was in 5 of the OT/PT films. It's very first appearance it gets described by Luke as the farthest place from the bright centre of the universe. It's backwater. It's poor. It's do-nothing. It's worthless. But it just. Keeps. Showing. Up. Because everybody knows it from the films, it gets to show up in 100 different games and novels and comics. Tatooine, and Jawas, and Tusken Raiders overstayed their welcome long ago. And Tatooine had alot more going on (film-wise) than Kamino
As for Ewoks... again, an encyclopedia entry is fine. I don't need to find out what became of the little bears who shot arrows at Stormtroopers. They won. They celebrated. They feasted on the dead of their fallen enemy. Case closed.
Which is fine. These places were neither seen, described, explored, or made significant in any other way in the films besides being mentioned. They had no on-screen role to play whatsoever aside from having syllables. That leaves plenty of room for aggressive expansion.
Kamino, as I just went on about at length, served it's full purpose. It's potential was fully realized (sad, I know). There's nothing left to explore. Like I said, blurbs. Or one-off references. Giving very little for something that was very little.
So barring Jakku... the world Maz Kanata is on? We get to see her little outpost. It hosts beings from all over the galaxy and is run by a 1000 year old sage. That's some mystery there. Some story-telling potential. These seedy people have secrets, and allegiances, and emotions, and agendas. There's been established a variety, and character, and substance.
This is all stuff to explore and expand, stuff Kamino lacked. It's not worthy of expansion.
So barring Jakku... which hopefully won't be the new Tatooine and wind up inexplicably tied to every hero and villain and faction EVAH... barring it, and Maz Kanata's place, and the world Luke is on which will surely be expanded in the next film... barring them... is there even any other in TFA?
No, it's to have a standard for the film your watching and a level of discernment that lets you sift through the contrived crap until you find some gems.
That said, Dexter Jettster has a lot more going for him than the Kaminoans. I know I denigrated for comparisons sake, but at least that CGI monstrosity was portrayed as having a character and personality, with a potentially interesting sounding past that gives him knowledge and sagacity and use. There's a story there waiting to be told. AotC gave us that at least. Dex is worthy of an EU story. Kamino isn't.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
Last edited by Lord Lucien on Feb 23rd, 2016 at 12:22 AM
I dunno. I didn't see much character to these Kaminoans. They seemed almost devoid of emotion, living in sterile harmony with themselves.
Tatooine (I agree with Lucien, way overused) has much more: struggle to survive on a barren desert planet, various races competing, a backwater hide out for pirates, young people trying to find some adventure (by flying T-16's, bulls eyeing womprats and a desire to leave this backwater planet)... And that's just what I gleaned from ANH... Again: much more than we get from Kamino.
It's funny because a cult of techno fascists is kind of exactly what they are...
Nor am I seeing why one must be "mysterious" to be interesting. There is no mystery behind Darth Vader once you've seen the main films, and yet he's still a compelling character worthy of expansion in comics, novels, future films etc.
I personally, found them to be quite compelling, as a cold, superior and calculating cult of indeed techno fascists who I'd imagine are capable of much more than creating Jango Fett babies.
And Kamino is one of my favourite planets from the movies as far as the aesthetic is concerned. And as I said, I feel TCW's Order 66 arc demonstrates they have narrative potential, even if only as a backdrop and support characters.
So yes, I would very much like to know what they are up too.Not really, fact is flat characters and objects exist. Like Darth Maul, Boba Fett, the countless unnamed Jedi who appeared in the Prequels, or indeed the Slave I. That doesn't mean they can't be compelling, or have the potential to acquire depth through expanded storytelling.Minor plot points are never going to be emotionally meaningful to the audience or the characters, they are not supposed to be. "Aw so cool" again is about as far as Darth Maul or Boba Fett ever got, and yet upon being expanded on they acquired that depth.
Story makes characters and settings meaningful. And I see no reason why X can't aquire weight through story simply because it didn't have it in its first appearance.Admittedly Tatooine's lack of importance doesn't justify its reoccurence, but it still made for a lot of good stories.And if they had been Wookiees instead?
Heck we saw the Wookiee planet in PT, no need to revisit that uninteresting planet right? Next please.As does one appearance, in one movie, you can't possibly believe that's enough to do justice to a world.Its really not.Fact is though we don't know anything about this planet, or the people on it, so it has no depth, it is shallow. And indeed forgettable, since neither you nor me can remember its name. And if its never expanded upon, I will forget about it, that doesn't mean it was a bad plot point, or has no narrative potential.
Yeah that planet we saw for 5 seconds before it got blew up.
Beniboybling....that entire last post.... I couldn't have summed any of that up better if I tried.
Refreshing to see honestly.
Also, I loved Kamino too. Atmosphere and design alone, it was probably my favorite part of AOTC. At least we got something different here instead of a Tatooine rip off, death star rip off, Hoth rip off etc.
How? Don't get me wrong, I genuinely don't care "what they are", but I don't see how they fit that term.
You don't have to be mysterious, I used that description as an example given Kamino is introduced via mystery. If that mystery had been expanded on or dug deeper (concomitant with good screenwriting/dialogue etc. etc.) then Kamino as a setting and scene could have been worthy of further exploration or use in other films or media. My point was that Kamino was set-up as a mystery, solved, then discarded by the very films themselves. Mystery dart--mystery planet--planet found--clones discovered--assassin found--assassin followed--clones used--war begins.
Established as a mystery, mystery solved, provides the eponymous clones for the clone wars, and nothing else about them is set up or established or hinted at. This is what I mean by having no substance or depth. One-dimensional plot devices unworthy of anything more than future sound bites or blurbs. Let the creative efforts and juices of the writers and producers go to something new and/or worthwhile, not a now 13-year old, one-dimensional, sterile, CGI backdrop of a plot device.
I'll refer back to this summary a few times whenever a tautology looms.
I'm not gonna rewatch the scene again to double check, but didn't the lead cloner comment that the Fett clones were their "finest creation"? That's kind of a meh, narrative/story-wise. I don't care to see their doubtless compelling journey to becoming Clone Masters ("sequence sequence gotta sequence 'em all!") and I'm even less interested to know what fantastic role they played under the Empire. They obviously had nothing to do with the OT and weren't mentioned much beyond Battlefront 2, so the old canon already has nothing for them. And unless you want an ass-pulled contrivance that inserts them into something important long after the fact (for example, see IG-88's retarded story about his controlling the Second Death Star) --and I hope you don't want that-- then anything created for them is going to be largely ignored or written purely for the sake of having something to appeal to the minority of fans who care enough about whatever backstory or lore they can get their hands on to pay for whatever media it's stuffed in to.
And I'm arguing that that if that's going to happen, keep it for the illustrated encyclopedias, or a blurb in a comic, or the glossary of terms in a video-game's menu, or anywhere that the rest of the producers of the main franchise (namely, the films) can safely ignore the shit out of it.
I'll give you that: go nuts with whatever on the TV shows. Those are Lucas' babies and I'm hoping once Rebels runs out of fumes they'll retire that style for good. Took me months to slog through 5 seasons of TCW, I couldn't stand most of it. By-the-numbers kids television for the Family channel. Team Rocket blasting off again crap. Stick Kamino there, I'm cool with that. I just hope the new movie universe they're making forgets about its content.
The weird thing about the PT is that it made for otherwise good EU (at least the novels). The characters were so dead and soulless and undeveloped on-screen that there was literally everywhere to go with them in print. The exact opposite was true for the OT.
And I'll say it, and I always feel I'm in the minority for it: Darth Maul is cool looking. He's not interesting. Boba Fett is cool looking. He's not interesting. As soon as they gave the old college try to Fett and Maul... ugh. Maul got The Clone Wars... f*ck was that bad. And Fett got turned in to a Kiwi clone child with an irritating role in the worst prequel. Point is, not every cool looking character or place or concept NEEDS expansion, or explanation, or an origin story. Some things can stay mysterious, or cool looking, or underplayed. It can help make them timeless.
Kamino certainly is none of that, though. See summary paragraph up above.
Good stories, yes (sometimes), but unnecessary. It didn't NEED to be Tatooine, it was just picked for audience recognition. And probably also ease of creation--it's alot simpler to recycle or reuse prior material on a place already created than it is to create a whole new place. The same holds true with characters. Ever read the Young Jedi Knight series? It was horrendously guilty of that.
Well we already had seen and visited Kashyyyk as early as 1978 with the Star Wars Holiday Special. And it appeared a bunch more times in games, novels, and comics prior to Revenge of the Sith. So moot point.
But had that been it's very first appearance? Yeah, next please. Aside from simply establishing it has Chewbacca's homeworld and showing us more Wookiees, all the films gave to us was its existence and setting as a battle. Then it ended. That's not interesting. That doesn't make me ask "What else?" Hell, NOT seeing the planet (or other Wookiees) makes me more curious about it than what they actually showed us. It's why I'm also against a young Yoda origins movie, where we see his whole race living together in peace and harmony until some early Sith no doubt kills everyone except Yoda and his childhood friend Yaddle. Seriously, $10 it'll fall somewhat along those lines.
"Less is more."
"Brevity is the soul of wit."
We don't need to see and be shown and be told EVERYTHING. Leave something to the imagination. To bring it full circle--Kamino left nothing to the imagination. Blew its whole wad in like two scenes. See summary paragraph up above for further details.
See above.
You're right. I don't give two f*cks about the planet itself. I care about its colourful cast of denizens who frequent Maz Kanata's bar. They look interesting and cool and mysterious--but that doesn't mean I must have or demand all their backstories or fates. Leave some tantalizing mystery. Or dole out some easter eggs or tidbits at a time, that'd be fun. But the planet? Don't care. See above posts about "Less is more".
Ah. The Hosnian system. New Republic capital, supported the Resistance. Got blowed up. S'all I need from it.
Luke finding his home destroyed, the Jedi Mind Trick scene, the entire Cantina scene, the blasting out of Mos Eisley, the entire act in Jabba's palace and sail barge... any one of these alone is head and shoulders more interesting, more entertaining, more memorable, more emotionally impacting, and more worth revisiting than all the Kamino scenes put together.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
Last edited by Lord Lucien on Feb 23rd, 2016 at 10:44 PM
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...I get why fans would want to learn about Kamino: for the reason that is was in the story. I get why it's also kind of a "just for setting and not for expansion" sort of place- just so the clones will have some sort of random backstory. If you look at only canon, then it's a throwaway world.
But see I thought that was why (before EU) legends exist(s)ed, to expand on the throwaway random crap in the stories. To expand upon ideas. People do it all the time in fanfics and crap, so the interest makes sense.
I don't understand what's there to discuss about the existence of it. It's a throwaway world, but the one glimpse in it is interesting. Canon didn't explore it cos throwaway. EU did because questions like this were asked by fans.
Seriously though, as I said before, Kamino has a backstory etc. Regarding how the Empire supposedly crushed the rebellion that cropped up there. I think it's from SW BF. It's legends now.
Canon offers no explanation so far, unless Rebels suddenly explores it.
And just because something is in the movie, doesn't make it interesting to explore further. Like the poodoo JarJar steps in. That was in the story, you want to learn more about it? You won;'t learn much more that that it's poodoo, just there's nothing else to learn about Kamino.
On other words: What Lucien said.
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Last edited by queeq on Feb 26th, 2016 at 08:07 AM
I used to be that guy who got really into the entire franchise around when I first registered here, and would peruse Wookieepedia articles for the sheer joy of learning more about the universe they created. Like I said above, the PT gave to the EU a LOT of material to expand on and play with, so that was a big reason why I used to defend the PT. But after getting older, and appreciating the trivial, more kid-oriented products less and less (like the Clone Wars or Rebels, or some of the games), and appreciating the emotional, character-driven weight of stories more and more, my criteria shifted.
I'm not against wanting to know more about the in-universe backstories and expansions-- that's part of the fun for a lot of people. I just prefer that when that expansion gets created, it's done with a sense of, uh... priority. Throwing money and creative efforts behind something like Kamino is, to me, something that's pretty low on the list, for all the reasons I said yesterday. In the scheme of things, it's something that can wait. In the meantime, there's still the Legends storyline to follow.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
There is... and to be discussed in the thread formerly known as EU.
And I agree with Lucien on this. There is nothing on Kamino that strikes me as interesting. IT's a planet run by very sterile, harmonious creatures. There doesn't seem to be the slightest form of conflict there. Or reason to believe there is one. Even the clones, though massive in numbers, look very docile and controlled.
In other words: pretty pictures don't make interesting storytelling material.
this guy lord lucian just thinks he's king shit eh? if you don't like the prequels why do you come to the prequel page just to talk shit? As it happens several elements of that trilogy were done very well and the backstory and lore to those three films eclipses that of the OT, most were hooked to the OT by the story of the Jedi and the Force and the PT gave us that.
I figure you don't have anybody to talk to in real life so you come on here and act high and mighty about star wars to get your jollies. If you don't like these movies then cool, thats your thing. Don't come on here and act superior to those that do...
Last edited by relentless1 on Mar 17th, 2016 at 10:44 AM
A.) Cuz this is the prequel forum, it's not reserved for adoration--it's also for criticism.
B.) No elements were done very well. Or well. Or even okay. Except the music. Disagree? Give me your reasons.
C.) Your lack of self-awareness is kinda cute. Watch this: "If you like these movies then cool, that's your thing. Don't come here and act superior to those that don't..."
D.) U mad, bro? Don't like people ripping into things you like? Learn to take your fandom's criticism like a grown-up and actually counter someone's argument with an argument of your own. If you can't defend the things you think are so great, then take a step back, reassess why you like them, and try again later. I promise I'll respond if you learn to argue like a civilized adult, instead of an entitled brat.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.