THIS YOUTUBE FROM STAR WARS EXPLAINED Youtube is from 2018.
THE STAR WARS ACTORS GUILD 77 (SWAG77) WHOLLY AGREE WITH MOST OF THE INFORMATION IN THIS YOUTUBE.
FACT: The “founding fathers” of Star Wars Legends (Star Wars Expanded Universe) books KNOW that they are there to ENTERTAIN!!!
As FANS we need to respect that and give them the space to craft their stories to reflect the positions of the entertainment company, Disney Lucasfilm.
THESE STORIES ARE –like the Arthurian Legends (King Arthur) or Robinhood or THE RAMAYANA… There are many more that fans have seen, such as Batman and Superman.
The Star Wars Franchise has ~40+ years of storytelling, and as stories like these age gracefully, aspects of the the telling or writing the details and elements change or upgraded to a new audience. George Lucas considers his hard work on his movies as artwork. It is why the Original Trilogy has not been remade to use the latest digital technology that affects and changes the story at some point. The story is what is very important to Mr. Lucas as the creator. It is understandable. Who would want their piece of artwork that they worked hard on markedly changed? I know I wouldn’t.
However, movies themselves on film change even in preservation unless special precautions are made. Film used in the twentieth century is not like digital media used today to create movies. And overtime old film can degrade without proper care. The essential story aspects change meaning of stories, which is unfortunate. However studios, like Disney have several methods to preserve their films and the ongoing conversion to digital media. Some, classics cannot be saved completely. That is why there are remakes. The Star Wars Franchise is not there, fortunately because Mr. Lucas like digitizing certain scenes in his Original Trilogy despite changing small aspects of his story. In someway it added to his story because what he did in 1977 could not be done at the time he digitized it in the late 1990s.
However, the stories written that became Legends did not allow younger authors invited to write for Lucasfilm to contribute the abundant and enriched stories relevant to all fans that live in our times. In 1977, people had no concept of an idea of how “lightspeed” would appear on a movie. Now, every fan of the Franchise know exactly what lightspeed is, and are not amazed by seeing that special effect. Fans want more from this Franchise, yet, want to keep the old stories or Legends that cannot be adapted into today’s movies with the entertainment business as it is. Movies studios compete for business, but it is not all by servicing the fans, it is also telling great stories on the screen, and several other strategies and tactics. Film school educates their students about these concepts.
The issue of this post is about Mitth’raw’nuruodo created by the author, Timothy Zahn in 1991. In 1991, Desert Shield that turned into Desert Storm by President H.W. Bush (the Father) based on lunacy that happened to the country, Kuwait annexed by the country, Iraq. There are many reasons why that happened and the actions America took. Popular songs changed from the popularity of the 1980s. Then Rodney King was filmed being beaten by police in California. It was disturbing to the young people of the day. I was one of them.
Many others take scenarios in real life and switch it to fit in a science fiction space opera and science fantasy. That is what Timothy Zahn did skillfully, and Star Wars fans loved it because it roused from the end of the Star Wars movies in 1983. Fans read this story and felt drawn to it, and as they became adults, they desired the story of Thrawn adapted to a movie. But over the whole of the 1990s until late 1997 when it was announced that the Prequels movies were going to made. A new generation could have “their” Star Wars. But the Prequels’ story markedly differed from the memories relished by the fans of the Original Trilogy. Moreover, Thrawn never became to being in live-action in television or movies.
The Prequels partially change the story of the entire Star Wars in that we never knew how the Jedi waned down to one. Now, we know after the movie, Revenge of the Sith. In the Original Trilogy there was no such concept of a Sith. The Prequels created the concept of the Sith that all fans have come to appreciate.
However, there is a schism in the Star Wars Fandom. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm and had control of the stories, those became Legends. The new stories that were a part of the canon and what some of the continuity would follow would become the current timelines. The Legend stories can still be read, but elements might be uses in future projects. The current continuity had to be opened to new authors with the guidance and support of the creators who wrote the Legends stories. The Star Wars Fandom balked and tried to wreck Lucasfilm, the employees, any productions (such as SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY) and any fans that did not side with them.
The Star Wars Actors Guild 77 (SWAG77) did not choose these fans’ side. We decided to take a wait and see mentality to view the new content. The Sequel Trilogy never received fairly by the bulk of these contrarian fans. And to be honest, I suffered and my tiny fan-led business. Because what my business is about is roleplay performance and we do not see a segregation between Legends versus Current Canon. Roleplay performance fundamentally requires to know ALL the information that is at one’s resource. Just like a molecular biological scientist must understand all the literature of their project then create experiements to prove their hyptheses. Once on question is answered, another one arises. What the SWAG77 does is difficult because it is like Star Wars University Graduate School. Only individuals who desire to dive deep into the lore and hardcore story concepts from all perspectives should pursue our course of fandom. It is not about “straddling the fence” or being arrogant, I created our system because it is entertaining to fans on social media. It is fun to me. I know a lot of fans hate my way of think and desire the simplistic. But honestly, until the group has time to show fans what we use to do several years ago, fans will see what we mean. As for now, my fanfictions do not do justice to the roleplay performances.
To learn more, one will have to join SWAG77 that is available above. But the way we perform is a lot for many fans. And the end result is AMAZING! Guarenteed.
I had hope I could build on the fandom of Grand Admiral Thrawn after being harassed heavily by Legends “haters”. I do not see the fans who ran the Give Us Legends activities as “fans” who are supportive to the majority of fans. They can rationalize any reason they want, but doxing me and try to mass report me to social media to destroy my business, is NOT what fandom does to one another. That is hatred. It is not that they disagreed with me. I can accept disagreements. What they did was call me “nigger bitch” to my face since I am an African American woman. They coerce Black men to bash me. No White woman came to my aid and now they cry about how White men are sexist. The use of virtue-signaling in the Star Wars Fandom must stop, too. This mentality that being “woke” is bad and deficient people do it is White Supremacy, and as a revolutionary who has protested the Klu Klux Klan, who has family member lynched, and arrested due to segregation laws. My family has suffered enough and my entertainment joy in Star Wars is owed to me regardless of my color and I can change within. It started with Mitth’raw’nuruodo and the creation of the Get Thrawn In Campaign.
It is also out of respect to TOM KANE who I interviewed in 2015 and kindly did a voiceover for Grand Admiral Thrawn for us. No celebrity does that kind act for us. And it was that youtube we created of which attracted Lucasfilm for a second. SWAG77 or I am not asking for acclaim here, this was done for the Star Wars Fandom of my volition. I thought it would be awesome to see an animated form of Grand Admiral Thrawn, first and then expand it to live-action in television and movies. I did not care which story in the Legends books because to me, it did not matter, he returned to canon, PERIODT.
I do not disrespect Legends because I am a Yuuzhan Vong fan. Every fans should know that about me. I could not justify returning them in 2015 it would be too much work that was not “low hanging fruit”. The Yuuzhan Vong did not relevant real-life events that fans could relate to and understand, such as environmental Climate Change and Global Warming. The Yuuzhan Vong would fix that aspect of planets, but that could destroy the indigenous life on the planet, and if the planet did not change, they destroy it, naturally.
Fans have a right to pursue convincing Disney Lucasfilm of NO THRAWN without the author, Timothy Zahn. Fans are unclear about Zahn’s involvement at this inception of production for the television shows, The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. They feel that the creatives at Lucasfilm did a horrible job of portraying Grand Admiral Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels. I take umbrage with that because they are essentially saying that all the directors, writers, production crew who created the animation, lighting, and sound did not under or comprehend Thrawn to tells episodic stories that included this character. They feel that Zahn could have saved Thrawn if only he was involved. Zahn was involved. But they feel at conventions, how Timothy Zahn is kind to the fans to enthrall them, fail to take his comments in context and misconstrue them.
A Zahn consultation does not mean he was not told. If he had a script to read from Disney Lucasfilm that is the consultation. I am not gaslighting, but a script is very private, Disney Lucasfilm does not hand out scripts without verifications and sign-offs. If Zahn chose not to read it, which I am NOT saying he did not read the script, then that is a consultation.
Having Zahn be the savior of Thrawn is a burden. Zahn took a hiatus from Thrawn before, he can let go of him. He may want to write about Thrawn and Ezra, but there are several other factors in place that prevent that. Ezra and the Rebels crew is Mr. Dave Filoni’s intellectual creation and property, legally. Unless Filoni permits him to write on behalf of his characters is a choice fans cannot force on Disney Lucasfilm or its creatives. There may be contracts that stipulate that. Fans cannot intervene because those proceedings in court take years to complete. And that delays production.
Any content creator are protective of their intellectual property. It is their “baby” and filmmakers are especially protective because of the production process which is involved. Regardless even if Zahn consults on pre-production of live action to portray Thrawn according to a small group of fans less than 10,000 does not merit the numbers to placate Disney. Disney Lucasfilm caters to all fans and audience members. They cannot appease on tiny subset of fans no matter how much they scream foul. It is not enough.
Moreover, it does not allow new employees who have Masters of Fine Arts and can highly contribute to the content, literature, marketing and creativity of Disney Lucasfilm. What “NO THRAWN” is saying these new people are shit. And while it is based on the gross hatred of the Sequel Trilogy and hated by many Star Wars Legends fans will not make any perception of THRAWN better for these individuals. There will always be hatred against the Franchise since Disney purchased it in 2012. Disney Lucasfilm are indifferent to fans’ fervent and passionate feelings of Legends’ material.
That is immature. If fans want Disney Lucasfilm to use the Legends’ material they must use it “ala carte” or “cherry pick” the story elements they want. Meaning they will chose what aspect that fits in the story they will tell and it will be a new story. It still means a handful of Legend’s fans will still dislike it because they like their Star Wars stories VERBATIM. If I can see this fact, you know Disney Lucasfilm has a dedicated division and staff who create reports with statistics that show the numbers based on fans’ perceptions. The creative staff know this fact, too. And it is a matter of numbers. Nevertheless, the enter production and those executives who make decisions, will try hard to make all fans happy. It is NOT because the “customer is always right”, it is because they can care even in the midst of indifference.
But still, as a fan who is open-minded and likes Legends, too, because I have chosen to not participate in this charade of a campaign forcing Disney Lucasfilm to consult Zahn to make Thrawn better under a guise of negativity to start. Whatever goals claimed to reach, will only nominal shift production at best. At worst, shut down production so there are no shows about Star Wars. The risk of that matters about the investment for these shows. Disney invested a lot of money to produce these shows not just for a handful of fans with passionate misguided temper tantrum.
Fact is, the original creator of a book cannot make a TV show or movie better than the crew working together to its entirety. A TV show or movie requires thousands of people working together countless hours. Are these fans saying they will hate the TV show or movie because one character in it was not done “right” due to the original creator of the book was not involved. But they do not KNOW that idea to be true — that the creator of the book, Zahn in this case IS NOT already involved. And see that is where the misinformation starts.
And Disney Lucasfilm is not going to let their investment go to waste over a handful of salty fans who do not comprehend the basics of the TV show and movie production process. Disney Lucasfilm does not make distinction of fans when they can get more. And no one can change THAT particular direction of the “NO THRAWN” action.
WHAT WILL?
The “NO THRAWN” action did not create a sufficient plan to change the minds of why they want Zahn to help make a better Thrawn because he knows the intrinsic of that character. For example, these fans claim that Thrawn would never shoot civilians with his Star Destroyers. In the Legend’s books, that element may be true. However, this is a new story and the first time THRAWN was in a MOTION PICTURE, albeit animation. To display his “villainy” they had to show how he will demonstrate his actions. It was not made to the satisfaction of adults. It was to show kids moral difference between good versus evil. Star Wars Rebels is a children’s show. That distinction must be made quickly — in less than thirty seconds. Children understand that plot point. Just like it was stated in the video.
In a more “adult type” show, such as The Mandalorian, the presence of live-action actors adds a layer of realness to the story, and the behavior of Thrawn can shown efficiently. And the creatives of Lucasfilm can do it efficiently. No doubt. I trust the creatives. All of them. I am unbothered.
The question to ask is: WHAT DOES A MORE ACCURATE THRAWN LOOK LIKE IF ZAHN WAS PRESENT AT THE PRE-PRODUCTION?
WHAT DOES THRAWN NEED TO HAVE FANS SAY, “YES, THAT’S RIGHT, THAT’S THE THRAWN I WANT TO SEE?”
WHAT DOES THAT SATISFACTION TRULY MEAN – AN UPTICK IN NIELSEN RATINGS, EMMY AWARDS, OR GOLDEN GLOBES–WHAT?
WHAT ARE THE MEASUREMENTS THAT THIS “NO THRAWN” ACTION TO SAY THEY HAVE SUCCEEDED IN THEIR QUEST – THAT THEY SEE PICTURES OF ZAHN THERE? HOW CAN DISNEY LUCASFILM PROVE THAT? YOUTUBES?
HOW CAN DISNEY LUCASFILM SATISFACTORILY MEET “NO THRAWN’S” ACTION’S AND GOAL’S NEEDS?
Think about it – they can do HD 3D display of the back of Zahn’s head that looks like him, buried with crew. Will these fans ever know it? It is a foolish promise to make. Why appease the behavior of wily handful when the mass of fans just want to see Thrawn in Live-Action?
It is the reason why SWAG77 or I can not get behind this negative direct action campaign of “NO THRAWN” at this time until these questions can be addressed.
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