The Chat Thread (Read OP)

**Derpy Hooves** · February 11, 2020, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by Dan the Man

I feel like TD has become an ongoing conversation between like four people.

Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just funny how things change.

Originally Posted by Akar

Well get your ass in here and become the fifth wheel, Dan. It's really your fault for not being here, Dan.

Akar is right you know

**Akar** · February 11, 2020, 07:04 PM

Yeah, that's right, Derpy! I'll talk to whoever the hell I want!

**ggggtotalwarrior** · February 12, 2020, 01:00 AM

Hey I already came back this month and became the fifth man. Dan is sixth

Also Agree with Akar I grew up in the mid-late 2000s reading Republic Commando, Thrawn Trilogy, Thrawn Duology, Legacy of the Force, etc. and when they retconned and destroyed Karen Traviss' work I got really disillusioned. Never watched TCW. Tried a few episodes at one point but it was clearly a kid's show and while I heaar it gets better Disney hasn't motivated me to actually want to watch.

**Lord Oda Nobunaga** · February 12, 2020, 01:26 AM

As far as the material goes I only liked Rogue One. Although Solo was entertaining none of it felt right. Mandalorian was okay though.

Some of TCW was okay... the part I liked was the Maul arc but it was obviously just fan service. In the old material Kenobi would have just sliced Maul in half. This was the guy who killed General Grievous and survived two fights against Dooku, both of which were supposed to be really strong. In TCW Grievous is a joke and Dooku doesn't seem all that threatening. Maul was never intended to be that strong but obviously a character as popular as Maul has to have a really high power level.

The other bit I liked was the Asaj Ventress story line in TCW was done a bit better but they screwed it up by the end anyway. They also completely ruined Quinlan Vos, who was a complete badass in the old material. Where as in TCW he just seems a little quirky and then inexplicably hooks up with Ventress and becomes all dark and edgy.

Which leads me to the next thing... most of the good stuff from the Expanded Universe was not even made by George. This didn't stop them from borrowing and lifting this material into TCW and Rebels at their own leisure.

Ever since Disney got the franchise they have a bunch of novels and Marvel comics. Haven't read the novels but as far as the comics go there is nothing to brag about. The Dark Horse comics were better in my opinion.

**Akar** · February 12, 2020, 01:30 AM

I haven't ever been the slightest bit interested in the comics, before or after the Disney acquisition. I wasn't always a fan of their visual portrayals of characters. They felt cartoonish.

**Flinn** · February 12, 2020, 04:35 AM

Originally Posted by Lord Oda Nobunaga

Because it has huge brand recognition. But George wasn't doing anything with it, it would have died if he didn't sell it. Disney is misusing the property because they just wanted to take the recognizable characters from a trilogy that came out 40 years ago, and do a soft reboot with really crappy movies. Imagine if Solo was more popular, they would have made a trilogy out of it and probably recast Luke and Leia and gave them spin off movies. No one wants that, anyone that knows the franchise wants to see new material or at least continue all of the ongoing stories which Lucasfilm canceled.

man, just spend 5 minutes looking around for the actual takings of the saga since Disney bought it, and then came back again to tell us what people actually wants

Look, I'm not even thinking about the quality of the movies (I haven't seen one minute of any of those movies, just saying), but such is business... numbers is what really matters, the rest is just secondary, heck totally irrelevant ... it happened the same with the Lord of The Rings... and after that they also made the Hobbit (a horrible product, if you ask me), which was even more successful money-wise

get used to that bro, Marx warned us but nobody listened to him.. the best we could do as a species is to produce Akar.. we are doomed

**Akar** · February 12, 2020, 04:50 AM

The Hobbit definitely didn't gross as highly as the Lord of the Rings trilogy did, Flinn. With a budget of $281m USD the original LOTR trilogy had a box office gross of $2,981,260,000. Whereas the Hobbit trilogy had a budget of $655m USD and a box office gross of $2,932,490,000. So while it may have been somewhat close if you just look at purely box office numbers I don't think it's fair to say that the Hobbit did better than the original LOTR did. If anything the way box office revenue has been continuing to go up in the past two decades since LOTR was released (regardless of movie quality) shows just how poorly the Hobbit did in comparison. If the

Star Wars movies can break previous records then the studies really had no excuse for dropping the ball so hard with the Hobbit.

**Flinn** · February 12, 2020, 05:10 AM

Fair and business are 2 things that don't go well together, man

Looking at numbers it seems that the Hobbit had a big drop with the 3rd movie (not surprisingly though, as I said the product it's terrible, from a Tolkien fan's point of view). However, I've read about critics considering the Hobbit to be a bigger success in consideration of the different moment when it was released, with a dramatically decreasing interest in fantasy and bla bla..

however, I think you got my point...while I don't question the fact that the recent SW movies are a bad product (I haven't seen them eh..), that does not really matter in the long run, since the only thing that matters is money and certainly Lucas did well in selling the Lucasmovies

ps. Marx is still right ..

**Akar** · February 12, 2020, 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by Flinn

Marx is ... right ..

Well you heard it here first, folks!

I'm also a massive LOTR fan and I watched the first Hobbit with excitement, the second with disbelief and the third not at all. They really managed to just destroy my interest in something I loved ever since I was a kid. Such a shame too, since the Hobbit is such a terrific tale that would lend itself very well to the visual medium if done properly. But it wasn't. So,

us.

**ggggtotalwarrior** · February 12, 2020, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by Akar

The Hobbit definitely didn't gross as highly as the Lord of the Rings trilogy did, Flinn. With a budget of $281m USD the original LOTR trilogy had a box office gross of $2,981,260,000. Whereas the Hobbit trilogy had a budget of $655m USD and a box office gross of $2,932,490,000. So while it may have been somewhat close if you just look at purely box office numbers I don't think it's fair to say that the Hobbit did better than the original LOTR did. If anything the way box office revenue has been continuing to go up in the past two decades since LOTR was released (regardless of movie quality) shows just how poorly the Hobbit did in comparison. If the

Star Wars movies can break previous records then the studies really had no excuse for dropping the ball so hard with the Hobbit.

Hobbit was also ten years+ later. Worse numbers with inflation. Also Flinn, I have no idea how you think fantasy was less popular during the Hobbit's release than LOTR. LOTR basically kickstarted an obsession with fantasy products in modern pop culture, and GOT was at its cultural peak when the Hobbit trilogy was releasing.

**Cookiegod** · February 12, 2020, 02:42 PM

First time in a long time that people are having a serious discussion here and yet I feel trolled

**Akar** · February 12, 2020, 02:52 PM

You know what they say: if everywhere you go smells like

/trolling maybe you're the one who

/trolled

**Lord Oda Nobunaga** · February 12, 2020, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by Flinn

man, just spend 5 minutes looking around for the actual takings of the saga since Disney bought it, and then came back again to tell us what people actually wants

Look, I'm not even thinking about the quality of the movies (I haven't seen one minute of any of those movies, just saying), but such is business... numbers is what really matters, the rest is just secondary, heck totally irrelevant ... it happened the same with the Lord of The Rings... and after that they also made the Hobbit (a horrible product, if you ask me), which was even more successful money-wise

get used to that bro, Marx warned us but nobody listened to him.. the best we could do as a species is to produce Akar.. we are doomed

You do realize that Solo and Rise of Skywalker bombed?
People only went to see Force Awakens and Last Jedi because they expected good movies. Anyway Disney was expecting to make twice as much as it actually did. They only just broke even. Long term they damaged the Star Wars brand, I wouldn't be surprised if no one watches anymore.

By comparison I saw one estimate that Netflix's The Witcher has made more money than The Mandalorian. The Mandalorian isn't even a bad series or anything. But it obviously only exists so nerds will buy the Disney+ streaming service which isn't even a good business model.

Disney made about 4 Billion from this trilogy, but probably spent twice as much on production costs and re-shoots and trying to sell this thing in China. That isn't to consider how much they paid to George Lucas. Disney hasn't turned a profit on this thing and George is rolling in 4 Billion dollars. Also George Lucas became one of the largest Disney shareholders.

**Akar** · February 12, 2020, 03:02 PM

I would really love to see the numbers on whether or not Disney has made money or not off of the purchase.

**Lord Oda Nobunaga** · February 12, 2020, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by Akar

I would really love to see the numbers on whether or not Disney has made money or not off of the purchase.

They only just broke even. I've seen other articles talking about this but they frame it as a negative, some people frame it as a positive. Truth be told though that Disney wanted to reach Avengers levels with these films. Rise of Skywalker was an unmitigated disaster. It is already well known that Bob Iger is steering the franchise into recovery mode. Although we can never really know how much money they got, it is safe to assume that they over report on these numbers. Imagine, we are living in a time of actual corporate propaganda.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2.../#106280be481d

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/30/six-...nvestment.html

**Akar** · February 12, 2020, 03:55 PM

Oof, I had no idea the numbers were so bad for them. Serves them right though. Maybe they'll finally learn that they need to treat their fans properly if they want us to take them and their movies seriously.