What does George Lucas think of SWTOR?

[Arkerus]

Why is it so hard to believe? The guy has lied and backpedalled in interview after interview, slapped fans across the face (even those who were still loyal after the Prequels), and basically took something that was once a great science fantasy series and rewritten it into something nearly unrecognizable. Plotholes abound, but at least A.C. Crispin filled in one of the most glaring holes with the Kessel Run and how it actually worked with the Maw. In the Han Solo Trilogy, he explained how the Maw was usually an 18 parsec run between singularities, but the Falcon was fast enough and had a good enough nav computer to make it in under 12 parsecs.

 

My point about the novels is, They DO serve a purpose, and the novelizations of the Prequels actually helped me appreciate them more than just watching the movies. His latest retcon of his own work is a bit much for me, however.

 

Greedo shooting first... ohboy. That just ripped the old message out of the movie about how it was possible that a ruthless, self-centered, and self-absorbed drug smuggler could actually find something to believe in and become a hero. The original scene was set to show that Han Solo was NOT a nice guy at the beginning of A New Hope.

 

The Sarlacc with a mouth and beak. Seriously??? Ok, I can see the added visual effects capabilities, but was it REALLY necessary? The added fluff scenes in Jabba's palace also played no significant role in the rewrites.

 

The "NOOOOOOooooOOOOOooOOOOOooo!!!!" when Vader threw Palpatine into the reactor shaft. /facepalm....

 

But the REAL kicker was replacing the original Anakin at the very end of RotJ with Hayden "Emo" Christensen.

 

It was these changes that sealed the deal for me, really. Even then, I kept defending him to people because he CREATED Star Wars. But instead of leaving good stuff alone, he had to keep trying to "improve" it. There really was no need for that, imo.

 

Instead of putting out DVDs/Blu-Rays of Star Wars for people to just buy forever, he does limited editions. JUST limited editions. He'll release the movies for a few weeks, then stop. Then the re-release of Phantom Menace in 3D and IMAX... Yeah, he sees an opportunity to make money, he takes it.

 

He actually did an interview back in 1980 shortly after ESB came out talking about how he had scripts done and ready to go for the rest of the saga, which at the time was supposed to be 9 movies long. That interview, unfortunately, has never been posted online or transcripted for Online viewing. I remember seeing it on the news when I was 7 years old.

 

Then after RotJ, we waited 17 years for another Star Wars movie.... and we got Phantom Menace. Instead of using relatively unknown actors, he got a LOT of star power together for that one. Unfortunately, he also added Jar Jar Binks. I'll admit, I chuckled at Jar Jar for about 3 and a half minutes before his schtick got old and my eyes started to roll.

 

But it was at the end of Revenge of the Sith that I realized how he had lied all those years ago. The main thing that popped into my head was that Leia had said she remembered her mother in RotJ, yet Padme died minutes after giving birth to both of them. I rationalized this by thinking "Maybe she's remembering her adopted mother", but then I found out that she died along with Bail Organa and Alderaan when Tarkin blew it up.

 

So that's my take on Star Wars, and how George is only in it for the money now. The TCW series and his videogame license alone pay his bills. Fett and the other ExU characters are just a huge cash cow to him.

 

I also admit to having Clint Eastwood style "Get Off My Lawn" moments when some kid comes off with "Greedo Shot First" and then claims it's Canon because it was in the movie!!! All because he never saw the original and missed the old message completely. Anyhow, I'm stopping here since THIS wall of text is way too big already.

 

YOu are the man.

 

GL has done nothing but ruin the franchise he created with scenes of people talking and CGI. He created awful plot holes, wrote terrible action sequences, killed characters and even ruined classic scenes in the originals.

 

The whole beauty of star wars 4, 5 and 6 was that YOU DIDN'T NEED THE PREQUELS TO UNDERSTAND IT.

 

You, as a viewer, already had Anakin Skywalker in your head as a heroic, jedi knight fallen to the dark side. When you see GL's version Anakin is a braindead moron.

[amantheil]

Yeah it's all dependent on the way he set up his will regarding the SW IP. He may have various legal ways of extending his copyrights or shutting down anyone from touching the IP for various lengths of time,once again it varies by state and country and can get quite complex.

 

He could get the copyrights extended passed the traditional US IP/copyright laws of Life+70 years or there is a slim shot of the IP being locked up in perpetuity(the King James Bible is an example of such perpetuity). Then again, copyright laws could radically change in the future that could affect the IP.

 

If I were a betting man, I'd say 70 years after his death the IP becomes a free for all, but by that time, chances are SW will be a long forgotten memory.

 

There's all sorts of issues that actually go into copyright law. Presumably control over the 'IP' will pass on to his estate. But there's a lot to consider.

 

The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" was released in 1946, and the copyright lapsed which caused it to go into the public domain in 1974, and was broadcast constantly on TV around Christmas. In 1993 the film company that held the original rights (or rather the successor to that company) successfully reclaimed the rights in court, in part because while they had lost the copyright for the film images, they still held the copyright for other 'film elements' such as the score and the movie rights for the original story that was the basis for the movie.

 

(And or course, Lucasarts and the Lucas estate would never find themselves in this situation, because they'd certainly keep renewing the copyright as long as possible).

 

You can also get into differences between copyrighting of characters, and the actual movie. Even when and if some Mickey Mouse cartoons eventually enter the public domain (a separate controversy), "Mickey Mouse" the character is trademarked and can't be used by anyone else, as long as Disney keeps using the character commercially. Some people think that is one of the reason why DC continuously publishes "Wonder Woman" comics despite relatively mediocre sales: if they stop commercially using the character, the trademark could slip. But in theory, the individual movies could go into public domain.

 

Of course...all that's irrelevant to the original topic, but I wanted to add my own two cents to the public domain question :-)

[EzoEo]

He probabaly thinks - woohooo more $$$$. Who can blame him though it's human nature.

[ObiWanBaikonur]

You can also get into differences between copyrighting of characters, and the actual movie. Even when and if some Mickey Mouse cartoons eventually enter the public domain (a separate controversy), "Mickey Mouse" the character is trademarked and can't be used by anyone else, as long as Disney keeps using the character commercially. Some people think that is one of the reason why DC continuously publishes "Wonder Woman" comics despite relatively mediocre sales: if they stop commercially using the character, the trademark could slip. But in theory, the individual movies could go into public domain.

 

So in these cases, and the "It's a Wonderful Life" case that you cited, does that mean that let's say the Star Wars films lose their copyright and become public domain but Darth Vader remains a copyrighted character. Does that mean that all of the Star Wars films would be available minus the Darth Vader bits? So someone could replace him in the film and be OK? (Same story for Score or effects, or whatever)

 

Or would it mean that just removing Darth Vader would be insufficient to enabling republication of the material?

[Aximand]

Funny you say that, In The clone wars TV show wich is T canon, is as close as can be of the films. obi wan just handled a red lightsaber.

And there is other examples on the EU, in the comics.

 

Funny you should say that, apparently they retconned Master Adi Gallia's crimson Lightsaber out for the Clone Wars show, now she uses blue.