{"id":67603,"date":"2020-04-03T20:18:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T03:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/?p=67603"},"modified":"2020-05-16T07:48:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T14:48:17","slug":"playing-in-the-fanboy-sandbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/playing-in-the-fanboy-sandbox\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing in the Fanboy Sandbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

The home video availability of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker<\/em>\u00a0 is sure to rekindle discussions over the legacy of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise and the latest film\u2019s contribution to it.<\/p>\n

Star Wars fans mostly agree that Rise of Skywalker<\/em> is a disappointing final chapter of the saga, but are embroiled in an online debate over which filmmaker is most responsible for \u201cmessing up\u201d what has been termed \u201cDisney\u2019s trilogy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fans of J.J. Abrams will say that Rian Johnson\u2019s The Last Jedi<\/em> deviated from the storylines set up in The Force Awakens<\/em>, and that Abrams was merely doing the best he could with Rise of Skywalker<\/em>. Johnson\u2019s defenders will point out that Force Awakens<\/em> was a superficial copy of better \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies, and Last Jedi<\/em> at least tried to offer some depth to the new trilogy while simply extrapolating what was set up in Force Awakens<\/em>. Last Jedi<\/em> haters complain the film veers too much toward political messaging, and so forth. But it\u2019s generally agreed upon that the trilogy as a whole suffers from a lack of planning a three-film storyline from the beginning of the production process. And this lack of planning has had a spillover effect on tie-in materials such as novels, comic books and reference books that suffer in quality for having to both explain the story gaps apparent in the new films, and exist with the new canon established therein.<\/p>\n

Even the divisive qualities of the prequel trilogy haven\u2019t sparked such animosity among the fanbase. So how did it come to this?<\/p>\n

Certainly, the way the Internet tends to present some users with the false perception of expertise in any field of study has been a major contributing factor. But that\u2019s true with just about any disagreement on anything these days. When it comes to the consideration of pop culture and fiction, there is definitely something deeper at play.<\/p>\n

The reason that \u201cStar Wars\u201d endeared so many among the ranks of Generation X in the 1980s was the way it sparked our imaginations. Whether it was younger kids carrying on the battles between the Rebellion and the Empire on the playground, or older viewers pursuing careers in filmmaking and art, the franchise had an undeniable, tangible impact on the storytelling impulse of a generation.<\/p>\n

There, in the backyard, we could swing our toy lightsabers to re-create epic moments of sacrifice; at the playground, we could chase each other with light-up blasters in pursuit of glory; in the sandbox, we could use our \u201cStar Wars\u201d action figures to continue the adventures of the characters we idolized on screen.<\/p>\n

The unifying force through it all was the understanding that it was George Lucas\u2019 story that was being told. He was the storyteller, and we were buying those action figures to play in his world. Even as some fans were disappointed by the prequels, there was still a grudging tolerance of them because Lucas had made them. Fans were willing to let him tell his story, absorb the lessons as they came, and react appropriately. And with many fans, they began to see the franchise in the new light of older eyes.<\/p>\n

But the films of the Disney era are the first to be made by the generation influenced by the storyteller, not the storyteller himself.<\/p>\n

As far as the fans were concerned, they had just as much a stake in the ongoing story as the likes of J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, who for all intents and purposes were just playing in the sandbox too. If they didn\u2019t create the thing, then why should their interpretation of the stories be any more valid than any fan who had spent decades analyzing the franchise?<\/p>\n

This potential perception of legitimacy makes it a smart move for any franchise to carry over creative forces from one regime to the next. So it\u2019s not just J.J. Abrams working on The Force Awakens<\/em>, but Lawrence Kasdan, one of the primary screenwriters Lucas worked with in creating the original trilogy. Or why the name of Dave Filoni, who worked with Lucas on the \u201cClone Wars\u201d animated series, carries a lot of clout with fans.<\/p>\n

Without the air of legitimacy in the fans\u2019 eyes, subsequent adventures might seem like shallow re-creations of what came before.<\/p>\n

Disney\u2019s sequel trilogy itself offers a fitting metaphor for this phenomenon. Its villains, the First Order, come across as posers in their efforts to re-create the Galactic Empire, a generation of children seeking to emulate what their parents did, not unlike the way Abrams was just the templates of the earlier films without much regard to the lessons of them.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s The Last Jedi<\/em>, to its credit, pushes back on this a bit, allowing the characters to ruminate about the struggles of carrying on the legacy of the previous generation while recognizing the role their stories have in inspiring those who would come after them (symbolized quite literally at the end with a scene of kids on an alien planet playing with their own makeshift \u2018Star Wars\u2019 figures).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Filoni, and even Jon Favreau to an extent, who are hailed by fans as the true heir to the \u201cStar Wars\u201d storytelling legacy, rather than the likes of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy or Abrams or Johnson, who are more prone to complaints of appropriating the saga for their own purposes. Hence, \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d served as something of a calming salve fans could unite behind.<\/p>\n

Even such a respite, however, has done little to stop the kind of playground bickering we\u2019ve seen from fans online when considering the movies, as if reduced to 10-year-olds arguing over their action figures by shouting \u201cyou\u2019re doing it wrong!\u201d Only the Internet lets them shout this at the studio itself.<\/p>\n

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But the Internet and the wide dissemination of information even down to the flimsiest of rumor has added a new wrinkle to the fans\u2019 relationships with their favorite franchises. Instead of just going to see the new movie every few years, they now can follow nearly all aspects of the production, from casting news, to leaked photos from shooting locations, to potential in-fighting between producers and directors. The race to post spoilers is so intense that it seems some fans aren\u2019t even going to the movies anymore to enjoy the films, but just to confirm that what they didn\u2019t like in the production rumors they heard actually came to pass. And when the story being told doesn\u2019t meet their approval, they will complain until the studio caves in, or they denounce the franchise as having lost its way, putting so much stock into fictional characters as if they don\u2019t have anything else to fixate on.<\/p>\n

And thus, we are left with a caricature of the modern fan who wants both to have the story told to them while also dictating the direction of that story.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unlike the phenomenon that impacted professional wrestling in the 1990s, when the Internet let fans in on all the behind-the-scenes details that flew in the face of the in-ring storylines, and rather than be turned off by the idea that wrestling was \u201cfake\u201d only became more enamored with it. As promotions began blurring the lines between their backstage and storyline realities, the fans who had been known in the industry as \u201cmarks\u201d because they were meant to believe the in-ring story (generally referred to as \u201ckayfabe,\u201d a term that encompasses the fiction of the wrestlers\u2019 characters), thus took on a new title, the \u201csmart mark,\u201d or \u201csmark\u201d \u2014\u00a0the fan who appreciates the in-ring performance as an exhibition representing the more complex realities of locker-room politics.<\/p>\n

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Another venerable franchise continuation being torn apart by the fan base lately is the CBS All Access revival of \u201cStar Trek.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus far, the new shows include \u201cStar Trek: Discovery,\u201d a prequel to the original 1960s series, and \u201cStar Trek: Picard,\u201d a sequel to \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation.\u201d There are also a series of tie-in short films called \u201cShort Treks\u201d that expand upon the canon of the new Trek era.<\/p>\n

While the shows exhibit high production values and dazzling visual effects, response from longtime \u201cTrek\u201d fans to these new shows has been overwhelmingly negative. \u201cDiscovery introduced so many bizarre plot elements right off the bat that it was hard to reconcile the show existing in the same timeline as the other \u201cTrek\u201d shows. It then spent its second season walking back all its high-concept ideas in an attempt to better conform to established canon \u2014 but the show\u2019s attempt at self-negation makes it seem largely pointless. About the only aspect of the two seasons fans reacted positively to was the addition of Anson Mount as Capt. Pike, reintroducing the character from the 1960s show\u2019s original unused pilot episode.<\/p>\n

\"\"
“Star Trek: Picard”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPicard\u201d at least started with some sense of hope, anchored by the assured presence of Patrick Stewart returning to the title role. Yet the story-arc of the 10-episode first season quickly began to spiral out of control with slow pacing, poor character development, disparate story threads and a muddled attempt to add to established \u201cTrek\u201d mythology.<\/p>\n

Despite the high budgets and production values, these shows just aren\u2019t that good on their own, never mind how they\u2019re supposed to fit in the franchise (though on this latter point, most fans agree they don\u2019t fit very well).<\/p>\n

Tonally, these shows stem from Abrams\u2019 2009 Star Trek<\/em> reboot movie, an ill-conceived attempt to turn \u201cStar Trek\u201d into \u201cStar Wars\u201d simply to match Abrams\u2019 own proclivities toward science-fiction. Much like Abrams\u2019 \u201cStar Wars\u201d efforts, the reboot films were a shallow re-creation of established \u201cTrek\u201d lore and fizzled out once they squandered the audiences\u2019 nostalgia for the property.<\/p>\n

The new stewards of the brand who emerged from the Abrams films, such as Alex Kurtzman, aren\u2019t even copying what \u201cStar Trek\u201d has done before as much as they are borrowing from other sci-fi franchises. The \u201cDiscovery\u201d A.I. gone rogue plot smacks of \u201cThe Terminator.\u201d And \u201cPicard\u201d bears similarities to the likes of \u201cBlade Runner,\u201d \u201cBattlestar Galactica.\u201d \u201cMass Effect\u201d and even \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d These connections are well documented on YouTube.<\/p>\n

It is just another prime example of the gulf between audience expectation for a favored franchise, and the ability for new producers to deliver when they aren\u2019t tied to the creative teams that gave life to the franchise to begin with.<\/p>\n

The \u201cTNG\u201d-era shows of the 1990s, themselves viewed skeptically at first by fans of the original series, at least had executive producer Rick Berman, who worked with \u201cTrek\u201d creator Gene Roddenberry on formulating the philosophies of the new shows, and worked to maintain them after Roddenberry died in 1991.<\/p>\n

At the very least, in the absence of a connective creative presence, fans at least want to think the new shepherds of their favorite franchises are just as much fans as they are. Part of the problem with response to Johnson\u2019s Last Jedi<\/em> is that it exposed a rift in the fanbase about the interpretation of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d mythology (and Rise of Skywalker<\/em>\u2019s attempt to placate once set of fans over the other didn\u2019t do anyone any favors).<\/p>\n

\u201cStar Trek,\u201d it seems, has had the opposite problem, with new writers and producers coming in claiming to be fans and yet demonstrating a serious ignorance of the sandbox in which they\u2019re supposed to be playing, not so much from an interpretative point of view, but just details of the canon that should have some impact on the new stories.<\/p>\n

Unlike the kind of pass-the-baton storytelling fans didn\u2019t like about the new \u201cStar Wars,\u201d the new \u201cStar Trek\u201d seems to have too many runners. The abundance of creative minds, very few of which having actually worked on \u201cStar Trek\u201d before, and some of which have hardly worked on anything good before, just leads to muddled story arcs, resulting in several attempts to retooling the show to respond to poor feedback and backlash.<\/p>\n

\"\"
“Star Trek: Picard”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPicard\u201d comes off as a bizarre appropriation of canon, excising what would be appropriate and fan-appreciated references to specific, relevant story points, in exchange for vague generalities about how established characters progressed from where we last saw them to where they are on this show.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia, it seems, is the only thing keeping \u201cPicard\u201d afloat, but it\u2019s hard to say how long that will last.<\/p>\n

Without a course correction to deliver the type of \u201cStar Trek\u201d fans can enjoy again on a consistent basis, these new shows might end up tipping the scales the other way, enticing fans to tune in simply out of sheer morbid curiosity to see how bad it can get, almost to the point of wanting something to complain about if only to appreciate the earlier shows more (not unlike how the \u201cStar Wars\u201d prequels have earned a bit more appreciation from fans disenchanted by Disney\u2019s sequels).<\/p>\n

The ironic twist in all this, of course, is how the long (and overstated) rivalry between \u201cStar Wars\u201d and \u201cStar Trek\u201d fans would find itself defused by J.J. Abrams, uniting them over a shared distaste for his efforts to restart both their beloved franchises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The home video availability of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker\u00a0 is sure to rekindle discussions over the legacy of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise and the latest film\u2019s contribution to it. Star Wars fans mostly agree that Rise of Skywalker is a disappointing final chapter of the saga, but are embroiled in an online debate … Continue reading “Playing in the Fanboy Sandbox”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":67611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20],"tags":[373,462,177,6663,460,8389],"coauthors":[62],"class_list":["post-67603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-john-latchem","tag-cbs-all-access","tag-lucasfilm","tag-star-trek","tag-star-trek-picard","tag-star-wars","tag-the-rise-of-skywalker"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying in the Fanboy Sandbox - Media Play News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaplaynews.com\/playing-in-the-fanboy-sandbox\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing in the Fanboy Sandbox - Media Play News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The home video availability of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker\u00a0 is sure to rekindle discussions over the legacy of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise and the latest film\u2019s contribution to it. 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