Star Wars Griefing Thread (SPOILERS) - Safety off

[Syaoran Li]

Late in responding to this, but I figured I'd give my two cents on the matter

6bil in cash reserves for a global corporation like Disney may be low, but how badly are the really going to be affected for the rest of 2020?

Rumors of Disneys impending demise due to corona but if they have shut everything down, there expenses should be close to 0. They can always get a loan to hold them over until this change a little bit and they have a bunch of things to break off and sell if necessary.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the preemptive doing dong the witch is dead cheering is probably too early. Everyone(including me) talking about Disney's finances sound like they don't know the way money and business work in the real world practically and everything is being said from theory.

Apparently, the rumors are that the losses at Disney are worse than what's actually reported and that there's a struggle between those who want to shut more down to save money and weather out the pandemic and the diversity hires who want to keep spending more to push the woke line.

Doomcock is an idiot, because while I definitely expect them to only keep chain announcing shit as vaporware to try and save face and trick smoothbrains via paid mouthpieces they own, they aren't going to die. Sell off companies and go stupidly frugal, but not die. Not yet at least.

I expect them to sell off assets well before then, and they have a lot that could keep them alive. Since Iger is still basically in charge IMO (Chapek's a lamb to sacrifice for the bad year), I expect the first big sale ESPN first. Then ABC well before Fox or LFL, since Iger is a weak and petty man who lies to himself every day about being a strong and intelligent money maker.

They'd have to go Chapter 11 well before they'd sell Marvel though.

Agreed, although I think they'll try to sell off A&E and History Channel before something as big as ESPN or ABC.

The Fox buyout was way too much, and keep in mind that everything they bought from Fox is still tied up in legal contract and paperwork issues with the exception of The Simpsons, which Iger made sure to spare no expense in fast-tracking that so it could be available at launch for Disney+

 

[Creep3r]

Really? That's a complaint people have with the Vong? I can't say that I've ever encountered that contention out in the wild, but that's a pretty fucking strange one. Especially when humanoid aliens like the Twi'lek, Zabrak and Torgruta exist...or is the argument that the Vong should look less humanoid than those ones because they're a foreign alien threat? Because that doesn't work as a valid complaint either, considering their origins are in the main Star Wars Galaxy, even if it is eons prior to the other races. Also, making the Vong humanoid is what made them somewhat relatable. I don't think you could have redeemable characters like High Priest Hararr or Nen Yim if they looked like abstract eldritch horrors, at least not without it being a challenge.

Its not common but its a complaint I used to see around the time of the Legacy comics and one I saw more often around 2015 during Disney discussions from people who said they didn't want the Vong to come back, especially among associates. However this was a time when people were even more hateful towards past content, so maybe that's why it became a topic.

And yeah its because they say that "since the Vong are from another galaxy and are truly alien then they should look the part! Make them an army of Cthulhus or Old Ones!" which I feel is pretty superficial. Not to mention Cthulhu isn't really all that alien. He's just an octopus head on a gargoyle's body and most of the Old Ones are just a bunch of tentacles with eyes and mouths instead of suction cups (I'm not shitting on Cthulhu shit, I'm just pointing out how they're not particularly alien, except maybe the Yith). Making the Vong humanoid or just giving any creature any sort of humanoid trait, which is why you'll even see the most grotesque aliens usually have only two eyes, is because it makes them more expressive and easier for us (a human audience) to understand. Not to mention the Vong are supposed to represent a sort of shadow of the reaper kind of thing, so giving them a sort of skull motif helps to exemplify that.

 

[Ghostse]

Let's talk about something uplifting for once. What were your favorite Star Wars toys?

Micro Machines Action Fleet was my crack. I had a whole squadron of each fighter, I used to graze over some of them with a Bic lighter to simulate battle damage from laser bursts. I also had quite a few of the Kenner figures, including the Han Solo stormtrooper you had to send away for to get in the mail. My favorite Kenner line though was probably Shadows of the Empire. I thought Dash Rendar was the biggest badass and I really wish that the EU did more with him afterwards besides that bodyguard story.

I didn't really have a lot of Star Wars toys, which now that you mention it, is a little odd considering how much we played something Star Wars or Star wars inspired. I think mostly because when we did play Star Wars, most of the time we didn't use any toys - just Light saber sticks and hand blasters, or trying to bomb reactors on our bikes. When we did play something with toys, we made our own star fighters out of legos and k'nex - since trying to get a whole squadron of official toys was expensive. Plus Kenner also never made a 6-winged Super X-wing toy (look, its real simple: if 4 is good, 6 is better. The math checks out, people)

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

I'm going tl;dr some shit and hope I did I good job, but its more accurate to say characters who aren't built around traits that have nothing to do with the story. This is the problem with creating "the gay" character or "the strong woman" is because that is now their identity and so anything you do "the gay" is what you're doing to all gays. Any flaws they have, that's negative traits you are projecting on all gays, etc. especially since the characters usually have only surface personality beyond that. (For counter example, any non-gay, non-love interest male character in women's fiction.)

I do not want this to become race/sexualit/genderstudies, but IN CURRENT DAY YEAR, SOCIETY AT THIS CURRENT TIME, DUE TO A VARIETY OF FACTORS MANY OF THEM NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD, AND WITHOUT ASSIGNING GOODNESS OR BADNESS, AND UNDERSTANDING THAT NOT EVERYONE DOES THIS AND EXCEPTIONS OF VARYING MAGNITUDE EXIST.....
Men tend to imagine they are their favorite character, Women tend to imagine their favorite character is them.
Males are also more interested in conflict, women tend to favor cooperation


That is, males imagine what they could do if they were Boba Fett - they are still them, but have all of Fett's abilities. Some character flaws make Boba Fett this a more appealing in this regard because you can imagine yourself as better version of Boba. And they want to imagine themselves as Boba fighting against incredible odds and triumphing after signficiant effort.

Females imagine themselves as literally the character. This is why most popular women's characters are dull as dishwater, because you need to not make the character have any flaws or positive the reader does already feel she possesses (or could possess), and any conflicts must be solved in a way the reader feels they would solve them. And the girls want to imagine themselves solving problems easily with their first suggestion.


Anyway, tl;dr is that Lando is a white male protagonist (or was before Disney showed up) because nobody outside of a discussion of who should be Luke's decoy to flush out an assassin gives a shit about the fact he's black.

I've seen no shortage of female characters written by women in the past who weren't as dull as dishwater. Mostly because I'm an anime/video game junkie who rarely sees movies unless they're really popular, but for the most part, I grew up with female characters who can be strong, but also have flaws and hurdles to overcome just like the men do. Special mention goes to Zeta Gundam, KOTOR, and Halo, which have powerful female characters like Haman Karn, Bastila Shan, and Cortana, who still have personal flaws and emotions that make them human, as opposed to a 2-bit cut-out like Rey who is basically good in everything without any flaws or need for instruction. More likely it is due to the modern SJW woman who doesn't think that she needs any instruction from men, who thinks the world should bend to her will, fictional or otherwise. They're bossy cows in the real world, and it stands to reason that they'd want female avatars who would dominate fictional worlds as well. Whereas back then, we had shows like Sailor Moon and Xena Warrior Princess where the heroines weren't perfect, but were still well-written and had a good progression and story arc.

RE: Lando, back then (in the late 70's, early 80's) people can make minority/female characters who just happen to be grey or downright villainous. You try making a black character like Lando today, where he winds up betraying his friends to save his skin, and you'll have SJW groups whining about you making the first black character of the series into a backstabbing traitor. Back then, they could make characters like double-dealing Bond Girls or Ming the Merciless, or Blackspoitation heroes and villains, to showcase flawed heroes and villains who just happen to be female or be from a minority group. Nowadays, you can't get away with that. Portray a black or female hero as flawed, and you run the risk of offending some really whiny people, especially since complaints about bad portrayals of female and minority characters can be found in the late 90s to the 2000s onward, so authors slowly switched to making stories based on standard-ass white dudes.

As a gamer, I saw this in the late 2000s when many space marine or FPS games featured standard white men as the main characters. The movie scene followed suit. And of course, Revan himself turned out to be a caucasian male as well, so the SWTOR crew can do whatever they want with him without SJW groups crying about how they turned a strong, independent female Jedi into a nutcase that had to be put down like a rabid mutt by the Imperial players. Of course, with movies and games being full of white men, the obvious backlash from the SJWs happened, with them DEMANDING more female and minority representation, even though we had that back then with flawed, three-dimensional heroes and villains from the 80s, 90s, and even the early 2000s. But they don't want that, and they don't want standard caucasian male heroes either, so now the big media companies churn out this image of the strong independent woman who is barely flawed, downright perfect even. Which is what leads us to the condition in the present day.

Late in responding to this, but I figured I'd give my two cents on the matter

Apparently, the rumors are that the losses at Disney are worse than what's actually reported and that there's a struggle between those who want to shut more down to save money and weather out the pandemic and the diversity hires who want to keep spending more to push the woke line.

Agreed, although I think they'll try to sell off A&E and History Channel before something as big as ESPN or ABC.

The Fox buyout was way too much, and keep in mind that everything they bought from Fox is still tied up in legal contract and paperwork issues with the exception of The Simpsons, which Iger made sure to spare no expense in fast-tracking that so it could be available at launch for Disney+

Disney just basically became the EA of the entertainment world. They used to make great IPs of their own, but now, they used their wealth to buy up every other IP. And now they found out that things weren't so peachy up at the top, since the many IPs in their hands have begun to weaken and decay under their leadership. The fact that in Disney, people want to shut down stuff to save money reminds me too much of companies EA bought up and shut down after failing to meet their demands.

Buying up FOX was complete garbage. They didn't earn much, only more debt. Had it not been for the virus, the parks might have helped Disney pay off that debt, but without the parks, they're dead in the water.

 

[Table Country]

Buying up FOX was complete garbage. They didn't earn much, only more debt. Had it not been for the virus, the parks might have helped Disney pay off that debt, but without the parks, they're dead in the water.

So what you're saying is... GO TEAM VIRUS!

 

[Mississippi Motorboater]

Regarding the topic of toys, I was really big into the 2006-2011 run of Hasbro ships, especially the Eta-Class Jedi Interceptor. The one I've always wanted is Darth Vader's Black One that was pulled out of the James Luceno novel...but I have yet to acquire it.

As far as individual figurines go, this might make me a heretic on this board, but I actually think the new Black Series toys don't look too bad, and are of a scale that I would collect for. One of my friends gifted me the Darth Revan and Jaina Solo ones (who I never thought in a million years would get a figure in the modern Disney regime), and they look nice in front of my EU bookshelf.

Which ties into a small pet project I'm considering: I'm not a toy collector or enthusiast of any sort...but I'm getting really into the post-Endor Jedi Characters that I'm thinking of making custom figures for them. I've seen other people cannibalizing Black Series and Marvel Legends figures--no extra paint or anything--to assemble custom figures to scale with their Black Series collections, and the results are pretty good.

And with all the new Star Wars toys turning up on eBay by secondhand sellers for pennies, it would be an easy endeavor.

Its not common but its a complaint I used to see around the time of the Legacy comics and one I saw more often around 2015 during Disney discussions from people who said they didn't want the Vong to come back, especially among associates. However this was a time when people even more hateful towards past content, so maybe that's why it became a topic.

Anything to make the Mouse Products look good, I guess. Although, I will be the first person to say that I'm happy the Vong never turned up in Nu-Canon or even TCW.

Mostly because I'm 150% certain that all of the violent, religious, multi-faceted and horror-esque elements---basically everything that makes their species and culture interesting---would be completely removed to retain a PG rating or be less "problematic." And I'd rather see my favorite species exist untainted in a superior continuity than dumbed down in Disney shit.

Last thing I need is to see the proud and intimidating Yuuzhan Vong warriors be given the Space Aladdin Thrawn treatment.

And yeah its because they say that "since the Vong are from another galaxy and are truly alien then they should look the part! Make them an army of Cthulhus or Old Ones!"

Like I said, that argument is retarded, because they don't originate from another galaxy...they originate from the Main One, they were just exiled to another one. Again, retarded shit from imbecilic neanderthals that haven't read the books.

I also find it weird how the very same community which vehemently and loudly panned Abeloth as a concept are suddenly clamoring for the Vong to be more "eldritch horror".

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

So what you're saying is... GO TEAM VIRUS!

Everyone who hates Disney has been screaming that for quite some time.
Back then, Disney felt free to tell SW fans they were racist, sexist homophobes for not liking the new stuff. Now, they're begging the fans to come back because the parks are no longer giving Disney windfall profits, so now, they have to take online fanbases seriously to make money.

 

[Creep3r]

Anything to make the Mouse Products look good, I guess. Although, I will be the first person to say that I'm happy the Vong never turned up in Nu-Canon or even TCW.

Mostly because I'm 150% certain that all of the violent, religious, multi-faceted and horror-esque elements---basically everything that makes their species and culture interesting---would be completely removed to retain a PG rating or be less "problematic." And I'd rather see my favorite species exist untainted in a superior continuity than dumbed down in Disney shit.

I've mentioned it before in this thread, but Disney already did so through Zahn by introducing the Grysk, which are just a toothless version of the Vong with zero originality. They're skull-faced xenophobes who simply hate for the sake of hating who also have giant armadas but instead use regular tech with bigger weapons, and they came from beyond the Unknown Regions, have a pain fetish and they're a major threat the Chiss and the Empire are concerned with but only because they have more lasers. Before Disney alienated casuals with TLJ, Disney drones actually praised these things despite shitting on the Vong and Thrawn beforehand when Disney didn't approve of them.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Grysk
Jewgle the name Grysk and the first result is pictures of the Vong...

 

[Syaoran Li]

Disney just basically became the EA of the entertainment world. They used to make great IPs of their own, but now, they used their wealth to buy up every other IP. And now they found out that things weren't so peachy up at the top, since the many IPs in their hands have begun to weaken and decay under their leadership. The fact that in Disney, people want to shut down stuff to save money reminds me too much of companies EA bought up and shut down after failing to meet their demands.

Buying up FOX was complete garbage. They didn't earn much, only more debt. Had it not been for the virus, the parks might have helped Disney pay off that debt, but without the parks, they're dead in the water.

There's also the hit the Chinese market took thanks to COVID-19 and despite how much Made In China likes to harp how China's recovered from the virus and are no longer in recession for the upcoming quarter, there's also the fact that China is definitely lying about their numbers and how badly they were fucked by the virus. They probably have much higher rates of infection and a higher death toll than we do, and there's the flooding issues and a potential upping the ante on the trade war if Trump can pull a second win for 2020.

I'm wondering what happens if the Three Gorges Dam goes burst in 2021 or even worse, gives way before the end of 2020. I think the lockdowns are going to be fully loosened up by the start of 2021 except maybe in the absolute worst-hit areas in NYC and New Jersey. If Disney loses the Chinese market in addition to the beating they took from the pandemic they are fucked and will have to make tough calls.

It's obvious that the economy cannot sustain these lockdowns and forced social distancing for much longer and I think they'll be lifted after November regardless of who wins 2020 at this point. The virus is still being pushed as an electoral bargaining tool in the Democrat run states, regardless of the actual severity of the pandemic.

 

[White Devil]

Regarding the topic of toys, I was really big into the 2006-2011 run of Hasbro ships, especially the Eta-Class Jedi Interceptor. The one I've always wanted is Darth Vader's Black One that was pulled out of the James Luceno novel...but I have yet to acquire it.

Are you talking about this? https://www.amazon.com/Star-Darth-Vaders-Starfighter-Vechicle/dp/B000GKC8RM

Apparently Black One is the name of Poe Dameron's X-Wing.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

There's also the hit the Chinese market took thanks to COVID-19 and despite how much Made In China likes to harp how China's recovered from the virus and are no longer in recession for the upcoming quarter, there's also the fact that China is definitely lying about their numbers and how badly they were fucked by the virus. They probably have much higher rates of infection and a higher death toll than we do, and there's the flooding issues and a potential upping the ante on the trade war if Trump can pull a second win for 2020.

I'm wondering what happens if the Three Gorges Dam goes burst in 2021 or even worse, gives way before the end of 2020. I think the lockdowns are going to be fully loosened up by the start of 2021 except maybe in the absolute worst-hit areas in NYC and New Jersey. If Disney loses the Chinese market in addition to the beating they took from the pandemic they are fucked and will have to make tough calls.

It's obvious that the economy cannot sustain these lockdowns and forced social distancing for much longer and I think they'll be lifted after November regardless of who wins 2020 at this point. The virus is still being pushed as an electoral bargaining tool in the Democrat run states, regardless of the actual severity of the pandemic.

Not just Disney, but a lot of Hollywood studios have made their bank with China, trying to get into that lucrative Chinese market while forgoing their own woke agenda to do so, altering things the Chinese find offensive, such as minimizing Finn's face in the EPVII poster or removing the lesbian kiss from Rise of Skywalker. And now they all have egg on their face because the virus makes it impossible to profit off movie theaters, in America or China. There's talk of a second wave of virus outbreaks in China, and if that Three Gorges Dam bursts, they'll have hell to pay. Both the Chinese government AND the Hollywood studios in bed with them. Too bad about all the innocent Chinese who will be caught in the maelstrom. Keep them in your prayers.

Trump will almost certainly win. I originally thought the Dems had a legitimate chance when Michael Bloomberg was running, but once they all bowed out in favor of old man Joe Biden, they might as well have given Trump the 2020 win right off the bat and conceded.

Disney will almost certainly lose the Chinese market. They've got nothing the Chinese want outside of the odd blockbuster film. Paramount has the Chinese film market in a vice grip thanks to those Transformers movies, and the Star Wars/Marvel stuff doesn't sell as well there as they do stateside, since the Chinese don't give a flying shit about Marvel comics or the original Star Wars. Add that with the SW fans/Fandom Menace campaign against Disney Star Wars costing them money in the form of boycotts and lower toy sales, and the tanking of finances due to the loss of theme park money, and Disney's either done for, or they'll be someone else's bitch come the end of the plague. With all their financial losses, unless they take out a generous loan from a very generous loaner, they're boned. No questions about it. The only thing that can save them now is if someone comes up with a miracle cure for the C-19 virus and all the parks and theaters reopen in full because everyone's cured.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Not just Disney, but a lot of Hollywood studios have made their bank with China, trying to get into that lucrative Chinese market while forgoing their own woke agenda to do so, altering things the Chinese find offensive, such as minimizing Finn's face in the EPVII poster or removing the lesbian kiss from Rise of Skywalker. And now they all have egg on their face because the virus makes it impossible to profit off movie theaters, in America or China. There's talk of a second wave of virus outbreaks in China, and if that Three Gorges Dam bursts, they'll have hell to pay. Both the Chinese government AND the Hollywood studios in bed with them. Too bad about all the innocent Chinese who will be caught in the maelstrom. Keep them in your prayers.

Trump will almost certainly win. I originally thought the Dems had a legitimate chance when Michael Bloomberg was running, but once they all bowed out in favor of old man Joe Biden, they might as well have given Trump the 2020 win right off the bat and conceded.

Disney will almost certainly lose the Chinese market. They've got nothing the Chinese want outside of the odd blockbuster film. Paramount has the Chinese film market in a vice grip thanks to those Transformers movies, and the Star Wars/Marvel stuff doesn't sell as well there as they do stateside, since the Chinese don't give a flying shit about Marvel comics or the original Star Wars. Add that with the SW fans/Fandom Menace campaign against Disney Star Wars costing them money in the form of boycotts and lower toy sales, and the tanking of finances due to the loss of theme park money, and Disney's either done for, or they'll be someone else's bitch come the end of the plague. With all their financial losses, unless they take out a generous loan from a very generous loaner, they're boned. No questions about it. The only thing that can save them now is if someone comes up with a miracle cure for the C-19 virus and all the parks and theaters reopen in full because everyone's cured.

Agreed for the most part, although I do think Biden has a chance of winning thanks to COVID-19 tanking the economy (and the MSM blaming it all on Trump) the severity of the riots and Kamala as the VP pick are definitely going to the tip the scales in favor of Trump barring some other freak surprise.

I don't think Disney will totally collapse from this unless Three Gorges Dam collapses before the end of 2020 since they're the largest studio system within Hollywood and are "too big to fail" in a sense, but I can definitely see them doing major downsizing and selling off their acquisitions.

The only ones I don't see Disney willing to let go are their own core IP's, Pixar, and Marvel (this includes the X-Men stuff from the Fox buyout) and maybe The Simpsons since it was enough of a big deal for Iger to ensure the legal proceedings for it got fast tracked to be ready by the time Disney+ launched. Everything else is up for grabs.

The way I see it, I think certain IP's and subsidiaries will be sold off before the really big stuff that were taken over in the Iger years. Iger himself knew his megalomania would hurt Disney and he lined up Chapek as a fall guy and had his exit plan even before the unexpected curveball of the C-19 pandemic.

Bob Iger does not intend to go down in history as a failure, since he knows what the flops under Eisner's later tenure did to his reputation. Michael Eisner was the guy who literally saved Disney at the tail end of the 80's and ushered the Disney Renaissance of the 90's, but thanks to the flop of California Adventure and a lot of the early 2000's Disney movies bombing at the box office, he's viewed as a failure (never mind that most of the flops later became beloved cult classics)

Now as for which ones will be sold off first, I think it'll go like this, listed from the most likely to be sold off right away to the ones being sold because they're at the end of their rope.

1. A&E and History Channel

The former channel is a rerun farm that axed the one premiere show that was bringing in actual money so they could appease BLM while the latter has been a laughing stock for never showing any historical programming even as reruns and instead exclusively try to focus on white trash reality shows. They don't even do the excessive WWII coverage they were infamous for in the mid-2000's or even the focus on UFO's and conspiracies like in the late 2000's/early 2010's

A&E and History Channel are a poor man's Lifetime Network and MTV for Boomers respectively, but I could see another company buying them and making a lot of bank on a "return to form" relaunch of the brand.

2. ESPN

This is normally a very profitable brand but the damage that the pandemic has done for them is immense and the decline of cable TV is also something to consider, especially since something like ESPN doesn't translate as easily into streaming as ABC or Fox.

3. The lesser-known parts of the Fox Library and C-List franchises and Touchstone Pictures

I can definitely see Disney trying to do piecemeal sales of specific titles or IP's in the Fox library for smaller companies or groups like Netflix who want more content for their streaming services as well as the older or more obscure franchises that aren't as much of a draw as they were back in the day. The Touchstone Pictures library would also be put up for sale since it's a dead brand but has quite a few iconic titles that could fetch a decent price.

4. ABC and Freeform

ABC being put up for sale is a major deal simply because it's a major broadcast network, so it'll be held onto longer than A&E/History Channel or even ESPN

5. Fox's B-List and lower A-List franchises and titles

For the franchises and movies that have a decent following but aren't heavy-hitters or perennial favorites or tend to be in the "lower A-List" categories where they're still relevant and have a big fandom but they aren't top-tier blockbusters or merchandising titans. This would be shows like King of the Hill and The Shield or the extremely popular individual movies that aren't part of a franchise, or some of the smaller franchises owned by Fox

6. Star Wars and the "big name" Fox franchises

This would be one of those signs that things are truly dismal in the House of Mouse if they have to relent and put up Star Wars for sale. Same goes for the more evergreen Fox-owned franchises like Die Hard, Alien, and Predator.

I don't see them ever putting The Simpsons or X-Men up for sale, same goes for Marvel or the core IP's from Disney and Pixar's vaults.

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think the Fox acquisition was the right move for Disney. They probably overpaid a bit for it, but it was better to overpay than let Comcast or Verizon end up with it, for several reasons:

• It was the fastest way to reunite a good chunk of Marvel rights and Star Wars rights. Fox had the rights to A New Hope in perpetuity, and had various other rights to the later movies- easy way to own the vertical. For Marvel, Phase 3 felt like a natural end to the current gen of actors, and Phase 4 or 5 will eventually feature X-Men and Fantastic 4, hopefully done well. It also lets Feige control almost all the Marvel movie experience moving forward, and in markets where they can do Marvel lands in theme parks, allows for that tie-in to happen. If Star Wars was doing well, the Star Wars/Marvel market would have been worth half the acquisition price alone, and would have fulfilled Eiger's vision of owning the boy's equivalent of the Disney Princesses.
• They needed more content for Disney+ and ESPN+. Box checked for D+. The ESPN plan fell apart a bit when the regulators made them shed the regional sports channels. Still did allow them to pick up some momentum in streaming.
• Gave them controlling interest in Hulu, to the point where they functionally run it now. This and the point above Eiger considers his legacy. So long as he is around, either in management or the board, he's not going to let that work for the platforms and catalog be tarnished.
• Avatar sequels could still be big, and they spent a ton on Avatar land in Florida. Amazing how well they did with it as compared to Galaxy's Edge. I'm not sure how involved Cameron was with it, but that could be one reason. Another is that ties in to things guests actually saw on screen.
• Just a huge library of endless trash to reboot, rebrand, and resell.

The timing proved a bit poor, but other vultures were circling, and Murdoch wanted to sell. Disney will last through COVID with a smaller workforce, but largely the same portfolio they had before.

 

[Mississippi Motorboater]

I've mentioned it before in this thread, but Disney already did so through Zahn by introducing the Grysk, which are just a toothless version of the Vong with zero originality. They're skull-faced xenophobes who simply hate for the sake of hating who also have giant armadas but instead use regular tech with bigger weapons, and they came from beyond the Unknown Regions, have a pain fetish and they're a major threat the Chiss and the Empire are concerned with but only because they have more lasers. Before Disney alienated casuals with TLJ, Disney drones actually praised these things despite shitting on the Vong and Thrawn beforehand when Disney didn't approve of them.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Grysk
Jewgle the name Grysk and the first result is pictures of the Vong...

So it's a defanged dollar store version of the Vong without the justification to hate the galaxy, the culture or religion to make them interesting, or the mysterious immunity to the Force...basically rendering them impossible to confuse with the Vong on any tangible level, down to their name.

Yeah, I can live with that. Ruin that shit to your heart's content, Disney.

Are you talking about this? https://www.amazon.com/Star-Darth-Vaders-Starfighter-Vechicle/dp/B000GKC8RM

Yeah, that one. And I can see it got fucking expensive when I wasn't looking.

 

[Hooligan Handgun]

Just rewatched The Last Jedi for the first time in years, and I couldn’t believe how bad it was. Everything about it was just awful. I feel like I would’ve wasted less time by staring at a blank wall for 2 1/2 hours.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Just rewatched The Last Jedi for the first time in years, and I couldn’t believe how bad it was. Everything about it was just awful. I feel like I would’ve wasted less time by staring at a blank wall for 2 1/2 hours.

Just pretend everything after Rogue One doesn't exist

 

[BipolarPon]

There's also the hit the Chinese market took thanks to COVID-19 and despite how much Made In China likes to harp how China's recovered from the virus and are no longer in recession for the upcoming quarter, there's also the fact that China is definitely lying about their numbers and how badly they were fucked by the virus. They probably have much higher rates of infection and a higher death toll than we do, and there's the flooding issues and a potential upping the ante on the trade war if Trump can pull a second win for 2020.

I'm wondering what happens if the Three Gorges Dam goes burst in 2021 or even worse, gives way before the end of 2020. I think the lockdowns are going to be fully loosened up by the start of 2021 except maybe in the absolute worst-hit areas in NYC and New Jersey. If Disney loses the Chinese market in addition to the beating they took from the pandemic they are fucked and will have to make tough calls.

It's obvious that the economy cannot sustain these lockdowns and forced social distancing for much longer and I think they'll be lifted after November regardless of who wins 2020 at this point. The virus is still being pushed as an electoral bargaining tool in the Democrat run states, regardless of the actual severity of the pandemic.

The combination of Chinese pandering and woke pandering is a gigantic reason why many blockbuster movies nowadays are mediocre or souless. Communist China keeps Hollywood from going full woke, but they still can shoehorn messages like "White Man Bad, Women good, White people suck, Religion is evil." Though China seems to disagree with the women good part.

• Gave them controlling interest in Hulu, to the point where they functionally run it now. This and the point above Eiger considers his legacy. So long as he is around, either in management or the board, he's not going to let that work for the platforms and catalog be tarnished.
• Avatar sequels could still be big, and they spent a ton on Avatar land in Florida. Amazing how well they did with it as compared to Galaxy's Edge. I'm not sure how involved Cameron was with it, but that could be one reason. Another is that ties in to things guests actually saw on screen.
• Just a huge library of endless trash to reboot, rebrand, and resell.

The timing proved a bit poor, but other vultures were circling, and Murdoch wanted to sell. Disney will last through COVID with a smaller workforce, but largely the same portfolio they had before.

Apparently Disney World is open, but very empty, I would be tempted to go, if only prices weren't so high. I hate Katheleen Kennedy and Bob Iger, but I still like the parks a lot.

 

[Creep3r]

The Combination of Chinese pandering and woke pandering is a gigantic reason why many blockbuster movies nowadays are mediocre or souless. Communist China keeps hollywood from going full woke, but they still can shoehorn messages like "White Man Bad, Women good, White people suck, Religion is evil." Though China seems to disagree with the women good part.

Apparently Disney World is open, but very empty, I would be tempted to go, if only prices weren't so high. I hate Katheleen Kennedy and Bob Iger, but I still like the parks a lot.

Is it fair to blame Michael Bay for starting this trend? I mean it was inevitable, but I think Michael Bay helped to accelerate it.

 

[BipolarPon]

Is it fair to blame Michael Bay for starting this trend? I mean it was inevitable, but I think Michael Bay helped to accelerate it.

The Transformers movies are now just advertisements for China.

 

[Adamska]

Apparently Disney World is open, but very empty, I would be tempted to go, if only prices weren't so high. I hate Katheleen Kennedy and Bob Iger, but I still like the parks a lot.

lol don't. It's like half finished anyway so you'd get a shitty experience anyway. EPCOT's up shit creek, and construction is everywhere.

Had that issue with Universal Studios the one time I went where half the rides were being fixed.

Anyways, I'll be really short on the Vong for now: I understand them being different style wise being the point. It doesn't mean I like it though, since I feel like it went overboard. And even if that was the point, so what? It's that kinda artsy pigshit that is the basis of arguments like why The Last Jedi was good as far as I'm concerned.