Red Letter Media

[Mussolini’s Merkin]

ROS has virtually no redeeming qualities, good or bad

I disagree, it’s one of the funniest movies I have watched in a long time. ‘Somehow, Palpatine has returned’ had me rolling.

 

[Tepes Thot]

When RLM talks about a horrible movie and they bring up all the problems except the fact that it's all clearly political propaganda written by mentally ill Faggots who hate their audience,

And this would be completely fine except for one thing. On BOTW, whenever there’s a religious tape, they go out of their way to wax on for the entire discussion about how it’s bad because it rams its religious message down the viewer’s throat or attacks their identity.

However, that’s exactly what most modern media does. Attacks its audience for their identity, and rams its (religious) political messaging down their throats. I would say it’s worse because the Satanism in the woods tape, or that corny Christian comedian guy didn’t subvert any existing media to push their lameness.

So to not pay that any lip service when you’re so passionate about it when it’s another belief system doing it is kind of weak imo.

And no, I’m not saying they need to start shouting woke or SJW, but they could examine how the aggressive and intolerant approach by Hollywood is failing.

 

[Akerman]

He is somehow still mad to this day that people made fun of his J.J. Abrams recommendation and how eventually it turned out horrible when it happened, why can't he let go? For some reason it really got under his skin.

Seriously, why does he still insist J.J Abrams is a good director? He even seem to insinuate in this video that Force Awakens was well directed and that the problem was largely what came after, but if you rewatch Force Awakens you find that the problems were all there from the start. If anything I am slightly more sympathetic to whoever had to follow up on such an awful start if that person actually had cared about Star Wars, which Rian Johnson very clearly didn't.

He just couldn't have had someone else upstage his OC in the first movie by naturally having someone pull the lightsaber instead of her to beat Kylo which would have been way better for many reasons. Plot wise it would show that Rey is still inexperienced and needs guidance i.e like Luke in New Hope with Obi-Wan going up against Vader, and it would be a great way to introduce Luke. I mean everyone expected it to be Luke, even Mark Hamill himself. Instead he laid the groundwork for how the trilogy got fucked by ending it on a lame cliffhanger where Luke looks descheveled on a remote planet in the middle of nowhere, i.e mystery box bullshit. One of the worst things the sequels has seemingly been able to do is make morons actually believe J.J was not to blame at all for the entire trillogy sucking. No, he very much was.

But if Star Trek ( 2009 ) is so good why don't they do a re:Visit on it? I can guarantee he has not seen it since that lukewarm Plinkett review. It's Michael Bay level trash. Why can't he just admit that saying this shit was a bad take overall? He was wrong then and he is wrong now. It's almost cow tier denial of reality.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

And this would be completely fine except for one thing. On BOTW, whenever there’s a religious tape, they go out of their way to wax on for the entire discussion about how it’s bad because it rams its religious message down the viewer’s throat or attacks their identity.

However, that’s exactly what most modern media does. Attacks its audience for their identity, and rams its (religious) political messaging down their throats. I would say it’s worse because the Satanism in the woods tape, or that corny Christian comedian guy didn’t subvert any existing media to push their lameness.

So to not pay that any lip service when you’re so passionate about it when it’s another belief system doing it is kind of weak imo.

And no, I’m not saying they need to start shouting woke or SJW, but they could examine how the aggressive and intolerant approach by Hollywood is failing.

They're the classic Woke "It's not ok when anyone but our side does it!" types.

 

[Shartavius]

I’m not saying they need to start shouting woke or SJW, but they could examine how the aggressive and intolerant approach by Hollywood is failing.

That’s simply not going to happen; because Mike remains duplicitous towards his audience due to diminishing hopes that the YouTube channel will somehow end up being a stepping stone to collaborate with more rapists, homiciders, and general pests. As with many of their YouTube peers sharing these aspirations, Mike’s and Jay’s filmmaking merits are too meager to get them on Hollywood’s radar (they gave up making movies because it’s hard; and they never got any better at it). At this point, BOTW and Re:View exist to afford the RLM guys new opportunities to rub elbows.

Rich is the only one I’m happy for; because the channel seems to keep him too busy to go creeping on kids at the playground.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

Seriously, why does he still insist J.J Abrams is a good director? He even seem to insinuate in this video that Force Awakens was well directed and that the problem was largely what came after, but if you rewatch Force Awakens you find that the problems were all there from the start. If anything I am slightly more sympathetic to whoever had to follow up on such an awful start if that person actually had cared about Star Wars, which Rian Johnson very clearly didn't.

He just couldn't have had someone else upstage his OC in the first movie by naturally having someone pull the lightsaber instead of her to beat Kylo which would have been way better for many reasons. Plot wise it would show that Rey is still inexperienced and needs guidance i.e like Luke in New Hope with Obi-Wan going up against Vader, and it would be a great way to introduce Luke. I mean everyone expected it to be Luke, even Mark Hamill himself. Instead he laid the groundwork for how the trilogy got fucked by ending it on a lame cliffhanger where Luke looks descheveled on a remote planet in the middle of nowhere, i.e mystery box bullshit. One of the worst things the sequels has seemingly been able to do is make morons actually believe J.J was not to blame at all for the entire trillogy sucking. No, he very much was.

But if Star Trek ( 2009 ) is so good why don't they do a re:Visit on it? I can guarantee he has not seen it since that lukewarm Plinkett review. It's Michael Bay level trash. Why can't he just admit that saying this shit was a bad take overall? He was wrong then and he is wrong now. It's almost cow tier denial of reality.

As a thought experiment, I tried to write a treatment for a sequel to TFA and gave up when I realized I was explaining plot holes TFA created. Basically, it was Poe and Leia in a Senate Congressional meeting accusing someone of being the bankroller for the First Order. At the same time, Luke would have been explaining to Rey and Chewie why and how the Jedi Order under him got blitzed by Kylo Ren. Too much people talking in rooms because all those mystery boxes have to be paid off. I actually found it easier to write a treatment of a sequel to TLJ (it's somewhere in the MovieBob thread, I don't feel like finding it) than TFA, which allegedly has endless potential.

So, yeah, I can see why Rian thought it was a false start. Not that it justifies all the OOC stuff he made Luke do.

 

[Samuel Fuller]

That’s simply not going to happen; because Mike remains duplicitous toward his audience due to diminishing hopes that the YouTube channel will somehow end up being a stepping stone to collaborate with more rapists, homiciders, and general pests. As with many of their YouTube peers sharing these aspirations, Mike’s and Jay’s filmmaking merits are too meager to get them on Hollywood’s radar (they gave up making movies because it’s hard; and thet never got any better at it). At this point, BOTW and Re:View exist to afford the RLM guys new opportunities to rub elbows.

Mike seems to have a huge superiority complex that leads to clear contempt for the audience, and I am really done with it.

 

[Well Intentioned]

Unless I missed something when I heard people talking about it, it really didn't fo anything risky. Moral ambiguity nowadays is the least edgy things possible. Saying stuff like "demons are evil" is legitimately considered a hateful comment in current year.

On the surface, yes, but if we're looking strictly within 'canon' Star Wars content, there hasn't really been any exploration of nuance with the Force, Jedi, Sith, etc. There has definitely been some of that in the EU world (most notably with Kyle Katarn and the EU Dathomir Witches), but it hasn't been 'officially' done in media.

Other decisions, like having members of the urban demographic (who once stole my TV, so I know they like movies...) be the lead in a franchise that typically has only had them be in a supporting role was a risk, particularly with the 'international markets' Disney are beholden to. Or having a queer writer/director.

I know the flipside is going to be 'this woke shit is pushed down our throats' and yeah, there is a lot of pandering and forced acceptance towards minority groups, but when push comes to shove for mainstream acceptance or whatever you get shit like the Bud LIght fiasco (keep in mind that shit with Mulvaney happened in 2023, which would've been during production of the Acolyte which came out in 2024)

When I say they were taking risks I don't mean at like an avant garde level or that they were cooking up something 1000% unique that's never been seen before. I, and I think Mike as well, are just saying that within the confines of the Star Wars universe, they tried doing shit that hasn't been done before.

I don't hate the Acolyte like I hated the Obi Wan show (which is where I full on checked out on Disney Star Wars) even though I think both of them are seriously flawed.

The prequels has a more system oriented storytelling that gives them applicability in the modern world, they don't need to show Jedis killing a dark side sect as a non-comment "mayne the genocidal hedonists are just as good as the jedi"

Could you explain what you mean by 'system oriented storytelling'?

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

On the surface, yes, but if we're looking strictly within 'canon' Star Wars content, there hasn't really been any exploration of nuance with the Force, Jedi, Sith, etc. There has definitely been some of that in the EU world (most notably with Kyle Katarn and the EU Dathomir Witches), but it hasn't been 'officially' done in media.

There isn't a nuance, Light is good and Dark is bad. It isn't an Ying Yang deal of different aspects.

Other decisions, like having members of the urban demographic (who once stole my TV, so I know they like movies...) be the lead in a franchise that typically has only had them be in a supporting role was a risk, particularly with the 'international markets' Disney are beholden to. Or having a queer writer/director.

I know the flipside is going to be 'this woke shit is pushed down our throats' and yeah, there is a lot of pandering and forced acceptance towards minority groups, but when push comes to shove for mainstream acceptance or whatever you get shit like the Bud LIght fiasco (keep in mind that shit with Mulvaney happened in 2023, which would've been during production of the Acolyte which came out in 2024)

If 20 years ago they had a show with Mace Windu people would have watched it despite the main character being a black man. Demographic was never as much as a factor as the woke make it out to be. They live in an alternate history.

Could you explain what you mean by 'system oriented storytelling'?

In Disney Star Wars if the writers need things to happen they just materialize out of the ether, with at most two lines thrown in to explain if the writers feel generous.

The prequels has actual established systems that both the jedi and the sith manipulate in order to accomplish things. That what makes the prequels a setting that allows for storytelling.

If Disney had done the prequels, the Clone army would have just materialized without explanation.

 

[StarkRavingMad]

The part in the new Plinkett video where Mike points out that the "conception with no father" thing was done in the Prequels, and so people shouldn't complain about the Acolyte ... Cherry picking much? Such a disingenuously pedantic take, I can't. lol.

When it was done in the Prequels, it was obviously done in reference to religion, like a "Messiah" or "Chosen One" narrative gone wrong. In the Acolyte, it's literally to write as many men out of the picture as possible. Context matters.

Granted, I personally hate the concept of midi-chlorians and a lot of the stuff that the Prequels did, but at least it was a cohesive narrative and at least it wasn't being done to force-feed us some modern day faggotry. lol.

"Give the Acolyte a break, because it tried to do something different!" Okay, so did Andor, but Mike disagreed with calling Andor a "Star Wars Property" because of its different and darker tone.

We've seen Harry S. Plinkett have diarrhea before, but not from the mouth. So I guess the new video did provide something we had not seen before. lol. Expectations subverted!

 

[Samuel Fuller]

The part in the new Plinkett video where Mike points out that the "conception with no father" thing was done in the Prequels, and so people shouldn't complain about the Acolyte ... Cherry picking much? Such a disingenuously pedantic take, I can't. lol.

When it was done in the Prequels, it was obviously done in reference to religion, like a "Messiah" or "Chosen One" narrative gone wrong. In the Acolyte, it's literally to write as many men out of the picture as possible. Context matters.

Granted, I personally hate the concept of midi-chlorians and a lot of the stuff that the Prequels did, but at least it was a cohesive narrative and at least it wasn't being done to force-feed us some modern day faggotry. lol.

"Give the Acolyte a break, because it tried to do something different!" Okay, so did Andor, but Mike disagreed with calling Andor a "Star Wars Property" because of its different and darker tone.

We've seen Harry S. Plinkett have diarrhea before, but not from the mouth. So I guess the new video did provide something we had not seen before. lol. Expectations subverted!

The argument that people should give The Acolyte a break because it "tried something different" falls apart due to what it did differently was to take a massive steamer on the established mythology and retroactively make the Jedi evil misogynists who stole "The Thread" and told everyone it was something different entirely that they called "The Force".

When a new entry in an established series tells the fans that their heroes were lying thieves, it tends not go over well.

 

[TheHarbinger]

And this would be completely fine except for one thing. On BOTW, whenever there’s a religious tape, they go out of their way to wax on for the entire discussion about how it’s bad because it rams its religious message down the viewer’s throat or attacks their identity.

They are a bunch of smarmy reddit tier atheist faggots that hate Christianity. As are all of their fans. RLM was always dogshit. It just takes some people longer to figure out than others. Space Cop is the peak of their creative abilities. They have limited talent.

 

[Battlefield2142EU]

And this would be completely fine except for one thing. On BOTW, whenever there’s a religious tape, they go out of their way to wax on for the entire discussion about how it’s bad because it rams its religious message down the viewer’s throat or attacks their identity.

However, that’s exactly what most modern media does. Attacks its audience for their identity, and rams its (religious) political messaging down their throats. I would say it’s worse because the Satanism in the woods tape, or that corny Christian comedian guy didn’t subvert any existing media to push their lameness.

That’s simply not going to happen; because Mike remains duplicitous towards his audience due to diminishing hopes that the YouTube channel will somehow end up being a stepping stone to collaborate with more rapists, homiciders, and general pests

This is why I will never respect Mike Stolas as I do Doug Walker. Doug Walker, by nature, tries to be as apolitical as possible, but he is one of the few making fun of Joe Biden as much as he would like to make fun of Donald Trump. Doug Walker is not even a conservative, but you will never know that with breadtubers and furry fandom trying to cancel him.(Furry found footage and many breadtubers blame Doug Walker for He-man gay jokes) In the long run, people will still remember Doug Walker and AVGN over Mike Stolas work. Hell, I still witness more people talking about the Channel Awesome movies online than Space Cop and the AVGN movies. Say what you want about Doug Walker as a filmmaker. People actually remember and still talk about his movies despite not making a new movie in over 10 years online. Unlike Hollywood, Red Letter Media and late-night comedy. Doug Walker and AVGN knows you do not chase your audiences with political propaganda.

 

[Well Intentioned]

There isn't a nuance, Light is good and Dark is bad. It isn't an Ying Yang deal of different aspects.

...which is why what they were trying (and, let me be explicit here: failing) to do in the Acolyte. It didn't work for a laundry list of reasons.

If 20 years ago they had a show with Mace Windu people would have watched it despite the main character being a black man. Demographic was never as much as a factor as the woke make it out to be. They live in an alternate history.

Black male lead? Sure. Female black lead? Outside of like Halle Berry your only other option would've been like Whoopi Goldberg. They typically don't do well outside of supporting roles especially when considering the 'international market.'

The argument that people should give The Acolyte a break because it "tried something different" falls apart due to what it did differently was to take a massive steamer on the established mythology and retroactively make the Jedi evil misogynists who stole "The Thread" and told everyone it was something different entirely that they called "The Force".

When a new entry in an established series tells the fans that their heroes were lying thieves, it tends not go over well.

Yeah, this is the problem and why I think Mike is veering dangerously into Stan territory for the Acolyte.

I like the idea of exploring the Force as a philosophical concept -- our understanding of it is that it's just part of the universe, a force of nature, so to speak. Having someone question 'light good, dark bad' and all of those underpinings could make for interesting TV given that they're talking about a natural part of the universe.

Like, is gravity bad? Is being a carbon-based lifeform bad? A talented writer could have fun exploring those ideas, and I think Mike is enamored with the sort of pseudo-philosophy that type of writing could encompass as it tickles the TNG 'intellectual' side of his brain. He likes the concept but since the execution sucks a dick he has to choose to whether defend a good idea done poorly or shit on it.

Unfortunately, we fell into the trap that a lot of contemporary shit falls into -- the delusion that because you're introducing something new or interesting you have to take a great heaping shit on the existing stuff.

That's the biggest failing of the Acolyte -- it didn't kill a series sacred cow, it metaphorically raped it, killed it, had sex with its corpse and then took a piss on it. (And yes, the show has a shitton of other issues, but I'd argue that just turning the Jedi into generic antagonists was the biggest problem. Especially since we are talking about a series that is supposed to be exploring nuance or difference of opinion.)

 

[Chuck McGill]

I'm pretty sure the point of Mike praising The Acolyte was to draw parallels between the prequels' response going from mixed to incredibly appreciative as nostalgia sets in. What he conveniently leaves out of the equation is the little fact that people actually watched the prequels back in the day. The whole idea of "everybody totally hated 'em, man!" is revisionist history that erases the opinions of everybody but the most terminally online nerds.

Meanwhile, nobody fucking watched The Acolyte. And the few people that enjoyed it were mainly doing it to own da chuds. Even in the case of something as rank as TLJ or TROS I could believe there were a few genuine fans in the mix, but The Acolyte was meant to be ragebait from the word go. The prequels had fans. Some of them genuine, some of them for the memes, but those movies have people that enjoyed them for what they were. The Acolyte has a small handful of black tranny freaks that discarded it in favor of the next new thing before the corpse was even cold. I'll bet if I asked a fan of The Acolyte what they liked about it, I wouldn't get an answer that isn't some variant of "it made chuds mad!" or something something diversity.

At this point I've just accepted that getting Mike to acknowledge the elephant in the room that is modern politics shoved into movies is a task equivalent to getting an elderly boomer to acknowledge Israel's influence in American politics. It just isn't going to happen.

 

[Mr. Racewar1488]

I'll bet if I asked a fan of The Acolyte what they liked about it, I wouldn't get an answer that isn't some variant of "it made chuds mad!" or something something diversity.

I legit loved The Fagolyte because it was The Room of Star Wars. It was a fever dream of a show that I still have no idea how it was allowed to be made. Characters change motivations every five minutes, insane shit like stone catching on fire, and the audio track for people who can't see well is insane. If you like watching shitty shows, give it a try. Just pirate it because there's no reason you should pay Disney to watch that garbage.

 

[Midwit]

I mean in the phantom menace plinkett review he asked people to describe the characters from Star Wars, without describing how they look, their clothes, etc.

Something to note about that test is that it doesn't forbid you from defining characters by their relationship to other characters, admittedly it isn't a perfect system but you can't just chain together a bunch of one word descriptors to make a character either. Qui-Gonn's actions clearly infer a character but since you can't properly describe it without referring to archetypes or vague descriptors then it apparently doesn't exist.

 

[crowabunga]

I legit loved The Fagolyte because it was The Room of Star Wars. It was a fever dream of a show that I still have no idea how it was allowed to be made. Characters change motivations every five minutes, insane shit like stone catching on fire, and the audio track for people who can't see well is insane. If you like watching shitty shows, give it a try. Just pirate it because there's no reason you should pay Disney to watch that garbage.

How does it stack against Attack of the Clones? Because on retrospect, AotC was my childhood introduction to the concept of "boring cringe": I fast-forwarded through the reprehensible attempts at romance and just watched Obi-Wan's scenes, which, on retrospect, were also full of stupid shit, but were at least fun.

In your opinion, is The Acolyte overall more high-octane, or at least without AotC's nadirs?

 

[Symbol of the Chud]

Honestly, this video was quite an odd experience for me, because I saw it in my recommended, clicked it, and realized I wasn't subscribed to RLM for "some reason", I don't remember unsubscribing, so I clicked the button.
Then I got about 15 minutes in, said "Oh." and unsubscribed once again.

Extremely out of touch video, ignores why people hate Star Wars now, and feels genuinely bitter about how beloved the world that the prequels set up actually became. Because as it turns out, the dying days of a republic are actually much more interesting than the actual imperial setting proper. From a storytelling perspective, there is far less you can actually accomplish in the setting of the Original Trilogy than you can in the Clone Wars. Then even the Old EU Post-Empire stuff feels like you've sorta gotta start asspulling threats. Like Tarkins secret Indestructible Sun Destroying Shuttlecraft built in the Black Hole Zone. (The EU unironically had the same fucking problems of escalating scale that Disney had, really, just in a slightly less retarded way.)
Sure the OT movies were good, but it has always been the expanded world that has drawn in the true Star Wars fans, and the most exciting part of that expanded world isn't the stuff with say, Post-OT EU Grandmaster Luke who is basically an unstoppable God, or the Imperial Era, where pretty much everything storywise will inevitably boil down to "Uh Oh! The Empire is here, so we gotta skidaddle!" It's going to be the actual balanced war, with the cool clones, and the cool robots.

Pretty sure Disney also made Thrawn an utter retard who got beaten by Space Whales, too. Or something.

Point is that the majority of people clearly think similarly, that for as good as the OT is, there is more potential for storytelling in the prequel era, namely because the OT is set-up to only really be good at telling the story of Luke and the Rebel's plucky desperate attempt to stop the Empire. Attempting to recreate that with another kooky group of characters, like say, Star Wars Rebels or "The Bad Batch", just gives you a bunch of irrelevant morons who never meaningfully contribute to doing anything whatsoever and just bum about accomplishing nothing because nothing will ever be as meaningful as the destruction of the Death Stars and the fall of the Empire, which is more than large enough to effortlessly absorb any amount of damage that might be done to them in these stories. (Hell, the Empire was large enough to pretty easily absorb the loss of a whole fucking moon sized space station without much trouble.)

 

[INDEED]

I kind of agree with Mike that Andor was too good for the Star Wars universe. There would be no way something like that would get greenlit for a generic 70s-inspired SciFi series.

Mike has said before that Star Trek (and especially TOS) is like an anthology series where each episode is a different genre. Star Wars has become like that except each series is a different genre and the universe look-and-feel and OT characters are just props to tell some other story.