The Big Picture: Continuity Wars

[SonOfVoorhees]

I just want new stuff. New characters, stories and enemies. Not the same from the previous movies. You can have new planets and new characters and have the empire as the enemy, even new sith. But dont shoe horn cameos in it for the reason that they are loved by fans. We can have a star wars movie without chewie, han, vader and luke. We dont need, wink wink remember this happened in star wars, type connections. Make a great movie set in the huge universe star wars has......its bigger than the characters.

Its why the Alien franchise sucks. To much importance on Ripley, than on the Aliens themselves. Dump Ripley, she was only interesting the first two movies. Write a new movie with the Aliens and whole new characters and people will love it if it says true to its roots. Its why the SW prequels failed, to much cgi, boring writing and every thing focused on Vader when that story didnt need to be told over 3 movies. It failed because the characters were more important than the story, thus the story was written around the characters.

Just dont mess up Star Wars. There are thousands of years of history to use. Fans love it all and want originality, to see soemthing different. New characters. Yes we loved Han and Luke and Leia, but that because they where well written, great acting and we identify with them. You can write new characters like that.

Just for clarity, am not a major SW fan, watched movies, played games but have never read the books. Just sucks when a great franchise with so much promise and scoop for greatness gets short changed and destroyed through lack of vision or understanding of the franchise.

 

[Alex V.Sharp]

While not that big on the whole SW canon thing, I'm kind'a still hoping Kyle Katarn would make a comeback...

 

[themilo504]

Ha ha you think there?s continuity in Mario? What a nerd.
now If you excuse me I?m going to tv tropes to post a theory about how doctor who fallout and shin megami tensei are all in the same universe.

Anyway to me the Jedi knight games will always be my episode 7 8 and 9 even if the new movies are really good to me they won?t be anything more than alternate universe.

 

[Basement Cat]

If George Lucas' words are to be believed/followed, nothing outside the movies is direct canon.

This holds true even for the OT's novelizations.

Yoda is blue in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi books.

Ever notice that?

 

[impocalyptic]

You could probably make an episode about Mario continuity and theories as to why they can do certain things. You blew my mind with that.

 

[Xman490]

"You know what? Never mind," is the attitude I have towards continuity. All I care about regarding that is "Is this character roughly the same as before?" And even that doesn't matter because what is clearly sequential is sequential, and, if not clearly sequential, the sequence or continuity doesn't really matter.

There's Mario in Subcon, and there's Mario in a replica of the real world, and there's Mario in the Super Mario series, and there's Mario in the Paper Mario series, etc... Whatever.

 

[GAunderrated]

That whole Mario thing should be next weeks episode. :3

Honestly yes. I didn't care too much about the star wars or the marvel talk but when he got into mario I was all ears. lol

 

[Ukomba]

There's a lot to be said for a clean continuity. Mirrors of the Wheel are fine, you really do need a solid timeline to fall back on. There's a fair amount of mess in the EU, but some real gems too. By all means plow over thinks like the black fleet crisis, but allow some story lines to continue exist (IE. just don't come out and contradict them), a movie of those events is unnecessary. Some shout outs to the current EU would be good too. Mention things like Kyle Katarn, Centerpoint Station, Dathomir, and Myrkr I'll be happy.

That said, if they start the moves off with Han or Luke or Leia married to some random newly created character, that's not going to go over well. In fact, calling it now, if one of them is married or going out with a character new to that movie, that character WILL die at some point for drama purpose.

But if there is any way to erase the Force Unleashed 1 and 2 from existence, I would appreciate it.

 

[ritchards]

As a Doctor Who fan, the idea of one set of continuity for all the comics and books and games and etc is a nice idea, but more for amusement discussion (which I wrote articles toward!) than something to take as a 'this must be' stance.

 

[scw55]

Movie Bob. You seem pretty informed on the Mario Universe.

Now, please explain to me The Zelda series in a way I understand...

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Obligatory snipe at Star Wars EU being nothing more than fanfiction, followed by spiel about Mario bullshit that consumes half the episode. Yep, I'm still watching Moviebob, and he still has nothing interesting to say without annoying me.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Jesus fucking H. Christ, Bob.

Mario continuity? Really?
I know you're a Nintendo fanboy and I know you wear that title with pride, but you really need to keeps tabs on your manchild tendencies.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Do I want the Sequel Trilogy to be an adaptation of EU stories? No, that's silly. I want a new story, not a rehash of one I could buy from Del Rey. On the other hand, I also believe it would be pretty bad to ride roughshod over the entire existence of the EU. Sure, it isn't all award winning literature, but there is some good stuff in there, and I would hate for the new trilogy to pretty much say that none of the characters in those stories exist at all.

Incidentally, the timing of these movies is eerily in sync with the current progression of the post-RotJ EU fiction. The Fate of the Jedi series ends up at about 40 years after the Emperor takes his swan dive into a reactor core(or whatever that was), and by the time Ep VII comes out it will have been about 32 years since RotJ hit theaters. If Ep VII took place a couple years after that storyline you would have a Skywalker just coming out his teens, a Solo on the Jedi Council, and another Solo preteen on whom the balance of the Force may turn. Not to mention the Empire has just had its first general election, there are at least two different sects of Sith out there somewhere, and the Galactic Alliance(formerly the New Republic) is reeling from a catastrophe on Coruscant.

I could think of several possible stories one could tell with that cast and setting.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

Mario 1, he's tripping on some mushrooms. Mario 2, it's a dream. Mario 3, the game starts with a curtain rising. Conclusion, Mario makes a play based on all his trippy visions. Super Mario World, every area is named after a food, ergo Mario has the munchies.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

The Mario rant is one of the funniest things I've seen in a Moviebob video. Bob's not normally funny or self-deprecating, but by God, he's funny when he's self-deprecating.

It was the earnestness of it that got me. It was as if Bob would have preferred to be making a video about Mario than Star Wars.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Also will their ever be a Big Picture on the New 52 as I know very little about it and really want to know why Bob seems to hate it.

He already did. It's called Continanity Reloaded, I think.

I never once expected them to pick up the EU. Lucasarts never did, why would Disney. It's not as if the legwork is already done for them and they would just have to throw their infinite supply of money at it until they worked out a script with only a fraction of the effort. That would just be insane.

OK, time out. LucasArts CONTRIBUTED to the SWEU with lots of great video games (in no particular order: Dark Forces and the Jedi Knight Series, KOTOR, Shadows of the Empire, The Rogue Squadron Trilogy, Republic Commando) and there's no reason to think those will POOF disappear when the new movies arrive.

 

[punipunipyo]

from topic of starwars to mariobros, in the same pod-cast, reached twice by side tracking... yep, only Bob can deliver this level of side tracking.... GJ!

How come Star Wars didn't make a movie/movies about Jedi Academy? like Harry Potter, but WAY BETTER!~ I don't see why not, and how this isn't going to be a hit... I think they could have done it for TV too.... oh well... it's ashame... we might never get a Jedi-Academy TV series with spacial episodes where Kyle Katarn shows up as an instructor/master and save the day with his "Gray Jedi" crusade.

 

[zvate]

Another fun episode from Bob, slightly schizophrenic but it made me laugh so here we are...

But as for the Extended Universe... I don't agree, Making another star wars movie is a large risky proposition and if Disney has the opportunity to draw upon a partial script and story line that has already achieved some level of appeal and acceptance (EI: it has demonstrably worked) then I think it makes economic sense for them to do so especially since existing EU efforts like the rogue squadron games have already demonstrated success.

 

[Mr_Terrific]

As much as I like some of the EU, there was never any reason to think it would be used for the movies.

And I would say something about the DC's New 52 and how there are really good titles on it, but most of those good titles (like Batman and all the Green Lanterns) largely ignore the continuity reset anyways.

They're not ignoring it. Nothing has changed in the Bat family and Corps other than Sinestro being a Green Lantern again.

Meanwhile....************minor spoilers********

Wonder Woman's origin has changed to make sense and she might be stronger than Superman now thanks to her god powers.
Superman no longer works for the Planet and is no longer obsessed with Lois Lane and is no longer a boy scout
Supergirl doesn't seem to give a damn about the people on a planet she just got to...and it works.
Superboy is less Superman-like and slightly less awful than before.
Justice League replaced Martian Manhunter with Cyborg and it's better off for it.
JLA has a new cast
Red Lanterns can now think and speak properly.
Hawkman's armor is reactive now and awakens when he calls it...which is awesome.
Aquaman is badass and retained some of what made him awesome in Flashpoint
The JSA are no longer overshadowed by the JL, as Bman,Superman,and WW are all dead on Earth 2.
The Huntress of Earth 2 is now the only Huntress.
Powergirl has a new suit and it's terrible...just like her character now.
Some of the Teen Titans have changed. Wonder Girl is no longer a WW clone and has a better back story.

So, there's a good bit of change in the New 52, but I do find it odd that Batman and GL seem to live in a bubble, where they're the only ones that remember Blackest Night and the events surrounding it.

As for Bob's opinion of Dc's continuity, I'd rather have a semi-fresh start than whatever Marvel is doing with Marvel Now. I'm reading about 12 books in Marvel right now and I'm pretty disappointed they didn't do a reboot instead of resetting numbers or changing titles from Incredible to Indestructible...or Amazing to Superior (awful comic btw. This whole Doc OC is Spiderman by way of magic was nice for an issue but now.../facepalm)