Star Wars: The Last Jedi

[Heavy Arms]

...like the somewhat more recent glut of Robin Hood and King Arthur adaptations?

Among others, yes. Some of them are fun however much they're not good movies though. Though that's why I phrased it as "turd, OK, and gem," since lots of people enjoy schlock movies because we don't always want gems.

Right, it's not like anyone watched or enjoyed...[snip long list]

A lot of those are hardly gems (however enjoyable some of them are. But there's plenty of not great movies of a lot of those as well. Is the Disney animated Snow White a classic? Sure. Are there a bunch of turds both animated and live action from the rest of the public domain world? Yeah.

Disney has consistently proven that the public domain can be a great source of cinematic inspiration. It's actually rather frustrating that they've strangled it so thoroughly after exploiting it so consistently.

But as you mention, Disney also loves to try to monopolize stories... even public domain ones, so we don't see a gigantic list of Sleeping Beauty movies to compare to theirs.

How many of the movies you mentioned have a ton of competition despite being public domain? Their public domain status was more, "Disney managed to sit on it," rather than them being open to lots of people making movies and lots of gems coming out of the process. This is especially true because Disney's history is full of stories that don't exactly work well as franchises like Star Wars (the sequels to most of the Disney animated canon are... not so good).

Despite Disney's efforts, there aren't exactly a lot of Aladdin movies to make after Aladdin that are worth doing. The Aladdin world isn't worth expanding on. Etc. What's everyone else supposed to do besides try to copy the existing movie; maybe with some twist that usually ends up turning people off.

I think the sheer dearth we have of stuff that's been added to the public domain in recent years (thanks in no small part to Disney pushing for the laws about when things can the public domain being changed) makes these kinds of assumptions a bit iffy.

It might not be the perfect evidence, but we have a plethora of public domain films made from things far too old for copyrighting to look at.

Even the few examples of public domain recent properties aren't encouraging. The Night of the Living Dead being public domain didn't lead to a huge number of gem "Night of..." films. There's plenty of good zombie movies out there, but most of them didn't need the first major modern zombie movie to be public domain to exist beyond maybe all the turds saturating horror films to make the genre tropes common and well defined.

Of course, part of the problem is that the list of US made films that were allowed to lapse into the public domain is pretty short. Roger Corman generally didn't bother renewing his, but how many people are thinking there's a cash cow if redoing Corman movies anyway?

Basically, while the evidence against might be sparse... at least it exists. There isn't really evidence for letting Star Wars go public domain as a good thing for future films.

[Quiet Storm]

Ok, I have to comment on this.

One, in the old EU, the Star Wars universe was technologically stagnant. They'd had hyperdrive technology for thousands of a years. Why in 30 years would technology need to advance? Especially under the rule of the Empire? 30 years in a spacefairing society is nothing. Why wouldn't the same ships still be in use? Granted, that was the old EU, but I'd still think in the new cannon that idea that Galaxy is technological stagnant still holds true.

To that point, and for a real world equivalent, this video summed it up nicely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4zU-90QbvE

And that sums up the problem precisely to my point ...

If you are the Galactic Superpower, attempting to stay ahead of the curve Technologically, then you do not want to maintain a static status quo --- Especially, if you are Changing the Guard, from the Empire to the First Order. Two separate super powers.

Take the video you posted for example ... This guy says the military was using the same model of Helicopter from 1979. Okay, great. That is fine because he is talking about the same Country.

If a New World Government came in to take over the United States, one that is 30 years advanced in Tech, they would not be using Helicopters from 1979. And, they would have New Tech included, not available from 1979.

To further that point ... Take the Auto Maker, Jeep --- Most of their vehicles have maintained the same shape throughout the decades. Just look at the Jeep Wrangler and you'll know what I'm talking about.

The Jeep Renegade also shared this same basic frame work --- That is, until Jeep merged with Fiat and now the Jeep Renegade's body structure has changed as the first Crossbreed Vehicle between the two Auto Companies --- The Renegade has all of the Modern Jeep Technology, with a Sportier Fiat body.

Also true ... The US isn't trying to deploy these Helicopters into terrain different in observational perspective. When talking about Galaxy Wide, you are speaking of vast places New Tech would need to be implemented in, because in 30 years, there is no way the Galactic Military hasn't been exposed to previously unfamiliar Spacial detriments that would force them to restructure battle cruisers that would traverse the Galaxy after an upstart militant group who hideout in the fringes of the cosmos.

To believe "That" is downright gullibility.

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[Mr Gone]

And that sums up the problem precisely to my point ...

If you are the Galactic Superpower, attempting to stay ahead of the curve Technologically, then you do not want to maintain a static status quo --- Especially, if you are Changing the Guard, from the Empire to the First Order. Two separate super powers.

To say again...the Star Wars universe seems to be technologically stagnant. They've had hyperdrive technology for thousands of years apparently. Why would technology need to change, especially in such a short span of time? Doesn't matter who is in charge of the galaxy...once you've reached the peak of technology there is no where to go.


I understand what you're saying, and it applies perfectly to our current world and makes perfect sense. But the Star Wars universe had this kind of technology for thousands of years and they've encountered every type of world and environment possible long before the Empire came into power. There is basically no new technology to invent. Sure, the external hulls of ships appears the change from time to time, but the internal workings appear to basically be the same.

So what I'm trying to say is, while 30 years in a long time for technology to change and evolve in our current world, that isn't the case in the Star Wars universe. At least that's the way it looks to me.


Ran across this, which talks a bit about why technology in star wars never changes. Thought I'd share:

https://youtu.be/pnY7Pak11tg?t=138

It should jump to about 2:18 in, but if not, skip to there to avoid the ad.

[Quiet Storm]

Naw, I disagree.

Basing that technology is at its peak because you've reach Hyperdrive is pretty limiting in and of itself. If Hyperdrive was the end al be all of Technology, then there is nothing else to build towards --- O' Wait, but the Death Star Cannon was only built around the time of Rogue One --- Hyperdrive as the ends to an technological future doesn't answer any of those questions. Because a technology that is Thousands of years old is over a Thousand years out dated.

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[AnubisXy]

It's a silly sci-fi franchise build around the Rule of Cool rather than anything else, and if you've ever played the games or read the comics or novels about the Old Republic, which was 10,000 years before A New Hope, it all basically had the same kind of technology that you'll find in the Star Wars movies. So if you're mad about technology not progressing in ~30 years the fact that technology hadn't really changed much in 10,030 years would probably make your head explode.

[tasti man LH]

And you know, Star Wars was always less science-fiction and more science-fantasy.

You want a long running franchise that slides a bit more towards hard science-fiction, Star Trek is over thataway.

[ArcaneArts]

Naw, I disagree.
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I mean, you can disagree all you want, it's pretty fucking clear that Star Wars is technologically stunted. You can disagree if you want, but that makes you wrong, not equally valid.

EDIT: also, as regards the idea of public domain, if you hate the new Star Wars, you will hate what happens if Star Wars becomes public domain. THat is the quickest way to redefine how bad Star Wars could get.

[Charlaquin]

To be fair, technology has appreciably advanced in Star Wars cannon. That’s why the Resistance was surprised the First Order was able to track them through hyperspace. That’s why the destructive capabilities of the Death Star and the Starkiller were unprecedented in their respective times. That’s why the visual design of ships has changed over the course of the saga. Progress happens, it’s just incredibly slow compared to real life. We can argue about whether or not that’s realistic, but realistic or not, it is a fact of the setting, and has been since long before Disney took the reins.

[Heavy Arms]

"Incredibly slow compared to real life," isn't even that accurate. We've all grown up in a period of massive technological advance. 30 years of fairly limited development feels stagnant to us, but over the course of history that's pretty much status quo. Right now, trying to innovate is a goal to pursue, because we know we haven't tapped the current potential of many technologies, but over history lots of things were invented multiple times because someone figured it out before there was a practical way to make it happen.

We also have technologies we basically haven't changed in thousands of years. Maybe improved on, or meshed with new technologies, but a magnetic compass basically works the same today as it did 2,000 years ago. We have fancy ones to work in our smart phones... but it's the same exactly principle designed for a computer instead of a human eye to read.

[Isator Levi]

That’s why the visual design of ships has changed over the course of the saga. Progress happens, it’s just incredibly slow compared to real life.

This puts me in mind of how, in real life, not all progress has equal flash.

For example, motor cars basically follow the same precepts now as they did about a hundred years ago, even if there are all kinds of subtle improvements to performance and functionality, fuel efficiency and emissions. We're starting to take tentative steps into the realms of electric and self-driving cars, but that's still a far cry from the 1950s expectation that we'd have magic hovercars by now.

[Weirdboyz]

Let's be honest and admit Star Wars tech was more or less stayed the same because of brand recognition. If things change to much technologically it won't be Star Wars anymore in a lot of fans minds.

[Quiet Storm]

Not sure how much of it actually is Star Wars anymore.

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[Quiet Storm]

I mean, you can disagree all you want, it's pretty fucking clear that Star Wars is technologically stunted. You can disagree if you want, but that makes you wrong, not equally valid.

Or, you can see where in the actual movies they talk about technology advancements, and realize that your comment is absolutely illegitimate.

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[tasti man LH]

Or, you can see where in the actual movies they talk about technology advancements, and realize that your comment is absolutely illegitimate.

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Cited quotes please, or no buy.

[ArcaneArts]

Or, you can see where in the actual movies they talk about technology advancements, and realize that your comment is absolutely illegitimate.

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Hey man, you started the show with this argument, you're the ringleader here- we're just the audience calling bullshit. Them citations is on you, not the other way around.