Cool little personal Star Wars story from last night. I was watching the episode where Pre Vizla introduces himself as from the Clan Vizla. I wondered if that was some Aggie or group of Aggies who were on the show refereeing the Vizlab program that I know is big in computer animation.

I have a friend from the dorms that I know got his masters through there and works in animation somewhere. We're Facebook friends but I haven't seen him in 20+ years. So I go to send him a message and scrolling back through our conversations dating back to 2009 (mostly about beer) I find that he worked on Clone Wars at LucasArts. Thankfully he was still online late at night so I best him down with a few questions and takes.

And to answer my question about Pre Vizla it actually came from George and a referencing to the Pre Viz stage of storyboard ing.

ChipFTAC01 said:

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Cool little personal Star Wars story from last night. I was watching the episode where Pre Vizla introduces himself as from the Clan Vizla. I wondered if that was some Aggie or group of Aggies who were on the show refereeing the Vizlab program that I know is big in computer animation.

I have a friend from the dorms that I know got his masters through there and works in animation somewhere. We're Facebook friends but I haven't seen him in 20+ years. So I go to send him a message and scrolling back through our conversations dating back to 2009 (mostly about beer) I find that he worked on Clone Wars at LucasArts. Thankfully he was still online late at night so I best him down with a few questions and takes.

And to answer my question about Pre Vizla it actually came from George and a referencing to the Pre Viz stage of storyboard ing.

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Is it OK if I forward you a list of 30,000 questions I'd like to ask him?

Middle aged Yoda with the side eye looks like he's got a lot of Sam Jackson in him.

MuckRaker96 said:

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2021 brings the High Republic to Star Wars fans - which I still think should have been written by James Franco and Seth Rogen. Regardless, it's set 200 years ago which means lots of Jedi, and today the official site confirmed this means the return of our favorite little green friend.





https://www.starwars.com/news/inside-star-wars-the-high-republic-meet-yoda

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He looks a little like a long-eared green Samuel L Jackson...

he mad that the story wasnt more about him?

You could've just linked the story.

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/john-boyega-interview-2020

RebAg13 said:

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dromo07 said:

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he mad that the story wasnt more about him?

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That is what I hear

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I think his complaint is fair, but I don't think it has anything to do with race. This whole trilogy was bungled due to having no overarching story framework as documented hundreds of times on here and elsewhere. When you don't have a cohesive story stuff like this happens.

Most of the article is about other stuff, but he thinks that Ridley and Driver got the most a screen time because they are white and not because they were the 2 main characters.

He also said there were people who said they were going to boycott Force Awakens because he was in it. Not saying it didn't happen, but I don't remember any of that.

Of course it's a race thing...

Nobody who waited so long for Star Wars boycotted Force Awakens bc it had a black stormtrooper (or any other reason)

If he wants to be mad at anyone it should be Rian Johnson for making his character a big, dumb, useless dolt.

Everyone and their dog saw TFA...

I Have Spoken said:

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Ag Since 83 said:

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We getting a trailer soon or what?

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Saxsoon said:

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dromo07 said:

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he mad that the story wasnt more about him?

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I think based on what I was reading, it is a combination of the messaging he received from racist *******s and more nuance given to the white actors (actual or perceived). It isn't a stretch to see how he was set up in TFA and see how he ends and not see how Boyega would be upset.

I was more interested in the line about him telling people to lay off JJ Abrams because he wasn't supposed to come back and had to fix the mess.

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Part of my point. I can understand him being upset, but it has nothing to do with him being black.

There was no vision for this trilogy. His and others story arcs going astray is a natural outcome of that.

Luke's character was mishandled as well. As routinely commented on by Hamill Himself.

To be quite honest, every actor had a right to complain about their arcs, especially in TLJ.

That said, I think his particular complaint that his story suffered due to his race, is a little weak, and there is really no evidence to support it. RJ ruined Luke, Rey, and plenty of other things in his movie.

I think he is conflating the fan rage that he saw online (from a few trolls), with the stuff going on in the world now, whether subconciously or not, and he is angry about it.

But directing that anger towards Disney, or JJ Abrams, or anyone else at Lucasfilm, again, seems a bit weak to me.

My advice for every actor of all-time is: If you don't like the character, don't take the ****ing job. Nobody held a gun to John Boyega's head and demanded he be in Star Wars.

Dear Daisy,

No *****

Sincerely, Mark and Hayden

I swear, the people on this board who constantly roll their eyes at black people complaining about race ALWAYS leave out key context or broadly/purposefully paint them as simply trying to incite sh*t, allude (or outright say) that they should just get over it, etc.

But this is what Boyega actually said...

Quote:

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"You get yourself involved in projects and you're not necessarily going to like everything. [But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It's not good. I'll say it straight up."

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Disney 100% used Boyega's race to virtue signal and say "Look what we've done! We've cast a black man in the lead of a Star Wars movie!" - only to eventually push his character off to the side, both by the end of TFA, and especially in its two sequels. Remember, Boyega was not only the first actor shown/focused on in the very first teaser trailer for the sequels, he was talked about and marketed as being much more central than he really was (see Quad Dog's post above for a good chunk of that). And it was all based on his race in a self-congratulatory, "Yes, went there! A black Stormtrooper!" kind of way.

So he's not simply complaining that he got pushed aside because he's black. He's complaining that Disney USED his race as a marketing tool, painting his character as more important than he really was in doing so, and THEN swept him aside. Which is a very different thing, and shouldn't at all warrant the eye-roll memes or any of the other usual F16 bullsh*t. If I were in his shoes, I'd be just as pissed, and have every right to be, especially when the final result was the two white cast members ending up as the two *true* leads, while every primary character who wasn't white was heavily sidelined at times, sometimes in ridiculous, "We have no idea what to do with this character" fashion.

Granted, as Spilner said, *every* primary actor in the sequel trilogy has a right to complain. They *all* got short-changed because Kennedy, Abrams & co had no clue what they were doing, which we've been over ad nauseam. And while that's a huge part of this, it doesn't take away from the fact that Boyega was, in fact, front and center in the beginning - his race being a big part of that - and was then pushed to the side. I just can't imagine reading that article and coming to the conclusion that Boyega is simply trying to be an instigator or not feeling empathy for the guy. He got his dream shot, was clearly told he was going to be way more central to the sequel trilogy than he eventually was, all while Disney publicly patted themselves on the back for casting a black guy... but then just kind of shrugged their shoulders after the fact, when they really didn't have much for him to do. It was a sh*t deal, and Boyega's feelings are absolutely justified.

PLEASE NOTE MY WINKY FACE EMOTICON INDICATING I AM BEING TONGUE IN CHEEK / SARCASTIC.

He got to be in 3 Star Wars movies, have scenes with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Benicio del Toro, and Peter Mayhew. He got to fight with a lightsaber twice, control the bottom turret on the Falcon twice, ride not one but TWO different space horses, be part of 3 prison breakouts, and kill Brienne of Tarth. How can you complain about that?

Maybe he got pushed to the side because people didn't like his weird, hyper-manic performance.

"REEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

If anyone complained about that, they were part of an incredibly small minority.

MuckRaker96 said:

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Dear Daisy,

No *****

Sincerely, Mark and Hayden

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Ha!