#I'm not saying Filoni's content is “bad” I just think it's a pity we aren't seeing the original narrative intent much nowadays

[david-talks-sw]

Picture a sculptor.

He sculpts an animal... and it was meant to be an elephant for a kids zoo, but because of the limits of his tools at the time, he stopped at the skeleton only.

And it's a great fucking skeleton! It's got that old feel to it, like a Rodin sculpture, but with a modern vibe.

The skeleton even has fans and stuff, and the fans go "we love this badass mammoth skeleton you sculpted!"

And this sort of bothers the sculptor. Because he was going for an elephant, not a mammoth, right?

So when he finally has the right tools, he completes the sculpture, so the next generation of fans can enjoy the elephant...

... and the previous generation of fans, who grew up reading and dreaming about a mammoth for 30 years, they go "wtf". They hate it.

Now, the sculptor takes on an apprentice, who is also a fan.

The apprentice learns the technique, learns how to look at the clay, how to get the right texture... and is able to do all this without going "wtf" because he looks at this elephant sculpture through an anti-establishment lens.

"Yes, it has shorter tusks and almost no hair, but the purpose of the sculpture is to say that it should be hairier, taller and with longer tusks. The whole point is that this elephant is failing to be the mammoth it's meant to be!"

And y'know, it's art! If that’s what this elephant means to him, great.

But once the tools are passed down to him, the apprentice (along with other sculptors) takes some clay and makes the tusks longer, adds some fur, shortens the ears, etc.

Overtime, he makes it a mammoth again.

Of course, most fans are happy again, including many who were introduced to the elephant as kids, because the transition was a slow one, done carefully.

And, hey, it's a nice mammoth!

My only issue is that I grew up loving the elephant, just as it was. I think the elephant was friggin’ great.

But nowadays, whenever the elephant is brought up, it's always through the lens of "it's failing to be a mammoth" rather than what the sculptor said it's supposed to be: just an elephant.

[itsblueberry13-blog]

#George Lucas#Dave Filoni#this is probably a stupid metaphor but it's what I came up with#I'm not saying Filoni's content is “bad” I just think it's a pity we aren't seeing the original narrative intent much nowadays#And to be clear#Filoni was NOT the ONLY one reframing the elephant as a mammoth#it's a whole bunch of authors who worked on SW post-Prequels#From EU writers to current canon writers#I'm not pointing the finger and saying “FILONI IS THE ISSUE”#On the contrary if you look at his early TCW stuff you see his portrayal of the Jedi is much more charitable than say Karen Traviss'#It's a whole generation of fans who wanted to still like Luke and Star Wars DESPITE the Prequels#and concluded the only way this was possible was to see them  as a commentary on the Jedi's failure#When the fact is: y'all just didn't think the Prequel Jedi were likeably-written... you were hoping for more Luke Skywalker#instead you got a bunch of ambassadors mediating between corporations and politicians#And GL was adamant the Prequels were about Anakin and the Republic and how Sidious helped them both corrupt themselves

Picture a sculptor.

He sculpts an animal... and it was meant to be an elephant for a kids zoo, but because of the limits of his tools at the time, he stopped at the skeleton only.

And it's a great fucking skeleton! It's got that old feel to it, like a Rodin sculpture, but with a modern vibe.

The skeleton even has fans and stuff, and the fans go "we love this badass mammoth skeleton you sculpted!"

And this sort of bothers the sculptor. Because he was going for an elephant, not a mammoth, right?

So when he finally has the right tools, he completes the sculpture, so the next generation of fans can enjoy the elephant...

... and the previous generation of fans, who grew up reading and dreaming about a mammoth for 30 years, they go "wtf". They hate it.

Now, the sculptor takes on an apprentice, who is also a fan.

The apprentice learns the technique, learns how to look at the clay, how to get the right texture... and is able to do all this without going "wtf" because he sees the elephant sculpture through an anti-establishment lens.

"Yes, it has shorter tusks and almost no hair, but the purpose of the sculpture is to say that it should be hairier, taller and with longer tusks. The whole point is that this elephant is failing to be the mammoth it's meant to be!"

And y'know, it's art! If that what this elephant means to him, great.

But once the tools are passed down to him, the apprentice (along with other sculptors) takes some clay and makes the tusks longer, adds some fur, shortens the ears, etc. Overtime, he makes it a mammoth again.

Of course, most fans are happy again, including many who were introduced to the elephant as kids, because the transition was a slow one done carefully.

And, hey, it's a nice mammoth!

My only issue is that I grew up loving the elephant, just as it was, and nowadays, whenever it's mentioned, it's done so through the lens of "it's failing to be a mammoth" rather than what the sculptor said it's supposed to be: just an elephant.