Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - Disney +

[jvmacross]

19 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Have a "senior moment" there, mate?

You launched into this tangent by arguing that Star Wars isn't being produced for kids.  I pointed out that George Lucas is on record as saying it has always been for kids first and foremost.  You asserted that Disney Star Wars is totally separate from Lucas's so Lucas's opinion doesn't count.  I pointed out that practically everything in the catalog disproves that claim directly because all but two of the shows are direct extensions/continuations of Lucas-era stories that were developed for kids, and that even the two titles that aren't direct continuations of Lucas's work are still explicitly developed and marketed as family friendly kids shows per Disney itself.

 

 

Nope....but you are hitting the sauce hard tonight professor....I just said Star Wars is no longer just for kids as Lucas had originally purported it to be....you then went on a long manifesto that had nothing to do with that....

[jvmacross]

50 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Or maybe your opinions of these shows are not universally held and people actually like titles like Skeleton Crew?

Just a thought.

Again....another nonsensical statement....my like or dislike of this or any show has no bearing on whether or not other people may actually like it....good for them if they do!

Which is funny you even bring up "reviews and viewership data" as you were just hell-bent on your assertion that D+ is hemorrhaging subscribers....it's not...at worst it fluctuates based on the shows non-core subscribers.....which presently have apparently zero impact on Disney's willingness to create Star Wars content that will be guaranteed hits everytime...

Anyways.....I have to call it a night...sweet dreams Mister Bassett....

 

Edited December 21, 2024 by jvmacross

[Big s]

2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Nope....but you are hitting the sauce hard tonight professor....I just said Star Wars is no longer just for kids as Lucas had originally purported it to be....you then went on a long manifesto that had nothing to do with that....

Honestly, I haven’t really seen anything on D+ that’s not really for kids other than some odd additions like the Deadpool and Alien stuff. Andor kinda sits on a line that’s more like young adult, but still kinda kiddish

[Seto Kaiba]

14 hours ago, Big s said:

Honestly, I haven’t really seen anything on D+ that’s not really for kids other than some odd additions like the Deadpool and Alien stuff. Andor kinda sits on a line that’s more like young adult, but still kinda kiddish

Disney makes no secret of the fact that they, like Lucas-era LucasFilm before them, tailor the Star Wars franchise's content to maintain a PG-13/TV-14 rating at most.  Even Andor, which has a more mature story than usual, is TV-14.  (The OT are rated PG, but that's because the PG-13 rating didn't exist until 1984.)

Kids aren't the only audience, but they are the PRIMARY audience for Star Wars and always have been.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

  (The OT are rated PG, but that's because the PG-13 rating didn't exist until 1984.)

Pg was definitely a much lighter rating than it is today. I remember Clash of the titans as a kid with odd mixes of nudity and gore that was the stuff of nightmares for a young kid.

 

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Kids aren't the only audience, but they are the PRIMARY audience for Star Wars and always have been.

I’m a little iffy on who the primary audience is, but it’s definitely the target audience for sure. I am sure that there are a lot of kids watching though and it’s probably gonna be one of those franchises that will be passed to the younger generations for a while 

[Seto Kaiba]

31 minutes ago, Big s said:

Pg was definitely a much lighter rating than it is today. I remember Clash of the titans as a kid with odd mixes of nudity and gore that was the stuff of nightmares for a young kid.

There's a good reason for that.  Prior to 1984, the PG rating in use was effectively equivalent to the PG-13 rating we use today.  The MPAA split it into the modern PG and PG-13 in 1984 based on audience feedback to make separate categories to denote films not suitable for small children vs. films not suitable for pre-teens.

 

31 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’m a little iffy on who the primary audience is, but it’s definitely the target audience for sure. I am sure that there are a lot of kids watching though and it’s probably gonna be one of those franchises that will be passed to the younger generations for a while 

Depending on if you ask Disney or George Lucas, the target age group is either 9-14, 10-14, or 12-14.

Probably not coincidentally, the cast of Skeleton Crew are 13-14 and their characters are written to be around the same age.  Relatable protagonists for the target demographic, I guess.

[Big s]

5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

There's a good reason for that.  Prior to 1984, the PG rating in use was effectively equivalent to the PG-13 rating we use today.  The MPAA split it into the modern PG and PG-13 in 1984 based on audience feedback to make separate categories to denote films not suitable for small children vs. films not suitable for pre-teens.

I kinda feel like they should go back to the pg setting and just have the pg13 stuff there since most of the g rated stuff is more like 80’s pg stuff these days. Finding Nemo still has one of the highest kill counts in the first few minutes and leaves a child mutilated and motherless 

[Thom]

Skeleton Crew is definitely made for the kids! But whether that is in age or just young at heart is subjective to the viewer. I fall hard into the latter category though.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Thom said:

Skeleton Crew is definitely made for the kids! But whether that is in age or just young at heart is subjective to the viewer. I fall hard into the latter category though.

I’m pretty sure that the majority of us here kinda fall into the latter category since we’re logged in at a website dedicated to a different kids show

[Seto Kaiba]

Well... Skeleton Crew would like us to know that we have a lot to learn about pirates.

Why?  Because that's the title of the new episode: "You Have a Lot to Learn About Pirates".

Spoiler

LIMB FROM LIMB!

lol, that's gonna give the kids some nice lasting trauma.

 

The episode opens back on At Attin, and we get to see Wim's dad's workplace.  Not our first Star Wars cube farm (thanks Andor!) but definitely a good deal nicer and more personal/comfortable than the Imperial Bureau of Standards.  Not a fan of the glass upper walls of the cubicles, but it looks really nice and sleek and pleasant.  Is At Attin really just nice and post and presentable everywhere? 

It's good to see that the parents aren't taking their kids disappearance and the Supervisor's inaction lying down.  Wim's dad and Neel's mom are conspiring to steal a "barrier access code".  There's some really effective use of music in this scene to ramp up the tension.  The seemingly omnipresent public safety droids help too.  Particulalry in the jerky, almost stop-motion way the one that confronts Wendle moves.  He gets busted, but Fern's mom covers for him and reveals she's taking the matter through the proper channels with little success.  

Over on the ship, Jod and the kids are getting ready to "interrogate" SM-33.  They've tied the super-strong murderbot to a table and are preparing to switch him back on.  There's an adorably immature little back-and-forth between Fern and Jod as they each accuse the other of being scared... as though being scared of the insane murder-bot that tried to manually dismember them all a short while ago weren't perfectly reasonable.  SM-33 boots up in a completely affable mood and jumpscares the kids, and then starts dropping exposition.

He mentions his previous captain's name was Rennod.  This is enough to send Jod into a fullblown dramatic narration where he explains, to the completely unimpressed kids, that the ship they're on is the Onyx Cinder... the legendary lost ship of the greatest pirate of all time: Monkey D. Tak Rennod.  Captain Rennod, his ship, and his crew all went missing while searching for the legendary lost treasure planet of At Attin.  Jod is appropriately stunned by this revelation.  The kids couldn't care less and just want to know whether SM-33 has the coordinates.  He says he doesn't, but that the coordinates were kept in Rennod's secret hideout beneath the ominously named "Skull Ridge Mountain".  The kids order him to take them there, and he obligingly jumps up and obeys, and while he's at it explains how the ship ended up on At Attin... it crashed because the crew mutinied against the captain while the ship was en route and the crew discovered too late that he'd locked out the controls.

 

Wim, it seems, has finally had enough.  The galaxy is a much scarier and more confusing place than he thought it was and he just wants to go home and see his dad.  This episode shows a lot more of Jod trying to be a quasi-parent/big brother figure to the kids.  Jod initially tries to walk out on Wim to give him some privacy, and instead ends up sitting down with him and offering some advice about attachments and focus that are literal quotations from Jedi characters in other titles.  He then seemingly uses the force to put Wim's story pad back in his hands and walks off without answering how he did that.

 

There's a lovely bit of anticlimax when they actually get to the planet.  The planet has apparently changed quite a bit since SM-33 was last here.  They are politely greeted by local security forces who inform them that Lanupa is a neutral world welcoming all, and when we Skull Ridge Mountain it's now home to an adults-only spa resort.  SM-33 is absolutely outraged and keeps disparaging the facilities.  Apparently the reason security is so tight is that the banking clan is holed up there for a summit.  Jod's attempt to check in under a stolen reservation is immediately foiled by someone he knows calling him by another alias, because nothing ever goes right for him.  Apparently his friend with the unnaturally wide smile is a bounty hunter working for a private client... and even she warns the kids not to trust Jod.  (And we thought Lando got no respect, eh?)

 

Poor Jod is learning the hard way about parenting... none of the kids pay him a blind bit of notice while he and SM-33 are talking about how to find the captain's lair.  They IMMEDIATELY sass him when he asks if they're paying attention, and he has to remind them that they're wanted.  

Pokkit, meanwhile, has already called Brutus the dogman and he's sending two ships to deal with Jod.  

Jod, KB, and Neel get to have a little chase scene when security realizes their alias doesn't hold up.  They're totally prepared to arrest just Jod until KB points out that they aren't wise elders, they're just kids, and then it switches to "Well, then you're under arrest too!".  

There's a beautifully timed beat here where KB threatens the guards with what appears to be a wrench, and everyone laughs... until she makes a tweak to the mass of pipes nearby that sends a jet of high-pressure mud out with such force that it knocks the guards off the catwalk.

Once again, a random person the kids just met tells them not to trust Jod as soon as they lay eyes on him.  Jod is clearly getting very tired of the way this keeps happening.

 

We get to see a few of the Indiana Jones-esque traps that Captain Rennod's lair boasts... including a laser designed to bisect people, and some kind of antigravity spike pit.  Just in time for the pirates to start catching up and the kids to find a chamber full of flesh-melting acid.

We get to see Rennod's horde, which is straight out of Aladdin in terms of being a literal Cave of Wonders full of treasures that Must Not Be Touched.  (One of the treasures Wim finds is a lightsaber on an illuminated pedistal.)  Neel ends up finding the captain's logbook, access to which is hidden under a fake roast on a dining table.  SM-33 is able to access the coordinates to At Attin in the captain's log, and even an old recording of Rennod talking about the mission.

 

Y'know... I was expecting that the treasure that merited hiding At Attin from the greater galaxy was going to be a bit of an anticlimax, but this is a lot more banal than I expected.

 

Spoiler

According to the hologram of Captain Rennod, the treasure that merited hiding At Attin from the galaxy at large for so long is...

Spoiler

... an office of the Old Republic mint.

Apparently the last surviving Old Republic mint in the galaxy.

I guess that explains why it has a reputation as a "planet of eternal treasure".  It literally prints money.  That said, I'm not sure that it really makes sense given that the currency it's producing is the fiat currency of a long-defunct government.

Jod receives this news and announces his intention to challenge Fern for captaincy of the Onyx Cinder.  SM-33 refuses to interfere because it's a valid challenge under the Pirate Code, and so Jod quickly takes Fern hostage and tries to get her to yield.  

Wim valiantly attempts to face down Jod with the lightsaber he found earlier... only to discover he's holding it upside-down and drop it when it sends its blade down between his legs.

Ultimately, Jod wins and takes control of SM-33 as the new captain, and the kids escape down one of the traps Neel found earlier, and telekinesis-es the lightsaber that Wim dropped into his hand before lighting it.

 

All in all, a much better episode than the previous one.  Very fun, very exciting, a strong Goonies vibe with a little bit of Aladdin when they finally get where they're going and discover the captain's hidden treasure chamber.

The big reveal of At Attin's hidden treasure was flatter than flat, though.  I don't know what I was expecting, but this is just so mundane that it makes the idea of the Republic having hidden multiple planets from the entire galaxy for the sake of this feel downright silly.

They are also going really hard on the "is Jod a Jedi or not" angle in this one... 

[Big s]

This episode was definitely better than the last one. Oddly for such a dull setting had way more action than the post apocalyptic constant war planet that basically had no war to be seen.

Spoiler

Kinda a more adventurous kind of episode and fun to see goofy traps and such murdering people, although off screen mostly with acid and spikes.

the treasure kinda seems pretty lame since it’s just a mint that molds coins. I’m pretty sure they could just take an existing one and make another out of it. They don’t seem that special. I’m sure the pile of gold that they look like they’re made out of would be worth more. I think at this point they really gotta explain why these particular coins are worth something other than what they’re made out of, because if it’s just a coin , the metal is the value and if it’s due to some kinda computerized banking currency, then it should be totally useless since there’s no other planet that uses that system anymore 

 

[Duke Togo]

Well, this episode was just delightful. I'm really enjoying this show. They've done a really good job with it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: they should be exploring different genres within the Star Wars universe instead of just giving us the same space opera stuff. Skeleton Crew and Andor are excellent examples of what can be done with the IP that doesn't stick to the script. 

[jvmacross]

Another spot that OT and PT character, setting or word bingo episode!....Never realized that Greedos and Hammerheads were so ubiquitous across the galaxy!....

It's sad when it was other media that would copy Disney and Lucasfilm ideas...now the often imitated are devoid of fresh ideas themselves so they are plundering concepts from their own IPs....

Took then long enough to bring out the lightsabers.....and I guess they really don't have any safety built into them!

Why blur out the pirate's face in the recording?  It's even brought up by one of the kids.....has to mean something, right?  

They also haven't shown the "supervisor's" face....

There's no way this is all about Old Republic mints, c'mon!

 

[pengbuzz]

Well, they could always stop by the Coruscant Mall and encounter...

Spoiler

...Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace Karensssssssssss........

 

[Dangard Ace]

Ooo that was a fun Pirate-y/Goonies episode!  Traps!  Quests!  Hijinks!  Betrayal!  Just missing some Pincers of Perils!

[Big s]

53 minutes ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, they could always stop by the Coruscant Mall and encounter...

  Hide contents

...Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace Karensssssssssss........

 

Release the Karensssssssss!!!!!!!!

[jvmacross]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Well, they could always stop by the Coruscant Mall and encounter...

  Hide contents

...Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace Karensssssssssss........

 

Already introduced in the Acolyte....and hopefully never again!

[jvmacross]

48 minutes ago, Big s said:

Release the Karensssssssss!!!!!!!!

Wait.....that disturbing looking giant squid/cat or whatever....was sort of kraken-like.....any more pirate tropes they haven't shown?

[Seto Kaiba]

10 hours ago, Big s said:

This episode was definitely better than the last one. Oddly for such a dull setting had way more action than the post apocalyptic constant war planet that basically had no war to be seen.

  Reveal hidden contents

Kinda a more adventurous kind of episode and fun to see goofy traps and such murdering people, although off screen mostly with acid and spikes.

the treasure kinda seems pretty lame since it’s just a mint that molds coins. I’m pretty sure they could just take an existing one and make another out of it. They don’t seem that special. I’m sure the pile of gold that they look like they’re made out of would be worth more. I think at this point they really gotta explain why these particular coins are worth something other than what they’re made out of, because if it’s just a coin , the metal is the value and if it’s due to some kinda computerized banking currency, then it should be totally useless since there’s no other planet that uses that system anymore 

 

It's a kid-friendly series... a burned-out battlefield is no place for lightly comedic hijinks, but a day spa full of mud baths definitely has opportunities for pratfalls and such.  Totally on brand for the series to put the action there.

 

3 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Another spot that OT and PT character, setting or word bingo episode!....Never realized that Greedos and Hammerheads were so ubiquitous across the galaxy!....

Oh yeah, that started a good while back in the Star Wars animated shows like The Clone Wars and Rebels. 

They didn't have to worry about budgeting for prosthetics or digital VFX, so they were able to make much freer use of alien characters in their stories.  Greedo's people were very common The Clone Wars, with one arc focusing on their homeworld and their senator being one of Padme's close friends and allies in the Senate.  The hammerheads were quite popular for crowd shots in The Clone Wars for some reason, but they also had a few minor focus characters like a padawan in The Clone Wars and the bartender and rebel organizer Old Jho in Rebels.

[Duke Togo]

Jude Law is just wonderful in this, isn't he? He 100% understood the assignment.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Wait.....that disturbing looking giant squid/cat or whatever....was sort of kraken-like.....any more pirate tropes they haven't shown?

Not many. They’ve had a Kraken, stolen somewhat sinking ships , peg legs, talking birds, yar!!, treasure rooms, dead captains and the show even started out with a walking the plank off screen kinda thing.

 

1 hour ago, Duke Togo said:

Jude Law is just wonderful in this, isn't he? He 100% understood the assignment.

he definitely works pretty good here, although my favorite is Definitely the guy on the right, Nick Frost.

[Mog]

5 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

Jude Law is just wonderful in this, isn't he? He 100% understood the assignment.

It helps that he’s a pirate with about 500 aliases.

Charming but willing to slit your throat if necessary.

Spoiler

I suspect he’s probably a Youngling that figured out that he could use the Force to con his way to survive in life.

Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same in his situation.

 

[Thom]

On 12/25/2024 at 2:12 AM, Big s said:

This episode was definitely better than the last one. Oddly for such a dull setting had way more action than the post apocalyptic constant war planet that basically had no war to be seen.

  Hide contents

Kinda a more adventurous kind of episode and fun to see goofy traps and such murdering people, although off screen mostly with acid and spikes.

the treasure kinda seems pretty lame since it’s just a mint that molds coins. I’m pretty sure they could just take an existing one and make another out of it. They don’t seem that special. I’m sure the pile of gold that they look like they’re made out of would be worth more. I think at this point they really gotta explain why these particular coins are worth something other than what they’re made out of, because if it’s just a coin , the metal is the value and if it’s due to some kinda computerized banking currency, then it should be totally useless since there’s no other planet that uses that system anymore 

 

Spoiler

I can see him being excited about a mint which created the coins that got everyone so excited. though maybe not so much for the coins, but for the precious metals they are made of. I would imagine a mint would be full of not just coins but also the raw materials.

Something tells me there may be a bit more to it though. Three more episodes in which to find out.

I really liked this episode. Had a few silly moments which worked really well, but also tense one that just flipped the emotions.

[Seto Kaiba]

34 minutes ago, Thom said:

  Hide contents

I can see him being excited about a mint which created the coins that got everyone so excited. though maybe not so much for the coins, but for the precious metals they are made of. I would imagine a mint would be full of not just coins but also the raw materials.

Spoiler

Unless there's been a retcon, that's probably not the case?

As far as I've been able to find, the various forms of "credit" in Star Wars are fiat money.  It has value because the government in power (the Republic, the Empire, or the New Republic) issues them via a central bank and mandates their use for all public and private debts.  The material they're made from is not particularly valuable in and of itself.  There is a mention that the Old Republic currency was a commodity-backed currency (basically they had a space version of the gold standard) at one point, but without the government that issued them to exchange them for that commodity they're basically just collector's items.

It wouldn't really be a planet of "eternal" treasure if At Attin's just Space Fort Knox with a finite supply of fictional gold-equivalent (aurodium).

 

[Thom]

1 minute ago, Seto Kaiba said:

  Hide contents

Unless there's been a retcon, that's probably not the case?

As far as I've been able to find, the various forms of "credit" in Star Wars are fiat money.  It has value because the government in power (the Republic, the Empire, or the New Republic) issues them via a central bank and mandates their use for all public and private debts.  The material they're made from is not particularly valuable in and of itself.  There is a mention that the Old Republic currency was a commodity-backed currency (basically they had a space version of the gold standard) at one point, but without the government that issued them to exchange them for that commodity they're basically just collector's items.

It wouldn't really be a planet of "eternal" treasure if At Attin's just Space Fort Knox with a finite supply of fictional gold-equivalent (aurodium).

 

Spoiler

If it was 'gold standard' style then there is still the gold the coins were made from. They would not be the same denomination they were when they were formed, but melt them down...?

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Just now, Thom said:

  Hide contents

If it was 'gold standard' style then there is still the gold the coins were made from. They would not be the same denomination they were when they were formed, but melt them down...?

 

Spoiler

That's not quite what that means.

Under the historic "gold standard", the currency was not literally made from gold... its value was just backed by gold.  In simple terms, the value of one unit of currency was pegged to the market value of a set quantity of the gold held by the issuing government's treasury.  The currency could theoretically (but not always actually) be exchanged for the equivalent quantity of gold via the issuing government's treasury if one were so inclined... but the currency itself was still physically either worthless or significantly less valuable in terms of the materials used (e.g. paper bills, copper and zinc coins). 

With the Old Republic long gone and the galaxy having long since moved onto fiat money, it's doubtful that Old Republic credits can still be exchanged for the aurodium that originally backed them thousands of years ago.

(Unless At Attin isn't just home to a mint, but also to a reserve bank holding those aurodium reserves... in which case who cares about the coins, but it wouldn't quality as an "eternal" treasure since the reserves are finite.)

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Well, new episode dropped... "Zero Friends Again".

Spoiler

Star Wars sure does love its trapdoors with slides in, doesn't it?  Cloud City had one.  Jabba's palace had one.  Now Tak Rennod's secret haul has one.

... how has nobody found this secret treasure cave before?  The secret trapdoors in its floor lead to a massive cluster of ground-level pipes outdoors.

This episode officially confirms that KB is a cyborg.  That thing on her head is part of her brain.

Spoiler

... and apparently damaged by the fall down the pipes, so she's immobilized on the frozen tundra.

Jod is apparently having a great day, though.  He pops out of a floor hatch on the landing pad covered in more bling than a dozen rappers and laughing like a man who just found a massive treasure buried under a day spa.  The concierge is not impressed... and Jaleel White's character Gunter finally makes his proper appearance by taking Jod prisoner and dragging him off to Captain Brutus.  It's weirdly cute that Jod gave SM-33 a bunch of bling to wear too.

Just as they're getting ready to leave, a bunch of New Republic X-Wings show up and the pirates actually panic.  Kind of a sharp contrast from the first episode making it out that the pirates consider the New Republic a joke.  With the pirates out of the way, KB notes she has the coordinates to At Attin and that they could go home... if only they could get back to the Onyx Cinder.  KB and Fern have a falling-out, and so do Wim and Neel... so now it's Wim and KB off on their own and Fern and Neel together.

Gunter somehow got away from the New Republic security forces (I guess they really are a bit of a joke).  Brutus announces they're going to execute Jod by tossing him out the airlock and almost the entire crew is thrilled by this until an old lady pirate starts rules-lawyering and Jod gets to speak in his own defense.  So he delivers a big dramatic speech that builds up to the reveal that he knows where At Attin is via an old pirate song and the reveal of one of Wim's credits.  Brutus decides to take his forces to At Attin and spare Jod's life if there's really the treasure he's promising.

This episode seems to be built around an "everyone's different and that's OK" sort of motto.  Neel has to forcefully remind Fern that he can't climb the way she can because his species doesn't have such long legs, and KB ends up explaining to Wim that she's not an elective cyborg, her implants were to repair an injury and that Fern is often not aware or accepting of her friend's limitations.  Wim's basically stuck performing emergency surgery on her in the middle of a trash heap to save her life after her implants start failing due to lack of maintenance.  

So, apparently the trash heap is governed by a crab of unusual size?  One that wants to eat the kids.

There's a really bad greenscreen scene where Wim is supposed to be kicking at the approaching "Trash crabs", and it just sort of looks like he's trying to shake out something that fell from a hole in his pocket. The kids then have to go save the Onyx Cinder from an even bigger enemy crab (some kind of automated incinerator working its way thru the trash heap.)  They use the automated hull demolition sequencer to jettison the entire outer hull and fly the new, slimmer Onyx Cinder away.

 

All in all, not bad... but it feels a bit lean and antlclimactic after the last episode.  The whole episode is just the kids getting back to the ship.

[Duke Togo]

Another solid episode, but I have one complaint: 

Spoiler

The ship rescue doesn't work at all for me. I'm sure kids watching won't be bothered by it, but that went beyond my ability to suspend my disbelief.

Edited Wednesday at 02:48 PM by Duke Togo

[jvmacross]

12 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

This episode officially confirms that KB is a cyborg.  That thing on her head is part of her brain.

 

 

No one should have been shocked about this....this was called out before the first episode even streamed....even a filthy casual could have seen this one coming....

Once again, this show is essentially taking concepts from every Star Wars show out there...EU stuff too....

The writing process for this episode was just tossing out ideas of how to stretch out the episode so that "stuff happens" along the way to get the kiddos back to their ship....oh and toss in a new ship to $ell an extra toy or 3 to the adult collectors watching the show.....worked out for The Mandalorian!

And bad guys with lightsabers are still one of the pillars of Star Wars so by completely ignoring the big lightsaber reveal from the previous episode the geniuses at D+'s Lucasfilm are obviously going for the hail mary for the last episode.....either way using the lightsaber reminds me of how it was used at the end of the Solo movie.....pretty sure Hasbro has a Pirate Lightsaber hilt coming out soon!

[Thom]

13 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

  Hide contents

That's not quite what that means.

Under the historic "gold standard", the currency was not literally made from gold... its value was just backed by gold.  In simple terms, the value of one unit of currency was pegged to the market value of a set quantity of the gold held by the issuing government's treasury.  The currency could theoretically (but not always actually) be exchanged for the equivalent quantity of gold via the issuing government's treasury if one were so inclined... but the currency itself was still physically either worthless or significantly less valuable in terms of the materials used (e.g. paper bills, copper and zinc coins). 

With the Old Republic long gone and the galaxy having long since moved onto fiat money, it's doubtful that Old Republic credits can still be exchanged for the aurodium that originally backed them thousands of years ago.

(Unless At Attin isn't just home to a mint, but also to a reserve bank holding those aurodium reserves... in which case who cares about the coins, but it wouldn't quality as an "eternal" treasure since the reserves are finite.)

 

Spoiler

Yeah, that's why I used parenthesis. And it can be as simple as credits made from gold, or in this case, aurodium. The shape and design of the credit doesn't matter (or whether the political entity that made it even still exists) just the material it's made from. If the Old Republic used almost pure aurodium in its mints/foundries and it is as rare as it is made out to be, then finding a planet with a reserve of it would be a 'treasure.'

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 03:32 PM by Thom

[Seto Kaiba]

5 hours ago, jvmacross said:

No one should have been shocked about this....this was called out before the first episode even streamed....even a filthy casual could have seen this one coming....

Yeah, I know, I asked if she was a cyborg back when we got the first trailer. 🤣

This, at least, settles one point for me.  The only characters I can recall seeing in Star Wars who had cybernetics in their brains were adults who'd undergone elective surgery to be more effective clerical workers.  The implants were shown to be pretty detrimental to their lives too.  It seemed pretty dark to have a kid receiving the same kind of implants, which made me wonder if she was a clone or a droid mocked up to look human or something.  Her implants are the result of life-saving surgery not something intended to make her a better worker.

 

5 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Once again, this show is essentially taking concepts from every Star Wars show out there...EU stuff too....

"Throw everything at the wall to see what sticks."

 

5 hours ago, Thom said:

  Hide contents

Yeah, that's why I used parenthesis. And it can be as simple as credits made from gold, or in this case, aurodium. The shape and design of the credit doesn't matter (or whether the political entity that made it even still exists) just the material it's made from. If the Old Republic used almost pure aurodium in its mints/foundries and it is as rare as it is made out to be, then finding a planet with a reserve of it would be a 'treasure.'

Spoiler

That's logical, but it doesn't tally with the presentation in the show.

When Wim tries to pay the vendor for his and Neel's meal at Port Borgo, the pirates are stunned because Wim tries to pay with "mint condition" Old Republic credits.  They're not interested in Wim's lunch money for its face value or the material it's made from, but for its saleable value as an antique in pristine condition, suggesting that its value as an antique exceeds both the face value of the currency and that of the material it's made from.

In the fifth episode, Jod mentions the treasure of At Attin is the last Old Republic mint.  If the valuable part were the material the credits were minted from, he'd be saying the treasure was the reserve bank.

This is further backed up in the latest (sixth) episode where Jod refers to the treasure of At Attin as something that never runs out.  Aurodium is a rare and valuable material, and if At Attin is minting credits out of the stuff they're going to run out sooner or later.  The only way it's a treasure that never runs out is if the mint can mint credits without needing an intrinsically valuable material to make them from.

Which, of course, also raises the question of how newly minted fiat money from a long-defunct government would hold its value when its primary value is as a collector's item.  Eventually the market would be saturated and they would lose their value.

 

[Thom]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Yeah, I know, I asked if she was a cyborg back when we got the first trailer. 🤣

This, at least, settles one point for me.  The only characters I can recall seeing in Star Wars who had cybernetics in their brains were adults who'd undergone elective surgery to be more effective clerical workers.  The implants were shown to be pretty detrimental to their lives too.  It seemed pretty dark to have a kid receiving the same kind of implants, which made me wonder if she was a clone or a droid mocked up to look human or something.  Her implants are the result of life-saving surgery not something intended to make her a better worker.

 

"Throw everything at the wall to see what sticks."

 

  Hide contents

That's logical, but it doesn't tally with the presentation in the show.

When Wim tries to pay the vendor for his and Neel's meal at Port Borgo, the pirates are stunned because Wim tries to pay with "mint condition" Old Republic credits.  They're not interested in Wim's lunch money for its face value or the material it's made from, but for its saleable value as an antique in pristine condition, suggesting that its value as an antique exceeds both the face value of the currency and that of the material it's made from.

In the fifth episode, Jod mentions the treasure of At Attin is the last Old Republic mint.  If the valuable part were the material the credits were minted from, he'd be saying the treasure was the reserve bank.

...

 

I haven't watch up to the sixth episode yet.
 

Spoiler

As to 'mint' condition, resale value of something like that using our modern market as an example would be pretty high. At that moment, they saw only a few of them, which makes them more valuable. But once you get to an entire planet full of them, then it's less about the condition of these old coins, which so many of would tank the antiquities angle, and more about what they are made of.

And so far, I'm fine with them not going into too many particulars about what the treasure is. It's been a mystery anyway until they reached Tak Rennod's hideout, and since he died on arrival I'm not too sure even he knew what he was going for. He thought it was a mint, but it still could be something entirely different.

 

 

[jvmacross]

Maybe all those old republic credits get laundered by the Sith  (Remnant insiders/Palpatine's acolytes, etc) to fund the massive Final Order fleet seen in TROS....those ships were clearly not based on the Star Destroyer designs used by the First Order...they were more like the ones used by the Empire during the Rebellion era...it would be right up Disney Star Wars' alley to require an entire show to explain how that Final Order fleet got built and funded in secret....especially when it was implied that most in the First Order were not even aware of it....

[Thom]

Watched ep 6 and it was a good episode. A bit of contrived angst going on, but once they got to the ship...

Spoiler

....awesome! It was only a few minutes but it was the best of the entire episode, and I love how they worked that out. The explosive bolts going off was great and then seeing the shining silver of the Cinder ripping itself out into the open... loved it!

And yes, I would buy a kit of it!!!

[Seto Kaiba]

On 1/1/2025 at 6:28 PM, Thom said:

  Hide contents

As to 'mint' condition, resale value of something like that using our modern market as an example would be pretty high. At that moment, they saw only a few of them, which makes them more valuable. But once you get to an entire planet full of them, then it's less about the condition of these old coins, which so many of would tank the antiquities angle, and more about what they are made of.

And so far, I'm fine with them not going into too many particulars about what the treasure is. It's been a mystery anyway until they reached Tak Rennod's hideout, and since he died on arrival I'm not too sure even he knew what he was going for. He thought it was a mint, but it still could be something entirely different.

Spoiler

Yeah, any way you shake it the whole "At Attin is a planet of eternal treasure" thing doesn't really work.

At Attin has apparently not had contact with the greater galaxy in many MANY years, so...

• If the Old Republic Mint on At Attin is minting credits using rare and intrinsically valuable materials, then the treasure isn't the mint and isn't eternal because there has to be a finite quantity of the precious raw material held in whatever reserve is supplying the mint.
• If the Old Republic Mint on At Attin is minting fiat money then the only value the credits have is neumismatic, meaning they will quickly lose all their value once any collector checks into them and realizes they were minted recently or the very limited market becomes saturated.
• If there is still some government or governments out there honoring the fiat money of the long-defunct Old Republic... WHY?  That government fell over a thousand years ago.

The more you think about it, the less it makes sense.

The one possibility I can think of that makes this make sense is that the actual prize is the mint facility itself and...

Spoiler

... the pirates goal is to use the mint's equipment to mint unlimited quantities of (potentially undetectable) counterfeit New Republic or Imperial credits.

Think about it.

At Attin may well be the only place in the galaxy where Old Republic credits are still in circulation as legal tender.  A finite supply of raw material would run out, and the value of the credit chips as antiques would quickly collapse as supply outstripped demand.  But if the mint facility can be used to make modern currency... well... then the pirates would not only have all the makings of an industrial-scale counterfeiting operation, but a base of operations for it on a planet so far off the grid that almost everyone in the galaxy believes it's a myth not a real place.

That would really make At Attin a Planet of Eternal Treasure... the ability to print unlimited modern money there and spend it elsewhere in the galaxy.