MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Discussion > The 'Story Group' and their utter lack o...

The 'Story Group' and their utter lack of experience/relevant qualifications

posted 6 years ago by Arghhhh (804)
13 replies | jump to latest

If anyone is curious as to exactly how Star Wars ended up in this mess this pretty much explains everything:

https://www.reddit.com/r/saltierthancrait/comments/8zm8jw/regarding_the_lucasfilm_story_group/

Now I don't know about you but if I had just bought Star Wars for $4Billion and I was looking for a group of people to help put together new story lines I'd look for people with the following experience/skills (in this order):

Professional Star Wars writers
Professional Sci-Fi/Fantasy writers
Professional writers

But what did LF do?

They put together this group of chucklefucks who have written a grand total of *3* non Sci-fi TV episodes between them.

I mean if you read the CVs of this lot and had to guess what new production they were working on you'd probably guess... what, a web comic? A school play? Not the world's biggest Sci-fi saga!

What a fucking shit show.

[–] TandyMan (10393) 6 years ago

Not really sure why somebody like the guy who runs the whole animation department of Star Wars wasn't promoted to scripting out the overall scheme of the saga for the next ten years.

[–] Keelai (32016) 6 years ago

The story group isn't creating stories. They are supposed to be responsible for continuity according to a Vanity Fair interview. The stories are coming from the writers. Kennedy likes to hire people who are new and whose work she admires because someone gave her a chance when she had no experience. She doesn't understand that writers still need to know how to compose a story.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/05/star-wars-the-last-jedi-cover-portfolio

The problem is that nobody is knowledgeable about SW which may be the reason why they tossed the EU. Now they can make up garbage instead of knowing what happened for the last 40 years.

[–] Arghhhh (804) 6 years ago

Yes - I did say they are there to 'help' put together the story lines. RJ ran all of his TLJ ideas through the group constantly and there is no way we'd have ended up with the film we did if any of them had any actual writing chops.

[–] Keelai (32016) 6 years ago

Agreed. I mainly blame Kennedy's incompetence though since she's hiring everyone.

[–] Arghhhh (804) 6 years ago

It's a very interesting point you make above - that she hired them because somebody gave her the same break... At least that makes sense as I'm struggling to understand who the stewardship of the story line to the world's most beloved Sci-fi story ended up with a bunch of interns.

Mark my words there's going to be documentaries and case studies based on LFs implosion for years to come. It's the creative industries very own Enron.

[–] Keelai (32016) 6 years ago

"...LFs implosion..."

Only if SW fails to make a profit. The question is will fans pay to see EP 9 and other SW movies, pay to watch SW TV shows on the new fee-based Disney channel as well as go to the SW Disney park? If so, we're going to be stuck with crap stories for years to come and Disney will consider the SW franchise to be a success.

"...bunch of interns..."
I wouldn't mind if they had some talent and creativity. They have zero. Lucas screwed up big time.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

kathleen kennedy herself said that she specifically wanted a female lead character - because she is openly feminist and that she specifically wants more females in film. She also stated that she specifically hired more female writers than male (4f, 2m) in order for them to write rey's character from a female's point of view.

"It's not just about casting female protagonists. It's gotta be across the board throughout the industry."

"Four of the six people in the story department are women,” she says. “So there were as many women sitting in the room having those discussions as there were men. I think that, in and of itself, is what really began to help [Rey] take shape in a way that was relevant to us. And hopefully relevant to other women seeing the film."

Her maths is pretty ordinary if she thinks 4 and 2 are 'equal'...

"They are really, really making a huge effort across the company to put more focus around casting women and putting women in positions of responsibility, with directing and various other positions inside, different lines of business in the company,"

KK on specifically looking for directors based on their gender:
"We want to make sure that when we bring a female director to do Star Wars, they're set up for success."

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

First: "The Lucasfilm Story Group is a division of Lucasfilm Ltd. founded in 2013 that is responsible for determining all Star Wars canon."

They aren't Star Wars writers, but I wouldn't expect you to get anything correct in any of the immature, meaningless, ENDLESS ranting posts you make, especially since I've caught you in blatant LIES.

These people are glorified assistants in charge of tracking details. No different from the continuity job of a Script Supervisor. How many Script Supervisors can you name without looking? Oh, NONE? Yeah, exactly.

Secondly, the article you posted didn't even give Pablo Hidalgo's full qualifications. No wonder you linked to this dishonest Reddit threat, it fits your own dishonestly perfectly.

Pablo has worked for Lucasfilm since 2000, he has been in charge of canon for years, and NO ONE CARED TO CRITICIZE THAT UNTIL YOU MISOGYNIST MAN-CHILDREN CAME ONTO THE SCENE WHINING LIKE BABIES BECAUSE A FEW WOMEN WERE ADDED.

Third, your judgmental attitude is atrocious. George Lucas himself had very limited writing experience when he did Star Wars, and yet you worship his creation. If you had been a producer in the 70's, you would have turned down his vision just like so many other studios who said "pass."

Lastly, you have under 1000 posts and yet I've barely seen a topic on the modern Star Wars boards that you don't show up in to comment.

I guess you only care about two things: Whining about the new Star Wars movies, and bashing women.

You're a joke. I used to think you were a normal person, but then you just decided to throw that all away. I would prefer you just admit you're someone's sock, and get it over with.

Beyond this, I really don't have anything to say to you.

[–] Arghhhh (804) 6 years ago

Froggy me old mucker, thanks muchly for bumping my post!

I'm not sure there is any point in replying to your bizarre ramblings but I personally believe that it's important to challenge the delusions of the mentally ill lest they be forever lost inside of them.

Firstly, it's a little, how can I put it, misogynistic of you to downgrade the role of the story group to that of merely being assistants. From the New York Times article:

With their ideas shaping each character and setting, they don’t see themselves as gatekeepers but as partners furthering the stories their creators want to tell

The group is there to - as the name suggest - guide the stories. No, they're not writing the scripts but they are meant to be shaping the overarching narrative of the Star Wars universe and RJ worked with them extensively on TLJ.

As you clearly enjoy stalking me I'd be grateful if you could point out the "women bashing" or indeed any lie I've ever told. And why is it that a post that somebody makes criticising a group which consists of both women and men is misogynistic? The only issue with that Reddit Post is as that as you say it omitted some of Pablo's experience (and one of the top replies mentioned this omission) and Pablo - as far as anyone is aware - identifies as male... It's is also common knowledge that the old EU was a mess of contradictions which is why many Star Wars fans were happy to have it all wiped away - especially if there was going to be a new trilogy to replace it - though none of us expected the amateurish clusterfuck that has replaced it. Even if the story group is solely responsible for cannon, they've totally failed in that respect, probably because they have less experience in managing complex Science Fiction sagas than you do in not being a total weirdo.

To conclude.

Nobody outside of the bizarro cult of IdPol acolytes such as yourself give a flying fuck about the topography of somebodies genitals.

Now go away.

[–] prometheus1816 (1051) 6 years ago

NO ONE CARED TO CRITICIZE THAT UNTIL YOU MISOGYNIST MAN-CHILDREN CAME ONTO THE SCENE WHINING LIKE BABIES BECAUSE A FEW WOMEN WERE ADDED.

This isn't about "a few women being added". This is about completely wiping out the male-ness of the Star Wars films completely. Kathleen Kennedy has one objective here. And that is to bring her ultra-Feminist agenda here without understanding that to make the men that have gone before in terms of Luke, Han, Lando, etc lesser than they were in the original trilogy by vaunting and lifting up the women to a ridiculous height by destroying the men characters. Luke, Han and other male characters have been written so far out of character it's not even funny. I'm a little "f" feminist in that I want equality, not exceptional status. This also for me has to do with George Lucas did with the prequels. He totally trashed everything he built with the original trilogy. There were people who were telling him along the way he was going against his original series, but he didn't care.

For me Star Wars is ruined. Utterly. There is only one good film out of the recent ones that is worth anything and that is "Rogue One". And that is only because they had to have one ultimate outcome in that one line in "Star Wars" opening crawl: It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy….. It's pretty straight forward. I liked Jyn Urso very much. I find Rey to be completely dis-likable and I cannot stand Daisy Ridley. Leia Poppins was a bad, really bad and Luke's death just like Han's.... disgraceful.

[–] Recognizer (386) 6 years ago

While I might disagree with some points in the second paragraph, I concur with the core thesis in the first one - KK clearly has a misandrist agenda, not merely a feminist one. I also endorse and fully support true feminism, which is about equality of the sexes, not one gender having special privileges over the other.

It's entirely possible to portray strong, capable female characters without it being at the expense of men. For example, in Alien, Aliens and even Alien 3, Lt. Ripley is portrayed as a very strong, independent, smart, highly capable and resourceful woman - but so are the men in the films. Ripley's positive attributes stand on their own merits, not by making men look weak, stupid or incompetent. Another example is Sarah Connor in Terminator 1 and 2.

Now, let us compare The Last Jedi. Luke gives up on the galaxy and hides on an island, Poe is a mindless, insubordinate fighter jock who just wants to "blow stuff up", Finn is a coward and would-be deserter who was denied making a heroic sacrifice and instead is sent on a pointless errand, and the veteran Admiral Ackbar is unceremoniously killed. On the FO side, Hux comes across as a bumbling idiot, Ren is a child throwing a tantrum, Snoke can't even tell Ren is about to kill him, and the commander of a dreadnaught lacks the basic strategic and tactical skills to command a landspeeder. And the (male) code slicer betrays our heroes.

However, the female characters are another matter: Holdo is in the right at all times, even when subordinates legitimately want to know the plan, and is the one that makes a heroic sacrifice. Rose's sister also makes a heroic sacrifice, and Rose catches Finn trying to escape, and prevents him from making a heroic sacrifice later. She also saves a bunch of animals. Leia and Rey can seemingly effortlessly use the Force, despite having had little to no formal training, even to the extent of surviving in the vacuum of space ...

[–] Recognizer (386) 6 years ago

... Even Phasma shows up, having miraculously survived Finn holding her at gunpoint at Starkiller Base.

TL;DR - Every male character in TLJ is portrayed either neutrally or negatively (mostly negatively), whereas every female character is portrayed positively, usually in the form of being shown as morally superior to men. This is the core problem that many fans have with it. If it were one or two examples, you might be able to shrug it off, but this is a pervasive and very obvious gender inequality. As I said, it is entirely possible to portray women positively without also denigrating men. Unfortunately, TLJ is an example of the latter, not the former.

[–] AP (5259) 6 years ago

When it came to Phasma, it seemed like she was supposed to die off screen in the first movie and when fans complained they wasted a cool looking character, they brought her back in the next movie... for one scene... in which she's killed again.