Star Wars investor day

Kathleen Kennedy is not gone. She just made a presentation to the investors at Walt Disney Investment Day, looking very much like she's not gone from Lucasfilm at all, and announces what looks to mostly be a slate of woke garbage, starring a bunch of POX and women, and written by white man hating bigots. There may be a handful of gems in this, but I'm not confident at all. Sigh. Why is Kathleen Kennedy not gone?!

The slate is so full that it also shows that they were straight up lying when Bob Iger announced that Disney had decided Star Wars fatigue was to blame for the failure of Solo. As opposed to the roaring trash fire that was The Last Jedi as well as the creeping woke garbage agenda, which was plenty evident in The Force Awakens too. Disney is one of the most evil corporations in the world. And that's saying something; I mean, it's got pretty stiff competition; there's Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter and worse out there in the corporate world. And of them, Disney's hatred of American culture and the American people probably rises to the top. Anyway, let's go through the list.

Rogue Squadron. By Patty Jenkins, the director behind the recent Wonder Woman film. This one may turn out ok. Yeah, yeah... Patty Jenkins and Wonder Woman; I'm sure there'll be some eye-rolling grrl power moments in it, but mostly, Wonder Woman was expected to be feminist garbage, and it wasn't really. And Patty Jenkins' father was a fighter pilot who died in the course of duty and rather than being bitter about that, she sees her father as a hero. She seems to have the right attitude to do this one justice, so of the announced series, this one may be among the better ones out there. Then again, if it's in the same era as the Mandalorian, I dunno. The X-wing pilots we've seen in that show seem to be like space state troopers running around in territory where they don't have any jurisdiction, yet trying to throw people in prison for traffic violations like not having a proper license plate. That makes no sense whatsoever in a frontier environment. I do think Disney Star Wars has laid a creaky foundation for this to be laid on, and I'm unsure how well it's going to fare.

Untitled Taika Waititi film. Taika doesn't really seem to have struck out yet in either Marvel or Star Wars, although he hasn't been up to bat all that often yet either. Hope this isn't Star Wars: Love and Thunder; the women are going to come and shriek at you about how entitled they feel to steal your stuff from you. Which maybe isn't fair. Thor: Love and Thunder hasn't even come out yet and we don't know much about it. But the very fact that it's being done at all is a ludicrous prospect.

Obi-wan Kenobi. I know that buzz about this has been around for a while, but honestly, I'm not quite sure why. It was very clear from the movies that Obi-wan "enjoyed" a quiet retirement on Tatooine keeping a hands-off eye on Luke Skywalker. Trying to squeeze out "adventures" from this time period, and bringing Hayden Christianson back to play Darth Vader some more just seems ridiculous. They're going to ruin the character in an attempt to milk nostalgia rather than just creating somebody new that we can root for. Mark my words. And having the Chinese lady who directed a few Mandalorian episodes be in charge of it may not be the worst thing ever; I'm not really familiar with her work other than that show and they've all been... OK, I guess. But the rather pointed avoidance of giving any decent work, either as stars or as directors, to any white men so far is duly noted (except in the notable case here, where the character is a legacy character and they could hardly turn Obiwan into a black woman or hispanic trans-gender abomination. Although no doubt somebody at Disney seriously suggested exactly that). Disney Star Wars still hates its fanbase. They may be taking a more conciliatory approach, given that they were smacked back just a bit by a mild revolt and a few flops, but SJWs are like the old saying about the Huns; they're either at your feet or at your throat. We didn't leave them as smoking dead corpses at our feet, so they'll take every opportunity to sneak around and come for our throats that they can until we do.

Ahsoka. Limited edition series written by Dave Filoni, the controversial guy who maybe he's on the fan's side and maybe he's a simpy beta yes-man, we're not quite sure because he seems to be both like some kind Jekyll and Hyde. I don't mind Ahsoka, although I think she's over-rated in some circles, especially the circle that makes up Dave Filoni's head. She's kind of like his Mary Sue fake girlfriend. Except she's from space instead of Canada. It probably won't be actively bad, but I doubt it will be excitingly good either. The Clone Wars was kinda her show, told (mostly) from her perspective as the kinda sorta protagonist character for the whole show. Everything else that she's done, she's felt shoe-horned in to because Dave Filoni has a crush on her. Starring Rosario Dawson and presumably in the same era as the Mandalorian again.

Rangers of the New Republic. Although we don't know much about this, except that it involves Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, I think most people expect that this is the Gina Carano spin-off. Because, let me remind you, even the Mandalorian, which fans have mostly enjoyed, has quietly avoided casting or working with a white male in either a director or star role. Women and POX all around. Dave Filoni excepted. No, Jon Favreau isn't white. He's Jewish. I dunno. I've been somewhat less impressed by the character of Cara Dune than a lot of fans, I suppose, so I don't expect much. She's fine. She's nothing special, though. And although casting Gina Carano was just about the only way making her a women was going to be credible, I still can't help thinking that wouldn't it just have been easier to cast a man in this role, so when he acts all manly all the time it kinda, y'know, makes sense?

Lando. A one off event, I think. Written by the guy who wrote the hate screed Dear White People for Netflix. Even if it isn't terrible, which I expect it to be, I may avoid it on principle because I'm ticked off that they think hiring someone infamous for writing that can possibly be a good fit for any role at all in our society, much less heading a Star Wars special about a black character. Starring Glover, so more or less in the same gray area that's between the prequels and the original trilogy time frame as Rebels and Solo, I presume.

Andor. A prequel show? Special? One-off? I'm not sure, but I suspect it's a one off. The announcement wasn't super clear. A prequel to Rogue One, featuring that Hispanic guy who can't even speak English without a super strong accent. I do like the idea of darker spy thrillers set in Star Wars (liking a lot of stuff about the Agent storyline in Old Republic, for instance) and George Lucas and Greg Kurtz and even Mark Hamill all remarked in the late 70s that Star Wars had a lot of things in common with James Bond, particularly how they envisioned going forwards with the franchise, so it's overdue that we actually get that kind of action. Rogue One was OK. Almost certainly the best offering of the Disney Star Wars era. Although, again, it conspicuously 1) avoided all white men in starring roles, and 2) cast a woman as the lead. Although to be fair, the woman was just along for the ride and wasn't saddled with the "I am stronk wamman!" nonsense. She actually showed some feminine strength as she was caught up in events over which she had little control, and used her feminine qualities to influence the progression of the plot rather than masculine qualities that were inexplicably grafted on to her, like most of Hollywood does with their stronk wammans. No doubt this was subconscious because they were making a film for a Chinese audience who isn't as delusional about biology as Americans have become. Still... if only we could have a Daniel Craig or Sean Connery like secret agent instead of a rinky-dink little Mexican dude with a funny accent.

The Acolyte. The only show that I'm aware of set in the so-called High Republic era, this is the long-rumored, infamously man-hating (yet ironically who looks more like a man than a woman) Leslye Headlund show. While the premise sounds good; pre-prequel era shadowy dark side Force-using thriller stuff, I obviously have absolutely no confidence in the person who's leading it.

The Bad Batch. For whatever reason, fan favorite clones the Bad Batch don't seem to have had the same problem that almost every other clone did; maybe the chips didn't take on them because of their flawed genetic matrix or something? Anyway, in the Rebels time frame, or maybe even a little earlier, yet after Revenge of the Sith, these guys go private, and become a kind of A-team of the Star Wars universe. Which isn't a bad concept, except the cultural background in the 80s that made the A-team work doesn't exist anymore, so... I dunno. I'm wary of everything, even if it sounds relatively good, which this does. Animated. No word yet if it's more Clone Wars or Rebels or even Resistance in its animation style.

Visions. Anime short films set in Star Wars. Ugh. That said, I'm sure that there's a super dedicated (albeit probably smaller and more niche than they realize) built in fanbase for this stuff. It'll probably do OK, but won't be up my alley.

A Droid Story. It's bad enough that Lucas himself started turning R2-D2 into a major Mary Sue. He was supposed to be a tubby little mechanic with the personality of a faithful dog, and he somehow became a more capable combatant than actual super battle droids? Gimme a break. Anyway, the description here is pretty vague; somewhere between animation and visual effects, a new character mentored by C-3PO and R2-D2, who really need to step back and let somebody else have a day in the sun fer cryin' out loud, and should have done it years ago already. I dunno what to think of this one.

Indiana Jones. They're bringing Harrison Ford out of the old folks home to be this character again. Why? Seriously, why? It was bad enough in the Crystal Skull that he was obviously too old for that kind of thing, and that was released 12 years ago already! That said, Hal Mangold, most recently famous for the excellent Ford v Ferrari film is going to lead it. As I noted to my son, who agreed with me completely, the underlying star of FvF and why it was so successful was because it showed a time when America was American and American men got to be awesome by being American men. (Granted, Christian Bale's character was British. But you know what I mean.) LA, where it's set, hadn't yet been invaded by hordes of demanding, entitled foreigners, so it was a successful and beautiful place. Ford showed us that even then corporate culture was toxic, but the mom-n-pop style business of Shelby was where the real magic happened, before "American" "elites" did everything possible to quash them and loot them. It was somewhat brave (an overused word in Hollywood, and yes, I am using it somewhat ironically, but not entirely) to make a movie that featured as the main star, even moreso than the actual stars, an era in which America was American and confident in itself. Mostly Hollywood creates propaganda pieces that justify to the elites (including themselves) why they've stolen that America from us, because we were the worst thing ever. The palpable sighs of relief during that movie that it wasn't a woke, anti-American, anti-white, anti-man screed, like almost everything else that's supposed to "entertain" us is almost for sure one of the key secrets of its success. The fact that it was also a compelling story with good performances and capably made was just the icing on the cake. It felt like the kind of movie that we used to get in the 80s, or even earlier, except with modern advances in special effects and pacing. Good stuff. Anyway, I'm not 100% sure how well that's going to translate to geriatric Indiana Jones, but maybe it'll work out.

Willow. I'm not sure that anyone asked for a sequel to Willow, especially one that won't even feature the only interesting character in that movie, Madmartigan (or if they do, he'll have to be as geriatric as Harrison Ford, but they mention Warwick Davis, not Val Kilmer, so I don't think so), but the Chinese guy Fake American who brought us Crazy Rich Asians is going to direct it, for some reason. This seems really out of the blue, and nobody asked for it. Don't know what to think of this one. Honestly, Willow wasn't all that great to begin with.

Children of Blood and Bone. The adaptation of a YA novel of anti-police pro-BLM propaganda. Sounds right up Disney's alley, but not that of any reasonable audience. The book is supposedly a NYT bestseller, but that category has been already exposed as a hoax in terms of how they determine it, and I doubt that the book really has enough popularity to justify adapting it. Like most of what Hollywood themselves produce, popularity in book publishing is largely Potemkin popularity; all smoke, mirrors, and illusion.

Curiously, on an instagram page I follow that's all about fans making Mandalorian costume armor, they asked what people were excited about from this announcement. At least half of all of the comments said that the only thing they would be excited for would be Kennedy getting the boot.

Also, most of the shows take place in either the same time frame as Rebels and Solo or the time frame of the Mandalorian. Conspicuously as absent as any masculine white males is anything at all set in the sequel trilogy time frame. I wonder why they're avoiding that era so hard, hmmm?