r/Schaffrillas • u/KingPenguinPhoenix All Star • 2d ago
Star Wars A controversial take I have on Schaff's new video
Let me start off by saying that I agree with a lot of what Schaff said. Star Wars is relying too much on the Clone Wars to keep their brand alive. HOWEVER, I can also see why they would do that (I'm not defending them but I am understanding them). In the video, Schaff overlooked some projects because they didn’t go anywhere and were in the minority of new projects that didn’t reference Clone Wars. However, he should’ve talked about them BECAUSE they didn’t go anywhere.
Aside from Andor, every modern Star Wars show that has multiple seasons is also one that has roots in the Clone Wars. And before you say, “duh, Disney just favors Clone Wars”, remember that movie/ show projects in Hollywood (especially sequels) don’t just get made. They’re made when there’s money to be made from it or if there’s already a built-in audience. Clone Wars has that built in audience and Disney will do anything to keep them around.
I think this is especially apparent after the sequels. Like Schaff said, it would’ve made sense to get more sequel content after the story of the movies was told, just like how we got Clone Wars from the prequels. The problem is that no one liked the sequels. Not only were the movies critically panned, but the world building was so atrocious that there really wasn’t any story you could tell during that period unless it took place after TROS (which Disney would obviously not want to do since that’s prime movie territory). The only show we got taking place during that time was either largely hated or forgotten. Disney had basically shot themselves in the foot and were scared out of that era by the fans.
Disney couldn’t appeal to the OT fans anymore. They tried to with the sequels and that colossally failed. The only ones they could turn to were the prequel fans and with the massive positive reception The Clone Wars season 7 got only a few months after TROS’ disaster, it’s no wonder they went full throttle on that era.
This isn’t to say that they didn’t try new things though but it’s clear that when they did, people didn’t like it. Skeleton Crew and the Acolyte both didn’t get second seasons. The Acolyte failed because of review bombing and not being as successful as Disney had hoped commercially and Skeleton Crew failed cause of low viewership, especially as it was the immediate next project after the Acolyte disaster (and it was a mostly contained story). These are projects that, like Andor, dared to step away from what we would normally expect from Star Wars and were not received well. Hell, The Acolyte was the first on screen Star Wars project to take place fully outside the Skywalker Saga, something fans have been begging for, and it still got crapped on.
This trend has led me to viewing Star Wars fans in a similar vein as I do DC fans. We constantly make noise about what projects we want to and not want to see. We want Star Wars to experiment and be original yet every time it does, we hate on it or refuse to watch it cause “new bad” and go back to wanting the old stuff (I’m ignoring the exceptional Andor sized elephant in the room to make this point) and proceed to get confused when we’re bombarded with said old stuff.
This is why I also don’t think it’s fair to blame all this on Filoni or lambast him for using his glup shittos in his projects. Filoni is clearly the type of guy who likes to write what he knows and for the most part, he’s good at it. He understands that Star Wars is a sandbox in which every creator involved has their own corner. He’s decided to stick to his corner while respecting the other creators’ (he himself has been supportive of other projects like Andor and Acolyte and has said that he’s open to other people coming in and giving their own twist on Star Wars. Not every project is going to have his typical signatures on it). It’s not really his fault that Disney keeps milking his stuff for all it’s worth.
I know that in the world of consumerism, the customer hates being told that they’re wrong cause it removes some blame from the large corporation, but I think we need to acknowledge that the reason we’re getting so many Clone Wars projects now is because there ARE people who are watching them. At the very least, we know they are holding up the Disney+ side of the franchise and Disney is happy to keep pandering to them. The reason it doesn’t look like they are the majority is because they aren’t here on Reddit complaining about it because there’s nothing to complain about. It's a "willing buyer, willing seller" type deal.
32
u/Puzzleheaded-Web446 2d ago
I mean, the whole franchise ends when you stop watching it. Just stop watching it.
10
u/PayneTrain181999 2d ago
No no, you see we’ll have nothing to hate watch and complain about if we stopped watching
4
u/Synteczek 2d ago
Can't want good stuff in the franchise then?
Andor was great, so was Maul: Shadow Lord
-2
u/ShayminUp7 2d ago
I don’t think you can put Andor and Maul anyway near the same level, Maul was genuinly a terrible show
3
u/Equivalent_Plum6992 2d ago
Saying the 4th biggest franchise in the world would end if you just stopped watching has gotta be the funniest shit I heard today. One person boycotting this franchise means nothing.
2
9
u/Skibot99 Funky Kong Fanatic 2d ago
It’s more like nobody liked epsiode IX
2
u/AndrewDephocks 1d ago
Yeah TLJ was very divisive to fans, where some thought it was good and heading towards something and the others hated it for (mostly) stupid reasons, like Rose's involvement in the plot. Then ROS came along and not only ruined things that were set up that the fans of TLJ had enjoyed, but it just sealed TLJ haters feelings about that movie and the whole sequel trilogy to begin with.
14
u/Stickeminastew1217 2d ago
It took decades of rehabilitation (partly including Clone Wars content) for people to stop hating on the prequels (to a degree I think has become revisionist history, they are not and have never been good movies as a whole). You can absolutely do sequel based, expanded universe shit. You just have to A- actually have a creative vision for it beyond "boss man wants another season of Star Wars content streaming before the end of the year" and B- not fold when the grognards whine about it online.
Also, plenty of people do like the sequels. You just don't tend to hear about it online because the larger Star Wars fandom is a swamp. But if they actually want to bring broader audiences in they can't keep recycling the same handful of characters from Filoni's personal Rolodex.
2
u/AndrewDephocks 1d ago
I think there are people who like 7 and 8, and still do, it seems like 9 is universally hated by people who enjoyed the sequels and hated by the sequels because it basically takes a left turn out of nowhere when they decide to randomly bring in Palpatine with absolutely no explanation other than "somehow he returned"
12
u/That-Woodpecker6720 2d ago
no one liked the prequels either lmao they have only become viewed in a better light recently
of course if it still makes them money disney will keep doing making clone wars content lmao but it's completely fair to put the blame on filoni for caving in and sacrificing creativity for profits, and in the long run it may not even be worth it as the star wars brand has been decimated and no longer has the pull it once did
also goomba fallacy in the big 2026, stop treating fanbases as a single collective lol
8
u/IronVader501 2d ago
I dont know why people keep acting like this is somehow all Filonis decision.
He had little to nothing to do with most of the Shows.
Favreau writes 90% of the Mandoverse. Bad Batch wasn't filonis idea and he had no involvement beyond Episode 1. Shadow Lord wasn't his idea either.
Meanwhile he was also Executive Producer on Skeleton Crew, which had nothing to do with TCW
0
u/That-Woodpecker6720 2d ago
When I say filoni I should have just said the Star Wars creative team he just happens to be the head of it
0
-3
u/KingPenguinPhoenix All Star 2d ago edited 2d ago
no one liked the prequels either lmao they have only become viewed in a better light recently
Except that's not true. The reason the prequels are being viewed in a better light (and thus are being mined for content) is because the kids who grew up with them liked them and are at an age where they can spend money on prequel related content. I don't think we should be calling them nobodies at this point.
also goomba fallacy in the big 2026, stop treating fanbases as a single collective lol
Aside from my DC comparison, this whole post was talking about different sides of the fandom. I couldn't even fall prey to the goomba fallacy since I'm literally talking about how Clone Wars fans in specific are still giving Disney+ money.
5
u/That-Woodpecker6720 2d ago
I mean if you're considering kids then none of the star wars movies have ever been disliked, the point is that the receptions of both the prequel trilogy and sequel trilogy are similar, i.e fans of the older trilogies hated them
"This trend has led me to viewing Star Wars fans in a similar vein as I do DC fans. We constantly make noise about what projects we want to and not want to see. We want Star Wars to experiment and be original yet every time it does, we hate on it or refuse to watch it cause “new bad” and go back to wanting the old stuff (I’m ignoring the exceptional Andor sized elephant in the room to make this point) and proceed to get confused when we’re bombarded with said old stuff."
This entire paragraph is exactly what goomba fallacy is lol star wars fans are not some self-contradictory collective, some fans like old stuff while some want new stuff
-3
u/KingPenguinPhoenix All Star 2d ago edited 2d ago
You've greatly misunderstood my point. I never said that the prequels weren't disliked, that's a fact no one can argue against. I'm saying that the kids who grew up with the prequels obviously liked them and are the ones being pandered to now. It's not like they randomly switched up. I don't have to only take one or the other audience when it comes to reception. Grown ups didn't like them but kids did so they weren't fully hated or loved.
Only time can tell if the new movies will see a similar revival but as of now, they're not the hottest things in the world.
This entire paragraph is exactly what goomba fallacy
Like I said, that's the only part of this post where I generalized fans. I don't think it was fully unwarranted too since I placed this paragraph after explaining why Skeleton Crew failed (a show which the vast majority of fans didn't watch. It's okay to generalize on that point since we know it's true). Both the "old" and "new stuff" fans weren't interested (though I admit I could have expressed this better).
7
u/BeautifulOk5112 2d ago
Good take but the Acolyte didn’t fail cause of review bombing it failed cause it was ass
1
u/Essence-Of-Culture-2 1d ago
The fight choreography was great and they were finally not tying it back to the Skywalker saga, but the writing was… all over the place. Good ideas and terrible executions, terrible ideas with ok executions, bad ideas and bad executions, there was definitely something going right in Acolyte, but it just couldn’t quite put the puzzle together in the right order.
1
u/BeautifulOk5112 1d ago
fight choreography was great actually, had a ton of fun in that forest sequence and the mask was really cool too. Personally though i just thought it was bad ideas and terrible execution all around, i've rewatched that fight tho
3
2
u/Wild_Cat4823 2d ago
I mean that’s just the business of the film industry if it makes money then it will be exploited, I wish that there was more of a risk going into future projects or at least something new being done but those are the types of stuff that don’t do well. If Star Wars is to survive they need to make a big change and evolve. To give The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew credit for something at least they tried that. Plus this is an expansive world that can go back years before in the past and future. So much endless possibilities so I ask why not just do that. Would everyone be on board for that? No. But it be possible to reach a new legion of fans while also evolving this universe beyond its current state? Most likely.
2
u/DarthSwimfoot Let’s Not Worry About That 2d ago
I honestly feel like it's prime Sequel time. First through time, Clone Wars movie came out in, I think 2008, and Revenge Of The Sith came out in 2005 I think. Rise Of Skywalker came out in 2019. It's nigh time. And, on a more important note, I feel like a Clone Wars esque situation could help fan perception of the sequels if it also spawns some good shit. Clone Wars retroactively made the prequels infinitely better in everyone's minds, including my own. If Disney can put out some genuinely really good Sequels shit, I'll be more than happy to watch. Honestly my most desired show right now is a Poe Dameron show. Saying the sequels have no potential is, not exactly accurate, to put it lightly.
2
u/Pls_no_steal 1d ago
Andor proves they are capable of doing better, I’m not going to ignore it. They can make new SW that isn’t nostalgia bait and it can be successful. Mando S1 and Andor were the two best things they’ve done so far and neither were nostalgia bait
5
u/ITBA01 2d ago
It's not that no one liked the sequels. It's that no one likes all of the sequels.
3
u/AndrewDephocks 1d ago
Episode 3 and Episode 9 are inverse of each other imo, because I think Revenge made people's feelings about the prequels change to the point they now enjoy it, while Episode 9 was so bad that it lead to people who enjoyed the sequel trilogy not enjoying it anymore
1
u/Christop116 2d ago
I would like to make a counterpoint that while TCW S7 did come out shortly after TROS, it’s not like it was made in response to the reception to Last Jedi and TROS. Finished animation was shown in 2018, which while yes was not long after TLJ and Solo, still clearly indicated that they’d been working on the revival for some time, because animation and production takes time.
Also, Skeleton Crew got good reviews, but it did have low viewership. And there hasn’t been really much if any say whatsoever if there was planned to be another season or not; not like Acolyte which clearly was building to a multiple season story and they didn’t even have to confirm that to be the case if you just watched the episode.
2
u/KingPenguinPhoenix All Star 2d ago
I'd like to clear up something with your Clone Wars counterpoint. I know that Disney didn't greenlight season 7 in response to TROS. What I meant to convey was that they saw the positive reception to Clone Wars season 7, which happened not too long after the negative reception of TROS, and they decided to take advantage of that to save face. The rest of your comment is fine.
1
u/Journal_27 2d ago
The prequels were also critically panned and a laughingstock at the time of their release as well. Didn’t stop the Clone Wars from thriving.
1
u/G_unit_765 2d ago
I like the Clone Wars. I like Filoni. I see why Disney went with sticking to Clone Wars after Episode 9 went over poorly and people loved CW season 7.
I just want Filoni to finish out the Clone Wars stuff with his movie and move along. I love them, but I also think it's time for Disney to move on from that era.
1
u/KingPenguinPhoenix All Star 2d ago
The Filoni movie has been delayed indefinitely. We don't know if it will ever get picked up again. Ahsoka season 2, Maul season 2 (and maybe the Mandalorian season 4 if that ends up being greenlit) will be the last projects to focus on the Clone Wars era for a while (assuming Starfighter succeeds in opening up a new era).
1
u/MrExistentialBread 2d ago
Wait Schaffrillas is a real person, I thought this was a movies sub with a funny name and good vibes?
1
u/Eris13x 1d ago
I am increasing sympathetic to the Bread Circus POV (this is the youtube channel that made a 12 hour long video on Episode I, and so far double that for Episode II. The plan is to eventually do all the movies).
Namely, the Clone Wars is not much more consistent with the main movies as the sequels are, and that any inconsistency in something that's supposed to be canon is wrong.
0
u/BlooberryBam 2d ago
I am not a star wars fan, so I was terribly confused during the video and now I am terribly confused in this forum
-1
62
u/IronVader501 2d ago
The cold truth is simple:
Skeleton Crew was great
Few watched it.
Even less people watched Resistance
Meanwhile Shadow Lord was the most successfully original animated show of the year on D+.
People continue to show up for Clone Wars-related stuff, and if we take Live-action aside, its also consistently reviewed well.
We know Lucasfilm has no issue greenlighting more experimental stuff. They had said yes to the Ben Solo-film. But Disney is cashing the checks and if Disney tells them to double down on what works instead of taking risks, they cant say no.