What did you RECEIVE today? PHOTOS EDITION!

Patient-X said:
Clone wars was great but I actually prefer Rebels.
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I found Rebels to be a very mixed bag. In the beginning it felt very much for kids (but then so did TCW, to be fair) but Season 2 felt considerably better, then Season 3 felt like a bit of a filler-packed drag, then Season 4 was really good again. It was great to see Thrawn integrated into the new canon while keeping his character intact and man, that ending. I'll probably rewatch it all as a whole when Season 4 is out on disc, see if that changes my perceptions.

I found the filler in TCW a bit easier to swallow, since they'd often go off and show other characters and theatres of war which did make the universe and the conflict feel a lot bigger and not confined to a small handful of characters. While in TCW we did of course know who had plot armour and who didn't, the conflict still felt more high states for individual characters, especially the clones. The delving into the psychology and camaraderie of the ordinary footsoldiers in a galaxy-spanning conflict was a high point of the series for me. Plus we got stuff like Anakin meeting Tarkin for the first time, and it wasn't just throwaway fanservice. The audience could see through the eyes of Ahsoka how much the conflict had changed and was changing Anakin - The sort of thing the movies really should have done more to make it understandable and tragic by making him, y'know, an actual heroic character before his fall rather than just the SW equivalent of a school shooting waiting to happen. Then there's Obi-Wan and Anakin's relationship - After TCW you can actually buy that Obi-Wan really means it in ANH when he wistfully says he was "a good friend". With only the PT to go on they just seem like people who barely tolerate each other. And Darth Maul - Hell, the guy had no character (at least on the screen) before TCW and by the end he had become probably one of the most well developed villains in Star Wars.

I can't really say the same for many Rebels characters. A prime example of this is how most of the characters who were killed in Rebels (bar one in particular) were throwaway victims we barely knew for the main characters to have a moment of sadness or rage over and drive home the point the Empire is evil, rather than feel like they've suffered a real loss. And whether it's Disney not wanting that stuff on their channel or what I dunno, but the conflict on the whole felt rather bloodless and therefore had less impact. How many times did Ezra or Kanan actually kill or even injure anyone with their lightsabers? How many times did Stormtroopers get beaten up or knocked unconscious instead of being shot? I remember a time early on when Sabine actually shot a Stormtrooper at point blank range in the face and I thought "Wow, maybe Disney has some balls after all" but it almost feels like they had a violence quota per episode.

That said, I do still have a lot of faith in Dave Filoni and the guys who ran Rebels, who were also involved in TCW. But I feel like without that framework of the conflict TCW had, knowing where the characters were at the start and where they needed to be at the end (and Lucas producing) they got a little bit lost. On a personal note, there's also the fact I simply didn't like the art design of Rebels nearly as much as I did TCW's. I get what they were going for with the McQuarrie look, but to me everything still looked a lot like every other generic 3D animation for kids, particularly the character design which was just so bland coming from the imaginative, stylised TCW.

serpantino said:
I don't mind the prequel trilogy and the first was my favourite of them too. I did find it a bit jarring (no pun) how Anakin turned from sulky brat to mass child murderer in such a short space of time but then I realised they're just dumb action films primarily aimed at kids and kids are willing to accept that without a lengthy explanation.

I think the original rabid super fans were spoilt with such a huge quantity of extended lore making them feel that Star Wars was something more than that and whenever you get people explaining X is wrong because 'science' or something that happened in a book, graphic novel etc I just chuckle to myself.
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I buy this explanation with a lot of kids' media, but I think the difference is that Star Wars wants and tries to be serious and make sense as well. The PT was just so jarring from that point of view because they couldn't pull off the combination of humour and drama in a natural way. TCW could do this as could the OT, and I think while it has does have some serious flaws, the ST is managing it. I think this prequel problem lies squarely at the feet of Lucas on his own as a scriptwriter. He's a wonderful ideas man and he'll always have my respect for all the obvious work and love he's put into something which was after all his project, but he cannot by himself write natural sounding dialogue and interactions between characters to save his life.

This belongs in another thread really, doesn't it?
 
My Asuka one piece swimsuit arrived as did my Sailor Moon backpack :)

Still waiting on my Eva school uniform to arrive to see if I can wear it for MCM next month :D
 
Received MVMs GATE 自衛隊　彼の地にて、斯く戦えり (this is how the title appears on their packaging...)

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The set is reminiscent of their recent MonMus release, and NGNL with being a sturdy box with 2 DVD cases. 5 DVD discs in 1, and 3 BDs in the other.

There is a set of thick art cards (I imagine based on the JP Volume illustrations), and a thick booklet. The booklet seems to have a character profile for every character named in the series, which takes up half the book. The other half is setting of the world containing information on aspects of life, attire, history, etc, etc...

I gave episode 1 a quick skim, and the picture quality looks good.

(Quick screencap)

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Finally. Been wanting to watch Season 2 for ages as I really liked Season 1, shame I waited on the BD but may end up watching it elsewhere in the end due to some issues with the BD I saw mentioned elsewhere.

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Both SecondSpin.com orders arrived, unfortunately they sent part 2 of War on geminar, and Tenchi in Tokyo arrived in an oversized case with rather scratched discs. Everything else is in decent condition, asides from Phantom which I paid like £3 for and Fractale has some minor peeling.
 
@Lambadelta I carried it 3 miles to my local post office so I definitely feel ya pain haha

I really liked the sets but I'm always looking for places in my collection to save space so I'm eventually going to buy the rereleases that come in single cases for each season.
 
part 2 of Alice & Zouroku, Love Live Sunshine 4 so just vol 3 to complete season 1 (which i have on the way) and Assassination Classroom season 2 part 2

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Like everyone else i recieved my AssClass Season 2 Part 2 today, strangely it came really late in the day (after 5pm), don't think i've ever had post come that late. Hopefully GATE and my secondspin order will arrive tomorrow.
 
Love Live Sunshine S2 part 2 and my secondspin order arrived today glad 2 of the 3 blurays had the slipcovers pity Wixoss didn't but at the price so i suppose i can't complain, but it was annoying that Wandaba Style had a sticker over 1 of the characters faces and took ages to get it off and left some marks, why they don't put the stickers on the plastic wrapping they put on everything as it would make more sense, oh and the Sailor Moon dvd was covered in finger prints and a long hair stuck to it but the bluray is ok which is what i'll be watching

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