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𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘳 to 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘦 is closer to a fair comparison because they're doing more of the same things than most of their sister installments. But even there, there's such a world of difference in what a 2020s streaming prestige-style drama is able to do compared to a 1990s syndicated drama.

Like, are we realy gonna compare 𝘔𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘹: 𝘍𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘥 and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯? 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘯 and 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘥? 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘦 𝘉𝘺 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦 to 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳?

The library thing is what baffles me the most. If they're really pro-art, pro-creator, and anti-corporation, USE A LIBRARY. It democratizes information and supports the community with many outreach programs beyond books! A bunch of it is on-demand as well-all of my titles are on Hoopla instantly!

part of what I like about Mamdani is his admission that housing affordability is a more complex problem than either building more housing or expanding rent control. You need to do both in order to protect the most vulnerable now and improve the problem long term.

if you want to actually push left-wing policies and build power you need deliver change to voters. if you're purely concerned with messaging to a handful of brain damaged twitter leftists you will never actually improve people's lives.

I think Vader is used perfectly in 𝘙𝘖. Just a quick tease to illustrate Krennic's role in the Imperial hierarchy, then a nice dose of fan service at the end to cushion the emotional blow of losing characters we'd grown to love & to transition us to the fantastical melodrama of traditional 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴.

And then in 𝘈𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘳, Gilroy just jettisons the traditional Spielbergian tone entirely in favor of a Pontecorvo/𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘭𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘴-in-Space vibe.

Vader-in-the-hallway I think illustrates this. It cushions the emotional blow of losing characters we just spent 2 hrs with by distracting us with Vader being a badass. But it also serves as a tonal bridge between the PG-13 world of 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘦 and the PG/Spielbergian world of traditional 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴.

Yeah, that's the facet of the 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴 saga he seems most intrigued by. You can feel that vibe in 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘦 (the first thing we see Cassian do is kill his own source), but it doesn't overwhelm the "Spielbergian Blockbuster" vibe 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴 traditionally has (even when it gets darker than normal).

𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘰 is a more competently-made film, but 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘵𝘩 has Ian McDiarmid giving the 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 evil villain performance. Even when the rest of the film is falling apart around him, it's just so much 𝘧𝘶𝘯 to watch McDiarmid chewing the scenery. Shame he couldn't save 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘬𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘳.

I'm not entirely persuaded that I ought to include 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘦 in that list at all, since it's operating on different creative conceits than the rest of the films. Also, I go back and forth on whether 𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘰 or 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘪𝘵𝘩 is better.

Sometimes you get those movies that are stitched together from 2 or 3 conflicting creative visions like 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘦 or the 2017 cut of 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦, the motion picture equivalents of Frankenstein's Monster. 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘖𝘯𝘦 is kind of fascinating for being one of the few such movies that actually works.

That checks out. I've not done a deep dive but I definitely get the impression there were some strong differences of creative opinion behind the scenes between the different creative teams.