I got on Twitter today to announce something that I thought was pretty important, and immediately my feed was flooded with news that Disney had bought out Lucasfilm for over $4 billion.
Suddenly my announcement wasn't that dire anymore.
Brain = exploded.
My first reaction was to say, "What the hell? Really?! Does Disney really need the money/power/renown/whatever else from Lucasfilm? This is so... weird." I took as calm a breath I possibly could and decided to just see other peoples' reactions. I am eternally grateful that I did - it's surprising what we all could learn about ourselves if we just decided to be offensive instead of defensive (though the majority of the Internet doesn't function like this... ever).
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| Geek-lee-tist's new shirt for a new era!* |
Many people were also glad that Lucas was backing out of the company and retiring, and honestly I agree that he probably did more harm to Star Wars franchise the last several years than some fans want to admit. Did you feel the same way? Let me know in the comments below or via Twitter!
Of course, there were the other people who thought that Lucasfilm and all future Star Wars creations would be tainted with the evil that is known as Disney, but honestly I had to ultimately side with the fans who think that this combination of two of the greatest entertainment companies in the world will result in positive direction for all involved. And maybe it's just me having lived through the crappy prequels during my lifetime instead of the iconic originals, but I'd love for my future kids to experience new (not re-released!) Star Wars films during their and my lifetime!
Then again...
I don't want to say I'm not hesitant at all, though. Of course I'm cautious about how Disney will handle the characters, themes, stories, etc. we've all grown to love. I don't think I'd be a true Star Wars fan if I wasn't at least 1% unsure. But as with most things, I tend to keep space available in my mind and future for the opposite of what I've prepared for. Should Disney fail to meet expectations, it will be difficult to deal with, but at least I've not pushed the possibility out of my mind entirely and risked suffering a geek heart attack.
Really, this blog post is my meager attempt at summarizing my reaction to the buy-out news. I have not said everything about this topic that I was thinking during the span of several hours today, and I am positive I will have more thoughts on this in the days to come. I will do my very best to write these as they come to me (which I have more time for now, because of my announcement that never happened, which will happen at some point...).
Until then, what were your reactions to this news? Share your thoughts below or on Twitter!
* The shirt in my post can be bought from the Geek-lee-tist site.
3 comments:
What annoyed me the most about this was not WHO bought LucasFilms - realistically, there're not THAT many companies that can just drop 4 billion dollars like that. But over the course of the past few years, George Lucas has been acting more and more like a petulant child regarding the whole franchise. It wasn't that long ago that he basically said, "Yeah, because everyone makes fun of the prequels, I'm not making any Star Wars films anymore."
Realistically, if he was smart he would stop focusing on all the hate, and start focusing on what things we didn't like.
All in all, it felt more like Lucas said, "Fine, if you don't like what I did then no more Star Wars for you!" And when that didn't prompt the reaction he desired, he's like, "Well fine, I'll sell it!"
I agree you on how some people don't like to mention the damage Lucas has done to the franchise. I hope Disney will release the original movies on DVD with Blu-Ray clarity.
Well I've word-barfed my fanboy reaction all over Twitter and Facebook already, but here it is: AHHHHHHHHHHHH YESYESYESYES MORE STAR WARS MOVIES YAY I'M SO EXCITED YAYYAYAYAYAY. But if they don't use the EU as the source material I will kill myself.
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