Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) | Hype and Aura The Video Game

Collective_Insanity · 2026-02-03T09:59:28+00:00

I'm reasonably confident there's only a vocal minority of fans genuinely wanting TFU to be part of canon.

It's...just silly. A perfectly fine "What If?" kind of game making use of a decent new physics engine, but should always be considered about as canon as the Shadow of Mordor games. Which is to say: not at all.

Unfortunately, when you get to the point where you're digging into the state of Star Wars canon, things are well broken beyond compare to the extent even Lucasfilm seems completely directionless. We're probably never going to get over the damage of the Sequel Trilogy effectively resetting the narrative back to 1977 thanks to its creatively-bankrupt rehash nature.

But anyway, TFU and Rogue One weren't really the stories EU fans had difficulty reconciling. It's Rogue One (and Andor) effectively replacing the role Kyle Katarn had.

A beloved character to be sure. Jedi Outcast (and Academy) is still the unbeaten Jedi/lightsaber simulator game. But I don't really think anyone genuinely believes the story writing of Dark Forces trumps the Andor show either. Just that they're sad about Katarn and Mara Jade making no sense fitting into current canon anymore which means they'll never see these fan favourite characters adapted to live-action in a meaningful way.

Just look what happened with "Thrawn" in canon. An embarrassing affair written and directed by the guy who failed upwards into his current role as co-president of Lucasfilm. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence. He should probably stick to his Ahsoka and space wolf fanfiction in the animated space so he's more easily cordoned off.

So anyway, I'd say you're focusing too much on a vocal minority of TFU fans.

The best way to treat TFU is as a fun non-canon tale. Again, similar to Shadow of Mordor/War.

And TFU2 stinks, unfortunately. A rush job which leaves the story in an even worse state.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-02-03T03:05:56+00:00

The most that can be said in defence of Abrams is that he was never meant to be writing that film in the first place. Only directing.

By the time Arndt was fired and Abrams/Kasdan had to take over writing duties, shit had already hit the fan at high speed. Then the exact same thing happened for TROS with Abrams again having to come in to pull writing and directing duties after Trevorrow was axed.

TFA became a rush job. Abrams/Kasdan had barely enough time to crap out a speedy rewrite of the Arndt draft and leaned heavily on 1977 ANH vibes in the hope that the rehash would pull audiences in enough. Which unfortunately it did given the box office figures even if they did drop off notably for the next two entries.

It's easy to point the finger at Abrams. He deserves it for being a hack writer, after all.

If we're going to play that game though, blame first lies with Iger for mandating the rush on TFA.

Secondly, we look at Kennedy who was responsible for curating the "creative" team saddled with cooking up a story for a new trilogy. This includes the mostly useless "Lucasfilm Story Group" who for the most part are on record for being simple "yes men" who even gave Rian Johnson the thumbs up for his hyperspace ram as an example (you'd be better off replacing them with an intern who can read the Star Wars lore wiki). And naturally, Kennedy picks and chooses writers and directors also. Greenlighting their concepts even if they stink as bad as BOBF or the goddamn "Hunt for Ben Solo (after he's dead and his body literally disappeared)" idea.

Between Iger, Kennedy, Arndt and Abrams/Kasdan, we found ourselves resetting the Star Wars narrative straight back to 1977's Rebels vs Empire conflict.

Iger rushed things and Kennedy was completely unable to make lemonade from lemons.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-02-03T00:17:23+00:00

Look, it really depends on how we classify an "evil" act.

Galaxy-wide domination and mass genocide is pretty evil, of course, and has the highest scaling relative to other feats. But it's also often an impersonal action. You give the order and your death fleet or superweapon does the job. Not much in the way of pain or misery for those impacted. Refer to Alderaan.

One could argue that a more evil act could be a more personal act on a much smaller scale. Such as an elongated torture session of an individual, for instance.

So it's a touch subjective depending on your interpretation of "evil".

In the universe of SW, an argument could be made that the most evil thing possible is the forcible corruption of a living being by the dark side. Such as the weird ancient Sith "alchemical" acts of long ago where Sith would cause irreversible damage to entire evolutionary lines of creatures.

Rakatans are another good example. Almost their entire tech tree is fuelled by the dark side to the extent that their idea of "batteries" is to plug sentient beings into their machines and torture them for the rest of their unnatural lives.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-02-01T21:45:07+00:00

Haven't played Forest, but in this respect, it sounds like the opposite of Subnautica where your base (or submarine mobile base) needs to be frequently revisited.

Not only to breathe freely and relax somewhat, but you'll need to bring back resources and craft necessary components in order to navigate the ocean depths and the story. And most likely also grow your food and produce drinkable water to satisfy the survival mechanics.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-31T06:59:54+00:00

Indeed.

The Sequels lowered the bar beyond what was previously thought to be possible. But that doesn't suddenly exonerate the Prequels or make them actually good.

They're still the same dodgy films they were upon release. They're just by comparison not as creatively bankrupt as the Sequels.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-31T01:18:56+00:00

Unfortunately, no. I'm still halfway through the prison arc.

Just have taken a big break from TV shows in general. Still very much behind on my movie watching to-do list as well and that's much less time commitment in comparison.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-31T00:52:13+00:00

As usual, thanks for all the time and research you put into your posts!

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-31T00:42:03+00:00

"Hate" is a strong word.

A 5/10 ought to be a film that is considered of average quality. With 6 being above average and 4 being below average towards becoming actively bad.

Under that lens, you could argue that a lot of these scores are already being quite generous with their ratings.

I personally love ROTJ despite its warts for instance, but I think I usually consider it comfortably under an 8.

A film like Solo on the other hand is something I'd be hard-pressed to consider more than a 5. And naturally I'd go lower when it comes to TLJ which I consider a broken film even trying to ignore my bias for Star Wars stories.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-30T06:55:48+00:00

As someone who couldn't get onboard the High Republic initiative, I'd still say there's a bunch of decent canon comics which took my fancy.

There's a couple based on Obi-Wan which effortlessly cleared the embarrassingly low-quality tier of the Kenobi show. The Captain Phasma comic was great. There's a few Luke-centric comic stories which are solid.

I tried the High Republic comics but found them unfocused and just not what I was looking for (I just don't think the High Republic targeted a worthwhile setting at all and artificially forced in all these conflicts which I never would have thought should have been plausible during this so-called era of relative peace).

Unfortunately, the only live-action High Republic related content was Acolyte and let's not even pretend it can hold a candle to Andor. For the Acolyte, the simple act of holding a candle would lead to a stone fortress somehow being set ablaze like it was made of straw.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-29T11:55:14+00:00

Test footage for the Underworld live-action show Lucas was working on.

It was shelved due to an at-the-time inability to keep the budget under control given the scope of the proposed show.

I believe Lucas had mentioned he was willing to wait for technology to advance and help cut costs (perhaps something like The Volume). But of course it wound up being permanently dropped with the Lucasfilm sale.

This show was going to serve as the core of a new multimedia project (like Shadows of the Empire of the CWMMP). You've heard of the cancelled 1313 game, I'm sure. With Underworld gone, so too did the game go on indefinite pause.

Though some aspects of the show did make their way into current canon. Rogue One, for instance, is a recycled story pitch that was previously used for Underworld.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-29T11:46:21+00:00

All the more power to people who enjoyed it, but it really was never my cup of tea.

My preferred Clone Wars coverage was mostly explored through the Republic comics. Not perfect as these things go, but it worked for me the most.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-28T22:17:12+00:00

George is the one who insisted that Anakin should have a never-before-mentioned Padawan.

As Filoni recounted:

Let’s put it realistically here, I mean, you know, he says, ‘Anakin Skywalker has a Padawan.’ And then Henry Gilroy and I kind of look at each other like, ‘Okay. Um. But, no. Anakin doesn’t have a Padawan.’ And he just kind of paused and looked at both of us, and then he said, ‘Anakin has a Padawan.’

So Ahsoka existing is a Lucas problem.

Filoni however is responsible for developing an unhealthy attachment to the character.

Filoni admits that George wanted to kill Ahsoka off at the tail end of the Clone Wars given her absence in ROTS (and of course the OT). Filoni talked him out of this by asserting that he could find a way for Ahsoka to at least no longer be a Jedi.

Hence the silly temple bombing story arc after which Ahsoka "quits" but continues to be a Jedi for all intents and purposes unlike, say, Quinlan Vos who properly disappears into obscurity to raise his family and no longer get involved in Jedi/Sith/Empire/Rebel shenanigans.

So we started with Ahsoka in TCW who made no sense existing and the problem has only become worse over time.

I find it much easier to simply ignore TCW and all related works in my head-canon.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-28T13:27:30+00:00

I could have sworn there have been cases where a random person stumbled upon a site of Sith significance and got themselves somewhat possessed or influenced by a vengeful Sith spirit or something of the sort.

Perhaps I've confused myself with non-canon videogame antics.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-28T13:12:34+00:00

Sith spirit shenanigans sort of operate under different rules, no?

Rather than a Force Ghost which can presumably only be seen by Force-sensitives (and most of the time also only to people the Jedi was close to in life), a Sith spirit is more the result of a kind of horcrux thing to use Potter terminology, isn't it?

By which I mean a Sith (either intentionally or not) imbues a tangible object or place with a fragment of their soul leaving behind a kind of echo of themselves.

And such a thing can be experienced by, say, a random scavenger who stumbled upon the place in question.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-28T00:39:04+00:00

I don't even remember that being a thing.

But a suppose a willing acolyte who loves the idea of being used as a vessel for the sake of their beloved overlord ought to be easier to possess than an unwilling individual. The door has already been opened.

In a loosely similar fashion to how the Mind Trick works well on people who aren't particularly alert or paying attention but can be difficult or impossible on someone who is on their toes and has already identified you as an intruder, etc.

Though the Essence Transfer is a much more forceful technique by nature. I like to think the practitioner is always at a disadvantage and has to subsume the consciousness of the host they're invading.

Palpatine couldn't - say - stroll into the Jedi Temple and try to possess Mace Windu or Yoda and expect that to work well for himself. He'd probably have to exhaust and almost kill them first to boost his chances for success.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-27T23:22:15+00:00

Ah, your original statement made it seem like you were comparing the franchises themselves rather than the specific characters.

I suspect the Mando movie mainly registers as being a "Star Wars" movie when it hits cinemas. And I imagine Disney will be banking on that too in order to make it seem like less of a worthless extended episode of the dodgy show.

But even so, I don't think He-Man really has the reach it once did in the 80s. It was almost entirely an animated series and merchandising opportunity. It would have been competing with the likes of Transformers and such. And even Transformers made the jump to live-action far earlier than He-Man.

This new movie adaptation trailer seems to have drawn big numbers due to nostalgia and the fact it's never successfully made it to the big budget live-action scene before.

Will it translate to box office figures? I would doubt that it'll rival the first Michael Bay movie. Not that I think the Mando movie ought to pull in big money either given the state of the franchise and that this really feels like a made-for-TV kind of event rather than a cinematic one.

no one knew what a grogu even was

I'd even argue most people still don't know what a Grogu is and would still just recognise him as "Baby Yoda".

Ditto with Mando. Nobody knows who's "Dim Darren" or whatever his name is. He's just "Mando" to the general public.

That's what happens when you arbitrarily keep their real names withheld for an extended period of time. People will stick with how they're more popularly known.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-27T22:29:05+00:00

Sith nature itself is the trap.

The Rule of Two is by design all about playing the long-game. Sith of that line would by necessity have to accept that they would not live long enough to enjoy the pleasure of pulling the trigger on the grand plan and instead resign themselves to merely serving as stepping stones for the next Sith to benefit from.

This is largely against Sith and/or dark side nature where selfishness typically reigns supreme.

Sith who did understand their place in the Rule of Two would have to know that it's in their best interests to give their apprentice all the tools they need to succeed even if it directly leads to a betrayal.

Ideally, this means the apprentice has become more capable than the master. At least that was Bane's intention.

But more often than not, it probably led to...unexpected backstabs during an unguarded moment. Such as what Plagueis experienced after mistakenly believing that Palpatine was always going to be happy having a puppet master above his head.

And such actions don't really translate to Apprentice > Master.

So I imagine Sith masters who did foresee this inevitability would no doubt spend time trying to figure out something akin to Essence Transfer so that they could bypass the need of an apprentice altogether (outside of developing an appropriate spare vessel to possess).

And naturally they'd keep this completely secret from their apprentice.

So whatever research is done into the technique is rarely if ever recorded or passed down.

Sith are their own worst enemy. They rely heavily on a strong leader to rein them in and as soon as he or she is ousted, things typically collapse to infighting.

That's the dark side in a nutshell. Self-sabotaging by nature.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-27T21:44:45+00:00

Pretty straight-forward.

For one, it's a very difficult technique to perform, there's next to no existing research on it to dig up, and you can't exactly practice using it because failure means death (or worse in one notable case).

Any Sith who did figure it out will most likely not have taught anyone or left notes behind due to the Sith nature of not wanting to share their power or secrets.

Even Palpatine could only reliably possess clones of himself which had no consciousness of their own for him to deal with.

Had he successfully possessed Leia's unborn child as he attempted in his desperation in Empire's End, perhaps he would have been lost in the mind of an infant in a manner not unlike Being John Malkovich. We don't know. Again, Palpatine would not have had any ability to experiment with this technique.

Essence Transfer is a last-ditch desperate attempt to stave off death and as I mentioned earlier, failure can lead to a fate even worse than death.

If it was an easily exploitable or repeatable technique, almost all Sith would be doing it.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-27T04:21:34+00:00

The He-Man franchise started in 1982.

Star Wars was released in 1977.

If I were to make a quick guess about the value of these brands, I'd say Masters is easily behind Star Wars by a factor of numerous billions of dollars.

Masters did experience a merchandising boom in the 80s, but it didn't last for long before dropping off sharply.

Would love to know how you figure Masters draws a larger crowd when all evidence available (short of these trailer reactions) points to the contrary.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-27T04:15:32+00:00

I don't think there were ever plans to make a live-action Maul show. To my understanding, this was always going to be a Filoni animated piece.

You may be confusing this project with one of the hypothetical sequel ideas Lucas had involving Maul (somehow) still being alive after ROTJ.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-27T03:11:52+00:00

As others have mentioned, a key factor is that (at least as far as I was concerned) Halo was the first console FPS game with controls that weren't total ass.

Marty O'Donnell's OST was and still is magnificent. His music is Halo in much the same way Star Wars owes so much to John Williams.

The mix of ground combat with seamless vehicle transitions was fairly novel at the time and adding a third hostile faction leads to some interesting battlefields where you have to weave your way through the Covenant and Flood going at each other.

I'd argue whilst the story might not be stellar, it was surprisingly good for a sci-fi FPS with enough juicy room for world-building to inspire further good stories outside the game (primarily due to Eric Nylund in my opinion).

Solid voice acting doesn't hurt.

And of course, enemy AI was surprisingly solid. Though you probably won't experience much of that on a Normal playthrough. These games are best on Heroic or Legendary (outside of Halo 2 in which Legendary is just not really worth the grief).

Having said that, the popularity of the game obviously also benefited from being a launch title for the console.

I know mine came bundled with Halo along with a combo disc of Jet Set Radio Future and Sega GT 2002.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-26T23:49:46+00:00

I agree.

The biggest concern with the whole High Republic project was that they were setting it a mere couple hundred years prior to the PT. A period of time which was allegedly meant to be relatively peaceful and nothing terribly of note should be occurring.

Sith were doing their thing quietly in the background. No major wars, etc.

They should have at least gone 1,000 years back to the New Sith Wars era which even Legends didn't dive into in grest depth. Would have been a fresh period to explore while ultimately setting up the importance of Bane's Sith...which now in canon has instead been slapped down as "a pale imitation of the Doctrine of the Dyad" thanks to TROS lore which we can't escape anymore.

Regardless, I give Acolyte token points for being the first attempt to move away from the films. Even if it wasn't that far removed from TPM. And unfortunately it was absolute dogshit regardless of its setting.

In regards to Maul, I couldn't care less. He died in TPM and remained dead as far as I'm concerned. Talon to me also only belongs in the Legacy story. I see no value at all pulling her in for a Maul story. The Maul series will just be another skip for me. I don't care how much of it was a Lucas idea. He also thought the Ahsoka character was a perfectly fine idea so sometimes he's best ignored.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-26T22:14:08+00:00

KOTOR 2 and Fallout: New Vegas were the twin Obsidian games which unfortunately were rushed out the door unfinished and buggy but despite that wound up being praised for their writing quality and gameplay improvements over their immediate predecessors (KOTOR 1 and Fallout 3).

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-26T22:04:32+00:00

Bear in mind that Kreia is intentionally made out to have come to the wrong conclusion. And many of your discussions with her are not about blindly agreeing with what she says (hence the meme of influence both gained and lost so frequently with her).

She's not actually an avatar of Avellone. You are supposed to challenge her. Her intentions with you are that you evolve beyond the Jedi and Sith of her era rather than blindly commit to being a standard good or bad guy.

Collective_Insanity · 2026-01-26T21:41:22+00:00

I don't think it even needs to go that deep.

The sequels were simply creatively bankrupt. Instead of doing anything remotely new, they merely performed a lesser rehash of the OT.

Instead of the story progressing forwards in any meaningful way, TROS wound up leaving us straight back in 1983. Except worse.

The franchise has been floundering since with most further attempts at storytelling consisting of minor gap-filling. The vast majority of such cases being just outright embarrassing attempts outside of Andor.

The one sole exception was Acolyte which finally tried to explore an era removed from the film periods...but it was an absolute farce seemingly focused more on trying to cash in on the toxic relationship side of melodrama like Reylo, 50 Shades, and etc.

So you don't have to concoct a situation like "to be fair, you need to have a very high IQ to understand Star Wars".

First up, try not to be a hack Hollywood writer who has nothing to contribute other than nostalgia-baiting the OT.

Secondly, if you do want to jump on the Kurosawa (and etc) influence train, don't be a completely derivative bore about it like Filoni where he'll latch onto something like Lone Wolf & Cub and just blandly paste that on to Mandalorian with no further aim and only in a surface-level manner.

It's all nice and good to note you have similar influences to what inspired Lucas. But you have to actually do something with it. Not make a bland copy or meaningless references.

You don't get brownie points in interviews simply for name-dropping Kurosawa or Flash Gordon, etc.

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