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Leslye Headland admitted she is immoral. She relates herself to the villain (she created) that went nekkid infront of a non-consenting female. Her words. She finds him (smiloRen) "relatable." Who was it that dropped his towel and, also, went nekkid infront of a non-consenting woman? Her former boss, H. Weinstein. She finds that creep relatable. THAT is admission of immorality. And, bad fckng taste. She reimagined that scenario as a smexy, smokin' hot scene. (Ytube will probably delete this comment. I've commented this before and it gets disappeared pronto. Idk who they are protecting, they are definitely protecting these creeps.)
I just bought my own OZLO headphones with their holiday deals going on right now. I will be coming back in a few weeks to give an honest update on how they work.
That interview where she says she had a hard time getting a job and that she has no evidence that it was because she was a woman, but it must be because she feels like it is proof of her massive arrogance. The whole thing boils down to "I had a hard time getting work, but I deserve work because I know I'm absolutely brilliant, so it must have been sexism. The only reason it wasn't obvious it was sexism is because the whole system hides it so well, not because I'm bad at what I'm trying to do." What absolute narcissistic delusion.
It's a form of magical thinking - a person has an issue or issues which they think are the cause of all the problems in the world, so a question like "Why didn't I get this job?" gets answered by this magical phenomenon. Centuries ago (or in certain cultures today) the answer might be "...because a witch cast a spell on me." or "...because I did something to invite misfortune.", but to someone like Leslie the answer is always "...because the industry is fundamentally sexist/homophobic."
Like so many f*minists show these statement that she's s*xist. If a women doesn't make it, it must be because of that superficial fact. Just when there are eight guys and two women applying for two openings, lets say in IT and two guys get the job. How can that be, there were two women? It's not statistics, it's not because it can be possible that these men are better suited, it must be s*xism, therefore quotas to fix this "problem".
Yet not only gets away with it, but that bad attitude impressed ceo Kennedy so much that Acolyte got an mcu movie sized budget, just because of that oppression story.
$20 she never investigated because she never cared to begin with. It's obvious she never watched sw before, considering how she acts like no women were involved at all in sw before the Acolyte
Right? I'm not a deep Star Wars history person, but I'm seeing SO many comments saying that Ralph McQuarrie and Marcia Lucas have been widely known names for decades. She acts like she just discovered this new secret information.
Regarding the "Everyone thinks that it was all George Lucas!" Bit. WHAT THE HELL WAS THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE?!?!?!? Stories and characters that we all know were not created by George. That hilariously enough Leslye's hero, KK threw out all of the second she had control because she wanted to now be the sole creator of Star Wars stories. Only to have to exhume the corpses and Frankenstein pieces together when it turned out that, to quote, "Creating new Star Wars stories is really hard."
@@twiddlinbits Didn't Marcia actually win an Oscar for her editing on A New Hope (Star Wars)? Because she was actually a big help on a lot of George's movies, including American Graffiti, Raiders of the Lost ark, and The Empire Strikes Back.
Did she only learn about Ralph McQuarrie in the last few years and thinks that nobody else has heard of him? Anyone with more than a passing interest in Star Wars has heard of his work and recognises his genius.
100%. She has made up this idea that everyone only knows Lucas and is now on this odd crusade to prove the world wrong, but you're completely correct that the REAL egoist is Kennedy, who demands that all the old be thrown out to make way for the glorious Rey
A lot of casual fans aren't aware of the expanded universe. They don't read the books. They just watch the movies. "We all" mostly pertains to the deep Star Wars fans, but that's not the general audience.
@@kateorgera5907 Well there's a difference between being aware of it and knowing the various ins and outs and story arcs of the expanded universe. It's like Tolkien, a lot of people who've only seen the movies are aware of things like The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, but they've never read them or have any serious familiarity with them. Like I know plenty of people who've never read Heir to the Empire or Champions of the Force but they know there's a bunch of other books and such. Hell, my 93 year old grandmother knows about that stuff and I don't know if she's ever actually seen Star Wars all the way through, but she passed by those books in the bookstore several times while shopping.
It must be so painful to interview her. Having to sit through her ramblings is hard enough, but to have to nod along like she said something insightful has to be soul crushing.
Ralph McQuarrie didn't even design any of the ships from the OT. Joe Johnston and others did the Falcon, X-Wings etc. Ralph did the full color paintings based of their designs used to pitch the idea to srudios. He was the creatures, character guy mostly. But to just give credit to him and only him is also disingenous.
The real hypocrisy is who is taking all credit for singlehandedly creating Acolyte? Anyone remember the showrunner naming all the ones in production, design, editing, or so forth for Acolyte? Me neither.
I can't stop thinking about Headland talking about how McQuarrie deserves as much credit for creating Star Wars as Lucas because he helped with the look of it. She's basically advertising how shallow she is, unable to understand the brand at all beyond its most surface-level aspects.
What are you talking about, ur making the concept of Star Wars wayyy deeper than it really is, the look is crucial to the existence of Star Wars because it helps with merchandising. You overly sentimental types really think Star Wars is about space magic and interesting production trivia but it’s just a toy commercial at the end of the day. The only that justifies any expenditure into Star Wars media is its merchandising.
So I would argue that Star Wars is very much a surface level franchise with a fanbase that over romanticizes it, especially when the “fans” are notorious for harassing actors and writers for their grievances. Look honestly, Star Wars is rather generic for its time tbh, there were many sci fi space opera type films that came out around the same time, even before. Star Wars at the end of the day is just another investment in Disneys shareholders portfolio that people like you over estimate its depth.
@Khaleguy What has the alleged behaviour of fans got to do with the art? Star Wars is intentionally derivative and also creative. To claim it is all surface just proclaims your own ignorance and spiteful condescension.
@@KhaleguyThe merchandising toy rights were sold in perpetuity before the movie came out. The one thing it is not is a toy commercial, you patronising, ignorant fool.
Honestly, an actual Pride and Prejudice in the Star Wars universe could be really cool - Old Republic noble families that are in systems equivalent to old England country - connected, but certainly not part of the Couriscant circles. You'd have the layers of galactic politics and interpersonal romance. It obviously wouldn't have the biggest appeal to many Star Wars fans, but enough that if you do it on a small budget, could be a really fascinating Expanded Universe piece. The problem is you don't mix in a terrible murder mystery, half-baked swapped twin stories, and a "romance" that makes Twilight look deep. You also have to understand how to actually write characters with depth, motivation, and understatement. Oh, and as a writer, have a love for people and a capacity for wit and irony that is tempered by charming optimism. So in other words, there'd be *no way* Leslye could ever have made something that was inspired by Austen - regardless of what IP setting it was in.
I was thinking the exact same thing that Pride and Prejudice with a touch of Star Wars could work. There are many aspects of the Acolyte that very well could work, the problem is that Lesley isn’t a talented enough writer or director to be able to put those ideas onto the small screen. A lot of the script would need a re-work, a lot more would need to be cut, characters would actually have to be fleshed out… but most importantly the ideal that the twins were created by the “Thread” would have to be tossed out completely. It was supposed to be unprecedented when Palpatine supposedly did it to Anakin’s mother. Making it a bunch of lesbian witches without even a hint of build up… because there should have been failed attempts. Something that the expanded universe actually did far better. Palpatine had a program where clones were created of him and most of them were failed attempts and the one that survived was hinted at as being disabled in some way. I can’t remember exactly how but it was hinted that he suffered from some sort of impairment.
I would love that! But I also know that it would only appeal to a small subset of Star Wars fans, and would therefore never get made (outside a fan film or something), which is ok.
I think you could actually make a fairly one to one P&P setting in Star Wars EU in the Hapes Cluster. I think they’re large enough and monarchy/feudal society based enough to work and they had the right vibe. And it would even be kind of interesting for fans of the EU to have something explore that setting further through a familiar story.
Hey Greg, Actor here. There's a great section from the William Esper book on the Meisner technique that perfectly sums up a large part of what's wrong with Headland's method. In short: the more actor's think, the less able they are to act. (and conversely, the less writer's think, the less are able they are to write). In other words, it should be the WRITER creating character motivations and backstory, SO THE ACTOR'S DON'T HAVE TO. "The Closer Look" talks about this a lot, how creating one character's motivations should effect another character, which in turn effects another etc. i.e. Arcane Season 1
@skaidonC -- Huh, yeah that *really* makes me think that the writers (and showrunner) don't know what the're doing and so now the not-professional-writers actors are being made to do their job. When actors are only supposed to have to be bringing what's already been written to life (aka acting). Bet they're not being paid to do two jobs' worth of work, much like many other employees being given one salary and two roles/position's worth of duties and responsibilities "as needed".
@@iprobablyforgotsomething Absolutely. And as we've seen, it's usually the actors that get the blame for a bad production (being the face of it and all) even though the responsibility really lies with studio/producer/director/writer(s) or some combination of those
@skaidonC -- Good point. It's like when customers rage at the entry-level service reps for store policy decisions, like the poor underpaid hirelings carrying out the rule-following have any say in it or can do a d*m thing about it. Likewise people forget that the acting may've been bad, yes... but someone(s) okay'd the terrible performance, and before that, someone also approved the terrible writing etc. How could it result in anything else but an awful product? Regardless of what the actor did or didn't do (or wanted to do). . It's so unfortunate that other people's incompetence and poor decisions can then stain actors' (and the many behind the scenes workers) credibility and reputation for years. : /
@@iprobablyforgotsomething oh and one other point! As Critical Drinker has pointed out, a large failing of modern Hollywood is the massive budgets, caused in large part by the failure to properly assess the script BEFORE production starts, thus resulting in extensive reshoots. So as you mention: make sure the script is actually good before production starts (e.g. Andor)
As an OG Star Wars fan.I can tell you emphatically That even back in 1978, nine and ten year old kids like me all knew the name of Ralph Mcquarrie And held it in extremely high regard. And this was way before the internet.
"the saddest, shallowest people count their victories by who they are upsetting" . I think this is the first time I've ever used this kinda silly phrase, but -- that actually was a mind=blown! moment for me. You not only hit the nail on the head but drove it entirely into it's place in the wall in just one clean strike of the hammer. Very neatly put, clear and concise and spot-on.
There are MANY points that Greg makes that I could piggy back on, but I'll only focus on the point he made about the way Leslye talks about her characters. Or rather, how LITTLE she talks about her characters. This year I graduated from my Creative Writing course at University, and the thing I love most about writing fiction, is the characters. I love Star Wars because of Luke, Leia, Han, Anakin, Obi Wan, Qui Gon, Padme, Ahsoka and so on. And that's just with Star Wars, every other fictional series I've read or watched that I like or dislike, is usually contingent on its character writing. Not only that, but the thing I first do when crafting a story, is write the character profiles. Now obviously, I also put time into the plot, world building, power system and other essential story details, but to me, the characters are who keep your audience invested. Leslye seems to be so uninterested in characters, to the point where she literally let's OTHERS write them for her, because she's so lazy. Now that's not to say she should value characters the most, but she should at the very least understand that they're an essential aspect to telling ANY kind of story. This is why Leslye is literally GUESSING and having to think on the spot, who ANY of her characters are, despite the fact she LITERALLY RAN THE SHOW (on paper anyway). Just to give you guys an idea of what I mean, I'll tell you about one of the characters I've written and see if you can spot the difference between the way me and Leslye speak about our characters. One of my characters is Luna. She's the female lead of this particular story and comes from a pretty well off family, being its oldest daughter. Luna is quite competitive and confrontational, however this is born out of her being raised with high expectations, so she constantly feels a need to prove herself both mentally and physically. Which is in part represented with her ability to create and manipulate glass. A fragile object that can also be quite dangerous in the wrong situation, referring to how Luna's goals can be obtained effectively, so long as she's willing to put aside her fragile pride. Now notice how I never used phrases like "I think" or "I believe", and that's because I don't need to think or believe who Luna is, I KNOW who she is and why she acts the way she does. Conversely, Leslye can't tell you about ANY of her female leads, despite how much she "wants more women" in entertainment. She's so focused on what these characters represent, they she forgets that they need to be people first. And because of that, she'll never understand why Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Fanny Mae and Jecky Stardust fail. It's fine to have others help you craft your characters, but it's another thing entirely when you know NOTHING about who they are or what their motivations are. Leslye is so focused on "THE MESSAGE", that she completely disregards every other facit of storytelling, and her characters are merely the avatar of this issue
@krnatsu -- *nod of agreement* Well said. And very true. Though ofc, she doesn't need to know her characters when it doesn't matter what *they* as specific people in a given universe would do in any particular situation or scenario -- because they will do as SHE (aka Plot) tells them to with no regard for "in character" or "gels with established backstory & motivations" or "this is how normal/real people might react". . And good luck with your writing, it sounds interesting! Maybe drop us a reply-line so we'll see the comment notification if you get to publish, eh? : )
@iprobablyforgotsomething it's all part of Leslye's twisted perception of the world. She thinks that people, I.e. men and women, either should or do behave in a particular way and because of that, her characters need to act in that same way as well. To put it another way, Leslye's twisted sense of morality has led to her having an equally negative perception on how to tell a story. But she seems to think they because this is how we act "realistically" that characters should act the same way. Many people like Leslye cannot fathom a story that isn't "realistic" for the same reasons many of us do. She doesn't value the characters, themes, world-building and story of Star Wars, she just likes the flashy lights and her own failure to interpret what the story was about. But additionally she seems to confuse realism and allegory. J.R.R Tolkien actually talked about this in a letter he wrote discussing his desire to give his (and my) country a mythology of its own, which would evolve into Lord of the Rings. Whilst he acknowledged that we had the Arthurian Legeneds, he noted that those either reference to or explicitly contain Christianity. Keep in mind, Tolkien was a Christian himself and so he wasn't against the idea of similar values being integrated into a story. Rather, he said that whilst all fantastical works should reference or allude to things of the real world, it should not be direct or explicit. Of course there's situations where aspects of Religions, or the religions themselves, can be integrated in to fiction without feeling preachy or overbearing. To put it another way, the reason that Geoege, Tolkien and many like them are beloved worldwide, is because they were able to craft worlds and people, who are entirely believable by themselves, whilst simultaneously alluding to the real world. Leslye, Mariko Tamaki and Jessica Gadow, just to name a few are loathed because they can only write stories in what they think is the "real world", and as a result can never understand why their stories about FICTIONAL characters fail to begin with. And I'll try, gonna be a couple of years though lmao
Good characters can make or break any sci-fi or fantasy setting. You can have a very well thought out universe but if the characters (the reader’s point of reference) don’t react to it well or are boring in their reaction then the universe you’ve made will also be seen as boring. On the flip side, you can create a boring universe but make up for it with characters that make it feel dynamic and unique. The world building in Star Wars is legendary now but keep in mind that Episode IV was supposed to be a one off space opera. What’s the force? What’s the Dark Side? What are these alien creatures? I don’t know, but Luke, Leia, Han and Obi Wan are such amazing characters that you feel at home in this alien universe and the focus is on their journey together instead of “wizard war in space”.
The bit with you sat by the truck talking about how you have to analyse and figure stuff out, and should never be worried about failure should be mandatory viewing in classrooms. It was awesome. Absolute quallity life lesson. Lots of kids don't have dad's like you.
If she were a bad dm maybe, I think even an average DM would put a lot more effort into telling a good, cohesive story than what happened with The Acolyte.
@0giwan Unfortunately I know enough stories of TTRPG groups that are just as insufferable as Leslie is. My friend, who is the "forever GM," also has stories of his own when he tried to run online games during COVID. What OP is saying holds merit.
Leslie Hedland not believing in "management" or leadership reminds me of this reel of a guy "decolonizing" his car (it was satire). He deconstructed the cabin area to make the space more equitable. He then tied long sticks to the steering wheel so that everyone in the car had an equal say in where the car goes. This describes The Acolyte perfectly
Oh my god. She ran the show like a dnd game. DMs create the world they’re players engage in but the backstories and characters are created by the players. The dms job is essentially to be the none playable characters and guide the players along the course of the story. How the characters interact and their backstories are given to the dm and they incorporate it to varying degrees into the story.
The Acolyte always seemed to me to have been written by a 14-year-old. Then they gave that 14-year-old $200M and told her to spend it however she liked. How *did* she spend it? Sure as heck wasn't on the screen...
Leslye comes off as a person who spends all their time "consuming" other stories, but never opening her perspective to see what's in these stories beyond the surface level.
I once had a job at a retail store, and I got terminated because I made a mistake that cost the company about ~$50. They were allowed to terminate me because it was within the first 90 days. I always find it amazing that the higher up the ladder, the more people are allowed to get away with hurting the company.
It's because when someone low down in the company heirarchy screws up, they can be fired without making the top people look bad or inviting scruitny of their decisions by major investors. If someone really senior gets fired then people will ask the management why they hired such an incompetent individual who caused so much damage, why the people making that hiring decision haven't also been fired, and it calls into question the management's ability to run the company.
Cost benefit analysis: ex. Yes this manager screwed up, but to replace him (training, loss productivity, interdepartmental relations, paperwork, etc.) would cost us more than the screw up. Penalize, move on.
Yeah, it always shocks me when people get a full dressing down for minor mistakes when they are low on the pole, but higher ups literally make million dollar mistakes and then send out an email about how "we all need to stay focused on the mission". Incredible
At this point i don't even care about Leslye and The Acolyte anymore. The only thing on my mind is how Kathleen Kennedy became the head of LucasFilms and how is she still there? She seems to have zero idea about what Star Wars should be or what the fans want. I honestly don't understand the hiring of Leslye, a JJ Abrams who was not interested in doing a trilogy, a Rian Johnson that had zero intention on following up what was set up in the first movie, a Solo movie that, frankly, no one was asking for, giving Taika Waititi a star wars movie after what he did with Thor, James Mangold after what he did with Indiana Jones, a Rey sequel that no one cares or want... Man, i'm tired lol Thanks for the amazing video as always Greg, can't wait for the next part!
I appreciate you coming! I agree that it's such a crazy timeline where we are all unenthused about Star Wars and are left with only a morbid curiosity about how on earth it got to this point.
Kennedy was _"friends"_ with Lucas for years and when he was thinking of selling. She made every promise she could think of, such as protecting his legacy, to ensure he made her the new boss. Then, stabbed in the back the second he signed the papers. Apparently, to ensure that she could protect his IPs and his workers from any corporate scheme once he leaves. He made her contract ironclad to the point she is almost completely unfireable. Besides her deep connections in Hollywood and threats to burn Disney down if they tried to fire her before she ready to leave on her own terms of course. Means Disney Board of Directors has had difficulty getting rid of her, and they only way, really, is to wait out the contract. Which was renewed this year. Apparently, half the board wants her gone, while the other half still support her to offer her an extension.
I watched an episode of "Russian Doll" simply because I wanted to understand what someone saw in Headland's work to warrant handing over this enormous $240 million opportunity over it. By the time the episode was over, I realized there wasn't a single person in it I wanted to spend time with, let alone through multiple time loops. Maybe she writes terrible people well, but they're still terrible people, and it's not how I want to spend my time.
It's funny because if you wanted to have a "Shameless" esque story about a band of likeable misfits or anti-heroes, you already have an in-universe proxy for that in the Sith.
When you went through the "not credited individuals" section, I was reminded of a recent post on X that listed Women Who Created Important Things. One of the first was: signal flares were created by Jane Doe (I don't remember her name, but it's irrelevant). It turns out that her husband, a naval equipment engineer, developed the flares and then died. His wife then got the specifications out of his journal and sold them to the navy. About 2/3 of the items that she listed had the same kind of story. Men actually created the items, but a woman did help in sometimes major and sometimes very minor ways.
Thing is, the women who did invent things- Admiral Grace Hooper for instance- would have no truck with this sort of stuff. Yeah, she did develop COBOL, but as part of a team and for a purpose, and that is why she found value in those efforts- not that she did them with ovaries.
Small point: Considering how openly racist Lovecraft was as a person(great horror writer regardless) I’m surprised she openly tried to reference his works as anything to do with a show that she seems she wants to be a pinnacle of intersectional feminism with a Star Wars gloss
@@motherplayerHis politics suddenly veered sharply to the left a year or so before he died. He never stopped being racist but he went from "extremely racist even for his time" to "about the level of racist of most people at his time."
Another thing in the "auteur myth" section when Leslye is rabbling on about George hiring Ralph McQuarrie and Ralph not getting enough credit supposedly, she didn't mention Colin Cantwell (RIP). She skipped over him entirely. He was the guy that prototyped almost all the designs in Star Wars, from the Death Star to TIE Fighters to the X-Wings. The T-16 Skyhopper Luke plays with on Tatooine is actually one of his models. Everything she gives Ralph McQuarrie credit for designing is stuff he REFINED from Colin Cantwell's prototypes... which is naturally stuff Cantwell designed based on George Lucas' ideas and concepts.
Fun Fact to blow your mind: The Acolyte had a similar budget to Dune 1 and/or Dune 2. The Dune movies had a cast full of famous actors. The Acolyte had Trinity & Squid Game The Dune movies looked & felt like major motion pictures. The Acolyte looked & felt like mid-level TV mini series. Where did they spend the money???
Finally. This nightmare of a show can be buried and its failures will stand as a reminder of what NOT to do in writing! Edit: Okay. We still have more to go. Extended funeral I guess?
49:50 Jesus Christ i finally understand. This is a DND campaign turned into a show. Except not critical role. I mean your average dnd campaign played by a few people who play once or maybe twice a month, spend half the session repeating memes and the other half being confused whats happening, with the DM that is only dming his first campaign and still has yet to figure out how to keep coherent story and unite character concepts
Great video, Greg. Your systematic tearing apart of all these points they keep throwing out is a joy to listen to as ever. I'm looking forward to the next video.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! I'm looking forward to the next two. I'm so excited to watch the next two with everyone, this is the craziest rabbit hole I've ever been down.
I’m so glad I found this channel. You literally epitomize nuance. I don’t get why the entertainment industry is so obsessed with high jacking franchises with predominantly male fanbases with female spins and ideology. It literally makes no sense. No one is trying to make Sex and the City about 4 four middle aged men for a “modern audience” it’s like anything men like has to be pacified to women’s liking. If they just said they hate men I’d respect them more, but their intellectual incompetence or disingenuousness is just ridiculous.
So Greg, I really liked the part about not telling yourself you can't do something. I was a math teacher for several years and the first thing I told all my students on day one was this: I never, under any circumstances, want to hear you say that you can't do something. That ends the game before it even begins. If you're having problems, say something like, this isn't making sense, or I need some help, or I'm having a hard time with this concept, or even I need you to explain that a different way. All of those are fine, but never, ever, say that you can't do something, because you can, it just takes some work. It was always a joy to see them stop and ask me for help and catch themselves before they said it, and then say something different like "this isn't adding up or I'm struggling or can you explain it again."
YES! I wish more teachers would say this. I know it can sound corny to say that changing your words or mindset changes the outcome, but in a LOT of cases, it really does. You're spot on, saying you can't ends it right there
AHH FINALLY I've been waiting for this ever since it was announced. That is the one thing I will give the Acolyte is it is an endless well of everything wrong with modern writing. And I feel I could use it forever as the go-to of bad writing and bad morality. But then again you can't write morality and goodness when you've never had them to begin with.
100% on that last bit, especially. After reading her own words, i can conclude that Leslye is a monster. And yes, this show should be studied for how not to write, how not to hire, and how not to promote a show. It was a failure all the way around
That's not even an exaggeration, sadly. It serves as a fine example of all of the Fails that could be stuffed into one piece of media, but not of anything not-awful. There's not one redeeming feature or aspect, and that shouldn't even be possible to do on accident. . (I say "on accident" because she doesn't seem to be self-aware enough to have failed on purpose, knowingly; she really thought this piece of... work... was great all-around.)
Every Star Wars nerd knows how influential Marcia Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and many others were to the Original Trilogy. That's a complaint we have about the prequels is how much work Lucas did and how little input and help he got, in the creative sense at least. Her asserting that is really telling how little she knows and cares about Star Wars. Edit: Leslie just said the same thing about the prequels but was so smug in saying it I feel dirty saying it too.
@dangerousrobot9692 -- *pats shoulder consolingly* I felt gross too, when after I'd thought that vaguely in the back of my mind, I got to her smug-face remark about it. It's generally recommended to bathe in bleach after such incidents, to get fully clean again. Make sure to take your brain out and give it a good scrubbing also, while you're in there, or Leslie will grow in the cracks and crevices of it like mold.
55:48 actually in that scene where Indiana shoots the swordsman, HF was dehydrated with with a stomach flu of sorts and he just asked the director "can i just shoot him"? And thats how the scene was made.
Congratz I have never felt more old than when you did the intersectional bit with the Diablo gameplay. I swear I know what all those words mean individually, but trying to comprehend the overall structure together made me feel like I was having a stroke. Love your content. Love the pro youtube moves. Keep up the great work looking forward to the rest of the series.
Hahaha, thanks for the kind words! What scares me is that the string of nonsense I put together probably DOES make sense to the folks who use the lingo every day
If Russian Doll was really so good, maybe Leslie should have done something about Coruscant's criminal underworld and a particular smuggler's POV in it. Plenty of room for depravity, moral greyness, existential nihilism, hardcore spice addicts, heinous and powerful crime lords and OH WAIT DISNEY DOESN'T WANT THAT BECAUSE OUTLAWS WAS HEKKIN WHOLESOMESAUCE. I forgot, we can't have actual black-and-grey morality where it belongs in Star Wars either. Jabba the Hutt was merely a humble businessworm whose only real crime was sexually objectifying Princess Leia
9:45 As someone who those terms are allegedly supposed to represent...YES...yes I've noticed...and it INFURIATES ME to no end😭💀 The ONLY argument I can think about is that "person of color" humanizes the person more...but you still REDUCE them to their skin at the end of the phrase so its still STUPID💀
The whole reason why sympathetic villains became so widely loved or wanted was because it fills 2 conditions if done right, 1: The villain is part of the core thematic structure central to the character plot. 2: It isn't lecturing its audience and instead posing a moral question even if the author ends up revealing their position and labelling them 'good' and the antagonist 'evil'
1:07:16 "I'm here to learn how to make KRUMPETS! I don't care about who you're BANGING!!!" I never thought I'd hear this line in my ENTIRE life...hilarious🤣💀💀
I hate it so much when she says, "the ONLY reason I think that -- is PARTIALLY because..." It seems like her entire worldview is this; "I heard one person say something I thought was clever and formed my worldview around it."
@nebohtes -- That bugged me, too, so much. Does she even hear the words that come out of her mouth?? Does she really know what she's saying, and mean to be saying it? Out loud? On camera?? . "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt" comes to mind...
So essentially Leslye did nothing. She didn't write the characters. She didn't write the story. She didn't direct or lead. All she did was sleep with one of the actors and put her name in the credits. Ironically, she did the same thing she wrongfully accused all the other directors of doing: sitting back, doing nothing, and taking undeserved credit.
Hate to sound like I'm quoting Yoda but my grandpa told me "don't try, do or don't the success is learning." And "the day I stop learning something new is the day I die." I've learned and done so many things some successful others failed but I always learned something new. I can rebuild your car, make your daughter a prom dress, the beer for your wedding. I'm learning pottery now and I'm 40.
1:09:04 OH THIS STORY WOOOHHH! I’m a bisexual man and this story single handily made me hate Leslie even more when I first heard it. Like what kinda half assed thinking is this? When I came out to my family no one freaked out no one yelled literally my dad made a classic family joke “you know this is why we don’t eat at the table” and then we went on living our lives no “plans” ruined wtf is this therapy this is why I don’t believe in therapy
Love these longer videos. It takes me a couple of days to get all the way through them, but you keep them interesting and engaging the whole way through. Impressive work!
Oh yeah, she genuinely thinks that since he speaks softly to Osha in the following episode, it makes him deep and complex and tender. Leslye's relationship to men is completely toxic
We just need to stop letting fanfictions be made Rings of Power, Acolyte, shows like these are just someone's fanfiction given a big budget it was only made, for them not the "modern audience"
Could not agree more. If we are doing shows based on existing property, then the only people who matter are the real audience (not the twitter one) and the original creator of the IP. This using of IPs to tell "their story" is becoming infuriating
This woman is obsessed with her own ideas. She comes up with this theory that the auteur is inherently mysogonistic and just constructs her worldview around that one single false assumption. This is why trying to understand people's presuppositions is so important. This whole system she's built collapses simply by refuting the assumption of the sexism of auteurism. And her obsession with toppling the lone genius myth has her tilting at windmills. The executive producers are certainly far more aware than anyone else that their industry is built on more than one person. But they pay for the big names because the big names (used to) bring big audiences. And if for some reason her analysis is actually somehow based in reality, it is more of a case for removing those insane producers, not some restructuring of how to actually run a production. "This contractor thinks they don't need anyone else to build a house, so instead let's just have everyone draw on the blue prints rather than fire that contractor and hire one who realizes they rely on sub-contractors." Yea, stay away from any construction zone, lady.
Right?! That's why these turned into separate videos. It's obvious the show is terrible just by watching it, but when you match it up with her words, it's a whole new level is crazy
As someone who has worked in higher education, Headland's interviews sound like high-brow academic papers written by someone who knows the exact things to say to earn the grade but has no idea about how anything actually works. Her use of "literary references" is about the equivalent of slapping a sticker of Mario on a generic waterbottle and then declaring it official Nintendo merchandise. As for the Bridesmaid/Hangover thing, I think at large there is a cultural disposition to laugh at men and expect them to do stupid things in movies. People often cite the nature of father's in stories for the last couple of decades being stupider and even less capable as women. While I think that this observation is sometimes overblown and people see feminist boogymen where there literally are none, I still think it is a valid observation and something that rubs off into comedy. Women are far trickier to make comedy about because leaning too much into a women's trait could be called out as sexism. When Bridesmaid came out, I heard a lot of comparisons to how it was like a crass male humor movie but with women and I think that is what saved it. Any correlation to crass male movies was fine because it was a novelty in that genre, and it worked for women because it was centered around a feminine topic. I don't watch crass movies in general so I can't offer much of a detailed analysis, but I can echo some of the cultural response I heard about the movie when it came out.
I heard it once said that Men were so dominant in comedy because there is a willingness to be seen as a schlubby loser for comedic effect. Women in Comedy can do this too, but so few of them are willing to be seen as such (and it's not always necessary, it's just one approach that one can take). You have to be willing to laugh at yourself to a certain extent. Instead a lot of Women in comedy want to be seen in a powerful position, telling those stupid men how things should be done, and that CAN be funny if your intent is lampooning that kind of person. But that is often not the intent with these people, they genuinely look down on their male audience members as a whole, not simply the ones they disagree with on an issue, but all men. But a Comedian should not be attacking their audience, at least not the way they do it. Don Rickles, for instance, would target audience members, but what he would say would be so stupid and silly that it was obviously not intended to harm, but to laugh at the stupidity of prejudice and bigotry. Bridesmaids worked because it was able to show the negative catty side of things but also show that the characters were more than that and able to pull it together in the end, they were still friends who cared about each other despite their silly rivalries. Leslye's movie, as Greg said, it was all about that catty, nasty, terrible side with no redeeming values in any of the characters, and she wanted people to see that as a good thing. But she only sees the surface elements and thinks her movie was the same as Bridesmaids, and that they rejected her movie because SHE pitched it instead of a man or a straight woman.
Who was the leader of the rebels in the OT? … Mon Mothma, a chick Who was the monarch of Naboo? … Queen Amidala, a chick Were there female Jedi Council Masters? Yes…
I was so looking forward to this video. Headland isn't getting nearly enough shit for what she's done. Whenever I see people "not getting all the hate for Acolyte" I link them to your video about it. While I accept some people do like the show, I know the source material has actual amazing stories and I cannot stand them being satisfied by that piece of turd, let alone it being even asociated with the Star Wars brand.
49:10 "Star Wars is a very patriarchal world." The world where the HIGHEST ranking good guy figure in the OT and prequels was a woman and the most OP Jedi to ever exist was a woman in the sequels. Did that lady EVER watch ANY Star Wars movies?
Isn't being a teacher turned romantic interest considered predatory and problematic by these types? The fact that she has that dynamic as a path to empowerment says so much, especially when she fully admits it's meant as a positive corruption arc.
"Leslie is such fan. She was correcting me on things. Much like when I said Anikan Skywalker blew up the death star or Jabba the Hut was the one who brought balance to the force. I'm a big Star Wars fan guys, believe me?!..."
59:10 The operative word here is “love”. If you are going to reference another literary or cinematic work in your own, it has to be done out of love. And love can never be selfish. _Shaun of the Dead_ and _Hot Fuzz_ work so well as their own films because Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright clearly have so much love for the Romero zombie films and American action films. Lucas (for all his faults) loves the serials of his childhood as well as the films of Kurosawa. Through that that love of another’s work they all were able to create an original work that others can love. Leslye is referencing out of selfishness and greed - she wants others to recognize how smart and knowing she is. She wants what others have. She wants the works of others to give her work credibility. She’s uninterested in the world she’s building - she’s only interested in glorifying herself. And to quote Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Bert, and Cookie Monster: “THAT…is why you fail”.
@@Goldenspiderducck Imagining all those characters saying that line in their own way gave me a giggle. And yes she references things almost as an excuse not to give proper explanation "Oh it's like the Thing, oh it's Call of Cthulhu, oh it's Rashomon.". Lucas may not be the most articulate speaker, but he can explain himself most of the time and can admit to when he writes himself into a corner.
*BRUH* the "everyone wants to hire a director, but they don't think you hire someone who hires a good concept artist" thing.... My sister in Christ, that's LITERALLY a director's job!! You work in Hollywood and you don't know this? The director, in that industry, is by *definition* the department head that hires all the other department heads. Literally, that is their job. Holy fuck. These people just hate the idea of hierarchy, which is naturally occurring in all living systems lol.
Right?! The director is the general contractor! I was in disbelief hearing that, because that is precisely what the director does, I'm glad I'm not the only one scratching my head over her comments there
I have wondered before why the only three people we remember regarding the DNA work were Watson and Crick (because they supposedly worked out the double helix part) and Franklin (because she died before receiving the Nobel Prize). Nobody remembers any of the others.
I'll be honest, when I mention you to my wife by name, she always goes "the 6 kid review guy?" So your kids are definitely more of your brand than your wife, at least to *my* wife.
I don’t see this too often but I LOVE broken characters who DON’T have questionable morality. I’m currently writing a character who has serious trauma and demons, but he doesn’t ever let that stop him from making the right and heroic choice whenever needed. (Especially when it comes to the younger characters he’s become responsible for.) Basically, it’s supposed to show that that struggling with something doesn’t automatically make you morally gray.
I always hated the writing that people like Leslie create. Its just so misanthropic and can only be seen as "realistic" and how "Real X act in real life" if you're sheltered from literally everything else in life and your parents were just shitty. It feels like the writer wants to convince everyone else that the audience's life sucks as much as theirs does and gets feistrated when they realize: No, THEIR life just sucks, everyone else is just fine, kind even. And it just acts as a massive mirror that them and only them are the narcissistic, aweful, manipulative gremlin in their friend group.
Yeah this throws me off too, I've heard it from multiple woke videos and it fundamentally makes no sense. These people are talking out of their butts to try and get everyone to feel bad for them.
Omg, Greg, that whole section recognising that the actors wrote the characters is brilliant and makes so much sense as to why this and so many creations over the last 5 years or so make absolutely no sense. We've all been saying that so many shows and films have been feeling like kids just smashing their toys together.
"there were so many jobs that I wanted, but couldn't get, and I had to work hard to get the ones that I did." Oh, really? The world is truly a dark and evil place.
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Hey Greg where did you get that Wizard Jawa guys behind you its adorable and Awesome. Like little Heimerdingers feet 😅.
Leslye Headland admitted she is immoral. She relates herself to the villain (she created) that went nekkid infront of a non-consenting female. Her words. She finds him (smiloRen) "relatable." Who was it that dropped his towel and, also, went nekkid infront of a non-consenting woman? Her former boss, H. Weinstein. She finds that creep relatable. THAT is admission of immorality.
And, bad fckng taste. She reimagined that scenario as a smexy, smokin' hot scene.
(Ytube will probably delete this comment. I've commented this before and it gets disappeared pronto. Idk who they are protecting, they are definitely protecting these creeps.)
I just bought my own OZLO headphones with their holiday deals going on right now. I will be coming back in a few weeks to give an honest update on how they work.
That interview where she says she had a hard time getting a job and that she has no evidence that it was because she was a woman, but it must be because she feels like it is proof of her massive arrogance. The whole thing boils down to "I had a hard time getting work, but I deserve work because I know I'm absolutely brilliant, so it must have been sexism. The only reason it wasn't obvious it was sexism is because the whole system hides it so well, not because I'm bad at what I'm trying to do."
What absolute narcissistic delusion.
Right?! When she said that, I was in complete shock. That is a level of delusion and self-centeredness that is difficult to imagine
It's always the same with them. That's why the #Girlboss story arc is always: I'm brilliant, everyone else just needs to realise it
It's a form of magical thinking - a person has an issue or issues which they think are the cause of all the problems in the world, so a question like "Why didn't I get this job?" gets answered by this magical phenomenon. Centuries ago (or in certain cultures today) the answer might be "...because a witch cast a spell on me." or "...because I did something to invite misfortune.", but to someone like Leslie the answer is always "...because the industry is fundamentally sexist/homophobic."
Like so many f*minists show these statement that she's s*xist. If a women doesn't make it, it must be because of that superficial fact.
Just when there are eight guys and two women applying for two openings, lets say in IT and two guys get the job. How can that be, there were two women?
It's not statistics, it's not because it can be possible that these men are better suited, it must be s*xism, therefore quotas to fix this "problem".
Yet not only gets away with it, but that bad attitude impressed ceo Kennedy so much that Acolyte got an mcu movie sized budget, just because of that oppression story.
Saying Marcia Lucas didn't get enough credit is hilarious because she literally won an Oscar for Star Wars.
$20 she never investigated because she never cared to begin with. It's obvious she never watched sw before, considering how she acts like no women were involved at all in sw before the Acolyte
@@jamesneese7663 I'd have to agree. Especially when she says she read all the EU books and Star Wars saved her life and stuff. Total poser!
Marcia Lucas herself says George Lucas is the main visionary responsible for SW being what it is.
Right? I'm not a deep Star Wars history person, but I'm seeing SO many comments saying that Ralph McQuarrie and Marcia Lucas have been widely known names for decades. She acts like she just discovered this new secret information.
If anything, it’s Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew that don’t get enough credit. People tend to forget that Star Wars had three editors.
Regarding the "Everyone thinks that it was all George Lucas!" Bit. WHAT THE HELL WAS THE EXPANDED UNIVERSE?!?!?!? Stories and characters that we all know were not created by George. That hilariously enough Leslye's hero, KK threw out all of the second she had control because she wanted to now be the sole creator of Star Wars stories. Only to have to exhume the corpses and Frankenstein pieces together when it turned out that, to quote, "Creating new Star Wars stories is really hard."
@@twiddlinbits Didn't Marcia actually win an Oscar for her editing on A New Hope (Star Wars)? Because she was actually a big help on a lot of George's movies, including American Graffiti, Raiders of the Lost ark, and The Empire Strikes Back.
Did she only learn about Ralph McQuarrie in the last few years and thinks that nobody else has heard of him? Anyone with more than a passing interest in Star Wars has heard of his work and recognises his genius.
100%. She has made up this idea that everyone only knows Lucas and is now on this odd crusade to prove the world wrong, but you're completely correct that the REAL egoist is Kennedy, who demands that all the old be thrown out to make way for the glorious Rey
A lot of casual fans aren't aware of the expanded universe. They don't read the books. They just watch the movies. "We all" mostly pertains to the deep Star Wars fans, but that's not the general audience.
@@kateorgera5907 Well there's a difference between being aware of it and knowing the various ins and outs and story arcs of the expanded universe. It's like Tolkien, a lot of people who've only seen the movies are aware of things like The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, but they've never read them or have any serious familiarity with them. Like I know plenty of people who've never read Heir to the Empire or Champions of the Force but they know there's a bunch of other books and such. Hell, my 93 year old grandmother knows about that stuff and I don't know if she's ever actually seen Star Wars all the way through, but she passed by those books in the bookstore several times while shopping.
It must be so painful to interview her. Having to sit through her ramblings is hard enough, but to have to nod along like she said something insightful has to be soul crushing.
I'd roast her and end the interview... good thing I don't have a pod-cast lol
What would be worse, interviewing her or Kamala Harris?
Nah the interviewers are just as vapidly stupid
I find her Patty & Selma voice grating on its own. The rest is torture at the hands of a sadistic professional.
@@sarasunshinemt4444 She, unlike Harris, can at the very least form coherent sentences. Doesn't make it better, just different.
Why can’t she just celebrate Ralph for his work with Star Wars, and not shit talk George?
Says a lot.
Yep. She NEEDS George to be less, so she feels like more. It's plain pettiness, and not the funny kind
Ralph McQuarrie didn't even design any of the ships from the OT. Joe Johnston and others did the Falcon, X-Wings etc. Ralph did the full color paintings based of their designs used to pitch the idea to srudios. He was the creatures, character guy mostly. But to just give credit to him and only him is also disingenous.
The real hypocrisy is who is taking all credit for singlehandedly creating Acolyte? Anyone remember the showrunner naming all the ones in production, design, editing, or so forth for Acolyte?
Me neither.
Jealousy?
George SHOULD be criticized and questioned, but not by a hack poser like this chick.
I can't stop thinking about Headland talking about how McQuarrie deserves as much credit for creating Star Wars as Lucas because he helped with the look of it. She's basically advertising how shallow she is, unable to understand the brand at all beyond its most surface-level aspects.
What are you talking about, ur making the concept of Star Wars wayyy deeper than it really is, the look is crucial to the existence of Star Wars because it helps with merchandising. You overly sentimental types really think Star Wars is about space magic and interesting production trivia but it’s just a toy commercial at the end of the day. The only that justifies any expenditure into Star Wars media is its merchandising.
So I would argue that Star Wars is very much a surface level franchise with a fanbase that over romanticizes it, especially when the “fans” are notorious for harassing actors and writers for their grievances. Look honestly, Star Wars is rather generic for its time tbh, there were many sci fi space opera type films that came out around the same time, even before. Star Wars at the end of the day is just another investment in Disneys shareholders portfolio that people like you over estimate its depth.
@@Khaleguy
Thank you Leslye.
@Khaleguy What has the alleged behaviour of fans got to do with the art? Star Wars is intentionally derivative and also creative. To claim it is all surface just proclaims your own ignorance and spiteful condescension.
@@KhaleguyThe merchandising toy rights were sold in perpetuity before the movie came out. The one thing it is not is a toy commercial, you patronising, ignorant fool.
I expected nothing less from Harvey Weinstein's dim-witted assistant and accomplice
Sith always appear as master and apprentice, rather fitting for them..
A monster like Weinstein picked her for a reason. We don’t know for sure what that reason was, but they are all bad.
@@apophis2129 does that make headland like maul , except Weinstein is Darth plagueis and Kk is emperor palpatine?
There is a reason he kept her around for a good period of time. We can all do the math.
@@4dmind and yet she got away scot free when most accomplices get worse punishments
Honestly, an actual Pride and Prejudice in the Star Wars universe could be really cool - Old Republic noble families that are in systems equivalent to old England country - connected, but certainly not part of the Couriscant circles. You'd have the layers of galactic politics and interpersonal romance. It obviously wouldn't have the biggest appeal to many Star Wars fans, but enough that if you do it on a small budget, could be a really fascinating Expanded Universe piece.
The problem is you don't mix in a terrible murder mystery, half-baked swapped twin stories, and a "romance" that makes Twilight look deep. You also have to understand how to actually write characters with depth, motivation, and understatement. Oh, and as a writer, have a love for people and a capacity for wit and irony that is tempered by charming optimism.
So in other words, there'd be *no way* Leslye could ever have made something that was inspired by Austen - regardless of what IP setting it was in.
I thought this same thing--P&P in Star Wars, if properly applied, could work and be fantastic, but Headland has nowhere near the skill to pull it off.
I was thinking the exact same thing that Pride and Prejudice with a touch of Star Wars could work. There are many aspects of the Acolyte that very well could work, the problem is that Lesley isn’t a talented enough writer or director to be able to put those ideas onto the small screen. A lot of the script would need a re-work, a lot more would need to be cut, characters would actually have to be fleshed out… but most importantly the ideal that the twins were created by the “Thread” would have to be tossed out completely. It was supposed to be unprecedented when Palpatine supposedly did it to Anakin’s mother. Making it a bunch of lesbian witches without even a hint of build up… because there should have been failed attempts. Something that the expanded universe actually did far better. Palpatine had a program where clones were created of him and most of them were failed attempts and the one that survived was hinted at as being disabled in some way. I can’t remember exactly how but it was hinted that he suffered from some sort of impairment.
I would love that! But I also know that it would only appeal to a small subset of Star Wars fans, and would therefore never get made (outside a fan film or something), which is ok.
I think you could actually make a fairly one to one P&P setting in Star Wars EU in the Hapes Cluster. I think they’re large enough and monarchy/feudal society based enough to work and they had the right vibe. And it would even be kind of interesting for fans of the EU to have something explore that setting further through a familiar story.
As long as youtubers write it
Headland is a master. Of talking a shit ton and not saying anything.
She must be a vegetarian with all these word salads. She'd make a great politician
@@gregowen2022 Don't encourage her!!!!
@@gregowen2022 Don't give them ideas! Please.
@gregowen2022 we already have Kamala Harris, sir, please don't encourage them!
@@gregowen2022 ptryyy sure that she eats "some", eat..... 🤣
it sounds like their character creation process was 90% buzzfeed quizzes
The whole thing of characters being made by a director and actor is 100% tabletop. This wasn't even fan fic. It was really really expensive LARP'ing.
When you put it that way.... I guess she really is only guilty of what I'd probably do with a lot of money (expensive larping lmao)
@@TecTitanyeah but would you broadcast it to the world?
Hey Greg,
Actor here. There's a great section from the William Esper book on the Meisner technique that perfectly sums up a large part of what's wrong with Headland's method.
In short: the more actor's think, the less able they are to act. (and conversely, the less writer's think, the less are able they are to write).
In other words, it should be the WRITER creating character motivations and backstory, SO THE ACTOR'S DON'T HAVE TO.
"The Closer Look" talks about this a lot, how creating one character's motivations should effect another character, which in turn effects another etc.
i.e. Arcane Season 1
@skaidonC -- Huh, yeah that *really* makes me think that the writers (and showrunner) don't know what the're doing and so now the not-professional-writers actors are being made to do their job. When actors are only supposed to have to be bringing what's already been written to life (aka acting). Bet they're not being paid to do two jobs' worth of work, much like many other employees being given one salary and two roles/position's worth of duties and responsibilities "as needed".
@@iprobablyforgotsomething Absolutely. And as we've seen, it's usually the actors that get the blame for a bad production (being the face of it and all) even though the responsibility really lies with studio/producer/director/writer(s) or some combination of those
@skaidonC -- Good point. It's like when customers rage at the entry-level service reps for store policy decisions, like the poor underpaid hirelings carrying out the rule-following have any say in it or can do a d*m thing about it. Likewise people forget that the acting may've been bad, yes... but someone(s) okay'd the terrible performance, and before that, someone also approved the terrible writing etc. How could it result in anything else but an awful product? Regardless of what the actor did or didn't do (or wanted to do).
.
It's so unfortunate that other people's incompetence and poor decisions can then stain actors' (and the many behind the scenes workers) credibility and reputation for years. : /
@@iprobablyforgotsomething oh and one other point!
As Critical Drinker has pointed out, a large failing of modern Hollywood is the massive budgets, caused in large part by the failure to properly assess the script BEFORE production starts, thus resulting in extensive reshoots.
So as you mention: make sure the script is actually good before production starts (e.g. Andor)
I'm so glad this is finally getting underway. I've been looking forward to this!
Me too! It really got out of hand for a while, but I'm happy with the results
@@gregowen2022I've been waiting for this video. It's so shocking how few people have touched on this subject.
I like how this video series is going to end up longer than The Acolyte was.
As an OG Star Wars fan.I can tell you emphatically That even back in 1978, nine and ten year old kids like me all knew the name of Ralph Mcquarrie And held it in extremely high regard. And this was way before the internet.
yep, even back then you could by folios of his artwork, they didn't hide his light under a bush
Your understanding of Jane Austen’s male characters (unlike Leslie’s) has earned my respect.
"the saddest, shallowest people count their victories by who they are upsetting"
.
I think this is the first time I've ever used this kinda silly phrase, but -- that actually was a mind=blown! moment for me. You not only hit the nail on the head but drove it entirely into it's place in the wall in just one clean strike of the hammer. Very neatly put, clear and concise and spot-on.
Really it's perfect!
There are MANY points that Greg makes that I could piggy back on, but I'll only focus on the point he made about the way Leslye talks about her characters. Or rather, how LITTLE she talks about her characters.
This year I graduated from my Creative Writing course at University, and the thing I love most about writing fiction, is the characters. I love Star Wars because of Luke, Leia, Han, Anakin, Obi Wan, Qui Gon, Padme, Ahsoka and so on. And that's just with Star Wars, every other fictional series I've read or watched that I like or dislike, is usually contingent on its character writing.
Not only that, but the thing I first do when crafting a story, is write the character profiles. Now obviously, I also put time into the plot, world building, power system and other essential story details, but to me, the characters are who keep your audience invested.
Leslye seems to be so uninterested in characters, to the point where she literally let's OTHERS write them for her, because she's so lazy. Now that's not to say she should value characters the most, but she should at the very least understand that they're an essential aspect to telling ANY kind of story.
This is why Leslye is literally GUESSING and having to think on the spot, who ANY of her characters are, despite the fact she LITERALLY RAN THE SHOW (on paper anyway). Just to give you guys an idea of what I mean, I'll tell you about one of the characters I've written and see if you can spot the difference between the way me and Leslye speak about our characters.
One of my characters is Luna. She's the female lead of this particular story and comes from a pretty well off family, being its oldest daughter. Luna is quite competitive and confrontational, however this is born out of her being raised with high expectations, so she constantly feels a need to prove herself both mentally and physically. Which is in part represented with her ability to create and manipulate glass.
A fragile object that can also be quite dangerous in the wrong situation, referring to how Luna's goals can be obtained effectively, so long as she's willing to put aside her fragile pride. Now notice how I never used phrases like "I think" or "I believe", and that's because I don't need to think or believe who Luna is, I KNOW who she is and why she acts the way she does.
Conversely, Leslye can't tell you about ANY of her female leads, despite how much she "wants more women" in entertainment. She's so focused on what these characters represent, they she forgets that they need to be people first. And because of that, she'll never understand why Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Fanny Mae and Jecky Stardust fail.
It's fine to have others help you craft your characters, but it's another thing entirely when you know NOTHING about who they are or what their motivations are. Leslye is so focused on "THE MESSAGE", that she completely disregards every other facit of storytelling, and her characters are merely the avatar of this issue
Have you published a story yet?
@zscout1288 not yet lol, but we'll get there
@krnatsu -- *nod of agreement* Well said. And very true. Though ofc, she doesn't need to know her characters when it doesn't matter what *they* as specific people in a given universe would do in any particular situation or scenario -- because they will do as SHE (aka Plot) tells them to with no regard for "in character" or "gels with established backstory & motivations" or "this is how normal/real people might react".
.
And good luck with your writing, it sounds interesting! Maybe drop us a reply-line so we'll see the comment notification if you get to publish, eh? : )
@iprobablyforgotsomething it's all part of Leslye's twisted perception of the world. She thinks that people, I.e. men and women, either should or do behave in a particular way and because of that, her characters need to act in that same way as well.
To put it another way, Leslye's twisted sense of morality has led to her having an equally negative perception on how to tell a story. But she seems to think they because this is how we act "realistically" that characters should act the same way.
Many people like Leslye cannot fathom a story that isn't "realistic" for the same reasons many of us do. She doesn't value the characters, themes, world-building and story of Star Wars, she just likes the flashy lights and her own failure to interpret what the story was about.
But additionally she seems to confuse realism and allegory. J.R.R Tolkien actually talked about this in a letter he wrote discussing his desire to give his (and my) country a mythology of its own, which would evolve into Lord of the Rings. Whilst he acknowledged that we had the Arthurian Legeneds, he noted that those either reference to or explicitly contain Christianity.
Keep in mind, Tolkien was a Christian himself and so he wasn't against the idea of similar values being integrated into a story. Rather, he said that whilst all fantastical works should reference or allude to things of the real world, it should not be direct or explicit. Of course there's situations where aspects of Religions, or the religions themselves, can be integrated in to fiction without feeling preachy or overbearing.
To put it another way, the reason that Geoege, Tolkien and many like them are beloved worldwide, is because they were able to craft worlds and people, who are entirely believable by themselves, whilst simultaneously alluding to the real world. Leslye, Mariko Tamaki and Jessica Gadow, just to name a few are loathed because they can only write stories in what they think is the "real world", and as a result can never understand why their stories about FICTIONAL characters fail to begin with.
And I'll try, gonna be a couple of years though lmao
Good characters can make or break any sci-fi or fantasy setting. You can have a very well thought out universe but if the characters (the reader’s point of reference) don’t react to it well or are boring in their reaction then the universe you’ve made will also be seen as boring. On the flip side, you can create a boring universe but make up for it with characters that make it feel dynamic and unique. The world building in Star Wars is legendary now but keep in mind that Episode IV was supposed to be a one off space opera. What’s the force? What’s the Dark Side? What are these alien creatures? I don’t know, but Luke, Leia, Han and Obi Wan are such amazing characters that you feel at home in this alien universe and the focus is on their journey together instead of “wizard war in space”.
The bit with you sat by the truck talking about how you have to analyse and figure stuff out, and should never be worried about failure should be mandatory viewing in classrooms. It was awesome. Absolute quallity life lesson. Lots of kids don't have dad's like you.
I vote for more "angry dad working on car" Greg. That frustrated growl speaks to my soul.
Hahaha, I didn't realize how much I mutter to myself until I watched that footage back.
I'm assuming that all of the Emperor's New Groove jokes are entirely due to your daughter's editing? I whole-heartedly approve.
From both her and the actors’ descriptions, it seems like Leslie approached this show as a $300 million dollar D&D session.
Hey! Don't insult D&D like that!
D&D is actually fun!
I would bail on that dungeon master without a word.
If she were a bad dm maybe, I think even an average DM would put a lot more effort into telling a good, cohesive story than what happened with The Acolyte.
Pretty shitty DM if that's the case.
@0giwan Unfortunately I know enough stories of TTRPG groups that are just as insufferable as Leslie is. My friend, who is the "forever GM," also has stories of his own when he tried to run online games during COVID. What OP is saying holds merit.
Leslie Hedland not believing in "management" or leadership reminds me of this reel of a guy "decolonizing" his car (it was satire). He deconstructed the cabin area to make the space more equitable. He then tied long sticks to the steering wheel so that everyone in the car had an equal say in where the car goes. This describes The Acolyte perfectly
I hate that we live in a world where you needed to clarify that the "decolonizing" was satire.
Oh my god. She ran the show like a dnd game.
DMs create the world they’re players engage in but the backstories and characters are created by the players. The dms job is essentially to be the none playable characters and guide the players along the course of the story.
How the characters interact and their backstories are given to the dm and they incorporate it to varying degrees into the story.
I would run screaming from Leslye Headland's DnD game...
@@RunKnitCoffee well it wouldnt be the first time someone ran screaming from her
Its kinda insulting to a DM to be compared to that wretch... beside a DM is exactly what Leslin despised, a single Person in charge.
The Acolyte always seemed to me to have been written by a 14-year-old. Then they gave that 14-year-old $200M and told her to spend it however she liked. How *did* she spend it? Sure as heck wasn't on the screen...
Leslye comes off as a person who spends all their time "consuming" other stories, but never opening her perspective to see what's in these stories beyond the surface level.
The fact you’re not a star wars mega fan makes this even better
I once had a job at a retail store, and I got terminated because I made a mistake that cost the company about ~$50. They were allowed to terminate me because it was within the first 90 days. I always find it amazing that the higher up the ladder, the more people are allowed to get away with hurting the company.
It's because when someone low down in the company heirarchy screws up, they can be fired without making the top people look bad or inviting scruitny of their decisions by major investors. If someone really senior gets fired then people will ask the management why they hired such an incompetent individual who caused so much damage, why the people making that hiring decision haven't also been fired, and it calls into question the management's ability to run the company.
@@RogerCaplanNot to mention that it’s more difficult to show that anyone in particular has screwed up the higher up the corporate ladder you go.
Cost benefit analysis: ex. Yes this manager screwed up, but to replace him (training, loss productivity, interdepartmental relations, paperwork, etc.) would cost us more than the screw up. Penalize, move on.
@RogerCaplan -- Ahh. Yes, that makes sense, and seems obvious now that you've said it.
Yeah, it always shocks me when people get a full dressing down for minor mistakes when they are low on the pole, but higher ups literally make million dollar mistakes and then send out an email about how "we all need to stay focused on the mission". Incredible
At this point i don't even care about Leslye and The Acolyte anymore. The only thing on my mind is how Kathleen Kennedy became the head of LucasFilms and how is she still there? She seems to have zero idea about what Star Wars should be or what the fans want. I honestly don't understand the hiring of Leslye, a JJ Abrams who was not interested in doing a trilogy, a Rian Johnson that had zero intention on following up what was set up in the first movie, a Solo movie that, frankly, no one was asking for, giving Taika Waititi a star wars movie after what he did with Thor, James Mangold after what he did with Indiana Jones, a Rey sequel that no one cares or want... Man, i'm tired lol Thanks for the amazing video as always Greg, can't wait for the next part!
I appreciate you coming! I agree that it's such a crazy timeline where we are all unenthused about Star Wars and are left with only a morbid curiosity about how on earth it got to this point.
Kennedy was _"friends"_ with Lucas for years and when he was thinking of selling. She made every promise she could think of, such as protecting his legacy, to ensure he made her the new boss. Then, stabbed in the back the second he signed the papers.
Apparently, to ensure that she could protect his IPs and his workers from any corporate scheme once he leaves. He made her contract ironclad to the point she is almost completely unfireable. Besides her deep connections in Hollywood and threats to burn Disney down if they tried to fire her before she ready to leave on her own terms of course. Means Disney Board of Directors has had difficulty getting rid of her, and they only way, really, is to wait out the contract. Which was renewed this year. Apparently, half the board wants her gone, while the other half still support her to offer her an extension.
I watched an episode of "Russian Doll" simply because I wanted to understand what someone saw in Headland's work to warrant handing over this enormous $240 million opportunity over it. By the time the episode was over, I realized there wasn't a single person in it I wanted to spend time with, let alone through multiple time loops. Maybe she writes terrible people well, but they're still terrible people, and it's not how I want to spend my time.
It's funny because if you wanted to have a "Shameless" esque story about a band of likeable misfits or anti-heroes, you already have an in-universe proxy for that in the Sith.
Agreed. I couldn’t handle more than one episode either.
That game commentary bit was hysterical 😂 your humour is on point Greg
Haha, thank you! Just living my streamer dreams for a moment
Seriously that part is not getting enough credit hahahaha
I need more long form videos like this Greg! A lot of your videos have helped me really visualize and align things for the next phase of my life.
I appreciate you saying that, it's extremely encouraging! Thank you
When you went through the "not credited individuals" section, I was reminded of a recent post on X that listed Women Who Created Important Things. One of the first was: signal flares were created by Jane Doe (I don't remember her name, but it's irrelevant). It turns out that her husband, a naval equipment engineer, developed the flares and then died. His wife then got the specifications out of his journal and sold them to the navy. About 2/3 of the items that she listed had the same kind of story. Men actually created the items, but a woman did help in sometimes major and sometimes very minor ways.
Thing is, the women who did invent things- Admiral Grace Hooper for instance- would have no truck with this sort of stuff. Yeah, she did develop COBOL, but as part of a team and for a purpose, and that is why she found value in those efforts- not that she did them with ovaries.
@silverheart4049 I agree. I am always disappointed when people start with a lie when there are actual stories that would prove their point.
@@tobygagnon1443 It happens so often that I am starting to believe they are trying to rewrite history
It's like proudly declaring that Ada Lovelace was the FIRST computer programmer. Because the computer apparently built itself.
Small point: Considering how openly racist Lovecraft was as a person(great horror writer regardless) I’m surprised she openly tried to reference his works as anything to do with a show that she seems she wants to be a pinnacle of intersectional feminism with a Star Wars gloss
I think it was also said that near the end of his life, he was beginning to get away from those thoughts. I think, I'm not 100% on that.
@@motherplayerHis politics suddenly veered sharply to the left a year or so before he died.
He never stopped being racist but he went from "extremely racist even for his time" to "about the level of racist of most people at his time."
No more so than 99% of white people in the USA at the time, which is to say, not very racist at all, just not a big fan of non-white people.
Another thing in the "auteur myth" section when Leslye is rabbling on about George hiring Ralph McQuarrie and Ralph not getting enough credit supposedly, she didn't mention Colin Cantwell (RIP). She skipped over him entirely. He was the guy that prototyped almost all the designs in Star Wars, from the Death Star to TIE Fighters to the X-Wings. The T-16 Skyhopper Luke plays with on Tatooine is actually one of his models. Everything she gives Ralph McQuarrie credit for designing is stuff he REFINED from Colin Cantwell's prototypes... which is naturally stuff Cantwell designed based on George Lucas' ideas and concepts.
Fun Fact to blow your mind:
The Acolyte had a similar budget to Dune 1 and/or Dune 2.
The Dune movies had a cast full of famous actors.
The Acolyte had Trinity & Squid Game
The Dune movies looked & felt like major motion pictures.
The Acolyte looked & felt like mid-level TV mini series.
Where did they spend the money???
Finally. This nightmare of a show can be buried and its failures will stand as a reminder of what NOT to do in writing!
Edit: Okay. We still have more to go. Extended funeral I guess?
...that will remain completely ignored.
It’s less a funeral and more a celebration of death.
49:50 Jesus Christ i finally understand. This is a DND campaign turned into a show. Except not critical role. I mean your average dnd campaign played by a few people who play once or maybe twice a month, spend half the session repeating memes and the other half being confused whats happening, with the DM that is only dming his first campaign and still has yet to figure out how to keep coherent story and unite character concepts
Schrodinger's Victims. Beautiful. 😂
That. That's it! That's the perfect way to say it.
dude your channel is top notch
Thank you so much!
lmao I got to the physics puns :DD
Great video, Greg. Your systematic tearing apart of all these points they keep throwing out is a joy to listen to as ever. I'm looking forward to the next video.
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
I'm looking forward to the next two. I'm so excited to watch the next two with everyone, this is the craziest rabbit hole I've ever been down.
You know what's so great, is as soon as you said"you know what is consistent" I started moving my mouse to the like button.
Oh my god! This is really happening!
Been hyped for this part!
I appreciate you waiting for me! These videos contain so many wtf moments, because she says some of the craziest things
@@gregowen2022 It definitely lived up to it. She truly says the craziest things and without anything to back them up!
I’m so glad I found this channel. You literally epitomize nuance. I don’t get why the entertainment industry is so obsessed with high jacking franchises with predominantly male fanbases with female spins and ideology. It literally makes no sense. No one is trying to make Sex and the City about 4 four middle aged men for a “modern audience” it’s like anything men like has to be pacified to women’s liking. If they just said they hate men I’d respect them more, but their intellectual incompetence or disingenuousness is just ridiculous.
At 5:00 I was reminded of a comment I saw on another video a few days back.
"You can't spell art with the letters found in activist."
So Greg, I really liked the part about not telling yourself you can't do something. I was a math teacher for several years and the first thing I told all my students on day one was this: I never, under any circumstances, want to hear you say that you can't do something. That ends the game before it even begins. If you're having problems, say something like, this isn't making sense, or I need some help, or I'm having a hard time with this concept, or even I need you to explain that a different way. All of those are fine, but never, ever, say that you can't do something, because you can, it just takes some work. It was always a joy to see them stop and ask me for help and catch themselves before they said it, and then say something different like "this isn't adding up or I'm struggling or can you explain it again."
YES! I wish more teachers would say this. I know it can sound corny to say that changing your words or mindset changes the outcome, but in a LOT of cases, it really does. You're spot on, saying you can't ends it right there
AHH FINALLY I've been waiting for this ever since it was announced. That is the one thing I will give the Acolyte is it is an endless well of everything wrong with modern writing. And I feel I could use it forever as the go-to of bad writing and bad morality. But then again you can't write morality and goodness when you've never had them to begin with.
100% on that last bit, especially. After reading her own words, i can conclude that Leslye is a monster. And yes, this show should be studied for how not to write, how not to hire, and how not to promote a show. It was a failure all the way around
That's not even an exaggeration, sadly. It serves as a fine example of all of the Fails that could be stuffed into one piece of media, but not of anything not-awful. There's not one redeeming feature or aspect, and that shouldn't even be possible to do on accident.
.
(I say "on accident" because she doesn't seem to be self-aware enough to have failed on purpose, knowingly; she really thought this piece of... work... was great all-around.)
Every Star Wars nerd knows how influential Marcia Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and many others were to the Original Trilogy. That's a complaint we have about the prequels is how much work Lucas did and how little input and help he got, in the creative sense at least. Her asserting that is really telling how little she knows and cares about Star Wars.
Edit: Leslie just said the same thing about the prequels but was so smug in saying it I feel dirty saying it too.
@dangerousrobot9692 -- *pats shoulder consolingly* I felt gross too, when after I'd thought that vaguely in the back of my mind, I got to her smug-face remark about it. It's generally recommended to bathe in bleach after such incidents, to get fully clean again. Make sure to take your brain out and give it a good scrubbing also, while you're in there, or Leslie will grow in the cracks and crevices of it like mold.
55:48 actually in that scene where Indiana shoots the swordsman, HF was dehydrated with with a stomach flu of sorts and he just asked the director "can i just shoot him"? And thats how the scene was made.
yep, apparently it was supposed to be the big Whip vs Sword fight, but he couldn't do it because he was so tired and sick.
Still pretty based tbh
I just played parts 1 and 2 back to back while working. It really made the time fly by.
Great stuff!
Looking forward to part 3.
Congratz I have never felt more old than when you did the intersectional bit with the Diablo gameplay. I swear I know what all those words mean individually, but trying to comprehend the overall structure together made me feel like I was having a stroke. Love your content. Love the pro youtube moves. Keep up the great work looking forward to the rest of the series.
Hahaha, thanks for the kind words! What scares me is that the string of nonsense I put together probably DOES make sense to the folks who use the lingo every day
If Russian Doll was really so good, maybe Leslie should have done something about Coruscant's criminal underworld and a particular smuggler's POV in it. Plenty of room for depravity, moral greyness, existential nihilism, hardcore spice addicts, heinous and powerful crime lords and OH WAIT DISNEY DOESN'T WANT THAT BECAUSE OUTLAWS WAS HEKKIN WHOLESOMESAUCE. I forgot, we can't have actual black-and-grey morality where it belongs in Star Wars either. Jabba the Hutt was merely a humble businessworm whose only real crime was sexually objectifying Princess Leia
9:45 As someone who those terms are allegedly supposed to represent...YES...yes I've noticed...and it INFURIATES ME to no end😭💀
The ONLY argument I can think about is that "person of color" humanizes the person more...but you still REDUCE them to their skin at the end of the phrase so its still STUPID💀
I despise “person of color”. It’s flattening and homogenizing. It assumes every person with a bit of melanin has the same experience.
The whole reason why sympathetic villains became so widely loved or wanted was because it fills 2 conditions if done right, 1: The villain is part of the core thematic structure central to the character plot. 2: It isn't lecturing its audience and instead posing a moral question even if the author ends up revealing their position and labelling them 'good' and the antagonist 'evil'
1:07:16 "I'm here to learn how to make KRUMPETS! I don't care about who you're BANGING!!!"
I never thought I'd hear this line in my ENTIRE life...hilarious🤣💀💀
I am HERE for this
I'm so excited!
I hate it so much when she says, "the ONLY reason I think that -- is PARTIALLY because..."
It seems like her entire worldview is this; "I heard one person say something I thought was clever and formed my worldview around it."
@nebohtes -- That bugged me, too, so much. Does she even hear the words that come out of her mouth?? Does she really know what she's saying, and mean to be saying it? Out loud? On camera??
.
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt" comes to mind...
Hour and a half of Greg ripping The Acolyte a new one? Guess Christmas came early this year!
Keep these videos coming young Padawan, most excellent work! 🤜🏻🤛🏻🍻
Men:
>go for it bro
>you wont know until you try
Women:
>THE WORLD IS OUT TO DESTROY YOU AND YOU WILL NEVER SUCCEED
So essentially Leslye did nothing. She didn't write the characters. She didn't write the story. She didn't direct or lead. All she did was sleep with one of the actors and put her name in the credits. Ironically, she did the same thing she wrongfully accused all the other directors of doing: sitting back, doing nothing, and taking undeserved credit.
gotta love that instead of trying to make/produce anything fun or interesting
they just try to tear down everyone else
Hate to sound like I'm quoting Yoda but my grandpa told me "don't try, do or don't the success is learning." And "the day I stop learning something new is the day I die." I've learned and done so many things some successful others failed but I always learned something new. I can rebuild your car, make your daughter a prom dress, the beer for your wedding. I'm learning pottery now and I'm 40.
Unironically, you must be great fun at parties, you sound like a fascinating person to talk to.
1:09:04 OH THIS STORY WOOOHHH! I’m a bisexual man and this story single handily made me hate Leslie even more when I first heard it. Like what kinda half assed thinking is this? When I came out to my family no one freaked out no one yelled literally my dad made a classic family joke “you know this is why we don’t eat at the table” and then we went on living our lives no “plans” ruined wtf is this therapy this is why I don’t believe in therapy
Love these longer videos. It takes me a couple of days to get all the way through them, but you keep them interesting and engaging the whole way through. Impressive work!
I love how she's acting like the incredibly inconsistent characterization of the Sith dude is anything other than shitty writing.
Oh yeah, she genuinely thinks that since he speaks softly to Osha in the following episode, it makes him deep and complex and tender. Leslye's relationship to men is completely toxic
We just need to stop letting fanfictions be made
Rings of Power, Acolyte, shows like these are just someone's fanfiction given a big budget
it was only made, for them not the "modern audience"
Could not agree more. If we are doing shows based on existing property, then the only people who matter are the real audience (not the twitter one) and the original creator of the IP. This using of IPs to tell "their story" is becoming infuriating
We can add the Wheel of time to this! It’s just a vehicle for Rosumund Pike
It has now become a routine to hit that like button when requested by Greg. He’s just so darn persuasive!
The research and analysis behind this video is impressive. Thanks for putting in the work, Greg.
This woman is obsessed with her own ideas. She comes up with this theory that the auteur is inherently mysogonistic and just constructs her worldview around that one single false assumption. This is why trying to understand people's presuppositions is so important. This whole system she's built collapses simply by refuting the assumption of the sexism of auteurism. And her obsession with toppling the lone genius myth has her tilting at windmills. The executive producers are certainly far more aware than anyone else that their industry is built on more than one person. But they pay for the big names because the big names (used to) bring big audiences.
And if for some reason her analysis is actually somehow based in reality, it is more of a case for removing those insane producers, not some restructuring of how to actually run a production.
"This contractor thinks they don't need anyone else to build a house, so instead let's just have everyone draw on the blue prints rather than fire that contractor and hire one who realizes they rely on sub-contractors." Yea, stay away from any construction zone, lady.
I like how Disney's nu-Wars retroactively make Lucas look less incompetent.
That podcast interview is VERY telling.
Yep, it was shocking. She thinks Lucas deserves nothing and blames sexism for everything, even after admitting she has no evidence. Stunning
You're killing it with this series Greg!
Suddenly all the buffoonery in The Acolyte makes somewhat sense to me..
Man, what a waste
Right?! That's why these turned into separate videos. It's obvious the show is terrible just by watching it, but when you match it up with her words, it's a whole new level is crazy
Love this length. Keep these coming 🔥
As someone who has worked in higher education, Headland's interviews sound like high-brow academic papers written by someone who knows the exact things to say to earn the grade but has no idea about how anything actually works. Her use of "literary references" is about the equivalent of slapping a sticker of Mario on a generic waterbottle and then declaring it official Nintendo merchandise.
As for the Bridesmaid/Hangover thing, I think at large there is a cultural disposition to laugh at men and expect them to do stupid things in movies. People often cite the nature of father's in stories for the last couple of decades being stupider and even less capable as women. While I think that this observation is sometimes overblown and people see feminist boogymen where there literally are none, I still think it is a valid observation and something that rubs off into comedy. Women are far trickier to make comedy about because leaning too much into a women's trait could be called out as sexism. When Bridesmaid came out, I heard a lot of comparisons to how it was like a crass male humor movie but with women and I think that is what saved it. Any correlation to crass male movies was fine because it was a novelty in that genre, and it worked for women because it was centered around a feminine topic. I don't watch crass movies in general so I can't offer much of a detailed analysis, but I can echo some of the cultural response I heard about the movie when it came out.
I heard it once said that Men were so dominant in comedy because there is a willingness to be seen as a schlubby loser for comedic effect. Women in Comedy can do this too, but so few of them are willing to be seen as such (and it's not always necessary, it's just one approach that one can take). You have to be willing to laugh at yourself to a certain extent. Instead a lot of Women in comedy want to be seen in a powerful position, telling those stupid men how things should be done, and that CAN be funny if your intent is lampooning that kind of person. But that is often not the intent with these people, they genuinely look down on their male audience members as a whole, not simply the ones they disagree with on an issue, but all men. But a Comedian should not be attacking their audience, at least not the way they do it. Don Rickles, for instance, would target audience members, but what he would say would be so stupid and silly that it was obviously not intended to harm, but to laugh at the stupidity of prejudice and bigotry. Bridesmaids worked because it was able to show the negative catty side of things but also show that the characters were more than that and able to pull it together in the end, they were still friends who cared about each other despite their silly rivalries. Leslye's movie, as Greg said, it was all about that catty, nasty, terrible side with no redeeming values in any of the characters, and she wanted people to see that as a good thing. But she only sees the surface elements and thinks her movie was the same as Bridesmaids, and that they rejected her movie because SHE pitched it instead of a man or a straight woman.
Who was the leader of the rebels in the OT?
… Mon Mothma, a chick
Who was the monarch of Naboo?
… Queen Amidala, a chick
Were there female Jedi Council Masters?
Yes…
I was so looking forward to this video. Headland isn't getting nearly enough shit for what she's done. Whenever I see people "not getting all the hate for Acolyte" I link them to your video about it. While I accept some people do like the show, I know the source material has actual amazing stories and I cannot stand them being satisfied by that piece of turd, let alone it being even asociated with the Star Wars brand.
49:10 "Star Wars is a very patriarchal world." The world where the HIGHEST ranking good guy figure in the OT and prequels was a woman and the most OP Jedi to ever exist was a woman in the sequels. Did that lady EVER watch ANY Star Wars movies?
Isn't being a teacher turned romantic interest considered predatory and problematic by these types?
The fact that she has that dynamic as a path to empowerment says so much, especially when she fully admits it's meant as a positive corruption arc.
"Leslie is such fan. She was correcting me on things. Much like when I said Anikan Skywalker blew up the death star or Jabba the Hut was the one who brought balance to the force. I'm a big Star Wars fan guys, believe me?!..."
59:10 The operative word here is “love”. If you are going to reference another literary or cinematic work in your own, it has to be done out of love. And love can never be selfish. _Shaun of the Dead_ and _Hot Fuzz_ work so well as their own films because Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright clearly have so much love for the Romero zombie films and American action films. Lucas (for all his faults) loves the serials of his childhood as well as the films of Kurosawa. Through that that love of another’s work they all were able to create an original work that others can love.
Leslye is referencing out of selfishness and greed - she wants others to recognize how smart and knowing she is. She wants what others have. She wants the works of others to give her work credibility. She’s uninterested in the world she’s building - she’s only interested in glorifying herself.
And to quote Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Bert, and Cookie Monster: “THAT…is why you fail”.
@@Goldenspiderducck Imagining all those characters saying that line in their own way gave me a giggle.
And yes she references things almost as an excuse not to give proper explanation "Oh it's like the Thing, oh it's Call of Cthulhu, oh it's Rashomon.". Lucas may not be the most articulate speaker, but he can explain himself most of the time and can admit to when he writes himself into a corner.
I agree with you completely about modern vehicles. My first car was a 91 Honda Civic and it was so easy to work on with just basic mechanics tools.
First video I've seen of yours. I honestly expected you to have a million subs. You're good at this.
I appreciate the kind words!
Always appreciate a long-form argument with lots of detail.
*BRUH* the "everyone wants to hire a director, but they don't think you hire someone who hires a good concept artist" thing.... My sister in Christ, that's LITERALLY a director's job!! You work in Hollywood and you don't know this? The director, in that industry, is by *definition* the department head that hires all the other department heads. Literally, that is their job. Holy fuck. These people just hate the idea of hierarchy, which is naturally occurring in all living systems lol.
Right?! The director is the general contractor! I was in disbelief hearing that, because that is precisely what the director does, I'm glad I'm not the only one scratching my head over her comments there
Her sentiments towards George is surprisingly common. Makes me think of Red Letter Media.
She thinks being a middle child is oppressive??? Tf
I have wondered before why the only three people we remember regarding the DNA work were Watson and Crick (because they supposedly worked out the double helix part) and Franklin (because she died before receiving the Nobel Prize). Nobody remembers any of the others.
I'll be honest, when I mention you to my wife by name, she always goes "the 6 kid review guy?" So your kids are definitely more of your brand than your wife, at least to *my* wife.
Hahaha, I actually love that!
I don’t see this too often but I LOVE broken characters who DON’T have questionable morality.
I’m currently writing a character who has serious trauma and demons, but he doesn’t ever let that stop him from making the right and heroic choice whenever needed.
(Especially when it comes to the younger characters he’s become responsible for.)
Basically, it’s supposed to show that that struggling with something doesn’t automatically make you morally gray.
I can't stop wondering - if Leslie thinks that Lightsabers are phallic symbol, why she wrote a scene about master jedi, offering his to a kid?
27:38 There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.
I always hated the writing that people like Leslie create. Its just so misanthropic and can only be seen as "realistic" and how "Real X act in real life" if you're sheltered from literally everything else in life and your parents were just shitty. It feels like the writer wants to convince everyone else that the audience's life sucks as much as theirs does and gets feistrated when they realize: No, THEIR life just sucks, everyone else is just fine, kind even. And it just acts as a massive mirror that them and only them are the narcissistic, aweful, manipulative gremlin in their friend group.
I was waiting for this release for so long thanks Greg!!
30:53 wait a minute..........she just called herself a non binary woman? 🧐
Yeah this throws me off too, I've heard it from multiple woke videos and it fundamentally makes no sense. These people are talking out of their butts to try and get everyone to feel bad for them.
Omg, Greg, that whole section recognising that the actors wrote the characters is brilliant and makes so much sense as to why this and so many creations over the last 5 years or so make absolutely no sense.
We've all been saying that so many shows and films have been feeling like kids just smashing their toys together.
Isn’t believing people are judging you simply because you feel like they are a potential sign of schizophrenia?
Probably more of a self conscious projection more than anything, in a lot of cases.
I thought is was paranoid personality disorder
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS VIDEO. Excited to watch it and get you always entertaining and insightful analysis, Greg.
"there were so many jobs that I wanted, but couldn't get, and I had to work hard to get the ones that I did."
Oh, really?
The world is truly a dark and evil place.
Right? How on earth did she say that out loud and not hear how nuts it sounded?!