[video] » the phantom menace awakens [sw]

[rhodanum]

Watch on YouTube

Because I want more people to see this: han_spinel on Twitter created a lovely fan-trailer for "The Phantom Menace", a shot-for-shot visual parallel to "The Force Awakens" official theatrical trailer.

TPM is the film that made a Star Wars fan out of me and it's heartening to see it loved and appreciated, particularly now, in the year of its 20th anniversary.

Comments

[sonofgodzilla]

Oh my gosh, I actually teared up a little. I got like chills AND I HAVE SEEN THIS FILM A MILLION TIMES. Oh, it's perfect, I adore it!

[rhodanum]

IKR? Such good editing! I had the link saved for months and then remembered I had it when looking for something in my browser bookmarks.

I've got a ton of graphics (mostly gifsets) I made for TPM and the rest of the PT on Tumblr (I run the blog fyeahswprequels on there!) but unfortunately, DW wasn't really made for gifsets and I haven't seen anyone on my reading page posting them here.

[sonofgodzilla]

I don't think I've been on tumblr in years! I have serious FOMO now!

But yes, this trailer is beautiful, it makes me want to write something TPM-y again. I might actually rewatch the movie super soon!

[rhodanum]

I would read anything you write for TPM, I live for fic set during or shortly after the events of the film!

Also, can I rec you a canon that you'd probably enjoy, given your love for TPM? The similarities with SW and TPM in particular were what made me fall in love with it, when I watched it.

[sonofgodzilla]

Don't say that because I know I have a ton of handmaiden stories and TPMKingdom Hearts crossovers lurking on ff.net from years ago and they're full of awful grammar and a fundamental lack of understanding of how punctuation works. (>_>)

Oh, please do! I've been at a sort of loose end recently so I'd openly welcome a new thing to watch!

[rhodanum]

I love handmaiden stories! Some of my first fanfics, back in 2000, were scenarios about what Saché and Yané might have been doing on occupied Naboo, while Padmé and the other handmaidens were off-planet. To this day, after all these years, I can still identify every single handmaiden by name, in every single shot of TPM. 😂

As for the rec, it's Oban Star-Racers, a French-Japanese animated co-production, that debuted in 2006 and told an excellent, character-driven story in just 26 episodes. What first drew me to it was the racing and the fact that several of the vehicles were built exactly like pod-racers from TPM (this turned out to be a happy coincidence, as OSR was in production even before TPM premiered). Other similarities it shares with TPM (and SW in general) is a very 'wanderlust' kind of approach to sci-fi, very varied and extremely creative alien designs, gorgeous backgrounds and set-pieces and the central theme of a parent and child having to overcome shared trauma and learn to relate to each other and be a family once more.

I made a rec post for it here on Dreamwidth, a couple of months ago. Purchasing options are highly limited and flawed, so I'll send you a private message with a link to the best version available (until they finally go and release the Blu-Ray version sometime next year).

[sonofgodzilla]

I love that you can do this! I find Naboo's whole faux democratic monarchy hot mess fascinating from a story point of view. I know that, The Approaching Storm by Alan Dean Foster might have touched on this a little (I think?) or one of the books that bridged the trilogies (Tatooine Ghost, maybe?) but I always thought the canon could explored both it and the roles of the handmaidens better. Hire me, Disney, my CV is full of Star Wars fluff, lol.

Oh this show sounds exactly my thing. I'm sure I've heard the name before as well! I'll definitely check out your post and some episodes ASAP!

[sonofgodzilla]

Also: thank you for the PM! I definitely owe you a favour in return!

[rhodanum]

Haha, think nothing of it! OSR is one of my all-time-favorite canons, but the fandom is something like me: three others and a shoe-lace, so I'm always keen to introduce it to new people. Feel free to give me your impressions when you start watching, I always love reading those.

I'm also writing a crossover / fusion AU fic between this canon and Avatar the Last Airbender / Legend of Korra (with illustrations commissioned from an artist friend), but it can get confusing without at least the first episodes of OSR, to establish the characters

[sonofgodzilla]

Oh, there's so much here! I promise you will definitely be the first to hear when I start! I'm super excited as I have been starved of fandom with real canon/lore so it will be nice to explore something new!

And speaking of fandom, I've never seen Avatar/Korra either! But this post looks absolutely wonderful!

[rhodanum]

Avatar and Korra are excellent as well, though a much more significant proposition than Oban, in terms of length (ATLA is 61 episodes and LOK is 51 episodes). Unlike Oban, though, both of them have absolutely gorgeous Blu-Ray sets available online.

[sonofgodzilla]

Avatar has always felt like something of a commitment to get into and I must confess, I've sort of shied away from that. I might dip my toe in the water in future - but first, Oban though!

[sonofgodzilla]

My gosh, I just watched the opening episode of Oban and it is *so* charming. I can't believe something like this passed me by!

[rhodanum]

Aaaaah, I'm so glad you like it! It's got a hell of a lot of charm, doesn't it? This is one of the things I mean when I keep saying that it's an underrated gem (partly because a lot of Americans weren't interested in it for being an European co-production and partly because anime fans weren't interested in it for not being 'pure anime', but rather co-produced between Japan and France and Canada).

On the other hand, I'm also a bit pleased that it's not more well-known. With fandom in the state it's currently in, I'd have been dodging hate aimed at my favorite character in Oban left and right and I'd rather not go through that, after dealing with Dragon Age and Star Wars fandoms, thank you very much!

[sonofgodzilla]

I was having a conversation earlier and I feel the French were ahead of us in a lot of respects when it came to cartoons - like they seemed to instinctively understand anime so much better than we did at that point. But yes, I think the characters and the story is super charming so far, looking forward to watching more!

And I totally get that feeling - like I always want to get people into this thing because I love it but I also don't want to have to deal with the bullshit and politics of others.

[rhodanum]

I got that impression as well, as far as the French are concerned. It helps that animated collaborations with Japan aren't at all a new thing for them (one of my favorites, aside for Oban, is Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea / Les Mondes Engloutis, that aired in the early 80s and ended up being a staple of my childhood through re-runs in the 90s. Also generally unknown in the English-speaking world, despite the fact that it had a very good ENG dub).

I wanted to do a comprehensive rec thread for some of my favorites on Twitter, at one point. But knowing the sort of people most active on Twitter, I gave it up as a very bad idea.

[sonofgodzilla]

That last comment is very wry and very apt.

I don't know either of these shows, you know, although stuff like Mysterious Cities of Gold was par for the course when I was young.

[rhodanum]

Oooh, I've heard a lot about Mysterious Cities of Gold, though I never caught it when it was airing on TV. It's on my (admittedly very large) backlog, along with other classics I either missed or only watched as a child and now have the opportunity to look at with adult eyes.

[sonofgodzilla]

It was like the show for children for a while - I never really liked it that much, I was much more into Ulysses 31 and Battle of the Planets because I was the archetypal science fiction nerd kid when I was little. I might have to go back to Mysterious Cities myself just to try and remember what all the fuss was about.