u/hplalakrs20012010

For context, I have found myself as one of two sequel defenders in my friend group and I'm also someone who really liked Episode VII and VIII but didn't really like IX.

Legit issues with Colin Trevorrow's film resume aside, I really thought the outline of Duel of the Fates melded JJ's and Rian's visions and actually gave Star Wars an intriguing new status quo. I know the term "grey Jedi" has some detractors but I always loved the idea of true harmony in Star Wars being a move away from the binary Light/Dark dynamic and embracing all aspects of the Force....one of the few philosophies of Palpatine I actually agree with.

Now I know the official reason Trevorrow was let go was the classic "creative differences" but I seemed to have heard some credible rumors at the time (again this was waaaayyyy back in 2018), that the reason Duel of the Fates didn't work was that the story couldn't work without Leia and that neither Trevorrow nor Jack Thorne could figure out how to do it without Leia. I admit I love the idea of Leia activating a galaxy wide communications beacon not only in contrast to the ending of TLJ where no one picked up her signal but as a way of saying the way fascism controls everyone is to keep us all insulated in our spheres. I also know Leia, much like what happened in Rise of Skywalker, did ask Lando to rally the spice guilds around her cause.

Given that the big moment Leia had which both Duel of the Fates AND Rise of Skywalker used was her reaching out to Ben Solo through the Force as a means to distract him from his fight from Rey and turn him back to the light, do you feel they could've kept this moment in and had some other character, maybe even Lando or Mon Mothma take the other tasks Leia would've done? I know there's some pretty sweet artwork of General Leia giving BB-8 a data disc as an homage to her first scene in A New Hope that wouldn't end up being, and I know there would been no easy decision on this, but there had to be a way to keep Duel of the Fates more revolutionary elements and re-work the story so Leia can keep this last big moment and her story duties could have been re-distributed.

I'll fully admit I can count on one finger the number of times I've watched Rise of Skywalker whereas Force Awakens and Last Jedi I'll pop on a ton, and I think the best elements of Rise of Skywalker were actually the things Trevorrow came up with (like expanding the Force dyad of Rey and Kylo for instance, planting the seeds of Finn leading a stormtrooper defection which is one element I was REALLY sad didn't get fleshed out more).

Making a movie is hard, making a Star Wars movie is even harder, and I don't envy JJ Abrams for balancing a lot of cooks and doing what he had to do what he had to do to satisfy KK, but it still kind of bums me out that some of the more interesting elements of Duel of the Fates were either ejected or filed down in Rise of Skywalker, and that they seemingly abandoned these elements because they couldn't make the Leia movie (Force Awakens was a "Han" movie, The Last Jedi was a "Luke" movie) as centered around Leia physically whereas I'm sure they could've found a way to make Leia's view of the galaxy the thematic center of the movie even if she wasn't there.

I was just wondering what other "supernatural" elements Nolan will change and how he will change it. He has said that rather than portray the Gods physically, he will represent the power of the Gods via the natural phenomon the ancient Greeks associated with the Gods (earthquakes and rough seas with Poseidon, lightning storms with Zeus, etc.). I think there's quite a few things involving the Gods that I'm really curious to see how he "Nolanizes". Some of the things I'm thinking of are:

• Hermes helps Odysseus in his encounters with both Circe and Calypso. I wonder how Nolan will handle the "moly", perhaps just having Odysseus know about the drug already and he will probably have Odysseus convince Calypso herself to let him go.
• I think a lot of the "magical" transformations we won't see the "how" it happens but rather just the aftermath, like we won't see Odysseus' men turn into pigs by Circe nor will we see Athena actually change Odysseus' appearance. Knowing Nolan he will cut away when the "magic" happens and cut back to the outcomes. This is sort of in line with what Nolan has said how he portrays the presence of the Gods through the natural phenomenon associated with them. We'll see lightning storms but no Zeus, we won't see Helios but Circe will warn them and after they will succumb to the lightning storm.
• The BIGGEST thing I'm curious about him changing is the ending. The ending of the poem literally has Athena and Zeus physically stop the families of the suitors from getting revenge. VERY curious to see how this happens, since we know Athena is

seemingly the only

• Olympian

• to actually physically appear, perhaps as the suitors approach the house of Laertes, a lightning storm begins and like sets the fields on fire separating Odysseus, Telemachus and Laertes from the suitors families....and then Athena says something to the heavens and the storm stops.

I'm just excited for this film and really curious because this is the first time Nolan has tackled something with "magic" or "fantasy" elements and we've seen from how he handles Batman, that he always finds a grounded way to portray the fantastical.

I know we're all feeling a bit bummed about how this season is wrapping up, but in the spirit of petty sports fandom, what are your favorite Schadenfreude moments from this season as a Lakers fan? I'll list a few out:

• Boston blows 3-1 lead to Philly
• Clippers losing the play-in game at home
• Nuggets losing in the first round

Any other moments people can think of?

To paraphrase Hamilton, “we are outgunned, out manned, out numbered, out planned…” I actually disagree with the “out planned” thing, I feel like JJ has had a great scheme, it’s just very obvious why OKC is the best team in the league. Yes they are prone to foul baiting but Game 3 showed that their true strength is just their relentless waves of talent they can throw out there. When a guy like Jared McCain isn’t getting consistent minutes, that says something about team depth. For those complaining “why can’t Rob just sign good players?”, OKC tanked for years to get the roster they have now, and they developed their players. Different paths, the Lakers still have Luka and I think this playoff run has shown that there are some paths forward to improving the roster given the effort shown in this run. No matter the outcome of game 4, I’ve been very proud by this Lakers run given all the adversity. On with the breakdown:

GOOD

1. Rui and Luke - The 3s kept the Lakers in the game in the first half and Rui has made the case that he deserves at least an offer in the off season. I won’t say his expectation is “automatic” from 3 but it’s getting close to it. Also I nice aggressive bounce back game from Kennard as he looked a bit more like Game 1-2 of Rockets series Kennard. He was knocking down 3s and punishing the close out. Combined they were 9-14 from 3, the rest of the team was 5-16. Can’t ask much more than what they have today.

2. Winning the FT battle - I don’t know how much Reaves’ soliloquy to the refs after game 2 made a difference but the Lakers got to the line more than OKC did. Austin got to the line 8 times, and the Lakers did their best to force the officials hand. They also did a good job not picking up ticky tack calls on the other end. Only two players shot FTs for OKC and I’ll take that as a good thing as SGA only shot 7. Speaking of SGA…

3. Defense on SGA - once again I think JJ has done a good job scheming to shut down SGA. I think late in the 2nd he actually got SGA to play a little selfish ball where he was jacking up shots instead of moving the ball seemingly out of frustration. He finished 7-20 and while he did stabilize in the second, he has not “gone off” in this series and I think there’s some credit deserved there. The Lakers scheme seems to be make other guys beat us and OKC has those guys, but credit where credit is due, SGA has not been an MVP this series.

BONUS - just wanted to shout out Adou Thiero who brought energy taking LaRavia’s place in the rotation. Excited to see how he can develop over the summer

BAD

1. TURNOVERS - 30 to 11 points of turnovers and just like GAME 2, it seemed the sloppiness came about in the 3rd quarter. Clearly the guys expend so much effort playing well in the first half that OKC’s depth just wears them down, and they are prone to more mistakes. This stat is the difference in the game because the Lakers played OKC even from 3 and won the FT battle. OKC punishes mistakes and the Lakers without their best ball handler/playmaker just can’t keep up.

2. Austin and LeBron - maybe it’s fatigue but they were not their best in Game 3. Austin is clearly not 100% and is trying his best on the fly in the crucible
   of the Playoffs. He was good taking care of the ball until the second half. I think Austin got good paint touches this game I think his lack of whistles is forcing him to make passes instead of attacking. I do think Austin needs to work on handling ball pressure in the off season especially if he’s going to be Luka’s right hand man. Also Lebron is 41, clearly the Lakers formula for success is having him be the 3rd option. He’s doing his best and it’s still impressive at his age, but at this stage too much burden is on LeBron and I think fatigue is just there now agains this relentless OKC defense.

3. Second half - second straight game the Lakers actually led at halftime and second straight game OKC just turned it on in the 3rd. Turnovers piled up, the schemes were less well executed and they just don’t have the talent to keep up nor have a guy like Luka who can just stop the bleeding single handedly. This team has managed to hang in with OKC for huge chunks of the game, but Luka’s absence is really being felt later in games.

1 WTF - the sequence where the Lakers gave up 4 or 5 straight offensive rebounds with Ayton seemingly the culprit of poor effort and it ended in an OKC 3. That’s the microcosm of this series, the Lakers do well enough to get stops but OKC is just relentless. Also, I’m not going to wholly scapegoat DA for this. Yes his motor lacks we’ve known that all year but I also think he just encapsulated how all the Lakers feel playing this OKC team, at some point you just tire out, you execute your scheme well you get stops and in the end it doesn’t matter as the opponent is just too much.

I hope the Lakers give the same effort in game 4 as they did tonight, which is shows that JJ has basically maximized what he can do with this roster minus their generational talent and that ceiling is staying compete for one half against the best team in the league. There is no shame just admitting that the Lakers are “outgunned and outmanned”. I don’t know if the Lakers will have a flight back to OKC, but I also want them to leave everything out there in Game 4.

Lakers Nation through thick and thin, let’s go out and end our season with our heads held high because this effort I’ve seen this series is nothing to be ashamed of.