Scott

Imperfect Christian, systems monger, aspiring product designer. Podcasts, board games, 3D printing, video games, sci-fi enthusiast. =)

[Sean W. Malone | That’s just, like, your opinion. @CitizenAmedia]

I've made this point so many times and it never seems to sink in.

There are innumerable problems with TLJ, but the biggest by far is this. And the movie's defenders never seem to be able to understand it at all. They'll argue with the strawman version all day, claiming that their taste is more sophisticated and deeper because they like a darker, broken, washed up Luke and anybody who doesn't like it just wants childish levels of moral simplicity.

But the OT isn't actually childish in that way. Luke is complex and he has a real arc throughout that story.

And because he has a specific and well crafted character arc, when he shows up in TLJ as the polar opposite of the man we knew, that is pretty jarring. It's jarring, not because it's impossible to write a story where Luke went from the hopeful hero who struggled with but ultimately rejects the dark side and redeems his father in the process to a sad husk of a man years later.

I might question the wisdom of that direction more than other directions, but I can think of several ways to do it well.

That’s never been the problem. The problem is that none of Luke's character change is earned or explained within the film, so it makes zero actual sense. And when I talk to TLJ fans about this, they'll deflect and say that Luke being a hermit is explained by his failures with Kylo as if *that* is the core issue I'm concerned about. It's not.

Luke self-imposing exile after trying to kill his own nephew makes some sense.

What makes no sense at all is how Luke's entire OT character arc was completely reversed and undone in between RotJ and TFA, such that he'd ever even remotely consider killing his own nephew over a vision (remember how a key part of his early Jedi training involved learning to separate force visions from reality and how he literally lost a hand learning that lesson?), let alone actually begin to take action.

No excuse gets you around this problem.

All of the the character changes that would have had to have happened leading to Luke having any intent whatsoever of killing Ben and then to display the level of absolute cowardice thar is required for him to run away while he knows Kylo Ren is out there trying to glorify Vader and join the dark side, is just missing from the entire sequel trilogy. There's zero explanation for how Luke went from a hero who wins through refusing to kill his father and who instead offers him charity, compassion, and redemption... To a guy who would get so freaked out by a little nightmare that he tries to kill his nephew and then runs away, leaving him to become Vader 2.0.

[Scott @Selthar]

@robbysoave Hadn’t thought about either of these. Pretty good points.

[Scott @Selthar]

Hey @IndMembersCU why does your app require location services even when I’ve moved to another app on my phone?

[Scott @Selthar]

@SRamirez68083 I think if you’re able to hold in your mind that it’s a game you’re playing out for fun, then it’s all good. If you’re playing it out and then you’re mad it doesn’t make 100% sense, then you need to have more fun with fiction and stories and blank spaces.

[Scott @Selthar]

@Destructo_Dude Doesn’t happen by accident.

[Scott @Selthar]

@hunterscyarika The hair in the movie suddenly got super modern and put together, but maybe he’s supposed to be more healthy and ready to go!

[Scott @Selthar]

@sexytwerp Big Tears of the Kingdom energy

[Scott @Selthar]

@asrielle_ This is an amazing idea

[Scott @Selthar]

@GameChangerSam Love all your behind the scenes! Thanks for making it!

[Scott @Selthar]

@RhysSullivan @TimSweeneyEpic Well, they did need a research term and five years. 😅 It’s just an easy public tool now!

[Scott @Selthar]

@giveashitnature How is this different from them laying eggs in a pond?

[Scott @Selthar]

Absolutely. I think some groups are aware of this, but it’s a classically difficult line to walk.

[ali ⚡️ @perkysbuds]

i think where starkid and critical role and smosh and all these youtube groups are starting to go wrong is they think that everyone wants them to constantly up their production value when in reality people started liking a lot of these things BECAUSE they are less overproduced

[Scott @Selthar]

@asha_shar @klobrille Leaving competitor logos off is just purposefully opaque and customer antagonistic. Don’t make me look that information up, that’s your job to inform me. Please don’t listen to everything people say.

[Scott @Selthar]

@IntCyberDigest Completely unrealistic, but maybe a step in the right direction.

[Scott @Selthar]

@Truthful_ast I would love to follow less casually, but have no clue how to

[Scott @Selthar]

@postjawline It’s trying a little too hard for 1968, but I do like it a lot

[U.S. Graphics Company @usgraphics]

I beg to differ that Jony Ive's work is quite contrasting from Rams, even though Rams himself admits that Jony was inspired by him.

Rams' forms have this geometric scaffolding where the device was very systematically constructed from inside out while keeping the user interaction in mind. How the device was used took priority over how the device appeared. Corners were rounded off with an intent to solve a problem. Every detail had a purpose and an explanation. There was abundant clarity in controls. A high sense of modularity and paneling. Plenty of focus on ergonomics and human factors.

It doesn't feel to me that Rams' designs started with some wild fetishized concept which was first sketched in a design studio, then engineers were called in to toil away and make it work. Engineers were instead consulted, not overridden. Jony's work, especially early 2000s was extremely specific to his taste in form which had a dream-like quality, not rooted in user interaction or engineering of the device. It was top-down. Apple design did care about ergonomics and human factors, however they always felt like second class consideration and lagged behind the glory of form.

In Rams' work, there isn't the same top-down hammer of form that dominates all other considerations. I can clearly see the geometric primitives that were assembled together to create the armature of the product. A loose grid system exists. Its modularity is especially evident in his later works with Vitsoe. I really cannot say the same about iMac G3. There was also an abundance of labeling and discovery-affordances in Rams' work, the underlying motif being: Provide clarity and to remove ambiguity. Where Rams would use screws so that the assembly is easier, Jony would use snap fits so the continuity of form isn't disturbed.

However, Apple is a different company than it was 15-20 years ago. Now, Apple designs for ultra high volume (millions/billions) vs. Braun's products (tens of thousands). Manufacturing itself has come a long way since the 80s and Apple has extreme mastery over HVM of high density devices (even though Apple uses OEMs/ODMs for manf, they design a lot of the process flows and manufacturing processes. They have large teams of process engineers traveling to VF sites or permanently stationed there). It's no surprise that Apple's design language has also evolved to take into account Assembly/DFM at HVM scale. This is why I look at Ive's early work (pre-2010) which is more representative of his design sensibilities.

Of course their work is different. I contend that their work is more distinct and unique than what the popular opinion is, in deep fundamental ways. I don't know what "inspiration" entails in quantifiable terms, but perhaps I see superficial similarities and not much else. It doesn't feel like Jony repackaged Rams.

[DarkFist_Flames @DarkFist_Flames]

😭

[Scott @Selthar]

@PaulTassi That suuucks

[Scott @Selthar]

@josephacross Extremely good regardless!