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Star Wars: A New Hope

edited April 2015 in Movies
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Talk about it here.
Post edited by Andrew on
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Comments

  • I'm more excited and hopeful about the new Star Wars than I was about any Star Wars thing I've ever seen since about ten minutes into Episode I.
  • It's so hard to remain excited, as I know it'll be a year. And I was excited for a year before Episode I.

    If you'd have asked me in 1995 "If and when a new Star Wars movie ever comes out, would you go see it in the cinema or wait for it on VHS or DVD?" I'd say "Are you crazy?!?!? CINEMA!!!"

    But I was burned so badly by Episode I that I didn't bother seeing the next two in the cinema. The second I watched as quickly as possible, but the third took me a few years to catch up on, and admittedly it wasn't as bad as the second.

    And yet now I'm back in the same situation again. Of course I'm excited. But will it burn out after one movie? With Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit? Nope, six movies in, and I still plan to see the third Hobbit movie in the cinema (though 3D Imax HFR format helps swing me on that one). The Matrix? Yeah, even after the second was a drop off after the first, I still went to see the third in the cinema.

    So THIS movie, sure. No brainer. I just want to know if I'll be excited three years from now.
  • I'm very much looking forward to it. The prequels have made me lose any real concern about the 'integrity' of the Star Wars verse which frees me up from complaining about light-broadswords and hopefully just enjoying the movie.

    Funny thing is one of the first internet uproars is from those who are actually quite ignorant about star wars history. Who the hell are these people complaining about a black stormtrooper?

    You'd think people would have got this out of their system after the complaints when Stringer Bell starred in Thor.

    To put on the continuity cap for a moment, a black trooper is totally unremarkable. The video games may not be canon anymore, but it's established in some of the Battlefront and Force Unleashed that the storm troopers gained more clone templates and drafted regular humans after the rise of the Empire.

    From a purely canon perspective, last I checked, Lucas never re voiced all the stormtroopers from the original triligy, so having non Jango cloned troopers is well established.
  • The third prequel will forever be described as "well I guess it wasn't as bad as the first two."

    I spent such a big portion of my life where Star Wars was a major portion of my media consumption. Probably ages 11-15. It started in 1995 when they released that new line of Star Wars action figures. That along with the beginning of novels was a big push to revitalize the brand after lying dormant for 10 years. Prior to that, Star Wars was a neat thing but just something where I played with my older brother's toys and couldn't really recall the movies all that well.

    I spent those fives years hunting down the toys, playing X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, playing the CCG, reading the books, then lining up for the Special Editions, etc. I dropped that shit like the bad habit it was, about 10 minutes into Episode I like to many others!

    Aside from begrudgingly going to see the other 2 prequels in the cinema, I didn't touch anything Star Wars for a solid decade until I started playing the X-Wing Miniatures Game competitively. It's a great game and it being classic Star Wars was just icing on the cake.

    Having a kid who is now watching these movies for the first time, wide-eyed and loving them, is an absolute trip. I gave her a selection of my old action figures so we have something to play with. We watch the Star Wars: Rebels cartoon now. JJ Abrams looks like he could do great things with the Star Wars universe. Heck even TIE Fighter is back on GoG. It is definitely Star Wars season.
  • It is definitely Star Wars season.
    Y'know, even during the misery of the prequels (though the third was pretty OK), it was still Star Wars season for me year-round. I can't help but get excited about new stuff, even if I know there's a chance I'll be burned.
    Having a kid who is now watching these movies for the first time, wide-eyed and loving them, is an absolute trip.
    That does sound awesome. You get a chance to explain why you love the parts you love all over again. It's a conversation we stop having at some point because we all know we love it - it's nice to be able to have the conversation again, and to remind ourselves about the bits we truly enjoy.
  • It's been Star Wars season ever since GOG put up TIE Fighter.

    PEW PEW PEW!
  • Many of us here in the original FRC grew up in the era immediately after Star Wars. The movies were all in the past. There was no foreseeable possibility of more movies. The toys were long out of production.

    Star Wars was a fascinating set of movies from a previous era. It was something that, as much as we obsessed over it, was not continuing forward in any meaningful way. There was very little to be had, so any excitement we had was focused deeply on the narrow slice of that universe we'd been able to see. It was a story that had begun and ended in medias res.

    I remember not quite understanding that Episode IV was the first movie. I actually saw V first. So, when I saw IV, and it started in the middle of things, I just assumed that I could eventually see III.

    Interestingly, games were the same way to me. Quest for Glory IV was the first Q4G I ever played. I loved it, and bought I the day I saw it in a store (no way to get it online: there wasn't really a modern Internet yet). But II and III? Unobtainable. Lost games to lost ages. I played a lot of sequels to games that themselves were entirely unavailable to me at the time.

    When I was older, I heard rumors of "Final Fantasy 2 and 3" on the NES. More lost games.

    There was a strong narrative in my childhood not of discovering media, but re-discovering media in fragmented form.

  • Funny thing is one of the first internet uproars is from those who are actually quite ignorant about star wars history. Who the hell are these people complaining about a black stormtrooper?

    These fans claimed that Stormtroopers were clones of Jango Fett, and since Fett wasn’t black, no Stormtroopers should be.
    Great, not only are they racists, they've got the canon wrong, too. First, Jango was played by a Māori dude, so while he wasn't African-American, he's certainly not white. Second, the stormtroopers weren't clones anyway, they were a combination of conscripts and volunteers, and there has never been stated requirements for skin colour. Or, if you want to really piss them off, mention that there was also plenty of female stormtroopers, since there was no gender restriction, either.
  • I don't see any concerted outcry coming from Star Wars fans, just a few idiots here and there spouting off on social media. They are either seeking attention or simply spewing their own brand of crazy all over the place, as they likely do every day.

    Some day, "idiot somewhere says dumb thing" will no longer be a news story. I guess we are not there yet.
  • Yeah I saw some people complaining about it being the "social justice" Star Wars or some shit. Like wow, there was a black man for a couple seconds. That's not really that remarkable. And as others have stated, storm troopers weren't all clones. From what I understand there was still a portion that were clones, but they gradually allowed others to join. Supposedly that is one of the reasons the Empire was weakened due to poor training and the whole eugenics angle. That would explain their shitty marksmanship in the original trilogy. Random dudes can't really compare to those bred and trained their entire lives as soldiers.

    I'm kind of annoyed by the new lightsaber. It looks cool but it also just looks like a good way to stab yourself in the leg. It probably would have been a better design to just have folding guards made of lightsaber-resistant metal but I guess that wouldn't look as cool for the toys.
  • They don't let gay people be storm troopers. But they do operate on a "don't ask don't tell" paradigm.
  • The Clone Troopers were clones. I mean, duh. Storm Troopers probably had some clones in their ranks, but were also drawn from the population at large.

    I'm reminded of the handful of people who were inexplicably upset when Rue from The Hunger Games was depicted as a young black girl, despite the book literally describing her as such.
  • The movie could be amazing, it could be garbage. We can gleam nothing from such a tiny trailer other than that it succeeded in its mission of getting people excited/talking about Star Wars again. That said, it's not exactly a difficult mission. The creators have nothing to be proud of, yet.

    I'm kind of annoyed by the new lightsaber. It looks cool but it also just looks like a good way to stab yourself in the leg. It probably would have been a better design to just have folding guards made of lightsaber-resistant metal but I guess that wouldn't look as cool for the toys.

    There is no such thing as lightsaber resistant metal. The only thing that stops lightsaber is lightsaber.
  • Apreche said:


    There is no such thing as lightsaber resistant metal. The only thing that stops lightsaber is lightsaber.

    Then how come it took them so long to cut through that door in episode I?

  • edited December 2014
    Rym said:

    Apreche said:


    There is no such thing as lightsaber resistant metal. The only thing that stops lightsaber is lightsaber.

    Then how come it took them so long to cut through that door in episode I?

    They cut through, didn't they? It was just thick. You can't carry around a blast door and swing it at people.

    Post edited by Apreche on
  • I still vote that the main baddy is a sith grave robber and it's a super ancient lightsaber that required exhaust ports. That's fucking cool.
  • Rym said:

    Apreche said:


    There is no such thing as lightsaber resistant metal. The only thing that stops lightsaber is lightsaber.

    Then how come it took them so long to cut through that door in episode I?

    Because they took all available Danger dice, duh.

  • Apreche said:

    I'm kind of annoyed by the new lightsaber. It looks cool but it also just looks like a good way to stab yourself in the leg. It probably would have been a better design to just have folding guards made of lightsaber-resistant metal but I guess that wouldn't look as cool for the toys.

    There is no such thing as lightsaber resistant metal. The only thing that stops lightsaber is lightsaber.
    http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Lightsaber-resistant_materials
  • Andrew said:

    I still vote that the main baddy is a sith grave robber and it's a super ancient lightsaber that required exhaust ports. That's fucking cool.

    I've heard a couple interesting theories such as this, or that all of the lightsaber building knowledge has died off asides from Luke, so this new Sith has made a ghetto saber that requires the exhaust ports. Or more interestingly, that this is some super-weapon that can slice through other lightsaber beams or overcharge them, and the exhaust ports are required for such power.

    I am not on the lightsaber complainer bandwagon, but I did groan just a *tiny* bit before taking a step back and waiting to see how it is all used in the context of the movie. The only reason for my groan is that it reminded me of the prequels, which were a lightsaber gimmick bonanza, at the absolute worst time to remind me of the prequels.

    Apreche said:

    The movie could be amazing, it could be garbage. We can gleam nothing from such a tiny trailer other than that it succeeded in its mission of getting people excited/talking about Star Wars again. That said, it's not exactly a difficult mission. The creators have nothing to be proud of, yet.

    They easily could have fucked it up. They should be proud. Have you seen the George Lucas spoof cut?
  • RymRym
    edited December 2014
    Expanded Universe isn't canon and doesn't count.

    Post edited by Rym on
  • Rym said:

    Expanded Universe isn't canon and doesn't count.

    Also, didn't it all get erased?
  • Quigon Jinn was cutting through the command centre doors, but didn't have a lot of momentum behind the blade due to starting from a fixed position after the initial stab. Then the blast doors closed around the blade, making it slower. But it was still cutting.

    The reason they didn't get through was the arrival of shielded Droidekas, and they needed the sabers to protect themselves from the high powered blasters. Cutting and bouncing blasts at the same time wasn't an option.
  • Apreche said:

    Rym said:

    Expanded Universe isn't canon and doesn't count.
    Also, didn't it all get erased?
    Technically EU was C-canon (one step below Television-Canon, two steps below George-Canon) and part of the official Star Wars universe until Disney gave all the Star Wars geeks the finger and wiped it out. Yes, technically it doesn't count now, but it did count before. Up until that point, Cortosis-weave armor and weapons could have potentially been used to short out lightsaber blades, Mandalorian iron was basically lightsaber-proof, and Yuuzhan Vong Amphistaffs couldn't be cut by 'sabers (among other lightsaber-resistant items).
    That being said, the cross-guards on the saber pictured in the trailer still strike me as stupid, unless they're planning on reintroducing 'saber-proof metals to the canon. The whole point of quillons on a sword is to protect the wielder's hand. Unless the metal is 'saber-proof, one good slash down the blade of that thing is going to lop those right off, and probably take the wielder's hand with it.
  • Apreche said:

    Rym said:

    Expanded Universe isn't canon and doesn't count.
    Also, didn't it all get erased?
    Technically EU was C-canon (one step below Television-Canon, two steps below George-Canon) and part of the official Star Wars universe until Disney gave all the Star Wars geeks the finger and wiped it out. Yes, technically it doesn't count now, but it did count before. Up until that point, Cortosis-weave armor and weapons could have potentially been used to short out lightsaber blades, Mandalorian iron was basically lightsaber-proof, and Yuuzhan Vong Amphistaffs couldn't be cut by 'sabers (among other lightsaber-resistant items).
    That being said, the cross-guards on the saber pictured in the trailer still strike me as stupid, unless they're planning on reintroducing 'saber-proof metals to the canon. The whole point of quillons on a sword is to protect the wielder's hand. Unless the metal is 'saber-proof, one good slash down the blade of that thing is going to lop those right off, and probably take the wielder's hand with it.
    If indeed those things aren't saber-proof, then they are providing no protection whatsoever. However, normal lightsabers already have absolutely zero protection for your hands, so even vulnerable metal is better than nothing.

    Also, having some kind of hand protection is a good idea as losing a hand seems to run in the Skywalker family. Though those hands were not lost due to lightsaber design flaws.
  • Who says they're providing no protection? The movies already established pretty clearly that the blades don't slide against one another like swords most of the time: they sort of stick.

    Jedi also have preternatural reflexes.

    It's not hard to imagine those little bits being used with quick hand movements as weapons, or else to catch an incoming blade directly and then lever the main blade into the opponent.

    I can come up with dozens of movie-canonical uses that make perfect sense in context.

    Also, where are your complaints about Darth Maul and his "likely-to-cut-one's-own-arm-off" design?
    image
  • I thought about the cross lightsaber some more.

    Think of the most basic scenario. The two sabers hit each other and are crossed. In that extremely common position you can step forward into your opponent and attempt to stab them with the light-guard while using the main part of the saber to block them from chopping you.

    Of course, in this position you would also want to turn off the side of the guard facing towards yourself. Also, why make it a tiny little light-knife? Just have it be a full-length lightsaber. Block your opponent with the main blade. Then just activate the second perpendicular blade, and they are dead.
  • Look at the blade, it is all jagged and crackling. Could be and old light saber with exhaust ports?
  • Exhaust ports is the theory I've heard about too.
  • Guys, it just looks cool. It appeals to 9 year old boys. That's it.
  • If we're talking like this, why not mount mass-produced lightsabers on small flying drones and have thousands of them fly around like crazy murdering people?

    (That's how the Culture does it. Knife Missiles!)
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