Ive finished off the post above which I started yesterday, but I thought I’d also go into one of the other alterations I’m planning for myself, while I’m here.
As I was working out the scenes mentioned previously, I remembered how the 'supertrooper’s battle with Finn at Maz’s palace bothered me. It’s not something I’ve seen anyone else mention, but I’m not keen on this scene at all - mainly because I really dislike the fact that the trooper’s ‘electro-baton’ seems to be so completely impervious to Finn’s various lightsabre strikes against it!
I had another look at the ‘electro-staffs’ that General Grevious’s mechanical guards use against Obi-wan and Anakin in ROTS, and the lightsabres are not as blatantly useless against them in that movie. At least we get to see the guards satisfyingly despatched by the lightsabres eventually. In this scene with Finn however, he’d have been toast if it wasn’t for Han shooting the ‘supertrooper’, as the lightsabre came across as being so ineffective.
I’m sure there are plenty who love this scene with the lone ‘supertrooper’ and all his moves…but I’ve decided to ditch this particular fight in it’s current form, by rearranging certain shots. There’s 3 ways for me to choose from - I can either shorten the fight by removing certain shots of the lightsabre striking the ‘electro-baton’ overall…or I can just have the final section play out (where the trooper gets shot by Han as he goes to strike Finn on the ground)…or I can totally remove the fight altogether. I’m leaning towards either of the latter 2 options, at the moment.
Thing is, I would have liked to have seen a small team of this ‘riot-trooper’ design sticking it to some of Maz’s denizens with their ‘riot control batons’ and ‘riot shields’…but I think just showing us a SINGLE one was a missed opportunity sadly, making it seem like this random ‘supertrooper’ was overcoming Finn’s lightsabre far too easily. Hell, the Sith could just as easily carry one of these ‘electro-batons’ around with them against the Jedi, judging by this scene!
So I’ll likely just be sticking with Finn impaling the ‘standard’ trooper in a satisfying way, and won’t show him using the lightsabre again until he gets a chance against Kylo.
(by the way, I was very excited by an early preview of the ‘flamethrower-trooper’ design initially, but ended up disappointed by the little screentime J.J. gave us of that particular variation eventually)