Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 166

DuracellEnergizer said:

And now memories of the Spider-Man Clone Saga come unbidden to my mind ...

 Ah yes, the saga of Ben Riley and the cutoff hoodie. 

That's REILLY, sillypants.

All those pics of stupid Kylo Ren and his stupid lightsaber make me nauseous.

Fortunately, this image

helps settle my stomach.

So I finally got around to reading that spoiler board thing all the way through (http://spoilerboard.blogspot.com/ if anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about) and a lot of it seems pretty reasonable, but there are a few things I can't get down with. I seriously doubt Max Von Sydow's role is as small as they're asserting. I also can't see Kylo, Hux and Phasma all tooling around together on the same Star Destroyer for most of the movie, and I think Snoke is in more than one scene. Finally, the section about the third act is based on nothing but some very old rumors as far as I can tell, So I'm not taking that terribly seriously. Still, the Jakku stuff seems really plausible in terms of tone and pacing.

Not clicking on that link as I don't want to go in knowing too much (didn't I say I was gonna stay out of this thread entirely?), but I do recall the early rumors saying something about the third act having a huge "I am your father" level twist/reveal.

The overall sentiment I've been getting from those in-the-know has been that TFA is most similar to ANH tonally but has a very cliffhanger-y, Empire style ending.

TheFourthHorseman said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

All those pics of stupid Kylo Ren and his stupid lightsaber make me nauseous.

Fortunately, this image

helps settle my stomach.

 

I like that!

But what's the big deal about the dude's lightsaber? Looks a bit goofy but is it worse than other moronic designs we've seen before?

 The blades' rough edges are pretty cool.

DuracellEnergizer said:

All those pics of stupid Kylo Ren and his stupid lightsaber make me nauseous.

Fortunately, this image

*pic snipped*

helps settle my stomach.

 Although I admit that at first the lightsaber design may have been a bit jaring to me, I never really disliked it to begin with and I must say that it has grown on me quite a bit.

Seriously, I don't get the hate for the saber. So it's different to what we are used to. So what. You are free to have your own opinion of course, but there are also lots of other riddiculous designs in the original Star Wars movies (just look at some of the aliens) but you are used to them, so they're fine. To someone new however, they could seem quite ridiculous. But I digress.

Firstly, it's a saber made by Kylo himself, so it makes sense that it's a unique design. Sure, Luke's new saber in ROTJ has a more traditional feel (although we could say that it feels traditional to us because it's what we are used to), but it could be argued that maybe Luke wanted to build a 'traditional' saber to honour the old Jedi and as it was his duty to carry on their legacy it made sense. Maybe Kylo wants to break with tradition. I think i read somewhere that we would find out why he made it like that in the movie, I guess we'll see.

Second, the design itself has been shown in at least a few youtube videos to be not as impractical as people think, such as these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR4_HZ-98IY&list=PLBp7ebiDRbajhFpetrtMhcsVgOUY0JDiJ&index=4 so even if it can't block a saber sliding down and slicing the hand, well neither can a traditional saber so that shouldn't be a problem.

Lastly, if you simply don't like it because to you it's aesthetically hideous, horribly ugly, terrible and the worst weapon you have ever seen, ever, there's nothing anyone can really do about that.

What I would say is maybe try to be a bit open minded and give the design a chance, and don't merely hate it because it's new. I'm sure plenty of people hated on Maul's double saber after Episode I and now it's a design that the fans hold very dear. Or who knows, maybe everyone thought it was awesome from the first time they saw it?

Regardless, I will reserve judgment till I've seen the movie and actually seen the blade in action. As said initially, though at first I was taken aback by the design, I am now neither for it nor against it, although I do feel that it has the potential to become truly iconic. It really will all depend on the character wielding it.

Cheers!

I'm still not sold on Kylo's saber, but it could be worse. The Inquisitor's saber in Rebels was pure ridiculousness.

zaknaberrnon said:

Lastly, if you simply don't like it because to you it's aesthetically hideous, horribly ugly, terrible and the worst weapon you have ever seen, ever, there's nothing anyone can really do about that.

Unless they're a faneditor who plans on digitally removing the crossguard blades in a fanedit ...

What I would say is maybe try to be a bit open minded and give the design a chance, and don't merely hate it because it's new.

What I would say is maybe avoid using strawman arguments. No one's hating the design just because it's new. 

Tobar said:

I don't see why. The Inquisitor made up for a lack of skill with an overly fancy blade whose faults were exposed duly.

Meanwhile, Kylo's saber is just ridiculous.

I don't care for in-universe explanations. I just think it's stupid.

But if you really want to explore that, it makes very little sense to me how the blades can rotate around the 'loop' while the hilt itself remains stationary. Isn't the blade meant to come OUT of the handle? It seems to on all other sabers. 

DuracellEnergizer said:

What I would say is maybe avoid using strawman arguments. No one's hating the design just because it's new. 

Well that's certainly what it has seemed like to me from what I've seen. There have been much more ridiculous sabers in the SW universe before, and regarding functionality, I did state that people have made quite a few videos demonstrating that it is prefectly functional in a fight.

I have nothing against personal preference of course, and if you think the saber is ugly or stupid enough to do (or support) a fan edit that removes it that's just fine.

As I said, to each his own, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and has the right to change it or maintain it as they see fit.

Me personally, At first I had my doubts, but the design has grown on me and I'm excited to see it action in the film, and see if Kylo is a good character. Who knows? The saber might end up being the worst thing since Jar-Jar, and Kylo might end up making Hayden Christensen's acting in AotC look worthy of an Oscar. I certainly hope not, but we'll have to wait 'till december to find out. I shall remain cautiously optimistic.

Jesus, we must be more trailer-starved than I thought if we're really back to fighting about the lightsaber.

joefavs said:

Jesus, we must be more trailer-starved than I thought if we're really back to fighting about the lightsaber.

 I hope they combed Chewbacca's hair near his eyes properly in that next trailer or we'll probably be back to that as well.

On that note, does anyone want to start taking bets as to when the next/final trailer is gonna drop?

I've heard rumors that theaters have been given a heads up to be ready for a bunch of Star Wars lobby stuff on the 15th or 16th, which would make sense for the trailer too because it's a couple days before tickets go on sale (if that was also true, I can't remember if that was confirmed). Some guy at slashfilm tweeted that he has some inside info that it'll be later than that, but week after next makes the most sense to me.