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General Star Wars Random Thoughts Thread — Page 142

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I was just browsing through Wookieepedia's lightsaber article, and I came across this little nugget of information:

Gillard was careful to avoid giving the fight scenes a choreographed look, drawing upon his extensive knowledge of martial arts to create the moves.

I wonder who the writer of that ludicrous statement was trying to convince -- the readership or himself?

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What the...?

Bidding started at $1000 but it looks like there was a buy it now price which has now finished since bidding started. I wonder what that price was? May have been wiser to to have clicked the 'Buy it now' button at the start ?

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I wonder if Jabba was inspired by Baron Harkonnen from Dune. Both are morbidly obese to the point where they (initially) can't move on their own power and both have sexual tastes which are, for lack of a better description, less than mainstream.

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Wolfman said:

What the...?

Bidding started at $1000 but it looks like there was a buy it now price which has now finished since bidding started. I wonder what that price was? May have been wiser to to have clicked the 'Buy it now' button at the start ?

 You're looking for logical thought processes from ebay bidders. That leads to isanity.

I wonder who just spent their kid's college fund on that. If it's not a punk bid...

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Where were you in '77?

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DuracellEnergizer said:

I wonder if Jabba was inspired by Baron Harkonnen from Dune. Both are morbidly obese to the point where they (initially) can't move on their own power and both have sexual tastes which are, for lack of a better description, less than mainstream.

 The Declan Mulholland Jabba may have been--albeit with a large dash of Sydney Greenstreet added in. But slug-Jabba I think draws much more directly from Leto II in his sandworm form from God Emperor of Dune, which came out in 1981--right when Lucas began to write ROTJ.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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Wolfman said:

What the...?

Bidding started at $1000 but it looks like there was a buy it now price which has now finished since bidding started. I wonder what that price was? May have been wiser to to have clicked the 'Buy it now' button at the start ?

 The BIN was $25,000.

<--Rebelscum.com member

 

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Like.....WOW !!

Bidding has now ended.

Winning bid: US $50,099.00

 
 
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ATMachine said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

I wonder if Jabba was inspired by Baron Harkonnen from Dune. Both are morbidly obese to the point where they (initially) can't move on their own power and both have sexual tastes which are, for lack of a better description, less than mainstream.

 The Declan Mulholland Jabba may have been--albeit with a large dash of Sydney Greenstreet added in. But slug-Jabba I think draws much more directly from Leto II in his sandworm form from God Emperor of Dune, which came out in 1981--right when Lucas began to write ROTJ.

 Both possible... but I think it's just as likely Lucas wanted to see how big a puppet he could make, and the whole "not moving" thing was a limitation imposed by that desire.

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I can't help but wonder why B-wings are called B-wings. Their shape doesn't resemble the letter "B" as far as I can tell.

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Wolfman said:

Like.....WOW !!

Bidding has now ended.

Winning bid: US $50,099.00

 
 

 Well, I have a new definition of insanity now. ;)

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Where were you in '77?

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DuracellEnergizer said:

I can't help but wonder why B-wings are called B-wings. Their shape doesn't resemble the letter "B" as far as I can tell.

 Can't recall where I read it, but it might be that they vaguely resemble a blade.

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I think the B-Wing was named for how it looks when "standing" on its long wing directly opposite the cockpit end. In that position its main body and crossbar look like the vertical line and midpoint of a B, with the upper and lower loops removed. Still kind of a poor resemblance, I know.

But what really bugs me about the B-Wing is that the ILM guys intended the whole wing structure to rotate around and around, while the cockpit stayed level with the "ground," as they called it. But it's space! There is no ground! So there's absolutely no reason for that feature beyond "it looks cool."

I'm undoubtedly taking things too seriously for a simple space opera. But it still seems a ludicrously impractical feature for my money.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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Maybe the idea was the weapons rotate to increase the radius of fire? Unless they are really specialized, they must be able to operate in an atmosphere like X-wings and Y-Wings.

Human beings still need a sense of up and down, no matter where they may be.

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Hmm, good point. I hadn't thought about the atmospheric combat idea--we were only going to see them operating in space in ROTJ.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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Like SilverWook says, a B-Wing pilot might spin his ship to increase his radius of fire. Imagine trying to shoot moving targets while spinning around and around...

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Has the B Wing been flyable in any of the games?

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SilverWook said:

Has the B Wing been flyable in any of the games?

 There's an expansion for X-Wing that lets you fly the B-Wing.

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It allows for a lot of maneuverability without any extra strain on the pilot, as well. Rolls suddenly become pretty effortless, since most Rebel fighters have artificial gravity.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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Tyrphanax said:

It allows for a lot of maneuverability without any extra strain on the pilot, as well. Rolls suddenly become pretty effortless, since most Rebel fighters have artificial gravity.

 With the added bonus that a B-Wing on an attack run can roll to evade enemy fighters without having the target of the attack run effectively spinning wildly from their own viewpoint.

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When side wingeth lain flat to the hull B-Wing's shape appears as a lower case "b". Such hast it always been presumed by my eye.

Or possibly a matter of, "We needeth a new name for ship"... "Let us proceedeth to next letter of alphabet!" by the creators?

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Klasodeth said:

Tyrphanax said:

It allows for a lot of maneuverability without any extra strain on the pilot, as well. Rolls suddenly become pretty effortless, since most Rebel fighters have artificial gravity.

 With the added bonus that a B-Wing on an attack run can roll to evade enemy fighters without having the target of the attack run effectively spinning wildly from their own viewpoint.

Exactly. I assume they can set the orientation somehow, and it allows them to maneuver more heavily and maintain their orientation at less stress than a conventional fighter, which would give them an advantage. Plus it's harder to hit a small frame that's in near-constant motion.

Also it gives them a larger area of effect with respect to weapons, like SilverWook said. It's actually a pretty amazing design the more I think about it.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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