NeverarGreat

And now I hate humanity.

There’s that. Though he may have just been pretending to be Khan, and was actually the guy to the right:

JEDIT: Into Darkness would have been 1000X more badass with Cillian Murphy instead of Cumberbund, and playing Khan’s fanatical first officer Joachim.

That Sulu is gay in the Kelvin timeline and straight the Prime timeline implies that the Kelvin timeline diverged from the Prime timeline before Sulu was born, 3 years before Nero arrived. This establishes that the Narada was not the event which split the timelines - the Narada merely traveled through a wormhole to an already existing divergent timeline. This actually makes more sense than the official explanation, because Spock Prime’s ship travels to this same already existing divergent timeline which contains the Narada instead of creating a new ‘divergent timeline’ itself.

There. Another successful application of the Many Worlds hypothesis. My work here is finished.

Anchorhead said:

Smithers said:
I’m currently reading Scoundrels and I’m liking it thus far. I trust Timothy Zahn more than most writers to make a good Star Wars story. I’ll keep you guys posted.

I feel the same way about Zahn. Definitely understands the Star Wars universe. I’ve read all of his Star Wars novels and haven’t been disappointed yet. Hes my go-to when I need a Star Wars fix.

Zahn does a good job with the technology of Star Wars and brings a level of military strategy that elevates even the OT, but whenever he’s trying to rationalize things by resorting to Battle Meditation or Force ‘shielding’, or anything involving Ysalamiri, I can’t help but think

I don’t know if this is getting fixed or not, but I was watching the Grindhouse version of ESB last night and again was bothered by Lando’s flubbed line reading:

‘It’s always been a danger BUT it looms like a shadow over everything we’ve built here, but things have developed that’ll ensure security. I’ve just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever.’

The word is AND.

Sometimes it’s the little things that annoy me.

dahmage said:

yotsuya said:

I disagree in part.

Someone had to train Darth Maul. That kind of makes it implicit that Palpatine would have a lightsaber and know how to use it.

or this could be further evidence that the Sith idea was slightly flawed. It certainly does change the way the Emperor is viewed in the OT. It is a shame, as i agree that the idea that he doesn’t use or care about lightsabers is more threatening.

This is something I never considered. It would seem that constructing a lightsaber, even if it is a weapon, would be an exercise in patience and precision, not qualities that the Sith would have much interest in. Now I imagine the Jedi trying to evade a Sith warrior who is using some sort of disintegration blaster, which is as effective at melting through objects as the lightsaber but is a ranged weapon. This in addition to telekinesis and the occasional energy bolt would be a very effective offense.

DuracellEnergizer said:

pittrek said:

And why would the Emperor, a guy who shoots lightning bolts out of his fingers need a lightsaber? It’s just stupid.

'Cause as AOTC showed us, lightning can be simply blocked by positioning a lightsaber in front of it.

(Obvious sarcasm, is Obvious.)

Wouldn’t it be much more creepier/scarier/effective if Palpatine would kill the Jedi who came to arrest him by simply breaking their necks with his mind and slowly going away smiling?

Or turning them into crispy critters with his Force lightning. Either would work.

I think it was The Last Command which first showed that Force Lightning could be blocked by a lightsaber. Timothy Zahn has many strengths, but grokking the Force is apparently not one of them. I believe that Lucas got the idea from Zahn, since he lifted much of the plot of Dark Force Rising and used it in AOTC, to much lesser effect. For example, there is a subplot involving an artifact of unknown design, a princess under threat of capture or assassination who must travel under guard to multiple planets, and the suspicious deletion of information from the archives on Coruscant.

There is a lengthy comment on Film Crit Hulk’s TFA essay (http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/06/28/star-wars-the-force-alluded-to) from soletsgettothepoint that I think is worth summarizing and expounding on. They claim that TFA works as a meta-analysis of Star Wars, and the problems of bringing this property back to the big screen after a decade of near-dormancy. For this analysis, Finn can be seen as the symbol for Disney, Rey is Abrams as well as exemplifying the Good side of the Star Wars fan, Kylo exemplifies the dark side of the Star Wars fan, and Han represents George Lucas.

In summary:

The commenter makes the point that Finn wonders why everyone wants to go back to Jakku (read: Tatooine), as if Disney wants to branch out from the same places in the Star Wars universe and make the most of an entire galaxy. Rey still holds out hope that her family (read: George Lucas) will still return for her, though she certainly knows better. She is delusional, but understandably so. It amuses me that Rey is a scavenger of other people’s property and her efforts lead to ever diminishing returns (‘last week it was a half-portion each’). The Falcon represents the original spirit of Star Wars, which ‘hasn’t flown in years’. It is off to a shaky start, and is put through more abuse in this film than in all of the other films combined, but it proves quite resilient. The commenter pointed out that since Han is George Lucas, the Rathtar sequence takes on a whole new meaning. From the commenter: ‘There was a specific reason that there were THREE very dangerous rathtars trying to kill everyone on board. They called the one famous rathtar attack before that a “tragedy.”’ I’d also note that Rey, the ‘good’ star wars fan, is blissfully unaware of the tragic Rathtar attack. I wonder now if making the Rathtars look obviously CG was intentional.

Further thoughts:

I wonder if Rey had an absurd number of magical competencies because she is the epitome of the Star Wars fan, someone who believes that they can do magical things if they simply believe in themselves enough. Rey isn’t realistic, but then again, neither are Star Wars fans. They are naively hoping for a Star Wars that cannot realistically exist, but they keep believing regardless. Kylo is the opposite of Rey, in that nothing is ever good enough for him. He is the offspring of George Lucas, but his greatness is the result of George’s wife, Marcia, though he never mentions her. So who/what does Snoke represent? What about Hux? Where does Poe fit in all of this? It’s a fun theory, so what do you think?

^^This is pretty great. I was inspired to investigate as well.

^What an amusing combination of post and avatar.

JJ has a lot to answer for 😉

Just downloaded this and watched the first episode. It’s quite decent for 80’s fare.

Then this caught my eye:

This sounds familiar.

Kybo Ren captures our heroine and escapes in a ship.

Not to worry, these two are on the case!

This dashing pilot has quite the rapport with droids.

Preternaturally capable, our heroine manages to free herself from prison.

And she’s quite handy with a quarterstaff.

All good things must end, but I hear that one is interested in the shipping business. 😉

TV’s Frink said:

NeverarGreat said:

TV’s Frink said:

Dek Rollins said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

Man, everyone here is so defensive of their animes. Most of my friends watch plenty of anime but when I make fun of it (or them for watching it), they all laugh.

I’m just tired of the two people on this forum who care that some people enjoy Japanese media; they care so much that they have to bring up the fact that they don’t like it all the time. They also insinuate that viewers of such media are inherently immature.

I don’t care if you like immature trash. It’s your life you’re wasting, not mine.

Oh you like Star Wars?

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
The Force Awakens
Star Wars Holiday Special
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars: Droids
Star Wars: Ewoks
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Star Wars Rebels
Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles
Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales
Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
Lego Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick
Lego Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2
Lego Star Wars: Bombad Bounty
Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace
Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
Plus All Star Wars books, games, and comic books

I don’t care if you like immature trash. It’s your life you’re wasting, not mine.

The cognitive dissonance must be deafening.

Lol what?

Who said I like everything Star Wars?

Who said I like everything Anime?

The point is that a large percentage of any medium is crap, regardless of what it is. Words like ‘immature’ and ‘trash’ can as easily be applied to the great majority of Star Wars properties as it can be to Anime movies and shows. However if you said to a non Star Wars fan that you liked watching certain Star Wars movies and shows, that person hopefully wouldn’t assume you were ‘wasting your life’ with immature trash. You would hope that they would give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you like the relatively few good ones, or withhold judgement altogether. Perhaps they would be curious as to the meaning you derive from Star Wars and celebrate the fact that art can be meaningful to someone even if it’s in a form that they themselves don’t identify with.

Anime is a vast and ever growing medium, with a large amount of dross. But there’s genuinely beautiful art there as well, and meaning if you allow yourself to see it.

There’s also the small irony that without Japanese films, Star Wars may not have ever existed.

TV’s Frink said:

Dek Rollins said:

suspiciouscoffee said:

Man, everyone here is so defensive of their animes. Most of my friends watch plenty of anime but when I make fun of it (or them for watching it), they all laugh.

I’m just tired of the two people on this forum who care that some people enjoy Japanese media; they care so much that they have to bring up the fact that they don’t like it all the time. They also insinuate that viewers of such media are inherently immature.

I don’t care if you like immature trash. It’s your life you’re wasting, not mine.

Oh you like Star Wars?

A New Hope
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Phantom Menace
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
The Force Awakens
Star Wars Holiday Special
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars: Droids
Star Wars: Ewoks
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Star Wars Rebels
Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles
Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales
Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
Lego Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick
Lego Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2
Lego Star Wars: Bombad Bounty
Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace
Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
Plus All Star Wars books, games, and comic books

I don’t care if you like immature trash. It’s your life you’re wasting, not mine.

The cognitive dissonance must be deafening.

Mark’s Down On Your Syntax said:

I know a spoof trailer for The Force Awakens is probably old hat at this point but this made me chuckle and I don’t think anybody posted it here last year. So, for all those that thought there wasn’t enough Luke in Episode VII:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6P5cL1kpZc

This is wonderful.

DuracellEnergizer said:

If anyone wants to discuss/mock/criticize/defend anime, do it here and stop cluttering up other threads with the BS talk.

https://youtu.be/vXNr2xtv09Y?t=46s

Our family was in Dingle between the Ep 7 shoot and the reshoots, and if you go up to Eask Tower, you can just see the Skelligs.

There’s no public path up to it so you have to cut across some sheep pasture, but the lady who lives there was very friendly and even helped us wash the sheep dung off our shoes after we got back. Hopefully all the new tourist attention hasn’t driven her mad.

I would recommend if you have the time taking a whole day in Dingle to just take Slea Head drive around the peninsula, it’s breathtaking and only a little harrowing.

We ended up doing too much on our ten day trip, going from Trim to Dublin to Kilkenny to Cashel to Dingle to Galway to Westport and back to Ennis. If you only have ten days, I’d recommend just going to a few places and staying for two or three nights each.

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/06/28/star-wars-the-force-alluded-to

NEVERAR AGREES WITH THIS OPINION.

COMPUTERFRINK HAS NOTHING ON HULK GIMMICK.

DominicCobb said:

Also Akira admittedly is one hell of a movie. Don’t have much interest in anime though. Not crazy about tentacles.

The style of a lot of anime from the 80’s to the mid 90’s I find particularly appealing. This is from Magnetic Rose:


The detail is reminiscent of the greebling done on Star Wars miniatures, at least to me.

Also there’s One Punch Man, which is highly recommended:

It’s a humorous and intelligent commentary on many genres of anime, especially the more derivative ‘Shonen’ genre. Good animation here as well.

All this hate on anime and I’m all

Some good ones:
Akira
Attack on Titan
Ghost in the Shell
Howl’s Moving Castle
Magnetic Rose (from Memories)
Mushi-Shi
etc.

There are a lot of bad and derivative ones out there, like any type of media.
Full disclosure, I was morally opposed to anime through high school, since my art style was highly realistic and I hated the distorted (and I thought, lazy) style of anime characters, especially as drawn by my classmates. But life happens and ideas change, and now I happily watch anime on occasion as well as live action films and TV shows.

Density said:

TV’s Frink said:

Density said:

The colors aren’t a big deal to me, especially not the 97 version which had great and highly accurate colors apparently. But even the Blu-ray, to be honest I didn’t even know people took issues with the colors until I joined this site.

I take it you’ve never looked at the lightsabers then.

Well frankly I have hardly watched the official Blu-ray or DVD at all, and it’s been years, so no not really. I just didn’t see anything that jumped out at me as awful from what I remember, but then again I was too impressed by the improved detail and resolution compared to VHS to focus on that much. I didn’t even know that the colors were unfaithful to what was originally shown in theaters.

This.
I had downloaded the Wookiegroomer versions of the HDTV broadcasts for the trilogy before the Blu-rays came out in 2011, and I was so impressed with the detail that I didn’t even notice how terrible the color and contrast was even compared to the 2004 DVD until much later. After that, and after seeing the Senator Theater screenshots, I quickly realized what I’d been missing.

After gathering a bunch of references, it looks as if the earliest examples of the film have a greenish tint to them. I actually had to reduce the green of the bootleg to balance the colors somewhat:

And here’s the attempt with a single set of adjustments:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/176880
And with slightly less yellow:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/176882
Finally one that has less green in the shadows:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/176886

I have no idea which one is more correct.

yoda-sama said:

While yes, there may be a bit too much yellow (in the star destroyer, mostly), I think this might be about the best attempt yet.

I don’t think that there’s any getting away from the yellow in the star destroyer without making Tatooine too blue, unfortunately.

What I mean by the Anoat system being a planetary system (as opposed to a solar system) is that it’s a system which consists of a planet and its moons. So the Bespin and Anoat planets (and their satellites) both orbit the same star as the Ice Planet, and this entire system is called the Hoth system. However, since they have just left the asteroid field when Leia asks where they are, it may be that the Anoat system was once a planet but this got destroyed and it is now the asteroid field.

And yeah, all this is pretty far from the purview of the filmmakers, but it’s fun to try and fit the pieces into a plausible model instead of the Flash Gordon-y vagueness that it is currently. The only reason I consider that sub lightspeed travel must take a long time is that if it didn’t, Han and company would cross a single solar system within hours at a large fraction of the speed of light, yet their journey would still take years if they had to travel between solar systems. Given that the plot purpose of a long trip to Bespin was so that Luke could have a reasonable amount of time to train with Yoda, the speed of spaceships in Star Wars is then limited based on how long you think it should take to train Luke.

ZkinandBonez said:

NeverarGreat said:

My idea of the timescales of ESB hinges on the assumption that Bespin is a planet in the Hoth system:

Well, while attached to the Star Destroyer Han says that they’re in the “Anoat system” so they clearly left the Hoth system when escaping into the asteroid field.
According to the EU (both versions) Bespin is in the Bespin System which is in the Anoat Sector.
Either way, Bespin is at least not in the Hoth system.
That would regardless have made Han’s “it’s pretty far, but I think we could make it” statement pretty pointless if it was simply in the same solar system.

The Anoat system could be another planetary system in the Hoth solar system. I’d say that’s actually quite likely given that their passage from the Ice Planet into the asteroids and then their escape from the asteroids are both short sequences. I don’t expect that they could have gotten very far, and certainly not into another solar system light years away.

As for the EU: