Superweapon VII

Debra Hill

NeverarGreat said:

I assume the title should say ‘before the prequels were made’, and if so, then yes, I did. An amphibious creature seems at home in a marsh. That is not to say that he never left Dagobah, but I still can’t see a nature-loving person like Yoda feeling at home on Coruscant or in charge of the entire Jedi Order.

Pretty much this. Didn’t give it too much thought, honestly.

jedi_bendu said:

Interesting to note that retcons of published work almost exclusively come from shows Dave Filoni has worked on. I love the man but I do take issue with his disregard for published media, the work of authors in books and comics should be no less valued in canon than the writing for screen projects.

Just following Lucas’ example.

Watched it this past June. Was sorely underwhelmed.

I’d basically fuse the Thrawn, Dark Empire, and Jedi Academy trilogies together, along with a few elements from the Dark Forces trilogy, but jettison the silly clone/Suncrusher stuff. Luke’s going around the galaxy recruiting Jedi apprentices; Thrawn’s making the Empire great again; Jerec, the new Dark Lord of the Sith and leader of the Dark Side Elite following the Battle of Endor, is seeking to kidnap the Solos’ child so they can serve as the new host for Palpatine’s disembodied spirit.

yotsuya said:

Superweapon VII said:

Episode I would be set in 37 BBY. As the Galactic Civil War was in the OT, the Clone Wars would be introduced in medias res. At this late stage, the Clone Wars is primarily between the Republic and Mandalorian Death Watch, a terrorist faction which rose to power after displacing the previous pacifist government on Mandalore, but the wars began as localized skirmishes between revolutionary syndicalist movements and corporations utilizing clone slave labour which snowballed into multiple large-scale conflicts.

The Jedi would be portrayed much like they are in the PT, except they’d be endogamous rather than celibate and wield only blue lightsabers. Knights would wear uniforms similar to Luke’s ROTJ outfit, while masters would wear uniforms closer to his TFA outfit; in both cases, the colour scheme would be black-&-gray rather than pure black or white.

Yoda would be absent, mentioned but not seen. A holdover from a time when the Jedi were more theologically liberal, his heterodox beliefs placed him in conflict with the Jedi Council, leading to his expulsion.

Obi-Wan would get Anakin’s backstory from the PT. Born Ben Lars, he would’ve grown up a slave on Tatooine with his mother and brother, Owen, until Yoda came to the planet and paid for their freedom when Ben was nine. Like Yoda, he’d be a maverick at odds with the Council.

Anakin would be older, around the same age Luke was in SW. Like Obi-Wan, he’d hail from Tatooine, but wouldn’t have been a slave. Rather, he and his twin sister, Beru, would’ve grown up together on the Skywalker moisture farm. Unlike Beru, who was content on the farm, he left Tatooine seeking a more adventurous life, becoming navigator on the spice freighter Twilight. A Han Solo type, he’d be completely uninterested in getting involved in the Clone Wars until meeting Obi-Wan.

The Padme Amidala character would be completely reimagined as Amidala Naberrie AKA Naberrie 38. The 37th clone in the Naberrie line which has served the Alderaan Royal House as personal bodyguards for generations, a quirk of fate made her Force-sensitive, unlike her predecessors.

Naboo would become Alderaan. Enlisting the aid of the native Gungans, the Mandalorians would invade the planet, seeking to procure the Alderaanians’ advanced cloning techniques. This would enable them to create longer lasting clone shock troopers.

Qui-Gon and Dooku would be fused into a single character. Another student of Yoda and an influential Jedi master in his own right, he, too, would’ve been expelled from the Order for his dissenting beliefs. Plagued by visions of a new Sith Empire rising from the ashes of the Republic, he’d reluctantly join forces with the Mandalorians, delving into forbidden teachings in a bid to destroy the Sith with their own arts.

Asajj Ventress would take Darth Maul’s place. Qui-Gon’s foremost apprentice, she’d have a pair of violet lightsabers.

At the end of Ep. II, Anakin would leave Obi-Wan and join Qui-Gon.

Palpatine would be fused with Darth Bane. Rather than establishing the Rule of Two, he’d have established the Rule of One; learning soul transference, he attained immortality by commandeering the bodies of his so-called apprentices, ensuring the Sith way would live on indefinitely, but only through him. Palpatine is only his latest host body.

Ep. III would end with the Jedi Council pledging their allegiance to Palpatine, with dissenting Jedi like Obi-Wan going underground. Anakin falling into a molten pit, the Great Jedi Purge, etc. would all occur between the two trilogies.

Only Qui-Gon and Palpatine would display telekinetic abilities. Other Force users would only demonstrate the subtle Force abilities depicted in ANH.

Not a single red lightsaber. Well, maybe in a vision, but that’s the extent of it.

An interesting tale. I like the Lars/Skywalker part. Though I think some of this is contradictory to some of the OT sources.

Heh, yeah, probably. I lifted many of these ideas from a wholesale saga reimagining I’ve been brainstorming.

Episode I would be set in 37 BBY. As the Galactic Civil War was in the OT, the Clone Wars would be introduced in medias res. At this late stage, the Clone Wars is primarily between the Republic and Mandalorian Death Watch, a terrorist faction which rose to power after displacing the previous pacifist government on Mandalore, but the wars began as localized skirmishes between revolutionary syndicalist movements and corporations utilizing clone slave labour which snowballed into multiple large-scale conflicts.

The Jedi would be portrayed much like they are in the PT, except they’d be endogamous rather than celibate and wield only blue lightsabers. Knights would wear uniforms similar to Luke’s ROTJ outfit, while masters would wear uniforms closer to his TFA outfit; in both cases, the colour scheme would be black-&-gray rather than pure black or white.

Yoda would be absent, mentioned but not seen. A holdover from a time when the Jedi were more theologically liberal, his heterodox beliefs placed him in conflict with the Jedi Council, leading to his expulsion.

Obi-Wan would get Anakin’s backstory from the PT. Born Ben Lars, he would’ve grown up a slave on Tatooine with his mother and brother, Owen, until Yoda came to the planet and paid for their freedom when Ben was nine. Like Yoda, he’d be a maverick at odds with the Council.

Anakin would be older, around the same age Luke was in SW. Like Obi-Wan, he’d hail from Tatooine, but wouldn’t have been a slave. Rather, he and his twin sister, Beru, would’ve grown up together on the Skywalker moisture farm. Unlike Beru, who was content on the farm, he left Tatooine seeking a more adventurous life, becoming navigator on the spice freighter Twilight. A Han Solo type, he’d be completely uninterested in getting involved in the Clone Wars until meeting Obi-Wan.

The Padme Amidala character would be completely reimagined as Amidala Naberrie AKA Naberrie 38. The 37th clone in the Naberrie line which has served the Alderaan Royal House as personal bodyguards for generations, a quirk of fate made her Force-sensitive, unlike her predecessors.

Naboo would become Alderaan. Enlisting the aid of the native Gungans, the Mandalorians would invade the planet, seeking to procure the Alderaanians’ advanced cloning techniques. This would enable them to create longer lasting clone shock troopers.

Qui-Gon and Dooku would be fused into a single character. Another student of Yoda and an influential Jedi master in his own right, he, too, would’ve been expelled from the Order for his dissenting beliefs. Plagued by visions of a new Sith Empire rising from the ashes of the Republic, he’d reluctantly join forces with the Mandalorians, delving into forbidden teachings in a bid to destroy the Sith with their own arts.

Asajj Ventress would take Darth Maul’s place. Qui-Gon’s foremost apprentice, she’d have a pair of violet lightsabers.

At the end of Ep. II, Anakin would leave Obi-Wan and join Qui-Gon.

Palpatine would be fused with Darth Bane. Rather than establishing the Rule of Two, he’d have established the Rule of One; learning soul transference, he attained immortality by commandeering the bodies of his so-called apprentices, ensuring the Sith way would live on indefinitely, but only through him. Palpatine is only his latest host body.

Ep. III would end with the Jedi Council pledging their allegiance to Palpatine, with dissenting Jedi like Obi-Wan going underground. Anakin falling into a molten pit, the Great Jedi Purge, etc. would all occur between the two trilogies.

Only Qui-Gon and Palpatine would display telekinetic abilities. Other Force users would only demonstrate the subtle Force abilities depicted in ANH.

Not a single red lightsaber. Well, maybe in a vision, but that’s the extent of it.

Servii said:

I saw a post somewhere recently that basically said “Why do people who hate Star Wars spend so much time focusing on it and talking about it? Why don’t they focus on something that they actually like and makes them happy?”

And that got me thinking. Why do I focus on Star Wars? I have a love-hate relationship with Star Wars as a franchise. The one thing I don’t feel about Star Wars is indifference. When Star Wars is at its best, it’s something that’s deeply entertaining and engaging for me. When Star Wars is at its worst, I can’t stand it. There’s no other franchise where I have both positive and negative reactions to it so strongly.

I still want Star Wars to be good. And there is still some good Star Wars stuff being made. But it’s like trying to admire the beautiful work done on a garden while the house is on fire, and the homeowners insist that everything is fine.

Star Wars is just something that I can’t fully let go of. It does bring me happiness, still.

Feel much the same way. When I think too much about the past 23+ years, that delicate balance tips more towards hate. Disassociating from all that crap, effectively acting as if the SW saga ended with the Hand of Thrawn duology, helps keep the flame alive.

RogueLeader said:

I appreciate G&G-Fan pulling from the good tumblr post showing that Filoni’s interpretation of the films isn’t always the same as Lucas’. It is a good reminder.

But I do think it is interesting that Filoni, who has worked closely with George and probably knows George’s opinion on his own work more than anyone, would still have his own opinion about Qui-Avon and the failings of the Jedi even though he would know better than anyone that it doesn’t gel with George’s own view.

I think there is truth in both perspectives, not only George and Filoni’s, but also G&G and yotsuya. Because yes, George has stated his view on the story plenty of times, but it is also valid for the audience to look just at the films and pick up an interpretation. George might have had Opinion A in mind, but he isn’t a perfect filmmaker and may not totally conveyed what he was actually trying to convey. The Jedi come off as quite cold in the films, and operate out of a literally ivory tower. Arguably they have become this way because of Sith machinations and it doesn’t have to do with the Jedi system being fundamentally broken, but whether George meant to do it or not, he does not depict the Jedi as perfect. They are good, but they make mistakes.

And why can’t there be some truth in both views? Why can’t Anakin have failed the Jedi, but the Jedi also failed Anakin in some ways? I think there is a lesson in both directions: Jedi have to confront their fears or otherwise be consumed by them, but a Jedi must also remember that institutions can also obscure the will of the Force if one forgets to listen.

Seem like the debate is getting pretty heated but I’ve seen both views conveyed quite a lot online, and I think both views are interesting and valid.

JadedSkywalker said:

We don’t know if the order is destroyed. Since the films had nothing to say about the other surviving Jedi Rey isn’t alone or the Last Jedi. Although they sort of were saying she was going to be the one who brought it back, and hinting at Finn having force sensitivity. The possibility of him being her apprentice.

Ahsoka might not think she is a Jedi anymore but i doubt she is dead, and Ezra is probably somewhere and they can’t be the only Jedi in a very big Star Wars GFFA.

Point is Luke should’ve been the one to restore the Jedi Order. Not some overpowered, underwritten mystery box entity.

Vampires combusting in sunlight’s one of my least favourite tropes in vampire lore. I don’t begrudge Nosferatu for introducing it, but it’s become grossly overused in the decades since.

Also dislike the common “patchwork corpse” approach towards Frankenstein’s Monster. Shelley never actually describes how the creature was made in her novel; there’s evidence he may’ve been closer to a homunculus than a scientific zombie. That’s all beside the point, though. The physical description of the monster in the book is striking in-and-of itself and would translate well to screen; it’s criminal how few filmmakers have even made a cursory attempt.

CloakedDragon97 said:

JadedSkywalker said:

The Hobbit trilogy was one of the most disappointing film trilogies ever. I think Martin Freeman was a great choice for Bilbo but the overreliance on greenscreen and cgi and not shooting on film, rushed production destroyed those movies. I sort of grudgingly enjoy the first two the third was a disaster. They are up there with the Star Wars prequels and sequels as depressingly disappointing when they could have been amazing.

I don’t see this as an unpopular opinion.

This.

Spuffure said:

If the worst movie ever made really exists, it’s most likely a comedy. Why? Because most bad serious dramas and horror movies can be so bad they’re funny. A bad comedy, on the other hand, are more so bad it’s unfunny, therefore having pretty much no enjoyment value.

Pretty sure Coleman Francis never intended to make a comedy.

Troll 2 can be my only answer.

I love Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The movies, not as much. Their humour works best for me in the half-hour format, I suppose.

I think the Starfleet uniforms in TOS look like ass. My initial thought was they bought primary-coloured sweaters in bulk, slapped patches on the breasts, and called it a day; that’s how cheap they look to me.

Servii said:

If Ed Wood had been a multi-millionaire with access to early 21st century VFX, he would’ve made movies of exactly the same quality.

That’s part of the charm of the prequels for me, honestly. The fact that they’re so unapologetically George’s movies, with all the good and bad that that entails. It’s preferable to movies that feel like they were made by a board room.

I wish more prequel fans thought this way, really. I can understand loving the prequels, warts and all. What I can’t fathom is the mentality that insists there are no warts.

I was 11, 14, and 17 when TPM, AOTC, & ROTS came out, the “right” age to enjoy them. I have absolutely zero nostalgia for any of them. I can’t think of a more grossly overrated set of movies if I tried. If Ed Wood had been a multi-millionaire with access to early 21st century VFX, he would’ve made movies of exactly the same quality.

“Home? I have no home. Hunted. Despised. Living like an animal. The jungle is my home! And I will show the world that I can be its master! I will perfect my own race of people. A race of atomic supermen which will conquer the world!”

“Y’know, all my life I’ve been careful to stay in my own corner looking out for Number 1, no complications. Now suddenly I’m responsible for the entire fucking world! And everybody in this mother is trying to kill me, if — if — my head doesn’t blow up first.”

“Maybe it’s not just about you anymore.”

“Listen. You listen to me. You see that city over there? That’s where I’m supposed to be. Not down here with the dogs and the garbage and the fuckin’ last month’s newspapers blowing back and forth! I’ve had it with them! I’ve had it with you! I’ve had it with all this!”

“I want room service! I want the club sandwich! I want the cold Mexican beer! I want a $10,000-a-night hooker!”

“I want my shirts laundered … like they do at the Imperial Hotel … in Tokyo.”

JackNapier said:

Superweapon VII said:

Spuffure said:

Oh BTW that avatar is magnificent.

Felt appropriate to give such a crappy character such a crappy hairstyle.

1,000% disagree. Anakin is a great character and his story is an incredibly tragic one.

The only thing I found tragic was Lucas’ filmmaking. But different strokes and all that jazz.

Spuffure said:

Oh BTW that avatar is magnificent.

Felt appropriate to give such a crappy character such a crappy hairstyle.

Everything becomes fanfiction if it’s popular enough. No exceptions.

It’s time for the Internet to end.