TheBoost

DuracellEnergizer said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

Sorry but they stated lazers can't pass through deflector shields and the Star Wars ships can't fight at lightspeed or faster and some of those number are way off.

I don't think Star Wars lasers are literal lasers. They travel slower than light and, except in the case of the Death Stars, they come in the form of bolts or bursts rather than beams.

Regardless, though, I wouldn't take the word of anything found on stardestroyer.net at face value. Michael Wong's got a less-than-subtle contempt for the Star Trek franchise and it blatantly shows; you can't trust his "facts" to be unbiased.

 I agree that there's nothing in Star Wars to imply those weapons are LASERS as we define the term IRL. In fact, every single observable trait about the weapons used in Star Wars shows they are not LASERS.

But the neat thing about facts is that it doesn't matter what your opinion is. Whether Wong likes Trek or not, his sources are heavily cited, from manuals and onscreen, and his math adds up.

DrCrowTStarwars said:

As i said ...t reboot Doctor Who ... have him played by the Rock,...

 Best Idea Evar Crow!

.Mac. said:

I would like to check that place out, but it's barely out of reach from me. I live closer to Seattle area. I can't find any worth-mentioning shops around me where 90% of it is just Star Wars stuff.

 The traffic lights outside it are painted like giant lightsabers

I just finished making two copies of Adywan's SW-R for the shopkeep. We spoke of it, and I'm mailing him a couple.

Dear GOD I was hypnotized by that... thing.

I'm stopping all pursuits in my life, including my audio drama and my job and family, and making a fan film based on that.

Can anyone read Chinese?

Anywhere I can read the whole book?

Tobar said:

THE STRAIN (2014)

Guillermo del Toro needs to start developing more series immediately. The first episode of this new show premiered tonight. It has all the makings of something epic. This is going to be awesome.

 Missed it, but the book was great.

I spent the morning watching Batgirl-centric episodes of "Batman- The Animated Series" with my kids.

Generic picture of stars and horizon.

TV's Frink said:

What was the other 10%?

 3% Star Trek, in a little back room

3% Kurt Cobain, who's from Aberdeen

2% Misc 80's genre films

1% WWE superstar John Cena (but not Daniel Bryan, who's from Aberdeen)

1% Space reserved for guys like me who just freeze from nostalgic bliss and have to be stored until we recover.

Almost broke my damn neck rubbernecking when I saw this joint in Aberdeen, Washington. It was like dying and going to a somewhat tacky heaven. 90% SW shwag. 

Damn Obama.

I personally have a preference for practical effects, but always reject the notion that CGI is cheaper, lazier, faster, or somehow requires less artistry or craftsmanship.

I shot some 8mm monster films, and monster films on my old C-VHS camcorder. The monster's in question looked pretty bad-ass.

Now, they look ridiculous on the camera in my cell phone.

I totally can see how a costume that would be amazing in a normal movie might not look right in 48 fps IMAX 3-D mega HD death-vision.

Ryan McAvoy said:

RicOlie_2 said:

I dislike almost all of the first 9 decades of animation.

 K

The problem I have with CGI animation is that it's quick, cheap and easy. So filmmaking being a business means that all films are CGI. I prefer the 2D look but I like 3D animation too, I'd just like to see it used less. More variety I say.

 I long for the high budget lovingly made and crafter cartoons of my youth.

Just saw GI JOE: RETALIATION

A lot of fun...

...minus one scene so mind-numbingly sexist it makes me long for the egalitarianism shown by creepy Kirk in ST:ID.

While the main female action here is giving her backstory about her struggle to earn respect as a woman in the military, the other "hero" is secretly watching her get naked in a reflection. Jesus tapdancing Christ what is wrong with Hollywood.

SilverWook said:

I imagine a similar reaction ensued when the makers of Die Hard found their Nakatomi Plaza.

There's no such thing as bad publicity though. The hotel used for the location shots in The Shining, and the one the interior sets were modeled on have both warmly embraced their connection to the film. ;)

Just this week I was at the hotel and diner they filmed "Twin Peaks" at. The hotel was already a $500 a night place, so they dont care, but the diner really embraces the "Twin Peaks" thing up and down.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Probably the same reason so many comic writers can't write stories about superheroes without deconstructing everything and making everything an ultra-grim rape 'n' gore fest.

 um no. The reason is plainly because Anakin refused his roll as Chosen One when he met the three ghost god things on planet Mortis and didn't bring balance to the Force somehow. It all makes perfect sense really.

ATMachine said:

And as far as that last point goes: even Tolkien wasn't above renaming somebody else's character and reusing him. ... ...

And King Théoden himself was named after the protagonist of a late 19th century William Morris novel: a Germanic chieftain named Thiodolf, who dies valiantly repelling an assault by a Roman legion.

BTW, Theoden is Old English for "King." So... no.

ATMachine said:

 

 

My point was that Lucas apparently felt he could not use the name Picts--it was too close to something pre-existing. And given the similarity of "King Kael" to "King Kull," another Howard connection seems quite logical.

If you still don't believe that Lucas frequently took pre-existing names and lightly altered or combined them, all I can do is point you to the word "Jedi" itself.

The Jedi were originally called "Jedi Bendu" in the early scripts of SW 1977. But in fact, this name is really a combination of the first part of jidai-geki, the Japanese name for period-piece samurai films, and the second half of "prana-bindu," a set of meditative exercises mentioned in Frank Herbert's Dune.

And if that doesn't convince you, then it's obviously fruitless for me to spend any more time arguing with you.

You can stack cow-patties all you like they never turn into bricks.

You're making LOTS of assumptions. Let's follow this chain of reasoning. 

• A: Lucas used the name of a real historical people in an early script.
• B: A comic adaptation called them something else.
• something something something
• C: Therefore Robert E. Howard.

or

• A: The word Jedi probably comes from samurai films
• something something someting
• B: Therefore "Arik Thaughbeaer" is clealy based on the name "Theoden" 

(FYI: Since Prana Bindu is a really yoga practice, the Picts are real people and Tir Na Nog is real Celtic folklore, pointing out that it is used in another work of literature means very little as evidence)

None of these are "clear examples." The logic seems downright tortured.

Picts were a real people. Lucas used Picts. Therefore he took a pre-existing literary name, which as you say is NOT literary, from Howard?

willow Ufgood and Frodo Baggins are both names made of two troches, and that's a "reworking?" So is my name, Morgan Sowell. Were my parents inspired by Frodo, or Bilbo, or Lotho? Or by Millard Fillmorr, who also has the same meter?

You seem to be making some large leaps to draw connections between things. Between Moebius's man-lion Kael and Darth Maul seems a very very weak link, given the loads of actual detail we know that went into Darth Maul's design.

That "Madmartigan" is a mixture of "Mad Max" and "Aragorn" again seems widely speculative. 

Water as a gateway to a mystic otherworld is a classic motif of Celtic literature (with echoes in Classical Mythology as well). Tolkien certainly didn't invent it, and given the Celtic sounding Tir Asleen (Tir Na Nog being the place in Gaelic) I think it more likely Lucas was drawing from the same inspiration. 

And I'm not sure you can, at the same time, say a mask is based on a Japanese Oni mask AND on a hockey mask. 

doubleofive said:

Am I the only one who references the titles like this:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
A New Hope (or "Star Wars")
Empire Strikes Back (or "Empire")
Return of the Jedi (or "Jedi")
Seven
Eight
Nine

?

 Me too, except I never say "A New Hope."

I always figured he was just a flunky and wasn't in a need to know position.

Kenner toys had a proposal for what the Clone Wars were in their rejected plan to continue the Star Wars toy line after ROTJ.

Ive never read the comic (or even heard of it until a couple months ago) but I am super psyched for Guardians of the Galaxy. Looks like LOADS of fun.

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.