Tobar

The Hand (1981)

A thoroughly gripping tale.

Awesome, I'm way behind in my Star Wars reading. Still need to get all of Rinzler's Making Of books as well as this.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I'm glad this was dropped. Disembodied hands moving of their own volition have no place outside of an Evil Dead film. ;-) 

 Thanks, this inspired me to do some searching and now I believe Michael Caine would have made a far better Anakin. =P

I hate that the EU turned the "Academy" mentioned in Star Wars into an Imperial Academy. The dialog doesn't support that idea at all.

Here's a slightly truncated portion of the cut Biggs scene as it appeared in the script. I've highlighted the relevant parts:

LUKE: Look who's talking. Now that you've been around those giant starships you're beginning to sound like my uncle. You've gotten soft in the city...

BIGGS: I've missed you kid.

LUKE: Well, things haven't been the same since you left, Biggs. It's been so... quiet.

Biggs looks around then leans close to Luke.

BIGGS: Luke, I didn't come back just to say good-bye... I shouldn't tell you this, but you're the only one I can trust... and if I don't come back, I want somebody to know.

Luke's eyes are wide with Biggs' seriousness and loyalty.

LUKE: What are you talking about?

BIGGS: I made some friends at the Academy. (he whispers) ...when our frigate goes to one of the central systems, we're going to jump ship and join the Alliance...

Luke, amazed and stunned, is almost speechless.

LUKE: Join the Rebellion?! Are you kidding! How?

BIGGS: Quiet down will ya! You got a mouth bigger than a meteor crater!

LUKE: I'm sorry. I'm quiet. (he whispers) Listen how quiet I am. You can barely hear me...

Biggs shakes his head angrily and then continues.

BIGGS: My friend has a friend on Bestine who might help us make contact.

LUKE: You're crazy! You could wander around forever trying to find them.

BIGGS: I know it's a long shot, but if I don't find them I'll do what I can on my own... It's what we always talked about. Luke, I'm not going to wait for the Empire to draft me into service. The Rebellion is spreading and I want to be on the right side -- the side I believe in.

...................................................................................................................

LUKE: I wish I was going... Are you going to be around long?

BIGGS: No, I'm leaving in the morning...

LUKE: Then I guess I won't see you.

BIGGS: Maybe someday... I'll keep a lookout.

LUKE: Well, I'll be at the Academy next season... after that who knows. I won't be drafted into the Imperial Starfleet that's for sure... Take care of yourself, you'll always be the best friend I've got.

So from this scene we learn that Biggs has been away in the big city (Mos Eisley?) at the Academy. An earlier portion I left out is that he received his commission and is the first mate aboard a ship. He fears being drafted into the Empire so he plans to jump ship and head to the planet Bestine where he hopes to find a Rebel contact. Now, if this was an Imperial Academy why would he be afraid of being drafted into the Empire if he'd already joined it?

So what did the EU take away from all of this? That Biggs left Tatooine to join the Imperial Academy on Prefsbelt IV. And that Bestine is a small town on Tatooine. *face palm*

A somewhat similar idea was used in issue #86 of Marvel Star Wars, The Alderaan Factor. After her shuttle is shot down while on a diplomatic mission, Leia is stranded with a Stormtrooper from her home planet. They argue about who's to blame for Alderaan and then have to survive together until help arrives. It's a really good story, I'd recommend checking it out.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Complete and utter disappointment. There's a lot of potential hidden under the surface but it was never given the time it needed to mature. There are clear signs of rushed development throughout.

The last game setup these unseen villains that were supposed to pay off in the sequel. In the sequel they've become gang leaders but are never seen only referenced in passing.

There are hints at what was originally supposed to be a bigger and better story that ended up being completely cut out.

The original story as near as I can make out is that New York has been plagued with sudden rise in the number of gangs and violence is on the rise. Wilson Fisk arrives on the scene and along with Oscorp declares they're going to clean up the streets.

The leaders of these gangs are a step way above what Spider-man has ever faced up to now. Having to deal with people like Mister Negative. To add on top of that, there's a serial killer on the loose targeting other murderers calling himself the Carnage Killer.

That's when Sergei Kravinoff appears and offers to teach Spider-man everything he knows. Spidey accepts and with the Hunter's help they start taking down all of the gangs. While doing so the name Kingpin keeps coming up. After doing some investigation Peter discovers the Kingpin is none other than Fisk, who is funding the task force to clear out his competition.

Soon after Spider-man discovers that Kravinoff is actually working for the Kingpin and has been studying how to defeat Spider-man this whole time. They fight, Spidey wins and then goes after the Kingpin. He defeats the Kingpin but Spider-man ultimately loses as Fisk uses the attack to frame Spider-man. We also learn that the Kingpin has been working with the Chameleon to takeover Oscorp.

So that's all what was going to be in the game as near as I can figure. Here's what was actually in the game:

A haphazard retelling of the movie story with the Green Goblin and Electro, while completely leaving out Gwen Stacey. She's not seen or referenced once through out the game. Most of the game is Spidey fighting generic Russian gangsters and then Carnage suddenly shows up, The End.

Kentucky Route Zero (2013)

Pure magic. The third of five Acts was released a week ago. It's a completely absorbing game that pulls you right inside. It's hard to think of words to describe it. It's the perfect game to play late at night when your house is quiet.

Just finished the first season of True Detective. It was good.

At least there's some humor there. I'd rather watch two hours of that than Nemesis ever again.

You're telling me you think something like THIS is better than that?

The most important thing people forget is that Vader wanted them to escape. So the Stormtroopers were under orders to make a show of trying to capture them but allowing them ultimately to get away so that they can be tracked back to the Rebel Base.

Stormtroopers are no joke, we're told what crack shots they are and are given evidence of such. They were able to disable an enormous Sandcrawler with a few precisely aimed shots. And lets not forget what happened to Uncle Own and Aunt Beru.

In ESB they completely decimate the Hoth base. A base considerably better protected than the older Yavin one.

Ugh, how I loathe the Vong and the whole NJO. Instead of making them some stupid extragalactic threat, they should have come from the Unknown Regions. A vast interplanetary kingdom hitherto unknown to the greater galaxy until the invasion.

I haven't seen any of his episodes, I'm only up to the Third Doctor. He just has a face I want to punch.

I don't understand their complaint. Whenever I saw the last guy I had an uncontrollable urge to punch him in the face.

Speaking as someone who lives in Phoenix, that's not going to stop my local movie goers. Heck, winter is when we're the most active in general.

SilverWook said:

And with people buying advance tickets on the interwebs these days, will we ever stand in huge lines like that ever again?

 Large lines are pretty much a weekly occurrence nowadays. Every Thursday college kids and geeks crowd theaters to catch the midnight release of whatever the blockbuster of the week is.

Every once in a while there'll be a really big one like a Hunger Games and the line will spiral around the building. Episode VII is going to be HUGE.

Does anyone know where this footage originated from?

Doesn't look like the Behind the Magic CD-ROM as I don't recall it having behind the scenes footage like that. Guy says the whole thing is 12 minutes long.

Is that Marsha Lucas in that one shot?

Uh huh...

The one place on the internet where people treat curating the EU like it's a career: Wookieepedia.

The existence of the "True Sith" has caused some confusion with their placement in the canonical timeline of galactic chronology. When Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords was first released, the establishment of the Old Sith Empire was believed to have taken place circa 25,000 BBY. Additionally, the beginning of the "True Sith"'s existence was fixed as being approximately "tens of thousands of years" in the past. In 2005, however, the establishment of the Old Sith Empire was retconned to have happened around 6900 BBY, which presented a new divide in the historical placement of the two groups, and indeed in the very nature of the Sith themselves.

Later, it was discovered that, after the Sith King Adas died while driving the Rakata from Korriban in 27,700 BBY, the Sith species possessed the technology to relocate themselves to nearby planets, creating the region known as Sith Space and the earliest Sith Empire.

DuracellEnergizer said:

and now the Jedi are depicted as wielding archaic lightsabers as long ago as 7000 BBY, with the first Sith Lords even depicted as wielding modern lightsabers.

 Their outfits are prequel inspired, but they definitely still have the power pak and cable:

Your name is more than appropriate. =P

There's no way they could get away with that. The tape masters for B5 look terrible! The series needs what TOS and TNG are getting. But I dunno if the original film elements even still exist.

They do use swords. Their enemies are the ones with Forcesabers. They just fill the covers with Forcesabers because they look flashier.

You should actually give the series a go before passing judgement on it.

Vozlov said:

The largest problem with Anakin building C3PO is the fact that in the OT we see multiple droids that are the same make as C3PO.

Which means that either Anakin Skywalker designed an entire type of droid that would be the pinnacle of protocol droids for decades, or that he was exaggerating when he said he built it, and in fact only put it together from spare parts of other protocol droids. That were conveniently lying around Tatooine and that were the pinnacle of protocol droids for decades.

 wat.

He never said nor is it hinted that he designed 3PO. He rebuilt a protocol droid out of scrap he'd been smuggling out of Watto's junkyard.

That the 3PO model is old enough to be found in a junkyard is where I had issues with it.

Wannabe Scholar said:

• The weird stuff happening in the Dawn of the Jedi comics (lightsabers during the founding of the Jedi?)

 Those are actually Forcesabers. Lightsabers do not appear in the Dawn of the Jedi series.

He's heaped more criticism toward it than praise if anything.

Sure he cribbed the name Coruscant from Zahn for the Galactic capital and incorporated a comic book character into the prequels.

But he's gone on record before about how they got everything after ROTJ all wrong.