darth_ender

Like Clark Kent and Superman...never in the same room at the same time...fishy ;)

It was an inside job!  I'm sure of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2dvv-Yib1Xg

BTW the Greedo one is down, so here' the archived version:

http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/polisci/faculty/rexb/greedo.html" target="_blank">http://web.archive.org/web/20071006234307/http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/programs/polisci/faculty/rexb/greedo.html

I kid you not!

TheAmazingUncleSam said:

Darth Ender, if you're checking out my channel right now, I have a good recomendation for you! Make an account at rebelscum forums, it's an awesome forum with lots of interesting discussion going on. Most of the site sucks and it's about toys, but the movie subforums of rebelscum forums are just pure interesting and awesome, you would really enjoy it if you made an account and posted in the rebelscum movie subforums.

Yeah, he definitely still frequents the site.  He apparently posted this on March 27, so you'll have to scroll down.

Another winner:

Yeah, now that I actually went back and read the thread, I probably should have started my own that actually talked about Star Trek and properly abbreviated versus.

darth_ender said:

I forgive you.  Come with me into the trees!

It's a shame Frink didn't pick up on this line (or perhaps thought it too creepy to continue that train of thought). :(

On a slightly separate note, anyone, Catholic or no, want to share their thoughts on this Pope Francis fellow.  I find him quite interesting.

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-presides-over-trimmed-easter-vigil-200621332.html

The main paragraphs of the article is not the point, but rather the supplemental stuff pointing out how he's made some waves.

Yeah, I was having some similar thoughts...not that they were one and the same, but maybe one as a lesser version of the other.

Rumor mill says that there might be an Obi-wan/Darth Maul film under consideration between Eps. III and IV.  Not sure how I feel about it, but then I'm really not sure how I feel about any of these standalone films.  It would be nice to see closure with Maul, but I'd rather see it in The Clone Wars.

http://www.cinelinx.com/movie-news/item/3743-rumor-control-star-wars-spin-off-featuring-darth-maul-and-obi-wan-being-considered?.html

As a side note, if you play Duel of the Fates backwards, you can hear that the choir is actually singing, "Maul is dead."

;)

I think the Hutts would be really cool to see.  I find it an interesting thought that they were so powerful as to be outside the jurisdiction of the Old and New Republics and the Empire.  But I also like the idea of a cult surrounding the Vader persona.

I'd like to share my honest thoughts on the Light vs. Dark Side, and if they do go Jedi against Sith/Dark Jedi route, I hope they do this right.  One thing that has driven me crazy in Star Wars from the PT, nearly all EU, fan lore, and even the OT, is that the Jedi are morons and the bad guys are always stronger.  Yoda said that the Dark Side was "quicker, easier, more seductive," but not stronger.  I feel this has seldom if ever been capitalized upon well (though I admit to not being as well versed in the EU anymore).

In an analogy to boxing, a fighter who gives in to rage and aggression can be quite powerful and intimidating, overpowering an unprepared adversary.  But the fighter who is calm, controlled, and focused will triumph in spite of his less offensive strategy.  The Force encompasses the spiritual as well as the physical, and I think the same applies, or at least should.  But thus far we've yet to see much of it, and the good guys only seem to win on luck or when they succumb to the Dark.  Anakin defeats Dooku and Ventriss in anger.  Luke defeats Vader in anger.  And otherwise the Jedi are defeated left and right by Force-less enemies (Grievous) or are too stupid and weak to stand up to Dark Side users effectively.

In my ideal ST, whatever evil is ultimately faced, I hope Luke faces it.  And I hope that when he does, he does so as an absolute master: controlled, calm, at peace, and more powerful than any emotionally-driven enemy.  To me that would show that the Light Side is truly stronger, and it would be a true victory for Light.

Happy Easter!  Warb, if you're the only one who reads this and cares, I hope you enjoy a wonderful holiday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior :)

I'll be checking this out for sure!  Thanks for doing this. :)

Any chance you'll be working on the other two 97SE movies?

I knew one of these threads must be around here somewhere.  You can't go to any Star Wars or Star Trek forum without finding one.  Saw this article, thought it was fun.  Perhaps renew an age-old debate.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/experts-debate-psychology-star-trek-vs-star-wars-222637187.html

I enjoy both.  I like Star Wars better, particularly the OT.  But I really do enjoy Star Trek, especially TNG.

There are certainly other ideas that would be cool, but I fear most of them would be impossible with what we have available to us.  I thought maybe killing Han as originally planned would be cool, but I don't think it's possible to pull off.

Not available yet.  I will put it up on MySpleen when ready.  I know my project is simpler than many, but my time is extremely limited these days (not like anyone else is short on time, but that's how it is).  I'm getting there.  Though I don't post lots and lots of updates, I make a little progress almost every day.  The main thing is organizing the pictures into a several slideshows with some description to go with it.  Thanks for inquiring :)

^^See, is this actually a productive discussion, or just simply trying to deflate someone's belief because you disagree?

Others may scoff, but I'm proud of you, Warb, and I have no doubt God was helping you :)

You're the man, ted. :)

I advocated for more Tector in the old collaborative thread.  But someone pointed out that it was probably just the top of a model.  I'm now convinced that it was never actually intended to be a different design, but that inaccurate scaling during the compositing process made the Destroyer look larger, and thus it looked like more of the vessel was revealed than actually was.  I'm pretty sure it was never intended to be a part of the original battle.  That said, I'm not against other designs.  The Main Communications Star Destroyer (finally granted a name after close to 30 years) is something I would definitely be in favor of seeing.  That's the ship that was causing the jamming, and I think it would be cool to see it get taken out to stop the jamming.  It would probably take some new pilots in cockpits.

This will make the third thread I've posted this in, but the thought keeps coming into my head, and I will probably push for this till the release of ROTJ:R.  I really hope to see Victory-class Star Destroyers at the Battle of Endor.  I love their design.  I love the thought of the Empire having more than two classes of warships (Imperator-class and Executor-class).  I always hoped that we would see these guys in the prequels, but I was disappointed to learn that we'd be seeing the Venerators instead.  To me, seeing the Victories at Endor would be like seeing the AT-STs at Hoth: I would be equally, if not more excited!  There is nothing I want to see in this film more than that!

Also, I was reading about why Gary Kurtz left the team for ROTJ.  From what I can tell, he must have been an amazing producer, really hands-on and involved, while simultaneously letting the director be creative.  From what I read, he was unhappy with the change of direction George had in mind for Jedi, with a happier ending and less substance.  Now I personally really enjoy ROTJ.  But I agree that there could be more drama to it, and such would have been perhaps improved the film.  As Ady probably knows, I have my own thread full of ROTJ edit ideas from myself and so many others that are ripe for the taking.  But since that project may or may not ever be completed, I figure maybe these more modest thoughts will get more attention.

Perhaps the Save Lando and Kill Lando teams can be satisfied with a branching ending.  I think it would be interesting to see him die, while I know others want him to live.  I'm sure both could be accomplished fairly easily with Adywan's skills and a branching disc.

I still would push for a more bittersweet ending, roughly included in my signature.

What else could feasibly be included to make ROTJ more dramatic and less hippy/happy.

Hey, new guy!  Welcome to the forum! ;)

When 56 years old I reach, look as good I will not.

I have used IFOedit, and it does work in some DVD players.  I've had no trouble using such modified discs in my BD player.  Other potential programs that work on the same principle are VOBBlanker and DVD Patcher, but IFOedit I think worked best for me.

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

darth_ender said:

The primary difference is where I ultimately come to my conclusions.  Obviously, if I believe in God, I believe him to be several rungs above us.  I do believe we are incapable of understanding him or his reasoning.  However, if I believe him to be such a superior being and I trust that his reasoning to be far above my own, I can still trust that he is capable of teaching me on my level.  Going back to the primate analogy, though a chimp cannot comprehend our motives, our reasoning, our "ultimate questions," we may teach the chimp something.  We can teach a chimp some art, some more advanced communication (primitive levels of sign language), and can give very limited insight into our way of thinking.  God, though far above us, is infinitely knowledgeable, infinitely capable.  Sure he would know the exact ways to teach his children how to understand on some basic level what his motives are, what our greatest questions can and should be.  Chimps can be taught, and we are far more capable than chimps.  I believe God has a lot to teach us.

Very good - Yes, this is one possible scenario and a logical follow-up to my post, from the point of view of someone with a religious foundation.

Indeed, from a scientific viewpoint, I would list your description as one hypothesis among many, and to some degree in place of the one I offered.  At that point, in the absence of any sort of "test" that could potentially advance one of them (or another) to the level of "theory" (to which I think any scientist would agree none exists), I find myself considering which is the more likely scenario amongst possibilities.  To wit, here are two such possibilities, the two brought up so far (later I will bring up others):

1. [mine] We are one of many species in the universe, trapped by our limitations just as other species on earth are (even) further trapped by theirs, and we, like them, are unlikely to ever know very much about what it all "really means", or
2. [yours] The highest form in the universe is communicating with us and telling us to do some seemingly illogical things, for our own good.

I'm with you so far.  

While I would agree that #2 is certainly possible, if I am even going to consider it, then I need to explore it.  When I do, I find that there are other equally compelling interpretations not on the above list.  My reasoning therein goes back again to the chimp:

From the chimp's perspective, if a human teaches it how to paint, or do sign language, that person might as well be God.  The chimp, if it is capable of such thoughts (and it might be) considers the possibility that indeed we are Gods, it has no way of knowing there is anything higher, and so concludes it to be true.  And lo and behold, YES, we DO tell it to do things that don't make any sense to it - like staying out of the cupboard, or not running out the door into traffic - things that it can't understand why it isn't allowed to do, but are definitely important that it do (or not do)... just like our God is supposedly doing for us.

Still with you.

Thus, if some seemingly omnipotent being really came down from the sky and performed miracles and told us to do certain things, wouldn't it be much more likely that it was simply a slightly higher species, such as we were doing with the chimp?  We spend a LOT more time communicating with dogs, cats, rats, chimps, etc., than we do trying to communicate with earthworms.  I would think that the entity most likely to try and communicate with us (or help us, or experiment on us, or heaven forbid tease us) would be one not so much higher than us.  To us it would seem infinitely above us, because it can do things we cannot even fathom.

I think you raise interesting questions here, though I would disagree on a particular point.  There is a large gap between the chimp and the human, much like the large gap between the human and God.  But the chimp is incapable of reason.  The chimp is not fully self-aware.  The chimp is not technically sentient, as intelligent as it may be.  It's behaviors are motivated entirely by what it instinctively aims for in self preservation.  No matter how much more effort we put into teaching chimps, their brains have pretty much hit a ceiling as far as they are able to mentally grow, and without some substantial evolutionary leap, they will never learn true language (in the sense that they can form an infinite number of combinations to express ideas).  They will never learn to write their names.  They will never learn to even construct anything like a model airplane.  The gap between human and God is far larger, but at the same time we were created in his image, capable of knowing right from wrong.  As our creator, he obviously has some vested interest in us and our wellbeing.  And having given us some capacity to understand, as well as the capacity to act in faith, he grants us the opportunity to exercise both virtues.

Further, opening that possibility contradicts the supposition that what we think is "God" must be good and must be followed.  It could just as well be some race that is breeding us.  Maybe that's why we're not supposed to be homosexuals.  Or it could be a little kid toying with us.  Or it could indeed be good, and we should follow its rules even though it isn't a God.  There are many possibilities.

Some possibilities are scary, especially since most interactions between humans and lower animals are decidedly to the animal's detriment, and in many of those cases the animals are made completely unaware of their impending doom.

As I said, God clearly seems vested in our best interest.  Your other possibilities are interesting.  Discussing it as a matter of faith, faith-based experiments seem to show that God has led most individuals who continually exercise that faith in him to find greater happiness.  From a more scientific standpoint, if this superior being who exercises authority over us were merely toying, it seems he'd have destroyed us long ago, rather than continue to allow us to better ourselves, extend our longevity, and grow to doubt his existence more and more.

One of the biggest differences between science and religion, is the notion of "sacred".  Science holds nothing sacred.  So the biblical interpretation of things is certainly possible, to a scientist even.  But when I think about what is the most likely interpretation - even supposing the observations described in the Bible really happened - in the absence of a supportable theory I think that there are more likely interpretations than what religions conclude.

Occam's razor.  About 2 1/2 years ago, the great scientist Stephen Hawking came out of the closet, so to speak, as an atheist.  For years he had advanced our understanding of physics while still giving God the credit.  What was his amazing reasoning?  Was it that evidence pointed against the existence of God?  Was it that there simply was not enough evidence to substantiate him?  No.  It was because God is redundant, because these laws just exist, and because of these laws, the universe will form itself.  Nevermind the confusion of existence, where do matter, energy, and pre-existing laws come from.  I'm not saying that my pill is easier to swallow for everyone, but to simply cast God aside because "the natural laws did everything" is no simpler an answer.  I feel Occam's razor applies equally well to both scenarios, as both require some leaps.

And I haven't even yet discussed what I consider to be far more likely still - that the observations in the Bible didn't really happen at all.  How many people saw Luke miss with the grappling hook?  How many alien abductions have been reported?  What about all the wacky stuff on late night radio?  Why is it that only those wild stories in the Bible (Koran, etc.) are the "miracles", and the others aren't?  From a scientific viewpoint, indeed, the Bible stories really could have beeen miracles, just like indeed maybe there really were prints out there where Luke missed with the grappling hook.  But I think it is far more likely that those "miracles" simply didn't happen, for the same reason that it is far more likely - and there is more evidence supporting - that Luke didn't ever miss with the grappling hook, and that we really DID land on the moon.  (note that I say this despite the fact that my mind tells me I saw Luke miss the grappling hook!)

Which therefore brings me back full circle, to hypothesis #1, above, and why I remain an atheist.

This is fine with me.  I started a new paragraph on faith, but I don't have time to go deeper with it right now.  Simply put, a lack of evidence is not evidence.  I have a different type of evidence than you.

I have a feeling this has been presented before, but I couldn't find it and I thought I'd mention it again.  For those who advocate the mixed up order of 4-5, 1-3, 6 of the SW films, this site offered a modification of that.

http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/

The Machete Order advocates simple dropping Ep. I.  This saddens me for a few reasons, as I've grown more fond of TPM recently, and I think it had a character with great potential in Qui-Gon (though he was seriously underutilized).  But it makes a lot of sense if a person wanted to watch the SW films for the first time to do 4-5, 2-3, 6.

He told Davnes his new YouTube account:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/The-Troll-Speculation-Thread/post/622291/#TopicPost622291

Yesterday I decided to just see what the guy was up to.  If you look at his picture in the YouTube feed...*goes to look for link, there it is, aw crap*...it looks like he changed his picture since I posted that this morning.  He definitely is still checking out the site, because it looked like the exact same kid holding the same cat as in the Troll Speculation Thread, just a different pose.