joefavs

Some new action figure packaging leaked today. There’s a wolfy looking dude who’s kind of reminiscent of the cantina wolfmen, but the more interesting one is this:

Looks like it could be the Greg Grunberg character, but what I’m stuck on is the name Snap Wexley. Aftermath followed Nora Wexley and her son Temmin. Could this be a relation? Or is Temmin going by “Snap” these days? Or is “Wexley” just the “Antilles” of the sequel era, a common name that doesn’t necessarily imply relation?

Harmy said:

Yeah - it will be just a workprint for the simple reason that A) I just don’t have the time to watch it and properly check it for bugs until my own pre-TFA marathon. And B) I don’t have the time to put together a complete release with both AVCHD and MKV encodes and all the subtitile and audio tracks, so I only plan to encode it as like 4GB file with only one audio track and a text at the start saying it’s a wokprint version. There will be no watermark throughout the whole movie, except maybe a tiny timecode running in the corner of one of the black bars.

Which audio track will that be? The 5.1?

I’ve been invited to a marathon with some friends I went to college with tonight and tomorrow. I believe we’ll be doing the Rister order, but that could be downgraded to Machete depending on people’s energy level once we actually get going. I’m going to bring my Despecialized discs and lobby for them, but I’m not going to get too zealous about it if the others aren’t interested because I’m in too good a mood about TFA to get worked up about the SE again.

I’d heard elsewhere that Lucas thought about Mifune for Kenobi, but I wasn’t aware that he was actually approached. Very interesting.

looks like George officially digs it!
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/george-lucas-attend-star-wars-845948

Bosk said:

Good evening,

Just read an article and Rey is the new Millennium Falcon pilot. Discuss.

I read the same article. We’ve seen her in the cockpit a few times now so the fact that she flies the Falcon in itself isn’t a surprise, but if they mean to imply that the arrangement is permanent, I’d say that doesn’t bode well for Han.

Don’t know if anyone else saw that tabloid article claiming the Maz Kanata role had been greatly reduced because Lupita Nyong’o’s performance was poor, but everyone should be pleased to know that J.J. came out and said it was complete bullshit: http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2015/12/j-j-abrams-debunks-recent-rumors-about-lupita-nyongos-role-in-the-force-awakens.html

Got a kick out of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-I9d9MuSuY

It’s a Christmas miracle! God bless us, every one!

LA Times article about the role of the new female characters with an interesting hint from Kathleen Kennedy: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-ca-hc-the-women-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens-20151206-htmlstory.html

But you won’t see Phasma tapping out after being carelessly knocked into a sarlacc pit like a wobbly toddler. Kennedy has big plans for Phasma and confirmed that the captain will carry on into the next movie. “She’s an important character, a baddie in the best sense of the word.”

Looks like Phasma will definitely survive TFA, unless KK is talking about spinoffs.

Here’s JJ’s non-spoilery interview with AOL if anyone’s interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ekui0QWaCA

JJ’s AOL interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ekui0QWaCA

I’ve been thinking a lot about this in theory recently, but I’ve actually just been invited to a real live marathon with some folks I went to college with for the benefit of someone who hasn’t seen the films, so now this is all becoming very practical. They insist on doing the Rister order, so I’m not super sure what to do. If we were watching the trilogies separately, I’d go with the DE in a heartbeat, but I’ve always felt that the one advantage the official cuts have is that they integrate better with the prequels. I know that at least two of the other people who will be there prefer the OOT, so I’m going to bring every version I’ve got and let the group decide since I’ve seen them all a thousand times anyway, but I’m a little worried about getting this one person’s introduction to the saga right.

imperialscum said:
Well I guess some random insignificant EU author first draw it like that. The sad part is that instead of just discarding his/her stupid design, subsequent authors adopted it and tried to come up with all sorts of stupid explanation for it. Now in the end, it seems it even made its way to new official canon.

Honestly, I derive enough pleasure from the mental gymnastics required to make this stuff work to not be too bummed out about it. EU dumbness (in its proper amount) is part of the fun as long as it doesn’t impinge too much on the films.

DarthJezmoz said:

If TFA is pants which I assume it will be, then add this to the fire!

blah blah blah ass something something you et cetera et cetera me.

.Mac. said:

ray_afraid said:

timdiggerm said:
Bad news: Still opens with a lightaber floating in spaaaaaaace

Ugh… that’s such a stupid concept. Surely it can’t be true. Opening with something that throws reality so far out the window doesn’t set a good tone…

Can either of you or somebody explain what exactly is wrong with having a lightsaber/hand in space? In a sci-fi/fantasy universe, where there is the Force, sound in space, and multiple other laws of physics being defied (according to our world)… to me, a hand floating in space doesn’t throw reality out the window any more so. I’m guessing some think it’d surely evaporate when entering the atmosphere, or something? How do we know for certain it would or wouldn’t? It could also very well be a mechanical hand (where any remaining synthetic flesh may melt away) or maybe it’s encapsulated in something - we don’t know any details. So I do not understand how there’s a predetermined disgust in this concept when we haven’t seen how it plays out… if it’s even true. I’m open to it and will let the story tell me what’s going on.

My problems with it are A.) the six previous movies have opened with a spaceship sailing past, and breaking that pattern by showing literally anything else is going to leave a bad taste in my mouth, and B.) we see stuff burning up when entering the atmosphere in ROTS, so even if Star Wars does ignore some real-world physical laws, it’s established that it doesn’t ignore that particular one.

I read a synopsis of one of the short stories that’s come out recently, though, and it gave me reason to think that this is a moot point because it isn’t going to happen. In The Perfect Weapon (which I haven’t actually read myself), a character who later ends up at Maz Kanata’s castle obtains a mysterious locked box, a la the suitcase in Pulp Fiction. I’m betting it’s the lightsaber.

Hux or Phasma biting the dust wouldn’t surprise me, but Kylo and Snoke are definitely safe.

I’m also seeing that Adam Driver let it slip on Howard Stern that he’s signed on for three films. I never thought Kylo was going to die in TFA anyway, but this looks like confirmation. Of course, I expect that shot list probably says the same, but I’m not reading that. We’re only two weeks out, I’m drawing the line here.

I also recall Devin Faraci (who I believe was the one who made the claim in the first place) speculating a few weeks back that the lightsaber in space thing was leaked intentionally to gauge fan reaction, and that he suspects they changed it when it became apparent just how much everyone hated it. If this stuff actually is from production, that change wouldn’t have been made yet.

I can’t deal with that vocal effect for more than 30 seconds. I saw Jurassic Park at the drive in when I was three and can vaguely recollect the experience, though, so I think I know what you mean?

ZkinandBonez said:
The reasons for why half the galaxy remains unexplored may be convoluted, but it’s not illogical.
It’s just another over-the-top EU explanation of things, as evidenced by the fact that there was never any kind of map until about fifteen years ago. There wasn’t even that much of a demand for it until then. From what I’ve gathered from the wiki, most of this has to do with the lore of The Knights of the Old Republic games.

The first time I ever remember seeing any kind of map was in Vector Prime, which makes sense given that the boundaries of the galaxy mattered much more in the NJO than they ever had previously. Really, though, there’s enough old stuff before that about the Chiss Ascendency operating in the Unknown Regions in The Hand of Thrawn that I’d have probably speculated about them rather than the Rakata if it weren’t for Rakata Prime being on the new map.

Well, he seems less cranky than he did with Charlie Rose.

I just found a cheap blu ray copy of Star Trek (2009) in a bargain bin, and I believe Into Darkness is still on Amazon Prime, so I’m considering adding Abrams’s Treks to my itinerary. I haven’t seen Into Darkness since the theater, and though I remember being disappointed, I don’t recall having the viscerally negative response most people seem to have had, so I’d kind of like to revisit that now and see what it’s like with some distance. So now I’m thinking:

1. Official blu rays over the span of the next few days (unpopular choice, I know, but I do it for the sake of canonicity when the prequels are in play), likely on my own for some of it, but my sister will probably jump in.

2. Star Trek double feature this weekend with a couple friends.

3. Despecialized marathon with a larger group of friends the weekend before TFA.

I’ll be at the Showcase in Worcester, MA on opening night, for the simple reason that it was the closest theater with online ticketing when it went on sale. If it’s good, I’m going to try to get to the IMAX in Reading to check out that new Laser projection thing. If any of the 70mm prints make it to New England I’ll seek that out as well.

^I like that a lot. I doubt the movie will give us an explicit answer about that, but I’ve got a feeling the Aftermath books are building to the battle of Jakku. I think the next one of those is out in April, so if we don’t find out next month we might then.

I brought this up in the TFA thread just before this splintered off into its own discussion, so I’m not sure anyone actually saw it there. With Rakata Prime on the map, I’ve got to wonder if the Rakatans have anything to do with this question. I don’t know if anyone here has read any Alastair Reynolds, but in his books he’s got an ancient race of aliens called the Inhibitors, who essentially booby-trapped the galaxy after an enormous war in the distant past in an attempt to prevent any new space-faring civilizations from developing. I’m thinking maybe the Unknown Regions on the map are what was once the entirety of known space to the Rakatans however many thousands of years before the Republic, and in the dying days of their empire they rigged it as a sort of artificial Bermuda Triangle. If every mission that gets sent in to explore the area ends up lost, I could see the Republic giving up and letting it be.