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Post
#788142
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

It doesn't seem like there's much room for Bakura. Aftermath is set a few months after ROTJ, so the timeline would certainly work, but I got the impression that there hadn't been a battle that big since Endor (I can't remember if this was explicitly stated, though). If it happened, no one's talking about it.

This is indeed the first canon work set after ROTJ, but originally the Shattered Empire comic was supposed to be released a couple days before. That got pushed back to this Wednesday. As far as I know, that actually begins as the Battle of Endor is ending, so that's where we're likely to see the immediate immediate aftermath of Jedi.

Luke is referenced in both Wedge's and Han's POV sections, but they don't get into what he's actually doing. It just kind of confirms that he's still around at this point. Other characters also refer to him, but really only because he's famous. Probably the most noteworthy instance of this is when one of the Imperial big-wigs (who was previously an advisor to Palpatine and is versed in dark side lore in spite of not being Force-sensitive) laments that the Sith are extinct and that the last Jedi has an "untouchable soul . . . at least for now" or something like that.

EDIT: I also read the Luke YA book today. Largely unremarkable. Covered a lot of the same "figuring out the rudiments of the Force on your own" ground that Heir to the Jedi did. It was mercifully much shorter, though; I think I got through it in under two hours. Overall it felt like a Monster of the Week episode of a TV series, if that makes any sense. There were really only two things that I think will have any bearing at all on TFA:

1. The Sarco Plank character that we've seen teased got a hell of a lot of screen time, which makes me think he'll have at least a little more to do in TFA than standing in the background like the Vanity Fair spread seemed to imply. He reminded me a lot of Boba Fett in the Holiday Special cartoon.

2. The book opens and closes with scenes set in the TFA era, where there's a frame story of a Resistance pilot asking C-3PO for a story about Luke. During the actual ANH-era story, Luke and the droids go to Devaron and meet a young girl who ends up helping them. They also find some Jedi ruins, and Luke promises he's going to come back when he's a Jedi and try to restore the place. Back in the TFA era, the Resistance pilot asks 3PO if they ever saw the girl again. He says yes, they saw her years later when Luke made good on his promise and went back, by which point she was a young woman. So that seems to suggest that Luke sticks around doing Jedi stuff for at least a few years after ROTJ.

Since the YA books are s'damn short, I expect I'll be through all the Journey to TFA stuff by the end of the week. I'll keep posting about them here if there aren't any objections.

Post
#788136
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

All right, we'll do it that way.

---SPOILERS FOR AFTERMATH---

Over the course of the book, there are passing references to a recently deceased fleet admiral that Rae Sloane had previously served under and has now sort of taken over for. In one of the final chapters, she reveals to a Moff character she'd been butting heads with the whole time that she lied and the old admiral is still alive. The epilogue is her reporting to this fleet admiral on the bridge of his Super Star Destroyer. He's never named or described physically, but when we see him he's humming along with a symphony and won't let Sloane speak until it finishes. Sloane questions him about the events that have just happened and he implies that he orchestrated the entire thing, down to leaking info to Ackbar. He tells her this whole thing was a test to see who among the Imperial top brass was worthy/useful, and that she alone passed. The art appreciation, the elaborate gambits, the quasi-legendary status of this guy among the other characters, the hints about the Unknown Regions, even the way his dialogue is worded has all got me thinking this has to be Thrawn. I seriously doubted it at first, but if that's not where they're going with this why lay it on so thick? I think it would be a huge mistake to create a new character as a Thrawn analogue because he'd be destined to only ever be unfavorably compared to Thrawn. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. So yeah. We might have our first survivor of the canon purge.

---END OF SPOILERS---

Post
#788122
Topic
General Star Wars <strong>Random Thoughts</strong> Thread
Time

Y'know, had he not been cast already in Rogue One, Ben Mendelsohn wouldn't have made a bad middle-aged Han if they end up doing an anthology flick midway between ROTJ and TFA. The Han line about how "I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful force controlling everything" has a very similar delivery to pretty much everything Mendelsohn says in Bloodline.

Post
#788030
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

^There are more than a few planets, species, tech, etc. from the old EU that either appear or are referenced. Without going back and combing through the book, the planet Taris and the Carrack cruiser are the ones that jumped out at me the most. There's also vague hints about the Unknown Regions, although no one has actually used that name. I wouldn't be surprised if come December we find out that that's where the First Order is based, not unlike the Chiss Ascendency.

Post
#788003
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

About two thirds through Aftermath. It's fine, I like that it's re-canonized a lot of stuff, but damn it, I want to know what the hell our heroes are up to. I saw a spoiler somewhere that Han and Chewie show up briefly so I'm burning through it to get to that, but I really wish them or Leia or Luke played some sort of actual role instead of just dropping in (well, not really Luke, I've made peace with the secrecy surrounding him).

EDIT: just hit the Han and Chewie chapter. I'd rather be reading a book about just that.

Post
#787541
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

I can't bring myself to believe it, but I've seen it thrown around on the internet today that the grand finale that's been hyped for this unboxing stream thing tomorrow afternoon may be new TFA footage/a trailer. My gut reaction is that it's profoundly unlikely, but then again, what would get people more fired up to go out and buy the toys than a new trailer the day before? I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Post
#787098
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

Beatleboy99 said:

Oddly enough, there's a character named Rae in the book. That really had me confused for a second.

She's actually turned up before; she was a captain in A New Dawn. I thought bringing her back rather than just creating yet another Imperial officer out of whole cloth was a nice touch.

EDIT: God damn it, the guy who posted it had a crisis of conscience while I was asleep and took the whole thing down.

Post
#787061
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

I just came across a scan of the first half or so on reddit and read the first couple chapters. The language is pretty dire, but at least it moves at a good clip. I glanced at some posts by folks who've read the whole thing and saw enough that intrigued me that I guess I'll endure the style and power through for the content.

Post
#786663
Topic
Why &quot;Ben&quot;?
Time

I think it's entirely possible that Lucas/Lucasfilm/licensed content creators gave that question no thought at all before they started making the prequels/all their related stuff. A lot of people here seem to like the idea that there was some pure version of every single thing laid out before George started making the prequels and then he changed a bunch of stuff from what it was originally supposed to be, but for something as small as this, I honestly think it's more likely that no one thought it was that important for a while and it went unaddressed until those movies with Obi-Wan Kenobi as a young man started coming out. Granted, I have no idea if it actually is explained in any of the EU stuff from that era either. I just think that the prequel bullshit that you want to avoid is probably the only place an answer exists at all.

Post
#786298
Topic
Star Wars: Rogue One - * Non Spoiler Discussion Thread *
Time

SilverWook said:

It's been done more often than most people realize.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEgsqvtaN28

Pretty sure it's always done with the permission of an actor's estate or family. Tarkin may not even have a large role in the film, or only appear on a viewscreen or hologram.

 I'm not super comfortable with a lot of those either. Honestly, based on what I know of Cushing and how peripheral the role is likely to be, I don't have a huge problem with this idea in itself, but it seems like a very slippery slope. I know copyright law is good enough to prevent these particular examples, but I've got a horror scenario in my mind where we end up getting Godfather prequels with "Brando" and Casablanca sequels with "Bogart". The realist in me figures this is ludicrously improbable for myriad reasons, but the pessimist in me can't shake the feeling that if this is established as a viable possibility and the powers that be like what they see when they run the numbers, something in that vein could become our reality. It's much better if everyone agrees that it's a dick move now and proceeds with pursuing other methods, IMO.

Post
#786295
Topic
Help: Looking for... 1989 SWE preservation
Time

Darth Mallwalker said:

Well there it is finally-- it could be our slowest posting evar.

The SFV file was made by segaflip, and the alternative spelling folder name and all, all his.
All I done was preserve it for nine years.

For n00bs, there's 2 incredible shrinks to look for:

After Ben said You'll have to sell your speeder.
--- ratio shrink ---
Before Gringo asked Going somewhere, Solo?

The 2nd shrink is pictured above.
We can't recall the dialog in that shot off the top of our collective heads.
Is it before Solo asked Didn't we just leave this party? ?

 Assuming it was in fact an autocorrect flub, "Greedo" to "Gringo" is now my favorite autocorrect flub of all time.

Post
#786294
Topic
Star Wars: Rogue One - * Non Spoiler Discussion Thread *
Time

Someone brought up Charles Dance in the comments of the AV Club article about this, and while I personally think he isn't  right physically for the role, I'd much rather they go that route than digitally recreate a dead actor. Whether or not they can pull it off, I'm a little squeamish about it ethically. It's like that Audrey Hepburn commercial for . . . I want to say . . . Chocolate? I found that whole posthumous endorsement deal thing really unsettling. Anyway, I have to think that to do this in an actual movie would set a potentially dangerous precedent.

aside from all that, even though I don't like him for Tarkin, I'd love to bring Dance into the saga in some other capacity. He'd be great.

Post
#786213
Topic
Speculation as to when opening night (not the special super-preview at select cities) tix for TFA will be sold be fandango?
Time

I've been wondering about this too. The trend for blockbusters in these parts recently has been a sneak 7:00 pm showing before the proper midnight opening (this is how I saw Jurassic World). That would be ideal for me, but I'm not sure if Lucasfilm can block that, or even if they would want to. In any case, it's been years since I actually needed to get tickets for an opening more than a few hours in advance (I think the last time was The Dark Knight back in '08), but I don't want to take any chances with this one. Not a very helpful post, I guess, but I'm curious too.

Post
#785975
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

ZkinandBonez said:

Possible concept art for the Knights of Ren;
http://indierevolver.com/2015/08/14/indie-revolver-exclusive-possible-images-of-the-knights-of-ren-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens/

 Are the sabers in that third one purple, or is it just the quality of the photo? It would be cool to get some dark siders with different colored lightsabers into the mix.

Post
#785574
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

darklordoftech said:

unamochilla2 said:

I would say the original ending would be more appropriate in this case since it didn't imply a celebration across the entire galaxy as we know it, unlike the SE ending (especially when Jar Jar shouts "Wesa free!").  As mentioned, the death of Vader, the Emperor and the destruction of the DSII doesn't mean the war was won.  The destruction of the DS didn't stop the Empire, it just pissed them off and they came back badder than ever and defeated the Rebellion.  I see the original ROTJ ending like the SW ending, the Rebels won the battle, but the war wasn't over as evidenced by ESB.  They had a small celebration for their achievements, but then it was back to business.

I doubt the viziers, moffs, and admirals just sat back and watched the celebrations. I'm sure the troops came in and stopped the celebrations at some point.

 Which was the thrust of that Aftermath opening that turned up a few weeks ago. The Uprising trailer also seems to imply some sort of cover-up of the Death Star II's destruction, at least in the Anoat sector, which seems at odds with the SE Bespin celebration footage. I think I've already said (maybe actually in this topic) that I bet there ends up being a retcon that establishes that those celebrations weren't happening simultaneously, but rather over a span of weeks/months.

Post
#785534
Topic
Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * <strong>SPOILER THREAD</strong> *
Time

According to MSW, this showed up on the box of a new miniature game:

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . . .

It is a time of uncertainty. Unrest grips the galaxy as the influence of the First Order spreads, but a glimmer of hope remains in the heroic forces of the Resistance. As they struggle against the dark might of the enemy, these brave heroes may yet awaken the skill and strength needed to forge a new future . . . .

Pretty vague stuff, but it's one of the first official glimpses of the political landscape I've seen.

Post
#785493
Topic
Star Wars: Rogue One - * Non Spoiler Discussion Thread *
Time

Tobar said:

What? I'm saying the opening of Star Wars' crawl is the premise of Rogue One. I never said anything about it having its own crawl.

 Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were trying to say that Rogue One was so closely linked to Star Wars that they mean to reuse the first two thirds of the original's crawl in the new movie.

Post
#785461
Topic
Star Wars: Rogue One - * Non Spoiler Discussion Thread *
Time

Tobar said:

DominicCobb said:

My big question is how closely will this lead up to the original film (basically how prequelly will this be)?

 What they told us at Star Wars Celebration was that this is the first two paragraphs from the opening crawl:

It is a period of civil war.

Rebel spaceships, striking

from a hidden base, have won

their first victory against

the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, rebel

spies managed to steal secret

plans to the Empire's

ultimate weapon, the DEATH

STAR, an armored space

station with enough power to

destroy an entire planet.

 Not sure whether that's a joke or not, but I was under the impression that the anthology films weren't going to have crawls.

Post
#785460
Topic
Why the future SW films concern me
Time

I dig anything involving the original crew as far as Trek goes, but try as I might I can't get into any of the other iterations. And when I say that, I'm including the Abrams movies; my attachment is to the characters rather than the actors (that said, there was a lot wrong with Into Darkness). Anyway, I've always thought the Trek v. Wars thing was really arbitrary, just a product of the fact that they're the two biggest franchises. They're completely different flavors of space-based fiction, no need to pit them against each other.