xhonzi

Attack of the Clones:

The Republic is unable to defeat their enemy <in the Clone Wars> because they don't know exactly who or where they are.  Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight, has captured a curious piece of enemy weaponry that may provide the clues to finding their foes.  He <and a crack team on soldiers> conduct a galaxy wide campaign which ultimately reveals the identity, location, and purpose of the enemy.

Meanwhile, Anakin Skywalker and <the girl> are on the run from <something.>  They have a pic-nic and fireside dinner.  They fall in love?  Or maybe they don't.  But then she watched him do something evil wherein she finally decides that she must love him.  <He has to protect her constantly from danger at every turn.  Every time he saves her, she feels more indebted to him and the gratitude leads her to place him very high in her esteem to the point that she is also in love with him, just as he is with her.>  Eventually they hook back up with Obi-Wan <and his soldiers> as they find the homebase of the enemy and the full on war is officially begun.

I had to flatout replace some of the ideas to make them good as opposed to simply simplifying them.  Those are the ideas in <>'s.  These two ideas I think are good enough for a Star Wars story, but the execution (Dexter's Diner?  The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music?) was so extemely off that it came across as mostly terrible.  And don't get me started on silly/scary C-3PO...

Identity theft is not a joke, Frink!

TheBoost said:

If you can "hyperspace" directly to where you want to go... would there even be 'borders' or 'fronts' in any traditional sense?

So, if the enemy manages to control all the planets around Coruscant, does it even matter, or can the Coruscantees still be defended from people Hyperspacing in, and still exert their influence by just Hyperspacing passed their nearby enemies.

 So, I've been thinking about this again...

Hyperspace is the same vector as A->B, but just compressed length, right?  So, you have to be sure that your vector doesn't intersect any planets, stars, asteroids, gravity wells, etc, correct?  That's what "calculating the jump to lightspeed" is, right?  It's determining an exact vector that is free from any obstacles?  What about space dust?  What about other ships?  If you accelerated dust particles to ~lightspeed, they would be just as deadly as bullets, right?  So, does hyperspace travel include some sort of low level protection against minor stuff, but still have to avoid the planetary level stuff?

Wouldn't commerce, transportation and therefore armies (navies, etc.) probably all end up using the same vectors?  Sort of like our "roads" today.  A car is capable of driving on non roads, but it is less efficient and the possibility of an obstacle (say, a "tree") on the non-road is very high compared to the possibility on the road itself.  That's why we all drive on roads when we don't have to, right?

So, despite the fact that ships can go anywhere->anywhere, it makes more sense that they would probably, all things being equal, prefer to be in known "hyperspace lanes"?  And assuming that you can't turn (change vector) without dropping out of hyperspace, a trip from A to B is probably more like a trip from A to B to C to D, right?

There's one more feature of a road that makes me decide to drive on them almost exclusively- they generally build gas stations at regular intervals next to them.  We don't know what kind of fuel Star Wars ships generally consume (if any) but we do see them pumping something fuellike into the X-Wings just prior to the DS's attack on Yavin.  So surely, planets along popular hyperspace lanes, especially at the corners, would have deluxe refueling and refitting services available in orbit, right?  Perhaps there's a decent vector A->C, but that bypasses the refueling station at B, so it really only makes sense to go A->B->C->D, right?

(I think it's interesting that Zahn suggests in HTTE that the Star Destroyer Chimera is faster in hyperspace than Luke's X-Wing (Thrawn observes Luke's hyperspace vector and then presumes he knows where he's going and estimates they can get there 3 days earlier)  I almost would have assumed that it's the same hyperspace, why pay to get there faster?)

(It's also interesting in Zahn's books (and possibly other EU) that they specify the length of hyperspace travel often in "days".  Again, I almost had the impression from the movies that anywhere->anywhere was nearly instantaneous.  It's just getting stuck in an asteroid field without a working motivator that caused you to limp to Bespin over the course of a week.)

vote_for_palpatine said:

xhonzi, you're probably unhappy that I have Ernie Reyes, Jr. playing both you and Darth Maul. I know you feel that your character needed an actor dedicated solely on portraying you. Therefore, to mollify your conceerns, in addition to appearing in the cast credits, your name will be highlighted in the closing credits as "Assistant to the Associate Producer". Pretty snazzy, huh?

 I actually didn't mind at all, because I thought it might mean that I was secretly Mr. Maul.  Or, secretly, he was I.

At any rate, that Assistant Associate Producer title is going to look fantastik! on my resume!

What, that Siffy Channel?  Siffy is Nifty!

Warbler said:

Who needed a drunken rant to know that Mel Gibson hates Jews? In his depiction of the Crucifixion of Christ—who, coincidentally, is portrayed by white actor Jim Caveziel even though everybody knows Black Jesus was black—the Chosen People are a vile, bloodthirsty horde that takes great pleasure in watching God's son suffer for the sins of man. Gibson gets a gold Star of David for this one—David Duke, that is.

everyone knows black Jesus was black?  huh?  I don't it.  Besides, I never thought Jesus was black,  I though he was Jewish-middle eastern

I have heard this a lot, so I decided to look into once.  It's a pretty slick argument.  The people that hold Jesus' blackhood as fact are the same people that start in with, "He didn't exist in the first place.  But, if he did, he wouldn't have been white."  The genealogy of Jesus as laid out in the Gospels of both Matthew and Luke is that of a Jew of the House of David.  While there are some Jews with black skin, they certainly don't outnumber Semitic Jews.  So we don't have any reason to expect that he'd be black there... But again, this argument is based on the idea that the New Testament is 100% wrong about Jesus, who never existed, right?  So, what "probably" happened is that Mary was impregnated by some lowlife (re: "black guy") and covered it up by claiming it was the Holy Spirit.  Therefore: real Jesus (who did not exist) must have been black.  Or half black, at any rate.

So when people go on saying that Jesus is black, I think they're just trying to offend people of the Christian faith (because of what they're saying about the legitamacy of the Bible, the holiness of Jesus, and the character of Mary) and apparently also black people since they're not very favourably figured into the story...  At least, that's what an hour or two of googling turned up for me.  That, and "hip" people like to pretend they know more about Jesus than "stupid Christians" so the "You didn't know he was Black???" thing carries some momentum there, I think.  I have no doubt he was a Jew, of similar appearance to other Israel based Semetic Jews of the day, or even today.

also, I think the idea that this movie is bigoted towards Jews is overblown.   If you compare the movie to how the Passion story is depicted in the bible,  you will find it to be quite accurate.

John chapter 19 verse 11:

Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above:

therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin

Matthew Chapter 27 verse 25

Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us and on our children

Gibson didn't come up with that stuff on his own,  they came from the bible.    I agree Gibson himself is a bigot,  he movie however is just accurate depiction from the bible.

 Yeah, I thought it was stupid to claim that Gibson being accurate to these verses somehow made him and the movie anti-Semitic.  It's no more or less Anti-Semitic than the New Testament.  But people that wanted to tear down Passion of the Christ probably had no compunction against also tearing down the New Testament.

Wow, Warb.  We're in complete agreeance here.  Should we be worried?  :)

VFP cancelling serial posts is almost as bad as Fox cancelling SciFi shows.

Yeah, Nadia may be dead in your timeline... but we've got another timeline with another Nadia!

Will Sayid have to choose to switch places with the other Sayid?  The epitome of selfishness...

The season is 1/3 over.  They better get moving.

It does when you hum with your mouth open.

We watched Gentlemen Broncos last night.

Weird.  Pretty funny, but not terribly funny on the first watch.  After the credits rolled, I had to go back and watch a couple of scenes again.  Specifically, the first scene with Brutus and the last scene with Brutus.  Sam Rockwell is hysterical in these scenes.

I found this podcast: http://www.howstuffworks.com/podcasts/stuff-they-dont-want-you-to-know.rss

It's pretty awesome, if you're into conspiracy theories.  The best one so far for me has been the Hollow Earth theory. 

I also recommend the 60/70 Greatest Conspiracy Theories of All Time. (http://www.amazon.com/60-Greatest-Conspiracies-All-Time/dp/0760708827/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267639970&sr=8-1)  It's a pretty entertaining book.

But the real reason I wanted to start this thread is this: Frink necromanced the YAGE thread which included obi-guy and Rob talking about the moon landing.  And I have to say: I have a doubt.  I won't insist that it didn't happen... but I have to say I'm not sure that it happened either.  I'm waiting for one side to convince me, and so far... I have a doubt.

Seeing an Albanian newspaper clipping from the late 1970 or so- of an Albanian astronaut (cosmonaut?) planting an Albanian flag on the Albanian moon... well... they pulled off moongate there and people didn't realize until the gov't totally crumbled to pieces.

I'm just saying...

Yes, I was promised murder.  BRING OUT THE MURDER.  And while you're at it: SHUT THAT DOOR!

This thread has been a collaboraitve effort, right?  I will get some recognition for the posts I made?

Huskers: Nooooo.
captainsolo: No?
Huskers: Nooooo.

Yeah...  I could care a lot about the 'couldn't care less' thing.  Or how do I say "it bugs me"?

Another one that the dictionary seems to have betrayed me on is: insure vs ensure.  I was taught that "insure" was to take out a policy against something and "ensure" was to make sure.  Almost everywhere you look, people only use "insure" for both meanings.  The dictionaries I looked at seem to reflect this, yet I sware that it hasn't always been so.

IGNORE for everybody!

I can't stand it when people misuse yeah/yay/yea.

Here's a little primer:

Yay! = A synonym for Hooray! (Yay, I got into college!)
Yea = An affirmative vote, antonym of Nay, or Biblical sentence starter (All for: Yea. All against: Nay; Yea, and in the fourth year it came to pass...)
Yeah - A casual synonym for "yes" (Yeah, it's okay I guess...)
Yah - Bill and Ted.     ("Ted, are you alright?"  "Yah!" "Excellent!" )
Yaw - Pivoting around the Z axis   (These jets adjust the spaceships yaw since there is no air in space on which to bank.)
Yar - Pirate for yes.  ("Cap'n, should we give chase to them scurvy dogs?"  "Yar!")
Yar - Pirate for no.  ("Cap'n, should we give chase to them scurvy dogs?"  "Yar.")

That was a mangled quote from some dial-up commercial.  Why pay to get fast internet when you can get slow internet for free?  It's the same internet...

Someone shut that door!

The Package really was the most watchable to us Westerners.

First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx (also by Nylund) are the other two good novels.  Depending on how much you liked Fall of Reach, you should give them a shot.

Agreed on your comments regarding Halo CE and what it means as an historical landmark in the life of FPSs on consoles. 

TV's Frink said:

Be sure to let xhonzi know what you think of it.

Tell me!  Then your journey to the DARK SIDE will be complete! 

TheBoost said:

xhonzi said:

I think it applies here.  As FF said, Star Wars (1977) is decidely NOT about the DS plans.  The plot may center around the plans, but the story doesn't.  The story is about the characters, the galaxy, good vs evil, Jedi Knights and lightsabres, etc...

 

The plot to Star Wars is about the DS plans. From scene 1 it is the #1 thing the drives the plot.

It is why the princess is captured. It is how the DS is destroyed in the last scene. If the DS plans weren't there, the plot wouldn't work at all. Regardless of the elements that make it a great movie (good/evil, lightsabers, etc) the PLOT is driven by the DS plans.  They are fundamental to the plot structure on all levels.

The MacGuffin DOESN'T drive the plot. The money in psycho, the 39 Steps, the Maltese Falcon (which never acually appears in the movie), the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, the microfilm in every spy movie made in the 1960s; the identity of these objects don't matter to the plot, the only thing that matters is that the characters want them.

The DS plans, the Ark, the Holy Grail are all pivotal to the plot, and couldn't be replaced with anything else.

 I understand- but I don't think the MacGuffin has to be unpivotal to be a MacGuffin.  I think the Maltese Falcon drives the plot unseen just as well as the DS plans do.  You don't "see" the DS plans until the very end of the movie.

TheBoost said:

I'm going to star with a word that none other than George Lucas decided to rob of all meaning.

Typos are kind of funny when you're making a rant about words.

RE: The DS Plans or the Ark of the Covenant as  Macguffins/McGuffins/McMuffins/Etcs...

I think it applies here.  As FF said, Star Wars (1977) is decidely NOT about the DS plans.  The plot may center around the plans, but the story doesn't.  The story is about the characters, the galaxy, good vs evil, Jedi Knights and lightsabres, etc...

I had seen Star Wars 100 times before I realized that the plot was all about the DS plans.

And Raiders of the Lost Ark isn't about the Ark... it's about the RAIDERS.

Your point that the wrapping of the plot shouldn't involve the MacGuffin is interesting... but I think it remains a flavour of MacGuffin (egg and sausage) and not the sole definition.

By jove!  Shut that door and keep that fog and the riffraff outdoors!

First off, realize that the Peter Sellers/Woody Allen Jimmy Bond movie bears little to no resemblance to Casino Royale the book or the 2006 movie.

Next: There is very little silly humor in either the book or the 2006 movie.

So, if you're looking for a serious story- the 2006 movie is best.  If you're looking for something which is mostly a spoof- go with Jimmy Bond.