General Star Wars Thread

Jorus with one s also practiced mind control to a degree. Not to the point of wiping a person down to a blank slate, but he was able to make a man freeze in place, stay quiet, and then walk with him in Outbound Flight.

I'd definitely like to see if they come up with any new ones this time. I don't remember us seeing any new powers in the Prequel trilogy, just an amped up lightning, really.

ETA: Which is rather depressing really. I mean, we don't want the movies to devolve into the kind of Mary Sue Jedi we got from some of the books, but there should be more to the Force than jumping around, pulling enemies' weapons from their hands, pushing them down, and then choking or electrocuting them to death.

edited 16th May '15 4:53:49 PM by Journeyman

Yeah, the person in question announced their rage quit on this thread, so we can move on.

As for new Force Powers, it's unlikely we'll get anything that hasn't been covered in some fashion before. It's run the spectrum of mind reading and future premonitions to casting hexes and mutating living organisms.

Now how they approach the depiction of the force is something that could be interesting, especially given the name of The Force Awakens. The Original Trilogy kept the force as more of an instinct and enhanced awareness than actually enhancing their physical abilities, which in some ways made a Jedi more dangerous (like how casually Obi-Wan was able to avoid detection in the Death Star). The Prequels made the force into a martial art, performing otherwise impossible acrobatics. The new trilogy could be a hybrid of the two, showing force users gain awareness of all their abilities and how to use it to their advantage, rather than a training montage of sword fighting, backflips and lifting heavy objects.

I still think "The Force Awakens" is a bad Star Wars movie name. It's so generic, while "A New Hope" and "The Phantom Menace" are at least memorable and different.

Anyway, the Force can pretty much do anything. I just hope they don't do the one things I dread they will: give the force a voice/physical form. Didn't like when Clone Wars did it either.

If they have to keep one upping the Lightsaber with shiny new variants I'm curious whats next? Is there going to be a scythe lightsaber? A wolverine claw saber?

The moment there's a scythesaber I am done.

A tuning fork lightsaber. It changes pitch for a few seconds every time it hits something.

There will inevitably be a Grim Reaper plagarizing Sith Lord with a Scythe Saber.

If they ever make a Star Wars anime I'm betting on all sorts of weird lightsabers.

Anyway, since we're not actually discussing anything, allow me to share one of my favorite entrants ever into the lightsaber competition

There's so much evidence against the argument that tightly choreographed lightsaber duels are bad lol.

I can assure you that after you attacked everyone and called them sexists that nobody wants to discuss this with you.

Certainly a great fight with a lot of ingenuity and the combatants look really invested, but some technical mistakes and awkward cuts hurt it. Ryan vs Brandon 2 is about the apex of amateur lightsaber fights from choreography to camera work, helping that they DO have some professional work under their belt.

I am all for tightly choreographed and fast paced lightsaber combat, but the theoretical downfall is how gimmicky these fights can become. After Episode III and the lava waterfall, I don't want the movies to try and one-up that. A lot of fan films have gone the direction of trying to put in as many crazy ideas as possible including wolverine claws, whips, shock batons, and more, most of which just draws attention to the fact that it's choreographed (like the Ferocity video when they release the hilt and it just hovers for a second). There is precisely one moment in the movies like that, where Obi-Wan and Anakin stand 4 feet from each other spinning their blades without making contact for 3 seconds. Most fan films try and do similar things thinking it makes them look cool.

So I just realized the other day that Return of the Jedi has three meanings: in addition to the physical return of Luke as a Jedi and the metaphorical return of the Jedi Order (or whatever Luke decides to call it) after Palpatine's defeat, it also refers to the return of the Jedi, Anakin Skywalker.

Am I late to the punchline, or what?

My stance is "if fans can do this, people that are actually paid can put out better". The critiques you placed are spot on, but they can be easily fixed by professionals.

I guess I'm in the late club with you. I don't think that was intentional, however, as the original title "Revenge of the Jedi" was only changed because GL decided revenge isn't something a Jedi would do.

As if anyone would believe it wasn't a revenge killing.

"No, he turned on him and then threw him down a hole. But he got electrocuted while he was doing it. I swear!"

IIRC in the old EU, Luke was pretty much the only person in the Galaxy who forgave Vader. Even Leia, after she learned he was her father and that he did it all for love and stuff, still hated him.

The return of Anakin Skywalker is a cool idea, probably not intentional, but the core of the name is that a Jedi has returned to help decide the fate of the galaxy. It involves Luke, but he himself is not "returning" to anything, but graduating to continue a legacy.

^^^ Certainly, but even professionals have certain limitations ^note An interview with the fight choreographer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice said that he had to nix certain camera angles because having it in that place means they would have to digitally insert the skyline of Gotham, costing them 30,000 dollars. Even 200 million dollar blockbusters have to watch their budget., and even they are subject to fan fic-esque problems. We have Running the Asylum as a trope and there is a reason the internet mocks the crossguard lightsaber, it feels like a gimmicky escalation of established Star Wars concepts. In comparison the Dark Saber (a black core, white glow, flat blade shaped lightsaber) in Star Wars: The Clone Wars was accepted as a natural lightsaber variant akin to changing the color instead of a gimmick of an entirely new saber design.

edited 16th May '15 6:28:01 PM by KJMackley

Revenge works even better for Anakin.

Also, according to Empire of Dreams, Return was the original title, but then Kasdan talked Lucas into Revenge, and then Lucas and fan outcry changed it back to Return.

edited 16th May '15 6:44:30 PM by TheAirman

Maybe "The Force Awakens" refers to the resurgence of the Jedi. There were only a handful of Force-users in the galaxy that we know of by the time of Return of the Jedi, and by then Luke was the only one alive and Leia had it, but didn't know how to use.

I still think "The Force Awakens" is a bad Star Wars movie name. It's so generic, while "A New Hope" and "The Phantom Menace" are at least memorable and different.

Honestly, I think "The Force Awakens" is the least bad of those three. "A New Hope" is really generic. "The Phantom Menace" just sounds goofy, enough that I thought it was a joke the first time I heard about it. For reference, I was still young enough to unironically like Jar Jar Binks at the time.

What's wrong with The Phantom Menace? It makes perfect sense for the story. There's an outright threat that could be routine, but we find out there's an unknown enemy lurking behind it, making it bigger than it is. We catch sight of ONE guy who probably isn't working alone, and he puts up such a fight that we get no chance to learn more from him.

There's a shadowy monster lurking behind the corner.

The idea was sound. But that specific combination of syllables just doesn't sound right.

And that's why it's good. It's not something you see everyday. "The Force Awakens" sounds like a generic video game title (example: "The Force Unleashed").

Jorus with one s also practiced mind control to a degree. Not to the point of wiping a person down to a blank slate, but he was able to make a man freeze in place, stay quiet, and then walk with him in Outbound Flight.

C'baoth's clone pretty much scrambled the mind of a general that was escorting him, in The Thrawn Trilogy, to the point that when they entered a Force-null area the general pretty much just gave up on living because he was cut off from C'baoth's mind control.

(I bet I have some details wrong, but it's been years since I've read the trilogy.)

I know. That's what I meant by Wiping someone's mind completely out. And yeah, I'm pretty sure you have the details wrong. IIRC, he didn't quit because of a Null Force area. C'Baoth was done with the guy and simply let him go.

The guy's name was General Covell, a ground-forces general working under Thrawn who was working with Joruus (it's two U's that signify the clone, like with his creation, Luuke, which sounds much cheesier) on battle meditation stuff, had his mind taken over, and then when they hit the ysalamiri wall that Thrawn had put around Mount Tantiss when the two were traveling there, Covell just shut down.

edited 17th May '15 8:30:55 AM by Ogodei