General Star Wars Thread

Not just their resources put into building it, but also so much of the leadership and elite personnel there. There's a reason why Finn expecting Rey to be imprisoned at Starkiller Base was a reasonable assumption, even if it boiled down to "where else would they take her?"

As much as I agree with that overall sentiment, I somehow doubt it would really happen. For all of it being a popular gateway series for military sci-fi, Star Wars films tend to avoid that sort of majestic manly mauling, usually in favor of vastly overwhelmed single fighters scoring improbably lucky victories. The core of the franchise is aggressively anti-militaristic, the efforts of Zahn and Stackpole (and Traviss) notwithstanding.

I reckon this is as close as the franchise will ever get to a proper military mash... and, naturally, it favors the proper military.

Endor was a pretty great space battle. I mean, even before the Emperor dies, you see Rebel cruisers blowing up Star Destroyers ship-to-ship, like that one that straight up explodes in the distance when Ackbar starts attacking the Executor.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

It was awesome, yes, and I still find it to be the best edited space battle ever since... which likely means I oughta watch some Halo and Mass Effect cutscenes some time. However, it was still built on the fleet being a distraction covering for the fighters and planetary saboteurs.

In general, there ain't enough good space battles on film and television. The overall attitude is different. Even the battle of Cardassia Prime was ultimately resolved by forcing a surrender rather than genuinely dominating the opposing force. Sure, it's more dramatic like that, but every now and then, you just have to give the good guys the upper hand. Being a video game alumnus, I'm often aghast at other media's reliance on everything but strategy and tactical superiority as a basis for victory.

The space battle at Endor is so good that it kind of overshadows the confrontation between Luke and the Emperor. I've mentioned it before but it kind of feels like Star Wars has two separate plots that only occasionally intersect. One story's about space wizards, the other one's about a war between political adversaries, and they're only tangentially connected by the fact that the Space Wizard bad guy happens to be the Political War bad guy too.

edited 28th Feb '17 12:05:35 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

That's how I want to see it as well. Unfortunately, now with the spiel that Jedi are essential for the galaxy's wellbeing because... reasons, I expect the two to intertwine irrevocably in the upcoming episodes.

Mass Effect's space battles aren't that great looking, because half the time it's just a shot of all these ships warping in and then the scene's filled with ships firing at each, but no focus anywhere, so it's just a whole jumble of lasers and that weak-ass "pew pew pew pew" blaster sound effect nonsense. I want a genuine fleet battle with plenty of different angles, and when the big guns start firing, I don't want "pew pew pew pew", I want "BOOM!" Like, earthshaking sounds, bro. You have to feel like you're right there on deck with the gun crews. And then you need a few shots of that salvo tearing through shields and armor, and sending big chunks of metal flying off.

edited 28th Feb '17 12:06:50 PM by CrimsonZephyr

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

The EU's tried to use Battle Meditation to excuse it, but the biggest flaw in Return of the Jedi is the fact that the actual climax of the film is completely superfluous. Vader's great redemption? Pointless. The Emperor's demise? Unnecessary. If Luke hadn't redeemed Vader, Lando would have killed Palpatine anyway. The only thing Luke really accomplished in what's supposed to be the big finale is keeping Vader out of the way of the supporting protagonists so they could defeat the Empire and save the galaxy.

edited 28th Feb '17 12:06:23 PM by TobiasDrake

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

As a Halo fan, I will warn you that to be honest, Halo's best space battles are either mostly offscreen, cut from adaptation, playable only as fighters or hilariously improbable.

The Mass Effect battles also overuse the sudden zoom-in effect. It's like shaky-cam, but in space. So, Homeworld and Sins of a Solar Empire gameplay footage it is, then. Or Freelancer, for that matter - the Dyson Sphere appearance still gives me the willies.

Oh, and Exo Squad - if you haven't seen it, you're missing out on a show that makes Avatar and Korra look as mature as Ren & Stimpy, and some of the best animated space battles this side of actual anime.

---

But yeah, I've always been more interested in the overall struggle between the two sides, as opposed to the petty grudges of wizards with color-coded weaponry. Shame that the family soap has apparently overshadowed the actual war in terms of story importance. They were about equal in the original films, with the prequels even leaning in favor of the latter. But, well, this is what happens when execs get the final say in what really matters in a story. It's comicbook logic - market the character rather than the setting; same as the Star Trek reboot starring the original crew...'s younger and hipper imitations. Thing is, Star Wars, Star Trek etc. are among the franchises where the setting itself is what attracts audiences.

Can't we get the guys from Blizzard to do the next trilogy? Warcraft is about as close to a military sci-fi film as it's got for decades now, and it's not even sci-fi. Then again, if they ever do a StarCraft film series, then the Jedi are gonna be in for some serious competition.

edited 28th Feb '17 12:25:02 PM by indiana404

I thought the Mass Effect 3 space battle was fairly good.

I do believe though, that the Battle of Scarif is probably the best Star Wars battle scene in the whole franchise.

Dear Lord yes. Watch Rogue One for that alone, and it would be worth it.

There were some really awkward moments with Death Stars in that movie though. For one thing, the Star Destroyers were all too uniform in color. They really did look like giant plastic models sometimes.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

The Battle of Scarif redeemed the whole movie for me after the middling first two acts.

I find it interesting they sent more people to get the Death Star plans than to actually blow the thing.

I was pretty much just a ball of tension when I watched the Battle of Scarif. Despite knowing that the Rebel Alliance gets the Death Star plans, that entire battle was just fantastic.

Same here. Anything that successfully injects tension into a Foregone Conclusion is very well made in my book.

Well, to be fair, the Death Star is kind of designed to destroy capital-ship sized things. Even just firing with like, 1 out of however many dozen chambers it has, it was able to produce a blast more powerful than even nuclear weapons can generate.

Say to the others who did not follow through You're still our brothers, and we will fight for you

No, it's designed to destroy planets.

The ability to destroy capital ships is just a nice bonus.

No, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

I mean, on the one hand, I've never seen the Force destroy a planet before so citation needed, Vader.

But on the other hand, the Force destroyed the first Death Star. So. That's a thing.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Darth Nihilus. But I guess the canon's still out on that?

I'll have you know that the DS-1 Orbital Battlestation is an implement for heavy industrial mining and nothing else, no matter what those terrorists may have told you.

Technically he eats all life rather than destroying the planet. Normally I'd call that more useful, except for the whole Eldritch Abomination with a Horror Hunger thing he's got going on.

Right! They just call it a battlestation because... uh... um... we have declared war on all asteroids! Yes, that's right! Totally at war against giant floating rocks. Yes.

(kevin j andersoooooooooooooooooooon)

but HOW?

You can't trust rocks. Yuuzhan Vong come in rocks. The Emperor knew.