Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The rank and file mooks can be sympathetic but I think most of the leadership should be pretty thoroughly evil.

The Empire was never really cartoonishly evil in the original trilogy. ESB showed multiple high ranking Imperials killed by Vader, one of whom, Piett, was trying to apologize for his mistake. It's shown in general that Imperial officers are not all murder-happy like Tarkin, but seem somewhat like normal military officers doing their job with a major fear of failing Vader or the Emperor. So they aren't all like Cobra from GI Joe, all maniacal war mongers.

That was actually Needa; Piett lived until ROTJ, when he went down with the Executor.

...and that may have been the nerdiest sentence I've ever typed.

Yeah, really it's mostly the nobles and a good portion of the officers that are the terrible people. The rest can be seen as Just Following Orders, and even the rest of the rank-and-file might just see it as their job, or will have a lot of doubts about it.

That's right, it was Needa, Piett and Ozzel who played musical command chairs because of Vader. Ozzel was the one killed for bringing in the fleet too close and alerting Rebel defenses. Nerdy sentences, I feel ya.

I'd always like to think that Luke destroying the Death Star did horrors in changing Vader's personality, because that Imperial navy officer in A New Hope was able to say that the Rebels were able to evacuate their plans with a straight face and live.

edited 16th Jan '17 4:11:58 PM by FluffyMcChicken

Ah, yes. Good ol' Daine Jir.

A large number of the Rebels came from the ranks of the Imperials.

Leia grew up with and as an Imperial Senator.

Wedge Antilles, Tycho Celchu, and Biggs Darklighter all went through the Imperial academy

Et cetera et cetera

Vader's propensity for choking underlings can get a little strange. He chokes Ozzel, a known screw up, for screwing up royally for the final time of what is heavily implied to be many. Then he chokes Needa for what was essentially not making immediate progress, but respectfully apologizing for it, which isn't something he does anywhere else in the series. In the Vader comic is constantly kills off loose ends and people who are in his immediate way, but he's doing stuff against the Emperor's will there and is increasingly obsessed with being the one to track down Luke - so he's not just killing people because they pissed him off.

He only ever chokes people for mouthing off to him twice, both times they were being outright disrespectful and neither time did he actually kill them. I've always thought him having respect for an Honest Advisor who actually tells him when something is a dangerous idea but is completely respectful and deferential to his will no matter what decision he makes, like Jir, makes sense given his pragmatic (well, usually) personality.

On the other hand, I've always attributed Needa to him being really pissed off about about the whole situation.

edited 16th Jan '17 5:30:39 PM by KnownUnknown

Yeah, Vader is not in the best mood in Empire, and that's saying something.

Needa had the misfortune of getting a terrible heart attack just as Vader was reaching out his hand to shake and accept his apology.

Based on when Ozzel was promoted as commander of the Executor, it seems he gets to live for the next three years. Three years is quite an accomplishment for some as incompetent as Ozzel. Perhaps he's actually a good admiral in general... just an arrogant one. Or maybe Vader was unable to find a suitable replacement until he sees Piett doing a better job than his boss.

So to those who've experienced both, which Death Star plans story did you like better: Rogue One or Dark Forces?

(Disclaimer: I myself have never played Dark Forces)

Rogue One was better. Dark Forces was a fine game, but the Death Star plans felt like just a generic MacGuffin.

Honestly, Rogue One. The Death Star plans were only featured as part of the beginning of Dark Forces.

In fact, Dark Forces could be recanonized if they went with the Dark Trooper project plot that forms the majority of the story.

edited 17th Jan '17 8:05:49 AM by CrimsonZephyr

Rogue One, definitely.

But no, we all know that the definitive Death Star Plans tale was Jedi Dawn, the saga of fifteen-year-old Force sensitive Rebel operative Havet Storm, told in glorious second person to ensure the reader feels... immersed.

The pinnacle of Star Wars writing right there, to which I daresay even the OT fails to measure up.

edited 17th Jan '17 9:28:39 PM by HamburgerTime

The Legends Death Star theft plot I liked best was actually the one from the Han Solo trilogy, where Bria Tharen and Red Hand Squadron spearhead the theft.

So does the Death Star destroy the entire surface at half power? The shockwave on Jedha went for miles outside the main city with debris going into orbit, and no sign of slowing down. So is the Death Star at half power pretty much like a dinosaur killing blast? Would there be any life left on Scariff or Jedha?

No, I'd imagine it just blasts an enormous crater in the world and possibly causes a nuclear winter.

Yeah, it might not outright destroy the planet like a full power blast would but your ecosystem is most likely completely fucked. As in, mass extinctions, nuclear winter, regression of society type of fucked. It probably finishes the planet off just as surely as it did Alderaan, just more slowly.

Or at least makes it uninhabitable for a very long time.

The Star Destroyer crash was fucking amazing.

The ramming bit was a bit silly and the ship doing the ramming should've taken way more damage on impact, but damn was the ensuing clusterfuck pretty as hell.

Not really; the ramming wasn't done at a very high speed and the Star Destroyer itself was weightless and without any propulsion.