Rogue One

[Mr Mystery]

Well, it's about damned time!

Reliable source, Den of Geek, have info the first teaser trailer will be shown tomorrow on Good Morning America (http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/star-wars/38564/star-wars-rogue-one-teaser-trailer-coming-tomorrow)

Figured the film now needs its own thread :)

[Gotthammer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wji-BZ0oCwg

[Mr Mystery]

Looking so ace!

[Kirsten]

only Star Wars film I am interested in, does look cool

[Mr Mystery]

And another female lead by the looks of it.


It's as if thousands of manchildren cried out at once, and then, lots of pointing and laughing

[CoffeeGrunt]

There's already people complaining about the female protagonist in the comments. :P

I am excite for this, looks really awesome.

[eldargal]

Arglbnlhghalarglhflalrg! *flailflailflailflail*

Looks like Genevieve Reilly is back as Mon Mothma too, that's a nice bit of continuity from Revenge of the Sith.

- - - Updated - - -


There's already people complaining about the female protagonist in the comments. :P

I am excite for this, looks really awesome.

Good, I will enjoy their fanboy tears.

[Mr Mystery]

Yarp.

Very interested to see how they handle Tarkin. I'm still holding out it'll be Holonet Tarkin only. That's far more forgiving for a convincing CGI resurrection than the alternative.

It's not a crystal flute, but I trust this might provide a suitable vessel for your tipple of choice? (http://www.redbubble.com/people/houseorgana/works/14251249-fanboy-tears?p=mug)

[eldargal]

I hope Vader and Tarkin are both in it only as cameos really.

Ooh nice definitely buying one of those.

[Mr Mystery]

But if they're in a small, decorative broach, wouldn't they be rather hard to spot?

I mean, there's easter eggs, and then there's Where's Wally type shenanigans :p

[energongoodie]

MIND BLOWN!

CANT WAIT!

I was obviously interested but not super bothered before. I do not know what I expected...but that trailer has ramped my interest up to 11 and I can't wait!

[Mr Mystery]

I was cautiously excited before, but defo reassured it's looking like they've nailed it totally.

Also, found this on Redbubble (http://www.redbubble.com/people/houseorgana/works/15252444-rebels?grid_pos=5&p=t-shirt)

[Erik Setzer]

I love it. It has an "authentic" look for the era of Star Wars it's supposed to represent, doesn't feel like they tried to modernize it or anything (which could have ruined the aesthetic).

I was wondering who was portraying Mon Mothma. Forgot she was in the prequels. Even though I watched them just before TFA (actually only the second time I'd seen any of them), I've already forgotten pretty much everything in them again. She does make a good Mon Mothma, though.

Not sure there's a single "lead" (it's a team movie, right?), but if the young woman is the top member of the team, that's cool. Looking at the rest, it seems like a diverse group, not just in gender and ethnicity, but also the talents they bring to the team in the story. I like that, makes things more interesting.

[Denzark]

This already is making me buzz more than my thoughts do about TFA.

[Rissan4ever]

I was wondering who was portraying Mon Mothma. Forgot she was in the prequels. Even though I watched them just before TFA (actually only the second time I'd seen any of them), I've already forgotten pretty much everything in them again. She does make a good Mon Mothma, though.

I think her scene in Revenge of the Sith was deleted.

[Psychosplodge]

This looks awesome, but they coulda used Bria Tharen, and not everyone needs to be an abandoned orphan.

[Morgrim]

I like the blending of the Imperial March and Force themes in the music.

[eldargal]

I think her scene in Revenge of the Sith was deleted.

She's in a non-speaking scene in the actual film I think but her speaking scenes were cut. Her deleted scenes are on teh DVD and are worth watching.

[Erik Setzer]

and not everyone needs to be an abandoned orphan.

Sounded like maybe the idea was that the Empire was responsible for her parents being killed or something?

It is an odd trend. Luke's adoptive parents (aunt and uncle, really) were killed by the Empire (granted, he was grown at the time), Leia's whole planet destroyed, Rey was abandoned as a child, Ezra's parents went missing, Anakin had no father. It's like a weird trend of killing the adults outright or just having them leave.

[Psychosplodge]

Dunno how it stands now but don't forget Solo too - he was practically Oliver Bloody Twist.

[Gotthammer]

It's like a weird trend of killing the adults outright or just having them leave.

It's incredibly common in fantasy / adventure stories because if a person has a family they have people to care about which, as we see with Luke, only serves to tie them down. Kill off the parental figures and suddenly they're free to go off on a damn fool crusade without having to listen to anyone any more.

And as a bonus they might even get some angsty mourning out of it (if they're male - women like Leia get to comfort heroes like Luke over the death of a guy he met like two days ago rather than have her be bothered with all that torture she went through before watching her family, friends and entire planet obliterated).

[Rissan4ever]

Dunno how it stands now but don't forget Solo too - he was practically Oliver Bloody Twist.

Everybody's parents are dead or gone. Maybe that's why Disney was so interested in buying Star Wars. It fits right in! :)

Also, it makes sense for the Star Wars universe to be full of angry orphans. The Empire kills loads of people, and many of them are parents. Hence, there are a bunch of orphans that want to kill the Empire right back.

[Psychosplodge]

lols but previously he became an imperial officer, it was only cause he was raised by a wookie that he took exception to their treatment as slaves earned a dishonourable discharge and a furry shadow.

[Mr Mystery]

lols but previously he became an imperial officer, it was only cause he was raised by a wookie that he took exception to their treatment as slaves earned a dishonourable discharge and a furry shadow.

Ain't nobody wants to be shadowed by a Furry for the rest of their life. I don't even want it for five minutes. The weirdoes.

[Erik Setzer]

women like Leia get to comfort heroes like Luke over the death of a guy he met like two days ago rather than have her be bothered with all that torture she went through before watching her family, friends and entire planet obliterated).

Well, you could look at it as her being strong enough to fall apart over something like that when there's huge stakes at play, and rather use it as something to give her the resolve to make sure the Rebellion got the plans and took out that weapon. It's also possible said destruction of Alderaan gave her the resolve to become more and more of a leader, until finally she was the only one with the guts to continue leading the fight against evil (in this case the First Order), knowing what could result from letting lunatics roam free. She was comforting Luke at the time because she was the only one capable of taking care of this farm boy who was in way over his head. Who else would he have to help him? The smuggler who didn't really care that much about how other people felt and only developed a conscience at the last second? The droids? The Wookie he couldn't understand? She's compassionate enough to comfort someone else despite the pain she's holding back (that they likely aren't recognizing she'd be feeling anyway), then goes on to help lead the defense against and destruction of the weapon that destroyed her planet.

Luke tried to become a leader and ended up having all his students slaughtered by his own nephew who he couldn't reach better than some random guy (Snoke), then went off to mope and hide from the galaxy. Leia became the leader of the galaxy's fighting forces that are actually trying to protect lives and stop the rise of a new Empire.

Also... it's very likely if she became a whiny sniveling ball of self-pity herself, people would take issue with the portrayal of a woman being so weak she falls apart and gets all emotional rather than fighting back. When her being strong and resolved gets them criticized, can't help but think they're "damned if they do or don't" in that situation.

[Denzark]

Hopefully we can talk about awesome new star wars film in this thread and inappropriate portrayal of female characters in the feminism thread.

[JamesP]

Luke's adoptive parents (aunt and uncle, really) were killed by the Empire (granted, he was grown at the time)

Well, the classic Troops - which I have finally found online after a friend borrowed my copy and then accidentally broke it - tells a somewhat different story :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc5IqD0QibY

[Gotthammer]

Well, you could look at it as...

We could, but the point is it is never acknowledged at all in the films what she went through. Like, ever. I mean Luke mourns Owen and Beru, Obi-wan, even a moment for Biggs who had his scenes cut to explain why he'd care. Han has a moment of worry about the Millenium Falcon in RotJ (where he is comforted by Leia lol). But like even if there was a brief moment of Han awkwardly going "um, sorry about Alderaan?" and Leia saying "no time for crying, we'll get revenge by punching Tarkin in the d!ck" would've made, like, 10,000% more sense.

My comment was more about the broader trope of it though, wherein the typical adventure film has the main character's parents die - often mothers - or be missing - often fathers - (see: Indiana Jones) as a way to remove any pesky obstacles to going out doing manly things like a family or for angst. Also appears in why these stories often cycle the female characters out once they get "clingy" (like the ol' woman murdered on her wedding day for manpain shtick) - the story focuses solely on the way the plot effects the male lead, not those around him, especially not women who exist in the plot to dole out emotional support to him whenever it's needed (even when they're tortured, have their friends and family killed etc).

It's all basically tied up in making the lead, historically male, free to go on adventures and seduce many beautiful ladies without any repercussions. Which, to borrow a turn of phrase from D&D, often makes them murder-hobos when viewed from the outside - guys who wander from place to place, no place to call home, no friends, no family, kill people who get in their way.

Thankfully though the new films have thus far avoided this with both Rey and Finn, so hopefully if it comes up again in this one it won't be handled so badly.

The whole orphan thing is still pretty overdone either way tho.


Hopefully we can talk about awesome new star wars film in this thread

No one's stopping you :)

[Mr Mystery]

I'm not even sure if it's stated that Leia's parents bought it along with Alderran?

If she's able to bury that in the name of her duty, then exactly where does that strength stem from? Has some other tragedy in earlier life steeled her?

[Kirsten]

My comment was more about the broader trope of it though, wherein the typical adventure film has the main character's parents die - often mothers - or be missing - often fathers - (see: Indiana Jones) as a way to remove any pesky obstacles to going out doing manly things like a family or for angst. Also appears in why these stories often cycle the female characters out once they get "clingy" (like the ol' woman murdered on her wedding day for manpain shtick) - the story focuses solely on the way the plot effects the male lead, not those around him, especially not women who exist in the plot to dole out emotional support to him whenever it's needed (even when they're tortured, have their friends and family killed etc).

It's all basically tied up in making the lead, historically male, free to go on adventures and seduce many beautiful ladies without any repercussions. Which, to borrow a turn of phrase from D&D, often makes them murder-hobos when viewed from the outside - guys who wander from place to place, no place to call home, no friends, no family, kill people who get in their way.


see every James Bond film ever

[Mr Mystery]

Though now I think about it, Star Wars doesn't have a sexual reward waiting for the hero at any point.

Even Han doesn't get the girl until the third film, not properly. And even then, it's because they've been denying their feeling for each other for different reasons.

When Han thinks Leia is leaving him for Luke, he's clearly putting a brave face on it - and she's quick to reassure him.

[Erik Setzer]

I'm not even sure if it's stated that Leia's parents bought it along with Alderran?

If she's able to bury that in the name of her duty, then exactly where does that strength stem from? Has some other tragedy in earlier life steeled her?

There is a LOT about Leia's life that isn't covered. I'd like to see more of that. Especially as the portrayal in TFA and in the comics (even the ones set shortly after ANH) shows her as just always taking charge and being pretty much unshakable.

In the case of ANH, though, I think it's less some gender-based thing and more that Lucas didn't really think about some things. Like how Leia gets tortured, but shows no signs of actual duress. No physical signs of any bruising or punctures, she's not showing emotional wear, her clothes are spotless, her hair is perfect. You'd think the Empire was treating her like some kind of honored guest with a personal spa.

- - - Updated - - -


Though now I think about it, Star Wars doesn't have a sexual reward waiting for the hero at any point.

Even Han doesn't get the girl until the third film, not properly. And even then, it's because they've been denying their feeling for each other for different reasons.

When Han thinks Leia is leaving him for Luke, he's clearly putting a brave face on it - and she's quick to reassure him.

And then they do hook up, and have a son... and it all goes downhill from there.

Kind of like when Anakin and Padme hooked up, and it turned into an abusive relationship that ended up with her dead, their kids raised by other people, and eventually said kids destroying the Empire he helped build.

Okay, so maybe romance and Star Wars don't go together very well...

[Mr Mystery]

Well we don't know what happened with Kylo Ren, other than the aftermath.

But good point about Leia in ANH. Though I suppose being a (by then former) Diplomat/Senator, they had to be careful about what they did. Deathstar now looks to have been the beginning of Palpatine throwing away any pretence at democracy (I've got the Vader comic which goes into more detail. It's ace, so I shan't spoil it)

[Kirsten]

Well we don't know what happened with Kylo Ren, other than the aftermath.

personally I am hoping he is dead and never mentioned again

[Erik Setzer]

Well we don't know what happened with Kylo Ren, other than the aftermath.

We know some, from the story scattered through the various books released alongside the movie. Apparently this guy Snoke showed up out of nowhere and knew a lot about the Force, and realized Ben had a lot of potential. So he started trying to train Ben on the side, which seemed harmless at first... and then things went downhill.

They also seem to be saying that Snoke's trying to teach Ben/Kylo how to walk a line between Dark and Light, not really hardcore Dark Side (and not Sith, either).

Somewhere along the line they *did* look into Sith stuff, or at least the Jedi-vs-Sith battle, because Kylo went to Malachor, which is where he found the inspiration for his saber... but as we saw in Rebels, there's not really any functional examples left to work with, so it's no surprise it wasn't done perfectly. (Also, in Rebels, it's not a Sith saber that Ezra found, if that's significant at all.)

If we want to go into tinfoil hat territory here, Malachor (Malachor V, to be exact, IIRC) is involved in the struggles involving Revan... a Force-user who tried to wield the Light and the Dark. And given the outfits used by the Knights of Ren and how they resembled Revan and company, it's possible that they're including the Revan story in all of this, and Snoke somehow heard about Revan and decided Ben could become a modern day Revan, only without being a Jedi and/or Sith at any point.

But that bit's conjecture.

Seems like they thought maybe someone had shown up who could help train their son, and that guy ended up being a really bad influence instead. And killing all of the other students? Well, if you're going to tear down the old Jedi/Sith duopoly and build a new middle ground, you can't go having some guy teaching people to walk one extreme on either side.

There's some serious potential for cool stories in there, but it's not translating well on-screen, and they need to put out more of the backstory.

[Mr Mystery]

Hold on...which books?

I've got Aftermath, and the four short stories?

Soon as you mentioned other books, I skipped to the end for fear of inadvertent spoilers, so apologies if you did in fact list them!

[Erik Setzer]

Hold on...which books?

I've got Aftermath, and the four short stories?

Soon as you mentioned other books, I skipped to the end for fear of inadvertent spoilers, so apologies if you did in fact list them!

The Visual Dictionary for TFA is a good source. Among the notes:

"...Kylo Ren is no Jedi, nor is he a Sith."
"The Supreme Leader believes Ren to be the ideal embodiment of the Force, a focal point of light and dark side ability."
"...Kylo Ren is the embodiment of conflict, drawing upon contradictory teaching and deriving power from discord. ... Through his veins courses the bloodline of the most powerful Jedi and Sith..."
"...it was his deadly lightsaber skills that prevented the return of the Jedi Order."

With the lightsaber it notes:

"Kylo Ren's lightsaber is an ancient design, dating back thousands of years to the Great Scourge of Malachor."



It also makes a note about Leia that ties into earlier conversation here:

"Despite the loss of so many loved ones, Leia simply never surrenders to grief. Leia's brother, Luke, speculates that the strength of her will is how the Force manifests in her."

That makes sense... the peace of the Force is giving her strength. If so, that's definitely a show of being as in-tune with the Force as Luke or Anakin.

It also mentions that she kept trying to warn them about the First Order but was called an alarmist and warmonger. Ouch. I don't think the Senate's going to be calling her that any more (because they're not going to call anyone anything, 'cause they're dead).

[Psychosplodge]

OKAY BUT GUYS I DON’T THINK YOU REALISE THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHAT THIS MAN IS WEARING

https://36.media.tumblr.com/4dd705df1cd99a20c400687fdb01ce0b/tumblr_inline_o5a8zmYlQm1r07sxa_540.jpg

That guy in the Rogue One trailer, with the white Imperial uniform? There’s only ever been one rank in the entire Imperial Navy which wears a white uniform: Grand ****ing Admiral.

For those unfamiliar with the old EU, in the entirety of the Galactic Empire, which at its peak ruled over literally trillions of sentients, there were never more than twelve Grand Admirals at any given time. These guys outranked Grand Moff Tarkin, the old dude who kept Vader in check in Episode IV. There were only like four people in the galaxy more powerful than them, and one of those was the Emperor.

But what made these guys so important wasn’t just their rank. It was that they were all hand-picked by Palpatine for their sheer genius. Their tactical brilliance was literally the stuff of legends. Five years after the second Death Star was destroyed, just the rumour that a Grand Admiral might have survived the fall of the Empire was enough to cause all sorts of strife in the New Republic.

When that rumour turned out to be true, Grand Admiral Thrawn single-handedly brought the New Republic government to its knees, holding the entire planet of Coruscant hostage to terror for months with a brilliant tactical ploy.

Like. If this film does this character anywhere near the justice the Grand Admiral rank deserves, he is going to be one hell of a ****ing villain.



Now paint him blue.

[Denzark]

18108

I'd be surprised if he is a Grand Admiral. There is an Imperial Officer wearing similar in ANH - although without the 6 wide double rank. Also, Thrawn is usually shown with the 3 yellow tabs identical to Grand Moff Tarkin.

Further edit - this chap is apparently Wullf Yularen, a Colonel with the ISB. So White don't guarantee Grand Admiral.

[Psychosplodge]

Someone might have just liked the uniform.

[Mr Mystery]

18108

I'd be surprised if he is a Grand Admiral. There is an Imperial Officer wearing similar in ANH - although without the 6 wide double rank. Also, Thrawn is usually shown with the 3 yellow tabs identical to Grand Moff Tarkin.

Further edit - this chap is apparently Wullf Yularen, a Colonel with the ISB. So White don't guarantee Grand Admiral.

Spesh as the EU has been relegated to Legends status, and is thus non-canonical.

[Erik Setzer]

White is used by the ISB as well, but I do think he's meant to be a Grand Admiral. Not Thrawn, though... there's still those rumors floating he'll pop up in Rebels. Thrawn's rank might not have been displayed "accurately," and since it's non-canon, they can change it to work better if they want.

It would be cool if he's a Grand Admiral. But hey, maybe he is just ISB, but a super-high-ranking member of ISB, who shows up to look at all the wreckage and realizes, "Crap. They stole the Death Star plans. This could be bad. Better tell Lord Vader and hope he doesn't kill me."

[Rissan4ever]

He could be both a Grand Admiral and ISB. If I were the Emperor, and I had bunch of super-genius Grand Admirals, I would definitely put one in charge of ISB.

Either way, he looks totally bad@$$, and I am supremely stoked for this movie.

[Haighus]

Wullf Yularen? Isn't that the Admiral who is frequently Anakin Skywalkers' direct subordinate throughout much of the Clone Wars series?

[Denzark]

Apparently so - I only know this because I wookiepedia'd it.

[Mr Mystery]

There's been a small leak of images from a forthcoming 'visual guide' type book.

I've nabbed copies, but don't want to put them up at the time being for reasons.

1. I don't want to get BoLS into copyright trouble
2. This thread has no spoiler warning, and I can't spoiler tag images (and if you can, I don't know how)

Can probs PM them to people who'd like to see though, innit.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Oooh, oohh! Pick me!

[Mr Mystery]

Will get them over to you laterer on - am at work and off lunch!

[Darren Richardson]

There's been a small leak of images from a forthcoming 'visual guide' type book.

I've nabbed copies, but don't want to put them up at the time being for reasons.

1. I don't want to get BoLS into copyright trouble
2. This thread has no spoiler warning, and I can't spoiler tag images (and if you can, I don't know how)

Can probs PM them to people who'd like to see though, innit.

Having seen said images, I have to say I like the Tie Striker and the wierd Rebel fighter, wonder how it handles?

December can't come quick enough really....

[Mr Mystery]

Really hoping they continue to expand the planets things happen on.

I feel that among their various issues, the prequels particularly choked by including Tatooine so heavily. I know it's just one out of about 6 planets featured (Naboo, Coruscant, Tatooine, Kamino, Mustafar, and two others, so seven) but it managed to make the Galaxy feel an awful lot smaller than it should.

TFA of course featured four planets (and one of them for mere seconds before it got it splatted, but it still expanded the universe!

[CoffeeGrunt]

I'd like to see less mono-biome planets, personally. And more fleet action, dammit! I want a proper capital ship battle in Star Wars for once!

[Mr Mystery]

That would be cool!

Though with the Republic fleet allegedly gone (or at least the bulk of it?) we might need to wait until the third film.

I guess it all depends on the will and resources to replace the fleet within the Republic. The Rebels amassed a fair sized fleet by using old, decrepit models then later adding Mon Calamari cruisers.

Given the attack on Hosnian Prime, it seems possible their may be more of an appetite for a robust fleet to counter the First Order. Plus, all those Star Destroyers of the old Empire? Wonder where they are, and what state they're in? They might be outdated by new models, but something is better than nothing. But would that be palatable to the Republic?

[CoffeeGrunt]

Using WWII as a reference, all sides involved were more than happy to capture abandoned tanks and put them to use. I sincerely doubt the Republic would be averse to fielding Star Destroyers because they were used by the bad guys, when our Tommies were nicking every German weapon they could get their hands on because times were desperate and they were well-made.

Just my thinking, though. I wouldn't be surprised if most Star Destroyers were scuttled rather than handed over. There may not be many left.

[Mr Mystery]

True dat.

You know, I don't think I've ever seen canon information about how long it takes to build a capital scale ship? Because so far as I can guess, that's the one thing that could prevent the Republic rebuilding their fleet quickly enough to counter the First Order?

[Psychosplodge]

It certainly happened in the previous stuff.

Plus its easier to make one type of model and rebadge/colour it right?

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yeah, mass producing a single model is typically faster than producing various different designs. The more commonality in parts, the better. That said, the sheer size of Star Destroyers would trump that rule, as they're significantly larger than most man-made things at 1.6Km in length and bulky with it. (Though it made me laugh when I just Googled that, as the CCS Battlecruiser from Halo is bigger than that, and that's just a Cruiser..)

In terms of an engineering challenge, it's more akin to building a skycraper as it's more than three times longer than the largest naval vessel ever constructed. It's safe to say that it could take years to build one. The Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimitz-class_aircraft_carrier) had its first ship built in 1975, and it took until 2009 to build the other nine of them. That's for a 333m-long aircraft carrier, the largest naval warship ever built, but still piddly compared to an ISD.

So it looks like the Republic will have to scrimp and salvage what they can, again. They may have shipyards away from that capital planet that blew up, but it's unlikely.

Then again, Star Wars is a universe where shields don't really do anything and point defense weapons are inadequate, with bombers being able to wreck capital ships all the way up to superheavy space stations. They don't really need capital ships, despite how god-damn cool capital warship battles are. The best we get is in the Clone Wars, and that little bit of the Battle of Coruscant at the start of Revenge.

[Mr Mystery]

Would being built in Zero G not help speed things up though? Sorry if it's a noob question, I really know arse all about such things!

[Psychosplodge]

Traditionally shipyards were at Corellia* Kuat and Fondor**

*Han Solo - A new hope "I've outrun the big correllian ships" or whatever the line is
**both claim to have built the Executor in technical manuals iirc. How relevant the technical manuals are anymore?

[CoffeeGrunt]

Would being built in Zero G not help speed things up though? Sorry if it's a noob question, I really know arse all about such things!

The zero g and the vacuum would make it more awkward, depending on the manufacturing method. For one, there's the simple matter of operator safety, though you can use droids to mitigate this. Consider the size of components you'd need for a 1.6Km ship. The less joins in an armour plate, the less weaknesses, so it needs to be massive. Either they'd need a stupendously-big orbital forge station producing them, or they'd be made of many smaller plates that would be perforated with weak links between them.

Not to mention that a lot of primary forming techniques wouldn't work in a zero-g environment. Injection moulding would, but it would be a hell of a thing to try and injection mould panels big enough. Current methods for ceramic or metal parts also require the parts be sintered in an oven afterwards, so again, that's a tough process. Handling molten material in general would be a real pig in zero-g.

It's possible that parts would be assembled on the planet and shipped up to orbit, but that would be a time-and-resource consuming method, unless they had an orbital elevator or something like that. It'd just be a massive undertaking, really. Consider that the largest thing we've ever put in space is the ISS, at 109x73 meters, slightly bigger than a football field, and weighing 450 tons. It took about 13 years to assemble.

It's kinda impossible to imagine what it would take to build something so much larger than that. Especially considering incredibly fragile components like the reactor or warp drive, that take us decades to build at a comparable scale, and one of them, ITER, is literally an international scientific undertaking comparable to the ISS.

The problems with radiation, vacuum, zero-g effects on the body, space debris, and all that other stuff would make it a hefty undertaking, though. Even with all the tech Star Wars has it'd still be a massive operation simply because of the size and complexity.

[Psychosplodge]

Don't forget they also have antigrav tech so lifting stuff to orbit wouldn't necessarily pose anywhere near the challenge we have.

tbf we could have probably made the ISS quicker but the Space Shuttle was always a bottleneck there.

Google seems to suggest the first death star took 20 years.

[Erik Setzer]

Kuat's the new official canon for the Executor (which makes sense, as the old EU had Kuat building SSDs). Vader visits Palpatine overseeing the construction of it in the comic.

Most of the ISDs and other ships they took likely would have been mothballed as part of the same initiative to lower their military presence to "non-threatening" levels.

The thing is, only the official Republic fleet was dropped in size, in order to make it clear they weren't trying to have a military the central government could use to batter systems or sectors into submission. There's nothing I've seen to date saying that sectors/systems weren't allowed to build their own defense fleets. So it's still feasible that the Resistance could gain capital ship support from a variety of systems, and have a solid fleet as a result.

While I'd love to see a proper space battle, I doubt there's going to be too much emphasis on them in Episode VIII or IX. The core Star Wars stories seem to be centered on individual characters and focused on their stories more than the titular star wars. We might still get a cool scene or something. I'd love to see a movie (or series) that involves those battles more, though. Maybe something from Sloane's perspective as she guides the Ravager in its final days? Or even an X-Wing series. (Please, please, PLEASE do an X-Wing series!)

[Morgrim]

Submarine pressure hulls are technically lain in a single piece, by building them in concentric rings with each being added before the last is completely cold. It's the only way to maintain sufficient strength when using steel. (Note, it's possible modern boats are built slightly differently, my submarine is Cold War era.) It's possible something similar is done when building the fleets in Star War. There's plenty of iron in asteroids and it's probably cheaper to refine that in orbit than to haul it up a gravity well, so if they were building pieces hot and joining them in place that'd help with the strength issues. And they've got perfected antigrav, so an orbital shipyard can have whatever G force suits them best in the refinery.

I could see having movable 'workshops' where each segment of hull is produced, then they turn gravity off and push it out the open door (they've got fancy forcefields that can hold air in while letting objects out, so minimal atmosphere wastage there) and onto the superstructure in progress. Space may be very cold but when your only method of heat loss is radiative, that metal is going to stay hot for a lot longer than it does on the ground. Keep moving the workshops as the hull grows and with enough of them you could get an outer hull that's got onto a few major joints in it. Maybe make the hulls in two or three or four pieces and build the decking inside, then bolt them all together. Or have other crews working on the insides as others build the outer hull.

It could be done in waves. The outer hull is the first wave, and then working behind them are the main inner deckings. Pipes and wires goes in the third wave, and major fittings the fourth. So the bow of your ship may be nearly complete despite the decking reaching the first third and the hull only half done. That does seem to be how the second Death Star was being constructed. And it's helpful defensively if the front end of the ship can, even in limited fashion, fire on any attackers while you're still working on the tail end.

[CoffeeGrunt]

It's probably very similar. There's lots of different ways it could be done, and as an engineer I just like the mental pondering of how one would assemble such a large spaceborne vessel. Given that we witness them being able to land, they could be assembled on the ground and launched skyward afterwards.

The only thing about having a one-piece hull is that it makes repairs to said hull after damage such a pig. For a sub, that's a moot point as a hull breach at depth is effectively a death sentence for most if not all of the crew, and even if it limps back to port it's unlikely to be recommissioned as any repairs would result in a weak spot against the pressure of depth. For a surface vessel, the ability to affect spot repairs relies on assembling it from welded segments.

Given the size of an ISD, it's unlikely to be hit by something that would breach the majority of the vessel, so the easier repair would be ideal. That said, they're weapons of an oppressive regime, so they might be one-piece hulls with the expectation that they'll simply never be shot at by an equal foe.

They could be superstructure > decks > internal wiring, etc > hull, where the hull is detachable plates for easy repair in the event of damage. However, the one-piece hull idea could be feasible as well.

[Mr Mystery]

Seems Rogue One is getting some reshoot time, as Disney weren't happy.

[Erik Setzer]

Seems Rogue One is getting some reshoot time, as Disney weren't happy.

I think one article said they listened to some test audiences who weren't happy.

There's no word on the issue, but I think they might have a problem if the initial version of the film ends with everyone dead or awaiting execution (or signing on with the Imperials). We have it in our minds that it was a suicide mission (since none of the people involved were ever mentioned again), and that makes for an interesting story, so of course that'd be the first line of thought for doing the film. But this is a universe centered around a space fairy tale, and it's pretty likely that a lot of people who like space fairy tales won't like the idea of a movie where the "happy" ending is that the Rebels got the plans to try to take out the Death Star, but all these characters we can to know and like over the course of the movie died. Sure, I'd like a movie like that, but Disney wants to get maximum audience happiness. So maybe they just rewrite it and have one or more people survive through something like Person X gets shot and the Empire thinks s/he is dead, but they really survived and go on to disappear with a new name and face. The "darkest" movie so far, Revenge of the Sith, still ended with showing a hope for the future, and not just "Ah, now they have the plans to try to do something to this massive death station."

I suspect that'll be a continuing issue for Star Wars films. They can push the bar a bit, but still have to be mindful that, at least for now, people expect Star Wars stories to have a less grim story.

[Psychosplodge]

Legends Spoiler That's how the mission they're basing it on ended at the end of the solo trilogy. Everyone dying in a last stand against the imperials defending a comms station that supposedly transmitted the data to the then Princess Leia's ship. Fett delivers the news of the characters death to Solo to allow him to keep his word to her. /spoiler

[Erik Setzer]

Now that you mention that, I remember it... Read that so long ago. It's hard to keep track of all those stories. (Didn't help they got so contradictory of each other.)

[Psychosplodge]

I remember that one reasonably well because I read that trilogy a lot with it being one of the better ones, along with the zahn ones and the xwing series. My first copy of bact war literally fell apart, my second was misplaced. I'm on my third till :D

[eldargal]

Reshots are normal, and Disney have clarified its just a tonal thing to make it mesh with A New Hope more because the end of Rogue One is ten minutes before the start of A New hope in-universe.

[Psychosplodge]

This gives me hope that it really is the untold story of Red hand squadron. cause I think fett is talking to solo while chewie is arranging passage with kenobi No doubt they'll have changed it enough just to annoy me.

[Mr Mystery]

No! No! No Fett and Solo being besterest buds.

As Chewie was chatting up Kenobi, Solo was chatting up a random lady. There's footage. It happened.

[Psychosplodge]

They weren't best buds. They already had a feud at that point. But Fett always keeps his word and solo was the easiest way he knew of for him to that in this instance. He also threatened him at the same time something like if Jaba really wanted you dead he'd send me not greedo or something.

[Mr Mystery]

Pffffrt.

All irrelvs. Didn't happen. Didn't happen didn't happen didn't happen.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5bsogjFSi1qzc18no1_400.gif

[Psychosplodge]

There are only three star wars films.

[Mr Mystery]

Phantom Menace, Caravan of Courage, Battle for Endor.

Yes. We know. You remain wrong :p

[Psychosplodge]

:rolleyes: :p


It also told you why he was so negative towards the rebellion, why he was in trouble with jabba, and why he was worried about his reception from Calrissian. But no that doesn't matter anymore...

[Mr Mystery]

Looks like Forrest Whitaker is playing a character first seen in Clone Wars (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Saw_Gerrera).

How good is that!

[eldargal]

Yup nice reference to Clone Wars. Still grumpy they killed his sister instead of him because she was way more interesting, and SW hasn't had a black woman main cast member on the big screen yet.

[Erik Setzer]

Yup nice reference to Clone Wars. Still grumpy they killed his sister instead of him because she was way more interesting, and SW hasn't had a black woman main cast member on the big screen yet.

Maybe we can get them to throw Sana into the upcoming Han Solo movie?

[eldargal]

That would be great, I doubt they will though. I hope to god they don't make him a womaniser, there is literally nothing in his character in the OT to suggest that, its pure fanboy fantasy.

[Psychosplodge]

The Han Solo trilogy? :D

But he was generally depicted as honest and faithful iirc, and still kinda hung up on his first love.

Might be a good opportunity to rescue Salla Zend (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Salla_Zend) from legends.

[Mr Mystery]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=frdj1zb9sMY

*heavy breaking intensifies*

[Rissan4ever]

Sooooo awesoooooooome!

[Mr Mystery]

Yup.

Feeling very tonally different to the others, which isn't such a bad thing - I feel that with the promise of one film a year, having a mix of tone can work.

Plus, Alan Tudyk, which has never been a poor thing!

[Mr Mystery]

Getting really excited for this now - my initial 'uh oh, reshoots? jitters have passed.

After all, the director in question has never done a film on this scale, or with the sort of pedigree expected. I guess it's to be expected that mentorly hands might help apply some spit and polish.

Plus, seen some of the toys - so excite! Defo want a TIE Striker! And Hera's A-Wing (which is coming in the same line)

[Psychosplodge]

It has A-wings? But they're not supposed to appear till between Empire and RotJ :rolleyes:

Stupid retcons *grumblr, grumble*

[Mr Mystery]

A-Wings were amongst the first fighters the Rebellion had - as seen in Phoenix Squadron.

B-Wing prototype was next.

Y-Wings after that.

Of course, that's just Jun Sato's cell - we've not seen the wider rebellion yet :)

Retcons? What retcons? Are you meaning that silly dream you had with ships made out of coral?

[Psychosplodge]

That's so backwards. Y-wings are old even pre Yavin. X-wings are "current" and A-wings then B-Wings are brand new.
A-wings are also supposedly custom builds by individuals to a generic design initially.

[Mr Mystery]

Nah.

A-Wings showed up in Star Wars Droids which was set before A New Hope.

It's entirely possible the Rebellion did have them during the Battle of Yavin, but given their specialities, were using them to search for a new base, given when it comes to Yavin, the Empire had rumbled their game and were on their manor, no?

[Psychosplodge]

I'm really starting to hate Lucas.

[Mr Mystery]

I'm not :)

I'm really enjoying the simplified new canon. As has been discussed as nauseum, the books got very, very silly quite quickly. Definitely gems to be found in all eras of the writing, but so much seepage as well.

And I've just started reading 'Life Debt', the second in Chuck Wendig's trilogy post-Endor. Not very far into it, but so far, so good. And I was right! Once you appreciate the author is predominantly a screen writer, his style works that little bit better (odd amounts of detail for a novel, but good to convey stuff to a director to bring it to life).

[Psychosplodge]

They did, but he was happy to take the money of people that bought them when he licensed them wasn't he?

I got aftermath out the library and the writing is shocking, he's not "in universe" there's too much of "our world" in it. I just found it too obtrusive. It's the first book in years I couldn't finish.

[Mr Mystery]

Fair enough. I know what you mean. It's like during the 'Warhammer Legends' trilogy, where Elves kept referring to each other as man or woman. You're not! Your Elves! Why not your own gender pronoun thing words?

It's been a common issue with Aftermath, and to be honest Life Debt isn't looking any different in style.

But I can push through that well enough to enjoy what's there :)

[Psychosplodge]

Fair enough. I know what you mean. It's like during the 'Warhammer Legends' trilogy, where Elves kept referring to each other as man or woman. You're not! Your Elves! Why not your own gender pronoun thing words?

Great, something else I'll notice now :rolleyes: :p

[CoffeeGrunt]

Never understood news of reshoots being used as a reason to think a movie is bad. They're incredibly common throughout the industry, it's just suddenly become big news to report them after they leak now.

[Mr Mystery]

I think it's because a few bad films have had them recently?

Plus, internet is like 24 hour news. Everything is reported, whether it's actually noteworthy or not.

Main panic here was apparently they were rejigging the ending, which didn't bode well at first.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Suicide Squad was going to be bad with or without the reshoots tbh, and as we saw from the BvS Extended Cut, the reshot scenes didn't save much either.

[Mr Mystery]

Haven't seen Suicide Squad - gonna wait until local pub shows it as part of movie night (turns out, their music license applies to films too ;) )

[CoffeeGrunt]

'S alright, would be good with a few pints in you, I think.

[Psychosplodge]

Haven't seen Suicide Squad - gonna wait until local pub shows it as part of movie night (turns out, their music license applies to films too ;) )

I don't think that actually licenses them to actually play any film though just to use the venue to host a showing, I think you're still supposed to license a public showing with the european distributor.
It normally says in the opening text that you only have a licence for home viewing and not public performance.

[Mr Mystery]

Currently ploughing my way through Aftermath; Life Debt.

Still the same author, so those who don't get on with his prose style will still struggle, but we're really starting to see how The First Order came to be, and it's pretty cool :)

[Psychosplodge]

I imagine ploughing being an apt description to reflect how much work it it to read that authors use of the english language.

[Erik Setzer]

I haven't been able to make it through Aftermath yet. And there's a whole trilogy to go through...

On-topic, though... How about those recent trailers?

[Psychosplodge]

I'll be watching the film. I find the author they've got writing the new stuff style too "not in universe" so I can't read it -it's like bad fanfic to me.

[grimmas]

I'm hoping for something a bit different from this outing. Darker certainly and I'd like to see a much more competent and dangerous Empire, they're supposed to be the great scary evil I'd like to see them perform a bit more like it. Though I'm very much looking forward to this, let's face it's the Star Wars we loved in the first place, Rebels, The Empire and Darth Vader not The Republic (new or otherwise), New order and The Resistance😒

[Psychosplodge]

Yeah lets see just how deadly a stormtrooper is supposed to be.

[grimmas]

Awesome product tie in nearly wet myself in Superdrug when I saw it.

19416

[Psychosplodge]

*confused head tilt*

[grimmas]

It's just so totally random

[Erik Setzer]

So... The film's been out for a few weeks now. I've only seen it twice so far, but thinking of hitting it up some time this week after work (was wanting to see it with friends again, but they've been busy).

I really liked it. Without getting into spoiler territory, I have to say that though it did start a little "slow," it picked up quickly, and the last act was just incredible. They did a solid job fitting it into the original series, and I liked the use of some old footage and sound from the original movie spliced into the new stuff to add a sense of continuity. (There was one nod to the originals I feel was a bit forced, but eh, it can be forgiven.)

The soundtrack is also better than I expected. There's a particular track that, if you listen to it, you know exactly where it is in the movie, where it was used to good effect. (I can match other tracks with where they were in the movie, but this one is kind of iconic for the scene it was part of.)

I'll hit spoilers below with spoiler color.

First, the big thing: I did not expect Disney to actually greenlight that ending. Holy smokes. It's not just that they had the guts to kill everyone, it's how they did it. K-2SO bonds with Jyn... and dies. Chirrut survives to perform a necessary task, then dies. Rook (the pilot) finally absolves himself of any guilt he still felt over helping the Empire, then gets blown to smithereens. Baze watches his best friend die and then sees their escape vehicle blown, and goes out in a blaze of glory, watching the grenade that kills him tick off to explosion. And Jyn and Cassian, waiting for the explosion to overtake them... That whole scene at the end. Tarkin just blowing a city away like it's nothing (and to spite Krennic, probably). The hammerhead with the Star Destroyers. The dialogue. And finally: Vader. HOLY CRAP. The scene in his fortress was amusing, but the way he just calmly destroyed the Rebels, contrasted against their panicked screaming as they're trying to save the mission... Even though you know how it's going to end, you can't help but feel some tension there. (The track I mention above is "Your Father Would Be Proud," which is the one that plays at the climax of the battle of Scarif. Then there's "Hope," the amusingly titled track that had Vader tearing through Rebels and the Tantive IV launching. But "YFWBP" is the one that's still a bit haunting to listen to, and was just perfect with how serene it sounded at times, like they were at peace with what was coming.)

There wasn't time to really help us know the full backstory for all the characters, but there wasn't time for them to really tell each other their story anyway, and it probably would have messed with the pacing. I still feel like we knew enough about them to care about them by the end. K-2SO was definitely quotable, but others were good as well.

I like Jyn as a flawed "hero," who isn't as pure as Luke or Rey. Cassian's dark side was great, and I loved the part before the Scarif mission where he talks about all the awful things some of the Rebels had done and how it'd all be for nothing if they weren't willing to continue the fight in the face of enormous odds. It made the Rebels feel more "real." Baze and Chirrut were a good buddy combo. "Good luck." "I don't need luck, I have you."

So... yeah. I liked it. A lot.

[thedestroyer]

Thought we might go all whole movie without a lightsabre... was pumped to see Darth Vader kick some ***.
'

[Psychosplodge]

Finally went to see it last night. Best new star wars film by a country mile.

[Denzark]

Absolute truth 'Splodge. Although still mystified by the missing cuts from the trailers.

[Psychosplodge]

http://i.imgur.com/FvpBC4L.jpg

- - - Updated - - -


Absolute truth 'Splodge. Although still mystified by the missing cuts from the trailers.

I didn't watch the trailers enough to notice them tbh. While its further away from the books than I expected from the trailer it didn't annoy me like some of the other stuff has before, though they could have used Toprawa (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Toprawa) for the battle as a nod to the old stuff