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Starkiller Base is the best concept out of all of them tbh. The empire spending 50 years turning the secret sacred crystal planet of the Jedi into a super Death Star is believably evil and insane in a way that just “make a third one” or “make a lot of Death Star guns but put them on boats” really isn’t. Too bad everything about the execution of it is loving terrible and its backstory is irrelevant to everything
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 18:37 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 13:19 |
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I feel like every society in the galaxy building their own knockoff Death Star is something that would totally happen. Like the excuse would totally be "we need it for defense" but then you'd get rural planet dictators using their lovely off-brand Orbital Murder Cannon™ (original content do not steal) to keep their own people in line.
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 18:43 |
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The construction and destruction of Starkiller Base should have been the overall story arc of the sequel trilogy. Because it's a cool loving concept on paper for the First Order to have undertaken. Their use of it to blow up Hosnian Prime would have made a good way to transition them into the Final Order. AndyElusive fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Feb 22, 2021 |
# ? Feb 22, 2021 18:46 |
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sticklefifer posted:I feel like every society in the galaxy building their own knockoff Death Star is something that would totally happen. Like the excuse would totally be "we need it for defense" but then you'd get rural planet dictators using their lovely off-brand Orbital Murder Cannon™ (original content do not steal) to keep their own people in line. This is basically what happened offscreen with Metal Gear, Snake having spent the time between MGS1 and 2 (and probably from 2 to 4) going around the world as a mercenary vigilante hunting knockoff Metal Gears made by terrorist groups, corporations and anyone who had the blueprints and budget. I feel like that's a missed opportunity for a game. Could do it kinda roguelike with randomly generated knockoff Metal Gears with various loadouts and design flaws based on what they were able to slap together and the ridiculous whims of their project managers and moneymen. More on topic (though I always considered Metal Gear to be basically contemporary-ish milsci Star Wars, it even has a prequel trilogy chronicling the origin of its iconic villain as the protagonist) is that apparently one of the drafts of TFA had the Resistance use a mini-superweapon that's specifically made to take out Death Stars and anything similar.
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 18:53 |
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sticklefifer posted:I feel like every society in the galaxy building their own knockoff Death Star is something that would totally happen. Like the excuse would totally be "we need it for defense" but then you'd get rural planet dictators using their lovely off-brand Orbital Murder Cannon (original content do not steal) to keep their own people in line. Then there's that one weird backwater planet whose evil dictator decides to make one that looks like his face and it keeps getting blown up by animals
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 19:00 |
fartknocker posted:Same author, Kevin J. Anderson, but a different book series. The thing with the committee were the researchers and science team at the Maw with the prototype Death Star in the Jedi Academy books, I think specifically the third one, Champions of the Force. When everything there goes sideways and a giant battle erupted, the various scientists who'd been isolated from the rest of the galaxy for a decade (Since Tarkin took the original Death Star) ended up in control of the shell that was the prototype, which I think got partially blown up and then sucked into one of the black holes of the Maw. If I remember right, the Sun Crusher just got dumped into a sun didn't it? Like it's armor was unbreakable because it couldn't get away from the explosion in time so the only way to get rid of it was to just dump it in a sun so no one could get it back.
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 19:21 |
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seaborgium posted:If I remember right, the Sun Crusher just got dumped into a sun didn't it? Like it's armor was unbreakable because it couldn't get away from the explosion in time so the only way to get rid of it was to just dump it in a sun so no one could get it back. Black Hole I think
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 19:24 |
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seaborgium posted:If I remember right, the Sun Crusher just got dumped into a sun didn't it? Like it's armor was unbreakable because it couldn't get away from the explosion in time so the only way to get rid of it was to just dump it in a sun so no one could get it back. No, originally they dumped it into the gas giant Yavin, but Kyp Durron brought it out with the Force. They ended up sending it into a black hole at the Maw as well (Unlike the science people in the Death Star prototype who went into one unintentionally).
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 19:25 |
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Black Hole Sun (Crusher)
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 19:29 |
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They should have been looking for Leia instead of Luke. That way they could end every episode saying "I'm sorry, but the princess is in another spaceship."
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 20:14 |
fartknocker posted:No, originally they dumped it into the gas giant Yavin, but Kyp Durron brought it out with the Force. They ended up sending it into a black hole at the Maw as well (Unlike the science people in the Death Star prototype who went into one unintentionally). I knew it was something. Haven't read those books in 20 years.
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 21:00 |
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fartknocker posted:No, originally they dumped it into the gas giant Yavin, but Kyp Durron brought it out with the Force. They ended up sending it into a black hole at the Maw as well (Unlike the science people in the Death Star prototype who went into one unintentionally). The Maw scientists also came off as super incompetent. Like what if Dr. Kelp designed war machines for the Empire. That also struck me as odd as a kid. The Thrawn stuff was mostly about a guy really good at tactics. Then we get a trilogy with two super weapons and Admiral Daala who kept losing Star Destroyers every time she turned around but stuck around herself for ages.
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 22:23 |
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Poor Daala. Literally never escaped accusation of sleeping her way to the top, even when she was like 65 and became president of space
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 22:26 |
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skasion posted:Poor Daala. Literally never escaped accusation of sleeping her way to the top, even when she was like 65 and became president of space Seems uncomfortably realistic if anything. Wasn't there rumors about Ysanne Isard being the Emperor's lover too?
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 22:32 |
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Probably. Palpatine hosed everything
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 22:35 |
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To be honest there are like 1,000,000 habitable worlds in the Star Wars galaxy and one being destroyed across an entire galaxy probably isn't that strange or tragic. It probably happens once a month.
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 22:43 |
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I thought it wasn't so much an accusation as an actual fact in both cases. Daala got shoved into secrecy to sidestep Tarkin getting in trouble for nailing a subordinate and Isard was like "well, yeah, I did. What of it?"
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 22:43 |
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Sash! posted:I thought it wasn't so much an accusation as an actual fact in both cases. Being the head of the Gestapo because you murdered the previous head of the Gestapo who was also your father has some perks I guess
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 22:55 |
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Sash! posted:I thought it wasn't so much an accusation as an actual fact in both cases. Isard was one of the more entertaining pseudo-Emperors in the EU that I recall, and one of the more intelligent too really. Her plan of "gently caress it, let the Rebellion take Coruscant since they're advancing relentlessly and taking over everything anyway, but let's make Coruscant a giant burden that'll cripple them because it's riddled with a horrific virus with no cure" was awful but seemed perfectly in character and like something that could crush the Rebellion under the burden of responsibility if they didn't find a cure.
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 23:07 |
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Don’t worry, “Isard’s Revenge” retroactively makes the character look stupid and also hammers home the point by giving her a moron clone
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# ? Feb 22, 2021 23:18 |
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skasion posted:Dont worry, Isards Revenge retroactively makes the character look stupid and also hammers home the point by giving her a moron clone I keep meaning to re-read Rogue Squadron which I did at least enjoy at the time but I'm put off by the notion of Corran Horn is Good At Everything (including rocking the world of a weasel alien).
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 00:06 |
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The original four books aren’t too terrible about that. He’s still annoying and overly smug and powerful protagonist but at least he’s not a Jedi yet. Wraith Squad books and Starfighters of Adumar are better. Isard’s Revenge you can skip, it doesn’t really add much. There’s also Mercy Kill which is like a old men of Wraith Squad reunion as one last hurrah before Disney bought everything, it’s kind of fun for what it is but you have to have read all the giant late-EU series to follow the plot.
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 00:19 |
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Dawgstar posted:I keep meaning to re-read Rogue Squadron which I did at least enjoy at the time but I'm put off by the notion of Corran Horn is Good At Everything (including rocking the world of a weasel alien). I never read the later books Stackpole did for Rogue Squadron, but I remember really enjoying the first few alongside the Wraith Squadron books. Looking it up though, almost everything I remember liking was in the Wraith Squadron books so I don't even know what I'd think of the Rogue Squadron books if I read them now. I don't recall finding Corran Horn particularly egregious when I read them at the least, but then, I was a teenager at the time and 20 years could have made a lot of difference. Even small stuff like the running "Yub, Yub commander" joke about an Ewok pilot is from the Wraith Squadron, and those definitely had the more interesting and memorable pilots like Piggy, Runt, Face Loran, Falynn Sandskimmer etc. I think the X-Wing game reference about the unbeatable simulator training mission to protect some medical frigates is in the Rogue Squadron books at least, which I always appreciated, because jesus was that mission in the game a ballache.
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 00:19 |
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Dawgstar posted:I keep meaning to re-read Rogue Squadron which I did at least enjoy at the time but I'm put off by the notion of Corran Horn is Good At Everything (including rocking the world of a weasel alien). Skip to the Wraith books, they're more fun skasion posted:There’s also Mercy Kill which is like a old men of Wraith Squad reunion as one last hurrah before Disney bought everything I think it was Allston's last novel too Captain Splendid fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Feb 23, 2021 |
# ? Feb 23, 2021 00:23 |
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Worth noting that canon novel series Alphabet Squadron has some pretty heavy Wraith vibes and some fun cameos to boot. Final book's out next week.
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 00:39 |
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tsob posted:I think the X-Wing game reference about the unbeatable simulator training mission to protect some medical frigates is in the Rogue Squadron books at least, which I always appreciated, because jesus was that mission in the game a ballache. That's the very first chapter of the first Stackpole book.
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 00:50 |
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Falyn Sandskimmer is kind of funny because the character has all this pathos, but she’s like the fifth or sixth Tatooinian militant named Person Thingdoer to get in an x-wing and by now nobody cares
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 00:57 |
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That's why I like her. She's eternally trapped in the shadow of Luke as another Tattooinian pilot, but really resentful of it and just wants to be recognized for her own deeds. Her death is cool enough that she'll always be someone I remember, so I think she succeeded. For anyone who didn't read the books (or just forgot her): she died flying her X-Wing inside the exposed engine block of a Star Destroyer and blowing them up from the inside. I think Chewie's Legend's death is the only other one I recall. It seemed to tick a lot of people off, but he died having saved a bunch of people, including Han's kid, before screaming defiance at a Moon that was crashing planetside. And that's pretty loving metal.
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 01:04 |
I could see how some it might rub some people the wrong way that Chewie's death happened as basically the opening shot of an epic war rather than in service to winning it, but it was a pretty metal way to go out, true. I also thought the thread that followed from that with Han Solo dealing with the grief of losing his oldest friend made for an interesting story.
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 01:49 |
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sticklefifer posted:I feel like every society in the galaxy building their own knockoff Death Star is something that would totally happen. Like the excuse would totally be "we need it for defense" but then you'd get rural planet dictators using their lovely off-brand Orbital Murder Cannon™ (original content do not steal) to keep their own people in line. I'm imagining the scene from Star Trek: Enterprise where a giant space laser cuts a giant ditch clear across Florida, except not on Earth, and then it cuts to some wall-eyed chucklehead staring into the holocam and grinning It's also possible that some kind of black-market space Raytheon could be making them for them for profit galenanorth fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Feb 23, 2021 |
# ? Feb 23, 2021 02:50 |
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Chewie dying was not executed terribly, but it came from a bad conceptual direction where they were very invested in marking out the NJO books as serious edgy mature Star Wars for grownups. I would much rather they killed Chewie than subjected me to those three books later in NJO that are literally just “remember Black Fleet Crisis? No? Ok how about Truce at Bakura”
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 02:50 |
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tsob posted:I think Chewie's Legend's death is the only other one I recall. It seemed to tick a lot of people off, but he died having saved a bunch of people, including Han's kid, before screaming defiance at a Moon that was crashing planetside. And that's pretty loving metal. Chewie's Legends death was extremely metal. Meanwhile in the Sequel Trilogy he's basically the survivor of the original crew who gets a medal (that Maz whatever stole from Leia's corpse or something).
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 03:42 |
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Everyone posted:Chewie's Legends death was extremely metal. Meanwhile in the Sequel Trilogy he's basically the survivor of the original crew who gets a medal (that Maz whatever stole from Leia's corpse or something). She pulled it out of the Falcon after everyone got back to Planet Are We Even Going To Pretend This Isn't Just Yavin IV Again, JJ? at the end of the movie, so she actually just re-gifted him the medal that Han got at the end of A New Hope 40 years ago.
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 03:50 |
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I’m pretty sure that in some comic book it is revealed that Han was broke and traded it to her for another round of drinks like 10 years ago and she hung on to it to give to chewie in that moment
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 04:00 |
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That movie sucks rear end
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 04:01 |
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fartknocker posted:Constantly going back to the Death Star/superweapon well is usually a sign of the weaker EU books. Uh, let’s list some books that don’t have a superweapon - Truce At Bakura - The Crystal Star - The Courtship Of Princess Leia I don’t think there’s much correlation here
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 04:08 |
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Sir DonkeyPunch posted:Uh, let’s list some books that don’t have a superweapon Yeah i mean I’m not sure there’s any rigid criterion for damning any particular group of Star Wars books, the baseline is fairly terrible
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 04:12 |
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nine-gear crow posted:She pulled it out of the Falcon after everyone got back to Planet Are We Even Going To Pretend This Isn't Just Yavin IV Again, JJ? at the end of the movie, so she actually just re-gifted him the medal that Han got at the end of A New Hope 40 years ago. I am amazed he didn't slap it out of her hands and punt her over the horizon for grave-robbing from Leia and dishonoring his family's legacy Ya know, given how the rest of the ST treats the past 43 years of the franchise Subverting expectations til the last, I suppose?
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 04:13 |
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AdmiralViscen posted:I’m pretty sure that in some comic book it is revealed that Han was broke and traded it to her for another round of drinks like 10 years ago and she hung on to it to give to chewie in that moment
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 04:51 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 13:19 |
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skasion posted:remember Black Fleet Crisis? I'd rather not remember it. Although, didn't that author come up with the K-Wing? Sir DonkeyPunch posted:- The Courtship Of Princess Leia Yet, this one has been strip mined for every possible tidbit to introduce into the new canon!
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 04:56 |