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Timeless Appeal posted:They updated again. Apparently it's no longer going to be in HD which was holding things up. So... it apparently is ready... It's just released on the site now. http://www.redlettermedia.com/sith.html
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Dec 31, 2010 13:47
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Captain von Trapp posted:I bet most of us will leave that review thinking ROTS is the worst of the prequel trilogy. More and more I've had the gnawing feeling that as hideously awful as it was, TPM was actually the Star-Warsiest of the prequels. The review pretty much sums up ep. 2 as being the worst because the trilogy is already dead prior to ep. 3's release. So far so good. I like how he has gotten back to analyzing individual shots with a technical eye instead of simply analyzing plot and story issues.
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Dec 31, 2010 14:29
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omgLerkHat! posted:Because involving time travel in any sci-fi franchise is a recipe for disaster because it either becomes 1. a pointless gimick or 2. Godlike power which means the heroes are never challenged enough for there to be any real tension.  It wouldn't be time travel. Light uh, doesn't travel faster than itself (  ) but we have FTL travel. So if something happened ten years ago, just hyperspace to a point 9 light years and 364 days from the place where it happened, point a big loving telescope that way, and you can watch it happen all over again.
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Dec 31, 2010 14:33
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Leperflesh posted:We see more examples of Empire oppression in the original trilogy. Storm troopers stop and question people on the street, demanding papers on droids.  Leperflesh posted:Han has to avoid 'imperial entanglements' because they board freighters looking for contraband (whatever that might be). http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Spice Drugs, illegal drugs. Han Solo was pretty much a drug runner. Leperflesh posted:Cloud City has to run beneath Imperial radar just to operate independently, and we understand later why Lando needs to do things that way (and actually the clean white modern interior suggests that by staying out from under Imperial interference, Cloud City is an oasis of prosperity in a galaxy that is otherwise decaying and worn out). Nope, the clean white modern interior and an oasis of prosperity comes from War profiteering Tibanna is used in Blasters, Cloud City being the main supplier. Lando also won administration of it in a Sabacc tournament, the Empire was just trying to restore democracy to it. Leperflesh posted:And yet mobsters like Jabba are allowed to prosper, apparently without interference by the police or government. Up until Episode 6 or the prequels, Tatooine was just some hick planet in the middle of nowhere. They still even refer to at such in Episode 1 but it seems a bit larger and more sophisticated somehow (pod racing) Leperflesh posted:Even on Endor, the Ewoks (presumably) already hate the Empire, even though they've just got a little outpost. They're ready to throw lives away attacking them with only a little prompting (and, OK, their shiny metal god telling them to I guess?) The Ewoks were going to cook and eat the rebels, I think they just don't like anything, nasty savages. They were effectively brainwashed and used as suicide troops by the rebels.
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Dec 31, 2010 15:04
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AcridWhistle posted:
The Essential Atlas (if I remember right) makes a good point about Tatooine. It sure is a hick planet, but it's a hick planet smack in the middle of a point where two major trade routes cross. So, it would make sense that in the more prosperous times before the Clone Wars and the Empire, it would see a fair amount of traffic and trade.
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Dec 31, 2010 17:25
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Kemper Boyd posted:The Essential Atlas (if I remember right) makes a good point about Tatooine. It sure is a hick planet, but it's a hick planet smack in the middle of a point where two major trade routes cross. So, it would make sense that in the more prosperous times before the Clone Wars and the Empire, it would see a fair amount of traffic and trade. That doesn't really make sense. A city (or planet) at the intersection of two major trade routes would be a major economic hub and not a backwater at all.
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Dec 31, 2010 17:48
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Jerk McJerkface posted:This is the stupidest thing I have ever read. Seriously, one-up-manship at it's worst. The GCW should have been the biggest conflict in the galaxy, but instead we need to keep upping the ante in a misguided attempt to keep marketing Star Wars to us. It's such a rich universe, there could me thousands of smaller more interesting stories to tell instead of just making everything bigger and more intense.  Nicely done.
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Dec 31, 2010 17:59
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M. Tenebra posted:It's just released on the site now. Just finished all three parts. Not too much Plinkett stuff in it for those who can't stand it, and the only thing people may find "offensive" being near the start of part 2. Doesn't cover all the spergs, but then doesn't linger on anything too much either. Some of the ideas within this thread are way better for improvements (like the Count Dooku one), but at least there is some token effort - saying that, it really is just polishing a turd. I would feel quite embarrassed over missing certain blindingly obvious points (especially in the technicalities in how it's filmed), but then I really only half heartedly watched the drat thing the one time after setting my bar so low from the previous two films.
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Dec 31, 2010 18:24
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Derek Dominoe posted:That doesn't really make sense. A city (or planet) at the intersection of two major trade routes would be a major economic hub and not a backwater at all. That's because Star Wars apparently runs on narrativium. It's a backwater planet BECAUSE GEORGE SAYS SO SHUT UP. Also, just have to say that this thread made me remember how good the Allston X-Wing books were, so I went back and read them. So yeah, thanks for that goons!
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Dec 31, 2010 18:34
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Just wanted to let you know that if you have Steam, as part of their holiday specials for the next 24 hours the entire collection of Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games is available for only 5 dollars: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/2103/ That comes out to only 1 dollar a game, not too bad for one of the best Star Wars game franchises. Even though JA had a story that was completely nonsensical and suffered from not having Kyle Katarn as the player character, I still thought it was really fun to play.
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Dec 31, 2010 19:15
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Don't Lol me posted:Just finished all three parts. Not too much Plinkett stuff in it for those who can't stand it, and the only thing people may find "offensive" being near the start of part 2. Also, the cat sex was unbelievable. 
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Dec 31, 2010 19:21
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M. Tenebra posted:It's just released on the site now. I feel dirty for knowing that the Millennium Falcon actually WAS in Episode III. 
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Dec 31, 2010 19:32
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Powered Descent posted:I feel dirty for knowing that the Millennium Falcon actually WAS in Episode III. I had to look this up to see if it was The Millennium Falcon or just a generic YT-1300 freighter (I had to look that up too), turns out it is The Millennium Falcon http://web.archive.org/web/20080414160842/www.starwars.com/episode-iii/bts/production/f20050526/
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Dec 31, 2010 20:56
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Well, it was nice of Mr. Plinkett to point out that there was a villain that showed up in all three movies. The problem is that an incompetent space asian is no (original) Darth Vader.
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Dec 31, 2010 21:18
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M. Tenebra posted:It's just released on the site now. I want to know what he has to say about Episode 3 but I just can't stand that voice he does. It's the most irritating thing I have ever heard.
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Dec 31, 2010 21:28
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Ok, so I've realised that the OP's list of important events after the movies is probably out of date. Unfortunately, my familiarity with the EU comes primarily from this thread. I'm putting out a call for aid. If anyone wants to redo that list to be a)more accurate and b)up to date, I would be delighted and will add it to the OP with credit to the kind poster willing to go to the effort. And, of course, if anything else is wrong with the information in the OP, please let me know. haitfais fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Dec 31, 2010 |
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Dec 31, 2010 21:46
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NeonTurtle posted:Well, it was nice of Mr. Plinkett to point out that there was a villain that showed up in all three movies. The problem is that an incompetent space asian is no (original) Darth Vader. I think I now know why I was so apathetic to ROTS and the other films now that RLM has labelled it for me. There's nothing like adding a sense of urgency and pace to a story by showing the characters strolling along a corridor or sitting down everytime there's some dialogue. Lucas has managed to capture the good old fashioned British aplomb. Palpatine is a sith lord? Don't make a fuss Jenkins, we must partake of Tiffin first.
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Dec 31, 2010 22:22
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omgLerkHat! posted:Because involving time travel in any sci-fi franchise is a recipe for disaster because it either becomes 1. a pointless gimick or 2. Godlike power which means the heroes are never challenged enough for there to be any real tension. Presumably with the notable exceptions of the Back to the Future films and Doctor Who?
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Dec 31, 2010 23:38
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Fil5000 posted:Presumably with the notable exceptions of the Back to the Future films and Doctor Who? and Farscape  Edit for related content: I'm kinda curious about the The Essential Guide to Warfare ( http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Essential_Guide_to_Warfare ) Is that spregy of me? Yes, but i'l be damned is that isn't a nice premise for a book Also, i find the idea that the Empire had thousands of mini-Death Stars to be..odd. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Torpedo_Sphere Nckdictator fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Jan 1, 2011 |
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Jan 1, 2011 01:35
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Get it simply because it isn't dick waving about Jedi/Skywalkers/MANDALORIANZ.
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Jan 1, 2011 01:46
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Nckdictator posted:Also, i find the idea that the Empire had thousands of mini-Death Stars to be..odd. That's a freaking stupid idea. Why build a giant, dead slow, poorly armed space station to batter down planetary shields when it'd be cheaper, easier, and more flexible to build that capability into a module that could be attached to a standard Star Destroyer? Hell, even refitting a number of star destroyers for shield killing would be a better idea because the refitted Star Destroyer would still have uses beyond shield cracking. Even if the refit took out the hanger bay as well as every weapon system on the ventral surface of the destroyer it'd still have more firepower than just about anything it was likely to run into. There is literally nothing that this ball could do that a refit destroyer would be able to do better. Edit: Hell, you wouldn't even need to refit a destroyer. I just remembered that the Empire has modular Strike Cruisers. Now you wouldn't even need to keep the drat thing around until you needed it. Wait until you have a shield that needs cracking, load the proper modules on one or two Strike Cruisers, and go crack the shield. Afterwords remove the modules and turn those Strike Cruisers back into whatever you were using them for. Easy, cheap, and fast. NeonTurtle fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Jan 1, 2011 |
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Jan 1, 2011 05:50
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Nckdictator posted:Also, i find the idea that the Empire had thousands of mini-Death Stars to be..odd. It's actually not that bad. The only thing really unique about the death star was the scale of it. Spheres are actually a good design for space craft (good volume to surface area ratio) and these seem like dedicated siege weapons which is a perfectly reasonable niche.
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Jan 1, 2011 06:13
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NeonTurtle posted:Edit: Hell, you wouldn't even need to refit a destroyer. I just remembered that the Empire has modular Strike Cruisers. All I see is a Penis Cruiser quote:At least one Strike-class cruiser, Peregrine, was modified by the Rebel Alliance with two large, bulbous housings for gravity well projectors, which were removed from a captured Imperial Interdictor cruiser. This ship was designated by the Rebels as a modified strike cruiser. (Sadly the image doesn't match up to what I am thinking though)
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Jan 1, 2011 06:14
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Can't say I enjoyed that Red Letter Media review as much as the first two, although he pretty much explains why. There's just so little  that mocking it feels pointless to begin with.The Phantom Menace is full of things that are enjoyable to mock, and Attack of Clones is hysterical because it's a non-interactive video game... but Return of the Sith? oh that happened okay then
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Jan 1, 2011 07:00
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NovemberMike posted:It's actually not that bad. The only thing really unique about the death star was the scale of it. Spheres are actually a good design for space craft (good volume to surface area ratio) and these seem like dedicated siege weapons which is a perfectly reasonable niche. The problem is that these Torpedo Spheres aren't particularly effective siege weapons given the technology available. They're horribly under-gunned for their size and what weapons it has are distributed all around the equator of the stupid thing. Given that the sphere's stated purpose is to overload planetary shields with massed torpedo salvos it makes no sense for half the tubes to be on the side facing away from the target. Instead of pointing out everything that's wrong with it, it'll be easier to list what would make it right. 1: Gravity Well Generators and numerous tractor beams. When the shields come down anyone on planet with a ship will be hightailing it out of there. Use the wells to keep them from jumping early, then tractor in anything that moves. 2: Ion cannons, and lots of them. Make sure that anything that moves doesn't stay moving for very long 3: A ground contingent and an efficient ship to surface delivery system. The quicker the troops hit the ground after the shield falls, the more likely a beachhead will be secured. 4: Defensive TIE squadrons. It always pays to keep fighters away. 5: Vastly increased Turbolaser armament. Having 10 guns on a ship 4 kilometers in diameter is asking for trouble. 6: Cluster the torpedo tubes into fewer batteries with more tubes. I'm thinking five torpedo batteries, placed so two batteries can be brought to bear at any point around the horizontal axis of the station. Given the size of a torpedo sphere, it should be easy to shoehorn in these modifications. These modifications would vastly increase the Torpedo Sphere's capability, survivability, and efficiency at planetary siege operations. ...sorry for sperging out.
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Jan 1, 2011 07:16
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Nah, it's fine, I like the spregy fleet junkie stuff like that.
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Jan 1, 2011 08:02
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NeonTurtle posted:The problem is that these Torpedo Spheres aren't particularly effective siege weapons given the technology available. They're horribly under-gunned for their size and what weapons it has are distributed all around the equator of the stupid thing. Given that the sphere's stated purpose is to overload planetary shields with massed torpedo salvos it makes no sense for half the tubes to be on the side facing away from the target. Instead of pointing out everything that's wrong with it, it'll be easier to list what would make it right. These sorts of problems are all over the place in the EU. Star Wars was a no-numbers space opera, and then they decided to make an RPG out of it, so West End Games started attaching numbers to things without really considering what they implied. Look at the first Death Star in WEG: they gave it 15,000 weapon emplacements, total. That's 1 weapon for every three square kilometers of surface. The WEG crew compliment gave a density of about 30 crew per square kilometer, just on the surface level (go with full volume, and it gets much worse). And then they go and give enormous numbers for some things, like there being 20,000 Star Destroyers and a million member planets spread through 1000 sectors. Which brings in other problems: with 20,000 Star Destroyers, most of which should have still been around when the Empire died, each one capable of slagging unshielded worlds, how could a few hundred decades-old cruisers make a difference in Thrawn's war? World War II had thirty times as many mobilized personnel than the stated Clone Army numbers (although some authors have tried to make that number more realistic, Traviss seems to have a pretty firm grip on EU canon now). According to WEG, there should be over 600 million Star Destroyer crewmen alone...and the galaxy was on the brink of collapse in a war involving fewer combatants than North Korea's army? As you can see, I'm prone to sperging as well. I fought in the great ST vs SW wars, and it's clearly affected me negatively.
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Jan 1, 2011 08:49
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I was half-expecting that Nadine was actually Mr.Plinkett all along and the girl in the basement was gonna be terrified of her.
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Jan 1, 2011 08:53
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Elentor posted:I was half-expecting that Nadine was actually Mr.Plinkett all along and the girl in the basement was gonna be terrified of her.
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Jan 1, 2011 09:09
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Toplowtech posted:And Palpatine is actually Plinkett's mother These last 2 minutes would have surpassed all the prequel films altogether.
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Jan 1, 2011 09:31
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gently caress, now how am I ever going to milk Plinkett's cat?!
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Jan 1, 2011 09:59
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Pyroclastic posted:World War II had thirty times as many mobilized personnel than the stated Clone Army numbers (although some authors have tried to make that number more realistic, Traviss seems to have a pretty firm grip on EU canon now). Not to worry, Traviss quit writing Star Wars novels over a year ago.
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Jan 1, 2011 10:32
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Chaos Hippy posted:Not to worry, Traviss quit writing Star Wars novels over a year ago. Oh, really? That's good. I haven't read any of 'em since, like, the two after Vector Prime (another story where the scale of the drat setting was ignored), but I still heard about the tiny army, her defensiveness of it, and the MandoWank she crafted. So who's ruining the EU now?
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Jan 1, 2011 11:15
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Pyroclastic posted:Oh, really? That's good. I haven't read any of 'em since, like, the two after Vector Prime (another story where the scale of the drat setting was ignored), but I still heard about the tiny army, her defensiveness of it, and the MandoWank she crafted. I think the answer to that is Troy Denning, between Dark Nest and the creation (or at least identification) of space-Cthulhu. I only know about this poo poo through the thread, though, so someone with more knowledge might have a different answer.
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Jan 1, 2011 15:13
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OK. I haven't read all the replies made since Red Letter Media posted the Episode III review, and I surely won't. All I really have to say is this: part 3 of this review is genius. I've watched the reviews of episodes I and II so many times, it's embarrassing. Episode III by all expectations should have failed to live up to my own hype. However, in part 3, Plinkett pulls out everything I liked about the other reviews - the film-making insights - and in reveals the most intelligent things he has to say about the entire prequel trilogy and Star Wars in general. After this post, I plan on forwarding a RLM review to a friend for the first time yet. That's all. Thanks!
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Jan 1, 2011 15:27
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Started reading Betrayal. Wondering how stupid these New Republic/Galactic Alliance dudes really are because no one figured out that putting a bullet into Thrackan Sal-Solo would be a really good thing because it's not like they didn't have a hundred chances to do that between him being released from prison and the Vong invasion. They sort of deserve all these troubles for not having common sense.
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Jan 1, 2011 18:46
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Captain von Trapp posted:More and more I've had the gnawing feeling that as hideously awful as it was, TPM was actually the Star-Warsiest of the prequels. this, this a hundred times. TPM had actual location shots, it even had a single shot with no effects in it at all(!). It was filmed on real film, so it looks like it might actually have happened in a real place. It tried to tell a proper story coherently, and although it failed miserably, it's better than the bad video gamey style of II and III with its meaningless action interspersed with banal
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Jan 1, 2011 19:42
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I think there is a thing going on the prequels where no one really has any loving idea of what those things are meant to be. The OT was pretty straightforward space opera things so we didn't really need lot of depth or exposition to get what was going on. The prequels, however are pretty much the story of How The Emperor Got His Groove on, which would mean that the politics and the movers and shakers should get some more depth to be interesting at all. Instead we get weird space asians cloning dudes for a delivery ordered by some dude we never see at all and stuff happening just because. And droids that remind me of Donald Duck.
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Jan 1, 2011 19:52
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I felt the urge to make a really long "here's what I would have done" post to explain where Lucas went wrong, but then I realised how terrible that would be. The only correct thing to have done would be to never have made them in the first place. Has there ever been a case of a prequel that's been widely recognised as being a non-lovely addition to a franchise? I know there are a minority that like Star Trek Enterprise (I'm one of them) but I'm talking about something that almost all the fans agree was uncontroversially good. Because I really can't think of any. Prequels are always bad ideas.
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Jan 1, 2011 20:03
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Andorian Blues posted:I felt the urge to make a really long "here's what I would have done" post to explain where Lucas went wrong, but then I realised how terrible that would be. The only correct thing to have done would be to never have made them in the first place. This argument has come up several times in this thread before. Godfather Part II and Temple of Doom are some examples, but prequel films in themselves are rare, and most of them are just cheap and fast cash-ins like Dumb and Dumberer or various "baby" versions of popular franchises. I don't think that means the SW prequels were doomed from the start. Put in the hands of a competent team of filmmakers with a passion for the source material, I don't think there's any reason whatsoever that they couldn't have turned out to be decent films.
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Jan 1, 2011 20:43
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