Yukaphile wrote:I seriously disagreed with Chuck's assertion that fans were pleased to see the sequel trilogy being announced. There were, and still are a lot of fans, a minority compared to the average moviegoer sure, but still a sizable chunk of outraged people furious that Disney rebooted the old EU in the process. Seriously, just google in "Legends EU Lucasfilm billboard" to get an idea what I mean.
As far as the EU goes.... I'm in the camp that says good riddance to bad rubbish. I'm sure there were some good stories in there. But every time I ever hear about something EU related, it's always something where the author had to take Darth Vader's statement from ANH about the ability to destroy a planet being insignificant compared to The Force. Never mind that Vader showed what he meant, in that very scene. Or that later in the movie we see Luke, a novice Force user with maybe a couple days training from Obi-wan, use the Force to make an impossible shot that the computer couldn't make, rendering the Death Star completely destroyed.
Yukaphile wrote:I seriously disagreed with Chuck's assertion that fans were pleased to see the sequel trilogy being announced. There were, and still are a lot of fans, a minority compared to the average moviegoer sure, but still a sizable chunk of outraged people furious that Disney rebooted the old EU in the process. Seriously, just google in "Legends EU Lucasfilm billboard" to get an idea what I mean.
As far as the EU goes.... I'm in the camp that says good riddance to bad rubbish. I'm sure there were some good stories in there. But every time I ever hear about something EU related, it's always something where the author had to take Darth Vader's statement from ANH about the ability to destroy a planet being insignificant compared to The Force. Never mind that Vader showed what he meant, in that very scene. Or that later in the movie we see Luke, a novice Force user with maybe a couple days training from Obi-wan, use the Force to make an impossible shot that the computer couldn't make, rendering the Death Star completely destroyed.
So yeah, not gonna miss the EU.
Could you elaborate on that issue please?
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I don't care about most of the EU, but I liked the Aaron Allston X-Wing stories. I miss that we're not getting canonical films in the setting of the New Republic retaking Coruscant while Imperial warlords grab what they can and scramble.
SlackerinDeNile wrote:Could you elaborate on that issue please?
It's the tendency of later writers to reference a memorable line superficially and over-literally. This is a common problem in both fanfic and sequels in general.
When Darth Vader says that "the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of The Force" it's obviously meant (and demonstrated) in the context of the film that he has powers Tarkin and the others could only dream of having. He did not meant that he could literally do so without the need of a Death Star; in fact if either he or the Emperor had this ability, the Death Star would not only be practically unnecessary but less fear-inducing than some guy in orbit just waving his hands at your world and crushing it or throwing it into a nearby star.
It's a tactic that undermines the intent of the scene and the notion of the Force as introduced here. EU stories like Force Unleashed throw out any sense of subtlety and replace it with grandiose spectacle, even at the expense of the existing setting's coherence, based on a deliberate misreading of the existing text.
Likewise, Luke's ability to utilize the Force in making an impossible shot to destroy the unstoppable Death Star shows the true power of the Force isn't a matter of simple brute strength.
Until Yoda notes "Size matters not" and lifts a several tons heavy starfighter out of a swamp with little to no effort. The Force is implied to be boundless and physics-defying and as Yoda said "Do or don't. There is no try." What you think is possible, is possible with the Force and the only limit is relatively cleary, what you think is it's limits.
I loved how "Force Unleashed" just went with it. It's Space Magic. Magic can do everything.
"If you get shot up by an A6M Reisen and your plane splits into pieces - does that mean it's divided by Zero?
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Deledrius and Madner Kami, I totally agree with you both there, many of the Star Wars video games pretty much interpreted the force as some kind of 'godlike war magic', probably just for the purpose of creating a power fantasy for the player to enjoy. I'm not a fan of the Force Unleashed games for many reasons, but I did enjoy the Dark Forces\Jedi Knight series which I felt was closer to the tone and setting of the OT.
"I am to liquor what the Crocodile Hunter is to Alligators." - Afroman
Well, I still feel Azula isn't entirely to blame for how horrible she is. Her personality flaws were heavily influenced and manipulated by her father to the point she internalized them. And combined with Ursa being stuck in a loveless marriage and doing her best to sheild Zuko no matter what from his father's abusive nature kinda left Azula open to being turned into a monster. I don't think Ursa meant to neglect Azula, she was in a crap situation and did her best. Azula herself is not excused from her actions because she was taught to be terrible by a toxic father relationship, but I don't really blame her for what she became and I like to think she could've been redeemed if only someone had gotten through to her. But I think any chance of that died a long time ago sadly.
Maybe I just feel mental illness, while not an excuse, should be pitied more than derided. She can't help who she is, she wasn't raised to reject her clearly sociopathic tendencies. They were nurtured instead. And that's the tragedy of Azula as a villain... she could've been a better person had someone managed to tear her away from her father.
Star Wars EU should have been mined for good ideas and used as an inspiration. That way it could also be allowed to be a draw for EU fans instead of the cold splash of water that was thrown in their face.
CMWaters wrote:I know I'm in the minority for this...but I like the tour around the Enterprise from The Motion Picture. Putting myself in the mindset that they were jumping from the 60s version of the ship to this to show it off. Plus, the theme that would become the theme to Next Generation is always great.
And I don't know how Chuck feels either way, but I thought Ilia was pretty, even with the bald head.
I'm not sure what cut I saw but that part of the movie was the one that really dragged for me. I didn't mind the layout of the ship (I like the late 70s, early 80s design in many sci-fi shows and films even if TPMs is simply not Star Trek) or the lead up to the tour and the repeated shots of of the view screen as they simply travelled around did drag too, but I felt the ones directly showing Vger would have been good on their own to get across how massive it was as they passed from bow to stern.
I also didn't find the TNG theme overused like he joked about.
Madner Kami wrote:Dragon Age Origins is an entity of it's own, not a sequel to Baldur's Gate. There're no references to the history of the Forgotten Realms whatsoever and the gods, as well as the origins of species are entirely different, not to even think about mechanical differences.
Rodan56 wrote:Well, I still feel Azula isn't entirely to blame for how horrible she is. Her personality flaws were heavily influenced and manipulated by her father to the point she internalized them. And combined with Ursa being stuck in a loveless marriage and doing her best to sheild Zuko no matter what from his father's abusive nature kinda left Azula open to being turned into a monster. I don't think Ursa meant to neglect Azula, she was in a crap situation and did her best. Azula herself is not excused from her actions because she was taught to be terrible by a toxic father relationship, but I don't really blame her for what she became and I like to think she could've been redeemed if only someone had gotten through to her. But I think any chance of that died a long time ago sadly.
Maybe I just feel mental illness, while not an excuse, should be pitied more than derided. She can't help who she is, she wasn't raised to reject her clearly sociopathic tendencies. They were nurtured instead. And that's the tragedy of Azula as a villain... she could've been a better person had someone managed to tear her away from her father.
Honestly I've always just found all that about Azula to be less some level of giving her depth and more a poor attempt to do so. Really in general I dislike most of the Avatar finale, but especially with her (and the Lion Turtle but that's a whole other can of worms and it's kind of not as bad post-Korra) almost all of it feels like stuff where, other than a couple awkward nudges in that direction, they essentially just made up her arc for the finale when they got there.
Which I guess fits given alongside it they're taking the blowoff to the story between her and Zuko that's been building the whole time and going, "Yeah, but Katara doesn't have anything to do so... Screw it, she saves the day." One of many ways I just find it a jumbled unsatisfying mess of an ending.
