Star Wars The Force Awakens first official trailer

[Psychosplodge]

By having any situation other than only Han shot you lose the image of just how ruthless he can be.


[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30445082"]Names leaked[/URL]

[Mr Mystery]

Hardly leaked. It was an official thing.

But cool all the same!

[Psychosplodge]

True, but I'm sure the headline read leaked earlier

[Mr Mystery]

So glad the bloke with the Lightsaber isn't actually called 'Über'.


That just smacked of internet nonsense!

[Deadlift]

So glad the bloke with the Lightsaber isn't actually called 'Über'.


That just smacked of internet nonsense!

I think the Uber name was just a reference to the characters importance to the plot. Like a working title. But there is nothing to say that the Sith in the trailer is the character that's been referred to as Uber. That's been rumoured to be Andy Serkis and they not be him.

[Mr Mystery]

Possibly.

But the name just doesn't sit right. Not particularly Star Wars!

[Erik Setzer]

Actually originally Jabba was going to be a human gangster and they filmed the scene with the guy, then it was cut and later for RotJ they decided to make him a Hutt. So when they rejigged the scene for the special edition they added that old footage back but instead of Solo walking around a human gangster he walked over a hutt so they made it so he stepped over Jabba's tail.

Well, here's the thing that gets me about that... Why couldn't they just have Jabba turn to look at Han as he walked around behind him? Obviously you couldn't turn the guy who was originally Jabba, but they were putting CGI in that scene anyway, it could have been facing any direction they wanted it to. Having Han stepping on Jabba's "tail" just seems like Han is careless or directly flipping the bird at a guy threatening his life, which comes off as less "badass" and more "suicidal/disrespectful idiot."

[Mr Mystery]

Probably harder to code than have Han do a very Han thing and step on him.

Remember, this was pre-1997 software they were using.

Anyways. I've been poking my nose around Star Wars Wikis and the EU stuff that followed Return of the Jedi - overall, a lot of it seems quite lazy in terms of names and designs. SteathX - yeah, it's a Stealth X-Wing, but with a really, really god awful name.

So looking forward to the new film! 353 days to go!!!

[Erik Setzer]

Anyways. I've been poking my nose around Star Wars Wikis and the EU stuff that followed Return of the Jedi - overall, a lot of it seems quite lazy in terms of names and designs. SteathX - yeah, it's a Stealth X-Wing, but with a really, really god awful name.

To be honest, a lot of the EU stuff *was* pretty bad, especially by the end. They were just pushing out so much stuff, and it was getting contradictory. Timothy Zahn did a nice trilogy to get the ball rolling, but Kevin J. Anderson's post-RotJ stuff was always the same tired formula of superweapons and Luke being a Super Saiyan Jedi. It all just snowballed from there.

I think my favorite stories were the Tales of the Jedi series of comics (where KJA actually did a solid job), and the X-Wing series by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston. (Holy smokes, went to check Allston's last name spelling and noticed he died this year. That sucks!) The TotJ series didn't have the Jedi being overly peaceful zen masters, they weren't black and white and they knew how to lead a battle, and the aesthetic was pretty cool.

The X-Wing series was great because of its "realism" (yeah, with a sci-fi series, it's hard to say that without using quotes). The first four books centered on a new Rogue Squadron that was great fighter pilots who had other useful skills. The way they took Coruscant was infiltrating the criminal underground and working their way into a position to take down the planetary defenses. When they had to go after an enemy with a fleet that had a Super Star Destroyer, two Imperial SDs, and a Victory SD, they did it bit-by-bit, taking out the VSD, convincing one of the ISD captains to switch sides, tricking the other ISD into sitting out the final battle, and finally taking their X-Wings, the one ISD, and dozens of small ships with linked torpedo launchers, and shooting the SSD over and over until it was a blasted mess that could barely keep itself running (while the small ships suffered a LOT of casualties and the ISD got shot up bad itself). Aaron Allston did three books about "Wraith Squadron," which was a bunch of castoffs with good skills who could be made decent pilots (think Dirty Dozen converted into fighter pilots). He was even crueler than Stackpole with killing off beloved characters, and kept it going with the fights being tough battles where it took sacrifices to win. There were two or three other stories written by those two. And Isard is still one of my favorite Star Wars villains.

But too much stuff was just silly, over the top, conflicting, a big mess. I don't think it's a bad thing they wiped the slate clean.

Can't wait for next December!

[Psychosplodge]

yes, post rotj stackpole and zahn, and to a lesser extent allston produced the best stuff.