Star Wars General Discussion (OT, PT, TCW, Comics, Legends, toys etc.)

[Mr Mystery]

True that.

[url=http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Rey%27s_Survival_Guide]I now want Rey's Survival Guide[/url]

[eldargal]

Me too, also the Visual Dictionary and the book of concept art.

[Mr Mystery]

Those too.

[Erik Setzer]

See, I dunno. Vader's certainly a force (hee hee) to be reckoned with, but he was never even hinted to be the kind of guy who shows up alone and annihilates planetary resistance. Thinking back to the OT, Vader's mastery of the Force extends to...

Well, he typically leads an army/fleet, and leads it well (though some of his underlings leave much to be desired).

But the Vader Down crossover is covering this well. It's three issues in, and so far he's:

-Taken out multiple squadrons of X-Wings, including turning their torpedoes back on the ships that fired them. (Luke rammed him with his X-Wing to take him out, which only worked because Vader sensed something, and I think by that time realized who Luke was.)
- Brought done a number of Y-Wings flying over him (Luke tracks him by watching bombers exploding in the air).
- Taken out at least an entire platoon of soldiers at once, using tricks like switching on their thermal detonators in their pockets.

They're really working in the Vader comic series to show off why he's so feared across the galaxy, even as he deals with conflict inside the Empire (but that's Sith for you).

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and Toys wise?

BB-8

Hate to say it, but BB-8 ended up being male.

http://screenrant.com/star-wars-7-bb-8-male-female-gender/

Still a good list otherwise. And people have correctly noted that the gender of a droid doesn't really matter, because, well... it's a droid.

[Lexington]

They're really working in the Vader comic series to show off why he's so feared across the galaxy,

See, this, again, seems way over the top to me. If Vader can toss torpedoes and fighters around, why isn't Luke a greasy black spot on the side of the original Death Star's trench? Why wasn't Big Baddie V just dropped into the middle of Hoth to single-handedly annihilate the shield generators and crush the ground forces?

It feels like these are modern action movie/comic book ideas being foisted onto a character for whom they don't really fit. It's like there's a need to match the 'bad ***' picture people have in their heads of Vader, even though it's not really justified by the original source material. There's this idea that Vader needs to prove himself against the universe.

To me, anyway, this diminishes Vader rather than elevates him. This sort of plain military errand should be beneath him, in the same way that whipping out a lightsaber should be beneath Yoda. The sense of pure presence they had in the original movies put them beyond needing to prove their place to the audience. Having them do so calls that presence into question, and undercuts it even when the characters inevitably triumph, because it shouldn't even occur to us that they could be challenged.

[Mr Mystery]

I've always considered Vader's reputation to be his main weapon.

At the end of the Clone Wars, most inhabitants of the Galaxy would be familiar with the Jedi, yes?

And who was Vader? Well, nobody barring Palpatine, Obi-Wan and Yoda really knew who he was.

To the rest of the Galaxy, he was the one who wiped out the Jedi.

That's a 'new pants, please' thought. After that, Vader need not do anything - his reputation alone would scare people stiff.

And on a different note, [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35170829]this article is rather fun.[/url]

[Erik Setzer]

See, this, again, seems way over the top to me. If Vader can toss torpedoes and fighters around, why isn't Luke a greasy black spot on the side of the original Death Star's trench? Why wasn't Big Baddie V just dropped into the middle of Hoth to single-handedly annihilate the shield generators and crush the ground forces?

Because doing so still puts him at danger of being killed, and people would then just fear one man, not the massive military the Empire has. As for Luke, it's just a matter of luck that he survived that time (notice all the pilots who didn't survive Vader?), and by the time it gets to that point in the comic, he's already found out who that pilot was he nearly shot down, and doesn't want to kill him. Heck, he might have felt it even during the trench run, which caused hesitation that allowed Han to swoop in.

And it's not a "plain military errand" in the comic. He was on a personal mission, and didn't know there was a Rebel base there. He was looking to find Luke, and an informant found out Luke was on the planet. He went to go get Luke (and doesn't exactly want the rest of the Empire knowing that business), and things got out of hand fast. (The informant, meanwhile, panicked when she found out she'd accidentally sent him into a mess, and went to try to go "rescue" him.)

The things he's doing aren't that crazy to believe for a powerful Jedi. If Yoda had wanted to do stuff like that, from what we see of him in the films, he could have. And we see a bunch of Jedi that Vader later crushed taking on a large army of Droids and taking out a ton of them (but Jedi are held back from really doing all they can on the battlefield, considering a lot of stuff too close to the "Dark Side").

It helps to explain *why* these characters have the presence they do.

[Mr Mystery]

[url=http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Captain-Phasma-75118]*flails*[/url]

[Gotthammer]

[eldargal]

[URL="http://sailorswayze.tumblr.com/post/119341848870/im-only-ever-gonna-draw-tsundere-han-solo-for-the"]Han Tsundere Solo[/URL]