Solo: I've got a pretty good feeling about this!

[Peelee]

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That lady was CorSec? I thought she was an Imp.

Solo: The Official Guide by Pablo Hidalgo, p. 33. Lead Transport Security Officer Falthina Sharest, CorSec. The Imperial symbol give the emigration officer uniform a military feel, but the emigration office is still a civilian agency. There's also a note that her lipstick shade deliberately flouts Imperial regulations. I'm not at all joking.

[Pex]

Solo: The Official Guide by Pablo Hidalgo, p. 33. Lead Transport Security Officer Falthina Sharest, CorSec. The Imperial symbol give the emigration officer uniform a military feel, but the emigration office is still a civilian agency. There's also a note that her lipstick shade deliberately flouts Imperial regulations. I'm not at all joking.

I was just glad they showed a female Imperial for once.

[Fyraltari]

Solo: The Official Guide by Pablo Hidalgo, p. 33. Lead Transport Security Officer Falthina Sharest, CorSec. The Imperial symbol give the emigration officer uniform a military feel, but the emigration office is still a civilian agency. There's also a note that her lipstick shade deliberately flouts Imperial regulations. I'm not at all joking.

Ah well.

I was just glad they showed a female Imperial for once.

Yeah, me too.

[Jayngfet]

I think a big thing isn't that Han never directly interacts with the force because "Hokey religions", but that everyone else is doing so regularly. It makes sense for Han to have that attitude if he's in a galaxy where the force is a thing being supressed with few memories. It makes less sense if Han's partner was Yoda's war buddy, his childhood friend knows a Sith Lord, his boss had Anakin as a babysitter, and his gambler friend was hanging around two jedi on his off days, while there's a giant holy city with giant jedi statues everywhere and the emperor's palace is literally the jedi temple painted over, and some random dude who isn't even a Jedi can just casually dodge gunfire while being blind because he has a mantra.

Yes, a lot of these are pre-buyout but Disney has kind of doubled down on the non-jedi stuff having the force as this omnipresent religious element and with people who aren't jedi still doing balls to the walls crazy stuff while imperials complaining about sorcerers ways and sad religions have Inquisitors just casually walking around military areas touching base with local authorities regularly.

[Fyraltari]

I think a big thing isn't that Han never directly interacts with the force because "Hokey religions", but that everyone else is doing so regularly. It makes sense for Han to have that attitude if he's in a galaxy where the force is a thing being supressed with few memories. It makes less sense if Han's partner was Yoda's war buddy, his childhood friend knows a Sith Lord, his boss had Anakin as a babysitter, and his gambler friend was hanging around two jedi on his off days, while there's a giant holy city with giant jedi statues everywhere and the emperor's palace is literally the jedi temple painted over, and some random dude who isn't even a Jedi can just casually dodge gunfire while being blind because he has a mantra.

Yes, a lot of these are pre-buyout but Disney has kind of doubled down on the non-jedi stuff having the force as this omnipresent religious element and with people who aren't jedi still doing balls to the walls crazy stuff while imperials complaining about sorcerers ways and sad religions have Inquisitors just casually walking around military areas touching base with local authorities regularly.

I think a lot of this hinges on what we understand "don't believe in the Force" means. If that equals "psychic powers are a thing and the Jedi were an order of Monks in service to the Republic who believed it came from a "cosmic sentient force" that underlies the universe and are trained to use them" then it is still reasonable.
We know that Chirrut does what he does thanks to the force vu he never does anything that outlandish compared to what the supposed regular humains do in these movies. If RO were the only SW movie, he'd have an entry under maybe magic, maybe mundane on TvTropes.
It helps that the Force wielders are very rare (10,000 jedi) and tend not to stay amongst themselves.
And the Empire is genuinely trying to suppress infos about the Jedi while hunting down force sensitive people, so it would make sense for, say Maz Kanata not to show her powers much.

Basically I think most people would see Jedi/Sith as fanatics buying into their own hype just Because they can move pebbles with their mind and have a glowstick.
"I heard General Kenobi jumped down into the ennemy army all by himself and had a duel with Grievous!
-And I heard that William Wallace was 8-metre tall and could shoot lightning out of his arse. You really are guillible aren't you?"

So yeah it would make sense for people like Han to react to stories about Jedi with the same skepticism I had when an acquaintance told me his cousin used to be possessed by a demon.

As for the coincidences, yeah, they're too much but that's fanservice I guess.

As an aside I take Jabba's familiarity with the Jedi as an explanation of why he was so dismissive of Luke
"You're a Jedi? Hahaha! Look kid I knew Jedi du ring the Clone Wars and believe me, some punk in a cloak who doesn'y even have a lightsaber ain't no Jedi, even if he can, strangle my guards and fool my majordomo. Poser."

[Daimbert]

I haven't seen the movie yet (but don't personally care about spoilers, especially since there's no way I'll see this before it comes out on DVD) but from reading the comments here it's really starting to justify my not watching any of the new movies after TFA:

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So, the new droid is an inferior Vuffi Raa?

So, Qi'ra is a bad side and less dramatic Bria Tharen?

The main issue I'm having is that while a lot of the new stuff is really bad, even the stuff they do well pales in comparison to what the original Legends stuff did (when it did things good). Even when they bring stuff over from Legends, they do it shallowly and without the things that made it great (Thrawn is kinda my example of that). Even the plot points that are similar -- even if they aren't directly stolen -- make less sense and are more shallow, like:

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Kylo Ren and his fall compared to Jacen Solo's in Legacy of the Force ... and Legacy of the Force wasn't even all that good!

They deliberately tossed away Legends for the new movies, but had to know that they'd be compared to them by some of the most hardcore fans ... but then didn't introduce new things that were better or even remarkably different, and so ended up trying to replace those things -- Rogue One is the biggest example of replacement -- with things that weren't that great and/or shallow copied some of those things to try to hit that group. At the end of the day, it just ends up being a mess that gets more scrutiny because it can be compared to the less of a mess -- but still sometimes a mess -- Legends works.

Ugh. This is not making me inclined to watch these movies [grin].

[Peelee]

I haven't seen the movie yet (but don't personally care about spoilers, especially since there's no way I'll see this before it comes out on DVD) but from reading the comments here it's really starting to justify my not watching any of the new movies after TFA:

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So, the new droid is an inferior Vuffi Raa?

So, Qi'ra is a bad side and less dramatic Bria Tharen?

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Qi'ra is a way better Bria Tharen, and I say that having really liked Bria Tharen (and Crispin's whole trilogy). L3-37...
can't really be all too compared to Vuffi Raa, but she's more like if C-3PO was a freedom-fighter droid. I enjoyed her, even if I think they tried to make her a bit too comedic.

Of course, I loved it more than anything else they made recently, so I totally think you should check it out.

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Kylo Ren and his fall compared to Jacen Solo's in Legacy of the Force ... and Legacy of the Force wasn't even all that good!

[Daimbert]

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Qi'ra is a way better Bria Tharen, and I say that having really liked Bria Tharen (and Crispin's whole trilogy). L3-37...
can't really be all too compared to Vuffi Raa, but she's more like if C-3PO was a freedom-fighter droid. I enjoyed her, even if I think they tried to make her a bit too comedic.

Of course, I loved it more than anything else they made recently, so I totally think you should check it out.

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What someone likes better may be subjective, but Bria had an arc where she started as an overly optimistic and naive rich person, joined a cult, had Han break her free of that, tried to resume her own life, failed at it -- partly because everyone except her father didn't like Han -- decided to try to stop the cult, changed dramatically because of that, joined the Rebellion and became a leader, came up with a raid, got Han involved, ended up having to betray him in a way that got everyone mad at him because they risked their lives for no money at the end, and ended up dying beaming out the Death Star plans. This structure gave Lando reason to be mad at Han and so explained Empire Strikes Back, gave Han reason to be skeptical of people and even of the Rebellion, and had a more dramatic arc for the character. Qi'ra's arc, from how it was described here, has some drama, but can't compare to that one for what it does.

Part of the Vuffi Raa comment was that when I saw the car commercial for the movie that featured the droid, that was my reaction: You mean they added Vuffi Raa. The new droid doesn't really seem to be a good replacement for that.

Right now I'm very, very cynical about Star Wars and, in fact, about movies in general given that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor: Raganarok also disappointed me, although they weren't terrible.

[Peelee]

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What someone likes better may be subjective, but Bria had an arc where she started as an overly optimistic and naive rich person, joined a cult, had Han break her free of that, tried to resume her own life, failed at it -- partly because everyone except her father didn't like Han -- decided to try to stop the cult, changed dramatically because of that, joined the Rebellion and became a leader, came up with a raid, got Han involved, ended up having to betray him in a way that got everyone mad at him because they risked their lives for no money at the end, and ended up dying beaming out the Death Star plans. This structure gave Lando reason to be mad at Han and so explained Empire Strikes Back, gave Han reason to be skeptical of people and even of the Rebellion, and had a more dramatic arc for the character. Qi'ra's arc, from how it was described here, has some drama, but can't compare to that one for what it does.

Right now I'm very, very cynical about Star Wars and, in fact, about movies in general given that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor: Raganarok also disappointed me, although they weren't terrible.

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Bria not only had a book, she had three. Even a single novel is able to pack in a lot more development and arc than a movie, and she got a dang trilogy. Yes, Qi'ra's arc is not nearly as impressive, but I think it was pretty well done. As you said,
though, it's very subjective.

If it makes a difference, I do not at all like the direction they're taking the new trilogy at all - VII was a carbon copy of IV, and VIII was just poorly done all around - and I still love Solo.

[Daimbert]

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Bria not only had a book, she had three. Even a single novel is able to pack in a lot more development and arc than a movie, and she got a dang trilogy. Yes, Qi'ra's arc is not nearly as impressive, but I think it was pretty well done. As you said,
though, it's very subjective.

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True, but my complaint was more about the overarching themes than how it all shook out.
Much of what happened in the trilogy could have been exposited, but Bria being essentially good, having to screw over Han to keep the Rebellion going, and then dying provides a much better insight into Han's character than it seems Qi'ra's arc does, since in that one HE'S the unvarnished good person, whereas in Bria's he's grey, she's good, and yet even her, being good, betrays him. It works much better to have him decide that he can't rely on anyone. Instead, his mentor gets that arc, but the love interest doing it works better, and leaves the mentor to feel betrayed by Han, which adds another element to the character.

[Peelee]

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True, but my complaint was more about the overarching themes than how it all shook out.
Much of what happened in the trilogy could have been exposited, but Bria being essentially good, having to screw over Han to keep the Rebellion going, and then dying provides a much better insight into Han's character than it seems Qi'ra's arc does, since in that one HE'S the unvarnished good person, whereas in Bria's he's grey, she's good, and yet even her, being good, betrays him. It works much better to have him decide that he can't rely on anyone. Instead, his mentor gets that arc, but the love interest doing it works better, and leaves the mentor to feel betrayed by Han, which adds another element to the character.

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I actually like how Qi'ra and Beckett effectively change Han from the goodhearted person into the more cold, pragmatic person we see in Ep. IV.

[Fyraltari]

The main issue I'm having is that while a lot of the new stuff is really bad, even the stuff they do well pales in comparison to what the original Legends stuff did (when it did things good). Even when they bring stuff over from Legends, they do it shallowly and without the things that made it great (Thrawn is kinda my example of that).

Have you read Thrawn by Timothy Zahn? It came out last year and is defenitely my favorite book to come out of the new EU (I'm looking forward to the sequels while knowig I'll have to wait an extra year for the translation. Grr).
Not only does it retcon some things away (like that "civilian casualties" line) to bring Thrawn back to his old characterization, has a very good Moriarty-like antagonist to go along Thrawn's Holmes and gives us acess to Thrawn's thoughts for once but it is deliberately crafted so it can fit into Legends as well.

Since I'm recommending books, check out Bloodlines, for a view of how Leia went from Princess to General, her opinion on Vader, a subplot they cut from TFA (for shame!), why the New Republic sucks and more than skin-deep exploration of the Alliance vs Empire conflict.

[Peelee]

Have you read Thrawn by Timothy Zahn? It came out last year and is defenitely my favorite book to come out of the new EU (I'm looking forward to the sequels while knowig I'll have to wait an extra year for the translation. Grr).
Not only does it retcon some things away (like that "civilian casualties" line) to bring Thrawn back to his old characterization, has a very good Moriarty-like antagonist to go along Thrawn's Holmes and gives us acess to Thrawn's thoughts for once but it is deliberately crafted so it can fit into Legends as well.

Since I'm recommending books, check out Bloodlines, for a view of how Leia went from Princess to General, her opinion on Vader, a subplot they cut from TFA (for shame!), why the New Republic sucks and more than skin-deep exploration of the Alliance vs Empire conflict.

If you haven't checked it out already, I want to throw in Lost Stars. It's a young adult book, and is pretty much Romeo and Juliet in Star Wars. It has absolutely no reason to be anywhere near as good as it is. It's fantastic. One of my favorites of all the novels that have come out.

Also, the new Thrawn book drops in three weeks!

[Daimbert]

Have you read Thrawn by Timothy Zahn? It came out last year and is defenitely my favorite book to come out of the new EU (I'm looking forward to the sequels while knowig I'll have to wait an extra year for the translation. Grr).
Not only does it retcon some things away (like that "civilian casualties" line) to bring Thrawn back to his old characterization, has a very good Moriarty-like antagonist to go along Thrawn's Holmes and gives us acess to Thrawn's thoughts for once but it is deliberately crafted so it can fit into Legends as well.

Yes, in fact. I liked it, but hated Arihnda, and felt that arc took up too much time that needed to be spent on the Moriarty-like antagonist. However, my main complaint is that Thrawn should have been used in TFA or TLJ. Adding him back into Rebels or the books is underutilizing the character.

[Fyraltari]

If you haven't checked it out already, I want to throw in Lost Stars. It's a young adult book, and is pretty much Romeo and Juliet in Star Wars. It has absolutely no reason to be anywhere near as good as it is. It's fantastic. One of my favorites of all the novels that have come out.

Ooooh, I'll try, thanks!

Also, the new Thrawn book drops in three weeks!

*Angry envious glare*

[Peelee]

Yes, in fact. I liked it, but hated Arihnda, and felt that arc took up too much time that needed to be spent on the Moriarty-like antagonist. However, my main complaint is that Thrawn should have been used in TFA or TLJ. Adding him back into Rebels or the books is underutilizing the character.

Imean, I figure it's because Thrawn is dead by time the First Order rolls around, or there wouldn't be a First Order to begin with; there would be a Galactic Empire, running around having all the fun.

Also, seconding hating Arihnda.

*Angry envious glare*

Wait, does France get that held back? Why? If you want to revolt, I'll gladly join you!

[Mokèlé-mbèmbé]

Wait, Ron Howard directed this?

The Coccoon guy?

[Peelee]

Wait, Ron Howard directed this?

The Coccoon guy?

Opie. Best known for being Clint Howard's brother.

[Daimbert]

Imean, I figure it's because Thrawn is dead by time the First Order rolls around, or there wouldn't be a First Order to begin with; there would be a Galactic Empire, running around having all the fun.

One of the things that I thought would have made TFA so much better was to use that AS the explanation: the New Republic starts cleaning up after the Emperor dies, Thrawn comes back and rallies the Empire, but Ackbar and others manage to push it to a stalemate, and meanwhile because the Empire likes its Sith leaders Mara Jade trains Kylo Ren to be an important "figurehead" and, in TFA, they finally decide to push Thrawn out because the Empire has to be ruled by the Sith. Thrawn, being pragmatic, decides that the Empire isn't worth saving at that point and can even join up with the Alliance. This even lets the New Order/Empire screw up tactically after that point with an explanation: Ren and Jade aren't anywhere NEAR as smart as Thrawn is.

[Fyraltari]

Yes, in fact. I liked it, but hated Arihnda, and felt that arc took up too much time that needed to be spent on the Moriarty-like antagonist. However, my main complaint is that Thrawn should have been used in TFA or TLJ. Adding him back into Rebels or the books is underutilizing the character.

Heh. I didn't particularly like Arhinda the parts about Pryce but I do like me some imperial plotting so I didn't hate them either.

Using a book character in a book is underutilizing him? Okay.

I don't se Thrawn having a place in a Saga Star Wars movie. Those should really focus on the Force and protagonist-journey-stuff. Thrawn's strength is at depicting how the Empire is mundanely run and that not everyone in it is an over-the-toply evil fool. So we would either have a soulless Saga film or Thrawn taking the backseat to someone else.
Both of those would be errors mystakes.
He'd be right at home in an Anthology movie though as they are more EU than Saga.

Imean, I figure it's because Thrawn is dead by time the First Order rolls around, or there wouldn't be a First Order to begin with; there would be a Galactic Empire, running around having all the fun.

#SnokeIsThrawn

Wait, does France get that held back? Why? If you want to revolt, I'll gladly join you!

Well it's what happened to the first one. Since that was the first time that I was waiting for a foreign book to be written (Well there's Winds of Winter* but that doesn't count) I don't know if that's normal or not. Then again Rogue One's novelization was in store fast.
It's okay though, now that Rebel has ended there's less chances that I stumble upon people discussing Thrawn by accident.

*Oh, by Seven! How long will I have to wait for the translation of that one.

[Mokèlé-mbèmbé]

Opie. Best known for being Clint Howard's brother.

I know him from Coccoon, Apollo 13 and Arrested Development.

[Daimbert]

Using a book character in a book is underutilizing him? Okay.

No, I think that if they were going to bring him back into the canon it should have been in the movies as an important leader with plot points but who isn't a main character. For example, a character like Ackbar or Wedge, as I said in the previous comment.

[Peelee]

No, I think that if they were going to bring him back into the canon it should have been in the movies as an important leader with plot points but who isn't a main character. For example, a character like Ackbar or Wedge, as I said in the previous comment.

Frankly, I've always read Thrawn books as being more about his protégé than about Thrawn. The man is practically a force of nature, and the person he takes under his wing is much more relateable and is the one who typically gets changed by Thrawn.

ETA: Except the Thrawn Duology, which was just all badass, all the time.

[Daimbert]

Frankly, I've always read Thrawn books as being more about his protégé than about Thrawn. The man is practically a force of nature, and the person he takes under his wing is much more relateable and is the one who typically gets changed by Thrawn.

ETA: Except the Thrawn Duology, which was just all badass, all the time.

Well, I would have kept Pellaon as his Watson because, yeah, Thrawn really needs one. Vanto worked well as his Watson in the book, too, especially since all he really wanted to be was a clerk ...

[Peelee]

Well, I would have kept Pellaon as his Watson because, yeah, Thrawn really needs one. Vanto worked well as his Watson in the book, too, especially since all he really wanted to be was a clerk ...

I really like Vanto, but yeah I absolutely want Pellaeon back. I think he was my favorite character in the entire EU.

[Fyraltari]

I really like Vanto, but yeah I absolutely want Pellaeon back. I think he was my favorite character in the entire EU.

Me too. Well he's canon at least.

[Daimbert]

Me too. Well he's canon at least.

He had a great character arc from Thrawn's Watson to leader of the Remnant, and was believable in all of those roles. It's kinda a shame that we didn't get anything focusing on him and how he ran the Remnant, but that wouldn't really have been Star Wars ...

[Peelee]

He had a great character arc from Thrawn's Watson to leader of the Remnant, and was believable in all of those roles. It's kinda a shame that we didn't get anything focusing on him and how he ran the Remnant, but that wouldn't really have been Star Wars ...

He also lead the Galactic Alliance, at the risk of bringing up Legacy of the Force.

[Fyraltari]

Two things I forgot to put on my first posts:

One: a stormtrooper on speeding tickets duty is hilarious

Two: While Lando was the most entertaining part of the movie, I find Beckett to be the most compelling.

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The actor (forgot his name) does really well as he radiates charisma and makes you want to trust him despite him being this self professed cynic (as I said earlier I actually forgot mid-film that I was sure he was going to turncoat).
It's also interesting that they didn't go thesame route as with DJ as he seems to be almost regretful of his betrayal of Han as he seems to genuinely like him but I can't shake the feeling there's also a bit of him wantingto make Han pay for losing the loot his wife died for. All in all, he looks like he's trapped himself into this life of crime through his own pessimism and can't retire no matter how much he wants to. His actor's dynamic with Han's was very well done too, as you can see Han mimicking him. So he makes a nice foil for OT!Han.

[Jayngfet]

I think a lot of this hinges on what we understand "don't believe in the Force" means. If that equals "psychic powers are a thing and the Jedi were an order of Monks in service to the Republic who believed it came from a "cosmic sentient force" that underlies the universe and are trained to use them" then it is still reasonable.
We know that Chirrut does what he does thanks to the force vu he never does anything that outlandish compared to what the supposed regular humains do in these movies. If RO were the only SW movie, he'd have an entry under maybe magic, maybe mundane on TvTropes.
It helps that the Force wielders are very rare (10,000 jedi) and tend not to stay amongst themselves.
And the Empire is genuinely trying to suppress infos about the Jedi while hunting down force sensitive people, so it would make sense for, say Maz Kanata not to show her powers much.

Basically I think most people would see Jedi/Sith as fanatics buying into their own hype just Because they can move pebbles with their mind and have a glowstick.
"I heard General Kenobi jumped down into the ennemy army all by himself and had a duel with Grievous!
-And I heard that William Wallace was 8-metre tall and could shoot lightning out of his arse. You really are guillible aren't you?"

So yeah it would make sense for people like Han to react to stories about Jedi with the same skepticism I had when an acquaintance told me his cousin used to be possessed by a demon.

As for the coincidences, yeah, they're too much but that's fanservice I guess.

As an aside I take Jabba's familiarity with the Jedi as an explanation of why he was so dismissive of Luke
"You're a Jedi? Hahaha! Look kid I knew Jedi du ring the Clone Wars and believe me, some punk in a cloak who doesn'y even have a lightsaber ain't no Jedi, even if he can, strangle my guards and fool my majordomo. Poser."

This doesn't really check out when everybody is at most like three degrees separated from someone who very obviously has super force powers. You can say Chirrut isn't super obvious but he literally point blank dodges multiple shots and then takes down a high tech fighter with a glorified bow and arrow while blind.

If you're skeptical because your cousin said he was possessed by a demon that's one thing. But if your cousin said he had that demon on speed dial and has like six witnesses that's a totally different matter.

For Han to believe what he does he'd have to not just ignore his literal best friends accounts, but his best friend, his boss, most of his co-workers, and basically everyone else who saw that crap first hand. It's not like someone being possessed by a demon. It's like not believing there's such a thing as AC repairmen at that point.