Darths & Droids VI: Thread title will appear here when received

[Gez]

Spoiler: Debatable

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And debated.

While it's not impossible the XB982 was an inspiration, Han Solo's ship was originally designed very, very differently -- its initial design ended up largely recycled for the corellian corvette Tantive IV in the end.

[137beth]

I utterly love Memnarch's commentary on Rey's parentage.

[VoxRationis]

For what it's worth, I think that Luke's "toss the lightsaber over the shoulder" approach is perfectly aligned thematically with previous Jedi teachings like "War? War does not make one great." The teacher is subverting the expectations of the student so as to illustrate the ways in which the student's perspective was flawed. Now, one may argue about the real-world practicability of such a perspective, but it certainly seems to me to be in keeping with the source material.

[Fyraltari]

And debated.

While it's not impossible the XB982 was an inspiration, Han Solo's ship was originally designed very, very differently -- its initial design ended up largely recycled for the corellian corvette Tantive IV in the end.

But we weren't talking about the original design.
At the end of the day there are too may visual similarities between various Valérian et Laureline designs and various Star Wars for me to believe that the former had no influence on the latter. And that's not an issue. The author of the article you linked seems to conflate inspiration and rip-off, but I disagree. To take something good and to mould it to the context of your work to make something different and good is what art is all about.

For what it's worth, I think that Luke's "toss the lightsaber over the shoulder" approach is perfectly aligned thematically with previous Jedi teachings like "War? War does not make one great." The teacher is subverting the expectations of the student so as to illustrate the ways in which the student's perspective was flawed. Now, one may argue about the real-world practicability of such a perspective, but it certainly seems to me to be in keeping with the source material.

Personally I find the reaction a lot of people had to this moment very funny when prior to the release of this movie, many of the smae people were all like "They're going to try to get us all emotional about the legacy of the Youngling Eviscerator 3000, lol".

[VoxRationis]

I find Memnarch's take on the throne room and Snoke to be interesting. I actually had the reverse impression. In TFA, I found Snoke's enormous, overcompensatory hologram to be laughable, while in TLJ, Snoke's performance in this scene made him seem more powerful to me. There's no bluster or bravado in these scenes. His intimidation comes only from expressions of his very real power.

That said, the throne room does have a music video vibe thanks to the solid sheet of red at the back.

Spoiler: This is barely a spoiler, but it does concern something that happens later

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It turns out that the backdrop is made of physical curtains, so the fact that they are so utterly smooth and unwrinkled implies that there's some serious stabilizing technology at play.

[b_jonas]

Spoiler

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I find Memnarch's take on the throne room and Snoke to be interesting. I actually had the reverse impression. In TFA, I found Snoke's enormous, overcompensatory hologram to be laughable, while in TLJ, Snoke's performance in this scene made him seem more powerful to me.

Spoiler: Force Awakens trilogy spoilers

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If you just look at this one strip, you can't tell how large Snoke is. The room is big and has an odd shape, so the perspective is unclear, and he's sitting in a very tall throne, so he looks small. While Snoke isn't as big as his hologram, he's still seven feet tall. When we see that in later strips he'll look less disappointing.

[Anonymouswizard]

Spoiler: Sequel Trilogy spoilers

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Honestly Smoke just kind of works a lot better when he's actually in the room. He serves as a good counterpoint to both OT and PT Palpatine, has a sense of threat and direct power, and actually made me interested in him.

Then the film deflates that by killing him off anticlimatically.

It's the second worst thing about the Sequels, after tRoS throwing out Finn's interesting 'soldier looking for a cause' arc to have him just follow the group, occasionally hint he's force sensitive in the stupidest of ways, and do basically nothing of importance.

[Rodin]

Spoiler: Sequel Trilogy spoilers

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Honestly Smoke just kind of works a lot better when he's actually in the room. He serves as a good counterpoint to both OT and PT Palpatine, has a sense of threat and direct power, and actually made me interested in him.

Then the film deflates that by killing him off anticlimatically.

It's the second worst thing about the Sequels, after tRoS throwing out Finn's interesting 'soldier looking for a cause' arc to have him just follow the group, occasionally hint he's force sensitive in the stupidest of ways, and do basically nothing of importance.

Spoiler

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I had the opposite reaction. Snoke always felt like a knockoff Palpatine, so when Ren killed him I got really interested all of a sudden. It was a shocking twist that they really could have done something with if they had followed up on it properly. Both Kylo Ren and Snoke mirrored characters from the OT, with Ren being Darth Vader and Snoke being Palpatine. Kylo Ren wanted to be Darth Vader, but lacked the maturity and self control of his grandfather. He was a pale shadow of Vader...right up until he did something Vader never could by killing his Sith master. Snoke became a really cool character by dying when he did to further Kylo Ren's storyline.

Then they threw all that character development away by bringing Palpatine back and reverting Ren back to his TFA characterization.

[Fyraltari]

Spoiler: Sequel Trilogy

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I am about in the middle of this. I liked what TFA implied about Snoke: that he was a more "enlightened" kind of Dark Sider who treated his underlings with respect rather than being pointlessly cruel. Less like a second Sidious and more like an evil Yoda. So I didn't like the way TLJ characterizes him as an extremely powerful bully. But I really liked that he was killed off, as Kylo Ren was the more interesting villain, and I felt that cemented him as the true Big bad and insured that we wouldn't have a repeat of Vader's last minute redemption by turning against his master and then dying.

And then TRoS happened.

Still, I think that, as the movie that killed off Snoke, TLJ should have given him a backstory, since Abrams couldn't be arsed to.

[b_jonas]

Anonymouswizard, Rodin:

Spoiler: Force Awakens trilogy

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I actually like both Snoke and Palpatine as villains in the film trilogy.

As for Snoke, we don't learn much about him from Force Awakens, he's only characterized well in The Last Jedi. But unlike AnonymousWizard, I think Snoke appearing mostly as a hologram does strengthen his characterization. Snoke is shown to be very well informed, learning about remote events quicker than his underlings find out about this. And not only does he gather information remotely, he also manhandles his underlings remotely, but in a more subtle way than Darth Vader does. If Snoke knows everything and can direct everything remotely then he doesn't need to be present where the action happens most of the time, so appearing as a hologram makes sense.

I agree that Snoke is more civilized and subtle. In the original trilogy, Darth Vader was the rough guy who uses brute force, while Tarkin and Palpatine stand as his foil, being capable of presenting a more subtle face for the Empire. Snoke's underlings Hux and Phasma can't serve that role well, so Snoke has to be the one who can be subtle and devious when manipulating Kylo Ren and Rey. All this characterization then pays off when Snoke saves Princess Leia from long distance, presumably with the intent that Kylo Ren should kill him. This even works as a nice mirror with Darth Vader: Vader chokes the rebel Captain Antilles to death, while Snoke saves the rebel Princess Leia from asphyxiation.

With all these antics, the Irregulars should have no big trouble to adapt Snoke to Da&Dr. They're showing him with more of a humorous side than we saw in the film. The scene where Snoke dies leaves an especially large amount of freedom to Da&Dr. You can't clearly tell whether Snoke is pulling Rey using the Force or Rey is hovering slightly above the surface, a skill that she probably learned from Luke who'll appear to hover slightly above the surface of the white and red salt planet. And when Snoke is beheaded, there's no way to tell who summoned the laser sword, it could be any of Snoke, Rey, Kylo Ren, or a combination of them battling for control of the sword.

Palpatine, alas, will be somewhat harder to adapt. He isn't a new character, and his appearance in the film is harder to match to Da&Dr Palpatine than with film Palpatine. Even so, Palpatine's machinations are at least compatible with the tone of Da&Dr and with Pete as a player, even if not with Palpatine the character.

[Fyraltari]

Spoiler: Force Awakens trilogy

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All this characterization then pays off when Snoke saves Princess Leia from long distance, presumably with the intent that Kylo Ren should kill him. This even works as a nice mirror with Darth Vader: Vader chokes the rebel Captain Antilles to death, while Snoke saves the rebel Princess Leia from asphyxiation.

That didn't happen. That's not a thing.

[Anonymouswizard]

That didn't happen. That's not a thing.

With all the stuff in the sequel trilogy, would you have been surprised? I half expected an end credits scene where the entire trilogy turned out to be Kylo Ren playing with his dolls.

[SirKazum]

That didn't happen. That's not a thing.

I was puzzled about that reference as well. I mean, I usually shrug off this sort of thing since I forgot most of these movies apparently (judging from the comic treatment), but the other thing that that was was memorable enough (and memed enough) that I'm pretty certain about what happened.

[KillianHawkeye]

It's honestly amazing how, in retrospect, I found The Last Jedi to be my favorite film of the sequel trilogy.

[Anonymouswizard]

It's honestly amazing how, in retrospect, I found The Last Jedi to be my favorite film of the sequel trilogy.

Despite not being as weird as claimed, it's probably the best from a standalone perspective, brings in a couple of ideas from the EU to the mainline, and would have been a perfect setup to something like Duel of the Fates (from what we know about DotF anyway). I also think I'd have liked it a lot more as a conclusion than as a part 2, the ending feels very definitive. Since getting access to Disney+ it's the one I've considered rewatching.

Then again I legitimately like the Prequels, a lot of which is just nostalgia. But in my view Revenge of the Sith is as good as The Empire Strikes Back, even if Anakin's fall needed more context.

I probably rewatch all three at some point, as well as The Clone Wars, Rebels, and the new serieses, as my girlfriend is a massive Star Wars fan. So maybe TLJ will be better on a second viewing, it's certainly no Alien but hey at least it didn't

Spoiler: tRoS

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literally throw my favourite character aside to exclusively focus on two I found dull, although not as dull as Poe the Boring White Action Lead.

Also thanks to Fyraltari for pointing out in another thread that it is literal.

[Fyraltari]

Also thanks to Fyraltari for pointing out in another thread that it is literal.

Anytime, buddy.

[VoxRationis]

Well, I didn't see this reinterpretation of the footage coming.

[Fyraltari]

I love that Sally and the GM are completely flat-footed by Jim, even after all this time, but Annie easily rows along with the madness.

[MinimanMidget]

This is one of the best things about the comic - the dumber and more nonsensical the source material is, the better the comic gets. TLJ is going to be a fun time.

[Anonymouswizard]

This is one of the best things about the comic - the dumber and more nonsensical the source material is, the better the comic gets. TLJ is going to be a fun time.

Oh yeah, campaign nine is going to be EPIC.

[b_jonas]

Episode 2276: Love, Ahch-To Relay

Anonymouswizard got the closest to predict what Luke says here. You win one internet for this. I presume Luke will reveal a bit more about this later.

[Metastachydium]

Episode 2276: Love, Ahch-To Relay

Anonymouswizard got the closest to predict what Luke says here.

I'm not buying it. I mean, there are shapeshifters with a working splanch in the galaxy.

[Fyraltari]

Holy exposition, batman!

Spoiler: Ep VIII

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Do you think D.J. is going to be Talon Karrde?

[SirKazum]

Holy exposition, batman!

Spoiler: Ep VIII

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Do you think D.J. is going to be Talon Karrde?

That seems... elegant. Nice guess.

[b_jonas]

I'm not buying it. I mean, there are shapeshifters with a working splanch in the galaxy.

Spoiler: The Last Jedi spoiler

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Yes. And the Irregulars saw one in the film when they first watched it. Not that that tells much about the story that we'd eventually get in Da&Dr, since they decided about that only after they saw The rise of Skywalker.

[Gez]

It appears that Rey is the Kwisatz Haderach.

[Fyraltari]

It appears that Rey is the Kwisatz Haderach.

Is House Skywalker doomed to forever turn on one another?

[The Glyphstone]

Someone remind me what blue milk did in Darths canon?

[Keltest]

Someone remind me what blue milk did in Darths canon?

Suppressed the Force. And also offended bar patrons, sometimes.

[b_jonas]

The Glyphstone: Suppresses Luke's Force abilities so that Darth Vader cannot find him by sensing for strong Force users, see #1021.