On January 18 2018 07:57 Plansix wrote: I generally accept the theory that if there are laser swords that can cut through anything, someone would make armor and weapons to deal with that. Like fast. And those weapons might still be around after the jedi are gone, because they were just dope. It never seems that crazy that the standard issue blaster might not be that awesome all the time in the galaxy of Star Wars.
Okay, I've been busy lately, so I'm responding to this a little late, but I'm enough of a Star Wars nerd to geek out pretty hard here.
Lightsabers are cool, but objectively terrible weapons for non-Jedi.
1. They are melee weapons in a world where the only applications for melee weapons are by police (Cloud City), criminals (Jabba's barge), or bodyguards (Grievous, Palpatine, Snoke)... that is, people who can reasonably expect to be surprised at close range. If you aren't a Jedi, you can't deflect blaster bolts and you're super hosed if someone shoots you.
2. They aren't actually lazerswords. They use fields of unpredictably swirling particles that, while fairly light, exert significant gyroscopic forces on the hilt. Jedi are attuned to this and compensate for it (or even make use of it), but non-Jedi just have a sword that moves weirdly even when stationary.
3. Futhermore, while lightsabers are powerful, Star Wars is full of powerful weapons. Ordinary blasters go through most conventional armor and even blast large chunks out of metal bulkheads with ease. Kinetic weapons have been largely phased out despite their niche uses (and significant advantages in range/accuracy) simply because they aren't powerful enough to keep up.
4. This leads to the final point that Jedi duels aren't really "fencing" in any recognizable sense. Imagine fencing someone who's a telepath, has slight precognition, lightning reflexes, and can perform casual telekinesis. If you're also all those things, you might just hang in the fight. If you're not, any skill you have with melee weapons is basically worthless.
This is why "practice" fencing is not really a major goal of Jedi instruction. Luke is never trained in lightsabers by Yoda. He is trained to center himself, clear his mind, and reach out. Because prowess with the force IS skill with a lightsaber. Kylo loses to Rey because she was more in touch with the force at that moment. She anticipated his moves better than he anticipated hers.
Incidentally, this also applies to piloting. This is why Vader says "the force is strong with this one" when he's having trouble getting a lock on Luke. They're both reaching out with their feelings, trying to predict and head off one another.
On January 27 2018 00:28 Falling wrote: It's Finn that's doing the piloting- it wouldn't matter if a couple years passed. + Show Spoiler +
But as it seems exactly no time has passed and it was such a big deal that he couldn't just steal a transport ship of the Starkiller base, he had to bother rescuing an enemy prisoner of all things, it would behoove the movie to fill that piece in. But this is a movie where nobody learns anything, they just do things as the plot requires.
What I'd like in the third film is for there to be yet another fleet killing ship, even bigger than the last, but Finn was also a janitor on that one too, and in the one really critical part that they need to get to. And then the silver stormtrooper shows up as a guard of it and, says something threatening, trips over her feet and falls down another giant catwalk. They could do that trick forever.
It seems like there was nothing to gain by continuing to be out there? Like the Tie fighters weren't going to blow up the whole ship themselves and the ship was already pretty crippled so being all risk and no benefit they were called back.
How is that? We saw Kylo take out the Hangars and another two guys take out the bridge. Keep swarming and you'll take out the engines. Problem solved.
All the shields were focused on the rear if I'm not mistaken which is why the tie fighters were able to hit the bridge to begin with? So taking out the engines seems like a long shot.
and yeah it's unfortunate they put Finn in the pilot's seat for that scene, but that seems pretty minor, but something that could have been strictly better? If the scene was shot with Rose in the seat then it'd work fine, so it's not like the plot is hinging on Finn suddenly being a pilot. It's always frustrating when there are minor mistakes that seems like they would be easy to fix.
The thing about the Finn pilot problem is actually it is a very concrete example of what a lot of people are complaining about, so its not that small. The complaints I am talking about generally boil down to people feeling like the Writers & Director: 1) Haven't watched the old movies; 2) Didn't Pay attention; and/or 3) Hated the old movies.
So its like, "well these guys couldn't even pay attention to Episode 7, no wonder they added a bunch of stuff that makes no sense like light speed ramming, force skyping, Leia corpsewalking, force holograms, Akbar being replaced by a dumb new admiral, stupid super Snoke, etc."
And I''ll add that Johnson has not made things better after he's gotten a little criticism, and it makes the fans think more and more that actually the answer is 3) He hates Star Wars.
"2. They aren't actually lazerswords. They use fields of unpredictably swirling particles that, while fairly light, exert significant gyroscopic forces on the hilt. Jedi are attuned to this and compensate for it (or even make use of it), but non-Jedi just have a sword that moves weirdly even when stationary."
This is completely incorrect, anyone can use a lightsaber, it's just that since it has no weight you have to have lightning force like reflexes to not injure yourself. Case in point is when Boba Fett wielded Darth Vader's lightsaber against him and was clumsy as hell with it but still able to wield it since he is more or less an elite soldier. General Grievous was a duelist to the point where he was able to defeat many Jedi, and he was obsessed with the fact that he had no force sensitivity.
"This is why "practice" fencing is not really a major goal of Jedi instruction. Luke is never trained in lightsabers by Yoda. He is trained to center himself, clear his mind, and reach out. Because prowess with the force IS skill with a lightsaber. Kylo loses to Rey because she was more in touch with the force at that moment. She anticipated his moves better than he anticipated hers."
This is more then wrong, it's total bullshit. Palpatine states explicitly in Plagueius the book that he was in depth instructed in every known form of saber combat by his master as most Sith are, where as Jedi train only in forms that they enjoy/are personally good at.
I didn't have too much of an issue with the rest of your post but those two quoted statements are just wrong wrong wrong.
@clutz Yes, that's exactly it. In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty minor- the shot is like a second long. However, it is emblematic of the over-arching problem of the film- it's really bad at internal consistency. You don't need to get every detail right, but you do need to get enough details right to feel like you were actually paying attention to what was established before and how things work from movie to movie... and even scene to scene in your own movie.
On January 27 2018 06:46 Beelzebub1 wrote: "2. They aren't actually lazerswords. They use fields of unpredictably swirling particles that, while fairly light, exert significant gyroscopic forces on the hilt. Jedi are attuned to this and compensate for it (or even make use of it), but non-Jedi just have a sword that moves weirdly even when stationary."
This is completely incorrect, anyone can use a lightsaber, it's just that since it has no weight you have to have lightning force like reflexes to not injure yourself. Case in point is when Boba Fett wielded Darth Vader's lightsaber against him and was clumsy as hell with it but still able to wield it since he is more or less an elite soldier. General Grievous was a duelist to the point where he was able to defeat many Jedi, and he was obsessed with the fact that he had no force sensitivity.
"This is why "practice" fencing is not really a major goal of Jedi instruction. Luke is never trained in lightsabers by Yoda. He is trained to center himself, clear his mind, and reach out. Because prowess with the force IS skill with a lightsaber. Kylo loses to Rey because she was more in touch with the force at that moment. She anticipated his moves better than he anticipated hers."
This is more then wrong, it's total bullshit. Palpatine states explicitly in Plagueius the book that he was in depth instructed in every known form of saber combat by his master as most Sith are, where as Jedi train only in forms that they enjoy/are personally good at.
I didn't have too much of an issue with the rest of your post but those two quoted statements are just wrong wrong wrong.
I'm going out on a limb and saying if you're using Plagueis and Boba Fett with a lightsaber as evidence in an argument, we're going to disagree on what canon "counts." Absolutely there's lots of stuff out there about "lightsaber forms" and that sort of silliness... but the old canon and the firm indication throughout the movies is that lightsaber fighting is about force techniques and cannot be performed by a non force-sensitive.
Incidentally, lightsabers definitely have weight, or something approximating it. Watch anyone spin a lightsaber in their hands as Rey does in 7 or Obi Wan does pretty much constantly. If the blade was weightless, you'd spin (moulinette) a lightsaber around its middle, like spinning a pencil. It is weighted, however, and is instead spun around a point close to emitter, similar to the way it works with an actual sword.
I was inspired enough that I threw together my own version with "Can't Stop The Feeling" Justin Timberlake. Fun little exercise, and without thinking too hard, I can think of quite a few songs that could also work.
Yeah the footloose is my favorite as well, the only one where the chain-grab fits really well. Might have even worked a little better even if he started pulling after the base guitar started, but that would probably screw up the early timing.
Your links aren't working though, at least not for me.
Doesn't work as in you see blanks where there should be tweets? In which case, do you have adblock on- because I know that adblock messes up the tweets that are regularly posted in US Politics.
There is a MOUNTAIN of Rose Tico dolls/action-toys at a crappy discount mall for $1 CDN. Apparently, they were $15 USD at one time. Seeing as the Last Plinkett Review recently posted had a million 80s references in it.. i'll add mine....
I guess there is no room left in the ET Cartridge landfill site for these Rose Tico dolls.
EPT![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/VSXGzIz.jpg)
