The Star Wars Thread

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

The Galactic Empire canonically discriminated against non-humans and even human women; Admiral Daala and Ysanne Isard are pretty much the only exceptions, at least while the Emperor was alive. In the OT, we see only white British/English men (or at least white men in general) serve the Empire, at least so far as skin color is displayed.

Timothy Zahn wrote a book, Survivor's Quest, wherein a squad of stormtroopers from the most hardcore order, the 501st Legion ("Vader's Fist"), reveal they have non-human members.

During the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson, there is shown one world of non-humans that is fanatically dedicated to the Empire and the Emperor...and yet they were not human like he was.

Now, it makes pretty much zero sense to expect that, even if you draw only from humans, you'd never, ever see guys with "natural tans" because humans are incredibly diverse in appearance. You can expect large lots to be shown from a single skin color if you draw from a certain planet on purpose, yeah, but otherwise you've got dudes from all kinds of places and will eventually see a brother wearing white armor.

Just my two cents.

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

The Galactic Empire canonically discriminated against non-humans and even human women; Admiral Daala and Ysanne Isard are pretty much the only exceptions, at least while the Emperor was alive.

Timothy Zahn wrote a book, Survivor's Quest, wherein a squad of stormtroopers from the most hardcore order, the 501st Legion ("Vader's Fist"), reveal they have non-human members.

During the Jedi Academy trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson, there is shown one world of non-humans that is fanatically dedicated to the Empire and the Emperor...and yet they were not human like he was.

Now, it makes pretty much zero sense to expect that, even if you draw only from humans, you'd never, ever see guys with "natural tans" because humans are incredibly diverse in appearance. You can expect large lots to be shown from a single skin color if you draw from a certain planet on purpose, yeah, but otherwise you've got dudes from all kinds of places and will eventually see a brother wearing white armor.

Not canonically -- all of that stuff is de-canonized and completely out the window.

Though yes, the likelihood is that the Emperor preferred his Stormtroopers and Imperial Navy to be human.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

Yes, I'm aware of the decanonization of non-cinematic SW media. But whatever explanation, if any, Disney gives, there are still lots and lots of white Englishmen in the old Empire.

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

I swear I find the sweetest stuff on Tumblr

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

Yeah, he's probably right. It probably will only be on screen for 3 seconds in the film.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Well, it's not exactly a cogent argument since the same sarcasm could be used about someone who raves about the new saber online.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

Well, it's not exactly a cogent argument since the same sarcasm could be used about someone who raves about the new saber online.

Well, yeah.

Frankly, the "3-seconds" thing is kind of irrelevant to the issue. How many seconds to you really have to see the saber to decide you don't like (or do like, for that matter) the saber design? Seems like 3-seconds (plus however long people have looked at stills) is more than ample.

[Jeff Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Jeff]

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

People's feelings on this oddball lightsaber design may change drastically upon seeing it in action.

Look at Maul's saber: it should be as much a harm to the user as to the target, but he made it work beautifully. Exar Kun did even better four thousand years earlier, wielding the first double-saber (and his was one-handed!).

This design looks ridiculous now, but once we see it wielded in a fight, it might turn out to be actually fairly impressive.

...Or it might blow chunks.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Well, I'm intrigued to see how the fight choreography will work. In the OT, the couple saber battles were more or less like European fencing while the preqs seem to favor endurance-testing samurai battles (with the exception of Sidious' first lunging attack). This is logical given the size and shape the hilt and its presumable light weight . This saber, however, would most logically be wielded like a broadsword. Matching a broadsword style against a samurai style can be problematic, but it can also be very interesting (as Highlander proved).

[SocializingMogo Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close SocializingMogo]

Every movie in the OT showed a different approach to fighting styles though, which would reflect the advancement of Lukes training.
Vader and Obi-Wan did fight in a fencing style (although this was mostly attributed to the sheer weight of the props) and Vader and Luke always fought in a broadsword style.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

People's feelings on this oddball lightsaber design may change drastically upon seeing it in action.

Look at Maul's saber: it should be as much a harm to the user as to the target, but he made it work beautifully. Exar Kun did even better four thousand years earlier, wielding the first double-saber (and his was one-handed!).

This design looks ridiculous now, but once we see it wielded in a fight, it might turn out to be actually fairly impressive.

...Or it might blow chunks.

Oh, I don't doubt that it will be used impressively in fight sequences, and the obvious design flaws won't come into play in the movies. I still think it is a dumb design, I just don't think its dumbness will have any negative impact on the user in the fights they choreograph for it.

[Darth_Primus Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Darth_Primus]

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

More likely to cause it than prevent it, really. (Not sure how it would prevent it, anyway, unless they introduce lightsaber-proof metal into movie-canon, since a lightsaber sliding down the blade would hack those guards right off, since the "blade" part doesn't start until a few inches out from the hilt...)

[Sylent_Asassin Black Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Sylent_Asassin]

Meh. Not a fan of the new saber. It looks like a medieval sword, and that somewhat detracts from the Jedi/Sith uniqueness of it. In addition, it looks like it could do more harm than good.