I actually really liked the TK transport ships being a redesign of WWII transport boats. I think those borrow concepts from the right areas. And I really liked Kylo's command ship. The shot of that thing breaking through the smoke of the burning village was super ominous. I was sold with just that shot. I can't say I was a fan of the resistance ships though.
For all that people gripe about tying everything together, I would like to see the landing craft in ANH SE, Rebels (which uses the same design as ANH SE), TFA, and Rogue One to be an evolution of this design from Clone Wars:
One thing that show had was good ship designs. This one feels like an assault lander from the people who also would later bring us the
Lambda class as more utilitarian personnel/cargo transport. And that's the sort of continuity of design I expect from a large military bureaucracy. For all their differences, the Bradley and HMMWV look more like the Jeeps they succeeded than they do a Ford Focus or Chevy Malibu or Dodge pickup. So when I see the new landing craft design that's being used in both TFA and Rogue One, all I can think is "right functionality, wrong look". They could have achieved the same result and impact with an evolved version of the above design -- sweeping low across the desert under cover of night, rapid-deployment landing with the ramp dropping on touchdown and the troopers... well... storming out. It just would have felt like an Imperial design, rather than something that could have also been in Johnny and the Bug-Men (what I call the Starship Troopers movie, to distinguish it from the book it in no way resembles).
In general I'm liking the use and appearance of the old concept art in Rebels and TFA -- even where unintentional (they didn't realize they were echoing Ralph's X-Wing design -- with the split-circle engine intakes -- until after the fact, although the scissoring wings is new). They tend to be using designs that are appropriate to the venue. Like how the proto-Fett helmet has shown up in Clone Wars (and The Force Unleashed, at least the PS2 version -- but that's non-canon) for a probably-Mandalorian character. I'm still holding out hope that, because of the Imperial Academy on Mandalore, we'll see white Imperial Commando Mandos in what we recognize as the Supertrooper pre-production costume.
About the only place it's fallen flat for me is the use of
only TIE Fighters in TFA. Having some basic Fighters for picket duty and escorting the landing craft and such? Fine. Makes sense. Establishes the connection back to the original film. But there needed to be some variants beyond a super-spiffy basic Fighter. Part of what made the Interceptors better was the elimination of the blinkers effect on the pilot by cutting those deep notches out of the wings. Going back to the old-style wings is a definite step backward in terms of dogfighting capability. I would have been even happier if the Special Forces TIES were Phantoms:
...or Avengers:
One could argue that the Avengers would make the most sense, partly for the shields, hyperdrives, and enhanged weapons loadout compared to more standard-issue TIEs, but also thematically, as "avenging" the Empire is a lot of what the First Order is about. I think the audience would have been able to keep up. Especially if standard Fighters and Interceptors were around them to lend more context, as if they needed it.
I
also keep hoping that the
actual Imperial Remnant that
didn't bug out for the Unknown Regions will show up and save the Resistance's bacon, and that
that's where we'll see more familiar Stormtroopers and TIE variants. Plus, it has the benefit of not having been done before in Star Wars. Yeah the "stormtroopers" were good guys from when they first appear up until the last little bit of ROTS, but then they're bad guys all through the OT, and the First Order's version are even badder. So it'd definitely turn the way of things on its head.
--Jonah
