Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

[Too Much Garlic]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Sure, but anyone taking over wouldn't want to be associated with the rule of the Empire. It just doesn't make sense that they wouldn't strip the tech down and re-use as spare parts.

And yes, but this is thirty years after... where you'd think some kind of order has been established. If it's all still in a state of chaos and continuous civil war... well... that would certainly bring forth some huge challenges for the main characters to overcome. It just seemed so very "united" at the fall of the Empire.

 

[crabra comander]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Did anyone like the Dark Horse storyline were Luke turns to the Darkside and outs the Emperor again?

I liked the idea of warring factions of the Imperial troops

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Sure, but anyone taking over wouldn't want to be associated with the rule of the Empire. It just doesn't make sense that they wouldn't strip the tech down and re-use as spare parts.

That's the thing though, you use what you can. The Isreali army was using K98's with swastikas stamped out. When you're fighting it doesn't matter. Also, I imagine that a lot of the "pretenders to the throne" would absolutely use the Empire as their banner. "Remember us? We had safe trade routes, we kept the law, we weren't that bad".

And yes, but this is thirty years after... where you'd think some kind of order has been established.

How many hundred years did it take Rome to get back on it's feet? Now consider the expanse of the galaxy where even the Old Republic didn't have complete order over things.

If it's all still in a state of chaos and continuous civil war... well... that would certainly bring forth some huge challenges for the main characters to overcome. It just seemed so very "united" at the fall of the Empire.

A HUGE flaw in the SE ROTJ in my opinion. The Death Star blows up, the Emperor is dead, and all of a sudden the Empire has no teeth left? Ludicrous. There would be people leaping to be his replacement and the galaxy would be thrust into almost continual war for decades.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

But this is not in the time of Rome. This is in a time where there is a form of unity between systems - even under the rule of the Empire. It is much more like our present time where the strong pick up the weak after the chaos is over. Sure, there's still chaos, but overall there is prosperity. Though the fighting seen in the PT is very much old style war-fare inspired... everything else is pretty up to date.

If they want to evoke the notion of something similar to after the fall of Rome... where it's basically the collapse of the whole world... they have to be pretty clear in their description, because nothing we've seen in the movies suggests any such social and political situation.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

But this is not in the time of Rome. This is in a time where there is a form of unity between systems - even under the rule of the Empire. It is much more like our present time where the strong pick up the weak after the chaos is over. Sure, there's still chaos, but overall there is prosperity. Though the fighting seen in the PT is very much old style war-fare inspired... everything else is pretty up to date.

I would argue the opposite. Who is there to pick up after the Empire? No other large nations, just a league of rebels. That end battle was their ENTIRE fleet. Hardly anything to control the galaxy with.

There is nobody to pick up the weak. It's a situation with a power vacuum and there will be many people/factions who try to fill it. Like Afghanistan after the initial war. The country broke into sections controlled by warlords and that's WITH a large strong nation trying to make sense of things.

If they want to evoke the notion of something similar to after the fall of Rome... where it's basically the collapse of the whole world... they have to be pretty clear in their description, because nothing we've seen in the movies suggests any such social and political situation.

Again, I would argue the opposite. The inevitable result of the Emperor's demise is a power vacuum. Nothing we've ever seen implies that there's another force powerful enough to fill it on it's own. Therefore continued conflict for a very long time.

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

It does depend heavily on the nature of governmental structure throughout the Empire/New Republic.

Perhaps some of the regional warlords would be fine with joining up with the Republic. Old Republic figures would still be alive, too, in the immediate aftermath and would bring with them institutional knowledge. So, I could see certain systems coming back to the fold easily, while others would not.

You'd also have the warlord effect, true, but I think you could just as easily have the staunch independents effect. Smuggling would certainly be rampant, although the Zahn novels do a good job of dealing with this and the diplomatic efforts made to bring the smugglers round to legitimate work.


Frankly, though, I'd expect it'd just be assumed "And then the Republic came back." Lucas wasn't -- nor do I expect any future writer or director to be -- a student of politics past the surface-level stuff. And within the context of a fairy tale, even one set in space, when the good guys win, they win completely, usually. I mean, is anyone talking about the roving bands of orcs after teh fall of Sauron? Of course not. The king returns, the Shire is scoured, and life begins anew and happy.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Frankly, though, I'd expect it'd just be assumed "And then the Republic came back." Lucas wasn't -- nor do I expect any future writer or director to be -- a student of politics past the surface-level stuff. And within the context of a fairy tale, even one set in space, when the good guys win, they win completely, usually. I mean, is anyone talking about the roving bands of orcs after teh fall of Sauron? Of course not. The king returns, the Shire is scoured, and life begins anew and happy.

Then the question would be... Who the hell wants to see THAT movie? :lol

I'd much rather see the galaxy fall into chaos after well intentioned rebel band fails to rally the systems. Then, years later a disallusioned Luke is found by a young Jedi, inspired, and sets to accomplish this monumental task once more passing the torch in the process.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Also, you don't see them making any more movies about Middle Earth after LOTR so we can assume they took care of the Orcs. :lol

 

[Solo4114]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Well, that's the point, isn't it? This is why I think you have to set the movie far into the future of the story. The story of the rise and fall of the Empire is told. The immediate aftermath of that would likely be a bit too dark and politically complex to be appropriate for a Star Wars space fantasy film.

This is a big part of why a sequel is gonna be difficult. The old story is done. I mean DONE. The good guys won, the bad guys lost, and that's that. So, you're left with telling a new story. What would that be? My bet: threat from within. Not necessarily a civil war, but something like Dark Jedi working with ambitious usurpers


Don't get me wrong. I love the idea of a Sengoku Jitai, or Renaissance Italian politics, or Game of Thrones in space, but...I really kinda doubt that's what they'll do. My bet is they'll hew to familiar territory and it'll be some "new Empire" kind of thing, or they'll do something like the Thrawn story -- a new leader unites the fractured forces of the Empire to challenge the slowly re-forming Republic.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Well I hope they're at least somewhat realistic about it. Otherwise there's me out of the movie right away!

My bet is they'll hew to familiar territory and it'll be some "new Empire" kind of thing, or they'll do something like the Thrawn story -- a new leader unites the fractured forces of the Empire to challenge the slowly re-forming Republic.

I think a big part of what made the originals great stories is that they were always the underdogs. If they can find a way to do that again it might be good.

A Thrawn type story would be good. :thumbsup

 

[jcoffman99]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

It would be interesting to see how the massive Imperial army handled the change of power. I would bet most wouldn't care as long as their checks keep coming. I'm sure that like most real world armies they believed they were simply keeping the galaxy safe from the terrorist rebellion. Imagine if the power struggle of the OT simply shifted from a small rag tag rebellion to a small rag tag empire faction bent in destruction.

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

A Thrawn type story would be good. :thumbsup

I've been thinking this in a reserved kind of way.

As much as I hope that nothing from the EU wicks its way into Ep. VII, I can't help but agree with Timothy Zahn that the Empire was way, way too massive to have been decimated at the Battle of Endor. It was a neat way to wrap up ROTJ and the OT to say that the Empire was defeated at Endor, but where were the thousands of other Star Destroyers that inevitably existed in an Empire that spanned a MILLION worlds...?

 

[Bryancd]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

I've been thinking this in a reserved kind of way.

As much as I hope that nothing from the EU wicks its way into Ep. VII, I can't help but agree with Timothy Zahn that the Empire was way, way too massive to have been decimated at the Battle of Endor. It was a neat way to wrap up ROTJ and the OT to say that the Empire was defeated at Endor, but where were the thousands of other Star Destroyers that inevitably existed in an Empire that spanned a MILLION worlds...?

It would be good but be dependent on the timeline of where they set the story. If it's immediately post ROTJ then great, if it's age appropriate to our time then maybe less so.

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

It would be good but be dependent on the timeline of where they set the story. If it's immediately post ROTJ then great, if it's age appropriate to our time then maybe less so.

I can't picture Harrison, Mark, and Carrie looking anything other than "age appropriate" for this flick, if they've been asked and decide to appear...

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

It was a neat way to wrap up ROTJ and the OT to say that the Empire was defeated at Endor, but where were the thousands of other Star Destroyers that inevitably existed in an Empire that spanned a MILLION worlds...?

Wait for the newest special edition where they remove the "galaxy celebrates" crap they put in in '97. :lol

 

[jme3]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Wait for the newest special edition where they remove the "galaxy celebrates" crap they put in in '97. :lol

With the exodus of GL, I'm sincerely hoping that we've seen the end of any more "special edition" tripe, and that we can get back to the honest and goodness Star Wars as it was meant to be... :lol

 

[Edwardowan]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

With the exodus of GL, I'm sincerely hoping that we've seen the end of any more "special edition" tripe, and that we can get back to the honest and goodness Star Wars as it was meant to be... :lol

agreed. no more revisionism, alterations, edits, out of place updates and additions.

Although GL was limited in 1977 and felt he only got 60% of what he had in mind on screen, it is often times best to show only just enough and what I mean by that is, by having issues with Bruce for the filming of Jaws, we got the suspenseful Jaws theme that made us feel at any moment the shark would appear and scare us... the anticipation made it scarier... same with Alien... sometimes what you don't show (and allowing the viewer to fill in the gaps) makes for a better film. Star Wars was cutting edge at the time and gritty and real without having to spoon feed a billion special effects creatures etc. Empire was also "just enough wonderful eye candy" to make it fun but grounded.... the Prequels were information overload and confusing. I appreciate what can be accomplished but a good artist knows what to leave out and uses a limited palette to create a masterpiece.. don't use every color and technique available in one painting. if that makes sense. :confused

 

[Psab keel]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Seeing the Falcon would be just as cool as seeing Han, Luke and Leia again. As long as it doesn't have a stupid spoiler on the tail end...

 

[Aussaber]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

More creatures - puppets and practical effects please

 

[Zombie_61]

Re: Star Wars Episode VII

Wait for the newest special edition where they remove the "galaxy celebrates" crap they put in in '97. :lol

I'm waiting for the Special Edition in which they reverse all the tinkering Lucas did and restore the Original Trilogy movies to their original theatrical versions.