Where we can safely and happily flail away on those topics that mean so much to us, but are utterly irrelevant to discussion of The Force Awakens or any other upcoming SW projects. 
On clones. One thing that always bugged me in the EU was how they had the clones aging at an accelerated rate as well as maturing. They're completely unrelated biological processes. All that was mentioned in the films was maturation. Planned obsolescence seems impractical to me. The reason in the script for keeping Jango around (trimmed somewhat in the film) was for fresh genetic samples periodically, because you can't keep it on ice indefinitely and maintain viability, and neither can you keep cloning clones. Since Jango died 22 years before Star Wars, any remaining Jango clones will be in the minority. I never thought the Stormtroopers in the OT were clones -- at least not all from the same donor. We did speculate that there might be a few hundred genetic lines being used, which would easily account for the variation we saw onscreen.
On Biggs' service and the Academy. I treat deleted scenes, and unfilmed material from the scripts as canon unless contradicted. That whole conversation between Biggs and Luke establish that the Academy Biggs and Tank went to and that Luke wants to attend is some sort of Ourter Rim merchantmarine academy. That's not an Imperial uniform Biggs is wearing, as the recently-assigned second mate of the freighter Rand Ecliptic, when he say he's not going to wait around for the Empire to draft him into military service. He also mentions the Empire is nationalizing trade in the Outer Rim.
On Stormtrooper marksmanship. I'm so tired of this one. The only time we see them unable to hit the broadside of a barn is in Star Wars, on the Death Star. I don't know the statistics, but the whole point of laying down a good fire pattern is that many shots will fail to hit the target unless you have the time to stop and aim. I don't find it odd that the droids were missed entirely by both sides when they crossed the corridor on the Tantive IV. They weren't the focus of the troops firing, and would have been in an entirely different focal plane. Most people in the Star Wars universe treat droids as motile furniture that talks back. They probably even were trying to miss the droids, the same way you'd try to miss the Roomba if it was getting between you and something you were shooting at. On the Death Star, they were under orders to let the Rebels escape.
Have at.
--Jonah
On clones. One thing that always bugged me in the EU was how they had the clones aging at an accelerated rate as well as maturing. They're completely unrelated biological processes. All that was mentioned in the films was maturation. Planned obsolescence seems impractical to me. The reason in the script for keeping Jango around (trimmed somewhat in the film) was for fresh genetic samples periodically, because you can't keep it on ice indefinitely and maintain viability, and neither can you keep cloning clones. Since Jango died 22 years before Star Wars, any remaining Jango clones will be in the minority. I never thought the Stormtroopers in the OT were clones -- at least not all from the same donor. We did speculate that there might be a few hundred genetic lines being used, which would easily account for the variation we saw onscreen.
On Biggs' service and the Academy. I treat deleted scenes, and unfilmed material from the scripts as canon unless contradicted. That whole conversation between Biggs and Luke establish that the Academy Biggs and Tank went to and that Luke wants to attend is some sort of Ourter Rim merchantmarine academy. That's not an Imperial uniform Biggs is wearing, as the recently-assigned second mate of the freighter Rand Ecliptic, when he say he's not going to wait around for the Empire to draft him into military service. He also mentions the Empire is nationalizing trade in the Outer Rim.
On Stormtrooper marksmanship. I'm so tired of this one. The only time we see them unable to hit the broadside of a barn is in Star Wars, on the Death Star. I don't know the statistics, but the whole point of laying down a good fire pattern is that many shots will fail to hit the target unless you have the time to stop and aim. I don't find it odd that the droids were missed entirely by both sides when they crossed the corridor on the Tantive IV. They weren't the focus of the troops firing, and would have been in an entirely different focal plane. Most people in the Star Wars universe treat droids as motile furniture that talks back. They probably even were trying to miss the droids, the same way you'd try to miss the Roomba if it was getting between you and something you were shooting at. On the Death Star, they were under orders to let the Rebels escape.
Have at.
--Jonah
