Star Wars

Lumeinshin

Its that day we associate with Star Wars because of a pun.
Let's use this opportunity to talk about that franchise

What is your favourite piece of media from Star Wars?
Did you read any of the old legends content?
Who's your favourite character/s?
What're its highs.. and its lows?

Which do you prefer, Star Wars or Star Trek?
Stuff like that!

Ross_R

Lumeinshin What is your favourite piece of media from Star Wars?

Episode III. Yeah, yeah, bite me, Revenge of the Sith is awesome. Though this place is not full of a warfaring oldfags I'm usually interacting with, so I'm not sure who's gonna bit me here. Guess it's just a habit to write it like that.

Lumeinshin Did you read any of the old legends content?

Boy, did I ever. I bought a 30th anniversary reprint of the original TTRPG book, and it is a part of my personal Bible, along with the original WH40K Rogue Trader. You cannot beat these books, you simply can't. These are peak sci-fi, 80's top to bottom, and it rocks.
Star Wars: Purge comic book is pure awesomeness, and another piece of Star Wars I went through the trouble to acquire in physical form. Read it, now.
Also, not quite "read", but the story in the original Battlefront II that follows a clone-later-stormtrooper in 501st Vader's Fist is darn awesome. Mission to attack Jedi's Temple is just bonkers. And it all proves that you do not need mind-controlling chips and other non-sense to make clones believable humans. Jesus, why Hollywood feels such a need to make everything plain black or plain white? It was so much more interesting when the Empire was morally gray. Lawful Neutral, if you wish.
Plus Republic Commando video game, which is followed by several books, with Order 66 being the most awesome of the batch.
Finally, TIE Fighter video game, which has a lot of cool text to read. Really, it's quite awesome to see and read all the stuff from the perspective of the Imperial pilot, who's like, into Empire. To see how Empire actually sees the events of the rebellion. Awesome, quite awesome.

Lumeinshin Who's your favourite character/s?

Darth Vader.
Followed by Boba Fett and Yuthura Ban from first KOTOR.

Finally, I want to say that The Force Unleashed was awesome, especially the first part, especially the DLCs that allow you to continue the "alternate timeline" for the dark side (though the DLC is cooler in the second game, where you get to straight away plow through light side characters and get to play soccer with ewoks). I also like the idea of Maulkiller. Badass stuff.

Zergface

Lumeinshin

What is your favourite piece of media from Star Wars?

The expanded universe games, especially Jedi Knight/Dark Forces II

Did you read any of the old legends content?

I remember reading a few light novels when I was 13-14 but I don't remember their names. One was about what happened after Return of the Jedi (this was over a decade before Disneywars) and one was basically a prequel to The Phantom Menace.

Who's your favourite character/s?

Kyle Katarn
Second place and my choice for character not from the expanded universe would be Obi-wan from Episodes 2-3

Porter

Lumeinshin What is your favourite piece of media from Star Wars?

Republic Commando is probably my favorite game for the setting, with honorable mentions to Rogue Squadron, the OG Battlefronts, and Pod Racer. Also all the Starfighter games.

I like all the first six movies about equally for various reasons. If I had to pick a favorite it would probably A New Hope but there's a lot for me to like in all of them.

Did you read any of the old legends content?

I had the novel adaptation for Episode 3 which I remember being pretty good, but besides a few random comics not really.

Who's your favourite character/s?

I think the clones in general are really interesting, and the obligatory clone dudes that pop up in stories set during the Clone Wars tend to be the ones I'm most interested in. After that there's just no beating good old Luke and the gang. Clone Wars Obi is fun though.

What're its highs.. and its lows?

I think Star Wars has a pretty consistently high bar until you hit the Sequels. There are issues with the Prequel Trilogy but I can at least give Lucas points for trying to go for something really cool and fumbling the execution, and I think the Prequels were still a net positive for the franchise as a whole with their world-building.

Honorable mentions go to the animated Clone Wars series that was developed by Genndy Tartakovsky. It's not canon anymore but he brought a fun style to the setting and it's great to watch the jedi cut loose in his work.

The Lows for me are most of the Disney content, because I am a grognard. I think the only new movie I liked was Rogue One, although I haven't watched Andor. Ep. 7 was fine but very by the numbers and easier to gripe about than any of the Prequels. Ep. 8 was so disappointing that it made my dad drop the franchise like a hot potato after having seen every other Star Wars film in theaters. We never watched Ep. 9.

Also, Star Wars has a weirdly high standard of quality for its video game adaptations. There are stinkers but there's a lot of really good ones too. LucasArts did a consistently good job.

Don't have much comment on the EU. It's always been so disconnected from the main franchise that it's very easy to take it or leave it without much further consideration so even if I find something I don't like it's simple enough to just forget about it and move on.

Star Wars or Star Trek?

Both? Both is good. They're super different series and I like them for different reasons. If I had to pick, my favorite Star Trek series would probably be DS9, followed closely by TNG and TOS tied for second.

Lumeinshin

For me, I have a massive soft spot for the prequels, Revenge of the Sith especially. It's definitely because of all the media surrounding it and Anakin's fall from grace
I spent so much time on the original Lego Star Wars on the PS2 and tons of time with the Clone Wars and Episode III figures.. They were/are better than the stuff that is released now. (I do take a look in shops to see whats out now, though i'd almost never buy anything)

agoraoptera

Lumeinshin For me, I have a massive soft spot for the prequels, Revenge of the Sith especially.
Ross_R Episode III

Good men, me too. Such a great tragedy. Hammy, but larger-than-life. People give Anakin shit for the cringey things he said and did, but he was a kid who was ripped from his mother, grew up in a monastic order, spent his immediate post-puberty in war, became an exceedingly decorated war hero, and always had the whisper of prophecy around him. Damn straight he's gonna act that way. It's also the reason why Kylo Ren was the only redeeming factor of the first Sequel film. Throwing a tantrum is precisely the sort of behaviour you would expect him to display.

Ross_R but the story in the original Battlefront II that follows a clone-later-stormtrooper in 501st Vader's Fist is darn awesome

Yes! All the pre-mission monologues from the 501st in the campaign were fantastic. I much preferred the idea that the clone troopers were fundamentally just loyal to the institution of the Republic (as they had been raised to be), and didn't need any mind control involved to turn on the Jedi.

Melon

I really like the Ships, Walkers, the Llightsabers, the Droids and Aliens and Outfits. Just the visual style of Star Wars catches my eye like no other Sci Fi Universe. The sound design is awesome too. My favorite part of it all are the Tie Fighters they are most best ship ever I love them and the pilots have the coolest uniform.

On the video game front, the KOTOR games gave me the feeling of having my own adventure in that world and I really wish we could have another one of those. They kinda did follow up with the Mass Effect series but after finishing that I was still left longing for more adventures in space...

Ross_R

Melon My favorite part of it all are the Tie Fighters they are most best ship ever I love them and the pilots have the coolest uniform.

Porter Ep. 7 was fine but very by the numbers and easier to gripe about than any of the Prequels. Ep. 8 was so disappointing that it made my dad drop the franchise like a hot potato after having seen every other Star Wars film in theaters. We never watched Ep. 9.

I never expected anything good from Disney to start with. Don't know exactly when and why, but somewhere during 2010's I completely lost my faith in fat mouse. But I've went for Episode 7 out of my love for SW, and, frankly, that just cemented my decision to not follow the franchise anymore. I think what really twisted my pants was Phasma's character. She gave a vibe of a badass imperial character who'd sacrifice anything in the name of duty. But then she just gave away the needed information to the rebels... and they literally - literally - threw her into the trash. Wow.
I don't get what's so fascinating about so many SW characters being imperial traitors to start with - in my eyes changing sides, even out of good will, have always been looked at with a squint at best, at all points of human history - but when even imperial commanders are shown that weak willed and useless, it just... kills the suspense. Where's the war when the protagonists walk over the opposition like they are fighting newborn kittens? Perhaps that's why I never was a fan of slasher horrors and superhero movies... though even superhero movies sometimes manage to pull out high stakes for heroes and whatnot.
I did cave in again for Rogue One though, out of my love for Donnie Yen, and that was pretty much another disappointment. The movie is just a drag, up to a final battle, and while it was quite fun to see those last few scenes - an actual war-like battle finally shown in Star Wars universe on a big screen for a considerable amount of time, kind of liker a small part of a Republic Commando that finally made it - it was still not without huge, huge minuses.
The moment when Donnie Yen just did a sad sigh and shot down a fighter with a bow, I almost walked out. You can make a scene like that look good - you can explain that fighters have a week point, you can exaplin that he has couple super-cool fancy arrows, you can do a slo-mo shot showing how arrow hit something special... I dunno! But you do not! Do not just go "meh" and shoot down a fighter with an arrow. Heck, why not fling stones at those fighters then.
And that moment when Hammerhead pushed a Star Destoyer into another one... ugh, I'm just going to say this thing: when a scene produces volumes of pages consisting of people arguing about it, you know that the scene definitely has at least some problems.
The final Darth Vader appearance was cool as blue heavens though. Almost made up for the whole movie... Not quite, but almost. Yeah, it was that good.

Lumeinshin

Nintendo had a bunch of Star Wars games on sale for pretty cheap so I ended up grabbing a couple, namely the Force Unleashed and Republic Commando to play through... I was eyeing up Knights of the Old Republic to finally play too. I'm busy for a while still but i'm hoping to get some downtime to play through them, i've been in a Star Wars mood
Zergface
I remember my dad playing Dark Forces II way back when, its one i've been meaning to sit and play myself, Katarn seems like a cool character
I just listened to the prequel to ep3 audiobook and that was quite good, into the novelisation now and I do like the extra character+motivation its giving everyone definitely

and Both Star franchises are good 🙂

Lumeinshin

agoraoptera he was a kid who was ripped from his mother, grew up in a monastic order, spent his immediate post-puberty in war, became an exceedingly decorated war hero, and always had the whisper of prophecy around him

Im a good bit further into the ep3 novelisation and the author captures this so well.
It almost makes me wish we had a longer expanded version of the film that expanded on it all more

Ross_R

agoraoptera I much preferred the idea that the clone troopers were fundamentally just loyal to the institution of the Republic (as they had been raised to be), and didn't need any mind control involved to turn on the Jedi.

I mean, indeed! The quotes from the Commander Bly, for example, from his wiki page, illustrate this perfectly:
"Get the order and execute it. Let the generals sort out the rest."
"Know the mission, know your enemy, achieve the mission, kill the enemy. That's all I need. It's all any soldier needs."

Quinlan Vos: "You shot at me the last time we saw each other."
Bly: "You were an enemy the last time I saw you. Now they say you're not."

Aayla Secura: "So, Commander Bly, what will you do when this war is over?"
Bly: "Whatever I'm ordered, of course."

They were soldiers, for all that holy, soldiers that were born and raised for the purpose of war from the literal day one. They were not some kind of fairies with blasters who only did bad things because mind chips.
The whole "mind chip" line simply outright kills all the rather usual yet never old human tradegy of war when one human being has to rise weapon against other human being. I just cannot understand how anyone who supports the "mind chip" arc fails to see this, as it reduces clones to mindless automatons, removing all humanity from them. Yes, you cannot blame them for their actions anymore, but you hardly can be sympathetic towards a machine either. It pretty much reduces clones to the very meat they were supposed to be, but were not, because back in the days they were still human after all, and with that very point in mind all the novels and games and animations about clones were made. Mind chips nullify decades of work of different authors, and it's just sad.

sanner

The Phantom Menace!
in my opinion, the look and feel of this movie (all the silvers especially!) will never be topped by any other star wars media. i think it gets a bad wrap being proceeded by Attack of the Clones which is definitely my least favourite star wars movie. even though i dislike jar jar, the pod-race is too long, and anakin blowing up the lucrehulk seemed a bit to easy, it doesn't detract my enjoyment of any of the excellent sets, costume designs, lightsaber fights, and plethora of alien cultures/races we got to see throughout the movie. even though people say the political scenes were boring, i think this movie addressing the deregulation of corporations is pretty insightful commentary on how the U.S. has been trending for the past 75(?) years for better or worse, even if it is a bit on the nose.
being of the 2000's this was my first star wars movie and one of my earliest memories. its great.

i've never read any legends content (its never interested me) and my favourite character is obi-wan the negotiator of course (he's so charming) or padme because she based (plus she gets one of the best lines in the franchise ). the high points were definitely the OT and PT, with the lows being ST obviously. don't really like any of the disney stuff. It's ok, and the smaller projects like a handful of TV shows and the spinoff movies weren't terrible but i didn't really get the point of the movies. they weren't terribly entertaining nor did they send a message, tone, or any sort of theme other than we should defeat the bad guys because they hurt people.

i cant decide if i like SW or ST more because they're both so important to me and scratch different itches :)

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