Well thankyou smoker4, I thought I was going to get flamed to hell, but at least someone also thinks this.
I've heard people say "It's Lucas' vision" and "it's to show the decay under the Empire" - well that's no excuse to have weak ships and silly contrivances. And screw Lucas' vision - nobody's buying it, apart from the apologists.
I love Star Wars with all my heart - but I know when we've been screwed out of some ICONIC stuff.
The X-Wings had the cool shape, the Y-Wings likewise. The Star Destroyers looked ominous, and the Falcon is still the coolest ship ever concieved, they were great.
The ships of old were iconic because they were simple geometric shapes.
As you said with the Falcon, it's a disc-like shape. It's iconic.
The X-Wing explains itself, as does the Y-Wing.
The Tie's have that distinct simple shape to them, and the Star Destroyers are also big triangular shapes.
The OT's fascination for simple shapes meant that psychologically speaking they were implanted into our minds much quicker. We also saw them in more than once scene (as oppossed to several vehicles in the PT that are there for seconds).
In the PT, the shapes are ambiguous. Some ships try and redeem themselves such as the Jedi Starfighter - but it's a lost cause because all it does is make you think "It looks a bit like a Star Destroyer" - which is OK I suppose - but it doesn't make the Starfighter stand up on its own like an X-Wing does.
Instead of trying so hard to "foreshadow" vehicles from the OT - they should have just come up with simple looking original vehicles - adopting the attitude they had when making the OT.
i don't know why but it doesn't bother me at all....think it looks kinda funky....prefer it to the other pic.....
my big question is - where do they originate from, who uses them, and why do the rebels end up using them as their official mode of transport?.....if they are republic ships, same as the jedi fighters/prototype tie fighters/star destroyers etc., then why do all those end up being imperial ships, and not these?.....
so i very much appreciated darktim's suggestion that they originated from alderan.....it all starts to make sense.....nice one.....
ken benobi, yeah, agreed on the imperial ships, but why would the rebels only steal one model of ship, and not others?.....because they match their outfits?....
darth cain, this is why i like darktim's suggestion....if they are from alderan, or a specific planet that is more friendly to the rebellion, then it makes sense.....i thought the same as you until i read that....
the redesigned jedi fighters ARE the proto tie's i think, the wings flap out, so they kind of take on the sillouette of a tie.....
yeah, i think they do, but whether they have different ships i've no idea....just looking at them again....from the front with the flaps shut they look just like the jedi fighters in ep II, but with a bulkier cockpit (and yeah, i hadn't noticed the b-wing thing, but you're right)....from the front with the flaps open they look exactly like a tie fighter....twist it to the side and it's exactly like darth maul's ship....and from the top....i don't know what the hell that is....a half transformed transformer?....
When I first finished seeing AOTC, my first thought was "d*mn, Lucas needs to do an a**load of things in Episode 3!"
At that point there were extra things I thought that were going to happen, like Boba Fett getting his vengeance and a major emphasis on the change to the Empire, but as time went by, I realized that these things will probably not happen. I think that a good portion should be left untouched, but I'm afraid that Ep.3 will not take advantage of a lot of opportunities.
agreed....however i think lucas is hitting his stride (i'm as shocked as anyone)....we know a huge chunk of this film already, but there's so much still to come that we don't know about yet....
after ep I a lot of people were convinced he had gone mad and was incapable of pulling it off, but i'm surprised how much it's all falling into place and a lot more smoothly and logically than tpm implied it was going to (anakin building c3po - what?)....(the clones and jedi working in tandem - makes perfect sense, and a shock twist at the same time - and the way the jedi are to be villified in ep III is very clever also)....
having said that i've been expecting a few major twists/plot points that may never see the light of day myself....
1. anakin's birth
2. qui gon's rebelliousness (including dooku's "don't be too sure" line)
3. the erasure of kamino from the archives (i just know this will be nowhere near as shocking as i want it to be)
4. the return of qui gon from the beyond
5. "i will even learn to stop people from dying"
6. the payoff for introducing midichlorians
there's loads more, so many they can't possibly all be covered....but so far i think it's looking good...
i think there was a lot of emphasis put on the change to the empire, to me that was/will be very well covered, and every now and then a new rumour about boba fett pops up, just when we thought it was completely out of the question....i don't think we can put this one to bed just yet, however unlikely it may seem....
I'm fairly sure the midichlorians already served their purpose, and since most people hated the idea, I don't expect any mention of them. How, when and where the Force spirit thing comes up I have no clue- has anyone heard how that fits into the story? As far as Qui-Gon, I thought we got some interesting insight into his behavior when we met his former teacher. That was another little thing I liked about Ep. 2. The Jedi Archives...... Lucas could throw some twist our way and say it was Qui-Gon (just a crazy thought) but wasn't it said somewhere that the person responsible was seen in AOTC? Maybe I'm remebering that wrongly. Really, though, I'm sure it was Dooku just before he left the order. I think it was more than coincidence that Dooku specifically mentions the Archives on Geonosis. That was almost like an admission.
yeah, i was kinda hinting at the "qui gon erased the archives" theory there, among other things....i just like it because it's the most shocking and unexpected answer anyone's come up with (i don't really think it will happen).....and you're right, they said the culprit was seen in ep 2, so that's that then.....
but i like to think maybe there will be more to the whole qui gon thing (i know it's to point out where anakin picked up some of his anti-authoritarian ways - but they lay so much emphasis on it throughout the film), and dooku's speech seems very mysterious and suggestive.....
hmmmm.....