Star Wars Episode 7 Thread

[Hiro Protagonist]

I would say that a lightsaber NOT having a crossguard is very, very stupid. there's a reason swords have them - to stop someone from sliding his blade down yours and cutting off your fingers/hand.

 

An enemy's lightsaber sliding down that lightsaber in the teaser would cut off the crossguards.

[Azdeus]

I would say that a lightsaber NOT having a crossguard is very, very stupid. there's a reason swords have them - to stop someone from sliding his blade down yours and cutting off your fingers/hand.

 

Any proper swords needs a crossguard. Now, it is stupid to be open from the underside. What the lightsaber in question needs is another crossguard just below the red lightsaber one to prevent contact with the hand. That, or a crossguard made from some magicla material that resist lightsabers.

 

Allow me to illustrate:

 

I'm not entirely one hundred percent certain of this, but lightsabres don't slide against each other, they "magnetically" lock or something like that.

[Hurlshort]

So...it's just fantasy, people.  You can make the argument that a good science fiction property needs to try and make real world sense, but Star Wars has never been science fiction.  It's fantasy, people shoot lightning out of their fingers.

[Meshugger]

When a setting, fantasy or not, does not follow its own rules, it is usually the result of sloppy and lazy writing. Bear in mind, i haven't read the thread that carefully.

 

But at the same time, i wouldn't venture into a Star Trek-convention and say "It's just Sci-Fi, what's the matter with you people"

[TrashMan]

 

I would say that a lightsaber NOT having a crossguard is very, very stupid. there's a reason swords have them - to stop someone from sliding his blade down yours and cutting off your fingers/hand.

 

Any proper swords needs a crossguard. Now, it is stupid to be open from the underside. What the lightsaber in question needs is another crossguard just below the red lightsaber one to prevent contact with the hand. That, or a crossguard made from some magicla material that resist lightsabers.

 

Allow me to illustrate:

 

I would say that a lightsaber not having a crossguard is very practical, yours is a false equivalence argument because swords are not lightsabers. Firstly; lightsabers have no weight and cut on momentum alone. Secondly; lightsabers are not just for humans, we all need to accept that the galaxy is a diverse place and that everyone needs to be equally represented even if it leads to fewer fingers.

 

There are such materials that resist lightsabers but they are rare, I would say that an armored glove with a force field that acts as a guard without restricting movement would be better. 

 

 

A crossguard is always practical. There's a reason every useful sword in history has it.

Momentum or not, the blade still does the cutting and sliding it down WILL cut your fingers off..or whatever type of appendage you use to hold it.

 

The pommel, crossquard and quillions of a blade have historically been used as a weapon/striking point too. Some of it fall into water with lightsabers since you can't use the same techniques, like half-swording.

 

IIRC; cortosis can resist lightsabers, so a crossguard made of it would make most sense (like in that lightsaber mod above).

Also IIRC, it's too impractical to make gloves from.

[Orogun01]

The blade doesn't slide down, is an energy blade and it doesn't have a surface to slide from. The field doesn't react until it hits something and then its closer to being something with mass.

[Nonek]

I always found the notion of resorting to lightsabres when one has control of vast telekinetic and telepathic powers to be somewhat redundant. An enemy assails you, snap their neck with a glance, crush their heart, slit their throat etcetera, without even raising a hand. To resort to melee seems a to me a risky and dubious method of resolving conflict, when a much more effective use of their powers exists. Manipulation and dominance such as Kreia practised seems even more efficient than partaking in fencing with lasers.

 

"I have the higher ground Anny!"

 

"Yes but i've just torn your heart out old chap."

 

"Oh bugger!"

Edited December 2, 2014 by Nonek

[Gorgon]

I would say that a lightsaber NOT having a crossguard is very, very stupid. there's a reason swords have them - to stop someone from sliding his blade down yours and cutting off your fingers/hand.

 

Any proper swords needs a crossguard. Now, it is stupid to be open from the underside. What the lightsaber in question needs is another crossguard just below the red lightsaber one to prevent contact with the hand. That, or a crossguard made from some magicla material that resist lightsabers.

 

Allow me to illustrate:

 

A lightsaber doesn't have any appreciable mass though, so you could change your angle of attack, and your parry angle with a simple flick of the wrist. This would make it much easier to present an angle with your parry that doesn't grant leverage to the attacker.  Still not a convincing reason not to have one though.

[Enoch]

I always found the notion of resorting to lightsabres when one has control of vast telekinetic and telepathic powers to be somewhat redundant. An enemy assails you, snap their neck with a glance, crush their heart, slit their throat etcetera, without even raising a hand. To resort to melee seems a to me a risky and dubious method of resolving conflict, when a much more effective use of their powers exists. Manipulation and dominance such as Kreia practised seems even more efficient than partaking in fencing with lasers.

 

"I have the higher ground Anny!"

 

"Yes but i've just torn your heart out old chap."

 

"Oh bugger!"

 

Easy:  Lightsabres are "elegant" and "civilized" weapons.  That other stuff isn't. 

[Gorgon]

Well, Jedis would be doomed if anyone ever thought of returning to atomatic weaons and bullets. Lets see one deflect 1000 rpm. 

[Rosbjerg]

There was this rather lengthy discussion somewhere on how even the most unskilled Jedi could block most telekinetic attacks, unless severly distracted and that - on average - a jedi is mostly fighting people with blasters, which takes a lot of skill and power to block without a light saber.

 

+ tradition and symbolic/recognition value I guess. They are sorta like the Janissary of that setting.

[Maedhros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiabUnjU84w

[Lexx]

Haha that's actually pretty good. I think I can live with that.

[Leferd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiabUnjU84w

And the debate is kaput.

[Bokishi]

After examining a 3d model of the sith lightsaber here, I kind of dig it now

 

https://sketchfab.com/models/0e4b4e0789bf41c7b05129a76de0abb0

[LadyCrimson]

I've noticed that people hate the SW7 teaser if they love the JW teaser, and vice versa. There's no middle ground.

What is middle ground in this case?

 

I don't like either trailer and my interest in both films thus far is "I'll wait for it to come on on-demand and even then I probably won't get around to it for a while." 

[Namutree]

 

1) Yes he was. If you are a five year old who cannot process nuance and everything has to be jesus-chirst-purity white or black-hole black.

 

 

Or if you like a high fantasy story of good vs evil. You should also keep in mind that Starwars is meant for ten year old kids. George Lucas has said so himself. It's not meant to be sophisticated or nuanced, and any attempt to make it so just makes it lame. As an adult watching the Starwars originals brings out my inner child; while watching the prequels drains my will to live.

 

The fact that the originals were beloved and iconic classics is validation of my stance. The prequels followed your logic and are crappy, boring, and held in complete contempt by nearly everyone who sees them.

 

I wonder why you insist on shoehorning in sophistication and nuance into a universe they will never belong in; while ruining that universe's primary appeal.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Namutree

[Valsuelm]

Or if you like a high fantasy story of good vs evil. You should also keep in mind that Starwars is meant for ten year old kids. George Lucas has said so himself.

 

 

 

George Lucas also said that Greedo shot first...

 

The original trilogy, without a doubt the first two movies, were made for people of all ages. If those movies just appealed to kids, they would not have been near as successful as they were. Nor would so many people be wanting to be seeing them decades later, or be invested in what the sequel trilogy will bring us. The addition of the original cast would not be so important if they just wanted to appeal to 10 year olds.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm too lazy to duckduckgo it, so what's the news re: the original cast roles/screen time, anyway? Last time I saw Harrison Ford was in that alien/cowboy movie, where I kept thinking he looked and sounded way too old for this ****, which was very distracting.

 

eg I hope their roles aren't action-y ones.

[Nonek]

There was this rather lengthy discussion somewhere on how even the most unskilled Jedi could block most telekinetic attacks, unless severly distracted and that - on average - a jedi is mostly fighting people with blasters, which takes a lot of skill and power to block without a light saber.

 

+ tradition and symbolic/recognition value I guess. They are sorta like the Janissary of that setting.

 

I can see Jedi and Sith being trained to deflect force powers, I just don't see it as being a hard counter, more of a gradation based on a users skill and power...i'm thinking too much like a GM, sorry.

 

Of course the real tragedy is that we will now have seven Star Wars movies and yet still only one Spaceballs:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-sBROXalU4

[LadyCrimson]

Spaceballs was awesome. Corny, but awesome.

[Azdeus]

duckduckgo

 

It does'nt really have a nice ring to it, does it?

 

 

i'm thinking too much like a GM, sorry.

 

Force Defence as a Free Action, and generally massively high saves on force users makes it a pain to land a hit and a waste of Vitality points.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Azdeus

[Valsuelm]

 

duckduckgo

 

It does'nt really have a nice ring to it, does it?

 

 

Another good one is ixquick. Neither are data-mining you like google, bing, et al.

 

I definitely appreciate LadyCrimson's effort to not use that all too popular phrase synonymous with a 'web search' named for a once great but now long inferior search engine from what's become a really evil corporation that most think is benign.

[LadyCrimson]

 

 

duckduckgo

 

It does'nt really have a nice ring to it, does it?

 

 

Another good one is ixquick. Neither are data-mining you like google, bing, et al.

 

Thanks, gives me another option.

 

...and yeah, duckduckgo is an odd name. But I haven't actually used google's search engine in ages, so I started thinking I should stop saying "google."

[Namutree]

 

Or if you like a high fantasy story of good vs evil. You should also keep in mind that Starwars is meant for ten year old kids. George Lucas has said so himself.

 

 

 

George Lucas also said that Greedo shot first...

 

The original trilogy, without a doubt the first two movies, were made for people of all ages. If those movies just appealed to kids, they would not have been near as successful as they were. Nor would so many people be wanting to be seeing them decades later, or be invested in what the sequel trilogy will bring us. The addition of the original cast would not be so important if they just wanted to appeal to 10 year olds.

 

Starwars was based on Flash Gorden; a kids show. When making the original script George Lucas wanted it to be, "A movie a ten year old would love." (From his biography) With the original trilogy he never strayed from that premise. Don't get me wrong; he didn't design the movie to alienate adults, but ten year old kids were the target. The fact that such a wide audience enjoyed the movie came as a complete shock to Lucas.

 

We've already seen the results of both approaches to Starwars. Make it a story of the heroic good guys fighting the evil bad guys (The originals) and you get some of the greatest movies ever made. Make it morally unclear and have sympathetic villains and you get the prequels. Movies that are sub-par at best.

 

For episode 7 a good villain will have more in common with this: 

 

Than this: