Ep7 Reviews (Spoilers)

[Batman]

Another nitpick that I am surprised nobody has pointed out, but does the "new" TIE Fighter design not bother anyone?

I think it's a much bigger beast. For a start it's a two man vehicle and has a small turret on it. But this was all about calling back to EpIV which didn't have those vehicles.
To be honest I was less fond of the X-wings. It was my understanding that the S-foils are extended to help with heat dispersal by doubling the surface area of the wing (or something like that). But with the split wing, what doesn't really gain you anything except a slightly wider firing pattern which doesn't seem like it would work unless you fire all the guns at once.

The heat radiator idea is news to me (and doesn't really work-the inside surfaces would be radiating towards each other). Far as I'm concerned, the X-Wings X-Wing because of...something, Besides, given the power Levels involved, I'm doubtful radiator area is going to make much of a diiference.

[bilateralrope]

Did Phasma do anything impressive in the movie or any of the trailers ?

Or is she just being hyped up based on her appearance ?

[Borgholio]

Did Phasma do anything impressive in the movie or any of the trailers ?

Or is she just being hyped up based on her appearance ?

Just appearance. She struts across the battlefield in chrome armor and that's about it. Also because she's female. I don't think they even took her helmet off during the movie...

[Patroklos]

I would love to see how they get all that ordinance into the X-wing now that we know a huge percentage of the internal fuselage is taken up by a 99.999999 percent of the time completely useless internal large caliber laser canon. The only thing I liked about that is that it shows BB-8 is a cold blooded killer. People keep talking about how cutsie he is but I don't think they understood who was controlling that weapon.

[Kojiro]

The heat radiator idea is news to me (and doesn't really work-the inside surfaces would be radiating towards each other). Far as I'm concerned, the X-Wings X-Wing because of...something, Besides, given the power Levels involved, I'm doubtful radiator area is going to make much of a diiference.

Well it is listed under the 'Legends' section of Wookieepedia now so take it with a grain of salt.

But the X-wing has a wingspan of 44 feet or so. If the guns are all fixed forward that's a pretty large discrepancy between every other shot.

Spreading your guns out would make it harder to track a target. You'd fire a left cannon then- 50% of the time- have to correct your aim for the right cannon. Unless you fired them all at once (like in the old games), but that's not what we see.

[AndroAsc]

Another nitpick that I am surprised nobody has pointed out, but does the "new" TIE Fighter design not bother anyone? From ANH to ROTJ, we saw a progression from the TIE Fighter to the TIE Interceptor, which is backed up by a ton of supporting literature in the EU that the TIE Interceptor was the clearly superior design. And now, we're back to a "new" design based on the inferior TIE Fighter design? This fucking makes no sense!!!

It's apparently a special forces variant of the TIE fighter.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/TIE/sf_s ... ty_fighter

Also, why would they care at all about what happened in the EU? None of that's canon anymore so they can do whatever the hell they want.

Star Destroyer's look different now as well, should we be enraged about that too?

Clearly you did not pay attention in ROTJ there were TIE Interceptors were on screen.

[AndroAsc]

Another thing that pisses me to no end is that how Finn managed to use a lightsaber and survive. It has been clearly established through detailed analysis on this forum and others, that an untrained force-insensitive user would most likely kill himself using a lightsaber in combat (I'm assuming Finn is not force sensitive). I'm leaving out Wankalorians too, as that fucking Traviss bitch clearly has no business writing SW literature.

Why?
1) The fucking lightsaber blade does not have mass like conventional melee weapons, so don't give me crap about Finn's melee weapon training, because handling a melee weapon and a lightsaber is totally different.
AND
2) The fucking lightsaber is sharp all over, and it is a FUCKING MIRACLE that Finn did not cut off one of his body parts by mistake.

The only time we've seen a non force user use a lightsaber was as a fucking cutting tool, aka Han Solo in ESB, and never as a combat tool.

Seriously who the fuck proofread this scripts? Do they get people with no science education whatsoever? Fucking Lucas should have hired Dr Curtis Saxton to proofread the script for fucking retarded mistakes like this!!! I almost threw up thinking about this during the Kylo vs Finn lightsaber "duel". Sigh...

They really did make this sequel for the "lowest common denominator" aka lowest IQ TV couch potato who has only a passing familiarity with Star Wars. It's such an insult to long time fans of this franchise, I could literally write a short book on the list of unanswered questions and apparent inconsistencies and "why did they not do this" scenarios.

And don't get me started on Han's hyperdrive-past-shields-manuever. Unless there has been significant improvement in hyperdrive tech which is the most plausible explanation (and if so, mention it you fucking idiots), why was this not use say in the Battle of Endor and possibly in countless other battles????

[Patroklos]

The TIE Interceptor was not necessarily better in every way, it was just better at intercepting.

My question is why only X-wings. This was by their own exposition a bombing mission. The Rebel Alliance had two dedicated bombing starfighters onscreen in previous movies. That right there is pretty bad minimalism.

[AndroAsc]

The TIE Interceptor was not necessarily better in every way, it was just better at intercepting.

My question is why only X-wings. This was by their own exposition a bombing mission. The Rebel Alliance had two dedicated bombing starfighters onscreen in previous movies. That right there is pretty bad minimalism.

At some point, you just have to turn off your brain. Clearly, the level of writing is at the same level of TNG, where the writers forget what happened just a few episodes before or last season. I don't get it. There is grand total of SIX fucking star wars movies, not dozens of TNG episodes, is it that hard to make a self-consistent storyline?

But back to your question, yes B-Wings would have been more appropriate. But if you want to go all the way, I'll just say what lots of people have ranted about, what happened to the cap ships?

The only plausible in-universe explanation I can think of is that their fighters might have faster hyperdrive than cap ships (which strictly speaking is not true even in the EU). We do know the Falcon is the "fastest" ship in the OT, and that may explain why the Falcon got on the Starkiller base first. If their new "X-Wings" was equipped with faster than cap ship hyperdrives, then it might have made sense to sortie with only X-Wings, since my impression was that they had hours before getting obliterated, and so it could be explained that the slower cap ships (and by extension dedicated bombers) would not have arrived in time.

[Burak Gazan]

Did Phasma do anything impressive in the movie or any of the trailers ?

Or is she just being hyped up based on her appearance ?

Just appearance. She struts across the battlefield in chrome armor and that's about it. Also because she's female. I don't think they even took her helmet off during the movie...

I havent seen the film just yet, but already pissed off a lot of Phasma Phans, by pointing a couple things out while discussing something about weapons and practical ones on the battlefield v thisissocool...

At any rate, I suggested that Phasma here, what with her quaint all-chrome armour, and a cloak, and strutting around like she something special, may as well wear a large flashing fucking neon sign that screams "KILL ME!!!" since any enemy sniper, or sharpshooter even , who saw her, would blow her fucking face off just on general principles. Guess JJ just threw her in here for 'cool' though, eh?

[Terralthra]

Finn is not the only non-Force-sensitive to wield a lightsabre in the Star Wars canon. General Grievous, in particular, is shown to not only be quite capable of using lightsabres, but a very dangerous opponent. Pre Vizsla uses one as well, and holds his own in duels (he loses, but he does hold his own). Cad Bane uses one as well.

In other words, don't throw stones about a lack of proofreading or attention paid to the past when it's clear that you are bringing massive preconceptions and blinders.

The hyperdrive/planetary shield bypass probably isn't used in previous movies because it's suicidal. The Falcon nearly crash-lands trying it, and that was with the width of an atmosphere between the shield and the surface. The DSII shield was presumably much closer to the Death Star, and they weren't trying to land on it.

[bilateralrope]

At any rate, I suggested that Phasma here, what with her quaint all-chrome armour, and a cloak, and strutting around like she something special, may as well wear a large flashing fucking neon sign that screams "KILL ME!!!" since any enemy sniper, or sharpshooter even , who saw her, would blow her fucking face off just on general principles. Guess JJ just threw her in here for 'cool' though, eh?

She seemed to be the person responsible for dealing with any Stormtroopers that didn't follow orders. That isn't a battlefield role.

The only direct combat she saw during TFA was when she was held at gunpoint on Starkiller base.

[Borgholio]

The hyperdrive/planetary shield bypass probably isn't used in previous movies because it's suicidal. The Falcon nearly crash-lands trying it, and that was with the width of an atmosphere between the shield and the surface. The DSII shield was presumably much closer to the Death Star, and they weren't trying to land on it.

Han mentioned something special about the shield. I forget exactly what he said, but it was implied to me that the shield was a different kind of shield than the general purpose planetary shield like what they had on the second death star.

[Kojiro]

At any rate, I suggested that Phasma here, what with her quaint all-chrome armour, and a cloak, and strutting around like she something special, may as well wear a large flashing fucking neon sign that screams "KILL ME!!!" since any enemy sniper, or sharpshooter even , who saw her, would blow her fucking face off just on general principles. Guess JJ just threw her in here for 'cool' though, eh?

She'd be in even more trouble is starfighters were able to pick off man sized targets now...

And don't get me started on Han's hyperdrive-past-shields-manuever.

This was a big one for me. Does this mean you can just strap a hyperdrive to the biggest warhead you can find and aim it at targets? Basically, if the Falcon had been one giant bomb (with sufficient power) targeted at the X-wing target, would it have worked? Yeah it's dangerous but that's what droid pilots are for.

[AndroAsc]

Finn is not the only non-Force-sensitive to wield a lightsabre in the Star Wars canon. General Grievous, in particular, is shown to not only be quite capable of using lightsabres, but a very dangerous opponent. Pre Vizsla uses one as well, and holds his own in duels (he loses, but he does hold his own). Cad Bane uses one as well.

In other words, don't throw stones about a lack of proofreading or attention paid to the past when it's clear that you are bringing massive preconceptions and blinders.

The hyperdrive/planetary shield bypass probably isn't used in previous movies because it's suicidal. The Falcon nearly crash-lands trying it, and that was with the width of an atmosphere between the shield and the surface. The DSII shield was presumably much closer to the Death Star, and they weren't trying to land on it.

Fair enough for the DS2 explanation, but it does not explain other uses like getting past planetary shields, i.e. why bother with bombardment when you can zip past the shields? Suicidal maybe, but that's also saying you need numbers to pull off a low prob event.

Sorry, but the CGI animated series is not at the same level of cannonicity as the 6 movies (and yes, I don't give a fuck about what Lucas thinks the cannonicity order should be, no way are the TV series equally cannon as the movies - I subscribe to the original cannon order established by the online community decades before Lucas messed up his shit. Basically movies > novelization of movies > tv series / novelization of closely-related material to the movie > other EU). In any case, Pre Vizsla has Wankalorian influence (from other EU) from the Traviss bitch and I discount that. I admit Cad Bane had not occurred to me, mostly because I have lower standards for the TV series. As for Grievous (which is the only true cannon at the same level as the 6 movies that I consider) good call on that, but I can see how being a cyborg his hands could have been optimized for lightsaber combat.

[AndroAsc]

Anyway interesting theory of Snokes being Darth Plageius.

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/why- ... .50035819/

I've not read through it entirely, but it looks like a plausible theory that would be internally consistent with the established SW verse.

[LadyTevar]

Dammit... where to start discussion....


X-WINGS: Yes, they have a cannon on each wing. This is why they have a TARGETING COMPUTER -- you know, that thing we see several times on-screen telling them when they have a firing lock?? The turbolasers are all hooked to that same computer: all shot will be fired at the LOCKED target. Shit, kids, the US Military has this technology, WTF makes you think the X-wing would have to be re-aimed each stutter-shot? Same Lock, Same Target, All Shots will go for that target, even if its stutter-fired like a machine-gun. Go back and watch ANH, even THERE you can see how all the X-wing's cannon target one place.

The new TIE: I like. Pilot/co-pilot works for me.

Air-to-Ground fire. Oh.. that was pretty. Lots of movies seem to forget the caliber difference between fighter weapons (and cap-ship) and hand-head weapons. This movie made me believe fully that air-to-ground was dangerous, and that small-arms fire was mostly a nuisance to fighters (if you had shields up). People went flying, things blew up, and it was glorious.

Chewie's Bowcaster: Why would Han have picked it up before? It was Chewie's! Han had his blaster (or other weapons) handy; borrowing Chewie's weapon (and leaving him weaponless) never crossed Han's mind. Relaxing around, it also never came up, becuase it was Chewie's. Han didn't bother Chewie's stuff. End Of Story.

Fighter Hyperdrive:
Yes, fighters are faster in transist, due to engine size vs mass. We know that Han's upgraded the Falcon's engines massively, to the point she was literally the fastest ship in the fleet at 0.5 over lightspeed. The X-wing most commonly used by the Rebellion only had a 1.0.

[Borgholio]

Chewie's Bowcaster: Why would Han have picked it up before? It was Chewie's! Han had his blaster (or other weapons) handy; borrowing Chewie's weapon (and leaving him weaponless) never crossed Han's mind. Relaxing around, it also never came up, becuase it was Chewie's. Han didn't bother Chewie's stuff. End Of Story.

I just would have thought that after a good 30 years of knowing each other, Han would have tried it at least ONCE. I really don't care either way...the scenes where he tried it and liked it were pretty funny, but still.

[Guardsman Bass]

I just got back from seeing it.

Good, not great. The characters were all pretty good, especially Rey, Finn, and Han Solo. The movie started off strong, but by the time it came around to destroy the Third Death Star Superweapon of the Week Starkiller Base, the movie's pacing was lagging. It was over two hours long, and it felt long.

I'm going to side with the folks who think that Kylo Ren is a half-baked jedi apprentice turned dark jedi. Sometimes they make him powerful (as with his mind reading and stopping blaster bolts), but when it comes to lightsaber fights he's a bit pathetic - Rey eventually kicked his ass despite zero training with a lightsaber, and even Finn didn't just get killed immediately. Maybe that's why he turned to the Dark Side - he was a weak Jedi apprentice and felt inadequate and pathetic compared to his family heritage, so he was attracted to the Dark Side's power and turned to Snoke.

Speaking of which, Snoke looks like Voldemort.

I was a bit annoyed that about 90% of the air combat happens close to a planet's surface. Having it in space really increases the sense of scale, whereas having it all happen close to the ground makes it all feel smaller.

There's almost certainly a connection between Luke and Rey. She's his daughter, probably.

[Kojiro]

X-WINGS: Yes, they have a cannon on each wing. This is why they have a TARGETING COMPUTER -- you know, that thing we see several times on-screen telling them when they have a firing lock?? The turbolasers are all hooked to that same computer: all shot will be fired at the LOCKED target. Shit, kids, the US Military has this technology, WTF makes you think the X-wing would have to be re-aimed each stutter-shot? Same Lock, Same Target, All Shots will go for that target, even if its stutter-fired like a machine-gun. Go back and watch ANH, even THERE you can see how all the X-wing's cannon target one place.

I think you've misunderstood me. Field of fire is the canon reason for the S-Foils now. But if your weapons can adjust their own aim to converge on a single point the S-Foil doesn't add much. It just increases the surface area you can get hit in and forces the fuselage to incorporate some extra mechanical systems. TIEs (or at least Vader's) obviously use the same system, but from a central position.

So the question is, what does spreading your wings out like that really get you, other than more working parts to fit in and a larger profile to hit? The heat radiation thing is a reason at least.

Chewie's Bowcaster: Why would Han have picked it up before? It was Chewie's! Han had his blaster (or other weapons) handy; borrowing Chewie's weapon (and leaving him weaponless) never crossed Han's mind. Relaxing around, it also never came up, becuase it was Chewie's. Han didn't bother Chewie's stuff. End Of Story.

That just begs the question of why now? Did he lose his DL-44? Were there no E-11s (or whatever the new version is) lying about? And why is he so impressed with it? Surely even if he's never fired it he's seen it fired before.

[Patroklos]

All those other nonforce lighsaber users had not just picked up a light saber for the fist time hours before. They are irrelevant.

[Galvatron]

Saw it. Liked it. Will see it again tomorrow morning. I'll say more after I've had a chance to digest what I've seen. Sure, there were aspects that annoyed me, but nothing that broke the movie for me. It's ripe for a LOT of clarification via EU.

[bilateralrope]

Sorry, but the CGI animated series is not at the same level of cannonicity as the 6 movies (and yes, I don't give a fuck about what Lucas thinks the cannonicity order should be, no way are the TV series equally cannon as the movies - I subscribe to the original cannon order established by the online community decades before Lucas messed up his shit.

I'd like to see your proof for the following claims:
- That the pre-Disney canon was decided by the community.
- That Lucas had anything to do with Disney's decision to ditch the old EU.

Basically movies > novelization of movies > tv series / novelization of closely-related material to the movie > other EU).

That sounds suspiciously similar to the old canon.

In any case, Pre Vizsla has Wankalorian influence (from other EU) from the Traviss bitch and I discount that. I admit Cad Bane had not occurred to me, mostly because I have lower standards for the TV series. As for Grievous (which is the only true cannon at the same level as the 6 movies that I consider) good call on that, but I can see how being a cyborg his hands could have been optimized for lightsaber combat.

Disney* are the copyright holder. They say that the CGI clone wars is canon. Thus Cad Bane using a lightsaber while not being force sensitive is canon. Why do you think that you get to just ignore it just because it isn't part of your personal "true cannon" ?

*Well, one of their subsidiaries. Which is not a difference that I see as significant for this discussion.

Also, learn the difference between canon and cannon.

[Pelranius]

Snoke does bear more than a passing physical resemblance to Gollum, though Serkis doesn't sound very much like Smeagol this time.

Surprised that Hux got away.

I guess blowing up Hosnian Prime would exceed the Alderannian death toll?

[Borgholio]

I guess blowing up Hosnian Prime would exceed the Alderannian death toll?

I don't think we ever really were told with Alderaan's population was, but I think it's a reasonable assumption that since Starkiller actually took out several planets instead of just one, that the death toll was substantially higher.