The Official Episode III spoiler thread

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-04-13 03:08am

Um, if it was a page or so back, then wouldn't we all already know that?

Clone Sergeant · Post by **Clone Sergeant** » 2004-04-16 10:42pm

This is from the latest Hyperspace "Post Notes" from the official site. They describe what to expect visually from Ep3's space battle and how it will go far beyond what was seen in the Battle of Endor during ROTJ.

It's hard to grasp the scale of a space battle looking at words on a script page or sketches within storyboard frames. The jaw-dropping attack on the Death Star in Return of the Jedi seems hard to top, and since reports of the battle that opens Episode III have consistently stated that it will be bigger, many fans are asking how that can be possible.

It's not so much the number of participants that raises the bar, as it is complexity. The effects technology in the 80s meant that true interaction between starships in Jedi was always limited. Extended shots of starfighters soaring through capital ship flotillas were impossible. The destruction of vessels were also a stylistic cheat. ILM had largely abandoned blowing up models with miniature pyrotechnics, since the scale of the explosion and size of the models worked against each other. Such destruction was typically accomplished by matting scaled explosions onto model photography, thus leaving out the true interaction of lighting and debris. An explosion would often just cover up a ship, allowing for the removal of that model element, without the true chaos of fiery debris.

This new battle definitely captures that chaos. No wonder such emphasis was put on differentiating the shape of the Republic and Confederacy cruisers. When all the ships are aligned in the very upper atmosphere of a planet slowly turning towards dawn, and the wreckage, laserfire, missiles, missile contrails, starfighters and more are layered in, the skies suddenly become very crowded.

It's a messy battle, with capital ships exchanging broadside fire and bodies tumbling into space, bulkheads rupturing and depressurized atmosphere rushing to fill the void, complete with fire and smoke.

Think Pearl Harbor in space, and you're on the right track.

Of course, creatively mining WWII for space inspirations is nothing new. George Lucas drew from the great documentaries and film accounts of that conflict for much of the original Star Wars. You can see it in the hurried shots of Death Star gunners manning their laser turrets, but back in those days, there was never a real connection to what the gunners were doing and the outside battle. It was all implied through editing -- piecing together the strafing runs of the X-wing fighters and the corridor explosions of the Death Star.

To the critical eyes of today's moviegoers, such approaches would result in a sense of isolation -- the differences between studio shooting and motion control effects shots would keep attacker and defender separated in time and space. But now, digital effects merge those worlds seamlessly, and the results are dramatic. The gunnery crews on these capital ships -- droids and clones alike -- are in real danger. They're in the space battle, and not in some isolated studio, and the starfighter attack runs and capital ship broadsides really do involve everyone and really do make an impact.

It'll be a new kind of space battle in Star Wars. One that appears to have the customary beauty and elegance when seen from a comfortable distance, but reveals itself to be a much more dangerous place when you get in close.

At least, that's the intent. We'll see how this develops over the coming months.

Sounds extremely promising

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2004-04-17 09:00am

Clone Sergeant, I don't think it's allowed to quote the entire text from Hyperspace. It's O.K. to paraphrase, but not to quote it in its entirely.
It's sure looks as if the opening space battle of Episode III will have some of the traits that Mike mentions on his page Naval Tactics (under Imperial Naval Tactics): http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tac ... ctics.html
I'm sure it will be one of the highlights of Episode III along with The Duel...

Clone Sergeant · Post by **Clone Sergeant** » 2004-04-17 09:39pm

Mange the Swede wrote:Clone Sergeant, I don't think it's allowed to quote the entire text from Hyperspace. It's O.K. to paraphrase, but not to quote it in its entirely.
It's sure looks as if the opening space battle of Episode III will have some of the traits that Mike mentions on his page Naval Tactics (under Imperial Naval Tactics): http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tac ... ctics.html
I'm sure it will be one of the highlights of Episode III along with The Duel...

I've seen direct quotes from Hyperspace in posts on the board before, but if any of the mods feel my quote exceeds the bounds of legality I will gladly remove the text.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2004-04-19 11:42pm

Here's an interesting Episode III hypothesis:

General Grievous is a cyborg who can use the force. He's got 4 lightsabers. He also has yellow eyes.

Now, who do we know that's a force user, who has yellow eyes, who is good at using multiple sabers at once, and after episode I was in need of a body?

Darth Maul. He is General Grievous.

Any thoughts? I didn't read the whole thread, so it might have already been posted.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-04-19 11:45pm

It has. Maybe not in this thread, but it has.

And it was promptly shot down.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2004-04-19 11:57pm

Why? Please don't make me dig for it

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2004-04-20 01:08am

Actually, he doesn't have yellow eyes. It was there as a joke by the artists but Lucas told them to take it out. It's in SW Insider #75.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2004-04-20 01:29am

Thanks, good to know.

McC · Post by **McC** » 2004-04-20 11:49am

TFN has posted what is allegedly the cover of the Episode III videogame.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-04-22 05:16pm

There seems to have been some rumors about some band I've never heard of (Ash) having a cameo in Episode III (much like the rumors of N'Sync and AotC), but have turned out to be false.

Whatever, I say...

Clone Sergeant · Post by **Clone Sergeant** » 2004-05-27 01:55am

The latest Hyperspace Postnotes dropped this little tidbit about the space battle today.

"Fans keep asking if this battle is bigger than Return of the Jedi," I say to David, explaining that I never know how to answer that since what exactly does 'bigger' mean? David types in a command line to pull up a list of digital assets involved in this one shot.

"Oh yeah, it's bigger." He says without hesitation. "There's about 5,000 ships."

And that's just the capital ships. The take I saw didn't even have the all the starfighters -- a whole swarm of battles between the tri-fighters (which are back, by the way) and other midground fighters -- at least another few hundred ships.

We can only hope that the fleet numbers stay the same by the time the movie is released. But this scene will without a doubt be epic.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-05-27 02:02am

Holy crap...

McC · Post by **McC** » 2004-05-27 02:02am

Jesus...that's awesome. I was expressing distaste to some friends of mine a while back about how there weren't any really enormous space battles in movies, except in anime...guess I finally have something to look forward to!

Clone Sergeant · Post by **Clone Sergeant** » 2004-05-27 03:41am

It was also mentioned that Lucas Licensing has dubbed one of the types Republic Ships in the battle the Venator-class Star Destroyer.

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2004-05-27 03:45am

Clone Sergeant wrote:The latest Hyperspace Postnotes dropped this little tidbit about the space battle today.

"Fans keep asking if this battle is bigger than Return of the Jedi," I say to David, explaining that I never know how to answer that since what exactly does 'bigger' mean? David types in a command line to pull up a list of digital assets involved in this one shot.

"Oh yeah, it's bigger." He says without hesitation. "There's about 5,000 ships."

And that's just the capital ships. The take I saw didn't even have the all the starfighters -- a whole swarm of battles between the tri-fighters (which are back, by the way) and other midground fighters -- at least another few hundred ships.

We can only hope that the fleet numbers stay the same by the time the movie is released. But this scene will without a doubt be epic.

You must remember the guidelines for Hyperspace.

But, 5,000 capital ships alone? I can't wait to see it!

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2004-05-29 03:16pm

No doubt this will be potrayed in the EU as the entire Confederacy fleet vs the entire Republic fleet.

But hey, maybe the minimalism will finally stop.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-05-29 08:43pm

Ender wrote:No doubt this will be potrayed in the EU as the entire Confederacy fleet vs the entire Republic fleet.

Which is why I'm praying that there will be a few lines of dialogue saying things to the effect of: "A hundredth of the CIS force is here! This battle is even more important to them than we thought."

Or something like that.

President Sharky · Post by **President Sharky** » 2004-05-29 10:15pm

SWEET MOTHER OF JESUS!!!!!!!!!

5000 mother-fucking SHIPS

This movie will completely redefine the word "space battle".

It sounds as if the Venator-class Star Destroyer mentioned in the Insider 77 edition of HoloNet News is indeed an Episode III warship. Here's hoping that it will be a nice pure battleship a couple kilometers in length. Now if they include the Geonosian Dreadnoughts in that massive battle I will be one happy fan.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-05-29 10:54pm

Ender wrote:No doubt this will be potrayed in the EU as the entire Confederacy fleet vs the entire Republic fleet.

That's fucking dumb.

Any fleet surplus at all on either side could make the real actual strategic win in such a situation.

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2004-05-30 09:33am

There seems to have been some rumors about some band I've never heard of (Ash) having a cameo in Episode III (much like the rumors of N'Sync and AotC), but have turned out to be false.

Whatever, I say...

Its a band that does a cover of the Episode 4 cantina song, its pretty good. The mp3 i have is live recording of them doing it at a TPM party.

About the 5000 ships I'm hoping its some lightning strike against Coruscant or something like that.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-06-03 08:27am

It was also mentioned that Lucas Licensing has dubbed one of the types Republic Ships in the battle the Venator-class Star Destroyer.

What the heck is a Venator?

Praetor, Censor, Dictator, those aren't taken, dammit.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-06-03 03:41pm

Licensing is full of morons. Why can't they choose a word which is, well, a word, instead of some nonsensical shit.

I bet half of them don't realize that Acclamator is a word. Hopefully that's just a working name, and if/when Saxton pens the Episode III ICS, he'll dub the final name as being something that makes sense.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-06-04 01:26am

Curtis thought up Acclamator, didn't he?

Acclamator isn't a real word (from a check of dictionary.com, anyway), but it's simply a new form of a real word, so it was acceptable to me.

But Venator is just ....

Heck, why not Senator? Hello?!!??!

Post by **NecronLord** » 2004-06-04 06:34am

Let's see...

Latin names.

Acclamator could be from acclamatio - to shout, as in approval or dissaproval.

Venator does have a latin meaning. It means hunter. To me, this suggests that the Venator would be a true ship killer, something more fearsome than an Imperator, possibly some sort of battlecruiser or battleship, mounting a goodly number of heavy turbolasers. But perhaps I'm being too optomistic there.