What would you hope to see in a/the live action series?

[Vympel]

You know what... I just want a good fucking story, with action, humor and adventure. Something that I can watch and feel good about. I don't give a flying fuck if it makes Star Trek more powerful and Star Wars the laughing stock of the Vs debate universe... I DON'T FUCKING CARE!
Just make me love Star Wars again George.

It turns out fatty nerds make the worst fanfic writers. WHO KNEW

Shit. I just channeled Stark there. I feel dirty.

We have a winner.

I feel pretty jaded about the Vs debates as a whole, and people requesting future entries of a series specifically make the universe more powerful for vs debates is almost offensive. I know people didn't explicitly do that in this thread, but the general attitude of "rarr we need to see tie fighters blowing up cities to show those trekkies who's boss" just rubs me the wrong way.

All of this. It comes off as rather ... desperate?

I'm also hoping Stormtroopers are established as, you know, a threat. It makes for fucking awful drama where the villains of the piece are inept, which is one of the many problems of the prequels with the hapless, useless battledroids.

[Stofsk]

If by that you mean desperate for good storytelling, then yes.

[Knife]

Can cure all of that by just asking for a competent science adviser and listen to him/her.

As far as Stormtroopers, yeah, make them a faceless ever present menace and you have a winner.

[Dalton]

I would like to see a close and detailed look at a regular Joe Blow Imperial, like a stormtrooper or an Imperial pilot. Not some evil monster just a regular guy or girl serving their Empire.

i.e. an adaptation of Allegiance.

What I would like to see is decent acting and believable dialogue. In other words, a different fucking director. Can we clone Irvin Kershner?

[adam_grif]

Can cure all of that by just asking for a competent science adviser and listen to him/her.

Liiiitle too late to rescue the science of Star Wars. Would be better to hire a SW nerd with a deep undrestanding of the canon so it's at least consistent within the universe.

[Lord Revan]

I would like to see a close and detailed look at a regular Joe Blow Imperial, like a stormtrooper or an Imperial pilot. Not some evil monster just a regular guy or girl serving their Empire.

i.e. an adaptation of Allegiance.

What I would like to see is decent acting and believable dialogue. In other words, a different fucking director. Can we clone Irvin Kershner?

clone? isn't he still alive and working, besides even the best director won't help you if the scrips are bland.

[Dalton]

clone? isn't he still alive and working,

The guy's older than Yoda.

besides even the best director won't help you if the scrips are bland.

Maybe have Timothy Zahn and Aaron Allston co-write the screenplays.

[Vympel]

If by that you mean desperate for good storytelling, then yes.

No I mean I'm agreeing with everything those quotes say, and saying that wanting the live action series to show stuff that doesn't matter to anyone outside of vs debaters is ... desperate.

[Kamakazie Sith]

Yeah--in fact, it'd be better for the writers to avoid numbers altogether, in case we get crap like an ISD being horrified over a kiloton-level weapon, or whatever. When exactly have precise firepower numbers ever been given in a visual piece of SW fiction anyway?

They don't have to worry about that it's highly unlikely that they will start talking about numbers. What is likely is that we'll be disappointed by the effects artists. You'll be treated to a scene that pays respect to the orginals. You'll see a ISD flying through an asteroid field firing on asteroids and blasting them apart, and not vaporizing them. You'll see an ISD get hit by an asteroid, probably smaller than the one in ESB, and you will see it get destroyed.

[Havok]

You know what... I just want a good fucking story, with action, humor and adventure. Something that I can watch and feel good about. I don't give a flying fuck if it makes Star Trek more powerful and Star Wars the laughing stock of the Vs debate universe... I DON'T FUCKING CARE!
Just make me love Star Wars again George.

It turns out fatty nerds make the worst fanfic writers. WHO KNEW

Shit. I just channeled Stark there. I feel dirty.

We have a winner.

I feel pretty jaded about the Vs debates as a whole, and people requesting future entries of a series specifically make the universe more powerful for vs debates is almost offensive. I know people didn't explicitly do that in this thread, but the general attitude of "rarr we need to see tie fighters blowing up cities to show those trekkies who's boss" just rubs me the wrong way.

All of this. It comes off as rather ... desperate?

No, it is just sick of the Star Wars franchise being watered down with fucking garbage.

I'm also hoping Stormtroopers are established as, you know, a threat. It makes for fucking awful drama where the villains of the piece are inept, which is one of the many problems of the prequels with the hapless, useless battledroids.

Right, because the Stormtroopers were so effective and threatening in the OT. And you know, battle droids didn't kill dozens of Jedi and billions of people in the prequels or anything.

[Vympel]

All of this. It comes off as rather ... desperate?

No, it is just sick of the Star Wars franchise being watered down with fucking garbage.[/quote]

I was agreeing with you. I was saying "All of this" as in the convention of quoting someone you agree with and saying "this".

Right, because the Stormtroopers were so effective and threatening in the OT.

They were to me, actually, the start of ANH established it quite well, and it carried over into TESB due to the Imperial victory at Hoth. They only became a joke in RotJ. Which is a reason why RotJ is the weakest film of the three.

And you know, battle droids didn't kill dozens of Jedi and billions of people in the prequels or anything.

Oh bullshit, who the hell cares whether some random fire from random battle droids killed some random Jedi you barely see in one scene in AotC out of all the prequel battles? The point is that they're no threat to the main characters at all, and we know that. We're meant to know that, Lucas even said it explicitly in a behind the scenes special. That's shitty drama, period.

Not to mention I didn't see jack shit of battle droids killing billions of people in the prequels.

[Channel72]

They were to me, actually, the start of ANH established it quite well, and it carried over into TESB due to the Imperial victory at Hoth. They only became a joke in RotJ. Which is a reason why RotJ is the weakest film of the three.

Storm Trooper ineptness started to show at the end of ESB, as Leia and company constantly avoid getting shot while being chased through Cloud City. But really, it's difficult to portray generic evil minions as skilled, competent marksmen when the script requires your heroes to survive an action sequence. But yeah, overall the Storm Troopers were at least more effective bad guys than those stupid Prequel battle droids. I just hope that in the new TV series, Lucas eases up on the use of CGI and gets actual actors with costumes to play the Storm Troopers, instead of the CGI models used in the Prequels.

[Vympel]

Storm Trooper ineptness started to show at the end of ESB, as Leia and company constantly avoid getting shot while being chased through Cloud City. But really, it's difficult to portray generic evil minions as skilled, competent marksmen when the script requires your heroes to survive an action sequence. But yeah, overall the Storm Troopers were at least more effective bad guys than those stupid Prequel battle droids. I just hope that in the new TV series, Lucas eases up on the use of CGI and gets actual actors with costumes to play the Storm Troopers, instead of the CGI models used in the Prequels.

Yeah, I'd say its not just a question of aim, but its also how they act. The battle droids got dumber and dumber in each film as well. They're spastics, they don't even look remotely scary. That's just ... basic. Every evil minion in other stuff at least looks scary.

[jollyreaper]

Apparently, the live-action series Lucas has been promising for a while is due to go into pre-production sometime this year. What would you hope to see from it in terms of tech, characters, story, or otherwise?

Lucas not involved.

[jollyreaper]

People hoping for base delta zeros

That they even have a term for it denotes the silliness of the Death Star's stated purpose in the first place. Delta Zero is the same as Warhammer's Exterminatus, slag the surface of the planet so nobody can use it. Given that the crust of the planet like Earth is analagous in size and depth to the skin of an apple and the biomass is like .00001% of the total mass, what's the freakin' point of blowing the planet to pieces? Yeah, it's supposed to harken back to the destructiveness of the Mongols where they have cities dismantled until not one brick stands atop another and then they direct a river through the ruins. Or you could compare it to city-busting nukes. But it's so much more ridiculous than that.

The only comparison that might make sense is the atom bomb in WWII. Leveling Japanese cities was nothing new -- we could do that with conventional weapons. We killed 100k in the Tokyo fire raid. The death toll from the atom bombings was less than that. The difference was it took a thousand planes and tens of thousands of bombs to level Tokyo and Hiroshima was one plane, one bomb. The Japanese wondered what it would be like when a thousand planes flew over with a thousand atom bombs.

So maybe if the Death Star represented bigger firepower in a smaller package that could be used repeatedly.... except oh wait, it freakin' massed more than half the star fleet.

That's probably the part that bugged me the most of all in terms of imperial logic, blowing up planets. Yeah, the Romans destroyed Carthage and salted the earth but that's one city, not an entire planet. What about the Cold War and our plans to blow up cities? That was mutually assured destruction in an armageddon situation. The whole Tarkin doctrine of ruling through fear has much historic precedent and that I don't take issue with, it's just the wastefulness of destroying a whole planet as an object lesson. I could see conducting a planet slagging if you're at war with another empire and you're denying him access to resources. I can't see it in a civil war situation where the whole planet is mostly yours and has a lot more value than drawback. It'd be like the Russians saying "We believe that there are rebels and American spies operating in Minsk. Nuke it." And that's different from a scorched earth retreat where you're losing everything of value anyway so you destroy it to deny resources to the enemy but you can always come back and rebuild when they're defeated. It'd be something else if you were nuking the land so bad nothing could live there for 10k years.

[jollyreaper]

Can cure all of that by just asking for a competent science adviser and listen to him/her.

Liiiitle too late to rescue the science of Star Wars. Would be better to hire a SW nerd with a deep undrestanding of the canon so it's at least consistent within the universe.

Be nice to have an appreciation of scale. In the old X-Wing game, it was like four or five missions to take down a stranded Star Destroyer and it was considered an incredible victory for the Alliance. This is like the Romans losing a legion to the Gauls, eagles and all. The way it was handled in the storyline conveyed the significance.

You always end up with villain decay where what was once badass and powerful becomes commonplace. Enough with the wonder weapons that can take out two Star Destroyers in one pass!

[Kamakazie Sith]

That they even have a term for it denotes the silliness of the Death Star's stated purpose in the first place. Delta Zero is the same as Warhammer's Exterminatus, slag the surface of the planet so nobody can use it. Given that the crust of the planet like Earth is analagous in size and depth to the skin of an apple and the biomass is like .00001% of the total mass, what's the freakin' point of blowing the planet to pieces? Yeah, it's supposed to harken back to the destructiveness of the Mongols where they have cities dismantled until not one brick stands atop another and then they direct a river through the ruins. Or you could compare it to city-busting nukes. But it's so much more ridiculous than that.

Actually, the Death Star was able to defeat the best defenses the a core world could muster. Take the Hoth energy theater shield for an example. That shield would have been able to withstand bombardment from Vaders' Death Squadron. So, there is actually a point to the Death Star because I seriously doubt the Hoth shield was even remotely comparable to the shield that a core world would be capable of deploying.

[Srelex]

That they even have a term for it denotes the silliness of the Death Star's stated purpose in the first place. Delta Zero is the same as Warhammer's Exterminatus, slag the surface of the planet so nobody can use it. Given that the crust of the planet like Earth is analagous in size and depth to the skin of an apple and the biomass is like .00001% of the total mass, what's the freakin' point of blowing the planet to pieces?

I think it's been mentioned that there exist shelters from such bombardment. Given the descriptions of planets being 'stripped of resources' in various sources, it's not unthinkable that hiding in the mantle is an option. Besides, as others have said, there exist little things called planetary shields.

So maybe if the Death Star represented bigger firepower in a smaller package that could be used repeatedly.... except oh wait, it freakin' massed more than half the star fleet.

The Death Star's weapon is able to completely negate the aforementioned planetary shields--and even then, Alderaan's shields stood up for a fraction of a second. That is a pretty nifty advantage.

That's probably the part that bugged me the most of all in terms of imperial logic, blowing up planets. Yeah, the Romans destroyed Carthage and salted the earth but that's one city, not an entire planet. What about the Cold War and our plans to blow up cities? That was mutually assured destruction in an armageddon situation. The whole Tarkin doctrine of ruling through fear has much historic precedent and that I don't take issue with, it's just the wastefulness of destroying a whole planet as an object lesson. I could see conducting a planet slagging if you're at war with another empire and you're denying him access to resources. I can't see it in a civil war situation where the whole planet is mostly yours and has a lot more value than drawback. It'd be like the Russians saying "We believe that there are rebels and American spies operating in Minsk. Nuke it." And that's different from a scorched earth retreat where you're losing everything of value anyway so you destroy it to deny resources to the enemy but you can always come back and rebuild when they're defeated. It'd be something else if you were nuking the land so bad nothing could live there for 10k years.

The Empire's got millions of planets; why should they care about losing a few, if it means erasing an enemy or intidimating a populance into submission? The galaxy is big, you know, to say the least.

[Boombaye]

All I'd ever want from a new series is a grittier, more violent type. Darker, edgier and such. Lower deck episodes as though it was Band of Brothers/The Pacific in Space. With average nameless soldiers fighting it out and no more Jedi or Sith. I like normal infantry violence.

If the budget won't hold for that, then I'll roll with the average people, lives under the Empire etc. Would love to see a few cameos by major heroes, though.

[Knife]

It would be nice to see some other elements of the galaxy. In the OT, we see a plucky band of rebels on backwater worlds. In the PT, we see the grandeur of the dying Republic. Perhaps we could see things like, life on a mid rim system. A stop over at the refueling point. Port call. Regular people and how they saw the Clone Wars and how they see the Empire.

[Elfdart]

The last episode should cover the Rebellion's first victory described at the beginning of Star Wars. The long-range Rebel fighters from Yavin swoop in and deal the decisive blow against the Empire while a mole inside the Imperial network transmits the Death Star plans to Leia's ship, which flees the scene with the Imperial Starfleet hot on its heels.

[Adam Reynolds]

The last episode should cover the Rebellion's first victory described at the beginning of Star Wars. The long-range Rebel fighters from Yavin swoop in and deal the decisive blow against the Empire while a mole inside the Imperial network transmits the Death Star plans to Leia's ship, which flees the scene with the Imperial Starfleet hot on its heels.

The only problem with this plot would be that there are already several contradictory depictions of how the Death Star plans were stolen. See here for how convoluted the stories already are. It is unlikely that this new story would not make this situation worse.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_star_plans

[Ugolino]

Well, it would be hard to make it much worse. There are already so many thefts, one more won't make much of a difference.

Besides, they might be able to name-drop the others, and thereby make a G-canon retcon...

[Elfdart]

The last episode should cover the Rebellion's first victory described at the beginning of Star Wars. The long-range Rebel fighters from Yavin swoop in and deal the decisive blow against the Empire while a mole inside the Imperial network transmits the Death Star plans to Leia's ship, which flees the scene with the Imperial Starfleet hot on its heels.

The only problem with this plot would be that there are already several contradictory depictions of how the Death Star plans were stolen. See here for how convoluted the stories already are. It is unlikely that this new story would not make this situation worse.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_star_plans

Not necessarily: the episode could only cover the plans being transmitted, not how the spies found them.

[Ronsu]

The only problem with this plot would be that there are already several contradictory depictions of how the Death Star plans were stolen. See here for how convoluted the stories already are. It is unlikely that this new story would not make this situation worse.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Death_star_plans

Good thing the new show doesn´t need to give a shit about the accumulated clusterfuck, isn´t it?

All I want from the show is a fun and interesting story told with a modicum of talent. With Lucas and his modern priority of watering edges down for the lowest common denominator to reel in the megabucks involved, I´m not too hopeful.

Has there been any info about set design or art direction for the show? I can imagine Lucas and McCallum going for a bluescreen nightmare to save a few dollars, and a CG-fest with a TV budget can get ugly real fast, not to mention the pressure the actors must face reacting to nothing on stage.