Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Elheru Aran]

I guess my gripe is that it comes off like a comic-book superhero name. Chrome armour! Special flamethrower weapon! Even a frickin' CAPE! Captain Phasma to the RESCUE! You know?

[The Romulan Republic]

I see what you mean, aside from the fact that she appears to be one of the villains.

[jwl]

"Darth Vader" sounds kind of comic book-ish too. He's got a cape as well. And a laser sword.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Star Wars is a space opera. Darth Vader doesn't sound goofy because we're used to it. Wedge Antilles sounds fine because we're used to it. Skywalker, same. Star Wars is absolutely brimming with goofy-ass names.

As far as Captain Phasma goes... Well, I'm going to call her Brienne of Darth instead. Not because "Phasma" sounds weird to me, but because wordplay amuses me. My guess is that "Phasma" is based off "phantasm." If such is the case, she might play a more special ops focused role. Time will tell.

[Nephtys]

I suppose how you pronounce the name will affect it greatly as well.

IF it's 'Captain Plasma---er, Fhaz-mah', then it sounds like a 50s rocketship person.
If it's 'Phasm-uah' it sounds like a strange space ethnicity.

[jwl]

Although to be fair, with vader (and most comic book characters), it's just an alias. It sounds like Phasma is her actual name.

[Pelranius]

Well, Phasma isn't any worse than Poe Dameron.

[The Romulan Republic]

Captain seems like a pretty low rank for someone who's apparently a prominent villain. Why not General Phasma?

[Lord Revan]

Captain seems like a pretty low rank for someone who's apparently a prominent villain. Why not General Phasma?

that depends on what is her role in a the movie and also if that's an army captain (company level CO) or naval captain (equilevant of an army colonel). If she's a specialist sent to track down the heroes then a(n army) captain isn't too bad as her prominence comes from being a major threat to the heroes directly not from being a major player in the "bigger picture" of galactic politics.

[Pelranius]

Well, Colonel Phasma seems to have a nicer ring, IMHO.

She could still get a promotion, if those rumors of her being the "next merchandising Boba Fett" are true and Christie sticks around.

[Zixinus]

The key to making the name work is that everybody on screen treats it straight and without snickering. That's it.

I mean, come on, Han Solo? Chewbacca? Several of the names in the old trilogy were puns. Let's not get into stuff like Jar-Jar Binks...

[Havok]

Oh come the fuck on. You guys bitch about Captain Phasma but don't bat an eye at Luke SKYWALKER the Hero and Han SOLO the rogue smuggler? Get your childhood perspective back or at least remember that all the names and stories in these movies are infantile.

[Channel72]

I think Poe Dameron is an awesome name. I don't like Kylo Ren though... that just doesn't do much for me. They should bring back Kane Starkiller.

[Elfdart]

Dameron is my mom's maiden name, so of course Poe Dameron is awesome.

[Darksider]

So I didn't read the entirety of the spoilers posted in the "plot synopsis" thread, but i've seen a couple........

Is anyone else worried that Abrams is making the most expensive fan film ever?

[The Romulan Republic]

Well Abrams is a Star Wars fan, so technically...

[Gandalf]

So I didn't read the entirety of the spoilers posted in the "plot synopsis" thread, but i've seen a couple........

Is anyone else worried that Abrams is making the most expensive fan film ever?

Considering that they paid four billion dollars to be able to make these films, I'd be surprised if there was not a directive from on high to make the film as evocative of OT as possible thus drawing in sweet nostalgia coin.

[The Romulan Republic]

Its moronic if that's what they're thinking.

Average viewers would be likely to find the films derivative and hard core whiners who insist that it has to be exactly like the Original Trilogy will probably hate it anyway because they made up their minds to do so from day one.

[Zixinus]

Of course it is going to be ridiculously expensive. It is an attempt to revive one of the most profitable media franchises in the the 20th century into the 21st century, a media franchise centered around films. There is a blank check going on because they already spent a massive amount of money buying the franchise in the first place. The last thing they want is for the film to fail because they didn't have a big enough budget.

[Lord Revan]

Its moronic if that's what they're thinking.

Average viewers would be likely to find the films derivative and hard core whiners who insist that it has to be exactly like the Original Trilogy will probably hate it anyway because they made up their minds to do so from day one.

The Hardcore fans don't want to it to be like the OT, they want it to be like the idea of the OT they have in their head, problem being obviously that said idea is something that cannot be done with a limited budget or timetable.

[Havok]

Average viewers are going to see it and love it and probably never talk about it again outside of "Man that was cool!".
We are the hardcore fans.

[Iroscato]

From what I hear, this is tracking to be an Avatar-beater of a movie. Not sure what kind of witchcraft they used to divine this, but I'm thinking it won't really matter how much or how little they draw on nostalgia for this juggernaut.
For the record, Captain Phasma is an awesome name, and those who disagree grew up and got boring

[Lagmonster]

Oh come the fuck on. You guys bitch about Captain Phasma but don't bat an eye at Luke SKYWALKER the Hero and Han SOLO the rogue smuggler? Get your childhood perspective back or at least remember that all the names and stories in these movies are infantile.

Rule of thumb: If it sounds like it could equally have been a character from Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, it's appropriate for Star Wars.

[Mange]

Well, the name of Andy Serkis's character has been revealed on StarWars.com: It's Supreme Leader Snoke! StarWars.com

[Alyrium Denryle]

Oh come the fuck on. You guys bitch about Captain Phasma but don't bat an eye at Luke SKYWALKER the Hero and Han SOLO the rogue smuggler? Get your childhood perspective back or at least remember that all the names and stories in these movies are infantile.

Rule of thumb: If it sounds like it could equally have been a character from Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, it's appropriate for Star Wars.

Hell, I have a Mon Calamari jedi consular in the Star Wars RPG by fantasy flight games. We are playing by way of skype (because are nerds spread over a continent).

I named him Zappa Tenuous. I created this name by finding the most Star Wars-esque combination of genus and species names for... wait for it... Mudskippers