Thom
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Posts posted by Thom
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Wow, @SteveTheFish nicely done! Those eyes are great!
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Darn, I was hoping this was a sequel to the Vikander movie.
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1 hour ago, Chronocidal said:
Ha! I was looking for the one with Kylo!
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2 hours ago, TMBounty_Hunter said:
That.. works! Unify the paint scheme and it would look even better.
And a nice up-armored VF-O!
4 hours ago, MKT said: -
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55 minutes ago, KOG Water Dragon said:
Same! I wanted a VF-171 kit for soooo long and now we have 3 options.
I forget, was there a possible EWAC version announced too?
And the big question: will anyone give us battroids?
I would like to see that one too. Though, if you have Luca's RVF-25 then you can kitbash.
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3 hours ago, nickster said:
Here's the painted on version... my hand can muster 😂
About what I'd be able to do too! It's a good felling having a model getting finished.
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I'm in! Fun and adventure, what more do you need!?
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10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
Lies and slander. The sequel trilogy was nothing if not an essay on how nobody wants Rey... not her parents, not the OT cast, not the Jedi Order, not her gramps... not even the audience. 😛
I like her.
10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:If you ask George Lucas, they're ALL kids movies. 🤔
(I have my doubts about Rogue One, but I can see the point for the others. Then again, I'm barely into Clone Wars season two and there is some DARK sh*t there despite it being a kids show. Was prequel-era Star Wars just on a mission to create some generational trauma or something?)
Rogue One is definitely not a kid's movie!
A similar approach could be said to have been done with the Harry Potter movies, as the first one is more for kids, and in that way serves as a good intro before they start getting old. I've only seen the Phantom Menace twice (if that) and it keeps getting worse every time I see it!
11 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:It's great how little effort went into these.
Like, really. Practically every Jedi character fits these descriptions. Every Jedi Master is wise and respected and strong in the force. You don't get to be a Jedi Master if you're not! They're all skilled combatants who don't seek combat but are ready for it if it finds them because that's literally what they're all trained for. The padawans are always studious and skilled greenhorns who look up to their masters because they're mostly child abductees who've been indoctrinated into the Jedi's belief system.
Seriously, enough of these stock characters. I wanna see the Jedi Master who's a foolish and impulsive jerk that nobody respects and... oh bloody hell except for the "Master" part I'm describing Anakin aren't I?
With Star Trek: Discovery ending and Star Wars: the Acolyte starting soon after, I'm once again left to wonder what it is about Hollywood that feels compelled to write every black woman in a sci-fi show's main cast as mentally unbalanced and emotionally unstable because of a tragic past and a self-destructive desire for revenge? Star Trek did it on three separate occasions in quick succession (Discovery's Michael Burnham, Picard's Raffaela Musiker, and Lower Decks's Beckett Mariner) and now Star Wars is doing it. I just hope it doesn't come of as lowkey racist like those first two did.
Those are more of what you'd put on the back of a toy box. Hopefully, they'll have far more depth than that!
Though that does remind me of Rebel Moon II and how the backstory of all the heroes is pretty much the same.
10 hours ago, Bolt said:Where's the rogue smuggler?
Great Granddaddy Han is sure to make an appearance!
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5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
They did? We've only seen the one AFAIK.
Mind you, "temple" can be used in a non-religious context and the Jedi don't seem to engage in anything resembling religious practices as far as we've seen in the movies and the TV shows. Buddhism is often argued to be more a school of philosophical thought than a religion, but their congregation places are often referred to as "temples" in English.
There were apparently Jedi temples all over the place, according to EU, comics and books, and the follow-up trilogy with Luke having retreated to the very first Jedi Temple.
5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:Eh... IMO, it was inevitable Star Wars would have to introduce some kind of foolproof and objective test to identify latent Force users.
It made the most sense to introduce it in the prequel trilogy, when the Jedi Order was at the peak of its power. Even with ten thousand Jedi, there just aren't enough of them to go touring Republic space (never mind the whole galaxy) looking for Force sensitive kids manually. It's a pragmatic necessity given the sheer scale of the setting. Plus it was kind of necessary for The Phantom Menace's story to work at all. Qui-Gon Jinn needed hard evidence that Anakin was The Chosen One™️, and a big showy demonstration of Force power would have required teaching him before he was allowed to join the Order and broken the flow of the story up to that point.
(Plus it would also raise the awkward question of what the Jedi do with the kids who they train enough to test and then DON'T let join the Order... unfortunate implications abound.)
Sure they would, I'm just saying they probably shouldn't have depicted it, for stated reasons above.
As to the Phantom Menace, I think they should have gone with an older Anakin (and not just because for the whole May/December thing with Padme.) They should have had Qui-Gon meet an older, more rebellious Anakin who was already pushing at the extremes of his power, but the Phantom Menace is basically a kid's movie, so...
5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:That's one of the reasons his redemption doesn't really track with his character development.
All he had to do was let Palpatine and Rey fight and kill the exhausted victor, and he would claim all the spoils... how much of his redemption was him and how much was him being influenced through the Force by Leia? He definitely didn't seem put off by Palpatine's plan until very late in the game and he had zero reason to care about Rey beyond his attempts to turn her to the dark side.
I would assume that Leia's influence, powered a lot by her death, was momentary. And that influence, I think, was just the awareness of his mother dying. Recall, he had the chance to do it himself and even urged Rey to 'kill' her past, but he couldn't do it himself. I would have to suppose that he was recalling killing Han and realized, after the fact, that patricide really isn't all it is cracked up to be.
6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:What even are the qualifications for being a Sith? Does his apprenticeship under Snoke count? What even was Snoke? Is Kylo Ren some kinda Sith intern? Maybe The Acolyte'll clear the Sith career path up a bit.
I'll have to find the hand book. It's in the Dark Side of the closet.
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8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
It's probably worth considering that both of the people who refer to it as a "religion" did so while mocking it... it may not be literal.
(One of the two guys who calls it "religion" also calls Vader a sorcerer in the same statement, after all.)
Oh, undoubtedly. Mocking, sarcastic and derisive, but it was there. And let's not forget, the Jedi had 'temples' all over the galaxy, which also tends to the view of a religion.
8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:I'm not sure whether I agree or disagree with the idea that it lessens the impact of the Force's role in the story.
That said, I do think it's a logical inclusion in the story. Star Wars is science fantasy. It exists at the intersection of the science fiction and fantasy genres. Even in a pure fantasy setting, the existence of magic might get a handwave but there will still almost inevitably be people researching it (wizards) both to figure out how it works (what rules it follows) and how to apply it in new and different ways. A scientifically and technologically advanced civilization like the one in Star Wars that discovers the existence of practical "magic" like the Force would absolutely study it extensively rather than handwaving it. Not just out of scientific curiosity, but with an eye towards practical application. The powers that Jedi have through the Force could have some pretty broad applications if you think about it even a little.
(Even if you're thinking strictly non-military, the Jedi's telekinesis via tapping into a limitless energy field continuously produced by all life opens the door to all kinds of nonsense like reactionless flight or even practical overunity machines. Literal free energy. The ability to convert thought into mechanical force is a scary prospect.)
I don't disagree that they would have looked for, and found ways, to measure and catalogue the Force, I just think that the decision to make that something they could do was a mistake. The Force was far better as a mystical mystery. Again, just IMO. I denounce midichlorins!
8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:Ben... also kinda died before we could see if he would have to struggle against his addiction to the Dark Side.
He doesn't seem to so much turn back to the light as just turn against someone more evil than himself, which is probably reflective of the original intent being for him not to be redeemed.
(Both he and Vader seem to be forgiven awfully easily for all the murder too... one deathbed confessional and they're both off the hook for genocide?)
Yes, Ben did die as well, but he was able to make more choices and perform more chosen tasks than Vader had been able to after he killed the Emperor. Truly, all Ben had to do was stand back and let Palpatine kill Rey. He made the choice however to fight with her, and even as she had died while using all of her life force to attack Palpy, Ben still chose self sacrifice in order to bring her back. If he had still been bad/evil, all he had to do was look into her dying eyes and 'thank you,' then walk away as the most powerful player left standing. To me, that signified a significant break from the Dark Side.*
*A caveat being, of course, was Ben really a Sith, or just a fan-boi Ren? And what the heck is a Ren? Yet another thing to not like about the recent trilogy, the move away from historical nomenclature, such as Sith. They kept Jedi after all!
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16 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
Hrm... I dunno. I feel like there's been a fair amount of evidence pointing to Force sensitivity not being entirely mystical from the start.
After all, Star Wars has always maintained that Force sensitivity is something you're born with. It's innate mystical ability. It's not something you can pick up through the power of faith (like theurgic magic/miracles), through diligent study of esoteric forces (wizardy), or by making a pact with a mystical entity (invocative magic). It's not something a person can become... they either are one all along, or never will be one.
Beyond that, one of the earliest details we learn about the Force in A New Hope is that talent/power in the Force can run in families... a detail later explicitly confirmed in Return of the Jedi. If Force sensitivity can be passed on to one's offspring, it has to be a biologically-linked trait. We know it can't have been nurture, because Anakin Skywalker didn't raise either of his children and neither had substantial contact with any other Force practitioner growing up.
What really seems to have clinched the idea that ability in the Force was a biological trait was the 1991-1993 Thrawn trilogy - the only EU novel series I've ever read! - in which the Empire manages to successfully clone not one but two Jedi with their powers intact. If you can grown a new person from a Force user's cell sample and that new person is also Force sensitive (never mind being exactly as powerful) then that means Force ability has to be a biologically-linked trait. That's eight years before Phantom Menace.
That seems to have been tried both pre- and post-Disney, with inconclusive results?
A little Google-fu pointed to a story where Palpatine tried to make General Grievous force sensitive with a blood transfusion from a Jedi master... the same schtick that our boy Moff Gideon tried in The Mandalorian season three. It supposedly didn't work for Grievous, but we have no idea if it worked for Gideon's clones.
IMO, it actually makes a modicum of sense for there to be a measurable/quantifiable expression of Force potential.
Most science fantasy or science fiction titles where quasi-magical powers are a part of the setting at least handwave it as something that's been subjected to intense scientific scrutiny, and those where it's prominent often have some kind of in-universe system for measuring and quantifying a person's paranormal ability. It'd actually be weird as hell if there wasn't something like that used by the Jedi Order, considering they were looking for vanishingly rare latent Force users in an unfathomably huge population.
In Macross, that potential was quantified as their peak Song Energy output in Chiba units. Resonance effects are measured as the Nome coefficient.
In Warhammer 40,000, the Imperium has a twenty-four (actually twenty-six) point scale called The Assignment that's used for measuring and quantifying someone's psychic potential in terms of usable ability.
Star Trek has used four different terms: "aperception quotient", "esper rating", "Duke-Heidelberg quotient" and "psi-q" to refer to a system of measuring and scoring an individual's abilities with psionic discplines like telepathy and telekinesis.
Dragon Ball Z has those infamous (and bullsh*t) Power Levels...
Babylon-5 had the P-level assessments for psychics.
... and so on and so forth. When you consider the level of technology available in the Star Wars galaxy and that the Jedi have supposedly had 25,000 years to study the origin of their powers, it'd be weird as hell if they didn't have some system for predicting or measuring a person's potential as a Force user after all that time or some idea of how all their fancy abilities actually worked.
Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science. 😉
So, I did a little more digging. The bit about "grey" Jedi not being a thing comes from the franchise's executive setting coordinator Pablo Hidalgo.
Disney's official position on the Grey Jedi seems to be that they can't exist because the Dark Side's nature is inherently evil and corruptive. You can't tap into it without ending up being influenced by it, so it's not something that can be used "in moderation". It's more a slippery slope/"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" sort of thing. Evil is not a toy, after all, and "evil in moderation" is still evil.
In the first one, the Force was refereed to as a 'religion,' with Vader countering about 'lack of faith.' I think, in all the following movies, we see the 'ever shifting sands' of meaning, where in the first the Force was very simply referred to and didn't need any further explanation, other a choking demonstrations, for it to be believable. IMO, they should have kept it in that simple area of understanding. Obi-Wan's explanation was really as in-depth as they ever needed to get. Again, IMO, turning it into something really measurable, such as by a computer, lessened the impact of it. Which is a pit-fall of continuing stories past where they were first intended to end.
I just think making it something microbial was playing it too cute. Lucas should have left it as is rather than basically back-dating the whole idea.
As to the 'evilness' of the Dark Side, again there are two clear instances where dark force users made a break from it. With Vader, it was basically one act in defense of his son and he died before we could see if he would be struggling against the urge to go Dark again, whereas with Ben he very clearly made a clean break. To me that signifies that a person's choice, to be or not to be (evil) is still just a choice and that the slippery slope may either be just a perception or an outright pontification of fear. The Jedi would not want others to even dabble in it, so pushing the fear of it, "Don't turn to the Dark Side or you will lose your sou!" served their purpose of combating their ancient enemy, the Sith.
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Destroid!! But at least he took out the Zetran he was fighting. I think so at least, as I can only see half of him... 🤮
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Fine looking Battroid @Urashiman Looks like a really good kit.
@pengbuzz that Street Hawk cycle is looking great! As to the wheel, is there any way to make a resin copy of one of the other wheels? Or, if not that, buying another toy with similar wheels and just taking all you need from that one.
And cool work on they Valkyrie @nightmareB4macross
As for me, I can't seam to keep my model from morphing into different kits. Last I looked it was an Me-410, and now its a Crusader. It's not even the same scale!!
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7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:
Why not both? My read of the whole "midichlorians" thing from back when it was introduced in The Phantom Menace was that it's basically another kind of mitochondria that taps into the Force to produce telekinesis and telepathy instead of tapping into oxygen to produce chemical energy.
Based on that, I kind of look at the Force as a less sh*tty version of the Warp from Warhammer 40,000. It'd be there regardless of whether or not there were sentient beings who were capable of tapping into its power consciously or unconsciously, but because there is so much life in the galaxy contributing to it consciously or unconsciously even at very low levels it has taken on aspects of life and developed its own will.
If mitochondria are present in all cellular life in at least minute quantities the way mitochondria are present in all eukaryotic life, that would allow for both to be true.
My thing is, turning it into basically microbes in the body, something that can be sampled and measured rather than a mystical force pervading the universe, really takes away from the wonder of it. I mean, if you can take samples of it, can you then not take them all from one person and inject them into another? Perhaps a bioweapon could be made specifically to kill off midichlorians (sp?) thus ending the constant tug of war between the Jedi and the Sith. Or at least knocking out their godlike powers.
That little bit of dialogue dashed a lot of mysticism, at least for me. Which is why I was so glad that they did not mention them in the Rey Saga, when Maz basically reiterated Old Ben's original description.
7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:I looked into this because it sounded like some writer's attempt to cheat the system that the movies had put into place... but the official position from TPTB is that they don't exist in the Disney canon.
Ah, I thought I had heard mention of the Grays in relation to Ashoka, and they are on Wookiepedia. But then, like Wiki, take with a grain of Crait salt...
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3 hours ago, TangledThorns said:
Our other local (Alamo, ICON, CMX, etc) theaters actually don't have ads played when the movie is supposed to start and I guess that's what it made seem so obscene too.
Too true! Play the movie when it's timed to, as sometimes that makes it start 10 to 20 min later.
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The Force itself is confusing enough. Is it a part of all life in and around everything, or is it tiny microbes in the body and the more you have the more you can manipulate?
There are also mentions of the Grays, those who walk the path in between, neither Good or Bad, but utilizing both in order to keep the Balance between them.
I'm on the side that the Force is merely an amplifier, not so much of a permanent tendency towards good or evil, but just in where one puts their attentions. Seek to be good and walk the path of the Light without deviating and the more 'good' you are, and the same with the Dark side. As anything, the more you 'feed' either, the deeper they become. Now yes, there have been notable instances where Jedi have flipped and come back again (Vader and Ben) but I think those are pivotal moments in inherently good people who had been led astray.
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4 hours ago, TangledThorns said:
Saw it today. It was good, felt like a companion to the last movie. Hemsworth was great and should play more villains. Side notes though...
I am never going to a Regal Cinema again. Had to sit through 30 minutes of mostly ads and some trailers after the movie was supposed to start. Unreal.
Yeah, used to be it was just previews, which were always nice to see. But with more people staying home to wait and stream movies in comfort, they have to bring in more revenue somewhere. Sadly, that's just more commercials...
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12 hours ago, sh9000 said:
By ZICHI3150.
Thing of beauty.
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Well, they are called Jedi Knights.😉
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8 hours ago, Big s said:
Not 3 then?
With the Ferris Wheel? No. Never happened.
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9 hours ago, sh9000 said:
As long as it retains the fun of the first two, I'm in.
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Aw, that looks so good!
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Wow, I thought that had already come out!
The 'Hey look at this really cool model build I saw' post
in Model kits
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That's really cool/cute!