• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

Because George Lucas is an IDIOT

Or you could try:
Because Force choking/crushing of organs is a Dark Side power.

Obi-Wan had no other weapons at his disposal. His lightsaber was dropped (recovered by Commander Cody), the electrostaff was useless. Only Grievous' blaster remained. Rather than use a direct Dark Side power, Obi-Wan simply called the blaster to his hand and used it as a last resort. After using the blaster, he disposed of it, stating: "So uncivilized." Sounds like that was pretty much in character with Obi-Wan to me.

Sorry, I don't have the plugin to see what your image/gif/video is.
 
^
That's always been my take on the scene. I don't buy the fan theory that Darth Sidious always looked like that and used the powers of the Dark Side to appear normal as Senator and later Chancellor Palpatine. The deflected Sith lightning bounced back on and damaged his facial features but he decided to play the public sympathy card and use his new appearance in his campaign against the Jedi Order and their "rebellion."

The thing is, what happened to his face looks nothing like a burn and that didn't happen to either Luke or Windu when they got a face-full of Sidious's lightning.

My take on it is that Sideous never outwardly looked like this before, but he was holding back the visible corruption that comes with being so consumed by the dark side. IIRC the shooting script is fairly clear in that his face distorted because he needed to pool all his effort and focus into holding back Windu, even if it was just enough to make it look convincing.

There's certainly a precedent for the influence of the Dark Side manifesting physically. Namely the whole yellow eyes thing. Anakin was a Sith for less than a day before his eyes changed. There also appears to be a precedent for a Sith hiding their true eye colour in that Dooku's eyes seemed normal, except in a few instances in TCW where his eyes are seen to change to the familiar Sith yellow colour when he was especially angry or drawing deeply from his powers..
And of course, in this very scene, Palpatine's eyes changed just as his face did.
 
I never liked the Emperor's appearance being due to scars. I had always assumed that he was incredibly old and only clinging to life due to the Dark Side. It would make him a twisted counterpart to Yoda who gracefully dies when it's his time. Either that or the Dark Side was corrupting him on a physical level, like it causing him to decay.
 
The thing is, what happened to his face looks nothing like a burn and that didn't happen to either Luke or Windu when they got a face-full of Sidious's lightning.

True, but the Star Wars universe is hardly what we'd call hard science and we probably shouldn't try to look at it that way.

George has demonstrated over the decades that the requirements of his story often dictate what a weapon or a technology can do. Had George wanted Sith lightning to physically deform Mace, Anakin in the Geonosis hangar or Luke aboard the second Death Star he'd have no doubt given the actors that appearance. George isn't always, shall we say, fully consistent in how he depicts the behaviors of both characters and weapons.

For example, Obi-Wan's lightsaber in the original film leaves a bloody, gaping wound on Ponda Baba when the latter's arm is sliced off in the Cantina. Every other lightsaber wound seen since leaves no pools of blood nor any uncauterized wounds. George develops his ideas - good or bad - over time and changes things when the story being written sees fit to have something behave differently. In Episode III he apparently wanted to leave the impression that Sith lightning ricocheted back on Palpatine and changed his facial appearance, even if it doesn't necessarily make sense in the wider context of the Saga.

Star Wars "Science" is often entirely dependent upon the needs of the script. ;)
 
I just can't get behind the idea that the force lightning altered an otherwise normal face. (And voice, somehow. :wtf:) He keeps the lightning going for so long and it has no negative impact on Mace but it's melting his own face? Yeah, that just makes him seem stupid.
 
I haven't heard anyone comment on the fact that Rey seems to be flying the Falcon on her own (evidence by the BTS footage). I think that's quite something.. especially for this unknown actress Daisy Ridley
 
You guys know that outside of the films, and Clone Wars cartoon, that everything(games, books, tv shows, etc.) released prior to September 2014 is glorified fan fiction right?
 
Because George Lucas is an IDIOT

Or you could try:
Because Force choking/crushing of organs is a Dark Side power.

Obi-Wan had no other weapons at his disposal. His lightsaber was dropped (recovered by Commander Cody), the electrostaff was useless. Only Grievous' blaster remained. Rather than use a direct Dark Side power, Obi-Wan simply called the blaster to his hand and used it as a last resort. After using the blaster, he disposed of it, stating: "So uncivilized." Sounds like that was pretty much in character with Obi-Wan to me.

It has been noted that Mace Windu's fighting style balanced on the edge of the Dark Side. A very fine balance point that he's mastered. Others that used his style tend to fall to the Dark Side. So a force crush on Grievous from Windu is not too out of line....for him and his style. But it is very close to the Dark Side.

Luke's force choking the guards when entering Jabba's Palace was very close to the Dark Side as well.

You guys know that outside of the films, and Clone Wars cartoon, that everything(games, books, tv shows, etc.) released prior to September 2014 is glorified fan fiction right?

Don't care.
 
Or you could try:
Because Force choking/crushing of organs is a Dark Side power.

Obi-Wan had no other weapons at his disposal. His lightsaber was dropped (recovered by Commander Cody), the electrostaff was useless. Only Grievous' blaster remained. Rather than use a direct Dark Side power, Obi-Wan simply called the blaster to his hand and used it as a last resort. After using the blaster, he disposed of it, stating: "So uncivilized." Sounds like that was pretty much in character with Obi-Wan to me.

It has been noted that Mace Windu's fighting style balanced on the edge of the Dark Side. A very fine balance point that he's mastered. Others that used his style tend to fall to the Dark Side. So a force crush on Grievous from Windu is not too out of line....for him and his style. But it is very close to the Dark Side.

Luke's force choking the guards when entering Jabba's Palace was very close to the Dark Side as well.

I do recall in the Tartakovski Clone Wars cartoon that Windu did use crushing force on General Grievous, which is supposedly what gave the droid general his chronic cough.

As for Luke, yeah, he used choking powers, but, if I recall, he did not kill the Gamorrean guards... just got them out of his way. I supposed you could use powers like that without risking the lure of the Dark Side, as long as they are used to incapacitate, not to kill.


I still kinda hold to the notion that Sidious' deformation was a result of him using full-on Dark Side power against Windu... and that it demanded its price, some of Palpatine's vitality, at least in terms of physical appearance. Up til that time, if he had used any Dark Side Force power at all, it was minimalistic. And until he fought Windu himself, he hardly broke a sweat fighting the other Jedi masters.

Yeah, in the novelization, the fighting style of Vapaad addresses Windu's rather dark nature, and he balances it very finely....enough to win the fight, but not enough to succumb to the Dark Side.

cooleddie74 said:
Star Wars "Science" is often entirely dependent upon the needs of the script. ;)
Often that way in a lot of sci-fi/space fantasy...including Star Trek. :)
 
Sometimes the science is pointed out to the writer, director, or producer, later on and they fix it in a later show. People pointed out that the lightsaber, a beam of basically plasma, should burn though anything, but it also cauterize the wound. I'm not sure anyone of the design team, or Lucas, had thought of that, since he'd been calling it a Laser Sword, for most of that time.
 
I'd just like to remind everyone that when analyzing the effects of Sith lightning on Palpatine's body, remember to use the equations for Sith lightning and not the equations for regular lightning. 'Cuz Sith lightning and regular lightning are like totally different things. ;)
 
Sometimes the science is pointed out to the writer, director, or producer, later on and they fix it in a later show. People pointed out that the lightsaber, a beam of basically plasma, should burn though anything, but it also cauterize the wound. I'm not sure anyone of the design team, or Lucas, had thought of that, since he'd been calling it a Laser Sword, for most of that time.
Aqualish flesh doesn't burn, it melts. Problem solved.
 
I don't think the post-Sith lightning voice was all that different from the "Sidious" voice he used previously. He just used that voice and the hood/robe more in public after.


About Palpatine hiding his true abilities: Remember, in ROTJ, in some scenes he walks kind of hunched over and walking slowly with a cane, but during the Luke/Vader confrontation I don't think he uses it at all (When the guards leave and he takes the lightsaber, and later when he confronts Luke). Like with Yoda, the cane might be a bit of an act.
 
I just can't get behind the idea that the force lightning altered an otherwise normal face. (And voice, somehow. :wtf:) He keeps the lightning going for so long and it has no negative impact on Mace but it's melting his own face? Yeah, that just makes him seem stupid.

To be fair it seemed Paloatine was getting it at closer range than Windu.
 
I just can't get behind the idea that the force lightning altered an otherwise normal face. (And voice, somehow. :wtf:) He keeps the lightning going for so long and it has no negative impact on Mace but it's melting his own face? Yeah, that just makes him seem stupid.

To be fair it seemed Paloatine was getting it at closer range than Windu.
What I mean is, he's shooting lightning at Mace, who is deflecting it with his lightsaber. Why keep on firing when it is doing nothing except hurting yourself? Would you keep firing a gun at someone if every bullet bounced off of them and hit you?
 
Regarding the Rey thing...
It's been reported that the movie will end with Rey now co-piloting the Falcon with Chewie. What that means for Han is uncertain. Also the recently leaked Lego set might reveal who pilots the Falcon before Han reclaims it-a character named Tasu Leech. I'm beginning to think that at some point between ROTJ and TFA, Han loses the Falcon to the pirates seen in some of the BTS photos and stuff, and who have some connection with Rey and presumabely operate on Jakku.
 
Regarding the Rey thing...
It's been reported that the movie will end with Rey now co-piloting the Falcon with Chewie. What that means for Han is uncertain. Also the recently leaked Lego set might reveal who pilots the Falcon before Han reclaims it-a character named Tasu Leech. I'm beginning to think that at some point between ROTJ and TFA, Han loses the Falcon to the pirates seen in some of the BTS photos and stuff, and who have some connection with Rey and presumabely operate on Jakku.

So he'll be humiliated by losing his ship and then end up getting killed in the end. Joy.

Yes, I'm aware I'm being a whiny asshole.
 
I'd just like to remind everyone that when analyzing the effects of Sith lightning on Palpatine's body, remember to use the equations for Sith lightning and not the equations for regular lightning. 'Cuz Sith lightning and regular lightning are like totally different things. ;)

Yeah! It's like.... regular lightning is like lasers....and Sith lightning is like...phasers! :D

<---runs...hides!
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top