Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens

[Dream]

Could have fooled me. I've found Abram's mystery box promotion for TFA to be really obnoxious, like it did for STID.

In the end, I'll probably be thanking him for revealing so little when I watch the movie.

 

[cooleddie74]

Captain Phasma is fine. They just don't use her first name...Becky.

Nothing instills more fear in the hearts and souls of the enemies of the First Order than an exceptionally well-trained Valley Girl Stormtrooper with a cape. Like, gag them with a hydrospanner.

 

[Tulin]

Im sure that whatever skill Finn has with a lightsaber is because the is guilding him,

I was referring to THIS unreadable part-sentence.

And the "drunk" thing was a joke.

 

[Tulin]

Could have fooled me. I've found Abram's mystery box promotion for TFA to be really obnoxious, like it did for STID.

In the end, I'll probably be thanking him for revealing so little when I watch the movie.

I guess he can't please everyone!

Personally, I think the marketing and slow drip-feed release of info has been MASTERFUL.

I'm LOVING that I know almost next to nothing about the plot and the film will be almost a complete surprise when I see it the night of Wednesday 16/12!!!!!

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

don't you mean the 17th?

 

[sttngfan1701d]

A couple of things:

In the SW universe, swords or sword-like weapons are far and few between, if we look at the OT & PT. That said, for the average person, there's no experience or cultural flirtation with swordplay, which is why Han's clumsy handling of the lightsaber was correct.

In real life, the one thing i've heard weapons experts say is that an inexperienced person trying to use a deadly weapon can pose as much danger to himself as the intended victim. Unlike the movies, one wrong move could be disfiguring of deadly to the user. I would think that rule applies in the SW universe, considering how dangerous a lightsaber is.

One last thing...Hamill said:

"George was adamant that these things were really, really heavy, that we couldn't take a hand off. We always had to have two, it was like Excalibur--40-50 pounds of weight."

Lucas:

"They were very powerful. they had a lot of energy in them, and so--you know, you worked with them as if they were heavy."

So, the intent was that lightsabers were not easy to use--certainly not without training. Since they were dangerous to almost over-the-top degrees, if an untrained person tried to use it as a weapon (not a clumsy slice like the Tauntaun situation), between the weight and its power, I imagine someone would make a bad mistake--or an experienced opponent would quickly disarm him, or turn the weapon against him.

He would be better off high-tailing it out of the area than using something he knows nothing about (if i'm to believe he's green at that stage).

That leads me to believe that clip says he knows something. I'm not saying he's at ESB-Luke level (highly trained), but in consideration of the intent of the lightsaber, it would seem to geeky-convenient for a total newbie to prepare to use the saber like...well, like he knew what to do with it.

No one said that he would know what he was doing. I just speculated that he might be using it in self-defense and not trained as a Jedi. And the whole "hold the saber with two hands because it's so heavy" thing went out the window in the Prequels. And Luke had no trouble holding the saber for the first time in Obi Wan's house in ANH.

Finn might well be force-sensitive, but I still don't think you have to be uber-trained in order to know how to handle a lightsaber. Fighting effectively with it is a whole other matter.

 

[Richard Baker]

Presumably Finn had some introduction to using something other than a blaster in his military training...

(Come to think of it, maybe that is why Stormtroopers were such terrible shots- they were trained in Melee weapons instead.)

 

[Jedi_Master]

Captain Phasma is fine. They just don't use her first name...Becky.

I thought it was.... Betty

 

[Marsden]

Her first name is probably Fan

 

[Chris3123]

Soundtrack release date revealed. It's coming out the same day as the movie, December 18. Link

Wish they hadn't revealed the track listing. I mean, that 14th track, "Finn, mesa yousa father"... hello, spoilers! Now the whole movie is ruined.

 

[Saul]

It's 7:14 Friday morning here - HAPPY FORCE FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Picked up Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma figures today (aka the New Darth Vader and Bobba Fett). Feeling fairly delighted with myself for getting my hands on them.

 

[fireproof78]

A couple of things:

In the SW universe, swords or sword-like weapons are far and few between, if we look at the OT & PT. That said, for the average person, there's no experience or cultural flirtation with swordplay, which is why Han's clumsy handling of the lightsaber was correct.

In real life, the one thing i've heard weapons experts say is that an inexperienced person trying to use a deadly weapon can pose as much danger to himself as the intended victim. Unlike the movies, one wrong move could be disfiguring of deadly to the user. I would think that rule applies in the SW universe, considering how dangerous a lightsaber is.

One last thing...Hamill said:

"George was adamant that these things were really, really heavy, that we couldn't take a hand off. We always had to have two, it was like Excalibur--40-50 pounds of weight."

Lucas:

"They were very powerful. they had a lot of energy in them, and so--you know, you worked with them as if they were heavy."

So, the intent was that lightsabers were not easy to use--certainly not without training. Since they were dangerous to almost over-the-top degrees, if an untrained person tried to use it as a weapon (not a clumsy slice like the Tauntaun situation), between the weight and its power, I imagine someone would make a bad mistake--or an experienced opponent would quickly disarm him, or turn the weapon against him.

He would be better off high-tailing it out of the area than using something he knows nothing about (if i'm to believe he's green at that stage).

That leads me to believe that clip says he knows something. I'm not saying he's at ESB-Luke level (highly trained), but in consideration of the intent of the lightsaber, it would seem to geeky-convenient for a total newbie to prepare to use the saber like...well, like he knew what to do with it.

No one said that he would know what he was doing. I just speculated that he might be using it in self-defense and not trained as a Jedi. And the whole "hold the saber with two hands because it's so heavy" thing went out the window in the Prequels. And Luke had no trouble holding the saber for the first time in Obi Wan's house in ANH.

Finn might well be force-sensitive, but I still don't think you have to be uber-trained in order to know how to handle a lightsaber. Fighting effectively with it is a whole other matter.

IRRC, Luke even held it one handed for a little bit.

Thinking about it now, I think Obi-Wan should be like "Whoah! Careful, that think can severe limbs!" rather than just continue on his exposition.

 

[davejames]

Well I was really looking forward to reading that new Aftermath novel, but from the reviews it sounds like it's mostly just focused on a whole bunch of new characters (and Wedge, woohoo) and barely involves Han, Luke and Leia at all. Which were frankly the only ones I was really interested in learning more about post-ROTJ anyway.

I might still give it a shot, since I'm curious to learn anything about the state of the SW universe after ROTJ, but I still can't help but feel a bit disappointed.

 

[Campe]

Soundtrack release date revealed. It's coming out the same day as the movie, December 18. Link

Wish they hadn't revealed the track listing. I mean, that 14th track, "Finn, mesa yousa father"... hello, spoilers! Now the whole movie is ruined.

I hope there's a vinyl release.

 

[JD]

Well I was really looking forward to reading that new Aftermath novel, but from the reviews it sounds like it's mostly just focused on a whole bunch of new characters (and Wedge, woohoo) and barely involves Han, Luke and Leia at all. Which were frankly the only ones I was really interested in learning more about post-ROTJ anyway.

I might still give it a shot, since I'm curious to learn anything about the state of the SW universe after ROTJ, but I still can't help but feel a bit disappointed.

I was really looking forward to it, but after reading IGN's review I think I'll wait too. The review said that while it does reveal a few things about the state of the galaxy post-RotJ, the story itself and it's new characters just aren't very interesting. I'm wondering if the fact that all of the post-RotJ books and comics we're getting before the movie focuses on new characters means that they are waiting to show us what Luke, Han, and Leia were up to then after the movie comes out. I guess I can understand wanting to keep people surprised about where they are in TFA, but it is kind of annoying.

I took advantage of Comixology's Star Wars sale to pick up a couple of legends comics cheap, Tales Vol. 1, and In the Shadow of Yavin, the first collection of Brian Wood's post ANH series.

 

[Ithekro]

Soundtrack release date revealed. It's coming out the same day as the movie, December 18. Link

Wish they hadn't revealed the track listing. I mean, that 14th track, "Finn, mesa yousa father"... hello, spoilers! Now the whole movie is ruined.

I hope there's a vinyl release.

Does anything release I vinyl anymore? Or have the DJs managed to keep that market open?

 

[davejames]

I was really looking forward to it, but after reading IGN's review I think I'll wait too. The review said that while it does reveal a few things about the state of the galaxy post-RotJ, the story itself and it's new characters just aren't very interesting. I'm wondering if the fact that all of the post-RotJ books and comics we're getting before the movie focuses on new characters means that they are waiting to show us what Luke, Han, and Leia were up to then after the movie comes out. I guess I can understand wanting to keep people surprised about where they are in TFA, but it is kind of annoying.

Yeah I can understand not wanting to reveal what those characters have been up to in the last 10 or 20 years, but surely we could at least learn something about the first few years or so after ROTJ. It's hard to imagine that would really impact very much in TFA.

 

[Set Harth]

IRRC, Luke even held it one handed for a little bit.

Like he had a choice! *rimshot*

 

[Campe]

Soundtrack release date revealed. It's coming out the same day as the movie, December 18. Link

Wish they hadn't revealed the track listing. I mean, that 14th track, "Finn, mesa yousa father"... hello, spoilers! Now the whole movie is ruined.

I hope there's a vinyl release.

Does anything release I vinyl anymore? Or have the DJs managed to keep that market open?

I just started collecting vinyl this year. There's tons of new releases. It's coming back.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Yeah using a lightsaber is not like just picking up a typical sword, and is something that originally required a lot more effort and concentration to control properly. Which is I think why they had Han looking so awkward with it in ESB.

Exactly--at it made story sense that he--with no connection to the Force. training, etc., he could not pick it up and even fake trained--anything.

Im sure that whatever skill Finn has with a lightsaber is because the is guilding him, just as the Force enabled Anakin to destroy the Federation flasgship in TPM and Luke when he took out the first Death Star.

That would help in explaining it away, as opposed to the guy just being Joe Average and using the weapon.

No one said that he would know what he was doing. I just speculated that he might be using it in self-defense and not trained as a Jedi. And the whole "hold the saber with two hands because it's so heavy" thing went out the window in the Prequels.

The prequels do not erase what was established on screen in the original films. Since episodes 4-6 occurred after 1-3--obviously--one could argue that the OT's overwhelming depiction of saber use is most relevant. That, and it was the revealed intention of Lucas (and corroborated by Hamill).

And Luke had no trouble holding the saber for the first time in Obi Wan's house in ANH.

Note that Luke was highly force sensitive, and you will note he's merely moving it around--far different than what is demanded in combat, which is supported by the two times he tried to use one hand, Vader disarmed him, and the next resulted in the loss of his hand.

Finn might well be force-sensitive, but I still don't think you have to be uber-trained in order to know how to handle a lightsaber. Fighting effectively with it is a whole other matter.

Well, that's the point--he's preparing for a conflict, and looks like he might be ready...to what degree...who knows?