The Ahsoka series is coming.
- Thread starter Mach5
- Start date
The Mining Guild Ore Crawler, holocrons, the son of a force sensitive & a corellian freighter captain named 'Jacen', and the whole silly plot of tRoS says "Hi".
That said: it's broadly faithful to Cam Kennedy's original art, but (not surprisingly) seems to be using the proportions of Doug Chaing's sketch from the '96 Essential Guide (published 4 years after 'Dark Empire') as it's primary jumping off point. Even then, it's only really using the overall shape and very much doing it's own thing with the details.
The wings appear to be both thicker, have a greater span, and the overall anhedral slope is significantly more gentle. The useless little wing support is gone, along with the even more useless ventral cannon.
While the EU version's fuselage was generally skinny and actually tapered both fore and aft (like the ARC-170) this design seems generally much wider and tapers only in the one direction; from tail to nose. The curved "beaky" tip of said nose has been replaced with a hard sloped edge showing off the fuselage's trapezoidal cross-section. The idea of a shrouded astromech socket is also gone in favour of a more standard looking one (and if this Kenner inspired design is the canon R7-unit, I'd call that a massive improvement over that triangle eyed abomination!) Another improvement is that the canopy also seems to slide forwards rather than hinge upwards. An ironic change given the aforementioned absence of the dorsal cannon; the EU version's approach was beyond awkward with the gun actually splitting into two in order the let the pilot out!
I still don't particularly like the design, but seems as good an execution of the general idea as one could wish for and seems to suit the role of a smaller, lighter police pursuit craft. Indeed, going by what we're seeing, this may not even be a starfighter at all but an airspeeder. So less of an X-Wing successor and more of a T-16/T-47 replacement.
Well let's be clear on one thing: no two depictions of the E-Wing have ever been quite alike (not even within the same publication!) Indeed it can vary quite wildly depending in the artist, both in details and proportions.took some screenshots of the E Wing, Can tell some of the design choices they made, but not really the best shots..
That said: it's broadly faithful to Cam Kennedy's original art, but (not surprisingly) seems to be using the proportions of Doug Chaing's sketch from the '96 Essential Guide (published 4 years after 'Dark Empire') as it's primary jumping off point. Even then, it's only really using the overall shape and very much doing it's own thing with the details.
The wings appear to be both thicker, have a greater span, and the overall anhedral slope is significantly more gentle. The useless little wing support is gone, along with the even more useless ventral cannon.
While the EU version's fuselage was generally skinny and actually tapered both fore and aft (like the ARC-170) this design seems generally much wider and tapers only in the one direction; from tail to nose. The curved "beaky" tip of said nose has been replaced with a hard sloped edge showing off the fuselage's trapezoidal cross-section. The idea of a shrouded astromech socket is also gone in favour of a more standard looking one (and if this Kenner inspired design is the canon R7-unit, I'd call that a massive improvement over that triangle eyed abomination!) Another improvement is that the canopy also seems to slide forwards rather than hinge upwards. An ironic change given the aforementioned absence of the dorsal cannon; the EU version's approach was beyond awkward with the gun actually splitting into two in order the let the pilot out!
I still don't particularly like the design, but seems as good an execution of the general idea as one could wish for and seems to suit the role of a smaller, lighter police pursuit craft. Indeed, going by what we're seeing, this may not even be a starfighter at all but an airspeeder. So less of an X-Wing successor and more of a T-16/T-47 replacement.
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Jacen was first called Jacen in The Last Command.
There was so much about Dark Empire I just thought was edgy and cooler than hell, and so much of it was just dreck...
I do think that Nar Shaddaa might have been DE's greatest contribution to the EU. Look at all the times, places, and games it showed up afterward...
I do think that Nar Shaddaa might have been DE's greatest contribution to the EU. Look at all the times, places, and games it showed up afterward...
Nar Shadda is the most video game thing Star Wars ever came up with.
In terms of just locations; quite possibly (even if Ossus beat it to the screen.) However I think holocrons are far and away the most significant contribution overall. Not just for how many other places they've appeared (including being adopted into canon by Lucas himself) but because they're now as synonymous with Jedi and Sith as are lightsabers and kyber crystals.
Fingers crossed though for Nar Shaddaa showing up in the 'Outlaws' videogame at the very least.
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I just felt a disturbance in the Force... as if a bunch of multiplayer NPCs were constantly crying out in terror as they fell off the narrow walkways and plunged into the abyss.
It's like rainbow road all over again.
Force pushing NPCs off ledges is my favourite thing to do in Star Wars games.
You say that, but isn't it really just "Space Tortuga"? I mean; you make a universe with space pirates in it, sooner or later there's going to have to be a space Tortuga for them all to hang out at, no?
IMO, the most curious thing about Nar Shaddaa is that there's never really been a definitive, let alone consistent depiction of it. Besides the general "what if: Coruscant but the surface is a slum too" of it all anyway. In 'Jedi Knight' it's all dark monolithic mega towers, poor lighting and bottomless pits. In 'KotoR II' it's very much the crappy Coruscant, or if one prefers: "a slightly more interesting Taris." In SWtoR it's space Vegas. And in 'Dark Empire' it's a random mass of greeny-blue and yellow blobs . . . but then that's what everything in DE looks like.
Not that it doesn't make sense for a densely populated moon where the urban planning laws are basically "bribe the local Hutt enough, and you can build whatever the hell you like, even if there's already someone living there" to have a chaotic design aesthetic from sector to sector. Still, I'd like to see someone take a crack at it with a more thought out sense of art direction. I tend to picture it as having something of a 'Kowloon Walled City' vibe, but without the walls. Just an endless rabbit warren of slums and dive bars built out of derelict freighters & old cargo pods resting atop whatever unfortunate residential block they crashed into, and interspersed with barely functioning spaceport docking towers poking above the smog.
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Well, it was level 9 of Dark Forces.
The beauty of all the depictions of Nar Shaddaa in various SW games and media is that they can all be considered correct- they are different districts or neighborhoods of the Smuggler's Moon. My favorites are DF level 9 and the first few levels of JK. They really captured the atmosphere for me, so to speak. JK in particular did good things with vertically challenging levels throughout the game.
It wasn't. However, JA's Coruscant level was similar to JO's Nar Shaddaa.
I more meant it has big chasms for people to fall in to and be flung in to. It reminds me of the bottomless pits of many Mario games I played.
Though I suppose the Death Star falls under that as well.
