Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[TheEconomist]

There's a Klingon-like race of cat people called the Khanate of Orion and lots of orbital bombardments.

I was going to look into it until I saw this. More power to you though.

[sandwich_bird]

Flashy effects don't make a good movie. Avatar has incredible, revolutionary 3D visuals... but I will never watch it again because its story is boring over-done crap and its characters are hollow. I probably won't even watch Episode 7 again for a few years because I've already seen A New Hope so many times. The reason we keep getting shit like Micheal Bay's Transformers and TMNT is because our society has let our brains rot where we need to induce seizures in our children to keep them focused on something. Its disgusting.

There's a difference between flashy crap and interesting visuals though. Explosions are nice but they usually don't make the entire artistic direction (except in the case of Michael Bay of course). Though I agree that visuals can't completely compensate for a shit story (read Avatar), they are still very important. To me at least, a good story also doesn't compensate for bad visuals.

[Visions of Khas]

I like how Demo completely avoided my argument regarding Kylo's light saber.

Also, I'd like to leave this here:

[DemolitionSquid]

I like how Demo completely avoided my argument regarding Kylo's light saber.

I did address your point, before you made it, by originally stating "the explanation that they're exhaust ports because no one knows how to properly build a lightsaber anymore is bullshit because lightsabers don't work like that in the first place." It's retarded because lightsabers are made from superheated plasma contained in an electromagnetic field which recharges its own battery, and venting "excess" heat would require a breach in the plasma containment field rendering the weapon inoperable.

Also the whole "slitting your own wrists" thing.

[Visions of Khas]

Bah-haha, I think we've already established that Star Wars isn't hard scifi.

[DemolitionSquid]

I fully agree Star Wars is not hard sci-fi.

That doesn't change the fact that a) the weapon can still cut off your own hands, and b) there are safer lightsaber-resistant materials from which to build a cross-gaurd, like Cortosis.

It is not a viable weapon design. It is not safe to wield for the user.

[Turalyon]

I'm told that the Wars books are good, but that appears to be the only thing within the franchise of any real depth.

The Knights of the Old Republic RPGs were surprisingly deep, especially the 2nd one which deconstructed all the fluffy tropes regarding the Force quite well despite the game itself being incomplete and buggy as hell. Though having the guy (Chris Avellone) who developed Planescape: Torment and some of the more meatier aspects of the Fallout universe was probably why it was more thought-provoking.

It is not a viable weapon design. It is not safe to wield for the user.

Yeah, but if we're using SW logic, it's wielded by someone with the mystical Force... which means it's perfectly safe for the user. With that reasoning, I doubt that there is ever a non-viable lightsaber weapon design for Force-users. There are such things as light-whips afterall.

[TheEconomist]

Knights of the Old Republic and a handful of other Star Wars games are the only reason I can really call myself a Star Wars fan. Excellent series. The movies are just good movies to me. I watch them every couple of years, enjoy it, and then move on to something else.

The funny thing about the lightsaber issue is that if it was the original design done int he 70s, it would probably be called incredibly imaginative and brilliant. There's a lot of stupid shit in Star Wars that people just accept because of its popularity, legacy, or they saw it before they knew better.

[Visions of Khas]

One of my favorite books from the EU was part of the New Jedi Order series, Traitor. It centered on the complete deconstruction of Jacen Solo's character, and the Force itself. It dealt a lot with some heavy issues and hard truths. But for whatever reason, I found It overall uplifting -- in no small part of its allusions to The Divine Comedy. RIP, Vergere, you whackjob.

[TheEconomist]

The aspects of Star Wars that deal with the internal conflict between power and compassion, etc. are the most interesting to me. Not necessarily good and evil, since that's cliche, but something similiar. Star Wars is a bit of a one-trick pony in that regard, and it seems to keep getting side tracked into other things. It's a shame that the Empire and the Rebellion are such one-dimensional factions, as far I can tell from my extremely limited knowledge.

What books do you recommend for a n00b?