Comments on: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer, and Journey to The Force Awakens – FIRE & WATER #144

By: Count Drunkula

Count Drunkula — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 12:47:33 +0000

Update: I finished AFTERMATH last night and the book is a strong contender for worst Star Wars book I’ve ever read. It might not take the top spot. I mean, The Crystal Star was reeeeaaally bad, and some of the New Jedi Order books were awful. But, if this was supposed to be the premiere story to kick off the new continuity’s post-Return of the Jedi timeline, boy did it suck!

By: Count Drunkula

Count Drunkula — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 12:43:55 +0000

I’ll be addressing Darrin’s comment on the next episode of Dead Bothan Spies, which is, by the way, where Nathaniel shared his thoughts on the trailer; not on this episode. 😉

By: Xum Yukinori

Xum Yukinori — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 00:42:16 +0000

Luke and Kylo Ren seem to shop at the same cloak shoppe… and Kylo Ren is an abbreviation of “Luke Skywalker” spelled sideways…

Convinced yet, Shag? Neither am I…

By: Xum Yukinori

Xum Yukinori — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 00:42:16 +0000

Luke and Kylo Ren seem to shop at the same cloak shoppe… and Kylo Ren is an abbreviation of “Luke Skywalker” spelled sideways…

Convinced yet, Shag? Neither am I…

By: Darrin Sutherland

Darrin Sutherland — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 20:53:49 +0000

Hi Rob and Ryan and Shagg and Nathaniel,

A confession, I haven’t seen the new Star Wars trailer yet. I did see the earlier one … a couple of times … and it looked great. However, Ruth and I dropped cable a while back, so no TV commercials and I haven’t been motivated enough to seek out the trailer online. However, thanks to the four of you and your various podcasts, I now know all I need to know.

I’ve mentioned before my love of the original trilogy and the EU from the excellent novels and Dark Horse Comics during the 1990s. I’m certain I will see The Force Awakens and I’m quite confident I’ll probably see it in the cinema … once … after the crowds subside, but I still feel burned by Episodes I, II, and III and I just find it difficult to get very excited about Star Wars until it “proves” to me that it is good again … and I really do hope it does.

However, I’m not convinced yet. As a big fan of the classic Star Trek, I’ve found J.J. Abrams movies to just be “OK”. Neither movie is bad and I personally think the cast is very strong, so that isn’t the problem, but the movies themselves have still been lacking in my opinion. For instance, I must say that the Spock I know from the classic TV series would not accept the death of his mother and the destruction of Vulcan. So, having Leonard Nimoy’s Spock go off to run a Vulcan refuge camp at the end of the first movie instead of finding a way to fix the timeline just doesn’t ring true in my opinion.

So, those feelings about that other beloved franchise still have me on edge about what might happen in The Force Awakens … especially with all of the secrecy surrounding Luke’s character. I get the impression that all of you are big Han Solo fans, but I always identified more with Luke and liked his growth in the original trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed his role in the EU. So, I’m a little hesitant until I know what they do with his character. I’ll just say that if he’s turned bad like Anakyin before him, then I’m out. That would defeat the entire purpose of the original trilogy in my opinion. And, if they kill him off in the first film like Obi Wan Kenobi, then I’ll be disappointed at unfulfilled possibilities.

To wrap up, I did thoroughly enjoy the analysis of the trailer, the speculation about what might be, and the comments about the new novels and comics that are out. I haven’t been convinced to pick up any of those either, but if the movie turns out to be good, then I can look forward to catching up later as opposed to being disappointed yet again.

Thanks for a series of fun episodes!

Darrin

By: Earth 2 Chris

Earth 2 Chris — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 19:36:20 +0000

What’s left of Luke crawls up inside of R2. That’s the scene we’re seeing. He’s like a Droid Dalek!

Chris

By: Earth 2 Chris

Earth 2 Chris — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 19:35:57 +0000

What’s left of look crawls up inside of R2. That’s the scene we’re seeing. He’s like a Droid Dalek!

Chris

By: Count Drunkula

Count Drunkula — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 17:40:18 +0000

Those people are gonna feel pretty foolish when they watch the movie and realize that Luke is BB-8.

By: Earth 2 Chris

Earth 2 Chris — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 10:28:06 +0000

I had a coworker trying to convince me Luke was Kylo Ren as well, so yeah, that is out there.

Chris

By: Count Drunkula

Count Drunkula — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 23:32:11 +0000

As Shag pointed out, I’m halfway through AFTERMATH and a little under halfway through LOST STARS.

Lost Stars, I think, is better written. Despite being for the young adult reader group, the characterization is pretty deep and detailed. On the other hand, because it is for the young adult reader group, the book is very angsty and melodramatic and has very little action. Like, NO action scenes in the first third of the book other than a speeder race that isn’t terribly tense or dramatic. Nice character and world building, but it doesn’t have the Star Wars feel.

I’m forcing my way through Aftermath so Shag and I can talk about it on Dead Bothan Spies but I do not recommend it to others.