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 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Darth Jar Jar would have been amazing. But sadly Lucas made Jar Jar far too over the top comical for it to work.

Imagine if he killed Gin instead? Everyone but him wanted Jar Jar gone, but it was his compassion that kept him around, only for Jar Jar to kill him and begin the plight of the galaxy.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
Darth Jar Jar would have been amazing. But sadly Lucas made Jar Jar far too over the top comical for it to work.

Imagine if he killed Gin instead? Everyone but him wanted Jar Jar gone, but it was his compassion that kept him around, only for Jar Jar to kill him and begin the plight of the galaxy.

It'd be funnier if he had went after Anakin at some point, if only to hear him utter the phrase "Yousa gonna DIE Annie!"

The Darth Jar Jar theory I've heard (the recent one on Reddit) suggests that Jar Jar was a puppet master controlling Palpatine. Therefore Palpatine was the apprentice, not the master - making Darth Maul a mere pawn of Palpatine, or a clandestine apprentice he took without his own Master's permission. Which is a thing in the EU, in the Force Unleashed games Darth Vader trained Bendak Starkiller to act as his agent to undermine and help take down the Emperor...or something. I never played those games.

Jar Jar would have been exposed as a Sith in Attack of The Clones, and I presume that Palpatine would have made his move to usurp his master's place and kill him by the end of Revenge of the Sith, explaining Jar Jar's absence in the Original Trilogy. For the Sith, the cycle of an apprentice growing powerful enough to kill his master and usurp his place is core to their philosophy.

The theory also links Jar Jar to The Force Unleashed, suggesting that Jar Jar has returned as Supreme Commander Snoke. Or at least, that Snoke is an homage to Darth Jar Jar.

An obvious flaw in the theory is that Palpatine's master is canonically named as Darth Plagueis who was not a Gungan. But according to the Star Wars wiki, the first appearance of Plagueis in Star Wars fiction was the novel Labyrinth of Evil, 4 months before Revenge of the Sith was released. The theory suggests that Lucas was stung by the backlash against Jar Jar and decided to abandon his plan to reveal Darth Jar Jar, writing in Count Dooku as a last minute replacement.

...

Alternatively, we could just apply Occam's Razor and take George Lucas at this word that he invented Jar Jar to appeal to kids, no more...

To be clear, I don't necessarily believe the theory, but I do like it and think it might have redeemed the Jar Jar character somewhat, and I don't think Supreme Commander Snoke of Episode VII is Jar Jar. It is plausible that George Lucas changed his mind and abandoned the idea of Darth Jar Jar. Luke Skywalker was originally going to be Bendak Starkiller or something, and Leia was his lover, not his sister - who was an entirely separate character.

I like the Darth Jar Jar theory in the same way that I like the Indoctrination Theory of Mass Effect. Its plausible, and its arguable that it was foreshadowed, but at some point the idea was abandoned and its not canon.

This was the theory that got me interested:

https://www.reddit.com/comments/3qvj6w

The comments have more info too.

Yeah thats the one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOf3hhsjtOg

Mkes you wonder doesn't it?

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
I'm watching the OT in order on Thursday before I see the Episode VII.


I just don't have it in me to watch the Prequels again.

I've never watched them. I've seen Part I in dribs and drabs on TV. I've seen a bit of Part 2. I never bothered to watch Part 3.

OTOH I saw all of Parts 4, 5 and 6 in the cinema, and I plan to see this new one there during Christmas.

It would be nice to watch the original trilogy with my daughter. Is there a current pressing that hasn't been 'enhanced' by Lucas?

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
I'm watching the OT in order on Thursday before I see the Episode VII.


I just don't have it in me to watch the Prequels again.

I've never watched them. I've seen Part I in dribs and drabs on TV. I've seen a bit of Part 2. I never bothered to watch Part 3.

OTOH I saw all of Parts 4, 5 and 6 in the cinema, and I plan to see this new one there during Christmas.

It would be nice to watch the original trilogy with my daughter. Is there a current pressing that hasn't been 'enhanced' by Lucas?

Not that I'm aware of, apart from a fan-edit that basically goes through the latest (blu-ray) versions and undoes all the changes to recreate the originals shot for shot, effect for effect. However, in my opinion the best ones to track down are the 2004 Special Edition versions. Yes, there are changes, but they are 90% improvements. Scenes are added back in that then help other bits make sense, stuff like the space battles and lightsaber fights look way better, the picture and sound are cleaned up and ultimately, they're what I consider the definitive versions, and visually are objectively better than the originals.

Yes, google the de specialized HD original trilogy.

We hate the lucas redos of the prequels down here but the despecialized versions are great. get to watch the original trilogy in 1080p as people would have seen them on release date.

Nothing better than seeing the movies that kicked it all off and people enjoyed for a long time before changes got made. Better than the new one which changes Darth vaders voice and so on.

http://www.darthsanddroids.net/bingo/


..it's not just us then

Pretty sure you could get about half of those just from the trailers!

The Special Editions don't really bother me all that much. Sure, there are some really stupid things (the added Jabba scene in Star Wars, the terrible music number in Return of the Jedi, etc.), but on a whole I can live with it even though it isn't supposed to be that way.

My girls on the other hand, have no idea it should be any other way than what they've seen. If they're happy, I'm happy.

As we get closer to the release, can I just ask/plead/beg that everyone here is very, very careful with spoilers for the film? Just things like making sure to leave space/text so spoilered stuff doesn't show up in post previews, putting anything relevant in spoiler tags ect. More than any film in the history of ever, I (and I'm sure many others) want to avoid any kind of spoilers for this, so for sake of us lot who aren't able to see it straight away, please don't go yelling that



Or anything like that! I know it probably goes without saying, I just thought I'd mention it.

But please feel free to warn us if it sucks.

Star Wars Revisited by Adywan is a really well done fan edit. He's almost done Empire Revisited now as well. (By almost I mean sometime in 2016)

I have one hope for tomorrow night, well besides the hope of it not sucking.

That the silver storm trooper dies. Honestly it's a bit ugly for my tastes and to see it on screen too much will likely hamper my enjoyment.

That Orange Alien from the trailers looks pretty cool however. It's the perfect colour orange for an alien in my opinion.

 Eldarain wrote:
Star Wars Revisited by Adywan is a really well done fan edit. He's almost done Empire Revisited now as well. (By almost I mean sometime in 2016)

I've just stumbled across a series called the 'anti-cheese' edits on Youtube. Just finshed TPM, and with a lot of the silliness removed, it's actually decent. Still nothing on the OT, but I wasn't sitting there just wanting to turn it off any any point. I'm actually very interested to see what gets done to Clones and Sith now... There's enough good stuff in those two that a bit of editing could get genuinely good movies out of them.

 Swastakowey wrote:
I have one hope for tomorrow night, well besides the hope of it not sucking.

That the silver storm trooper dies. Honestly it's a bit ugly for my tastes and to see it on screen too much will likely hamper my enjoyment.

Nope. She's been confirmed as signed on for Episode VIII.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Paradigm wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

It would be nice to watch the original trilogy with my daughter. Is there a current pressing that hasn't been 'enhanced' by Lucas?

Not that I'm aware of, apart from a fan-edit that basically goes through the latest (blu-ray) versions and undoes all the changes to recreate the originals shot for shot, effect for effect. However, in my opinion the best ones to track down are the 2004 Special Edition versions. Yes, there are changes, but they are 90% improvements. Scenes are added back in that then help other bits make sense, stuff like the space battles and lightsaber fights look way better, the picture and sound are cleaned up and ultimately, they're what I consider the definitive versions, and visually are objectively better than the originals.

One of the DVD (or possibly bluray) releases relatively recently did include a copy of the laser disc versions of the original trilogy on a separate disc. Not quite the original cuts, but fairly close.

 insaniak wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
I have one hope for tomorrow night, well besides the hope of it not sucking.

That the silver storm trooper dies. Honestly it's a bit ugly for my tastes and to see it on screen too much will likely hamper my enjoyment.

Nope. She's been confirmed as signed on for Episode VIII.

Which is awesome because Gwendoline Christie is fantastic.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
I have one hope for tomorrow night, well besides the hope of it not sucking.

That the silver storm trooper dies. Honestly it's a bit ugly for my tastes and to see it on screen too much will likely hamper my enjoyment.

Nope. She's been confirmed as signed on for Episode VIII.

Which is awesome because Gwendoline Christie is fantastic.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Oh well, no movie is perfect.

And here's your Star Wars Episode 7 crack pot theory!

Is that the official face of Kylo Ren (is that a leaked photo?), or is it just the actor's face pasted over?

Kylo Ren doesn't look as menacing as I'd expected.

Pretty sure that's accurate. There was another TV spot (the 25th) out yesterday, and you can see a little more of the forest scene. If you slow it down you get a very quick look at his face, and also a glimpse of how he wields that lightsaber (brutally, by the look of it!)

There was also a publicity still released that shows Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) without his helmet on.

I'd prefer he stayed faceless, like Vader. Adam Driver just doesn't look as menacing as I imagined Kylo Ren.

Unless it turns out that Kylo Ren isn't really a purely evil villain, and he's more of a morally grey and sympathetic character. The wikipedia article for Force Awakens suggests that.

Adam Driver[7] as Kylo Ren, a dark warrior strong with the Force, originally a member of the Knights of Ren, and commander of the First Order.[14][15] Driver said the team tried "not to think of him as being bad, or evil, or a villain. Something that was more three-dimensional. He’s more dangerous and unpredictable, and morally justified in doing what he thinks is right."[16]

The awesome power of the Star Wars merchandise/PR machine on full throttle has always impressed me, but with Disney at the helm, I thought I'd seen everything, but clearly not.

It's been cranked up to warp factor 30, and the sheer saturation of Star wars stuff being everywhere, is seriously annoying me!

Even Jar Jar couldn't sink this film.

I saw it speculated somewhere that he does undergo a shift from the dark side to the light side over the trilogy, which I think would actually be pretty cool. Especially if it turns out he is some relative of one of the protagonists as has been suggested, and so you have a conflict in that character trying to follow the Jedi path while doing their utmost not to kill Ren as they hope to one day redeem him... kind of what they did with Vader, but a little more pronounced, perhaps.

Or he could get about 6 lines, be cut in half at the end of this one, fall down a hole and then have to wait for an animated TV series to do the character justice... Sorry, I'm still bitter over Maul!

I've read that after the Battle of Endor and the creation of the First Order, their propaganda has most people living under their control believing that the Rebellion and Luke Skywalker were the antagonists. Kylo Ren probably believes what he's doing is right because he doesn't know any better.

From the look of things, Episode VII appears to have hit it out of the park. Thank god!! I was worried all the hype would kill this for me.

Not seeing any actual reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

 Frazzled wrote:
Not seeing any actual reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

I believe there is a review embargo in effect until tomorrow. (Or today, I'm not sure).