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Kyle was definitely one of my absolute favorite characters and I love the Moldy Crow as short lived as it was. Raven's Claw was never a good replacement.

Can't say I feel the same about Dash. IMO he was never more than a poor Solo stand in during the carbonite era.

Corran Horn and Mara Jade are probably the other two standouts missing for me.

To be fair?

The Moldy Crow looks crap, and to my mind doesn’t look like a Star Wars ship.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
To be fair?

The Moldy Crow looks crap, and to my mind doesn’t look like a Star Wars ship.

Eh, I think it looks fine in the vein of junky freighters like the Millennium Falcon and Razor Crest

Just too angular for me. Also, its windscreens are on the sides and the top, so how do you see where you’re going?

It’s like the K-Wing. I’ll stop short of calling it a Bad Starfighter Design, as even though I don’t like it, no doubt it’ll have its fans. Treading on such toes serves no purpose. But I will argue it doesn’t look like a Star Wars design.

It's definitely the product of its era where they had 7 or 8 total polygons to work with. Similar design to the Star Fox Arwing in that regard and similar to some of the ships designed for the X-Wing/TIE Fighter era of games. It's also a transport primarily so its got a design more in line with things like the Stinger Mantis. It's definitely a little awkward though, with its size and interior never being nailed down to something functional. I just really like its overall look.

I'll agree with you on the K-Wing. I don't hate the overall idea of the thing as like a patrol ship deal, but its wildly overdesigned. There's just so much stuff on it with the extra engines and missiles and stuff in places that don't make sense. If the front was a single interior it would probably work better, but the 4 individual crew compartments is just really weird overall.

Going back to where the characters in the cantina and Jabba's Palace and elsewhere got their names and backgrounds for the "Tales of" books, a lot of them were invented by the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, released by Decipher Inc. in the mid to late '90s. We've got that card game to thank for a lot of little snippets of Star Wars lore.

Finally finished Andor and yeah.... its all pretty incredible. Not much else to be said. I should probably rewatch Rogue One next.

For those interested in the old West End Star Wars miniature game, I have some thoughts and details on an old post....

http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2018/02/review-star-wars-miniature-battles-west.html

There maybe some unexpected treats there.

After watching Andor my wife wanted to watch Rogue One and the Original Trilogy.

I had not watched the OT in years, and it was fun revisiting them after not having seen them in about a decade.

 Easy E wrote:
After watching Andor my wife wanted to watch Rogue One and the Original Trilogy.

I had not watched the OT in years, and it was fun revisiting them after not having seen them in about a decade.

My only wish is being about to see the OT without the added scenes of the special editions. I would love to watch the OT theatrical versions again. Alas. I do not own a VCR.

I'm not a purist when it comes to the remasters. There's bits I really like and bits I really don't. I need a version with toggles

Oh I have an issue with the remasters.

Are you ready?

Han never ever ever shot first

Han simply shot. Poor old Greedo was much too busy doing a dead for there to be a range of numbered shots.
You cannot shoot first if no-one shot after. You simply shot.

This rant is brought to you by Pedantry.

That and I hate the Jabba that they showed in the remaster. IT was one of those "he looks nothing what so ever like he should" moments that I'm sure is justified somehow in the lore in the background; but visually on screen looks terrible.

But yeah Greedo being shown to shoot and miss whilst sitting across a table was just BAD. Even a beginner who has never shot a blaster before can shoot at that range and Greedo is a bounty hunter - he knows how to use a gun. He would not miss at that range.


So showing him miss is just bad. Let alone the fact that a whole point of that scene is showing Han shoot first.

 Lance845 wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
After watching Andor my wife wanted to watch Rogue One and the Original Trilogy.

I had not watched the OT in years, and it was fun revisiting them after not having seen them in about a decade.

My only wish is being about to see the OT without the added scenes of the special editions. I would love to watch the OT theatrical versions again. Alas. I do not own a VCR.

The theatrical versions were released on DVD almost 20 years ago. They looked like crap, but they were the originals.

Sadly, I left them at my parents place so cousins could watch them, and I suspect they’ve gone walking with Obiwan.

 LunarSol wrote:
I'm not a purist when it comes to the remasters. There's bits I really like and bits I really don't. I need a version with toggles

I can actually agree with this. Engance the visuals and sound. Add the little bits of extended shots that don't take away or add anything but just workd build. Remove the singing. Remove the early jabba. Remove a lot of the extended edition nonsense. Toggles is where its at.

I’m gonna defend George Lucas here.

The man is nothing if not a visionary. The Special Editions, for better or worse, allowed him to better realise his internal vision.

Was some of that entirely unnecessary (Jabba song and dance number)?

Possibly.

But what of those things genuinely detract from the overall story and drag into the Mire Of Mediocrity?

Anyone decrying the Jabbas Palace songs is afraid of true artistic talent.

I will not accept challenges on this.

Oh I’m not decrying them. I just think the originals were quite competent.

I did miss the old Ewok "Yub Yub" celebration song, and the OG Anakin Ghost.

For Han shooting first I just ignore Greedo shooting. It does not exist in my mind and my brain automatically replaces it with the proper scene.

 Overread wrote:
That and I hate the Jabba that they showed in the remaster. IT was one of those "he looks nothing what so ever like he should" moments that I'm sure is justified somehow in the lore in the background; but visually on screen looks terrible.

I used to like this scene more. Seeing Ford work his charms is always a delight and when I first saw it, it gave me a better understanding of the pressure that drives him in the rest of the story. Some of that might have been that I was just really bad at reading subtitles, because in hindsight the actual dialogue is incredibly redundant with the conversation with Greedo, which has made me less inclined to defend it. Still, it's not a bad scene, even if I prefer saving Jabba's reveal for Jedi.

Greedo shouldn't shoot. I don't think there's any question there.

I think the one scene added I consider essential is Luke's reunion with Biggs. That adds so much to the film and clearly never should have been cut in the first place.

 LunarSol wrote:

 Overread wrote:
That and I hate the Jabba that they showed in the remaster. IT was one of those "he looks nothing what so ever like he should" moments that I'm sure is justified somehow in the lore in the background; but visually on screen looks terrible.

I used to like this scene more. Seeing Ford work his charms is always a delight and when I first saw it, it gave me a better understanding of the pressure that drives him in the rest of the story. Some of that might have been that I was just really bad at reading subtitles, because in hindsight the actual dialogue is incredibly redundant with the conversation with Greedo, which has made me less inclined to defend it. Still, it's not a bad scene, even if I prefer saving Jabba's reveal for Jedi.

Greedo shouldn't shoot. I don't think there's any question there.

I think the one scene added I consider essential is Luke's reunion with Biggs. That adds so much to the film and clearly never should have been cut in the first place.

The definitive version for me on if Han or Greedo shot first is this and you can't convince me otherwise

The only thing missing is Maclunkey.

My main gripe with the special editions is that so much of the added CGI has just not aged at all well. Some of it is perfect, like the expansion of Cloud City in ESB... but the random inserted character stuff, or things like the random CGI Ronto wandering in front of the camera, just look cartoony and out of place.

 Overread wrote:
That and I hate the Jabba that they showed in the remaster. IT was one of those "he looks nothing what so ever like he should" moments that I'm sure is justified somehow in the lore in the background; but visually on screen looks terrible.

They've fixed this somewhat in newer revisions, with Jabba at least now actually looking like Jabba (same as they fixed Episode 1 Yoda), but the scene really still doesn't work... it's redundant, and Jabba shouldn't be doing his own busywork.

Although I did see a comment a few years back from someone that pointed out it would have worked better if they had replaced the human stand-in with a holo-projector instead of actual Jabba. That would have also solved the problem of Han walking around him without the artificial tail-step.

But yeah Greedo being shown to shoot and miss whilst sitting across a table was just BAD. Even a beginner who has never shot a blaster before can shoot at that range and Greedo is a bounty hunter - he knows how to use a gun. He would not miss at that range.

In the old legends continuity he was at least portrayed as not a very good bounty hunter... But yeah, that scene is my least favourite special edition change, and the subsequent revisions of it (adding Han bending aside) have only managed to make it worse.

Han shot first and George Lucas has a crummy concept of morality, but we all know that from the kind of wonkiness of the prequels.

 insaniak wrote:
My main gripe with the special editions is that so much of the added CGI has just not aged at all well. Some of it is perfect, like the expansion of Cloud City in ESB... but the random inserted character stuff, or things like the random CGI Ronto wandering in front of the camera, just look cartoony and out of place.

 Overread wrote:
That and I hate the Jabba that they showed in the remaster. IT was one of those "he looks nothing what so ever like he should" moments that I'm sure is justified somehow in the lore in the background; but visually on screen looks terrible.

They've fixed this somewhat in newer revisions, with Jabba at least now actually looking like Jabba (same as they fixed Episode 1 Yoda), but the scene really still doesn't work... it's redundant, and Jabba shouldn't be doing his own busywork.

Although I did see a comment a few years back from someone that pointed out it would have worked better if they had replaced the human stand-in with a holo-projector instead of actual Jabba. That would have also solved the problem of Han walking around him without the artificial tail-step.

But yeah Greedo being shown to shoot and miss whilst sitting across a table was just BAD. Even a beginner who has never shot a blaster before can shoot at that range and Greedo is a bounty hunter - he knows how to use a gun. He would not miss at that range.

In the old legends continuity he was at least portrayed as not a very good bounty hunter... But yeah, that scene is my least favourite special edition change, and the subsequent revisions of it (adding Han bending aside) have only managed to make it worse.

I am in the camp that says that talking about Jabba for 2 movies and then finally revealing him in the 3rd was big and a good smart move. Revealing him in the first movie is a mistake no matter how its put together.

Yeah, I mean even in Empire Solo talks about a near miss with a Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell. This adds a sense of time between Yavin and Hoth. Things happened off-screen and it helps the world feel lived in.