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Post by lobsterjohnson on Apr 20, 2017 20:56:56 GMT -5
I mentioned over in the Last Jedi thread that I saw Rogue One this weekend. I think it might be my favorite Star Wars movie. It was great. {Spoiler: Click to show} The scene with Darth Vader at the end is one of the best Star Wars moments ever. Absolutely chilling.
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Post by String on Apr 25, 2017 13:24:06 GMT -5
I got the Rogue One DVD the day it came out at the beginning of last week and have watched it twice already. Yeah, it's such a good Star Wars film and all of the central characters are really interesting and likeable, including Director Krenick who is a hell of a bad guy. It's telling that for me, having seen the OT and the PT a bazillion times (and never get tired of doing so), Rogue One is quickly catching up with them. Unlike TFA, which I've seen once, in the theater. Despite owning the blu-ray, I have little desire to re-watch it. One reason is that I have far more empathy and interest in the cast of Rogue One (in spite of it's size) than for any of the new characters in TFA.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 30, 2017 18:19:41 GMT -5
So, I read the 2nd of Chuck Wendig's 'Aftermath' trilogy. Why they gave an important assignment like establishing what happened between the movies to such a crappy writer I don't understand. Anyway, here's my review: I wasn't going to bother with these after the horrendous first book, but apparently between Temmin 'Snap' Wexley being in the Poe Dameron comic and my great desire to see what the heck the battle of Jakku is (which apparently happens in Book 3), I decided to suffer through it. Wendig is still a terrible writer.. it reads more like a screen play than a novel with incomplete sentences and crappy dialogue. The story is definitely better, though. We get Han and Chewie trying to liberate Kashyyyk, which is really entertaining, and really should have been it's own book in the hands of a decent writer. Wendig's characters are still, by and large, pretty boring, though Sinjir (the former Imperial interrogator) is mildly interesting, I don't think I'll be sad if we never see Norra or the others again. Rae Sloane is, by far, his best.. a very sympathetic Imperial who illogically seems to be in charge. (How she to be in charge isn't clear, other than being the captain of the last Super Star Destroyer). The main plot, featuring a shadowy new Imperial threat, tension between Leia and the rest of the Republic, and the rest is decent (better than book 1) but very incomplete, as is often the case in 2nd books of a trilogy. Continuity wise, it was cool seeing the comics of the new canon references a few times, both Leia's recent mini, and a reference to a recent storyline where Han and Leia steal a Star Destroyer. OTOH, Wendig does an absoutely terrible job writing Han Solo.. his actions are in character, but his dialogue made me cringe at least a dozen times. Also, I love Mr. Bones... they really, really need to do some sort of one shot special comic or short story pitting him against Doctor Aphra's droids.. I don't care how it happens, just get it done . One thing I found particularly weird was the 'interludes'.. there were several 1-3 page chapters that had nothing whatsoever to do with the story or plot, but rather just random bits of the Star Wars universe... one tells us what happened to the Rancor handler at Jabba palace (and Tattooine in general)... one about the Twi'leks throwing off the Empire.. one 'introducing' us to Maz Kanata's castle.. one showing us a snip of the battle of the Kuat ship yards. etc. Either Mr. Wendig REALLY wants to control as much of the new continuity as possible, he's pitching new books within his old ones, or the editors are trying to get us to take notes. Whatever the case, it felt very weird and forced. The last book has the battle of Jakku in it, it seems, which I do want to see, so hopefully the slog will be rewarded.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 2, 2017 11:51:01 GMT -5
So, I read the 2nd of Chuck Wendig's 'Aftermath' trilogy. Why they gave an important assignment like establishing what happened between the movies to such a crappy writer I don't understand. Anyway, here's my review: I wasn't going to bother with these after the horrendous first book, but apparently between Temmin 'Snap' Wexley being in the Poe Dameron comic and my great desire to see what the heck the battle of Jakku is (which apparently happens in Book 3), I decided to suffer through it. Wendig is still a terrible writer.. it reads more like a screen play than a novel with incomplete sentences and crappy dialogue. The story is definitely better, though. We get Han and Chewie trying to liberate Kashyyyk, which is really entertaining, and really should have been it's own book in the hands of a decent writer. Wendig's characters are still, by and large, pretty boring, though Sinjir (the former Imperial interrogator) is mildly interesting, I don't think I'll be sad if we never see Norra or the others again. Rae Sloane is, by far, his best.. a very sympathetic Imperial who illogically seems to be in charge. (How she to be in charge isn't clear, other than being the captain of the last Super Star Destroyer). The main plot, featuring a shadowy new Imperial threat, tension between Leia and the rest of the Republic, and the rest is decent (better than book 1) but very incomplete, as is often the case in 2nd books of a trilogy. Continuity wise, it was cool seeing the comics of the new canon references a few times, both Leia's recent mini, and a reference to a recent storyline where Han and Leia steal a Star Destroyer. OTOH, Wendig does an absoutely terrible job writing Han Solo.. his actions are in character, but his dialogue made me cringe at least a dozen times. Also, I love Mr. Bones... they really, really need to do some sort of one shot special comic or short story pitting him against Doctor Aphra's droids.. I don't care how it happens, just get it done . One thing I found particularly weird was the 'interludes'.. there were several 1-3 page chapters that had nothing whatsoever to do with the story or plot, but rather just random bits of the Star Wars universe... one tells us what happened to the Rancor handler at Jabba palace (and Tattooine in general)... one about the Twi'leks throwing off the Empire.. one 'introducing' us to Maz Kanata's castle.. one showing us a snip of the battle of the Kuat ship yards. etc. Either Mr. Wendig REALLY wants to control as much of the new continuity as possible, he's pitching new books within his old ones, or the editors are trying to get us to take notes. Whatever the case, it felt very weird and forced. The last book has the battle of Jakku in it, it seems, which I do want to see, so hopefully the slog will be rewarded. I doubt it'll be worth it, the first one was beyond terrible...literally the worst book I've ever read and nothing will make me read more.
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Post by String on Jun 7, 2017 22:51:54 GMT -5
Well, you all have just re-enforced all the negative reviews I've read elsewhere about the Aftermath books.
Which is why, for now, I'm sticking to the books that deal more so with the Rebels cartoon. I just bought a copy of Timothy Zahn's new Thrawn novel which supposedly sets the stage for his appearances within the cartoon.
I'm still hesitant over the Rogue One prequel novel, Catalyst though. Supposed to provide further background about Erso and Krennic and what lead Erso to hiding out with his family on that moon in the beginning of the film.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 8, 2017 7:43:20 GMT -5
Well, you all have just re-enforced all the negative reviews I've read elsewhere about the Aftermath books. Which is why, for now, I'm sticking to the books that deal more so with the Rebels cartoon. I just bought a copy of Timothy Zahn's new Thrawn novel which supposedly sets the stage for his appearances within the cartoon. I'm still hesitant over the Rogue One prequel novel, Catalyst though. Supposed to provide further background about Erso and Krennic and what lead Erso to hiding out with his family on that moon in the beginning of the film. Once I slog through the last Aftermath book, I'm probably going to pick up the Thrawn novel and the Tarkin novel... I haven't really watched much Rebels, but I think I'm going to soon... it didn't grab me with the first couple episodes, but it seems to get good press, so perhaps I just didn' give it enough of a chance.. also the pink Boba Fett armor may have blinded me a bit . I've heard the Claudia Gray ones are pretty good.. anyone read them?
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Post by String on Jun 8, 2017 11:26:57 GMT -5
Well, you all have just re-enforced all the negative reviews I've read elsewhere about the Aftermath books. Which is why, for now, I'm sticking to the books that deal more so with the Rebels cartoon. I just bought a copy of Timothy Zahn's new Thrawn novel which supposedly sets the stage for his appearances within the cartoon. I'm still hesitant over the Rogue One prequel novel, Catalyst though. Supposed to provide further background about Erso and Krennic and what lead Erso to hiding out with his family on that moon in the beginning of the film. Once I slog through the last Aftermath book, I'm probably going to pick up the Thrawn novel and the Tarkin novel... I haven't really watched much Rebels, but I think I'm going to soon... it didn't grab me with the first couple episodes, but it seems to get good press, so perhaps I just didn' give it enough of a chance.. also the pink Boba Fett armor may have blinded me a bit . I've heard the Claudia Gray ones are pretty good.. anyone read them? As with any show, Rebels' first season was a tad shaky as it sought to establish the setting, the characters, and their relationships. With Season 2, the show really picks up, especially if you kept up with Clone Wars overall as some dangling plot threads from that series are addressed here. I've yet to read Bloodline either but like you, have heard good reviews about it... or at least far superior reviews to Wendig.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2017 15:48:33 GMT -5
Claudia Gray's two books Lost Stars and Bloodline have been the best the new cannon has to offer. Wendig not so much although his books have the biggest hints of what is to come in them. It's all a big jigsaw puzzle at this point, and some pieces are obviously more planned out than others. It's a challenge to try and put it all together, but also fun. And I probably spend too much time thinking about Star Wars and the future of Star Wars.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 8, 2017 22:04:15 GMT -5
I think the burning question right now is what the heck happened with Luke... clearly, that's not going to be answered until after the new movie. I suspect a bunch of novels/comics/etc right after to fill in whatever details we don't get in the movie. Luke is the only major character not to get his own mini yet, after all.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2017 22:11:55 GMT -5
I expect there will be much more after Ep VIII & Ep IX, but this looks like a start
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 13, 2017 9:00:50 GMT -5
Yeah, that should be good.. coming out in the fall, along with a Leia one and a captain Phasma one. I am concerned at the title though.. calling it 'Legends' could me it'll be in-universe stories that may or may not be true... like either they don't want to commit to anything, or they're going to wait and see what the fans like (never a good prospect)
Finished Empire's End.. it was slightly better than the other two, I'd say..being merely boring rather than poor written and offensive. The Battle of Jakku was decent, though the reasons for it were pretty dumb. They did give us (more or less) where the First Order came from (though they ruined Sloane character int he process).
It really pissed me off they messed up Temmin/Snap's story... in the comics, we get Mr. Bones back (sorta) because he carries his personality program around with him as a good luck charm, and here it's clear he loses him and buries him. Not a good sign when they directly contradict things they're trying to have tie together.
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Post by Jesse on Jun 15, 2017 13:03:24 GMT -5
Recently read the first 30 or so issues of Knights of the Old Republic and was pretty impressed. I haven't played the video games so I'm not sure how they tie-in together other than just being set during the same time period. One of the things I find most interesting about it are the references to the Sith War that takes place prior the the events of KOTOR. After I'm finished with this series I plan to go back and try some of the series set before it, Tales of the Jedi and Dawn of the Jedi. I'm wondering if anyone has read either series and would recommend any of them. Should I just read "Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi—The Sith War" or are any of the other comics worth checking out?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2017 18:09:43 GMT -5
Dawn of the Jedi was excellent but as far as I'm concerned, any time you put John Ostrander and Jan Duursema together on a Star Wars project that's your result.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 19, 2017 16:25:38 GMT -5
I definitely enjoyed what I've read of the Ostrander/Duursema stuff.. I really all the original Dark Horse stuff.. but not all the Dawn of the JEdi stuff.. I've heard good things though.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jun 19, 2017 18:52:24 GMT -5
Dawn of the Jedi is pretty fun, I loved the mythology of it.
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