Books A/V STAR WARS: ROGUE #$^$%&ING ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

ETA:

Spoiler

Dornean Gunship in Rebels? Well since my prayer circle for Red Leader in R1 was so successful, who wants to join me for an Etahn A'baht appearance?

 

Lucas's problem was never really his direction, though. He's got a great visual sensibility and ability to put together a movie, though he's not a great actor's director. The biggest problem with the prequels is the writing. They needed better scripts, and they needed to all be developed more thoroughly beforehand rather than relying on fleshing things out as he went along.

 

So apparently Pao is the one to say Karabast in the movie, missed that both times I saw it. But that's cool. Speaking of Pao did we see what happened to him in the movie? I'm assuming he died because everyone died, but I don't recall where?

Anyways, good episode of the star wars show, great seeing them talk about red and gold leader. Seeing those two was definitely one of the biggest and most awesome surprises for me in the movie.

 

I don't think Pao died onscreen, but I don't think ANYONE on the ground team survived Scarif.

 

This. Even is Pao survived, he was burnt to a crisp along with Jyn and Cassian anyway. But most likely he–and every single other Rebel on Scarif, save for those two–was already dead by the time Jyn sent the signal.

 

My favourite thing about that video was confirming it was "Several transmissions" (ala Vader's ANH line) in R1 (when Jyn uploads it there's multiple progress bars on the screen). That has been driving me nuts for a month.

I have heard a few people say the "Darksaber" was mentioned when Jyn was scrolling through the potential Imperial weapons (the old EU battle station) but it's actually "Blacksaber" that she says. The Darksaber is now the Mandelorian blade. So you can't really have two Darksabers but I would wager the Blacksaber Imperial weapon in canon is pretty exactly the Darksaber ship from the EU.

 

The point of it being shaped the way it was, was to make it cheaper and quicker to build than the Death Star (since the Hutts only had so much resources).

That's not an issue for the Empire.

I figure that, whatever it is, it won't be just a superlaser firing platform.

 

As weak as the novel was, I actually thought the Darksaber was a pretty cool concept - a logical extension of superlaser technology (as, in the other direction, was the Pulsar Station). I can imagine it being built for reasons other than resources.

That said, I really doubt that's what the 'Blacksaber' is.

 

So I was flipping through AV Club's Rouge One review (a B) and one line stuck out at me:

"And it is about as violent and downbeat as Star Wars gets on the big screen—more downbeat than The Empire Strikes Back, in fact."

Is it really, though? I mean, Empire does end on a downer. (and to quote Dante Hicks from Clerks: "That was life is, a series of down endings."). And nobody good actually dies in Empire aside from, like, Luke' tauntaun, Dak, and probably that "Imperial troops have entered the base!" guy. And everyone dies in Rogue One (PS - spoilers). But they aren't meaningless deaths, there is more of a sense of hope (probably because Leia sez "hope") or cathartic completion that Rogue One doesn't feel like a sad ending, which is a neat trick. Han is stolen away by the bad guys out of basically spite / greed / a trick to lure Luke in so it feels like he was unjustly robbed. ESB's ending I would call "sad" but not really "depressing" because Luke is reunited with his friends and they're going to find Han (if ESB does have a complete singular arc in that movie, it's a theme of "You need a little help from your friends.").

I would say Rogue One is probably the most violent Star Wars movie, this is true, messy violence not adventure violence. Although Revenge of the Sith is pretty close if we're talking violent-ness.

 

Either way it's a project codename. Like Stardust for the Death Star, remember?

I guess it was potentially, but not necessarily, a superweapon. And I'd say more likely named for the Old Republic/Mandalorian connection instead of for the EU budget embarassment Death Star. Could really be anything up to early Starkiller Base plans. Or, much funnier, all of those projects could be the exact same Death Star plans to have enough safe copies in case one was stolen based on its codename getting out.

 

I think Revenge... has more disturbing material, though.

I didn't find R1 to be overly violent or so much more so than the other installments. (Of course, I just fond out that the next X-Men movie is going to be rated R for graphic violence -- whoever made that call, thank you for ruining something I was looking forward too! -- so when thinking of movie violence, I've got tougher stuff on my mind.)

 

I think most of the team deaths were likely "cleaned up" to make the movie more mainstream/family-friendly; K2 is the only one who's properly slaughtered. Which is something you obviously can do with CGI droids, but not with actors. Bodhi, Chirrut and Baze all get their mortal wounds offscreen/kind-of-offscreen by grenades - and it's perplexing that it could be the same grenade prop for every single one of them. Plus, it's not like you see Lars family style remains. Jyn and Cassian also have a "clean, invisible" death; if you compare this to Cassian possibly gunned down in a climatic firefight (something still more tense than getting shot once and falling down a, for SW, comparatively short shaft) and Jyn possibly getting stabbed or decapitated at the end of a Vader scene, everyone got off with a visually quite non-traumatic option.

 

I know where you got the Cassian thing (I've seen the footage of Tudyk "dying" outside the bunker with Luna on the ground beside him), but where'd this come from? Did someone confirm this?

 

Why do you think this?

 

It's all about how the audience relates to the characters. Families hug, and Jyn and Cassian died hugging, so people can relate to that. They can't relate to dying while running across a beach with a flash drive. I mean this is why the Ewoks were so brilliant. Everyone has a secret fear their teddy bears will burn them alive during the night.

Spoiler

Someone's going to take this post seriously in 3... 2...

 

Ha!

But seriously, I meant what evidence is there that the film was altered so drastically? Fans seem to be under the impression they went back and totally rewrote the film.

 

At least the Cassian and K-2 deaths I mentioned above were significantly different (there's an interview with Tudyk where footage is shown, and Cassian is lying, presumably dead, facedown on the ground, while Tudyk, wearing a mo-cap suit, jerks and spasms as if being repeatedly shot). Even if the tone isn't different, Cassian's death, at least, was more raw (disappearing in a tidal wave of pure light is, let's face it, a pretty poetic way to go out, movie-wise). K-2's might've been about the same, although in a different setting (and probably defending Jyn after Cassian's death).

 

Considering that Cassian actually came "back" from the dead (briefly) in the film, I'm not sure why people are so certain that scene would have involved his death either. I don't think there's been any kind of official statement, certainly.

Honestly, while I get it in a few individual cases, overall I'm not really sure why people are defaulting to assuming that reshoots were more rather than less drastic - particularly in regard to the climax, since it seems like the biggest changes were at the start (e.g. the entire Ring of Kafrene sequence).

 

There have been official statements about the content of the reshoots, though.

 

True, but "lying facedown in the dirt" says dead to me a lot more than "fell down a big pit," especially with Star Wars' track record for big pits. I didn't for a second think that Cassian was dead when he fell. However, seeing him lying on the ground with K-2 standing over him, dying as well? Yes, I'd assume he actually died there, personally.

The biggest change with the climax seems to be that Jyn and Cassian climbed the inside of the tower, instead of running outside of the building and across the beach to the tower. Which may not seem like a big deal when you think about it, but when you look at the trailers and making-of scenes (like Jyn leading the charge on the AT-ACTs, for one), it's pretty significant.

 

Keep in mind, though, that Gareth Edwards is the sort of director who shot just about everything that he thought would look cool whether or not it was in the script. Most of that first teaser's footage was never meant to be in the movie, including that shot of Jyn in the hallway as it lit up, Krennic posing in front of the screens, I'm sure there are others; I'd have to question using any sort of deleted scenes as basis for anything that was "meant" to be in the film. Unless we know what was in the original script, there's no way of knowing if they ever intended to actually use it in the film or not.

 

The novelization follows the movie to the letter, so the final cut couldn't have been monkeyed around too much and not too late in the game.

 

I said earlier in this thread (only half jokingly) that the only ways a main character can die in Star Wars are via a lightsaber, bottomless pit, or explosion. So I don't think all of them dying via explosion was part of some insidious attempt to "clean up" their deaths. Especially since you can still see Chirrut's body afterwards instead of him neatly disappearing in a flash of light like most of the others. I think it was just to make their deaths more epic instead of them dying like mooks.

Is Rogue One downbeat? Maybe a little. It's uplifting that the last word in the film is "Hope" and we all know what's going to happen to the Death Star. But there IS quite a bit of sadness in knowing how much was sacrificed to achieve this victory. It's definitely no "handing out medals" or "partying with Ewoks" ending.

Is Rogue One more violent than other Star Wars movies? Again, maybe a little. ROTS definitely earns points for Order 66, barbecueing Anakin and the implied murder of children, but the other battles are mostly between droids and faceless clones, so it doesn't really feel like real people are dying. I think Rogue One feels a bit more violent for a few reasons:

1) Death applies to everyone, from nameless Rebel "Red Shirts" to main characters.
2) The way it's shot it seems more up close and personal, like we're right there in the trenches with them.
3) Death may be sudden and inglorious, such as Bodhi dying just as he's sighed with relief or that one Rebel who announced he was going for the controls, but got shot the moment he left cover. I'm reminded of that scene from Saving Private Ryan where a bullet dings off a soldier's helmet, he takes it off to stare at it in awe, and is immediately shot.

 

the Rebel saying he's going for the control panel and is immediately gunned down is one of my favourite bits in the movie, a tad morbid, true, but it's a pure example of the flick selling the World War II combat movie aesthetic. At least for a random extra. If the flick really wanted to play rough with the main team's exits, some of the main castmembers would have went down that way, completely at random, kind of undignified and throwaway. The Rogue One crew mostly have cathartic deaths, which is totally cool and saves the movie from being an existential everyone dies horribly nightmare because they're "good deaths". Bodhi probably has the most throwaway, but real, death in the movie but he still accomplishes something critical seconds before and says his little thank you to Galen. Galen too has a very war movie death but he still gets his, needed, goodbye with Jyn The nasty exits are saved mostly poor Rebels in the Battle of Scarif and the Rebels caught in the Darth Vader meatgrinder at the end. (the one dude who Vader force-lifts to the ceiling and then freakin' cuts in half - AHHHHH!! The shot cuts away before the dude plops down in two pieces but you just sorta see it for a second.)

I actually do love the structure of the ending, at most for a climatic "comedown" is Jyn smack-talking Krennic and Jyn and Cassian's hug fade to white exit. But there is no time for breath in those final moments, although the cutting slows way down to at least let their losses sit for a few moments. It certainly doesn't have the mostly traditional Star Wars music montage finale. Or it kind of does but it's super-scary Darth Vader killing everybody music. Which does keep the tempo at a high pace so if one were to watch ANH immediately afterwards that momentum carries into the opening scene.

 

Do we have any kind of list or reference for which real life weapons were used in the making of the movie's new blasters?

From the looks of it Jyn's blaster was made from a Luger, and the modular blaster that Cassian has on Eadu has the grip and magazine slot of an M-16 or AR-15.

Are the Death Troopers blasters based on E-11?