ST Starkiller Base Discussion Thread

I was responding to this:

IOW, the notion that there's a design flaw - which, again, there isn't.

And again, that's all I was discussing.

Signing off.

 

Oh, okay. Well...I was talking about something else, then. Never mind.

 

I can't quite look away, though

I see your point about the Battle of Starkiller Base being derivative and basically just repeating themes and scenarios from earlier episodes. These are things that have been repeated already by GL, though he seemed more clever in that he found ways to repeat and invert without the rhymes getting too blatant. The Battle of Naboo, for instance, inverted the Battle of Endor by having Anakin blow up a spaceship to help the soldiers on the ground as opposed to Han blowing up a shield generator on the ground to help the starfighters blow up a space station - and while both battles take place on worlds of green, the visual look and general feel of things is very different.

The Battle of Starkiller Base, then, is a much more obvious nod to the battles of Yavin and Endor.
The reason why it still works for me is that I see TFA as a summary of the previous trilogies. It repeats - in remixed form - many themes and plot points, such as the fall of an unsuspecting Republic, the betrayal of a gifted Jedi apprentice who commits murder to become stronger with the dark side, the awakening of a new hero who was placed on a desert planet for reasons he/she doesn't fully understand, the reemergence of an old war hero who retired when things went sour, the attempt by the villain to make an ally out of the new hero, the quest for the old Jedi Master who seems reluctant to train a new generation, the technical wiz kid who seems able to pilot anything through instinctive use of the Force, etc.
Starkiller Base is, of course, part of this. It could have been less blatant, but I feel that it still works, thanks to the ways in which the weapon is different from the Death Stars and also because the X-wing battle never quite comes into focus. It's just something that goes on in the background and adds tension as we follow the drama involving Kylo, Rey, Finn and Han.

We all have our own points of view and take away different things from the movie, but to me, it definitely works.

 

Light still moves at the speed of, you guessed it, light. Compared to the size the galaxy, light is really slow. What I found even more ridiculous is that the people on Takodana HEARD the freaking explosion.

 

Ummm... No, they didn't.

 

I thought Starkiller Base was awful. It was lame in its concept, its function and completely uncreative. It was also not relative to the main plot at all. I wish they would have fleshed out The New Order more and went into greater detail on how exactly it evolved from the Empire. Instead of Starkiller Base, any of the following plot devices would have been much better:

1. A fleet engagement with several brand new ships. Fleet battles tend to spark the funnest fights. Rogue One did this AMAZINGLY.
2. Actually kill stars by stopping fusion in the star using a discovered, finite relic substance, or a device that issues an EMP in a star's core, then let the Nova obliterate the entire system of their target planet. Maybe take out a very popular planet like Tattooine for massive emotional impact. Have Captain Phasma overseeing it. Sure, it's borrowing from Star Trek: Generations a little, but unique and new to Star Wars.
3. Simply use devastating biological weapons on targets.

 

Ummm... Yeah, they did.

You can hear the distant sounds of the explosion as they're looking up at it..

 

If you refer to the rumbling sound that's heard when Finn looks up, that's something else. The explosion comes later.
If you refer to the moment when they're looking at the explosion as it's happening, there really is no distant sound of it.

 

And if you think light travels slowly, that's nothing compared to the slowness of the speed of sound. Light goes 186,000 miles per second; sound averages about 740 miles per hour, depending on atmospheric conditions. If it took years for the sight to reach the viewer, it would be many centuries for the sound, and that's assuming sounds exist in the vacuum of space in GFFA.

 

Starkiller Base (Death Star III) was the kind of stuff I would joke about before seeing TFA. "Hey, you know what would be so original. A third Death Star.". I was very shocked that they actually did it. When they explained how it was way bigger I wasn't sure if it was an intentional joke or not. If so, thumbs up. At least Star Wars can make fun of itself.

 

I hated the star killer base. I couldn't get how this weapon actually worked

- So it absorbed heat from a star like a vacuum and sent it back at the planets?
- How were they able to aim it?
- Finn: 'I actually don't know how to destroy it, but we have 15 minutes. We should be able to figure it out.' Its the size of a damn planet!

Overall, I didn't like this movie.

 

I don't know how the Death Stars actually work. Or pod racers. Or speeders. Or "boomers". Or TIE fighters.

That doesn't stop me from loving Star Wars.

 

If you are now getting into SW (as it sounds from your post), you should really switch off your brain and throw some believability out of the window. It's a fictional world, set in a different galaxy. A lot of stuff won't make sense.

 

When George Lucas speaks about the "lack of imagination" going into the new films, nothing personifies it better than Starkiller Base.

 

Honestly I really do not view the OT as something you need to "turn you brain off" to watch, I think its much more that it allows the specifics of technology to become a non issue by keeping it in the background.

The problem I think SKB has is that it brings the mechanics of technology much more into the foreground showing us a bit of how it works which then leads to asking a lot of other questions.

 

I don't remember Lucas using that phrase. Source of the quote?

 

No. It is a destroyer (like the naval ships we have here) that embarks across the stars. Not a destroyer of stars.

 

I guess so... Kind of a stretch, though...

Personally, I thought that was an awesome way to bring in a name from the early scripts.

 

Start at 1:39

 

Yeah, they attempted to explain how it actually works and its a flat out embarrassment. Of course it doesn't stop me from loving Star Wars, but it makes me shake with disgust at whoever thought that nonsense up.

 

I don't get the problem. The weapon steals the sun's energy and uses it to destroy stuff. Space fantasy badassery!

 

I liked Starkiller (the name itself amused me) and how it's the largest weapon yet (an entire planet). I hope it made the First Order and especially General Hux feel like their balls were big enough.

 

Excellent Robot Chicken.

I recommend to you the last book of the Liu Cixin trilogy. You'll have to go through the first and second for context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem

 

no

 

It was pathetic, but I wasn't surprised since its an Abrams movie. He's famous for leaving the actual restarting of a franchise to the guy coming after him. I was embarrassed for SW at the planning scene. TFA as a whole keeps getting worse when I rewatch it. Bad script, bad acting, dull action, poorly written characters.