You have to remember ties were designed to face off against pirates and criminals, who would have z-95s and similar craft which means the fast tie has similar firepower and a speed and manuverability advantage.

The x-wing came as a shock which is when the Empire took the rebellion seriously and we saw the development of the interceptor, avenger and defender.

As for the y-wing it may hurt in a joust but no pilot who wants to live will go head on they'll get behind the slow bomber and stay there piling on the damage while the rebel desperately tries to lose the more agile tie fighter.

But honestly, I'd rather just assume the whole clone-wars era is still shrouded in mystery to the folks of the OT era, and the prequels are highly fictionalised accounts from a single persons fevered imagination. You know like if today our only record of WW2 was episodes of Dad's Army and Hogan's Heroes.

That doesn't make a huge amount of sense, though - WW2 was, after all, some 70 years ago. The Clone Wars ended only 20 years before the Battle of Yavin.

The first Gulf War was about that far back from today, and it's hardly "shrouded in mystery" - hell, the weapons we use to this day are very nearly ALL THE SAME as the first Gulf War. (I mean, updated, sure - an AH-64D is quite a more capable platform than an AH-64A, and we don't technically fly the F-117 anymore...but an F-15E from Gulf War 1 is not much different from an F-15E, today, and the Nimitz-class carriers have seen some refits and updates and changes to their fighter wings...but the ships themselves certainly look identical...etc)

A mere 20-year gap between the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War is really not anywhere near enough time for the Clone Wars-era ships, fighters, shuttles, and weapons to have so completely vanished. Even comparing a historical period with one of the most rapid technological switches we've seen, the Dreadnought arms race of the early 20th century, you can see close to a near-wholesale replacement of one type of ship with another...but even then, the Germany Navy showed up at the Battle of Jutland with nearly 1/3 of its battle line being pre-dreadnought battleships.

And Star Destroyers are a heck of a lot harder to build than a naval dreadnought - I mean, 1.6 kilometers long?! It would have made a lot more sense to have seen more of the repainted Venator-class during the Civil War era than just the one basic Star Destroyer type we did get. (Yes, the Empire is going to want to replace them with newer, more powerful and more crew-efficient designs...but if you've got to patrol the entire galaxy, and you already have thousands of examples of a ship that...you keep using them until you can replace them! Heck, the last diesel-powered aircraft carrier in the US Navy, serving alongside the nuclear carriers, lasted well into the 80s...)

I would have also expected to see more Separatist ships present in the Rebel fleet at Yavin. After all, the Trade Federation, Banking Clan, etc found the Old Republic too stifling a government to be willing to live under, I can't imagine they were more happy with the same system only as an Empire.

The last goof, though, is Lucas's - the Bail Organa's ship in RotS really should have been the Tantive IV. No reason not to be (other than there being no place for Obi-Wan to park Grievous's fighter on the Tantive IV - but that could be fixed by a slight redesign on the fighter to give it a docking capability). And that class of ship should probably have seen some more action in the Clone Wars, as well as possibly the Nebulon-B (maybe have it show up in some of the Separatist fleets). Then you'd have that missing continuity...

But then compare that to fighter aircraft evolution from 1916 (wings fell off if you went too fast) to 1945 with the first jet fighters.

Thats 20 to 30 years and you'd not fly a focker triplane against a Me262 if you had any sanity...

Wait the English team up with the slave owners?

We abolished slavery 30 years before the civil war even happened.

The English at the Time of the Civil War was still an Empire. At the time supporting a rebellion in a rival nation would weaken a possible competitor for the world's domain (not to mention act as a little payback for the revolutionary war)

Yes the United Kingdom of Great Britten and Northern Ireland AKA the British Empire, for which the sun never sets on, provided arms and advisers to the Confederate States of America.

Also the Civil War was not about slavery until the Emancipation Proclamation which was used by the Union in full effect as a propaganda tool even to the victors justice about making the Union the "Good Guys" (disclaimer I don't believe the Confederates were the "Good Guys" either and I am not a southerner).

But honestly, I'd rather just assume the whole clone-wars era is still shrouded in mystery to the folks of the OT era, and the prequels are highly fictionalised accounts from a single persons fevered imagination. You know like if today our only record of WW2 was episodes of Dad's Army and Hogan's Heroes.

That doesn't make a huge amount of sense, though - WW2 was, after all, some 70 years ago. The Clone Wars ended only 20 years before the Battle of Yavin.

The first Gulf War was about that far back from today, and it's hardly "shrouded in mystery" - hell, the weapons we use to this day are very nearly ALL THE SAME as the first Gulf War. (I mean, updated, sure - an AH-64D is quite a more capable platform than an AH-64A, and we don't technically fly the F-117 anymore...but an F-15E from Gulf War 1 is not much different from an F-15E, today, and the Nimitz-class carriers have seen some refits and updates and changes to their fighter wings...but the ships themselves certainly look identical...etc)

A mere 20-year gap between the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War is really not anywhere near enough time for the Clone Wars-era ships, fighters, shuttles, and weapons to have so completely vanished. Even comparing a historical period with one of the most rapid technological switches we've seen, the Dreadnought arms race of the early 20th century, you can see close to a near-wholesale replacement of one type of ship with another...but even then, the Germany Navy showed up at the Battle of Jutland with nearly 1/3 of its battle line being pre-dreadnought battleships.

And Star Destroyers are a heck of a lot harder to build than a naval dreadnought - I mean, 1.6 kilometers long?! It would have made a lot more sense to have seen more of the repainted Venator-class during the Civil War era than just the one basic Star Destroyer type we did get. (Yes, the Empire is going to want to replace them with newer, more powerful and more crew-efficient designs...but if you've got to patrol the entire galaxy, and you already have thousands of examples of a ship that...you keep using them until you can replace them! Heck, the last diesel-powered aircraft carrier in the US Navy, serving alongside the nuclear carriers, lasted well into the 80s...)

I would have also expected to see more Separatist ships present in the Rebel fleet at Yavin. After all, the Trade Federation, Banking Clan, etc found the Old Republic too stifling a government to be willing to live under, I can't imagine they were more happy with the same system only as an Empire.

The last goof, though, is Lucas's - the Bail Organa's ship in RotS really should have been the Tantive IV. No reason not to be (other than there being no place for Obi-Wan to park Grievous's fighter on the Tantive IV - but that could be fixed by a slight redesign on the fighter to give it a docking capability). And that class of ship should probably have seen some more action in the Clone Wars, as well as possibly the Nebulon-B (maybe have it show up in some of the Separatist fleets). Then you'd have that missing continuity...

Basically this. The 20 year gap isn't much, especially for Star Wars. I hate to admit it, but the existence of the prequel films does raise a LOT of questions as to why half this stuff isn't seen more often, or at least, why OT stuff wasn't seen a lot back -then-.

You have to remember ties were designed to face off against pirates and criminals, who would have z-95s and similar craft which means the fast tie has similar firepower and a speed and manuverability advantage.

I always read that TIEs were designed with no hyperdrive or shields so as to have to rely on capital ships or bases as well as because the Empire wanted quantity over quality which is why no shields. I also read way back when a theory that no hyperdrives were so that pilots wouldn't abscond from the Empire by say joining the Rebellion.

And after the Empire saw how rugged ships with shields could be by the Rebels, they started designing ships with shields to go head to head with X-wings.

As for the y-wing it may hurt in a joust but no pilot who wants to live will go head on they'll get behind the slow bomber and stay there piling on the damage while the rebel desperately tries to lose the more agile tie fighter.

But then compare that to fighter aircraft evolution from 1916 (wings fell off if you went too fast) to 1945 with the first jet fighters.

Thats 20 to 30 years and you'd not fly a focker triplane against a Me262 if you had any sanity...

To be fair, "aircraft" didn't even exist at all 20 years prior to 1916. So you are comparing the very-first-practical-application of the technology to its near developments.

We don't really have anything like that in Star Wars - as far back as the setting goes, it always had blasters, light sabers, starships and starfighters.

Going back to your aircraft comparison, you do see technology plateau a bit. Could you fly a 1950s-era Mig-17 against a 1970s-era Phantom II and have success? (Over, say, some jungles in a random SE Asian country like, I dunno, Vietnam)? Yes, absolutely that's a fight you could win.

Ultimately much of this is a question of mature technology. To find a comparable real-world equivalent, look at firearms. Sure, there are some minor optimizations still being done, but the underlying technology for firearms was essentially matured by WWI (the Colt 1911 is still a fine pistol, for instance). Go back a few hundred years and you see far more primitive guns, go back only fifty years and you see the shift to metal cartridges and the beginnings of smokeless powder.

Compare that to the Star Wars setting, where there's already been a long progression of technology even before the founding of the Republic (since Hyperspace is required for that, and Hyperspace is a peak science if ever there was one).

Blasters, starfighters, lightsabers, what-have-you, all had primitive eras, but even by the SWtOR timeframe they'd already pretty much matured. What you see after that are simply refinements to the details. For basic performance, a SWtOR-era lightsaber is just as good as a Clone Wars lightsaber is just as good as a Galactic Empire lightsaber. The same goes for small arms (a blaster is a blaster is a blaster, though newer blasters might be more compact or more efficient or whatever, the basic mechanic remains unchanged) and fighters.

Any mature technology, so long as it isn't replaced by an entirely new tech (like bronze weapons lost to iron which lost to steel, which gunpowder replaced wholesale), is after a certain point simply going to see marginal improvements in efficiency without any fundamental leaps in capability, even over an arbitrary period of time.

But honestly, I'd rather just assume the whole clone-wars era is still shrouded in mystery to the folks of the OT era, and the prequels are highly fictionalised accounts from a single persons fevered imagination. You know like if today our only record of WW2 was episodes of Dad's Army and Hogan's Heroes.

That doesn't make a huge amount of sense, though...

It makes more sense than the prequels.

And Star Destroyers are a heck of a lot harder to build than a naval dreadnought - I mean, 1.6 kilometers long?!

Britain and Germany had a country each to build dreadnaughts. The Empire has an entire galaxy.

Ultimately much of this is a question of mature technology. To find a comparable real-world equivalent, look at firearms. Sure, there are some minor optimizations still being done, but the underlying technology for firearms was essentially matured by WWI (the Colt 1911 is still a fine pistol, for instance). Go back a few hundred years and you see far more primitive guns, go back only fifty years and you see the shift to metal cartridges and the beginnings of smokeless powder.

Compare that to the Star Wars setting, where there's already been a long progression of technology even before the founding of the Republic (since Hyperspace is required for that, and Hyperspace is a peak science if ever there was one).

Blasters, starfighters, lightsabers, what-have-you, all had primitive eras, but even by the SWtOR timeframe they'd already pretty much matured. What you see after that are simply refinements to the details. For basic performance, a SWtOR-era lightsaber is just as good as a Clone Wars lightsaber is just as good as a Galactic Empire lightsaber. The same goes for small arms (a blaster is a blaster is a blaster, though newer blasters might be more compact or more efficient or whatever, the basic mechanic remains unchanged) and fighters.

Any mature technology, so long as it isn't replaced by an entirely new tech (like bronze weapons lost to iron which lost to steel, which gunpowder replaced wholesale), is after a certain point simply going to see marginal improvements in efficiency without any fundamental leaps in capability, even over an arbitrary period of time.

Really have to stress again games set thousands of years bby have the wrong look it got changed for commercial reasons and is not a match for the comics in which that era was invented things were considerably more primitive.

But they were told it had to match the film's style which is why it seems no progress happens over time, that's an issue with the video games.

Because T-65's are cooler than N-1's.

Exactly, it was flash gordon inspired space opera with a 'used' look about it. Lucas constantly contradicts himself, claiming he always planned nine movies while at the time it was clear it was a stand alone film. Only when it was a massive success did someone say 'hey george, do star wars 2!' it's called 'episode IV' on the 'crawl' to be reminiscent on saturday morning sci fi serials that would run forever and usually have to recap what happened last episode as they would start off 'in media res'.... slap bang in the action.

Empire was titled Chapter V long before the episode version re-releases in the 90's

I've always hated that he re-titled them, makes them feel cheaper to me

Ad to your point, you are totally correct, he wrote the script for one film only.

Wait the English team up with the slave owners?

We abolished slavery 30 years before the civil war even happened.

Yup. One of my friends told me in one of the later books that the the Southerners end up excuting all the Jamacan and African Confederates in the same way the NAZIs were exterminating the Jews and starting up with Catholics. In that series its the first time the Northerners are depicted as good because they dont put up with that shtako.

But... its not all about the perormance. I'm claiming TIE fighters are 'cheap' as they have no hyperdrives, astromech ports and lack even basic life support meaning the pilot needs a space suit (source: west end games RPG)

Compared to a Y wing let alone an X wing its quite limited.

True... However I think its safer to wear the Imp flight gear because I THINK its a non-electrical rebreather. If the TIE is hit by a ION weapon the pilot should be safe. The Reb on the other hand will lose life support, although its shown that hre Rebs can fully assemble there flight gear which kinda looks like modern flight gear.

You have to remember ties were designed to face off against pirates and criminals, who would have z-95s and similar craft which means the fast tie has similar firepower and a speed and manuverability advantage.

The x-wing came as a shock which is when the Empire took the rebellion seriously and we saw the development of the interceptor, avenger and defender.

As for the y-wing it may hurt in a joust but no pilot who wants to live will go head on they'll get behind the slow bomber and stay there piling on the damage while the rebel desperately tries to lose the more agile tie fighter.

Kinda ya, but dont forget the TIE Fighter is easily moded hence why there somany specialist wings and elite squadrons with nonstandard weapons and equipment.

Y-Wing BTL-A4 were more than just bombers even though there shields sucked, for a Y-Wing, they were turbo charged to be as fast as standaeds T-65 and TIE Fighters. No two were alike BUT at least one was moded to be as manuverable as a T-65 and a TIE-Fighter. To be honest going by the dog fight scene at the begining of SWTFU 360 and WII Y-Wing A4 appear to do pretty well agianst TIE Fighters.

I also think the Empire / SFS did more to counter Reb craft than just add shields. They made major tech advances in every attribut relating to star fighters esp the Cannons on the three SFS craft you mentioned. It made shield pointless on all Reb fighters except maybe B-Wings.

But honestly, I'd rather just assume the whole clone-wars era is still shrouded in mystery to the folks of the OT era, and the prequels are highly fictionalised accounts from a single persons fevered imagination. You know like if today our only record of WW2 was episodes of Dad's Army and Hogan's Heroes.

That doesn't make a huge amount of sense, though - WW2 was, after all, some 70 years ago. The Clone Wars ended only 20 years before the Battle of Yavin.

The first Gulf War was about that far back from today, and it's hardly "shrouded in mystery" - hell, the weapons we use to this day are very nearly ALL THE SAME as the first Gulf War. (I mean, updated, sure - an AH-64D is quite a more capable platform than an AH-64A, and we don't technically fly the F-117 anymore...but an F-15E from Gulf War 1 is not much different from an F-15E, today, and the Nimitz-class carriers have seen some refits and updates and changes to their fighter wings...but the ships themselves certainly look identical...etc)

A mere 20-year gap between the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War is really not anywhere near enough time for the Clone Wars-era ships, fighters, shuttles, and weapons to have so completely vanished. Even comparing a historical period with one of the most rapid technological switches we've seen, the Dreadnought arms race of the early 20th century, you can see close to a near-wholesale replacement of one type of ship with another...but even then, the Germany Navy showed up at the Battle of Jutland with nearly 1/3 of its battle line being pre-dreadnought battleships.

And Star Destroyers are a heck of a lot harder to build than a naval dreadnought - I mean, 1.6 kilometers long?! It would have made a lot more sense to have seen more of the repainted Venator-class during the Civil War era than just the one basic Star Destroyer type we did get. (Yes, the Empire is going to want to replace them with newer, more powerful and more crew-efficient designs...but if you've got to patrol the entire galaxy, and you already have thousands of examples of a ship that...you keep using them until you can replace them! Heck, the last diesel-powered aircraft carrier in the US Navy, serving alongside the nuclear carriers, lasted well into the 80s...)

I would have also expected to see more Separatist ships present in the Rebel fleet at Yavin. After all, the Trade Federation, Banking Clan, etc found the Old Republic too stifling a government to be willing to live under, I can't imagine they were more happy with the same system only as an Empire.

The last goof, though, is Lucas's - the Bail Organa's ship in RotS really should have been the Tantive IV. No reason not to be (other than there being no place for Obi-Wan to park Grievous's fighter on the Tantive IV - but that could be fixed by a slight redesign on the fighter to give it a docking capability). And that class of ship should probably have seen some more action in the Clone Wars, as well as possibly the Nebulon-B (maybe have it show up in some of the Separatist fleets). Then you'd have that missing continuity...

Well If noone is giving full suport to replace and or repair these ships with new parts that can easily poof off as far as the majority is concerned. See the Venerator was disbanded by the Empire because of a major design flaw exploted by the CIS during the Clone Wars. That flaw was the lauch bay.

As for the Fighters we had something sim happen in real life. The Persian Tomcat has been very difficult to keep in ordear since N.G. stopped giving them freash parts a long time ago. They fix the craft with homebrew parts and or Russian made parts. Its got a weakend frame compared too a new version but with all the upgrades they may have the most deadly Dog fighting F-14 model.

That said Zero can be replaced. Alot of those SW Clone Wars era fighters were talking about are in the same boat as the Persian Tomcat. They can be given L.E.P.s but if there no molds for making new parts you cant actully build more unless other orgz have the rights too build them. This did happen with the head hunter but not with the ARC, the company that made them prob felt it was a flawed design and burried it with better star fighter designs.

As for the Droid fleets and armies most were scrapped, what was good was reprogramed by the Empie and used as defense forces on IMP bases.

As far as the Trade Feds aftermath there homeworld became a IMP pleasure / vacation planet, with a heavy IMP military foundation. Even if they wanted to Rebel they couldnt last long.

But then compare that to fighter aircraft evolution from 1916 (wings fell off if you went too fast) to 1945 with the first jet fighters.

Thats 20 to 30 years and you'd not fly a focker triplane against a Me262 if you had any sanity...

It cant be that bad, Roy Fokker used to fly them ;p

Wait the English team up with the slave owners?

We abolished slavery 30 years before the civil war even happened.

The English at the Time of the Civil War was still an Empire. At the time supporting a rebellion in a rival nation would weaken a possible competitor for the world's domain (not to mention act as a little payback for the revolutionary war)

Yes the United Kingdom of Great Britten and Northern Ireland AKA the British Empire, for which the sun never sets on, provided arms and advisers to the Confederate States of America.

Also the Civil War was not about slavery until the Emancipation Proclamation which was used by the Union in full effect as a propaganda tool even to the victors justice about making the Union the "Good Guys" (disclaimer I don't believe the Confederates were the "Good Guys" either and I am not a southerner).

I wonder if they knew they had plans to become a tropical Empire that would have put all the Central and South Native Americans into slavery?

To be fair, "aircraft" didn't even exist at all 20 years prior to 1916. So you are comparing the very-first-practical-application of the technology to its near developments.

We don't really have anything like that in Star Wars - as far back as the setting goes, it always had blasters, light sabers, starships and starfighters.

Going back to your aircraft comparison, you do see technology plateau a bit. Could you fly a 1950s-era Mig-17 against a 1970s-era Phantom II and have success? (Over, say, some jungles in a random SE Asian country like, I dunno, Vietnam)? Yes, absolutely that's a fight you could win.

Just an interesting tidbit It shows in source books that Old "OLD Republic" ships weapons loadouts, the best weapons Sith Cap ships had were Heavy Lasers. Turbos didnt even exist at that point.

As someone else pointed out, as did I, a Laser Cannon isnt equal to every other diffrent model of Laser Cannon. The same goes for every tech field in SW. It gets better with quality, capabilities, and or massproduction.

Going back to your aircraft comparison, you do see technology plateau a bit. Could you fly a 1950s-era Mig-17 against a 1970s-era Phantom II and have success? (Over, say, some jungles in a random SE Asian country like, I dunno, Vietnam)? Yes, absolutely that's a fight you could win.

Hence the creation of Top Gun: "We have missiles! We don't need to dogfight anymo- ... Oh."

And Star Destroyers are a heck of a lot harder to build than a naval dreadnought - I mean, 1.6 kilometers long?!

Britain and Germany had a country each to build dreadnaughts. The Empire has an entire galaxy.

All three had a whole Empire to fund them, however. Germany's was pretty small, which is why Tirpitz had to go for quality over quantity. Proportionately, I'd give the British and Galactic Empires rough parity.

When they said Britannia rules the waves they were not being figurative, as a small island we ruled through having a very professional army able to punch far above its weight and navel force second to none.

This little isle has always bred fighters.

As a former British Infantryman it pains me to say that the Royal Navy is called the 'senior service' for a reason and that 'British Sea Power' dominated the globe for a few hundred years because quite frankly we've always had the worlds best navy.

When the British fleet sailed into US harbour at the end of WWII they were signalled very quickly 'hi there, how is the worlds second largest navy.

The English officer signalled back without skipping a beat 'we're fine, how is the world's second best?'

I'm a grunt, a pongo, an infanteer.. i hate to admit is due to inter service rivalry but the Royal Navy and the RAF are second to none and in the Fleet Air Arm you get the cream of both services.

As a former British Infantryman it pains me to say that the Royal Navy is called the 'senior service' for a reason and that 'British Sea Power' dominated the globe for a few hundred years because quite frankly we've always had the worlds best navy.

When the British fleet sailed into US harbour at the end of WWII they were signalled very quickly 'hi there, how is the worlds second largest navy.

The English officer signalled back without skipping a beat 'we're fine, how is the world's second best?'

I'm a grunt, a pongo, an infanteer.. i hate to admit is due to inter service rivalry but the Royal Navy and the RAF are second to none and in the Fleet Air Arm you get the cream of both services.

Until the government scrapped out harriers and started building carriers with no planes to put on them. But hey world, FEAR OUR MIGHTY helicopter platforms...

Ad to your point, you are totally correct, he wrote the script for one film only.

Actually, according to www.secrethistoryofstarwars.com you're both completely wrong. His original film was essentially the original trilogy compressed into a single script for the first film. When he found out that the film he had in mind would be ASTRONOMICALLY expensive to make, he chopped off the first act and then shoehorned the final battle from the third act into it because, well, you gotta have a satisfying climax if there isn't a part 2 and 3. When the first part turned out to be a huge financial success, he dusted off the second and third acts and then used them as bases for two new scripts, which were then modified and refined by Barbara Ellis, Lawrence Kasdan, etc., then he put the Episode IV title on the first film in order to make it seem like a much bigger story. There is a great little article on that site about the three trilogies and whether Lucas always intended for there to be nine films, but it's clear that the original trilogy was always planned to be the story that it is, albeit in different forms over the years.

As a former British Infantryman it pains me to say that the Royal Navy is called the 'senior service' for a reason and that 'British Sea Power' dominated the globe for a few hundred years because quite frankly we've always had the worlds best navy.

When the British fleet sailed into US harbour at the end of WWII they were signalled very quickly 'hi there, how is the worlds second largest navy.

The English officer signalled back without skipping a beat 'we're fine, how is the world's second best?'

I'm a grunt, a pongo, an infanteer.. i hate to admit is due to inter service rivalry but the Royal Navy and the RAF are second to none and in the Fleet Air Arm you get the cream of both services.

Until the government scrapped out harriers and started building carriers with no planes to put on them. But hey world, FEAR OUR MIGHTY helicopter platforms...

Urgh I know right so now we have the eurofighter massively over budget and we still don't have them all I don't think, a super carrier over budget and waiting on a plane still in development hell and we are fighting guys with ak`s and rocks.

Makes you want to cry thinking how many armoured transports you could buy the troops for that kind of money.

As a former British Infantryman it pains me to say that the Royal Navy is called the 'senior service' for a reason and that 'British Sea Power' dominated the globe for a few hundred years because quite frankly we've always had the worlds best navy.

When the British fleet sailed into US harbour at the end of WWII they were signalled very quickly 'hi there, how is the worlds second largest navy.

The English officer signalled back without skipping a beat 'we're fine, how is the world's second best?'

I'm a grunt, a pongo, an infanteer.. i hate to admit is due to inter service rivalry but the Royal Navy and the RAF are second to none and in the Fleet Air Arm you get the cream of both services.

Until the government scrapped out harriers and started building carriers with no planes to put on them. But hey world, FEAR OUR MIGHTY helicopter platforms...

Urgh I know right so now we have the eurofighter massively over budget and we still don't have them all I don't think, a super carrier over budget and waiting on a plane still in development hell and we are fighting guys with ak`s and rocks.

Makes you want to cry thinking how many armoured transports you could buy the troops for that kind of money.

Yeah, THANKS Whitehall...

"We need a smaller, more elite army, backed by a robust reserve guard"

Ok, since we now have EVEN FEWER soldiers, can you at least splurge on some better armour for the poor f***ers?

Didn't we have some and then they sold them to the Iraqis government or was it the Americans that did that?

Either way ground pounders got the shaft.

Still at least their body armour sometimes stops a bullet, not like stormtroopers.

Ad to your point, you are totally correct, he wrote the script for one film only.

Actually, according to www.secrethistoryofstarwars.com you're both completely wrong. His original film was essentially the original trilogy compressed into a single script for the first film. When he found out that the film he had in mind would be ASTRONOMICALLY expensive to make, he chopped off the first act and then shoehorned the final battle from the third act into it because, well, you gotta have a satisfying climax if there isn't a part 2 and 3. When the first part turned out to be a huge financial success, he dusted off the second and third acts and then used them as bases for two new scripts, which were then modified and refined by Barbara Ellis, Lawrence Kasdan, etc., then he put the Episode IV title on the first film in order to make it seem like a much bigger story. There is a great little article on that site about the three trilogies and whether Lucas always intended for there to be nine films, but it's clear that the original trilogy was always planned to be the story that it is, albeit in different forms over the years.

Which is nothing like what he was actually saying in interviews in the late 70s.

Lucas changes his mind about what he 'initially envisaged' to suit the marketing of whatever film was in production.

The actual initial script for ANH reads more like a 'coming of age' teen movie but it was dropped, not for budgetary reasons at all but becasue it was similar in tone to his previous film 'Amercian Grafitti'.

Read the initial script, in no way is it all three films what is *is* is a hell of a lot longer and has loads of scenes with Luke and Biggs and their friends hanging around discussing being on a dead end planet and wanting to do something else.

Koo starks parts as Kami were even filmed and then cut.

All of this 'I always meant it to be three films, sorry did i say three.... i actually meant six , oh hears a cute gungan for the kids.. did I say six, excuse me while i open this tax bill... oh i really meant nine... yes thats it nine films all along' ..is frankly spin.

Honestly I *remember* reading the interviews as a Star Wars obsessed kid in the early 80s. He was very clear then that the whole ep IV 'start' was a homage to Flash Gordon.

While i cant find you the interview on this wiki page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_sources_and_analogues

You can read:

"

• A New Hope includes many elements derived from the 1936 Universal serial Flash Gordon—the original property George Lucas had sought to license before making the first Star Wars film—and its sequel, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. The basic plot involving the infiltration of a megalomaniacal outer-space Emperor's fortress by two heroes disguised in uniforms of soldiers of his army is drawn from Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo filling the roles of Flash Gordon and Prince Barin, respectively, and Ming the Merciless the Emperor.

Yeah, THANKS Whitehall...

"We need a smaller, more elite army, backed by a robust reserve guard"

Ok, since we now have EVEN FEWER soldiers, can you at least splurge on some better armour for the poor f***ers?

Actually the infantry have been getting pretty decent kit since about 2001.

Back in my day it was pretty bad. All the stuff i wore in the field was pretty much all bought as 'private purchase' as the issue kit was rubbish. I used to wear tropical pattern trousers and us jungle boots (dried out quicker), an SAS smock (lighter, harder wearing and quicker drying than the issue 90 pattern which was awful.. but slightly better than the 85 pattern that fell to pieces when wet), a norweigan army shirt (warmer than the issue wool jumper) and a 70s pattern field cap that had been cut down (less obvious than a beret, less itchy than a wool cap)...

But when the 'soldier 95' and 'soldier 2000' clothing systems came in people stopped having to buy their own kit because the issue stuff was really good!

Add to that around that time the Heckler & Koch refit made the L85 *a2* variant one of, if not *the*, best assault rifles in the world. The a1 wasnt as bad as rumour has it (I had three stoppages in three years with my rifles and everyone was the result of poor ammunition and not a poor rifle) and i put a lot of rounds through them.

What we do need is a better funded army i agree but the Navy needs sorting first... when you live on an Island its pretty important, as is the RAF... if we stopped getting involved with other peoples wars we wouldnt need so much infantry.

Having a core of army proffesionals backed up by reservist infantry is actually not that bad a plan.

Consider WWI was won by the TA and conscripted infantry after we'd had the regular army machine gunned to death in the first year and consider WWII was largely fought and won by TA battalions after we lost most of the regular army at Dunkirk.

While the regular army like to forget stuff like this, one of the 'assault' battalions to land on the D-day beaches was the 'Hallamshire Battalion' which was a pre war territorial unit of generally older guys and even the first line units were largely conscripted. The only really 'professional volunteers' in any quantity were in the parachute battalions (glider troops were largely converted line infantry battalions made up of conscripted men) and commando units.

The bonus of having 'reservist' infantry is in general it tends to attract brighter soldiers as they are doing it for a hobby *not* because its the only career open to them.

This is me on exercise in Wales in the 90s (i was not a happy bunny it had rained for days and we'd hardly slept for days too).... the *only* things in this pic that were 'issue' are my rifle and my helmet (hard to make out but you can just about see it by my feet).