On 2/26/2017 at 6:17 PM, GroggyGolem said:

So here's some useful nitpicking.

When Kallus goes to the detention level & lets Ezra out of his cell using List's code cylinder, the security cameras were shown to be on until he entered the code cylinder.

This means that rather than Thrawn being such a genius and figuring things out based on the art and getting into the heads of people, anyone could have figured Kallus is Fulcrum.

Check the security tapes at the time of List accessing the prisoner cell. See Kallus with List's cylinder just before it shuts off. See List elsewhere in the ship, following Governor Pryce & Thrawn to the detention level. Realize Kallus is Fulcrum.

This brings me to believe that the Empire does not actually have security cameras everywhere and what we see in Rebels are those false security cameras, to make the troops and officers believe that they are being watched. In reality, they are not being watched, otherwise that would have been the first place that Thrawn checked when he thought something was suspicious.

The only time we've seen actual footage recorded of the Rebels on Lothal is with either Viper Probe Droids or those little security droids that Kallus have used or the ones that Seventh Sister used.

Therefore, I am positing that all Imperial security cameras that are not part of droids are actually false cameras, used as a scare tactic for the low level personnel and to warn off any spies in their midst. It could be a budgetary thing, since the Empire loves going with the quantity over quality approach.

I'd think that an ISB agent would pretty much know the ins and outs of Imperial surveillance equipment and practices. Kallus wouldn't allow himself to be recorded committing treason, or at the very least, not allow such a recording to remain intact.

On 3/2/2017 at 11:29 AM, Donovan Morningfire said:

Well, nice to see the balls of titanium element is still present, given that in the Thrawn Trilogy the man himself said that he'd openly disagreed with the Emperor (who at that point in the EU didn't take kindly to dissent amongst the ranks) on several different occasions with regards to tactics for military operations, and that Thrawn had generally been proven to be correct to dissent. Though his last bit of dissent got Thrawn sent to the Unknown Regions for a spell, so not like he got away scott-free with disagreeing with Palps.

Considering that Thrawn was creating a firebreak against the incoming Vong as well as other powerful threats to the Empire, I don't think Imperial displeasure is what sent him to the Unknown Regions.

On 3/2/2017 at 11:29 AM, Donovan Morningfire said:

Well, nice to see the balls of titanium element is still present, given that in the Thrawn Trilogy the man himself said that he'd openly disagreed with the Emperor (who at that point in the EU didn't take kindly to dissent amongst the ranks) on several different occasions with regards to tactics for military operations, and that Thrawn had generally been proven to be correct to dissent. Though his last bit of dissent got Thrawn sent to the Unknown Regions for a spell, so not like he got away scott-free with disagreeing with Palps.

Considering that Thrawn was creating a firebreak against the incoming Vong as well as other powerful threats to the Empire, I don't think Imperial displeasure is what sent him to the Unknown Regions.

Good news! Rebels is picked up for a fourth season!

3 hours ago, Jon D said:

Considering that Thrawn was creating a firebreak against the incoming Vong as well as other powerful threats to the Empire, I don't think Imperial displeasure is what sent him to the Unknown Regions.

Thankfully, that was "dead canon", and so far there are no Vong and there's no "secretly heroic Emperor" BS in the "new canon".

8 minutes ago, MaxKilljoy said:

Thankfully, that was "dead canon", and so far there are no Vong and there's no "secretly heroic Emperor" BS in the "new canon".

Nor was it Zahn's original reason for Thrawn's presence in unknown space.

3 hours ago, Desslok said:

Good news! Rebels is picked up for a fourth season!

Nice! I knew they had already begun their voicework for season 4 a while back but it's nice to see an official announcement.

10 hours ago, ghatt said:

Nor was it Zahn's original reason for Thrawn's presence in unknown space.

Not the Vong, but he had this vibe of threats in the unknown regions and Thrawn as defender of the galaxy already in the thrawn trilogy.

And btw, just because you defend your empire against another invading force, does not make you the good guy, it merely makes you not a retard. One of the most common themes is two evils fighting each other and the unknown region as seperate space with its own dangers to the republic and/or empire is an interesting concept. It makes the villains less mustache twirling and more believable without taking away from their villain status.

1 hour ago, SEApocalypse said:

Not the Vong, but he had this vibe of threats in the unknown regions and Thrawn as defender of the galaxy already in the thrawn trilogy.

And btw, just because you defend your empire against another invading force, does not make you the good guy, it merely makes you not a retard. One of the most common themes is two evils fighting each other and the unknown region as seperate space with its own dangers to the republic and/or empire is an interesting concept. It makes the villains less mustache twirling and more believable without taking away from their villain status.

Absolutely, I just detest the Vong with a passion, so any retconning done to include them isn't going to fly with me. While I was upset that they eliminated the EU at first, I was extremely happy when the Vong went bye bye. I'm pretty content with how they're running things at the moment.

6 minutes ago, ghatt said:

Absolutely, I just detest the Vong with a passion, so any retconning done to include them isn't going to fly with me. While I was upset that they eliminated the EU at first, I was extremely happy when the Vong went bye bye. I'm pretty content with how they're running things at the moment.

I've come to think that the First Order is as bad as the Vong. Both are weak attempts to create a post-Empire adversary.

At least the first order is something that already existed; even though the empire was ravaged it still controlled a lot of territory after the war, enough to establish it's own proxy nation or fund a rebel group to have deniable accountability for actions committed by the first order. It's something both Russia and Amercia have used in the Ulkraine and Seria respectively, despite both nations being heavily involved in the former and latter respectively. The empire just needed a way to act to put off the republic while building it's own power base again. Plus they needed a independent party largely because if the empire itself built it, then the resistance would have found out much sooner.

I don't object to the super weapon being built; it's been 30 years and unlike the death star it actually did the job it set out to do; it broke the republic and pretty much it's destruction meant that it would be a fight rather then a out right slaughter. What I do dislike is lazy writing. E.g. It just so happens that instead of doing something cool, it fired a single beam that somehow spiltinto multiples and hit several planets. That and hoping that finding a magical space wizard is somehow more important then whatever other dirt they are digging up. I was really looking forward to a cold war style adventure building up to a epic reintroduction to the empire. What I got was basically a redo of a new hope which was alright; but the movie wouldn't have worked if it wasn't star wars.

I mean principly the Vong were a pretty cool idea. Better then the endless rehashes of "Sith gone bad" or "Oh empire you naughty boy" that seems to consist of 80% of fiction.

Read Aftermath: Empire's End to lose all respect for the First Order (if you ever had any).

It's best to avoid Chuck Wendig entirely

So it's cannon. The empire had capable prototype tie defenders before the battle of yavin. I have grown to be OK with this. I do not mind a bit of artistic license. And noting is to say that production cannot be stalled. Though I am really hoping for a really cool 2-3 espido arch on getting and deploying the Xwing.

Oh and the rebel base at Dantooine is full operational.

Oh look... an explosion that can cripple Imperial Star Destroyers has no effect on the Ghost or a pair of Y-wings.

And it looks like we're back to ion cannons being the answer to heavily shielded targets. Too bad FFG's game mechanics don't reflect that in the slightest.

3 hours ago, Tom Cruise said:

It's best to avoid Chuck Wendig entirely

Other than the three Aftermath novels, I haven't read any of his stuff, so I can't say anything about that. However, I hold the Aftermath novels in utter contempt and feel that they are the equivalent to Vongforming the future of Star Wars novels.

Vongforming?

8 minutes ago, Forresto said:

Vongforming?

The Vong used to spread their spoor around the galaxy ruining every planet they encountered (like Ithor and Coruscant). This parallels the Aftermath series pretty much spreading its crap all over parts of Star Wars that I happen to like.

1 hour ago, HappyDaze said:

Oh look... an explosion that can cripple Imperial Star Destroyers has no effect on the Ghost or a pair of Y-wings.

And it looks like we're back to ion cannons being the answer to heavily shielded targets. Too bad FFG's game mechanics don't reflect that in the slightest.

Also, that was one hell of an explosion given how disperse gases are in space. Earth's atmosphere is about 10,000,000,000,000 times more dense than the density that would be present of even the densest nebulae at its edge.

So, basically ion guns are back to the way they were in Empire Strikes Back and WEG. But the Y-wings don't have them on a turret like they did in WEG, so forward firing only. And they're using bombs instead of torpedoes. Hard for a bomb to "fall" when there is no down in space, heheh.

38 minutes ago, Kallabecca said:

Also, that was one hell of an explosion given how disperse gases are in space. Earth's atmosphere is about 10,000,000,000,000 times more dense than the density that would be present of even the densest nebulae at its edge.

So, basically ion guns are back to the way they were in Empire Strikes Back and WEG. But the Y-wings don't have them on a turret like they did in WEG, so forward firing only. And they're using bombs instead of torpedoes. Hard for a bomb to "fall" when there is no down in space, heheh.

Let's be honest, basic applications of physics was never Star War's strong suit.

The ion cannons were on turrets , but they were locked forward since those were single-seater Y-wings.

1 minute ago, HappyDaze said:

The ion cannons were on turrets , but they were locked forward since those were single-seater Y-wings.

Because having the turret linked to the helmet isn't possible, yet we did it back in the vietnam war with the Cobra gunships, heheh.

Okay, enough nitpicking physics - can we just bask in the utter gorgeousness of the episode? The nebula, the sunburst explosions, the in and out of the corona? This is one of the best looking episodes of the entire series.

10 hours ago, Kallabecca said:

Because having the turret linked to the helmet isn't possible, yet we did it back in the vietnam war with the Cobra gunships, heheh.

Space combat (even in Star Wars) takes place much faster than anything a helicopter would be doing, still makes sense for turrets to be locked.

But back to the episode, this one makes me want to improve the defender stats in RPG, since 2 Y-wings could totally take on 1 Defender with the rules they have now. The escape did seem a bit, 'we can't have anyone captured, come up with something.' Granted Star Wars has always had those... and no TIE fighters launched, why...

Not to sound to critical I did really like the episode, Thrawn, TIE defenders, space combat, (was that an MC80a at the end?), but like most things Star Wars there's that one moment when you go, "Why didn't they do this?"

18 minutes ago, Imperial Stormtrooper said:

"Why didn't they do this?"

Money.

It's almost always the answer. Why's the story the way it is? Why doesn't this reasonable thing happen? Because creating it costs money.