@lightsabre crystals:

How dare you. HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!

ARGHHH!!!!!

Ok, I'm fine now.

Crystals (and in some wierd cases worked jewels and costume jewelry) being placed inside lightsabers, much less actually focusing and creating the lethal beam/blade, is the single most disagreeable facet of the SW canon I can think of. Now...now I know where it started and who to blame. What started as a mere mention of the description of the outer casing of the lightsaber in the ANH Novelization from 1976 and the first follow up novel SotME, has now become a central part of Jedi training where a padawan can lose his or her life attempting to secure a 'Kyber' crystal all so the kid can build a weapon that probably would be made by a master craftsman in the days of the old republic. But...it's ok...I guess I can accept it. I guess.

I still think Vader would have been the only Jedi to routinely build lightsabers since he was a gear head techy guy anyway. Disney Canon be praised though.

Anyway, what were we discussing?

Thanks for this, OP.

Doing The Force's work.

Why thank you.

BY IMPERIAL EDICT, WRIT AND DECREE, YOU ARE PROMOTED TO RANK OF COMMODORE.

Rise Commodore Lackwit.

*Taps Mic*

This thing on?

Uh. I'd like to thank the guy who gave me this promotion.

Thanks.

*Walks out awkwardly*

Said it in another thread a couple weeks ago but,

Ren and Phasma should be dead. No one knew where either were by the time Starkiller was destroyed. Ren shot, beat up and slashed in the middle of the freezing forest. Phasma presumably stuffed into a trash compactor sans blaster or radio get out with and possibly even tied up. I realize that having both not dead for the next movie makes for a better movie but it's just another issue that bugs me about the movie overall.

Said it in another thread a couple weeks ago but,

Ren and Phasma should be dead. No one knew where either were by the time Starkiller was destroyed. Ren shot, beat up and slashed in the middle of the freezing forest. Phasma presumably stuffed into a trash compactor sans blaster or radio get out with and possibly even tied up. I realize that having both not dead for the next movie makes for a better movie but it's just another issue that bugs me about the movie overall.

I assume Hux went to catch Ren the same way Chewie did Rey and Finn, since Snoke told him to. They specificaly made a scene for that! Phasma is a bit more iffy, but I guess we know that it possible to escape trash compactors.

Then I have a question for you, considering your past: Who was the moof milker who thought up the imperial army trooper?

I'm not sure what the exact question is.

The Imperial Army has several movie related canon analogs/material that needed to be reconciled to have the Star Wars Galaxy "make sense."

General Tagge

Lieutenant General Veers

Major General Bast

Colonel Cass

The personnel and officers on the Death Star.

The AT-AT drivers on Hoth.

The AT-ST drivers and the ground troops attached to the shield bunker on Endor.

The Empire's Order of Battle had to be established, to give some logical resonance to the magnum opus of Space Opera that is Star Wars.

There was clearly The Imperial Fleet and analog to the real world navies. There was the Stormtrooper Core Legions which were the rough equivalent of the marines or in darker times the SS.

The Imperial Army was of course the mirror to real world armies, and whats an army without soldiers, hence the Imperial Army trooper.

The officers you see in the movie came up the ranks, they were all Imperial Army troopers at one point, they are STILL IN the Imperial Army when they are on screen.

What I mean is who came up with these guys:

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/c/ca/Imperial_Trooper_Deployment.jpg/revision/latest/top-crop-down/width/320/height/320?cb=20090713030424

Rather than having stormtroopers being the frontline infantry.

I have many points of contention for some of the early fiction and rpg writers came up with some really annoying and regressive things, such as making the empire sexist. I know it was a different time, but still annoying.

As to my anger, here is the crux of the issue. The old weg stuff may have been good, and the wotc stuff was pure drek, but I am sick and tired of hearing people say "weg did it this way" or preaching the old stuff as "gospel". Look, i get it you came folks came up with stuff, but at this point im sick of just seeing rehashes, whether poor in wotc's case or phenomenal as in FFG's, of old material. I hope that with the new canon replacing some of the old, some of the stupid will dissapear.

I like stormtroopers being the Frontline troops - because that is what people recognize and want their rebel heroes to shoot.

I like female stormtroopers and officers.

I want some new material to replace the old. It is about time.

You had me until this point, when your argument went from being mildly agreeable to majorly arrogant.

So very true. And my apologies to him for that. I blame 80's hubris, it being 6 AM in New York while I was posting, and several glasses of superb 1942 tequila at work. I passed out after the post. I am better now.

Said it in another thread a couple weeks ago but,

Ren and Phasma should be dead. No one knew where either were by the time Starkiller was destroyed. Ren shot, beat up and slashed in the middle of the freezing forest. Phasma presumably stuffed into a trash compactor sans blaster or radio get out with and possibly even tied up. I realize that having both not dead for the next movie makes for a better movie but it's just another issue that bugs me about the movie overall.

I assume Hux went to catch Ren the same way Chewie did Rey and Finn, since Snoke told him to. They specificaly made a scene for that! Phasma is a bit more iffy, but I guess we know that it possible to escape trash compactors.

I like to think Chopper was off screen somewhere ready to free Phasma like R2 did in ANH. Why chopper? Well why not? Maybe he wants to canabalize her chrome costume for himself.

We don't know exactly how much time it took for the planet to implode/explode, but Chewie had enough time to somehow find the kids in the woods.

It is weird that in the Old canon (at least in this book I have) Stormtroopers were like "Spec Ops" so to speak, because that's all we see in the movies.

I liked that this new material still isn't really contradicting the old material, if anything its complimenting it, lots of Legends secondary canon material was elevated to primary canon. Liked how Rad Troopers, E-wing (the company that made them), the Stele Chronicles, Heir to the Empire, Baron Fel, heck bits of everything really, was referenced and put into the new stuff.

I kind of hope there are Imperial Remnants that didn't get suckered in by another Sith Lord and his apprentice. The fact that the sith were mostly out of the picture in the EU made the Empire more compelling to me. Sure, there were parts of the Empire that fell back into line whenever a evil force user popped up, but characters like Pellaeon, Thrawn and Fel were what defined the old EU empire for me.

Obviously they won't get screen time, but the Empire was a super massive military complex. There had to be a lot of ships left, even after the Imperial leaders threw in the towel. And I can't imagine all of them would be on board with signing on with another whack job that built expensive and wasteful super weapons.

Imagine if they put all the credits they spent into the Death Stars and Starkiller Base into a fleet (or fleets) of Star Destroyers, fighter craft, and all the ordnance you need to run it. They probably could have just steam rolled right over the Republic, Resistance, and Rebellion.

Well theirs a very good chance the Darksiders you saw in the ep 7 are not Sith. They don't use Sith lingo, they don't use Sith titles, and most important of all, not once did any of them have yellow eyes like sith do, even Darth Tyrannis had yellow eyes sometimes.

The Current Empire is foolish, but the Emperor would have used the Death Star and other Super Laser platforms and the Galaxy Gun for countering the Vong and any other weapon that can or will throw planets at other planets. Vong are still secondary canon even if its written that their invasion was a major failure, or was delayed and so on.

I think its funny current standard Storm Troopers don't have proper breathing filters or closed circuit breathing systems, unless of course the gas Finn is talking about is very corrosive and would destroy the filters Stormies have, their are some chemical and biological agents in real life that will do that, making the above systems useless. Or Finn is an idiot, which I believe. Its also funny that Standard Storm Troopers have lost all their computer targeting systems in their helmets by this time in ep 7. In effect the shades or prescription glasses people buy now in real life are more advanced than what the Troopers have for their eye ware.

At the same time TIE Pilots got updates to their stuff, making their equipment more advanced than their equipment used by the Galactic Empire, Dark Empire, Emperors Inner Circle, and other Rogue Imperial Empires.

The Starkiller was cool but it is inferior to the DS 2 in just about every way.

The 2nd Death Star still is the most supreme weapon out of super weapons and the Star Killer base fails in comparison to it. The Seconded Death Star had three reactors, two used for the Super Laser Mk 2 only. Individually or together the output for these reactors are equal to hundreds of super-giant stars.

reference Star Wars Guide to Warefare, Ultimate Star Wars, Star Wars Death Star Owners Technical Manual.

The Seconded Death Star has better, or would have when finished, anti-fighter anti-cap ship defenses. There many zones on the Star Killer that have no fixed anti-anything at all on the surface of the planet. The 2nd Death Star also had lots of the best ECM hardware ever made which the Star Killer was lacking this is it.




In reference to what the Death Star/s I and II are packing. They are prefect, no amount of ECCM will break through there signals. They are so prefect that ships being jammed get no indications that they are even being jammed. (Return of the Jedi) Here this is from the tech book.

THE KUAT DRIVE YARD 220-SIG TACTICAL COMBAT JAMMER.


PERHAPS THE MOST POWERFUL JAMMING SYSTEM EVER BUILT WERE THE HUNDREDS OF KUAT DRIVE YARDS 220-SIG TACTICAL JAMMERS ABOARD THE DEATH STAR SPACE STATIONS. EACH JAMMING EMPLACEMENT'S DIRECTIONAL DISH ALLOWED CONCENTRATED JAMMING ALONG SPECIFIC VECTORS, CREATING NARROW ZONES OF INTERFERENCE WHILE LEAVING MOST OF THE DEATH STAR'S SENSOR ARRAYS CLEAR TO GATHER DATA.

DURING THE BATTLE OF YAVIN, THE DEATH STAR'S 22-SIG UNITS INTERFERED WITH THE SENSORS AND TARGETING COMPUTERS ABOARD THE REBEL ALLIANCE'S FIGHTERS, ALTHOUGH THEY COULDN'T BLOCK LUKE SKYWALKER, WHO USED ONLY VISUAL TARGETING AND SCORED THE VITAL HIT THAT DESTROYED THE DEATH STAR.

AT THE BATTLE OF ENDOR THE SECOND DEATH STAR'S JAMMING UNITS BLINDED ALLIANCE SENSORS, AND ONLY LANDO CALRISSIAN'S LAST-SECOND COMMAND TO BREAK OFF THE ATTACK PREVENTED THE REBEL FIGHTER FLEET FROM COLLIDING WITH THE BATTLE STATION'S INVISIBLE ENERGY SHIELD. THE DEATHSTAR'S JAMMING ALSO PREVENTED THE ALLIANCE'S CAPITAL SHIPS FROM DETECTING THE IMPERIAL FLEET, WHICH WAS ORBITING ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE FOREST MOON. THIS ALLOWED STAR DESTROYERS TO OUTFLANK THE REBELS IN A PINCER MOVEMENT THAT CUT OFF THEIR ESCAPE ROUTE DURING THE LAST GREAT BATTLE OF THE GALACTIC CIVIL WAR.

If we are including crew compliments I will point out that the 2nd Death Star had TIE Interceptors, which alone beats out everything the Star Killer could have in the air, TIE Defenders, TIE Avengers, Possible TIE Punishers were at the Battle of Endor.

Troop wise is Probably had Imperial NAVY Commandos which beats out any special forces or reg troops you see on the Star Killer. Storm Commandos and Dark Trooper Commandos were depicted being on Endor itself but if there any aboard the 2nd Death Star the Star Killer infantry are super toast.


DEATH STAR 2 vs Star Killer

Death Star 2 wins for many reasons. One its more mobile, seconded it has extremely advanced ECM ECCM capabilities, the Star Killer should never be able to detect it until its to late and by no electronic methods. The Super Laser Mk 2 is more powerful than the first version and the first version fired a Laser so powerful it would hit things with the power of a Stellar core. Targets hit would be surrounded by hundreds of minuscule space-time singularities caused by a massive upheaval of matter anti-matter that would also rip a hole into hyperspace.
reference SW.com 2007

The Super Laser Mk 1 and Mk2, because it is way more powerful, are not only planet killers but Star Killers and inadvertently universe multiverse killers, although the last two shouldn't happen often, it appears to be an inadvertent side-effect possibility that only Sidious knew about, if the Imperial engineers knew about this possibly could happen they are nuts. What would happen when firing into a Star is that its mass would go into hyperspace, so their shouldn't be any supernovas caused by their destruction via Super Laser.

Anyway with its ecm capabilities, its ability to constantly fire without needing to recharge, in the case of DS 2 it has a very short recharge time, and its more mobile, and was crewed by more elite forces and intelligent people like Darth Sidious and 1 - 2 Grand Admirals. They could ether one shot kill surprise attack the Star Killer OR let the Star Killer fire at it, immediately jump into hyperspace right before taking a hit, jump back and let lose on the Star Killer. Any Star the star killer would try to use to refill the Seconded Death Star could just be destroyed with its Super Laser, preventing the Star Killer from recharging its weapon.

It is weird that in the Old canon (at least in this book I have) Stormtroopers were like "Spec Ops" so to speak, because that's all we see in the movies.

I wouldn't say Spec Ops, more like Elite Forces.

It is weird that in the Old canon (at least in this book I have) Stormtroopers were like "Spec Ops" so to speak, because that's all we see in the movies.

They were said to be the 'elite' of the Empire, well trained and fully indoctrinated into the New Order. This of course ignores the two yahoo troopers 'guarding' the tractor beam Ben was messing with, Jedi mind tricks notwithstanding. We see Stormtroopers in ANH 'storming' onto the Tantive IV under Vader's command, then see more on Tatooine either also under Vader or from the local garrison on a mission to secure top secret plans and acting like traffic cops. (Brief mention of black uniformed officers from Devastator). Then we see stormies all the Death Star along with 'navy troops' and lots of different colored uniformed officers and techs. The stormies do a lot of guard duty but also respond to the rebel incursion and jail break.

So stormies seem to be charged with boarding actions but also seem to act as MPs. This sounds like maybe they could ever the equivelant of Marines, first in, policing the populace on outlying posts. There was no clear indication of them being 'elite' other than Ben remarking how precise their blast points were when firing at a samdcrawler-sized sandcrawler.

(Besides the 'standard' stormie kit we see troops wearing pauldrons and large backpacks, as well as 'space duty' troops stationed outside the docking bags of the Death Star. They are only called Stormtroopers by Ben, and no one uses 'sand trooper' or 'space trooper')

ESB shows Stormtroopers (or similar troops) wearing very different uniforms under the command of Veers (who wears similar armor as his troops) as the Empire invades the planet Hoth. The uniforms are said to be specifically cold weather/polar gear and not just invasion, hazardous environment or Galactic Marine gear. The white color may be camo or just a carry over from the 'standard' uniforms. (These uniforms are later revealed to be almost identical to the Galactic Marines under Ki Adi Mundi in the GAR) These troops also appear to have officers with rank insignia. The AT-AT/walker pilots appear to wear gear similar to starfighter pilots and may or may not be related to stormies. Later we see 'normal' Stormtroopers, especially on Cloud City as an occupying force possibly similar to boarding the Tantive IV but on a larger scale and less aggressive. The roles of these troops are consistent with ANH. (Snowtrooper is never mentioned).

ROTJ shows 'regular' stormies performing the same duties as the other films but also show them in the 'finest legion' on Endor with a variety of troop uniforms. There are also Scout troops that are assumed to be associated with stormies and also assumed to be trained for planet side duty in wilderness regions. AT-STs are shown to be piloted by men wearing similar uniforms to Veers on hoth without the armor but with helmets, and they don't appear to be officers. We never see the AT-AT cockpit to see if that crew is dressed similarly.

In all films Stormtroopers are shown to transfer prisoners and may be accompanied by officers in black or grey/olive uniforms.

They are never refered to as Stormtroopers by Imperial personnel. Similarly Sandtrooper, Snowtrooper, Scout Trooper, ect are never refered to by name, although official (not canon) action figures are named as such.

Official reference works have expanded the types of troops employed by the empire using many assumptions that are not explicit in the canon films. Similarly the branches of the Empire's armed forces and their structure has been created after (I assume) many veiwings of the films and access to much behind the scenes material that I can only guess at. I don't even pretend to be able to do any where close to the job of WEG and others (even Starwars.com). I'm just pointing out some observations I've made over the decades.

When I first read the title, I thought it was going to be a new slot on upcoming ships.

From a movie maker's POV however, i would say they need to let he Republic die (yet again...), or severely limit their participation in the conflict however, to recreate that "against all odds" feeling that the Rebellion faced against the Empire.

Calling it now: there's something outside the Galaxy that Snoke believes requires a Dark Side (non-Sith) response to. So he's grabbed the reins of what is left of the Empire, and is building their military with the ostensible purpose of taking on the Republic, but the real goal of aiming his military at said Extra-Galactic threat.

So we don't need- I think- to see a fall of the Republic. Just a war between the First Order and the Republic that will serve to give the First Order some real practice. And had the FO not taken out the majority of the Republic military with their first strike, the Republic probably could have rolled right over the FO.

Also: I _really_ wanna see EP9 feature Finn leading an uprising of Stormtroopers against their captors.

What started as a mere mention of the description of the outer casing of the lightsaber in the ANH Novelization from 1976 and the first follow up novel SotME, has now become a central part of Jedi training where a padawan can lose his or her life attempting to secure a 'Kyber' crystal all so the kid can build a weapon that probably would be made by a master craftsman in the days of the old republic. But...it's ok...I guess I can accept it. I guess.

I still think Vader would have been the only Jedi to routinely build lightsabers since he was a gear head techy guy anyway. Disney Canon be praised though.

Anyway, what were we discussing?

I have a distinct feeling that everyone has to build their _first_ sabre, but after that you can just go into the armory or whatever.

Remember that bit in EP2 when Mace tosses Anikan and Kenobi a couple new lightsabers to replace the ones that had been destroyed? I have a sense that those came from some central repository of some sort.

It's CANON folks!

(Snip of a nice set of thumbnail outlines of several points brought up in Episode 7.)

Thanks for getting this all in one place!

From a movie maker's POV however, i would say they need to let he Republic die (yet again...), or severely limit their participation in the conflict however, to recreate that "against all odds" feeling that the Rebellion faced against the Empire.

Calling it now: there's something outside the Galaxy that Snoke believes requires a Dark Side (non-Sith) response to. So he's grabbed the reins of what is left of the Empire, and is building their military with the ostensible purpose of taking on the Republic, but the real goal of aiming his military at said Extra-Galactic threat.

So we don't need- I think- to see a fall of the Republic. Just a war between the First Order and the Republic that will serve to give the First Order some real practice. And had the FO not taken out the majority of the Republic military with their first strike, the Republic probably could have rolled right over the FO.

Also: I _really_ wanna see EP9 feature Finn leading an uprising of Stormtroopers against their captors.

I guess they have to do something since the Rebels blew up the third Death Star.

Thanks for this, OP.

Doing The Force's work.

Why thank you.

BY IMPERIAL EDICT, WRIT AND DECREE, YOU ARE PROMOTED TO RANK OF COMMODORE.

Rise Commodore Lackwit.

*Taps Mic*

This thing on?

Uh. I'd like to thank the guy who gave me this promotion.

Thanks.

*Walks out awkwardly*

That's strange, I thought you were in the Imperial Army.

Uh, sorta'. I mean, I guess I'm not anymore.

I'm not taking this stormtrooper gear off though. Nuh-uh. Mine. I love it too much.

They are going to run out of ships pretty quick unless they draw from the EU. At least for the next 2 years. Maybe the next movie will be full of new ships. This one certainly wasn't.

It really in the best interest of the game for there to be a relative end date to it. Go out on a high note, maybe 1-2 years after release of last of the new trilogy.

It is weird that in the Old canon (at least in this book I have) Stormtroopers were like "Spec Ops" so to speak, because that's all we see in the movies.

They were said to be the 'elite' of the Empire, well trained and fully indoctrinated into the New Order.

Well there many diffrent jobs in any branch both in real life and GE. One of thier overall jobs is also to be shock troopers... odd though that a special type of elite storm trooper is the "Shock Trooper". So Shock troopers have Shock Troopers.

Calling it now: there's something outside the Galaxy that Snoke believes requires a Dark Side (non-Sith) response to. So he's grabbed the reins of what is left of the Empire, and is building their military with the ostensible purpose of taking on the Republic, but the real goal of aiming his military at said Extra-Galactic threat.

So we don't need- I think- to see a fall of the Republic. Just a war between the First Order and the Republic that will serve to give the First Order some real practice. And had the FO not taken out the majority of the Republic military with their first strike, the Republic probably could have rolled right over the FO.

Also: I _really_ wanna see EP9 feature Finn leading an uprising of Stormtroopers against their captors.

If Snookie knows about the extra galactic threat its because of Darth Sidious. I think that Snookie has manipulated the GE into believing that the NewRep has slated them in some grievous way and intends them to weaken a personal enemy of his that may or may not be linked directly to the NewRep. The GE just seemed way to angry with the newreps for me to believe that they are simply angry about the war 30 years earlier that their faction was involved in.

They are going to run out of ships pretty quick unless they draw from the EU. At least for the next 2 years. Maybe the next movie will be full of new ships. This one certainly wasn't.

It really in the best interest of the game for there to be a relative end date to it. Go out on a high note, maybe 1-2 years after release of last of the new trilogy.

Well jfyi they showed that black 1 has parts comade with the same company that makes E-Wings, and the black paint job isnt just cosmetic. It has sensor detection hampering attributes like the stealth t-65.

Said it in another thread a couple weeks ago but,

Ren and Phasma should be dead. No one knew where either were by the time Starkiller was destroyed. Ren shot, beat up and slashed in the middle of the freezing forest. Phasma presumably stuffed into a trash compactor sans blaster or radio get out with and possibly even tied up. I realize that having both not dead for the next movie makes for a better movie but it's just another issue that bugs me about the movie overall.

I assume Hux went to catch Ren the same way Chewie did Rey and Finn, since Snoke told him to. They specificaly made a scene for that! Phasma is a bit more iffy, but I guess we know that it possible to escape trash compactors.

I like to think Chopper was off screen somewhere ready to free Phasma like R2 did in ANH. Why chopper? Well why not? Maybe he wants to canabalize her chrome costume for himself.

We don't know exactly how much time it took for the planet to implode/explode, but Chewie had enough time to somehow find the kids in the woods.

Rey and Fin climbed a ways to get 2 levels above Ren and 1 level above Chewie. Stuff happens and everyone loses their mind then starts running out. Realistically, everyone in that scene should have practically been about 10 feet away from each other outside after that. Rey and Fin climbed back down, Chewie went up and we can assume Ren went straight out. Everyone should have been right outside. Rey, Fin and Chewie were heading to the Falcon so it's not a stretch to assume Chewie knew where abouts generally to look for the kids.

Hux we can't say knew where Ren was or even knew Rey had escaped so he would have assumed Ren was interrogating her not traipsing through the base looking for her. When he finally realizes the planet is boned, he runs off to commune with Snoke. Even if that holo-theater is right next to the control room, he's got to get out and to a landing bay and find a ship among all the other people that would likely now be trying to get out as well, assuming he didn't head to the interrogation room 1st looking for Ren. I don't think it'd be crazy to think if Hux went to the interrogation room and no one was there, he would have just every man for himselfed given their rivalry. I'll give you that Ren may have had a comlink but I find it unlikely anyone would have picked up the emo brat, especially Hux, even under Snoke's orders.

I have to admit, I've seen to movie 3 times and cannot recall for sure that Hux was unaware Rey escaped though. That might change details a bit but the outcome would probably be the same.

Phasma is pretty much got no realistic way out of that. It can be assumed through dialogue, she's dumped into a trash compactor. Doing so is to keep her out of sight which would entail taking her weapon(s) and comlinks. With the base now under attack and subsequently starting to explode, no one is forming a search party to look for her. She should be very dead.

As for how long it takes for the planet to explode, we can reasonably say within minutes(possibly more than 5 but less than 10) of Chewie collecting the kids. The next shot is the planet exploding then seeing the Falcon and resistance fighters coming from the flash of the explosion. Highly unlikely they took a victory lap around the planet before getting out of there especially knowing what was going to happen.

Said it in another thread a couple weeks ago but,

Ren and Phasma should be dead. No one knew where either were by the time Starkiller was destroyed. Ren shot, beat up and slashed in the middle of the freezing forest. Phasma presumably stuffed into a trash compactor sans blaster or radio get out with and possibly even tied up. I realize that having both not dead for the next movie makes for a better movie but it's just another issue that bugs me about the movie overall.

I assume Hux went to catch Ren the same way Chewie did Rey and Finn, since Snoke told him to. They specificaly made a scene for that! Phasma is a bit more iffy, but I guess we know that it possible to escape trash compactors.

I like to think Chopper was off screen somewhere ready to free Phasma like R2 did in ANH. Why chopper? Well why not? Maybe he wants to canabalize her chrome costume for himself.

We don't know exactly how much time it took for the planet to implode/explode, but Chewie had enough time to somehow find the kids in the woods.

Being a realist, sorta.

Rey and Fin climbed a ways to get 2 levels above Ren and 1 level above Chewie. Stuff happens and everyone loses their mind then starts running out. Realistically, everyone in that scene should have practically been about 10 feet away from each other outside after that. Rey and Fin climbed back down, Chewie went up and we can assume Ren went straight out. Everyone should have been right outside. Rey, Fin and Chewie were heading to the Falcon so it's not a stretch to assume Chewie knew where abouts generally to look for the kids.

Hux we can't say knew where Ren was or even knew Rey had escaped so he would have assumed Ren was interrogating her not traipsing through the base looking for her. When he finally realizes the planet is boned, he runs off to commune with Snoke. Even if that holo-theater is right next to the control room, he's got to get out and to a landing bay and find a ship among all the other people that would likely now be trying to get out as well, assuming he didn't head to the interrogation room 1st looking for Ren. I don't think it'd be crazy to think if Hux went to the interrogation room and no one was there, he would have just every man for himselfed given their rivalry. I'll give you that Ren may have had a comlink but I find it unlikely anyone would have picked up the emo brat, especially Hux, even under Snoke's orders.

I have to admit, I've seen to movie 3 times and cannot recall for sure that Hux was unaware Rey escaped though. That might change details a bit but the outcome would probably be the same.

Phasma is pretty much got no realistic way out of that. It can be assumed through dialogue, she's dumped into a trash compactor. Doing so is to keep her out of sight which would entail taking her weapon(s) and comlinks. With the base now under attack and subsequently starting to explode, no one is forming a search party to look for her. She should be very dead.

As for how long it takes for the planet to explode, we can reasonably say within minutes(possibly more than 5 but less than 10) of Chewie collecting the kids. The next shot is the planet exploding then seeing the Falcon and resistance fighters coming from the flash of the explosion. Highly unlikely they took a victory lap around the planet before getting out of there especially knowing what was going to happen.

What? Hux would not have the balls to disobey a direct order from the supreme leader. I don't see his health in a good spot when he returns without Ren. There also is no reason for Ren not to carry any kind of communication (unless it was build into his helmet, which I doubt since it is more of a 'ritualistic' object), so for me this one, while not perfect, is pretty clear. I would bet an extended cut has a scene where Hux and Ren are aboard his shuttle and leave.

Like I said, Phasma is iffy. Maybe the FO added control panels inside of trash compactors for which she certainly would have had authorization? A stupid oversight by Finn and Han that saved her live. It really isn't convincing, but it can be explained away. A bit of a Star Wars tradition (see Kessel Run).

Yeah, she made the trash compactor outbreak in under 3 minutes...!

Yeah, she made the trash compactor outbreak in under 3 minutes...!

She had more time than that, didn't she? The whole father and son reunion and the duel went on after that. I assume they threw her in, she was like "Oh good, there is the door", types in the code, walks out of there all smelly and has a shuttle to herself. She also knows that the base is doomed, so she immediatly gets to the hangar.

Yes, I think so, too. And I don't mind.

It's just some off-screen action we as passive (as in non-creative) audience don't have to be pumped up about.