Just to be clear, I don’t hate Episode 8. I think it’s a very uneven movie with highs and lows.

there were 3 things I didn’t want to see happen in the sequel trilogy that would spoil things going forward and the Last Jedi accomplished all 3.

1: Destroy the New Republic. The opening crawl mentions they are gone and it’s just the first order again. Instead of doing something interesting, they took us back to Empire/Rebellion again. All that talk of letting go of the past seems really hypocritical when they are banking in nostalgia and maintaining a certain status quo.

2: Rey being a nobody. I want Rey to be a great character. The actress is great. The character is likeable, but yeah, she’s a bit Sue-ish. The last Jedi didn’t help that perception at all.

3: Screwing up Luke. I agree with Mark Hamill that they didn’t handle his character well, even though he did a grade-A job portraying him. Ang again, it was great to see him as flawed and human. It was great to see Yoda teach him another lesson. So why in the world did they have him die in the end? Why not see him pick himself up and begin teaching a new generation of Jedi? Or go out and be a hero again? Oh right, Disney wants us to forget the past, let it die, and join in on the endless adventures of perfect Rey as she becomes the Mother of the New Jedi Order with Ghost Luke popping in every now and again to give an approving nod.

1 hour ago, GrandAdmiralCrunch said:

Rey’s parents being nobodies was the last thing I wanted. Having her be a Skywalker or Solo would have made her be an integral part of the Skywalker saga. Having her be a reincarnation of the chosen one would have worked as well.

Her being a nobody who was powerful because “Balance”... really made me roll my eyes.

Why didn’t Rey choose to join Kylo and rule the galaxy? It wasn’t like she had a close relationship with a mentor who taught her how awesome the lightside and Jedi were. Quite the opposite in fact. It’s like the idea didn’t even cross her mind.

Like she was to good and pure to ever consider the dark side or be influenced by it.

At least with Luke and Han we saw flaws and weaknesses that they struggled to overcome and become heroic in the end. How many flaws or weaknesses has Rey truly shown so far?

I'd have been outraged if Rey had been an abandoned child of Luke, or Leia and Han. That would have offended me at least as much as everything else that outraged me about the handling of Luke in these last films.

Now I still think they took an easy way out with her being abandoned by bad parents but it is more palatable than abandoned child of our OT heroes. I think with this, "Like she was to good and pure to ever consider the dark side or be influenced by it." you really get at the heart of what they did with Rey. On the one hand it is refreshing there isn't some sort of inner turmoil going on there with Rey. On the other it cheapens her and really does make her a Mary-Sue. Rey hasn't particularly earned anything in these films. She beat a wounded man, beat some guards, and drew the second fight with the not wounded man which more or less got called off because of rain or did she flee? With more or less zero training but now she's The Last Jedi and holder of the sacred texts.

It is a shame really as I like the actress and there is the idea of an interesting character in there but she's Mary Poppins in this piece, "Practically perfect in every way."

I enjoyed Ep VIII well enough, but it, like TFA before it, pales in comparison to Rogue One....for me, Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie ever made. A movie that, as many have put it, puts the War back in Star Wars.

Heh....funny story. I got to see TLJ 1 and 1/10 times in the same night.

I went to go see the IMAX 3D version of this movie. I was already seated at 8:05 for the 8:30 show. Apparently, the projectionist did not pay attention to the pre-show videos that were playing. It was 8:10, and we were already being told on-screen to put on our 3D glasses. I was like...hmmm...this is new. Ok.

So, regular movie trailers started playing: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Alita Battle Angel, Alpha, Avengers Infinity War, and a couple of others. Then, the movie begins around 8:15-8:20. So, I settled in, Captain Morgan and Coke in hand, ready to be taken to a galaxy far, far away. The movie started. And then, about 5 minutes into the film, where there is a pretty big explosion, the film pauses, and then stops. Those of us who were already seeing this portion of the film were snickering.

I even blurted out: "The end! Shortest Star Wars movie....ever!" That got some laughs.

So, the projectionist had caught what had happened, rolled it back to the trailers, and the movie started on time for all to enjoy.

To get the thread back on track about bombers.....it's not the first time in Disney era SW that we see "gravity" bombs. The Y-wings in Rogue One were dropping their ion bombs "down" as well. It's not a trend that I liked, and I've intensified my dislike even more in TLJ. It just makes no sense......X-wings shoot their proton torpedoes forward, and I'd assumed the Y-wings would as well. Gah....I love the WWII feel that infused the original trilogy, but they've gone overboard on it recently. Inspired by is great....but literally putting a B-17 in space is just plain too derivative.

And the way those bombers were flying there was *zero* chance any of them were going to escape the blast from their bombs anyways. Who designed these suicidal things, and why would anyone fly them?!?!?!?!

1 hour ago, Maturin said:

The Y-wings in Rogue One were dropping their ion bombs "down" as well.

I thought they dived in, so they release the bomb as they are going down, the bomb keeps the momentum and the Y-wing flies upward, so the bombs follows on with the trajectory, but I may have to re-watch the scene cos it’s been a while

The Y-Wing torpedoes were shot forwards when they attacked the ISD. I think Vis may be right about the dive bombing of the shield gate.

I always figured they were being launched out of the bottom

45 minutes ago, emsgoof said:

I always figured they were being launched out of the bottom

If you look at the cross section it has a tube

On 29/12/2017 at 0:18 AM, martok2112 said:

I enjoyed Ep VIII well enough, but it, like TFA before it, pales in comparison to Rogue One....for me, Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie ever made. A movie that, as many have put it, puts the War back in Star Wars.

Same here. Rogue One is the Best star wars movie.

Everyone here has made great points about those spaceborne B-17's in TLJ.

On the one hand, I didn't care for the super slow space bombers. Way too vulnerable. Y-wings or B-wings would've gotten the job done much more effectively. But, as a poster mentioned earlier, it looks like Rian Johnson wanted the bombing scene to happen that way, and shoehorned it into the story. I have always said: "Logic and physics will always yield to the needs of dramatic storytelling". ( from my as yet unpublished, and completely on-the-fly "Martok2112 Laws of Storytelling" soon to never be available from your favorite book store .)

On the other hand, it did make for some cool eye-candy. But that was about it.

When I watched Rogue One, I saw the ion torpedoes (which is what they were called) shot forward (like proton torpedoes) from the Y-wings. I liked how their impacts were portrayed also... a small explosion, and then, the ion effects coruscating over the areas of the hull they affected.

One question I asked myself, and I'm sure others have asked themselves: "WOW! If the Rebellion had all this cool stuff at the Battle of Scariff, why didn't they have it at the Battle of Yavin?" Well, then I reasoned it out with myself: First off, obviously Admiral Raduss' flagship was captured, and likely destroyed afterward at Scariff, as were several other capital ships. Second, the Rebels realized that capital ship attacks would be ineffective against the Death Star...and that small snub fighters would be more tactically sound. (As Gen. Dodonna pointed out: "Well, the Empire doesn't consider a fighter to be any threat, or they'd have a tighter defense.") The Death Star was built to fight off entire armadas of capital ships, figuring that their TIE contingent would handle any starfighter opposition. Third, I think the Rebels realized that any kind of ion weapons, be they energy based or torpedo based, would be ineffective against the Death Star because the battlestation was hardened against power damping/diruption attacks. That is how I would see it, to explain the tactical disparity between Scariff and Yavin IV.

On the film tech side of things ,well, clearly they needed some serious wow factor for the Battle of Scariff, and they certainly gave that in spades. It was a very exciting battle to watch, and I was so glad to see it on the big screen. I felt like my 8 year old self did when I saw the Battle of Yavin in '77.

13 hours ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

The Y-Wing torpedoes were shot forwards when they attacked the ISD. I think Vis may be right about the dive bombing of the shield gate.

Just went back and checked. You guys are absolutely right. That makes me much happier with R1.

I do seem to remember Y-Wings having downwards facing tubes for bombing runs.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/BTL_Y-wing_starfighter

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/0/0f/Ywing_egvv.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081117222123

Thanks to @Drasnighta , we have a screenshot of Y-Wings bombing the shield gate. They do indeed drop their bombs. . .

6 hours ago, Drasnighta said:

I think it was this topic...

... anyway.

Rogue One.

Y-Wings.

Bombs "Drop" from Level Flight. Not Dive-Bombed. (Center Frame, Orange/pink dot falling from Y-Wing at bottom of shield ring)

Well, they are indeed bombers, so it makes sense that they would have both gravity bombs and torpedo type bombs.