It's easier to animate a bunch of identical helmets than to try to animate faces for every single stormtrooper. Especially since it would end up looking weird because there is no way they would have a unique face for each trooper. Oh, wait a second, isn't that TK-236 from episode 9? Didn't he get thrown into the reactor?

Clone Wars splits the difference by having them as literal clones. Then you just give the unique ones haircuts, eye colors, or tattoos (or all of the above).

Clone Wars had a great advantage in the animation category because the bad guys were all droids, and the good guys were all clones, making it easier to cut and paste and reuse models.

11 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

It's easier to animate a bunch of identical helmets than to try to animate faces for every single stormtrooper. Especially since it would end up looking weird because there is no way they would have a unique face for each trooper. Oh, wait a second, isn't that TK-236 from episode 9? Didn't he get thrown into the reactor?

Clone Wars splits the difference by having them as literal clones. Then you just give the unique ones haircuts, eye colors, or tattoos (or all of the above).

Clone Wars had a great advantage in the animation category because the bad guys were all droids, and the good guys were all clones, making it easier to cut and paste and reuse models.

In our house, when watching Rebels, we joke that the Empire has a clone program for junior naval officers.

The second in command or standing watch officer who answers the unique captain is always this guy...

Yeah, and then there's "Mr. Chin" who always seems to be a part of the episode's token bridge crew, even when he's been blown up a few times. You never see his eyes...

7 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Yeah, and then there's "Mr. Chin" who always seems to be a part of the episode's token bridge crew, even when he's been blown up a few times. You never see his eyes...

I'm certain "Mr. Chin" is the same model with less rendering resources applied. The hat, mouth, nose, and chin are the same! Its just, in the scene depicted above, we do see him fully rendered.

What's in your headcanon?

Mr. Chin is indestructible!!!

I draw a lot of inspiration for Age of Rebellion from the old TIE Fighter game. Not necessarily canon, but it sets a certain tone. I use the greek alphabet to designate Imperial fighter groups, The Secret Order of the Emperor goes around giving people weird tattoos and cryptic missions, and the briefing is always given by the same briefing officer.

I do want to run a Resistance Era campaign (I quite like the sequels), but I can definitely wait for the sourcebook.

Personally, I never felt like Stormtroopers were *super* elite. They're a cut above Imperial Army, sure, but they also weren't terribly rare, even in the old canon. When I think elite troops, I think Storm Commandos and Death Troopers. This "Elite Stormtrooper" nonsense strikes me as Imperial propaganda. They want Stormtroopers as a symbol of oppression, and if the people believe they're all fanatically loyal and expertly trained, then people are a lot less likely to challenge the faceless symbols of your rule.

But they're just dudes with guns and marginally better armour. They were never anything special.

Broadly speaking, I have most stuff set before TPM to be canon (like Tales of the Jedi, KOTOR, SWTOR, etc.).

Original trilogy only for me.

The "clone" in Clone Wars refers to an army of Dark Jedi clones who started off abducting/assassinating individual Jedi Knights before amassing a large enough army to start invading entire planets. Obi-Wan meets Anakin Skywalker, a full-on adult starfighter pilot for the Republic, notices he is strong in the Force, and just as he says in ROTJ "took it upon myself to train him as a Jedi".

Why do I keep seeing Samuel L. Jackson from the Capitol One commercial dressed as Mace Windu asking the title question? 🤨

11 hours ago, Jareth Valar said:

Why do I keep seeing Samuel L. Jackson from the Capitol One commercial dressed as Mace Windu asking the title question? 🤨

I loved Samuel L Jackson when he worked with Tarantino and in films like The Long Kiss Goodnight. When he's appropriately cast he's fantastic, but for a while there, he was one of those actors who was cast in everything under the sun even if it was a poor fit for him. He worked as Nick Fury. I enjoyed him as a poncy supefvillian. But... as the BMF-styled head of the Jedi Order? That's the Grand Master?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

I have left Mace Windu and his story untouched in my games, but man, talk about weirdly inappropriate casting choices. Whaaaaat?

All the side characters in the prequels were worthless. Not a single one of them brought anything to the movies, especially compared with classic minor characters like Ackbar and Piett. I guess Bail Organa was worthwhile. The exception that proves the rule.

The Death Star plans were divided into pieces and each subcontractor only got the plans for their segment (and maybe bits of adjacent ones). This is why there's a dozen such separate thefts in the EU and why nobody realized the chain reaction possibility. This is consistent with WEG's book on the thing, which had the non-superlaser parts in independently operating blocks.

My headcanon:

Knights of the Old Republic
Most of Knights of the Old Republic II, particularly with the RCM
The Old Republic (Vanilla, Hutt Cartel, Shadows of Revan), but not Eternal Empire stuff.
Darth Bane novels

Cloak of Deception (except that Qui-Gon becomes Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan becomes Anakin)
Rogue Planet
Outbound Flight
The Approaching Storm
Attack of the Clones novelization
The Cestus Deception
Jedi Trial
Republic Commando Books
Shatterpoint
Medstar I & II
Yoda: Dark Rendezvous
Labyrinth of Evil
Revenge of the Sith novelization
Order 66
Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader
Imperial Commando: 501st
Coruscant Nights series

The Han Solo trilogy (with Rebel Dawn revised to fit Rogue One)
Rogue One (revised to fit Rebel Dawn)
Episode IV: A New Hope
Allegiance and Choices of One
Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
Shadows of the Empire (novel)
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Truce at Bakuru
The Bounty Hunter Wars
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
X-wing Series
Courtship of Princess Leia (extensively revised)
Tattooine Ghost
Heir to the Empire trilogy
The Mandalorian (revised to fit Legends canon)
Jedi Academy trilogy (revised slightly)
I, Jedi
Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, Planet of Twilight (revised)
The Black Fleet Crisis
The New Rebellion
The Corellian Trilogy (revised)
The Hand of Thrawn duology
Survivor's Quest
The New Jedi Order series
The Dark Nest trilogy
Legacy of the Force series

That eliminates all the TV shows except the Mandalorian, the prequel movies, the new canon (again, except the Mandalorian and Rogue One), some of the worst Bantam era books, and the comics.

1 hour ago, NanashiAnon said:

The Death Star plans were divided into pieces and each subcontractor only got the plans for their segment (and maybe bits of adjacent ones). This is why there's a dozen such separate thefts in the EU and why nobody realized the chain reaction possibility. This is consistent with WEG's book on the thing, which had the non-superlaser parts in independently operating blocks.

And, if its anything like the construction industry, submitting an RFI (request for information) won't necessarily get you a relevant answer or plan-set, let alone the most up -to-date one. Even when dealing with the architects, developers, and principle engineers who should have access to everything, including master plans, you often find people confused over which approved plan set a sub-contractor or even the prime contractor should be working from. Or, principal engineers who aren't ware a sub isn't working from the plans they approved.

All Galen Erso had to do was swap a few versions that people were working from to have a potentially serious flaw missed or written off as "out of date" or simply "not approved." It would take a team of sharp-eyed investigators with full access to the complete set of historical records and the change-log, as well as a serious reason to dedicate the time involved, to conduct and audit piece what he'd done together. That can be true when doing version control on a simple six story mixed use project, let alone a project the size of a moonlet? Just wow. Remember, Star Wars computers aren't really modern computers. They're 1970's computers. That's a lot of work....

9 hours ago, NanashiAnon said:

The Death Star plans were divided into pieces and each subcontractor only got the plans for their segment (and maybe bits of adjacent ones). This is why there's a dozen such separate thefts in the EU and why nobody realized the chain reaction possibility. This is consistent with WEG's book on the thing, which had the non-superlaser parts in independently operating blocks.

I have zero problems with the empire being aware of the chain reaction thing. Even, then Rogue One retcons in that Galen Erso made the flaw a critical part of how the thing works, so even if they're aware of it, they'd have to back to the drawing board to fix it, without Galen Erso this time. The flaw was worth the trade off, considering how ridiculously unlikely that an enemy who found out about it could even manage to exploit it.

Still someone intimately familiar with the Death Star, like the director of the project, might have known to be more cautious when the rebels show up to bomb it. Too bad Tarkin decided to oust him in a petty power struggle and then shoot him in the face with his own superlaser. Whoops.

I mean, the crew of the Death Star seem to be perfectly aware that the rebel assault is a credible threat, why else suggest that Tarkin evacuate? The Death Star wasn't the Empire messing up, I'd say it was all Tarkin. Because he was relatively new to the project.

If you think the Death Star had a glaringly unrealistic flaw, you should look up HMS Hood, the sinking of which came as an absolute surprise to absolutely no one who knew anything about the matter. The ships weakness against plunging fire was known in the Royal Navy, and there was plans to fix it, but due to this austrian dude starting a minor kerfluffle on the continent, they never got around to it. I guess the Hood wasn't important enough to prioritize, only being the flag ship of the navy and all. Oh well.

This is my headcannon

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fderf9v1xhwwx1.cloudfront.net%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Foth%2FFunimationStoreFront%2F2083518%2FEnglish%2F2083518_English_KeyArt-OfficialVideoImage_836ba3b8-02f6-e911-82a8-dd291e252010.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.funimation.com%2Fshows%2Fno-guns-life%2Fems%2F%3Fqid%3DNone&tbnid=ZLHXVYCgQhRwUM&vet=12ahUKEwjG0J77wMTmAhUQAlMKHfOpDlAQMygMegUIARD2AQ..i&docid=ScvhJ3k239YPDM&w=1920&h=1080&q=no guns life&ved=2ahUKEwjG0J77wMTmAhUQAlMKHfOpDlAQMygMegUIARD2AQ

kotor games, star wars starfighter & jedi starfighter (love the Havoc, hoping we get it some time in a book)

Disney's canon star wars

except, since a few days, the sequels. timeline stopped at 5 years after Jakku (time frame of the mandalorian)

the fact that (minor spoiler) palpatine returns with barely an acknowledgment of ankin/vader made his whole story & the ot heroes struggles meaningless

so as far as I am concerned, since the last movie, the sequels do not exist

On 12/14/2019 at 5:51 PM, Voltron64 said:

Broadly speaking, I have most stuff set before TPM to be canon (like Tales of the Jedi, KOTOR, SWTOR, etc.).

Better yet and to elaborate on my previous comment, I think the best way to think about this issue, is to consider everything from Legends that isn't decanonized as canon until it is either affirmed to be canon or actually becomes noncanon.

It’s a strategy I’ve been following and it’s worked pretty great for me!

My (probably unpopular) opinion is that I'm glad that Lucasfilm rebooted Star Wars canon. As someone who had been reading SW comics and novels since the late 1980s, the Expanded Universe was ridiculously bloated and a lot of material was poorly written. My "baseline" for canon is the movies, TV shows, and the current crop of published, third-party materials.

That said, Legends material is a great source to dip for ideas without feeling like you're breaking holy sacrament if you change it up to better fit your style of play.

• The Evocii of Nar Shaddaa play a big part in the first adventure in my upcoming EotE campaign.
• I'm planning to use Corellia as presented in Suns of Fortune , just with the caveat that the planet was cleaned up following the big shipbuilding boom of the Early Imperial years.
• I've used the Matukai and various other Force traditions that were introduced in Legends though I've tweaked them a bit. For example, if the Jedi are Akira Kurasawa samurai then the Matukai are 1970s grindhouse kung-fu monks.
• The "Tales of the Jedi" comics are mostly canonical though they're considered a part of the "oral tradition" in the Star Wars universe so they're open to interpretation and not considered historical fact. It's fun to twist what players think they know about Ulic Qel-Droma and company.
• Pius Dea Crusades are absolutely in my head canon.
• I'll reference pre-Republic cultures from Legends from time-to-time but I'll usually change them up if they don't fit what I want.

Hahaha I have a confession:

I consider Rogue One AND Kyle Katarn Cannon (in my RPG.) The way I do this is have Kyle Katarn to have stolen some prototype plans of the Death Star. I think it is funny because once someone, who is much more knowledgeable in Legends than me, turned down playing in my RPG because of this fact. Even though Kyle only appeared in the session for about twenty minutes.

For the most part, I am using the old WEG information rewritten to take in account some of the stuff from the prequels and the Clone Wars series and sneaking in a few details from other science fiction franchises where I don't think my players will notice them.

I'm currently considering an Imperial Intelligence game, so I've been going back to the endless well that is The Imperial Sourcebook from West End Games. I'll probably gloss over a lot of the finer details, but I am 100% stealing the Ubiqtorate - the anonymous council that runs II - and Adjustments, the only group of agents who receive directives straight from the Ubiqtorate.

I mean, that's just a perfect setup to hand out Mission Impossible style briefings hidden in common objects, that self-destruct after viewing.

And I might also steal the Secret Order of the Emperor from TIE Fighter. Nothing like a bit of cryptic Dark Side insight being injected into an intelligence op.

I can play the two shadowy cabals off each other. It'll be great.

On 1/2/2020 at 1:59 PM, Concise Locket said:

My (probably unpopular) opinion is that I'm glad that Lucasfilm rebooted Star Wars canon. As someone who had been reading SW comics and novels since the late 1980s, the Expanded Universe was ridiculously bloated and a lot of material was poorly written. My "baseline" for canon is the movies, TV shows, and the current crop of published, third-party materials.

That said, Legends material is a great source to dip for ideas without feeling like you're breaking holy sacrament if you change it up to better fit your style of play.

• I'm planning to use Corellia as presented in Suns of Fortune , just with the caveat that the planet was cleaned up following the big shipbuilding boom of the Early Imperial years.

The reason I figure Corellia was in such a crummy state was because it came under attack during the Clone Wars.

Also the reason for a such a surplus of orphans like Han and Qi'ra, they lost their parents in the war.

On 1/6/2020 at 2:21 PM, Voltron64 said:

The reason I figure Corellia was in such a crummy state was because it came under attack during the Clone Wars.

Also the reason for a such a surplus of orphans like Han and Qi'ra, they lost their parents in the war.

That's a good explanation. After the Clone Wars, Corellia may have needed to jumpstart its economy and agreed to break with centuries of tradition and start manufacturing on the planet's surface again.

This is strictly expanded universe, but over a period of a few short centuries Corellia shifted from an absolute monarchy to a democratic constitutional monarchy and then to rule by a corporate appointed diktat focused on pursuing corporate interests across the sector. That diktat effectively represented the elites who controlled the planets manufacturing and resources and acted on behalf of a group of exploitative robber barons. Ergo, conditions for everyone except the power elite on Corellia became extremely poor. None of this matters for my games because, while we have characters from Corellia, no one has ever expressed an interest in going to Corellia.