The Star Wars Episode 8 Thread

**AmateurEmale** · January 30th, 2017, 12:06 AM

I would like to start a new thread that is intended for all of you science fiction fans out there (not necessarily nerds, though) and anyone who grew up in the '70s and '80s. I think this would be a great subject to talk about, despite the "usual" (ahem) purposes of this VEF website.

Now that they are making new Star Wars movies, and Disney has promised that they will release one every year, I would like to point out to everyone that Disney claims the movies will alternate between "new trilogy" movies [Episodes 7-9] and spinoff or stand-alone movies such as Rogue One.

I've seen both Episode 7: The Force Awakens and Rogue One in the theaters, and I believe that Episode 7 was a little bit too derivative of Episode 4: A New Hope. However, it was still better than The Phantom Menace because it did not include Jar-Jar Binks. Episode 7 depicted the bad guys as thoroughly bad: Kylo Ren killing his father with an upside-down-cross lightsaber, and the leader of the First Order looking completely neo-Nazi in appearance.

Rogue One was complicated at times, as it assembled a motley crew of new characters on the Rebel Alliance side, and depicted Andor Cassian as not unlike John Wilkes Booth: someone who is ordered to assassinate an important man, but who has a change of heart. The Empire is accurately depicted as a regime that would kill anyone for even the slightest suspicion of treason: note that they shoot the six engineers anyway, after Galen Erso confesses he is to blame for the Death Star's fatal weakness. Then the Rebel Alliance kills Galen Erso, and soon enough the ultra-violence of Rogue One starts on the planet Scarif.

All I will add at this point is that there are rumors that the trailer(s) for Episode 8 will appear either on the Super Bowl LI commercial breaks, or by March 2017 on YouTube; predictably, there are already fake trailers on YouTube, which I find asinine. And they have settled the recent issue of Carrie Fisher's passing by informing the world that her portion of the Episode 8 footage was already filmed by the time she died; the CGI in Rogue One for Princess Leia was adequate, because it used a lesser-known actress with similar facial structure. [Grand Moff Tarkin got the same treatment, for that matter...]

Those of us who like Star Wars, feel free to add to this thread. The Force Will Be With You, Always.

**snowy25** · January 30th, 2017, 12:42 AM

I am hoping that they will do a Boba Fett solo movie. There is a lot of stuff written about him escaping the sarlaac pit. There is of course a lot of stuff about him becoming the most feared bounty hunter also. Both would be great to see on the big screen as he is among the most popular characters but has virtually no real screen time over the movies so far.

I do agree with your view about 7, as do many others it seems. I think they basically updated 4 as a way of making sure the first movie of the new trilogy didn't suck. I think it was probably the right option as has been seen by reviews which are mostly positive.

**AmateurEmale** · January 30th, 2017, 12:59 AM

A Boba Fett movie would be welcomed by myself. Boba Fett watched the Jedi Master Mace Windu behead his father with a lightsaber, even though Jango Fett had been the template for the clones in the Grand Army Of The Republic. So it's predictable (or justifiable?) that Boba Fett pursued vengeance against the "good guys" of the Rebel Alliance / Republic.

I would like to see about 5-10 years down the road, after they've filmed a Boba Fett and a Han Solo movie (one for each character), to do a stand-alone movie like Rogue One, but from the Separatist point of view. How is it that Count Dooku [who reminds me of Doctor X from Queensrÿche CDs!] became disillusioned with the Jedi Order, then led a movement promising "unyielding devotion to capitalism (sic)", ultimately becoming the leader of the Confederacy Of Independent Systems? And also his Sith persona, Darth Tyranus!

I don't like George Lucas conflating monopolies and/or crony capitalism with a system of economics that the Founding Fathers and Adam Smith generally defended. And there are blatant references to Republicans or even Libertarians such as "Nute Gunray" [Gingrich/Reagan] and "Cato Neimoidia" [Cato Institute as well as the Roman conservative of ancient times] ... I'd like to see how, just as Darth Vader was not totally evil when he was known as Anakin Skywalker, the Separatists had a human side and were not interested in money so much as freedom from the bureaucratic, ineffective, heavily-taxed Old Republic government. Maybe the Republic had prohibitions on secession by a star system, just as Abraham Lincoln espoused the view that the Union was meant to be permanent; but if the Republic uses violence to keep systems in its government, how is that different (if only by degree) from the Empire using the Death Star to coerce systems?

As long as George Lucas lives, and is influencing Star Wars, the above thoughts are some of what I'd like explored by just one stand-alone movie about the Separatist movement.

**snowy25** · January 30th, 2017, 01:05 AM

The good thing for Star Wars fans is that there is a huge amount of stuff that they could do movie wise. You could go back to a previous time and make Shadows of the Empire into a proper movie. Or you could take one of a hundred or so characters or story lines of the expanded universe.

**AmateurEmale** · January 30th, 2017, 01:56 AM

On a certain website, there was an editorial about how Star Wars can go forward or backward with each new movie, ten thousand years into the past, or ten thousand years into the future. But most of the traditional Star Wars content is measured "BBY" and "ABY", to refer to whether it was before or after the battle of Yavin, in which the first Death Star was destroyed. I myself don't like the recent Old Republic content in which the Sith are more prevalent, and a few of the characters like Arcann and his twin brother are bizarre. I prefer for the Sith to be shady, not too numerous, and otherwise behave like the original duo of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

My own observation is that Sir Alec Guinness (the trained Shakespearean actor who played Obi-Wan) was in a certain way right about A New Hope: He called it "fairy-tale nonsense" but informed by moral concepts of good against evil. [Also, in his later days he refused to speak publicly about Star Wars, and did not do autographs if asked.] I notice that Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are like an evil warrior and evil wizard allied to each other. Just as Obi-Wan is like a good wizard instructing a would-be warrior of good (Luke Skywalker) in the ways of the Force. The addition of feudal/fantasy people like Princess Leia add to the apparent medievalism of the Star Wars movies.

Now, what this has to do with Episode 8 is that Finn and/or Rey are possibly going to be trained as Jedi by Luke Skywalker; the official title is Episode 8: The Last Jedi. Of course, there is endless speculation at YouTube about Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the Unknown Regions into which the First Order and its Star Destroyers have fled. Kylo Ren is now in command of the Finalizer, which is a Super Star Destroyer comparable to Darth Vader's Executor flagship. Rumor has it that even larger Star Destroyers exist at the First Order's homeworld(s), and if you read some of the Expanded Universe content, the galaxy does not know where Palpatine's flagship Eclipse has ended up. Maybe in place of a fourth Death Star [DS1, DS2, and Starkiller Base being the first three] we will have capital ships that bombard planets and their cities, like in Independence Day?

I also cannot wait for the further development of the character Captain Phasma, a Stormtrooper officer. She is portrayed by Gwendolyn Christie; she is supposedly a model in real life, but we never see her face in Episode 7. [Maybe if they venture into Hutt Space, she'll appear in a metal bikini on someone's sail-barge?! It would be in extremely poor taste, considering that Carrie Fisher was in the first metal bikini, but weirder things have happened in Star Wars!]

)

Finally, I want to see the Rebel Alliance / Republic / Resistance using some of the spacecraft that are from the Expanded Universe and video games such as Empire At War. In particular, the E-Wing and K-Wing have never been in the movies before. On the Imperial / First Order side, there are supposedly improved TIE Interceptors that are painted blood-red to match the uniforms of the Imperial Royal Guard who pilot them. Maybe only the bad-ass pilot Poe Dameron could fight them in space?

**snowy25** · January 30th, 2017, 05:55 AM

I have read a lot of the expanded universe books and enjoyed them. I am not sure all could be transformed into a stand alone movie because of the depth of them. For them to do so with something like The Bounty Hunter Wars they would need basically another trilogy of movies.

It will be a while I think until any details are known about the next movie so I expect a lot of unsubstantiated info to be flying around until then. I think there are various ways it could go but they need to keep it within certain boundaries to keep the old fans and the new ones happy. Also a lot will depend on whether this trilogy will be the end or if they will then move onto another trilogy after. As you say there is talk of a new movie out every year but that could well be off shoots and stand alone movies. The main storyline could end after this set of three movies.

I do agree that it would be interesting to see some new ships from the expanded universe. I think because its now set in a time forward of what we are used to it allows them more freedom. So we can see bigger badder spacecraft as time has moved on and technology has moved on.

For Star Wars fans old and new there is certainly a lot to look forward to. Whilst both recent movies arguably do not reach the heights of episodes 4 and 5, they are certainly head and shoulders above the previous trilogy. Although to be fair Phantom Menace soured a lot of peoples view of all 3.

**AmateurEmale** · January 30th, 2017, 04:49 PM

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts about Star Wars.

I look forward to more comments as the week progresses, and as we move toward March, hope that we can discuss the galaxy far, far away through the time of the first trailer. That is, if we don't see it during Super Bowl LI first.

**footstep** · January 30th, 2017, 04:59 PM

I saw the 3 originals the year they were created.Great. technology 1 imagination 10.
I saw episode one ,2 and 3 also, but very disappointed. technology 10 imagination 0.
Ep 7 tried to come back to ep4 spirit. Not bad.
Ep8 ?
Sorry for Han. Will he come back? And of course Carrie...
The question is : what will bring the most wanted Luke?...

**snowy25** · January 30th, 2017, 05:33 PM

Yes unfortunately what happened with Star Wars has happened to a lot of sci-fi. They went from a classic retelling of an age old story to relying on special effects to wow audiences. SFX are great as part of a well thought out plot driven movie. The problem is many directors now just want to have great SFX and then worry about the story line later.

I think that is basically what happened with the middle trilogy of Star Wars. Lucas and his need for SFX created a lackluster trilogy because he forgot about the story. Episode 7 was liked because it went back to the original in some aspects and went story line first. Even if it was a rehash of episode 4 to a degree.

**AmateurEmale** · January 30th, 2017, 06:01 PM

Another possibility is that they will make this current trilogy (Episodes 7-9) about the heroes battling the Imperial Remnant / First Order, maybe with an appearance by Thrawn, the blue-skinned, red-eyed Chiss Admiral -- one of the few aliens that Palpatine trusted during the height of the Galactic Empire.

But then there are people who I've discussed Star Wars with, who think that another trilogy (Episodes 10-12) could be made about the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Their arrival would make all infighting in the Star Wars Galaxy irrelevant, because their defenses are inadequate against the Vong, who are immune to the Force and hate all droids / mecha due to prejudice against technology. Instead, the Vong have living armor and weaponry, and I've come across some very weird descriptions for their starships. They traveled for thousands of years across the void between galaxies to fight in the Star Wars Galaxy!

January 30th, 2017, 12:06 AM	#1
AmateurEmale Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: The 513 Posts: 1,825 Thanks: 16,644 Thanked 15,794 Times in 1,755 Posts	The Star Wars Episode 8 Thread I would like to start a new thread that is intended for all of you science fiction fans out there (not necessarily nerds, though) and anyone who grew up in the '70s and '80s. I think this would be a great subject to talk about, despite the "usual" (ahem) purposes of this VEF website. Now that they are making new Star Wars movies, and Disney has promised that they will release one every year, I would like to point out to everyone that Disney claims the movies will alternate between "new trilogy" movies [Episodes 7-9] and spinoff or stand-alone movies such as Rogue One. I've seen both Episode 7: The Force Awakens and Rogue One in the theaters, and I believe that Episode 7 was a little bit too derivative of Episode 4: A New Hope. However, it was still better than The Phantom Menace because it did not include Jar-Jar Binks. Episode 7 depicted the bad guys as thoroughly bad: Kylo Ren killing his father with an upside-down-cross lightsaber, and the leader of the First Order looking completely neo-Nazi in appearance. Rogue One was complicated at times, as it assembled a motley crew of new characters on the Rebel Alliance side, and depicted Andor Cassian as not unlike John Wilkes Booth: someone who is ordered to assassinate an important man, but who has a change of heart. The Empire is accurately depicted as a regime that would kill anyone for even the slightest suspicion of treason: note that they shoot the six engineers anyway, after Galen Erso confesses he is to blame for the Death Star's fatal weakness. Then the Rebel Alliance kills Galen Erso, and soon enough the ultra-violence of Rogue One starts on the planet Scarif. All I will add at this point is that there are rumors that the trailer(s) for Episode 8 will appear either on the Super Bowl LI commercial breaks, or by March 2017 on YouTube; predictably, there are already fake trailers on YouTube, which I find asinine. And they have settled the recent issue of Carrie Fisher's passing by informing the world that her portion of the Episode 8 footage was already filmed by the time she died; the CGI in Rogue One for Princess Leia was adequate, because it used a lesser-known actress with similar facial structure. [Grand Moff Tarkin got the same treatment, for that matter...] Those of us who like Star Wars, feel free to add to this thread. The Force Will Be With You, Always.

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January 30th, 2017, 12:42 AM	#2
snowy25 Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 2,274 Thanks: 6,664 Thanked 23,142 Times in 2,260 Posts	I am hoping that they will do a Boba Fett solo movie. There is a lot of stuff written about him escaping the sarlaac pit. There is of course a lot of stuff about him becoming the most feared bounty hunter also. Both would be great to see on the big screen as he is among the most popular characters but has virtually no real screen time over the movies so far. I do agree with your view about 7, as do many others it seems. I think they basically updated 4 as a way of making sure the first movie of the new trilogy didn't suck. I think it was probably the right option as has been seen by reviews which are mostly positive.

January 30th, 2017, 12:59 AM	#3
AmateurEmale Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: The 513 Posts: 1,825 Thanks: 16,644 Thanked 15,794 Times in 1,755 Posts	A Boba Fett movie would be welcomed by myself. Boba Fett watched the Jedi Master Mace Windu behead his father with a lightsaber, even though Jango Fett had been the template for the clones in the Grand Army Of The Republic. So it's predictable (or justifiable?) that Boba Fett pursued vengeance against the "good guys" of the Rebel Alliance / Republic. I would like to see about 5-10 years down the road, after they've filmed a Boba Fett and a Han Solo movie (one for each character), to do a stand-alone movie like Rogue One, but from the Separatist point of view. How is it that Count Dooku [who reminds me of Doctor X from Queensrÿche CDs!] became disillusioned with the Jedi Order, then led a movement promising "unyielding devotion to capitalism (sic)", ultimately becoming the leader of the Confederacy Of Independent Systems? And also his Sith persona, Darth Tyranus! I don't like George Lucas conflating monopolies and/or crony capitalism with a system of economics that the Founding Fathers and Adam Smith generally defended. And there are blatant references to Republicans or even Libertarians such as "Nute Gunray" [Gingrich/Reagan] and "Cato Neimoidia" [Cato Institute as well as the Roman conservative of ancient times] ... I'd like to see how, just as Darth Vader was not totally evil when he was known as Anakin Skywalker, the Separatists had a human side and were not interested in money so much as freedom from the bureaucratic, ineffective, heavily-taxed Old Republic government. Maybe the Republic had prohibitions on secession by a star system, just as Abraham Lincoln espoused the view that the Union was meant to be permanent; but if the Republic uses violence to keep systems in its government, how is that different (if only by degree) from the Empire using the Death Star to coerce systems? As long as George Lucas lives, and is influencing Star Wars, the above thoughts are some of what I'd like explored by just one stand-alone movie about the Separatist movement.

January 30th, 2017, 01:05 AM	#4
snowy25 Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 2,274 Thanks: 6,664 Thanked 23,142 Times in 2,260 Posts	The good thing for Star Wars fans is that there is a huge amount of stuff that they could do movie wise. You could go back to a previous time and make Shadows of the Empire into a proper movie. Or you could take one of a hundred or so characters or story lines of the expanded universe.

January 30th, 2017, 01:56 AM	#5
AmateurEmale Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: The 513 Posts: 1,825 Thanks: 16,644 Thanked 15,794 Times in 1,755 Posts	On a certain website, there was an editorial about how Star Wars can go forward or backward with each new movie, ten thousand years into the past, or ten thousand years into the future. But most of the traditional Star Wars content is measured "BBY" and "ABY", to refer to whether it was before or after the battle of Yavin, in which the first Death Star was destroyed. I myself don't like the recent Old Republic content in which the Sith are more prevalent, and a few of the characters like Arcann and his twin brother are bizarre. I prefer for the Sith to be shady, not too numerous, and otherwise behave like the original duo of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. My own observation is that Sir Alec Guinness (the trained Shakespearean actor who played Obi-Wan) was in a certain way right about A New Hope: He called it "fairy-tale nonsense" but informed by moral concepts of good against evil. [Also, in his later days he refused to speak publicly about Star Wars, and did not do autographs if asked.] I notice that Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are like an evil warrior and evil wizard allied to each other. Just as Obi-Wan is like a good wizard instructing a would-be warrior of good (Luke Skywalker) in the ways of the Force. The addition of feudal/fantasy people like Princess Leia add to the apparent medievalism of the Star Wars movies. Now, what this has to do with Episode 8 is that Finn and/or Rey are possibly going to be trained as Jedi by Luke Skywalker; the official title is Episode 8: The Last Jedi. Of course, there is endless speculation at YouTube about Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the Unknown Regions into which the First Order and its Star Destroyers have fled. Kylo Ren is now in command of the Finalizer, which is a Super Star Destroyer comparable to Darth Vader's Executor flagship. Rumor has it that even larger Star Destroyers exist at the First Order's homeworld(s), and if you read some of the Expanded Universe content, the galaxy does not know where Palpatine's flagship Eclipse has ended up. Maybe in place of a fourth Death Star [DS1, DS2, and Starkiller Base being the first three] we will have capital ships that bombard planets and their cities, like in Independence Day? I also cannot wait for the further development of the character Captain Phasma, a Stormtrooper officer. She is portrayed by Gwendolyn Christie; she is supposedly a model in real life, but we never see her face in Episode 7. [Maybe if they venture into Hutt Space, she'll appear in a metal bikini on someone's sail-barge?! It would be in extremely poor taste, considering that Carrie Fisher was in the first metal bikini, but weirder things have happened in Star Wars!] ) Finally, I want to see the Rebel Alliance / Republic / Resistance using some of the spacecraft that are from the Expanded Universe and video games such as Empire At War. In particular, the E-Wing and K-Wing have never been in the movies before. On the Imperial / First Order side, there are supposedly improved TIE Interceptors that are painted blood-red to match the uniforms of the Imperial Royal Guard who pilot them. Maybe only the bad-ass pilot Poe Dameron could fight them in space?

January 30th, 2017, 05:55 AM	#6
snowy25 Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 2,274 Thanks: 6,664 Thanked 23,142 Times in 2,260 Posts	I have read a lot of the expanded universe books and enjoyed them. I am not sure all could be transformed into a stand alone movie because of the depth of them. For them to do so with something like The Bounty Hunter Wars they would need basically another trilogy of movies. It will be a while I think until any details are known about the next movie so I expect a lot of unsubstantiated info to be flying around until then. I think there are various ways it could go but they need to keep it within certain boundaries to keep the old fans and the new ones happy. Also a lot will depend on whether this trilogy will be the end or if they will then move onto another trilogy after. As you say there is talk of a new movie out every year but that could well be off shoots and stand alone movies. The main storyline could end after this set of three movies. I do agree that it would be interesting to see some new ships from the expanded universe. I think because its now set in a time forward of what we are used to it allows them more freedom. So we can see bigger badder spacecraft as time has moved on and technology has moved on. For Star Wars fans old and new there is certainly a lot to look forward to. Whilst both recent movies arguably do not reach the heights of episodes 4 and 5, they are certainly head and shoulders above the previous trilogy. Although to be fair Phantom Menace soured a lot of peoples view of all 3.

January 30th, 2017, 04:49 PM	#7
AmateurEmale Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: The 513 Posts: 1,825 Thanks: 16,644 Thanked 15,794 Times in 1,755 Posts	Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts about Star Wars. I look forward to more comments as the week progresses, and as we move toward March, hope that we can discuss the galaxy far, far away through the time of the first trailer. That is, if we don't see it during Super Bowl LI first.

January 30th, 2017, 04:59 PM	#8
footstep Lost luggages? Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: France Posts: 7,268 Thanks: 92,097 Thanked 86,764 Times in 7,170 Posts	I saw the 3 originals the year they were created.Great. technology 1 imagination 10. I saw episode one ,2 and 3 also, but very disappointed. technology 10 imagination 0. Ep 7 tried to come back to ep4 spirit. Not bad. Ep8 ? Sorry for Han. Will he come back? And of course Carrie... The question is : what will bring the most wanted Luke?...

January 30th, 2017, 05:33 PM	#9
snowy25 Vintage Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 2,274 Thanks: 6,664 Thanked 23,142 Times in 2,260 Posts	Yes unfortunately what happened with Star Wars has happened to a lot of sci-fi. They went from a classic retelling of an age old story to relying on special effects to wow audiences. SFX are great as part of a well thought out plot driven movie. The problem is many directors now just want to have great SFX and then worry about the story line later. I think that is basically what happened with the middle trilogy of Star Wars. Lucas and his need for SFX created a lackluster trilogy because he forgot about the story. Episode 7 was liked because it went back to the original in some aspects and went story line first. Even if it was a rehash of episode 4 to a degree.

January 30th, 2017, 06:01 PM	#10
AmateurEmale Vintage Member Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: The 513 Posts: 1,825 Thanks: 16,644 Thanked 15,794 Times in 1,755 Posts	Another possibility is that they will make this current trilogy (Episodes 7-9) about the heroes battling the Imperial Remnant / First Order, maybe with an appearance by Thrawn, the blue-skinned, red-eyed Chiss Admiral -- one of the few aliens that Palpatine trusted during the height of the Galactic Empire. But then there are people who I've discussed Star Wars with, who think that another trilogy (Episodes 10-12) could be made about the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Their arrival would make all infighting in the Star Wars Galaxy irrelevant, because their defenses are inadequate against the Vong, who are immune to the Force and hate all droids / mecha due to prejudice against technology. Instead, the Vong have living armor and weaponry, and I've come across some very weird descriptions for their starships. They traveled for thousands of years across the void between galaxies to fight in the Star Wars Galaxy!