Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12/16/16) *SPOILERS*

[Khev]

The first issue of the RO comic adaptation had some interesting extra tidbits. Gareth Edwards has an epilogue at the end where he states that they were going to try and include a lot of the film's deleted scenes in the comic.

Prior to Scarif the Alliance as a whole was really never prepared to engage the Empire in combat, regardless of the reason. All most of them wanted to do was simply cultivate political animosity toward the Emperor in the Senate in order to get a majority of planets opposing him. The Emperor knew this and was simply humoring them just enough until he could get a weapon that would keep everyone in line forever. So it wasn't just that Jyn's message came from an Imperial Weapons Engineer (her dad) or pilot (Bodhi.) Those other Alliance leaders would have literally found any reason they could to not engage militarily. That's why Cassian didn't even attend the meeting and knew from the beginning that they'd never support Jyn's plan.

Also she and that squid guy in jail at the beginning hated each other and had a mutual agreement that they'd wait until they were outside and away from the jail guards before fighting to the death! He even taunted her by suggesting that maybe it would still be a good idea to stay awake until that time. That's why she was pissed that she had fallen asleep and then just sat watching him after that water drop woke her up. When they're in the Turbo Tank she keeps glaring at him, just biding her time until they could fight off in the dirt somewhere. So when the Rebels showed up she was already in full war mode.

 

[jye4ever]

That all sounds pretty damn spectacular you know that especially the squid guy part lol.

Thanks for sharing that.

DiFabio will be just as grateful.

 

[Khev]

That all sounds pretty damn spectacular you know that especially the squid guy part lol.

Yes I sure do.

Mon Mothma introduces herself as head of the alliance and the one who authorized Jyn's extraction to which Jyn immediately replies "There's a bounty on your head." A pretty sweet response actually.

After she's briefed about Saw and then her and Cassian are walking through the hangar toward the U-Wing she just reaches down as one of those Rebel Troopers with the white helmets walks past her going the other way and in one motion scoops his blaster out of his side holster without him knowing it.

DiFabio will be just as grateful.

Yep good to know that he's guaranteed to be a fan from this point on.

 

[TonTon]

And to be fair to the prequels the OT did always imply that the Jedi purge/birth of the Empire happened pretty close to when the twins would have been hidden. I never got the impression that Anakin turned to the Dark Side at age 20, lived as a Sith for 20 years, THEN conceived Luke and Leia so that Ben could somehow come out of hiding to whisk them away. It always made sense that everything happened pretty close to each other in that regard.

Oh most definitely those two things had to happen near the same time. I guess my thinking was more along the lines of: We meet Anakin and Obi-Wan as Jedi while the Empire is already formed, the Jedi would be defending old republic planets from the Empire's encroachment, etc, and somehow Anakin gets swayed over and helps them hunt down the Jedi.

Maybe I'm misremembering some of the dialogue from the OT, but I never got the impression that Vader's turn needed to happen simultaneously with the Empire's creation. "A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights." To me this says the Empire has existed for a while, and not just for 5 minutes like we see in ROTS.

Anyhow, that's just all non-sense prequel rewriting on my part, but it stems from me still feeling like SW really is what we see in Rogue One and the OT, in terms of Rebels vs Empire. This doesn't include the ST however, as they did have room to move in a different direction, but the PT screwed that up for them.

 

[jye4ever]

Yes I sure do.

Mon Mothma introduces herself as head of the alliance and the one who authorized Jyn's extraction to which Jyn immediately replies "There's a bounty on your head." A pretty sweet response actually.

After she's briefed about Saw and then her and Cassian are walking through the hangar toward the U-Wing she just reaches down as one of those Rebel Troopers with the white helmets walks past her going the other way and in one motion scoops his blaster out of his side holster without him knowing it.

That sounds great they should've been in the movie dammit!

 

[Khev]

Oh most definitely those two things had to happen near the same time. I guess my thinking was more along the lines of: We meet Anakin and Obi-Wan as Jedi while the Empire is already formed, the Jedi would be defending old republic planets from the Empire's encroachment, etc, and somehow Anakin gets swayed over and helps them hunt down the Jedi.

Maybe I'm misremembering some of the dialogue from the OT, but I never got the impression that Vader's turn needed to happen simultaneously with the Empire's creation. "A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights." To me this says the Empire has existed for a while, and not just for 5 minutes like we see in ROTS.

Oh I gotcha. Yeah Ben does say "For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the Dark Times, *before* the Empire." So based on that dialogue Anakin hunting down the Jedi would have occurred before the Empire officially existed.

 

[jye4ever]

Oh most definitely those two things had to happen near the same time. I guess my thinking was more along the lines of: We meet Anakin and Obi-Wan as Jedi while the Empire is already formed, the Jedi would be defending old republic planets from the Empire's encroachment, etc, and somehow Anakin gets swayed over and helps them hunt down the Jedi.

Maybe I'm misremembering some of the dialogue from the OT, but I never got the impression that Vader's turn needed to happen simultaneously with the Empire's creation. "A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi knights." To me this says the Empire has existed for a while, and not just for 5 minutes like we see in ROTS.

Anyhow, that's just all non-sense prequel rewriting on my part, but it stems from me still feeling like SW really is what we see in Rogue One and the OT, in terms of Rebels vs Empire. This doesn't include the ST however, as they did have room to move in a different direction, but the PT screwed that up for them.

Your explanation certainly sounds better than what Lucas came up with lol.

Oh that Obi Wan....

A young jedi named Anak....errr Darth Vader....lol

 

[Khev]

That sounds great they should've been in the movie dammit!

Yeah it's looking more and more like almost all of the extra scenes were trimmed just for pacing, not because they were badly done.

 

[jye4ever]

I actually think RO would benefit from some additional character moments, I could totally sit thru additional character building scenes.

RO feels like an OT movie for me in the sense that it makes for great relaxing leisure watching when you don't know what else to watch.

 

[TonTon]

Oh I gotcha. Yeah Ben does say "For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the Dark Times, *before* the Empire." So based on that dialogue Anakin hunting down the Jedi would have occurred before the Empire officially existed.

I guess I don't read it quite the same way, but rather, they were guardians of the peace Commissioned by the Republic before the Empire came to be, at which point they were no longer needed and then later on they were hunted down. I guess it all sounds so long ago in part since it has to be explained to this idiot Luke who has never read a history book.

Looking back at some of the dialogue from ANH, Tarkin does talk about how the last vestiges of the Old Republic have been wiped out, so the Empire is clearly on the newer side of things, and matches more the timeline that Lucas went with, but I could also say the last vestiges of the British empire have been wiped out if Scotland left the UK, even though the British empire in reality long ceased decades ago. There's lots of wiggle room when things last a millennium. Lucas somehow just said, eff the wiggle room, let's just make Kenobi a bald face liar.

 

[Khev]

I actually think RO would benefit from some additional character moments, I could totally sit thru additional character building scenes.

RO feels like an OT movie for me in the sense that it makes for great relaxing leisure watching when you don't know what else to watch.

Yeah, twice I've started RO thinking I'd only watch a little bit and then got sucked in through the very end. I'd totally be down for a three hour cut just because it's such a fun universe to kind of camp out in, even if in the end I might ultimately prefer the theatrical like I did with FOTR and TTT.

There's lots of wiggle room. Lucas somehow just said, eff the wiggle room, let's just make Kenobi a bald face liar.

Yep, lol.

 

[jye4ever]

I've been thinking about that poor sap Krennic.

He got choked by Vader just for seeking some admiration from the emperor for his accomplishments in the service of the empire while Admiral Motti gets a similar punishment even though he told Vader the **** off lol.

I guess Vader found it more insulting for Krennic asking him to meet with the emperor on his behalf over Motti's trash talking lol.

Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the rebels' hidden fort-.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Motti's awesome. He's like the only Imperial to actually have balls. He also survives Vader (even if he shirks away when Vader steps forward later).

Krennic's story was like an Imperial version of The Office. He just keeps getting dicked around by one officer after another. And he seems totally lost, like he has no intellect about how to maneuver against these politics.

I kind of wished he was a bit more in control and evil. I almost feel bad for him at times. The only bonus is that it pumps up Tarkin's wickedness and makes him an even more powerful Imperial enemy.

Now if we could only get a doll of that old man in the green Nazi suit.

 

[Khev]

I've been thinking about that poor sap Krennic.

He got choked by Vader just for seeking some admiration from the emperor for his accomplishments in the service of the empire while Admiral Motti gets a similar punishment even though he told Vader the **** off lol.

I guess Vader found it more insulting for Krennic asking him to meet with the emperor on his behalf over Motti's trash talking lol.

Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the rebels' hidden fort-.

Yeah. I also like the symmetry of Lira pulling her gun on Krennic at the beginning and then getting shot from the side and then at the end the same thing happening to Krennic himself when he pulls a gun on Jyn.

Tarkin was SUCH a bastard though. He nuked Scarif when Jyn and Cassian were probably the only two Rebels left on the ground. Wiped out an entire military complex just to erase Krennic. That would have even impressed D ick Jones.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Tarkin was SUCH a bastard though. Wiped out an entire military complex just to erase Krennic.

It is a bit strange that he destroys what we're told is a base holding the amassed knowledge of the Empire. Not just the entire Death Star plans, but probably every ship, vessel, tank, trooper and firearm plans ever invented and/or built. Yes, they likely had back-ups... at least they hope so. Tarkin never really checked that out.

 

[Khev]

Apparently he decided it was pretty important to have Krennic gone for good.

Another thing I really like about the main team of heroes is that their ages trended higher, not a single teen or 20-something in site. Felicity is the youngest at 33, then Riz Ahmed at 34, Diego Luna 37, with Alan Tudyk in his 40's (not that that matters so much obviously) and Baze and Chirrut in their 50's. It just gives a good amount of credibility to them being accomplished and world (or galaxy) weary.

 

[jye4ever]

Leia / Antilles were in the middle of a full on assault at an imperial base at Scarif but then decide to just fly unprotected over Tatooine?

I guess the fleet needed to regroup after that battle and they wanted to get the mission over and done with not giving the Empire time to regroup themselves.

I wonder if they should've shown how Vader learned of their location.

I'm happy they didn't go with the whole "We let them escape" route like they did in ANH when they escaped from the DS.

 

[Neal136]

Apparently he decided it was pretty important to have Krennic gone for good.

Another thing I really like about the main team of heroes is that their ages trended higher, not a single teen or 20-something in site. Felicity is the youngest at 33, then Riz Ahmed at 34, Diego Luna 37, with Alan Tudyk in his 40's (not that that matters so much obviously) and Baze and Chirrut in their 50's. It just gives a good amount of credibility to them being accomplished and world (or galaxy) weary.

Agreed, but to be fair, Felicity is playing a 21-year-old in the movie.

 

[Khev]

Is that according to the novelization? Young Jyn in the beginning definitely seemed older than six.

 

[Neal136]

I'm not positive if it's in the novelization or not. That's what I've read her age to be any place I've seen it. I'll agree that she may look a bit older than six in the beginning of the film, but definitely not old enough to put her in her early 30s during the events of the film.