Darths & Droids IV: Not in Numerical Order

[Kantaki]

New comic
I love how Pete immediately jumps from "I totally wouldn't have left my weapon behind, no matter that it wouldn't fit."
to "Well, I tied." the moment he's told that the monster outranges him.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Spoiler: The Last Jedi

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Memnarch's comments on spacing the rathtars reminded me of something. One of the complaints for TLJ I see most commonly cited is Leia getting launched into vacuum and surviving long enough to pull herself back in, but then needing to spend much of the movie recovering anyway, with Cinema Sins going so far as to call it Force Resurrection... but that's actually completely legit. Mammals don't just instantly die when exposed to vacuum; you've got about 2 minutes before the low pressure and cold do any permanent damage, much less kill you. Of course, you will need to spend some time recovering from the short term damage it'll do. (And the ambient radiation might do a little long-term damage, actually).

[VoxRationis]

Spoiler: The Last Jedi

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Memnarch's comments on spacing the rathtars reminded me of something. One of the complaints for TLJ I see most commonly cited is Leia getting launched into vacuum and surviving long enough to pull herself back in, but then needing to spend much of the movie recovering anyway, with Cinema Sins going so far as to call it Force Resurrection... but that's actually completely legit. Mammals don't just instantly die when exposed to vacuum; you've got about 2 minutes before the low pressure and cold do any permanent damage, much less kill you. Of course, you will need to spend some time recovering from the short term damage it'll do. (And the ambient radiation might do a little long-term damage, actually).

Spoiler: Regarding TLJ nitpick

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You will recall that Leia did, in fact, spend time recovering from the short term damage done, in, no less, a medical facility with access to full-body bacta suits and similar treatment options for such intensive injuries. That she managed to pull through and, after spending half the film unconscious, get up and limp her way into the bridge is no real break from reality.

No, Leia, a character who has been noted to be Force-sensitive since RotJ, surviving a short exposure to vacuum and force-pulling herself to safety is utterly plausible, given everything we have been told about the setting. What made the scene feel strange to me was that this was a perfect opportunity to work in the death of Carrie Fisher so as to avoid awkward recasting or shot splicing to allow her character to continue post mortem, and yet they very consciously avoided doing that, even after bending over backwards to add in reasons why the bridge should have been vulnerable in the first place.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Spoiler

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Since they'd finished photography six months before her death, they probably didn't want to restart production for the reshoots. And if they had, the fact they were reshooting to remove Carrie Fisher may well have resulted in a lynch mob. Or a lynch horde, to be more accurate.

[SirKazum]

Spoiler

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Since they'd finished photography six months before her death, they probably didn't want to restart production for the reshoots. And if they had, the fact they were reshooting to remove Carrie Fisher may well have resulted in a lynch mob. Or a lynch horde, to be more accurate.

Spoiler

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Yeah, pretty much. It's kind of an unenviable, lose-lose situation. I figure, since they obviously had all the photography down already (in fact, even ep. IX photography, since she's there) and probably some amount of post-production as well, what they did was probably what they were going to do in the first place, and if they're going to be criticized about it either way, best stick to the plan and avoid reshooting / extra work.

[Rogar Demonblud]

And now we reach the scene where R2 hacks the trash compactor.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Spoiler: Regarding TLJ nitpick

Show

You will recall that Leia did, in fact, spend time recovering from the short term damage done, in, no less, a medical facility with access to full-body bacta suits and similar treatment options for such intensive injuries. That she managed to pull through and, after spending half the film unconscious, get up and limp her way into the bridge is no real break from reality.

No, Leia, a character who has been noted to be Force-sensitive since RotJ, surviving a short exposure to vacuum and force-pulling herself to safety is utterly plausible, given everything we have been told about the setting. What made the scene feel strange to me was that this was a perfect opportunity to work in the death of Carrie Fisher so as to avoid awkward recasting or shot splicing to allow her character to continue post mortem, and yet they very consciously avoided doing that, even after bending over backwards to add in reasons why the bridge should have been vulnerable in the first place.

Spoiler

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Yeah, that was my point. It received a bunch of backlash from fans for being unrealistic despite being, honestly, probably the most scientifically accurate thing in the series.

[Keltest]

Silly DM. Never issue a challenge to the Dice. Much like DMs they are hostile and spiteful beings, and they love a challenge.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Jim reminds me of a HERO character whose taken both the Unlucky complication and the Lucky power; forever screwed by random chance (or at least consequences for his poor decisions choosing that moment to strike) when things are going well, only to be bailed out by that same random chance when everything goes to hell.

[keybounce]

I have HAD a super hero with both Lucky and Unlucky, back when they were just 5 points per die minor effects, not powers and complications. (5 points of disadvantages, 5 points of advantage.)

Memory says that character just had one die each.

[SirKazum]

Out of curiosity, for those of us not familiar with the system, what were the effects of that?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Out of curiosity, for those of us not familiar with the system, what were the effects of that?

Been a while since I used the system, honestly, but IIRC the Lucky power is bonus dice that you can add to your rolls or subtract from enemy rolls... but only when things are already going poorly for you. Unlucky, on the other hand, is a Complication - you have to have a certain value in complications (or you could forgo spending an equivalent amount of points from the total you'd otherwise have for purchasing cool powers) - and each level you 'purchase' of Unlucky gives the GM bonus dice to use against you... but only when things are going too well.

Honestly, it mostly sticks in my mind because the book explicitly says it's legal to take both, and that doing so will result in a very confused character whose luck flip flops depending on whether they're doing well or poorly.

[SirKazum]

Been a while since I used the system, honestly, but IIRC the Lucky power is bonus dice that you can add to your rolls or subtract from enemy rolls... but only when things are already going poorly for you. Unlucky, on the other hand, is a Complication - you have to have a certain value in complications (or you could forgo spending an equivalent amount of points from the total you'd otherwise have for purchasing cool powers) - and each level you 'purchase' of Unlucky gives the GM bonus dice to use against you... but only when things are going too well.

Honestly, it mostly sticks in my mind because the book explicitly says it's legal to take both, and that doing so will result in a very confused character whose luck flip flops depending on whether they're doing well or poorly.

Ah I get it. So, in this case, having both "Lucky" and "Unlucky" would more or less lead to a "rubber-banding" effect (as in certain games that get harder the better you get, and get easier if you're doing poorly).

[Anonymouswizard]

Spoiler: spoilers

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So now we have the commences of both VII and VIII set up properly, we have the hyperdrive modulator that'll let them jump part the shield, and confirmed that if anything is in the way bar interstellar gas entering hyperspace will cause an exploration.

This also gives a relatively good idea as to why hyperspeed missiles aren't a thing, they are probably very short ranged for space weapons and can probably be very easily defeated by launching chaff in front of your ship. Considering the tech level of Stat Wars your average capital school can probably deploy chaff at a relative speed of a significant fraction of c, messing that the massive explosion is happening a bit too far away to see significant damage.

Plus hyperdrives are expensive.

[Metastachydium]

Spoiler: spoilers

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So now we have the commences of both VII and VIII set up properly, we have the hyperdrive modulator that'll let them jump part the shield, and confirmed that if anything is in the way bar interstellar gas entering hyperspace will cause an exploration.

This also gives a relatively good idea as to why hyperspeed missiles aren't a thing, they are probably very short ranged for space weapons and can probably be very easily defeated by launching chaff in front of your ship. Considering the tech level of Stat Wars your average capital school can probably deploy chaff at a relative speed of a significant fraction of c, messing that the massive explosion is happening a bit too far away to see significant damage.

Plus hyperdrives are expensive.

Wwait a minute. An average school in Stat Wars can… deploy… chaff?

[Kantaki]

Wwait a minute. An average school in Stat Wars can… deploy… chaff?

Sure. They call them star fighters.

Worst case they just space their garbage.

[Gez]

Wwait a minute. An average school in Stat Wars can… deploy… chaff?

Yes, they expel their bad students so as to only keep the best performers. This is how they win the statistics war to be the most prestigious school.

[Anonymouswizard]

Wwait a minute. An average school in Stat Wars can… deploy… chaff?

Okay, that's a misspelling. It should be 'deploy chavs'

In all seriousness I was typing in my phone during a break, it should be ship instead of school.

Sure. They call them star fighters.

Worst case they just space their garbage.

Hehe.

But yeah, with this little detail it basically stops the confusion, at least to me.

[VoxRationis]

I like that the Darths & Droids people threw this detail in. It's not a lot, but it explains well why the ships in the post-Lucas movies treat hyperspace jumps rather differently from how the original six did.

[PontificatusRex]

I like that the Darths & Droids people threw this detail in. It's not a lot, but it explains well why the ships in the post-Lucas movies treat hyperspace jumps rather differently from how the original six did.

I find it really amusing that the commentators Menmarch and Keybounce assume that there is a corresponding change in technologies in the movies, instead of the scriptwriters just saying "Let's do this".

The way the last trilogy turns hyperspace travel into teleportation was one of the things I found incredibly irritating about them.

[Kantaki]

New comic

Oh, that's clever.
Oh, that's evil.
I genuinely didn't expect this.
Our heroes actually failed in the last campaign.

[AdmiralCheez]

I'm going to have to re-read that whole movie now and see if there were any clues, because I was definitely not expecting it!

[Kantaki]

I'm going to have to re-read that whole movie now and see if there were any clues, because I was definitely not expecting it!

Did some skimming.
The only definite references to the space station as the Peace Moon seem to come from the rebels*.
And Vader was definitely going to say something before she croaked.
Soo... No idea.

It's a twist that makes sense though. The first Peace Moon was literally build into the moon of Naboo.
Why should the second be build as a space station?

Spoiler: Episode VII

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There is a comment on the forum that some element(s) of the movie fit very well into the plans for the Episode VI comic.
Could be either this or Vader's helmet/the Japor snippet.

*The station's big gun with the overpowered targeting system is called the Peace Moon weapon, but that's Lando saying it and it could just mean it's that type of weapon system. Probably does in retrospect.

[Anonymouswizard]

It's a twist that makes sense though. The first Peace Moon was literally build into the moon of Naboo.
Why should the second be build as a space station?

In the comic the Peace Moon I is weird, especially with the latest comic. The moon of Naboo was blown up at the end of episode 1, and the Peace Moon was constructed to replace it. Nowhere is it said that it isn't a giant metal space station by episode 4, but nothing disproves the reading that what we see in that episode 4 is primarily made of rock with the 'interior' just being the facility for manning the weapon taking up a fraction of the moon itself (which is pronbably more realistic.

[Rockphed]

And Corey drove them through a Voltron game at some point. Sally was obviously Hagar. Pete was the princess. The GM was Pidge. Beyond that it becomes a question of which Voltron it was (though from the sounds of it, it was the new Netflix version).

[memnarch]

I'm going to have to re-read that whole movie now and see if there were any clues, because I was definitely not expecting it!

And here's one of the issue I have to work around when writing. Do I link to the foreshadowing comics I found before anyone else can be surprised by the twist and really think it through and talk about that? Do I not and maybe those comics don't get found? This time I went with no-links, but I'll share some here for those that don't want to look themselves.

Spoiler: A couple links that I found while writing

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https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1298.html
https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1358.html

And Corey drove them through a Voltron game at some point. Sally was obviously Hagar. Pete was the princess. The GM was Pidge. Beyond that it becomes a question of which Voltron it was (though from the sounds of it, it was the new Netflix version).

I didn't know there's more than one Voltron show until I looked it up on Google a bit more; any other Voltron parallels that we know about so far?

[Rockphed]

And here's one of the issue I have to work around when writing. Do I link to the foreshadowing comics I found before anyone else can be surprised by the twist and really think it through and talk about that? Do I not and maybe those comics don't get found? This time I went with no-links, but I'll share some here for those that don't want to look themselves.

Spoiler: A couple links that I found while writing

Show

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1298.html
https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1358.html

I didn't know there's more than one Voltron show until I looked it up on Google a bit more; any other Voltron parallels that we know about so far?

Got to use one of the big guns... happened around the end of season 4, I think. They very decidedly stole a giant gun and used it to great effect. Then Hagar got creative.

Prince Lotor did a bit of stalking of the princess..., but not nearly as much as in the old Voltron. Also, he didn't show up until like the third season. I guess that is a point against nutron.


And I vaguely remember there being a mustached plumber, which describes Corran (the keeper of the Castle of Lions) perfectly.

[137beth]

And here's one of the issue I have to work around when writing. Do I link to the foreshadowing comics I found before anyone else can be surprised by the twist and really think it through and talk about that? Do I not and maybe those comics don't get found? This time I went with no-links, but I'll share some here for those that don't want to look themselves.

Spoiler: A couple links that I found while writing

Show

https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1298.html
https://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1358.html

I didn't know there's more than one Voltron show until I looked it up on Google a bit more; any other Voltron parallels that we know about so far?

Thanks for the reminders!

[Keltest]

Ok, that screencap of Rey is just perfect.

[Xihirli]

Now this is a Snoke I can get behind. More than just a pale imitation of Palpatine all over again.

Spoiler: Rise of Skywalker

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And I can't wait to see Nute piloting Sheev around. Will he have stolen the body or built one, you think?