Darths & Droids VI: Thread title will appear here when received

[Anonymouswizard]

I hate spoiler-onlly posts and try not to make them, but...

Spoiler: The Force Awakens and this thread

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latest commentary (2069): memnarch, please tell me you haven't been reading the spoilers on this page of posts! I mean, seriously! If you ever come back after the thread and reread, the side-by-side comparison with today's commentary is uncanny...

You know it's meta when I have to put in a spoiler tag, not because this post was referring to anything about the original movie, but because it would give away the spoilers already written in this thread!

But back to the actual comic strip, for all that the Irregulars are working in worldbuilding details to make the inevitable events in the movie make actual sense, they're not making the plot that predictable are they?

Spoiler: Same as above

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Yeah, same things as we've been saying, but probably also the very safe guesses.

Also, we know the rough outline of the plot, and the WIs keep to a relatively small cast of characters to better represent an actual campaign. Out of all the established ace pilot characters Poe and Wedge are pretty much the only ones unaccounted for, and so any attempted guess is going to land on those or suggest it's a new character, which it probably isn't if we assume that Jim's remark suggests he knows who it is.

Of course those of us in spoiler town, having seen the movie, know that in the film it's Poe. So from our point of view it has to be either him, a shapeshifter, somebody incredibly good at disguise, or Poe's evil twin. I remember no insurance of Wedge in the films, so if the WIs want to bring him back this is the most logical place to do it, putting 'Poe somehow survived' and 'Wedge, shapeshifted into the same mini' at the most likely options.

Of course I'm not ruling out the existence of Geoffrey Dameron, actually morally upstanding Resistance pilot.

[Aeson]

Spoiler

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Wedge makes a brief appearance in The Rise of Skywalker, in the battle over Exegol; I believe he was manning a turret on the Millennium Falcon, or maybe in the background for one of the cockpit shots.

[theangelJean]

You know, I completely missed that the DM and Jim were lampshading the pilot being an important character, rather than just more worldbuilding. I don't know how I took "Zeppo"'s comment at face value - maybe I keep forgetting that this is a game campaign and not, say, the Order of the Stick. memnarch's commentary makes so much more sense now.

[Ellen]

And then the shooter emerged, and she said "I am no man"?

No, but they should have!

[Fyraltari]

Hi! I had stopped reading this comic back during the puppet show interlude and I'm just now done with binge-reading it/catching up. I find that I liked their treatment of the OT much better the second time around for some reason. I had completely forgotten that Han and Chewie were the traitor Luke was looking for, and I hadn't realized last time that Owen and Beru were still alive. Wonder how that will matter down the line.

I love how they're doing the ST so far. Finn already has more of an arc than he had in all three movies. Sally and Pete playing Kylo Ren and Rey was a surprise for me, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

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This tells us right off the bat that, despite the movies, there won't be a romance arc between these two characters, and I understand the Comic Irregulars not wanting to do another one after Jim and Annie's took seven movies. Also, Pete palying a woman who was being stalked in the previous campaign feels like commentary on the more... questionable aspects of that relationship.

Sally gets to have fun playing a bad guy, and Rey being played by the king of minmaxers seems like a good-natured way to adress some... criticisms of her character. Never Finds a Good Parking Spot is peak Darths & Droids, it's such a small detail I had never noticed but it's entirely true! She always lands her vehicles some distance away from where she's going!

Ben playing Hux is certainly something else, too.

Also, it's funny to me, that one of the more recent strips (2000) references a The Clone Wars episode I have only recently watched.

Finally, anybody else hoping Zeppo runs into a guy named "Aaron" at some point?

Spoiler: Possible Force Awakens spoilers

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It wouldn't. The reason is that Rey already has a laser sword. Her staff is made of laser sword hilts that she collected while scavenging and repaired.

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Is it? That's the first time I hear aboit that. Looking at it, only the ends looks loke they could be lightsabers and there doesn't seem to have been any welding done anywhere on the staff. Seems more likely it was just one metal beam she scavenged. That reminds me of the time when (some) people insisted Daisy Ridley looked liked Carrie Fisher and they wouldn't have made that casting choice if she wasn't playing her daughter.

Spoiler: Episode IX

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Although I wouldn't call Ben a definite bad guy just yet. In the D&D universe Hux might already be a Resistance spy.

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I don't know if that scene had happened yet when you wrote this, but I'd say that Hix ordering the destruction of the Hosnian System Chandrila makes this very unlikely. While Hux having always been a Resistance spy would have been a good choice for the character (certainly better than what actually happened), I feel they would have had Kylo Ren or Phasma order the firing instead then, like they did with Tàrkin and Vader. Besides, Hux has so little interaction with the Resistance in IX, it won't be hard to rework those scenes to mean something else.

Spoiler: The Force Awakens

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It's the scene where Poe shows up again.
I wonder how they'll explain that here.
Actually, how did he make it in the movie?

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They didn't. Maybe there was a throwaway line like "I'll tell you about it some day", but they 'ever actually explained it. Rumor has it Poe was meant to die there, but Oscar Isaac was so darn likeable, Abrams kept his character around.

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They never explain it, but I assumed that he was still in the TIE fighter when it sunk and escaped later.

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If that were the case Finn would have seen him when grabbing the jacket.

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Still going for this actually being Wedge.

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I doubt it. For one Wedge and Poe are both in the final battle (though I wouldn't put it past the CI to have another shapeshifter looking just like Wedge show up). For two, the mental coercion stuff isn't resolved yet. I suspect it'll play a bigger role in VIII.

[PhantomFox]

One of your spoiler tags is broken

[Fyraltari]

One of your spoiler tags is broken

I fixed it, thanks.

[Anonymouswizard]

So the question Princess Leia is asking is whereas Wally?

[theangelJean]

memnarch, nice linking to the one who called it in! And yes, I'm guessing it's the robot: he uses the phrase "good buddy" in a few of the links you posted there.

I remember (and my memory is very vague) the movie dialogue being extremely different in style here from the comic dialogue, but with a similarly exasperated tone. But for context, let's just say the movie didn't do any of the worldbuilding that the Irregulars have done with the comic, and unlike the comic format there wasn't the foreshadowing that you can get over a months-long (for just this movie) series, so

A lot of the setup to this strip is comic-original. The movie doesn't have the precisely the same buildup, so this scene had an emotional impact all of its own.

(I think that's safe enough to say without spoilers? I don't think there are any hidden clues there.)

Spoiler: ongoing speculation

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Now I have to go back and see if Poe uses the phrase "good buddy". And if he does later on ...

(edited to summarise)

Editing again to avoid double posting: hellooo? Anybody here? Just me and memnarch? And here I am trying to avoid spoiling the new comics by being as vague as possible.

New comic: new clue to Corey's campaign. Which I don't know anything about, so I don't know if it's a big clue that narrows it right down, or if it just gives us a franchise to work with.

[Fyraltari]

Regarding memnarch's commentary, planets with their own asteroid belts aren't that improbable, given that Saturn exists.

[SirKazum]

Regarding memnarch's commentary, planets with their own asteroid belts aren't that improbable, given that Saturn exists.

I guess the real takeaway is that real-life asteroid belts are a far cry from what's usually portrayed in Star Wars and other media; they look pretty boring to the naked eye, you're going to travel for a pretty long time from one asteroid to the next. After all, something as densely packed as the one in Empire Strikes Back, say, would last only for an extremely short time (in astronomical terms) before all the crashing turned everything into dust.

[Gez]

New comic: new clue to Corey's campaign. Which I don't know anything about, so I don't know if it's a big clue that narrows it right down, or if it just gives us a franchise to work with.

Well we know it's about Voltron, a franchise I know very little about as I've never watched any of it, but after looking up "captured zaiforge cannons" based on what was said in 2077, it apparently correspond to the plot of episodes from 2017 of the Netflix series.

[Anonymouswizard]

Spoiler: The Movies

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Well I guess I owe everybody a fiver, and there goes my 'Jim plays Holdo' theory.

The only question now is, is Allan the good twin or the evil twin? Well he's played by Jim, so probably the Chaotic Neutral twin.

[Metastachydium]

Spoiler: The Movies

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The only question now is, is Allan the good twin or the evil twin? Well he's played by Jim, so probably the Chaotic Neutral twin.

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We may still see all three of those! Edgar Dameron is yet to make an appearance!

[SirKazum]

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We may still see all three of those! Edgar Dameron is yet to make an appearance!

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Was going to comment on the third twin named Edgar, seems you beat me to the punch

[Metastachydium]

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Was going to comment on the third twin named Edgar, seems you beat me to the punch

Heh. I knew I wasn't the only one who noticed!

[Gez]

Yeah, they really should have gone with triplets rather than twins.

[137beth]

Spoiler: Episode VII

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I agree with the commentary on Poe's return. But then, I couldn't stand the film version of Poe.

[Kornaki]

Yeah, they really should have gone with triplets rather than twins.

Edgar could be a younger brother.

[Kantaki]

New comic

Yep. Definitely one of Jim's characters.
I think he might be reaching new heights with this one.

[Anonymouswizard]

I'm really not sure if I should spoiler this or not. Fro the new comic:

Spoiler

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Who else is getting the impression that this is Poe, having somehow escaped from Tatooine, pretending to be his twin brother so the Resistance doesn't suspect him?

Although this is Jim, Allan just being like this is entirely believable.

[SirKazum]

I'm really not sure if I should spoiler this or not. Fro the new comic:

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Who else is getting the impression that this is Poe, having somehow escaped from Tatooine, pretending to be his twin brother so the Resistance doesn't suspect him?

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The "you can trust me" thing does seem to suggest that. But yeah, being Jim, I'd say it's a crapshoot.

[Ellen]

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My guess is that Po is pretending to be his twin. Unless he turns out to be Wedge (or Wedge Jr) pretending to be Po pretending to be his twin to find out if Finn is a twin spy.

Anyone want to bet that Kylo Ren has a twin named Ben?

[theangelJean]

Allan refers to Poe being "brainwashed to be a double agent". Is there anyone who could plausibly be present who would know this? Finn wasn't there and I don't remember him being told about it, and it doesn't look like they discussed their backstories...

[DavidSh]

Of course, Allan's player knows about it. Otherwise, it could be just something that the First Order is known to try to do to their captives

[Fyraltari]

Allan refers to Poe being "brainwashed to be a double agent". Is there anyone who could plausibly be present who would know this? Finn wasn't there and I don't remember him being told about it, and it doesn't look like they discussed their backstories...

Nope. Either this is Jim's mouth running again, or this is actually deliberately trying to rouse suspicions while pretending to be his own heretofore unknown twin in some kind of crazy plan to defeat the mind control while adhering to the letter of it.

If this is the case, then Jim is the perfect man to come up with a plan where the various steps all undermine each other.

[SirKazum]

If this is the case, then Jim is the perfect man to come up with a plan where the various steps all undermine each other.

At times like these, I wish there was a Darths and Droids treatment of the Indiana Jones movies (as in, with the same players) just to see Jim playing Indy. Because of course that would be him.

[Kantaki]

Spoiler: Sequel Trilogy

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Lots of mystery, little answers? Sounds like the movies, yes.

Spoiler: memnarch, 3PO's red arm

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I don't think it was even mentioned.
And didn't he have a gold one again at the end?

[Anonymouswizard]

Spoiler: Sequel Trilogy

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Lots of mystery, little answers? Sounds like the movies, yes.

Spoiler: ST

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Yep.

Spoiler: memnarch, 3PO's red arm

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I don't think it was even mentioned.
And didn't he have a gold one again at the end?

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I think Han brings it up and it's kind of brushed off.

[Fyraltari]

I wonder if that ever gets a mention in the movies or if it's a "read the tie-in comics to find out!" sort of thing.

Yes. C-3PO says "it's me C-3PO, I thought you might not recognize me because of the red arm." And then it's never brought up again in all three movies.

It's explained in some comic, because somebody has to clean after Abrams, I guess, and it wasn't going to be Johnson.

Here's hoping the Comic Irregulars do something with it.

Also, his leg is no longer silver and nobody comments on it, nor is it (to my knowledge) explained.