New Images With Characters, Vehicles and Descriptions from Rogue One!

Rogue OneHuge news!!! The guys from JediBibliothek found a new listing on the Edelweiss catalog with the book “The Official Visual Story Guide” from the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. There are lots of photos and descriptions, some of which might be considered spoilerific. We’re not sure if this listing was intentional, and that this info was intended to be known before the movie’s release so proceed on your own risk…

 

 

SPOILERS!!!

 

 

From Edelweiss:

The official companion book to fall’s most anticipated release of Star Wars Rogue One. Never-before-seen interviews, images and teasers from this major motion picture. Detailed, in-depth character profiles, iconic vehicles, weaponry and droids.

Lucas Films proudly presents the official companion book to this fall’s most anticipated release of Star Wars Rogue One. Featuring never-before-seen interviews, images and teasers from this major motion picture. Experience all the thrills with detailed, in-depth character profiles, iconic vehicles, weaponry and droids you’ve been looking for. Featuring 160 pages of action-packed photos and content, this official Lucasfilm collector’s book is a must-have for every Star Wars fan.

 

Here are the character names extracted by JediBibliothek from the images:

 
Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso, a gifted soldier and warrior.
Diego Luna plays Captain Cassian Andor, an officer in the Rebel Alliance
Jiang Wen plays Baze, a freelance assassin
Alan Tudyk plays the CGI figure K-250, a Vollstreckerdroide and evidently an imperial model, but teams up with the rebels.
Riz Ahmed plays Bodhi, a rebel soldier.
Pao, an alien who is described as “fierce warrior”.
Donnie Yen plays Chirrut, a spiritual warrior.
Bistan, another alien who is described as “fierce warrior”.
Ben Mendelssohn as director Krennic, the military director of the Empire, to defend the Galactic Empire against the theft of Mission rebels.

 

Rogue One 09 Rogue One 08 Rogue One 07 Rogue One 06 Rogue One 05 Rogue One 02 Rogue One 01 Rogue One 03 Rogue One 04 Rogue One 10

 

Lots of interesting info and the first official confirmation that Vader is in the movie.

 

The 164-page visual guide from Media Lab Books, will be published on January 24, 2017 and will eventually include 130 full-color photos. You can actually pre-order it on Amazon now.

 

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Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.

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Val Trichkov (Viral Hide)

Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

207 thoughts on “New Images With Characters, Vehicles and Descriptions from Rogue One!

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:35 am
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    OMG so much content! I am loving the new reasoning of the AT-DP and the chicken walker the AT-ST.

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:36 am
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    This is awesome!!!!! Been waiting for this kind of info. Great names!! And Vader, need I say more

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:37 am
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    The rebel vessel seems to have a slot for a Astromech. With the new inclusion of R2-BHD I can`t wait for the new droids to be included in future movies! Also K-250 looks awesome!!!

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:38 am
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    The flood gates have opened!

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:43 am
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    This looks very promising.

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:43 am
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    How come the x-wings are from Ep7 in the raid on the Death Star pic? Is it possible – however unlikely – this is an elaborate fake?

    • May 17, 2016 at 10:47 am
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      Note also the cut and paste text in the character descriptions… I know it says “Not Final” but… Just wondered what people think. For the record I’m not saying the site has made it up if that *were* the case.

    • May 17, 2016 at 10:47 am
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      Note also the cut and paste text in the character descriptions… I know it says “Not Final” but… Just wondered what people think. For the record I’m not saying the site has made it up if that *were* the case.

    • May 17, 2016 at 10:48 am
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      Oh I just thought those are place holders as most of the words in the description are just copied and pasted repetitively through out the whole thing.

      • May 17, 2016 at 10:55 am
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        Could be the case — seems odd that Lucasfilm or an imprint would release something unfinished even within the publishing world knowing their track record and that people will stock it on name anyway. But that said I don’t have a background in book publishing; former news man myself. If anyone could help us out with this who does work in the industry I’d be grateful to know more.

          • May 17, 2016 at 11:11 am
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            On reflection, the photo on the front seems new… nobody could make that up if that’s the case.

        • May 17, 2016 at 11:29 am
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          The ANH era X-Wings were seen in pics on the Rogue One set and in the teaser trailer.

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:46 am
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    I totally digging that U-Wing and Tie Striker. I love how the Striker is a combination of the Jedi Starfighters of Episode 3 and a Tie Fighter/Interceptor. And the U-WIng appears to be a combo of and X-wing and Snowspeeder, while at the same time it reminds me of a high speed catamaran.

    • May 17, 2016 at 12:51 pm
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      Good eye. The U-Wing also reminds me of the Buck Rogers Starfighter from the 80’s TV series.

      • May 17, 2016 at 2:33 pm
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        Agreed. I had forgotten I used to have a toy of the Buck Rogers Starfighter. It all came back the moment I saw that picture…

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:47 am
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    Holy crap!

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:47 am
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    Does anyone else notice how the text seems to be saying the same things over and over again without really revealing much of anything? A lot of these images seem to be legit, but something about this whole thing feels off to me for some reason.

    • May 17, 2016 at 10:47 am
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      They appear to have a lot of dummy text in there at the moment. Layout artists have to design this stuff before the copy is finalized.

      • May 17, 2016 at 10:54 am
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        That’s a good point, these aren’t the final pages after all.

    • May 17, 2016 at 2:03 pm
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      Yup – noticed that, which is what set my Spidey-sense tingling. Everyone’s a ‘fierce warrior’!

      At the same time, the gene-spliced X/Y-Wing thing is kinda lazy design work…do like the TIE Striker tho…

    • May 17, 2016 at 5:44 pm
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      Yeah its written like a last minute term paper.

      “… will be needed in defense of…”
      “… battle against the evil forces of the GALACTIC EMPIRE…”

      And those’re are the wrong X-Wing’s!!!

      But it is a leak of a draft, so, yeah.

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:03 am
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    If the TIE Striker is an actual design, I wish it was used in TFA instead. The TIEs in that are just too similar to the original design (the T-70 X-Wing had just enough to make it feel different).

    • May 17, 2016 at 5:37 pm
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      My thoughts exactly! Its weird that rouge one, which takes place months or weeks before ANH will feature more radically different designs than episode 7. In the Art of the Force Awakens book they have a few designs very similar to the tie striker, I hope they are in episode 8 because the new ties don’t quite feel “updated” enough. Like you said, the T-70 X-Wings at least feel like a visual upgrade, but the Ties look almost identical besides new paint jobs and some being 2-seaters. I am thinking/hoping that kylo’s faction of the first order had slightly more retro tech stationed at starkiller base, and when we see the full First Order Fleet that it will have a good mix of old and new.

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:10 am
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    I think the picture with Vader all but confirmed his involvement, considering that it only contains film characters. Hopefully, this is real.

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:11 am
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    New TIEs! It’s also good to see X-Wings, Y-Wings and the new Rebel fighter, I hope it means we’ll get some cool space battles!

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:14 am
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    Bistan looks great. Additionally, it is so good to see Vader confirmed in “Rogue One.” I can’t wait for December!

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:14 am
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    I’m just gonna go ahead and save these images, just in case Star Wars News Net gets a take down request…

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:14 am
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    Excitement galore!!!! December like always, can’t get here quick enough.

    I’m glad they added in a couple aliens to the mix too. Although, I would have liked to have seen some of the older classic aliens being used here, it is a vast galaxy and it’s always cool to see new creatures and designs.

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:32 am
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    The AT-AT’s are not those from R1, I’m wondering if the final version of the book will have those instead (I doubt the movie includes both designs).

    • May 17, 2016 at 2:37 pm
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      Probably, seeing as the X-wing page features T-70s instead of T-65s too, just relying on whatever artwork is on-hand for the mock-up.

    • May 17, 2016 at 7:36 pm
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      Yes they are. Look again. The head is not the classic AT-AT, the body has less of a ‘hump’, and the leg/body ratio makes them taller and more spindly looking. That’s the design from the teaser.

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:41 am
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    The most relevant thing about this leak is to finally confirm that there are aliens among the Rebels, and look pretty cool, specially the Ewookie haha

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:43 am
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    Probably the most relevant thing about this leak is to finally confirm that there are aliens among the Rebels, and look pretty cool, specially the Ewookie haha

    • May 17, 2016 at 6:13 pm
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      Yep. I was slightly disappointed in the Rogue One teaser because it lacked aliens, but it looks like they just hadn’t finished the effects in time. Can’t wait for this movie!

    • May 17, 2016 at 7:29 pm
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      Lumpy, all growed up and pissed off.

      • May 17, 2016 at 8:26 pm
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        haha

      • May 18, 2016 at 3:07 pm
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        Heh, I think it had something to do with grandpa Itchy’s porn addiction. That was…creepy.

      • May 17, 2016 at 8:20 pm
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        oh gosh I hope not lol 😛 – i really liked the original bothan designs

    • May 18, 2016 at 7:20 am
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      So Lumpy decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps.

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:50 am
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    Man, this revelation just made the hype for Rogue One more higher!

  • May 17, 2016 at 12:48 pm
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    You may want to add “SPOILER” to the headline. There are so many spoilers revealed in these pages — Vader, the droid voiced by Adam Tudyk, the name of new characters. Wow.

    • May 17, 2016 at 12:58 pm
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      That’s probably a good idea. Granted, none of these are major spoilers, all of the new characters in the images are probably going to show up in another trailer in a bit anyhow, but some people are overly sensitive about spoilers these days. Then again, if folks are concerned with avoiding spoilers, I think they are probably on the wrong website ;).

      • May 17, 2016 at 6:34 pm
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        Yeah hahaa I was going to say that. If somebody is actively not looking for spoilers, they are on the wrong website. This page is for “EVERYTHING” Star Wars related and leaked. This page, MSW, and the Star Wars Reddit Leaks page are all pretty on top of things when it comes to posting new leaked material.

    • May 17, 2016 at 1:47 pm
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      I said in the intro that these could be considered spoilerific. And then there is this huge red “SPOILER” word. Not sure what more I should add. 🙂

      • May 17, 2016 at 4:54 pm
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        I’m trying to avoid spoilers so I’m going to read the article “New Images With Characters, Vehicles and Descriptions from Rogue One!” 😉

    • May 18, 2016 at 7:19 am
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      In the end, all this stuff will be revealed through marketing and toys. Character names will never truly be spoilers.

  • May 17, 2016 at 12:54 pm
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    And why is Forest Whitaker’s character not depicted with the Rebels? Hmm.

    • May 18, 2016 at 7:19 am
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      Das raciss

  • May 17, 2016 at 2:08 pm
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    Do mind that Vader isn’t even featured in the “Villains page”, so still not sure how much of him we will see in the movie, if any.

    • May 17, 2016 at 2:24 pm
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      It wouldn’t make sense to put Vader in the poster if he didn’t appear. If that were the case, then why didn’t they put the Emperor, who’s 100% not in the film?

      • May 17, 2016 at 3:12 pm
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        There is no poster yet, you’re speaking of pages in the book, and nothing is sure until it’s officially confirmed, just as with Tarkin and the Emperor.

        • May 17, 2016 at 3:32 pm
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          his face takes up like half the page.

        • May 17, 2016 at 9:38 pm
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          Yeah, but basing off the book pages it seems that Vader is in the movie, or at least more probably than Tarkin and the Emperor. Why? Because I don’t see any of those two anywhere, while Vader’s there. Plus Tarkin’s actor is dead, and reviving him would be too difficult.

      • May 17, 2016 at 8:39 pm
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        how do you know that he is 100% not in the film? That is a pretty bold claim considering the fact that we saw red royal guards in the teaser and as we know when there is a red royal guard the Emperor is near. The red guards only answer to the Emperor and the Emperor alone.

        • May 17, 2016 at 9:37 pm
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          I wasn’t saying that Vader isn’t in the film. Oh, you refer to the emperor. Because the only emperor we’ll ever have is Ian McDiarmid, and hiding his presence would be reaaally difficult, speaking about leaks. We would’ve known about it. Plus, royal guards’ presence still doesn’t mean that the emperor’s present. I’m pretty sure the guy we see in the trailer is Vader though

          • May 17, 2016 at 10:01 pm
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            Ian did say he was involved in an unknown project with LucasFilm it could be Rogue One. Also a royal guards presence does mean that the Emperor is present and that is fact. Learn you StarWars lore.

          • May 17, 2016 at 11:25 pm
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            When did he say that?

  • May 17, 2016 at 2:22 pm
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    well time to memorize the characters names

  • May 17, 2016 at 2:50 pm
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    Meesa likes…
    The rebel aliens look great and new.
    K-250 looks new yet familiar.
    I like the visual tone they went for. Not exactrly copying ANH aesthetics but rather expanding it.
    The characters names “sound” good, specially Cap. Cassian Andor.

  • May 17, 2016 at 2:58 pm
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    The TIE Striker looks pretty cool.

  • May 17, 2016 at 3:46 pm
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    Iron Giant, is that you?

  • May 17, 2016 at 4:01 pm
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    That moment when you afraid you wont like what you see… but end up loving all of it. Looks fantastic!

  • May 17, 2016 at 4:34 pm
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    DIRECTOR (??) Krennic.. couldn’t they find a better title for the him?? I hope they just go by Krennic for most of the movie..

    • May 17, 2016 at 5:06 pm
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      I hope that Mads Mikkelsen’s character isn’t named “Professor” Erso or something like that.
      If so, those two would bring me the image of Superintendent Chalmers and Principal Skinner:
      – EEEEEERSOOOOOO!!!
      – Yes, Director Krennic…
      – Some rebel scum stole the Death Star plans!

      • May 17, 2016 at 7:55 pm
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        – You call banthaburgers ‘steamed banthas’?
        – Yes. It’s a, regional dialect.
        – Oh yeah? What region?
        – Er, core systems.
        – Really. Well I’m from Coruscant and I’ve never heard the phrase ‘steamed banthas’ before.

  • May 17, 2016 at 5:26 pm
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    AWESOME! Love the tie striker! Though why are the X-wings pictured the ones from episode 7? shouldn’t it be exclusively old tech?

    • May 17, 2016 at 5:31 pm
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      Placeholder imagery?

    • May 17, 2016 at 6:30 pm
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      It says NOT FINAL on all the pages.

      • May 17, 2016 at 7:28 pm
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        Except the fuselages are much closer to the classic X/Ws…weird image.

    • May 17, 2016 at 8:53 pm
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      Actually if you look at all the other artwork for the book it has traditional X-Wings, not the Ep.VII-Wings. My guess is they used a placeholder image of modern ships there because the CGI isn’t ready on the R1 ships maybe? Or the ship paint/designs/markings could be considered spoilers or possibly not even have final designs yet.

  • May 17, 2016 at 5:37 pm
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    Okay, maybe this confirms the theory that it’s Anakin floating in a glowy red bacta tank seen in the trailer. And if so, imagine this: The scene is an homage to Luke in the bacta tank in ESB. Anakin is wearing a breather mask which covers his face, except the eyes. So when he speaks, he still sounds menacing and Vader-like.

    And what if Anakin is not a CG animated character — what if it’s actually Hayden Christensen. They got him to do a cameo for this scene, and this is supposed to be a surprise for the audience. Just my crazy speculation.

    • May 17, 2016 at 5:40 pm
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      That would be great, IMO.

    • May 17, 2016 at 5:42 pm
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      I would love that! He is rumored as a force ghost for 8, so on the off chance that is true this would be a great way to get some more positive association around the anakin character before his cameo in the sequel trilogy. Plus it would be an awesome surprise in and of itself.

    • May 17, 2016 at 6:23 pm
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      Anakin wouldn’t look like Hayden at this point. He’d look more like bald Sebastian Shaw.

        • May 17, 2016 at 8:16 pm
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          In that case, any middle-aged actor the size of Vader could do it.

          • May 18, 2016 at 7:16 am
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            NO, IT MUST BE ANTHONY INGRUBER.

        • May 17, 2016 at 10:15 pm
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          I hope they get Anthony Ingruber to play Anakin, but with digital makeup and prosthetics.

      • May 18, 2016 at 12:19 am
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        I say recast. If they can do that with Solo why not Anakin.

  • May 17, 2016 at 5:49 pm
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    “Stormtroopers: As elite Empire soldiers…”

    LOL.

  • May 17, 2016 at 5:56 pm
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    I hope the movie explains why all this new tech is not used in the OT.

    • May 17, 2016 at 6:29 pm
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      Just like to OT didn’t explain the same kind of stuff? Where were the Tie Bomber’s in ROTJ, but were in ESB? Same type things could be asked.

    • May 17, 2016 at 6:42 pm
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      It’s not really new tech per sey, it’s just similar tech that wasn’t seen during the same time and place as the other movies. Kind of like how we don’t see TIE Interceptors at the Battle of Yavin, or TIE Bombers during The Battle of Endor, or B-Wings during The Battle of Yavin.

      • May 17, 2016 at 7:26 pm
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        I hold to TIE Fighter’s explanation that those fighters just didn’t enter service in large numbers until closer to Jedi.

        • May 17, 2016 at 8:42 pm
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          Perfectly fine explanation too.

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:53 pm
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            Where were the TIE Bombers in ROTJ, didn’t we first see them in ESB? I wish people would quit assuming nothing else exists past what we see on screen.

    • May 18, 2016 at 2:56 am
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      The U-Wing could be a one-of-a-kind prototype that Jyn and her team use. It appears to get destroyed in the movie, based on spy photos of the set that were taken last year.

  • May 17, 2016 at 6:22 pm
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    Striker TIEs the early version of the TIE Interceptors?

  • May 17, 2016 at 6:38 pm
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    Awesome stuff.

  • May 17, 2016 at 7:05 pm
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    Cool!

  • May 17, 2016 at 7:06 pm
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    would love to see a cameo of the Emperor. Would hate to see any actor pretending to be Han Solo or Tarkin. For those of lower IQ – no, it´s not the same when the age differency is 20 years (Tarkin, Obi-Wan), and few days or weeks (Rogue One/ANH)

  • May 17, 2016 at 7:11 pm
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    still holding onto hope that they will slip Kyle Katarn and Thrawn in the movie. it’ll be interesting to see how the movie performs. My kids are coming to me all confused when they saw the trailer, so unless you are a hardcore fan….I don’t know how this will be received.

    • May 17, 2016 at 8:56 pm
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      I would loose my mind if either of those two popped up! They are literally my two favorite legends characters, and this would be the correct time-period for them to be active. However I’m trying not to get too excited since there is a snowball’s chance in mustafar that they will be in this movie.

  • May 17, 2016 at 7:13 pm
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    There’s more new vehicles, locations and weapons in Rogue One than in The Force Awakens. I think VII tried to hit too much onto nostalgia, and didn’t want to risk straying too far from what we know. (Great movie, don’t get me wrong, but we had one or two new ships, familiar planets, and not really any new weapons) Whereas Rogue One is treading some new waters. I’m really looking froward to this.

    • May 17, 2016 at 7:25 pm
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      Well, we did get new weapons. Horribly lumpy, boxy, comically oversized new weapons.

      • May 17, 2016 at 7:30 pm
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        “New” weapons. A few blasters maybe. Starkiller base wasn’t really new. I guess Rey’s staff?

        • May 17, 2016 at 7:33 pm
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          Except her hitty-stick looks like an extended cab version of Mauls’ saber.

          • May 17, 2016 at 7:34 pm
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            Maybe it was. They just added some PVC pipe and painted it black.

      • May 17, 2016 at 7:31 pm
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        My point is: look at all the stuff that they’re introducing here. A “Weapons” expert sounds like he will invent crazy awesome weapons and use them in unconventional ways.

        • May 17, 2016 at 7:32 pm
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          And my point was that TFA does not succeed on a design level. We agree.

          • May 17, 2016 at 7:34 pm
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            Ha ha. Yes. Not to say I’m bashing the film though. I still loved it. 🙂 But Rogue One is starting to feel a bit more like Star Wars than TFA.

          • May 18, 2016 at 12:58 am
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            TFA’s design was the second most disappointing thing in the movie after the movie itself

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:07 pm
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            Dang, that sucks maybe you had too high of expectations?

  • May 17, 2016 at 7:24 pm
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    Oi, where to start? Okay, Y-Wing – I think I just came. Vader confirmed – meh. Was actually hoping against hope that they would avoid leaning on the Vader crutch for this film. Oh wells. More important, LUMPY CONFIRMED!!!! But WTF happened to the X/Ws? Not loving the Striker, and the rebel fighter looks like something out of Interceptor (anyone remember that game? Anyone? Anyone?). Tank is 100% pure awesome though. But…is the dude with the goggles on his head named “Broni”? ‘Cause…

    • May 17, 2016 at 8:29 pm
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      It’s only a crutch if it’s used as such. There are perfectly competent ways of including him that would make sense and work. It would feel out of place for him to *not* be involved to some extent since he was tracking Leia at the beginning of ANH. Not saying they need to run the two movies together (they don’t as that *would* most definitely feel like a crutch…) but he should most definitely be involved, especially through the back half of the flick. That being said I think his involvement should be limited as this shouldn’t be his story. Maybe coordinate things with Mendelson’s guy throughout and then come together with him at the end to spring the trap on the rebels…

      • May 17, 2016 at 9:08 pm
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        Oh, I agree, there are ways to make it not suck. Still, I was really hoping we’d get to explore a bit of the universe without seeing the main characters – always makes the galaxy feel a bit smaller to me when the same half dozen people keep showing up again and again.

        • May 18, 2016 at 3:05 pm
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          It also makes it hard when two and maybe even three Star Wars trilogies revolve around the lives of one family.

    • May 17, 2016 at 8:31 pm
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      you complain way too much. These are just bits of the movie no need to bitch your ass of about it.

      • May 17, 2016 at 8:48 pm
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        Did you even read his post? He wasn’t bitching at all.

        • May 17, 2016 at 8:54 pm
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          Um yes he was. “Vader confirmed – meh. Was actually hoping against hope that they would avoid leaning on the Vader crutch for this film.” lol what? I am so excited to see Vader and he says that.

          • May 17, 2016 at 9:06 pm
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            So…because you’re excited for that and I was hoping they’d explore a bit of the galaxy without involving the main characters, that makes it ‘complaining’? I don’t think you understand how ‘bitching’ works, dude. For example, claiming I was “bitching my ass off” is an invalid sentence, while “Shut your bitch-ass mouth before I fucking shut it for you, Tony” is a valid one. See the diff? Jesus.

          • May 17, 2016 at 9:19 pm
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            “So…because you’re excited for that and I was hoping they’d explore a bit of the galaxy without involving the main characters” yeah because mary sues and cliched shit characters that disney is coming up with to please social justice warriors is so called “exploring and expanding” the starwars universe. Rey and Finn sucked in TFA because they were basically tools for equality. Rey was perfect and Finn was a walking contradiction. And most likely these characters are gonna be as well. And who cares if Vader steals the spotlight. Better than having cliched characters like Rey.

          • May 17, 2016 at 11:38 pm
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            Troll much, Tony?

          • May 17, 2016 at 11:43 pm
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            nope.

          • May 18, 2016 at 7:13 am
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            I sense a white male feeling threatened by those who are different from him….

            Then again, what’s new?

          • May 18, 2016 at 7:30 am
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            I am not even white you moron. I’m Mexican. I am just sick of all this social justice warrior crap. StarWars was never about that till now.

          • May 18, 2016 at 7:40 am
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            Sure. As black man, I have one thing to say. Get over it. There are minorities in leading roles in Star Wars now. No amount of bitching and moaning will change that. Why are you pushing AGAINST representation in films? I hate SJWs as much as the next guy, but just putting some non-white characters in Star Wars is not the same thing.

          • May 18, 2016 at 9:22 am
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            I never said anything about Finns race. You’re the one that brought it up. When I meant “tools for equality” I meant that Disney doesn’t understand the way equality works. They think by shoving minority actors on screen that everyone is gonna kiss their asses. But yet these characters just felt forced. Why? Because Disney doesn’t understand how equality works. They need to add weight to the characters and give them one major role in the film. I felt that these characters just felt all over the place. Especially Rey. And let me tell you something, If Finn was white my opinion would not change. The character is still flat and random. I dont know why you have to say shit like “get over it” hey why dont you get over it buddy, there are people who are willing to voice their opinion. I hope Rey and Finn are more balanced in episode 8 because I loved them but I do have to admit that the film treated them terribly. This has nothing to do with minorities as leading roles, this has to do with Disney doing a shit job handling it. They seriously need to stop hiring a bunch of stupid prequel haters/writers to write the new starwars stories and start hiring people who wrote the old EU books because those books had minorities and they were handled 10 times better than Disney. Also stop using the term “non-white characters” oh so Luke and Han Solo are not white? I dont care if there is no white characters. Im just saying if they are gonna go for minority roles to do it right.

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:03 pm
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            I feel bad for you. While you were watching TFA in theaters all you thought about was how forced the new characters felt. Where when I was watching TFA, I was so excited to see new Star Wars stuff on screen that I could hardly contain myself.

          • May 18, 2016 at 11:32 pm
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            So because you criticize a movie with a female lead you are automatically sexist? Stop exploding over people not liking female characters dude. She could have been so much better if they just treated her like any other character. I dont know why gender has to be such a big deal here, you guys are saying “Ugh, A woman is just a capable as a man” but yet they are teaching women are more stronger then men. Tell me how there is equivalency there, doesn’t matter where it is. If you want make a starwars character just as capable as a man ok then! take her through the steps that the previous two male characters went through. And the she will be a capable as a man. But in TFA she was more capable than a man.

          • May 19, 2016 at 12:19 am
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            I didn’t realize that giving young female star Wars fans a positive role model to look forward to on the big screen was a bad thing. Who would have thought???

            Just like you and I have Luke, Han, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Mace, Lando or whoever else you want to look forward too, why can’t little girls have Rey to look forward to besides just Leia and Padme?

            I don’t think that the gender of a lead character is a big deal but you clearly think it is. If by me defending Rey means that I’m being a liberal SJW who wants to force his ways on everyone else then I have news for you, Why does it matter????

            We don’t know the full backstory to her character yet, so why are you writing her off as being too unbelievable that she can use four force powers in the span of one movie. She used three force powers in one movie…. wow that’s crazy!!!

          • May 19, 2016 at 12:26 am
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            STOP EXPLODING ON PEOPLE WHO LIKE FEMALE CHARACTERS DUDE!!!

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:49 pm
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            Luke was pretty flat and random in ANH.

          • May 18, 2016 at 11:07 pm
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            Yeah, that is because ANH was made as an experimental film in the 70s and not meant as a blockbuster success but the movie did extraordinarily well for its time.

          • May 19, 2016 at 12:35 am
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            Disney didn’t handle any of that, Lucasfilm did.

          • May 19, 2016 at 5:23 am
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            TL;DR.

            Just because you didn’t like the characters doesn’t mean no one else does either. They’re incredibly popular.

          • May 18, 2016 at 9:27 am
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            Also I dont care if your black. Stop stating your race just to victimize yourself. You should feel stupid for assuming that I was a white male just because I criticize Disney for failing to understand equality. Instead of trying to cause an argument you just made yourself look dumb.

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:01 pm
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            You can state your race and that’s fine, but he can’t state his race? Not that it matters much.

          • May 18, 2016 at 9:27 pm
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            You are so stupid. I stated my race cause he called me and “white male”

          • May 19, 2016 at 12:34 am
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            You are sooo stupid. Nobody cares what race you are, except you. You’re the one playing the defensive card.

          • May 19, 2016 at 5:22 am
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            No. I hate people with victim complexes, actually. But I figured my perspective would make sense, as far as representation goes. Because that’s all this is. Representation.

          • May 18, 2016 at 2:59 pm
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            Star Wars was never about SJW crap, never has been, and never will be. The only people that think there is a hidden SJW agenda are the conspiracy nuts and the ones who are actively looking for anything to fuel their established anti SJW hatred.

            The only truth there is, is that Hollywood has always had trends and that over the years they have changed and adopted new trends since movies are definitely a product of their time.

            I don’t remember people being upset that Lando was black, or Mace Windu was black. Or that Leia was a woman, she kills Jabba with her bare hands and a chain, that’s pretty impressive considering that a being the size of Jabba could have easily yanked her forward to escape.

          • May 18, 2016 at 2:52 pm
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            First off, Rey is no more cliche than Luke or Anakin.

            Secondly, be honest and ask yourself this…. would you have enjoyed the movie more if Rey was male, and Finn was a white male, and maybe Poe was an alien or stayed the same? Ask yourself this too…. is there ever a point where there are too many white male characters or can they have infinite white male leads and supports and Star Wars would still be just as good to you?

          • May 18, 2016 at 9:23 pm
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            No dude. It took Luke 3 movies to accomplish what Rey accomplished in 2 hours. Don’t even mention Anakin, Anakin was accomplished nothing. He got his ass kicked so many times despite being the chosen one. I have no idea how you can compare Rey to Anakin if they are nothing alike. And Anakin being a good star pilot doesn’t count because that was basically supposed to show how when Ben Kenobi said “He was the best star pilot in the galaxy” also dont say “oh well Luke destroyed the death star that is pretty cliched to me” no dude, Luke had help from Ben. He was constantly needing Ben to help him through everything. He got yelled at by Han for not knowing one part of the Falcon and somehow Rey knew more about the Falcon than Han? Anakin did not defeat Dooku in his first encounter he defeated him in episode 3. Luke got his butt kicked by Vader and was only able to defeat him in episode 6. If you need help understanding take a look https://archive.is/ZI5ye

          • May 18, 2016 at 10:23 pm
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            Okaaaay you aren’t a fan of Anakin, I guess.

            You need to look past more than just your own little vision of these characters. It shouldn’t be this difficult for you to suspend disbelief that women in Star Wars can be just as powerful, if not more powerful or talented or skilled, than males in Star Wars.

            I can argue with you in defense of Rey all day, but I get the feeling it won’t matter or change your opinion. I’ll give you the essay format in defense of Rey if you want to read it though.

            Rey is not a Mary Sue. Not every capable female character is a Mary Sue. Here you go:

            What a Mary Sue is.

            http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue

            Common Traits of a Mary Sue.

            http://tvtropes.org/pmw…/pmwiki.php/Main/CommonMarySueTraits

            How Rey does not fit:

            Personality: She has a personality, and is not a blatant author-insert (mostly since none of the authors are actually female). She reacts realistically to the situations she finds herself in, and things don’t just keep happening to justify her plucking a new superpower out of her ass. Not everyone instantly loves her. Really, only Finn takes an “instant” shine to her, and that still doesn’t really happen until after their escape in the Falcon, and they see each other in action. And Rey takes an equally “instant” liking to Finn. Hell, Poe and Finn bonded more thoroughly in less time. Han and Chewie are ready to dump Rey and Finn in an escape pod first chance they get, Rey has to prove her worth at helping to fly and fix the Falcon before Han warms up to her. And Rey had realistic baggage and and issues regarding her past. She’s not constantly chipper and upbeat despite being abandoned on the worst place to live in the galaxy when she was five, nor is she constantly moody and depressed, requiring all the other characters to constantly orbit her to try and cheer her up. She’s at least as developed as any other character in the Star Wars films, if not more so. And she does have flaws, and not just the kind that actually help. She has about the same level of socialization as Finn, lousy table manners, is dead-set on refusing “The Call” and clearly has more baggage in her past than just being abandoned by her parents. Watch how she cowers when Ren goes to interrogate her. Yeah, this woman’s been rendered completely helpless before. Her strength, like that of all good characters, comes from working to overcome those flaws, not in those flaws actually being beneficial.

            Skills: Rey has four skills throughout the film, three of them easily explained by her background: Mechanics, Melee Combat, Athletics, Piloting. Mechanics is brain-dead obvious. . . she’s a tech scavenger, that’s literally how she puts food on her table, and she’s been doing it for 15 years. She had to learn what was valuable, how to get it out intact, and probably how to fix it up so it would be worth more. She also had to figure that out very quickly if she was going to not starve. Melee Combat is also pretty obvious, since it’s shown Jakku is a rough-and-tumble, almost lawless place, and a young girl on her own is vulnerable. Of course she had to learn to defend herself (and it’s very heavily implied, if you watch how she reacts when Kylo Ren starts moving in to interrogate her, that she wasn’t always successful). Athletics is explained in her very first scene. These ships have been crashed on Jakku for most of Rey’s lifetime, all of the easy stuff has been picked over. You need to be able to reach areas no one has gotten to yet, in a wreck that had been shot up in orbit then crash-landed, which means it probably only has a vague acquaintance with structural integrity. Moving through those would be difficult in the extreme, so Rey would have to learn how to do it as safely as possible. The only skill not immediately explicable is Piloting, but even that makes some sense. She does know how to drive a speederbike, and as we’ve seen those kinds of repulsorlift vehicles can move in three dimensions. And some (admittedly, rushed and difficult-to-hear) dialogue indicates that she has flown other vehicles before, just never off of Jakku. So, she does have some experience with moving a vehicle in three dimensions, which means her amazing piloting skills are more like Luke’s or Anakin’s (neither of them had flown in combat before their first appearances, either) and less like, say, Princess Leia, whom we’d never even seen behind the “wheel” of any kind of vehicle before, pulling off an amazing speeder-bike chase.

            As for her Force Abilities, she demonstrates THREE over the course of the film, and you could really argue that down to two. First, “Force Pilot” does not count, since it’s a subconscious thing. She counter-probes Kylo, Mind Tricks JB-007, and uses the Force to guide her lightsaber in the last part of her battle with Ren. Okay, she appears to summon Anakin’s lightsaber to her hand, but the implication there is almost more that the lightsaber went to her of its own volition, or that Anakin’s Force Ghost gave it to her. She seems just as surprised as Kylo that she’s suddenly holding the thing. As for the Mind Probe and Lightsaber Combat, all she was doing was copying what Ren was already doing. There’s a Force Power that does basically that in some other media, notable the Saga Edition RPG, called Rebuke, which if you roll high enough turns the power used on you back on the person who used it. Yoda used it on Count Dooku’s lightning, Mace Windu used it with his lightsaber against Palpatine, resulting in the scarring, Yoda used it against Palpatine again in their fight (resulting in Yoda falling down the entire Senate, apparently he didn’t roll that well), and arguably Obi-Wan used it against Anakin in their “clinch” that resulted in them both getting blown across the room. So it is canon in some way. It could be argued that all Rey was doing was defending herself so well she was turning Ren’s powers back on him, which as stated is something we’ve observed Jedi doing before. That’s far less powerful an ability than, say, somehow guiding two proton torpedoes perfectly into a hole only slightly bigger then they are, which Luke was able to do with an about equal amount of experience with the Force. As for her picking up the Mind Trick so quickly, well, one could argue it’s closely related to the Mind Probe Ren had used on her minutes earlier, and she was able to reverse-engineer it that quickly, but also look at it this way. In A New Hope, we don’t see any hint at all that Jedi have telekinetic powers, and Obi-Wan certainly hadn’t the time to teach any to Luke. Suddenly, in the first act of Empire Strikes Back, Luke manages to summon his lightsaber to his hand, despite the audience having no idea such a thing should even be possible. And Luke knew practically nothing at all about Jedi until he met Obi-Wan, Rey had at least heard myths and legends about what they could do, so had a much better grounding for thinking “Well, why don’t I try this?” And if you’re going to say she’s more powerful than Luke by comparing her lightsaber ability at the end of TFA to Luke at the end of ESB, just stop right the frell there. First, Kylo Ren ain’t no Darth Vader, that’s the entire point of his character. Watch how he fights compared to how Darth Vader fights, and he’s a pale imitation (like he is at everything else,) He’s actually pretty bad, which makes sense because Luke likely didn’t have time to reconstruct all the Jedi combat skills and pass them on, and it’s established that Ren abandoned Luke’s training pretty early, and Snoke hasn’t bothered to finish it yet. So Rey is not fighting an opponent anywhere near as skilled and dangerous as Vader was in ESB. Rey barely holds her own for most of the fight, spends the first two-thirds of it running the fuck away from Ren, and only manages to get the upper hand when she taps into the Force, barely conscious of how to even do that. And it’s pretty much accepted by the fans that if she wasn’t actually drawing on the Dark Side, she was coming awfully damn close (also negating the “Incorruptible Pure Pureness” Mary Sues also tend to have). The one “Skills” trait she lifts whole-cloth from the Mary Sue list is her language fluency, but that’s extremely common in Star Wars. I honestly don’t think we’ve met a character in the films yet (except Finn) who doesn’t speak at least two languages after Basic. Han knows at least Shiryywook and Huttese (assuming Greedo was speaking Huttese and not Rodian, in which case add a third), Chewie obviously speaks his own language as well as understanding Basic and likely Huttese, Luke is never explicitly shown comprehending other languages but seems to know what Jabba and Bib are saying, Leia’s a diplomat and Senator who likely knows at least a few other languages, Anakin was completely fluent in Basic and Huttese at nine, etc. With the melting pot that Jakku is, it’s not at all improbable that Rey understands as many languages as she does.

            Appearance: Rey is not objectively more beautiful than Carrie Fisher in her prime or Natalie Portman, nor are her looks given any special attention by anyone in the film.

            Accessories: Her only real possession is her simple staff. Yes, Anakin’s lightsaber calls to her, but Finn uses it more throughout the film, and it’s a vital part of the overall narrative, that of “passing Exaclibur down to the next generation.” Even by the end of the film, we’re not totally sure if that weapon “belongs” to her or not, or if she’s trying to pass the burden back to Luke.

            Canon Character Relationships: None so far that we’re aware. While it’s a popular fan theory that she’s Luke’s daughter, there are a lot of glaring flaws that are going to be very difficult to explain if they go that route, and there’s a sizeable portion of the fanbase who don’t want her to be related to anyone special. But really, no one of the original cast takes more of a liking to her than they do to any of the new characters. Leia gushes at length about how brave Finn was for defecting, she has not one word of dialogue with Rey. Han plays surrogate father to both Rey and Finn equally, and Chewie accompanies Rey to find Luke probably for the simple reason that the Resistance couldn’t spare any other ship to go, and Rey needs a copilot (and Chewie would probably really like to see Luke again). Whatever relationship she may or may not have with Luke is almost certainly going to start as Master-Apprentice, even if she is his daughter. And just making her related to the original cast doesn’t make her a Mary Sue. . . you can’t pass the torch to a new generation if there isn’t a new generation to pass the torch to.

            Story Elements: Now, granted, a lot of these fit, but by necessity they’d fit for any character in this type of story. The whole point of The Force Awakens is that a new generation of heroes and villains are rising, and the original cast is passing the torch on to them to continue the fight. This necessitates a new Chosen One to take up Luke and Anakin’s roles in the OT/PT, and Rey just happens to be it. But it should be noted that Rey’s very presence doesn’t steal from the importance of the plot of “Where is Luke Skywalker?” That’s still the first question on everyone’s lips, and Rey is, at best, a tool to help accomplish that goal. Moreover, we’ve seen no indication that Rey is “especially Chosen” the way Anakin or Luke was. Anakin was created by the Force itself, Luke was his son so would have the same power. Rey is just someone who happens to be Force-Sensitive. Other than the vague hints that she may be Luke’s daughter, there’s no indication that Anakin’s lightsaber reacted to her any differently than it would to any other good-hearted Force-Sensitive stumbling upon it (unless you buy into the theory that Finn is also Force-Sensitive, but that could still go either way). For right now, Rey is no more “Chosen” than anyone else with Force-Sensitivity would be in the same situation.

            Name: “Rey” is about as plain and normal a Star Wars name as you can get. Sure, there’s puns to be made about a “Rey” of hope and so on, but there’s nothing intrinsic in her name that makes her extra-super-duper-special.

            Presentation: Sure, she has a theme. So does Luke. So do Han and Leia. So does Anakin/Darth Vader. So does Padme. So does the Emperor. It’s fricking John Williams, everyone gets a theme! Otherwise, she’s not presented as a Mary Sue is. She’s the fourth of the new main characters we meet, and her story is totally subsumed by BB-8s for most of the movie. In fact, it isn’t until the very end of the film, when she starts kicking Kylo Ren’s ass, that it’s made clear that she, not Finn, is the actual new central character. A Mary Sue would shove Finn completely out of the picture the second she arrived and take all the glory for herself.

            All the personality traits that one could say make Rey a Mary Sue apply just as well to both Luke and Anakin, and no one called them out for it. Are people really that threatened by the idea that a woman can be a strong leading character? It’s the god damn 21st Century, get the over it already.

          • May 18, 2016 at 11:05 pm
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            How does this not make me a fan of Anakin? my favorite starwars movie ever is Revenge of the Sith so stop assuming things like this. I am seriously sick of you guys assuming that I am white and that I hate the prequels just because I voice my criticism. Also I never ever said that a woman is not as capable as a man. Stop assuming Im sexist or something just because I am criticizing a female character. I have probably criticized more male characters than female characters. Guess what? Mad Max Fury road had a female leading role and guess what? I loved the movie. Because the character had dispense and boundaries just like any normal character should have. Stop harassing people because they dont like Rey. Im not going around harassing people because they didn’t like revenge of the sith and trying to force them to like it. Also what does her name have anything to do with her being cliched? your entire essay doesn’t even explain why she isn’t a marry sue. “we’ve seen no indication that Rey is “especially Chosen” the way Anakin or Luke was” Luke was not chosen. Where did you get that? Luke is the son of Anakin Skywalker. According to Ben Kenobi he said that Anakin was a very powerful Jedi. “Rey is just someone who happens to be Force-Sensitive” How on earth did she know what a jedi mind trick was? how? Even during the first screening I was like “what” I said this before and I am going to say it again. She learned everything in 2 hours whereas it took Anakin and Luke 3 movies to acomplish and learn this. “Okaaaay you aren’t a fan of Anakin, I guess” Haha you’re so funny considering the fact that episode 3 is not just my favorite starwars movie but my favorite movie of all time. Reading that made me laugh. That shows how desperate a quick you are to assuming. Rey is cliched as hell that is all I am gonna say. She was a very promising character but was quickly bogged down by the agenda Disney was trying to stress. Why couldn’t they just make her a vulnerable kid like Luke and Anakin in ANH and TPM and then through the next films she evolves as a stronger character and learns from her mistake like Luke and Anakin. This has nothing to do with sexism because that’s the only was you see it, this has to do with the minority characters being portrayed so poorly ans so sloppy. Again, instead of making these characters OP why not just treat them like any other character. Starts off weak, nervous, and vulnerable but throughout the next films this character gains wisdom and knowledge from their previous mistakes.

          • May 19, 2016 at 12:47 am
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            There are millions of people who enjoyed the movie and could care less about how quickly Rey learned force powers or how well she fought against Kylo.

            I mean, if you’re going to let something as trivial as that keep you from enjoying a Star Wars movie, then I don’t know what to tell you except for maybe you should just leave Star Wars behind and move on to something else because it doesn’t seem like anything the new movies do will make you happy with what they’ve already established in TFA.

            I in no way see Rey being good at multiple skills means that everything about her character is just stupid or flat.

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:53 pm
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            oh that is just the start now we have to have homosexuality in it for the sake of diviersity. And that might happen with Poe and Finn. You know any time now two guys act like buds they have to be somehow lovers.

          • May 17, 2016 at 9:45 pm
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            In a way you were kind of complaining. Vader being back on the big screen is a dream come true to me and you dont want him back because you want them to explore with the new disnefied characters? Disney didn’t really live up to the EU characters like Kyle Katarn, Starkiller and Thrawn compared to Rey and Finn who were basically like watching a disney channel show. The only reason they were there were to please social justice warriors. Id ask you, since when do social justice warriors care about starwars? All they care about is victimizing themselves. Don’t get me wrong, these characters look cool but from what we have seen in the trailer the female character “Jyn Erso” already looks like a mary sue. The trailer shows her beating up stormtroopers with her bare hands. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to go as far as to have her beat up darth vader with her bare hands. We wanted new characters in TFA and they sucked. Rey was nothing but a feminist tool, Finn was annoying a hell and the they were trying way to hard with him. And Poe was combed, cleaner version of Han Solo. The only really interesting character was Kylo Ren tbh. I bet you dollars for donuts that these characters will not have much to offer for us old fans. They are only trying to please prequels haters and social justice warriors. Thats the sad part. That is why I am looking foward to the returning characters. Hell the best thing about TFA was Han Solo not stupid Rey and Finn. I guess the thing Antonio is trying to say is that Vader will probably be the character that

          • May 17, 2016 at 11:54 pm
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            I’m so sick of SJW in every movie. Can’t we just get a fun fantasy movie. I enjoyed Rey but this new Female butt kicker stuff is getting over done. When we all know the average women can’t beat up even one weak male.

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:44 pm
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            All white males as the heroes in the movies!

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:50 pm
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            The only white males I have seen in these movies lately are the bad guys.

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:59 pm
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            And if they’d cast black or other races as bad guys, people would say…aha they cast minorities as evil!

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:49 pm
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            Because people reeeeeallly live in these fantasy movies.

          • May 18, 2016 at 9:25 pm
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            take a look.

          • May 19, 2016 at 12:30 am
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            You don’t know what a Mary Sue is apparently. Rey messes up too.

          • May 19, 2016 at 12:31 am
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            Rey is not a Mary Sue. Not every capable female character is a Mary Sue. Here you go:

            What a Mary Sue is.

            http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue

            Common Traits of a Mary Sue.

            http://tvtropes.org/pmw…/pmwiki.php/Main/CommonMarySueTraits

            How Rey does not fit:

            Personality: She has a personality, and is not a blatant author-insert (mostly since none of the authors are actually female). She reacts realistically to the situations she finds herself in, and things don’t just keep happening to justify her plucking a new superpower out of her ass. Not everyone instantly loves her. Really, only Finn takes an “instant” shine to her, and that still doesn’t really happen until after their escape in the Falcon, and they see each other in action. And Rey takes an equally “instant” liking to Finn. Hell, Poe and Finn bonded more thoroughly in less time. Han and Chewie are ready to dump Rey and Finn in an escape pod first chance they get, Rey has to prove her worth at helping to fly and fix the Falcon before Han warms up to her. And Rey had realistic baggage and and issues regarding her past. She’s not constantly chipper and upbeat despite being abandoned on the worst place to live in the galaxy when she was five, nor is she constantly moody and depressed, requiring all the other characters to constantly orbit her to try and cheer her up. She’s at least as developed as any other character in the Star Wars films, if not more so. And she does have flaws, and not just the kind that actually help. She has about the same level of socialization as Finn, lousy table manners, is dead-set on refusing “The Call” and clearly has more baggage in her past than just being abandoned by her parents. Watch how she cowers when Ren goes to interrogate her. Yeah, this woman’s been rendered completely helpless before. Her strength, like that of all good characters, comes from working to overcome those flaws, not in those flaws actually being beneficial.

            Skills: Rey has four skills throughout the film, three of them easily explained by her background: Mechanics, Melee Combat, Athletics, Piloting. Mechanics is brain-dead obvious. . . she’s a tech scavenger, that’s literally how she puts food on her table, and she’s been doing it for 15 years. She had to learn what was valuable, how to get it out intact, and probably how to fix it up so it would be worth more. She also had to figure that out very quickly if she was going to not starve. Melee Combat is also pretty obvious, since it’s shown Jakku is a rough-and-tumble, almost lawless place, and a young girl on her own is vulnerable. Of course she had to learn to defend herself (and it’s very heavily implied, if you watch how she reacts when Kylo Ren starts moving in to interrogate her, that she wasn’t always successful). Athletics is explained in her very first scene. These ships have been crashed on Jakku for most of Rey’s lifetime, all of the easy stuff has been picked over. You need to be able to reach areas no one has gotten to yet, in a wreck that had been shot up in orbit then crash-landed, which means it probably only has a vague acquaintance with structural integrity. Moving through those would be difficult in the extreme, so Rey would have to learn how to do it as safely as possible. The only skill not immediately explicable is Piloting, but even that makes some sense. She does know how to drive a speederbike, and as we’ve seen those kinds of repulsorlift vehicles can move in three dimensions. And some (admittedly, rushed and difficult-to-hear) dialogue indicates that she has flown other vehicles before, just never off of Jakku. So, she does have some experience with moving a vehicle in three dimensions, which means her amazing piloting skills are more like Luke’s or Anakin’s (neither of them had flown in combat before their first appearances, either) and less like, say, Princess Leia, whom we’d never even seen behind the “wheel” of any kind of vehicle before, pulling off an amazing speeder-bike chase.

            As for her Force Abilities, she demonstrates THREE over the course of the film, and you could really argue that down to two. First, “Force Pilot” does not count, since it’s a subconscious thing. She counter-probes Kylo, Mind Tricks JB-007, and uses the Force to guide her lightsaber in the last part of her battle with Ren. Okay, she appears to summon Anakin’s lightsaber to her hand, but the implication there is almost more that the lightsaber went to her of its own volition, or that Anakin’s Force Ghost gave it to her. She seems just as surprised as Kylo that she’s suddenly holding the thing. As for the Mind Probe and Lightsaber Combat, all she was doing was copying what Ren was already doing. There’s a Force Power that does basically that in some other media, notable the Saga Edition RPG, called Rebuke, which if you roll high enough turns the power used on you back on the person who used it. Yoda used it on Count Dooku’s lightning, Mace Windu used it with his lightsaber against Palpatine, resulting in the scarring, Yoda used it against Palpatine again in their fight (resulting in Yoda falling down the entire Senate, apparently he didn’t roll that well), and arguably Obi-Wan used it against Anakin in their “clinch” that resulted in them both getting blown across the room. So it is canon in some way. It could be argued that all Rey was doing was defending herself so well she was turning Ren’s powers back on him, which as stated is something we’ve observed Jedi doing before. That’s far less powerful an ability than, say, somehow guiding two proton torpedoes perfectly into a hole only slightly bigger then they are, which Luke was able to do with an about equal amount of experience with the Force. As for her picking up the Mind Trick so quickly, well, one could argue it’s closely related to the Mind Probe Ren had used on her minutes earlier, and she was able to reverse-engineer it that quickly, but also look at it this way. In A New Hope, we don’t see any hint at all that Jedi have telekinetic powers, and Obi-Wan certainly hadn’t the time to teach any to Luke. Suddenly, in the first act of Empire Strikes Back, Luke manages to summon his lightsaber to his hand, despite the audience having no idea such a thing should even be possible. And Luke knew practically nothing at all about Jedi until he met Obi-Wan, Rey had at least heard myths and legends about what they could do, so had a much better grounding for thinking “Well, why don’t I try this?” And if you’re going to say she’s more powerful than Luke by comparing her lightsaber ability at the end of TFA to Luke at the end of ESB, just stop right the frell there. First, Kylo Ren ain’t no Darth Vader, that’s the entire point of his character. Watch how he fights compared to how Darth Vader fights, and he’s a pale imitation (like he is at everything else,) He’s actually pretty bad, which makes sense because Luke likely didn’t have time to reconstruct all the Jedi combat skills and pass them on, and it’s established that Ren abandoned Luke’s training pretty early, and Snoke hasn’t bothered to finish it yet. So Rey is not fighting an opponent anywhere near as skilled and dangerous as Vader was in ESB. Rey barely holds her own for most of the fight, spends the first two-thirds of it running the fuck away from Ren, and only manages to get the upper hand when she taps into the Force, barely conscious of how to even do that. And it’s pretty much accepted by the fans that if she wasn’t actually drawing on the Dark Side, she was coming awfully damn close (also negating the “Incorruptible Pure Pureness” Mary Sues also tend to have). The one “Skills” trait she lifts whole-cloth from the Mary Sue list is her language fluency, but that’s extremely common in Star Wars. I honestly don’t think we’ve met a character in the films yet (except Finn) who doesn’t speak at least two languages after Basic. Han knows at least Shiryywook and Huttese (assuming Greedo was speaking Huttese and not Rodian, in which case add a third), Chewie obviously speaks his own language as well as understanding Basic and likely Huttese, Luke is never explicitly shown comprehending other languages but seems to know what Jabba and Bib are saying, Leia’s a diplomat and Senator who likely knows at least a few other languages, Anakin was completely fluent in Basic and Huttese at nine, etc. With the melting pot that Jakku is, it’s not at all improbable that Rey understands as many languages as she does.

            Appearance: Rey is not objectively more beautiful than Carrie Fisher in her prime or Natalie Portman, nor are her looks given any special attention by anyone in the film.

            Accessories: Her only real possession is her simple staff. Yes, Anakin’s lightsaber calls to her, but Finn uses it more throughout the film, and it’s a vital part of the overall narrative, that of “passing Exaclibur down to the next generation.” Even by the end of the film, we’re not totally sure if that weapon “belongs” to her or not, or if she’s trying to pass the burden back to Luke.

            Canon Character Relationships: None so far that we’re aware. While it’s a popular fan theory that she’s Luke’s daughter, there are a lot of glaring flaws that are going to be very difficult to explain if they go that route, and there’s a sizeable portion of the fanbase who don’t want her to be related to anyone special. But really, no one of the original cast takes more of a liking to her than they do to any of the new characters. Leia gushes at length about how brave Finn was for defecting, she has not one word of dialogue with Rey. Han plays surrogate father to both Rey and Finn equally, and Chewie accompanies Rey to find Luke probably for the simple reason that the Resistance couldn’t spare any other ship to go, and Rey needs a copilot (and Chewie would probably really like to see Luke again). Whatever relationship she may or may not have with Luke is almost certainly going to start as Master-Apprentice, even if she is his daughter. And just making her related to the original cast doesn’t make her a Mary Sue. . . you can’t pass the torch to a new generation if there isn’t a new generation to pass the torch to.

            Story Elements: Now, granted, a lot of these fit, but by necessity they’d fit for any character in this type of story. The whole point of The Force Awakens is that a new generation of heroes and villains are rising, and the original cast is passing the torch on to them to continue the fight. This necessitates a new Chosen One to take up Luke and Anakin’s roles in the OT/PT, and Rey just happens to be it. But it should be noted that Rey’s very presence doesn’t steal from the importance of the plot of “Where is Luke Skywalker?” That’s still the first question on everyone’s lips, and Rey is, at best, a tool to help accomplish that goal. Moreover, we’ve seen no indication that Rey is “especially Chosen” the way Anakin or Luke was. Anakin was created by the Force itself, Luke was his son so would have the same power. Rey is just someone who happens to be Force-Sensitive. Other than the vague hints that she may be Luke’s daughter, there’s no indication that Anakin’s lightsaber reacted to her any differently than it would to any other good-hearted Force-Sensitive stumbling upon it (unless you buy into the theory that Finn is also Force-Sensitive, but that could still go either way). For right now, Rey is no more “Chosen” than anyone else with Force-Sensitivity would be in the same situation.

            Name: “Rey” is about as plain and normal a Star Wars name as you can get. Sure, there’s puns to be made about a “Rey” of hope and so on, but there’s nothing intrinsic in her name that makes her extra-super-duper-special.

            Presentation: Sure, she has a theme. So does Luke. So do Han and Leia. So does Anakin/Darth Vader. So does Padme. So does the Emperor. It’s fricking John Williams, everyone gets a theme! Otherwise, she’s not presented as a Mary Sue is. She’s the fourth of the new main characters we meet, and her story is totally subsumed by BB-8s for most of the movie. In fact, it isn’t until the very end of the film, when she starts kicking Kylo Ren’s ass, that it’s made clear that she, not Finn, is the actual new central character. A Mary Sue would shove Finn completely out of the picture the second she arrived and take all the glory for herself.

            All the personality traits that one could say make Rey a Mary Sue apply just as well to both Luke and Anakin, and no one called them out for it. Are people really that threatened by the idea that a woman can be a strong leading character? It’s the god damn 21st Century, get the over it already.

          • May 18, 2016 at 3:44 pm
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            I guess you wanted all white males leads again, I suppose.

          • May 17, 2016 at 11:37 pm
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            Dude, you are always bitching on here. C’mon your name is “Mr_Crankypants”! One question though, how do you find time to basically live on the forums and literally post dozens of dozens times a day? How’s your life?

          • May 18, 2016 at 10:21 am
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            Jesus man, it was once sentence that wasn’t even negative and you say he was bitching? Seriously?

    • May 17, 2016 at 8:47 pm
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      Vader will be great. It is a time period where the Empire is dominant with Vader and Emperor and the rebellion is weak with no one. #drama.
      Vader is not the antagonist, he is more like the obstacle course to circumvent.

      Don’t worry, there is hope six years later.

      • May 17, 2016 at 8:54 pm
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        Six years? Doesn’t this movie take place mere weeks before episode 4?

    • May 18, 2016 at 12:40 am
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      I think a lot of this artwork is FPO. The text on the Rebel Starfighter page is about W-Wings.

    • May 18, 2016 at 1:38 am
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      I think that’s the absolute dumbest complaint so far, people not wanting ANH-era Vader in a war film…

      • May 18, 2016 at 3:12 am
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        Why, because in a galaxy-spanning Empire, Vader must be everywhere and anywhere that anything happens? Look, Vader being constantly foiled by ancillary characters neuters him. Leave Vader for the big stuff.

        • May 18, 2016 at 2:43 pm
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          “There will be no one to stop us this time!”

  • May 17, 2016 at 8:41 pm
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    I love how on that top poster Donnie Yen looks like he’s getting ready to take a selfie, like one of those stock family photo pics.

    http://puu.sh/oVnAW/1ebc8a79e5.jpg

  • May 17, 2016 at 9:03 pm
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    He’s back. He’s black. He’s got a cyberbetic sack.

  • May 17, 2016 at 9:22 pm
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    This is great, but I have a bad feeling someone form Lucas Film or the publisher of this book is about to be thrown in to the equivalent of the Sarlacc pit!!!

  • May 17, 2016 at 9:24 pm
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    SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY THAT VADER IS IN THIS!! ROGUE ONE IS OFFICIALLY AWESOME

    • May 17, 2016 at 9:55 pm
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      Even more better if the Emperor is in this.

      • May 17, 2016 at 10:02 pm
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        Agreed Emperor would be AWESOME too but I”m most excited for Vader

        • May 18, 2016 at 2:58 pm
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          I’m still hoping for a Tarkin cameo of some sort too if done well.

  • May 17, 2016 at 9:34 pm
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    So next season of rebels will feature many U-wings, many new TIE models and many droids of that model

  • May 17, 2016 at 9:35 pm
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    THE MORE VADER IN THIS ——– THE BETTER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • May 17, 2016 at 9:39 pm
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    Love it !!

  • May 17, 2016 at 9:54 pm
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    Why are the X-Wings from episode 7?

    • May 18, 2016 at 7:09 am
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      Placeholder images.

  • May 17, 2016 at 10:06 pm
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    Some of this stuff is straight out of The Art of The Force Awakens book btw. Pretty much confirms that they used this pic only as a place holder.

    • May 18, 2016 at 1:07 am
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      I hope so. I don’t want them retconning the split-engine X-Wing.

    • May 18, 2016 at 3:14 am
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      Good catch!

  • May 17, 2016 at 11:18 pm
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    Does Donnie Yen have some sort of crossbow? Does the staff we see him use in the teaser convert into that?

    • May 18, 2016 at 7:08 am
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      I hope so.

  • May 18, 2016 at 4:03 am
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    Question is, is J.E.J voicing Vader? I hope so.

    • May 18, 2016 at 7:08 am
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      They wouldn’t do it without him, and if they could get him for Rebels, they can get him for this.

      • May 18, 2016 at 2:55 pm
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        Absolutely!

  • May 18, 2016 at 4:32 am
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    They’re really playing into the PT construction design for the ships, which is pretty cool. My only worry is that this movie doesn’t take place THAT far behind ANH, and so I think these ships look a little too early-period for the time the film takes place. These designs for the ships are more suited, to say, 10 years before OT as opposed to a half-year.
    That said, the designs by themselves are a nice mid-way between old and new, I can see the influence from the mini-starfighters they had in ROTS. Though the rebel starfighter is pretty weak, it looks like a mis-shapen mutation of the starfighter in ROTS with quad-engines bolted onto the back, but I appreciate what they’re trying to do, even if it’s the wrong time period.

    • May 18, 2016 at 4:56 am
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      The first thing i saw was a funky, modified T-47

    • May 18, 2016 at 4:37 pm
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      good catch!

  • May 18, 2016 at 6:10 am
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    Definitely a work-in-progress piece that was smuggled out by a greedy designer. All text is placeholder and offers little info aside from names. Still, looks pretty good.

  • May 18, 2016 at 7:07 am
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    Stop it! I can only get so erect!!

  • May 18, 2016 at 7:30 am
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    I like it. The TIE Striker is almost exactly what I pictured the next gen fighters of TFA to look like and I love that we are finally getting Imperial tanks too. Also happy to see a heroic alien on the Rebels side that doesn’t look to be just comic relief. Looking good so far even if the information in it is sparse.

    • May 18, 2016 at 7:35 am
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      I think the Striker is the same scout ship that Tarkin sends to investigate Dantooine even though we never saw it. They made one for the 90’s CCG game but it wasn’t anywhere as cool looking.

  • May 18, 2016 at 7:38 am
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    The idea that the default for a movie must be white men is insanely narrow minded. I would much rather see movies that look like the world we live in. It’s not some kind of betrayal to make the storm trooper black or the young Jedi a woman. They were great in those roles.

  • May 18, 2016 at 11:51 am
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    🙂
    At first I thought Homie Juan Kenobi was Indiana Juans.

    • May 18, 2016 at 2:05 pm
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      that’s friggin’ hilarious!

    • May 18, 2016 at 2:45 pm
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      Where’s Chui?

      • May 19, 2016 at 6:01 am
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        Chuy,well, still combing his hair! 🙂

  • May 18, 2016 at 7:49 pm
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    Finally some Aliens in Rogue One! Love it 😀

  • May 18, 2016 at 11:36 pm
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    I am loving the new ships. A tie striker and the U-Wing. That is what I was looking for in TFA but it failed on that area because JJ was to foreclosed on copying the OT.

  • May 19, 2016 at 6:00 am
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    Wow! Book will have amazing stuff! I’m in for it!
    Peace and long live to see all SW movies that will come!

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