Lightsaber hilts? Who cares! What about that freakin' soccer ball droid?!


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Maybe someone wants to out dumb Lucas after the whole who shot first debacle or Jar Jar Binks. I am no fan of disney by any means, so we will see how far the can cram the star wars sagas down the crap hole.

Just my opinion of course, and yes I know Lucas made the I-III craptasticness so it may be possible that Jar Jar Abrahms can pull a rabbit oit of the hat Rocky. I have extremely low expectations for this movie to be honest. (Waits patiently for all the follow up hate posts.)

Shadow Lodge Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8

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Thorazeen wrote:

Maybe someone wants to out dumb Lucas after the whole who shot first debacle or Jar Jar Binks. I am no fan of disney by any means, so we will see how far the can cram the star wars sagas down the crap hole.

Just my opinion of course, and yes I know Lucas made the I-III craptasticness so it may be possible that Jar Jar Abrahms can pull a rabbit oit of the hat Rocky. I have extremely low expectations for this movie to be honest. (Waits patiently for all the follow up hate posts.)

The only response necessary


As I said, it's my opinion wether people like it or not. Unfortunatly my nooks volume control is broken so I wouldn't be able to listen to the video for the big lebowski. Haven't seen that movie so I have no frame of reference to the video response that you linked to. I am sure people will be upset over not having any interest in watching the dude as much as I like the cast in referenced movie.


The only excuse for that droid is if it's punted by a stormie and destroyed at some point. I'm in the 'this is probably going to be pretty meh at best, likely even worse' camp myself. I want it to be good. I like (most of) what Disney did with John Carter except marketing, Marvel has been meh to good, but going by how they've treated the rest of the SW universe (the new Marvel comics, Rebels) and the trailer, I am not expecting it to be anything but a disappointment.

Silver Crusade

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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:
The only excuse for that droid is if it's punted by a stormie and destroyed at some point. I'm in the 'this is probably going to be pretty meh at best, likely even worse' camp myself. I want it to be good. I like (most of) what Disney did with John Carter except marketing, Marvel has been meh to good, but going by how they've treated the rest of the SW universe (the new Marvel comics, Rebels) and the trailer, I am not expecting it to be anything but a disappointment.

I love the Rebels cartoon series (dat season one finale), I love the comics (feels like an extension of the movies) and I love the little ball robot especially since it's mostly practical effects.

Liberty's Edge

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I just don't get the dislike for Abrams held by the small but very vocal minority. The new teaser looks fantastic and feels in every way like Star Wars. Abrams is a massive Star Wars fan and has poured huge amounts of love into this film, in addition to huge amounts of time, energy and talent.

I think once the film is released this December, everyone (except those few in the vocal minority of course) will be proclaiming their love and admiration for Abrams and the movie


Have to agree with the OP.

You've already got a large cast of characters returning from Episode 6, plus they've got to introduce the new generation of characters for Episode 7. That's a lot of characters taking up screen time, so they've got to make sure every new character they introduce offers something unique and important.

Since C3PO and R2D2 are already confirmed to be in the movie, I think the genre of cutesy robots has already been well covered. How many cutesy robots do you need in a movie anyways?

Sovereign Court

Honestly ball droid doesnt bother me. However, I felt the driods got just a little bit too much time in the previous films. If ball droid is in the movie constantly and the source of all the comic relief it will be bad. If its juts a droid in the background a few times then thats cool. Guess its wait and see.


Marc Radle wrote:
I just don't get the dislike for Abrams held by the small but very vocal minority.

Statistics?

Sovereign Court

Both Star Treks were pretty decent. Better than TMP that's for certain. Or Nemesis.


Pan wrote:
Honestly ball droid doesnt bother me. However, I felt the driods got just a little bit too much time in the previous films. If ball droid is in the movie constantly and the source of all the comic relief it will be bad. If its juts a droid in the background a few times then thats cool. Guess its wait and see.

Previous movies would have been much better if the droids had been the source of all the comic relief. It was the other comic relief characters that hurt.


JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon suffer from very polarized fan groups. Almost like the fans of the directors blatantly deny all the weaknesses of their man and this drives the people who don't like them into a frenzy of hate. Silly I know.

Looking back the main strong point of Star Wars was the intense action and the story. JJAbrams has a proven record of making dazzling action films ... Ok he may be pretty bad when it comes to plot, but he IS going to blow us out of our chairs with action and so we know that he is perfect for at least half that formula. If he is careful with the story we might have one of the best Star Wars films ever.

Sovereign Court

thejeff wrote:
Pan wrote:
Honestly ball droid doesnt bother me. However, I felt the driods got just a little bit too much time in the previous films. If ball droid is in the movie constantly and the source of all the comic relief it will be bad. If its juts a droid in the background a few times then thats cool. Guess its wait and see.
Previous movies would have been much better if the droids had been the source of all the comic relief. It was the other comic relief characters that hurt.

hmm, given a moment to think about it you may be right. I am for some reason thinking about phantom menace in particular. The droid annoyance may have been Jar Jar rub off. In any case, I still think ball droid is cool and in the right amount of use will be fine. I do realize it could be a super annoying feature but, sadly that has become par for SW.


I don't really care one way or other about the droid. The rest of the trailer looks freaking fantastic.

You know I know this movie is going to be awesome? A freaking crashed Star Destroyer in the desert. I was so so for Abrams in Trek reboots, but this scene alone tells me he gets what Star Wars should feel like..


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I'd say Abrams first Star Trek movie showed that he gets what Star Wars is about.


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God damn it. I cannot stop reading "droid" as "druid".

Sovereign Court

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Kajehase wrote:
I'd say Abrams first Star Trek movie showed that he gets what Star Wars is about.

Excellent point! JJ's films were bad Star Trek but good theater movies. The type of movies that you love as its rolling across the screen then hate by the time you get home in the car.


Yes, the recent Trek movies weren't Sci-Fi, they were Space Adventure. Star Wars was never really Sci-Fi, it was Space Adventure.


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Kobold Cleaver wrote:
G!! d~@n it. I cannot stop reading "droid" as "druid".

If R2 had wildshape, 3P0 would be his (annoying) animal companion.

Liberty's Edge

I want to know how BB-8 gets up stairs without help.

Scarab Sages

Bouncing ;-)


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Sadly JJAbrams has proven he doesn't understand Star Trek. His plots were abysmally bad, ignored the canon which is one of the better sides of Star Trek, and featured action which was never what Star Trek was all about.

I really wish they had chosen someone else to do a new Star Trek trilogy...

BUT JJ does make good movies just not Star Trek.


Do we know that things don't pop out of the ball? R2's third leg is safely tucked away inside his trunk when he's not using it (and he concealed his rockets so well that for the entire original trilogy, we didn't know they were there), so who's to say the ball droid doesn't have stair-climbing legs that pop out (or rockets)?

Sovereign Court

I have a suspicion that R2, while in the movie, will not be in it all that much. Same with 3P0. Won't be just a glimpse, but the also not the silliness that was Prequel R2.


Tectorman wrote:
Do we know that things don't pop out of the ball? R2's third leg is safely tucked away inside his trunk when he's not using it (and he concealed his rockets so well that for the entire original trilogy, we didn't know they were there), so who's to say the ball droid doesn't have stair-climbing legs that pop out (or rockets)?

This is a setting with cars that float on the air... Perhaps it can do the same or even just roll up the stairs. It's not like the technology can't easily make it happen.

Liberty's Edge

Seeing the way R2-D2 and BB-8 were beeping at each other when they were brought on stage, I expect a knock down fight between the 2 of them in the movie. ;)


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Guang wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
Is it really any stupider than the trash can on legs with roller skates that is R2D2?

Yes. How is the head held on? If there is a slot all the way around the soccer ball so the head can stay on top, then how does it not roll to the left or right and topple over?

Dumbest thing I've seen in a long time.

Let's ignore, for the moment, the fact that this is a highly advanced fantasy/sci-fi universe with space wizards and planet-destroying lasers, and thus any criticism grounded in, "I can't figure out how it works, technologically, therefore it's dumb!" is fundamentally flaccid.

They actually built the thing in real life. It rolled out on stage in front of thousands of people. No slot in its body, the head stayed on top just fine, and it didn't topple over. In real life. Heck, I bet if you spent a couple minutes thinking about it, you could figure out how they probably made it work, too.

It's like calling self-driving cars stupid because there's no way they could actually exist, before someone points out to you that they've been driving around on California roads for years now.

There's no need to be like this. We don't need to criticize new things to show off how legit we are. We don't need to act like we know better. Your beloved fictional universe is not threatened by (another) round droid, or (another) goofy alien.


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Maybe it's reverse-verisimilitude. Seeing realistic things in a fictional universe makes it unbelievable.


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Irontruth wrote:
Maybe it's reverse-verisimilitude. Seeing realistic things in a fictional universe makes it unbelievable.

"Reversimilitude" has an amazing ring to it.


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Scott Betts wrote:
Guang wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
Is it really any stupider than the trash can on legs with roller skates that is R2D2?

Yes. How is the head held on? If there is a slot all the way around the soccer ball so the head can stay on top, then how does it not roll to the left or right and topple over?

Dumbest thing I've seen in a long time.

Let's ignore, for the moment, the fact that this is a highly advanced fantasy/sci-fi universe with space wizards and planet-destroying lasers, and thus any criticism grounded in, "I can't figure out how it works, technologically, therefore it's dumb!" is fundamentally flaccid.

They actually built the thing in real life. It rolled out on stage in front of thousands of people. No slot in its body, the head stayed on top just fine, and it didn't topple over. In real life. Heck, I bet if you spent a couple minutes thinking about it, you could figure out how they probably made it work, too.

xkcd


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AdmiralAckbar wrote:
Scott Betts wrote:
Guang wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
Is it really any stupider than the trash can on legs with roller skates that is R2D2?

Yes. How is the head held on? If there is a slot all the way around the soccer ball so the head can stay on top, then how does it not roll to the left or right and topple over?

Dumbest thing I've seen in a long time.

Let's ignore, for the moment, the fact that this is a highly advanced fantasy/sci-fi universe with space wizards and planet-destroying lasers, and thus any criticism grounded in, "I can't figure out how it works, technologically, therefore it's dumb!" is fundamentally flaccid.

They actually built the thing in real life. It rolled out on stage in front of thousands of people. No slot in its body, the head stayed on top just fine, and it didn't topple over. In real life. Heck, I bet if you spent a couple minutes thinking about it, you could figure out how they probably made it work, too.

xkcd

I'm having a tough time tracking down a well-documented soul Python library, myself.

Liberty's Edge

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CapeCodRPGer wrote:
Seeing the way R2-D2 and BB-8 were beeping at each other when they were brought on stage, I expect a knock down fight between the 2 of them in the movie. ;)

My credits are on C1-10P.


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Aranna wrote:

and featured action which was never what Star Trek was all about.

Completely disagree

Just because the actors got too old and Trek had to adapt... does NOT mean that Star Trek was not about action.

Kirk was a cowboy who every chance they could get someone would rip his shirt and he'd answer with a double axe handle. He'd beat the crap out of all sorts of alien... even people on his own crew.

Honestly I had forgotten what the original series was like after years of watching 'diplomacy' in the movies... and the moment JJ hit that adrenaline rush I was stunned with how much I actually MISSED the action that I grew up with as a kid...


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Scott Betts wrote:


They actually built the thing in real life. It rolled out on stage in front of thousands of people. No slot in its body, the head stayed on top just fine, and it didn't topple over. In real life. Heck, I bet if you spent a couple minutes thinking about it, you could figure out how they probably made it work, too.

I'm amazed at how jaded CGI has made me. I thought the ball droid was stupid at first too... then I saw an interview where Mark Hamill was saying how much fun he had rolling the prop around the studio.

We see practical effects so rarely now.. that my mind goes right to CGI and I don't even wonder anymore the 'how' of movie magic :(

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3043437/New-Star-Wars-droid- ISN-T-CGI-BB-8-s-ball-body-direction-does-work.html


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Aranna wrote:
Tectorman wrote:
Do we know that things don't pop out of the ball? R2's third leg is safely tucked away inside his trunk when he's not using it (and he concealed his rockets so well that for the entire original trilogy, we didn't know they were there), so who's to say the ball droid doesn't have stair-climbing legs that pop out (or rockets)?
This is a setting with cars that float on the air... Perhaps it can do the same or even just roll up the stairs. It's not like the technology can't easily make it happen.

When was the last time that any of us saw stairs in Star Wars? In the more accessible areas that droids are expected to be, that is.


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I think there're a few on Naboo.


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Kajehase wrote:
I think there're a few on Naboo.

Quite true, but they seemed more oriented toward a more natural way of life. I can't actually recall the Naboo using any droids, though I'm going to have to check the movies again.


Kajehase wrote:
I like the ewoks.

I do to. In my sadly abridged post-Legacy game (which may or may not ever happen again in the future), there was an ewok mentor character who was pretty hardcore.

She was cute, nice, kind, and had the Darkside skills to murder you,... except, of course, she didn't do those kinds of things... anymore. Ever since she learned about the light and darkside and casually murdered her raven mentor once the Jedi revealed the truth to her. Also spent several years pondering her life choices. Now she's got apprentices! NOTHING could go wrong!
(Two red lightsaber-tonfas for the win, by the way.)

((See, she'd been self-taught in order to defend her small tribe from "monsters" roaming the forests; she'd used the last vestiges of shattered "magic ring" of dark power, taught by her "raven familiar" the "ancient" ways and secrets.))

And, incidentally, all of this was based off of canon.

Canon (ring and witchcraft and ravens, oh my!)

Canon (shapeshifting is actually a dark side force power!)

Ewoks are hardcore

She was... pretty awesome.


I am still not sure what the droid is suppose to ... do. I mean, R2-D2 was a repair droid. His trashcan shaped body had various tools in compartments for repairing things. C3-P0 was a protocol droid. What does this thing do? Rolls. Okay. Looks cutesy. Right. But what function does it have? It looks like it still speaks in bit-code (or whatever droid speak is called), so it couldn't even carry messages from one place to another (well maybe holograms). No tools to speak off, at least that we can see, I don't even think it could interface with a computer. Is it just a companion cube ball?


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Yeah it's cutesy, but all droids have a purpose in the galaxy, and without them modern(!) civilization would grind to a halt. Industrial Automaton's R-series were mainly used as astromechs and mechanics, making them quite versatile. BB-8 may only be a ball, but IA's designs frequently incorporate the tools to be hidden within the chassis.


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pres man wrote:
I am still not sure what the droid is suppose to ... do. I mean, R2-D2 was a repair droid. His trashcan shaped body had various tools in compartments for repairing things. C3-P0 was a protocol droid.

Would just looking at either of those two droids give you any idea what function they were supposed to fulfill? Probably not.

I think this is just a case of "wait and see." They can only show so much in a trailer, and giving a rundown of the functions of a droid probably doesn't rank very high up on that list.


spy droid


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Cthulhudrew wrote:
pres man wrote:
I am still not sure what the droid is suppose to ... do. I mean, R2-D2 was a repair droid. His trashcan shaped body had various tools in compartments for repairing things. C3-P0 was a protocol droid.

Would just looking at either of those two droids give you any idea what function they were supposed to fulfill? Probably not.

I think this is just a case of "wait and see." They can only show so much in a trailer, and giving a rundown of the functions of a droid probably doesn't rank very high up on that list.

Sure, we could definitely all sit around like a potato and wait quietly for the movie, but why do that when we can make rampant speculation based on little factual evidence on things taken out of context! I think the choice is clear.


I'm pretty sure it's an astromech ("or at least can function as one" as the article in question says it).

:D


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Tacticslion wrote:

I'm pretty sure it's an astromech ("or at least can function as one" as the article in question says it).

:D

That's what it looks like from that mockup, anyways. Maybe he doesn't need a socket to plug into because he has Wi-Fi.


Animal diversion device. Good for space cats and space dogs, or whatever this universe has.


Kobold Cleaver wrote:
Animal diversion device. Good for space cats and space dogs, or whatever this universe has.

Or else a bobblehead for the dashboard.

Sovereign Court

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Twist! BB-8 is actually powered armor for the new Cricetinaen race.


Richard "Hamster" Hammond wrote:
Twist! BB-8 is actually powered armor for the new Cricetinaen race.

Or the Mandalorians...

Behold the new FETT!

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