I've heard this several times now and I don't really get it. Even if they were roughly the same age (which, as others have said, is very unlikely), judging by this trailer they are very different characters. Jyn Erso seems like a more violent version of Ezra (before he joins the Ghost crew): she has been on her own from a young age and seems to "rebel" against the Empire by unapologetically committing petty crimes. Katniss on the other hand is in large parts motivated by protecting the people close to her (especially her sister) and her acts of rebellion are mostly reactions to situations she is pushed into. ( for comparison.)

1. How do you rate the The Force Awakens out of ten and in relation to previous Star Wars movies? 7/10. Better than the prequels, worse than the originals. 2. Who is your favourite (new) character so far and why? Kylo Ren. Him being unfinished and torn between the dark side and light side is a great idea and was portrayed really well. 3. Who is your least favourite (new) character so far and why? Snoke. I think the New Order would work better if there wasn't an uber-villain behind the scenes and they really were nothing but Empire fanboys who want to resurrect the glories of the past. 4. Out of the returning Original Trilogy cast, who gave the best performance? Chewbacca. 5. What was the most awesome/epic moment for you in the movie? I don't have a most epic or awesome moment yet. I have a favorite moment, though: Kylo talking to Darth Vaders mask. It shows what this character is about without telling us how he became this way. 6. What as the funniest moment for you in the movie? There were a lot of funny moments. My favorite were probably Poe and Finn in the Tie-Fighter. (But that might change on a rewatch.) 7. Do you think Rey might be a descendant from the Skywalker line, and if so is she Luke or Leia's daughter? I doubt she is Leia's daughter, given their interactions. Given that her family is obviously important and that the Skywalkers are the only known family line that appears in the movies, she probably is Luke's daughter. 8. The death of Han Solo, your thoughts? Should he have died, should it have been done differently? I think it worked well. Harrison Ford is probably happy to leave Star Wars behind and this was a tasteful way to do it that sets up internal conflict for Kylo Ren in the future. 9. How do you rate the lightsaber duel out of ten and in relation to previous lightsaber duels? 8.9 out of ten, compared to 9.0 for the ESB duel and 9.8 for the RotJ duel. (Anakin vs Obi-Wan, both of them, are the next highest and rate as 7.5.) 10. How to you rate the film score out of ten and in relation to scores from the previous movies? And if you have a favourite soundtrack/theme, which was it? Have to watch it again for that, which probably means that it wasn't memorable enough. 11. If you could change one thing with the movie, what would it be? Remove Starkiller Base (the superweapon). It doesn't add anything significant to the story line. My guess is that it was added rather late in the script development to create more parallels with ANH, but there the Death Star was a central plot point. Here it wasn't. 12. Finn is featured wielding a lightsaber in the film and in promotional material, but he is never actually depicted using the Force. Do you think he is Force sensitive? I'm sure he was originally planned as a Force sensitive. He was probably linked with the "Awakening of the Force" as it was originally planned, but through all the changes he lost it. They couldn't remove it entirely, though, so at the end left it ambiguous. Now the planning group for the next movie will decide if he is or isn't. I hope he is.

The old Sith had Korriban and Ziost. They originated on Korriban and Ziost was the first planet they conquered. Ziost became the capital, but the Dark Lords of the Sith were still buried on Korriban in the Valley of the Dark Lords. At the time of SWTOR Dromund Kaas is now the capital, while the most prestigious Sith Academy is located on Korriban. I suspect that while Korriban is important for tradition the fact that it is primarily desert makes it unsuitable as center of an interstellar empire.

As far as I can tell the AT-AT's cannons in this episode are noticeably different from those of the AT-AT's used on Hoth. So there is the possibility to handwave it. There might have been some improvements in between. Or Kallus' AT-AT's cannons sacrifice firepower for the ability to be rotated on these spheres. (Not an expert, but I think the standard AT-AT's main guns can't do that. Could be because it has a direct link to the reactor or something like that.)

For the JC at least, yes, but only to a small degree. One thing Satele says to you at the end is different for light, neutral and dark. (Story wise it should have further consequences, but because the class story end there we don't see them.) In case you don't mind story spoilers, here it is:

I don't intend to say much to the general topic, but I have a somewhat hypothetical question: Could it be that the problem is that there are people on these ships who don't want it to be moved? Even if they are not Force sensitive, their will might influence the Force in some manner. So to move a manned space ship, you would have to use telekinesis and mind domination at the same time, and mind domination is a completely different matter. Moving a ship wreck or an asteroid on the other hand should be the same as moving a stone. I doubt this is supported by the EU, but is there anything that directly contradicts it?

Many abilities of the different classes were created to represent iconic moments from the movies. However, I think one iconic ability has been left out and should get its place in the game as well: The ability to hold onto something when you are falling down. We all remember when Luke was about to fall down after the lightaber fight on Bespin but managed to hold onto these antennas. Or think about Obi-Wan in Episode I. There definitely should be something like this in game. I think about an ability that all classes would have (just like the ability to break free from CC). When you are thrown back over the edge, if you activate the ability fast enough, you manage to hold onto something. After one or two seconds your character would manage to pull itself up again and continue fighting. The animation should be different for each class. My suggestions: 4:22 Jedi Consular and Sith Sorcerer respectively 5:40 1:34 (would need to be shortened) What do you think? Should this be added? Which animations should the other classes get?

Luke's original plan did not involve meeting the Emperor. He wanted to see Vader and convince him to leave the Emperor and the Dark Side behind. Luke says to Vader: "I know there is good in you. The Emperor hasn't driven it from you fully. That is why you couldn't destroy me. That's why you won't bring me to your Emperor now." When Vader made it clear that he would bring him to the Emperor, Luke gave up hope: "Then my father is truly dead." From this point he had no plan besides hoping that his friends would succeed. In the Emperor's throne room he made decision on the fly. "I should attack the Emperor... no I shouldn't... yes I should, my friends will run into a trap... no I shouldn't... the Death Star is attacking the rebel fleet, die Emperor! ...Oh, I'm fighting with Dad now... there is conflict in him? Maybe I can convince him now... nope, didn't work, better hide... hey, he is looking for me, maybe tell him I won't fight... they want to turn Leia, the bastards! *bash* *bash* *bash* I hate you, Dad. *bash* *bash* *bash* Oh, dad is down. ...become the Emperor's apprentice? Oh sh*t, I'm turning into Vader.... no, I don't want you... screw you, Emperor, I'm not playing by your rules! *throws saber away*... Hey Emperor, I'm a Jedi, deal with it." If you want to call not having a plan "being a fool", then yes, Luke is a fool. I'd say he just ended up in a situation he wasn't prepared to deal with and tried to handle it as best as he could.

It is there at some points, but it isn't conveyed well. And then there are points where OT and PT seem somewhat at odds. Compare telekinesis in ESB to telekinesis in AotC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUKGTkiWik&t=1m40s Yoda knows that the the Force is his ally and that to the Force size doesn't matter. He closes his eyes and pulls the X-Wing out of the swamp like it is a normal thing to do. Yoda visibly struggles with the pillar, seemingly because it is heavy. It looks like this requires strength and effort. Compare Force lightning in RotJ to AotC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RFYoZ7H67A&t=5m00s The Emperor's hatred is palpable (pun fully intended). This really shows that he uses the dark side to make Luke suffer. The Emperor's state of mind and the lightning fit together perfectly. Lightning is a skill Dooku uses in battle. It seems like just another skill that can be learned by Sith. And I think it shouldn't be. Force lightning should come from the depths of the dark side, a manifestation of pure hatred. So my problem isn't when the Force is used in impressive ways. My problem is when these don't seem to be connected to the underlaying principles anymore. I'm not sure if that makes it any clearer, I'll have to think more about it.

This would work with my theory that Luke doesn't know how powerful Palpatine is. He thinks he has three choices: 1. kill Vader and become Palpatine's apprentice -> Darkness 2. attack and kill Palpatine -> Darkness 3. refuse to fight -> not darkness Does the novel state at which point Luke realizes that the Emperor is much more powerful than him?

I'll try my best to give you my reasons, which are probably not the common reasons. (It should be noted that my ideal of the Force is primarily shaped by the OT, and the PT contradicts it at several points.) I actually agree with what Vader and Yoda say about the Force. There shouldn't be any limits to what the Force can do. What bugs me is the way this is presented in most of the EU. The Force should be something mystical that can't be reduced to simple "Force powers". Example: In RotJ the Emperor wants Luke to die after he rejected the dark side. He hates Luke for this decision/rejection and he wants him to die slowly, painfully. There are shorter, cleaner ways to kill Luke with the Force (snap his neck), but that is not what the Emperor wants. So he materializes his hatred in the form of lightning. This should not be an ability you can learn and train and it shouldn't be a combat move. It should be more like a state of mind that manifests in the outside world. Lifting the X-Wing out of the swamp is a state of mind as well. Yoda has rid himself of the notion that size means something to the Force. There is no difference between lifting a stone, lifting a starfighter or lifting a star destroyer. If you truly realize this, Yoda slamming transport ships together is not any more impressive than lifting something smaller. But in the EU it is often used as a feat to show how strong in the Force he is. No, this shouldn't be about strength, not even about mastery of the Force. It is mastery of his own thoughts. This introspective, mystical approach is very difficult to convey. Most SW writers seem to treat using the Force basically as superpowers. This is also the case in most of the prequels as well (see the end of AotC). Jedi and Sith use "Force abilities" at will, the stronger they are in the Force, the stronger their abilities. Arguably it is still the state of mind that counts, but this isn't visible anymore. There are exceptions which present the mystical aspects of the force quite well in the EU. Darth Sion's immortality for example. Much thought is given into how his thinking enables him to do that. There are no limitations to it, he simply cannot be killed. He only dies after he decides to let go. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. If not, I'll try to clarify more.

May I present an alternative view to Luke knowing that his lightsaber was useless against the Emperor? Luke had no idea how powerful the Emperor was. He saw an old man who depended on Vaders protection. With Vader down he had the choice between killing the Emperor and falling to the dark side or refusing to fight entirely. The Emperor says: If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed. (lightning) Young fool...only now, at the end, do you understand. (lightning) Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side. You have paid the price for your lack of vision. I'm not sure what the implications of that would be. I guess in a certain point of view it would make Luke a fool like the Emperor says. Not for the reasons the OP mentioned, but for not taking heed of Yoda's warning ("Do not underestimate the powers of the Emperor.").

Luke probably wouldn't have these thoughts on his mind. What he had on his mind was what Palpatine told him again and again: "Attack me (or Vader) and you fall to the dark side." At this point Luke did not have a clear enough mind to separate his thoughts from what the Emperor had told him.

Hutt businessman / crime lord I guess. If you want to know what professions (crew skills) are the best for credits in SWTOR, I can direct you to this thread in the crew skills section. I'm not sure if it is up to date, though.

A little off-topic, but this is what I meant when I said "dark" isn't always good for Star Wars. The original trilogy gives the impression that before the Empire, things were good. And after the Empire is defeated, things will return to good. The EU somewhat contradicts that. Often the writers follow the story structure from the movies, which require the bad guys to be overwhelmingly powerful. Almost all stories start with the Sith in a superior position and the hero has to save the galaxy from them. I'd like to see more creativity. There have been centuries of peace in galactic history. Why can't we explore those from time to time? Lighthearted is probably the wrong word. What I meant was that it could be more optimistic. With the different set of characters, the Ghost's crew could have a more idealistic mindset than the Clone Wars Jedi. "Yes, these are the Dark Times, but if we work together we can fix the galaxy." Then the Empire's reality punches them in the face, but they don't give up. Well, that's what I would like for Rebels, your preferences could very well be different.

Exactly In theory it does make sense, but Sith don't have to be like this. The Dread Masters don't have closely connected minds instead of infighting. And IMO they manage to be just as strong, just as dark side and also almost as scary as Sidious. Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma became friends after the battle for who leads the Sith was decided. They wouldn't think of betraying each other. So... maybe I just want to say that I'd like to see more variety among the Sith.

And that's the point where I have nothing to offer. The Sith's endless circle of usurping the master hadn't been thought of when the original trilogy was made. Personally, I don't like that concept that much. Betrayal should happen more often among Sith, but did it need to become their preferred method of succession? One could argue that Palpatine was prepared for typical Sith betrayal through his foresight. If Vader had tried to use the moment for that, he would have seen it moments before it happened. But his dark side powered skills of precognition simply didn't work when predicting turns to the light side. The decision to rely entirely on foresight to protect him was unwise, but in his arrogance he thought that it was enough.

You are right, it is a bit of a paradox I hadn't noticed before. I do have a somewhat mystic explanation, but it is only partly based on the movie and partly based on speculation: Sidious was more powerful than Vader, but not extremely more powerful. (If Luke had joined Vader in ESB they could have defeated the Emperor together.) While Sidious does have strong force abilites, his primary edge is his foresight. He claims that he has predected and planned all the events until Vader brought Luke to him. Because he is so good at this, he would be prepared for every betrayal from Vader's side and able to fend it off. But Vader turning back to the light side, that was something he could not predict. Even Yoda and Obi-Wan wanted Luke to kill Vader, not redeem him. All of them thought bringing Vader back to the light was impossible. Only Luke clung to this foolish hope. So when the Emperor tortured Luke, he had one blind spot in his foresight. And this blindspot allowed Vader to kill him. (When Vader had Sidious in his grasp, Sidious did try to defend himself. And Vader did collaps from the damage the lightning did only moments after throwing him down. So with his surprise attack Vader seized the advantage for a short time, but this time was just enough.) It's a little similar to Lord of the Rings (SPOILERS by the way): Sauron lost because (a) he couldn't imagine anyone would try to destroy the ring instead of using it and (b) he hadn't thought Hobbits where important, so he didn't bother looking for the Ring among them. Sauron and Sidious were evil and could comprehend good only to a certain extend, which allowed others to exploit a weakness they hadn't noticed. But as I said, mostly speculation. I'm not sure if the EU supports this.

You are right, there is the tendency to make things more dark and gritty. (As far as I know that tendency started over twenty years ago, though.) And especially in Star Wars that's not always positive. I could ramble about that for some time, but that'd be off topic. For the clone wars periode, that ship has sailed long ago. Episode III is dark and gritty (for a Star Wars movie) and so the Clone Wars series should get progressively more dark. The setting doesn't allow for much else. We know almost all characters will die within a few years, and having it be lighthearted all the time would be misplaced. (But lighter episodes are possible and they exist in every season except 6.) Maybe Rebels will be more to your liking. It seems to be mostly lighthearted adventure stories and if they manage that and still manage to present the Empire as threatening and evil, I'm happy as well.

Not true. I'm part of the younger generation as well, and the Palpatine-Vader-Luke scenes on the Death Star are my favorite moments in the entire Star Wars universe. Oh, and look up this review from 1983: Which sounds surprisingly similar to your criticism of today's movies, but is about the very movie we are talking about. Here is another negative review from that time, complaining that RotJ "renders the long-delayed character climaxes with a chilly indifference." I don't want to say that back then everyone thought it was bad. Instead I purposefully took the two reviews with the lowest score to show that preferences differ. If one likes or dislikes this scene doesn't depend on when he or she grew up, but on personal preference. So please don't overgeneralize. (And now I can't resist to offer my two cents about this topic.) I'd say from a dramatic perspective, Sidious isn't the Sith Lord in that scene. Vader is. He was the antagonist for all three movies and he gets the intense duel with Luke. A duel that extends from the physical level and becomes about falling to the dark side or returning to the light. In all this, Sidious is more of a representation of the dark side than an individual character. The point of this scene was Vader rejecting the dark side. And I think throwing the Emperor down a bottomless pit fits that better than another long duel. To some degree I can see your point. If you immerse yourself in Sidious (through Prequels and Expanded Universe material) it is a bit anti-climactic.

And I read over Sidious, oopsie. That is a good in universe reason, but I get the impression that overall the Jedi are much more similar to each other than the Sith. The Sith not only have more chessmasters, they also have more mindless brutes. My knowledge of the EU is limited, but only Traya, Sion and Nihilus seem to contain much more variaty than all the entire Jedi Order throughout history. Maybe there are more ways to be evil than good or maybe the writers are willing to take more risks with the Sith than the Jedi. I read it some time ago. I disagree on one point, but I probably should post it in that thread instead of here.

^This. (Though you forgot Palpatine and mentioned Plagueis twice.) Edit: Somehow I missed that you mentioned Sidious.... @Slowpokeking: I think many writers are hesitant to write manipulative Jedi because it doesn't seem something light siders would do. But I disagree on that, the Star Wars universe could use more manipulative Jedi. I remember one extremely manipulative and smart female Jedi, Master Quatra. We don't know much about her, but she apparently made Juhani fall to the dark side and let her be redeemed afterwards to teach her about the dark side. (She also faked her death in the process.) I didn't like her approach when playing KotOR, but it does fit your criteria. Sidenote about Traya: Arguably both won. SPOILERS FOR KOTOR 2 If I understand Kreia correctly, her goals were (1) to show the Jedi masters that their teachings were wrong, (2) get Sion and Nihilus killed by Meetra, (3) make Meetra more powerful than herself and any of her apprentices (no matter if she chooses light side or dark side). (2) and (3) definitely succeeded, (1) is up for debate. So Kreia's plan included to be bested by Meetra. I'm not sure if I would count her as a real Sith at this point anymore. While other Sith have tried to create an apprentice more powerful than themselves with the goal of being defeated by them, they all wanted their apprentice to carry on the Sith teachings. Kreia seems to be OK with Meetra staying a Jedi and rebuilding the Jedi Order. (I even get the impression that she is more proud of the Exile at the end when you play light side instead of dark side.) Most of the above is only my interpretation of what she says, here goals are... difficult to understand.

I think Bioware did a really good job in showing their different personalities and specializations in the Dread Fortress and Dread Palace operations. I started to write something, but it got deleted, so for now I will only talk about the two you knew the least about in the OP. Calphayus is the coolest of all masters. (OK, that's just my opinion. So now to the more objectives things.) He has the title "Prophet of the Masters" in the Dread Palace operation (and the SWTOR Encyclopedia confirms this). During the fight, he either creates very vivid vision of past and future, or he flat outs sends strike team members into the past and future. If the second holds true, he can also manipulate the past to corrupt the future. He is also a fan of the Portal games so he colored his portals into past and future in blue and orange too. So instead of being a cunning strategist on Asation, I think he cheated with his abilities. (The Terror from beyond was banished a long time ago, he saw how that happened and thus managed to develop a plan to free it. Only my speculation, though.) He is called "Tactician of the Masters" and if he is the most 'ax crazy', that doesn't diminish his cleverness in battle. I assume all the masters know the technique of Fold Space/Teleportation. But only he realized that he can use it instead of walking/running/jumping during battles. His room in the dread palace has been prepared for the battle and he uses his powers to manipulate the environment during the battle, more and more limiting the space the strike team has to operate. The SWTOR Encyclopedia says he is a master manipulator who can destroy alliances with a well placed word, but nothing in the game has backed that up so far. Collective Personality We mustn't forget though that the Oricon cutscenes indicate that they have some sort of group consciousness. I think their collective personality supersedes their individual personalities. As a group, they seem to be super sadistic, they enjoy inducing fear in others, driving them insane, modifying them, forcing them into service. They worship fear and it is their passion. Apparently, they are so depraved that when Lord Hargrev, someone who aspired cruelty for cruelties sake, touched their minds, he realized the errors of his ways. ("They went to far. We went to far. Passion without humanity is meaningless.") Their servants worship them, but I think it is not what we normally know as worship, but instead much more pervaded by fear. I think more than being affected by their own power, the reason for them going mad is that they share an incredibly close bond. They didn't only feel Styrak dying, they experienced his death and they now feel like he feels while being dead. Living persons simultaneously thinking the thoughts of a dead person... that seems to be what drives them insane. They do explain it, IIRC. The one they have chosen to replace Styrak must first be humiliated and despair. So they want to tear down what he/she values through their attacks on these worlds. (They expect the player to stop their ships and fail, then despair.) Now it gets interesting: On the Republic side, they say something different. They say that in Styraks death, they felt peace. So now they want to slaughter the whole galaxy after enslaving it together with themselves, so everything can be quite and peaceful. Which, I think, shows that they speak truth when the say they are going mad. They want to rule the galaxy through fear, but at the same time destroy it so everyone finds peace. Only a sixth member could stabilize them again. Just wanted to add that I think the dread masters have become a much more engaging antagonist than the Emperor himself.

While writing some fanfic, some questions about KotOR 2 came up. I've tried to answer them with watching the cutscenes on YouTube again, but some of them remained. From what I have read here, this seems to be the perfect place to ask them SPOILERS for KotOR II ahead, if you haven't played the game, get it and play it instead of reading this 1.) What are Kreia goals? She states several goals and I can't really see how they work together: She hates the Force and wants it destroyed by the Exile. She apparently wants to train the exile as well as she can, no matter if she is Jedi or Sith. She says she wants to break the Exile in the Trayus core. She wants the Exile to kill her. She wants (or wanted) to destroy the Jedi with the assassins. How does all of that work without contradictions? 2.) In addition, does she state anywhere what she thinks about the "true Sith" in the unknown regions? Is she on their side or against them? 3.) Malachor V has become a wound in the Force through all the death. Wookiepedia says the second destruction (after deactivating the Mass Shadow generator) sealed the wound. Is that true? If yes, how did that work? 4.) Did the Exile continue to be a wound in the Force after the ending of the game? (The Revan novel doesn't mention it, but just ignore it for a moment and go from what was said in the game.) 5.) The Force characteristics of many of the worlds visited are highlighted as important and explored (Nar Shaddaa, Telos, etc.). Are the Exile and Kreia more sensitive to such things than other Jedi? If yes, is that connected to the Exiles abilities to form bonds much more easily than other Jedi? Other questions may follow. Thanks in advance for the answers.

Spoiler tags for the dread master conversation: