Random Star Wars Thoughts

[Darth Justicar]

Cobbled together from what?
My very next question. How accurate can a child program a flight sim?

Yep...see, this is my problem with Rey and her skills and powers, versus Kylo's.  

Kylo's incredibly powerful but I actually see training and experience there to be the foundation for all of that.  For all that people like to call him a stupid emo kid, or give him garbage over a fight he had while severely injured, I have no problem believing that Kylo is well enough qualified that he could even instruct effectively at certain levels (though not at a full on master level).  I don't think you get to where you can stop a blaster bolt with your mind without a darned good idea both in experience AND in theoretical grounding, of exactly what you are doing.  Logically that's how it should be.  But Kylo's age and likely time spent training actually account for that.  (Again he's not a teenager...he's 30 or very close to it).

So when I see Rey do things that she cannot possibly have that level of background for (such as piloting a large spacecraft), that's where I call bad writing.

[Darth Logos]

So when I see Rey do things that she cannot possibly have that level of background for (such as piloting a large spacecraft), that's where I call bad writing.

But they gotta be edgy.

[James Casey]

So when I see Rey do things that she cannot possibly have that level of background for (such as piloting a large spacecraft), that's where I call bad writing.

Rey spent her life scavenging in decrepit spaceships and other machines. Too, she dreamt of being a pilot - see sitting around with the X-Wing pilot's helmet on her head. It was a chance to escape, to get away from the planet she was dropped on. Even if a part of her believed that she was waiting for her family, another part of her was preparing for the day she got the chance to leave.

She knew how ships worked. She no doubt quizzed the pilots of ships she came across - and surely a cute/pretty young girl asking questions would make a lot of pilots talkative - about how to fly. She had natural talent, but she was a fixer and well prepared, so had the background to take advantage once they got aboard the Falcon

As for the flight simulator... There's an entire crashed Star Destroyer sitting there. There would have been simulators on board that.

[Darth Justicar]

To me, we should've had a more solid hint of that kind of background to make it more believable, but I just have a hard time seeing the grounds for that myself.

[Xaeyon]

Rey spent her life scavenging in decrepit spaceships and other machines. Too, she dreamt of being a pilot - see sitting around with the X-Wing pilot's helmet on her head. It was a chance to escape, to get away from the planet she was dropped on. Even if a part of her believed that she was waiting for her family, another part of her was preparing for the day she got the chance to leave.

She knew how ships worked. She no doubt quizzed the pilots of ships she came across - and surely a cute/pretty young girl asking questions would make a lot of pilots talkative - about how to fly. She had natural talent, but she was a fixer and well prepared, so had the background to take advantage once they got aboard the Falcon

As for the flight simulator... There's an entire crashed Star Destroyer sitting there. There would have been simulators on board that.

I think there's a couple of points here that I can see where you're coming from but have to disagree.

I can dream of being a surgeon all I want, play with knives and ask my physician, read all the books I want, but if you want an appendectomy, you're not going to let me cut into you.

Talent might count for some, but education and skill is something that will outweigh heavily that in the long run. There's plenty of keyboard ninjas out there that maybe know a lot about martial arts, but that won't count for much, fobid, they be mugged in an alley. Granted, Rey did scratch up the Falcon dragging it across the dunes, but she really shouldn't have been more dexterous flying through the Star Destroyers than the TIE pilots.

And destroyed means destroyed. I don't think simulations are going to be readily available on those Star Destroyers.

[Darth Logos]

As for the flight simulator... There's an entire crashed Star Destroyer sitting there. There would have been simulators on board that.

Wouldn't the simulators be at the Imperial Academy? I don't know of many pilots (real or fictional) that get stationed on a ship while still learning to fly.

[Darth Justicar]

Wouldn't the simulators be at the Imperial Academy? I don't know of many pilots (real or fictional) that get stationed on a ship while still learning to fly.

The only possible argument I could see is if cruises on a Star Destroyer were so long that pilots couldn't do their annual recurrent training at a base, but I haven't heard anything ever to suggest that Star Destroyers do "five-year missions" like a certain other franchise.  Those facilities have a good chance of being portside.

(Note: That training would be when you practice all the emergency procedures that are unsafe to do in a real aircraft.  You go through recurrent annually to show that you're still up on those procedures.)

Now, I think holosims are established tech for the First Order now, in the prologue story for Finn and I could see a holosimulator being purposed for that depending on whether the tech is as sophisticated as a Star Trek 24th-century holodeck.  BUT...that depends on what the tech can and can't do.  Can it, for instance, give people the sense of being lifted into the air and simulate G-forces, like in Star Trek, or does it merely create the illusion of objects that you can interact with on the ground...and frankly, given that the First Order only JUST developed the ability to display full-color, non-see-through holograms without a ton of signal interference overlaid on the image, I would not assume holosim tech to be as far along as what we see in Star Trek. And I would not expect to find it on an [iImperial[/i] vessel.

But I would ALSO point out that holosims are likely to be extremely sophisticated technology on a level that I do NOT think Rey would have the realistic capability to learn how to program or repair if they are producing anything that gives an illusion of tangibility.  You'd be looking not just at projectors but at an incredibly delicate interaction between lots of repulsors and tiny tractor beams.  (If we bring Star Trek tech into Star Wars terms.)

[Darth Logos]

The only possible argument I could see is if cruises on a Star Destroyer were so long that pilots couldn't do their annual recurrent training at a base, but I haven't heard anything ever to suggest that Star Destroyers do "five-year missions" like a certain other franchise.  Those facilities have a good chance of being portside.

(Note: That training would be when you practice all the emergency procedures that are unsafe to do in a real aircraft.  You go through recurrent annually to show that you're still up on those procedures.)

Now, I think holosims are established tech for the First Order now, in the prologue story for Finn and I could see a holosimulator being purposed for that depending on whether the tech is as sophisticated as a Star Trek 24th-century holodeck.  BUT...that depends on what the tech can and can't do.  Can it, for instance, give people the sense of being lifted into the air and simulate G-forces, like in Star Trek, or does it merely create the illusion of objects that you can interact with on the ground...and frankly, given that the First Order only JUST developed the ability to display full-color, non-see-through holograms without a ton of signal interference overlaid on the image, I would not assume holosim tech to be as far along as what we see in Star Trek. And I would not expect to find it on an [iImperial[/i] vessel.

But I would ALSO point out that holosims are likely to be extremely sophisticated technology on a level that I do NOT think Rey would have the realistic capability to learn how to program or repair if they are producing anything that gives an illusion of tangibility.  You'd be looking not just at projectors but at an incredibly delicate interaction between lots of repulsors and tiny tractor beams.  (If we bring Star Trek tech into Star Wars terms.)

Plus, I would think that an Imperial sim would be for Imperial craft only, which are a far cry from a YT freighter.

[Darth Justicar]

Absolutely.  IRL when a pilot is qualified in multiple aircraft they have to train in different sims for each specific aircraft.  Each is a separate qualification with its own specialized instructors.  And every aircraft's standard and emergency procedures are highly specialized.  Not to mention we know that a YT freighter's cockpit and gunnery station are highly idiosyncratic.  Let's not even discuss how many deviations from the standard layout the Millennium Falcon has.

Unless her name is Rey Solo and she has had her memories Force-suppressed of actually being aboard and helping her father fly, even the Force is not excuse enough for me for that.

[Darth Logos]

Absolutely.  IRL when a pilot is qualified in multiple aircraft they have to train in different sims for each specific aircraft.  Each is a separate qualification with its own specialized instructors.  And every aircraft's standard and emergency procedures are highly specialized.  Not to mention we know that a YT freighter's cockpit and gunnery station are highly idiosyncratic.  Let's not even discuss how many deviations from the standard layout the Millennium Falcon has.

Unless her name is Rey Solo and she has had her memories Force-suppressed of actually being aboard and helping her father fly, even the Force is not excuse enough for me for that.

I'm not completely sold by their pitch, but I also don't fully discount it. Wasn't Anakin exceptionally gifted with machinery at a very young age? Even growing up around it, I have a very hard time believing that a 9 year old boy has the skill and knowledge to build and fly a pod. This would suggest that the Force has a big influence on a person's knowledge base. And if Rey had an awakening, it wouldn't be that far fetched.

[Xaeyon]

Granted that the Force clearly amplifies talent and the skill gained from experience, but you still need experience which Anakin has, yet Rey probably doesn't. The pod we saw Anakin racing was the first one he built, but it's mentioned in Ep I that it's not his first race.

[Obese Wan Kenobese]

Rey has survived on Jakku by taking apart, repairing and trading all kinds of machines. The book Before The Awakening about Finn, Poe and Rey spells out her extensive experience with a flight simulator she put back together. She also built a complete ship out of scrap parts, which she flew.

I was irritated by the ease with which she seemed to defeat Kylo. I'll have to just accept they expect us to see his injury as leaving him vulnerable. They may also move on to make the point of how unbridled rage has it's weaknesses. But the scene, as it was, left something missing for me in the moment.

I fully expect she will be a Jedi Sentinel. Her intuitive work with machines seems like mechu-deru, as referenced in The Jedi Path. If she makes a lightsaber of her own, I would expect yellow, if the colors are to mean something as they have in past stories.

Regardless of these things in the books, it felt over done in the film. Like it was just handed to her. She just has the skills and all the characters just get along quickly. Like, "Oh, the sorcerer's stone is in your pocket, Harry. What a hero." "Oh, the wand was yours all along, Harry. What a hero. Now, throw away the magic wand and call it evil, as if that's not an affront to all the fans who want to believe in magic."

There's still lots of things about TFA that get me thinking about how they could go forward, so I enjoyed plenty. But, yeah. There's gaps as some of you are pointing out. Some of the gaps for me are being sorted out by the books.

[Darth Justicar]

I was irritated by the ease with which she seemed to defeat Kylo. I'll have to just accept they expect us to see his injury as leaving him vulnerable. They may also move on to make the point of how unbridled rage has it's weaknesses. But the scene, as it was, left something missing for me in the moment.

Part of the problem is that they literally make Kylo temporarily stupid to cause him to lose.  I can tell you that if I were facing off against her there is no way in HECK I would let her have a several-seconds meditation break.  The instant she did that, I would be making a move to cripple her.

[Obese Wan Kenobese]

Part of the problem is that they literally make Kylo temporarily stupid to cause him to lose.  I can tell you that if I were facing off against her there is no way in HECK I would let her have a several-seconds meditation break.  The instant she did that, I would be making a move to cripple her.

Most definitely.

[Darth Logos]

Part of the problem is that they literally make Kylo temporarily stupid to cause him to lose.  I can tell you that if I were facing off against her there is no way in HECK I would let her have a several-seconds meditation break.  The instant she did that, I would be making a move to cripple her.

Exactly. If I were in his position I would be fighting in a very Sithy style. Do not relent, and take every opportunity to beat your foe.

Like these examples:




Just cause you have a saber doesn't mean you can't throw down and whoop someone's ass old school.