A Torch-esque Rogue One Vehicle post

"wiffleballtony" (wiffleballtony)
01/04/2017 at 10:19 • Filed to: None

This may contain light spoilers as I am going to refer to a pair of ships that appear in the new movie. Also I didn’t write this on the crapper, sorry.

Before I go any further I would like to say that I felt that Rogue One was an amazing movie and took many risks that Force Awakens did not and is better for it. The topic that I am going to talk about is about two ships that appear in the movie, and how the movie franchise treats its expanded Universe. With the creation of the prequels and then to a lesser extent the new sequels, the franchise cast of decades of licensed and sanctioned materials regarding the universe. And while I am in some ways sad about that, most of it was utter garbage. However in this case I am going to refer to materials created by Lucas’ own companies.

When it became public knowledge that this movie was going to be about the stealing of the first Death Star plans, my mind immediately went to this:

Star Wars: Dark Forces

For those of you that are unfamiliar, thats one of LucasArts famous games, known as Dark Forces. A series that spans many games and over a decade of work. Which is also still available for purchase through reputable retailers such as Steam. You play as Kyle Katarn, a rough and tumble Rebel with facial hair who can do the dirty missions. In his first outing, he steals the Death Star plans, as shown in my picture. Now I was not expecting LucasFilm or Disney to recreate this mission in the movie. However it would have been nice if some homage was paid to it since it was the creation of LucasArts.

Ok so back to the movie. In the movie there is an epic space battle scene that is probably some of the best in the series. These two ships appear:

Mon Calamari MC75: Profundity. Its really hard to get a good shot of this ship.

Now heres where I started to get a bit bothered. Being a Star Wars nerd these ships immediately seemed recognizeable. Then it dawn upon me. I’ve seen those before. Lo and behold if we take a look at a couple other LucasArts games. Knights of the Old Republic and The Old Republic these ships appear:

This led me to think one of two things. Either we are to assume that the Alliance is essentially using a couple thousand year old design to fight the Empire. OR we are to completely ignore that The Old Republic exists, despite that its currently an active game thats still releasing expansions? At what point am I supposed to trust anything created even under the Lucas banner as canon?

Now as far as the MC75 Profundity is concerned. There was a recent io9 thread here that states that its a capital ship created by the Mon Calamari by cobbling cities together.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

And thats all fine and good and kind of fits in with what was previously understood about their capital ships. However, to my eye the Profundity looks a lot closer to the above image of an Old Republic Valor Class than the MC80 from ROTJ which is basically 6 years later as seen below which has an organic look that appears to have been grown as opposed to manufactured.

What are we supposed to believe anymore?

DISCUSSION (17)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 10:26

I did notice that it looked like a Thranta and was thinking “wow, somebody played them a LOT of KOTOR”.

StingrayJake > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 11:05

Games generally aren’t considered canon, correct? Officially KOTOR is now part of Legends anyway and no idea what Disney considers TOR to be (I haven’t played either). Last I recall, Disney said only the movies, the Clones Wars and Rebels series, and Disney-approved books/comics are canon.

StingrayJake > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 11:09

What are we supposed to believe anymore?

Also, this is just the cost of doing prequels, I guess. I think it’s really odd they created entirely new TIE Fighters for Rogue One but somehow the First Order had made minimal improvements on the basic TIE design 30 years after ROTJ.

IanZ - limited-slip indifferential > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 11:28

Idk about the Profundity, but the hammerhead ships have been in Rebels, so they’ve officially been canon for a while. When Disney bought Star Wars, everything that wasn’t the prequels, original trilogy, or the Clone Wars TV show fell out of canon, and is now called legends. They basically started fresh with the EU, which now has some oversight to ensure everything stays consistent.

I’ve read very little EU stuff, only those terrible books about young Anakin.

wiffleballtony > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
01/04/2017 at 12:31

That was my feeling as well.

wiffleballtony > StingrayJake
01/04/2017 at 12:33

I don’t know. TOR is an active game that Disney is getting money from and producing content. TOR also includes content from KOTOR. It seems pretty shady if games produced by the same company that owns the movies wouldn’t be canon.

wiffleballtony > IanZ - limited-slip indifferential
01/04/2017 at 12:35

Sure. But, Disney produces content for TOR now. It’s an active game. How can you produce content and not consider it canon?

StingrayJake > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 13:31

I looked it up. Officially TOR is not canon .

Video games always existed in a grey area in Star Wars canon anyway. From what I’ve read, certain backround story elements could be considered part of canon but individual player experiences typically aren’t. That would make sense for RPG-type games like TOR and KOTOR since every player could have a unique experience.

Besides, it’s like that io9 post about the Death Star plans from a few weeks ago. Something like 5 or 6 different versions of the heist were told through video games. They can’t all be canon.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 14:12

My biggest annoyance was the difference in design in the imperial shuttles and cargo shuttles with those that appear in the OT. Especially as I believe the type of shuttle used in the Original trilogy was shown on Mustafar at the end of ROTS when Palpatine arrives to save the burnt and crispy Anakin off of the obsidian shores of the lava river. Why the whole new shuttle design when the T-4a appears 19 years BBY, being around the end of the Clone Wars/Rise of the Empire. DISNEY!

wiffleballtony > StingrayJake
01/04/2017 at 14:35

It’s understandable that in an MMORPG that a characters experiences aren’t canon. However in the case of KOTOR, it’s single player and there was a single official ending.

If Lucas arts had 6 different storied for the death star plans, that’s rediculous.

wiffleballtony > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback
01/04/2017 at 14:38

Maybe at the Coruscant Shuttle Show retro designs came back in style.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 14:40

That must be it. I can’t wait for the weird city cars to come back in style in Ep. VIII

StingrayJake > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 15:36

I’m just not all that attached to the old Expanded Universe anyway so I’m kind of indifferent to games not being canon. Honestly games with movie tie-ins have typically sucked so I think we’re just lucky to have had so many solid Star Wars games over the year. The Force Unleashed was never and could never be canon but it was an enjoyable game and I was happy to play it.

wiffleballtony > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback
01/04/2017 at 15:44

Correllia Domestic Manufacturer lyfe bro

IanZ - limited-slip indifferential > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 15:49

Looking at it again, the Profundity is the larger ship in that image. That design is quite different from the TOR ship, and the Hammerhead was different as well.

I just looked it up, and Pablo Hidalgo (the guy in charge of the Star Wars Story Group) said TOR was not canon. So I guess that would explain it.

wiffleballtony > StingrayJake
01/04/2017 at 15:50

IMHO Force Unleashed was one of the low points. 90s Lucas Arts was amazing.

StingrayJake > wiffleballtony
01/04/2017 at 16:00

It was fun for what it was: a lightslaber slasher. The quick-button-push boss battles were excruciatingly bad.