eugimon

That's how I remember it going down as well. There were threats of site closures and then he left in a big huff... I think he burned up whatever goodwill he did have around here as well as quite a few people were happy to try and meet him halfway.

Well, apparantly the idea is that Thrawn was trying to unit the empire so that it would be able to be prepared for some bigger threat outside of the galaxy... which isn't ripping off Chapter House Dune at all ... and there's a nonsourced quote attributed to Zahn saying that a Thrawn clone can always be decanted in order to meet this new galactic threat if needed.

Well, since in SW there's sound in space... maybe you have a point there!

well then, it's a good thing someone at yamato own a copy of the Design Works book, since that does show how the heat shield works and failing that, maybe they asked Kawamori. I'm sure he has a pretty good idea as to what is anime accurate.

I agree with David, that new y-wing (old?) is just wrong. so what is all that extra stuff supposed to be, just panelling the old designers tacked on for the hell of it?

yeah, apparantly Thrawn predicted his own defeat and commissioned a clone to be decanted ten years after his death... and Zahn has said that he wouldn't dismiss the idea of decanting more clones as needed but the gimmick would be that the clones know that they're clones... so expect Thrawn Riley to become a menace for the new new republic, complete with blue hoodie.

yeah, it's just a shame that Zahn used such a ridiculous concept for him, otherwise he was such an interesting anti-vader.

it may be the one time it was illustrated (like scream I haven't read these books in years) but it doesn't change the fact that Thrawn talked about it and it was an important part of Thrawn's character. It also laid down the framework for how Thrawn was able to defeat the new republic so handidly, over and over again. It's to be understood that his knack for deciphering psychology through art was how he did this, thrawn himself says: "Learn about art, Captain. When you understand a species' art, you understand that species." It's just such a stupid idea. And no, every commander in the fleet didn't know about it, because captain pallaeon thought they were doomed and freaked out a little when thrawn pulled off his art maneuver, in the example that illustrated his strategic brilliance. Finally, Zahn killed whatever was interesting about this character when he brought back thrawn as a clone... clones, the lazy science fiction writers ultimate crutch.

sweet... more valks to budget for.

I distinctly remember him engaging some ships and he talks about how the captain is a such and such and orders some formation and pellaeon freaks out and Thrawn tells him, "blah blah, studied their art, blah blah blah, they're psychologicaly incapable of countering this formation" and proceeds to blast them to little bits. It was a cool sequence but completely ridiculous. There was just so many other ways to write that scene and how Thrawn did what he did, such as having fought against that captain before, thrawn having latent force powers, thrawn studying the captains of strategic areas...

but it is an awesome umbrella.

That he could get a sense of a species is ridiculous enough. That he could actually predict the tactical and strategic moves of adversaries is beyond ridiculous, it's just staggeringly stupid. Again, just looking at earth... hundreds of cultures, millions if not billions of pieces of art. I mean, lets just say that by looking at enough art you could get a feel of a culture... well, european and asian cultures have some distinct differences and that's just simplifing things. How could thrawn, or anybody else look at a ship and say with any certainty not only what species is commanding it but what particular culture/religion/gender/age of that species? Because all those things are going to have huge ramifications in how that individual would react. It's just such an un-needed and poorly thought out gimmick and one that isn't needed because there is already a well established mechanic in the SW universe to explain how and why Thrawn could out maneuver his enemies.

The idea that you could study the art of a world and be able to understand what they would do in a tactical situation is beyond funny. I mean, just look at earth. Let's say that art is representational of the culture that produced it, well, there's hundreds of modern functioning cultures and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of subcutlures, supressed cultures and lost cultures. So if we apply that to the SW galaxy where there are hundreds, if not thousands of inhabitated worlds and cultures... we're quickly talking about thousands or millions of distinct cultures. So thrawn has to be able to look at the way the ship is flying and be able to deduce not only what race/species is in command but also what particular subculture. But the basic premise doesn't even make sense. Art can be produced for various reasons, profane, sacred, personal, public and depending upon those restrictions you can have enormously different results and sometimes, contrary results. For instance, ancient egyptian art, their drawings and statues remained constant and formulaic for centuries yet their architecture was ingenius and daring. It's such a dumb conceit for an otherwise interesting character and one that just wasn't needed. It would have been just as easy to say that he was a failed force sensitive who could predict his opponents moves through the force... but to say he has studied the art of every race and culture in the galaxy and thus could predict the moves of individuals? That's just so completely absurd.

I think blu-ray would pick up a lot faster if studios would concentrate on transfering AAA titles instead of current shlock like "step up 2"

Again... this was an auction, yamato didn't jack the price up to 600 on these things, people bidding on it did. These things retailed for a little more than MSRP on a regular 1/48 vf-1.

bwahaha, the basic premise of admiral thrawn is so incredibly stupid, I can't take anything in those books seriously. I do agree that those books are the "best" out of the various SW books, but that really isn't saying much.

meh, honestly, half of the SW movies weren't theater worthy.

nice, you will be mine, yes you will you sexy little minx!

oh, right. good point.

does anyone know why they changed the animation to CG in the first place? Was it just one of the arbitrary changes when Lucas took over?

Like I said, the value of something is determined by whoever is buying it... shrug... the thing is, this is a luxury item, no matter what it sold for, there's always someone who can rightfully say that the money would have been better spent if it were donated to charity or whatever. I think once we've established that we're all selfish pricks for buying toys that cost what some people in some parts of the world make in a year... then we really don't have the moral right to complain that somebody else paid even more for something than we would.

I don't think you need to have the rank of master to have a padawan. Kenobi took on anakin as his apprentice when Kenobi had just earned the rank of Knight.

But that dude didn't mark anything up, it's an auction...

Well, it's obviously worth it to whoever won the auction. The value of something is determined by whoever is willing to buy it, if it's not your cup of tea, thats fine, but I'm sure you own or are interested in something that somebody elese here thinks is a waste of time or money.

food is an even more interesting thing to look at. If we look at the new mini-cows that are becoming popular, they're half the size but eat only 1/3rd as much as their full sized cousins.