A Massive Concept Art Dump has Occured.

[Cainhurst Crow]

I have no idea how it happened, and I don't know how long its gonna be up, but the image gallery in know your meme is flooded with what appears to be Episode VII concept art. Vehicle Designs, Locations, Characters, Action Sequences, etc, up here: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/star-wars/photos

KYM has been known to take down images before, so they may not be up there for much longer. Do not look if you do not want potential spoilers.

An article to accompany this as well: http://www.blastr.com/2014-10-14/le...tions-reveal-new-ships-baddies-and-set-pieces

 

[TwoSidedHeart]

My fave is the Stormtrooper with the cloak. Looks TOTALLY badass. And the android looking fella holding Vaders helmet. ^_^

 

[Kaeb]

I've seen other ones as well.

I like that we're returning to the original Star Wars aesthetic (because that aesthetic is Star Wars), with the 'used future' look coming back once more. I like almost all of the ships, worlds, vehicles and character designs except for the villain a little. I'd like a villain without a cloak maybe, just for the sake of variety and another villain wielding a red lightsaber is boring.

But yeah, a lot of it looks great.

 

[Ser Yorick]

This has me really ****ing excited.

And Kaeb, I was kind of hoping they'd pull a Harry Potter and have the hero wielding a red lightsaber, and the villain green.

 

[Cortan]

Just got a proper look in at these. There's definitely a weight to the idea this is official stuff, given there's the green hill base that pretty much fits what we've seen out of the previous set photos. Can only speculate as to what ends up on the cutting room floor though.

Definitely seems to be that the cyborg villain, who's around more than once and thus seems a likely in, has some kind of outright fascination with Vader, perhaps bordering on idol worship. Another thing that seems to crop up a bit is the quad engine speeder, so I wonder if that's gonna be the standard ride for the heroes outside of the Falcon.

 

[Kaeb]

And Kaeb, I was kind of hoping they'd pull a Harry Potter and have the hero wielding a red lightsaber.

Bac and I have been saying that too.

The problem (one of them anyway) with the prequels is that it strictly established incredibly linear, rudimentary and ultimately boring and cartoonish conventions that contrary to popular belief, where actually subverted and defied somewhat in the original trilogy if you really think about it.

But the Prequels dumbed it all down because Lucas thought the movies were for kids, but unfortunately he also thought kids were idiots:

Black = Evil.

Red = Evil.

Pale and angry = Evil.

White fair haired people = Good.

Blue and Green = Good.

All Jedi must wear brown robes, except Anakin because he's gonna bee eeeviiilllll.

It's a sexless robotic universe in which almost no emotion is shown and the dialogue is even more incomprehensible at certain points than it was in the original trilogy, which at least had charm to it, whereas the PT was more stoic, droll and monotone. You might argue, ''Kaeb, what about the OT? The main trio of heroes where all fair haired, white people and the good guys wielded blue and green lightsabers and the bad guys wore black cloaks and one wielded a red lightsaber. Also, Ben wore a brown cloak.''

The problem with that is, we only witness literally three or four lightsabers in the entire Original Trilogy. All three are wielded by either Jedi, or former Jedi. Ben didn't wield a blue lightsaber because he was a good guy, he wielded a blue lightsaber because he wielded a blue lightsaber, while Luke then wielded either both that one and his father's or just his fathers I can't remember. Vader didn't have a red lightsaber because he was established as part of an organised opposing doctrine to the Jedi, because he was literally established in the OT as just a former Jedi who held on to those tenants in order to use them to benefit the Empire. He didn't wield a red lightsaber because he was evil, he wielded a red lightsaber because he wielded a red lightsaber. Yoda and the Emperor were established more as Masters of the mythical elements of that universe, they were wise old sage archetypes that did not utilize lightsabers at all, because they didn't need to. Giving them lightsabers and making two old dudes do flips over each other completely detracted from both their archetypes and their arcs.

Side note: I wouldn't have minded it at all, if Luke was the first one to wield a green lightsaber, because it could signify the fact that he was forced to craft one by himself so it didn't come out like those that came before. So all Jedi Knight's could have just been wielding white and blue lightsabers, which is interesting I guess, but too much overexposure could have made that lame and boring too. Something even cooler, would have been if we saw a few Jedi using red lightsaber as well.

Obi Wan Kenobi was wearing a brown robe because everyone on Tatooine wore brown robes, from the Sand People and the Jawa to Uncle Owen and the people in Mos Eisley and the Mos Eisley cantina. One clothing aspect I'd definitely grant people, is the fact that there was a shaded progression/digression to Luke's wardrobe aesthetic in the Original Trilogy. He went from sand covered white clothes in A New Hope, to a murky grey utilitarian look in Empire, to sleak and sophisticated black robes in Jedi. This could have all sorts of connotations, and many people could view this aesthetic choice in many different ways based on their own knowledge and experiences, but I always found the OT approach to black and white dualism to literally be a narrative method of established the grey nature of the universe in which they occupy. Luke begins to wear darker tones to reflect his ties to his father, and how he is capable of becoming more powerful without that power corrupting him. He defies that convention.

I've always found that Vader, the Emperor and the Imperial military use their chosen aesthetic the same ways that modern and post modern military powers do, as part of an intimidation factor ala the Nazi's. Sleak monochrome tones, gleaming whites, disparate greys and hard blacks, with the Imperial Guards wearing streamlined royal crimson. Their colour tone was all very deliberate. It wasn't about being evil, it was about social and political intimidation.

And also, Luke didn't wield a green lightsaber because he's the good guy, he wielded a green lightsaber because he wielded a green lightsaber. The ST needs to leave the PT in the dust and follow the pre-established elements in the OT in order for it to both make sense and be in any way inherently interesting. They seem to already be following that path, if these images are anything to go by, because Daisy Ridley's character is wearing black and the villain moreso appears to be wearing brown robes with more of an amber look to his aesthetic, but I still feel they need to differ their villain from what's come before, because I'm sick of every bad guy in this franchise cartoonishly being the exact same thing.

And as for the fair haired white heroes, sure that was what we saw in some of the OT (there was Lando and a bunch of aliens, but that's it really), but that doesn't mean that the OT literally stated that that is the way it has to be. It's not an established convention if what comes after differs in more nuanced and interesting ways then what's come before. The PT didn't do that, it dug itself further into a boring, murky hole of script writing stupidity.

The ST could change all of that. And I hope that that's at least what we get from this.

A return to form and a return to Star Wars. Even if the movies themselves aren't that great, at least there could be that one notion, a little redemption for what has become the biggest cluster**** of a franchise in history since the Bible.

 

[Ser Yorick]

Black = Evil.

Doesn't it?

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Racist.

 

[Kaeb]

Sycophantic plutocrat.

 

[Ser Yorick]

Somebody's gotta stand for good old-fashioned American values.

 

[Blaxican]

I thought I was safe from the hate, here. I was wrong.

 

[Kaeb]

Blacks, amirite?