curmudgeon said:
And...indoors.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Thread starter San Holo
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And...indoors.
Dr. Gonzo
New member
Folks, in terms of this hand thing, has anyone considered that Luke's mechanical hand could be severed in some event that we do not see onscreen since the events of Jedi?
You guys automatically assume Bespin and "Luke's real hand" when my mind went to "Holy ****, Luke got into a fight with an unknown villain after the events of Jedi and Luke got his ass handed to him!"
If the latter is the case, than that's certainly an interesting and (would have been) an unexpected moment to see in a Star Wars film. a severed limb flying through space. Luke starting off this film in a bad way makes sense to me (Empire's beginning anyone?)...
My only problem is the hand not burning up in the atmosphere when it lands, however if it is Luke's mechanical hand, a fantasy film might just get away with a burnt up metallic hand clutching a lightsaber laying in the sand.
You guys automatically assume Bespin and "Luke's real hand" when my mind went to "Holy ****, Luke got into a fight with an unknown villain after the events of Jedi and Luke got his ass handed to him!"
If the latter is the case, than that's certainly an interesting and (would have been) an unexpected moment to see in a Star Wars film. a severed limb flying through space. Luke starting off this film in a bad way makes sense to me (Empire's beginning anyone?)...
My only problem is the hand not burning up in the atmosphere when it lands, however if it is Luke's mechanical hand, a fantasy film might just get away with a burnt up metallic hand clutching a lightsaber laying in the sand.
Montana Smith
Active member
Another little detail people are missing: According to the report, it's the hand that prompts the whole adventure. Why would the hand Luke lost in Bespin be any kind of signal for Han that his friend may be in trouble now and needs help?Dr. Gonzo said:
If this rumor is true, it'd make far more sense that said hand was something still attached to Luke when he went missing, not something Han knows he lost a bunch of years prior.
Finn said:
It really sounds like something Mel Brooks would be writing. A long time ago in a GALAXY far far away, SPACESHIP ran into a human hand grasping a lightsaber floating in space...
I mean if we can't locate an entire airliner just off the Western Coast of Austrailia, how for all the ****s in the world can we suspend our disbelief that a space craft would hit it, notice it, register it as something to begin a quest with, and then start the journey on.
Seriously.
kongisking
Active member
Finn said:
I guess the propulsion was what I mostly referred to. Star Wars seems to have very hazy rules as to how exactly vast the galaxy is, and hell, in Empire Strikes Back, the Falcon is able to limp to Bespin with a non-functional hyper-drive and not take thousands of years. So...I'm forgiving of a few scientific gaffes in these movies, given they're something of a fundamental aspect of the world it takes place in. I'm more skeptical about the hand business simply because it sounds both contrived and unintentionally funny in a macabre sense.
Though, Gonzo has a very nice alternative explanation for the idea...
Yeah. Then again, "right man in the right place" is so common in all fiction that it has become a Dead Horse Trope*, no matter how much convenient it may appear when you think about it more closely.Pale Horse said:
*For the record, this was not a threat.
Made slightly more plausible by the fact that they were still inside a starship that still had a fully functional main drive. So the Millennium Falcon was perhaps capable of slightly faster movement than a severed hand drifting through space. Though realistically, even if the Falcon was capable of traveling in hefty sublight speeds, it would still have taken them decades to get from Hoth to Bespin.kongisking said:
There have of course been some hand waves over the years, from suggesting that the Falcon had some kind of backup hyperdrive, sort of like modern cars have reserve tanks (or jerry cans) capable of flinging them a few lightyears down the road before dying out, to suggesting the system they have in Babylon 5 and Stargate, ie. while hyperspace is the preferred form of travel to cut down the times, some vessels are capable of entering FTL speeds in regular space by using their main thrusters.
Also, it's worth noting that they never specify the time Luke spends training with Yoda on Dagobah. It does appear however that Han & co spent most of this time in transit, so it might have actually taken them a few weeks to reach Bespin.
kongisking
Active member
Finn said:
And in this case, such zany coincidences have a nice in-universe excuse, as I previously mentioned...
Finn said:
I've heard the 'they cobble together a working hyperdrive just long enough to reach Cloud City' explanation, which is a good one as any, I suppose. But you just know that had The Empire Strikes Back come out nowadays, we fans would be shrieking 'its lazy writing and Larry Kasdan simply must be a hack!'
I miss when people didn't give a damn about such harmless narrative cheats...
Such a thing is not actually even required. We'll have to keep in mind that these are apparently completely new characters who found the lightsaber. In origin stories, you don't really need to explain how the new characters got to the scene, because it's the very event that turns them into heroes. If an established hero just conveniently happens to wander to the scene, it becomes this.kongisking said:
For example, Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider is not this - because theoretically, the spider could escape at any time and bite anyone. But if some random thug comes across some toxic waste, turns into a supervillain and Spider-Man just happens to be a block down when this happens to witness the event, that counts. In the former case, anyone could technically turn into Spider-Man. But with the latter, you can't just replace Spidey with Joe Everyman if the story is to go somewhere.
Of course, if the new characters finding the lightsaber somehow turn out to be related to Luke, Han or Leia - you do have this trope again. But as you pointed out, there is an in-universe explanation.
This is actually a rare case of the hand wave being justified, since we're talking about a society that has had the tech necessary for interstellar travel for millennia. Having some kind of a backup device to get you to the next service station makes all kinds of sense. Heck, by that time, it should be found on every starship by default.kongisking said:
Stop pretending you actually recall the time before the Internet. I do, so you're making me feel old.kongisking said:
*Sticks head in, skims...*
Wait a minute, wait a minute, John Boorman is directing Episode VII?
Wait a minute, wait a minute, John Boorman is directing Episode VII?
featofstrength
Member
jsarino said:We're assuming of course that said hand did not fall into one of the tubes (like Luke did), and sitting somewhere, decomposed at the bottom of the Cloud City chasm.
That would be my guess...boy, they are really trying to stretch our suspension of disbelief on this one. Just a rumor, but, my how some work so hard to defend a stupid idea.
You know, said rumor does not say that it's the hand Luke lost in ESB. Actually, most people commenting seem to agree that - assuming the rumor is true - it's a hand still attached to Luke at the end of ROTJ (either the biological or mechanical) he somehow lost between eps VI and VII.featofstrength said:
Looks like you're the one stuck with that idea.
Dr. Gonzo said:
Best use of "..sher got a real pretty mouth..." if I've ever seen it.
AndyLGR
Active member
kongisking
Active member
Dr. Gonzo said:
"Who's scruffy-lookin'?"
featofstrength
Member
Dr. Gonzo said:
You see, Obi-wan had a beard, and now Luke is the teacher...
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