For that matter, in A New Hope there’s no indication that the Emperor has anything to do with “The Force” - the Empire has put a lot of effort into the Death Star plan, but Darth, the Force guy, doesn’t think the Death Star is so great. The idea that the Emperor was a bigger, badder Force adept than Darth Vader was a bit of a surprise when the sequels came out - and it undercuts that whole “sad devotion to an ancient religion” business.
Yup. The books mention that the 25th and 50th had some special bullshit going on, but I can’t remember what it was. I think in one of them 4 tributes competed per district?
Awesome!
I wasn’t disagreeing with you. The notion of a Quarter Quell was added in the second book. I was just letting you know out of interest.
I was under the impression that Xenomorphs always existed as in Prometheus itself on the walls of the alien ship you can see stone carvings of Xenomorphs and facehuggers. David just decided to literally play God and speed up the lifecycle.
I’d agree. Here’s the prologue from the novelization, giving an idea of how the Emperor was originally conceived.
ANOTHER galaxy, another time.
The Old Republic was the Republic of legend, greater than distance or time. No need to note where it was or whence it came, only to know that … it was the Republic. Once, under the wise rule of the Senate and the protection of the Jedi Knights, the Republic throve and grew. But as often happens when wealth and power pass beyond the admirable and attain the awe some, then appear those evil ones who have greed to match. So it was with the Republic at its height. Like the greatest of trees, able to withstand any external attack, the Republic rotted from within though the danger was not visible from outside. Aided and abetted by restless, power-hungry individuals within the government, and the massive organs of-commerce, the ambitious Senator Palpatine caused himself to be elected President of the Republic. He promised to reunite the disaffected among the people and to restore the remembered glory of the Republic. Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Soon he was controlled by the very assistants and boot-tickers he had appointed to high office, and the cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears. Having exterminated through treachery and deception the Jedi Knights, guardians of justice in the galaxy, the Imperial governors and bureaucrats prepared to institute a reign of terror among the disheartened worlds of the galaxy. Many used the imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their own personal ambitions. But a small number of systems rebelled at these new outrages. Declaring themselves opposed to the New Order they began the great battle to restore the Old Republic. From the beginning they were vastly outnumbered by the systems held in thrall by the Emperor. In those first dark days it seemed certain the bright flame of resistance would be extinguished before it could cast the light of new truth across a galaxy of oppressed and beaten peoples •••
From the First Saga
Journal of the Whills“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Naturally they became heroes.”
Leia Organa of Alderaan, Senator
So, basically, it’s Rollerball for teens.
Thank you for the info.
Throve?
Gethroven
Grand Admiral Thrawn’s less well-known younger brother.
I looked it up, and yes, it’s a valid Scrabble word. I just hope it never shows up in Wordle.
Six letters. Whew.
Yeah, I looked it up, too; a declining but still acceptable (and in fact the original) past tense of “thrive” (my wild guess for a German form was wrong, however). A few years ago, I ran across an interesting study: English verbs have been regularizing over the century, with the “time-to-regularity” being inversely proportional to the rate of usage of the word.
I always thought this was a particularly dumb choice. Contractions are EASY. There are plenty of parts of the interaction between computers and natural language that are fraught and complicated. Contractions are not one of them.
Similarly, Data getting his fingers caught in a Chinese finger trap is nonsensical. People get caught in them because people have the instinct to pull. A logical being should immediately realize that’s not working, stop doing, and analyze why.
I think it’s because not using contractions makes language seem more formal or serious, and we tend to associate that sense of formality with lack of emotion. Remember that Spock rarely used contractions, either. There was no suggestion that he couldn’t, but he often didn’t.
In reality, of course, there’s no actual connection between verbal contractions and emotion. But for whatever reason, we have this feeling that logical, emotionless beings would avoid contractions. And thus, we get “Data can’t use contractions.”
Wasn’t it established that Soong deliberately made Data with various mannerisms to show he isn’t human. I always thought that Data’s difficulty using contractions was part of this.
Neither can Captain Holt unless he’s lying.
Data shows emotion more often than Captain Holt.
In the Return of the Jedi movie there’s a scene where Vader needs to talk to the emperor but the emperor’s throne is backward like he’s staring out the window and he’s kneeling and the emperor turns around after maybe a minute and the scene plays out
In the return of the Jedi novelization, the emperor knows hes there but decides to be a dick and makes him wait a while
But while hes doing so his thoughts wander back to the beginning of the whole thing and there are about 3-4 paragraphs of how it all started … Which is actually an idea outline of the prequels minus specific details to the point it telegraphs about 60 percent of them …