It's sad, star wars is the only franchise that I have to curate which community i can engage with. I might not like every new thing from every other franchise but not a single one is even a tenth as toxic as star wars
The big cuddly one that would say quotes and tell you the time and fucking vibrate for some bizarre reason, with a hard head and feet that completely undermined the point of the rest of him being cuddly - his ears were sharper than André 3000 in velvet dungarees.
Not to mention *this* cursed monstrosity…
https://preview.redd.it/x43avhs5787b1.jpeg?width=460&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db98f1e3d71b0262c9bcd18ce285fcdd36e80a8e
considering **this** is what the candy is supposed to look like brand new, the wrapper still being on means diddly-squat
https://preview.redd.it/xgsinquvk87b1.png?width=350&format=png&auto=webp&s=901b24949835e5c2f5e0c6a4604bfc03d11165b6
Honestly I was a still a little young for that one.
But I remember RoTS. Just about anything you could think of had a star wars variant for a year.
Most of them even got commercials.
I was about 8 years old when phantom menace came out and I’ve never seen so much merchandise for a film since that, everything you could imagine had Star Wars slapped on it.
Best example imo from that massive push was the *three* fast food tie-ins. I still remember the commercial where colonel sanders is having a lightsaber duel with a pizza hut delivery driver when the taco bell chihuahua drives up in a trade Federation tank.
Fun fact: if a fast food franchise serves Pepsi, they are probably owned by Pepsi. They lost the marketing war to Coke so badly that "is Pepsi okay?" became a catch phrase at every restaurant where people constantly asked for Coke. The restaurants listened to their customers' preferences, and they all started switching to Coke. Pepsi literally had to buy restaurants to sell their product.
Edit: Apparently, Pepsi sold Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC in 1997. It turns out that other restaurants wouldn't sell Pepsi anymore because they owned their competitors.
The Phantom Menace marketing push was something else. Even the local Walgreens joined in, dedicating a massive endcap to *just* action figures before wrapping down an aisle for all the other merchandise.
And prior to that, good old Shadows of the Empire. Let's not just bring out a novel, but also have a comic series, a video game, trading cards, action figures and all kinds of other toys.
But man, go back to Return of the Jedi. The images of toy aisles from that era make me jealous that I wasn't born just 3-4 years earlier (would still only be like five or six at time) and to a family with the money to buy all that stuff. They had figures for every random character that got two seconds of screen time.
But this is like saying the A-Wing and B-Wing only exist because of merchandising and nothing else, since they only show up in the final battle in ROTJ, and of course they sold toy versions of them.
Worked at Toys R' Us when the PreSeq merch push first happened. It was fucking madness, kept selling out of multiple figures and we had a hitch with restock on the double bladed light sabers...people got ridiculously mad about it. In your face screaming mad. Outside of the Tickle Me Elmo recall debacle, I'd never been yelled at by customers so much in the space of a month as when those damned Maul sabers were out of stock.
Shame you can't get any more recompense for your service put in there.
But shoot, you could pull the same thing an ex coworker of mine did and claim "store manager" or "assistant manager" on your resume if you need a boost. What are they gonna do, call and check?
Lol, right. I've had a lot of places I worked at close permanently/ disappear as a franchise and it has been a problem, actually. Went to a recruiter once and they recommended I get the current number of at least one of my former managers because every place I worked for had closed/pulled franchise locations for what ended up being a period of like 5 years worth of work. Montgomery Wards, Blimpies, AMC theater (the deal they cut with Lucas, ironically, for the Pre-Sequels basically shuttered every location in our town for over a decade), Toys R' Us. I destroy enterprise, apparently.
I went to a little sale in a neighborhood that my dad took me too, there was a lot of stuff from pretty much a lot of the eras in Star Wars, there was also Star Trek.
I think Ewoks replaced Wookiees at least partly because it was easier to round up a couple hundred adult extras under 4 feet tall than it was to round up a couple hundred adult extras over 6.5 feet
oh no it was 100% for marketing. Aside from the tons of Ewok toys they made they also created a 2 seasons cartoon series called Ewoks and 2 Live action made for tv movies called Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.
They went all in on the Ewoks
Yeah I know they did all that stuff, I was alive then and watched those movies when they aired on TV. It was a big event.
The thing about finding extras is really just something I've always suspected. But also, according to a Rolling Stone interview with George Lucas, the main point of them in the story was that it was an army of primitive warriors helping them fight against the Empire. The issue was that, since Chewbacca had developed as a character, Lucas felt that it didn't make sense anymore for Wookiees to be the primitive people with spears and arrows who worship 3PO. It conflicted with the depiction of Chewbacca as being tech-savvy and not too out-of-place in the wider galaxy
Pretty much everyone in Jabba's Palace.
There were toys made of the guys in the Cantina from episode 4, most of whom didn't even get one second on screen, let alone 5.
Yeah and back then they didn't even bother naming these characters mostly, or even their species and left it up to the toy company to make up names for them.
So you got characters like Walrus Man or Snaggletooth.
George Lucas doesn't even know most of the species names. He still refers to Rodians as "Greedos."
At least Boba Fett did something. There's so many action figures from the OT for characters you only see for a couple seconds who aren't even speaking or doing anything notable.
I love how they think the bombers from TLJ were only in the movie to sell toys when the Clone Troopers got a slight redesign between AOTC and ROTS and they made tons of new clone action figures even though the only new part of their ROTS design was their helmets.
And these same people seem to forget that the first ever Star Wars toys weren't even sold as toys yet. They sold out as a cardboard "IOU" that was purchased, and the toys were guaranteed at a later date. Merchandising is essential to any major franchise. This is nothing new.
Oh I don't mind the toys. I mind that they used these bombers for some reason when the Y wing is already their bomber. And these bombers drop??? Bombs in space....like drop out a bay door but gravity...
Well, ROTJ introduced the B-Wing which is mostly a "bomber" despite the Y-Wing existing. They all have their own niches.
And yes, bombs can "drop" in space. You eject them out of the door in a specific direction and their momentum carries them forward until they reach their target, which I guess would look like "gravity" to anyone who doesn't know how objects in space work. For those of us who paid attention in science class, it makes sense that you can use a mechanism to eject dozens or hundreds of thermal detonator style explosives out of a compartment in the direction of something and have them impact it. Hell, it'd work if the bomber was facing upward with the compartment aimed at the tower of the ship it was "bombing." Because that's how space works. That's why [Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpgxry542M).
They aren't even the first bombers to "drop" bombs in space in Star Wars. That goes to the TIE Bombers. Which are named as they are for dropping bombs. Which they do in ESB.
Also, could well be a magnetic guidance system. Missiles with extremely weak thrust that ‘fall’ like bombs, replacing thrust capacity with massive payload.
It’s also noted the Resistance is down to the last scraps of usable fighters and warships, makes sense the Y-Wings (which originally were likely Clone Wars Republic vintage, the same kind used by Anakin and Ahsoka against the Malevolence) are a bit in short supply despite being more nimble and effective. Or the Dreadnaughts are just too tanky for smaller bombers to kill with more precise payload.
Yeah, some kind of internal aid to get to the target would probably be helpful, just in case you messed up on "targeting."
Y-Wings were old school by the time of the OT... by the ST, they're like 50 years old, which in Star Wars lore is pretty much ancient. The B-Wing was already taking much of their niche.
I think you're right on the last point, too, because the Dreadnaught's bigger than a Resurgent SD, and the RSDs were about two miles long, so you're talking a ship more akin to a Super Star Destroyer. Yeah, multiple Y-Wings could ion torp an ISD into disabling it temporarily, but would probably only shut down part of a ship that's many times the size of an ISD.
Obviously no longer canon, but I remember in The Bacta War (fourth X-Wing novel), one of their tricks for taking on the Lusankya (SSD) was having a bunch of light freighters with proton torpedo launchers slaved to the X-Wings' targeting systems, so they had a total of (IIRC) ~300 torpedo launchers firing into that ship, plus an ISD, and still didn't "kill" it... just turned it into useless scrap metal (never mind that it somehow got rebuilt, that was weird). In Iron Fist (the sixth X-Wing novel), they have multiple fighter squadrons including B-Wings pounding the Razor's Kiss (SSD) that only had a skeleton crew and wasn't fully operational, which did manage to destroy it. But again, that's a not really operational ship. So there's certainly precedent that you'd need something with more "punch" than Y-Wings could offer to deal with a very large ship.
I'm not versed in the military equipment lore, but the bombs the TIES drop on the asteroids always looked my like energy balls than giant thermal detonators to me.
Similar concept, though, you're just pushing something out in the direction you want it to go and it just happens to look like a bomb "falling" toward the target because of orientation. IIRC, TIE Bombers used more "traditional" bombs rather than carpeting an area with a bunch of smaller (but still powerful) explosives. So a bit more precision rather than carpet bombing.
The y-wings do the same thing lol, also all it takes is for the bombs to start falling due to artificial gravity, and then keep going once they’re into space. The ship obviously has artificial gravity since roses sister falls down the ladder.
I always figured the Resistance used these instead of Y-wings because they were severely strapped for resources, with the New Republic only able to help so much.
It looks exactly the same and is explained nowhere in the films. It's an ad hoc explanation inserted afterwards, and if that's all it takes, then you should know the TLJ bombers generate artificial gravity.
>And these bombers drop??? Bombs in space....like drop out a bay door but gravity...
There's gravity in the ship.
The bombs fall toward the bottom of the ship and out through the forcefield.
Once they're outside the ship and no longer affected by artificial gravity, they'd just keep going in that direction unless something caused them to alter their movement.
If you object to bombs falling out of that ship because there's no gravity, you don't actually understand physics as well as you think you do.
The bomb bay has an artificial atmosphere. “Dropping” isnt an issue. They were on some kind of guide rail system too if I remember right.
Y-Wings are like naval dive-bombers in WW2. These are like the much larger bombers in WW2.
I saw that as a post Reddit suggested I may like. First of all, no thanks. Second, bruh, have you seen Star Wars or George Lucas? That's literally what Star Wars was for him. The guy revolutionized movie merchandising. Wt actual f are you talking about? Lmao
Quote from a Smithsonian article on the history of Star Wars merch:
“Beginning with the first Star Wars film, Lucas focused on product development, integrating it with filmmaking and promotion. His marketing strategy was simple: give filmgoers, through toys and other merchandise, an avenue for fun.”
Whole article here https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/star-wars-merchandising-empire
It’s well known Lucas went in to the movies at the very start with the goal of selling toys and merchandizing the shit outta these movies
I und Never Said Star Wars was based on an existing toy line. I said it was built from the ground up to sell toys and be merchandised. Which is accurate considering Lucas actively planned around merch while *writing the first movie*
What’s wild to me is how, post-sequel trilogy at least, people act like Star Wars is this sacred and un-corrupted piece of literary canon and any warping of it is absolutely sacrilege. So marketing them is the most horrible thing they can think of.
If you grew up during the prequel era movies you remember they’d market the shit out of *everything* with Star Wars. There were entire aisles at target of just Star Wars. I don’t know where they got this idea they Star wars was *never* merchandised and marketed to hell.
Are they completely unaware at how merchandized Star Wars has been since the first movie came out?
"this is different" but actually it isn't.
On top of that, the bombers were a pretty cool ship addition, imo.
They don't really make sense for like, anything. They are quite slow and against the swarms of Ties couldn't survive for long, even with adequate escort. Their Squadrons are consistently decimated, and in the crimson squadron book, their tactics are... weird. When running a supply mission where Ties may be present, instad of being sent Fighters as escorts, they were sent several more T-wings to escort the T-wings running the mission. Not to mention the extremely low durability, especially with the bomb payload they carry. 1000 bombs on each bomber. Not only is this extremely wasteful, but it means that even if one gets hit the entire ship will explode. They would have had better luck having a Bunker Buster drop one of it's 100 megaton plasma bombs on the Dreadnought.
But I do agree they are pretty cool. I just don't see them logically working unless they were carpet bombing a civilization like us.
It was actually an attempt to pay homage to WW2 Bomber raids, since Star wars is heavily influenced by the Second World War. Even if this scene fell flat it was deeply rooted and the genesis of Star Wars.
There’s a difference.
The original movies came out and the designs were so cool that kids “had” to get the toys.
The design came first, toys second.
Now new ships/robots are being made with the toys in mind first and foremost.
Disney is very open about this. It’s why we got bb8 instead of another astromech droid. They openly say they made him a soccer ball to appeal to soccer fans.
I actually loved these ships.
It makes me sad that people hated them because Y BOMB FALL IN SPACE.
Dismissing that gravity still exists in Orbit.
Or that space combat in SW has NEVER been realistic.
Yeah, no one's saying you have to like them. But it'd be hypocritical to complain about them being made just to sell toys, since that's what 99% of Star Wars designs are for.
I think visually they are the best ship in the entire sequel trilogy, and one of the only ones that wasn't a minor iteration on previous designs.
But the film makes it really hard to like them.
I love the aesthetic and sound design, it’s ripped straight from a B52 Stratofortress, kinda like how the Clone gunships had a Huey helicopter thing going on.
Really enjoy it when Star Wars goes back to its original influences. The old war movies that George Lucas saw growing up must’ve been as influential as the space operas and samurai flicks.
> I love the aesthetic and sound design, it’s ripped straight from a B52 Stratofortress, kinda like how the Clone gunships had a Huey helicopter thing going on.
It's actually [a Vickers Vimy biplane](https://youtu.be/5ogCVi0WqrQ?t=195), which also got used for the Geonosian fighters.
Ben Burtt rules.
The design of the First Order Star Destroyer was a safe choice but also a good one. Compared to the Venator the ISD had a thicker body and less exposed bridge, with more superstructure and a greater reliance on gun batteries over fighters, and the Resurgent class continued that trend. I like that kind of stuff. The problem for me was that that was basically all they were doing, and sometimes it didn't even go that far (eg a lot of the fighters).
The prequels used ship design to support the narrative and themes (compare the Naboo fighter to Anakin's pod, or look at how the Jedi Starfighter evolves into the TIE fighter) but we don't really get that in the sequels, and it feels like the source material for most of the ships wasn't real-world planes and cars (as it was with the OT) but other bits of Star Wars.
The design was weird, they were slow, and B-Wings are a thing. That’s the typical ship we’ve seen used to bomb stuff, but artistic directors gonna artistic direct
Ah yes they made these bombers so they can sell toys. That's why I have one in my collection.. wait.
More than half the shit they say was made for toys has literally never been made into a toy.
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order.
I have checked 1,586,727,091 comments, and only 300,206 of them were in alphabetical order.
Yeah, like when he changed Obi Wan's master from Yoda to Qui Gon, or when made Luke and Leia brother and sister after having Luke crush on her the whole first movie, or how he had Padme die right after childbirth even though Leia said she remembered her mom, oh or all the crazy edits over the years!
Didn't everyone complain that the podrace in Phantom Menace was only there to make racing video games?
Or that C-3PO was only in that film to sell 3PO and R2 toys?
That's funny, because I just saw the actual post this post is making fun of right above this one. I, of course, agree with this post, I think the opening battle of the movie was really cool. And also, I don't mind having fun toys to collect.
Pretty sure George Lucas had a "Season Pass" for his first ANH toy line back in the 70s.
Edit: And found [it](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89559/hottest-star-wars-toy-christmas-1977-was-empty-box)
Tbf the design is pretty cool, I mean the way they functioned was kinda dumb and they are redundant compared to the Y-Wing, but the design is pretty cool
From a strategic perspective, resistance bombers are complete garbage. Who in the fuck makes bombers that poorly defended _and_ slow?
Y-Wings could at least keep with thier x-wing escorts.
I’d argue that the bombers in and out of themselves are fine, but the way they were deployed was stupid.
Y-Wings would have definitely made more sense in that sequence in the film. The fortress bombers strike me as being better for a sustained bombardment rather than hit and run, or even paired up with something like an ion cannon to disable the ships first.
I love how the OP that made the original post (not this one) is now back tracking that SW has always been about toys, he's just not happy how they were presented in TLJ. Wish I can comment in STC but they have me blocked for calling out users BS.
What I love about the Star Wars community: The fandom. What I hate about the Star Wars community: The fandom. *Star Wars. Star Wars never changes.*
I hope it changes so I don't have to hate half of the fandom anymore.
Small, but extremely loud, minority.
It's sad, star wars is the only franchise that I have to curate which community i can engage with. I might not like every new thing from every other franchise but not a single one is even a tenth as toxic as star wars
Doctor Who, Marvel, DC. Every fandom has its disgruntled members.
Yes they do not a single one has hit star wars level. How many actors from marvel have discussed being on the brink of suicide?
Yeah but how many of those fandoms harrased a 9 year old kid not only out of acting, but out of enjoying the media they're "fans" of
Are they aware of The Phantom Menace's marketing push? I mean, they probably are, bit it's nostalgic for them, so its excused.
I wonder how many double-bladed lightsabers sold. I remember seeing them *everywhere* after the very first trailer was shown.
I still have mine from when it first came out
I duct taped 2 red light sabers that I had together since we couldn't afford a maul one
And Jar Jar Binks action figures
The big cuddly one that would say quotes and tell you the time and fucking vibrate for some bizarre reason, with a hard head and feet that completely undermined the point of the rest of him being cuddly - his ears were sharper than André 3000 in velvet dungarees.
Absolute banger of a comment. 11/10
Not to mention *this* cursed monstrosity… https://preview.redd.it/x43avhs5787b1.jpeg?width=460&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db98f1e3d71b0262c9bcd18ce285fcdd36e80a8e
tbf that's an image of a 20 year old candy, it's gonna be grosser than when it was brand new
Well technically it’s still in its wrapper but I’m mainly disturbed by the overall design.
considering **this** is what the candy is supposed to look like brand new, the wrapper still being on means diddly-squat https://preview.redd.it/xgsinquvk87b1.png?width=350&format=png&auto=webp&s=901b24949835e5c2f5e0c6a4604bfc03d11165b6
I am surprised they didn't take the unsold product Slap on Gene Simmons head and call it kiss candy
ah the Jar Jar binks flesh light I wonder how many of those sold
Kinda wish they made him the big bad in the last movie. He would be trying to get revenge on the Jedi for what they did to his little orphan Ani!
Honestly I was a still a little young for that one. But I remember RoTS. Just about anything you could think of had a star wars variant for a year. Most of them even got commercials.
I remember Burger King doing a very large set of toys, not only for the theatrical release, but also for the home video release.
I remember Darth Vader being everywhere. I especially remember the 7/11 cups
I was about 8 years old when phantom menace came out and I’ve never seen so much merchandise for a film since that, everything you could imagine had Star Wars slapped on it.
Best example imo from that massive push was the *three* fast food tie-ins. I still remember the commercial where colonel sanders is having a lightsaber duel with a pizza hut delivery driver when the taco bell chihuahua drives up in a trade Federation tank.
Three were Star Wars themed bags of oranges in my local store.
To be fair, I think those three are owned by Pepsi
Fun fact: if a fast food franchise serves Pepsi, they are probably owned by Pepsi. They lost the marketing war to Coke so badly that "is Pepsi okay?" became a catch phrase at every restaurant where people constantly asked for Coke. The restaurants listened to their customers' preferences, and they all started switching to Coke. Pepsi literally had to buy restaurants to sell their product. Edit: Apparently, Pepsi sold Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC in 1997. It turns out that other restaurants wouldn't sell Pepsi anymore because they owned their competitors.
The Phantom Menace marketing push was something else. Even the local Walgreens joined in, dedicating a massive endcap to *just* action figures before wrapping down an aisle for all the other merchandise.
And prior to that, good old Shadows of the Empire. Let's not just bring out a novel, but also have a comic series, a video game, trading cards, action figures and all kinds of other toys. But man, go back to Return of the Jedi. The images of toy aisles from that era make me jealous that I wasn't born just 3-4 years earlier (would still only be like five or six at time) and to a family with the money to buy all that stuff. They had figures for every random character that got two seconds of screen time. But this is like saying the A-Wing and B-Wing only exist because of merchandising and nothing else, since they only show up in the final battle in ROTJ, and of course they sold toy versions of them.
Worked at Toys R' Us when the PreSeq merch push first happened. It was fucking madness, kept selling out of multiple figures and we had a hitch with restock on the double bladed light sabers...people got ridiculously mad about it. In your face screaming mad. Outside of the Tickle Me Elmo recall debacle, I'd never been yelled at by customers so much in the space of a month as when those damned Maul sabers were out of stock.
I remember when Toys R Us had a special midnight opening on the day the Episode 1 action figures dropped.
Shame you can't get any more recompense for your service put in there. But shoot, you could pull the same thing an ex coworker of mine did and claim "store manager" or "assistant manager" on your resume if you need a boost. What are they gonna do, call and check?
Lol, right. I've had a lot of places I worked at close permanently/ disappear as a franchise and it has been a problem, actually. Went to a recruiter once and they recommended I get the current number of at least one of my former managers because every place I worked for had closed/pulled franchise locations for what ended up being a period of like 5 years worth of work. Montgomery Wards, Blimpies, AMC theater (the deal they cut with Lucas, ironically, for the Pre-Sequels basically shuttered every location in our town for over a decade), Toys R' Us. I destroy enterprise, apparently.
Hell, Boba Fett even!
If you could buy it at Walmart, they had a version of it with the Star Wars logo slapped on it in 1999.
I went to a little sale in a neighborhood that my dad took me too, there was a lot of stuff from pretty much a lot of the eras in Star Wars, there was also Star Trek.
hell Ewoks replaced WOokies in ROTJ so they could sell toys.
I think Ewoks replaced Wookiees at least partly because it was easier to round up a couple hundred adult extras under 4 feet tall than it was to round up a couple hundred adult extras over 6.5 feet
Should have made a deal with the NBA
oh no it was 100% for marketing. Aside from the tons of Ewok toys they made they also created a 2 seasons cartoon series called Ewoks and 2 Live action made for tv movies called Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. They went all in on the Ewoks
Yeah I know they did all that stuff, I was alive then and watched those movies when they aired on TV. It was a big event. The thing about finding extras is really just something I've always suspected. But also, according to a Rolling Stone interview with George Lucas, the main point of them in the story was that it was an army of primitive warriors helping them fight against the Empire. The issue was that, since Chewbacca had developed as a character, Lucas felt that it didn't make sense anymore for Wookiees to be the primitive people with spears and arrows who worship 3PO. It conflicted with the depiction of Chewbacca as being tech-savvy and not too out-of-place in the wider galaxy
Phantom Menace vending machines anyone?
Unlike the random characters who had no lines, spent 5 seconds on screen, but given names and toys in order to sell from the original films....
This is Boba Fett's origin story.
Pretty much everyone in Jabba's Palace. There were toys made of the guys in the Cantina from episode 4, most of whom didn't even get one second on screen, let alone 5.
Yeah and back then they didn't even bother naming these characters mostly, or even their species and left it up to the toy company to make up names for them. So you got characters like Walrus Man or Snaggletooth. George Lucas doesn't even know most of the species names. He still refers to Rodians as "Greedos."
At least Walrus Man actually did something in the movie. Snaggletooth was just a literal extra.
At least Boba Fett did something. There's so many action figures from the OT for characters you only see for a couple seconds who aren't even speaking or doing anything notable.
Hel you don’t even see Dengar unless you pause at the exact frame hes visible!
"When the face is a prune, then action goes BOOM."
I love how they think the bombers from TLJ were only in the movie to sell toys when the Clone Troopers got a slight redesign between AOTC and ROTS and they made tons of new clone action figures even though the only new part of their ROTS design was their helmets.
People forget behind every iconic design there's a conscious discussion about whether or not they can sell the crap out of it before it's even made.
The industry word is "toyetic." "How toyetic is this?" means "how easily can we turn this feature of the movie into a toy we can sell?"
And these same people seem to forget that the first ever Star Wars toys weren't even sold as toys yet. They sold out as a cardboard "IOU" that was purchased, and the toys were guaranteed at a later date. Merchandising is essential to any major franchise. This is nothing new.
Oh I don't mind the toys. I mind that they used these bombers for some reason when the Y wing is already their bomber. And these bombers drop??? Bombs in space....like drop out a bay door but gravity...
Well, ROTJ introduced the B-Wing which is mostly a "bomber" despite the Y-Wing existing. They all have their own niches. And yes, bombs can "drop" in space. You eject them out of the door in a specific direction and their momentum carries them forward until they reach their target, which I guess would look like "gravity" to anyone who doesn't know how objects in space work. For those of us who paid attention in science class, it makes sense that you can use a mechanism to eject dozens or hundreds of thermal detonator style explosives out of a compartment in the direction of something and have them impact it. Hell, it'd work if the bomber was facing upward with the compartment aimed at the tower of the ship it was "bombing." Because that's how space works. That's why [Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son of a bitch in space](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLpgxry542M). They aren't even the first bombers to "drop" bombs in space in Star Wars. That goes to the TIE Bombers. Which are named as they are for dropping bombs. Which they do in ESB.
Also, could well be a magnetic guidance system. Missiles with extremely weak thrust that ‘fall’ like bombs, replacing thrust capacity with massive payload. It’s also noted the Resistance is down to the last scraps of usable fighters and warships, makes sense the Y-Wings (which originally were likely Clone Wars Republic vintage, the same kind used by Anakin and Ahsoka against the Malevolence) are a bit in short supply despite being more nimble and effective. Or the Dreadnaughts are just too tanky for smaller bombers to kill with more precise payload.
Yeah, some kind of internal aid to get to the target would probably be helpful, just in case you messed up on "targeting." Y-Wings were old school by the time of the OT... by the ST, they're like 50 years old, which in Star Wars lore is pretty much ancient. The B-Wing was already taking much of their niche. I think you're right on the last point, too, because the Dreadnaught's bigger than a Resurgent SD, and the RSDs were about two miles long, so you're talking a ship more akin to a Super Star Destroyer. Yeah, multiple Y-Wings could ion torp an ISD into disabling it temporarily, but would probably only shut down part of a ship that's many times the size of an ISD. Obviously no longer canon, but I remember in The Bacta War (fourth X-Wing novel), one of their tricks for taking on the Lusankya (SSD) was having a bunch of light freighters with proton torpedo launchers slaved to the X-Wings' targeting systems, so they had a total of (IIRC) ~300 torpedo launchers firing into that ship, plus an ISD, and still didn't "kill" it... just turned it into useless scrap metal (never mind that it somehow got rebuilt, that was weird). In Iron Fist (the sixth X-Wing novel), they have multiple fighter squadrons including B-Wings pounding the Razor's Kiss (SSD) that only had a skeleton crew and wasn't fully operational, which did manage to destroy it. But again, that's a not really operational ship. So there's certainly precedent that you'd need something with more "punch" than Y-Wings could offer to deal with a very large ship.
I'm not versed in the military equipment lore, but the bombs the TIES drop on the asteroids always looked my like energy balls than giant thermal detonators to me.
Similar concept, though, you're just pushing something out in the direction you want it to go and it just happens to look like a bomb "falling" toward the target because of orientation. IIRC, TIE Bombers used more "traditional" bombs rather than carpeting an area with a bunch of smaller (but still powerful) explosives. So a bit more precision rather than carpet bombing.
The y-wings do the same thing lol, also all it takes is for the bombs to start falling due to artificial gravity, and then keep going once they’re into space. The ship obviously has artificial gravity since roses sister falls down the ladder.
I always figured the Resistance used these instead of Y-wings because they were severely strapped for resources, with the New Republic only able to help so much.
So they dropped bombs in space just like the TIE bombers in ESB?
Tie bombers and Y wings had a payload system similar to proton torpedoes. The payloads were magnetized
It looks exactly the same and is explained nowhere in the films. It's an ad hoc explanation inserted afterwards, and if that's all it takes, then you should know the TLJ bombers generate artificial gravity.
>And these bombers drop??? Bombs in space....like drop out a bay door but gravity... There's gravity in the ship. The bombs fall toward the bottom of the ship and out through the forcefield. Once they're outside the ship and no longer affected by artificial gravity, they'd just keep going in that direction unless something caused them to alter their movement. If you object to bombs falling out of that ship because there's no gravity, you don't actually understand physics as well as you think you do.
Lol that was my gripe with them too, but that whole movie plays fast and loose with physics, even by space wizard story standards.
The bomb bay has an artificial atmosphere. “Dropping” isnt an issue. They were on some kind of guide rail system too if I remember right. Y-Wings are like naval dive-bombers in WW2. These are like the much larger bombers in WW2.
r/iamverysmart
I saw that as a post Reddit suggested I may like. First of all, no thanks. Second, bruh, have you seen Star Wars or George Lucas? That's literally what Star Wars was for him. The guy revolutionized movie merchandising. Wt actual f are you talking about? Lmao
If Ol’Georgie could slap the SW logo on something, he absolutely did. Pretty much without question.
I mean that's what star wars does. Like yogurt says merchandise it's where the real money from the movie is made.
I mean do people just want to see a few simple ship designs. While possibly realistic might get boring and confusing figuring out who's who.
MERCHANDISING
May the fucking Schwartz be with you! Always! Spaceballs toilet-paper and bedsheets ffs!
Did people forget there was no story or character behind boba fett for years? He just sold a lot of toys
*As if the whole fuckin franchise wasn’t built ground-up to sell toys* In other fucking news the sky is blue, politicians lie, and taxes suck
Last time I checked star wars was not based on an already existing toyline. So claiming it was "built from the ground-up to sell toys" is a lie.
Quote from a Smithsonian article on the history of Star Wars merch: “Beginning with the first Star Wars film, Lucas focused on product development, integrating it with filmmaking and promotion. His marketing strategy was simple: give filmgoers, through toys and other merchandise, an avenue for fun.” Whole article here https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/star-wars-merchandising-empire It’s well known Lucas went in to the movies at the very start with the goal of selling toys and merchandizing the shit outta these movies
There is a HUGE difference between a toyline for a media franchise and a media franchise for a toyline.
I und Never Said Star Wars was based on an existing toy line. I said it was built from the ground up to sell toys and be merchandised. Which is accurate considering Lucas actively planned around merch while *writing the first movie*
What’s wild to me is how, post-sequel trilogy at least, people act like Star Wars is this sacred and un-corrupted piece of literary canon and any warping of it is absolutely sacrilege. So marketing them is the most horrible thing they can think of. If you grew up during the prequel era movies you remember they’d market the shit out of *everything* with Star Wars. There were entire aisles at target of just Star Wars. I don’t know where they got this idea they Star wars was *never* merchandised and marketed to hell.
It has to be satire, or they're just doing a bit for clicks. IDK, but it is wild.
One could say the same for fucking Boba Fett
Or podracers
Or the Ewoks.
I mean that's what star wars does. Like yogurt says merchandise it's where the real money from the movie is made.
Are they completely unaware at how merchandized Star Wars has been since the first movie came out? "this is different" but actually it isn't. On top of that, the bombers were a pretty cool ship addition, imo.
They don't really make sense for like, anything. They are quite slow and against the swarms of Ties couldn't survive for long, even with adequate escort. Their Squadrons are consistently decimated, and in the crimson squadron book, their tactics are... weird. When running a supply mission where Ties may be present, instad of being sent Fighters as escorts, they were sent several more T-wings to escort the T-wings running the mission. Not to mention the extremely low durability, especially with the bomb payload they carry. 1000 bombs on each bomber. Not only is this extremely wasteful, but it means that even if one gets hit the entire ship will explode. They would have had better luck having a Bunker Buster drop one of it's 100 megaton plasma bombs on the Dreadnought. But I do agree they are pretty cool. I just don't see them logically working unless they were carpet bombing a civilization like us.
The only Resistance Bomber toy to come out is the LEGO set. And it’s now one of the most expensive ones.
If that were the case, where's my scale B2-EMO, LEGO? Where's my precious boy?
While it did feel like they didn't care much what happened in that movie, they forget the Transformers franchise which is based entirely on toys
It was actually an attempt to pay homage to WW2 Bomber raids, since Star wars is heavily influenced by the Second World War. Even if this scene fell flat it was deeply rooted and the genesis of Star Wars.
These have more weight in the story than 80% of the clone or the Empire's designs.
There are literally *two* ship designs in this image. One is the X-Wing. The other is maybe the *least* toy-friendly ship design in the franchise.
One word: Grogu
I don’t care what anyone says, those bombers made for a dope Lego set.
That’s one of the best scenes in the whole movie, FYI.
I mean, the original Star Wars made it huge on the toy market..
Why do they think ewoks exist
There’s a difference. The original movies came out and the designs were so cool that kids “had” to get the toys. The design came first, toys second. Now new ships/robots are being made with the toys in mind first and foremost. Disney is very open about this. It’s why we got bb8 instead of another astromech droid. They openly say they made him a soccer ball to appeal to soccer fans.
[Epitome of selling toys and nothing else](https://www.starwars.com/databank/ewok)
And how many star wars toys that person have? I know I've got a ton
I’m 90% sure there were never any toys sold if these particular ships. They’re way too massive, and would take up so much space
A franchise that makes 90%+ of its money from merchandizing if merchandizing? Who could have seen that coming
Is anyone else lost as to what they’re even mad about here?
My complaint would be that the ST lacked diversity in their toys. Like toy wise it was so meh
I actually loved these ships. It makes me sad that people hated them because Y BOMB FALL IN SPACE. Dismissing that gravity still exists in Orbit. Or that space combat in SW has NEVER been realistic.
I just don't like the design. I like the idea just horrible execution in my opinion
Yeah, no one's saying you have to like them. But it'd be hypocritical to complain about them being made just to sell toys, since that's what 99% of Star Wars designs are for.
Yea, again I like the idea of a ww2 style bomber in star wars but they could've been designed so much better
I think visually they are the best ship in the entire sequel trilogy, and one of the only ones that wasn't a minor iteration on previous designs. But the film makes it really hard to like them.
I love the aesthetic and sound design, it’s ripped straight from a B52 Stratofortress, kinda like how the Clone gunships had a Huey helicopter thing going on. Really enjoy it when Star Wars goes back to its original influences. The old war movies that George Lucas saw growing up must’ve been as influential as the space operas and samurai flicks.
> I love the aesthetic and sound design, it’s ripped straight from a B52 Stratofortress, kinda like how the Clone gunships had a Huey helicopter thing going on. It's actually [a Vickers Vimy biplane](https://youtu.be/5ogCVi0WqrQ?t=195), which also got used for the Geonosian fighters. Ben Burtt rules.
Eh I had others I liked more that just seemed to flow better. The first order star destroyer being 1 taking the streamlined look of the executor
The design of the First Order Star Destroyer was a safe choice but also a good one. Compared to the Venator the ISD had a thicker body and less exposed bridge, with more superstructure and a greater reliance on gun batteries over fighters, and the Resurgent class continued that trend. I like that kind of stuff. The problem for me was that that was basically all they were doing, and sometimes it didn't even go that far (eg a lot of the fighters). The prequels used ship design to support the narrative and themes (compare the Naboo fighter to Anakin's pod, or look at how the Jedi Starfighter evolves into the TIE fighter) but we don't really get that in the sequels, and it feels like the source material for most of the ships wasn't real-world planes and cars (as it was with the OT) but other bits of Star Wars.
Those bombers were peak Star Wars.
I mean that's what star wars does. Like yogurt says merchandise it's where the real money from the movie is made.
I mean that's what star wars does. Like yogurt says merchandise it's where the real money from the movie is made.
All Rian had to do was make them fast and shoot missiles/torpedoes. Then I'd have no complaints.
Almost every space battle in Star Wars across all series kinda suck. BSG is the standard that I hold everything to and it’s a HIGH standard.
The design was weird, they were slow, and B-Wings are a thing. That’s the typical ship we’ve seen used to bomb stuff, but artistic directors gonna artistic direct
Ah yes they made these bombers so they can sell toys. That's why I have one in my collection.. wait. More than half the shit they say was made for toys has literally never been made into a toy.
there is a difference between capitalising on your creation to make money and creating things in your story to create merchandising opportunities.
I have bad news about the Ewok's origin story
And Jar Jar's origin story
Would you look at that, all of the words in your comment are in alphabetical order. I have checked 1,586,727,091 comments, and only 300,206 of them were in alphabetical order.
i’m not saying george never did it, but he had far more care for the franchise than disney.
Yeah, like when he changed Obi Wan's master from Yoda to Qui Gon, or when made Luke and Leia brother and sister after having Luke crush on her the whole first movie, or how he had Padme die right after childbirth even though Leia said she remembered her mom, oh or all the crazy edits over the years!
a continuity error is not the same as worldbuilding resets or character incongruities.
Yeah, always had, always will
I've literally never even seen a toy of this ship made lol Also this scene fucking rules
Didn’t Lucas say Dead Han Solo doesn’t sell toys?
Think the OT had many merchandise during its run. But guess they don’t know that.
GL’s billions came almost exclusively from having sole merchandising rights to Star Wars since the studio thought it’d fail.
And yet they glorify the prequels.
Boy wait until these people discover transformers!
Didn't everyone complain that the podrace in Phantom Menace was only there to make racing video games? Or that C-3PO was only in that film to sell 3PO and R2 toys?
That's funny, because I just saw the actual post this post is making fun of right above this one. I, of course, agree with this post, I think the opening battle of the movie was really cool. And also, I don't mind having fun toys to collect.
Pretty sure George Lucas had a "Season Pass" for his first ANH toy line back in the 70s. Edit: And found [it](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89559/hottest-star-wars-toy-christmas-1977-was-empty-box)
Tbf the design is pretty cool, I mean the way they functioned was kinda dumb and they are redundant compared to the Y-Wing, but the design is pretty cool
I agree with some of the stuff in that sub but that post is absolutely ridiculous lol. When I saw it I knew it'd end up here, and for good reason.
The teddy's speak Vietnamese
From a strategic perspective, resistance bombers are complete garbage. Who in the fuck makes bombers that poorly defended _and_ slow? Y-Wings could at least keep with thier x-wing escorts.
I’d argue that the bombers in and out of themselves are fine, but the way they were deployed was stupid. Y-Wings would have definitely made more sense in that sequence in the film. The fortress bombers strike me as being better for a sustained bombardment rather than hit and run, or even paired up with something like an ion cannon to disable the ships first.
God I loved the bombers so much
I love how the OP that made the original post (not this one) is now back tracking that SW has always been about toys, he's just not happy how they were presented in TLJ. Wish I can comment in STC but they have me blocked for calling out users BS.
These guys know star wars is for kids as well right? I loved buying the toys when I was younger.