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Multimedia => The Prequel Trilogy => Topic started by: Brian on August 24, 2009, 03:19 PM

Title: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Brian on August 24, 2009, 03:19 PM
A friend of mine was mentioning this to me the other day (he is not a fan of the prequels), saying that something that he thought was missing was the "cool" or signature vehicles that we see in the OT.  In a way, I can sort of see that as well.  It may just be nostalgia or an OT preference, but I would think the majority of the "general population" would be familiar enough with the Falcon, TIE Fighters, X-Wings, Speeder Bikes, and possibly the AT-AT to recognize them by name.  There are others that are possible (Slave 1, AT-ST, Landspeeder) as well, although the names might not come to mind for those who aren't as familiar with the movies.

If you look at the PT, I don't know if you could say that.  You've got a ton of non-hardcore fans that saw those movies as well, but I wonder - outside of maybe "Jedi Starfighters" or podracers - if any of the vehicles could be recognized by name at all.  Not that there aren't some cool things (AT-TE, Juggernaught, etc.), but aside from the big podracer focus of Episode I, and possibly the Jedi starfighters in AOTC/ROTS, I wonder if much would be known to the general population - at least when compared to the Original Trilogy.
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Jeff on August 24, 2009, 03:48 PM
I think the recognizability of those other ships was due to the fact that most of them (Falcon, X-Wing, TIE, etc) were used in all 3 OT movies. 

I agree that the prequels could have used a major vehicle or two that crossed over the movies the way the OT ships did.  I assume that they were trying to sell more toys, since each movie has it's own version of the good guy ships (Naboo N1, Delta-2, ETA, etc) and bad guy ships (vulture droids, tri-droids, etc).

Maybe it would have been nice if Qui-Gon had some sort of personal ship that he used and then Obi-Wan would have inherited it and used it in E2/E3 to create come continuity, but that would have been against that whole "jedi can't/don't own things" angle.  They had Padme's Ep1 ship that could have been use again, but that changed right away to something else for E2 (something smaller that would have made a cheaper toy  :P).
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Jesse James on August 24, 2009, 05:11 PM
QGJ having a ship is a good idea...  It's something that seems to work well for the Clone Wars series, with the freighter they're using.  Still no toy of that which I find shocking, but it's a pretty important little craft that's now gotta be crammed into other EU somehow since it only appears in the series.
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Jayson on August 25, 2009, 07:54 AM
I think some of the most recognizable ships in the PT to the "common folk" include the Acclamator (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Acclamator_I-class_assault_ship) or Venator (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Venator-class_Star_Destroyer) class "Star Destroyer" cruisers mainly because of there similarity to the OT Star Destroyers.
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Jesse James on August 26, 2009, 03:18 AM
I think it would've helped GREATLY had we seen a pre-TIE Fighter, TIE Fighter.  I mean, honestly when you think about it the fighters we saw really didn't latch onto anything OT...  The ARC-170 supposedly had that resemblance to an X-Wing, but speaking from an evolutionary standpoint, the two ships really don't seem to have much in common but physical shape...  So do most airplanes on Earth, but that doesn't show "evolution" to me, and so there's no link.

A pre-Empire TIE Fighter, maybe with squatter wings, bent, etc., would've gone a long way I believe. 

Really though, had they had that beat-up ship like the Twilight we're seeing in CW3D, that I think is the only way to lock that iconic ship status up.  The Jedi's fighters could've filled the X-Wing slot I think, but they kept changing them.  They needed to give us one, and only modify it SLIGHTLY for ROTS.  They instead went with radical changes that ultimately just give you more ships, and more toys to buy.  Coincidence?  Eh, maybe, I dunno.
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Brian on August 28, 2009, 12:19 PM
I think it would've helped GREATLY had we seen a pre-TIE Fighter, TIE Fighter.  I mean, honestly when you think about it the fighters we saw really didn't latch onto anything OT...  The ARC-170 supposedly had that resemblance to an X-Wing, but speaking from an evolutionary standpoint, the two ships really don't seem to have much in common but physical shape...  So do most airplanes on Earth, but that doesn't show "evolution" to me, and so there's no link.

A pre-Empire TIE Fighter, maybe with squatter wings, bent, etc., would've gone a long way I believe. 

Really though, had they had that beat-up ship like the Twilight we're seeing in CW3D, that I think is the only way to lock that iconic ship status up.  The Jedi's fighters could've filled the X-Wing slot I think, but they kept changing them.  They needed to give us one, and only modify it SLIGHTLY for ROTS.  They instead went with radical changes that ultimately just give you more ships, and more toys to buy.  Coincidence?  Eh, maybe, I dunno.

I think that is a lot of it Jesse, good points.  Just like the troops and other areas, they just jammed "too much" into the prequels.  Like you said, things like the Jedi starfighters didn't get as much chance to become iconic since they kept changing them up.  I wish they would have stuck with one look over the other for all the prequels (and maybe have them show up in TPM as well).  I actually quite like the CW version (over the AOTC version), and the ROTS is nice too - but it would have helped picking one or the other.  I thought of the Twilight as well as being an example of having a more "iconic" ship.  It would never be as cool as the Falcon was/is, but I could see it filling that sort of "slot" in the PT vehicle lineup.

I think the Naboo starfighter was supposed to sort of be the X-Wing of this trilogy, at least starting off, but it never seemed to be that popular.  I like it for what it is, but that whole shiny look - particularly for fighters - just didn't seem as "Star Warsy" to me.  Having more continuity over the entire trilogy - both with troops and vehicles - would have helped some.  Looking at the OT as an example, we basically saw the same "major" ships throughout the three movies - with some minor variations thrown in.  Even if new things like the A-Wing or B-Wing got added in, we still saw the X and Y Wings being used as well.  Same could be said of the TIE Bomber/Interceptors, alongside the TIE Fighters.
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Darby on September 21, 2009, 11:30 PM
I love the N-1 fighter, and think it's as iconic as the X-Wing. but it never got any love.  The most iconic ship PT ship by far is the gunship.  It's the most OT of the PT designs, and between the films, probably the one ship that has any carry over.

I think the Jedi starfighter was meant to be some kind of precursor to the TIE (it at least shares design elements by ROTS - the window, for example) but it makes no sense that the Jedi fighter becomes the TIE.  Nor does it make sense that X-Wings and Y-Wings that look 30 years old are nowhere to be found in the PT.  I love the design aesthetic of the TPM, the pre-Empire look of sleekness and beauty.  It doesn't morph though the way Lucas meant it to, into the OT. 
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: Angry Ewok on October 4, 2009, 07:10 PM
Loved the Naboo Fighters and the Jedi Fighters...
Title: Re: Is the PT Lacking "Signature" Vehicles?
Post by: iFett on October 4, 2009, 07:41 PM
I thought TPM sucked for vehicles beyond the Royal Starship and Maul's ship (which should get the $64.99 upgrade treatment).  Should have been a nice relaunch of some OT concept type vehicles, but that didn't happen.  Why?  Jedi Starfighters were cool enough.