I'm fine if it goes to book 8.  I figured that book 6 was not going to be released this year.  But here's hoping for next year.

As crazy as this may sound, I think that's the best MH has looked in years.

From what I understand he's been working with a trainer for well over a year.

Qui-Gon opened Anakin's eyes to the fact that he was gifted in The Force.  That in addition to freeing him from slavery were the biggest turning points in Anakins life at that point in time.  But the more important thing to keep in mind is that Qui-Gon is part of the recurring theme of loss.

Back on topic...

I just watched Star Trek - Into Darkness via Amazon Prime.  I don't think that it's necessarily appropriate to draw parallels between this movie and Star Trek 2 - The Wrath of Khan.  This story seems to be more in line time-wise with the discovery of Khan and the Botany Bay crew from the original series.  Beyond that, I saw it as a pure popcorn movie.  It started to get into some themes we saw in the original series based films, like the war mongering elements from within the Federation and the unknowns of the Klingons.

Still, there were things that stuck out and bothered me.  The "cold fusion" bomb?  And a Federation incursion into Klingon space all the way to Kronos?  I'm also more than a little annoyed by Kirk's quick ascendance from Cadet to Captain.  From a story standpoint I'm having a problem with that.  And Kirk's revival was a little bit of a stretch in terms of suspending my disbelief.  Plus, the whole sequence leading up to that seemed more than a little unoriginal.  I can see that given where the Trek reboot has taken us would probably lead to some parallel things happening.  But again we're looking at a story that probably should have been based more on "Space Seed" than on ST2-TWOK.

I saw someone bringing up the topic of Dr. Strange and mentioning Johnny Depp as the possible lead.  From a purely physical standpoint I think he would fit with the bill for the character.  And since he's done all of those Pirates of the Carribean films, he does have a relationship with Disney.  Do you think they'd try casting him in this role?

I can't say that I would blame Marvel / Disney / Marvel Studios for trying to undermine Fox and what may be another abyssmal film that's really just an attempt to cash in and hang on to movie rights.  I would be surprised if there are any clauses or conditions in Fox's film options regarding the continued publication of the books their movies are based upon.

If the past few years have shown comic fans anything, it's that Marvel has proven to be much better stewards of their content when it comes to translating those properties to film.  And in light of the previous 2 FF movies and the lackluster fan response to the Spiderman reboots, perhaps Marvel / Disney / Marvel Studios is looking to bring some of these properties home where they'll be treated with the respect they deserve.

More set pics, featuring an under construction Millenium Falcon.  I would guess that these might be from Pinewood in the UK.

I agree on the over-thinking.  If they wanted to go for a different sort of desert location, I imagine they would have sought out a very different sort of landscape.  Geonosis was a desert planet too, but I think it had it's own character that was much more like some of the Southwestern deserts like you would see in places like Arizona or Utah.  But this location very much says Tatooine to me.

Some of the coloring does seem a little different.  But perhaps that's the difference between shooting in Abu Dhabi versus Tunisia?  It's certainly worth noting that JJ Abrams has some history with shooting one of the Mission Impossible films in Abu Dhabi, and it's probably a safe location.  Perhaps safer than Tunisia.  Yeah, Tunisia has been one of the historic locations for most of the Tatooine exteriors.  But following the change in the Tunisian government as a result of the revolution that began there in 2010, I imagine that film production there is more of a dicey proposition.  When you're talking about a production with the scope of Episode VII, I think that the studio wants to make sure that the shoot location is safe.

Yeah....  After Ned got beheaded, it was pretty clear that NOBODY was safe.  EVER.

That being said, do I think that George R.R. Martin has a plan for certain characters?  Yeah.  But I also think he's fully prepared to bury more than a few main characters before we get to the end.