On the Newly Canon TCW Film Novelization

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2046
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On the Newly Canon TCW Film Novelization

Post by 2046 » Fri May 02, 2014 3:26 pm

The TCW film novelization was, to my knowledge, not a beneficiary of the same line-editing as was given to the novelizations of the other films. I was thus concerned about the potential for EU-heavy material, and indeed Traviss has included a good bit.

I'm just burning through the novel right now as a pleasure read, and will go back through it for sport and take notes and whatnot later. However, being me, I've noticed a few things thus far.

1. All the clone helmets have a lot of gizmos. There are sensors, binoculars, onboard IR views, night-vision and bright-light suppression, information displays (including a species database) with blink-based controls that can also be manually operated and transmitted to datapads, telemetry of others in the squad (providing lifesign readings so you know who's left), info on the readiness to fire of Republic cannons, et cetera. When sealed the clone armor is soundproof and the clones can talk to one another over radio channels without the droids who are holding them prisoner and standing right over them knowing about it.

Alas, most of this is just wrong. Oh, it all makes good sense as part of any futurist science fiction universe, but it isn't part of Star Wars.

ARC Trooper Gregor on Abafar had enhanced optics integrated in his helmet, but most of the clone helmets we've seen that had nifty toys like night vision had them as add-ons that had to be swung down into position, including binoculars.

We've never seen any indication of sound-proof helmets . . . indeed, the ringing in the ears from the ANH novelization would make no sense in this case.

We've never seen any indication of troopers talking to one another silently in the fashion described. This would actually be a preferred method of communication in most cases, but instead they are always talking audibly.

2. Five tons of material jettisoned from the Twilight was sufficient to allow a significant boost of acceleration. Indeed, the ship was on maximum thrust when approaching the Republic ship . . . the velocity was rather low.

Also, Anakin considered dumping fuel before thinking of the five tons of useless cargo and other material, but noted that they needed it and that it didn't weigh enough anyway to make that much difference.

So, fuel doesn't weigh much.

3. The Twilight apparently didn't have shields up when approaching the Republic ship, and took a number of hits from vulture fighters against the hull. There was also a hit from the Republic ship that rattled the cockpit.

4. There's a lot of talk of plasma . . . I think the Republic artillery cannon rounds were said to spew plasma on impact with the shields.

5. There's a lot of talk of ammunition, including crates of it upon which clones sit.

6. There are numerous references to clips for guns (I guess the magazine vs. clip debate was settled in that galaxy in favor of clips). There's also something about armor-piercing rounds that I'll have to check on again. An AT-TE's magazine cooks off, however, to contextually-impressive but otherwise limited effect.

More to come . . .

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Re: On the Newly Canon TCW Film Novelization

Post by Picard » Sat May 17, 2014 5:16 pm

Just a note:
2046 wrote:1. All the clone helmets have a lot of gizmos. There are sensors, binoculars, onboard IR views, night-vision and bright-light suppression, information displays (including a species database) with blink-based controls that can also be manually operated and transmitted to datapads, telemetry of others in the squad (providing lifesign readings so you know who's left), info on the readiness to fire of Republic cannons, et cetera.
Oh, it all makes good sense as part of any futurist science fiction universe, but it isn't part of Star Wars.
I don't think that head up displays that show everything in the world except YouTube and grocery list are a good idea in any type of military hardware - ships, aircraft and especially infantry helmets. They are simply too distracting, and if you get distracted during firefight... well. Only first 5 things are actually useful (everything from binoculats to bright-light supression), species database is useless, telemetry is useful for medic and maybe squad leader but is of no concern for anyone else... if anything, such displays inside helmets could explain stormtroopers' "competence" quite well, but I have seen no proof of them existing.

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Re: On the Newly Canon TCW Film Novelization

Post by Mr. Oragahn » Sun May 18, 2014 4:47 pm

2048 is a metastasic SW canon cancer. He keeps posting threads everywhere. :(

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