[ Ventilation ] | Thursday

5-18-2006 8:46 pm

David: Thursday

I'm finding that lately I'm compelled to make several entries to my Vent journal in the course of a week. This is the third such compulsion I've had today.

So, in an effort not to hog up the "User Journals" module with my posts which have been referred to before as "mindless drivel", I will make the best effort to concatenate at least each day's entries. Hopefully, this current state of post frenzy will subside soon.

P.T. Barnum Says I Should Sell

I mentioned the cryptex replica I received for completing Google's Da Vinci Code Quest in my last entry. Since then, I've discovered that these things are selling for around $50 a pop on eBay.

Seeing as how the book has been a ridiculous hit, I expect the movie will do gangbusters as well (despite the poor receiving that it got at Cannes...(why was this movie at Cannes?)), especially with the help that the Catholic church has been giving it.

So, when do you think the market on these little suckers will reach it's peak?

Stormtroopers and Mind Tricks

Before I start, I just want to make clear that I have never read a Star Wars novel. I am told that these are, for the most part, cannon, so the answer may lie in one of them.

As established in Episode IV, Imperial Stormtroopers are quite susceptible to the ol' Jedi mind trick (as used by Obi-Wan at Mos Eisley and again when shutting down the tractor beam (or did he actually create a noise by moving something?)). Obi-Wan explains to Luke that the Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded, which strongly implies that the Stormtrooper is weak-minded.

Now, if Stormtroopers are all clones of Jango Fett that have been through the same training program on Camino, wouldn't they all be similarly minded?

If that's the case, couldn't the Jedi have just simply mind-tricked the clone soldiers that killed them when directive *whatever* was issued? Or, was Palpatine's force power so great that he was able to out mind trick every single Jedi across the galaxy?

If Palpatine was that powerful, he should have made short work of Anakin's "pick him up and casually walk over and throw him over the edge" finishing move.

"House of Leaves" - Hardcover Remastered Full-Color Edition?

I can't pin down weather this actually exists or not. I remember the book itself stating that such an edition existed, but when I went looking for it soon found out that the book's own backstory was fiction. However, today I read this Wikipedia entry (which is a good read for any HoL fan, stay away if you haven't read the book and want to). The entry mentions that the fabled edition may become reality, as stated by publisher Random House. After a quick search, I haven't found any evidence that Random House has made such a claim, but many people seem to believe that they have.

Amazon is selling this. This looked to be it, but a quick check of the ISBN number reveals that it is the same as the 2 color "blue house" edition. I'm confused. I don't want to order this thing if it isn't the real deal. If it is, I'm wondering if the Braille passage is raised.

Comments (5)

Nathan Tyree - (Overwhelmed by existential angst)

About a week from now

Archimago - ()

Due to the expansion of the Empire not all stormtroopers were created on Kamino. Spaarti cloning cylinders were faster, but led to insanity.
Stormtroopers were indeed Jango clones, but some were cloned using the Spaarti method. The clonetroopers were first generation Kaminoan. They had strong minds.The Kaminoan proccess created seven aberrants out of two hundred clones. These Defects were weeded out.
Obi-Wan did indeed make a noise to distract the Storm-Troopers.

Am I geek enough or should we start talking Trek?

Brandon - (<-- The Electric Sunshine Man, yo!) - Administrator

And, while I'm not sure if you can consider the "storyline" for Star Wars Battlefront 2 as canon, the emporer stopped using clones shortly after the clone wars, and by the time of A New Hope, most of the Stormtroopers were not clones, but recruits, and as such, the ones that Obi Wan used the mind trick on were most likely nothing like the clones.

Case in point, Luke wants to go off to the Imperial academy, before he starts on his quest.

As to why the clone armys could kill the Jedi. Well, according to the movies, all the old Jedi just plain sucked, although, I can imagine that it would be hard to mind trick several hundred troops charging at you. Of course, it's not impossible. In one of the books, I forget which one, Luke and Han are back on Tattooine trying to get into Jabba's palace or something. I don't remeber why, but Luke had to trick a band of sand people into ignoring the fact that they were traveling with them. Now granted, by this time Luke is a very powerful Jedi Master, but still.

Aaaanyway. I'll shut up now.

Archimago - ()

Just because Luke wanted to go to the academy, doesn't mean he wanted to be a stormtrooper. The academy also trained pilots. Han went through the academy too.

Lucas had planned on stormtroopers being clones from the first trilogy.

From "The World of Star Wars: a Compendium of Fact and Fantasy from Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back"
(copyright 1981,Lucasfilm Ltd.)

"Origin. The creation of an Imperial Stormtrooper. A cloned man is one of a group of genetically identical humans, an assembly line product. He is a thinking man, but he serves a specific purpose and no other."

That was before ROTJ. He changes his mind a lot though. I think the safest thing to assume is that stormtroopers were being phased out as the empire grew. So the original trilogy could have had both volunteers and clones.

"I think that aluminum can would make a great droid. I'm going to call it 7-up1138."

Nathan Tyree - (Overwhelmed by existential angst)

Isn't This what you're talking about?

You might also be interested in:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375421769/qid=1148054572/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-7437529-9667258?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Your account has been disabled.

Lyric

Komm, gib mir deine Hand

User Journals

Never Say Die! by fuzmeister
Poker Face by David
Consecutive Good Decisions from the Big N by fuzmeister
We Are At War With Eastasia by David
Nothing I Can Say To Make Them Happy by David
I'm Feeling It Too, Guys by fuzmeister
Feel more sick every day. by toodldo_4julie
Bond is Dead by David
Jesus tapdancing Christ on a pogo stick by Brandon
I am tired by Brandon

Active Users List

Your Hosts

Brandon's Journal
Beowulf's Journal
Vikki's Journal

Links