Prior to KOTOR, the Old Republic stuff looked very different, it was a lot more medieval looking with the high tech stuff sorta welded on. KOTOR came out and made it into a very similar aesthetic to the prequels
I woulsnt say it was the same aesthetic, it looked less medieval and way less cartoony and made it look more like acc progression in star wars from the time of the great hyperspace war to kotor and showed that progression well. It was swtor that somewhat made it similar to the movies with ships like the sith Harrower ships
@@TY-km8hj That's fair, I suppose. It wasn't exactly the same, but much much closer. I remember it was really jarring at the time because I'd just recently read the Tales of the Jedi comic series with Exar Kun which is set only a few decades before KOTOR and the aesthetic is much closer to the Great Hyperspace war stuff than it is to KOTOR or the prequels.
@@TorvusVae ohhhhhh crap yh I fully forgot about tales of the jedi. U knw what yh that's acc fair cos ur right that was way more in line with what was used millenia prior to that. Tho I suppose within the 40 yrs from then to kotor it's possible we see rapid "modernisation" in response to that and then the mandalorian wars maybe since that era was just full of conflict which is usually the driving force behind technological advancement. Plus I really like how in kotor the Republic has their own aesthetic that feels pretty unique and then sith have their own too since they're based on the rakatan designs. Still, tho I can see why that would be really jarring for u and other readers.
@@TY-km8hj You've got a point, it's definitely possible that they developed technologically very quickly. And like, Carth talks about how personal protective shields got really popular very quickly in the beginning of KOTOR 1, but a lot of armor and robe descriptions in the game imply that they've been around for a very long time. Just major whiplash going from Tales of the Jedi aesthetic to now all of the Jedi high council are wearing the prequel era robes and talking about how the Jedi don't get involved in wars when they had just fought a huge war in living memory. That was always a huge problem in Legends, the canon was so messy they had to have a whole team of lorekeepers and different levels of canon to deal with the contradictions. I did really like the Mandalorian Crusaders and how you could really see how their armor was related to what the Mandos would use later on. I honestly didn't even mind The Old Republic MMO being even more explicitly based on the prequels, being that it was a way bigger time skip. I like the prequel aesthetic, it just needed a little more setup than KOTOR gave us.
@@dragerdet, in terms of technological stagnation not power projection. At least the Imperium has a very good reason why they're stagnant what's the Republic's excuse?
I believe a more appropriate title would be "Why SW technology never _seems_ to change." It is stated that most of the high end stuff at the beginning of the lore is pretty much recycled and repurposed Rakatan tech, but across the history of SW there's small but constant upgrades applied to previous iterations of Rakatan original recipes, during the clone wars there was a lot of stuff that's so far above that it really can't be compared to the original technology that the early civs used.
It's probably also a case of "outsider looking in" cause we the audience can't tell the difference between an old republic era blaster and a clone wars era but an in universe expert would be able to fill a book with all the actual differences.
There was also a 1000 year long war that had people reduced to using spears by the end of it so I'm pretty sure a lot of the Republic's 1000 years of peace was spent playing catch up.
@@Northraider123 Yeah, a blaster, though not strictly considering disruptors (Though there were smaller and less "POOF!" disintegration type disruptors that were meant for packing more punch and armor piercing in the handheld capacity.) or turbolaser in the old Republic is considerably weaker compared to most common blasters by the time of Russan and the prequals. It came to the point that personal shield generators fell out of use because because they generally speaking couldn't even tank a shot from a blaster rifle with the limited power draw to not emit harmful radiation. Plastoid was also considered to be VERY inferior to durasteel and other alloy type armors. The armor seen in post Mandalorian wars was likely not primarily plastoid like that of clone or stormtrooper armor. Potentially more as an ablative layer over lighter alloy plate, that allowed for armor that was similarly effective but lighter.
@@alex52043 That was a bit more on the level of persistent availability of resources. Such a long and drawn out conflict made known resource deposits reach their limit for possible output, if not being mined out completely. Even blasters/turbolasers use a (non Kyber) crystal focusing system in creation of the plasma like bolt that blasters fire. Which is part of the reason why you get such drastic drops in power when dropping down to pistol and holdout pistol sizes. Even Jango's rather high power Wesstar blaster pistols had to put several shots into that one Jedi Master on Genonosis before being well and truly put down. Blaster rifle would have been one and done more or less.
Supposedly, at least in legends, personal energy shields that can soak up massed blaster fire like those of a droideka generate lots of harmful ionizing radiation inside the shield. Despite this, clone commando's and kyle katarn are still able to use them without getting mega cancer... for some reason.
@@7ElevenTruther I reckon part of that is because Kyle Katarn is, well, Kyle Mothafuckin' Katarn. Either he has some sort of "Force Rad-Away" power going on, OR he's able to cure radiation sickness with homemade wine. (Jason Court, the actor for Kyle Katarn in Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, is now a winemaker) That said, if there's a development where the irradiation factor is mitigated, be it through a breakthrough in shielding technology or the invention of Rad-Away, it'd be neat to see personal shields make a comeback, even if they're not as dense or resilient as droideka bubbles. Speaking of which Katarn-era personal shields have that quirk where physical attacks go straight through, and that's really neat for multiple reasons beyond game mechanics.
@@7ElevenTruther you're telling me this NOW? Do you have any idea how many Energy Shields I've poped through my KOTOR and KOTOR 2 playthroughs? At this point my main characters should have tumors the size of a basketball
@@TheExecutorrIn the older era blasters were much weaker so lower output shields that don't cause radiation were viable(and also the cutting edge of the day). In the quest for stronger shields to keep up with improving blasters, the radiation issue put an end to personal shields.
I would say we do see technology improved over the years in Star Wars games because in the Old Republic blasters were more bulkier, droids looked more outdated, and ships didn’t have shields. So I say it’s something we just miss if we don’t look closely.
Technology regularly hits plateau's. Two real-world historical points: The flintlock was invented around 1600, and not only became the standard firearm mechanism, but was not replaced for over 200 years, when the percussion cap was perfected, and became the standard. Second, people think that the _"latest-n-greatest"_ military rifles of today are somehow "new" -- they are not: The M-16/M4 design dates from the mid-1950's, as does the CETME/H&K G3/91. The HK416 and G36's core designs are nothing more than an improved AR-18 from the early 1970's. Both the AK47/AKM and the FN FAL (via the FN49) date to the 1940's.....There have been tweaks in the designs, and there have certainly been improvements to materials technology, but people trained on these weapons at opposites ends of their development can trade places, and have little or no trouble using the design from the opposite end of the tree. You can make the same argument about vehicle designs. Communications, computers and other electronic components have been advancing rapidly, as - of course - has medical tech, but on that last, it's important to remember that medical "humorism" lasted for at least 2,000 years, and that until the advent of the telegraph in the 19th Century, the fastest methods of communication known were either a rider on horseback, people lighting fires on the tops of towers, or using mirrors to bounce sunlight off of clouds. All _Star Wars_ does, in and out of 'verse, is lengthen the plateau's out to millennia.
Lol, that's the whole point. Plateaus last longer the lower tech you are. Star Wars isn't low tech, yet are stuck for thousands of years? You can't just grab examples from the middle ages and explain how Star Wars verse has the same hurdles and plateaus. You can't excuse your space-faring civilization with FTL travel being akin to a middle-aged civilization in terms of speed in tech advancement. Technology builds on technology, and Star Wars has plenty. They just didn't advance much because the universe lacks creativity. Using WW2 tech but with scifi names and scifi effects is just easier on both the writers and the audience. Not to mention, they don't want to alienate their audience with any realistically paced change in technology. "It's not star wars" you'll hear the fans cry.
@@plep1046 That is the whole point though. We used swords for thousands of years, with a ton of different designs, but you can reach a peak of how much more utility you can get out of a sharp and pointy object. Just because there is little change, doesn’t mean there is no change. There have to be major breakthroughs for advancement once you hit a peak. You can even see that in our science today where it takes more and more people working together to make incremental advances on things we have theorized to be possible but can’t yet achieve.
Especially with things like body armor, how do you improve the design of something that covers your full body with armor plates? You can change the material it's made out of but unless your biology changes, the shape will always look the same no matter how many years pass by.
Star Wars is a Cargo Cult Galaxy. There, that’s it, that’s the only way the long term stagnation in technology makes sense. Someone, in the past, took Stone-to-Iron Age civilizations and gave them technology. I mean that’s what the ancient history of the SW galaxy is in several iterations, Canon and Legends, anyway, the “who” differs. But… That means that when the “old masters” died off, the slaves were left with technology they can reproduce and tinker, but they do not know how it works. Hyperdrive. Anti-gravity. Artificial gravity. Shields. Blasters. Lightsabers. Droids. That’s why we see sentient droids, even at the lowest levels, but we do not see many “present day level” basic tech. That’s why so much stuff is done manually. That’s why piss poor farmers have antigravity sled, but no electricity (and the sled needs to be towed by animal). Ages of technological advancement were skipped over and nobody knows how the miracle tech works. Nobody knows how to turn the small, seemingly endless power source that powers the antigrav sled, into an actual power source (if it can hold 1 ton 1m above ground, it has output of 10kW, give or take). Most of advancement over the ages seems to be “this, but bigger” instead of “something else that delivers the same results in a smaller package”. So chances are nobody really knows how to encrypt/decrypt stuff except going through already existing procedures and droids. Which means that in turn this can be decrypted quickly and easily. At least for the basic stuff. Edited to add: Just realized how to TL:DR it: Star Wars galaxy seems to be able to do only some limited applied research, but not primary research.
@@Mark-in8ju Holy shit, I never thought about it that way but fuck you're right. It's just like Mass Effect, everyone found the Relays and Mass Effect tech became the norm and every other avenue of research fell off because 'Why research and waste money and resources when it's been gift wrapped for us?'
Completely unrelated but in Episode 3 Palpatine says “Once More” the Sith will rule the galaxy, this line is interesting to me as both in Canon and the EU we’ve never seen a time where the sith fully took over the Galaxy Prior to Palpatine. I hope we get to see this someday.
It's consistent that Palpatine has bought into the Sith conspiracy theory that they totally could rule the galaxy, and have, and the fact that history doesn't support that is the Republic secretly lying to make themselves look better. Both historical revisionism for perceived legitimacy's sake and projecting their own flaws onto others is pretty close to the heart of fascist groups, and I wouldn't be surprised Palpatine bought his own nonsense.
"Rule" is not the same as "take over the whole galaxy" Not even Palpatine had the *whole* Galaxy directly under Imperial control. The Sith under Revan and Malek absolutely "Ruled" the galaxy for a short time.
@@Michael-bn1oi Its important to note that in GL's mind the Sith essentially conquered the galaxy at some point (or what was understood as the galaxy 1000 years ago). They ruled the galaxy then lost it all due to constant infighting. GL never cared about the EU lore, thus its important to assume we take Palpatine's word literally here.
Curtis Saxton had the best explanation, I think, namely: the Star Wars universe has (long ago) discovered all of physics. Technology doesn't change because there is literally no where else for them to go.
That could be true, except that the Galaxy seems not have discovered some of the physics that we know. My explanation for Star Wars' tech stagnation is that people in Star Wars don't actually understand how most of their game-changing technologies work. The only devices they have that far surpass our own are: blasters, hyperdrives, shields, repulsor lifts, lightsabers, and maybe droids. None of those are possible under our physics. So, what we are really seeing in Star Wars is a series of civilizations that are driven by a few arcane spells but who are otherwise making scientific progress at a similar pace to us. This would explain why people in Star Wars settle where they do, live how they live, and fight with techniques like the broadside. The greatest physical challenge for a civilization is getting into space. Once you're there, with just a little extra knowledge, a bronze age community could survive. Traveling to new planets is the next big problem civilizations have to solve and it is solved in Star Wars. With hyper-repulsor magic and the guidance of just a few technocrats, people really could just hunter--gather their way across the galaxy. The pressure to settle down just isn't there when there's a new Eden beyond every hyper-jump. The pressure to settle down finally comes once all the megafauna on your new planet has gone extinct, and you've run out of Edens at the end of your hyperspace lane and are left only with Tattooines. Isolated species like those on Geonosis and Kamino are the true masters of science in Star Wars, but they are surrounded by fleets of FTL barbarians and space wizards. So, they barter a techno-miracle here and there. In return, they are invited into federations of hyper-traders.
@@Catcrumbs What technological progression? The droids are the same, the weapons are the same, the ships are the same. After all, we're only looking at a period of 25 years or so. Can you clarify?
One thing I liked about the old Dark Horse Tales of the Jedi comics was how different everything looked from the "modern" Star Wars universe, instead of KOTOR's OT and prequel stuff with the serial numbers filed off.
I remember KotOR even trying to be a step down in technology in design and lore: Hammerhead and astromech designs, and references to fuels and communication tech, for example. Sometimes, innovation means perfecting a design to use better materials or more efficient power, not a whole new look.
Another thing i think we should consider, regarding why doesn't tech advance as much... is because of the fact that... well how would you 'improve' a blaster? make it fire faster, make it incinerate an enemy like say star trek phasers when turned to max? the blaster pistols are already pretty damn strong, even clones wearing armor can't take much in blaster shots. You can improve accuracy, trigger response, blaster effectivity range, maybe even ammo cartridge size. but eventually you just... can't improve much beyond micro changes. sure the capitol ships are another thing, but again... all you can really do is 'improve the starship' not the starship's weapons. an imperial star destroyer was just as effective at orbital bombardment as a Sith Interdictor during the Jedi Civil War
That's true. Especially when you consider that it's been thousands of years. I think technology has reached a point where we can only make small improvements. The most you can do is calculate a better hyperspace route. But the ships actually work perfectly.
Another factor is manufacturing cost. it's pointless galaxy wide companies creating a advanced piece of tech that's so expensive few could afford it or even have the tools to make it, so few if any put the time and money to even make the initial research. They want cheap mass production that only last so they have repeat customers.
Blasters did get much stronger over the years, to the point that personal shields became unviable as shields strong enough to take the shots emitted harmful radiation that could not be dealt with within the size requirements of a personal shield.
So according to West End Games' Star Wars Roleplaying manual, which was the first sourcebook from which all other expansions on the Star Wars universe derived, hyperspace routes change all the time, due to the natural traveling of stars, planets, and other astronomical bodies through space, and so each time a ship jumps to hyperspace they need to carefully calculate a route extrapolated using existing data. Longer routes take much more time to calculate, but when whole fleets are traveling to the same place, such as with the battle of Endor, they can make the calculation once and distribute it to all the ships in the fleet, using Astromech droids to carry the data to smaller ships. However, if a route is traveled frequently, such as with the Hydian Way, up-to-date data is more readily available and calculations may not even need to be made at all--other ships traveling the Way have already done it recently for you. The longer a route goes without any ships traveling it, the more risky it becomes. This risk can be mitigated by breaking the route down into smaller, safer jumps. Now, I don't remember if this next part was from the West End Sourcebook or not (I think it is), but earlier astronavigators used the Force to plot out hyperspace routes. And even earlier still, in KOTOR lore, beings known as the Kwa traveled the galaxy using devices called Infinity Gates, bringing knowledge of the Force to many species.
I mean its literally stated in the Old Republic Canon lore that the Republic Trooper armor is literally copied from Mandolorian Crusader armor. Who during the time period cut a bloody path deep into Republic space killing all Republic forces and the Republic literally had nothing to counter it.
The biggest difference to Star Trek is that Star Trek is mainly about progress. Either on an ethical level or a technical level.Which is why you always see newer ships and technology there. In Star Wars, this progress is definitely there, as Episode 8 shows with hyperspace tracking. But many technologies are simply so reliable that they only need to be changed minimally. In addition, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of raw materials in Star Wars, which is why technology doesn't have to become more efficient to conserve them. In other words the Death Star.
An easy explanation for technological stagnation in Star Wars is that once you get to a certain level of technology development plataues, and you will then only see very minor incremental improvements, we are currently seeing that with computers, where they are no longer progressing as exponentially as they used to and advancements are more coming in the form of improved chip efficiency, or the same is true of phones, we no longer get major improvements on each successive generation but slower more minor changes, it can be assumed that such a trend would be present broadly in a highly advanced society where once things get to a certain point it takes much longer to make even small improvements.
I tend to see it more of form/function. Thousands of years ago they had already arrived at roughly the optimum shape of an object such as chair, table, blaster or tractor for its function, so while the technology inside a complex object such as a droid or blaster continued to develop from the outside it looks like little has changed. Dig out a 2,500 year old Roman sofa or a hand tool and its not that different to a sofa or scythe we use today.
star wars was also made prior to modern era where smart phones/personal computers/3d printers/etc were even a thing, also cell phones in general... designing prototyping something today is so much faster/easier than it was 40 years ago. we still use the same pickaxe, shovel, and axe design as we did over a thousand years ago, we have "gimmicky" tools made recently, but do people really use them in large numbers if at all after realizing they aren't worth it? we [modern humans assuming fair degree of education and critical and logical thinking] can tell the difference between a shovel taken off the shelf from [big box store], one from 1800s, and one from dark ages... could we really tell the difference between a random blaster from 1000bby at end of sith wars, one from end of high republic era [not clone ones], and one from 130aby during the fel empire era? and even more direct example of this issue is gaming computers. look at how slow personal computers of some power increased in specs for 20 years in 90s/00s. and then at the cost of increased power needs they started getting much more powerful each generation. and then there was a large leap in manufacturing ability and the 10series from nvidia came out with one of the least power hungry but faster and more efficient than any before graphics cards. they even marketed it on how much more efficient it was and how easily cooled it was even at high stress due to how little voltage [i think] it needed and how small each thread was. and then the 20 series was just "ray tracing tacked on". and now the 30 series and 40 series are more powerful but at the cost of over triple the power needed for those 10 series and they run far hotter because they are just brute forcing the technology limits we currently have. blasters are much the same in star wars, you either have smaller weapons with limitations or bigger weapons meant to do bigger damage. and then there is the human element, we irl have bigger caliber rifles. they can't be carried and shoulder fired by an infantryman. there is only so much we can do with "slugthrowers" that are able to be used by soldiers. the powder charge is the same just in larger volume, the firing pin hitting primer is the same even for big artillery, the rifling can't be magically increased in effectiveness without a massive change in design/tech, we now have functional hybrid rifle cases with plastic and metal to cut down a tiny bit on weight, bullets are just a chunk of metal being propelled at high speed no matter what the metal is specifically or what design with multiple metals it is. an 8x57mm mauser bolt action rifle from a 120 years ago is just as effective as a bolt action hunting rifle in 7.62x51nato made today with similar tolerances.
@@aidanlavin8211 As an example I dont like the Sith troopers and Destroyers in Kotor1. Not a fan. I like how swotor did the factions. Thou I prefer if the republic maintained a mix of the kotor uniform. At least a little bit, instead of being clone troopers.
@@dnaseb9214swtors designs are fantastic. The Republic trooper armor is awesome and the Harrower js probably the best looking Star Destroyer of all time
People today don't realize how much technological stagnation is the norm, rather than the exception in our own world. There are tens of thousands of years of human history that experienced very little technological innovation. The exponential growth we saw in the 19th and 20th centuries were very much the exception, and we've seen the amount of breakthroughs slow down in recent decades. Once I considered this, the seeing the stagnation of the Star Wars universe didn't bother me so much.
look at a shovel from the crusades next to a shovel from big box store. look the same don't they? save better steel, handle made of stronger material than wood stick, maybe more refined finish without hammer marks, corrosion/element resistant coating on metal....
@@mrmors1344 That's not really what I'm talking about. Now, you compare a shovel from the era of the First Crusade and one from the early moder period, that would be what I'm talking about.
Bro you can’t even look to your left or right in a TIE fighter and I’m supposed to believe people just lived with it for 30 years when there are multiple shows and movies showing that you can easily adapt the designs? The Resistance having a lot of old tech and ships would make sense. They’re grabbing whatever works, the First Order having Empire TIE fighters with 0 changes is ridiculous
Arguably technology never changing is probably the most realistic aspect of Star Wars. For most of human history the way your parents lived was going to be the same as the way your kids lived. Its only been in the industrial revolution and since that things evolved much more rapidly (and I think they are slowing down again). Most years in human history are going to look the same or very similar to the same year 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future.
When I originally heard this framing, I felt defensive of SW. However, I think it's a very helpful way to frame expectations of SW lore. SW is pure fantasy with a sci-fi aesthetic. Much like Middle Earth or the D&D multiverse, the conceit is technology must remain stagnant because these worlds are an expression of a specific vision of culture, conflicting forces, and mysterious phenomena. If it's a world that allows for true progress of knowledge, then it will be a world that eventually ceases to be what it was. Some authors do this, but for others, that defeats the point of the world. SW is one like this.
The story about the “life” of the Star Destroyer sounds awesome. I don’t think I’ve really ever read anything similar in Star Wars and would enjoy something along those lines.
This is one of the things i love about star wars, the tech is so static it feels like its been this way for SO LONG people have basically forgotten that it was ever not there, it gives the whole universe an incredibly old and mysterious feel that nothing else can really compare to
i always figured that the tech in Star Wars is so advanced, they didn't need and or want to do more research. reasons for this train of thought is that one, either they would find their research and development is so hyper advanced it quickly moves on from one subject to another that they can't enjoy the fruits of their labor, or two, that their tech is so advanced there's nothing else to do but look into making efficiency and quality upgrades so small they barely even register as an upgrade.
That idea about the life of a star destroyer is fucking brilliant and should be published bro. Also, your updates/casual explanations are killer - not filler. I’ve been appreciating your content more and more throughout time.
I like where you're going with your story about the star destroyer through time. It would be cool to see what it sees through reports from officers like after action stuff, final construction reports, and so on!
Would love to see you make more obscure scifi videos like you did a few years ago with “I have no mouth & I must scream” and other stories. It was really interesting & I enjoyed getting your take on things. Thanks eck
I find a vignette of stories from the perspective of a star destroyer to be fascinating. As you mention, from it's beginning as an Imperial Star Destroyer, to capture by the New Republic, maybe even recapture by Palpatine's Dark Empire before return to New Republic service. Fighting in the later conflicts with the VeYeventha or the Orinda campaign, followed by the Yuuzhan Vong and the Second Galactic Civil War. That's over 50 years in theory of service. Alternatively the star destroyer in the story could be the Errant Venture, which definitely had a varied life (Imperial, New Republic/Smuggler ship, casino, Jedi academy and warship, casino). So many possibilities.
I was hoping you'd answer a question about your own story ideas for a while now. I asked once, but you already answered a previous question of mine so I figured I shouldn't keep bothering your askeck section. I think the Star Destroyer idea is great, but I really do like the "Coruscant Family Robinson" idea. I think it's also the most marketable idea (not that marketing is important) because it explores an unfamiliar part of Star Wars using a familiar story to do it. I'd love to see something like that in the future. Of course if they made it now, then Disney would probably replace the characters with Din Djarin and Grogu so they can milk the Mandalorian as much as possible.
I like these videos, im imagining your story idea of ship evolution could take from the perspective of some kind of forgotten droid that services the ship to a point where it has become part of the ship
Technically, legends Old Republic troopers and Sith troopers are way different. In KOTOR they have red and yellow armor with helmets similar to rebel Fleet troopers. It is only after SWTOR came out, is when they started looking like Stormtroopers.
Eck, please write those stories or create them in some form or another. Those are amazing ideas, and with your star wars knowledge, i know they'd be great.
This of taking questions are so cool, makes it feel responsive and idk; is it like a half vacation to not really plan out what video to make :D just giving what people want. literally. That story of the ship sound like it be a interesting one.
6:48 some of the old crew still remain and they raise their children on the ship,woah I just had an idea a Jedi cruiser that serves as a Jedi temple I’m sorry if it sounds foolish
I'd love to do a story about the unknown regions, specifically what would happen if a faction found a super advanced ancient unknown alien civilization, meaning not sith or Jedi, would they do FTL different, how'd they view the force, why didn't they counqer the galaxy those kinda things, love your videos! Thanks for helping keep my love of Star Wars alive during these hard years
I always assumed it was like the real world, galactic society, like earth society, just hit a point where things only inched forward because it hit a point where things looked pretty similar for a few thousand years because in its current form it COULNT dramatically change and everything in the galaxy would look like it isn’t changing much until it discovers some grand leap in technology that changes the whole game (like steam/nuclear power did for earth). Like it just doesn’t have the means to vary much more besides individual technologies offhandedly improving at a snail’s pace.
Another great video eck! REQUEST: How bout a sw battlefront mods personal favorite video? Maybe even some obscure ones. Since u love teasing us with gamepley every other video ;) Mine would be the sith wars II mod, since it uses Darth Bane era sith gun troopers
Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Even after over a century of technological development, cars still looks like cars, and planes still look like planes.
I disagree. We still see a lot of change today. EVs are on the rise. Even with regular cars, wireless fobs are now common, when we used to need to physically fish out keys. Planes are getting bigger and bigger engines. Nasa is experimenting with radical glider-like wings.
Battery technology is exactly the same as it was 4000 years ago. All we've done is just change the chemicals. *Although that might finally change at some point in the next 50 years
hey eck i have been loving the newer content I like the more news/current show focus but with the negativity around the new shows and games i love the pivot towards lore which has tons of content to pull from ill watch whatever star wars content you make but i love hearing your opinions on stuff but in particular the new/renewed pivot to lore
Would love to see an out of universe history of Star Wars merchandising, video games, and EU. The different publishing houses, Kenner, the arcs and series, MMOs, etc
Star Wars is a Cargo Cult Galaxy. There, that’s it, that’s the only way the long term stagnation in technology makes sense. Someone, in the past, took Stone-to-Iron Age civilizations and gave them technology. I mean that’s what the ancient history of the SW galaxy is in several iterations, Canon and Legends, anyway, the “who” differs. But… That means that when the “old masters” died off, the slaves were left with technology they can reproduce and tinker, but they do not know how it works. Hyperdrive. Anti-gravity. Artificial gravity. Shields. Blasters. Lightsabers. Droids. That’s why we see sentient droids, even at the lowest levels, but we do not see many “present day level” basic tech. That’s why so much stuff is done manually. That’s why piss poor farmers have antigravity sled, but no electricity (and the sled needs to be towed by animal). Ages of technological advancement were skipped over and nobody knows how the miracle tech works. Nobody knows how to turn the small, seemingly endless power source that powers the antigrav sled, into an actual power source (if it can hold 1 ton 1m above ground, it has output of 10kW, give or take). Most of advancement over the ages seems to be “this, but bigger” instead of “something else that delivers the same results in a smaller package”. So chances are nobody really knows how to encrypt/decrypt stuff except going through already existing procedures and droids. Which means that in turn this can be decrypted quickly and easily. At least for the basic stuff. Edited to add: Just realized how to TL:DR it: Star Wars galaxy seems to be able to do only some limited applied research, but not primary research.
6:26 I hate you. That's such a cool idea for a book!! I never thought of making the ship the third person narrator that's cataloguing the story... what a fascinating perspective!!! I promise I won't do Star Wars... *_BUT,_* I can't promise I'm not going to steal that idea 😅😂
technology is funny in that, some things do reach a pinnacle in which change isn't needed. There is only so many ways to make human-orientated body armor especially if it is just armor and not meant to be a "space suit" too. Same would be true of computers and ship engines. It's just curious that when you deal with time scales of thousands of years, you would think more change would be more readily apparent.
If you want some inspiration for the star destroyer story, there's a battletech novel with a similar premise. It follows a battlemech through the various ages of the setting. The premise is similar enough that you could probably get some good ideas, but different enough that it would still be unique. The book is "Legacy" a battletech anthology.
If you want to check out something similar to his Star Destroyer story, check out the Millennium Falcon novel. Set between Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, it's the story of Han and Leia taking care of their granddaughter Allana (the daughter of Jacen and Tenel Ka). One day Allana finds a piece of equipment on the Falcon that even Han doesn't recognize and the family decides to take a space road trip backtracking the history of the Millennium Falcon to see where it came from. We get to see the Falcon on the assembly line as a freshly built stock transport, we see her under the different names she's had over the years including solidifying the Revenge of the Sith cameo, we see a bunch of the different adventures she's gone on long before Lando got her, much less Han.
For the ship story, do it using Ship Logs!!! Each chapter a new log, many in order and close in time to one another, gaps when battles or abandonments happen, takeovers and new logs entered by a new crew... I would read a collection of books like that. Each book a different ship log!
This might be random, but I LOVE this video. I think the biggest appeal of lore videos in general and Eck in particular is his ability to give the behind-the-scenes explanation as well as the in-universe lore without being pretentious
All I can say is, I'd love to see a deep dive into how one could, given the opportunity to live in the world of star wars and say you cannot die of age, reach the pinnacle of existence. Like, given not having to worry about aging, how strong could some being get? What creature could go the furthest?
I like the idea of your Star Destroyer through the years story. Very similar to the Millennium Falcon novel where we get to see the history of the ship from assembly line through the various owners (including the Revenge of the Sith cameo!) and ultimately winding up in Lando's and later Han's hands. A similar story about a warship in the factions would be interesting too.
Do you think star wars will ever fully tackle the issue of "droid rights"? They seem to walk the line between having fully seemingly sentient droid friends we are meant to value as individuals but also want to use them as 'robots' to dismember for gags. I have long thought perhaps a force sensitive droid would be a good introduction point for the universe to grapple with this issue. Treating the issue as partially a joke and partially serious in the Solo movie felt like a really inadequate covering of the issue.
Going by what is established Lore for both EU and canon at this point, force se sensitive Droids are impossible (no, Skippy the Droid was never canon In any continutiy, he was from a joke comic, dont bring him up^^), since they are not biologocal they cant have midichlorians and therefore no forceconnection. Sentience is another issue tho. Its established that the more developed personality of some droids is the result of them going for long times without a memory wipe, R2 being the best example for that. If those developed Systems Constitute a real conscoiusness has indeed never really been seriously adressed or discussed in Detail, although the EU definetly had some stuff about it. But mainly it came down to how the characters themselves handeld it. Luke for example was always noted to be especially Carina and kind towards droids and seemed to view them as sentient individuals.
@@datzfatz2368 it just seems strange to me that you have, as you mention, the story treating characters like Luke and Anakin as morally good for treating their droids well, but still treat droids as a whole as disposable dismemberment gags. I understand that in the lore as it is now, theres no way for droids to be force sensitive. I just think it might be an interesting direction to explore in the future, if they ever wanted to properly tackle a 'droid rights' plotline.
@@Sesekriri yeah absolutely, i also wish they had made it a Main topic of discussion way earlier. As things are now i dont think Disney will ever make something substantive about the topic^^
@@datzfatz2368 I agree the current state of Disney Star Wars is disappointing in terms of exploring and real issues, but im not completely hopeless it will be that way forever.
I would definitely buy your book about the star destroyer. I love the ships in the Star Wars universe, probably more than the actual characters lol. The droids make it Star Wars to me as well.
maybe what we see as technologcal stagnation is actually a design aesthetic while the technology looks old it's actually upgraded from the original. for the armor comparison it's possilbe that the new republic trooper armor is less protective than clone trooper armor.
All three sound like good bones for stories, but that star destroyer one sounds amazing. There could be a spin off for an older Star dreadnought too serving from old republic through clone wars imperial ran into the new republic.
I love these kinds of vids #AskEck What are your thoughts on the Tapani Sector? I think it's interesting how they have this whole deep culture, but the only planet that gets any focus is Fondor. They have historic ties to the Jedi and Sith so they have bootleg lightsabers and they have their own gaudy (and questionably useful) capital ships.
This is another thing I hate about the sequels NOTHING HAS CHANGED not only the technologies but everything seems like a big poorly done repetition of the original trilogy.
@indymadden5737 that and the hyperspace ramming in TLJ part bothered the hell out of me... If that were always possible, then how are hyperspace missiles not already a mainstay weapon in the star wars universe? Even if a hyper drive is expensive, we know theyre small enough to fit into a capital mssile (some fighters have hyperdrives), and sacrificing one is cheap compared to the easy damage it can cause. I mean, even IRL, a tomahawk cruise missile costs something absurd and uses a jet engine to fly around (very complicated for something meant to be used once), yet the US still buys many of them because sometimes you just cant beat having precision munitions fired from way over the horizon.
I'm not going to defend the seequels but this has been an issue for the franchise from day one. And as unoriginal as it was Death Star lasers on Star Destroyers made way more tactical sense than a giant, slow moon sized target that everyone sees coming because Star Destroyers have better force projection, it was a clear case of advancement. Really, KOTOR was the real offender.
Hello Eck, this is my first time leaving a comment, ever. I just wanted to say that I think a story from the perspective of a star destroyer would be awesome. Love your channel😊
#AskEck loving this kinda chill style of video! One topic id like to hear your thoughts on are like the top 10 legends books or series or some guide to the EU books I started listening to the EU books 3ish years ago on audible, but I never had much direction outside of start w the thrawn trilogy and plagueis. and im still finding some amazing books ive never heard of
This is where the High Republic get a One Up from the EU, at least in the High Republic Era we see Technology actually evolve, unlike in Kotor where not much has changed in the past almost 4,000 years.
@@olafgurke4699 In fact, no reason to assume that due to conflicts against a militia that destroyed several hyper-space routes using a superweapon, the Galaxy's economy suffered a very negative impact and this affected technology. Additionally, many situations typical of the prequels such as the use of Bacta for medical purposes began to become more common during the High Republic.
1 - Familiar aesthetics. Anyone can get into it, without having redefine everything to know who the good guys and bad guys and everyone else is at a glance. 2 - When you buy something from a big name brand company, you’d expect it to have a certain look and certain traits and strengths that others don’t. Everyone develops these preferences. For the corporations, it becomes their identity, how they distinguish themselves from everyone else. 3 - When something just works, there’s little need for innovation or to re-invent the wheel. We for example still use chisels, hammers, shovels, rakes, hoes, writing instruments, pluming and water works theory, all of which are still common place and haven’t really changed radically since the dawn of civilization, despite the affordability of more modern alternatives. Electric cars are still have a tiny fringe market even over a century later. Some people still use the bow and arrow and swords. And some communities still wear the same styles that their ancestors wore millennia ago. And some still use horse or other animal drawn land vehicles. As far as things like 1970’s style computer consoles, screens, buttons and switches? Yeah, this has become part of the Star Wars aesthetic. To rationalize it, old school tech was easier to work with, figure out, maintain and cheap. A tube burnt out, broke a switch or button? Just open it up and replace it or re wire it. Need to solder a chip? It’s big and easy. Here you could rationalize it as you want your equipment to be easy enough for a farm hand of a near tribal culture born on a backwater of a world to be able to use it, without having to go to some place like Starfleet Academy to learn about something like warp theory and quantum mechanics. They just need to know what buttons to push and when, and call a tech who knows how replace parts that smoking or that the lights are telling them to replace.
The lack of tech progression has always bugged me too, but it also isn't surprising considering ot is of the same genus as common plot armor. Off hand, the only major improvements/evolutions I can think of over the eu would be: Progression then plateau on hyperspace speed Bacta The death star project The stealth x (Wasn't there something "revolutionary" about the YVH droids?) And maybe slicing, which always seemed analogous to modern hacking, as far as move-countermove.
Maybe the republic dark ages before 1000 bby were so devastating for galactic civilization that technology actually regressed a bit with the collapse of major industries and centers of learning?
In other words, Star Wars, Star Wars never changes
...Take my like and get the heck out! 😂
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I’m getting Fallout flashbacks
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Nice
Patrolling the outer rim almost makes you wish for another Clone War
@@protozoanpro All that yummy scrap
Fed My Family for three generations
Could use another one of those
Star Wars...Has Changed
Prior to KOTOR, the Old Republic stuff looked very different, it was a lot more medieval looking with the high tech stuff sorta welded on. KOTOR came out and made it into a very similar aesthetic to the prequels
I woulsnt say it was the same aesthetic, it looked less medieval and way less cartoony and made it look more like acc progression in star wars from the time of the great hyperspace war to kotor and showed that progression well. It was swtor that somewhat made it similar to the movies with ships like the sith Harrower ships
@@TY-km8hj That's fair, I suppose. It wasn't exactly the same, but much much closer. I remember it was really jarring at the time because I'd just recently read the Tales of the Jedi comic series with Exar Kun which is set only a few decades before KOTOR and the aesthetic is much closer to the Great Hyperspace war stuff than it is to KOTOR or the prequels.
@@TorvusVae ohhhhhh crap yh I fully forgot about tales of the jedi. U knw what yh that's acc fair cos ur right that was way more in line with what was used millenia prior to that. Tho I suppose within the 40 yrs from then to kotor it's possible we see rapid "modernisation" in response to that and then the mandalorian wars maybe since that era was just full of conflict which is usually the driving force behind technological advancement. Plus I really like how in kotor the Republic has their own aesthetic that feels pretty unique and then sith have their own too since they're based on the rakatan designs. Still, tho I can see why that would be really jarring for u and other readers.
@@TY-km8hj You've got a point, it's definitely possible that they developed technologically very quickly. And like, Carth talks about how personal protective shields got really popular very quickly in the beginning of KOTOR 1, but a lot of armor and robe descriptions in the game imply that they've been around for a very long time. Just major whiplash going from Tales of the Jedi aesthetic to now all of the Jedi high council are wearing the prequel era robes and talking about how the Jedi don't get involved in wars when they had just fought a huge war in living memory. That was always a huge problem in Legends, the canon was so messy they had to have a whole team of lorekeepers and different levels of canon to deal with the contradictions. I did really like the Mandalorian Crusaders and how you could really see how their armor was related to what the Mandos would use later on. I honestly didn't even mind The Old Republic MMO being even more explicitly based on the prequels, being that it was a way bigger time skip. I like the prequel aesthetic, it just needed a little more setup than KOTOR gave us.
@@TorvusVae those points are more than fair tbh, and yh much as I lived legends there were a lot of contradictions that would go on to cause problems
The imperium of man: “finally, a worthy opponent!”
40k would stomp the star wars galaxy into dust
@@dragerdet, in terms of technological stagnation not power projection. At least the Imperium has a very good reason why they're stagnant what's the Republic's excuse?
@@enoughothis Lazy writing? It's too easy to just stick with what's known in the fandom without trying to expand or invent new things?
@@enoughothissaid reasons was literally hell and chaos trying to kill them.
@@dragerdetYou underestimate my power(scaling).
I believe a more appropriate title would be "Why SW technology never _seems_ to change." It is stated that most of the high end stuff at the beginning of the lore is pretty much recycled and repurposed Rakatan tech, but across the history of SW there's small but constant upgrades applied to previous iterations of Rakatan original recipes, during the clone wars there was a lot of stuff that's so far above that it really can't be compared to the original technology that the early civs used.
It's probably also a case of "outsider looking in" cause we the audience can't tell the difference between an old republic era blaster and a clone wars era but an in universe expert would be able to fill a book with all the actual differences.
It's like WH40k but instead of slowly decline existing technology over the centuries, it's the other way around for star wars but abit slower :x
There was also a 1000 year long war that had people reduced to using spears by the end of it so I'm pretty sure a lot of the Republic's 1000 years of peace was spent playing catch up.
@@Northraider123 Yeah, a blaster, though not strictly considering disruptors (Though there were smaller and less "POOF!" disintegration type disruptors that were meant for packing more punch and armor piercing in the handheld capacity.) or turbolaser in the old Republic is considerably weaker compared to most common blasters by the time of Russan and the prequals. It came to the point that personal shield generators fell out of use because because they generally speaking couldn't even tank a shot from a blaster rifle with the limited power draw to not emit harmful radiation. Plastoid was also considered to be VERY inferior to durasteel and other alloy type armors. The armor seen in post Mandalorian wars was likely not primarily plastoid like that of clone or stormtrooper armor. Potentially more as an ablative layer over lighter alloy plate, that allowed for armor that was similarly effective but lighter.
@@alex52043 That was a bit more on the level of persistent availability of resources. Such a long and drawn out conflict made known resource deposits reach their limit for possible output, if not being mined out completely. Even blasters/turbolasers use a (non Kyber) crystal focusing system in creation of the plasma like bolt that blasters fire. Which is part of the reason why you get such drastic drops in power when dropping down to pistol and holdout pistol sizes. Even Jango's rather high power Wesstar blaster pistols had to put several shots into that one Jedi Master on Genonosis before being well and truly put down. Blaster rifle would have been one and done more or less.
One of the few changes I remember is how once personal energy shields were more widely used until they became less viable as technology marched on.
Supposedly, at least in legends, personal energy shields that can soak up massed blaster fire like those of a droideka generate lots of harmful ionizing radiation inside the shield.
Despite this, clone commando's and kyle katarn are still able to use them without getting mega cancer... for some reason.
@@7ElevenTruther I reckon part of that is because Kyle Katarn is, well, Kyle Mothafuckin' Katarn. Either he has some sort of "Force Rad-Away" power going on, OR he's able to cure radiation sickness with homemade wine. (Jason Court, the actor for Kyle Katarn in Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, is now a winemaker)
That said, if there's a development where the irradiation factor is mitigated, be it through a breakthrough in shielding technology or the invention of Rad-Away, it'd be neat to see personal shields make a comeback, even if they're not as dense or resilient as droideka bubbles. Speaking of which Katarn-era personal shields have that quirk where physical attacks go straight through, and that's really neat for multiple reasons beyond game mechanics.
@@7ElevenTruther you're telling me this NOW? Do you have any idea how many Energy Shields I've poped through my KOTOR and KOTOR 2 playthroughs? At this point my main characters should have tumors the size of a basketball
@@TheExecutorrIn the older era blasters were much weaker so lower output shields that don't cause radiation were viable(and also the cutting edge of the day). In the quest for stronger shields to keep up with improving blasters, the radiation issue put an end to personal shields.
@@7ElevenTruther Maybe the clone commando suit has radiation shielding.
I would say we do see technology improved over the years in Star Wars games because in the Old Republic blasters were more bulkier, droids looked more outdated, and ships didn’t have shields. So I say it’s something we just miss if we don’t look closely.
also, the old republic blasters were weak af, thats why most could just carry a portable mini shield
Technology regularly hits plateau's. Two real-world historical points: The flintlock was invented around 1600, and not only became the standard firearm mechanism, but was not replaced for over 200 years, when the percussion cap was perfected, and became the standard.
Second, people think that the _"latest-n-greatest"_ military rifles of today are somehow "new" -- they are not: The M-16/M4 design dates from the mid-1950's, as does the CETME/H&K G3/91. The HK416 and G36's core designs are nothing more than an improved AR-18 from the early 1970's. Both the AK47/AKM and the FN FAL (via the FN49) date to the 1940's.....There have been tweaks in the designs, and there have certainly been improvements to materials technology, but people trained on these weapons at opposites ends of their development can trade places, and have little or no trouble using the design from the opposite end of the tree.
You can make the same argument about vehicle designs. Communications, computers and other electronic components have been advancing rapidly, as - of course - has medical tech, but on that last, it's important to remember that medical "humorism" lasted for at least 2,000 years, and that until the advent of the telegraph in the 19th Century, the fastest methods of communication known were either a rider on horseback, people lighting fires on the tops of towers, or using mirrors to bounce sunlight off of clouds.
All _Star Wars_ does, in and out of 'verse, is lengthen the plateau's out to millennia.
Lol, that's the whole point. Plateaus last longer the lower tech you are. Star Wars isn't low tech, yet are stuck for thousands of years?
You can't just grab examples from the middle ages and explain how Star Wars verse has the same hurdles and plateaus.
You can't excuse your space-faring civilization with FTL travel being akin to a middle-aged civilization in terms of speed in tech advancement.
Technology builds on technology, and Star Wars has plenty. They just didn't advance much because the universe lacks creativity. Using WW2 tech but with scifi names and scifi effects is just easier on both the writers and the audience. Not to mention, they don't want to alienate their audience with any realistically paced change in technology. "It's not star wars" you'll hear the fans cry.
@@plep1046 That is the whole point though. We used swords for thousands of years, with a ton of different designs, but you can reach a peak of how much more utility you can get out of a sharp and pointy object. Just because there is little change, doesn’t mean there is no change. There have to be major breakthroughs for advancement once you hit a peak. You can even see that in our science today where it takes more and more people working together to make incremental advances on things we have theorized to be possible but can’t yet achieve.
Especially with things like body armor, how do you improve the design of something that covers your full body with armor plates? You can change the material it's made out of but unless your biology changes, the shape will always look the same no matter how many years pass by.
Star Wars is a Cargo Cult Galaxy. There, that’s it, that’s the only way the long term stagnation in technology makes sense.
Someone, in the past, took Stone-to-Iron Age civilizations and gave them technology. I mean that’s what the ancient history of the SW galaxy is in several iterations, Canon and Legends, anyway, the “who” differs.
But… That means that when the “old masters” died off, the slaves were left with technology they can reproduce and tinker, but they do not know how it works. Hyperdrive. Anti-gravity. Artificial gravity. Shields. Blasters. Lightsabers. Droids.
That’s why we see sentient droids, even at the lowest levels, but we do not see many “present day level” basic tech. That’s why so much stuff is done manually. That’s why piss poor farmers have antigravity sled, but no electricity (and the sled needs to be towed by animal). Ages of technological advancement were skipped over and nobody knows how the miracle tech works.
Nobody knows how to turn the small, seemingly endless power source that powers the antigrav sled, into an actual power source (if it can hold 1 ton 1m above ground, it has output of 10kW, give or take). Most of advancement over the ages seems to be “this, but bigger” instead of “something else that delivers the same results in a smaller package”.
So chances are nobody really knows how to encrypt/decrypt stuff except going through already existing procedures and droids. Which means that in turn this can be decrypted quickly and easily.
At least for the basic stuff. Edited to add: Just realized how to TL:DR it: Star Wars galaxy seems to be able to do only some limited applied research, but not primary research.
@@Mark-in8ju Holy shit, I never thought about it that way but fuck you're right. It's just like Mass Effect, everyone found the Relays and Mass Effect tech became the norm and every other avenue of research fell off because 'Why research and waste money and resources when it's been gift wrapped for us?'
Completely unrelated but in Episode 3 Palpatine says “Once More” the Sith will rule the galaxy, this line is interesting to me as both in Canon and the EU we’ve never seen a time where the sith fully took over the Galaxy Prior to Palpatine. I hope we get to see this someday.
It's consistent that Palpatine has bought into the Sith conspiracy theory that they totally could rule the galaxy, and have, and the fact that history doesn't support that is the Republic secretly lying to make themselves look better. Both historical revisionism for perceived legitimacy's sake and projecting their own flaws onto others is pretty close to the heart of fascist groups, and I wouldn't be surprised Palpatine bought his own nonsense.
"Rule" is not the same as "take over the whole galaxy" Not even Palpatine had the *whole* Galaxy directly under Imperial control.
The Sith under Revan and Malek absolutely "Ruled" the galaxy for a short time.
The key word is 'rule' and the sith did indeed rule a few times.
darth vitiate's Eternal Empire
@@Michael-bn1oi Its important to note that in GL's mind the Sith essentially conquered the galaxy at some point (or what was understood as the galaxy 1000 years ago). They ruled the galaxy then lost it all due to constant infighting. GL never cared about the EU lore, thus its important to assume we take Palpatine's word literally here.
I love that “Star Destroyer Through the Eras” idea. It would make a great fan film too. Please do this!
Curtis Saxton had the best explanation, I think, namely: the Star Wars universe has (long ago) discovered all of physics. Technology doesn't change because there is literally no where else for them to go.
That could be true, except that the Galaxy seems not have discovered some of the physics that we know.
My explanation for Star Wars' tech stagnation is that people in Star Wars don't actually understand how most of their game-changing technologies work.
The only devices they have that far surpass our own are: blasters, hyperdrives, shields, repulsor lifts, lightsabers, and maybe droids.
None of those are possible under our physics. So, what we are really seeing in Star Wars is a series of civilizations that are driven by a few arcane spells but who are otherwise making scientific progress at a similar pace to us.
This would explain why people in Star Wars settle where they do, live how they live, and fight with techniques like the broadside.
The greatest physical challenge for a civilization is getting into space. Once you're there, with just a little extra knowledge, a bronze age community could survive.
Traveling to new planets is the next big problem civilizations have to solve and it is solved in Star Wars.
With hyper-repulsor magic and the guidance of just a few technocrats, people really could just hunter--gather their way across the galaxy.
The pressure to settle down just isn't there when there's a new Eden beyond every hyper-jump.
The pressure to settle down finally comes once all the megafauna on your new planet has gone extinct, and you've run out of Edens at the end of your hyperspace lane and are left only with Tattooines.
Isolated species like those on Geonosis and Kamino are the true masters of science in Star Wars, but they are surrounded by fleets of FTL barbarians and space wizards.
So, they barter a techno-miracle here and there. In return, they are invited into federations of hyper-traders.
@@iivin4233 Just wanted to point out an honorable mention to the umbarans as well
I find the Saxton explanation unsatisfactory in light of the technological progression depicted from the prequels to the original series.
@@Catcrumbs What technological progression? The droids are the same, the weapons are the same, the ships are the same. After all, we're only looking at a period of 25 years or so. Can you clarify?
Terrible answer
One thing I liked about the old Dark Horse Tales of the Jedi comics was how different everything looked from the "modern" Star Wars universe, instead of KOTOR's OT and prequel stuff with the serial numbers filed off.
The pirate ship looking space cruisers, the lightsabers with battery packs etc. I agree
What struck me was how utterly ancient everything looked. It all reminded me of ancient Sumerians compared to us.
@@akl2k7 well said, I thought it was beautiful
I remember KotOR even trying to be a step down in technology in design and lore: Hammerhead and astromech designs, and references to fuels and communication tech, for example.
Sometimes, innovation means perfecting a design to use better materials or more efficient power, not a whole new look.
Another thing i think we should consider, regarding why doesn't tech advance as much... is because of the fact that... well how would you 'improve' a blaster? make it fire faster, make it incinerate an enemy like say star trek phasers when turned to max? the blaster pistols are already pretty damn strong, even clones wearing armor can't take much in blaster shots. You can improve accuracy, trigger response, blaster effectivity range, maybe even ammo cartridge size. but eventually you just... can't improve much beyond micro changes.
sure the capitol ships are another thing, but again... all you can really do is 'improve the starship' not the starship's weapons. an imperial star destroyer was just as effective at orbital bombardment as a Sith Interdictor during the Jedi Civil War
That's true. Especially when you consider that it's been thousands of years. I think technology has reached a point where we can only make small improvements. The most you can do is calculate a better hyperspace route. But the ships actually work perfectly.
Plus, it's likely the senate would outright banned any new breakthrough out of fear that it may lead a war.. like some kind of star wars.
Another factor is manufacturing cost. it's pointless galaxy wide companies creating a advanced piece of tech that's so expensive few could afford it or even have the tools to make it, so few if any put the time and money to even make the initial research. They want cheap mass production that only last so they have repeat customers.
Blasters did get much stronger over the years, to the point that personal shields became unviable as shields strong enough to take the shots emitted harmful radiation that could not be dealt with within the size requirements of a personal shield.
There's the kinda obvious thing in that long range missiles could have gotten better, but we're stuck in permanent WW2 fighting tactics instead.
So according to West End Games' Star Wars Roleplaying manual, which was the first sourcebook from which all other expansions on the Star Wars universe derived, hyperspace routes change all the time, due to the natural traveling of stars, planets, and other astronomical bodies through space, and so each time a ship jumps to hyperspace they need to carefully calculate a route extrapolated using existing data. Longer routes take much more time to calculate, but when whole fleets are traveling to the same place, such as with the battle of Endor, they can make the calculation once and distribute it to all the ships in the fleet, using Astromech droids to carry the data to smaller ships. However, if a route is traveled frequently, such as with the Hydian Way, up-to-date data is more readily available and calculations may not even need to be made at all--other ships traveling the Way have already done it recently for you. The longer a route goes without any ships traveling it, the more risky it becomes. This risk can be mitigated by breaking the route down into smaller, safer jumps.
Now, I don't remember if this next part was from the West End Sourcebook or not (I think it is), but earlier astronavigators used the Force to plot out hyperspace routes. And even earlier still, in KOTOR lore, beings known as the Kwa traveled the galaxy using devices called Infinity Gates, bringing knowledge of the Force to many species.
I mean its literally stated in the Old Republic Canon lore that the Republic Trooper armor is literally copied from Mandolorian Crusader armor. Who during the time period cut a bloody path deep into Republic space killing all Republic forces and the Republic literally had nothing to counter it.
I love your idea of a book around the life of a ship. Multiple slices of life, giving view of the everyday people.
The biggest difference to Star Trek is that Star Trek is mainly about progress. Either on an ethical level or a technical level.Which is why you always see newer ships and technology there.
In Star Wars, this progress is definitely there, as Episode 8 shows with hyperspace tracking. But many technologies are simply so reliable that they only need to be changed minimally. In addition, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of raw materials in Star Wars, which is why technology doesn't have to become more efficient to conserve them. In other words the Death Star.
An easy explanation for technological stagnation in Star Wars is that once you get to a certain level of technology development plataues, and you will then only see very minor incremental improvements, we are currently seeing that with computers, where they are no longer progressing as exponentially as they used to and advancements are more coming in the form of improved chip efficiency, or the same is true of phones, we no longer get major improvements on each successive generation but slower more minor changes, it can be assumed that such a trend would be present broadly in a highly advanced society where once things get to a certain point it takes much longer to make even small improvements.
I tend to see it more of form/function. Thousands of years ago they had already arrived at roughly the optimum shape of an object such as chair, table, blaster or tractor for its function, so while the technology inside a complex object such as a droid or blaster continued to develop from the outside it looks like little has changed. Dig out a 2,500 year old Roman sofa or a hand tool and its not that different to a sofa or scythe we use today.
star wars was also made prior to modern era where smart phones/personal computers/3d printers/etc were even a thing, also cell phones in general... designing prototyping something today is so much faster/easier than it was 40 years ago.
we still use the same pickaxe, shovel, and axe design as we did over a thousand years ago, we have "gimmicky" tools made recently, but do people really use them in large numbers if at all after realizing they aren't worth it? we [modern humans assuming fair degree of education and critical and logical thinking] can tell the difference between a shovel taken off the shelf from [big box store], one from 1800s, and one from dark ages... could we really tell the difference between a random blaster from 1000bby at end of sith wars, one from end of high republic era [not clone ones], and one from 130aby during the fel empire era?
and even more direct example of this issue is gaming computers. look at how slow personal computers of some power increased in specs for 20 years in 90s/00s. and then at the cost of increased power needs they started getting much more powerful each generation. and then there was a large leap in manufacturing ability and the 10series from nvidia came out with one of the least power hungry but faster and more efficient than any before graphics cards. they even marketed it on how much more efficient it was and how easily cooled it was even at high stress due to how little voltage [i think] it needed and how small each thread was. and then the 20 series was just "ray tracing tacked on". and now the 30 series and 40 series are more powerful but at the cost of over triple the power needed for those 10 series and they run far hotter because they are just brute forcing the technology limits we currently have.
blasters are much the same in star wars, you either have smaller weapons with limitations or bigger weapons meant to do bigger damage. and then there is the human element, we irl have bigger caliber rifles. they can't be carried and shoulder fired by an infantryman. there is only so much we can do with "slugthrowers" that are able to be used by soldiers. the powder charge is the same just in larger volume, the firing pin hitting primer is the same even for big artillery, the rifling can't be magically increased in effectiveness without a massive change in design/tech, we now have functional hybrid rifle cases with plastic and metal to cut down a tiny bit on weight, bullets are just a chunk of metal being propelled at high speed no matter what the metal is specifically or what design with multiple metals it is. an 8x57mm mauser bolt action rifle from a 120 years ago is just as effective as a bolt action hunting rifle in 7.62x51nato made today with similar tolerances.
Nostalgia sells, new stuff doesnt.
Sad trueism in today’s entertainment landscape
@@aidanlavin8211
As an example I dont like the Sith troopers and Destroyers in Kotor1. Not a fan.
I like how swotor did the factions. Thou I prefer if the republic maintained a mix of the kotor uniform. At least a little bit, instead of being clone troopers.
@@dnaseb9214swtors designs are fantastic. The Republic trooper armor is awesome and the Harrower js probably the best looking Star Destroyer of all time
@@martinjrgensen8234
Naw the regular ESD is the best version.
I do agree that swotor improved the clone armor and made it better.
@@dnaseb9214 heavily disagree, SWTOR SD is simply peak.
Only thing better is an all gray Venator.
People today don't realize how much technological stagnation is the norm, rather than the exception in our own world. There are tens of thousands of years of human history that experienced very little technological innovation. The exponential growth we saw in the 19th and 20th centuries were very much the exception, and we've seen the amount of breakthroughs slow down in recent decades. Once I considered this, the seeing the stagnation of the Star Wars universe didn't bother me so much.
look at a shovel from the crusades next to a shovel from big box store. look the same don't they? save better steel, handle made of stronger material than wood stick, maybe more refined finish without hammer marks, corrosion/element resistant coating on metal....
@@mrmors1344 That's not really what I'm talking about. Now, you compare a shovel from the era of the First Crusade and one from the early moder period, that would be what I'm talking about.
You weren’t there
@@danielamaya7980 Where?
Bro you can’t even look to your left or right in a TIE fighter and I’m supposed to believe people just lived with it for 30 years when there are multiple shows and movies showing that you can easily adapt the designs? The Resistance having a lot of old tech and ships would make sense. They’re grabbing whatever works, the First Order having Empire TIE fighters with 0 changes is ridiculous
Arguably technology never changing is probably the most realistic aspect of Star Wars. For most of human history the way your parents lived was going to be the same as the way your kids lived. Its only been in the industrial revolution and since that things evolved much more rapidly (and I think they are slowing down again). Most years in human history are going to look the same or very similar to the same year 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future.
I personally love this series' concept! The viewpoints and ideas of your wide audience feel fresh and the content remains high quality
When I originally heard this framing, I felt defensive of SW. However, I think it's a very helpful way to frame expectations of SW lore. SW is pure fantasy with a sci-fi aesthetic. Much like Middle Earth or the D&D multiverse, the conceit is technology must remain stagnant because these worlds are an expression of a specific vision of culture, conflicting forces, and mysterious phenomena. If it's a world that allows for true progress of knowledge, then it will be a world that eventually ceases to be what it was. Some authors do this, but for others, that defeats the point of the world. SW is one like this.
This. Star Wars has always been more about style, than function. If the tech progresses too much, you lose the specific aesthetic.
The story about the “life” of the Star Destroyer sounds awesome. I don’t think I’ve really ever read anything similar in Star Wars and would enjoy something along those lines.
This is one of the things i love about star wars, the tech is so static it feels like its been this way for SO LONG people have basically forgotten that it was ever not there, it gives the whole universe an incredibly old and mysterious feel that nothing else can really compare to
Keep them coming. I’m enjoying them.
i always figured that the tech in Star Wars is so advanced, they didn't need and or want to do more research. reasons for this train of thought is that one, either they would find their research and development is so hyper advanced it quickly moves on from one subject to another that they can't enjoy the fruits of their labor, or two, that their tech is so advanced there's nothing else to do but look into making efficiency and quality upgrades so small they barely even register as an upgrade.
Love the #askeck-esque videos! Keep it up!
That idea about the life of a star destroyer is fucking brilliant and should be published bro.
Also, your updates/casual explanations are killer - not filler. I’ve been appreciating your content more and more throughout time.
I like where you're going with your story about the star destroyer through time. It would be cool to see what it sees through reports from officers like after action stuff, final construction reports, and so on!
The stories you're contemplating sound great! Definitely give them a shot.
Would love to see you make more obscure scifi videos like you did a few years ago with “I have no mouth & I must scream” and other stories. It was really interesting & I enjoyed getting your take on things. Thanks eck
I like your story ideas
I find a vignette of stories from the perspective of a star destroyer to be fascinating. As you mention, from it's beginning as an Imperial Star Destroyer, to capture by the New Republic, maybe even recapture by Palpatine's Dark Empire before return to New Republic service. Fighting in the later conflicts with the VeYeventha or the Orinda campaign, followed by the Yuuzhan Vong and the Second Galactic Civil War. That's over 50 years in theory of service. Alternatively the star destroyer in the story could be the Errant Venture, which definitely had a varied life (Imperial, New Republic/Smuggler ship, casino, Jedi academy and warship, casino). So many possibilities.
I was hoping you'd answer a question about your own story ideas for a while now. I asked once, but you already answered a previous question of mine so I figured I shouldn't keep bothering your askeck section.
I think the Star Destroyer idea is great, but I really do like the "Coruscant Family Robinson" idea. I think it's also the most marketable idea (not that marketing is important) because it explores an unfamiliar part of Star Wars using a familiar story to do it. I'd love to see something like that in the future. Of course if they made it now, then Disney would probably replace the characters with Din Djarin and Grogu so they can milk the Mandalorian as much as possible.
I like these videos, im imagining your story idea of ship evolution could take from the perspective of some kind of forgotten droid that services the ship to a point where it has become part of the ship
Technically, legends Old Republic troopers and Sith troopers are way different. In KOTOR they have red and yellow armor with helmets similar to rebel Fleet troopers. It is only after SWTOR came out, is when they started looking like Stormtroopers.
Eck, please write those stories or create them in some form or another. Those are amazing ideas, and with your star wars knowledge, i know they'd be great.
This of taking questions are so cool, makes it feel responsive and idk; is it like a half vacation to not really plan out what video to make :D just giving what people want. literally.
That story of the ship sound like it be a interesting one.
6:48 some of the old crew still remain and they raise their children on the ship,woah I just had an idea a Jedi cruiser that serves as a Jedi temple I’m sorry if it sounds foolish
I'd love to do a story about the unknown regions, specifically what would happen if a faction found a super advanced ancient unknown alien civilization, meaning not sith or Jedi, would they do FTL different, how'd they view the force, why didn't they counqer the galaxy those kinda things, love your videos! Thanks for helping keep my love of Star Wars alive during these hard years
I’ve been subscribed for 6 or 7 years, keep it up!
I always assumed it was like the real world, galactic society, like earth society, just hit a point where things only inched forward because it hit a point where things looked pretty similar for a few thousand years because in its current form it COULNT dramatically change and everything in the galaxy would look like it isn’t changing much until it discovers some grand leap in technology that changes the whole game (like steam/nuclear power did for earth). Like it just doesn’t have the means to vary much more besides individual technologies offhandedly improving at a snail’s pace.
Very good ideas 1 and 2.
Damn, I want to read an Eckhartsladder written Star Wars story now
Wow that vignette of the star destroyer would be amazing as a long form video with narration
Sick video. Thanks!
Another great video eck!
REQUEST: How bout a sw battlefront mods personal favorite video? Maybe even some obscure ones. Since u love teasing us with gamepley every other video ;)
Mine would be the sith wars II mod, since it uses Darth Bane era sith gun troopers
I'm loving this series!
Loving this renaissance of short-ish form Star Wars lore analysis and discussion
Those stories sound awesome!! You should totally pursue writing those
I would buy each of those books you described in a heartbeat!
Dude the Star Destroyer story sounds SO good. Please do that man
Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Even after over a century of technological development, cars still looks like cars, and planes still look like planes.
I disagree. We still see a lot of change today.
EVs are on the rise. Even with regular cars, wireless fobs are now common, when we used to need to physically fish out keys.
Planes are getting bigger and bigger engines. Nasa is experimenting with radical glider-like wings.
Battery technology is exactly the same as it was 4000 years ago. All we've done is just change the chemicals. *Although that might finally change at some point in the next 50 years
@@ascensionindustries9631 Weird. My comment got dusted. Is 'disagree' a flag word now?
Cool video ! Thanks !
Hey Eck, love this type of series, maybe get more of your take on what Star Wars should be in the future?
Long time viewer, love this stream of recent content.
Was about to say this felt like you tackled this before years ago, but then you referenced your old video, confirming I wasn't going crazy 😂
He never mentioned an old video. You are dreaming.
Love you Eck!
Great video thanks man
these vids are great, keep them coming
i like these type of videos
hey eck i have been loving the newer content
I like the more news/current show focus but with the negativity around the new shows and games i love the pivot towards lore which has tons of content to pull from
ill watch whatever star wars content you make but i love hearing your opinions on stuff but in particular the new/renewed pivot to lore
I would read the hell out of your stardestroyer story. Amazing concept :O
Would love to see an out of universe history of Star Wars merchandising, video games, and EU. The different publishing houses, Kenner, the arcs and series, MMOs, etc
Star Wars is a Cargo Cult Galaxy. There, that’s it, that’s the only way the long term stagnation in technology makes sense.
Someone, in the past, took Stone-to-Iron Age civilizations and gave them technology. I mean that’s what the ancient history of the SW galaxy is in several iterations, Canon and Legends, anyway, the “who” differs.
But… That means that when the “old masters” died off, the slaves were left with technology they can reproduce and tinker, but they do not know how it works. Hyperdrive. Anti-gravity. Artificial gravity. Shields. Blasters. Lightsabers. Droids.
That’s why we see sentient droids, even at the lowest levels, but we do not see many “present day level” basic tech. That’s why so much stuff is done manually. That’s why piss poor farmers have antigravity sled, but no electricity (and the sled needs to be towed by animal). Ages of technological advancement were skipped over and nobody knows how the miracle tech works.
Nobody knows how to turn the small, seemingly endless power source that powers the antigrav sled, into an actual power source (if it can hold 1 ton 1m above ground, it has output of 10kW, give or take). Most of advancement over the ages seems to be “this, but bigger” instead of “something else that delivers the same results in a smaller package”.
So chances are nobody really knows how to encrypt/decrypt stuff except going through already existing procedures and droids. Which means that in turn this can be decrypted quickly and easily.
At least for the basic stuff. Edited to add: Just realized how to TL:DR it: Star Wars galaxy seems to be able to do only some limited applied research, but not primary research.
6:26 I hate you. That's such a cool idea for a book!!
I never thought of making the ship the third person narrator that's cataloguing the story... what a fascinating perspective!!! I promise I won't do Star Wars... *_BUT,_* I can't promise I'm not going to steal that idea 😅😂
technology is funny in that, some things do reach a pinnacle in which change isn't needed. There is only so many ways to make human-orientated body armor especially if it is just armor and not meant to be a "space suit" too. Same would be true of computers and ship engines.
It's just curious that when you deal with time scales of thousands of years, you would think more change would be more readily apparent.
6:05 Like the story of that one ghost from a Halo Wars 2 archive entry on a multiplayer map!
Yes! I would love a story about the story of the crew of a star destroyer and their day to day mission!
If you want some inspiration for the star destroyer story, there's a battletech novel with a similar premise. It follows a battlemech through the various ages of the setting. The premise is similar enough that you could probably get some good ideas, but different enough that it would still be unique. The book is "Legacy" a battletech anthology.
Your 3 story are interesting, especially the first and the last!
If you want to check out something similar to his Star Destroyer story, check out the Millennium Falcon novel. Set between Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi, it's the story of Han and Leia taking care of their granddaughter Allana (the daughter of Jacen and Tenel Ka). One day Allana finds a piece of equipment on the Falcon that even Han doesn't recognize and the family decides to take a space road trip backtracking the history of the Millennium Falcon to see where it came from. We get to see the Falcon on the assembly line as a freshly built stock transport, we see her under the different names she's had over the years including solidifying the Revenge of the Sith cameo, we see a bunch of the different adventures she's gone on long before Lando got her, much less Han.
For the ship story, do it using Ship Logs!!! Each chapter a new log, many in order and close in time to one another, gaps when battles or abandonments happen, takeovers and new logs entered by a new crew... I would read a collection of books like that. Each book a different ship log!
This might be random, but I LOVE this video. I think the biggest appeal of lore videos in general and Eck in particular is his ability to give the behind-the-scenes explanation as well as the in-universe lore without being pretentious
All I can say is, I'd love to see a deep dive into how one could, given the opportunity to live in the world of star wars and say you cannot die of age, reach the pinnacle of existence. Like, given not having to worry about aging, how strong could some being get? What creature could go the furthest?
I like the idea of your Star Destroyer through the years story. Very similar to the Millennium Falcon novel where we get to see the history of the ship from assembly line through the various owners (including the Revenge of the Sith cameo!) and ultimately winding up in Lando's and later Han's hands. A similar story about a warship in the factions would be interesting too.
Do you think star wars will ever fully tackle the issue of "droid rights"? They seem to walk the line between having fully seemingly sentient droid friends we are meant to value as individuals but also want to use them as 'robots' to dismember for gags. I have long thought perhaps a force sensitive droid would be a good introduction point for the universe to grapple with this issue. Treating the issue as partially a joke and partially serious in the Solo movie felt like a really inadequate covering of the issue.
Going by what is established Lore for both EU and canon at this point, force se sensitive Droids are impossible (no, Skippy the Droid was never canon In any continutiy, he was from a joke comic, dont bring him up^^), since they are not biologocal they cant have midichlorians and therefore no forceconnection. Sentience is another issue tho. Its established that the more developed personality of some droids is the result of them going for long times without a memory wipe, R2 being the best example for that. If those developed Systems Constitute a real conscoiusness has indeed never really been seriously adressed or discussed in Detail, although the EU definetly had some stuff about it. But mainly it came down to how the characters themselves handeld it. Luke for example was always noted to be especially Carina and kind towards droids and seemed to view them as sentient individuals.
@@datzfatz2368 it just seems strange to me that you have, as you mention, the story treating characters like Luke and Anakin as morally good for treating their droids well, but still treat droids as a whole as disposable dismemberment gags. I understand that in the lore as it is now, theres no way for droids to be force sensitive. I just think it might be an interesting direction to explore in the future, if they ever wanted to properly tackle a 'droid rights' plotline.
@@Sesekriri yeah absolutely, i also wish they had made it a Main topic of discussion way earlier. As things are now i dont think Disney will ever make something substantive about the topic^^
@@datzfatz2368 I agree the current state of Disney Star Wars is disappointing in terms of exploring and real issues, but im not completely hopeless it will be that way forever.
@@Sesekriri well heres hopin^^
I would definitely buy your book about the star destroyer. I love the ships in the Star Wars universe, probably more than the actual characters lol. The droids make it Star Wars to me as well.
I loved the aesthetics of the Old Republic from the _Tales of the Jedi_ comics from the 90's. The tech, while highly advanced, still looked ancient.
watching eckharts at 2am is awesome
maybe what we see as technologcal stagnation is actually a design aesthetic while the technology looks old it's actually upgraded from the original. for the armor comparison it's possilbe that the new republic trooper armor is less protective than clone trooper armor.
Damn posted 13 seconds ago? This is very fresh indeed
I saw you on the PDS this morning. Grats on your highlighted comment. lol
I’d love to see that “Star Destroyer through the Ages” story!
All three sound like good bones for stories, but that star destroyer one sounds amazing. There could be a spin off for an older Star dreadnought too serving from old republic through clone wars imperial ran into the new republic.
I love these kinds of vids
#AskEck What are your thoughts on the Tapani Sector? I think it's interesting how they have this whole deep culture, but the only planet that gets any focus is Fondor. They have historic ties to the Jedi and Sith so they have bootleg lightsabers and they have their own gaudy (and questionably useful) capital ships.
This is another thing I hate about the sequels NOTHING HAS CHANGED not only the technologies but everything seems like a big poorly done repetition of the original trilogy.
Don't get me wrong I despose the sequels but they did make the hyperspace tracking. But that makes no sense at all.
@indymadden5737 that and the hyperspace ramming in TLJ part bothered the hell out of me... If that were always possible, then how are hyperspace missiles not already a mainstay weapon in the star wars universe? Even if a hyper drive is expensive, we know theyre small enough to fit into a capital mssile (some fighters have hyperdrives), and sacrificing one is cheap compared to the easy damage it can cause. I mean, even IRL, a tomahawk cruise missile costs something absurd and uses a jet engine to fly around (very complicated for something meant to be used once), yet the US still buys many of them because sometimes you just cant beat having precision munitions fired from way over the horizon.
I'm not going to defend the seequels but this has been an issue for the franchise from day one. And as unoriginal as it was Death Star lasers on Star Destroyers made way more tactical sense than a giant, slow moon sized target that everyone sees coming because Star Destroyers have better force projection, it was a clear case of advancement. Really, KOTOR was the real offender.
Nothing in the ST was properly thought out. Everything felt rushed and half cocked
@@seevideonow Yeah having the same stuff 30 years later is no where near as bad as having the same stuff several thosends of years ago.
6:40 maybe from the PoV one of the droid brains?
Hello Eck, this is my first time leaving a comment, ever. I just wanted to say that I think a story from the perspective of a star destroyer would be awesome. Love your channel😊
Lies. It says you have left two comments. 🤦
Ok I have a question. If the Galaxy is a saucer, why dont they fly up and around the galaxy above it?
Now we need a video of your favorite (or least favorite) Star Trek ships!
Imagine how we think of warfare in the old world of the 17th to 18th century, in the Star Wars universe, set during the Mandalorian wars
#AskEck loving this kinda chill style of video! One topic id like to hear your thoughts on are like the top 10 legends books or series or some guide to the EU books
I started listening to the EU books 3ish years ago on audible, but I never had much direction outside of start w the thrawn trilogy and plagueis. and im still finding some amazing books ive never heard of
I have been really enjoying this series, it's just fun and I am missing that from all the controversy in Star Wars.
This is where the High Republic get a One Up from the EU, at least in the High Republic Era we see Technology actually evolve, unlike in Kotor where not much has changed in the past almost 4,000 years.
Ew.
So... they clash with the prequels, then?
@@olafgurke4699 In fact, no reason to assume that due to conflicts against a militia that destroyed several hyper-space routes using a superweapon, the Galaxy's economy suffered a very negative impact and this affected technology. Additionally, many situations typical of the prequels such as the use of Bacta for medical purposes began to become more common during the High Republic.
1 - Familiar aesthetics. Anyone can get into it, without having redefine everything to know who the good guys and bad guys and everyone else is at a glance.
2 - When you buy something from a big name brand company, you’d expect it to have a certain look and certain traits and strengths that others don’t. Everyone develops these preferences. For the corporations, it becomes their identity, how they distinguish themselves from everyone else.
3 - When something just works, there’s little need for innovation or to re-invent the wheel. We for example still use chisels, hammers, shovels, rakes, hoes, writing instruments, pluming and water works theory, all of which are still common place and haven’t really changed radically since the dawn of civilization, despite the affordability of more modern alternatives. Electric cars are still have a tiny fringe market even over a century later. Some people still use the bow and arrow and swords. And some communities still wear the same styles that their ancestors wore millennia ago. And some still use horse or other animal drawn land vehicles.
As far as things like 1970’s style computer consoles, screens, buttons and switches? Yeah, this has become part of the Star Wars aesthetic. To rationalize it, old school tech was easier to work with, figure out, maintain and cheap. A tube burnt out, broke a switch or button? Just open it up and replace it or re wire it. Need to solder a chip? It’s big and easy. Here you could rationalize it as you want your equipment to be easy enough for a farm hand of a near tribal culture born on a backwater of a world to be able to use it, without having to go to some place like Starfleet Academy to learn about something like warp theory and quantum mechanics. They just need to know what buttons to push and when, and call a tech who knows how replace parts that smoking or that the lights are telling them to replace.
I really think animation is the best path. Live action just costs more. For now. The animated starwars has so much potential.
The lack of tech progression has always bugged me too, but it also isn't surprising considering ot is of the same genus as common plot armor.
Off hand, the only major improvements/evolutions I can think of over the eu would be:
Progression then plateau on hyperspace speed
Bacta
The death star project
The stealth x
(Wasn't there something "revolutionary" about the YVH droids?)
And maybe slicing, which always seemed analogous to modern hacking, as far as move-countermove.
Maybe the republic dark ages before 1000 bby were so devastating for galactic civilization that technology actually regressed a bit with the collapse of major industries and centers of learning?
The Star Destroyer anthology sounds interesting. That can go a few different ways.
I love this series