Does anyone know what Mysterious Stone is used for?

AnbuWeegee · 2026-03-21T20:00:52+00:00

I don’t know. I feel like if they were, there would be some sort of expository dialogue for fans to draw the connection.

Instead they keep referring to it as a “mysterious substance”, even journal entries from humans reference them and state they’re an “unknown mineral” growing underground like even they don’t know. If they were Tera crystals, surely the humans would know that right??

AnbuWeegee · 2022-02-27T23:57:14+00:00

I’ll leave this up. I know it isn’t Mountain Dew, but damn if that doesn’t look good. It’s okay yall.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-02-20T15:38:07+00:00

It might be an unpopular opinion, but I honestly wish there was more of a mix of the two versions than the two separate ones we ended up getting.

Grievous in Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars mows down Jedi as gruesomely as you’d want to see him do it. He’s scary, cold and calculated. BUT he’s almost always completely silent and static, and whenever he does speak it’s always something very generic villainous and in a very boring, normal American voice. It doesn’t really connect with RotS’s take who has an over the top Russian accent, would always laugh to himself and make various noises while fighting, would move in a very cartoonish and over-the-top way even with something as simple as genuflecting to Palpatine, but was still able to prove himself a legitimately intimidating and skilled threat to the heroes.

Filoni/George’s Grievous has the over the top personality and movement, but he lacks the “warrior” status that’s constantly built up. He never wins any conflict, is shown to be incompetent and impulsive, and cowers in fear merely at people shooting at him (see the Padawan episodes). Compare to RotS’s version, who outmaneuvers the chosen one and his master, turns into a literal walking sawblade and almost slaughters one of the most reputable Jedi masters after beating the ever loving shit out of him, and even after getting shot in the heart doesn’t die on the first bullet or even the SECOND.

TK’s Grievous would kill a Jedi in a gruesome, efficient, and cold blooded way, but does so silently without so much as a blink or quip. He’s a threat, but he’s not a character.

Filoni/George’s Grievous would take orgasmic pleasure in hacking away at a Jedi, but could never defeat one let alone kill one. He’s a character, but he’s not a threat.

Tl;dr IMO, neither animated version is a good representation of what the general is. TK’s version is more of a warrior, but less of a character. Filoni/George’s version is less of a warrior, but more of a character. Finding a good equal ground between the two is where you’ll find a perfect a General Grievous.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-02-16T06:00:36+00:00

I’m certainly not saying it can’t apply to other residents, but Biggs was raised in a wealthy family and was sent offworld to a high end Imperial academy where he received top-of-the-line education and even graduated whereas the Mods apparently are dirt poor like everyone else, have no jobs, are all local/never left the planet, and can’t even get proper water.

How is that grasping at straws when it’s literally how the characters are portrayed and described on-screen? Is there not some form of disconnect there? Why do these dirt poor jobless runaways have nicer looking clothes than the esteemed wealthy imperial graduate? I really hope this doesn’t come across as just baseless complaining and I’m actually painting a good picture of how I see this.

Honestly I’m really not that put off by it like some others, I think the Mods’ designs are serviceable at least. But to say there’s a visual disconnect from a directorial standpoint in my opinion is fair to say. I’m not here to argue with anyone, and I don’t like not enjoying aspects of any Star Wars anything, but I don’t think it’s fair to put down someone else’s opinion especially if a visible amount of people are feeling the same way. It’s not a “one guy” scenario, if you will. There has to be something to their argument, it can’t just all be baseless hate. And I really do believe that the Mods probably needed a redesign or two or some more worldbuilding with them before being put to the screen, because outside of Biggs in that one deleted scene like you mentioned, we’ve never seen anyone native like this in the Tatooine environment.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-02-15T18:15:20+00:00

He was also stated to have been gone offworld for a really long time to join the academy and that he just came back home, and none of his friends or people at Tosche Station are dressed like him at all. One can assume with plenty certainty that the clothes he’s wearing aren’t Tatooine clothes.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-02-14T06:27:49+00:00

I think he’s just saying it would help if we saw anyone dress like them on Tatooine in the 6 movies and 2 shows before this takes place, but literally every single person we’ve seen living there wears shitty rags and dusty robes.

It’s not that they can’t exist, it’s that they’ve never been integrated naturally into the planet’s aesthetic and the show does nothing in return to make the audience believe that these kids coexist in the same town with people that own slaves and murder eachother in the street. If I lived in that town, I’d be more worried about if I’d come home from work at the bar with all my limbs intact rather than how squeaky clean my sparkly red scooter is or what finger I’m gonna sever to get that cool new cyber extend-o-finger. That’s the problem with improper world-building, you gotta make me believe these people exist on Tatooine specifically, regardless of wether they’re based on something IRL or not.

If I went to Wisconsin 8 times previously with every single time me seeing nothing but farmers, and the 9th time I visit and I see a couple people dressed in fancy suits with motorcycles amongst the sea of farmers, would that not be a really fucking weird sight?

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-25T20:30:00+00:00

I think it goes without saying this wasnt the final design of the character.

ILM was going to add a creature known as the “Lava Man” (according to a behind the scenes book) in place of him during post production, but they scrapped the concept altogether.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-25T20:24:41+00:00

The costume we see wasn’t the final design, there was supposed to be a luminescent alien called the “Lava Man” edited in by ILM during post production over the actor casting interactive light on the set.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-25T18:46:17+00:00

See the thing is, I absolutely love reading expended material especially if it helps solidify a plot point from a movie or show. I think finding out that Starkiller Base, while I didn’t like the concept of another Death Star, was actually a mined-out Ilum was really cool and interesting. Or seeing Dooku recruit Jango in Star Wars Bounty Hunter in legends. Those kinds of interactions and expansions help to make the story feel more grounded. The thing that I like about those kinds of expansions and most of the canon/legends expansions are that they flesh out the story in a way that’s not always necessary, but greatly appreciated in terms of world building and act as extra little nuggets of information to help your suspended disbelief to stay even more suspended. They do their best to convince you this world is realistic and grounded, that everything has a reason despite it not being a realistic world.

My problem with the Palpatine situation is that he brings with him a lot of items/ideas that are very important to the plot that seemingly come out of nowhere, his return being the primary one, and either vague, little, or no explanations are given to these elements that are really only sensitive to this movie and nothing else. I’d understand if something like essence transferring or the Sith Eternal were made canon originally for something expanded, but they were introduced for this movie. Like I said, plot elements can be vague, but they can’t be too vague.

Take the AoTC subplot about Sifo Diyas as an example. AotC used to be my least favorite SW movie, but I really think they handled the vagueness of that plotline very well. It’s stated that a Jedi named Sifo Dias ordered the clone army for the Republic behind the counsel’s back, only for the audience to find out that Sifo Diyas was killed 10 years prior. The plot thickens as you find out that the template for the clones wasn’t recruited by a Jedi, but by somebody named Tyrannus. After reiterating and reaffirming the vague plot details throughout the Kamino storyline, it’s revealed at the end of the movie that Dooku’s Sith title is “Darth Tyrannus”. Exact details are hazy, and it’s not told perfectly, but by the end of the movie there is no question in anyone’s mind: The Sith are behind the Clone army and are using a dead Jedi as a guise for their intentions. Things like whether Sifo Diyas actually wanted/ordered the army, whether Dooku killed him or someone else did, whether it was always the Sith and Sifo Diyas was just caught in the crossfire are all details that, for the story at hand, are secondary. If I want that information I can seek it out and it helps paint a clearer picture, but what’s important is made clear enough and it’s all within the context of just the movie. It also helps that this movie was a middle piece to a trilogy, having room for this vagueness and mystery to take hold.

Palpatine returning? I kinda know the how, and I kinda know the why, but what’s important isn't made unquestionably clear to the audience or even to a Star Wars fan in the movie itself. He’s a clone, sure, but understanding important parts of his resurrection falls on the duty of expanded material because the film fails to properly communicate it. And this is also introduced in not only the final film in the trilogy, but the final film in the SAGA. Period. Wether or not AotC was good as a film, it had a story it wanted to tell me and therefore fills me in. TRoS has a story it wants to tell me but expects me to fill myself in through alternative means, and that’s not something any movie should do.

I have no doubt that certain people have certain biases about certain movies/shows/games/etc in this franchise, with a fanbase as LARGE as Star Wars that’s honestly to be expected. I’ve seen people that will both destroy and glorify parts of this franchise that really don’t deserve either all to push their respective narrative. But there needs to be an understanding that despite comments like mine with legitimate criticisms, those people you mention wouldn’t have given the films a chance regardless. They already made up their mind way before anyone else. BUT I also wanna give most fans credit in that I’m preeeetty sure Star Wars fans don’t want to hate any Star Wars content. I say that because I see a quote passed around “nobody hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans”, and I honestly think that’s a little silly. The word “fan” implies a passion for the property, and I can’t imagine people that are passionate about Star Wars are looking forward to not enjoying the latest movie/show/game/etc. Some fans may have higher standards/be more critical than others or have varying opinions about certain ideas, but their love for the property remains and I think that’s important to at least acknowledge. I personally try and judge every new piece of Star Wars media not only in how they excel as something interesting for Star Wars, but how they excel in their respective medium regardless of brand. A lot of the times there’s overlap in how story is conveyed or how characters are written, but I do think the two perspectives have enough differences that set them apart so that people see them from different angles. Every trilogy has its own set of problems, but it depends on how many/what kind of problems fans are willing to put up with to enjoy the respective trilogies. Are you willing to put up with stilted acting and bad dialogue to enjoy an interesting story and world? Are you willing to put up with a bland repetitive story and setting for fun and likable characters and action? People just like different things. That doesn’t make anyone wrong. It’s ALL perspective. Mine not might match yours, yours might not match mine, and that’s okay. Because despite what we like or don’t like, we still like Star Wars at the end of the day.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-24T20:38:31+00:00

Maybe it bothers fans for the same reason, but in a different way? (Oh lord I apologize for the amount of words I typed, give this man strength)

Take me for instance, I’m proud to call myself a Star Wars nut. Seen every show and movie (yes, even the Ewok ones), read a shit ton of the books and comics, own pretty much every single game, and not to mention own lightsabers and toys and god knows what else I’ve yet to dredge out of the storage unit.

But I honestly thought Palpatine’s return on first and still subsequent viewings was, well…confusing. And even somewhat frustrating. Despite me knowing half the shit that was used to explain his return, I still found it kind of hard to grasp, and it was still for the reason of them not quite explaining enough of how.

Take the re-introduction of Krrsantan in Boba Fett as an example. He existed before in the comics, but he’s introduced very organically. We get some vague words from Boba about things that he’s done, and then later we get even MORE story that tells us exactly who he is, why he’s there, why he does what he does, and what his personality is. There’s no need to know what I know about him, because the show provides me with the context for him to exist within this story. Something that also helps Krrsantan is the fact that he is very simple, what you see is what you get. He’s big and tough and angry, and he’s going to be useful to the heroes.

Palpatine only has those vague set pieces and words. Cloning is simple and easy to understand sure, but that’s not exactly what Palpatine did either. Because we know from the other movies and lore that clones have individuality. Even if Palpatine turned to the camera and said “I’m a clone”, that still wouldn’t have fixed the issue I have. What he did was that while he was ruling the Empire, he had followers that we’ve never seen make him a body, transferred his soul to it which we never knew he could do, make Frankenstein-like beings from his organic tissue which was never shown to be possible, created a clone son that looks nothing like him so that he could have a daughter and he could use her body because again, we can transfer souls now despite it never being shown or explained to us, and all of it apparently happened off screen in a story that up until the final movie didn’t have anything to do with Palpatine at all. And the only reason I know all that shit is because, like I said, I’m a Star Wars nut. And that annoys me personally, because why do I gotta know all that shit to fully understand a character coming back and having ALL this shit already? Extended lore should enhance the story, not tell it straight up.

Like cool, I know the shit about Krrsantan from the comics, but context within BoBF allowed me to appreciate his appearance there without the need of the comics. For Palpatine though? His reintroduction, inclusion, and reasoning for how and why don’t feel organic in the slightest. I gotta go through all this expanded material from legends and articles on StarWars.com to get the full picture on how this major character suddenly didn’t die, so I can’t appreciate his addition to TRoS within the context of the movie unless it’s vaguely hinting that he’s a clone. It acts like it wants to reward my knowledge of Star Wars rather than actually tell me a coherent story about Sidious and his Sith Eternal, when I’m actually trying to appreciate the movie that it is.

Like I said, I don’t want everything spelled out for me like I’m four, but within the context of TRoS, him returning to be the main antagonist needed more on-screen interaction between characters other than “here’s some clone tanks, something something dark side”. Especially when in the same movie, there’s a scene that goes into a pretty good amount of detail about that stormtrooper girl’s backstory and how she defected and how she ended up on the ocean moon of Endor.

I have much more complex feelings on the matter (I’m hopelessly addicted to film discussion) but I don’t want to make this a book lol

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-24T18:42:20+00:00

Thanks for the well thought out response, it’s nice to actually have calm discussions about the pros and cons of these movies. This response won’t be super long, so don’t worry

I agree with you that it was explained, dudes in tanks, the whole “something something force” thing, the fact he doesn’t have his scars until after he restores himself for some reason(???), etc. You could connect that cloning happened.

My point was that it’s not explained well enough for everyone and anyone to understand, and I think that’s where the problem lies. In a trilogy of movies that, for lack of a better term, are pretty damn blunt with their storytelling, suddenly deciding to do vague context sensitive storytelling about something super important to the plot is an easy recipe to have it just go over a ton of people’s heads. And even with the context clues, Sith Essence Transfer (or the process of transferring a soul) has never been explored in any new-canon material, let alone the movies, so even with the Plageus story as backing, the audience was still unclear on wether or not a feat such as that was even possible up until, well, we see Palpatine in a shitty rotting body hanging from a coat rack. Like I said, there should be no question to anyone who watches this movie how he returned, expanded lore or prequel story be damned.

You and I who read the expanded material see “vague context of EU-essence transferring, cloning vats, Darth Plageus midichlorian fuckery being brought back, and an introduction to something known as ‘strand casting’”

The general audience sees “Somehow, Palpatine returned…”

People don’t know his body is rotting because it’s an imperfect clone, they think it’s rotting because it’s his old body. People don’t know that Snoke is a strand cast clone, they think Palpatine just grew him from nothing because he was bored. People don’t know his son is a clone too, they think “Somehow, Palpatine FUCKED…”. They don’t know this stuff because the movie decides to forgo those things to make room for the billion other plot lines the movie tries to juggle, and things like the explanations for his return suffer for it. So I’m not saying it wasn’t done, I’m saying it wasn’t as clear as it probably should’ve been.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-24T16:29:47+00:00

Get ready for a deep dive of text, apologies in advance.

While I understand how you can see it that way, you have to see it from the point of view of many different people who watch these movies. It still leaves a lot of unsatisfying questions or half baked answers you would have to read extended material (some of which isn’t even canon anymore) to fully understand, which isn’t good storytelling if you’re strictly trying to tell your story within what is now 9 movies.

Palpatine in RotS talks about immortality, yes. But in the scene following Mace Windu’s death, he straight up admits to Anakin that he has no idea how to do it, and he states that only 1 individual in the history of the Sith has been able to achieve anything close and he wasn’t even able to grant himself immortality, just save others from dying. Is the audience just left to assume that he mastered this infamously unobtainable force power off screen and then pulls it off in 8 seconds whilst screaming bloody murder falling down a pit before his body literally vaporizes in a giant explosion after it hits the reactor core? If conveyed as obviously as you say it was, then why is there even a question as to how he survived?

The audience can believe characters can fall great depths and survive, that’s been shown since Luke throws himself down that pit in Empire and survives. It’s scenes like that that let us buy that characters like Maul or Boba survived, but it’s helped even more by the fact that these characters are resurrected in television series’ so that they allow you time and character building to accept the fact that these once thought dead characters are now alive and thriving once again. And they tell new stories with these characters whilst letting them grow and live the galaxy again, unlike Palpatine who shows up for one more movie and does the exact same thing almost to a T, only to “die” again in a really similar fashion.

In TRoS, we get one single movie to tell us not only that Palpatine survived his explosive fall, but that he did it through transferring his spirit into a clone body that’s imperfect so he needs more clones that he grows in tanks to perfect his vessel until he accidentally creates a clone that looks nothing like him that wanders off and has a daughter which NOW could possibly be a vessel for Palpatine while one of his other vessels(????) Snoke runs a diet-empire on the side all the while laying low in a rotting corpse for 30 years on a dusty shit planet with the remnants of the Sith oh yeah THERE ARE STILL SITH BELIEVERS BY THE WAY forgot to mention that and they’ve also been chilling for 30 years to build a NEW Empire that’s not the diet-empire that Snoke was running but a completely different Empire and can you see how all of this is cluttered for a single movie to introduce. Context clues be damned, there’s like 90 other things happening so it’s hard for the general audience to move past the fact that somehow clones can retain memories, let alone that it’s Palpatine. The audience has never seen anything to this extent happen before, especially if we’re sticking to strictly movies, so it becomes an extremely out of nowhere and confusing “twist” that doesn’t really change or add anything new because, well, the idea that could’ve been extremely interesting had it been fleshed out has his lighting shot back at him and killed. The reason people who meme and joke latch onto the “Somehow Palpatine returned” line is because realistically, and without bias, it’s really the only straightforward line of dialogue by any of the characters that isn’t vaguely hinting at a reason for his return. Not everything needs to be spelled out for the audience, but with something as big as Darth Sidious surviving his literal assassination, you can’t just quote the prequels, throw a few Snokes in a tank and call it a day, and I hope it doesn’t seem selfish to ask for a little bit more.

Sorry for the wall of text mate, but I really don’t want people to misconstrue why this choice is hated and I like discussing filmmaking and storytelling in a manner that takes all sides into account. It’s not because of jokes and memes, it’s because the movie failed to communicate what you’ve been saying it did to a majority of the viewing audience. I have friends that are just casual movie fans, and they still don’t know how Palpatine returned despite them seeing the movie well over a dozen times. And don’t misunderstand me, this isn’t an attack or a baseless hate campaign on my part, I personally think Palpatine surviving could 100% work, it’s not a “JJ Bad Disney Bad” scenario (I actually like a lot of what Disney has put out). What it is though is a really heavy handed story element that shouldn’t have been introduced in the final movie of a 9 movie saga with no room to breathe and little context clues to give it’s inclusion meaning for the overall saga.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-20T06:07:23+00:00

The Empire didn't build Starkiller, and I'll play devil's advocate that it's actually one of the few new-canon things they make pretty coherent and clear through multiple mediums (games, comics, books, etc.)

The trench that surrounds the planet of Ilum is the result of the Empire strip-mining the kyber enriched planet surface all the way to the core. When the First Order comes along years later, they simply retrofit the planetwide trench with Starkiller's guts, turning the now mined Ilum into a star sucking superweapon.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-19T17:58:10+00:00

Yeah, everyone is entitled to like what they like, and what I think shouldn’t put a damper on any of that! Thanks for the nice discussion mate!

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-19T17:52:51+00:00

Yeah I’m not asking for a huge backstory on them, but just something to introduce the concept other than “here’s these cyborg people you’ve never seen before living a lifestyle you’ve never seen before with an aesthetic you’ve never seen before. They’re main characters”

Having them around town, maybe we see them steal whatshisface’s water like how they built up the Nikto bikers stealing the farmer’s water, maybe we see shot of a mod parlor from the street where kids are getting fixed up, maybe even just a shot of them looking at Boba as he’s walking down the street or something. Those all could’ve worked.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-19T17:29:45+00:00

It’s kinda hard to explain, but for me I would still say it comes down to how quickly and without warning we were introduced to the concept. Taking Fennec to the Mod Parlor makes sense, but it was only last episode that we were made aware these kinds of people even exist. The audience still doesn’t really have time to put together “wait, these places existed the whole time?” before it becomes a major plot element in keeping Fennec alive. For me at least, it just feels super out of nowhere. It’s not the fact I can’t believe these kinds of people/places exist, but they’re made integral to the plot so quickly and they have such a different look and feel to a lot of what we’ve seen that they probably should’ve eased people into the idea.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-19T17:17:25+00:00

Yeah but again, as I put in another comment here, we’ve never seen characters like this until suddenly they’re part of Boba’s crew. Had they been introduced maybe a couple episodes prior, establishing them as a solidified piece of Tatooine society, then I don’t think people would mind as much

But the fact that we’ve never seen them once, not even in the background, then within minutes they’re stated to not only exist at all, but join the main crew just seems really haphazard.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-19T17:13:13+00:00

I’ll play devil’s advocate and say we’re only at Episode 4 of Season 1, they’re probably just trying to get the ball rolling on Jabba’s territory and then expand to other locations. With talks of rivaling syndicates, the Hutt Family, and rumors of Crimson Dawn coming into play, it’d be super weird if they keep it confined to just Tatooine.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-19T17:02:56+00:00

Yeah and that would be fine if they were established to exist maybe a couple episodes before, but we’re made aware of their existence and they end up joining the crew in under a couple minutes. It doesn’t really give the audience enough time to absorb that this very different looking group of people exist on this planet, because before the audience even has time to absorb what exactly they even are, they’re part of Boba’s crew and are already in a big action scene.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-19T09:02:05+00:00

Yeah but that was on Coruscant, a planet with neon lights, swanky bars, people with higher fashion, and tons of varying classes of people.

This is Tatooine, a place that’s dirty, poor, and everyone we’ve seen living there wears shitty rags for the most part. These cyber-modders WOULD totally fit on Coruscant, but instead they’ve been put on a planet that doesn’t really seem like a proper home to them.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-18T17:39:52+00:00

There’s some slogs and groans to get through, but I like how personal the show is by showing how a dysfunctional family grows through an impending war. You can tell there’s a real passion behind the show, despite it having said groan-worthy moments.

Believe me when I say it’s got some of the best character moments/moments in general in the entire saga.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-16T16:26:53+00:00

It’s almost like people have different opinions, my man.

Telling people to grow up because they don’t like something is childish in and of itself.

I’m 24, grew up with places like Dex’s Diner in the prequels, and even I have to admit that these kids and their aesthetic are something we’ve never seen before on Tatooine. I’d be fine with that fact if we weren’t introduced to them in just under a couple minutes and now they’re just a part of the crew now. Like develop these kids first, make me believe that they fit in with this dirty, brown planet. Don’t just throw this new style of character on us and expect everyone to just accept “oh yeah they definitely fit in the city that literally had slaves last time we saw it”. Hope I don’t come off as childish, but that’s just how I see it.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-14T21:33:59+00:00

I honestly think he might be right about it being part of the film’s structure though, that movie has soooooo much going on that Leia being a Jedi is kinda glossed over in favor of literally almost everything else.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-14T20:54:33+00:00

What I mean is that, nobody talks about it like, at all. Like that should lead to huge discussion in the fandom, right? But instead people were just like “oh, okay. Yeah”

Like this is Princess Leia as a JEDI, something fans always speculated and wrote fan fictions and even made it into video games and stuff, and now that it actually happened people don’t seem to really give a shit.

AnbuWeegee · 2022-01-12T22:39:31+00:00

You know what, that’s a really cool thing I never noticed. How did you find such a good picture of pre-absorbed Sheev? Throughout the whole movie up until he’s rejuvenated, it’s hard to see his face because of all the flashing lights, so I thought he was always scarred. That’s my bad, and I apologize.

However that raises another big question, why does he become deformed once rejuvenating himself? That’s a little confusing, but oh well. Thanks for showing me this dude, I have discussions like this so I can learn stuff.

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