See, I still think it's not too much of a stretch to watch it assuming he's worried about how it was intended for freezing of inanimate gases, rather than humans who would need to emerge in perfect condition. (Less of a stretch than trying to rationalize why no one recognizes the droids in ANH, anyway.) Presumably carbonite weapons are supposed to damage enemies just as little as proper freezing facilities are.

I mean, humans on Earth have been drinking water for a good deal more than 4,000 years, but if you were at a gas station, you'd still ask someone about it or test it before drinking straight from the car wash sprayer, right?

That it can be retconned after the fact hardly excuses the original discrepancy, whether with ESB or the EU, respectively. I was after all replying to the argument that carbon freezing could have been developed by different people at different times, excusing the users' ignorance. The reply being that they were here used by the same person, in a setting that realistically should have spread the relevant knowledge.

Instead we have the usual plot convenient "Bail-has-never-heard-of-the-Sith"-style ignorance at play. That too can be retconned as a chance slip or shoddy historical education. Does that fact help? No. As Plinkett rightly says: "I don't care if it was explained in some f"###¤%ing book! It was supposed to be in the movie!". ESB gave an impression, which in communication or media alike is as, if not more, important as the literal meaning. TCW overrode that impression.

Actually, I feel stupid lecturing you on this, Milo, since I clearly recall that you know it already. But when you make the mistake of calling me out on a continuity complaint because a bloody retcon can fix it, you unfortunately had it coming. Sorry.

Sentient beings tend to matter somewhat more than fictitious beings to most people, hopefully including you.

I believe I covered this, in usual MRN-style backside-coverage. "Not a fair comparison from an evolutionary perspective, but it gets the point across".

BOTH- He was referred to as with one eye- then 2 eyes.

But seriously, does anyone have this much time on their hands that they just spend their entire time looking for mistakes in the story lines rather than just enjoy it for entertainment purposes as intended?

Yes, and without time being an issue too. I manage work, studies, a social life and a ton of TV series and still have room for SW. Heck, it can be weeks and months between my SW bouts. Doesn't matter, for after a while, your "editors eye" develops whether you like it or not. You start being able to spot errors by gut feeling. Especially if you get embroiled in Internet discussions that devolve into matters of minute detail, forcing you to go over sources with a comb. Then next time you read something, those experiences cause you to make a mental note of details for future reference. There are few EU sources I've read from back to back more than twice. Yet I recall enough to go back and double-check when needed.

In short, it is a hobby like any other, which the everyman is expected to make time for. Also, spotting errors is fun, in a twisted sort of way. It gives gratification to be able to. And no, it doesn't require a hermit amount of free time either. I don't have a wife and kids, though. I'll grant that a proper adult with these restrictions would be a good deal harder pressed to make the time. But it is no worse than that.

As for enjoying SW as entertainment, there is certainly merit to that approach, but you are barking up the wrong tree expecting such from this thread, yours truly in particular. To me, the fact that all the weird stuff out there is supposed to be able to fit toghether in one huge tapestry is the one and only reason to bother with it. That and Internet discussions, where completely separate pieces of info that cannot possibly have been intended for merging, can be used as evidence for new and interesting hypotheses.

If I were to digest EU for entertainment purposes only, I'd probably be turned off by its divergence from my perception of the source material and stop. No go. Continuity is the EU's only saving grace in my opinion.

How many Evan Piells do you think there are in an entire galaxy.

One-eyed Lannik Jedi Masters of roughly the same age? Force sensitives are supposed to be rare. Jedi aspirants rarer still. The best of their kind exceptionally so.

Given all that, more than one would be really strange, unless cloning or twins were involved. Fiction or not.

Do you think one person in the Star Wars universe came up with the initial idea of carbon freezing?

What makes it strange, though, is when the guy who was himself frozen as a young man decides to test it for safety purposes years later. And that is assuming the presumably knowledgable guys at Cloud City had no idea whether this was possible or not, in spite of carbon freezing of humans having existed for at least 4000 years. With resultant weapons whose biggest flaw was the fact that the subject emerged from freezing alive and fit for combat after a few seconds, I might add.

See, the devil is in the details.

Watch/read/play the damn story and ENJOY it instead of getting so worked up about freaking details that really don't matter.

Hobbies and interests generally don't matter in the big picture, whatever they are. Yet humans aren't so rational that they are caplable of only getting emotionally invested in abritrarily defined "important things". I mean, your immediate family isn't very important in the objective big picture, I'm sure you'll agree, yet I bet you have a good deal of emotional investment in them still.

Not a fair comparison from an evolutionary perspective, but it gets the point across. "Don't matter" is very, very subjective.

How can they be correct in the first place?

Any new story must conform with what has been previously released.

BTW, I never liked the idea of "Personal Canons".

That's not my concern. If it doesn't work for you, don't use it.

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"In tax, as in comedy, timing matters." -- Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski in Paracchi v. Commissioner, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1998. 143 F.3d 487.

BTW, I never liked the idea of "Personal Canons". One could accept the original trilogy as canon. That I can understand, but another can accept fan fiction as canon, and thats no fun for me. (Especially if its their own.)

Boy I'd hope so- I'm only doing that once.

Just so I can "moan" in peace. (said with a BIG TONGUE IN CHEEK!)

IMO you can't complain about it if you don't make an effort to make a change (even if it's hopeless- Luke Skywalker taught me that- NOTHING is hopeless :P )

Now that that's done- nothing is any different then it was before- just my own peace of mind that I made an effort. That I wasn't just talking about my hopes and wishes- that I at least tried.

But I see it like voting- many feel that no change can be made- but if you never try you'll never know. And one thing I learned is that others do feel this way. That it's not just some minority thought process, that even those who don't feel as I do are JUST as sick of it.

So now that that's out of my system.

I look forward to all those Trandoshan names when the episode plays here in the US.

Twittle, the only thing I'm suggesting is that people accept the entirety of the Star Wars universe as what it really is; entertainment. Not something to be taken literally as fact.

No one takes it as fact... With the possible exception of a deluded few...

What you're actually suggesting is that people should overlook a multitude of glaring errors. That expectation is as unrealistic as the expectation that some fans have that all errors will be satisfactorally fixed at some point.

Fans may have unrealistic expectations, but that there seems to be a pattern of discontinuity should be troubling to insiders, as it is an indication of a lack of caring on the part of the writers. Star Wars is not put forth as a body of independent works, but rather one cohesive body; that it is not actually cohesive rightly bothers many people.

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"In tax, as in comedy, timing matters." -- Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski in Paracchi v. Commissioner, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1998. 143 F.3d 487.

Twittle, the only thing I'm suggesting is that people accept the entirety of the Star Wars universe as what it really is; entertainment. Not something to be taken literally as fact.

You know how many guys there are named John Smith in the USA? How many Evan Piells do you think there are in an entire galaxy.

Not to put too fine of a point on it, but that's a complete copout. We're talking fiction here. How many novels or TV shows do you know of in which there are two characters with the same name? Just because something happens in reality does not mean it's acceptable in fiction. If there's a fictional situation with two characters sharing a name, with very few exceptions it's entirely intentional, part of the plot that's usually intended to create confusion within the story. That is clearly not the case here. These continuity issues create confusion to the audience; that's just poor writing.

Fans have little right to expect continuity to be fixed after the fact, but we definitely have a right to expect the pieces to fit together in the first place; with respect to the EU, they do not in many cases.

For you to suggest that everyone ignore the errors in continuity is unrealistic. Not everyone's brain is wired the same: some people are very detail oriented where others are not. You cannot expect everyone to have the same reaction to a mistake.

(And yes, I know I'm seemingly taking two opposing sides in the argument -- that's because there is validity in both sides of the issue.)

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"In tax, as in comedy, timing matters." -- Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski in Paracchi v. Commissioner, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1998. 143 F.3d 487.

I'll admit that I've done my best to work through all the comics/stories from the old republic times up through ROTJ, and tried to play all the games and such in order. But seriously, does anyone have this much time on their hands that they just spend their entire time looking for mistakes in the story lines rather than just enjoy it for entertainment purposes as intended? You know how many guys there are named John Smith in the USA? How many Evan Piells do you think there are in an entire galaxy. Do you think one person in the Star Wars universe came up with the initial idea of carbon freezing? Or did it spring up simultaneously in multiple places, like pyramid building in our own universe? For my own singular issue with continuity, who's to say that Watto doesn't have a brother or that there was amazingly more than one Toydarian junk dealer in Mos Espa....

I completely respect Leland for all the ridiculous work he has to do because there's simply too many people complaining about Anakin's scar or his hair length. Watch/read/play the damn story and ENJOY it instead of getting so worked up about freaking details that really don't matter. EVERY movie/story in the world has glaring errors. Star Wars is not the Bible/Torah/Qur'an...