It wasn't the Empire, it was the First Order. Completely different.

In ANH the case could be made that Tarkin outranked Vader, Vader's preeminence as the Emperor's point man is a retcon.

Lucas grew up in Modesto as the son of a stationary store owner, and by all accounts when he lived in LA he basically locked himself in his apartment, him and Marcia met at work and their dates were usually just going out to the movies. His concept of "raising hell" is pretty vanilla.

When you finally get to Tosche Station, you find the clerk and the Hologram rental guy arguing about the ethics of blowing up an uncompleted Death Star.

I assume Lando had access to a lot of money, he may have raised a wing of fighters or several regiments, which would entitle him to a general's rank, at least according to the weird-ass feudal rules of the SW universe.

Is Han a "captain" in the naval sense, in that, he's the master of a ship? Or does he hold a formal military rank of "Captain," and in that case is his rank title a company-grade Army-type "captain," or field-grade naval-type "Captain"?

It was a completely different mission to do exactly the same thing.

If you were to just read the story in outline, you'd think it was the darkest shit ever, but the visuals and the whole Star Wars milieu have a way of dulling the blade. It helps that the good guys win.

Always makes me think of a man-child in grey suit and a crew cut, who has a police record for indecent exposure…

They found it easier to reboot the whole series in an alternate universe, rather then contemplate this

In light of the 2016 election…

Raoul, at dinner, was dinner.

This explanation is very good. But if the taboo only applies to spoken language, it would not explain the failure to communicate generally. The message the Tamarians sent, inviting Act 1 of the episode, was understood to be written.

"I think they all have a hard-on for making their own heroic story, so hell yes steak knives."

Yes it is.

A year or two ago I went to a Cinefamily night where the entire subject was "children's movies that scarred you forever," the host and curator was Leigh Whannell, appropriately enough. He showed the Mysterious Stranger sequence from the Claymation Adventures of Mark Twain. (<— that's a link, you're welcome.)

They're like poetry, they rhyme…

You might not have noticed, but your brain did.

The HBO "Conspiracy" was about the Wannsee conference… Great movie, sickening but amazingly written. The conspiracy to kill Hitler was the Tom Cruise movie, Valkyrie.

Just based on the approach this sounds like his best movie in years. I've seen him live (in this case doing the Jeff Garlin podcast) and he can be very fun and engaging, and the yellow journalist schtick is attenuated.