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Direct references to the PT that were made in Disney’s ST

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Without counting the scenes where the term “Sith” is used, this is a list of all the direct references to the PT that are either mentioned or depicted in Disney’s ST.

THE FORCE AWAKENS

  1. In the opening scene when Lor San Tekka is speaking to Poe he says Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the force

  2. When Kylo Ren is speaking to General Hux after Finn’s traitorous action by escaping with Poe, he tells him “They’re obviously skilled at committing high treason, perhaps Leader Snoke should consider using a clone army

  3. During the end of Rey’s force vision, Alec Guinness as Obi-wan (edited from archived footage) says "“Rey”. Then the next line “These are your first steps” is spoken by Ewan Mcgregor

THE LAST JEDI

  1. On Ahch-To when Rey is trying to convince Luke to come back with her, he says “You think, what? I’m going to walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order?”

  2. When Luke gives Rey her second lesson by telling her about the Jedi, he says “At the height of their powers, they allowed Darth Sidious to rise, create the Empire, and wipe them out”

THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

  1. During Rey’s fight against Palpatine where she’s nearly defeated after having her lifeforce drained, she begins to hear voices speaking to her from previously deceased Jedi including characters from the PT
  • Ewan Mcgregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi: “These are your final steps, Rey. Rise and take them”
    Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker: “Rey”
    Ahsoka Tano: “Rey”
    Kanan Jarrus: “Rey”
    Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker: “Bring back the balance, Rey, as I did”
    Luminara Unduli: “In the night, find the light, Rey”
    Mace Windu: “You’re not alone, Rey”
    Yoda: “Alone never have you been”
    Qui-Gon Jinn: “Every Jedi who ever lived lives in you”
    Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker: “The Force surrounds you, Rey”
    Aayla Secura: “Let it guide you”
    Ahsoka Tano: “As it guided us”
    Mace Windu: “Feel the Force flowing through you, Rey”
    Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker: “Let it lift you”
    Adi Galia: “Rise, Rey.”
    Qui-Gon Jinn: “We stand behind you, Rey”
    Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Rey”
    Yoda: “Rise in the Force, Rey”
    Kanan Jarrus": “In the heart of a Jedi lies their strength”
    Ewan Mcgregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Rise”
    Qui-Gon Jinn: “Rise”
    Luke Skywalker: “Rey, the Force will be with you. Always”

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In TFA there’s a clone army reference by Hux, and the city that houses the New Republic capital seems intentionally similar to Coruscant.

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Mocata said:

In TFA there’s a clone army reference by Hux, and the city that houses the New Republic capital seems intentionally similar to Coruscant.

I think that speaks more to wanting to avoid/destroy the PT. Abrams literally blew up the PT planet, though my guess is someone didn’t want Coruscant blown up so it was made Haxus Prime or something.

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Lor San Tekka mentions “balance in the Force” in the very first scene of TFA.

The existence of the Jedi temple on Ahch-To in TLJ furthers the prequels’ idea of Jedi temples being a thing.

We get to see Mustafar in TRoS, we even see its gas giant in the first shot.

In TRoS, Palpatine repeats his line about the dark side from the opera scene from RotS.

The Jedi voices and the Nubian starfighters in the climax of TRoS.

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As far as signifigant direct story elements go…as in, stuff in the plot that comes out of nowhere if you go straight from the OT to the ST without watching the PT…the Darth Sidious acknowledgement is probably the main one, along with the whole idea of the Sith being this long standing organization/religion, which is important to Palpatine’s revival and his plans for Rey. In the OT the Emperor was, as far as we knew, just this lone powerful dude who managed to convince Anakin to betray the Jedi and become his attack dog. The PT is what worked in the whole Sith plotline.

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Anakin’s voice telling Rey to restore the balance in Rise of Skywalker. Is obviously a reference to the chosen one who will bring balance to the force, by doing away with the Sith.

Palpatine’s resurrection was obviously done through cloning and manipulation of midi-chlorians. Its referenced by the dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities line. And obviously a reference to his discussion with Anakin in episode III about Darth Plagueis.

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This might not count, but Rian Johnson said that the overheard shot of Kylo Ren and the stormtroopers waking into the Rebel base on Crait was inspired by the overhead shot of Anakin and the clones marching into the Jedi Temple in Revenge of the Sith.

There are also some musical callbacks to the prequels. In TFA, the track “Finn’s Confession” is reminiscent to “Talk of Podracing” from TPM.

In TLJ, the track “Old Friends”, which plays as Luke and Rey are entering the cave with the Prime Jedi mural, plays a variation of the mystery motif from Attack of the Clones. You can hear this motif in the “Mystery of the Clones” track from AOTC, for example.

For a more straightforward callback, there is a battle droid in Babu Frik’s droid shop in TROS.

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There’s a few prequel tracks in TRoS’s soundtrack. The one that stood out most to me is this one which plays while Poe and Zorri are talking about leaving Kijimi. Stands out because it was the menu music of the Revenge of the Sith video game I played all the time as a kid.

If this counts.

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  • A small piece of the musical theme that plays during the buildup to Yoda and Palpatine’s duel reappears during Rey’s Ajan Kloss training (granted, that piece of music goes back to a very similar-sounding motif in Empire Strikes Back).

  • The pirate Sidon Ithano at Maz’s castle (the one who Finn approaches to run away) wears a Kaleesh mask. General Grievous (a former Kaleesh) wore one such mask as a faceplate.

  • The Jedi being mentioned in dialogue as an Order.

  • The idea that the Jedi fell because of their own incompetence, as portrayed in the prequels and fleshed out in Clone Wars.

  • The ships among the citizen fleet in TROS include Naboo N-1 Starfighters (those are the ones TestingOutTheTest refers to. The Nubians are the royal cruisers)

  • The existence of only two wayfinders might have been a reference to the Rule of Two.

  • The helmets of the Sith Troopers greatly resemble the Phase II clone trooper helmets.

  • The “Do it!” Palpatine line in TROS can’t be a coincidence, can it?

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“The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” Was said in TROS.

“Star Wars has, and will always be a restaurant.”

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Were any SFX heard that was taken from the PT? for example ship engines, blaster shots, droid sounds, etc.

Knight of Kalee said:

  • The pirate Sidon Ithano at Maz’s castle (the one who Finn approaches to run away) wears a Kaleesh mask. General Grievous (a former Kaleesh) wore one such mask as a faceplate.

  • The ships among the citizen fleet in TROS include Naboo N-1 Starfighters (those are the ones TestingOutTheTest refers to. The Nubians are the royal cruisers).

  • The helmets of the Sith Troopers greatly resemble the Phase II clone trooper helmets.

Are there any other objects or ships like the ones already mentioned that appear throughout the ST?

ThatPixarGuy said:

“The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” Was said in TROS.

What other lines from the PT were quoted in the ST?

RogueLeader said:

For a more straightforward callback, there is a battle droid in Babu Frik’s droid shop in TROS.

That scene where you can see the battle droid in the background was only shown in the final trailer. It isn’t shown in the film.

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Tantive3+1 said:

That scene where you can see the battle droid in the background was only shown in the final trailer. It isn’t shown in the film.

The battle droid is still there.

Imgur

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Tantive3+1 said:

Were any SFX heard that was taken from the PT? for example ship engines, blaster shots, droid sounds, etc.

I don’t remember sounds from the movies themselves but there was quite a share of Clone Wars SFX, including:

  • Trandoshan sounds in Maz’s castle.
  • The Raddus alarm/siren when the First Orders catches up to the Resistance.
  • The siren from the Canto Bight police speeders was first used for the Coruscant Security Force in TCW.
  • The Force choke sound effect is heard when Kylo grabs a FO officer in TROS.
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RogueLeader said:

For a more straightforward callback, there is a battle droid in Babu Frik’s droid shop in TROS.

That scene where you can see the battle droid in the background was only shown in the final trailer. It isn’t shown in the film.

Rodney-2187 said:

Tantive3+1 said:

That scene where you can see the battle droid in the background was only shown in the final trailer. It isn’t shown in the film.

The battle droid is still there.

Imgur

Are there any other PT references like that?

The only other one I know of is in the early trailers for TFA; in Maz’s castle, flags are hanging around, and one of them had the symbol from Anakin’s podracer flag from TPM. It was then removed before the film’s release.
[!]The-Force-Awakens-flags-1.jpg](https://i.postimg.cc/PJ4X2N14/The-Force-Awakens-flags-1.jpg)
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Analog Releases of Films That Contain Deleted, Extended, & Alternate Footage That’ve Never Been Released on DVD/BluRay

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Knight of Kalee said:

The idea that the Jedi fell because of their own incompetence, as portrayed in the prequels and fleshed out in Clone Wars.

Also the fact that they unwittingly bring destruction every single time: Yoda trained Dooku, who became a Sith and helped Palps start the Clone Wars; Obi-Wan trained Anakin, who became Vader and wiped out most of the Jedi Order; Luke trained Ben, who became Kylo Ren and wiped out his Jedi academy and burned it down.

Luke thinks they’re inherently flawed as a concept because of this.

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I’d argue the name Darth Sidious in TLJ and the clone army line in TFA are the only true references to the Prequels. If no one told you who the Jedi voices were you wouldn’t question it. They’re just past Jedi, doesn’t matter who they are, and that includes Obi-Wan. Granted, Anakin does mention bringing balance to the Force, so I guess that’s one for TRoS. Oh and the RotS quote from Palps.

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For that same reason you could argue that the Darth Sidious line doesn’t count either. If you never saw the prequels, you would just assume that was just new information. Maybe the Clone Army too, which honestly feels like it shouldn’t count even normally, since there being Cloned Armies is a natural conclusion of there being Clone Wars.

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SparkySywer said:

For that same reason you could argue that the Darth Sidious line doesn’t count either. If you never saw the prequels, you would just assume that was just new information.

Well, Luke basically sums up the PT in that line, so it definitely is a direct PT reference.

So long 🙌

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Well, yeah, obviously.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

I’d argue the name Darth Sidious in TLJ and the clone army line in TFA are the only true references to the Prequels. If no one told you who the Jedi voices were you wouldn’t question it. They’re just past Jedi, doesn’t matter who they are, and that includes Obi-Wan. Granted, Anakin does mention bringing balance to the Force, so I guess that’s one for TRoS. Oh and the RotS quote from Palps.

The entire concept of the Sith being a thing at all was only ever established in the prequels, in the OT the Emperor was just this lone guy with Force powers who managed to turn a Jedi to the dark side. Yet the Sith existing is the basis behind Palpatine’s revival and his plans to transfer his spirit to Rey. So I’d definitely mark that down as an important detail from the prequels.

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Then why was Vader being a Sith explicitly mentioned in a deleted scene of the original film. Why was he called the Dark Lord of the Sith in both Lucas screenplay and the 1976 novelization.

Confusingly Tarkin seems to think Vader is the last of the Jedi in Star Wars.