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Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 228

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I saw this and thought it may be interesting to some here…

a breakdown of character’s screen time for TFA (I do not know if it accurate or not - I imagine it is) - ‘Star Wars Force Awakens Screen Time’:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK9b74G0zrs
 

May also be interesting for those who like to see graphs or bars move around the screen with some chilled synth music in the background for five minutes 😉

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I can’t believe today is the five year anniversary of The Force Awakens. Although in retrospect I’m not really the biggest fan of the film I’m glad for its existence as it brought some good memories and people into my life.

I’ll also never forget the goosebumps I felt during this moment!

Edit: I got my date wrong by three days. Oops!

“Heroes come in all sizes, and you don’t have to be a giant hero. You can be a very small hero. It’s just as important to understand that accepting self-responsibility for the things you do, having good manners, caring about other people - these are heroic acts. Everybody has the choice of being a hero or not being a hero every day of their lives.” - George Lucas

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Today, I am going to be addressing… something. People act like there is no explanation for Maz getting the lightsaber and acting like it is a plot hole, acting like the lightsaber was dropped into the atmosphere of a gas giant, never to be seen again.

Firstly, this acts as though it were implied, shown or made clear in The Empire Strikes Back that the lightsaber did fall into Bespin’s atmosphere after Luke had his hand sliced off by Darth Vader… except there was no indication that the lightsaber did fall out of Cloud City and into Bespin’s atmosphere, never to be seen again.

Secondly, there is an explanation in The Force Awakens alone. It isn’t explicitly spoon-fed to you; instead, it relies on inference, like almost everything else in the sequel trilogy.

We know Maz is not only friends with Han Solo but is also familiar with the history of the lightsaber (she had to have received this information from Luke, he is the only other person to know about this), and the fact alone that she found the lightsaber implies she is familiar with Bespin — one can infer that Maz went out to find it and eventually came across it at the bottom floor of Cloud City.

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Sounds way less like inference and more like headcanon.

“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” - DV

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The problem isn’t that it’s a plot hole (I agree that it’s not), it’s that it’s an unexplained coincidence. Explanations help coincidences feel less coincidental and smooth out the immersion-breaking feeling they cause. Good explanations will completely eliminate coincidence completely (for instance, it’s not a coincidence that Luke met Obi Wan or that Obi Wan had Anakin’s lightsaber, since Obi Wan was Anakin’s former friend and mentor and was watching over Anakin’s son). Even weak explanations are better than nothing.

Without that minimal effort on the writer’s part, the human mind is immediately alerted to the fact that this is just actors reading from a script and that the writer couldn’t think of a more organic way to move the plot in the direction he wanted.

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I already explained that there is an explanation for how Maz found the saber.

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It would have made for a fun Maz/Lando subplot in the final movie. Instead of them doing nothing…