hydrospanner

PeakSine said:

Anchorhead said:

Yoda Is Your Father said:

PeakSine said:

Is Rey the daughter of Luke Skywalker? I’m curious about your thoughts!

I hope not. Too obvious. Why can’t she be strong in the force without being a Skywalker?

I agree. I really hope she’s Rey Random and our only family connection is Ben. Stop the universe shrinking before it gets any worse.

Exactly! But I’m afraid they will choose the easy way so she will be Luke’s.

Wouldn’t it be easier if she isn’t his daughter? No need to explain who her mother was or what happened to her and pretty much any explanation for how she ended up on Jakku would be easy to make sense of.

Alderaan said:

Well, that’s kind of my point. Everyone will now become a good guy. We’ll have an entire series where everyone is prequel Anakin, and Kylo, and Phasma who didn’t mean to do bad things. They are just misguided kids making mistakes and killing people because some bad emperor or bogeyman tricked them into doing it.

Well Phasma wouldn’t necessarily have to be one of the good guys if she left the First Order… They could take it in a different direction where she is more of a grey character. It was just an idea to possibly explain why it seemed she complied with their demands so easily.

Alderaan said:

hydrospanner said:
It could be that they softened her character purposefully? Maybe seeing Finn defect affected her and she is heading down that same road and starting to question the First Order’s motives. That is why she put the shields down without much of a fight. Maybe we see her leave the First Order in the next film. Just an idea.

That’s going to be my new Star Wars motto from now on. There are no bad people in the world! Everyone is a good guy just waiting to be changed back to the good side.

Should everyone who is presented as a hero/villian always stay on that path? I don’t think having a character or two have a change of heart is necessarily a bad thing.

Hal 9000 said:

MrToad883 said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but was the lightsaber ignition sound for anakin/lukes saber accurate to the OT? it sounded different to me

This annoyed me too. The first time Finn ignites it, it sounds like Vader’s saber to me. I was on alert for this after having replaced two saber sound effects for my Ep3 edit that were wrong. Then again, the DVD remaster has the ROTJ saber ignition used in ESB, so I’m not sure what they’re smoking.

I noticed the saber didn’t sound exactly the same too, not quite sure what was different about it. The blasters throughout the movie didn’t have the classic Star Wars sound either. I thought they sounded kind of like Star Trek weapons at times.

Yoda Is Your Father said:

PeakSine said:

Is Rey the daughter of Luke Skywalker? I’m curious about your thoughts!

I hope not. Too obvious. Why can’t she be strong in the force without being a Skywalker?

I feel the other way. I’ll be a little let down if she ends up being anyone but Luke’s daughter. I think there is too much pointing in that direction for it to not be the case. It would also help to get rid of the silly idea presented in the prequels about the Jedi not being allowed to marry and have families.

Yoda Is Your Father said:

Alderaan said:

It’s really hard to decide which is the worst Star Wars character in history now, Jar Jar or Phasma? At least Jar Jar was a genuine character, even if wildly inappropriate and hopelessly annoying. Even the Ewoks were cute and had their emotional little moments.

Phasma’s only purpose in the entire ******* film was to lower the shields for the resistance. That’s it. Just imagine an imperial officer whose only function was to lower the shields on Endor and say “you’re gonna regret this!”

I agree. She could have been so cool but they made her a useless patsy.

The cynical side of me believes she was only included in the marketing hype to highlight another female character.

I’d like to see her return in VIII, but if she does she’s been tainted with the lame brush. Any soldier/officer worth their salt would surely rather die defending the first order than let the base be destroyed.

And if she did indeed manage to get out of the trash compactor, and somehow escape the planet before it exploded, she should be renamed Captain Houdini.

It could be that they softened her character purposefully? Maybe seeing Finn defect affected her and she is heading down that same road and starting to question the First Order’s motives. That is why she put the shields down without much of a fight. Maybe we see her leave the First Order in the next film. Just an idea.

trimboNZ said:

TheWanderingNomad said:
In Star Wars, we had a set up of how important the Death Star was – the stolen plans, the destruction of Alderaan – and the political state of the galaxy – Obi Wan talking about the destruction of the Jedi and the Imperial officers on the Death Star discussing the disbanding of the Imperial Senate. In contrast, the Starkiller base was just there – there was no sense that the Resistance was trying to find it. You cared about the destruction of Alderaan because it was Leia’s home planet. Why should we care about the never-before-mentioned Hosnian system? (And how did they see the destruction from Maz’s castle?)
…

That shot with the planets destruction being visible from Maz’s castle established beyond any reasonable doubt that Takodana is in the Hosnian system.

Apparently, it is a quarter of the way across the galaxy from the Hosnian system.

How about this? Harrison Ford is back for episode VIII, not as Han Solo, but as an older Kylo Ren who time traveled back from the future.

One way this could work is old Kylo turned back to the light and is now Jedi Knight Ben Solo. He travels back in time and teams up side by side with Luke Skywalker to face his younger self in an epic lightsaber battle and kills him thus preventing Luke’s death and saving the galaxy. The movie would then end with him fading out of existence.

Thoughts?

woofermazing said:

I think you guys are mistaken about Rey being hidden from Ren. I think it’s more likely that Ren is the one who dumped her on Jakku. Ren was Lukes star pupil and likely successor to lead the new Jedi order. Then baby Skywalker is born and is a force prodigy. Ren is pissy about being cast aside and hooks up with Snoke. He’s ordered to wipe out the Jedi order and bring the Skywalker child to Snoke. He decides to kill her instead because he doesn’t want to be second fiddle again but can’t follow through, so instead ditches her on a random planet. She doesn’t remember any of this yet.

Kylo Rens reaction to hearing about the Jakku escape and fear when she starts to realize her force powers make no sense unless they have history, and his inferiority complex makes no sense unless he’s been cast aside before in favor of Rey. It also would completely ruin Luke’s character for me if he abandoned Rey to the same life he had been stuck in, and then gave up fighting for good.

I really like this as a possible explanation.

RicOlie_2 said:

joefavs said:

^I noticed it but couldn’t get a good look at it either time I saw it because the shot was so damn dark. I’m hoping the blu ray is a little clearer.

If I’m thinking of the right alien, it looked just like the first one we see in the cantina scene in ANH–the one with the triangular head.

This guy?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hem_Dazon

That is what I thought too.

Warbler said:

You know, if I was Leia, I’d be really pissed at Luke. He trains her son and he turns to the darkside. Of course mistakes happen and Kylo Ren is partly to blame himself, as is the new Emperor. I can understand Luke being angry with himself and blaming himself for what happened and never wanting to train another Jedi again. But Kylo Ren is on the loose and perhaps or perhaps not Luke also knew of the existence of the new Emperor. The only known fully trained Jedi is Luke, and he leaves??? He doesn’t think “well okay I’m never going to train another Jedi, but maybe I ought to stop Kylo Ren and then leave”?

What about Obi-Wan and Yoda just kind of hiding out and doing nothing for all those years? Not training up Luke or Leia, or any Jedi at all for that matter, just hanging out and watching from a distance. Surely they could have trained up a whole army of Jedi and went at it with Vader and the Emperor, or at least made another attempt to stop them themselves? If two of the most beloved characters of the OT get a pass when they did the same thing more or less why shouldn’t Luke. I’m sure he has his reasons, just like Obi-Wan and Yoda did.

joefavs said:

Rian Johnson was hanging around for a ton of production and post production on TFA and had a bunch of really in-depth conversations with JJ about the direction of the story. Hell, I seem to remember JJ even saying Johnson asked him to tweak a couple things so they would lead into his movie more smoothly, and JJ’s already read his Episode VIII script and presumably given feedback on it. This is not JJ and Kasdan turning around after their movie and saying “screw you guys, you’re on your own”, it’s simply someone else getting into the driver’s seat to keep it fresh. The LFL story group isn’t flying blind.

I hope you are correct and that is the case and that the ST doesn’t turn out like LOST.

TavorX said:

hydrospanner said:
Well, they may have been planning sequels, but the movie was written in a way where it stands on its own. Compare the ending of ANH to the ending of TFA.

To me, there’s that one key scene of why I thought ANH isn’t standalone. And it’s that scene where you see Vader’s Tie zoom away after he stopped the ship from spinning around. If we never got that small little sequence, then I think the argument of ANH intending to be standalone would be stronger. But since that Vader was given additional screen time after the Death Star is blown up, it no longer is standalone because it means we still have a bad guy (a skilled bad guy no less) out in the far reaches of the Galaxy.

Well if they killed him off then they couldn’t use him in a potential sequel. I still think the story of ANH is pretty self contained. The difference is TFA story is written in a way where it needs a sequel to continue to explain the mysteries it presents us and it even ends on a cliffhanger.

TavorX said:

hydrospanner said:

SilverWook said:

George worked much the same way. He didn’t have the sister thing worked out yet when Yoda spoke of another in Empire. Did Irvin Kershner have to know if Vader really was Luke’s father or not to make that scene work?

I think someone at Lucasfilm will be guiding things. People are not just going to make up whatever they want.

That is true, but also remember that Star Wars was intended to be a stand alone film. A big difference here is this was known to be a trilogy from the get go. So the possibility that they put a bunch of mysteries in the first act that they don’t have any clue what the answers to them are and are then are handing it off to someone else is concerning. I am hoping that is not the case and they have something fleshed out.

This is where I’m fuzzy on the details, but didn’t Lucas already have the drafts for three movies ready before STAR WARS landed in theaters? He let FOX showoff the first Star Wars, but Lucas wanted to run with his other two scripts as an independent studio. From what I infer, if Star Wars flopped at the box office, then there wouldn’t be sequels, however, if it did succeed, it gave Lucas the green light to go on with two more movies with full rights.

This is something I’ve never really sure about when people say STAR WARS was meant to be a stand alone movie.

Well, they may have been planning sequels, but the movie was written in a way where it stands on its own. Compare the ending of ANH to the ending of TFA.

SilverWook said:

George worked much the same way. He didn’t have the sister thing worked out yet when Yoda spoke of another in Empire. Did Irvin Kershner have to know if Vader really was Luke’s father or not to make that scene work?

I think someone at Lucasfilm will be guiding things. People are not just going to make up whatever they want.

That is true, but also remember that Star Wars was intended to be a stand alone film. A big difference here is this was known to be a trilogy from the get go. So the possibility that they put a bunch of mysteries in the first act that they don’t have any clue what the answers to them are and are then are handing it off to someone else is concerning. I am hoping that is not the case and they have something fleshed out.

Alderaan said:

The Jedi mind trick scene was not successful with me, because it took me out of the film to think to myself, “wait? how does she know that? she doesn’t know that…”

What about when Luke pulled his saber with the force in the wampa cave? We hadn’t seen the force used like that yet and no on screen explanation is ever given to tell us how he knows how to do it.

TavorX said:

Anchorhead said:

I got to the theater about 30 minutes early. As usual with Alamo Drafthouse, the pre-film adds and such are tailored to the feature. In this case it was a bunch of old Kenner toy adds from the late 70s/early 80s. Crazy what a cultural phenomenon it’s been for so long. One was for the toy Yoda Is Your Father has as his avatar. I never did understand that snake part.

Maybe it was a nod to the snake you see Luke walk by when he faces his ‘self’. Only thing I can think of.

Wasn’t there a snake slithering around in his hut when he was making that stew for him and Luke?

TavorX said:

hydrospanner said:

TavorX said:

^Lmao

Screw it, REY, YOU HAVE NO FATHER!

Just like prequel Anakin?

Is she not the chosen one to bring balance to the Force???

I kid of course. Kinda.

It’s like poetry. It rhymes.

TavorX said:

^Lmao

Screw it, REY, YOU HAVE NO FATHER!

Just like prequel Anakin?

It’s gonna be great.

Maybe she is the offspring of Luke and a presently unknown female Kenobi? Those would be some good Jedi genes.

Anyone think we will see that Scottish guy from that scene again? I noticed he survived and was the one to inform the First Order that he found the droid they were looking for.

ZkinandBonez said:

Bosk said:

TavorX said:

Bosk said:
Okay I’ll have a go, luke will train rey in the force (even though shes picked it up!)

I’m not sure why you’re nitpicking this. Luke used the Force in A New Hope to blow up the Death Star.

After having a quick training session by ob1… Yes. Rey just decided she could use it by closing her eyes mid battle

Well, she had heard the “stories” of Luke Skywalker and the rest of the gang, and she even seemed to know a fair amount of details. Although she said 14 parsecs to Solo rather than 12, that’s still a pretty specific detail. Her closing her eyes and finding the inner peace to defeat Kylo isn’t that weird in my opinion. Her knowing how to do a mind trick however, is a tad weirder. Then again, she might have heard of the trick before, but never considered the possibility that it was real, let alone available for her.

Also, what happened to the whole “awakening” in the Force thing? Wasn’t that supposed to be part of the plot, or where those just marketing blurbs?

It also is quite likely and seems hinted at that she had some force training as a small child before she was left on Jakku that she repressed and started to rediscover as the movie went along. Also, if you think about it someone had to learn how to use the force on their own at some point before they could teach it to others, no?

ZkinandBonez said:

hydrospanner said:

ZkinandBonez said:

pablumatic said:

hydrospanner said:

Why were they able to see the Hosnian system get destroyed from Takodana? You’d think they’d be right on top of each other for that to make sense… but according to the new maps of the galaxy there is some considerable distance between the two systems.

I assume it will never be explained, but I will go ahead and say the hyperspeed laser light reaches other systems much faster than regular light. So its possible to see it as it happens.

Maybe it should have been pinpoints of light rather than a fireworks show, but that’s Star Wars for you.

Well, SW isn’t exactly knows for being scientifically accurate. Heck, one of the things that convinced Irvin Kershner to direct ESB was that he wouldn’t have to pay attention to any scientific accuracy at all.
This is after all a universe held together by magic, and where space-ships make pretty loud noises in the vacuum of space. All time doesn’t seem to be in any way affected by gravity, or light-speed, so it’s essentially just Middle-Earth in space.
I do however think that they should have made the beam and explosion a tad smaller. More of an illustration, rather than being so blatant. Apparently it’s a lot smaller in the novelization.

I guess my issue with it is the planet looks bigger than Mars would to us while they are watching it get destroyed and it is supposed to be happening on the other side of the galaxy. If it was established that they were neighboring systems it wouldn’t bother me if it looked too big, it just seems like too much of a stretch how they portray it given what we know about the locations of these systems in the galaxy.

Oh, I agree that it looks kind of weird, and that it definitively could have been done in a somewhat subtler way. I’m just not considering it a “flaw” in the general sense, and I’m not going to linger on it. The again, I’m sure we’ll get some fan edit that’ll shrink it down a bit at some point. Either way though, I don’t really care.

All they would need to do is show the systems to be close like Hoth and Bespin on the new map and that would satisfy me. I suppose that will be my head cannon for now.

ZkinandBonez said:

pablumatic said:

hydrospanner said:

Why were they able to see the Hosnian system get destroyed from Takodana? You’d think they’d be right on top of each other for that to make sense… but according to the new maps of the galaxy there is some considerable distance between the two systems.

I assume it will never be explained, but I will go ahead and say the hyperspeed laser light reaches other systems much faster than regular light. So its possible to see it as it happens.

Maybe it should have been pinpoints of light rather than a fireworks show, but that’s Star Wars for you.

Well, SW isn’t exactly knows for being scientifically accurate. Heck, one of the things that convinced Irvin Kershner to direct ESB was that he wouldn’t have to pay attention to any scientific accuracy at all.
This is after all a universe held together by magic, and where space-ships make pretty loud noises in the vacuum of space. All time doesn’t seem to be in any way affected by gravity, or light-speed, so it’s essentially just Middle-Earth in space.
I do however think that they should have made the beam and explosion a tad smaller. More of an illustration, rather than being so blatant. Apparently it’s a lot smaller in the novelization.

I guess my issue with it is the planet looks bigger than Mars would to us while they are watching it get destroyed and it is supposed to be happening on the other side of the galaxy. If it was established that they were neighboring systems it wouldn’t bother me if it looked too big, it just seems like too much of a stretch how they portray it given what we know about the locations of these systems in the galaxy.