The Big, Dumb Star Wars: Force Awakens thread.

paranoid_android74 wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Saw an opinion online that Rey might be a Kenobi. Obiwan might have been bored hanging around Tatooine all those years...

Possibly. I suspect her parents are both dead, or captured by some Imperial successor faction. I've seen some speculation that Luke, Leia, or Han may be one of her parents. But it seems out of character for any of those to have left her without any plans to come back, and she didn't seem to recognize any of them when she met them. But I could see Obi-Wan having a kid while he was in exile, and that would explain her Force powers. Of course, with the whole Jedi celibacy thing, it appears Force powers aren't always hereditary. She could be unrelated to anybody else - or to somebody with no Force powers from the original trilogy. What if she was the grandchild of one of those admirals that Darth Vader force-choked to death in The Empire Strikes Back? Unlikely, but that could be an interesting twist.

This may have already been covered here and I missed it in the thread. But wasn't it kind of unclear whether or not Rey actually had parents? A la Anakin Skywalker?

That's my theory as well, but I think Rey actually IS Anakin reincarnated via the force. And FWIW, Luke didn't kill Vader.

I always interpreted "bring balance to the Force" as meaning that there needed to be a balance between the light and dark sides -- as in, a similar amount of each. Since the Jedi had been ascendant for quite some time during the Old Republic, Anakin had to kill them all and bring forth the Empire in order to balance that out.

So basically Anakin did exactly what he was prophecied to do, it's just that the Jedi at the time didn't actually understand the prophecy properly.

paranoid_android74 wrote:

MadScientistMatt wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Saw an opinion online that Rey might be a Kenobi. Obiwan might have been bored hanging around Tatooine all those years...

Possibly. I suspect her parents are both dead, or captured by some Imperial successor faction. I've seen some speculation that Luke, Leia, or Han may be one of her parents. But it seems out of character for any of those to have left her without any plans to come back, and she didn't seem to recognize any of them when she met them. But I could see Obi-Wan having a kid while he was in exile, and that would explain her Force powers. Of course, with the whole Jedi celibacy thing, it appears Force powers aren't always hereditary. She could be unrelated to anybody else - or to somebody with no Force powers from the original trilogy. What if she was the grandchild of one of those admirals that Darth Vader force-choked to death in The Empire Strikes Back? Unlikely, but that could be an interesting twist.

This may have already been covered here and I missed it in the thread. But wasn't it kind of unclear whether or not Rey actually had parents? A la Anakin Skywalker?

I was basing it on her wanting to stay on the planet for someone to return and the flashback where we saw (I assume) her as a young child with the ship rockets into the distance.

Another "immaculate conception" ala' Anakin could still be a possibility.

-Rob

Right- like I said this notion was rather vague.

Which scene was it? When she picked up the light saber?

--edit-- Rey is Kylo Ren's brother. So the daughter of Han and Leah. Hence being abandoned, blasters being fired as a ship sped away, etc. Strong connection to Luke....

I'll stop now, I didn't catch it in the movie.

-edit-- Rey is Kylo Ren's brother. So the daughter of Han and Leah. Hence being abandoned, blasters being fired as a ship sped away, etc. Strong connection to Luke....

I'll stop now, I didn't catch it in the movie.

This is true for books and comics but not in this movie. Disney changed the Star Wars canon.

I find it hard to imagine Leah would have abandoned a daughter, unless she was somehow unaware she had delivered the child...

Streetwiseguy wrote: I find it hard to imagine Leah would have abandoned a daughter, unless she was somehow unaware she had delivered the child...

"Leia" :)

Here's an off-the-wall theory: Yoda wasn't an alien, he was actually a human. Remember how the Dark Side can prolong life? Maybe, long ago, he embraced the Dark Side and it extended his life but drastically changed his appearance (like it did Palpatine's, only more so). The reason he knows so much about the dangers of the Dark Side is that he's been there!

Later (although before the prequels) he converted back to the Light Side, but kept his extended life & appearance. He lived in isolation on Dagobah for 20 years until Luke came to visit. When Luke left to confront Vader he figured Luke would die, and the galaxy needed another hidden Jedi, so he went to Jakku and had a child. Then when he heard that Luke had survived he went back to Dagobah to finish Luke's training. Dagobah is no place for a small child, so he left Rey with a trusted friend.

codrus wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: I find it hard to imagine Leah would have abandoned a daughter, unless she was somehow unaware she had delivered the child...

"Leia" :) Here's an off-the-wall theory: Yoda wasn't an alien, he was actually a human. Remember how the Dark Side can prolong life? Maybe, long ago, he embraced the Dark Side and it extended his life but drastically changed his appearance (like it did Palpatine's, only more so). The reason he knows so much about the dangers of the Dark Side is that he's been there! Later (although before the prequels) he converted back to the Light Side, but kept his extended life & appearance. He lived in isolation on Dagobah for 20 years until Luke came to visit. When Luke left to confront Vader he figured Luke would die, and the galaxy needed another hidden Jedi, so he went to Jakku and had a child. Then when he heard that Luke had survived he went back to Dagobah to finish Luke's training. Dagobah is no place for a small child, so he left Rey with a trusted friend.

Rey was born after Endor though, was she not?

We (finally) saw it last night--late showing in a small theater full of recliners. Maybe 20 other people were in there with us.

Background: I saw the first movie in the theater, and it transformed our lives. Somewhere I have a Darth Vader head full of action figures. Wish I still had my lunchbox, though.

Anyway, my TL;DR review:

They killed Han!!??

This is the first Star Wars movie since Jedi that I'm eager to see again.

Yeah, they dished out the nostalgia pretty heavily. Know what? Fine. Seeing the Aluminum Falcon at full boil was pretty cool.

Is this the first one that really showed post-war destruction? Yeah, all of those crashed ships have to land somewhere.

Considering how much I'm online, I'm impressed that I went in without hearing any spoilers. Thanks, world, for keeping some secrets to well.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/3F1d3QWsyk0

Sine_Qua_Non wrote: -edit-- Rey is Kylo Ren's brother. So the daughter of Han and Leah. Hence being abandoned, blasters being fired as a ship sped away, etc. Strong connection to Luke.... I'll stop now, I didn't catch it in the movie. This is true for books and comics but not in this movie. Disney changed the Star Wars canon.

Changed or rearranged?

You sir may have sank my battleship.

I read the books, and the movie does not follow what I read. But did they change the canon or rearrange it?

Dun, dun, dun!

This is a fun thread!

Yep, Han got whacked. But Kylo got his ass handed to him in the end.

I guess I'm deciding to like the movie after all...

Wait- this is the thread that allows spoilers right? I should have checked that. Sorry!

David S. Wallens wrote: We (finally) saw it last night--late showing in a small theater full of recliners. Maybe 20 other people were in there with us. Background: I saw the first movie in the theater, and it transformed our lives. Somewhere I have a Darth Vader head full of action figures. Wish I still had my lunchbox, though. Anyway, my TL;DR review: They killed Han!!?? This is the first Star Wars movie since Jedi that I'm eager to see again. Yeah, they dished out the nostalgia pretty heavily. Know what? Fine. Seeing the Aluminum Falcon at full boil was pretty cool. Is this the first one that really showed post-war destruction? Yeah, all of those crashed ships have to land somewhere. Considering how much I'm online, I'm impressed that I went in without hearing any spoilers. Thanks, world, for keeping some secrets to well. https://www.youtube.com/embed/3F1d3QWsyk0

In reply to paranoid_android74:

Lucasarts pretty gave a free pass to anyone wanting to write a book and slap a Star Wars logo on it. Before he sold the rights, Lucas had wrote a script for 7 that did away with all the post-ROTJ expanded universe. Disney didn't use his script, but the old books are no longer canon. And for the most part, that's a good thing.

If it wasn't shown on a movie or tv, its no longer canon.

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: In reply to paranoid_android74: Lucasarts pretty gave a free pass to anyone wanting to write a book and slap a Star Wars logo on it. Before he sold the rights, Lucas had wrote a script for 7 that did away with all the post-ROTJ expanded universe. Disney didn't use his script, but the old books are no longer canon. And for the most part, that's a good thing. If it wasn't shown on a movie or tv, its no longer canon.

AIUI, Disney has said they've even considered de-canonizing some of the stuff in the prequel movies..

But yeah, Lucas opened up the post-RotJ stuff because he had no plans to make anything else there, so he could let people go wild. That changed, so it's all relegated to being an alternate universe now.

Hadn't heard about Disney de-canonizing anything in the prequels. That would be most unsettling if it was true.

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: Hadn't heard about Disney de-canonizing anything in the prequels. That would be most unsettling if it was true.

I'm not sure I approve either. But it would clear the path for a new set of prequels that don't have Jar-Jar or midiclorians.

I think everyone can just pretend midichlorians never happened...

Machete order, dude.

At the end of Force awakens, you can see Luke and his mechanical hand. At the end of empire, his hand was cut off, then repaired into what looked like a mechanical hand, but looked realistic on the outside with some sort of skin. I don't remember seeing it other than being gloved in Jedi. So is there a significant reason for the bare mechanical hand?

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: Lucasarts pretty gave a free pass to anyone wanting to write a book and slap a Star Wars logo on it. Before he sold the rights, Lucas had wrote a script for 7 that did away with all the post-ROTJ expanded universe. Disney didn't use his script, but the old books are no longer canon. And for the most part, that's a good thing.

That's a shame... the Timothy Zahn "Thrawn Triology" was a good series. Still, IIRC that took place after ROTJ, but before The Force Awakens, so there's still hope that series could get made into movies.

The bare hand is in V or VI somewhere..

MadScientistMatt wrote:

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: Hadn't heard about Disney de-canonizing anything in the prequels. That would be most unsettling if it was true.

I'm not sure I approve either. But it would clear the path for a new set of prequels that don't have Jar-Jar or midiclorians.

It would be better if they didn't officially decannonize them, but just sort of ignored them. The starwars/jedi world has changed so much since then that much of it's not terribly relevant to the current timeline. Just keep the important details and ignore the rest.

sachilles wrote: At the end of Force awakens, you can see Luke and his mechanical hand. At the end of empire, his hand was cut off, then repaired into what looked like a mechanical hand, but looked realistic on the outside with some sort of skin. I don't remember seeing it other than being gloved in Jedi. So is there a significant reason for the bare mechanical hand?

I'm thinking that camping out on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere would make it impossible to get replacement outer coverings for his cyber-hand when they inevitably wear down over the course of a few years, so after a while he was eventually running a bare hand. I can relate to that...

MadScientistMatt wrote:

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: Hadn't heard about Disney de-canonizing anything in the prequels. That would be most unsettling if it was true.

I'm not sure I approve either. But it would clear the path for a new set of prequels that don't have Jar-Jar or midiclorians.

Count me in as all for a remake/retcon of Episodes 1-3!

I remember, in a Galaxy not so far away but a long long time ago (I'm old), there were at least sort-of plans for all 9 movies at some point, some time. 3 trilogies. Does anyone know if:

1) anything of all 9 existed at once (like even a basic plot idea)

2) JJ followed anything Lucas had pre-written, or did he just wing it?

ThunderCougarFalconGoat wrote: Hadn't heard about Disney de-canonizing anything in the prequels. That would be most unsettling if it was true.

Getting rid of Jar Jar would definitely be a plus. :)

The Thrawn trilogy were some of the first new post-RotJ novels to come out and, IMHO, the best. Zahn is an accomplished writer, and he did an excellent job of capturing the feel of the universe, while fleshing it out in interesting and logical ways (Interdictor cruisers were a really good idea, for example). I dunno if they'd work as movies, though -- the structure of a novel and a movie is quite different. They're also fundamentally incompatible with what we've seen about the Resistance and First Order.

There was a huge amount of expanded universe stuff that accumulated in the last 20 years, and trying to stay consistent with it would be very difficult. I'm not at all surprised that Disney de-canonized it, they want to be able to hand their A-list directors a lot more creative freedom for the new movies.

Jerry wrote: I remember, in a Galaxy not so far away but a long long time ago (I'm old), there were at least sort-of plans for all 9 movies at some point, some time. 3 trilogies. Does anyone know if: 1) anything of all 9 existed at once (like even a basic plot idea) 2) JJ followed anything Lucas had pre-written, or did he just wing it?

1) Lucas has had various ideas in his head for decades, but it's always evolved.

2) AIUI, Lucas had a partial script for ep 7, Disney tossed it out and wrote their own.