[SPOILERS]Episode VII: The Force Awakens [SPOILERS]

[PolishRifle]

The easter egg that I picked up on first was that Finn's designation was 2187 which was also's Leia's cell number on the detention level.  There also appeared to be a few items from Star Wars the Old Republic MMO in the background, specifically SCORPIO in the cantina.

 

Anakin's saber calling to Rey doesn't necessarily make her Luke's daughter, Leia is descended from Anakin as well so Rey could part of the Solo line.  It would explain why Han was hanging around the system like Obi-Wan did when Luke was a child.  She also has an aptitude for repairs, like Han, and is a natural pilot, like Han.

 

I'm interested in the formation of the Knights of Ren.  In Aftermath, new canon, the Imperial defector talks about some of the bad things he had done and specifically mentions torturing a young Imperial named Kylo Ren.  If I remember the loyalty officer described Kylo as handsome but then Kylo's face got messed up.  I'm assuming thats why the mask is worn even if the current leader of the knights isn't deformed.

[Oramac]

There's no way she's his twin sister, though, right?

 

Not a chance.  If she was, that means that one of two things are true:

 

1. Leia is her mother, and I'm pretty sure Leia would remember giving birth to a second kid.  Or, 

2. Han cheated on Leia (unlikely).  

 

The easter egg that I picked up on first was that Finn's designation was 2187 which was also's Leia's cell number on the detention level.  There also appeared to be a few items from Star Wars the Old Republic MMO in the background, specifically SCORPIO in the cantina.

 

I caught those too!!  Also, when Finn is poking around in the Falcon, there's half a second where he picks up and tosses away the remote that Luke trained against in Ep IV.  

[Br0din]

some one say spoilers?

 

 

I really enjoyed it.  I was surprised by some things like Han dying.  I thought the Rey/Solo chemistry was awesome.  I did think it was replaying A New Hope's plot a little too much, but it was the first movie I finished watching and immediately wanted to see it again.

[TurtIe]

As soon as I saw that bridge I knew Han was done for. Nothing good ever happens on a bridge with no hand rails in Star Wars. I think it was necessary to cement Kylo as the villain, I was feeling pretty sympathetic towards him prior to that.

[Raincloak]

Nothing good ever happens on a bridge with no hand rails in Star Wars. 

 

I know right.  SW has what TV Tropes calls "No OSHA Compliance" written alllll over it.  It's not just the Empire, either; I can think of at least three doomy bridges in the series that belonged to neutral parties.   Weapons the size of a planet and no freakin handrails.

 

Though Obi-wan managed to get on and off such a bridge without anything bad happening, but he did get killed a couple scenes later...

[maegs]

random thoughts in no coherent order:

1. No body + people having survived falls from great heights in SW before = maegs is in total denial
2. Why didn't they have the new weapon be the Suncrusher instead of the Death Star 3.0?
3. Rey's gotta be either Han & Leia's daughter, or Luke's
4. They seemed to be foreshadowing that she's Han's daughter (piloting + finishing each other's thoughts + "he feels like the father you never knew") so I'm guessing that it's a fakeout and she'll be Luke's daughter (she's been to the island before, Leia and Han haven't)
5. Or did Anakin/Vader have another kid later? 
6. As my friend said ".but I'm inclined to think she looks a hell of a lot like amadala..but that could just be a coincednce...although rei and kylo had some sort of funky vibes going on and not just force on force vibes"
7. Phasma will be back, 100% sure
8. Finn - should we trust him? He was sent for reconditioning and Phasma said he was normal, I don't think he had it together enough at that point to be able to trick her
9. Lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren and Rey will happen, Ren's lightsaber will fail (it's unstable af, I bet he made it before he was supposed to/had all the know-how) and Rey will have the kill-the-guy-who-killed-Han decision to make aka dark side or light side
10. More parallels with Luke/Rey - desert planet, oh hey random droid, not knowing their real parents...
11. Did Rey have Force training at some point? She seemed to pick up using the Force pretty competently pretty quickly

[TheOtherScott]

I teared up during the crawl, but I'm so excited that my daughters will grow up seeing a hero like Rey on the big screen.

[TheOtherScott]

 

random thoughts in no coherent order:

1. Did Rey have Force training at some point? She seemed to pick up using the Force pretty competently pretty quickly

 

 

Here's my thinking:

No training, but besides her force sensitivity, she's incredibly focused and determined, so of course she can quickly learn how to utilize some basic force powers.  Compare that to Ren, who lacks control (to the point his own troops are used to his hissy fits) and winds up pretty evenly matched with her.

 

And I have some thoughts on Ren.  Specifically, I think he's way less powerful than he tries to appear:

- We only ever see him use force powers that intimidate.  He can push things around and extract information from people without the force.  I'm not sure those are considered advanced skills.

- Did he actually feel the awakening?  I feel like maybe he didn't.

- He may actually have less hand-to-hand combat training than Finn, which is why Finn can hold him off despite not being force-sensitive (that we know of).  And stormtroopers are now trained with anti-lightsaber weapons, so it's possible he at least knows the basics.  Ren very likely never dueled to the death before.

[maegs]

Here's my thinking:

No training, but besides her force sensitivity, she's incredibly focused and determined, so of course she can quickly learn how to utilize some basic force powers. Compare that to Ren, who lacks control (to the point his own troops are used to his hissy fits) and winds up pretty evenly matched with her.

And I have some thoughts on Ren. Specifically, I think he's way less powerful than he tries to appear:

- We only ever see him use force powers that intimidate. He can push things around and extract information from people without the force. I'm not sure those are considered advanced skills.

- Did he actually feel the awakening? I feel like maybe he didn't.

- He may actually have less hand-to-hand combat training than Finn, which is why Finn can hold him off despite not being force-sensitive (that we know of). And stormtroopers are now trained with anti-lightsaber weapons, so it's possible he at least knows the basics. Ren very likely never dueled to the death before.

Ren definitely comes off like he's trying to prove something, when he's not pitching a fit. Probably the most impressive Force skill he uses is stopping the blaster shot at the beginning, but that's really just a Force push I think. Not sure how much harder it would be than something like, say, lifting an X-wing out of a swamp. And while he did seem to be able to get inside Poe and Rey's heads, I feel like a more powerful Force user would be able to do that without them even knowing, let alone having to "interrogate" them (which looked like a Force push/squish?)

I agree as well that Finn likely has more combat training - from the background we get on the storm trooper program, I'd guess they start weapons/combat training as early as possible, along with all the indoctrination. Ren might have had some light sabre training from Luke, but it seems like he's half trained at best in just about everything. I also suspect that Finn would be a lot more willing to fight dirty whereas Ren, I think, would want more... pure/honourable combat. He did join a knights' order after all. And he didn't just throw Finn out of the way or incapacitate him with the Force - another sign of his limitations? Or just that he was pissed and wanted to be the one to kill Finn? (Although imho in that situation you'd want to get as much info out of him first re: the Resistance. But emotions, I suppose..)

Sent by carrier pigeon

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

If Rey is Luke's daughter, she may have had some training very young that she forgets, or Luke blocked from her mind when he dropped her off. Now it's surfacing when she's in situations where she needs it and possibly knows now to start looking for it.

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[TheOtherScott]

This might be my own religious perspective sneaking in, but the title of The Force Awakens implies to me that Rey is actually a random person who happens to be extremely force-sensitive.  And there are probably others.  That kind of means the force is sentient to some degree, which some fans have theorized is true.

[Oramac]

 And while he did seem to be able to get inside Poe and Rey's heads, I feel like a more powerful Force user would be able to do that without them even knowing, let alone having to "interrogate" them 

 

Like Rey turning it back on Ren and getting inside HIS head?  She's definitely the more powerful Force user of the two.  Ren even admits it.  "She's more powerful than she knows".  "She's only beginning to test her power".  

[maegs]

If Rey is Luke's daughter, she may have had some training very young that she forgets, or Luke blocked from her mind when he dropped her off. Now it's surfacing when she's in situations where she needs it and possibly knows now to start looking for it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ooh, I like this!

This might be my own religious perspective sneaking in, but the title of The Force Awakens implies to me that Rey is actually a random person who happens to be extremely force-sensitive. And there are probably others. That kind of means the force is sentient to some degree, which some fans have theorized is true.

But I like this too!

Sent by carrier pigeon

[Grayspeed]

This movie did a great job of bringing Star Wars back IMO. I think the following films will be much more independent/less derivative now that we've been re-introduced.

How does everyone rank the movies now? I need to see it at least once more (seen it twice now) to be sure, I do think it holds up to the legacy of the originals though.

At the moment my personal list looks like this (favourite at the top):

The Empire Strikes Back

A New Hope

Return of the Jedi

The Force Awakens (this may end up being tied with Jedi, only time will tell)

Revenge of the Sith

The Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

 

Also, what do people want to see from Episode VIII? Hoping for a training montage, more Phasma, a darker tone/raising of the stakes, and a bit more background. JJ brought us back to the Galaxy, now let's figure out what's actually going on.

[Grayspeed]

Yeah, why is that, if there are no more Jedi and therefore no more lightsabers? I think the dude with the electric nightstick was just winging it, and it's not really for that at all [he just got lucky that Finn didn't cut the baton in half]

Snoke knows Luke is still out there and may suspect he is training more Jedi. It's also possible he sees the Knights of Ren as a threat.

I read somewhere that the main purpose of the close quarters weapon may primarily be for crowd control, as they also have kind of a riot shield

[maegs]

"Starkiller" was Luke's last name in Lucas's original draft in the 1970s

Oh, I know where the name comes from, and I have no problem with that. It just makes no sense to me that the in-universe response to Death Star 1 & 2 getting blown up was to make, basically, a bigger Death Star. Like, did no one around the planning table say "hey, let's try something new!"?

And then on the out-of-universe side, did no one around the writers' table say "hey, we've had 2 Death Stars and there's a thing in the EU that does essentially what we want this thing to do." It just seems like poor writing to recycle the same basic thing again [emoji53]

Sent by carrier pigeon

[Niccolo]

This might be my own religious perspective sneaking in, but the title of The Force Awakens implies to me that Rey is actually a random person who happens to be extremely force-sensitive.  And there are probably others.  That kind of means the force is sentient to some degree, which some fans have theorized is true.

 

My wife actually has a pretty cool theory based on this.

 

Essentially, Rey is the second Chosen One, born from the force and destined to bring balance to it.

 

The force seeks balance between darkness and light in all things.  So, before Anakin was born there were thousands of Jedi and light side users, but only two Sith and a few other dark side users.  The force then creates a child who has dark side tendencies, but is generally balanced between dark and light.  Anakin then chooses the dark side to follow and use.  In the process, he wipes out the Jedi and most all light side force users, making the number much closer to a parity.

 

As time goes on, more and more dark force users pop up.  Snoke comes on the scene.  Ben wipes out the Jedi (if the timeline works).  The Knights of Ren wreak havoc against the light side.  The force then chooses to make a correction toward the light and creates Rey, a child with light side tendencies.  She is a good person who just wants to help others and love her family.

 

Since Rey is a force child, she is inherently much stronger in the force than anyone else.  That is why she is able to best Kylo both when he is interrogating her and when they are trying to grab Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber.  Also, she is able to figure out force powers (mindtrick) without any formal training.  She saw the vision when she touched the lightsaber because she is so connected to the force and there is so much force residue (for lack of a better term) on the lightsaber.

 

It's a cool theory, and I think it gives Rey a better back story.  I'm pretty sure that the studio won't go with it, but until VIII comes out to correct me, I'm sticking to it. 

[Dusk]

Ooooh.... that's a wicked cool theory. Me likey.

 

 

 

I know very little about Star Wars, canon or EU or anything, so I love reading all these interesting facts and theories! I'm absorbing it like a sponge, now that the New Movie Hype has taken over my brain.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

This movie did a great job of bringing Star Wars back IMO. I think the following films will be much more independent/less derivative now that we've been re-introduced.

How does everyone rank the movies now? I need to see it at least once more (seen it twice now) to be sure, I do think it holds up to the legacy of the originals though.

At the moment my personal list looks like this (favourite at the top):

The Empire Strikes Back

A New Hope

Return of the Jedi

The Force Awakens (this may end up being tied with Jedi, only time will tell)

Revenge of the Sith

The Phantom Menace

Attack of the Clones

 

Also, what do people want to see from Episode VIII? Hoping for a training montage, more Phasma, a darker tone/raising of the stakes, and a bit more background. JJ brought us back to the Galaxy, now let's figure out what's actually going on.

 

Same order here, except flip the last two. After a few more viewings and the new appeal wearing off, I might go with Revenge of the Sith above Force Awakens, we'll have to see. The first half of RotS wasn't great, but the second half redeems it. For TFA, I think after a few more viewings the second half being a remix of previous films might get on my nerves enough for me to say the reverse, that the first half redeems the second half.

 

Snoke knows Luke is still out there and may suspect he is training more Jedi. It's also possible he sees the Knights of Ren as a threat.

I read somewhere that the main purpose of the close quarters weapon may primarily be for crowd control, as they also have kind of a riot shield

 

I pulled the later from it. It's a stun baton for close quarters crowd control, which as you said, is reinforced by the shield. We've seen them in the EU novels quite a few times I believe, and many times in other sci-fi universes. Like was said, any true jedi would have destroyed that weapon really quick.

 

It's basically the same technology used on General Grievous's bodyguard's staves, which though more focused toward defending from jedi, probably worked just fine against non-jedi in close combat.

 

My wife actually has a pretty cool theory based on this.

 

Essentially, Rey is the second Chosen One, born from the force and destined to bring balance to it.

 

The force seeks balance between darkness and light in all things.  So, before Anakin was born there were thousands of Jedi and light side users, but only two Sith and a few other dark side users.  The force then creates a child who has dark side tendencies, but is generally balanced between dark and light.  Anakin then chooses the dark side to follow and use.  In the process, he wipes out the Jedi and most all light side force users, making the number much closer to a parity.

 

As time goes on, more and more dark force users pop up.  Snoke comes on the scene.  Ben wipes out the Jedi (if the timeline works).  The Knights of Ren wreak havoc against the light side.  The force then chooses to make a correction toward the light and creates Rey, a child with light side tendencies.  She is a good person who just wants to help others and love her family.

 

Since Rey is a force child, she is inherently much stronger in the force than anyone else.  That is why she is able to best Kylo both when he is interrogating her and when they are trying to grab Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber.  Also, she is able to figure out force powers (mindtrick) without any formal training.  She saw the vision when she touched the lightsaber because she is so connected to the force and there is so much force residue (for lack of a better term) on the lightsaber.

 

It's a cool theory, and I think it gives Rey a better back story.  I'm pretty sure that the studio won't go with it, but until VIII comes out to correct me, I'm sticking to it. 

 

This has always been my theory, that the chosen one is balancing between light and dark. The Jedi believe the dark side to be a corruption of the firce, a misuse, and that "balance" is the obliteration of the dark side where only the light side is used. This has caused them to misread the prophecy, causing them to think that The Chosen One will come to end the dark side for good, or at least all its current practictioners. What it really does is spell their doom, as they are currently much more powerful and widespread than The Sith. I believe Yoda mentions a few times that the prophecy may have been misread. In this case Anakin is The Chosen One, brought balance when he wiped out The Jedi, and everything since has been the fallout of the two sides trying to deal with that new balance. Perhaps this stuggle we are seeing between the two is the natural state that the force intends, where neither side is extrmely powerful or weak.

 

There's also the possibility that Anakin was not The Chosen One at all. It's implied (don't know if they ever made it canon) that he was created when Palpatine and Plagueis, in their quest for immortality, saturated the universe with dark side energy, trying to create a child from the force like the prophecy says, but one born specifically of and to the dark side. The idea is that one of them would be able to steal the body, transfering their conciousness to it, and have it already have the ability to use the force, and very powerfully so. If this is the case, then even though the child was a force child, it was not the conciousness/will of the force to create him, but instead a forced case by the Sith lords. Prophecies can't be forced, they're supposed to happen naturally, so perhaps Anakin didn't count. In that case, perhaps Rey is a force child (we haven't seen proof of parentage), supported by all this stuff with her naturally using the force vs being trained, and she is the one to bring balance, and it will be the balance the Jedi interpretted. As far as we know, the knights of Ren and Snoke are the last dark force users around. If she wipes them out, then no more dark side users.

 

That second paragraph goes completely to shit if we ever find out Rey has two parents.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

It's just a fun movie; don't try to make it more than it is with theory & conjecture

 

I quote a great American storyteller

 

 

Bonus points if you can name the Author, and additional points if you can name the work it prefaces [without using a Search engine, of course]

 

PM me - first one in wins

My guess off the top of my head would be a preface to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[wildross]

I remember those lines. But it still kinda doesn't make sense to me. She says that she lost both of them when she sent both of them away. Yes, Ben was training with Luke, but did he get sent away and secluded for training, which is what caused him to fall? Or did something else happen? Why become obsessed with your grandfather? What more could have happened for Ben to loathe his parents so much? Was it really just being sent away? I'd be kind of disappointed if that was the only thing that made him fall.

 

That's probably a good guess about Rey's mother. And would totally make sense. Though it's distressing to think that Luke would choose to do that to his daughter knowing what happened to him and his father.

 

I think Phasma was the point of the movie that disappointed me. They could have done so much more with her on-screen, to make certain parts of the movie have bigger implications for her and her character, but they seemed to skip over that. I mean, they did compare her a lot to how Boba Fett was to the originals, but still. That's probably just me nitpicking at that point.

My guess is that Phasma becomes Kylo's apprentice and/or replacement.  Haven't had an evil female Sith person have we?

[Three Two Seven]

I was disappointed in Phasma, too, but does anybody else think that she went along with lowering the shields just a little too easily?  Was it a set up?  Or did she want the base to fail?  For her to be such a bad ass (from the descriptions), that seems really out of character.  I think there's going to be a lot more to her story in VIII or IX. 

[wildross]

Haven't read all the comments.

 

My take on it:

Total reboot of the original with Disney marketing behind it.  They sort of tested the market with Guardians of the Galaxy last year (which has the same basic plot and cast).  While I'm sure this movie will be a commercial success, it's real point is to setup the next release where they can clean out all the old (expensive) cast and start with a new set.  Luke will apprentice Rey, then die trying to help/save her or Leia or Chewie (who will probably also get whacked in n+1 or n+2) Finn will rescue Rey somehow and they'll be a couple.  Kylo will get worse until he's replaced.  There will be another Death (fill in the blank).  (Where do they get all the money for those things???  Still haven't learned the lessons of WWII battleships..course it was a long time ago).  This is a Disney marketing dream, with the precedent of killing the hero already set, which allows them to be replaced with cheaper actors/actresses.  Just tweak the names and the locations, plug in the next charismatic lead, and rake in the cash.

 

I don't think it will have any where near the societal impact because the context of society is very different (having experienced the original when it was released...I'm old enough to say that).

[wildross]

This is a Disney marketing dream, with the precedent of killing the hero already set, which allows them to be replaced with cheaper actors/actresses.  Just tweak the names and the locations, plug in the next charismatic lead, and rake in the cash.

Meant to add.  Just this decade's version of a boy band.  This is what Disney does to "properties" that it buys.

[Raincloak]

Can we get, like, a flashback to Han and Leia being happily married in the next movie?  Just a little tiny bit?  With young Kylo around if they must, but c'mon.  There was ONE canon pairing in this fandom.  One!  (Anakin/Padme does not count.)  And they had to kill it as freaking backstory?  Come on.  Throw the shippers a biscuit already.  I know Disney's not into happy families (I read a feminist article a while back excoriating the lack of mothers, in particular) but Han/Leia were meant to be, and they were such an awesome couple.

 

also, it's totally Leia's turn to pick up a lightsaber.  Everyone else gets to do it, even the cute young stormtrooper.  Leia has exactly the same Jedi heritage as Luke and she should have a go, maybe in defense of Rey, who I guess is going to be like her adopted daughter or something now.  

 

The two of them should have a confrontation with Kylo.  Kylo would probably defeat his mom, since he has the emotional upper hand, and forming empathic links appears to be the only Jedi skill he's really good at.  And then Rey should get up and kick Kylo's skinny ass, and show Kylo mercy because she's a good guy, and then he should hug his mom.  And then Finn and Rey can go out and they can all live happily ever after.  Maybe.

 

in other crazy fan dreams: BB-8 and R2-D2 should start hanging out together.  It's utterly silly for droids to have a love life, but hell, it worked for WALL-E, didn't it?