The Star Wars Thread

[Ruki]

I got tickets for the Saturday showing.

[Colly]

I'm going to need new pants. It looks beautiful.

[Benji]

With Luke not being on the poster or trailer, and Kylo Ren apparently having some kind of hero worship of Vader, people are increasing hype that Luke is Kylo Ren. I really can't see it. I'm like 99% sure that it's intentional on promotional part that you're supposed to think that, but it's a fake out.

[therockbox]

Haven't they already released photos of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, without his mask on?

[Benji]

Yeah, pretty sure they have actually.

[Noah]

Sheamus may as well play kylo ren as well.

[Rich]

To be fair to everyone involved they have done a bloody good job at not releasing plot details, it gets me excited!

[Skummy]

Yeah, I like that I still don't really know what the plot is - that's one of the few things that has got me excited about it, along with some nice looking set-pieces that harken back to the original trilogy far more than to the prequels.

I don't really know how I feel about that trailer, though - it all feels like any generic sci-fi trailer of the last ten years, with a Han Solo appearance that seems stylistically completely out of step with the rest of the thing. If you strip it of all the Star Wars nostalgia, it's just a bog-standard sci-fi trailer that doesn't really give the viewer anything, just meaningless fantasy dialogue, only some of it's read by a mumbling, disinterested Harrison Ford. 

Also, I don't get Han Solo telling the characters about the Jedi and the Force and the Dark Side as if it's ancient history. Unless Han Solo's impossibly old, all that happened within living memory. Perhaps within those characters' lifetimes. 

I really hope it's going to be good, and I'm remaining cautiously optimistic, but that trailer didn't sell it to me. There's a very high risk it'll just be a mess of CGI action scenes with JJ Abrams' clunky "HEY, REMEMBER THIS IS A THING" nostalgia nods a la the Star Trek movies. 

[Rich]

 

I don't really know how I feel about that trailer, though - it all feels like any generic sci-fi trailer of the last ten years, with a Han Solo appearance that seems stylistically completely out of step with the rest of the thing. If you strip it of all the Star Wars nostalgia, it's just a bog-standard sci-fi trailer that doesn't really give the viewer anything, just meaningless fantasy dialogue, only some of it's read by a mumbling, disinterested Harrison Ford. 

 

To be honest, this isn't about it being a bog-standard sci-fi film, it is about it being Star Wars and a lot of that is getting people excited with the nostalgia trip.

[Colly]

If I'm honest I was sold by the pilots uniforms. So easily pleased. It just looks right though, so I'm really hoping the plot matches up to it.

The annoying thing is that it comes out a week before my wife's due date, so I won't be seeing it that week, and I probably won't be going round Christmas, so I'm going to be spoiler dodging forever. I might quit Twitter for a month.

[Skummy]

Of course, they could have slapped "NEW STAR WARS" on any old rubbish and people would have still gone to see it. You need the nostalgia. I'm just worried that it's not going to be very good, with a lot of hand-waving BUT LOOKIT, WE'VE GOT HAN SOLO to distract people from that. I'll go and see it, and probably nerd out at the requisite points and whatever, but I don't know if it's going to be a good film.

[Benji]

Also, I don't get Han Solo telling the characters about the Jedi and the Force and the Dark Side as if it's ancient history. Unless Han Solo's impossibly old, all that happened within living memory. Perhaps within those characters' lifetimes. 

I think the stuff with him saying "it's all true", you've got to remember - as far as we're aware, the two living Sith were defeated in RotJ, and Luke was the only other known living Jedi. In the space of the entire galaxy, there's literally only one of either Jedi or Sith alive (that we know of, naturally that will almost certainly change). They basically are a myth/ancient history, because it's not like Luke could just come out and train a bunch of younglings, taking out the Death Star was just one (massive) strike against The Empire, there was still more fighting to be done.

The rest though, yeah, I totally agree.

[Rich]

Oh I get that, but from the perspective of it just being a trailer, it hits what it needs to to get the fans salivating.

 

on the why Han Solo needs to explain, it's always felt like in the Star Wars galaxy that the planets aren't well connected by information and stories and hearsay are the way info is passed on. Or you know, it's a convenient plot device  

[DFF]

I really hope it's going to be good, and I'm remaining cautiously optimistic, but that trailer didn't sell it to me. There's a very high risk it'll just be a mess of CGI action scenes with JJ Abrams' clunky "HEY, REMEMBER THIS IS A THING" nostalgia nods a la the Star Trek movies. 

It's worth remembering that Abrams admitted he wasn't a Star Trek fan, but is a huge Star Wars fan/nerd.

[apsham]

In regards to Solo telling them that it's all true - you have to consider that even in the Original trilogy there were great big instances of people either not knowing about Jedi, doubting that they still existed or not understanding what it was all about in general. The characters in this new movie wouldn't have been alive during the times of the Republic where the Jedi had an established base and were the caretakers of the galaxy for the most part - imagine if the entire nature of not only your cities government, not only your county's government, not even just the WORLD government was changed seemingly overnight.. that's going to create a lot of stories regardless.

Not to mention that there weren't exactly embedded reporters with the Rebels (well, as far as we know) and a lot of the things that happened in the original trilogy were privy to just Luke and his entourage and I can see there being a situation where someone has to ask if any of the legends are true.

[MalaCloudy Black]

With Luke not being on the poster or trailer, and Kylo Ren apparently having some kind of hero worship of Vader, people are increasing hype that Luke is Kylo Ren. I really can't see it. I'm like 99% sure that it's intentional on promotional part that you're supposed to think that, but it's a fake out.

There's a few theories regarding a brief shot of someone in the trailer with a "monster hand" being Luke. There was another one bandied about months ago when one of the other trailers came out, pretty much pure conjecture, that Kylo Ren is collecting Vader artifacts to present to Luke and try to sway him to the dark side, to teach him about the Force.

As for the ancient history stuff, it's not quite "ancient", but you have to remember that The Force Awakens is set 30 years after the fall of the Galactic Empire and like Benji said, at that time (RoTJ) there were only two living Sith and Luke was the last known Jedi. 

[Benji]

One thing I do find interesting is how similar Adam Driver's bearing is to Ian McDiarmid's (Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine). Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder whether that's intentional.

[Maxx]

There are kids that don't know what 9/11 was and it only happened 14 years ago.  Jedi/Sith stuff was considered a "hokey religion" by the time A New Hope rolled around, so these stories of magic could definitely be seen as legends and nothing more.  Plus, its a galaxy, information will travel slow and get distorted if it even reaches all the planets at all.  When the US invaded Afghanistan, the locals had no idea why it was happening and assumed they were the Soviets coming back through again.  So there's definitely some real world evidence of 30 years being more than enough time for the details of famous events being lost to history.  

[Benji]

I just read an interesting piece on Wiki...

Author Timothy Zahn, whose Star Wars novel series, the Thrawn Trilogy, is set in the Star Wars expanded universe, was also interviewed in 2012.^[40] Zahn confirmed the sequel trilogy would not be based on the Thrawn novels, but said he had been briefed years before on Lucas's plans for the sequels (Zahn had discussions with Lucas before the first Thrawn novel was published in 1991). Zahn said:

The original idea as I understood it—and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he’s thinking right now—but it was going to be three generations. You’d have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke’s father and find out what happened to him, and if there was another seventh, eighth, or ninth film, it would be Luke's children.^[40]

Could be that Kylo Ren is one of the Skywalker children who idolised Vader or something? Again, still just me speculating.

[Hellraiser]

As Maxx said the force as well as Jedi and Sith were considered a myth even as the first 3 movies took place. Most Jedis were murdered by the time these movies took place. The generals of the Death Star didn't beleive in the force although they had Dark fucking Vader standing right in front of them. Maybe the Empire even tried to actively surpress any knowledge about the force. They are after all a tolitarian, facist government, right? We also never knew how exactely the Rebells communicated their victory over the empire and if they made a big deal out of the Jedi involvement.