Weekly Recap #11: Digging deeper into the trailer and more!

What an amazing trailer we had last week. The internet is still reeling from it all, and still chewing over the details of the footage. Now that we’ve had a week to digest the trailer, and for the internet to parse every second, we’re going to take some time to more deeply evaluate it. Let’s get right into it:

1.) Rey is crying over Finn. If you look closely, you can see the distinctive red stripe on the leather jacket. That isn’t fur on the right, it is branches behind them like the one on the left.

ReyCrying

The other thing is it looks like the Finn is moving, possibly the movement of breathing (credit to korelius for pointing this out):

output

I think this kind of suggests that Finn is wounded in the battle with Kylo Ren seen at the end of the trailer. If he is still breathing, then he assume he wasn’t killed. There was a rumor circulating not too long ago that Finn loses an arm, could this be that scene?

mazlow01: The more I think about it the more I hope he doesn’t lose an arm. He should just be injured in some way that incapacitates him. I think the lights are from the falcon too. So this scene takes place after Rey faces off with Kylo.

davestrrr: I think you might be right about the lights being the Falcon. Maybe Chewy coming to rescue them? I guess the problem that I have with Finn losing an arm would be shouldn’t that take place in the second act? At least it has traditionally. I definitely think this is Finn on the ground though, injured somehow by Kylo Ren.

2.) Kylo is probably looking out over the Star Killer base while shooting down Maz’s castle:

So we have this zoom-in scene with Kylo in the center, and First Order officers flanking him:

TFA-3-Kylo-and-vader-helmet

If we look at this other image with the Star Killer trench below on the snow planet, you can see a control center in the upper right on the side of a mountain, and it looks like the TIEs are coming from there:

Battle_of_Starkiller_Base

It’s possible that Kylo was looking out from this station. However, given how far apart the edges of the trench are in the poster:

StarKillerPoster

It’s possible that the image of the starship battle on the snow planet above is before the weapon trench opens up. For those of you that don’t know, the Star Killer base is built into a planet, possibly the a planet that has connections to ancient Sith (some say the actual Sith Homeworld). So we can see the trench, but it is way thinner than seen in the poster. Maybe the entire planet pushes apart to engage the weapon?

mazlow01: I think that maybe the weapon is powered from the planet. As in the planet fires into the ship in the poster and the ship focuses the beam. Either that or they are completely unrelated and the ship in the poster is a weapon of the Resistance.

davestrrr: The scale of the weapon in the poster kind of baffles me. I don’t understand how the weapon in the poster could be a whole planet, but it could be one of those things that makes sense once you see it take place in the movie. At any rate, I like the idea that this planet is loaded with Sith Kyber crystals, which is why the weapon has a red blast.

3.) If so, this gives an opportunity to do another trench run, similar to the original Star Wars ANH. The creator of StarWarsRingTheory.com @MikeKlimo make this observation through twitter:

mazlow01: I hope not, I don’t want this to be ANH 2.0. There is homage and then there is copy pasta. I’m looking for homage.

davestrrr: Could be a fun nod to the original, furthering the parallels between TFA and ANH. It could be done in such a way that it doesn’t come off as direct copy, but a subtle homage. Star Wars has always been about homages, so I wouldn’t mind.

4) Other parallels? This comparison was made again by @MikeKlimo, shows the similarity between Finn (and Poe?) crashing in the TIE fighter on Jakku, and the droids landing via an escape pod on Tatooine:

mazlow01: There are two people in the TIE however I think Poe ejects early or goes his separate way on purpose. Probably heading back to where the village was looking for BB-8.

davestrrr: My thinking was Finn ejects, and Poe crashes with the TIE. The scene with Finn waking up from the first teaser is from his ejection, possibly waking up next to a parachute. I think the scene when he runs up to the TIE is to inspect the wreckage and see if Poe is OK. Finn then grabs Poe’s jacket. So I think it is Finn and Poe that originally crash in the TIE.

5) Flags! There is scene where Rey, Finn, Han, and BB8 enter what is likely Maz’s castle, and we see a huge array of flags. Many have pointed out both Anakin and Sebulba’s Podracer flags, Boba Fett’s insignia, and many other flags. We can’t do it justice here, and user Calithlin and this post on the Cantina forums pretty much nailed it (via SWNN).

flags

mazlow01: This is pretty damn cool and a great nod to the PT. One thing I wonder is if the flags of teh PT were parts con criminal organizations. As in the pod racer are all sponsored by pirate gangs etc.

davestrrr: I think the flag shot is amazing on its own, but add that the different flags all have meaning in the saga that we know, even better. Love the droid on the right hand side too.

6)  Jason at MSW has a write up of the first time we see Leia and what happens to Poe after he crash lands on Jakku.

mazlow01: I think its interesting we will see Leia before Han and her meet up. I kinda thought that would be I don’t know cooler? I think we should meet the Old crew through the eyes of new crew. Also as figured Poe makes a call to get off of Jakku.

davestrrr: Sounds good to me. However, the quote says she sends a team to Takodana after learning that Poe crashed on Jakku. In the way that is worded, it is if Leia already knows help will be needed on Takodana? Either Leia also knows of Maz, or maybe the quote is off? I suspect that the character Brance is played by Greg Grunberg, but not sure.

7) Bonus: Knights of Ren gif. Nuff said

knightsOfRen

Stay tuned for more updates MWF at @spoiledbluemilk